Brilliant start! Really looking forward to reading the rest!

luci

Excellent,looking forward to more.

Thanks TeeCee.

Oh how I wish I was there.

Looking forward also to reading more.
I'm getting a bit excited now as we're off to Vegas a week tomorrow

The end of our first full day.
Spent the day by the pool, very hot, could only stay in the sun for a couple of hours this morning. Then went into the shade until lunchtime. Went to the food court for lunch, not sure what the place was called but I had a fish sandwich and fries - which was as bad as the airline food! Won't be eating there again
Had a quick gamble after lunch, put $20 into a 1c machine and after a couple of mins, hit the bonus and won just over $200 - result! Cashed out and went back to pool. Got another hour or two's sun, went back to room around 4:30pm. Had a shower and watched TV for a bit, got ready to go for something to eat around 7pm.
Decided to go to the 'All American bar and grill' tonight at the Rio, they do a fantastic steak there, in fact, if you like steak, GO! Walked up the side of Signature to Planet Hollywood, saved a good half a mile walk along the strip doing this. Went into Planet Hollywood for a quick look round - had a gamble and managed to hit a good bonus on a 5c machine and won $330! Now this is getting a habit Cashed out and went to 'Teno', a shop in the Miracle mile that does jewellery with a difference, a lot of it is steel and titanium. I bought a bracelet last year and wanted a necklace this year, found the one I wanted (expensive at $425 but I really wanted it)! Then we walked down to Paris to get the free shuttle bus to the Rio. Only took a few mins to get there. Went round to the All American bar and grill - one thing we've noticed so far, it is REALLY quiet in Vegas compared to the last few years, certainly looks like the credit crunch is having an effect. Had our meal, once again it was fantastic, one of the best steaks I've ever had, unbelievably tender and still about two and a half inches thick (12 oz Filet Mignon). Had a couple of pepsi's each and the bill was $70, well worth it for that steak. Stayed in the Rio having a gamble on various slots, not much luck at all, managed to spend around $200 so lost some of the winnings from earlier.
Left the Rio around 11:00pm. Waited about 5 mins for the shuttle bus back to Paris. Decided to walk up the strip to MGM so we can stop off in 7/11 on the way and get some bread and filling for sarnies so we can take them down to the pool tomorrow, save spending loads on lunch! Once we'd got that it was back to MGM.
On walking through the entrance, we spotted a 5c Monopoly machine, one of my old favourites! Stopped off to put $20 in, Had used about $16 of credits with not a bean in winnings, then hit the bonus. Managed to pick the top prize out of 6 and ended up winning 5800 credts! Cashed out for $303, what a lovely way to end the night Managed to stop off at another two slot machines on the way back to the room and spent another $40......I think I'm addicted lol.
After totting up my money back in the room, I'm still in profit for the holiday despite buying the necklace so I can't complain......if only it would carry on like this!! Fingers crossed for tomorrow.
It's now 1:35am so time for bed. Back down by the pool tomorrow. Forgot to mention all the construction we saw tonight, will go through that in a bit more detail tomorrow

Cheers,

TC

Ok, I am jealous. It's only a month since we got back from Vegas but just reading about it does make me want to go back, despite what I said on my return. There is zero chance of convincing my Wife that Vegas is a good idea for at least 2 years though I reckon!!!!

Glad your room was sorted at the Signature, I will certainly look at using Luxury Suites International next time we go as the Signature is very high on our list for then, and the prices I looked at before our trip in August was showing some serious discount compared to booking direct.

Interesting review on Diego TC. We went there for my Wife's 30th birthday meal last September and thought it was excellent. It does get very mixed reviews though, so it doesn't surprise me to see the word "bland" in your description. It's not cheap either, but I found it a lovely setting, excellent attentive service and great food. The guacamole is to die for!!

One thing that surprises me in your reviews is the mention of Vegas being quiet. How times change in a month eh? It was heaving when we were there at the middle of August and not in a good way.

Construction everywhere? Yep, sure is. Strip view rooms are a waste of time at the moment as no doubt you will be looking out on some form of building work. Shame, but just think what it is going to look like in a few years time.

Keep the reports coming TC, and more importantly keep winning!!! Seems like you are having the luck I didn't get on my most recent trip.

Enjoy!!!

I love also reading these reviews, everything mentioned goes in my little black book
I feel as if i am there but never been
Looking forward to the next installment x

im loving the report.... only a week to go.

Some excellent wins there! I think if I win $10 or $20 that I'm laughing. Were you playing max bet? I only ever play max lines and min bet so 25, 30 or 40c a spin.

Keep it coming!

luci

WEDNESDAY:
Luci - I don't often play max bet, on 1c and 5c machines I usually play max lines for only 1 or 2 credits. If I chase a big win on a dollar machine then I'll play max credits but I play them very rarely

Ok, got down to the pool around 8:30am, got a really good position today. Once the beds were claimed (it wasn't that busy) I popped into Starbucks just inside tower 1 - only a minute from the pool, and got the necessary morning coffee, I do love a coffee to start the day.
Lazed around the pool till early afternoon, was very hot again, had to put the umbrella up around 12pm cause we don't want to overdo the sun too soon. Then, just as it did yesterday, the skys became very cloudy and the wind got up. By 2pm it was very grey overhead and it started spitting with rain yup, rain during the day, first time I've ever seen that in Vegas. It didn't look like it would clear too soon so we decided to pack up and go have a mooch round the strip somewhere. Dropped the stuff back in the room, a quick shower and we were on our way by 2:30pm. Decided to head on over to Luxor to see if we can get tickets for a preview showing of 'Believe', the new show by Kriss Angel and Cirque du soleil, it's supposed to be different and very good. I read before leaving for Vegas that it doesn't open until October but they were supposedly doing preview shows in September. We walked over to Tropicana and decided to pop in to have a quick gamble on a table game, I haven't had a gamble on anything but slots so far.
Found an empty Pai Gow table - $10 min so sat down. Changed up a $100 and played for an hour without winning or losing more than $10, then lost $50 on a few hands, so decided to put my last $50 on one hand......and won! Over the course of the next hour I fought my way back and ended up stopping around 5:30 with $175 in front of me so a nice little profit. We walked up to Luxor and entered a free 'Believe' competition to win a Corvette. Asked the guy there if preview shows were going on and he said no, it's been postponed for a month! Gutted Had a gamble on a couple of slots and lost. Walked up to Mandalay Bay as we'd decided to eat at the 'Noodle Shop' - we had a chicken curry in there last year that was awesome. Got in there around 19:30, was fairly busy but not crowded. Asked the waiter if they did a chicken curry and he said no, not any more.........NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Oh well, plan B, we had veggie spring rolls and chicken satay to start - very nice. I had chicken in black bean sauce and steamed rice and Linda had chicken chow mein for the main course. Got to say, the chicken was not top quality, it was edible but not great so that's another one crossed of the list! Bill came to $53 so it wasn't bad value - two starters, two mains and two drinks. Had a really nice waiter so left him a $12 tip, he really was excellent and a real Mr Smiley!
Had a gamble in Mandalay Bay, just couldn't get any good wins going, was up, down up, down on 1c and 5c slots. After an hour or so I was down a bit so we decided to call it a night as we're both tired and to be honest, I really want to find out how Ar5enal got on in the champions league footy today!!
Walked back to the Signature, seems a little busier around the strip tonight.
On the subject of construction that I mentioned yesterday, it is everywhere! The City Centre project is really moving on with 5 or 6 buildings almost up now. The design is excellent with one of the buildings consisting of two towers which lean heavily in opposite directions......I think this was planned anyway!! Also, behind Palnet Hollywood you've got the Westgate Towers being built. A twin tower complex, really 'thin' buildings that will be part of PH but are timeshare and condo's. It looks very impressive, as does City Centre. I wonder how all these timeshare/Condo's that are going up will affect hotel prices in the future?
Well tomorrow we pick our car up around 9am, I've asked for a Dodge Charger which I really like the look of but last year I had the same car booked but ended up with the huge Dodge Magnum instead. We plan to go down to the pool after picking the car up from the MGM Dollar rental desk, will stay there until about 1pm then plan to drive down to Lake Mead for some Jet-skiing. We have tickets booked for a pool concert by 'The Bangles' at South Point casino tomorrow evening so we'll drive down there, should be interesting!! It's a casino we've not been to before anyway even if the Bangles are rubbish
To be continued!

Cheers,

TC

Rain? In Vegas?

luci

Funnily enough we went at the same time last year as TC and also had one day where it rained (nothing major though). Typically it was the day we hired the convertible Mustang and went for a cruise to Red Rock Canyon and down the strip.

We've also experienced a few spots of rain before in June of all times. Good thing though, it's not Orlando. I've had 7 nights of continuous rain in Orlando in June before!!!

So the food has been a bit of a disappointment so far then TC? Ah well, plenty of time for it to pick up. I don't know if you are into gourmet burgers but if you are the Burger Bar at Mandalay Place is excellent, well we thought so anyway!!!

Enjoy your water skiing at Lake Mead (prices would be useful for us as well as that is planned next time we go) and of course the Bangles. I am extremely jealous of you getting to see the Bangles, Susannah Hoffs is gorgeous. Enjoy!!!

Luci, we had rain once whilst we were there in August, it was through the day but only lasted for about 20 minutes.

Sue

Sorry, just looked back at my post and it reads as if I didn't believe it. That's not true, I certainly do believe it, I was just laughing at there being rain in the desert even though I know it can and does both rain and snow.

luci

I have been reading these posts with interest from different members. I always thought USA was cheap for snacks and food, but from this report it seems rather expensive compared to Florida and New York, am i wrong

It depends where you eat, you can eat VERY cheaply in some restaurants, and some of the buffets are cheap too. In my experience though, the cheaper it is, the less the quality of food. So you can eat cheap but you have to weigh it up against how you're gonna feel afterwards!
THURSDAY:
Ok, slight change of plan happened today. We went down to pick the car up around 9:30am and there were ten people waiting in the Dollar queue. It normally takes 5-10 mins to sort someone out so we had a long wait ahead of us. We decided to go for some breakfast somewhere and let the queue die down a bit. Walked over the road to NYNY and found their 'buffet' (not sure you can really call it a buffet)! In Chin Chin asian restaurant. It was fairly cheap - $25 for two of us but there was VERY little choice and it was average quality. I definitely wouldn't recommend it. However, it set us up and we had a little gamble (lost) before we went back over to the MGM Grand and went back to Dollar..........there were 8 people in the queue! This was an hour and a half later! I got in line and it took an hour to finally get to the front of the queue Got the keys, we have a Toyota Rav 4 for 3 days, booked through Airline network for £74 all in with full tank of petrol and all insurances, it actually drives very well!
As it was now mid-day and we had the concert to go to in the evening we have postponed Jet-skiing until Friday. We decided to go up to South Point hotel where the concert was tonight to check it out, it's easy to get to, just head out of Vegas from the strip, and keep going about 2-3 miles and it's just off the main road. It's actually a very nice hotel, had a gamble in there on the slots for an hour or so - lost, so we drove up to the Las Vegas Outlet near the airport to do some shopping. I ended up buying a few polo shirts and a nice pair of Nike Cortez trainers and Linda got two pairs of Nike trainers and a Tommy Hilfiger bag so a good days shopping. We stopped of at a supermarket on the way back and got some rolls and fillings and drinks for Friday for lunch round the pool.
Got back to the hotel around 5pm and got changed ready to go back to South Point.
Got to South Point around 6pm. Had looked up their restaurants on the net and liked the look of 'Primarily Prime Rib' so we went in there. I have to say, it was absolutely fantastic, superb food, great service and a really nice atmosphere, very laid back, low level lighting, I'd say a cross between Hugo's Cellar and Canal Street (in Orleans).
Linda had shrimp for starter and I had Chili Potato skins - Linda said it was the best shrimp she had ever had, skins were lovely too. We were also given a bowl of crusty bread (a whole loaf)! which was delicious.
For main I had beef stroganoff and Linda had a Cajun crusted steak with baked spud.........she also got a salad that came with it, then I found out that I got a salad with mine too..........and then she said because mine came with rice, I had a choice of another side dish! So I had mash too. Oh my god, I was so full I thought I would burst, next time I'll skip the starter! Linda had a cosmopolitan cocktail and I had Pepsi and the whole bill came to $63, a bargain!
Everything was really tasty and top quality, we will definitely go back next time we are in Vegas. If you want a lovely meal and a chance to get away from the strip for a night, go there. They also have a huge cinema complex there and bowling alley as well, it's a really nice place.
We finished eating at 7:30pm - the 'doors' opened for the pool concert at 7pm and the Bangles were due on at 8:30pm so we headed out to the pool. They gave you a pool towel as you went out and you could use it to sit on the ground or put it on a sunbed, which they had laid out in the huge pool area for people to use, it was great! We just got a couple of chairs not too far from the stage.
The Bangles have three out of four original members still, only the bass player left so Susannah Hoffs and the sisters Vicki and Debbie Peterson (I think that's right) came on stage along with a couple of guys on bass and keyboards. Susanna Hoffs is really pretty still, wearing a black mini dress she still looks very striking, the other two look older but are both very slim still. All three women sang and all were excellent, especially Susannah Hoffs! They did Walk like an Egyptian as an encore. There was 1500 people there to watch, it was excellent, especially being outside in the warm night air AND being comfortable!
After the concert ended (they did a 1.5 hour set, so not bad)! We had a gamble for a while......I lost again, it's a bad day for me as I am down quite a bit today, the reserves are getting low! We decided to head back to MGM Grand for a gamble before bed.
Linda played slots whilst I managed to find a $10 table of 'Let it Ride' poker, that also incorporates Three card poker, all in one game. I played it last year in a little casino in Mesquite on the way back from Grand Canyon north rim so I knew the game and love it! I changed up $100 and sat down hoping for my luck to change. I didn't hit any huge hands but slowly chipped away at the dealer and managed to hit some flushes and straights on the three card poker hand. Over the course of an hour and a half I managed to amass $350 in chips so I cashed out, found Linda and we called it a night. That win takes me back to where I was two days ago so..........dare I say it.........I am almost even after 4 days of fairly heavy gambling.....unheard of for me!!
So the plan for tomorrow is go down to the pool at 8:30am, stay until mid-day then jump into the car and shoot off to a local TJ Maxx to see how they compare with TK Maxx in England (same company, the English one changed it's name because they didn't want people to get it mixed up with TJ Hughes). Then it's down to Lake Mead early afternoon for jet-skiing. Not sure where we'll eat Friday night but I think it might be Fiamma, the Italian in MGM Grand, one of my favourites!
Hope I'm not boring anyone with these reports.......you've got a fair few to come yet!!

Cheers,

TC

TeeCee wrote:

Hope I'm not boring anyone with these reports.......you've got a fair few to come yet!!

Hell no! I for one am thoroughly enjoying your day by day reports. Keep 'em coming.

Brilliant reports! As it will be my first time to Las Vegas, I am picking up a lot of good information from them so thank you for taking time out of your holiday to write them. I'm really looking forward to reading the next instalment.

TeeCee wrote:

Hope I'm not boring anyone with these reports.......you've got a fair few to come yet!!

Absolutely not!! Can't get enough of trip reports as they keep me going till my next trip.

Keep it coming!

luci