Confuscious say, woman who packs many suitcases writes long trip report. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/wink.gif[/img]

Several months ago, Michael's family made plans to spend the Thanksgiving holiday in Las Vegas. They asked us to join them, but at that time, we were unable to arrange time off from work, so we told them that we wouldn't be able to join them. About a month ago, Michael was able to arrange time off from work so we decided to join the family for Thanksgiving. We had thought about telling our family and Talk Vegas friends that we were coming, but we thought it would be fun to surprise everyone. Keeping that secret would prove to be very, very difficult for me, but I did manage to do it. That month seemed like an eternity, but eventually Wednesday night arrived and it was time to load up the van with our suitcases and head to Philadelphia where we would stay overnight at the airport Westin before flying out on Thanksgiving morning. The last time we stayed at Philadelphia airport, we had stayed at the Sheraton, which was badly in need of an upgrade. For the same price that we paid to stay at the Sheraton, we had a suite at the Westin. Actually all rooms there are suites. I would recommend this hotel and I am sure we will stay there again in the future.

We arrived at the airport early on Thanksgiving morning and we were able to upgrade to first class as we had done before. National airlines is now charging $120 each way for the first class upgrade on their long haul flights. Of course our bags were selected for random search going through security. I think next time I'll save time and just hand the bag to security, since I know it will be searched. <vbg> When we boarded, we were happy to see that Angela would be our flight attendant again. We met her on our Chicago to Vegas flight in July, and she is and excellent flight attendant. Angela, if you are reading this, I want you to know that seat 2A is still a lucky one. <vbg> Flight was uneventful, and we landed about 10 minutes late. We hopped the National car shuttle, and chose our non-white <vbg> car from the Emerald Isle selection. Since our flight was a little late and baggage claim was a little slow, we drove to the Mirage and checked in, but we didn't take the bags to the room. We walked across the street to the Venetian to surprise Andy, but we were the ones who were surprised when we found out that Andy was not working on Thanksgiving for the first time in years. After swearing everyone to secrecy, we decided to return the next day. We walked over to Harrah's where Michael's family was staying. We had planned to call them on a house phone and find out their room number before walking up to their room, but as we came near a snack bar area, we saw Michael's mother Dorothy (aka "the lucky charm") and his sister-in-law Sheila sitting there. Luckily they didn't see us first. Michael pulled out the video camera, and with it rolling, recorded it as I walked up behind them and said Happy Thanksgiving. Needless to say, they were shocked. Mom just kept saying that she couldn't believe we were there. Wally (Michael's brother), Sandy (Michael's sister), Frank (Michael's nephew), and his wife Cindy were placing bets at the sports book, so they weren't there when we arrived. A few minutes later they came to the snack bar area and they were shocked to see us. However, Wally said he was sure we would manage to get there somehow.

After everyone recovered from the shock, the gang told us they were planning to walk over to the Venetian so we joined them. A friend of Sandy's had told her to be sure to go on the gondola ride, so that was where they were headed. I tried to talk them out of it, telling them it wasn't that great especially for the price. I wanted to take them to Madame Tussaud's, but they still wanted to go on the ride and since it was a family vacation, we decided to join them. When we purchased the tickets, which cost $10 each, we were told the next available time wasn't for over two hours. We all decided to check out the casino. Everyone seemed to like the Grand Canal shops and the details in the casino. I think Mom was most impressed, since she hadn't been to Las Vegas in about 25 years. She was amazed at how the town had changed. I went in search of a winning video poker machine, while everyone else tried their luck at the tables. I made my contribution to the Adelson building fund until it was time to go on the gondola ride.

Michael and I went in one gondola with Mom and Sandy, while the others went in another gondola. The ride is very short, less than ten minutes and goes to the one end of the shops, turns around and goes back. When you first get on the boat, they take your picture, hoping of course, that you will pay the extra $10 for the picture. The gondolier told us this story of how his father is a gondolier in Venice and that's how his father met his mother. Sandy believed the whole story. I said he's probably from a small town in the midwest. <vbg> He sings a song to you partway through the ride. Michael and I thought the gondola ride was a waste of time and money, Sandy thought it was wonderful, and everyone else thought it was ok, but nothing great. I guess our group concensus would be don't bother with this when there are so many other fun things to do in Las Vegas. Everyone except us bought the souvenir picture. Michael said they should include the picture in the $10 ticket price.

After our ride, our family had tickets for the early show of the Improv at Harrah's, so we made arrangements to meet later that night downtown. Michael and I headed down to Main Street Station to suprise the Talk Vegas gang. Everyone was shocked to see us, especially Lee, who will now never again believe anything I say. <vbg> However, we were also surprised to see JMT. We had a great time talking with Lee, Sue, Sandy, Ed, Gail, Joe and JMT. We had dinner reservations at the Pullman Grille at 6:15, so we said our good-byes and headed over to the restaurant. We were told it would be "a few minutes", so we had a seat. Well, "a few minutes" turned into a 35 minute wait, as they seated a number of couples before us, who actually arrived after us. I was just getting ready to ask how much longer we would have to wait when we were finally called for our table. Since it was Thanksgiving, they had a special turkey dinner, but since neither of us are big turkey fans, we decided to order from the regular menu. I ordered the peppercorn steak and Michael had the New York strip steak. Michael also had salad and a tomato beef soup. We also split an order of sauteed mushrooms, which was not on the menu, but was very good. Our server was very good until it came time to bring our check. We asked our server for the check and since it was taking awhile, I told Michael I was going to the restroom and he should meet me outside. When I came out of the restroom, he wasn't there, so I went back to the Pullman where he was still waiting for the check. After 20 minutes I told Michael I was going to the casino to play and he should meet me there. The bill finally came after about 30 minutes with no explanation from our server as to the delay.

Since it wasn't quite time to meet our family, we decided to stop in at the Golden Nugget, where we haven't been since our first trip. We went to sign up for a slot card. At the Golden Nugget, they give you a temporary card until you earn 30 points. However, I mentioned to the host that helped us that we played at the Mirage and Bellagio and he gave us a permanent card right away. Their slot club will be changing next year and be just like the Mirage. It will give comp and cash back for five cent and above machines. Right now it is dollar and up machines only. We played there for awhile since we found some $1 9/6 Jacks of better machines. Michael did ok, but I lost again. At 9PM, it was time to go to Binions and meet the rest of the family. Mom and Sandy were there and we saw the Freemont Street Experience. Wally, Sheila, Frank and Cindy were still playing at the Four Queens, so we decided to go into Binions because Sandy wanted to see the $1,000,000. They no longer take free pictures, but you can still take pictures on your own. Mom and Sandy played machines until about 9:45 and then we went back outside to wait for everyone else. They came just in time to see the 10:00 Freemont Street Experience Show which was the country one. The first song was, Let's Go To Vegas, so of course, Michael and I sang along. <vbg> Everyone wanted to go to Binions so we joined them. I lost (surprise). Mom and Sheila played machines while the rest played craps and blackjack. At about midnight, we decided to go back to the Mirage, since we had not played there yet. We wanted to take Mom back to Harrah's, but she was having so much fun she decided to stay. We hit the machines. I still losing and I'm beginning to think that my luck luck will never change. We finally called it a night at about 4AM.

to be continued.....


[This message has been edited by Lee Ann (edited December 03, 1999).]

Friday
We met everyone in front of Caesars and we went into the Forum shops. I was surprised that although there were many people, it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be for Black Friday shopping. We looked around in the stores and waited to see the statue show. We all went into Caesars and we got everyone signed up for slot cards, so hopefully they will get some room offers to tempt them to go back. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img] They all seemed to like Caesars, but Sandy was the only one who won and her win was only $40. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/frown.gif[/img] Mom and Wally took a cab to Bellagio while the rest of us walked. We waited a long time for them to arrive and found out that the first cab driver refused to take them the short distance, even though they promised him a good tip. While we were waiting, we saw the dancing waters, which was Sheila's favorite thing in the trip. Mom and Wally finally arrived and they decided that they would like to see "O" that night. We all went to see our slot host to see if she could get us tickets. Unfortunately, they were sold out and this was the only night that they could see the show. They decided they wanted to eat at the Bellagio buffet, so I asked LaDora for a line pass, so Mom didn't have to wait in line. She gave all of us a line pass and comped the buffet for Michael and me. She even walked over to the buffet with us to make sure we got in with no problems, since we were a large group. We were taken right in. If you saw how long the buffet line was, you would know how important that line pass was. Thanks LaDora, you are the best! Everyone loved the buffet and with full stomachs we walked over to see the conservatory. I had hoped it would be decorated for Christmas, but it was still fall/Thanksgiving and was beautiful as always. We left everyone to go over to the Venetian to surprise Andy. He had just sent us a Christmas card and wrote, "see you soon in Vegas." I walked into the gallery and said, "Excuse me, but I got this card in the mail today, so I hopped the next flight. Is this soon enough?" The look on Andy's face was priceless, which Michael captured on video. We spent some time catching up with him and planned to meet Sunday night. We walked back to the Mirage where everyone met to see the volcano erupt. They decided to go back to Harrah's and we decided to go find Lee and Sue and Sandy at the Garden bar. We asked the bartender and he hadn't seen them all day. We decided to continue on to Paris to see if we could find them there. We introduced ourselves to Alan and Paul and asked if they had seen Lee and Sue. Alan and Paul hadn't seen them either, but we decided to sit and have a drink and wait for them. We enjoyed talking to Alan and Paul. I can see why Lee and Sue enjoy hanging out at their bar. We will be sure to stop by and say hello on our next visit to Las Vegas. Since I was losing here too, I decided it was time to go back to the Mirage where of course I lost until we went to bed at about 3:30AM.

Saturday
My dear late father-in-law used to have a saying---"if money lasts, luck will change." I started the day cashing in some traveler's checks and of course the cashier told me good luck. I told her that it had to get better because it really couldn't get any worse. We had arranged to meet everyone at Harrah's, but we still had some time to spare, so I decided to play a quarter jacks or better machine at the Mirage because the jackpot was nearing $1600. I sat down and started to play and within 15 minutes, I was dealt the K, Q and J of diamonds and drew the A and 10 for $1596. Michael was playing nearby, so he saw and heard me do my victory dance and chant. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img] My luck had finally changed! After I was paid, we headed over to Harrah's. I told everyone of my good luck and found out that Wally had won $3000 the night before playing craps. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img] We agreed to meet later at the Rio. Michael and I headed to the Desert Inn to try to find JMT but he was nowhere to be found. We played and although I didn't win, I got some play time, so it wasn't too bad. We headed over to Treasure Island and Michael did pretty well and even managed to come away with a profit. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img] We left Treasure Island and headed over to the Rio. We stopped in and surprised Ed and caught up with him until it was time to meet everyone in the casino. We played for awhile, although it was hard to find a machine because the Rio was packed. The rest had tickets to see Danny Gans and we had dinner reservations at Onda, so we said our goodbyes to Mom and Sandy because they were leaving very early Sunday morning. We went back to the Mirage and got dressed for dinner. We had a $100 food credit to use and we had decided to use it at Onda. I didn't realize until the last minute that Onda is owned by Todd English, the same chef who owns Olive's at Bellagio. I wondered if the service would be poor again, but I was pleasantly surprised. We were warmly greeted when we arrived, and were seated at a nice quiet table in the corner of the room. The food was delicious and the service was great. I had a pasta dish with wild mushrooms and Michael had roasted chicken. We would definately eat there again. After dinner we cranked the machines until the early morning hours.

Sunday
Sunday morning we talked to Wally and Sheila and they told us that Wally was able to get a comp for all six of us to eat at the Range. Unfortunately, we already had dinner reservations at Nero's for that night. They decided that they wanted to spend the day at New York New York and the Luxor, so we agreed to meet at Caesars after dinner. We check out of the Mirage and into Caesars. I asked to be upgraded to the Palace tower, even though I knew it wasn't allowed with our package. (I figured why not try?) I even told her we were Starwood Gold members. No luck. I figured it was time to bring out the big guns. I told her I was a friend of John C (That C is for Caesars) <vbg> She said she could put us in a Forum Tower room and I said that would be fine. This was the first time I had been in a room in the Forum Tower and I thought it was very nice, although I really didn't care for the mirrored ceiling over the bed. We went down to the casino to play and then we walked back over to the Mirage to have our every trip visit to the California Pizza Kitchen. We left to go to Ethel M's cactus gardens Christmas display. Unfortunately we were too early. It starts December 3 and the gardens are open until 7PM. We headed over to Sam's Town hoping that they would have some Christmas decorations. We entered the Atrium from the parking garage (the lot is still ripped apart) and found it to be all ready for Christmas. We enjoyed walking aroung and looking at the display. I thought that we should sign up for a slot card, but when we went to the booth the line was very long, so we decided to wait until the next time. We walked around the Western Emporium and found that about all that is left was clothing. They are scheduled to close December 23. We walked around and I found a Loose Deuces Deuces Wild Machine that paid 2500 quarters for four deuces. On my fourth hand I held one deuce and was dealt the other three. After they paid me I finished playing and we decided to head over to Vacation Village because Lee told me they still had Five Deck Frenzy there, although there is no longer a progressive jackpot. At Vacation Village, I found the Five Deck machines and after playing three different machines with no luck, I decided it was time to quit. We went back to Caesars and changed for our dinner at Nero's. The food and service were good as usual. Although I enjoyed the meal, I think next time we will try one of their other restaurants. After dinner, we played in the casino while we waited for the rest to arrive after their dinner at the Range. They arrived a little after 9 and said that they really enjoyed their dinner at the Range. Frank and Wally went to play craps, while Sheila started to play video poker. I started to teach Cindy to play video poker and although she didn't win, she got to play for quite awhile, not like on the slots she had been playing, so I think she enjoyed herself. Sheila was having quite a run on her machine and managed to cash out with $100. By now, Andy had joined us, since he was finished working for the day. I introduced him to the family and then Andy and I headed to the 50 cent machines that we had played in October. I was lucky enough to get four Aces, although I only had two coins in. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/frown.gif[/img] Still it was a nice win. I cashed out and Andy said he was going to search for another machine, so I decided to find Michael and Sheila. Cindy was ready to leave so we said good-bye to her and I sat down to play with Sheila and Michael. They were playing a quarter video poker progressive with a jackpot of near $1500. Michael already had gotten the four aces and a few other four of a kinds, so he was well ahead. Sheila and I weren't so lucky. I played several different machines and couldn't do anything. Sheila moved to another machine and got four aces and a few other quads. Michael finally decided to cash out because he felt that his luck had run out, but he still had a nice profit. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img] I decided to play his machine, but after losing my $20 in a matter of minutes I decided to quit. I told Sheila it was up to her to win the jackpot for the family and that I would be at a Deuces machine close by. I started to play and within about 15 minutes I had the Four Dueces for $500. A very nice cocktail waitress named Andrea saw that I had won and she went and found Michael and told him that I had won a jackpot. That was so nice of her, so I made sure that she got a tip. I went and found Sheila and she was still doing well, and she finally cashed out at about 3:30AM at $125. Michael walked Sheila back to Harrah's since Wally and Frank had left without saying good-bye. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/frown.gif[/img] We continued to play until about 5:30AM. We went up to our room and when I pulled down the bedspread, I thought that the pillows were made of down. I am allergic to down, so I decided to check. I pulled the pillow out of the case and there were feather flying all over the place on all three pillows. They were indeed made of down. Michael called down to housekeeping and asked them if they had other pillows. He was told that they had foam ones that they could send up. After about 20 minutes, they brought us two pillows. After he left, I checked them and they were the same pillows. I called back down to housekeeping and asked for foam pillows. I explained about my allergy. She said that she was sorry, that she told the man we needed foam pillows and she would send him back up. After another 20 minute wait, he came to the door, and threw a pillow at me. He said that he guessed that the other pillow was too soft for me. I told him that the problem was my allergy, not the softness. He only had one pillow with him, so Michael asked where the other one was. He said that was all he had and we should be happy to get that one because he had to take it out of the room of someone who was checking in that morning. Since it was now almost 6:30AM, we just took the one pillow and decided to make the best of it. Michael graciously gave me the pillow. However, the pillow was terrible. It was so old that it must have been there when the original Caesar was there. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/frown.gif[/img] We got into bed only to now hear the drip, drip, drip of the bathroom faucet. I put a washcloth in the bottom of the sink, but you could still here the drip. Finally, I tied a towel around the faucet and that seemed to help. Michael wanted to call and ask for another room, but since it was so late, I didn't want to change and pack everything up. Neither one of us slept and finally at about 10AM, Michael decided to call and see if we could get another room. He called down to the front desk and the person said she would put him on with the hotel manager. After a short wait, she came on the line and he explained what had happened. She apologized for the situation and offered to upgrade us to a petite suite in the Palace Tower. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img] We quickly packed our things and headed down to the front desk to pick up our keys. Michael asked the desk clerk if they had down pillows in the Palace Tower and was told no. We went into our room and I of course checked the pillows they were also down. I guess we had the down pillows in October and I didn't know it because they felt much different than the ones in the Forum Tower. At least there weren't feathers flying everywhere when I pulled the pillow out of the case, so I decided to try it.

Monday
After getting ready for the day, I decided to call Gail and see if she and Joe would like to meet us for a drink after they finished work and she said that they would be happy to. We set up a time to meet at Main Street Station. Since this was our last day in town and we had many things to do, we decided to get on the road. We decided to head over to the Venetian to see if we had accumulated any cash back. We had played their in July, but not on our October trip. We were surprised that we had $29 cash back. Our next stop was at the Elvis-A-Rama museum. Mia is a HUGE Elvis fan and Viva Las Vegas is her favorite song. She loves to dance to it, so that is why we decided to go there. I picked up an Elvis t-shirt for her. Since we were already there, we decided to go into the museum. The price for admission was $14.95 each, but they had a two-for-one coupon there. The museum is at 3401 Industrial Road and is open 9am to 7pm seven days a week. Before you enter the museum, they give you a booklet that tells the story of Elvis's life. The museum contains three of his cars, some costumes and jewelry and some letters that he had written. There is his army uniform, a car insurance application and many pictures. They are arranged in a chronological order. Included in each display case is a video that corresponds to that time period. At the end of tour, there is a small night-club like place where an Elvis impersonator appears several times a day. We joined about 10 other people to see the performance. He wasn't very good, but I felt sorry for him, because I know he was trying and the audience <vbg> wasn't very responsive. Would I recommend going here? If you are an Elvis fan, you might enjoy it, otherwise I would forget it. Michael and I really aren't Elvis fans, so we didn't think it was that great. After we left the Elvis-A-Rama Museum, we headed over to the Rio to say good-bye to Ed and hopefully see Peter. Peter hadn't arrived for work yet, so we missed seeing him this trip. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/frown.gif[/img] Since we were already at the Rio, we decided to see the Titanic display. It is set up in the same area as the Treasures of Russia was and they use the same headphones for describing the exhibit. We were both disappointed. I expected to see many artifacts from the Titanic and there really weren't that many. Although I was amazed at the good condition of the few things that they did have. Delicate china pieces were intact. Also, a leather trunk, that was in one piece, although a little misshapen. I most enjoyed the recreations of some of the rooms and areas on the ship including the grand staircase, and first and third class cabin. Also included were a cigar and reading room. I don't think I would see this display again. If you are really into the history of the Titanic, you might enjoy the display, but if you are going to see many relics, you should forget it. We headed down to Main Street Station and met Gail and Joe for dinner. It was nice to spend some time with them and all too soon it was time to leave and go back to Caesars. We made a quick stop at the Mirage to collect our cash back and then headed over to Caesars to crank the machines until the early hour (for us) of 2AM.

Tuesday
We woke up at 6AM and took our bags over to Harrah's and checked in for our 9:50AM flight. We were able to upgrade to first class again, so I was happy. Went back to Caesars and fell back to sleep. We managed to make it to the airport 15 minutes before our scheduled departure time. Bags weren't random checked for the first time, so I knew it was going to be a good day. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img] However, we got to the gate only to be told our flight was delayed. Seems that there were mechanical problems and all passengers from the New York and Philadelphia flights would be put on one flight. Some passengers were moved to other flights. Everyone had to be reticketed, which was a pain, but we were given $50 each in future travel vouchers and $8.50 each for meals. This is more than Delta gave us when we flew to Hawaii and mechanical problems got us there 8 hours late. We sat in the plane for 3 hours and didn't even get a bag of peanuts for our trouble. I'm glad they didn't let us board until we were ready to go. We wound up leaving late and we had to fly to New York also, before Philadelphia, but we were still only about 4 hours late arriving home, which wasn't too bad.

continued...

[This message has been edited by Lee Ann (edited December 03, 1999).]

Closing thoughts
Overall, this was another great trip and it was really fun to surprise everyone, but you can only be a "mystery guest" once, so Lee I promise to never show up unannounced again. <vbg>

A big disappointment was the lack of Christmas decorations at the casinos. We did see the large tree on Freemont St and the Mirage and Caesars did have some decorations up. Sam's Town was fully ready for Christmas. Next time we will go in December so that we can get the "Christmas experience".

I now remember why I haven't played slots for the last three years. <vbg> I put $81 into Megabucks since the jackpot was so high. I "won" twice in all those spins. Once was a cherry and the other time was any bars.

The Titanic was a disappointment. Maybe I was expecting too much. See the Elvis museum if you are a fan, but try to get the 2 for 1 coupon. They gave us the coupon at the museum, I think just to get people to be at the impersonator show.

The taxi lines at all hotels were the longest I have ever seen. It made me glad that we had rented a car and didn't have to stand in line.

The Venetian now has these bells that ring every hour on the hour....and I mean at 4AM too. They were so loud that we could actually hear them inside our room at the Mirage. Do they really need to ring them 24 hours a day?

Lastly, thanks to our queen of Deuces, Daisy Deuces for the deuces lessons last month. I couldn't have done it without you. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

Lee Ann
Past, Present and Future Forum Moderator
leeann@talkvegas.com

[This message has been edited by Lee Ann (edited December 04, 1999).]

Great trip report! Congratulations on the royal flush.

Lee Ann:

Thanks for the report. It sounds like you managed to get the in-laws hooked on Vegas!

How does National check the bags? You noted that the bags weren't random checked, and I'm not sure what that means.

Gregg,
Thanks for reading my trip report. The luck was pretty bad before it finally changed. <vbg>

Lee Ann
Past, Present and Future Forum Moderator
leeann@talkvegas.com

Veronica,
Thanks for reading my trip report.

The bag search I am talking about it the one at the security checkpoints, done by the airports. Of course bags are checked when the scanner sees something suspicious, but they also select bags at random to check. When I ask if they have a question about something in the bag, I am always told no, it's just a random search. Our bags are always the ones selected for random search and I don't know why. Michael says maybe we look too honest, so we are suspicious. <vbg> At Chicago Midway, the guy pulled out all of the 8 pounds of Godiva chocolate I was carrying and looked at it. I told him it was chocolate. He wanted to know what I was doing with 8 pounds of chocolate. It doesn't matter what I have in my bags, security always selects my bags to search. Coming home from Las Vegas this time was the first time in years that my bags were not selected. I think they were ready to pick my bags, but because we were late, I grabbed my bags and started to run, so I guess the next person in line was the lucky one. <vbg>

Lee Ann
Past, Present and Future Forum Moderator
leeann@talkvegas.com

Lee Ann: No wonder they are suspicious. With all that luggage you must look like you are trying to flee the country. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

Congratulations to both you and Michael on the wins! It's extra nice to bring money home.

Boy, can I relate to the feather pillows. I have difficulty with breathing if I am anywhere near a down or any type of feather pillow. Can't imagine that Caesars could not accommodate better than they did. Bet if you were a whale, they'd go out and buy the best pillow available for you and would probably stumble over themselves apologizing for the inconvenience.

We're flying National for the first time in March. Hope we like it.

Enjoyed reading the report. Thanks!

Beth

Veronica,
LOL. I guess it's a good thing that we haven't gone on any extended trips, or we would have to charter a jet just to carry my luggage. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/wink.gif[/img]

Lee Ann
Past, Present and Future Forum Moderator
leeann@talkvegas.com

Beth,
I thought about going out to buy another pillow and leaving it there when we left, since there was such a severe pillow shortage at Caesars. <vbg> You have to feel sorry for a casino that can't afford enough pillows for all of their guests. <vbg> If it hadn't been so late/early <vbg> that's just what I would have done. If they had not moved us, I would have bought two pillows that day. When we stayed at the Westin in Philadelphia the night before we left, there were feather pillows on the bed. I was just ready to call housekeeping, but first went to hang my jacket in the closet, where I found two brand new foam pillows. What a great idea!!! You had your choice of what kind of pillow you would like without having to call housekeeping. Kudos to the Westin. Since (at least now), Caesars is still owned by the same company, and they are a first class operation, I would have expected better from them.
Have a great time in Las Vegas!!
I am already planning for our next trip. <vbg>

Lee Ann
Past, Present and Future Forum Moderator
leeann@talkvegas.com

Lee Ann,
I see you where a busy traveler this trip. It was a nice suprise, to see Micheal & you at MSS. Sorry we didn't connect again later in your trip.
So, when is the next trip...or is that a secret too?


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

Lee,
It was great to see you, Sue and Sandy again. No more surprise trips. <vbg> We are looking at sometime in January. Will you be going anytime in January?
We had a great time showing Michael's family around town. Mom just couldn't believe how the town had changed in the last 25 years. I think they finally understand why we keep going back again and again. <vbg> We talked to Michael's sister-in-law tonight and she is already talking about going back again. <vbg>

Lee Ann
Past, Present and Future Forum Moderator
leeann@talkvegas.com

Lee Ann,
That's the way the Vegas bug bits people. when you get home and your already talking about the next trip! LOL
No trip for us (unless sue gives in to a CES trip) in January to Vegas. I have a business trip to Mexico in Jan. So it would be hard to fit into my plans. February is my next planned trip and I'm currently working on an April trip.
Come on out to Columbus in Dec.!


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

Lee Ann,

Thanks for the great report. Sounds like you had a lot of fun suprising everyone. Glad you had teh nice wins. I was playing VP on the computer a few days ago and was dealt the 2 deuces.

I wish National would come to Columbus. They sound really nice.

jm

Jeff,
Thanks for reading my trip report. I am really starting to enjoy playing deuces wild. Especially now that I understand the strategy better since getting lessons from Daisy in October.
Sure wish we could make it out to Columbus next week, but there is just too much to do to get ready for Christmas. (No Lee, we will not be surprise guests) LOL
Congratulations to you and Patti on the new addition to your family!

Lee Ann
Past, Present and Future Forum Moderator
leeann@talkvegas.com

Lee Ann,
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.....that's what you say now! I'll beleive it when your not there! <s>

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

Lee Ann, Thanks for the great T/R! I was not happy that National raised there upgrade prices and wrote them about it a few days ago. I received an e-mail saying a customer relation

Lee Ann, don't worry about Lee not trusting you anymore. He never did trust women<G>
Your late Father in Law was a smart man. And he was right about luck changing if the money holds out. That's why money management is so important in Las Vegas.
AND,,,,, WE WON'T TALK ABOUT YOUR ROYAL<G>
Great job on the report. Hope to see you and Michael in 2000.



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John
Moderator Dining Forum
john@talkvegas.com

WTG on yet another Royal....and I'll share in the joy of your deuces....since I haven't seen any directly in front of me in a LONG time. [img]http://www.talkvegas.com/ubb/frown.gif[/img]