Sorry...this ended up a bit longer than I thought!!

Well, just about recovered now from my birthday trip with mates to Sin city!
Flew out with Virgin on Sunday mid morning - nice to get a direct flight but is it me or is their seat pitch getting smaller?? I'm only 5ft 8 and my knees were pretty much touching the seat in front! Was an ok flight, at least the entertainment is ok on Virgin flights. Arrived in Vegas at 13:30, first time I've been out of the summer months and it was weird not walking into an oven when the plane doors opened! It was actually quite chilly!
Jumped in a cab and the four of us set off for the Imperial Palace, it was my mates first trip so I wanted us to stay central but because it is 'March Madness' and St Paddy's week, rooms were very difficult to come by so the IP was the best bet for centre strip, it took 2 phone calls to the IP from the UK to get the rooms as they were just about sold out.
We arrived at the IP (Taxi fare was $14) and check in only took a few minutes, the receptionist was very helpful and got us two rooms together on the 17th floor. We went up to the rooms - which were ok, nothing special but nothing wrong with them, they actually had small balconies you could walk out on to - very rare in Vegas. We were overlooking the pool of Harrahs next door. We got unpacked and I took the guys out for a walk round. We had a look at a few of the hotels/casinos, and grabbed a beer in 'Isla' in T.I. We then grabbed a bite to eat in Dennys and it was time for me to have a gamble! I went back into the IP and had a game of Let it Ride poker - hardly got a hand and $100 was gone very quickly! Had a go on a few slots and lost a few more dollars. We had a couple more drinks and we started to get tired - it had been a long day, we managed to stay up to about 22:15 and went to bed........then we realised what a bad deal we had with the rooms........we were just round the back of the Carnival court and the music was blaring out...until 2am! Not what we needed after a very long day. there was no option of moving rooms as there were no more rooms!
Monday - We got up fairly early as a couple of us are poor sleepers anyway, we set off to Dennys again for a far too large breakfast of bacon, eggs, potatoes...blah blah blah followed by pancakes and a couple of cups of coffee and orange juice! (Why is it so easy to over-eat out there)? We had a bit of a walk round, I tried to register for the IP Poker tournament at 1pm, I queued for 45 mins and when 6 people from the front, was told it was full so we jumped on the monorail down to the Sahara and walked down to the Stratosphere. We went up to the top.....it was very tempting to try Insanity and Extreme......but I was concerned about losing my oversized breakfast!! We got some good photos, then headed east from the Stratosphere to a pub called PT's place, there seems to be a small chain of these out there and they have pool tables, which we were looking for, to have a few beers and shoot some pool.....gambling on the pool games of course. 6 hours or so later, we left the bar, seriously inebriated and jumped in a cab, the driver advised us to go to Sheri's.......I won't bother telling you about that
......but it was an interesting place
Back to the strip around 23:00'ish and time for a gamble, went into O'Sheas and managed to lose a couple of hundred on Let it Ride and Three card poker, and a bit more on some VP and slots......but had a few more Pina Colada's so was fairly happy anyway!
Went to bed around 2am....after the music had stopped at Carnival court.
Tuesday - Up fairly early again for breakfast at Denny's, then on to the Mirage to pick up our hire car, a convertible PT Cruiser - a nice little car, got a great deal pre-booking with the Airline-Network before we flew out (£86 for 3 days hire, all insurances included, multiple drivers and a tank of petrol). We drove out to the Hoover Dam, got warned for speeding on the way and set off for the tour of the dam. Unfortunately it's nowhere near as good as it used to be due to 9/11 and security concerns, but still interesting. We drove back from the Dam late afternoon and grabbed a beer back at the IP and had a quick gamble....lost again, I really couldn't buy a hand! That night I took the guys to the Cheesecake Factory - yummy as ever and yet another huge meal! Afterwards, we set off for a place we had read about in one of the local freebie magazines, the Sandollar Blues Lounge, failry close to the Rio. They had a live Blues band on, cost $5 to get in but they had 2 pool tables that were free! So we settled in for a few beers and some pool whilst listening to the band.
Stayed there until the early hours when I felt pi**ed and ready to burst back to the Flamingo for some Pai Gow Poker and Roulette......lost again surprise surprise! My luck really was out. Went to bed around 2am...at least it was quiet
Wednesday - Up at 6am, we were driving to the Grand Canyon today! They reckon it's about a 5 hour drive.....ahem, we did it in 3hrs 50 mins
Very cold up there, loads of snow around. Just as awesome ever, it really is one of the wonders of the world. I did one of the rim trail walks whilst my mates did a short hike down into the Canyon. We were there for about 3.5 hours then set off back to Vegas.......made it in 3 hrs 45 mins
I've gotta say, I have never seen Vegas this busy, it was difficult to get on any table game, bars were packed, it was almost TOO busy. We had a few beers whilst playing slots and VP and then set off downtown as I wanted them to see the Freemont St. lights. We watched the light show and then headed off to Main St. station for some grub.....Blackened Swordfish and baked Spud......mmmmmm superb, washed down with one of their micro-brewery beers, very nice. Had a quick gamble in Binions then back to the Strip for a further gamble in O'Sheas. I held my own for a while but eventually lost it all, by 2:30am we were hungry again so a late night snack at Dennys was called for before a last gamble on the Slots in IP and to bed at 4am'ish.
Thursday - Got up around 9:30'ish, skipped brekkie cause I was still full from the late night Dennys! Just grabbed a venti skinny latte from Starbucks before we set off for the shopping outlets, first of all the one by I15 then up to the one by the airport. Got a few things, saved some money....at last...some kind of a profit! Then back to the strip. A few beers before we walked up to NY NY and ate in Chin Chin as we fancied chinese. Food is ok, not the best, not the worst, then it was back to O'Sheas for some gambling, actually did ok for an hour or two then slowly lost it until I had $30 left out of a couple of hundred and went to the roulette table. In 10 mins I'd turned it into $190 whey hey, at last! Went to bed around 2:30am.
Friday (St Paddys day) - Went to the Mirage for the brekkie buffet - superb, $14 and well worth the money. Ate far too much again......what me?? Had a quick gamble in the Mirage....lost......then we headed down to T.I. as I wanted to try to get tickets for Mystere for that evening. Luckily we got some. I went off for a good gambling session whilst a couple of my mates drove out to Red Rock Canyon. I did ok for a while and ended up about even.....but had a few more Pina Coladas in the meantime
We met up in the evening and went to see Mystere, I saw it a few years ago and it's still amazing. Afterwards my mates said they would buy me dinner for my birthday........so we went back to the Cheesecake Factory....had a lovely meal again and reached bursting point for the 45th time that holiday!! Vegas was heaving! Couldn't get to a table anywhere really, and O'Sheas was especially packed! Had a gamble on the slots in IP and headed to bed in the early morning.
Saturday - Headed down to Wynn for breakfast but they were only doing champagne brunches so we went in New Frontier......wow, how bad is their buffet!!! Cheap....yes.......awful......yes.....although they did the best porridge of the holiday!! In the afternoon we got the shuttle from the Barbary coast out to the Orleans for some ten pin bowling....had a few bucks on it of course and I won the second game so ended up in profit. Back to the strip for a gamble before heading back out to the Sandollar Blues lounge - excellent band on and it was packed. After a load of Corona's we headed back to the strip and I just had to play poker.....I'd held off all holiday but I needed to play! I went to Paris and joined a cash game, $1/$2 blinds. 10 players.....I changed up $200 and settled in for my favourite game, no-limit hold 'em. 6 hours later, I left the table with $670 I could easily have played for another 10 hours, I only wish I had played more poker through the holiday now, I might have made some money overall! Went to bed around 4:30am, our flight was due to leave at 16:30 on Sunday back to Gatwick.
Got up around 10am, grabbed a starbucks again and started packing. We extended our room for an hour and finally checked out around 12:20. Jumped in a cab to the airport and got the flight home........very easy checking out of the hotel, we checked in for the flight online before we left and it made it sooooo easy, took about 5 mins to get right through to departures.
Had a reasonable flight home and landed about 30 mins late.

All in all we had a fantastic time despite the room being in a very bad position, too close to the carnival court, bear that in mind if you stay at the IP! The weather was good overall, it rained heavily twice, was fairly cold at times but also hit 70 degrees on one day. We did all that we set out to do and although I enjoy gambling on anything, I regretted not playing more Texas hold 'em......just a little I hope to be going back to Vegas in September with the missus so I'll definitely play more poker then! I just love Vegas so much and can't get enough of it, I do prefer it when the weather is better so you can laze around a pool.....that way I can save the gambling till the evenings!

Cheers,

TC