The assault on Vegas began on Thursday August 23, 2012.
A group of mostly middle age women, a 20 something Vegas Virgin and 2 gay men set off to let loose in Sin City. I am the oldest in the group and have been to Vegas more times than I can remember. Me and Vegas go way back .... to the Westward Ho and Slots of Fun days with free champagne and doughnuts, 99 cent quarter lb hot dogs ...times when I could take $50 to Vegas and stay the whole weekend and have all the fun I could stand.
FLIGHT
We all flew in on Southwest. Arrived in Las Vegas 15 minutes early WHOO HOOO!!! But wait a minute, the pilot said we had to wait a few minutes for a gate since we were early. A few minutes turned into over an hour. Not happy! Off to get our bags....our flight was nowhere to be found on carousal 2, 4 or 6. Finally walked over to the SW office and the lady said as soon as the flight was assigned a carousal she would announce the location and the sign would be posted. We waited about 30 minutes before our bags began their journey out.
AIRPORT TO HOTEL TRANSPORTATION
Since we had over 5 people, we split into 2 groups and headed for the taxi line. It moved really fast...took maybe 5 minutes. One of our ladies asked the cabbie "how much to the Flamingo?" and he said "do you have $20"? I intercepted and said it would be about $16. He laughed and I told him to go the cheapest way and we will take care of you. Got to the Flamingo and the fare was a little over $16. I handed him $21 and he was happy.
HOTEL
My favorite place to stay in Vegas is Paris, however, some of our girls were on a tight budget so Flamingo here we come. I, being a lowly, gold card (Total Rewards) holder, was comped Thursday and Sunday night. My rate for Friday/Saturday was $110. Ok...but I could of stayed at Paris
HOTEL CHECK IN
Long long long line on the left...I being the smart experienced traveler and infamous GOLD TR cardholder went to the extremely short line on the right posted for Total Reward Cardholders. Proceeded to the counter and was greeted by a young 20 something male. Smiling he offered me an upgrade for $30 a night. I pulled out my Credit Card, $20 bill, and my ID and laid them on the counter with the best grandmotherly smile I could muster and asked, "are there any.... and just as I was about to say "complimentary upgrades available" he interrupted me and said no we can't do that. I told him to just look and see what he could find. He made a phone call and I got the sorry we are full and nothing is available. Not wanting to push the issue I snatched my $20 back and so OK. What have you got? Room 15035 pool view. I informed him that my roommate would be checking in later and he told me that when she checked in, I would have to get a new key card made.....however that turned out not to be true...my key card worked just fine after her card was issued. Check in took me about 10 minutes.
THE ROOM
Basic bottom of the barrel typical Holiday Innish type room. No carpeting was weird. First thing I did was search for bed bugs...no evidence found ---whew! There was a fuzzy pink thing laying on the foot of each bed...wanted to shoot them at first. Bed and pillows were comfortable. Air conditioning worked great. The room had nice big clean windows with a view of the pool & habitat area (maybe I can spot an empty chair from here). Flat screen TV worked. Bathroom was clean and had a blow dryer. One small desk and polka dot chair in the room. It was OK. But, the most important thing....the room was not far from the elevator and very close to the ice machine.
The other girls' rooms were far far away, down three long halls, and their rooms were exactly like mine.
THE FIRST NIGHT
Our original plans were to catch a cab and head to Fremont Street as soon as we got settled in our rooms. However, we were starving, so we decided to have dinner at Carlos and Charlies in the Flamingo.
We were lucky...ladies night is on Thursdays. Free frozen margaritas to all ladies between 9m-11p. 3 margaritas later we head to Fremont Street. Oh, dinner was ok. Not really impressed with the service or the food. Margaritas were good...just not very strong.
We hopped in 2 taxi's and off we went to Fremont street. We watched the show and casino hopped. I played slots and came out a winner. I liked Binions the best. We made our way to Mermaids where I purchased a lovely frozen banana concoction in a plastic football for a mere $16. Mmmmm tasted good.....very strong. Contained 151 proof rum. We continued casino hopping. I drank about half a football and gave the other half to one of the girls. Can't remember what casino we were in when I suddenly began sweating and my stomach begin making funny gurgling noises. Weird....I excused myself to the restroom and spewed projectile like banana stuff into the toilet (I remember thinking I'm so lucky this restroom is clean...remember we are downtown). After rinsing my face, and sticking a piece of gum in my mouth, it was back to my friends as if nothing happened. Lesson learned: tequila and 151 rum do not mix.
Good and worn out...and a little more sober (at least me), time to go back to the Flamingo.
My life is now complete. I have been to Vegas and puked in the bathroom of a casino. At age 58, a first for me.
Friday, Day Two, coming tomorrow.
A group of mostly middle age women, a 20 something Vegas Virgin and 2 gay men set off to let loose in Sin City. I am the oldest in the group and have been to Vegas more times than I can remember. Me and Vegas go way back .... to the Westward Ho and Slots of Fun days with free champagne and doughnuts, 99 cent quarter lb hot dogs ...times when I could take $50 to Vegas and stay the whole weekend and have all the fun I could stand.
FLIGHT
We all flew in on Southwest. Arrived in Las Vegas 15 minutes early WHOO HOOO!!! But wait a minute, the pilot said we had to wait a few minutes for a gate since we were early. A few minutes turned into over an hour. Not happy! Off to get our bags....our flight was nowhere to be found on carousal 2, 4 or 6. Finally walked over to the SW office and the lady said as soon as the flight was assigned a carousal she would announce the location and the sign would be posted. We waited about 30 minutes before our bags began their journey out.
AIRPORT TO HOTEL TRANSPORTATION
Since we had over 5 people, we split into 2 groups and headed for the taxi line. It moved really fast...took maybe 5 minutes. One of our ladies asked the cabbie "how much to the Flamingo?" and he said "do you have $20"? I intercepted and said it would be about $16. He laughed and I told him to go the cheapest way and we will take care of you. Got to the Flamingo and the fare was a little over $16. I handed him $21 and he was happy.
HOTEL
My favorite place to stay in Vegas is Paris, however, some of our girls were on a tight budget so Flamingo here we come. I, being a lowly, gold card (Total Rewards) holder, was comped Thursday and Sunday night. My rate for Friday/Saturday was $110. Ok...but I could of stayed at Paris
HOTEL CHECK IN
Long long long line on the left...I being the smart experienced traveler and infamous GOLD TR cardholder went to the extremely short line on the right posted for Total Reward Cardholders. Proceeded to the counter and was greeted by a young 20 something male. Smiling he offered me an upgrade for $30 a night. I pulled out my Credit Card, $20 bill, and my ID and laid them on the counter with the best grandmotherly smile I could muster and asked, "are there any.... and just as I was about to say "complimentary upgrades available" he interrupted me and said no we can't do that. I told him to just look and see what he could find. He made a phone call and I got the sorry we are full and nothing is available. Not wanting to push the issue I snatched my $20 back and so OK. What have you got? Room 15035 pool view. I informed him that my roommate would be checking in later and he told me that when she checked in, I would have to get a new key card made.....however that turned out not to be true...my key card worked just fine after her card was issued. Check in took me about 10 minutes.
THE ROOM
Basic bottom of the barrel typical Holiday Innish type room. No carpeting was weird. First thing I did was search for bed bugs...no evidence found ---whew! There was a fuzzy pink thing laying on the foot of each bed...wanted to shoot them at first. Bed and pillows were comfortable. Air conditioning worked great. The room had nice big clean windows with a view of the pool & habitat area (maybe I can spot an empty chair from here). Flat screen TV worked. Bathroom was clean and had a blow dryer. One small desk and polka dot chair in the room. It was OK. But, the most important thing....the room was not far from the elevator and very close to the ice machine.
The other girls' rooms were far far away, down three long halls, and their rooms were exactly like mine.
THE FIRST NIGHT
Our original plans were to catch a cab and head to Fremont Street as soon as we got settled in our rooms. However, we were starving, so we decided to have dinner at Carlos and Charlies in the Flamingo.
We were lucky...ladies night is on Thursdays. Free frozen margaritas to all ladies between 9m-11p. 3 margaritas later we head to Fremont Street. Oh, dinner was ok. Not really impressed with the service or the food. Margaritas were good...just not very strong.
We hopped in 2 taxi's and off we went to Fremont street. We watched the show and casino hopped. I played slots and came out a winner. I liked Binions the best. We made our way to Mermaids where I purchased a lovely frozen banana concoction in a plastic football for a mere $16. Mmmmm tasted good.....very strong. Contained 151 proof rum. We continued casino hopping. I drank about half a football and gave the other half to one of the girls. Can't remember what casino we were in when I suddenly began sweating and my stomach begin making funny gurgling noises. Weird....I excused myself to the restroom and spewed projectile like banana stuff into the toilet (I remember thinking I'm so lucky this restroom is clean...remember we are downtown). After rinsing my face, and sticking a piece of gum in my mouth, it was back to my friends as if nothing happened. Lesson learned: tequila and 151 rum do not mix.
Good and worn out...and a little more sober (at least me), time to go back to the Flamingo.
My life is now complete. I have been to Vegas and puked in the bathroom of a casino. At age 58, a first for me.
Friday, Day Two, coming tomorrow.
