We have not been to vegas since we got married last year in November. so I found myself looking forward to this trip a little more then a lot! LOL
We booked out of Baltimore (BWI) as we had the laborday weekend on the boat and monday morning we slipped off the pier in the darkness at 4am for our flight to LV. Delta flights where all on time and we arrived in Vegas almost 30 min early...woohoo, right? WRONG! It took them an hour to get our bags from the plane to the baggage area. Oh as an added offence by delta, Sharon got no frequent flyer miles do to the fact her last name has changed and that has to be handled on line.
Car rental Thrifty, well, how can they screw this up? they swipe my credit card so many times trying for a read, that the company shuts down my credit card. (Maybe if they would hire someone to work the booth with a higher then 3rd grade education?) So I hand another card to the person, and that one clears. I call my credit card company, they say we have not declined your card, turns out thrifty has some internal controls, that will lock out a card for 24hrs if it's run too many times, nice! So now I got a Mercury Marquis with NO insurance (my first credit card covers that, the one they couldn't use).
Next, drive to Caesars, check in at the diamond club, given a small suite, 2 person jetted tub, duel showers, 2 bathrooms, view of all the pools from our room. Sharon also received $300 for visiting in the form of 6, $50 slot dollar coupons!
We are beat, it's noon, but we press on. Payard for Lunch, FanfreakenTastic!
Then we hit the gift shop for some 5hr energy drinks, This is a first for me. My god, they taste awful! VP and then Flamingo and the garden bar for some VP.
OK, I'll admit it here on talkvegas..... I can't leave these darn gimick machines alone. I played more gimick machines, then regular machines this trip, and my bankroll I came home with shows it. It wasn't good. But at the Garden bar I behaved, I played dollars and did ok. We needed to stay up till atleast 9pm so we would have a regular day on Tuesday. Hit the hay about 10:30pm and I felt like the walking dead. Before going back, Sharon slipped 2 of her $50 coupons in a $5 double diamond machine and ran it up to $450 and quit.
Tuesday, Up early and hungary, had breakfast at Margaritaville. Service and food was great, however, I still don't like the coffee! From here we walked and gambled along the way, Flamingo, Ballys (it rained on us while walking to Ballys) Paris, Planet Hollywood, city center. Hmmm City center HoHum, after finally reaching the casino, Sharon asked what the big deal was, I agreed, and left a very brown casino. Oh that rain, well it seems the people that did the walkways and such don't understand pitch, as none of the water flows to the drains in the walkways. Instead, that have a guy mopping up the sidewalks. STUPID!!!
Dinner at the Palm reasturant, we had the 4lb lobster for 2, it was extremely nice. The place was only half full at 8pm, service perfect!
Sharon used 1 more of her coupons for a $300 win on a double diamond $5 machine. Bed about 1pm
Wednesday is move day, we move out of Caesars to MainStreet Station. So we grab breakfast at a new place in Caesars called "MunchBar" It was good, but the bloody Marys sucked, $50 breaky ain't my style either! Sharon burns her last 3 $50 coupons for another $300 total win, all in all those coupons where a win of over 1K for her. WooHoo.
Check out, and head to MSS, given room 1202, it's standard MSS fare. Why did we leave Caesars????? We are given our food coupons and I get $100 in slot dollars. I hit the Treasure chest machines for a quick win and then we are out the door to M resort, for our free long sleeve T shirts (w/coupons in hand). We plan on a revisit thursday for the wine tote and the cooler bag. I loose my coupons somewhere???
We are given some slot credits but not sure why and back to the machines we go! LOL Southpoint then Silverton and the bass pro shop, I bought 4 new swim suites (hey half off).
Dinner tonight at Casa Don Jaun, in the bad lands between stratosphere and MSS. The service here is incredible and it's one of only a few places I'll eat the Guacamole. 9pm and the place was about 1/5 full.
California and MSS for the rest of the night. Bed at 2am.
By now you might have noticed I'm not telling you about all my wins, thats because there has been nothing to tell! Sharon is doing much better then me this trip. A trend that sadly will continue to the end. You also might have noticed we have not been over served this trip. We both had a pretty wild night in Maryland Saturday before we left on this vacation and we are both licking our wounds from that adventure.
Thursday, Kinda slow getting a move on this morning, Breakfast at the Egg & I. another great meal here! I don't think there is much that isn't breakfast you can't find on that menu!
M resort for a wine tote and a cooler bag, Then Sams town and sheplers store. Sharon picks out a shirt for me and gives me her 25% off coupon, ain't she sweet? Then back to MSS to freshen up before dinner and a show. Here is where the wheels come off at MSS.... we are locked out of our room. seems the battery is dead in the door, so it takes them about 45 min to jimmy our door open and replace the battery. Then it's a race to Caesars for dinner. Dinner at Mesa grill @ Caesars, and JMT joined us for the meal. We have been very lucky with our meals this trip, this one was no exception. After dinner Joe treated us to a wonderful show (a show I probably would have never went to see myself) Cheap Trick does Sargent Peppers album. WOW. Amazing how full of life these guys are and still cranking it out. Thank You Joe, is was a very enjoyable evening, and I am so glad I had the opertunity to see this show, what a suprise. We walked back to Caesars to collect our cars, said our goodbys and headed to MSS. Head to the room, and guess what, we are locked out again. This time maintainace opens the door in 5 seconds flat with the jimmy bar. Beleive me, if you seen how easy it is to break into your hotel room, you would never leave spare change laying around! Trust me, it's bad. Anyway, 3hrs later after they change the lock. BTW it wasn't an exact fit, they had to redrill the freak'n door. At 2am we hit the casino, I had a couple drinks, but bed was calling my name at 5am!

I will have to continue this another night, it's 1am here on the east coast and the work week is killing me...
To Be continued....I promiss!

Lee - How nice to have you and Sharon back in Vegas! I can't believe it's been almost a year since you've been there. I'm thoroughly enjoying your TR. Congrats to Sharon on her wins with those coupons!! $5 Double Diamonds, huh?

I'll look forward to the rest of your TR - and hope you are saving that BIG WIN for the end of the trip!

BTW -

What is Payard? Could you tell us more about it?

Also, how did you find Casa Don Juan?

Well up att he crack of noon Friday. This pretty much is a bummer for me, as our last full day has been cut short. I am still pretty mad about the whole door thing.
Today we had planned to go to town square and have lunch and give the Las vegas cajun a call. but the time was slipping away, so we had to cut a few planned events from our schedule. I did however look at the yard house, and it was a very slow friday afternoon. Somehow i expected it to be fuller on a Friday in Vegas. We ate a late lunch at Tommy Bahama, and the Mojito was excellent, as well as my cuban sandwich with designer fries. I don't remember what sharon ordered, I was too into my own food! LOL It was pricey for lunch, but well worth the extra money. We took a walk around and seen a lot of new place that look interesting to eat at on a future visit.
Enter the apple store, my god, you couldn't tell the econemy was in a down turn in this store! Jmt had made mention of an apple store out here and I was pretty certin we wouldn't be stopping. WRONG, Sharon has been wanting a new iPhone4 for a while now, and while looking around we asked if they had any in stock. They did, darn! So we waited in line, 2hrs later Sharon has a smile on her face and we are out the door. At least one of us is happy!
Next up, we diecide to go back downtown and hit the downtown casinos. Something we haven't had time for this whole trip yet. Usually by now, we've been up and down the fremont street experiance several times. First stop, a look through the Golden gate, & Las vegas club. No reason to spend money here! Golden Nugget, where I was hoping to spend a little time, to work on points. It is becoming very obvious we need to find another option then MSS for continued visits downtown. Cocktail service was non-existant, Bar service? what bar service? I was throught $200 before we could even get anyones attention. We checked out the pool and still not sure if this place would be a good fit for us???
Fremont, some sad news to report....the $5 treasure chest machine is gone !
Binions, we buy a sports duffel bag to carry all our new purchases home, as we have exceeded our luggage space! LOL We play a little here. I like the new clean look of Binions! Finish the night at California, visit Dave and catch up. I get killed on a five play quarter machine at the bar, but I am finally on my way to being over served! It's basketball tournament time and the place if fillling up, so we head to homebase MSS. We play into the morning. Sharon drops at 2am and I follow at 3am. It was like I was speed gambling today, I couldn't loose it fast enough!
More to come.....

Mike, Casa Don Juan, we would pass everytime we would travel between the strip and MSS. We watched the transformation take place from a non-discript corner property into this place. It kinda looks out of place now, because the neighborhood looks so bad. They have off street parking in the rear. One day we just took a chance. Oddly enough, the owners truck was in valet at MSS the next morning when we checked out of our hotel room for the airport! LOL
Payard, it's the candy, desert place across for The italian place Rao. They serve food as well, as treats and crepes and such. I haven't had anything bad out of the place yet and we have been hitting the place for a few years now. But this was our first lunch. This is one place I do beleive you would enjoy.

Lee, you sure know how to make a Las Vegas trip. Folks, Lee and Sharon not only came to Las Vegas, but they brought their own weather. They came in like a lion with wind and rain and knocked our 110 degree weather into next year. And they left some mild 90s behind when they left. It's a pleasant change but I'm not ready for winter just yet.

That's funny on how stupid they built the City Center walkways with no drainage. They didn't even build the Aria casino for rain. It opened in December when we got quite a bit of rain and the casino was cluttered with little coin buckets to catch water leaks from the ceiling. I wonder if they planned it that way? The landscape crew doesn't work in the rain, so why not put them to work with coin buckets and mops when they can't do their regular outside jobs?

Casa Don Juan is popular with locals. It's not in an area that one would send an average tourist to. A lot of places make guacamole tableside. Is that your main criteria, so that you can see it fresh?

Egg and I, and it's sisters Egg Works are places that I send tourists to for a great breakfast. Great service, great food, clean, fresh, and reasonable pricing.

Thanks for dinner at Mesa. Dang, I like that place. They can take about anything and put in flavors and textures to make it stand out from standard fare.

I really like Cheap Trick doing the Sgt Pepper album. I appreciate the work that they did to put it all together and I think they did a great job. I still wouldn't go see them doing a regular concert of their own songs.

I've tried to like the M Resort but no joy. The place is pretty cool and if I lived in that area, maybe it would appeal to me more. It's probably a good place to stay, eat, gamble, and play at the pool. What more could you ask for? It's a long way to go for free stuff that I don't really want.

When you were at the Yard House, did you see all those kegs of beer? I used to have a kegger in my house and keeping the beer lines clean was a chore. It pretty much turned me off from drinking draft beer anywhere. I just can't imagine how they can keep all of those lines clean to my standards. Also, did you look at the Cadillac Ranch upstairs from the Yard House? I get a lot of coupons from there?

I like your typo, up att the crack of noon. The att looks like a hint to the iPhone. Congrats to your bride on new iPhone4. Have you ever been to the Apple Store in The Forum Shops at Caesars? It's about halfway down the west wing. It's more convenient since you stay at Caesars so often. Isn't it comforting to know that it is so close in case you need an Apple fix? My latest toy is a touchpad that replaces the mouse. I played with one at the Apple Store and didn't like it because you had to physically push to click an item. Then I found a setting in the System Preferences to just tap with a finger rather than push 'till it clicks. Now, I don't use a mouse.

When you visit the downtown places, have you ever seriously considered staying at El Cortez? They are remodeling their rooms and they have their Cabana Suites tower across the street. I've heard those rooms are nice and very reasonably priced. The El Cortez employees seem more happy and personable than most downtown places.

Thanks for sharing your trip with me. It is always great to see you. See ya in November?

Lee,
I really enjoyed reading your trip report. You must have a good memory of all the happenings!

We are also from the East Coast and I never can understand how a 3 hour time difference can become such a large span of time. I guess being up at 4:30AM for a flight and the travel of connecting flights makes the difference. I try to keep moving because if I close my eyes, that will be end that day!

We never get to visit downtown because there is always so much to see on the strip.

I like your description of the flooding of a little rain in the casino. I relate this to our New England snowstorms and how we are more prepared than the south. Since rain is not an issue, there was probably no pre-testing of water drainage systems.

Did you have the buffet in the M Casino? It is very good and I plan to go there.

I was wondering what happened, maybe next trip we can meet down there. The Yardhouse seems to get the bigger crowds in the evenings, especially on Friday and Saturday. As I said before it is a little on the pricey side and that probably keeps some folks away.

Last weekend my sister and BIL came to town and we took them to The Yardhouse, they loved the place. We ate lunch there and of course had to have several beers and our bill for the four of us came to $125 plus tip, making it a $150 lunch. And we steered away from the most expensive items on the menu. But the food is still great and it's a place that I don't go to weekly, but when company comes to town it's at the top of our list.

The end and closing thoughts.....

Saturday came all too quickly and we needed to check out, return the rental car and board our Continental flight home. Continental is my favorite airline however when planning a trip price and times play a part, so I don't fly then as often as i'd like. Flights where on time and they served us FOOD! (Sm saled, cheeseburger, M&Ms) Plus some of the largest overhead storage of all the airlines! This is a big things these days with charging for bags, more and more people are using carry-ons.

Thoughts,
Our next trip is a cruise in October and then a Vegas trip in November. I am seriously thinking of moving to the Golden Nugget. I have serious concerns with MSS after my latest stay. I'll post if anything comes of my letter to Boyd, but I'm expecting nothing.
while Sharon went to the Qua Spa, I played some Pia gow Poker at Caesars. Had a guy (a fellow player) try to tell me I set my hand wrong. Well I took a little offence to his demeaner, and put him in his place. Telling him this is not the first time I have played this game. As long as i don't miss-set my hand, and it's my money on the table I'm betting with, I can play the cards I'm dealt any way I please! He shut up, he also lost the next 10 hands and left my table. His lady friend appoligised after he left! LOL I walked away with a small profit $200. SWEET
I am getting old....
I seen a print add for "A clean Kitty" thought it was a cat grooming store, turns out it's a place specializing in "Brazilian waxing". Duh
Bought a pair of swim trunks, with no lining inside???? WTfunk Something called board shorts.
I went to the Caesars pool, and instead of enjoying the sights, I took a nap. (Guess sandles with white socks are in the very near future)

This trip was way way too short. Our next trip will be 8 nights and my sister Sandy will be traveling with us.

Thanks for reading if you got this far. If you didn't, I'm sorry it took so long to complete this report!

Joe, as you know I do have some issues when it comes to food outlets. Stand alone Mexican is not something I normally dine at. Our local mexican food places, that are not chains are not the cleanest. Casa Don Juan seems to have some idea of how to run a nice clean reasturant. It's just the fresh guac, it's what it served and mulled up in. Kinda like sushi, I'm funny about places I'll order that in too!

The beer lines are what bother me with any place and draft beer. I'm more impressed with a collection of bottled beer!

The M resort is a quick trip out and back, we like the machines and the free money they give us as well as some of the trinkets. We as visitors are not bombarded with that sort of stuff like you are being a local. Also we never turn down a cooler bag, we go through them on the boat! I don't think I would stay at the hotel though?

I don't shop at the Caesar mall, so I had no idea the store was in there. I wish I had known, because doing it earlier in the week could have saved time on our vacation.

Sharon is not comfortable with the El Cortez crowd. In the past I have had some fun in the place, but in the 7yrs I have been with Sharon, we've only gone in one time, and Sharon couldn't get out of there fast enough. We never went back.

Thanks again for the show, I think what added to the whole thing was you got me to go to something, that I would have let pass by, and we both enjoyed it so much. Fantastic! Thanks for reading, and see you in November!

Lis,
I have a secret..... I use facebook! I would post where I was and what I/we where doing. Then when I came home I had my cliff notes! (I am getting old and facebook did help!)
Lis, I'm not a buffet guy, and a request was made by my wife that we don't do any buffets this trip. (reno we had one every day) We ate much better in Vegas!
The M does something else nice with the soft drink stations. The friendly employees are pretty amazing too. The whole place has a good vibe. I just don't think I would stay there, and if I did, it would just be for one night.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

Ralph, I just didn't have the time this trip. I wanted to do so many things, we just ran out of time!
I'm still not a fan of draft beer and that many selections. It's a nice gimmick, but it probably wouldn't trip my trigger for a meet for a lg group. But I will give you a call in November!