Imperial Palace - Las Vegas - Jan. 22-25, 2006

I’m going to start with gambling since this was the 1st trip out of 7 in the past 4 years and we actually won something.

We arrived an hour later then scheduled thanks to Southwest Airlines, so was unable to place a bet on the Denver/Steeler game, which in hind sight was good, since we were going to bet on Denver. Placed a bet in Ballys sports book on Seattle to win over Carolina and collected $200.00. After the game, we went to Ballys VP area and played Progressive Double, Double Bonus Poker. DH hit 4 of a kind in 2’s and collected $238.00. Then I hit my first Royal Flush for $1,060.00. Over the next 3 days, DH hit 4 more 4 of a kinds at Ballys, 1 at MGM, 1 at Circus, Circus and 1 a Slots of Fun all for around $100 a piece. I hit a 4 of a kind at Ballys and 1 at the Rivera. Also played Keno at Harrah’s, Ballys and Imperial Palace. Didn’t win anything there. The IP still has $1.00 keno tickets, so we liked that. Played roulette at Casino Royal. Hit 19 twice and 36 once, but didn’t win any big money. Cocktail service was great everywhere we went. There were several times, I was just sitting next to DH watching him play VP and they brought me cocktails also.

Imperial Palace - We booked a Southwest Vacation package about 4 weeks out and got a great deal. On arrival, our plane was delayed in Albuquerque due to the toilets in the lavatories being frozen and wouldn’t flush. When we finally arrived at the IP, we just dropped off our bags curb side and checked in later that afternoon. We asked for a King, but was told they were sold out. They gave us a 2 Doubles on the 9th floor over looking the pool area. Room 9119. Room was fine. Bathroom small and the sink area a little scratched up and cracked. The sink also had a slow drain. The balcony over looking the sparse pool area and the back of the Flamingo was fine. The location of the IP was terrific and for the price, we would stay there again.

IP Spa - Made reservations for a Vanilla Sugar Scrub and Swedish massage. Upon arrival, was informed that they were in the process of changing their product line and services, so was offered either a Green Tea pumice scrub, Chocolate scrub or Champagne/Rose salt scrub. I chose the Champagne/Rose salt scrub. This was the first spa treatment I’ve had that once the scrub was complete, I didn’t have to get up and go to the shower to rinse off. They has a 6 sprayer head to toe shower spray that rinsed the scrub off while on the table. It was so nice and relaxing. The lady doing the actual scrub could have been a little more attentive, but over all it was a nice treatment. The Swedish massage was fabulous. So good, that I asked if I could add on a foot massage and they did so with no problem. Each treatment was $60. Included was a optional clothing whirlpool, sauna and steam shower. After my treatments, I spent time in the steam shower. They offered ice cold towels at the entrance to the shower. They also had 3 separate showers with their line of products: Citrus, CocoMango and something else I can’t remember. I chose the CocoMango and loved it. I ended up buying the shower gel, but they were sold out of the lotion. Too bad. I would book treatments there in the future.

Dining -

IP’s Tea House Restaurant for breakfast - Not bad. We chose the hueves rancheros and they were fine. The french toast was a little too thick and not enough egg batter for my taste, but the syrup was good. No powdered sugar. Service was fast and friendly.

IP’s Emperor’s Buffet for breakfast - We were disappointed that the advertised daily champagne buffet brunch in the Tea House was cancelled the week before, so we went to the Emperors Buffet. The cost was $10.99 p/p. I don’t particulary care for buffets in Las Vegas, but this was good for the money. The food was actually tasty and not stale/dry tasting. We went at 9:00am and a line started forming once we got in. Selections included scrambled eggs, omelette station, spinach quiche, sausage, bacon, pancakes, waffles, french toast. A variety of breads, muffins and pastries and a fresh fruit/canned fruit bar. It was about the same level of AI hotel food we’ve had in the Caribbean and Mexico.
Commander’s Palace .25 Cent Martini Lunch - We made reservations for 11:30, there was only us and 4 other tables occupied in the dining room. There were others in the bar area. There is a 3 course pre-fixed menu for $18.80 and a separate 3 course menu which you could apply substitutions for $29.00. All are either soup/salad, entree and dessert. DH chose the pre-fixed menu. He had the navy bean and duck soup, pork etufee and the banana cake. All was very good. Other choices were Caesar salad, blacken grilled catfish and chocolate bread pudding. I chose the $29.00 menu, which offered the turtle soup, fried catfish and chocolate souffle. I didn’t like the options of the turtle soup or the chocolate souffle, so they substituted with the gumbo and the creme brulee. All was very good. The waitress tried to talk me out of the creme brulee as she said she didn’t care for it, but I was glad I held my ground because it was very good. We had the Commander’s Palace martini x 2, a lemon drop martini, raspberry martini, French martini and a Butterscotch martini with dessert for .25 cents each. Check came to $53.00. This was our second trip and we would definitely go back again.

Circus, Circus Steakhouse - This was also our second trip. We decided to share an entree, since their steaks are huge. We chose the Porthouse. I was given an extra plate with 1/2 of a baked potato and a side of steamed asparagus. All was perfect and plenty for the both of us. DH doesn’t really care for asparagus, but this was so good he ate all of it. They only charged me extra for a salad. Had creme brulee for dessert and was very good. Also had 2 Coronas for $4.50 a piece. Never seen a Corona for less than $6.00 at a nice restaurant. Check came to $63.00 Would definitely eat there again.

The Range Steak House at Harrah’s - Big disappointment. I chose the Escargot with puff pastry. Was OK. They could have skipped the huge puff pastry and substituted for Provolone cheese. Also had the lobster bisque. Was served barley luke warm and was too thick like it had been sitting out awhile. DH has the roasted chicken breast. The portion was quite small. We shared the creme brulee for dessert and they torched the top table side. Burnt it to a crisp. Check came to $63.00. Not worth it.

Ballys Sterling Champagne Brunch - This was our second trip here also. We love this brunch. The all you can eat lobster and champagne is totally worth the $65.00 p/p charge. Also had sirloin steak, shrimp cocktail, crab claws, and lobster ravioli. For dessert, creme brulee, flan, and chocolate covered strawberries. There were plenty more selections to choose from including different kinds of egg dishes, fresh omelettes cooked to order, salad bar, sushi bar, carving station and full dessert area. Definitely make a reservation. There was a line of people without reservations and I didn’t see anyone of them get in. Our reservation was at noon. We got there at 11:30 and the place was packed. We had to wait until a little after noon to be seated. They do provide champagne while you wait, which is nice touch.

I Love This Bar and Grill - We went for dinner around 8pm. The place was full, but not packed. Plenty of empty tables, but not enough wait staff to cover them. DH had the fried catfish. Had to be one of the best we ever had. Chicken fried steak was good also, but the gravy was a little funky. Not the typical cream gravy, but more like a turkey gravy. It was OK, but would have preferred cream gravy. Their side dishes were also off. The coleslaw was dry and tasteless and the turnips greens need more seasoning and pepper sauce. Couldn’t flag down a waitress. At 9pm they have a live band. This guy was terrible. Mutilating rock hits from the 70’s and 80’s. It’s a country bar. We were looking forward to listening to some Country music. We left, but would try them again in the future.

Margaritaville - We love their tortilla soup. Also ordered the Volcano nachos, which was good. Huge portion that a family of four could eat. I asked for a side of salsa and they brought me a cereal bowl full of it and then charged me $1.99. Our waitress apparently was not having a good day. Bad attitude and then brought us the wrong check. Enjoyed the Wildberry Colada, but the Margarita DH had was pretty bad.

Entertainment -

Splash at the Rivera - We were not interested in $100 p/p show tickets this trip, so we settled on Splash. The show was good and entertaining, The in between acts and comedy troop was really good. We had terrible seats. On the 2nd row to the far right. Was just too close to the stage and we couldn’t see what was going on to the left of the stage. The performers went out into the audience several times, so we couldn’t see that either. The theater is quite small, so we would have preferred seats in the back section so we could get a good overview of the entire show.

Dueling Pianos at Harrah’s - We didn’t get there in time to get a seat inside. The place is rather small. There were 2 men at the pianos instead of the Twins as advertised. We stood outside the open window area for a while. It was entertaining and we would go back again, but will probably try the new dueling pianos at the Paris first.

Carnival Court at Harrah’s - Nice bar area. Was afraid it would be too cold to sit out there, but they had heaters going. It was not full and nobody was dancing. We stayed awhile and enjoyed the music at the bar.

Caesar’s Forum or Shoppes/Aquarium/Fountain Show - Haven’t been in Caesar’s since 2002. If they keep adding on, it will be a city within itself. The place is huge. The Aquarium and Fountain Show was the same as we saw before in 2002. However, the sound quality was pretty bad as we could barley hear/understand what the characters were saying. Couldn’t pass up Bath and Body works. Was able to buy some coconut lotion to go with my CocoMango bath gel.

This was our 3rd trip in January and it had to be the best weather. Sunny and cool with only a slight breeze. The other two times it was very cold and windy. Would have to say that January is the best time for low crowds and good prices on package deals. We’ll be back.

Pictures at: http://community.webshots.com/user/kvrlvn

Date of Trip: Jan 16-19, 2006

People were my wife, Marie and I.

Casino & Cost: South Coast. $79.00 a night with 1 night free.

Airlines & Cost: SouthWest non-stop Spokane-Las Vegas $108.00 each r/t.

(Special Notice: You can see a photographic version of this report, including pics of the rooms in the South Coast by going to www.bingoware.com and clicking on the link for Las Vegas Jan 2006.)

Trip summary:

We had a pretty good time as usual when ever we visit Las Vegas. This trip, we decided to pool our winnings over $50.00 and see where we stood at the end of the
trip. We would cash out of any machine after running up a $50.00 or more win. We are small time slot players, usually sticking to the quarter slots. I have been known to play $1.00 on occasion, and for the heck of it I’ll drop down to nickles as well. When we got home and counted up our haul, we had $2,000 in the booty pool.

Flight Out.

Mostly uneventful. Marie wanted to do some last minute shopping in Spokane so we stopped there before going on to the airport. Before leaving Spokane, we stopped at a Safeway and picked up a couple of big sandwhices for the flight. Got to the airport about noon for our 1:30pm departure. Of course with plenty of time to spare, there was no one in the Southwest check-in line. So that took all of 2 minutes. Security check point was also dead, so we blew through that in 5 minutes.

So of course with plenty of time to spare, the flight gets delayed an additional hour because of high winds in Las Vegas. Even though I logged on to S/W web site just a few minutes past midnight to print our boarding passes, I was still only to get the coveted A pass for myself, and Marie got a B pass. When the flight finally boarded, I was able to save a seat for her so it worked out OK. We arrived in Las Vegas about 4:30 or so and grabbed a cab to the South Coast. Cab ride was about $17.00 without tip.

The Casino:

We decided to stay at the South Coast this trip. We have always been pleased with Coast properties, with the Barbary Coast being our favorite. The South Coast only opened on Dec 22nd, so it was not even a month old when we checked in. I had read where they were having some problems in certain areas, but I’m happy to report we saw none of that during our visit.

The casino is large and bright. Well lit, not dark like some of the downtown places. There are lots of area to walk around, so you don’t feel cramped. Walked in the front door and no one in line, so we walked right up to check in to register……

For some strange reason, this was to be trend that seemed to follow us all over Las Vegas on this trip. No waiting! We hardly had to wait in lines, we didn’t have to wait for buses, the monorail, elevators, nothing. There seemed to be no lines any where, not that I’m complaining. more on this later, but movin on….

We got our fun book (only 1 per check in) and 2 breakfast buffet comps. Our room was 2126, and we were pointed to the elevators. There are 2 banks of elevators serving the hotel. Each bank consists of 6 elevators. One bank handles floors 2-12. The other handles floors 14-25. This was nice because on the ride up, we blew right past the first 12 floors, which made for very quick rides. Now I don’t recall a single time when it took more than like 10 seconds from the time I pushed the call button until an elevator arrived. Sometimes it was less. I would push the button and immediately one of the cars would be there! I loved this.

There was 1 elevator that had an attitude though… For some reason, this particluar car had a tendency to go from Floor 21 to Floor 22 and stop. Than you had to press C to go to the casino. It was only this one particular car though, all the others went where you told them to go one the first shot.

Arrived on the 21st floor and the first thing that struck me was how bright the halls were. Very bright and well lit and it smelled NICE! No old smokey odors, (we asked for a non-smoking room) Got to our room and we were very pleased with it.

We asked for 2 queens, and thats what we got. The room was large, bright, airy, and smelled nice, just like the hallway. The beds were soft and comfortable. I liked the pillows, they were large and fluffy. There was a 6 drawer dresser in the room, along with a small desk for the wireless internet connection. This cost about 10 bucks I believe if you had a lap top.

A BIG plus for the room was the 42″ plasma TV mounted on the wall. Folks, Marie and I are now officially spoiled. We are going to make the purchases of this type TV our next major objective. Now you know what our winning booty pool is going towards….. This thing was awesome. I’ve watched them in stores, but nothing compares to watching your favorite TV shows on one. We are still having trouble readjusting to our measley 25 incher now.

The bathroom was large, with the toilet and shower/tub in a seperate room. A nice touch was the phone next to the toilet. I’ve never actually talked to someone on the phone while “taking care of business” but I can see where it might be convient.

The dressing area was really nice. The vanity must have been about 7 feet long, with a mirror spanning the whole distance so 2 people could use it easily at the same time. The sink was deep, so there was not a lot of water splasing out when when you were using it.

They even had this neat little coffee maker. As I learned after calling housekeeping to ask where they were hiding the coffee pot, (they were’nt) it was a single cup coffee maker. You poured a cup of water in the resevoir and than open a package that has the disposable coffee/filter/tray. Slide it in place and press the brew button and in a few minutes you had a nice hot cup of coffee. It only came with 1 packet each regular and decaf, but a little note and a nice tip the next day corrected that and we had an “abundence” of regular coffee packets for the remainder of our stay.

Hair dryer, iron, ironing board and good supply to shampoo/body wash/conditioner rounded out the room.

Gaming:

The South Coast had some pretty good gaming. We did well on their slots. Marie hit the first win of the trip for $360.00 followed a little later by me for $200.00. I am not a big table game player, but I did notice a lot of $5.00 BJ tables, even during the evening, as well as at least one $1.00 roulette table.

Child Care:

The South Coast has a Child Care Center right on the property. I don’t have any children, so I didn’t check into this too deeply, but heres what I do know. Cost is $6.00 per hour. I don’t know if that is per child or not, but I would think so. Parents must remain on the property while their children are in the Child Care Center, so I assume it is for anyone, not only hotel guests. Also, if the child is taking medication, the parents must be present to administer the meds. Child Care Center staff are prohibited from giving any kind of medicine, even over the counter stuff to any child, period. Also children may not self medicate themselves. A child will only be released to a parent or guardian listed on the child care form and picture ID is required. I did notice the casino has a security guard posted right there at the Child Care Center, which I thought gave a good feeling of safety.

Garden Buffett:

We ate here twice. The first was on Monday evening for Steak night. Cost was like $13.00 per person. I found the filet mignon to be great, but I didn’t care for the other steak types they had. Like any other buffett, there are going to be some foods you like and some you don’t. Our Fun Book came with a coupopn for a Free bottle of wine, so we went with the Merlot. I also liked the sweet/sour chicken and the pizza. But I went up for 3rds on the filet mignon.

The 2nd meal we ate was breakfast. This also was not too bad. The usual breakfast fare, along with some lunch type foods. They had some kind of breakfast special promo going, and on Tuesday and Thursday the line for the buffett was unbelievable. Luckily, I ate there on Wed, and there was only like 3 people ahead of me.

Coronado Cafe:

This is open 24 hours with midnight breakfast specials available. I only ate here once, and had the chicken fried steak breakfast. It was not too bad. On this occasion, our waiter was a young kid named Alex. We ordered coffee and he forgot to bring it. Finally a waitress reminded him and he was falling all over himself apoligizing for this mistake. But from there after, his service was great. Seems like every time I took a drink of coffee, he was there with the pot to replace it. So we gave him a good tip.

Movie Theater

The South Coast has a 16 screen movie theater right there in the building. Prices were very reasonable at $6.25 for tickets sold before 6:00pm. They also have a full snack bar with the normal steep movie theater prices. It makes for a nice deversion from gaming, and we took a few hours off to enjoy the movie “Fun with Dick and Jane” which we laughed our butts off watching. The seats are very comfortable, just like a top of the line theater back home.

Arcade

The arcade seemed like a good place for the kids to hang out. I checked out some of the games, since I’m still a bit of a kid at heart. Most were 50 cent games, so a kid can get a lot of play out of 20-30 bucks worth of quarters.

Fun Book

As I said earlier, we got 1 fun book of value coupons. Some were good, some not so good. An example of a good coupon….. A free Sundae at the Ice Cream parlor with the purchase of a sundae. I ordered a large 4 scoop sundae with whipped cream, nuts and of course hot fudge for like $4.00 and got the 2nd one free. An example of a bad coupon…. A free hot dog with a $20.00 race wager at the sports book. I paid for my hot dog out of my own pocket. Cost? A whopping 75 cents!

Gambling

Besides the 2 jackpots we hit at the South Coast that I mentioned above, we also had some good luck at the MGM where Marie hit another $100.00 jackpot. I put $21.00 into a one dollar Blazing 7’s at the Flamingo and hit a $200.00 pay out. Our best single run of luck happened at the Freemont downtown. While waiting for a seat at Tony Roma’s, there was a bank of Blazing 7’s right outside the door. I put a fiver into this one machine and lined up three mixed 7’s for $50.00. I cashed out that ticket and stuck in another $5.00 and hit three 7’s for $75.00. I cashed out that ticket and ran another $5.00 through and cashed out for I think $84.00. All told I ended up taking about $211.00 out of this machine, all while waiting for dinner……

We continued to have some good luck at the South Coast, hitting for about 6 jackpots there.

Other Stuff

We did make a point of stopping at Mermaids for a deep fried Twinkie. I have to admitt, these things were tasty. Deep fried, covered with chocolate sprinkles and powdered sugar, they were about a gazillion calories, but damn it they were sooooooo good.

Also we stopped for lunch one day at the Studio Cafe at the MGM. I really like the coffee they serve there. We ordered a drink called a Funky Monkey… Made with rum, cream de cocoa (spelling) and some other stuff. Very nice taste. I had a ruben and fries which were great and Marie had the patty melt with cole slaw which she said was some of the best slaw she has had in a long time. For desert we ordered a martini split, which was a banana splt served in a very large martini style glass. Another bazillion calorie treat, but screw it, we were in Vegas we didn’t care.

Dinner at Tony Roma’s was good, if not a little spendy (by our standards). It took about 30 minutes to get a table (one of the few times we actually had to wait) and even though it was still pretty early, this place was a mad house. This was the Tony Roma’s in the Freemont.

Monorail Tickets

As you know, the price of a single ride on the monorail went up to $5.00 the first of the year. In Dec I brought two 10 ride tickets from the monorail web site for $20.00 each. At the time the web site asked if my visit was going to be after Jan 6th, 2006 which I said it was. I still only ended up paying $20.00, which was $30.00 less than I would have paid had I waited. Well I was wondering if I was going to get zapped when I tried to use my tickets and be made to pay more. I’m happy to say that was not the case. Though I heard some grumblings from other riders about having to pay more, Marie and I were able to give each other knowing glances, because we planned ahead. We still ahbe 5 rides each left on the tickets, so we are going to give them to a friend going down next month. It will save her and her husband $50.00 on the monorail.

The Duce bus

I wanted to ride this double decker bus, so on the night we headed downtown, we caught this bus at the Flamingo. Rather than mess around with individual tickets, we just brought two 24 hour passes. The ride downtown we had to wait till like we got to the Strat before we could get a seat up top, but the ride back we got a seat right away.

Shuttle Bus

The South Coast has a shuttle bus that runs between it and the Barbary Coast. It was running about every 30 minutes or so while we were there. It should be noted that the bus only holds 19 passengers. Even though the drivers are told not to depart early, some still do, once the bus is full. This tends to mess up the schedule and though you might show up in plenty of time, you find the bus has already left.

There are signs saying riders must show a room key to ride the bus, however I only saw once case where a driver was actually asking for a room key. Since the casino is still new, they don’t have the long lines of taxi’s waiting outside for passengers like the strips places do. You can ask the Bell Desk to call you a cab, or wait for one to come along and grab that.

The casino is about 7 miles from the Strip, and depending on traffic, it might take 45 minutes to make the trip. However on the trips we took, it timed out to be around 15 minutes. Not too bad.

Would I be willing to stay there again? Yes, I think so. As I said, it is new, clean, and the staff seems to be trying real hard to please the guests. My usual perference is to stay on the strip, and I missed walking outside and being in the heart of the action, but as with most anything else, there is always going to be a little give and take.

Well I hope you enjoyed this report. Please stop by my web site to check out the photographed version of this report.