My wife and I go to Las Vegas each summer as an opportunity to get away on a vacation without the kids (though they are all on their own now except our 16 year old son). We love Vegas. We have the boats in Indiana and though they are a good escape they are not Las Vegas. We are small rollers (vp, Pai Gow Poker, and slots). We love the shows, the food and the people. We have stayed at one hotel for the entire trips until last year when I made multiple reservations for our stay. We like the difference in hotels though the moving can be a pain. We also rented a car again this year. Having a car has taken away one thing that we always enjoyed and that is walking the strip and going into all the different casinos and gambling a bit then moving on. Therefore our list of visited casinos is much shorter than it has been in recent trips.

We flew out of Indianapolis on Sat, July 30 at 2:10. Indianapolis has been the cheapest place for us to fly Southwest. Columbus does not have the better rate so the past couple times to LV we have driven to Indy and flown from there. We arrived and checked in with no problems and our flight was on time. Very good flight. Smooth and arrived 20 minutes early. I like the direct flights and at 5:20 LV time we were there. We went to Dollar and picked up our car. Things seemed a bit unorganized at Dollar as a group of people were standing under a tent, no line, no order seemingly. Attendants were driving up cars and would get out and say “mid-size” and whoever needed a mid-sze jumped in and off they would go. A Dodge Stratus came up and I had ordered a Dodge Stratus or “similar” mid-size, so when the attendant asked who wanted a mid-size, my wife and I took our bags to the trunk, put them in and off we were to the BC.

We had stayed at the Barbary Coast last year for three nights. BC is a nice, comfortable hotel. It had one of the best rates for a Sat night stay so I booked it. We also like to gamble there. They have good slots and Pai Gow Poker for $5 ($10 at busy times). We checked in with no problems and were given a 4th floor room overlooking Ballys and the Bellagio fountains. BC doesn’t have all the extras that some of the others have but we like it. It is nice to sit at the window at night and look down the strip. After checking in we headed down to the casino. We were to meet two friends at TI at 7:00 and we wanted to check out the casino first. We sat down at the Pai Gow table ($10) and began playing. As with all Pai Gow games it is a slow sociable game. We like it. It is simple, no pressure, and drink service is very good. We played for about 45 minutes before we decided we had better head down toward TI because our friends would be calling us soon to meet with them. They called as we were approaching Venetian and we finally found them (after searching for a while because the crowd around TI for the Sirens show was still milling around). We decided to go to Kahunaville for some drinks and food. I had heard a lot about Kahunaville on this board but had yet to visit it. We were told it would be about a fifteen minute wait so we went to the bar and had a drink. We were called to a table. I had a crab cake sandwich (outstanding) and my wife had a cheesesteak sandwich (outstanding). Our friends had eaten in mid afternoon so they just had drinks. Kahunaville soon became very rowdy as the bar tenders (one on each side of the bar) began a competition juggling their bottles and putting on their show. The bartender each tried to get their side of the bar become the loudest as they performed their act of juggling bottles and pouring drinks from stacked cups. Finally our side won the yelling match and the bartender began pouring into patron’s mouths. She went up and down the bar pouring a shot right from the bottle into people’s mouths. My wife was able to crowd up to the bar and get a shot. Overall we had a great night. Our friends had been at Vegas all week and were flying back in the morning. We had passed Mystere and my wife and I had seen it last year. When we raved about it, our friends wanted to see if they could get tickets and go see the 10:00 show. They were lucky enough to get tickets so we left them as they went up to the show and we went back down the strip to the BC. We again jumped in on the Pai Gow table and played till about midnight. One thing about Pai Gow is that you get can win slowly and then you can lose slowly. It is a good break from slots and vp. We ended the night around even with our Pai Gow play. (more…)

TR July 20-July 27 Barbary Coast, IP, Aladdin

I went out to Vegas Wednesday July 20th kind of spur of the moment. My return was planned for July 26th, but I extended it a day to go see Elton John perform at Caesar’s Coliseum.

My excuse was to meet a friend of mine who just got his first coaching job and was going to be in Vegas to scout players at the Nike, Reebok and Adidas basketball camps. Of course, he didn’t need my help so it was just an excuse to be there while he was, but any will do and this would be my excuse. He doesn’t gamble (imagine that?). He stayed off strip while I stayed on the strip and we met up for meals while he was there (he left Sunday, I didn’t leave until Wednesday).

Flights
Went out on America West non-stop redeye with no notice and had a row to myself ($147) and came back on half empty Southwest flight (using credits accumulated on Southwest). The flight out was perfect. Flight back I got stuck in Albuquerque on my way to El Paso with 4 hour delay due to maintenance problem on the connecting flight coming in from Oakland which ironically made an unplanned stop in Las Vegas to get it’s “ mechanical problem” fixed. The Flight attendants told me that some passengers just got off in Vegas and never got back on. I can understand that!!!!! For more reasons then one. So while I’m in Albuquerque my plane was in Vegas. It was roughly 4 hours late when all was said in done. So if you can believe it, America West defeats Southwest in my air travels this trip.

I took a cab to Barbary Coast. The shuttles were non-existent on arrival (10 p.m.) and a rental car was out of the question for what they were asking. I got a grumpy driver who complained most of the way about other drivers. As I see it, he was complaining mostly about other cabs but I kept my mouth shut.

Hotels
The first two nights I stayed at the Barbary Coast on a mailed offer, two nights free, dinner for two in the Victorian room and a free gift (BC tote bag). I was in room 218, which was hovering right over the pedestrian bridge from Bally’s to Barbary Coast with a tremendous view right down the strip. I could see all the way down to Mandalay Bay, what a view! (more…)