Feb. 5, 2011
We left for the airport around 9:30am leaving plenty of time for travel, parking, clearing U.S. Customs etc. The trip to Pearson (Toronto) International Airport took about thirty minutes, as traffic was light for this Saturday morning. Clearing U.S Customs and security was a breeze (for a change) and we were airside in no time.
Our ride to Chicago:
It was a short ten-minute walk from terminal to terminal to get to our next flight from Chicago to Las Vegas.
Our ride to Las Vegas:
We arrived in Vegas in the early evening and grabbed a cab to the Venetian for our one night stay. I had originally booked four nights but canceled the last three, as there seemed to be no incentive to play there anymore. It was too late to cancel the Saturday without a penalty or an argument. I instructed the cabbie to take a local route and not to long haul us. He was not a happy camper, but he got us to the hotel and we saved about ten bucks in my estimation.
We checked in at the front desk. The attendant was nice and friendly, but when we
declined her offer to pay for an upgrade to a premium room view she placed us in a room with this lovely view:
I really didn’t care as we were only there for the night, and we have seen the views from the Venetian before.
We had a quick drink and then headed out. We went over to Harrah’s and signed up for Total Rewards. My wife quickly turned the $5.00 of free play into $30.00 playing penny slots and I quickly turned mine into $0.00 on VP.
We walked to Planet Hollywood and lined up for the Buffet. The wait was about 15 minutes and when we reached the cashier we were told that they were not accepting coupons that night. I asked why not and she said, “come back tomorrow and maybe they will take it.”
We headed back out to the strip and decided to check out the Tropicana as we had a room booked for the following night. We picked up our Trop Plus players club cards and hit the slots. My wife finished up $300.00 and I lost $30.00. We headed back to the players club and my card was credited with $15.00 of free play. I can pick up the other $15.00 on our next trip.
By now we were starving and decided to try Café Nikki. I have to say it was not very good.
My strip steak appeared to be cooked perfectly, on the rare side of medium rare, but somehow they managed to completely dry it out. My wife had the salmon and said it was dry and bland.
We walked back to the Venetian enjoying the sights and sounds of the strip on a Saturday night. Exhausted we were asleep by midnight.
Feb. 6, 2011
Super Bowl Sunday. I woke up early and showered. While Beth was in the shower I went downstairs to the Grand Luxe Café and spent the only money I would leave at the Venetian on coffee for Beth and myself. We checked out and grabbed the Duece down to the Tropicana.
We attempted to check in at the Trop shortly after noon but our room wasn’t ready. We were supposed to have early check-in as part of the deal for our room but I didn’t make a fuss as it was Super Bowl weekend after all.
Seeing as we had our twenty-four hour bus passes we decided to head down to South Point and hit the Buffet. We enjoyed the buffet brunch and checked out the rest of the Casino. We might try a night or two next trip. We cabbed it back to the Trop around 2:30pm to check in and settle in for the game. We were checked in promptly and headed up to our Paradise Suite.
Here are a few pictures of the new Paradise Suite at the Tropicana:
The room was huge and very nice. The one thing that jumps out at you is the amount of wasted space. The space is great if you want to entertain in your room, but I would have preferred it if they had used some of that space to upgrade the bathroom. It seemed to have only been retiled and a new vanity installed, the tub was just a regular tub and with a showerhead. A room like that deserves something a little more luxurious in my opinion.
We watched most of the Super Bowl in our room, popping down at half time to see what was going on and have a couple of drinks. I was happy to see the Packers win the game and win me some money. We spent the rest of the evening playing in the casino.
One final note on the Trop. They have a huge banner that hangs from the roof to the ground. It completely obscured the view south from one of the windows in our suite. I didn’t really mind, but I did notice that the room across the hall from ours had the view of the north strip completely blocked by the banner. I would not be happy if I was given one of those rooms.
Feb. 7, 2011
On Monday morning we headed over to the Excalibur to try the buffet for breakfast. We should have stopped when we got as far as the Luxor. The Excalibur buffet breakfast was pricey and the food nothing to write home about. But we still had plenty to eat and a lot of coffee and juice so we were of to a decent start to the day.
We headed back to the Trop and checked out. As we only travel with carry on luggage on rollers we decided to walk up to the Cosmopolitan and check in. The walk was not too bad but I would not recommend trying it with your carry on luggage in the hotter months.
We arrived at the Cosmopolitan at noon. We were checked in by a wonderful young lady,(Nebua, I think) who seemed as happy as we were when she was able to grant our request for the east tower overlooking the Bellagio fountains. We were in our room in minutes, and what a room it was.
Our Terrace Studio room:
We absolutely loved the room. Even on a low floor the view was still fantastic. The terrace was much more roomy than I had been expecting. The kitchen had a fridge that was half cooler, half freezer, and there was also a microwave and a dishwasher.
The bathroom had a double vanity, shower, and a huge soaker tub with two windows, one looking into the bedroom and one looking out to the strip.
There was a large closet in the living area with a safe inside as well as slippers, robes and plenty of room to hang our clothes. The living area also had a couch, Coffee table, desk and a huge plasma tv. There was free wifi in the room that worked perfectly as did the 2 tv’s. The only problems we encountered with the in room technology was that we were unable to use the tv checkout and the phones went down briefly.
We enjoyed the casino downstairs although it felt a bit like we were playing video poker in a Beverly Hills Boutique. ?
We spent the day playing and checking out the rest of the Cosmopolitan.
That evening we ventured back over to Planet Hollywood for our second attempt
at using the coupon. This time we were told that seeing as it was four minutes before it became dinner officially, we would have to stand there and wait to use our coupon. So I paid for two lunches (for the same price dinner would have cost using the coupon ) and saved the coupon for next time. We enjoyed the buffet very much. The food was fresh, well prepared, and there was a wide variety of things to choose from. We will definitely visit the Spice Market Buffet again on our next trip.
We headed back to Cosmo after dinner and had a very late night enjoying the casino.
Feb. 8, 2011
Beth spent the morning in the casino while I slept in. I caught up to her later and we did some casino hopping. We spent about four hours playing video poker at Caesars and came away even. We did some more casino hopping and finished off our last day with dinner at PF Changs.
We had a great time as usual. I never thought I would enjoy Vegas until our first trip there, Super Bowl weekend 2010. After that we were hooked. This was our fourth trip there since, and we will be heading back in May.
Cheers everyone.
Phil.
We left for the airport around 9:30am leaving plenty of time for travel, parking, clearing U.S. Customs etc. The trip to Pearson (Toronto) International Airport took about thirty minutes, as traffic was light for this Saturday morning. Clearing U.S Customs and security was a breeze (for a change) and we were airside in no time.
Our ride to Chicago:
It was a short ten-minute walk from terminal to terminal to get to our next flight from Chicago to Las Vegas.
Our ride to Las Vegas:
We arrived in Vegas in the early evening and grabbed a cab to the Venetian for our one night stay. I had originally booked four nights but canceled the last three, as there seemed to be no incentive to play there anymore. It was too late to cancel the Saturday without a penalty or an argument. I instructed the cabbie to take a local route and not to long haul us. He was not a happy camper, but he got us to the hotel and we saved about ten bucks in my estimation.
We checked in at the front desk. The attendant was nice and friendly, but when we
declined her offer to pay for an upgrade to a premium room view she placed us in a room with this lovely view:
I really didn’t care as we were only there for the night, and we have seen the views from the Venetian before.
We had a quick drink and then headed out. We went over to Harrah’s and signed up for Total Rewards. My wife quickly turned the $5.00 of free play into $30.00 playing penny slots and I quickly turned mine into $0.00 on VP.
We walked to Planet Hollywood and lined up for the Buffet. The wait was about 15 minutes and when we reached the cashier we were told that they were not accepting coupons that night. I asked why not and she said, “come back tomorrow and maybe they will take it.”
We headed back out to the strip and decided to check out the Tropicana as we had a room booked for the following night. We picked up our Trop Plus players club cards and hit the slots. My wife finished up $300.00 and I lost $30.00. We headed back to the players club and my card was credited with $15.00 of free play. I can pick up the other $15.00 on our next trip.
By now we were starving and decided to try Café Nikki. I have to say it was not very good.
My strip steak appeared to be cooked perfectly, on the rare side of medium rare, but somehow they managed to completely dry it out. My wife had the salmon and said it was dry and bland.
We walked back to the Venetian enjoying the sights and sounds of the strip on a Saturday night. Exhausted we were asleep by midnight.
Feb. 6, 2011
Super Bowl Sunday. I woke up early and showered. While Beth was in the shower I went downstairs to the Grand Luxe Café and spent the only money I would leave at the Venetian on coffee for Beth and myself. We checked out and grabbed the Duece down to the Tropicana.
We attempted to check in at the Trop shortly after noon but our room wasn’t ready. We were supposed to have early check-in as part of the deal for our room but I didn’t make a fuss as it was Super Bowl weekend after all.
Seeing as we had our twenty-four hour bus passes we decided to head down to South Point and hit the Buffet. We enjoyed the buffet brunch and checked out the rest of the Casino. We might try a night or two next trip. We cabbed it back to the Trop around 2:30pm to check in and settle in for the game. We were checked in promptly and headed up to our Paradise Suite.
Here are a few pictures of the new Paradise Suite at the Tropicana:
The room was huge and very nice. The one thing that jumps out at you is the amount of wasted space. The space is great if you want to entertain in your room, but I would have preferred it if they had used some of that space to upgrade the bathroom. It seemed to have only been retiled and a new vanity installed, the tub was just a regular tub and with a showerhead. A room like that deserves something a little more luxurious in my opinion.
We watched most of the Super Bowl in our room, popping down at half time to see what was going on and have a couple of drinks. I was happy to see the Packers win the game and win me some money. We spent the rest of the evening playing in the casino.
One final note on the Trop. They have a huge banner that hangs from the roof to the ground. It completely obscured the view south from one of the windows in our suite. I didn’t really mind, but I did notice that the room across the hall from ours had the view of the north strip completely blocked by the banner. I would not be happy if I was given one of those rooms.
Feb. 7, 2011
On Monday morning we headed over to the Excalibur to try the buffet for breakfast. We should have stopped when we got as far as the Luxor. The Excalibur buffet breakfast was pricey and the food nothing to write home about. But we still had plenty to eat and a lot of coffee and juice so we were of to a decent start to the day.
We headed back to the Trop and checked out. As we only travel with carry on luggage on rollers we decided to walk up to the Cosmopolitan and check in. The walk was not too bad but I would not recommend trying it with your carry on luggage in the hotter months.
We arrived at the Cosmopolitan at noon. We were checked in by a wonderful young lady,(Nebua, I think) who seemed as happy as we were when she was able to grant our request for the east tower overlooking the Bellagio fountains. We were in our room in minutes, and what a room it was.
Our Terrace Studio room:
We absolutely loved the room. Even on a low floor the view was still fantastic. The terrace was much more roomy than I had been expecting. The kitchen had a fridge that was half cooler, half freezer, and there was also a microwave and a dishwasher.
The bathroom had a double vanity, shower, and a huge soaker tub with two windows, one looking into the bedroom and one looking out to the strip.
There was a large closet in the living area with a safe inside as well as slippers, robes and plenty of room to hang our clothes. The living area also had a couch, Coffee table, desk and a huge plasma tv. There was free wifi in the room that worked perfectly as did the 2 tv’s. The only problems we encountered with the in room technology was that we were unable to use the tv checkout and the phones went down briefly.
We enjoyed the casino downstairs although it felt a bit like we were playing video poker in a Beverly Hills Boutique. ?
We spent the day playing and checking out the rest of the Cosmopolitan.
That evening we ventured back over to Planet Hollywood for our second attempt
at using the coupon. This time we were told that seeing as it was four minutes before it became dinner officially, we would have to stand there and wait to use our coupon. So I paid for two lunches (for the same price dinner would have cost using the coupon ) and saved the coupon for next time. We enjoyed the buffet very much. The food was fresh, well prepared, and there was a wide variety of things to choose from. We will definitely visit the Spice Market Buffet again on our next trip.
We headed back to Cosmo after dinner and had a very late night enjoying the casino.
Feb. 8, 2011
Beth spent the morning in the casino while I slept in. I caught up to her later and we did some casino hopping. We spent about four hours playing video poker at Caesars and came away even. We did some more casino hopping and finished off our last day with dinner at PF Changs.
We had a great time as usual. I never thought I would enjoy Vegas until our first trip there, Super Bowl weekend 2010. After that we were hooked. This was our fourth trip there since, and we will be heading back in May.
Cheers everyone.
Phil.
