Spring 2017 Trip

This Trip Report will mostly be by memoir as I never take notes and just decided 4 months later to write one!

A little background:  I visit Vegas at least once a year and have been doing so since 2001 and my traveling partner is usually my younger sister so has also been going since 2001. This year after 3 years of also having a third this year it was just use and having traveled so much with each other to Vegas in the past, no explanations is needed in our plans or what we are doing and when, unlike taking newbie’s or others who don’t go as much.

My hotel for the trip would be the Orleans. I have stayed there many times and usually have two nights comped, I did as well for this trip but the offer ended on the day I was checking in and the website wouldn’t allow me to book those comped nights because it was the last day of the offer for some reason. I called they said they couldn’t do anything since their system wouldn’t take it as well, so I had to email customer service. I sent an email and it wasn’t replied to until 6 hours later, telling me……………

I had to call!! WTH so I replied to that email saying I did and got a reply right away from a customer service supervisor explaining to call in and tell them to book me under the offer and to use her name as an authorization. So I called back and they started to give me the same answer until they I explained to the lady on the phone what the supervisor said, she asked me the supervisor’s name. The customer service person on the phone said, “Oh ok she is a supervisor” and preceded to book my offer. The supervisor had her name and business address on the email she sent, so I sent her a nice hand written thank you note with a $5 Starbucks card, as she had saved me a hundred dollars.  Moral of the story never give up on a comp offer!   After I got back the supervisor emailed me making sure I didn’t have any troubles with my stay and thanked me for the Starbucks card, saying she really needed a good coffee the day she received it. I’m glad it made her day and all she did was type a few extra words to help me!

ONTO THE TRIP

We always fly out of Midway on Southwest and it usually is without issue, but we took a trip out in December that had cancel flights, plane deicing, weather delays and a wait for a pilot to arrive with enough hours to get us back home. But that’s a WHOLE other trip report, which I do not want to write as it was not a fun Vegas trip!!

So up early (4AM) to make it to Midway, the flight was on time and we had Southwest first class seating as no one took the middle seat between us, first win.  Landing about 10 minutes early to a beautiful sunny Sunday morning in Las Vegas. The funny thing about arriving early on a Sunday morning in Vegas is you see all the people who Vegased to hard over the weekend and just need to get home!

Bags were waiting as we got to the claim area as per usually there, unlike Midway ugh, and off to the rental car facility. We used Dollar and skipped or actually walked to the kiosk in the garage as I have their loyalty card. Why do people not know about this FREE benefit with all the car rental companies?!?

Was giving my paperwork was told to pick out a car from the numbered line, we chose a 2017 Toyota Camry, at first I has going to get a Nissan but saw the Camry and since I have a Toyota at home I new how to work everything . Checked out and onto brunch in less than 30 minutes after landing.

Brunch was at Boarder Grill at Mandalay Bay, if you have not been I recommend it highly! We discovered it last year and this was our second time, it did not disappoint. It is not a buffet, but they bring you a stream of small plate Mexican inspired things and oh yeah you can also get bottom less mimosas for an addition price(about $12) and it is not just OJ there are several different mixes to try. Our server this year was Gasby, although it was a lady I asked her if her parents were big fans of F. Scott Fitzgerald and she said yes. We sat there for 3 hours eating and drinking, oh yea the seating is outside by the Mandalay Bay pool under trees so very relaxing for Midwesterners who usually have to endure cool weather in late April!

Now thanks to the MLife credit card I have pearl status and do not have to pay for parking at MGM properties, but for the second time in a year the machines did not want to recognize my card upon leaving. Minor glitch but a push of the “help” button fixed it and we were on our way to check in.

Check in was a breeze at the Orleans and asked for was given a high up South facing room.

We always have a Spring meet up with our “Vegas Friends” and that was the purpose of this trip, the first meet up was at the Beer Park at Paris. I have never been to the Beer Park before and was a little hesitant because of the added “entertainment fee” or whatever they call the surcharge!  But I must say the service and the view of the fountains was great. We all stayed there for several hours and we never felted hurried by the staff to leave so they could turn the table and if you read the menu you can get a better deal by ordering flights of beer instead of just a single beer. 

We were planning on going to secret pizza for dinner but after the brunch feast and several beers we decided to call it a night and return to the Orleans.

There is something really exciting about that first morning when you wake up in Vegas! If you don’t watch the morning show on Fox5 you are missing out, it is light hearted and silly the perfect way to get your news and weather on vacation.

Breakfast today was back at Mandalay Bay, but at the buffet and it was free thanks to MyVegas. The buffet is ok and has varied throughout the years, but we ask for a table by the windows to take in the pool and beautiful views. The rest of the day was taken up by walking around touring what is new in the Mandalay/Luxor area after breakfast and some video poker at the Orleans. The front bar at the Orleans has a progressive at both the quarter and the dollar level and the quarter level was up over $2000! I was just walking up to the bar to take a run at that when just before I reached the bar someone hit, oh well.

Dinner was at Gimaldi’s and although it smells really good as you pass by the restaurant, the pizza is just ok. Afterwards we met up with our friends’ downtown, I’ll say I can only take downtown for a few hours and then I want to leave. It’s just not fun to be in a sea of humanity with the canopy it makes me feel very claustrophobic and I am not that way at all just something about it. We hung out at Banger Brewing.

and at the D to play the Sigma Derby which were both fun. Side funny story, one of my friends had been battling cancer the last year or so and was finally given a clean bill of health before his trip. Last year’s trip he did not drink because of the cancer treatment, but this year hit it hard and we were all standing outside the D talking when he disappeared all of a sudden, he reappeared a few minutes later and we asked him where he went he said just to the bar to do shots.  Got to love drunks in Vegas using all the opportunities to further their cause!

Gave a lift to a pair of our friends who were staying at Harrahs and were in no state to drive. The best part of the drive back was the discussion on the number of toilets on the strip and how much poop was moved in any given day by the sewers.  Ah talking to drunks in Vegas is always fun!!

Next morning we would have the Orleans buffet for breakfast and one of our Vegas friends joined up since she just happened to be there for the slot tournament and was by herself anyway. The buffet was alright, but the service was lacking. I judge the service in a buffet on how empty my drink glass gets/asked if I would like a refill. Let’s just say I was lucky to get a refill on 1 ice tea that morning.

We decided to take a drive over to South Point, since neither one of us had been there before and I have heard good things about the place. Pulling up and parking I guess I never realized how big the building is, as the porte cochere is huge! Signed up for the slot club and was informed about the raffle today, it was earn 300 points and you get to spin the prize wheel. Sat down at a full pay video poker machine and it treated me well, earned the 300 points and cashed out up $60. We took a stroll around the casino and discover that they have a whole bar dedicated to Crown Royal. My sister commented that the crown & coke she ordered from the cocktail server was actually crown, unlike some other casinos, so that is why it was the real thing.  Before we left I spun the wheel and earned a free lunch buffet, well since we had just had a breakfast buffet it was not something I was going to use that day.

My thoughts about South Point are that it is somewhere I will come back to as they have a ton of full pay video poker and they have a lot of promotions. The strange thing is that they do not market via email, as they never asked for one and the players club website does not have a place to put one in either. They do however place their promotions on their Facebook page and have someone updating daily with some clever stuff.

Leaving we headed to the Bellagio as I have an appointment for a Royal Shave at the spa. This is something that I make a point of doing on every trip. For those of you gentlemen who haven’t experienced a Royal Shave, I suggest you pony up the $65 plus tip and get at least one in your lifetime. It is a combo straight razor shave and facial with hot and cold towels. The reason I go to the Bellagio spa is that the barber, his name is Johnny and is a Vegas native and a great barber. He also has a lot of insights into all things Vegas especially things pertaining to MGM corp since that is his employer. We discussed the paid parking/valet thing and how it really upset the big players who drive in, when it all started, he also does a fair number of private barbering for celebrities and pro sports players. He never gives me a lot of details but does let me know whether they are jerks or not. HEHE

After my shave we toured the conservatory and it smelled great as always, but  the Spring display had the big samurai and the back of it did not really have anything to look at which I found unusual for one of their displays.

This evenings dinner would be at China Poblano at the Cosmo. It was an interesting combo of Mexican and Chinese food but the high point had to be the Salt Air Margaritas.

All in all it was reasonably priced meal from a celebrity chief in Las Vegas, which is kind of a surprise.

The rest of the evening was just some gambling and then bed.

Up around 6ish this morning, still it’s sleeping in for Midwestern time! Do the usual watch Fox5 until I call my sister at 7 to arrange meeting time to drive to breakfast. Today we will be going to the Green Valley Ranch casino buffet. I love GVR and mainly because of all the wonderful employees that they have there. It was Wednesday so that is the 50+ bonus day and there is always a points multiplier on VP & slots, but if you live out of town you have to go ask the slot club to activate them for you. Their slot club has many sweet older ladies during the day to help you out  and they always ask if I want the free Starbucks coupon as well that they give away that day. I always say no as I can get all the drinks I want at the buffet. The buffet was up to its very good standards with great service and as an added bonus for me that they have packets of Stevia on the table with all the other sugar alternatives. It’s the little things that make me happy about this place that is one of them.

After we eat we played a little in the casino, I think I doubled my $20 on a full pay VP machine.  Today we were going to check out Henderson a little bit. Since we both love Las Vegas so much and the weather, with the exception of the Summer, is the stuff of dreams for a Midwesterner!  To explain, we would both move right away, but our Mom is still with us and we won’t leave here and she won’t move there although she loves it there as well (dam grandkids!!) So before our trip doing some internet research I came across the Del Webb community in Henderson called Anthem and found some youtube videos that made it look really nice, so we had to check it out. We plugged into the gps the address for Anthem’s community center and off we went. Let me tell you that I will live there when I move out there, the place is on the foot hills in the South Eastern valley and you can look out over the valley to the North. As we drove back to the Orleans we noticed that there is everything; stores, dinning, banking right with in short driving distance from that community.

Back at the Orleans it is 50+ day as well so I play some VP to get my entries to the cash give away and exploit the points multiplier. Needless to say I didn’t win any of the free cash but I did replenish my account with points for another free breakfast for a future trip.

Drove back to the strip to explore Coke/M&M World and since I had a 2 for 1 boozy shake at the Blvd creamery from MyVegas we decided to grab those and people watch. The shakes were ok but………..

the after effects were not!!  It hit my sister almost right away afterwards, me it took more time.

She was ok after a little while, so were proceeded to over to the Bellagio for another MyVegas  2 for 1 at the buffet. Besides the free parking, the line pass is the other benefit of having a Pearl card so we skipped the line and went in, this is when my AFTER EFFECTS kicked in! I just had one serving of some food and I had to make a bee line to a wash room, I came back and tried to eat again but another trip to the washroom was needed. I didn’t get to enjoy the buffet, but since they were remodeling, it was limited selections anyway. That dam shake ruined my system for the rest of the night!

We meet up with friends afterwards at the cigar bar inside the of the forum shops, everyone else had drinks I had water because of the reasons in the previous paragraph. It was great spending time with friends and my night ended after that, but they went for sushi, yea my system was not ready for raw fish tonight, NIGHTY NIGHT. 

Same morning routine as previous days but a little sad as it is the last whole day in Vegas. We were off to Sunset Station for breakfast. Their buffet is similar to the one at GVR and the service is good as well. We played a bit in the casino afterwards but no wins. The casino was a little quite today compared to our visit in December, but in all fairness it was busy that day because they were giving away bottles of booze for 300 slot points and you got to keep the points!

I should mention that today would be groupon day, as we had two to use today.  The first was for the Wayne Newton museum at Casa de Shenandoah. I was a little skeptical as its Wayne Newton! I was really surprised, the museum is on his former home (he lives somewhere else in the valley) they transport you via bus to it from the other side of Sunset Road where the reception center is located. We were the only ones for the tour at this time, so we had our own personal tour guide through the place and it is filled with Wayne’s stuff, including his private air plane, several cars (Rolls Royce) and a ton of clothes, pictures,etc.  The tour guide had a lot of stories about Wayne and the property, including that Wayne had to build a higher fence to keep his neighbor Mike Tyson out of this horse pasture. According to the guide Mike would get drunk and climb the fence and chase the horses and also Wayne was afraid that Mike’s tiger would attack the horses if it got into the pasture. So Mike Tyson did actually have a tiger at one point and it is not something the writers of the movie the Hangover made up!

Back at the Orleans for some afternoon drinking and gambling. Today the Orleans is giving away Emeril Lagasse cutting boards for earning 300 points, so of course I had to get one of those for the kitchen. Which I did, since 300 points on $0.25 VP is only about two comped drinks worth of play for me!

Dinner tonight was at Pampas Brazilian grille to use the second of those Groupons. This deal was 2 complete meals including drinks and desert for $99 but my sister bought it on a 40% off day on Groupon, so you do the math and it was cheap for 2 to eat in Vegas. For those of you who don’t know what kind of restaurant this is, it is a Brazilian grill place where they just keep bring long swords of grilled meat until you tell them to stop. I think this deal is on going on Groupon and I would highly recommend it!

Afterwards we walked off our stuffed bellies and watched several fountain shows until we got tired and when back to the Orleans.

Last morning in Vegas before our afternoon flight home. Breakfast was at the Palms buffet, it was disappointing with limited selections and we learned afterwards that they are remodeling it so not we understand why it not so good.

Went to the room pack up and check out. To kill some time, my sister place a multiply penny VP machine and she was rewarded with her first ever Royal Flush. She was so happy to finally get one, she really wasn’t upset that in was only on a penny machine!

Last meal in Vegas for us is always at the In-n-Out on Trop and Dean Martin. Delicious as always and I discovered that they have a little tray of peppers by the ketchup dispenser. How long has this been there, I’ve been going there for years and I’ve never noticed?!?

Gassed up and returned the car and off to airport for the hell that is TSA! Took a little longer than normal because of shift change, but I did see a guy taken to the back room for further inspection because he was being stupid!

Flight took off and landed on time and back to the sadness of not being in Vegas anymore.

Hope you enjoyed my recap of the trip.