Here's day 6 and 7 of our December trip. More pictures on these 2 days than anything else. The last installment of my report will definitely be more wordy. Enjoy and thanks for the comments on the 1st part which you can find right here.
Wednesday, Dec 15
Not a whole lot to say about this day. Started out the day using our 2 for 1 IP buffet coupon. Since just about everything I've read said to avoid everything except breakfast, that's what we did. Pretty basic stuff, but honestly it wasn't terrible.
We decided to give our feet a much needed rest and hung around the surrounding casinos. We went to Matsuri at 4 PM, as part of our All Stage Pass. Show was fairly entertaining. Lots of energy.
We were going to get a 2 for 1 buffet at Flamingo, but the buffet was closed for renovations. Ran into the new food court and ate there instead. My wife had Johnny Rockets and I had Banano's (I think?) pizza. Yes, the servers at Johnny Rockets come out singing and dancing like they do at the normal restaurants. You could see the embarrasment on their faces. Kind of funny stuff, I should have taken some video!
Played some slots to kill time and then went to George Wallace at 10. What a LONG, boring show! I was really looking forward to seeing this show and it was really disappointing. I felt like I was at a southern gospel service instead of a Vegas show.
Thursday, Dec 16
This was going to be a day of sight seeing. We started out taking the monorail down to MGM Grand.
Took a picture of Hooters, but didn't go in. My wife already had a shot glass from there and we knew we were going to see a lot of places, so we skipped it. Must have been too early in the morning, because I wasn't thinking straight I guess. I had said before we left for our trip that we definitely had to go to Hooters because they are going to rebrand it. Oh well!
Went into Tropicana next. Not much going on here. My wife asked where she could get a shot glass, they said they were remodeling and the gift shop was closed. I drained a few early morning beers and we left. Eventful!
Here's a shot of NYNY I snapped on the walkway to the Trop. As you can see, the clouds had moved in and our nice weather we had been enjoying early in the trip was gone, rain was coming soon.
...and another shot, up the strip after our stop in the Trop...
...a shot towards the south end...
Went into NYNY, played a few machines, wife got a shot glass, that's about it. Crossed the street and went into the M&M store. Checked out all 4 floors. Bought a few things to bring home. My wife snapped a picture of me with Kyle Busch's car that I thought my dad would get a kick out of.
Next up was the World of Coca Cola. Had my wife take a picture of me with the giant Coke Zero bottle at the entrance as I'm a huge Coke Zero junkie.
We checked out a lot of over-priced Coke junk. Some of it was really cool, but Coca-Cola stuff doesn't come cheap. Decided to try out the Flavors of the World soda sampler trays. For $7 you get 16 different sodas from around the globe. I think they're 3 or 4 oz cups. Some of them were really good, a few were bad, and one was just absolutely nasty. It was a clear one, I think maybe called "Beverly"? I think it was from Italy. Worst tasting stuff you'll ever try! I seem to have lost my notes I brought, so I can't give any more of a review than that. One tasted just like Scope mouthwash too. Weird.
Went to Gameworks next to eat. Had a $25 gift certificate we bought from restaurant.com for $2, just like we had for House of Blues earlier in the week. Wife had a sample platter, I had a burger and we had onion straws for a starter. Food was ok there, nothing great. We spent just enough to cover the $35 minimum to use the $25 off.
Stopped into Monte Carlo (although I can't remember if this was after NYNY or after Gameworks. We both lost $100 at a quarter roulette machine. Fun times.
Went to Aria next. They had HUGE ornament decorations that were kind of different.
Wife got some good shots of the colorful fountain they have at their entrance..
They also have a cool waterfall type wall thing. I took a picture of my wife, but she got a way cooler one of me, where the water was coming down just right and it kind of outlined me.
I really liked the artwork they have surrounding their poker room. Definitely unique.
Here's some candy cane decoration things from Crystals.
The tram at City Center is confusing. Nothing is really mapped out clearly for visitors.
Went to Cosmo next. It was just the 2nd day they had been open. Lots of cool things like video walls, different little sitting places and this huge 3 story high chandelier. Here's a few pictures of it.
Made our way up the strip towards Wynn/Encore and Venetian as we had tickets to Blue Man Group at 10 PM. Here's a picture of the waterfall by Wynn and some snowflake decorations inside.
Blue Man Group was pretty cool. We had 2nd row seats. Our first time seeing them (some woman sitting next to my wife said it was her 5th show). Was definitely worth seeing once, but 5 times? You'd have to be a HUGE fan to see them 5 times I think. I think my favorite part of the show was where one of the blue guys caught what seemed like 40 or so marshmallows in his mouth from across the stage while only dropping one.
Played Monopoly Bigger Event after the show. My wife loves the Monopoly machines, I was hesitant to play as I had blown most of my money for the day. I hit a few nice bonuses right as I thought I was done (I actually WAS done but the big event hit as my countdown was expiring!) I battled back for a $40 profit to save face! Made our way back to the hotel after the show. Kicked my feet up and downed a few Coors Lights. The mountains were very blue!
The final installation of my lengthy report will be posted soon .. thanks for reading!
Wednesday, Dec 15
Not a whole lot to say about this day. Started out the day using our 2 for 1 IP buffet coupon. Since just about everything I've read said to avoid everything except breakfast, that's what we did. Pretty basic stuff, but honestly it wasn't terrible.
We decided to give our feet a much needed rest and hung around the surrounding casinos. We went to Matsuri at 4 PM, as part of our All Stage Pass. Show was fairly entertaining. Lots of energy.
We were going to get a 2 for 1 buffet at Flamingo, but the buffet was closed for renovations. Ran into the new food court and ate there instead. My wife had Johnny Rockets and I had Banano's (I think?) pizza. Yes, the servers at Johnny Rockets come out singing and dancing like they do at the normal restaurants. You could see the embarrasment on their faces. Kind of funny stuff, I should have taken some video!
Played some slots to kill time and then went to George Wallace at 10. What a LONG, boring show! I was really looking forward to seeing this show and it was really disappointing. I felt like I was at a southern gospel service instead of a Vegas show.
Thursday, Dec 16
This was going to be a day of sight seeing. We started out taking the monorail down to MGM Grand.
Took a picture of Hooters, but didn't go in. My wife already had a shot glass from there and we knew we were going to see a lot of places, so we skipped it. Must have been too early in the morning, because I wasn't thinking straight I guess. I had said before we left for our trip that we definitely had to go to Hooters because they are going to rebrand it. Oh well!
Went into Tropicana next. Not much going on here. My wife asked where she could get a shot glass, they said they were remodeling and the gift shop was closed. I drained a few early morning beers and we left. Eventful!
Here's a shot of NYNY I snapped on the walkway to the Trop. As you can see, the clouds had moved in and our nice weather we had been enjoying early in the trip was gone, rain was coming soon.
...and another shot, up the strip after our stop in the Trop...
...a shot towards the south end...
Went into NYNY, played a few machines, wife got a shot glass, that's about it. Crossed the street and went into the M&M store. Checked out all 4 floors. Bought a few things to bring home. My wife snapped a picture of me with Kyle Busch's car that I thought my dad would get a kick out of.
Next up was the World of Coca Cola. Had my wife take a picture of me with the giant Coke Zero bottle at the entrance as I'm a huge Coke Zero junkie.
We checked out a lot of over-priced Coke junk. Some of it was really cool, but Coca-Cola stuff doesn't come cheap. Decided to try out the Flavors of the World soda sampler trays. For $7 you get 16 different sodas from around the globe. I think they're 3 or 4 oz cups. Some of them were really good, a few were bad, and one was just absolutely nasty. It was a clear one, I think maybe called "Beverly"? I think it was from Italy. Worst tasting stuff you'll ever try! I seem to have lost my notes I brought, so I can't give any more of a review than that. One tasted just like Scope mouthwash too. Weird.
Went to Gameworks next to eat. Had a $25 gift certificate we bought from restaurant.com for $2, just like we had for House of Blues earlier in the week. Wife had a sample platter, I had a burger and we had onion straws for a starter. Food was ok there, nothing great. We spent just enough to cover the $35 minimum to use the $25 off.
Stopped into Monte Carlo (although I can't remember if this was after NYNY or after Gameworks. We both lost $100 at a quarter roulette machine. Fun times.
Went to Aria next. They had HUGE ornament decorations that were kind of different.
Wife got some good shots of the colorful fountain they have at their entrance..
They also have a cool waterfall type wall thing. I took a picture of my wife, but she got a way cooler one of me, where the water was coming down just right and it kind of outlined me.
I really liked the artwork they have surrounding their poker room. Definitely unique.
Here's some candy cane decoration things from Crystals.
The tram at City Center is confusing. Nothing is really mapped out clearly for visitors.
Went to Cosmo next. It was just the 2nd day they had been open. Lots of cool things like video walls, different little sitting places and this huge 3 story high chandelier. Here's a few pictures of it.
Made our way up the strip towards Wynn/Encore and Venetian as we had tickets to Blue Man Group at 10 PM. Here's a picture of the waterfall by Wynn and some snowflake decorations inside.
Blue Man Group was pretty cool. We had 2nd row seats. Our first time seeing them (some woman sitting next to my wife said it was her 5th show). Was definitely worth seeing once, but 5 times? You'd have to be a HUGE fan to see them 5 times I think. I think my favorite part of the show was where one of the blue guys caught what seemed like 40 or so marshmallows in his mouth from across the stage while only dropping one.
Played Monopoly Bigger Event after the show. My wife loves the Monopoly machines, I was hesitant to play as I had blown most of my money for the day. I hit a few nice bonuses right as I thought I was done (I actually WAS done but the big event hit as my countdown was expiring!) I battled back for a $40 profit to save face! Made our way back to the hotel after the show. Kicked my feet up and downed a few Coors Lights. The mountains were very blue!
The final installation of my lengthy report will be posted soon .. thanks for reading!
