Just got back from 4 nights in Las Vegas. I'll give a brief recap of the trip.

On arrival the rental car I had confirmed through Thrifty wasn't really confirmed. They refused to honor the $19.99/day rate I was quoted when I called despite a confirmed reservation at that price. They then tried to charge me $39.99/day for a Dodge Neon. After telling the attendent where he could park his Neon, I rented a Buick Skyhawk for $32.99/day from Allstate.

I have always said it's the person who sits next to me that hits the jackpot. So this time I made sure that I sat next to my wife. After $5 in quarters she hit a $400 jackpot on a non-progressive Haywire machine. Not to be out done I hit 4 dueces on a Dueces Wild VP nickle machine. I thought it would never stop kicking out those nickles. I didn't know they cold weigh so much. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

We where present for the fireworks at the Paris grand opening. We didn't brave the crowd that night. Instead we got up early and went down @ 5 a.m. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. Park Place gave everyone a lesson on who to open a resort. Everything was up and running with the exception of the Eifel Tower elevator. We heard several stories as to why it wasn't open but the most plausable was the they where removing the fireworks. They said it wold be open the next day.

The Venetian on the other hand is still not complete. Scaffolding is still visable to one of the front faces when you go in on the south people mover. Many of the stores are still boarded up in the Canal Shops. We didn't visit the wax museum or ride the gondalas. The resort is nice but they should have finished it before opening.

Gambled some downtown and had good luck @ Lady Luck. Only spent $50 and ran up 534 in points. At $1 per point we got some pretty good play out of their slots. I also like who their waitress's mix the drink right where your playing. I never had to wait for them to come back after I ordered.

We took the helicopter ride of the strip @ night with Papillon helicopters. It was a huge copter with ceiling to floor windows for a great view. Each seat had it's own window. They have a window in the floor which is why we choose them. Unfortunately this only provides a great view of the resort parking lots.

The next night we took in the early Lance Burton show @ the Monte Carlo. Very good show that is well worth the $40. He still brings the kids up on stage and interacts well with the audience.

Most of the dinning was of the inexpensive prime rib type. San Remo and Main Street Station have good prime rib. The steak & 2 tails dinner at Lari's in the freemont was horrible. We had eaten it on our last trip and it was pretty good but had to choke it down this time. Service was equally bad at the freemont. We won't be back. We where also dissapointed in the breakfast buffet @ Bally's. For the 2 of us it was over $20. The steaks where tough and kept in a warming tray. The hashbrowns where cold, scambled eggs where runny, and the omlets weren't made to order. The wiatress on the other hand was great. Coffee and juice never ran out. We also stopped in at Krispy Kreme in the Excalibur. Excellent galzed doughnuts but the others are just average. The way they galze them makes them have a krispy coating of sugar on the outside while they inside is a light fluffy (Kremey) center. Now I know why they are called Krispy Kreme!

All in all we had a great trip. We left with $500 spending cash and came home with $550. First tiem thats ever happened. Shelley has made me put it in savings for our next trip.
Unfortunatly it looks as if that might not be until next Oct. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/frown.gif[/img]. We'll have to see if we can change that!

Thanks for the report, Doug.....and good move away from Thrifty. I'm glad you were able to find a car at a lower rate than their inflated offer.

It sounds like you ate well on the trip; where did you have the prime rib at MSS? I tried it once in their coffee shop, and it wasn't very good. On the other hand, the strawberry shortcake there was great!

It's really nice to hear someone came home with more money than they started out with; that hasn't happened to me in a long time<g>.

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Daisy-Beyond Vegas Moderator
daisy@talkvegas.com

Doug,
Thanks for the trip report. Also, congradulations on coming home a winner.
Gale

Well, the prime rib @ MSS was in the coffee shop. It was around lunch time so maybe they let it sit all day? I know when we ate at Freemont coffee shop last trip it was good but this time it was very bad. Guess timing is everything.
We have eaten at San Remo several times at variouse times of the day and night and haven't had a bad meal yet. Service at San Remo has also been very good.

Doug, Thanks for the report. I hope I meet you in Las Vegas and you let me sit next to you [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]
What was your opinion of Paris overall? From what I have read they are a first class operation.
It's always nice to come home with some money. Now, get started on planning that next trip. I know you didn't mean that you were waiting until Oct 2000 did you?

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John
Moderator Dining Forum
john@talkvegas.com

Doug,
I enjoyed the trip report and congratulations on being a winner. It is always great when you go home with more money than you started with. I've had all kinds of results...coming home even, ahead and broke!

Doug,

Thanks for the trip report. Any time you can come home with ANY money, it's a good trip. More than you took and it's a bonus. How do you compare the Paris with places that you have stayed at in the past? Your wife sounds like mine in wanting to stash the winnings away for the next trip. Unfortunately AC is usually our next trip.

I have come home over 10 grand ahead 1996 when I hit the big jack pot. I have also come home and had to use the credit card to get the car out of the parking lot. But I sure enjoyed all the trips to Vegas win or lose.

Thanks for your trip report, Doug. It is always good to come home a winner, although not too many have had that experience. You should sit next to me the next time you visit because I know the feeling well of congratulating the person next to me for the big jackpot.
I have had the prime rib for dinner at the MSS coffee shop and found it quite good, especially for the money. It's not Lawrey's, but the price isn't either.
I hope you get the opportunity of visiting Vegas before October of next year, especially with your winnings burning a hole in your pocket.

Doug,

Enjoyed your report, thanks for posting it.

Like the move to avoid the Paris crowds, although at 5am, some of the people on this BB are just going to bed.

We stayed at the Venetian in July, and back then they didn't have a lot of their act together. Last I heard, those leins on the property total over $300 million. All I could think of is, w/o that location they would be in a lot more trouble than they already are.



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Mark
Moderator - Entertainment
mark@talkvegas.com

Doug,
Thanks so much for your trip report. I can't wait to try a Krispy Kreme!

Gail, Lancaster, CA.

Paris is notably smaller than the Venetian or Bellagio but equal in class. While Paris is complete, the Venetian still has scaffolding in place and there are a LOT of stores not open yet in the canal shops.

What really impressed me was the professionalism of all the employees. Paris has employees everywhere and they all great you when they see you. Even the security gaurds are friendly and helpful. This property is a class act all the way. When we visited both the Venetian & Bellagio, no one greeted us. Perhaps this won't last much past the new phase but it was very nice and inviting. The employees make you WANT to stay there.

Unfortunately our next "planed" trip is for the fall of 2000. We own t/s at Polo Towers and our second uit is not finished. We where given a certificate to exchange but, do to Nevada law, we can't stay at another t/s resort within a 100 mile radius of the one we own. Therefore we will be in Lake Tahoe in July. We had also promised our Dau. to go to Disneyworld so we traded 1/2 of our t/s (the 1 bdrm portion) for a week in Forida in March. That only leaves us with the Studio Portion for 1 week in Vegas.

As we live in Wichita KS., we can use MLT Vacaions which runs a charter out of OKC. On short notice we can get some good deals. We just have to make our sched. fit around them.
Our 1st trip was though MLT and we got a rate of $458 which include RT air for 2 and 4 nights at the Riv. plus tickets to the comedy club. Recently saw the same deal for the end of Sept. for $480. After coming home with a little more than we left with, I'm sure we'll be back before the fall of 2000. It's just to hard to stay away. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

Doug
MLT also runs out of Tulsa, we have used them many times when they were using Sun Country air lines. Don't like the planes they use now. They seem to be lacking a lot of maintenace. We been geting good prices from Southwest, Our oct tickets cost 214.00 each.

Mark, Those people that go to bed at 5 am should be ashamed of themselves. I always make it to at least 6 am before passing out<G> What wimps<G>

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John
Moderator Dining Forum
john@talkvegas.com

doug: Thanks so much for the trip report. It's too bad about the Thrifty incident starting your trip on the wrong foot. Guess they have seen the last of you.

The helicopter ride sounds really good, so thanks for being the Talk Vegas guinea pig and give us such a good report on it <g>.

WTG coming home winners! I love to hear about that happening, since it doesn't happen very often. You sure do sound like you will be going back to LV sooner than later.

Doug,
Thanks for the report. Glad you worked something out on your car. Good job with the machines. Would you recommend the helicopter ride? I've seen coupons for those, did this place have coupons?



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Jeff, Gambling Moderator
senatorjm@talkvegas.com

I highly recomend the helicopter ride. It has to be the most unique view of the strip possible. I could not find coupons for Papillon but have seen many coupons for others. Papillon charges $68 pp for the 15 to 20 min. flight. I have seen others for as little as $39.
We had taken a helicopter ride over tablerock lake this summer in a helicopter that resembled most of what I have seen on the strip. These seat four across in the back. The problem we had with this is Shelley got stuck in the middle and couldn't see out very well. This thing Papillon has is HUGE. Six seats and none of them touch each other. Plus each seat has it's own window so your not in the middle trying to see over the person next to you.
The one downfall is if you end up on the right hand side (the side we were on), you are on the side away from the strip and must look across the helicopter to see the strip. Unfortunately all of the companies must have this problem as I have watched them all fly the same circular pattern around the strip. Papillon's helicopter has huge windows and this was not a problem for us. The window in the floor was a bust though. It only provides a great view of the resort parking lots and the occasional swimming pool. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

[This message has been edited by doug (edited September 09, 1999).]

Doug, Thanks for your good TR.I always wanted to take that Chopper tour.I think you talked me into it.Glad you won.Hope to get to LV in Oct.it's iffy now.But I'll try like hell to get there.Involved in moving soon.Just snuck in here to get my Vegas Fix.Love these TRs.Thanks for the info.on Paris sounds good! Maybe I'll take them up on the $99 offer in Dec? TTYL.
Bob NY.

Doug, I hope you felt guilty coming home with

Doug,
Great Report! And a winner too!
My wife knows all about those heavy nickels! <s> A wins a win though, so take the money and run....that is if you can lift it! LOL

Haven't been in the San Remo for quite a while. What's your impression of the casino?

Thanks for taking the time to type it all out for us. I look forward to your next trip report and hope we don't have to wait till Next October for it!




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Lee-PA
Moderator, What's New Forum
lee@talkvegas.com