Wednesday, April 23
I had taken a week off from work and traveled to Florida (on April 19) to spend my Dad

mike sorry to put the wammy on your vp play with my blood trip report but at least you had the thrill of hitting the royal.would have enjoyed seeing you in july but i understand that not all schedules line up every year.maybe see you at thanksgiving?

DAG - I'm not sure it was you who put the wammy on me - I think I did it to myself! I've been pretty lucky on my last few trips and figured I was due for a loss.

Yes - you'll see me at Thanksgiving!

Good! Looking forward to Thanksgiving already!!!
Maybe by then you'll have a new and improved treasure map for us at NYNY! LOL
To be honest....I won't miss dollar 10 times machine...what a vacume! LOL
SeaBlue...is that the one that had the fish tank out front??? So many resturants look interesting, but with soo many choices, some get passed by. I beleive SeaBlue is one we seen and said maybe next time...and next time came and went 10X since. The bacon with the seabass seems odd, seabass isn't a bold fish. Seems to be like eating baconfish??? Not that I dislike bacon, but lb for lb bacon is much cheaper then seabass.

Well, we won't see Vegas till mid July, so I have plenty of time to figure out how SeaBlue will fit into our trip.

Have you ever tried Envy steakhouse? I'd be very curious on your comments.

Thanks for a wonderful report, and you didn't get soaked to badly. A royal ain't bad...you know?

Lee-PA

Thanks for the report Mike.

I ran into that "no cars" situation at Thrifty last year. Fortunately, I was one of only a couple Blue Chip customers waiting and was able to talk them into an upgrade and was on my way.

I can understand the Palazzo casino not wowwing you. I guess that's part of what I like about it. It's comfortable and not full of looky-lou's. The rooms have pretty good wow factor, tho.

Congrats on the royal and as usual, the food sounded great.....except the $56 filet which I assume was a la carte. Just doesn't make sense to me.

Congratulations on the Roysl! So sorry about the rest of the gaming though. It sounds like fun to casino hop all up and down the Strip. We usually start out to do that and end up stuck in one place.
I'm also sorry you couldn't see the actors at Jersey Boys. I just "assumed" that all seats were good, as it seemed that all of those on the first floor were. It's a good thing you'd seen the show before.....
If you ever head "up north", and feel like having a decent steak for a decent price, I would suggest Austin's at the Texas. We were there the other night, I had an EXCELLENT filet for around 30 somethin and Toby had what he said was a wonderful Pork t bone for less than that. Of course, everything is a la carte, but we always feel that we did get more than our money's worth. (The chef's special was a TWO POUND bone in prime rib for $42....I thought that was extreme, but a hungry prime rib lover might have loved it) I really hate to recommend restaurants because it turns out that the night my friend went there the kitchen had a big fire or all the waiters quit or something, but Austins seems pretty consistant. Not a large menu, but our vegan friend was able to put together a decent meal along with we meat eaters.
We were disappointed that they are doing such a good job of de-Egyptasizing Luxor, did you get there? I'm sorry to hear that they are un New Yorking NYNY, too. I guess all these places are going to all upscale bars for people younger than us......much younger!

Lee - yes, Seablue is the one that used to have the fish tank out front. I've eaten there twice now and loved it both times.

Have not yet checked out Envy. It's on my radar but haven't gotten there yet.

Senator - Yes, the $56 filet was a la carte. And I paid another $12 for french fries! But they were delicious!

Tater - yes, I did see Luxor. I've never really been crazy about the place so the de-Egyptasizing doesn't bother me. But I'm sorry they're taking all the trees out of NYNY. The place won't be the same.

Thanks for the tip on Austin's - I'll put it on my list.

So, isn't this something like 4 trips in a row WITH a Royal?

Jeff - I had to go look this up. You have a pretty good memory! You're close - 3 trips in a row I've had at least one royal.
- One on this trip
- Last November I got dealt a royal on the quarter Triple Play machines (so that either counts as 1 or 3, depending on how you look at it!).
- Last August, I had 2 royals - one on dollar triple play, one on quarters.
- No royal the trip before that (April 2007).

I've been very lucky and have had a lot of royals recently. I wonder if I'll ever get as many royals as Lee and Daisy have had?

Thanks Mike. It sounds like you had a good time in just a few days.

I see you had some pizza and didn't make it to the Bootlegger, as well as getting some steak tips for your to do list. And you added to my to do list. I know you have a lot of friends that are fans of Las Vegas. Do you find that some of them don't even have a to do list because they think they've seen it all? Are you the "go to guy" ? BTW, I second Lee's suggestion for Envy.

I've looked at Sea Blue with interest a few times, but the outside is very blue which made it "appear" gimmicky. Thanks for letting us know it's real. I checked them out on the MGM website and it looks more casual than I would have thought. Is there anything else you can add about the place?

It seems the general feelings about the Palazzo are in agreement. Not many reasons for a tourist to stay very long. However, that was part of the charm of the old Desert Inn.

Will NYNY still be your hotel of choice after seeing the changes in progress or are you thinking about experimenting?

Thanks again for a fun report.

Mike, thanks for the report. I know better than to sit down to a TR from you on an empty stomach. That Postrio appetizer sounds great.

I am sorry to hear about the trees at NYNY, though. I heard about the bridge and the "pond" but gee, the trees gave it such a different feel. My friend Cindy is disappointed - she has not been to NYNY and tho we'll visit it in May, she's thinking - too late.

Are they keeping the "Greenwich Village" appearance of the food court area?

I've always enjoyed some vp machines on the floor at the
back side of the dueling piano bar - hope they are still there!

JMT - I had intended to go to Bootleggers but never got there. I drove by it to see where it was and had thought about possibly going on Saturday night. But the traffic signals around NYNY were malfunctioning that day and getting in and out of the place was tough, so I didn't even try.

My friends really don't have "to do" lists because they usually rely on me to come up with things to do. For the most part, I'm the "Go To" guy. But I was happy when George told me he wanted to go casino hopping and I didn't feel the pressure of having to come up with something for the afternoon. It was nice to just tag along.

I thought the same thing about Seablue being "gimmicky" when it first opened but it's really not. Michael Mina is a reliable chef and the food quality is high (along with the prices). And it's definitely more casual that you would think - people pretty much wear anything in there. I liked the atmosphere in there - subdued and relaxed.

I'm probably going to continue at NYNY for at least another trip. I'm very comfortable there and they continue to take good care of me - I love those Jacuzzi rooms. And I actually liked their high limit area. Although I lost a lot of money there, I found it relaxing and fun to play in. It has darker lighting and isn't as noisy as other areas of the casino.

Kes - some of the trees are still there but I was told that they would all be leaving at some point. And yes, the food court still has the Greenwich Village appearance. I don't think they're going to change that.

This sounds like a pretty laid back trip, very relaxing with no schedule set in stone. WTG on that Royal ... LOL, you may have passed me up already since I can only find 4 royal cards lately.

Is there any sign of a Mexican theme at the Luxor? I really expected them to head in that direction, because of demographics and because I can't think of anything else to fit in with the pyramid<g>.

I sure am glad you didn't starve during your trip.