Just returned from a two night/three day stay. Stayed in a suite in the grand tower at MGM. I'd say the room was at least 700 square feet. It was a nice room but not very clean. There was a bunch of someone else's hair in the tub the first night. Gross. We rented a car from Hertz and got the standard pressure to upgrade and get the extra insurance. I didn't do either. We arrived at about 10 am so by the time we got our car it was lunch time. We had burgers at I Love This Bar. They were pretty good and so was the service. We did a little gambling at Bally's, Flamingo, and Mirage and then decided to go for a drive since we weren't winning at all. We drove out to Ethel M's factory and looked at the cactus garden and walked through the self guided factory tour. That killed about 30 minutes and then it was time to make our way to MGM for check in.
After checking in we played in the casino for a bit and still had no luck so decided to check out NY NY. It's been about 10 years since my husband has been to Vegas so it was like everything was brand new to him. So much has changed. We had no luck at NY NY so decided to walk the strip for a bit. We made it up to Bellagio to watch a fountain show and got the song from The Pink Panther. I was a little disappointed because I am on spring break from work and I have to listen to the band practice that very song every morning while I'm working. We decided to wait for another show but that one sucked too. It was some kind of opera music.
After that we were getting a little hungry so we tried to go to Serendipity but there was a 30 minute wait. If the place was full, I'd have no problem waiting but the place was half empty. It seems like every time I go there it's half empty but they still make you wait. I don't understand why they don't just sit you at a table and give you a glass of water and have you wait there. So, we decided to cross the street and make our way back to our hotel where we ate at the sports bar. That food was really good but the service was very slow and again a wait for a table when there were a bunch empty. But, by then I was so hungry I didn't care. After that, we called it a night. We went back to the room and I decided to wash my feet off since I had just walked the strip in flip flops. That's when I found the hair all over the edges of the tub. Our house keeper had to be blind to miss it all. It was nasty.
The next morning we had housekeeping come into the room at 8am. Why do they do that? Are they not aware that it's Vegas and people stay up late? We ended up driving out to a restaurant called The Black Bear Diner on Tropicana out past The Orleans. The food was really good and so was the service. Then we went to gamble at The Orleans and Circus Circus (we wanted to play the $1 coin in machines). Again, no luck so we decided to head to Fremont Street. We started off at The D because we also wanted to play their vintage coin in machines. I put $1 in a nickel machine and ended up playing on that for about an hour. We wandered around Fremont for a while and had a bit of luck playing slots. My husband won a jackpot for 48 bucks and I won one for $50 but we put it right back into the machines. I had been craving Starbucks all day but it was getting to be too late to have caffeine when I stumbled upon the Starbucks at The Golden Nugget right before my 4:00 caffeine cut off time. We sat on the patio and drank our refreshers. It was really nice. Sunny but only about 70 degrees. Perfect weather in my opinion. But, then a big obnoxious family showed up and kind of killed the mood. It was annoying because we were clearly in the fenced off Starbucks area and nobody in their group had Starbucks. As we were leaving Fremont street we noticed that someone hit our rental car and left a big, deep scratch about 3 feet long. At that point we were thinking we should have bought the insurance.
We decided to make our way back to the strip and ended up having Margaritas and a few appetizers at Hecho en Vegas at MGM. I'd been there before and really enjoyed the table side guacamole. It was still good this time as were the nachos. We also ordered a trio of mini chimichangas but they weren't that good. After that, we hit Tropicana and Excalibur for more gambling. Still no luck so we quit and went to bed.
Again, the housekeeper decided to barge in at 8am but we sent her on her way. We only had the room until 11 so I decided she could wait until then. After we checked out, the first thing on the agenda was to get that scratch on the car camouflaged enough to return the car and not get caught. We went to O'Reilly's on Tropicana and $3 for a bottle of Goof Off later we were good to go. What we thought was a scratch was just a few different layers of paint and plastic transfer.
We decided to head over to NY NY to get our son a one pound Reese's and to get some lunch. We ate at America. I had been there before so I knew the food was just OK and the service isn't great but there's never a wait and I didn't feel like waiting. My husband had the Roast beef sandwich which was just OK and I had the mac and cheese which was actually pretty good. There was a ton of it so my husband ate a lot of it too and there were still leftovers. We decided to walk up the strip on that side because I had never been to Monte Carlo. We only lasted a few minutes in there. The slots were really tight so we left and kept walking the strip through that fancy new mall. I kind of wonder how they are going to stay in business. There's never anyone in there and each store appears to only have a few things to sell. I guess they must be so expensive that one sale will make them reach their goal for the day.
We then headed over to Planet Hollywood , Paris, and Bally's to check out their casinos. Again, no luck. We decided to drown our sorrows in ice cream and went downstairs in Bally's to get some Haggen Das but it's not there anymore. I wish I had known that before I had walked the gauntlet of pushy salespeople pushing the latest fragrances or hair oil. We knew there was a Haggen Das at NY NY so we started to make our way back that direction. After our sundaes it was time to gas up the rental car and head to the airport. The car guy looked the car over and didn't see a thing. We really dodged a bullet there. While going through security I decided to opt out of the naked scanner and get the pat down instead. They were annoyed but I'd do it again for sure. Our flight home to Seattle was pretty turbulent but we were on a 737-900 series and it was a pretty cool plane. It had quite a bit of leg room and was pretty comfortable despite is plasticy rental car appearance.
This was our first time leaving the kids home without supervision and they seemed to do all right. We made our daughter drive us to and pick us up from the airport. She was thrilled about the 5am drop off time on Tuesday. I could find no evidence of any foul play when we got home. They're pretty good kids.
It was nice to get away from the kids for a few days but I was pretty disappointed in the trip. The gambling was terrible. I have never had such horrible luck. I'd put a twenty in the machine and it would be gone without ever hitting anything at all. Not even little wins like 25 credits. It really sucked. The other part of the trip that I forgot to mention earlier is kids. It was spring break and there were so many kids. It was awful. You could tell they were miserable. I can't for the life of me understand why those people didn't go to Disneyland instead. There were kids everywhere. Don't get me wrong, for the past few years I have brought my daughter to Vegas but it was for dance competition. Usually when we go there are several dance competitions going at the same time and they draw thousands of kids from all over the country and I've never seen as many kids as I did on this trip. I think it's OK to bring older kids but leave the toddlers at home.
Well, that's it. I guess it's not as abbreviated as I had planned.
Just found out that my daughter has been invited to compete at a big competition at the Mirage in July. Looks like I have another trip in my near future. This one will be for 9 days. Not sure I'm going to make it through a trip that long. Wish me luck.
After checking in we played in the casino for a bit and still had no luck so decided to check out NY NY. It's been about 10 years since my husband has been to Vegas so it was like everything was brand new to him. So much has changed. We had no luck at NY NY so decided to walk the strip for a bit. We made it up to Bellagio to watch a fountain show and got the song from The Pink Panther. I was a little disappointed because I am on spring break from work and I have to listen to the band practice that very song every morning while I'm working. We decided to wait for another show but that one sucked too. It was some kind of opera music.
After that we were getting a little hungry so we tried to go to Serendipity but there was a 30 minute wait. If the place was full, I'd have no problem waiting but the place was half empty. It seems like every time I go there it's half empty but they still make you wait. I don't understand why they don't just sit you at a table and give you a glass of water and have you wait there. So, we decided to cross the street and make our way back to our hotel where we ate at the sports bar. That food was really good but the service was very slow and again a wait for a table when there were a bunch empty. But, by then I was so hungry I didn't care. After that, we called it a night. We went back to the room and I decided to wash my feet off since I had just walked the strip in flip flops. That's when I found the hair all over the edges of the tub. Our house keeper had to be blind to miss it all. It was nasty.
The next morning we had housekeeping come into the room at 8am. Why do they do that? Are they not aware that it's Vegas and people stay up late? We ended up driving out to a restaurant called The Black Bear Diner on Tropicana out past The Orleans. The food was really good and so was the service. Then we went to gamble at The Orleans and Circus Circus (we wanted to play the $1 coin in machines). Again, no luck so we decided to head to Fremont Street. We started off at The D because we also wanted to play their vintage coin in machines. I put $1 in a nickel machine and ended up playing on that for about an hour. We wandered around Fremont for a while and had a bit of luck playing slots. My husband won a jackpot for 48 bucks and I won one for $50 but we put it right back into the machines. I had been craving Starbucks all day but it was getting to be too late to have caffeine when I stumbled upon the Starbucks at The Golden Nugget right before my 4:00 caffeine cut off time. We sat on the patio and drank our refreshers. It was really nice. Sunny but only about 70 degrees. Perfect weather in my opinion. But, then a big obnoxious family showed up and kind of killed the mood. It was annoying because we were clearly in the fenced off Starbucks area and nobody in their group had Starbucks. As we were leaving Fremont street we noticed that someone hit our rental car and left a big, deep scratch about 3 feet long. At that point we were thinking we should have bought the insurance.
We decided to make our way back to the strip and ended up having Margaritas and a few appetizers at Hecho en Vegas at MGM. I'd been there before and really enjoyed the table side guacamole. It was still good this time as were the nachos. We also ordered a trio of mini chimichangas but they weren't that good. After that, we hit Tropicana and Excalibur for more gambling. Still no luck so we quit and went to bed.
Again, the housekeeper decided to barge in at 8am but we sent her on her way. We only had the room until 11 so I decided she could wait until then. After we checked out, the first thing on the agenda was to get that scratch on the car camouflaged enough to return the car and not get caught. We went to O'Reilly's on Tropicana and $3 for a bottle of Goof Off later we were good to go. What we thought was a scratch was just a few different layers of paint and plastic transfer.
We decided to head over to NY NY to get our son a one pound Reese's and to get some lunch. We ate at America. I had been there before so I knew the food was just OK and the service isn't great but there's never a wait and I didn't feel like waiting. My husband had the Roast beef sandwich which was just OK and I had the mac and cheese which was actually pretty good. There was a ton of it so my husband ate a lot of it too and there were still leftovers. We decided to walk up the strip on that side because I had never been to Monte Carlo. We only lasted a few minutes in there. The slots were really tight so we left and kept walking the strip through that fancy new mall. I kind of wonder how they are going to stay in business. There's never anyone in there and each store appears to only have a few things to sell. I guess they must be so expensive that one sale will make them reach their goal for the day.
We then headed over to Planet Hollywood , Paris, and Bally's to check out their casinos. Again, no luck. We decided to drown our sorrows in ice cream and went downstairs in Bally's to get some Haggen Das but it's not there anymore. I wish I had known that before I had walked the gauntlet of pushy salespeople pushing the latest fragrances or hair oil. We knew there was a Haggen Das at NY NY so we started to make our way back that direction. After our sundaes it was time to gas up the rental car and head to the airport. The car guy looked the car over and didn't see a thing. We really dodged a bullet there. While going through security I decided to opt out of the naked scanner and get the pat down instead. They were annoyed but I'd do it again for sure. Our flight home to Seattle was pretty turbulent but we were on a 737-900 series and it was a pretty cool plane. It had quite a bit of leg room and was pretty comfortable despite is plasticy rental car appearance.
This was our first time leaving the kids home without supervision and they seemed to do all right. We made our daughter drive us to and pick us up from the airport. She was thrilled about the 5am drop off time on Tuesday. I could find no evidence of any foul play when we got home. They're pretty good kids.
It was nice to get away from the kids for a few days but I was pretty disappointed in the trip. The gambling was terrible. I have never had such horrible luck. I'd put a twenty in the machine and it would be gone without ever hitting anything at all. Not even little wins like 25 credits. It really sucked. The other part of the trip that I forgot to mention earlier is kids. It was spring break and there were so many kids. It was awful. You could tell they were miserable. I can't for the life of me understand why those people didn't go to Disneyland instead. There were kids everywhere. Don't get me wrong, for the past few years I have brought my daughter to Vegas but it was for dance competition. Usually when we go there are several dance competitions going at the same time and they draw thousands of kids from all over the country and I've never seen as many kids as I did on this trip. I think it's OK to bring older kids but leave the toddlers at home.
Well, that's it. I guess it's not as abbreviated as I had planned.
Just found out that my daughter has been invited to compete at a big competition at the Mirage in July. Looks like I have another trip in my near future. This one will be for 9 days. Not sure I'm going to make it through a trip that long. Wish me luck.
