Las Vegas Trip Reports

I am huge fan of Pinks and was so happy to see it opened on the Las Vegas Strip!

They have all the same hot dog favorites, toppings, and amazing tastes. I also love how they have outdoor seating right on the strip. You can people watch, see many of the famous Las Vegas Hotel Suites, enjoy the beautiful weather, and simply enjoy Las Vegas. I will probably make Pinks a stop on every trip I have…

Here is a picture I took from the strip.

Pink’s Hot Dogs is located at:

Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino
3667 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, NV 89109

ay five was realativley uneventful except for the Wynn.

went to the Wide Shoe Store at Harmon and Paradise (the road is a mess). Nice store if you have very wife feet. saw two pairs of shoes in sale that were too wide 5E’s so didn’t.

went to Costco on Martin Luther and overspent our days spending money, cigarettes and books. After reading Void Moon (great book about Vegas), I may add Michael Connelly to my reading list so bought the latest plus a paperback.

Next stop the Palms for the $50 POV coupon. No food, Maureen not up to it, so hit the Palms shop, after Silver Strike number 10, different machine, three playlines but need two bars plus a Silver Strike to win. but you can win up to three.

Needless to say the Palms Shop is a disappointment. Do you get the feeling that if a coupon seems to good to to be true.

Buy two hats and a T-shirt and save $40, but struggle to do that.

Off to the Wynn for lunch. haven’t tried the other great buffet’s (we are comped at the Wynn cause Moe loves the casino), but cannot imagine them being much better than this one. The pasta selection is amazing and the Kobe Meatballs are to die for. Even the Kansas Ribs are better than anywhere else.

and the desserts. Wow.

Anyway, needed to go to the rest (wash) room and am attacked by the automatic toilets. I am a standing finisher so when I get up to finish the toilet flushes, BUT I AM NOT FINISHED. So what do you do. No evidence of a manual flusher so you sit down with your pants up and stand up to finish the job. Unfortunatley the toilet chose that time to overflush giving my pants a good wash.

I guess the casinos – and don’t get me wrong I have visited most of the toilets this week and have yet to hit a bad one – need the auto flush to keep them clean, but only a few have a rehit button.

After the Wynn we go back to the Strat to finish our comp. Love affair over. The special comp for newbies does not apply to the triple bonus points and we have been misformed. No comps to be had and the jacket sucks anyway.

As Jean Scott says, If you have a question just ask. If you aren’t satisfied with the answer ask someone else. not everyone in fully informed and some just guess.

The $100 loss deal is only available at the Arizona Charlie casinos but if you sign up and paly at the Strat the deal is not available.

Still play and give too much money back. Have a good run at Starwars 1, but have concluded that I prefer the bonus round in Star Wars 2. Some how free spins are always more fun than just cash.

maureen is still under the weather so we decide to go to the Hard Rock and then make it an early night.

HR is a zoo SEMA is putting on an outdoor show in the self parking lot and the place is full of truckers on expense reports. Luckily they do not play slots, just drink and fall down at lot, so the machines are realtively quiet.

give the Mutlstrike another shot. Takes back some of the money it gave me.

Anyway, its 10 pm and we are hungry sowe what Lucky’s. Service and good and the food is great. What a surprise. Maureen has an outstanding steak sandwich with Watermelon as a side. Neat idea.

time for home but see a penny Alien that needs to be played. hot two bonuses (one of which i open the hatch) and an egg which I finish wthout crashing so end up $40 ahead.

Pretty nice day, one full one left.

Dan

I got back from a Friday to Sunday trip to Vegas. It’s Tuesday now and if I wait any longer, I just won’t get to it so I better at least start it now. I meant to write a report my last trip in Aug that included 2 nights at Wynn, 2 nights at MB, UFC 63, and a $30K loss, but never got around to it.

Some highlights for you (and for myself) so I remember to come back to these things. Showed my brother in law and his friends the pampered side of Vegas, Dinner at Fleur de Lys, Love at Mirage, Michigan game, $400,000 gone in 60 seconds, strange sighting in the elevator, $10K win, and the craziest airport check-in line ever.

Flew out of Burbank Friday night since I was coming from that area. Just made my flight. My wife flew out of LAX an hour after me. I land, call up my brother-in-law and his buddies to come pick me up. The point of this trip was to show my BIL and his friends a good time in Vegas. They were supposed to be there the whole weekend but realized that they had forgotten about my BIL’s ex’s 21st BDay party. As much as everyone kept telling him that he should skip the party, he insisted that he (and all his buddies) needed to be there. Bummer for them. I had booked them a premiere palace tower room at Caesars. Since they needed to leave on Saturday afternoon, they went to Vegas a day early. I insisted on paying for a room at a nice hotel for Thursday night but they refused (very nice considerate guys for 22 year olds). They booked themselves a room at the Sahara for $40. $10/person. They were very proud of themselves at finding such a bargain. While I waited for them to pick me up, I checked in at the airport. I normally don’t like playing or staying at any of the Harrah’s resorts but I find them very useful for their free rooms since I can put up friends and family without the pressure of playing there.

I get picked up and we head towards Caesars to get them settled in when my wife calls saying they she landed already. So we head towards THE Hotel so they can drop me off, allowing me to check in while my BIL goes to pick up my wife. I check in through the VIP lounge and we’re off to the HOB for dinner. I’m usually RFL at the start of every MB trip with my host picking everything up by the end, but this time I was actually RFB+ coming in with everything automatically being taken off with nothing but tips showing up on my active charges. Anyway, back to HOB – we are ready to pig out. The guys are loving it asking if it’s really okay to order anything they wanted. I say yes and tell them to go crazy. They take me up on it and I see them eat like I haven’t seen since I was in college. HOB has some nice live blues music after 9pm. Very cool, had a good time. They don’t usually take reservations for groups of less than 10 but my host had made reservations for us. After dinner, BIL and friends head to Caesars to check out their room. Apparently they were blown away. 2 bathrooms, huge shower, jacuzzi tub, flat panel TV. Sounded like they enjoyed it a lot. You know, the typical 21 to 22 year old stuff – mooning nobody in particular out the window, realizing that this is what a bidet looks like and taking turns using it.

Meanwhile, I had the gambling bug. Now last time I got destroyed playing baccarat so I decide to start off with a little craps. I would be on fire all weekend at the craps table. I convince my wife to play with me. I roll and we’re up about 500 right away. I tried a different strategy this time around. I usually play $120 on 6 and 8 and if things get going, I pick up some other place bets along with some hardways. This time, I play a max of three $25 come bets with full odds with some additional bets here and there when the shooter rolls for a while. It’s just me and my wife on one end of the table and this other young guy and his girl come up on the other end. He buys in for 300. I had bought in for 3000. He and I are shooting the dice back and forth and we’re both pretty hot and shooting for 5-10 minutes each time. My wife did very poorly whenever she would shoot which made her very sad and this other guys girl did okay. By the end of the hour, I was up 3000 and he was up 1000. We were very happy and had a great time with the dealers. We were tipping and betting for the dealers very freely. It was pretty cool that it was just the 4 of us at the table for most of the time. Good start. I’m exhausted from a very long work week and we head upstairs to crash. On the way, I want to bet on the Michigan game. I’m a huge Michigan fan but they’re favored by 30 over Northwestern. Now I know Mich and once thing I know for sure is that they don’t beat anybody by 30. I’m so confident I’m about to place 1100 on Northwestern to cover the spread. My wife is skepticle. She knows I have a horrible track record on my sports bets and is able to plant that seed of doubt in my mind. I compromise and place a bet for 550. Off to bed.

The next morning, head down to the pastry shop, buy a croissant, bagel, juice, and coffee and bring it up to the room. Start watching the game. Very happy that the weather is poor in Ann Arbor meaning likely a lower scoring game. Proves I’m right. Head down during halftime and it’s time for some more craps. Quick 30 minute session. Head down pretty fast and it’s my turn to shoot. Get a nice little run and I’ve made up my losses for that session and end up another 500. Up 3500 for the trip so far. No good seating in the sports book so I head to the THE Bar to catch the rest of the game. Just me and the 2 bartenders. We’re watching the game and I’m enjoying a couple of the best bloody mary’s I’ve ever had. Mich was only up at 11 late in the game and life was good. BIL and friends come to MB barely awake but still giddy about the good time they had at Caesars on their last night in Vegas. Eat at the THE Cafe. Pretty good food overall. Would have been a really good meal had it not been for our extra surly waiter, Victor. I think he just saw 6 young looking kids and thought we should be treated like crap. We remained polite and somehow, by the end of our meal, he was the nicest guy in the world. My wife likes to believe that since he was such a jerk and we were being so polite, that he realized he was being foolish and came to his senses. I personally think that after I gave him my signature card, he saw that I was RFB+ and realized that he should be a little nicer. We made fun of his miraculous transformation throughout the rest of our day.

Stop by the the sundries store, helped the kids load up on some drinks and snacks and they’re reluctantly driving back to LA. I tell them it’s not too last since I have Caesars booked until Sunday. They all give my BIL the evil eye as they decline and thank us for the free food and room.

I collect my sports winnings, while asking my wife why she didn’t let me bet the $50,000 I meant to bet. Wink Now I’m up 4000 for the trip. I want to stop but I’ve only placed about 90 minutes since I’ve been there.

Okay, it’s been pretty boring up to this point, but the rest of the way is much more interesting. I promise. I’ll have to continue tomorrow night though. I’m still recovering and need to get to bed.

A great time as always…. Eventually.

Drove to Toronto on October 18, 2006 and stayed over night at the Knight’s Inn in Richmond Hill. Won’t ever stay there again. Way too difficult to find.

Had the day in Toronto and visited some of my old haunts, bought a full length, black leather coat for $19.99 at the Salvation Army. Toured a huge mall called Vaughn Mills and then headed to Pearson International Airport. Got there early, sat for a bit and checked in. Staff was very nice. Check in was painless. The only problem is that Pearson is now entirely smoke-free; bars, restaurants, everywhere and you can’t go outside once you are in. Hubby is a smoker and while I’m emphatically not, I still believe that if smoking is legal then smokers have rights.

No meal on the flight so we grabbed chicken sandwiches at the lunch counter. Talk about costly! $35.00 for two sandwiches and two milks!

Flight was fine. Our first time flying with a US carrier (US Airways). One of the attendants was a big “C U next Tuesday” so we avoided her. In-flight movie was “The Lake House”, yawn! Landed fine. Now the fun begins. Canadian carriers apparently go to a different terminal. A much smaller terminal. Since we went with a US carrier this time, we went to a different terminal, about 8 times the size! OMG! Talk about a cluster$%&#*!! We arrived early and had to wait on the tarmac, then we stood there for about 20 minutes to get assigned a baggage carousel, then another 20 waiting for the baggage to be released, which they did 1 piece every 2-3 minutes. Finally got our baggage, now where is the shuttle bus? No signs in the vicinity indicating shuttle buses, the staff at the US Airways counter wouldn’t help us. Finally the information staff directed us to the shuttle bus area where we had to wade through about 50 people all standing in the middle of the sidewalk (why do people do that?) to check in even though we were pre-paid. Got our shuttle. The driver took the long way around and took his sweet time. We had landed at 10:36PM and didn’t check in at the Luxor ‘til past midnight.

Luxor staff was nice. We’d book the pyramid but a room wasn’t available at the top until the next day so we spent our first night on the ground floor. Nice room, clean and sweet smelling. Grabbed our Sobr K (chasers) and hit the casino. Two long island iced teas later, I’m not feeling well, neither is hubby. I’m no lightweight, 2 drinks no matter how strong is not enough to finish me. Back to the room to call it a night. Spent the better part of the next hour in the bathroom with both ends going. Finished just in time to relinquish the bathroom to Scott for the same reason. Welcome to food poisoning!

Spent all night and most of the next day in the same condition. I’m panicking. I have a tattoo appointment at 6PM and we’re supposed to meet Eponymous Coward and a friend at Krave at midnight.

Went downstairs to get some Pepto Bismol and almost ran INTO Criss Angel on my way to the loo to puke. Back to the room & took some Pepto. Starting to feel better so I went to my tattoo appointment. Luc Zietek at Poker’s Tattoo on Valleyview behind Mandalay Bay. Not the friendliest place but WOW!! what an artist. Would not hesitate to go back to him or recommend him to others.

Headed back to the Luxor. Endorphins and Pepto are now wearing off and the sickness is returning. Tried my stomach on some dry toast, big mistake. Spent the rest of the night trying to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 between trips to the bathroom. Didn’t make it to Krave. Very sorry Eponymous Coward but we couldn’t even leave the room never mind the hotel.

Felt better the next day, toast stayed down so we slowly got into the swing of things. The days past in a blur so I’ll just hit the highlights.

Shows: CarrotTop – had front row, center seats – great show. He must live on Red Bull and candy to get that kind of energy, like a hyperactive child. Couldn’t stop laughing. Unlike other comedians who draw their material out, he’s go, go, GO! From the moment he hits the stage til the moment he leaves it. Barely time to breathe.

Museums: Bodies – the never-ending exhibit. Give yourself at least an hour to go through this. Not gross at all, very tasteful and educational. Loved the section on blood vessels. Be warned, there are some fetal specimens. The section that deals with organs shows the cancerous lungs of a smoker. Next to it is a plastic bin where former smokers have tossed their cigarettes! Didn’t motivate hubby though.
Guggenheim: showcasing the work of Robert Mapplethorpe. I didn’t find it shocking or risqué at all. Interesting stuff but NOT worth the admission price.
Goddard: he does the Vegas painting with olives as characters. Great stuff! Very surreal but he has excellent technique as well. There’s a fantastic painting of Ozzy Osbourne in the gallery that had just been sold.

New Casinos/Hotels: Wynn – nice but it didn’t blow my hair back.
Palms – what a disappointment! It’s no bigger than our charity casinos and had little or nothing to really look at. Past by Hart and Huntington, another disappointment. Tiny shop with most of the shop curtained off. One artist, Joey working in front, a receptionist, Rose and a few people sitting around waiting for their turn. Looked at the overpriced T-shirts and left. Found out later at one of the art galleries that H & H is basically a joke. It’s where silly tourists go for overpriced tattoos in hopes of getting their 15 minutes of fame on camera. Met someone who got a quote there. $380 for 3 Chinese characters, each 1” high! I only paid $250 for my newest piece (will post a pic if requested) and it’s quite large. Actually the price was $200 but I tipped the artist $50.
Meals: ate at the Luxor Steakhouse (lobster and Kobe beef) worth every penny! Kahunaville, love the scallop and shrimp kabobs, Buzio’s, had Chilean Sea Bass (to die for!)

Lots of shopping! Bought lots of pearls at the Pearl Factory, even got two “blue” ones. Bought T-shirts and lots of Egyptian statues and figurines.

Gambled a lot. Hubby did fairly well at craps, blackjack and Big 6. I did pretty well at Sic Bo and a slot machine called Hexbreaker. Drank tones, rarely ordered the same drink twice. Seems Sobr K (chasers) really does work! We were both 3 sheets to the wind several times and didn’t get a single hangover!

Hubby met Criss Angel. Seems he’s moved his show from the Alladdin to the Luxor, is starting his 3rd season of Mindfreak and the Luxor is giving him a stage show in or around 2008. Scott says he’s a really nice guy, easy to talk and pleasant, but not as tall as he looks on TV. Invited us to come down to the office once he was set up to go but we were leaving the next night.

So much we didn’t get to do! We’ll have to go back soon.

I’ll try to make this short.

First, Rick from BC, I am so sorry I missed the meet on the 18th. I actually overslept Embarassed Not from a wild night of partying, but from gorging myself at the breakfast/brunch buffet. I thought I would just take a short snooze to digest, but….Anyway I am sorry I missed the opportunity to meet some of you.

This was my third visit in October. The weather was gorgeous as usual. This trip though seemed to be extra crowded. I know that there were several conventions, but I felt like the majority of my time was spent waiting in lines!
From airport check-in, to the taxi line, to get something to eat etc…My patience was truly tried. Maybe because this was my seventh trip, but the “tourists” were really on my nerves. Stopping in their tracks to gawk, take photos etc. (I hope I wasn’t that annoying on my first visit).

We basically lost our a$$’s gambling wise. Maybe that explains my less-than-enthusiastic feeling from this trip. The best luck I had was at Casino Royale (slots). I seem to have had longer play for the buck there.
Other casino’s we “donated” to were Flamingo of course, Caesars,Harrah’s, O’Sheas (see a pattern here for tightness?). But to not show favoritism, we also donated to BC and Main Street Station.

On our visit to MSS, we took the Deuce downtown. We caught it in front of the Flamingo. I think I would rather have a root canal than ride that again. It was pretty excruciating. I honestly think we could have made better time walking. The stops did dwindle the farther north we went. Yes it was cheap transportation, but never again. We cabbed it back.

So I guess this wasn’t one of our better visits. Could it be because we lost? Or could my “Love Affair” with Vegas be waning? I really have trouble with crowds the older I get.

And a sad note, two days after I got home, my beloved dog died. Maybe I have some guilt going on too. I could have saved a lot of $$ and had some extra time with my “baby”.

I know Vegas is supposed to be a happy place. I hope this wasn’t too much of a “downer” of a report.

To all of you that have upcoming trips, I wish you good luck. I think we will probably wait a while before returning.