In September we planned our Thanksgiving Vegas vacation using air miles and comp’d nights from MLife and Total Rewards. Six nights total. This is my first shot at a trip report! I feel obligated to contribute after reading many others on here for many years.
Thursday- Thanksgiving- November 24
Thanksgiving morning my wife(G) and I(both 56 years old) were up at 4 AM to make sure got on our 5:45 AM flight from our local airport on time. We showered and took care of a few final things and then loaded our bags in the trunk. The weatherman had called for possible ice the night before and travel issues on the highway in the morning. But I think it was a few degrees warmer than they thought it would be. It was only wet on the road as we made our 30 mile trip to the airport. We pulled into the economy parking lot to see that it was 90% full. I’d never seen that many cars in our airport lots. There must be a lot of people traveling this Thanksgiving.
We wheeled our bags up to the counter after printing our boarding passes at the kiosk so we could check them. My bag was about 36 lbs. and G’s was under the 50 lbs. limit at 46 lbs. The ticket agent put our tags on and gave us the baggage receipts and said that we were good all the way to Los Angeles. I said I hope you mean Las Vegas! He corrected himself and said yes Las Vegas not Los Angeles (LAS vs LAX). That really would’ve sucked!
We made our way to security and I noticed we had TSA pre-check on our boarding passes. Not that this matters in our little airport as there is only a single line. But maybe on the way home it would save us some time. I had used my miles from American that I had saved over many years from business and personal travel for these tickets. I’m glad that I had used the miles because our airport was losing American as a carrier in February. So to use the miles in the future would mean several hours of driving. We’ll be down to Delta as our only carrier at the local airport next year.
We walked out on the tarmac and boarded our prop-plane on time but the flight was about 20 minutes late leaving as we de-iced. That really didn’t matter as we had an almost 4 hour layover in Philly. We got to Philly a little late and we stayed in our seats to let people who had connecting flight that were leaving ASAP to try and make them. We landed at gate F and in Philly you have to take a bus to the other gates. It takes a good 10 or 15 minutes to get to these other gates. So some of the folks were off to the races! We found a bagel place to get a bagel and some coffee. The bagels were horrible, thick and dry and hard to chew. The coffee was OK.
We headed out to the bus to get to the B gates for the flight to Las Vegas, B13. We were at our gate 1.5 hours early and the gate area was already packed. Obviously a full flight! We also got priority seating (before the zones board) with our free miles tickets. But we only carry on minimal bags. I have a backpack and G has her pocket book. We don’t use the overheads, everything goes under the seats. So we’re not in some big panic to get on and fight for overhead space. When they called for priority seating it was all we could do to get through the folks that had crowded up to the gate entrance. These airlines really need to change this whole process.
Finally we were all on the plane(A321) and settled in. Fairly wide seats on this plane and we didn’t feel cramped. The pilot came on the intercom and said that they had an issue with the plane’s radio and needed to change it out. He said that the maintenance folks told him it was a plug-in module and a 20 minute job. Ughh! I’m thinking 20 minutes is probably 40 minutes. Surprisingly they were quicker than 20 minutes and we were actually pushing back from the gate in 20 minutes. The pilot comes on again and advises we are 13th in line and it will be about 20 more minutes before we’re in the air but he’ll make up the time in the air and get us there real close to our original arrival time. Sure, like that’s going to happen. The five hour flight was pretty smooth and we had purchased a couple of snack boxes on the plane to hold us over. Surprisingly the pilot got us there only 10 minutes later than the original arrival. Awesome!
The scramble begins to deplane. I get a call on my cell from our limo driver Bernardo. He says that he will meet us at the bottom of the escalators near the baggage area. We hear rumors that there was a celebrity on the plane. Sure enough we see him walking just in front of us heading to train to get to the terminal with baggage claim area. Mr. Chubby Checker himself! He’s walking with several younger bandmates. For 75 years old he still looks good and moves pretty fast! The screen says our bags will be at carousal 13! Carousal 13 is almost all the way to the end of all the carousals. Bernardo is waiting at the bottom of the escalators with our name on his electronic tablet. Presidential limo has been very good since we got tired of getting long hauled about 7 or 8 trips ago. I think it is well worth it, plus we get them to stop at CVS for water and other items. We’re talking to Bernardo, who is originally from Italy and tell him about the celebrity on the plane. He seems intrigued and looks to find Chubby and he actually uses his phone to take a picture of them together. Too funny! He says one of the other drivers is a big fan of Chubby and he wanted to show him the selfie. So the baggage screen changes our flight to carousal to 15 and we all move down and the bags start dropping. Our bags are out very quickly and we on our way to Bellagio for the first three comp’d nights (Flamingo for the final three nights).
I don’t know if you noticed how many 13’s I’ve mentioned, but I wasn’t feeling too good about our luck at this point. I said something to Bernardo and he said 13 is a very lucky number in Italy! I thought, sure pal. But I googled it and it is true! I wasn’t worried anyway because I had a good luck equalizer. I had seen a shooting star a few weeks ago on my way to work in the morning. I had been making that 40 mile drive for 26 years of the 29 years I have worked at my company and that was only the 2nd shooting star I had ever seen. I think I only saw it because I was glancing up at the super moon that was in the news so much at that time. It’s probably not the safest way to drive on the highway, especially during deer hunting season when those critters are all moving from the hunters entering the woods early in the morning.
After stopping at CVS and getting bottles of water for the week, we pull into the Bellagio. I tip Bernardo and we drop off our bags with the bellman. It’s about 1:45 PM. We enter the front doors at Bellagio to see a very, very long line of people waiting to check-in. I had read in a forum online that there was an “invited guest” line. Since we were comp’d for our stay I assumed that applied to us. It was actually the very 1st line by the entrance and there was only one person in line! We were checked in and heading to our 8th floor room in a matter of minutes.
We get off the elevator on the 8th floor and figure out the direction to our room. We’re almost all the way to the end of the hall. I swear it’s close to 60 or 70 yards. I always ask for a room away from the elevators since we had a bad experience at the Mirage several years ago. We could hear the elevators running and the doors opening all night long. Anyway the room is very nice and this is our first stay at Bellagio. We got three nights, $100 in food credit and $100 free play. Looking out the windows the pool is below us. There are people swimming and some sunning themselves. It’s 65 F, sunny, but it’s Thanksgiving! The pools used to all close in October, not anymore! After a call to the bell desk our bags are up to the room in less than 10 minutes. We unpack and head down to the casino to find the MLife desk.
At the MLife desk I pick up the $100 freeplay from MLife and another $50 from MyVegas. I also had a 2 for 1 Gelato from MyVegas for Café Gelato at Bellagio, it all gets added to my new card. We only had snack boxes on the plane so we’re getting pretty famished. We checked out the Conservatory fall set-up, see photo above. On the other side is Café Bellagio. We’d never been there, but it didn’t seem very busy at 3 PM, so we headed in and got a table very quickly. I had a turkey club sandwich and wife had some kind of chopped salad. It hit the spot and service was very good but it took a little too long to get the check. We charged it back to the room to eat up some of our $100 resort credit. We ended up staying at Bellagio gambling on slots and video poker. I had some luck on quarters super times pay. By 6 PM we were both pretty tired. We headed over to get our 2 for 1 gelato before calling it a night. We both got doubles, I got banana toffee and wife got the stracciatella. But the cashier advised the MyVegas was only good for gelato singles, not doubles, but she said she’d take off the equivalent value. So I think it was $12 instead of $16. MyVegas has so much fine print now, please make sure that you have reading glasses to review! At least she made the attempt to get me a discount! The gelato was good and what we needed for a snack. We headed back to the room and watched some of the Cowboys Thanksgiving game. We were up past our bedtime and both sound asleep by 9 P.M. but that’s midnight for us back east.
Friday- November 25
I was wide awake by 3 AM. I’ve been getting up at 5 AM east coast time for work for almost 30 years. I wake up all the time before my alarm goes off at home. So every time we head to Vegas I’m up really early. I thought 3 AM was too early so I didn’t actually get out of bed until about 3:45 AM. I keep a pair of sweats out, t-shirt and my sneakers for my early morning casino visits. I quietly get a little cleaned up and dressed and head out the door. The standard game plan is that “G” texts me when she’s out of the shower and dressed. Probably around 8 AM. Then I’ll head up to the room and shower and we’ll head to breakfast. I played a lot of video and some slots but no table games. They’re like $25 minimum, not for me. I was probably a few hundred down when I headed back to the deuces wild super times pay machine I had played the night before. I put a $100 bill in and caught the cocktail waitress just then and ordered a coffee with cream and equal. I hit max play to get the super times bonus. I was staying near the $100 number but it seemed like some big dollar jumps, plus I was distracted looking for my coffee. I was dealt three deuces and hit the draw button and got the 4th, but no super times and only one line. Well that’s a thousand credits, $250, not bad. I’m looking at the money counter on my machine roll up, getting close to $250 where I expect it to stop but it keeps rolling, past $500, all the way to $1000! I was wondering what the heck is going on! Then I take a 2nd look at my machine and see I’m betting dollars not quarters! I was betting $18 a hand, something I’d never “knowingly” do. I guess I just assumed it was set at a quarter like the previous night. Dumb luck worked in my favor for once. I switched it back to quarters and played some more. Played some slots and then I got the text from “G”. It’s time to get ready for breakfast.
We walk over to the Monte Carlo and head to MLife desk. I’ve got 2 for 1 breakfast buffet and 2 for 1 Hit Bar cocktail. Well here we go with fine print again, breakfast is Mon-Thurs only. I get my points back on my account and throw that one away. I did get the 2 for 1 Signature cocktail. We head to Mont Carlo buffet for breakfast at full price, damn. It was pretty good. I still don’t like getting my own drinks. The coffee wasn’t anything to write home about from the giant stainless steel urn. It was pretty crowded in the buffet and you could definitely tell it was a busy weekend in Vegas. I played in MC for an hour or so, video poker and slots. Not much luck. But I usually do Ok at MC and I like their casino because it doesn’t feel cramped. Next stop is getting our Monorail tickets at MGM station, you guessed it 2 for 1 from MyVegas, 5 day passes.
We walk over the pedestrian bridge and see the normal folks asking for money. But I do think the number of porn slappers have been reduced significantly. It’s a beautiful sunny morning with just a light jacket needed. Unfortunately I make the mistake of trying to gamble in MGM! We stayed there in April of 2015 when my nephew got married at Mandalay Bay. It was the worst gambling luck I had at any casino since we started coming here in 1992. I guess I didn’t learn my lesson as I burned through $200 in no time. So we headed back to monorail station to get our passes. The very friendly agent took the myvegas 2 for 1 printout, my credit card and quickly got us the passes. We headed up to the monorail where the up escalator wasn’t working. My guess based on our overall trip is that only 65% to 75% of all escalators for both the monorail system and pedestrian bridges are functioning at a given time. Don’t the escalators reverse? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have the “up” working at all times if possible and let people walk down? Anyway we were off to SLS.
It was turning into a beautiful day, we went by the golf course(Wynn?) on our monorail trip and the golfers were in shirts and shorts enjoying the bright sunshine and cool low to mid-60’s temperatures. Perfect golf weather in my mind! We got off the monorail and headed over long walking bridge toward SLS. There is an awesome view of Stratosphere from that bridge. We could see the window cleaners were working on the really high windows probably around the restaurant? Not a job that I envy. We went down the “working” really long escalator and into the SLS. I got a replacement “code” players card with $20 free play and we played some video poker and slots. Video poker wasn’t bad, just up and down without any big hits. I like the casino layout, cocktail service is fair to good and the smoke isn’t bad, but I don’t know how this place keeps going. We headed back to the monorail with no plans of where to go. We decided the next stop would be Bally’s and Paris.
We walked down steps from monorail station into Bally’s(escalator not working). I like the many options for video poker in Bally’s and I’ve had some luck there. We spent a few hours there before walking internally over to Paris. We stayed there last Thanksgiving and I didn’t have much luck there. I’ve never had any big wins there. What a difference a year makes for the crowds. It is much more crowded this year. We spent a few hours in the Paris with not much to show for it except points for Total Rewards (CET). We were both getting hungry and ready for a beer. We’d had luck at the Yardhouse at the Linq our last visit to Vegas and so we walked down there.
We sat at the bar and ordered some chicken nachos, I had a couple Montana moose drools and G had Smithwicks. The nachos were huge and very good. I got talking to guy sitting next to me at the bar. He has a media company in Vegas but had just come from a basketball game for his alma mater, Cal St. Fullerton at Thomas and Mack. He was originally from NJ and loved living in Vegas. He doesn’t gamble but likes all the food and entertainment choices. He soon headed out and we followed soon after.
We walked back through the Linq promenade and ended up walking through O’Sheas into the Linq casino. We spent a few hours in there before we called it a night and walked back to Bellagio and saw a portion of a fountain show. We spent about 20 minutes in the casino, just long enough to get a drink. I think I gave back close to half of my winnings from earlier in the day.
Saturday- November 26
I’m up early again, 4:30 A.M., and I spend a couple of hours or so in the Bellagio casino. Not much luck. Today is our scheduled tour of Red Rock Canyon with Viator/Pink jeep tours. We chose the 12:45 PM pickup time instead of the morning tour. We had plans for breakfast at Cravings in the Mirage. We’ve stayed at Mirage many times and we’ve always thought they did a pretty good job with their breakfast buffet. I had a 2 for 1 coupon from Las Vegas advisor. We walked down through Caesars to get to the Mirage. I think we walked a lot more than was needed. I played some VP and slots but not much luck. I don’t think I’ve ever won much of anything in Caesars, probably the MGM is the only place I’ve had worse luck. We got to Cravings just after it opened at 8 AM. No line at all. It was a special brunch for the holiday weekend and $40 per person. I asked if my LVA coupon was still good for the holiday brunch? The cashier said sure no problem. That’s good because I wasn’t going to pay $80 for breakfast! We did have a few mimosas and we both got very good omelets from the chef at the omelet station. He said he’d been there at the Mirage for 18 years and in Vegas for 30 years. Nice guy, I left him a couple of bucks. I guess because of the “holiday” price the place was about a ¼ full. The coffee wasn’t that good but since they have self-serve beverages, I’ve noticed that everywhere. Did they make coffee differently when it wasn’t self-serve? We polished off some fruit and muffins for dessert. I left a few dollars for our server.
Our plan was to spend a few hours in Mirage gambling and then working our way back to Bellagio for our tour. We’ve stayed at the Mirage 7 or 8 times and I’ve usually had some good luck there. The best was in 2010 when our friends got married on 10/10/10. The 1st afternoon there after unpacking and coming down to the casino, I hit a progressive Royal on the old stand-alone 25 cent deuces wild machines for $1400. Then a few days later after we spent a day on a tour of the Grand Canyon, I hit a Royal on the exact same machine that night for about $1100. Unfortunately those machines are gone. We played video poker and slots. I had a nice hit on the breaking/cracking piggy bank machine for a few hundred. I got a few nice hits in video poker, 4 of a kind on bonus poker. I think I actually left there with some winnings.
We walked outside this time instead of going through Caesars. It seemed a lot quicker, although the up escalator wasn’t working for the pedestrian bridge into the side of the Bellagio. Someone had a folding table open on the bridge and was selling jewelry and other stuff off of it. With these big crowds in Vegas, that is the last thing they need on the pedestrian bridge. We head up to room and get the Viator voucher for our tour. We head down the stairs in front of the Bellagio and wait in the tour bus area. The pink bus pulls and we get on board after showing our paperwork, there is also a couple from India that also gets on. I think the bus seats 20 people at the most. We make a few more stops and Phil our driver heads out to Red Rock canyon.
Phil asks where everyone is from. We have two Chinese ladies in their late 20’s or early 30’s, one is from Shanghai and the other now lives in the States. They have a young boy with them, about 8 years old. The boy speaks fluent English and Mandarin. A lady in her 60’s with a young man in his 20’s that are from the Netherlands, they speak very good English. The Indian folks actually live in Minnesota. So it is a pretty small group. It’s about a ½ hour drive to Red Rock visitor center near Summerlin. Phil does a good job telling us about the history of various places on the way out there. The entrance to visitor center is really backed up. Phil says that he’s been doing this for many years and he’s never seen it backed up this far. Well it is a beautiful day on a holiday weekend. We finally get in and he parks in the visitor center lot. We have 20 minutes to check it out before getting back on the bus. It’s very informative with many displays. I could’ve spent another hour there. We get back on the bus and make our 1st stop on the 13 mile loop. I took a few pictures with my iphone, nothing great. See below. There were plenty of climbers out on the rocks and hikers out on the trails. It was probably in the low to mid 50’s in the lower area. But it got much cooler in the higher elevation of around 5000 ft.
There were so many cars that we couldn’t even stop at next area because there was no parking. Phil made up for it by stopping longer at the next area at the higher elevation. That was fine with me as that was a beautiful area. At one of the last few stops, we hiked out to see the petroglyphs. Pretty amazing that they been there for 1000’s of years. The husband of the Indian couple didn’t make the ½ mile walk. When we got back to the bus he wasn’t there. We waited for a little while and Phil finally said that we’d go to the next stop, it was only a few hundred yards away, and then come back. The wife would wait there at a picnic table. When we came back he still wasn’t there but one of the many motorcyclists that was out riding the trails came up to Phil’s window and said he saw a man way up the road and he said he was on his way back. It was another 10 or 15 minutes before he got back to the bus. He had a camera around his neck so I guess he was off taking photos? He could’ve gotten killed or run over by one of the dozens of motorcycles coming through that area! We skipped the last stop and made a restroom stop before heading back to the Strip. Minus the drama of losing the guy, it was a great tour that I’d recommend it to get away from the strip for an afternoon or even a full day.
We were back at the Bellagio around 6 P.M. We decided to take the free tram to Monte Carlo (Bellagio-Aria-Monte Carlo) and eat at Johnny Rockets in the food court at MC. You place your order and take a number. We had our food in 10 minutes even though they were very busy. The food was good but the ambiance left a lot to be desired. There were kids running around throwing water bottles at each other. They just were little kids only 6 or 7 years old, the parents were there but didn’t seem to care. I guess you should expect that in a food court.
We hit the machines at Monte Carlo. Nothing good happened! We tried VP and slots, all different kinds of slots, but we couldn’t hit anything. So we thought we’d take a break and get our 2 for 1 signature cocktails at the Hit Bar. There was only one bartender and no table service by the cocktail waitresses. I’d never go back there. It took 10 or 15 minutes to get served. It was $18 and they were terrible drinks. I think I got all the alcohol in my drink and G’s drink was sickly sweet. We left most of the drinks at the table after a few sips. No sense trying to get it fixed with only one bartender and no cocktail servers. Sometimes 2 for 1 isn’t such a good deal!
We headed back to the Bellagio just in time for the 9 PM fountain show. There was a complete wedding party in front of the hotel and they all went over to the fountains watch the show! We were able to squeeze in between them. They were all having a good time. I can’t remember what the music was for the fountain show. I’m thinking it was patriotic. After the show we went in to the casino played for a bit and got a couple of free drinks and cocktail service for a few bucks in tips that were much better than the Hit Bar drinks! I think we were back in our room by 11 P.M. That was a late night for us.
Sunday- November 27
This is our last day staying in the Bellagio. Another early morning, I head down to the casino by 4:45 AM. As I’m walking down the hallway I spot a penny on the carpet heads up! I pick up my good luck penny and head to the elevators. I walk around looking for a Pai Gow Poker table for $10 and I don’t find anything. So I guess I’ll start with video poker. I find a machine and set the bet at 50 cents instead of my normal 25 cents. Since I’m still ahead for the trip I figure I’ll push it to $2.50 a hand. I put a hundred in and start playing deuces bonus. While I’m playing I’m searching for a waitress to get a coffee. I’m not hitting much of anything! Three of a kind is rare. Still no waitress in sight and I’m half way through my $100 bill. Man this machine stinks and it is not a good start to the morning. Finally I get the waitress and order a coffee with cream and equal. I’m down to almost nothing when she returns, I see the coffee is black, she says “oh, you wanted cream, I’ll be right back”. I’m out of money on the machine! Well do I play more or just wait for my coffee? I throw another $60 in and on the 2nd or 3rd hand I get 4 to a Royal without the Jack and……
Thank God she forgot my cream! I gave her a $5 tip when she got back and she said she’d get an attendant over ASAP to take care of me. Later when I told my wife I gave her $5 she said I should’ve given her more! Maybe she was right, of course she was right. The attendants took my players card, license and got all the paperwork and started the hand pay within 5 minutes. I gave them a $20 bill to split. What does everyone else give? I got off that machine and played a bunch of fun no thinking required slots like Batman and Willy Wonka. I actually won some more before texting “G” with a photo my winnings and telling her to come down for breakfast. We were going to Bellagio Sunday brunch for breakfast.
We were in the buffet before 8 A.M. and there was no line to speak of. We got the brunch minus the champagne and charged it back to the room. It was about $40 each, so we used up the rest of our resort credit. They seated everyone pretty far away from the buffet area. An elderly couple asked to be seated in the area closer, but they said that area wouldn’t open until 9 A.M. She had a walker and obviously needed to be closer. But the hostess apologized and said there were no exceptions. I think he ended up making all the trips for his wife. We’ve never been that impressed with Bellagio buffet, this was our 3rd visit. It was OK but not worth that kind of money for breakfast.
We headed up to the room and I showered while G was reading of her ipad(we had very good wifi in the room). We packed up and got ready to change hotels to the Flamingo. We checked out via the TV in room. Total bill with dreaded resort fees included was $156.48. I left all my loose change as a housekeeping tip. It was probably 5 or 6 bucks. We lugged our bags down to the cab area. I haven’t made the switch to Uber yet. I think it was like $8 to get across the street to the Flamingo. We left our bags with the bellman and went to see about checking in. The Flamingo has check-in kiosks, so we tried to figure it out but I couldn’t get it to read my license. There was a young lady helping people so when she was available we asked her to help us. By then we were at a different kiosk and it seemed to work fine. They said that I’d get an email when our room was ready. So I’d have to keep checking my iphone email.
We went looking for some slot action. It was Sunday so there was football on the screens at the sportsbook. The bad thing was that the poker machines nearby were all taken by people spinning the chairs around to watch the games. We played for a while and finally got the email around noon, we were headed to get our keys from the same kiosk and directions to our “Go” room. We used the Spa elevators and had a room on the 28th floor. It seemed OK but definitely a step down from the Bellagio. We got our bags delivered to the room within 5 minutes. I tipped the bellman $5 and we unpacked for our 3 night stay. There was plenty of closet and dresser space. The bathroom left a lot to be desired and the bathroom sliding door was loose and squeaked when sliding. The wifi worked well but it seemed like we had to sign on more than once a day. Our view was close to seeing the Bellagio fountains but not quite, darn. It was time to head to the Total Rewards desk for our free play.
We waited in line at the player’s desk for about 5 minutes. I’m not a fan of getting vouchers and then going to the cashier’s cage. Not sure how CET hasn’t entered the 21st century and started putting your credits directly on your card. We got two $20 vouchers from the cashier. They were gone in 5 minutes. We went outside and checked out the habitat for a break. It was breezy and cool. It was getting much cooler for the last few days of our visit. It was about 50 F, so there was definitely a chill in the air. We headed outside to the Linq promenade and took a walk up to the High Roller. It was pretty busy with lots of families and strollers. We were getting hungry around 3 PM so we decided on Margaritaville. It didn’t seem that busy but we had to wait to be seated. We’ve been to several of these, one in Jamaica and one in Niagara Falls that I can remember. They were pretty good and consistent. I got the mango salsa grilled chicken and a couple of Landsharks draft lagers. I think G had a big cobb salad and a margarita. The service was a little slow but the food was good.
We walked down to Bally’s and through the bazaar of shops. We’ve never actually stopped in any of those stores. It seemed like half of them were closed or empty. Of course the moving walkway to the casino entrance wasn’t working. I found the VP machines that I like to play to the right around the corner of the entrance. Up and down with some decent wins but alas I gave it all back. I dropped a few hundred. We walked back up to the Linq and played there and at Margaritaville and finally the Flamingo before we called it an early night after giving more of my winnings back. For some reason we were feeling pretty tired, but I guess we had done quite a bit of walking the past few days.
Monday- November 28
I was up early and down in the casino by 5:30 A.M. I forgot to take my cash out of the safe last night to replenish so I actually made a trip to the ATM by the cashier cage. No sense in waking G up early. I think it was a $2.50 charge plus whatever my credit union charges. Finally $10 Pai Gow bonus tables were available. I was hanging in there with no bonuses but not at full hemorrhage. Then a young Asian dealer named Lucy showed up. She was the cooler. Playing Pai Gow you’re supposed to push about 50% of the time with the dealer. So it usually lets you play a long time. I think she won her first 5 hands. Everyone at the table was taking a beating! A few more hands and I called it quits while I had some of the $200 I started with left. I played some video poker with no success. Then I got a text from G. The electrical outlet in the bathroom didn’t work and she had a hard time figuring out the shower. She was not happy and said “this room sucks!” I guess we should’ve started here and then moved to the Bellagio? I had to buy a coffee at the coffee shop near the casino. I actually had ordered one at the Pai Gow table, I had to get the dealer to ask the pit boss to get a waitress. She took my order but after 10 or 15 minutes at the table she never showed up. So I left the table without it. We had plans to go to the Peppermill for breakfast, so I headed up to the room to get ready. The shower fixtures were pretty complicated. I have a mechanical engineering degree and actually helped run a steam power plant in the Navy and it took me a while understand what the hell was going on with the various handles. I needed a training manual! Not very good water pressure either, I guess that is expected on the 28th floor. On to the Peppermill!
We took a cab for $15 with tip included from Flamingo to the Peppermill. It was around 8:30 AM when we were seated. The place was very busy for a Monday morning. We were one booth away from where we sat last time for breakfast. Good coffee for a change! I had French toast with eggs, bacon and sausage. G had an omelet. It tasted good and was very filling. Neither of us finished! It’s an expensive breakfast but worth it for the food and atmosphere. The Peppermill is now part of our standard Vegas itinerary.
We walked toward the Encore, it was a cool morning. I think it was actually warmer back east! As we got a few blocks away from the Encore, what appeared to be a big homeless guy in a green army jacket came up beside us as we were waiting for the walking light to change. He said, “hey, do you want to see what drugs will do to people”? G and I looked at each other, like “what the hell is he talking about”? Then he said “look over there, he’s on what they call salts”. On the other side of the street was a very large black man, doing kicks and karate chops at imaginary people. The guy said that he’d already seen the guy hit several people! So we were hoping he stayed on the other side of the street. About then we saw a jogger heading in the karate guy’s direction, oh no! The guy jogged by without incident. A few minutes later we were going up the escalator and entering the Encore into safety.
In 2013 we had stayed three nights at the Wynn and always wanted to get back there. I tried for this trip but I could only get two nights and the 3rd night would be like a $700 rate. The reason for the high rate was that they had a convention going on, so we ended up at the Bellagio instead. My game plan was to get a replacement red card and gamble to get some future offers. When the guy gave me the new card he said that if I get 1000 points I’d be eligible for the slot tourney at 4 PM. I wasn’t going to play in the slot tourney but I was curious if I’d play enough to qualify. I assume that would be a good number to hit for future offers from Wynn.
We started at the Encore and I was having some luck on double bonus VP. Four of a kind(kings), straight flush and I kept floating near my initial $100 for a ½ hour or more. Once I dropped to $50 we moved on and played some Chinese dragon machine where the dragon winds around and leaves wilds. That was fun but not lucrative. We moved down the esplanade to the Wynn. That was a little more bustling than the laid back Encore. I played more VP, Wizard of Oz, Willie Wonka and a neat Elvis slot that we really enjoyed. We played some All Star poker, multi-strike, Ultimate-X , super times pay, etc. Up and down, fun but nothing major. It was approaching noon and I had well over 1000 points, closer to 1500 I think, with $350 into the machines. We headed toward the Venetian.
The down escalator into the Palazzo casino was working! I have a grazie card but I don’t play enough here to get a replacement. We spent about 10 minutes in the casino and then we took some time to look at the holiday displays. The area around the waterfall atrium was nicely decorated and there were many people taking photos with the waterfall background. We made our way to the Venetian and their casino. It’s definitely a nice casino that is more open than others and also very good lighting. I played some Nascar race slot where the seat rumbled, but I had to turn the volume down. I got the bonus but didn’t win much. We were getting hungry but didn’t want a full meal, so we made our way to the Grand Canal Shoppes food court. We got a small cheese pizza to share at the pizza place and a couple of small drinks. The pizza was nothing great but was all we needed and it was very quick. I checked my iphone and Big Elvis would be playing at Harrah’s 2 PM! We had a half hour or so to get there.
We walked out the front of the Venetian over the bridge on the canal. I could see from there that the moving walkway to my left was not working that goes into the Venetian. It seems to me that walkway is almost always broke down. Now for the fun part, walking in front of the narrow sidewalk in the front of the Casino Royale. That is always jammed with people. We got through the crowd with some dodging and waiting. We entered Harrah’s and walked back toward the Piano Bar to see Big Elvis. Big sign out front, under construction! It was closed. No Big Elvis today. He was so good the last time we saw him. Darn. This was our night to go downtown and we planned to go to the Sky Lounge at the Stratosphere for a drink. So we decided to spend just a little time here. I had won some in the past in Harrah’s but not today. The buffaloes were not kind to me. Plus it was smoky and hot in there. It was time to move on.
We walked back to the Monorail station and took it all the way to SLS. From there we took a cab to the Stratosphere. We walked through the casino and found where the elevator entrance to the 107 Sky Lounge was located. The lady at the entrance desk said it didn’t open until 4 PM, so we had an hour to kill in the casino. That casino is a little grungy and the clientele isn’t quite the same as Bellagio. I’m not being snobby (I grew up in a trailer!), but I didn’t feel 100% safe in there. I got a nice win on a video poker machine and won a little bit more with Wonder Woman (she’s my girl). At 4 PM sharp we were the 1st in line for going up to the Sky Lounge. They search bags and make you go through a metal detector which is probably a very good idea. Up we go. Once we enter the lounge we walk around and find a spot with a view of the strip going south and east. It’s just about dusk outside. The chairs are upholstered leather and very comfortable. Our cocktail waitress comes right over and introduces herself as Effie. She says it is happy hour and explains many things on the extensive menu and gives us some time to make our selections. We keep it simple jack and coke for me and rum and coke for G, we get 2 for 1. When Effie comes back with our drinks I tell her that Effie happened to be my grandmother’s name. She laughs and says she gets that a lot but it’s always grandmothers not granddaughters with her name. It’s pretty slow so she spends about 5 minutes talking with us. She’s a UNLV student, 21 years old with an Egyptian father and Greek mother. She asks where we’re from and about family, etc. She’s got a loud but infectious laugh. If you make it up to the Sky Lounge look for Effie she’s a sweetheart. I think we spent close to an hour in the lounge just enjoying the view. We could see the restaurant just a level below us and that rotates around which makes it feel kind of weird sometimes if you catch that movement out of the corner of your eye. At one point we heard someone dining below us scream, it turns out one of the bungee jumpers went flying by their window! Too funny. Next stop Golden Nugget.
We took a cab from the Strat to GN, we were having dinner at the Grotto. Not sure where the hell the cab driver went other than way out of his way to pump up the meter. We were due for a bad cab ride. The cabs had been good up to that point. So he got a $1 and change tip instead of 3 or 4 dollars. Not sure how he ends up a head pulling these stunts. We entered GN and went straight to the Grotto. I’m guessing this is our fifth time here. We ended up with a very good waiter that we had before but I can’t remember his name. We started with the bruschetta as we always do. I had a draft beer and G a glass of wine. We love the bruschetta! I ordered the spaghetti and meatballs and G has the chicken parm. Everything was excellent and no room for dessert. It was right around $100 with tip.
I played the Deuces wild VP machines at GN for about a ½ hour before heading out to catch the street experience light show. It was pretty busy for a Monday night, I’m glad we didn’t come downtown on the weekend. I think Heart was one of the shows and I can’t tell you the other ones we saw other then I remember a rocket ship. I like the circles for the buskers but it can still get crowded around them and makes moving along Fremont street a pain sometimes. It was cold outside but they really didn’t have to crank the heat up so high in the casinos. I’ve had some luck downtown on our recent trips. I got four aces on double bonus poker at Four Queens for $1000. We played in almost all the casinos except for the D, I can’t handle that loud music. Binion’s isn’t looking too good. It really looks beat up. Our last stop was the Downtown Grand where I had $30 in free play. I get offers for comp’d nights there, but we’ve never stayed downtown. I don’t really like that alleyway walk down to the Grand but I see they have a couple of cop cars parked there for show. The inside of the Grand has changed quite a bit. The casino is pretty much the same but the restaurant changed and a band was playing. I played a little bit of everything including Batman. I’m a big fan of the Caddyshack movie so I had to play that slot! That turned out to be a big mistake. It was one of those slots where you think you have to get the bonus or hit something pretty soon, it can’t be that bad. But oh yes it can be that bad! The drink service was pretty good there and it wasn’t as hot as the Fremont street casinos. We called it a night with a losing downtown trip.
We walked back up to the GN to get a cab. As we were walking on the side street back toward the cab area a cab rolled up and stopped on the street and asked if we needed a cab. Huh? I said we were walking back to the cab area. I’d never had that happen to me before in Vegas. Are they now getting desperate with Uber and Lyft in town? We had a good cab ride back to the Flamingo, it was $30 total with tip. We spent a short while in the Flamingo casino before we turned in. We did a lot of walking that day.
Tuesday- November 29
Well it’s our final full day in Vegas. I’m down to the casino by 6 AM. I start at the Pai Gow table and I hit some bonuses, a full house and a couple a straights. That makes the dealer happy as I play a dollar for the dealer above my bonus bet. So she gets paid on my bonus. I’m actually able to get a coffee this morning at the Pai Gow table. When my luck starts to change I color out and go to the cage. I switched to video poker. No luck for my final morning in the Flamingo casino. Our plan is to have breakfast at the buffet in Paris. I think it’s around 8 AM when we make the short walk down Las Vegas Blvd. We’re seated back in one of the more private rooms. Actually we’re the only ones in the room when we are initially seated. It’s nice and quiet. We both had a little bit of everything. They have some very good pastries. Plus the coffee they bring to the table is excellent.
We spend the morning at Paris and Planet Hollywood. I have a MyVegas 2 for 1 at Aria buffet, so we want to go there and get it on my card. We ended up at the Bellagio for a while and eventually took the tram to Aria where we played and I got the buffet added. Aria is another place where I’ve had zero luck. I tried playing wheel of fortune there. Man they have about 5 or 6 versions of the WOF there. I did manage to get a bonus spin on one of them that didn’t amount to very much. We wanted to see the new park between the MC and NYNY. We walked down there and walked through the park. It is very nice and the lego characters on the benches are pretty cool. The giant dancing lady is neat to look at but I’m sure it’s nicer when they light it up at night. We walked into NYNY and spent a few hours there.
Eventually I ended up on a Pai Gow table that was pretty full. There was a guy with a cowboy hat that was in town because his niece was in the Miss Rodeo pageant. He had a photo button of her pinned to his shirt. He was from Utah and a sewer pipe inspector. Do you know that baby wipes don’t disintegrate like toilet paper? They wad up into these giant balls that can clog the pipes! It was a fun few hours and I hit several bonuses that paid the dealers and I left the table with $150 profit. But I didn’t have the same luck on VP and slots. We spent some time in the MC and made our way back to the tram to the Aria.
Around 4 PM we were at the Aria buffet. We both liked it and thought both the food quality and selections were very good. I tried the waffles and chicken and somehow made a sticky mess at our table with maple syrup. They had a carving station with prime rib that was also good with the horseradish sauce (hot!). G was in heaven as they had king crab legs. I would eat there again before the Bellagio buffet. I’d put it up there with the Cosmo and Wynn buffets.
We made our way back toward the Linq promenade. I thought that we could use the walking after the big buffet. We wanted to ride the High Roller for our first time. We got our 2 for 1 tickets for Total Rewards Platinum voucher and made our way toward the high roller. There was a large group in front of us and a man that walked with a cane. We could see that they actually stopped the wheel so that he could get on more easily. We ended up with our own pod. It’s a very big space for 2 people but it was nice to be able to move around check the view from all different angles. We saw some of a Bellagio fountain show and it was a nice night time view. It was relaxing but I don’t think I’d do it again unless we come to Vegas with family or friends that want to ride it. Of course it exits through the gift shop and they took photos when we entered that we could purchase at exit. No thanks.
We went to the Yardhouse for a nightcap. We walked 2/3’s of the way around the bar before we found two barstools. It was very busy. We both had a beer and watched some college basketball. We had a 7 AM flight in the morning and a limo pickup at 5:15 AM. We left after a beer and walked back up the Linq promenade. They had Christmas music playing from somewhere and they had fake snow blowing in the air. It was almost cold enough to snow. One more stop at Amorino for a gelato nightcap. It was good although I can’t remember the flavors, I think I had coffee flavor. It wasn’t busy so we were able to get seats. It is very small and I’d imagine in the summer it would be very hard to get a seat inside. We spent a little while in the Flamingo casino before calling it a night. I guess I had to make one more donation to the Flamingo.
Wednesday- November 30
Before we knew it we were pulling our bags out front to catch our ride to the airport the next morning. Sydney was our driver and she was very friendly for that early in the morning. They were doing some maintenance at the airport so everyone had to drop off a lane further out. She did great jockeying the Escalade into position. I tipped her and we were off to catch our flight. I had printed our boarding passes at the Flamingo. It wasn’t free. I had to pay for the internet and printer use near the lobby. Whatever happened to that free perk? There was a short line but we quickly checked our bags and we had TSA pre-check so we were in our gate area with plenty of time to spare. We had some coffee and breakfast sandwiches at Ruby’s Diner. They were very good and quickly delivered. The coffee wasn’t very good though. Anyway after a delay in Philly we pulled into our driveway around 9 PM. Another Vegas trip was in the books!
Thursday- Thanksgiving- November 24
Thanksgiving morning my wife(G) and I(both 56 years old) were up at 4 AM to make sure got on our 5:45 AM flight from our local airport on time. We showered and took care of a few final things and then loaded our bags in the trunk. The weatherman had called for possible ice the night before and travel issues on the highway in the morning. But I think it was a few degrees warmer than they thought it would be. It was only wet on the road as we made our 30 mile trip to the airport. We pulled into the economy parking lot to see that it was 90% full. I’d never seen that many cars in our airport lots. There must be a lot of people traveling this Thanksgiving.
We wheeled our bags up to the counter after printing our boarding passes at the kiosk so we could check them. My bag was about 36 lbs. and G’s was under the 50 lbs. limit at 46 lbs. The ticket agent put our tags on and gave us the baggage receipts and said that we were good all the way to Los Angeles. I said I hope you mean Las Vegas! He corrected himself and said yes Las Vegas not Los Angeles (LAS vs LAX). That really would’ve sucked!
We made our way to security and I noticed we had TSA pre-check on our boarding passes. Not that this matters in our little airport as there is only a single line. But maybe on the way home it would save us some time. I had used my miles from American that I had saved over many years from business and personal travel for these tickets. I’m glad that I had used the miles because our airport was losing American as a carrier in February. So to use the miles in the future would mean several hours of driving. We’ll be down to Delta as our only carrier at the local airport next year.
We walked out on the tarmac and boarded our prop-plane on time but the flight was about 20 minutes late leaving as we de-iced. That really didn’t matter as we had an almost 4 hour layover in Philly. We got to Philly a little late and we stayed in our seats to let people who had connecting flight that were leaving ASAP to try and make them. We landed at gate F and in Philly you have to take a bus to the other gates. It takes a good 10 or 15 minutes to get to these other gates. So some of the folks were off to the races! We found a bagel place to get a bagel and some coffee. The bagels were horrible, thick and dry and hard to chew. The coffee was OK.
We headed out to the bus to get to the B gates for the flight to Las Vegas, B13. We were at our gate 1.5 hours early and the gate area was already packed. Obviously a full flight! We also got priority seating (before the zones board) with our free miles tickets. But we only carry on minimal bags. I have a backpack and G has her pocket book. We don’t use the overheads, everything goes under the seats. So we’re not in some big panic to get on and fight for overhead space. When they called for priority seating it was all we could do to get through the folks that had crowded up to the gate entrance. These airlines really need to change this whole process.
Finally we were all on the plane(A321) and settled in. Fairly wide seats on this plane and we didn’t feel cramped. The pilot came on the intercom and said that they had an issue with the plane’s radio and needed to change it out. He said that the maintenance folks told him it was a plug-in module and a 20 minute job. Ughh! I’m thinking 20 minutes is probably 40 minutes. Surprisingly they were quicker than 20 minutes and we were actually pushing back from the gate in 20 minutes. The pilot comes on again and advises we are 13th in line and it will be about 20 more minutes before we’re in the air but he’ll make up the time in the air and get us there real close to our original arrival time. Sure, like that’s going to happen. The five hour flight was pretty smooth and we had purchased a couple of snack boxes on the plane to hold us over. Surprisingly the pilot got us there only 10 minutes later than the original arrival. Awesome!
The scramble begins to deplane. I get a call on my cell from our limo driver Bernardo. He says that he will meet us at the bottom of the escalators near the baggage area. We hear rumors that there was a celebrity on the plane. Sure enough we see him walking just in front of us heading to train to get to the terminal with baggage claim area. Mr. Chubby Checker himself! He’s walking with several younger bandmates. For 75 years old he still looks good and moves pretty fast! The screen says our bags will be at carousal 13! Carousal 13 is almost all the way to the end of all the carousals. Bernardo is waiting at the bottom of the escalators with our name on his electronic tablet. Presidential limo has been very good since we got tired of getting long hauled about 7 or 8 trips ago. I think it is well worth it, plus we get them to stop at CVS for water and other items. We’re talking to Bernardo, who is originally from Italy and tell him about the celebrity on the plane. He seems intrigued and looks to find Chubby and he actually uses his phone to take a picture of them together. Too funny! He says one of the other drivers is a big fan of Chubby and he wanted to show him the selfie. So the baggage screen changes our flight to carousal to 15 and we all move down and the bags start dropping. Our bags are out very quickly and we on our way to Bellagio for the first three comp’d nights (Flamingo for the final three nights).
I don’t know if you noticed how many 13’s I’ve mentioned, but I wasn’t feeling too good about our luck at this point. I said something to Bernardo and he said 13 is a very lucky number in Italy! I thought, sure pal. But I googled it and it is true! I wasn’t worried anyway because I had a good luck equalizer. I had seen a shooting star a few weeks ago on my way to work in the morning. I had been making that 40 mile drive for 26 years of the 29 years I have worked at my company and that was only the 2nd shooting star I had ever seen. I think I only saw it because I was glancing up at the super moon that was in the news so much at that time. It’s probably not the safest way to drive on the highway, especially during deer hunting season when those critters are all moving from the hunters entering the woods early in the morning.
After stopping at CVS and getting bottles of water for the week, we pull into the Bellagio. I tip Bernardo and we drop off our bags with the bellman. It’s about 1:45 PM. We enter the front doors at Bellagio to see a very, very long line of people waiting to check-in. I had read in a forum online that there was an “invited guest” line. Since we were comp’d for our stay I assumed that applied to us. It was actually the very 1st line by the entrance and there was only one person in line! We were checked in and heading to our 8th floor room in a matter of minutes.
We get off the elevator on the 8th floor and figure out the direction to our room. We’re almost all the way to the end of the hall. I swear it’s close to 60 or 70 yards. I always ask for a room away from the elevators since we had a bad experience at the Mirage several years ago. We could hear the elevators running and the doors opening all night long. Anyway the room is very nice and this is our first stay at Bellagio. We got three nights, $100 in food credit and $100 free play. Looking out the windows the pool is below us. There are people swimming and some sunning themselves. It’s 65 F, sunny, but it’s Thanksgiving! The pools used to all close in October, not anymore! After a call to the bell desk our bags are up to the room in less than 10 minutes. We unpack and head down to the casino to find the MLife desk.
At the MLife desk I pick up the $100 freeplay from MLife and another $50 from MyVegas. I also had a 2 for 1 Gelato from MyVegas for Café Gelato at Bellagio, it all gets added to my new card. We only had snack boxes on the plane so we’re getting pretty famished. We checked out the Conservatory fall set-up, see photo above. On the other side is Café Bellagio. We’d never been there, but it didn’t seem very busy at 3 PM, so we headed in and got a table very quickly. I had a turkey club sandwich and wife had some kind of chopped salad. It hit the spot and service was very good but it took a little too long to get the check. We charged it back to the room to eat up some of our $100 resort credit. We ended up staying at Bellagio gambling on slots and video poker. I had some luck on quarters super times pay. By 6 PM we were both pretty tired. We headed over to get our 2 for 1 gelato before calling it a night. We both got doubles, I got banana toffee and wife got the stracciatella. But the cashier advised the MyVegas was only good for gelato singles, not doubles, but she said she’d take off the equivalent value. So I think it was $12 instead of $16. MyVegas has so much fine print now, please make sure that you have reading glasses to review! At least she made the attempt to get me a discount! The gelato was good and what we needed for a snack. We headed back to the room and watched some of the Cowboys Thanksgiving game. We were up past our bedtime and both sound asleep by 9 P.M. but that’s midnight for us back east.
Friday- November 25
I was wide awake by 3 AM. I’ve been getting up at 5 AM east coast time for work for almost 30 years. I wake up all the time before my alarm goes off at home. So every time we head to Vegas I’m up really early. I thought 3 AM was too early so I didn’t actually get out of bed until about 3:45 AM. I keep a pair of sweats out, t-shirt and my sneakers for my early morning casino visits. I quietly get a little cleaned up and dressed and head out the door. The standard game plan is that “G” texts me when she’s out of the shower and dressed. Probably around 8 AM. Then I’ll head up to the room and shower and we’ll head to breakfast. I played a lot of video and some slots but no table games. They’re like $25 minimum, not for me. I was probably a few hundred down when I headed back to the deuces wild super times pay machine I had played the night before. I put a $100 bill in and caught the cocktail waitress just then and ordered a coffee with cream and equal. I hit max play to get the super times bonus. I was staying near the $100 number but it seemed like some big dollar jumps, plus I was distracted looking for my coffee. I was dealt three deuces and hit the draw button and got the 4th, but no super times and only one line. Well that’s a thousand credits, $250, not bad. I’m looking at the money counter on my machine roll up, getting close to $250 where I expect it to stop but it keeps rolling, past $500, all the way to $1000! I was wondering what the heck is going on! Then I take a 2nd look at my machine and see I’m betting dollars not quarters! I was betting $18 a hand, something I’d never “knowingly” do. I guess I just assumed it was set at a quarter like the previous night. Dumb luck worked in my favor for once. I switched it back to quarters and played some more. Played some slots and then I got the text from “G”. It’s time to get ready for breakfast.
We walk over to the Monte Carlo and head to MLife desk. I’ve got 2 for 1 breakfast buffet and 2 for 1 Hit Bar cocktail. Well here we go with fine print again, breakfast is Mon-Thurs only. I get my points back on my account and throw that one away. I did get the 2 for 1 Signature cocktail. We head to Mont Carlo buffet for breakfast at full price, damn. It was pretty good. I still don’t like getting my own drinks. The coffee wasn’t anything to write home about from the giant stainless steel urn. It was pretty crowded in the buffet and you could definitely tell it was a busy weekend in Vegas. I played in MC for an hour or so, video poker and slots. Not much luck. But I usually do Ok at MC and I like their casino because it doesn’t feel cramped. Next stop is getting our Monorail tickets at MGM station, you guessed it 2 for 1 from MyVegas, 5 day passes.
We walk over the pedestrian bridge and see the normal folks asking for money. But I do think the number of porn slappers have been reduced significantly. It’s a beautiful sunny morning with just a light jacket needed. Unfortunately I make the mistake of trying to gamble in MGM! We stayed there in April of 2015 when my nephew got married at Mandalay Bay. It was the worst gambling luck I had at any casino since we started coming here in 1992. I guess I didn’t learn my lesson as I burned through $200 in no time. So we headed back to monorail station to get our passes. The very friendly agent took the myvegas 2 for 1 printout, my credit card and quickly got us the passes. We headed up to the monorail where the up escalator wasn’t working. My guess based on our overall trip is that only 65% to 75% of all escalators for both the monorail system and pedestrian bridges are functioning at a given time. Don’t the escalators reverse? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have the “up” working at all times if possible and let people walk down? Anyway we were off to SLS.
It was turning into a beautiful day, we went by the golf course(Wynn?) on our monorail trip and the golfers were in shirts and shorts enjoying the bright sunshine and cool low to mid-60’s temperatures. Perfect golf weather in my mind! We got off the monorail and headed over long walking bridge toward SLS. There is an awesome view of Stratosphere from that bridge. We could see the window cleaners were working on the really high windows probably around the restaurant? Not a job that I envy. We went down the “working” really long escalator and into the SLS. I got a replacement “code” players card with $20 free play and we played some video poker and slots. Video poker wasn’t bad, just up and down without any big hits. I like the casino layout, cocktail service is fair to good and the smoke isn’t bad, but I don’t know how this place keeps going. We headed back to the monorail with no plans of where to go. We decided the next stop would be Bally’s and Paris.
We walked down steps from monorail station into Bally’s(escalator not working). I like the many options for video poker in Bally’s and I’ve had some luck there. We spent a few hours there before walking internally over to Paris. We stayed there last Thanksgiving and I didn’t have much luck there. I’ve never had any big wins there. What a difference a year makes for the crowds. It is much more crowded this year. We spent a few hours in the Paris with not much to show for it except points for Total Rewards (CET). We were both getting hungry and ready for a beer. We’d had luck at the Yardhouse at the Linq our last visit to Vegas and so we walked down there.
We sat at the bar and ordered some chicken nachos, I had a couple Montana moose drools and G had Smithwicks. The nachos were huge and very good. I got talking to guy sitting next to me at the bar. He has a media company in Vegas but had just come from a basketball game for his alma mater, Cal St. Fullerton at Thomas and Mack. He was originally from NJ and loved living in Vegas. He doesn’t gamble but likes all the food and entertainment choices. He soon headed out and we followed soon after.
We walked back through the Linq promenade and ended up walking through O’Sheas into the Linq casino. We spent a few hours in there before we called it a night and walked back to Bellagio and saw a portion of a fountain show. We spent about 20 minutes in the casino, just long enough to get a drink. I think I gave back close to half of my winnings from earlier in the day.
Saturday- November 26
I’m up early again, 4:30 A.M., and I spend a couple of hours or so in the Bellagio casino. Not much luck. Today is our scheduled tour of Red Rock Canyon with Viator/Pink jeep tours. We chose the 12:45 PM pickup time instead of the morning tour. We had plans for breakfast at Cravings in the Mirage. We’ve stayed at Mirage many times and we’ve always thought they did a pretty good job with their breakfast buffet. I had a 2 for 1 coupon from Las Vegas advisor. We walked down through Caesars to get to the Mirage. I think we walked a lot more than was needed. I played some VP and slots but not much luck. I don’t think I’ve ever won much of anything in Caesars, probably the MGM is the only place I’ve had worse luck. We got to Cravings just after it opened at 8 AM. No line at all. It was a special brunch for the holiday weekend and $40 per person. I asked if my LVA coupon was still good for the holiday brunch? The cashier said sure no problem. That’s good because I wasn’t going to pay $80 for breakfast! We did have a few mimosas and we both got very good omelets from the chef at the omelet station. He said he’d been there at the Mirage for 18 years and in Vegas for 30 years. Nice guy, I left him a couple of bucks. I guess because of the “holiday” price the place was about a ¼ full. The coffee wasn’t that good but since they have self-serve beverages, I’ve noticed that everywhere. Did they make coffee differently when it wasn’t self-serve? We polished off some fruit and muffins for dessert. I left a few dollars for our server.
Our plan was to spend a few hours in Mirage gambling and then working our way back to Bellagio for our tour. We’ve stayed at the Mirage 7 or 8 times and I’ve usually had some good luck there. The best was in 2010 when our friends got married on 10/10/10. The 1st afternoon there after unpacking and coming down to the casino, I hit a progressive Royal on the old stand-alone 25 cent deuces wild machines for $1400. Then a few days later after we spent a day on a tour of the Grand Canyon, I hit a Royal on the exact same machine that night for about $1100. Unfortunately those machines are gone. We played video poker and slots. I had a nice hit on the breaking/cracking piggy bank machine for a few hundred. I got a few nice hits in video poker, 4 of a kind on bonus poker. I think I actually left there with some winnings.
We walked outside this time instead of going through Caesars. It seemed a lot quicker, although the up escalator wasn’t working for the pedestrian bridge into the side of the Bellagio. Someone had a folding table open on the bridge and was selling jewelry and other stuff off of it. With these big crowds in Vegas, that is the last thing they need on the pedestrian bridge. We head up to room and get the Viator voucher for our tour. We head down the stairs in front of the Bellagio and wait in the tour bus area. The pink bus pulls and we get on board after showing our paperwork, there is also a couple from India that also gets on. I think the bus seats 20 people at the most. We make a few more stops and Phil our driver heads out to Red Rock canyon.
Phil asks where everyone is from. We have two Chinese ladies in their late 20’s or early 30’s, one is from Shanghai and the other now lives in the States. They have a young boy with them, about 8 years old. The boy speaks fluent English and Mandarin. A lady in her 60’s with a young man in his 20’s that are from the Netherlands, they speak very good English. The Indian folks actually live in Minnesota. So it is a pretty small group. It’s about a ½ hour drive to Red Rock visitor center near Summerlin. Phil does a good job telling us about the history of various places on the way out there. The entrance to visitor center is really backed up. Phil says that he’s been doing this for many years and he’s never seen it backed up this far. Well it is a beautiful day on a holiday weekend. We finally get in and he parks in the visitor center lot. We have 20 minutes to check it out before getting back on the bus. It’s very informative with many displays. I could’ve spent another hour there. We get back on the bus and make our 1st stop on the 13 mile loop. I took a few pictures with my iphone, nothing great. See below. There were plenty of climbers out on the rocks and hikers out on the trails. It was probably in the low to mid 50’s in the lower area. But it got much cooler in the higher elevation of around 5000 ft.
There were so many cars that we couldn’t even stop at next area because there was no parking. Phil made up for it by stopping longer at the next area at the higher elevation. That was fine with me as that was a beautiful area. At one of the last few stops, we hiked out to see the petroglyphs. Pretty amazing that they been there for 1000’s of years. The husband of the Indian couple didn’t make the ½ mile walk. When we got back to the bus he wasn’t there. We waited for a little while and Phil finally said that we’d go to the next stop, it was only a few hundred yards away, and then come back. The wife would wait there at a picnic table. When we came back he still wasn’t there but one of the many motorcyclists that was out riding the trails came up to Phil’s window and said he saw a man way up the road and he said he was on his way back. It was another 10 or 15 minutes before he got back to the bus. He had a camera around his neck so I guess he was off taking photos? He could’ve gotten killed or run over by one of the dozens of motorcycles coming through that area! We skipped the last stop and made a restroom stop before heading back to the Strip. Minus the drama of losing the guy, it was a great tour that I’d recommend it to get away from the strip for an afternoon or even a full day.
We were back at the Bellagio around 6 P.M. We decided to take the free tram to Monte Carlo (Bellagio-Aria-Monte Carlo) and eat at Johnny Rockets in the food court at MC. You place your order and take a number. We had our food in 10 minutes even though they were very busy. The food was good but the ambiance left a lot to be desired. There were kids running around throwing water bottles at each other. They just were little kids only 6 or 7 years old, the parents were there but didn’t seem to care. I guess you should expect that in a food court.
We hit the machines at Monte Carlo. Nothing good happened! We tried VP and slots, all different kinds of slots, but we couldn’t hit anything. So we thought we’d take a break and get our 2 for 1 signature cocktails at the Hit Bar. There was only one bartender and no table service by the cocktail waitresses. I’d never go back there. It took 10 or 15 minutes to get served. It was $18 and they were terrible drinks. I think I got all the alcohol in my drink and G’s drink was sickly sweet. We left most of the drinks at the table after a few sips. No sense trying to get it fixed with only one bartender and no cocktail servers. Sometimes 2 for 1 isn’t such a good deal!
We headed back to the Bellagio just in time for the 9 PM fountain show. There was a complete wedding party in front of the hotel and they all went over to the fountains watch the show! We were able to squeeze in between them. They were all having a good time. I can’t remember what the music was for the fountain show. I’m thinking it was patriotic. After the show we went in to the casino played for a bit and got a couple of free drinks and cocktail service for a few bucks in tips that were much better than the Hit Bar drinks! I think we were back in our room by 11 P.M. That was a late night for us.
Sunday- November 27
This is our last day staying in the Bellagio. Another early morning, I head down to the casino by 4:45 AM. As I’m walking down the hallway I spot a penny on the carpet heads up! I pick up my good luck penny and head to the elevators. I walk around looking for a Pai Gow Poker table for $10 and I don’t find anything. So I guess I’ll start with video poker. I find a machine and set the bet at 50 cents instead of my normal 25 cents. Since I’m still ahead for the trip I figure I’ll push it to $2.50 a hand. I put a hundred in and start playing deuces bonus. While I’m playing I’m searching for a waitress to get a coffee. I’m not hitting much of anything! Three of a kind is rare. Still no waitress in sight and I’m half way through my $100 bill. Man this machine stinks and it is not a good start to the morning. Finally I get the waitress and order a coffee with cream and equal. I’m down to almost nothing when she returns, I see the coffee is black, she says “oh, you wanted cream, I’ll be right back”. I’m out of money on the machine! Well do I play more or just wait for my coffee? I throw another $60 in and on the 2nd or 3rd hand I get 4 to a Royal without the Jack and……
Thank God she forgot my cream! I gave her a $5 tip when she got back and she said she’d get an attendant over ASAP to take care of me. Later when I told my wife I gave her $5 she said I should’ve given her more! Maybe she was right, of course she was right. The attendants took my players card, license and got all the paperwork and started the hand pay within 5 minutes. I gave them a $20 bill to split. What does everyone else give? I got off that machine and played a bunch of fun no thinking required slots like Batman and Willy Wonka. I actually won some more before texting “G” with a photo my winnings and telling her to come down for breakfast. We were going to Bellagio Sunday brunch for breakfast.
We were in the buffet before 8 A.M. and there was no line to speak of. We got the brunch minus the champagne and charged it back to the room. It was about $40 each, so we used up the rest of our resort credit. They seated everyone pretty far away from the buffet area. An elderly couple asked to be seated in the area closer, but they said that area wouldn’t open until 9 A.M. She had a walker and obviously needed to be closer. But the hostess apologized and said there were no exceptions. I think he ended up making all the trips for his wife. We’ve never been that impressed with Bellagio buffet, this was our 3rd visit. It was OK but not worth that kind of money for breakfast.
We headed up to the room and I showered while G was reading of her ipad(we had very good wifi in the room). We packed up and got ready to change hotels to the Flamingo. We checked out via the TV in room. Total bill with dreaded resort fees included was $156.48. I left all my loose change as a housekeeping tip. It was probably 5 or 6 bucks. We lugged our bags down to the cab area. I haven’t made the switch to Uber yet. I think it was like $8 to get across the street to the Flamingo. We left our bags with the bellman and went to see about checking in. The Flamingo has check-in kiosks, so we tried to figure it out but I couldn’t get it to read my license. There was a young lady helping people so when she was available we asked her to help us. By then we were at a different kiosk and it seemed to work fine. They said that I’d get an email when our room was ready. So I’d have to keep checking my iphone email.
We went looking for some slot action. It was Sunday so there was football on the screens at the sportsbook. The bad thing was that the poker machines nearby were all taken by people spinning the chairs around to watch the games. We played for a while and finally got the email around noon, we were headed to get our keys from the same kiosk and directions to our “Go” room. We used the Spa elevators and had a room on the 28th floor. It seemed OK but definitely a step down from the Bellagio. We got our bags delivered to the room within 5 minutes. I tipped the bellman $5 and we unpacked for our 3 night stay. There was plenty of closet and dresser space. The bathroom left a lot to be desired and the bathroom sliding door was loose and squeaked when sliding. The wifi worked well but it seemed like we had to sign on more than once a day. Our view was close to seeing the Bellagio fountains but not quite, darn. It was time to head to the Total Rewards desk for our free play.
We waited in line at the player’s desk for about 5 minutes. I’m not a fan of getting vouchers and then going to the cashier’s cage. Not sure how CET hasn’t entered the 21st century and started putting your credits directly on your card. We got two $20 vouchers from the cashier. They were gone in 5 minutes. We went outside and checked out the habitat for a break. It was breezy and cool. It was getting much cooler for the last few days of our visit. It was about 50 F, so there was definitely a chill in the air. We headed outside to the Linq promenade and took a walk up to the High Roller. It was pretty busy with lots of families and strollers. We were getting hungry around 3 PM so we decided on Margaritaville. It didn’t seem that busy but we had to wait to be seated. We’ve been to several of these, one in Jamaica and one in Niagara Falls that I can remember. They were pretty good and consistent. I got the mango salsa grilled chicken and a couple of Landsharks draft lagers. I think G had a big cobb salad and a margarita. The service was a little slow but the food was good.
We walked down to Bally’s and through the bazaar of shops. We’ve never actually stopped in any of those stores. It seemed like half of them were closed or empty. Of course the moving walkway to the casino entrance wasn’t working. I found the VP machines that I like to play to the right around the corner of the entrance. Up and down with some decent wins but alas I gave it all back. I dropped a few hundred. We walked back up to the Linq and played there and at Margaritaville and finally the Flamingo before we called it an early night after giving more of my winnings back. For some reason we were feeling pretty tired, but I guess we had done quite a bit of walking the past few days.
Monday- November 28
I was up early and down in the casino by 5:30 A.M. I forgot to take my cash out of the safe last night to replenish so I actually made a trip to the ATM by the cashier cage. No sense in waking G up early. I think it was a $2.50 charge plus whatever my credit union charges. Finally $10 Pai Gow bonus tables were available. I was hanging in there with no bonuses but not at full hemorrhage. Then a young Asian dealer named Lucy showed up. She was the cooler. Playing Pai Gow you’re supposed to push about 50% of the time with the dealer. So it usually lets you play a long time. I think she won her first 5 hands. Everyone at the table was taking a beating! A few more hands and I called it quits while I had some of the $200 I started with left. I played some video poker with no success. Then I got a text from G. The electrical outlet in the bathroom didn’t work and she had a hard time figuring out the shower. She was not happy and said “this room sucks!” I guess we should’ve started here and then moved to the Bellagio? I had to buy a coffee at the coffee shop near the casino. I actually had ordered one at the Pai Gow table, I had to get the dealer to ask the pit boss to get a waitress. She took my order but after 10 or 15 minutes at the table she never showed up. So I left the table without it. We had plans to go to the Peppermill for breakfast, so I headed up to the room to get ready. The shower fixtures were pretty complicated. I have a mechanical engineering degree and actually helped run a steam power plant in the Navy and it took me a while understand what the hell was going on with the various handles. I needed a training manual! Not very good water pressure either, I guess that is expected on the 28th floor. On to the Peppermill!
We took a cab for $15 with tip included from Flamingo to the Peppermill. It was around 8:30 AM when we were seated. The place was very busy for a Monday morning. We were one booth away from where we sat last time for breakfast. Good coffee for a change! I had French toast with eggs, bacon and sausage. G had an omelet. It tasted good and was very filling. Neither of us finished! It’s an expensive breakfast but worth it for the food and atmosphere. The Peppermill is now part of our standard Vegas itinerary.
We walked toward the Encore, it was a cool morning. I think it was actually warmer back east! As we got a few blocks away from the Encore, what appeared to be a big homeless guy in a green army jacket came up beside us as we were waiting for the walking light to change. He said, “hey, do you want to see what drugs will do to people”? G and I looked at each other, like “what the hell is he talking about”? Then he said “look over there, he’s on what they call salts”. On the other side of the street was a very large black man, doing kicks and karate chops at imaginary people. The guy said that he’d already seen the guy hit several people! So we were hoping he stayed on the other side of the street. About then we saw a jogger heading in the karate guy’s direction, oh no! The guy jogged by without incident. A few minutes later we were going up the escalator and entering the Encore into safety.
In 2013 we had stayed three nights at the Wynn and always wanted to get back there. I tried for this trip but I could only get two nights and the 3rd night would be like a $700 rate. The reason for the high rate was that they had a convention going on, so we ended up at the Bellagio instead. My game plan was to get a replacement red card and gamble to get some future offers. When the guy gave me the new card he said that if I get 1000 points I’d be eligible for the slot tourney at 4 PM. I wasn’t going to play in the slot tourney but I was curious if I’d play enough to qualify. I assume that would be a good number to hit for future offers from Wynn.
We started at the Encore and I was having some luck on double bonus VP. Four of a kind(kings), straight flush and I kept floating near my initial $100 for a ½ hour or more. Once I dropped to $50 we moved on and played some Chinese dragon machine where the dragon winds around and leaves wilds. That was fun but not lucrative. We moved down the esplanade to the Wynn. That was a little more bustling than the laid back Encore. I played more VP, Wizard of Oz, Willie Wonka and a neat Elvis slot that we really enjoyed. We played some All Star poker, multi-strike, Ultimate-X , super times pay, etc. Up and down, fun but nothing major. It was approaching noon and I had well over 1000 points, closer to 1500 I think, with $350 into the machines. We headed toward the Venetian.
The down escalator into the Palazzo casino was working! I have a grazie card but I don’t play enough here to get a replacement. We spent about 10 minutes in the casino and then we took some time to look at the holiday displays. The area around the waterfall atrium was nicely decorated and there were many people taking photos with the waterfall background. We made our way to the Venetian and their casino. It’s definitely a nice casino that is more open than others and also very good lighting. I played some Nascar race slot where the seat rumbled, but I had to turn the volume down. I got the bonus but didn’t win much. We were getting hungry but didn’t want a full meal, so we made our way to the Grand Canal Shoppes food court. We got a small cheese pizza to share at the pizza place and a couple of small drinks. The pizza was nothing great but was all we needed and it was very quick. I checked my iphone and Big Elvis would be playing at Harrah’s 2 PM! We had a half hour or so to get there.
We walked out the front of the Venetian over the bridge on the canal. I could see from there that the moving walkway to my left was not working that goes into the Venetian. It seems to me that walkway is almost always broke down. Now for the fun part, walking in front of the narrow sidewalk in the front of the Casino Royale. That is always jammed with people. We got through the crowd with some dodging and waiting. We entered Harrah’s and walked back toward the Piano Bar to see Big Elvis. Big sign out front, under construction! It was closed. No Big Elvis today. He was so good the last time we saw him. Darn. This was our night to go downtown and we planned to go to the Sky Lounge at the Stratosphere for a drink. So we decided to spend just a little time here. I had won some in the past in Harrah’s but not today. The buffaloes were not kind to me. Plus it was smoky and hot in there. It was time to move on.
We walked back to the Monorail station and took it all the way to SLS. From there we took a cab to the Stratosphere. We walked through the casino and found where the elevator entrance to the 107 Sky Lounge was located. The lady at the entrance desk said it didn’t open until 4 PM, so we had an hour to kill in the casino. That casino is a little grungy and the clientele isn’t quite the same as Bellagio. I’m not being snobby (I grew up in a trailer!), but I didn’t feel 100% safe in there. I got a nice win on a video poker machine and won a little bit more with Wonder Woman (she’s my girl). At 4 PM sharp we were the 1st in line for going up to the Sky Lounge. They search bags and make you go through a metal detector which is probably a very good idea. Up we go. Once we enter the lounge we walk around and find a spot with a view of the strip going south and east. It’s just about dusk outside. The chairs are upholstered leather and very comfortable. Our cocktail waitress comes right over and introduces herself as Effie. She says it is happy hour and explains many things on the extensive menu and gives us some time to make our selections. We keep it simple jack and coke for me and rum and coke for G, we get 2 for 1. When Effie comes back with our drinks I tell her that Effie happened to be my grandmother’s name. She laughs and says she gets that a lot but it’s always grandmothers not granddaughters with her name. It’s pretty slow so she spends about 5 minutes talking with us. She’s a UNLV student, 21 years old with an Egyptian father and Greek mother. She asks where we’re from and about family, etc. She’s got a loud but infectious laugh. If you make it up to the Sky Lounge look for Effie she’s a sweetheart. I think we spent close to an hour in the lounge just enjoying the view. We could see the restaurant just a level below us and that rotates around which makes it feel kind of weird sometimes if you catch that movement out of the corner of your eye. At one point we heard someone dining below us scream, it turns out one of the bungee jumpers went flying by their window! Too funny. Next stop Golden Nugget.
We took a cab from the Strat to GN, we were having dinner at the Grotto. Not sure where the hell the cab driver went other than way out of his way to pump up the meter. We were due for a bad cab ride. The cabs had been good up to that point. So he got a $1 and change tip instead of 3 or 4 dollars. Not sure how he ends up a head pulling these stunts. We entered GN and went straight to the Grotto. I’m guessing this is our fifth time here. We ended up with a very good waiter that we had before but I can’t remember his name. We started with the bruschetta as we always do. I had a draft beer and G a glass of wine. We love the bruschetta! I ordered the spaghetti and meatballs and G has the chicken parm. Everything was excellent and no room for dessert. It was right around $100 with tip.
I played the Deuces wild VP machines at GN for about a ½ hour before heading out to catch the street experience light show. It was pretty busy for a Monday night, I’m glad we didn’t come downtown on the weekend. I think Heart was one of the shows and I can’t tell you the other ones we saw other then I remember a rocket ship. I like the circles for the buskers but it can still get crowded around them and makes moving along Fremont street a pain sometimes. It was cold outside but they really didn’t have to crank the heat up so high in the casinos. I’ve had some luck downtown on our recent trips. I got four aces on double bonus poker at Four Queens for $1000. We played in almost all the casinos except for the D, I can’t handle that loud music. Binion’s isn’t looking too good. It really looks beat up. Our last stop was the Downtown Grand where I had $30 in free play. I get offers for comp’d nights there, but we’ve never stayed downtown. I don’t really like that alleyway walk down to the Grand but I see they have a couple of cop cars parked there for show. The inside of the Grand has changed quite a bit. The casino is pretty much the same but the restaurant changed and a band was playing. I played a little bit of everything including Batman. I’m a big fan of the Caddyshack movie so I had to play that slot! That turned out to be a big mistake. It was one of those slots where you think you have to get the bonus or hit something pretty soon, it can’t be that bad. But oh yes it can be that bad! The drink service was pretty good there and it wasn’t as hot as the Fremont street casinos. We called it a night with a losing downtown trip.
We walked back up to the GN to get a cab. As we were walking on the side street back toward the cab area a cab rolled up and stopped on the street and asked if we needed a cab. Huh? I said we were walking back to the cab area. I’d never had that happen to me before in Vegas. Are they now getting desperate with Uber and Lyft in town? We had a good cab ride back to the Flamingo, it was $30 total with tip. We spent a short while in the Flamingo casino before we turned in. We did a lot of walking that day.
Tuesday- November 29
Well it’s our final full day in Vegas. I’m down to the casino by 6 AM. I start at the Pai Gow table and I hit some bonuses, a full house and a couple a straights. That makes the dealer happy as I play a dollar for the dealer above my bonus bet. So she gets paid on my bonus. I’m actually able to get a coffee this morning at the Pai Gow table. When my luck starts to change I color out and go to the cage. I switched to video poker. No luck for my final morning in the Flamingo casino. Our plan is to have breakfast at the buffet in Paris. I think it’s around 8 AM when we make the short walk down Las Vegas Blvd. We’re seated back in one of the more private rooms. Actually we’re the only ones in the room when we are initially seated. It’s nice and quiet. We both had a little bit of everything. They have some very good pastries. Plus the coffee they bring to the table is excellent.
We spend the morning at Paris and Planet Hollywood. I have a MyVegas 2 for 1 at Aria buffet, so we want to go there and get it on my card. We ended up at the Bellagio for a while and eventually took the tram to Aria where we played and I got the buffet added. Aria is another place where I’ve had zero luck. I tried playing wheel of fortune there. Man they have about 5 or 6 versions of the WOF there. I did manage to get a bonus spin on one of them that didn’t amount to very much. We wanted to see the new park between the MC and NYNY. We walked down there and walked through the park. It is very nice and the lego characters on the benches are pretty cool. The giant dancing lady is neat to look at but I’m sure it’s nicer when they light it up at night. We walked into NYNY and spent a few hours there.
Eventually I ended up on a Pai Gow table that was pretty full. There was a guy with a cowboy hat that was in town because his niece was in the Miss Rodeo pageant. He had a photo button of her pinned to his shirt. He was from Utah and a sewer pipe inspector. Do you know that baby wipes don’t disintegrate like toilet paper? They wad up into these giant balls that can clog the pipes! It was a fun few hours and I hit several bonuses that paid the dealers and I left the table with $150 profit. But I didn’t have the same luck on VP and slots. We spent some time in the MC and made our way back to the tram to the Aria.
Around 4 PM we were at the Aria buffet. We both liked it and thought both the food quality and selections were very good. I tried the waffles and chicken and somehow made a sticky mess at our table with maple syrup. They had a carving station with prime rib that was also good with the horseradish sauce (hot!). G was in heaven as they had king crab legs. I would eat there again before the Bellagio buffet. I’d put it up there with the Cosmo and Wynn buffets.
We made our way back toward the Linq promenade. I thought that we could use the walking after the big buffet. We wanted to ride the High Roller for our first time. We got our 2 for 1 tickets for Total Rewards Platinum voucher and made our way toward the high roller. There was a large group in front of us and a man that walked with a cane. We could see that they actually stopped the wheel so that he could get on more easily. We ended up with our own pod. It’s a very big space for 2 people but it was nice to be able to move around check the view from all different angles. We saw some of a Bellagio fountain show and it was a nice night time view. It was relaxing but I don’t think I’d do it again unless we come to Vegas with family or friends that want to ride it. Of course it exits through the gift shop and they took photos when we entered that we could purchase at exit. No thanks.
We went to the Yardhouse for a nightcap. We walked 2/3’s of the way around the bar before we found two barstools. It was very busy. We both had a beer and watched some college basketball. We had a 7 AM flight in the morning and a limo pickup at 5:15 AM. We left after a beer and walked back up the Linq promenade. They had Christmas music playing from somewhere and they had fake snow blowing in the air. It was almost cold enough to snow. One more stop at Amorino for a gelato nightcap. It was good although I can’t remember the flavors, I think I had coffee flavor. It wasn’t busy so we were able to get seats. It is very small and I’d imagine in the summer it would be very hard to get a seat inside. We spent a little while in the Flamingo casino before calling it a night. I guess I had to make one more donation to the Flamingo.
Wednesday- November 30
Before we knew it we were pulling our bags out front to catch our ride to the airport the next morning. Sydney was our driver and she was very friendly for that early in the morning. They were doing some maintenance at the airport so everyone had to drop off a lane further out. She did great jockeying the Escalade into position. I tipped her and we were off to catch our flight. I had printed our boarding passes at the Flamingo. It wasn’t free. I had to pay for the internet and printer use near the lobby. Whatever happened to that free perk? There was a short line but we quickly checked our bags and we had TSA pre-check so we were in our gate area with plenty of time to spare. We had some coffee and breakfast sandwiches at Ruby’s Diner. They were very good and quickly delivered. The coffee wasn’t very good though. Anyway after a delay in Philly we pulled into our driveway around 9 PM. Another Vegas trip was in the books!
