[Grant]

Very nice laid out trip report from ferf1223 at the LVTalk board.

As I’m pretty sure that an actual trip report from us would be a bit boring (arrive, slots, eat, slots, sleep, eat, shop, slots, eat, slots, sleep, rollercoaster, eat…etc.)…I’m going to avoid actually doing a trip report this time…and I have broken down my comments into sections as others have done as many seem to like to pick out the bits that interest them and ignore the rest…so pick out (and ignore) away…and be warned, it may not be a trip report as such, but it will likely be as long as…well…a really long one.

Please note, however, that we do enjoy the things we do/eat/see, etc. or we wouldn’t do/eat/see them…some may not enjoy the same things as us and that’s absolutely dandy as we’re not paying for your holiday and you’re not paying for ours…so please keep any snarky comments to a minimum.

Who went:

My husband, Jamie, and I, both 35. Our 5th trip in as many years. We are almost exclusively video slot players.

When we went:

Flew out on Sunday, 20th November and back on Monday, 28th November…8 whole nights in Vegas.

How we got there:

Virgin direct from London Gatwick. Night before at Gatwick Hilton. Love twilight check-in and getting rid of the bags the night before…avoiding the check-in hassle the morning of the flight…very relaxing and almost civilized. Flight was uneventful…did watch The Island which wasn’t nearly so awful as it was made out to be…we actually enjoyed it. Had our favoured pair of seats toward the rear of the plan so no random neighbour to worry about. Slept a bit, so the 10-11 hour flight didn’t seem so bad.

What we drove:

Chrysler Sebring…Dollar, $170 or so for the week including all taxes and fees (insurance waivers declined thanks to coverage on my US credit card) for an intermediate– no code (holiday week)…pick up and drop off was quick due to Dollar Express/Fastlane membership… did the job for us…nice enough car, really.

Where we stayed:

Ballys was our primary home. Sadly, we weren’t able to secure a room in the old, dingy but with a great view tower (sorry, I keep getting them mixed up) – would have been a 2 hour wait and after all that time on a plane, no way could I do it…so we got a room in the refurbished with a view of the roof tower…room was quite nice…definite difference in the condition of the rooms between the two towers, but we would rather have had the view, to be honest. We had booked two separate nights at other hotels to try them out – we did not check out of Ballys for those nights, though…can’t imagine now how it must be to actually fully move mid-trip…even two overnight bag trips were probably more than we would do again.

But I do think that we missed Excalibur. I know a lot of folks trash the place, but we have had only good experiences there…and we think that part of the reason we felt a bit off this trip was because we were away from home base. I think that next trip we will return to Excalibur (possibly Luxor) and see if that feels better.

Bellagio was a surprise for Jamie…he thought we were going to check out Orleans for a night…he was most surprised, to say the least. I had booked a full lakeview room and was prepared to be told none were available (as the view was really the whole point for us)…no such problems…had a lovely room with an amazing view of the fountains and the strip. The room was lovely, if not a bit small. The bathroom was gorgeous with the soaking tub and separate shower built for twenty seven. Watching the fountain show from the room was amazing and really something everyone should try at least once…we may try to book one night here each trip…just because it was so fantastic…but for the price, we’re happier in far lesser accommodations…I can see why people are willing to stump up the cash for this place…but our one night here cost more than 4 nights at Ballys in the end…so…we can’t justify it as the poshness is somewhat lost on us.

Rio was booked because the rate was great $59/night and we thought, hey, let’s check out somewhere in addition to Orleans (wink, wink) – that way, if we’re looking for somewhere else to stay sometime, we’ve already tried it out…in retrospect, this was a mistake because a) it was the night after Bellagio, so anywhere would have been a disappointment and b) we just didn’t like the place. Were (allegedly) upgraded to a diamond level room in the Ipanema Tower…would rather hate to see the normal rooms as we weren’t at all impressed…sure, the fridge and coffee maker were nice touches, but nothing terribly exciting…the non-smoking room reeked of cigarettes (and I do smoke – just not in the room…so if it was obvious to me, it would be obvious to someone without a nose). The temperature controls only let us take the temp down to an alleged 65 and we were hot all night (our room at Ballys was set at 60 and we were freezing most of the time – we prefer to sleep with it cold)…probably not helped by the odd, flannel-feeling bedspread and really horrid synthetic blanket. The room was clean…I will give them that. We would not stay here again as we didn’t have any connection with the place and wish that we hadn’t wasted a night here, if I’m being honest…I do understand that many love the place and that’s great…it’s just not for us…and it’s so LOUD…6:30 am…I really don’t see the point of deafening music at that hour…and the Bevertainers? Poor souls.

Where we supped (AKA Where we ate until we could eat no more):

In no particular order –

Carnival World Buffet, Rio – very good…forgot coupons at Ballys…but worth the full price if you’re hungry…we settled here after checking out the American Grill-sort of place near reception…the menu was lacking and expensive for what it was…so we decided for a stuff-yourself-silly instead…the better choice for us at that time.

Top of the World, Stratosphere – this was Thanksgiving dinner…as many suggested, the food was nowhere near the standard the price might imply…but the view was great…especially after the family with 18 unruly kids who kept running up to the windows between our table and theirs, blocking our view, left. I had the escargot, sea bass and split a chocolate Stratosphere with Jamie who had something to start and a steak…at ½ the price, the food would have been disappointing…but the view made up for it, pretty much…but would probably not do it again.

Café Bellagio – Maryland Crab Cakes Benedict. Those 4 words are all you need, really. Amazing. Loved the Café…thought it was great…thought that the $7 orange juice was a might pricey…but hey…it was fresh squeezed and those oranges work hard for a living…and the view onto the conservatory was a really nice addition to our breakfast.

In-and-Out Burger, somewhere near Sunset Station – yes, yes…we sought one out one lunchtime to refuel between shopping excursions. Loved it. Studied the ‘secret’ menu before hand and ordered everything ‘animal style’…because, really, how often do you get to say ‘animal style’ outside the comfort of your own home? Food was delicious, though I would say I would probably forgo the animal style in the future if only because the food was really nice on its own…especially the fries…Jamie was less adventurous and had his food au natural…and stealing a few of his fries made me confident that they are better left alone…very, very nice.

Zanzibar Café, Aladdin – Love it, too. The Pad Thai was enough to feed 7 and was very tasty. Jamie had a bbq chicken sandwich which defeated him to the point that I got to have the last ½ of his chocolate milkshake – bonus!

Rainforest Café, MGM (twice) – don’t care what others think…don’t care that we have one in London (have never been and will likely never go)…we like the place…it’s become a ‘first dinner in Vegas’ tradition for us…and this time, we went for lunch one day as well.

Spice Market Buffet, Aladdin – good as always…and the first time ever our drinks waitress has suggested coffee after our main meal…we never thought of coffee at a dinner buffet…and it was a nice treat…and the coffee was really good!

Original Pankcake House, GVR - loved it, as expected...the apple pancake is a childhood favorite of mine and this is the second trip we've stopped here to feed my need.

Deep Fried Twinkie and Deep Fried Oreo, Mermaids – so, this was the HoDogism for this trip…the foodstuff I heard about on this board and obsessed over until ultimately being hugely let down once I actually tasted it…I had one bite of each and, frankly, that was more than enough…Jamie actually ate an entire Oreo declaring it to be ‘not that bad’.

What we drank:

I had 4 comped drinks that were not water …I like to move around and usually don’t want to wait for the server to return…but after many mentions had to try two:

Peach Bellini, Bellagio – OK, it was frozen. Was it supposed to be frozen? I didn’t think so. I wasn’t impressed at all with what I had, in any event.

Bellagio Cocktail – good, not great…probably too refined for my palette.

The Bally’s Bloody Mary and the Excalibur Long Island Iced Tea were very nice.

Also, the strawberry frozen drinks (margaritas?) at O’Sheas or Casino Royale (can’t remember) were really nice for $1…in the way that sickly sweet, icey drinks can be.

Slots we enjoyed:

So, let’s be honest…we most like the slots we do best on…I became immediately enamoured with one called Egyptian King at Bellagio…the bonus feature turns all of the Egyptian guys into mystery multipliers…and the first time I played, one of the sarcophaguses morphed into a 125x multiplier…so I took out about $150 on my $20 stake (on nickels, 1 credit per line)…very shortly thereafter played the same type of machine in the $0.02 area and hit a 100x multiplier…and cashed out about $80…I liked these machines, though I didn’t have nearly as good luck on them the rest of the trip.

But the best was Get Nuts, a squirrel based slot machine (it was only a matter of time)…at one point, I was seriously starting to think that the programming was faulty and I would win on every one I played…the bonus round is free spins…but every time you get a key on the middle reel, you pick a door at the top (I think that there are 10 doors)…one door has 20 additional free spins, one door has 10 additional free spins…and the rest increase the bonus multiplier for subsequent spins by 1. I found that more often than not, the 20 free spins door was the second from right. The last night of our trip, I gave Jamie the $20 warning – this was to be my last $20 and then bed for me (he was free to carry on, though). I had left a good hunk of cash in the room and was determined not to get into it and was tired enough to be happy to have another $20 and then sleep. I trotted back about 15 minutes later and explained that I had played my last $20…I could tell he was a bit disappointed (and know now he was going to offer me a bit more to keep playing)…and then I flashed him my ticket for $350+. He gaped. A lot. Mind you, this was 20-lines, nickels…and I was playing one credit per line…I wasn’t wagering silly money. We stopped by another one shortly thereafter, and, again, the 20 free spins was in the same place…sadly, I didn’t hit the extra 10 spins, so only (only!) cashed out about $80. The next morning, after checking in for our flight at the business centre, stopped by another one…and that $20 turned into $256…this was actually somewhat disappointing as I KEPT getting keys even after all the doors were open and each time that happened the multiplier went up again…so by the end, the last few spins were x 14…unfortunately, the last few spins weren’t very good in any other way.

Also on the last night (before the Get Nuts incident), I hit 1000 coins on a Ring of Fire 3-reel quarter slot…the sort where the 3rd reel has a symbol that takes you to a thingy on the top of the machine – like Wheel of Fortune, but not…I hit the button…1000 immediately lit up and a voice said ‘one thousand!’ and I sat there waiting for it to move to the 20 or whatever that was next to it. Much to my surprise, it didn’t…and Jamie was too far away for him to hear me screeching for him.

So, basically, in the last 12 hours of our trip or so, I won about $850. A great time to win it as it was unlikely I would put it back in the machines.

Jamie loved Star Wars (he’s a 35 year old boy…so, naturally). He had a good deal of fun on machines at various casinos. It hated me, but was good enough to him…and he loved the graphics and sounds. At the end of the trip he did play max credits ($3.00 a spin – a lot for us) – put in a $20 and played it down…decided to put in a second $20 – got the Death Star Bonus and unfortunately, didn’t win a huge amount, but cashed out at his $40 stake a happy bunny for livin’ large.

Jamie also won $200 on a nickel Cleopatra…to that point, it was the win of the trip and I was next to him when it happened…which was very nice.

We did confirm this trip that you do win less on pennies…but your money lasts longer…all our bigish wins were on nickels or quarters, yes…but on any number of occasions on nickels or quarters we lost and lost quickly…at least with pennies we could keep playing longer. Not entirely sure what that means for us in the future…but at least we now have first-hand experience with the math involved.

Casinos we spent time in:

We hit a lot of them…being at Ballys made this very easy to do and that aspect I think we might miss if we return to the south strip…we stopped in a lot of places we hadn’t been before ...and one day walked from Ballys to Wynn hitting every casino on that side of the street…we enjoyed checking these out…and we played a hole of our casino golf in each one…was a nice way to spend a late-morning to mid-afternoon.

Wynn – sorry, wasn’t impressed…find Bellagio to be much, much nicer in all respects (at least to the extent that we could tell – we didn’t spend that much time at Wynn).

O’Sheas, Harrahs and Casino Royale – our 3 other new ones and enjoyed our time here…especially Harrahs, if not a bit crowded (seemed like it would feel crowded without too many people).

Downtown – we still don’t really like it…we went one afternoon and stayed until shortly after dark…had a nice enough afternoon, but it doesn’t feel safe to us. It may BE safe…but if it doesn’t FEEL safe, then it’s no good for us. As was the case with our impression of Rio, no judgement on those who like the place…it’s just not our thing…and I did really well on the slots down there…but would probably not bother going back for a few years.

Other stuff we did:

Primm – enjoyed our trip to Primm…the outlet mall was nice, but we didn’t buy too much, though Jamie got a really cool Lord of the Rings watch at Fossil. One of the reasons for the side trip was to ride the rollercoaster, Desperado.

…yes, well…as rollercoasters go, I imagine it was a pretty good one (it’s maybe the highest or fastest in the world…or the US…or was at one time..something)…however, I was wounded by it…we have a picture of the bruise on my back where I slammed into the back of the seat (repeatedly)…and it was 2 days before my neck didn’t hurt to the point I was honestly worried that I had done something irreparable to it…the sort of pain that if you were in your hometown, you would have gone to a doctor…seriously…it was actually scary…I must just be too much of a delicate flower for these things…or I’m too old…but apparently, the noises I was making while on the ride sounded to Jamie not unlike a hugely upset squawking chicken…I was saying ‘oooooooooh!’ pretty much constantly. Jamie says with all the rattling around and whatnot, it came out a lot more like ‘bgaaaaawwwwwwwkk!’ We’ll be 80 and whenever he wants to make me laugh, that’s the sound he will make.

Still, we had Haagen-Dazs afterwards…as you do.

Silver Strikes – we decided to start collecting these…we won 6 and for awhile there thought ‘this is easy!’ as we won the first few on less than $10 investment…a few others took up to $20. we didn’t go beyond that point, though…as paying more than $20 to win something worth $10 seemed a bit silly…so several places we left empty handed. We won silver strikes at Bellagio, MGM, Aladdin, Barbary Coast, Mirage (does Danny Gans have to be on ALL of them?!) and…the California.

Slot Golf – this is the idea that each of us plays $20 through a chosen slot once and cashes out…Jamie won by a landslide last trip…this trip, I made my presence on the circuit known…though I only beat him by about $100…nowhere near his destruction of me last time. Cries of ‘best of 3!’ could be heard well across the Atlantic.

Shopping – We bought tons of stuff…being from the UK, it’s expected, if not a god-given right…a ridiculous number of DVDs, Benefit cosmetics, lots of packaged American food that I miss, lots of clothes (mostly for him! Boys can shop for clothes so much easier…it’s annoying), 4 pairs of shoes between us…I would have bought another pair of shoes if it weren’t for the salesgirl making rude comments about the (size 11) shoes she brought out for me…I hope she’s on commission.

What we spent:

Flights: about £1,000 ($1,720), but worth it to fly direct.

Hotels: about $720 including Rio and Bellagio…we were told to speak to a host at Ballys and ended up with 3 nights comped and the rest at casino rate…so that was nice. The Ballys cost ended up being about $470 for the 8 nights including tax.

Car rental: $170 as stated before, plus ½ tank of gas.

I should note that all of the above costs were covered by our hobby of selling on ebay…so the actual cost to us is significantly less than stated.

Spending and gambling (not counting clothes and food shipped home): We took $4400…we didn’t touch the additional $2300 we had budgeted…and we brought $1300 home…so $3,100 which included all food (except Top of the World, that was about $200)…for two of us, for 8 nights…or about $195 each per day…about ½ of our total budget of about $6,700…so while not a win, as such, seems like it to us.

Final thoughts:

Overall it was a good trip…but as mentioned, we felt a bit out of sorts…may be down to the weird schedule we got onto…woke up (or I should say *I* woke up) at about 5am the first day and we were out the door not long after…this resulted in being very tired by 7pm or so…napped too long…then didn’t want to get up when we woke naturally…so slept through until 5 am again…repeat…so we probably missed out on some time we would normally have spent enjoying all of Vegas’ wares…might be down to staying somewhere away from our ‘home’ of Excalibur…may have been down to booking in April and going in November – very long time for expectations to get raised…really not sure…but we did enjoy ourselves…just a little bit less than we would have expected.

Next trip – we’re considering going for our 5th anniversary. Our anniversary is 8th June. It will be terribly hot then…but we’re working on convincing ourselves that it’s air-conditioned everywhere…and that will be good enough…in fact, since the initial drafting of this monster, have decided to call the kind folks at Virgin this weekend and see if there are any companion fares available for the period we want to go…we each have enough miles for a free companion fare at this point…and while ticket prices are high (over £600 each), if it were a twofer, we’d book…very nice to have a spouse who’s as interested in making plans to go back as you are!

If you made it anywhere near this far, thanks…and please collect your souvenir medal on the way to the door.

Jen