We had scheduled to go to Atlantic City with my brother-in-law who ended up having home and work issues so he needed to back out at the last minute. He had comped nights at the Borgata.
A quick plan of action was put into place. We found a decent deal on bookit.com on Tuesday morning, we're now set to leave for Vegas on Wednesday morning.
Flying United out of Dayton was a disaster. Flight left over an hour late which caused us to miss our connection in Chicago - instead of arriving in Vegas at 2:20 PM, it was now going to be shortly after 7:00 PM. Worked with customer service and ended up getting 2 $100 vouchers for the inconvenience and they switched our flight home from Saturday to Sunday for no charge.
Reservations for a Red Room at Paris were extended to a Sunday departure - for a tidy sum of $340+ (ouch).
Called Payless car rental and was told we'd just have to pay the rate we had plus a $11 extending fee. No problem. Wrong! From what would have been an $88 total was now over $130....for one extra day??? Are you kidding me??? Behind the counter was an obnoxious rude punk. We'd been traveling for over 14 hours and was in no mood for this. We questioned where was the logic in this to which his only answer was "I didn't win the lottery. Where's the logic in that?" Give us the car, we just want to move on. As my wife now says Payless....Payless now, pay more later. Never again...shame, we've gotten good deals from them in the past but this will not be forgotten - would rather pay a little extra to be treated fairly.
Red Room at Paris was very nice. 30th floor and never more than 30 sec wait for elevator. No strip view, but there certainly is something to be said for watching the sun rise over the mountains each morning.
Gambling was awful. Couldn't get on a roll anywhere - even Craps and Blackjack wouldn't go our way. That's Vegas though - sometimes you're the bug, sometimes you're the windshield. We just gambled on the strip this trip hitting MGM (miss the Lions but nice to see Sigma Derby still there), Monte Carlo (what's with the construction out front???), Aria, Cosmo (union picket lines - I get yelled at, you're walking through a picket line! My response, "I DON'T GIVE A DAMN!!!"), Caesars, Mirage, Strat, Harrah's, Flamingo, Bally's, Planet Hollywood and of course Paris.
Saw Legends in Concert (been over 10 years since last seen). Got pulled on stage by Madonna for Like A Virgin. Lot's of fun and still a good show.
Cirque show Zarkana at Aria was excellent. Visually stunning. Excellent acts. Smiled nearly the whole time through the show.
No fancy dinner this time. Nor did we hit Ellis Island which had been somewhat of a tradition. Did Peppermill for breakfast - had been wanting to try this place for several years. Truly did not disappoint - great atmosphere, very good food, huge portions. Would definately go back. Mon Ami Gabi for lunch on the patio was another I've been wanting to do for a while. Great steak with peppercorn - brandy sauce and nice glass of Malbec. Wife had the prime rib sandwich that was very tasty as well. Pricey for lunch but well worth it. Went to Cheesecake factory for early dinner one day - have been here many times. Tried their pizza and it was great...who knew?!?!? Roxy's diner at the Strat was decent - been there many times but now it seeems the servers don't sing and dance (doubt if we go back). Paris Buffet for breakfast was very good as always.
Went to Counts Kustoms (from Counting Cars on History Channel) and saw the car collection - very cool (my dream is to have them restore a '65 Mustand GT for me), Rick's Restorations (American Restoration) and saw nearly everyone from the show - Rick, Kelly (what a body on that lady!), Tyler, Cowboy and Kyle. Nice little tour showing the areas where each stage of restoration takes place. Hit the Pinball Hall of Fame - hoping to play High Roller Casino (considering it for my basement), which I find is no longer there. Played a few games on Creature From The Black Lagoon (another basement candidate) along with several other machines. Saw and played some machines I haven't seen in a long, long time. Visited Ethel M chocolate factory (do this nearly each visit), watched them make chocolate for a short then bought a big box of a hand-picked assortment...awesome!
The strip just didn't seem as busy as it has in the past, even on Saturday night while there were a lot of people it seemed less than previous years. Maybe we're just becoming oblivious to them, but there seemed to be less porn slappers as well....who knows. The construction at the end of the skywalk and around the old Bill's/Barbary Coast is not pleasant to go through, but at least the homeless people have somewhere to sleep in the shade - one of the more funny signs "Will smoke your weed for a beer" (my wife looks at me like WTF?!?!? I tell her that it sounds like a win-win for that guy).
While it's never fun to consistently lose when gambling - especially in Vegas, we still had a great time focusing on the other things the city has to offer. We both got the feeling that we may be tiring a bit of the Las Vegas scene (after 15+ trips, we've lost count) and it may be time to really start exploring other parts of the country and world - then again, who knows how we'll feel this time next year...I've got a feeling we'll be back sooner than either of us think. Maybe not in one or two years, but probably won't be too awfully long.
Best of luck to all.
A quick plan of action was put into place. We found a decent deal on bookit.com on Tuesday morning, we're now set to leave for Vegas on Wednesday morning.
Flying United out of Dayton was a disaster. Flight left over an hour late which caused us to miss our connection in Chicago - instead of arriving in Vegas at 2:20 PM, it was now going to be shortly after 7:00 PM. Worked with customer service and ended up getting 2 $100 vouchers for the inconvenience and they switched our flight home from Saturday to Sunday for no charge.
Reservations for a Red Room at Paris were extended to a Sunday departure - for a tidy sum of $340+ (ouch).
Called Payless car rental and was told we'd just have to pay the rate we had plus a $11 extending fee. No problem. Wrong! From what would have been an $88 total was now over $130....for one extra day??? Are you kidding me??? Behind the counter was an obnoxious rude punk. We'd been traveling for over 14 hours and was in no mood for this. We questioned where was the logic in this to which his only answer was "I didn't win the lottery. Where's the logic in that?" Give us the car, we just want to move on. As my wife now says Payless....Payless now, pay more later. Never again...shame, we've gotten good deals from them in the past but this will not be forgotten - would rather pay a little extra to be treated fairly.
Red Room at Paris was very nice. 30th floor and never more than 30 sec wait for elevator. No strip view, but there certainly is something to be said for watching the sun rise over the mountains each morning.
Gambling was awful. Couldn't get on a roll anywhere - even Craps and Blackjack wouldn't go our way. That's Vegas though - sometimes you're the bug, sometimes you're the windshield. We just gambled on the strip this trip hitting MGM (miss the Lions but nice to see Sigma Derby still there), Monte Carlo (what's with the construction out front???), Aria, Cosmo (union picket lines - I get yelled at, you're walking through a picket line! My response, "I DON'T GIVE A DAMN!!!"), Caesars, Mirage, Strat, Harrah's, Flamingo, Bally's, Planet Hollywood and of course Paris.
Saw Legends in Concert (been over 10 years since last seen). Got pulled on stage by Madonna for Like A Virgin. Lot's of fun and still a good show.
Cirque show Zarkana at Aria was excellent. Visually stunning. Excellent acts. Smiled nearly the whole time through the show.
No fancy dinner this time. Nor did we hit Ellis Island which had been somewhat of a tradition. Did Peppermill for breakfast - had been wanting to try this place for several years. Truly did not disappoint - great atmosphere, very good food, huge portions. Would definately go back. Mon Ami Gabi for lunch on the patio was another I've been wanting to do for a while. Great steak with peppercorn - brandy sauce and nice glass of Malbec. Wife had the prime rib sandwich that was very tasty as well. Pricey for lunch but well worth it. Went to Cheesecake factory for early dinner one day - have been here many times. Tried their pizza and it was great...who knew?!?!? Roxy's diner at the Strat was decent - been there many times but now it seeems the servers don't sing and dance (doubt if we go back). Paris Buffet for breakfast was very good as always.
Went to Counts Kustoms (from Counting Cars on History Channel) and saw the car collection - very cool (my dream is to have them restore a '65 Mustand GT for me), Rick's Restorations (American Restoration) and saw nearly everyone from the show - Rick, Kelly (what a body on that lady!), Tyler, Cowboy and Kyle. Nice little tour showing the areas where each stage of restoration takes place. Hit the Pinball Hall of Fame - hoping to play High Roller Casino (considering it for my basement), which I find is no longer there. Played a few games on Creature From The Black Lagoon (another basement candidate) along with several other machines. Saw and played some machines I haven't seen in a long, long time. Visited Ethel M chocolate factory (do this nearly each visit), watched them make chocolate for a short then bought a big box of a hand-picked assortment...awesome!
The strip just didn't seem as busy as it has in the past, even on Saturday night while there were a lot of people it seemed less than previous years. Maybe we're just becoming oblivious to them, but there seemed to be less porn slappers as well....who knows. The construction at the end of the skywalk and around the old Bill's/Barbary Coast is not pleasant to go through, but at least the homeless people have somewhere to sleep in the shade - one of the more funny signs "Will smoke your weed for a beer" (my wife looks at me like WTF?!?!? I tell her that it sounds like a win-win for that guy).
While it's never fun to consistently lose when gambling - especially in Vegas, we still had a great time focusing on the other things the city has to offer. We both got the feeling that we may be tiring a bit of the Las Vegas scene (after 15+ trips, we've lost count) and it may be time to really start exploring other parts of the country and world - then again, who knows how we'll feel this time next year...I've got a feeling we'll be back sooner than either of us think. Maybe not in one or two years, but probably won't be too awfully long.
Best of luck to all.
