Since my TR got removed because of Moi and all the other goons…here it is again!

Just got back from a very relaxing and easy going weekend trip to Vegas. So
i will keep it short and simple. We had to go the weekend of the 28-30th
because it would probably be a while before we could get some time off from
work. Even though the rates were sky high we found a few deals. Thanks to
the LVTALK deals forum!

Hotel: Orleans Hotel and Casino: Room 1754 with a view of the mountains and
the pool area. Great view but the carpet had stains and the some of the
furniture was a little worn. But I liked the color scheme of this room than
the new tower, less prissy. Check in was fast and easy and room service was
quick too! I got a mini fridge delivered to my room, free of charge.

One thing I noticed about the Orleans was that their were way too many
children/teens hanging out! ANNOYING! Strollers in the casino, gift shop,
the buffet lines, elevators and going to and from the arcade/movie theater
area.

Gambling: We are not big gamblers, but when we did gamble we got quite
lucky. I joined Club Coast, new members get 1000 points with the coupon in
the Funbook and free beads! We searched for my favorite slots, but Orleans
doesn’t have Jackpot Party. I found a Wheel of Fortune slot, didn’t do to
good. I found another slot machine near registration/ Kate’s Korner and I
won a nice little jackpot. I hit a 7 and 2 double 10x’s for 5000 points. I
won $263, so it was like I got the room rate for free! What a friendly
casino, people kept coming up to congratulate me. We won $60 at the
Blackjack table and lost $20 each at the Jackpot Party at the Rio. I told
you we aren’t big gamblers.

Nightlife/Dining Out: The Orleans gives out this funbook ($250 value) full
of free drinks at any casino bar to 25% off at the gift shop. We got two
funbooks and a leftover funbook from a previous trip from 2004! We used all
the free drink coupons (3 books, 15 free drinks) on Friday and Saturday
nights at the Mardi Gras Bar, Alligator Bar and Irish Pub.
We had oyster shooters and a few beers at Big Al’s Oyster Bar on Friday
night. We went for a few drinks at the Mardi Gras Bar, then we decided to
take the party upstairs. Orleans has a liquor store with very good prices.
We got a bottle of White Star champagne and a 6 pack Red Stripe Lager to
celebrate my slot machine win at the Orleans. We got some flutes and
appetizers brought up to our room and we got smashed. After the champagne
and beer we went downstairs to the Irish Pub. We didn’t like the Irish Pub
too much, just not our crowd. But we got free beers and put up with the
lousy music from the band Section 8! Yeah you read it right, Section 8! LOL!
We called it a night.

Saturday we had lunch at the French Market Buffet. The Italian station
wasn’t to good. Mexican station was descent. I didn’t feel like Asian
food,no comment. American station was the best, good fried chicken. Nothing
spectacular, it sure wasn’t the Wynn buffet. Besides we had a big day ahead
of us and just needed food to cure the hangover. By the way this meal was
FREE because of the promo code I used for my reservation. The vouches said
Free E-Promo.

Saturday night I made an 8:15 p.m. reservation at Mon Ami Gabi for dinner.
We were seated right away in the cafe area. We didn’t care about not sitting
in the patio, too hot. We still had a view of the fountain show and the
bachlorette party seated next to us.

Starters: baguette with butter

Cocktails: 2 French Kiss, 3 Mojitos and a Lemon Drop.

Hors d’oeuvres: Onion Soup Au Gratin and Escargots De Bourgogne, with garlic

Entree: Filet Mignon, merlot butter; red wine sauce and Roasted Salmon
Tournedos, leek mashed potato, leek nage, bercy butter

Dessert: We shared a Strawberry Crêpe. Strawberries, Vanilla Ice Cream &
Whipped Cream

Very nice place to dine at and very affordable: bill was only $145.

Hanged out for a bit at the Paris. Napoleons bar/lounge was happening, nice
atmosphere. Went back to the Orleans to pick up something. I stayed in the
car at the parking lot. Good bike security. The S/O kept checking up on me
every 10 minutes. Took about 45 minutes to get from Orleans to the Wynn. The
line to Tryst was too long, next! Lure was better, walked right in. Nice
dark lounge with purplish lighting, very packed. By the way i didn’t see
anybody wearing flip flops at the Wynn. Everybody was dressed in their best,
classy. This place sure beats the Irish Pub at the Orleans. Had a few drinks
then took it back to the Orleans for Blackjack and to use up the rest of the
free drink coupons. Drunk as hell we took it back upstairs and put the DO
NOT DISTURB SIGN on our door!

Sunday morning we had the Carnival Brunch Buffet at the Rio. As always this
buffet was very good. We were seated near the buffet area, $23.99 p/person.

Chester Chicken at the Primm Outlet Mall food court.

Baja Fresh in Barstow

Shopping: Saturday we went shopping at the Las Vegas Premium Outlet: 875
South Grand Central Parkway

Found some awesome deals at:

Factory Brand Shoes
Fossil
Seiko The Company Store
Sunglass Hut
Two Lips Shoes
Nike Factory Store
Naturalizer
Ecko Unltd
Jones New York
St. John Company Store
L’Occitane
Perfumania
Hi Jenny

I bought quite a few things, yes the hubby did get mad and we got in a
verbal fight walking back towards the car. He said i was selfish for leaving
him outside while i tried on some blouses.

The drive to Cali took about 5 hours and it was very hot!

The children at the Orleans were annoying! For example: Saturday night we
are having dinner at the Paris. We are in the Orleans elevator and a family
of 4 steps in, stroller and all. The child tells her Mom “It smells like
perfume in here” with a grossed out tone in her voice! A man takes the heat
and says “It’s me, I’m wearing cologne.” Another example: Kids holding up
the lines insisting that they have an open account to charge everything to
their room/ Daddy’s credit card. Another example: Little kids playing around
in the casino with their eyes shut. Then they get dizzy and crash into you.

Overall it was a good trip and I would stay again at the Orleans, but not
during the summer when the brats are out. Next trip will be on the strip.

Background- I have been visiting Las Vegas at least once or twice a year since the early 80’s. I usually travel with my friend Donna. We usually go out at this time of year because our other friends are also there for their timeshare week.

Flight and Hotel- We flew Allegiant Air out of Duluth, MN for the first time on a special 2 for the price of 1 deal. With this deal, you had to book a hotel package through Allegiant Air to get the airfare discount. We chose to stay at the cheapest hotel available at the time which was the Gold Coast. (downtown was sold out) It cost us about 250 per person for air and hotel.

I found that I liked not having comped room. I didn’t have to worry about “stiffing” the casino and not playing enough to be asked back. I also didn’t worry about daily averages etc. I just played where I wanted to this trip and had a lot more fun.

We really liked flying out of Duluth instead of Minneapolis. It is about an hour closer and a lot less traffic. Parking at the airport is 7.00 per day. We plan to take this route from now on whenever possible even without the special price.

The flight was approximately 3 hours and uneventful. There was no cab line and I told the driver to take us the fastest way to the Gold Coast which meant the tunnel. I didn’t really care about the 5.00 extra since it was a Saturday and I thought that the area around the strip would be congested.

We checked in right away on Sat. There was no line and we got the 2 bed non-smoking room that we asked for. The room at the Gold Coast was clean and adequate. There is a small tub/shower and toilet in a small room with a sink/closet just outside. The beds were soft (some kind of spongy material with no springs in mattress) and there is a coffee maker in the room. The plasma television was a nice touch. On a downside, a group of about 15-20 high school age girls also checked in on my floor. I think that they were some kind of a team. Judging from their behavior in the hall, I wasn’t happy to have them as neighbors, but they actually weren’t that bad. I just don’t know why groups of underage teens would be booked into a hotel with a casino.

I play .25 video poker almost exclusively. My favorites are Double Double Bonus and Deuces Bonus.

After check in, we walked over to Rio for the dinner buffet. We subscribe to Las Vegas Advisor and used our coupon book (POV) for a 2 for 1. It was a good buffet, especially for half-price. After the buffet, we walked back over to Gold Coast to catch the shuttle to Orleans. I hit 4’s for $100, and A’s for 200 but did a lot of losing also. Went to bed about even.

I agree with other posters about the number of kids at the Orleans. It seemed that I couldn’t walk anywhere without bumping into a stroller or a toddler. I almost brained a couple of teens who were
continuously snapping their gum right behind me while waiting for their parents in line at the cashier.

The shuttle from Orleans back to Gold Coast was an interesting experience. A homeless woman tried to board and the driver told her that she had to have a room key. She argued with him that there were seats available and that he should transport her without a key. The driver ended up telling her that she smelled and he didn’t want her stinking up his bus. She got off. I felt kind of bad for her. Then on the way, a young man (who appeared to think that we all wanted to hear him talk) made a few comments to the driver that he was going to sue for some water dripping on him from a window or something. The driver stopped right on the road and told him if he didn’t like it he could get off. The young man said he was just kidding and finally the driver started driving again, but I thought he was going to kick the guy right off the bus. A little while later, the driver apologized for being “snappy” and said that it had been a long night. The guy who almost got kicked off, started yapping again and telling everyone to give the driver a tip and talking about how he was nice guy for apologizing etc. I was happy when we finally got back to the Gold Coast. Yes, we both tipped.

We used our 10.00 off POV coupons for the Paris buffet on Sunday morning. It is regular breakfast prices early in the morning so we ended up only paying 3.00 each. I thought that the breakfast was very good. We also found the service to be excellent.

We were supposed to stay on the strip all day and see Elton John that evening, but the show was cancelled at the last minute. Donna heard from a bartender that it was Elton who cancelled. After breakfast, I stayed and played at Paris and got dealt 3 Jacks with a Joker on Joker Poker. Up popped the other Jack for 250. Good start to the day. I played at Bally’s and Caesar’s for the rest of the day. We had dinner that evening at the Stage Deli. We both had the corned beef sandwich and new york cheesecake. Both were good. I think that I ended up about 200 down for the day.

I usually get up early and go to bed early while in Vegas. I would lose at least 1 or 2 hundred before breakfast every morning. My morning coffee and Bailey’s was pretty expensive this trip. Other than that, I was pretty much holding my own. Winning a little and losing a little, but always within my daily allotment.

On Monday we went to the Commander’s Palace for the martini lunch. I had the asparagus-artichoke soup, barbecued chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries and profiteroles for dessert. The soup was delicious, the sandwich and fries were okay and the dessert was good.
Donna had some kind of tomato salad, some kind of stew with pork and bread pudding for dessert. She liked the salad and bread pudding, but didn’t care for the stew. We both liked the martinis and left quite full and happy. I had the Commander’s Special, Lemon Drop and Cosmo. Donna had the Commander’s Special, Lemon Drop and an Appletini.

After lunch, we shopped a little in the Dessert Passage mall and worked our way back to Barbary to catch the shuttle back to Gold Coast. We were meeting our timeshare friends at Palms that evening. Played at Palms for the afternoon. I got A’s for 200 and played on that for most of the day. I think I ended up losing a little overall. We met our friends, and also met some of their relatives who live in Vegas. We all had dinner at Gardunos using our 50% off POV coupon. I had a shrimp fajita which was very good. The margaritas were excellent. Had a great time with everyone. FYI- They only let us use one POV coupon for all nine of us at the table even though we had 3 coupons.

Lost at the Gold Coast at their bar by the buffet that night. I like that bar because you can sit on low and comfortable chairs rather than barstools but couldn’t stay because it was wiping me out. Sat at a deuces bonus bank and was dealt 4 deuces for 250. Just couldn’t get that ace kicker to make it 500, but was happy anyway.

Tue.
Did my usual morning loss at the Gold Coast while waiting for Donna to come down so that we could go downtown for the day. Took a cab to MSS to use our 2 for 1 POV coupon for the breakfast buffet. Had kind of a bad start with some people from Hawaii. I think that they were there for some kind of basketball tournament judging from some of the shirts that they were wearing. When we walked into the buffet entrance, there were some in line and some standing at the entrance to the buffet and talking in a group. They all seemed to know each other, but were all paying in groups of two to four each. That didn’t stop them from budging in front of Donna and me though. They were loud, obnoxious and walked right in front of us in the buffet line. I guess that they thought that since they knew each other, they could just push ahead of us in line also. I didn’t even get an omelette because I knew that it would be more of the same. Donna braved the omelette line and said that they pushed in front of her and each other in the omelette line also. It wasn’t anything horrible, but just annoying for adults to act like that.

Main Street Station was my luckiest casino this trip. I got a royal dealt to me for 1000 on a slant top Game King playing deuces bonus. I also got A’s with a kicker for 500 at the bar. I really needed those two wins because I lost everywhere else downtown. Four Queens was the worst to me. I couldn’t get a four of a kind there no matter what I played. Met with our timeshare friends at the Freemont and played and drank at the bar for a while. Friends went to the seafood buffet at the Freemont and Donna and I ate at Binions Ranch Steakhouse. Donna had about 100 in comps that she wanted to use up and I gladly helped her. We both had an appetizer and entree skipping the salad. I had the Oysters Rockefeller, filet and garlic mashed potatoes and Donna had some kind of shrimp appetizer, filet and roasted red potatoes. Broccoli also came with the meal. Everything was excellent. The bill, with 2 glasses of wine, came to about 100. I highly recommend this place for an “Old Vegas” steakhouse.

Took a cab back to the Gold Coast for a little more gambling before bed. I sat down at a deuces bonus machine and was dealt two deuces. Up popped two more deuces with an ace kicker for 500. What a suprise. I’ve been playing this game for years and this was the first time that I’d ever gotten the kicker with the deuces. I wanted to stay up all night, but only made it until midnight.

Had to get up at 4:30 to get to the airport for our 7:00 a.m. flight. Smooth flight home. Had a great time. Ended up spending about 200 for the whole trip. Can’t wait for next Summer!!

**edit**
I forgot to add that someone tried to scam one of our friends at Bellagio last Sunday. A woman with a baby gave a sob story about not having any money to get home and all she needed was 40.00. My friend said that her tears were quite convincing, so be careful.