As I came here to look back at Vegas trips, I see my 'all thing Vegas' post that collected all our trips up to that point, but not our last two in April and Oct 2021. So as I prep for Oct 2022 I'm adding the trip reports I wrote on TripAdvisor for those. And will need to do blogs on Yosemite and Oregon that I discussed in Jan blog as they were AMAZING! It's a rainy summer sunday, seems the perfect time to put down the memories for the next time I reminisce.
April 2021 - PH & Mike and Laura join us:
Sunday - arrived 11am with an uneventful flight except jumping at the opportunity to sit in an exit row for extra leg room. Noon checked in at Planet Hollywood and got a free upgrade to a top floor suite. It was cute as the theme was the movie Casino so artwork was movie poster, shots of DeNiro, Peshi and Sharon Stone. Complete with a Tangiers Casino jacket in a display case. Wasn't strip facing but I'll trade that for a living room since I've faced the strip last few trips. Slotted down PH, Paris & Bally's before walking over to Westin to pick up rental car at 2pm at Enterprise for 24 hrs. Later we had Easter dinner at Giada in Cromwell. Cascio e pepe bucatinni with shrimp for me, Mr. Juice had lamb chops & shanks special. We shared an appetizer of bacon wrapped dates that were spectacular. The cocktails were top notch and our waiter was attentive without overly hovering. Aside from a quick $200 loss at tables in Cromwell we just slot played the rest of the night Cosmo to Ceasars and Flamingo to PH.
Monday - left at 6am before sunrise to visit Valley of Fire. Spent just over two hrs in park as my main goal was to hike to the fire wave. And as mid to late 40s couple and me with arthritic knees and hips that hike was enough to tire us out. It was cool and several other viewpoints we stopped at were gorgeous (rainbow vista, fire canyon, mousetank trailhead and the bee hives). Back in time for Lunch at Cafe Americano at Paris as our friends landed. I had gotten them a comped room at Paris so needed to check them in and give a quick lay of the land as one was a newbie and the other hadn't been to Vegas in about 25 years. We left them to settle in, later meeting up in Bellagio and showing them around center strip slot hopping. Late night dinner back in the suite before bed from Earl of Sandwich.
Tuesday- we know our friends are late night partiers and not early risers like us so we grabbed a cab out to MB at about 630am and played our way back up the south strip casinos to PH. Early morning in Vegas is our favorite time as not many people are up and about so we have the town almost to ourselves. Met up with friends a little while after lunch to form our evening plan then grabbed a nap. Evening cocktails grabbed from the Heart Bar taken to our room to show them our suite & chat, cab to Venetian, and they treated us to dinner at Delmonico as a thank you for getting them their room. Seriously if you're ever looking for the best lobster bisque this is where it's at. And Mr. Juice highly recommends the bone in ribeye as this is his 3rd time having it and always says it's the best steak.of his life. Slotted around Venetian, Palazzo & Wynn, then cab back to Paris. There were no five dollar Mississippi Stud tables, only ten. Thought about sitting at one at Paris but decided with how many cocktails we had, might as well head to PH and play at our home base. Only to learn they didn't have a MS table open that night. Too drunk & tired to walk back to Paris so a few more slots then off to bed. Lesson learned, play the table where you are as you never know mid week what will be open elsewhere.
Wed- grabbed a Starbucks and hit Bellagio conservatory at 7am (always do this so there is no one in my pictures - again my favorite Vegas time!). Seemed every other early riser wanted to know where we got Starbucks. It's great that PH was filled with younger partiers as it meant there was never anyone in line when we grabbed our morning coffee in the lower lobby. Every other coffee shop we saw had long lines. On to Mirage & Harrahs as we hadn't hit them yet. Lunch at Cafe Hollywood in PH (huge portions, over ordered ended up putting leftoversin fridge and ate as dinner before bed) Finally played some tables this day. Miss Stud at PH, Flamingo & Paris, high card flush at PH. I know at one session I left up more than double my buy in. And a few lasted a decent amount of time. But last two sessions my $200 buy in left in record time. I'm talking 15 mins for one. After getting 4OAKs the last 3 trips; this just seemed wrong to lose so darn fast LOL. But the cards were just not falling my way.
Thurs - just more slot hopping mid strip but stuck to PH, Paris, Cosmo & Bellagio (where we tier matched to MLife gold to our CET diamond staus since they have that currently running). Considering staying there in Oct for Mr. Juice's 50th Birthday to see how Mlife stay/comps feel. Left before 2pm for airport. This time paid for exit row and happy to learn once boarded we had the row to ourselves.
Final thoughts/observations; don't know if because Sunday was Easter or if some places are still on Spring Break but seemed like a typical pre pandemic size crowd. As I commented on another thread saw way more kids on Casino floor watching parents gamble which bothered me (especially the 10 year old girl at PH at 11pm bored asking her mom to go to bed as she was busy winning on Heidi & Hannah). Also saw a lot more dogs (on leashes, in strollers, even in front body carriers - what?). Personally I don't care if you bring your dog but why are you allowed to gamble with it on the floor?!
Restaurants- we had reservations for the two nice dinners. Elsewhere it was a 10-30 min wait but can put your name & phone number in, go gamble and get a text when its ready.
Gambling- I will say this was one of- if not our worst trips. Never won more than $100-$150 (except that one minor table win). More often lost $40-$60 without seeing a bonus or if I did it just brought me back to even. We went to bed around 11pm each night mostly because we'd run thru that days bankroll. I don't expect to come home with money (although the last 4 out of 9 trips we have come home with 25-100% of our bankroll) but I at least expect to see one or two decent wins and to go to bed because I'm tired not out of money. But I guess since October was our first trip coming home up, this was payback time LOL. But even a losing trip to Vegas is a good time honestly so on to thinking of our Oct birthday trip.
Oct 2021trip - Amalfi & Prime 50th bday trip
Monday Oct 11th flew in from Chicago O'hare without a hitch landing at 945am. Taxi to Paris (flat rate I believe was around $24?), left bags with Bellhop and immediate jumped on slots for a little over an hour before deciding at noon it might be late enough to checkin at the Diamond room as at this level they never charge us for early check in, there just needs to be a room available that's already been cleaned. We got a smoking floor (16th) King at the south corner with partial view of fountains & Eiffel tower. Unpacked and headed out to slot around PH, Cosmo, & Bellagio with the goal of ending up at Ceasars for our 7pm reservations at Bobby Flay's Amalfi. We were slowly losing and by 545 it had been 12 hours since breakfast (had not been hungry around lunch time) I said let's just see if they can fit us in early. They could!
Amalfi- while I miss my old favorites at Mesa grill, Amalfi was wonderful. We had roasted prawns and focacia bread for an appetizer. The sauce on this was the tastiest part of my meal that we kept using the bread to sop up the remaining sauce. I could seriously drink that sauce straight, it was so delicious. Mr Juice had black bass with the red pepper chili pesto. The pesto was his highlight of the meal, he gave me a bite and I agree that was heavenly. I had spaghetti zuccine which if vegetarian (or like me just have a tiny appetite but a love of carbs, cheese & veggies) was delicious. Finished the meal with tiaramisu and espresso.
It was a insanely windy and cold night walking back to Paris (windchill made the 54 degree night have a real feel of 37!) Finished the evening a bit early a little before 11 as we'd been up over 20 hours and our daily bankroll was pretty much gone (over half of it was lost at the tables after dinner in too quick sessions of $10 Mississippi Stud & $15 Let it Ride)
Tuesday Oct 12th - south strip & downtown. We always awake early the first full day (thanks time zones) so hit the strip at 5am, slowly slotted from Cosmo to Mandalay Bay hitting every casino on the west side except for Park. I was holding my own, hubs slowly losing but the saddest part was we only saw one waitress from 5am-1030am. Got a coffee at Aria but then no one around once we wanted to switch to bloody mary's and mimosas. Saw a walk of shame at 7am, but my sister in law informed us that a leopard print dress with slits up to the hips is more of a 'I got laid parade' LOL. Ah, Vegas mornings.
Uber back to Paris from MB, 5 min wait at most, $12 before tip. Played a little at Paris before deciding it was nap time from less than 5 hrs of sleep and up at 4am.
Two hr nap then lunch at 3pm at Cafe Americano as I told hubs I was in the mood for grilled cheese. Their bacon, tomato grilled cheese was HUGE that I couldn't even finish half of it after also ordering the crab bisque. Another reminder they give you WAY too much food in Vegas. Leftovers brought to room and would serve as "dinner" at midnight.
Downtown - Ubered to Circa $15, really liked this fresh new casino addition to downtown as I'm not a fan of how tightly packed & dirty the others are. And the layout with all the big screens and Vegas Vicky was great. Won a bit here so I was now up for the day, also won a little in four queens. Stopped in Downtown Grand, don't know how they're still in business as there were maybe 12 inside at about 6pm. Stopped in Banger Brewery for our favorite El Hefe beer (but whoa they've made it spicier since 2019!) Mr Juice loves spicy where as it's now a bit too much for me. Walked the 15 mins to Neon Boneyard (the one goal that's been pushed from several other trips to finally do this trip) only to learn tickets were sold out for the next hour. Didn't want to sit doing nothing for an hour. Taxi back to the strip with the lesson learned, buy tickets in advance at least the day of (they said they'd sold the last two tickets for 645 30 mins prior).
7pm I was even for the day, Mr. Juice was down to his last $200 when he hit a handpay on a wonder four tower at Bally's from a line hit on Wicked Winnings. Feeling great we hit the tables. I won $400 at Miss Stud in Paris. Off to bed at Midnight with our pockets full of cash.
Wednesday Oct 13th- North strip. Awake and in an Uber to Resorts World at 7am ($10). Again a nice new casino so it's clean and decently laid out (casino in the center, food all around the sides) but without any theme, just a bit blah. Other newish high end non-themed places like Aria, Encore or Wynn at least have the flower displays, fairly light trees, large art sculptures or seasonal displays. Something visually appealing. This just has that big ball thing. Which is just meh. IDK maybe I missed something? But at least they had an attentive waitress early morning.
Walked and played at Encore & Wynn and had breakfast on the patio at Tableau. This was something I had wanted to do the last three trips but it hadn't worked out. It was 62 and sunny so felt great to us Chicago folks but our waitress commented her toes were freezing with this usually cold week. I highly recommend the Apple compote & cream cheese waffles with brown sugar crumble!
Rest of the afternoon continued slotting our way south until we decided to have dinner at Fat Burger and then cross over to Waldorf Astoria for cocktails at Skybar just before sunset (45 mins before sunset appears the perfect time to arrive as we were given the best table in the joint which was quickly snatched up as we left). You can see south the entire strip from Aria to Resorts World. For a high view bar it was great. Closer view than Voodoo lounge, but less panoramic - more of a shotgun view. Ended the day with full daily bankroll intact even with a losing $200 session of Miss Stud.
Thursday Oct 14th - Bellagio day. We were double booked this day as we had tier matched last trip to MLife gold, and gotten an offer for fountain view room with $50RC and $100FP. Checked in at noon with a center view smoking room (19th floor is apparently the only smoking floor which was great height for the view about 4 rooms off elevator). Caught 7 shows of the fountains between noon check in and midnight from our room. The room was very nice with a more comfortable bed than Paris and a gorgeous bathroom with walk in shower (sadly no large tub that I was hoping for). What did strike me as odd was the furniture. While nice and new looking I awoke the next day and realized the seaform green scalloped velvet couch was almost identical to one my grandparents once owned. Sitting on it getting my shoes on, I looked around - and all of the furniture was of a art deco 50s look. Like all of it would have fit in with my grandparents higher end house back in the day. Funny. Felt a little like I was in an early episode of Mad Men.
Prime Steakhouse for dinner. This had been my idea for Mr Juice's birthday dinner. We were informed that patio seating that I requested wasn't available due to a wedding reception (OMG the price of that wedding must have been huge!) And we were not seated by a window so was a bit disappointed. While the food was very tasty the overall price tag of over $400 seemed too high for what it was. Mainly due to 4 vodka cocktails being over $120 of it. WHAT?! We both had the french onion soup, I had a lobster tail, Hubs had aged bone in rib eye. If part of the price is the view and you don't get it, well I just felt a bit jipped. But was fun to get dressed up for a night.
Friday- checked out of Bellagio, went back & packed up at Paris to check out. Spent the last 4 hours with over 40% of trip's bankroll chasing another handpay but alas it was not meant to be. Left with about 20% of bankroll which paid for all of our meals & room charges and leaves us with a start to our January Atlantis Bahamas bankroll. Which is at least better than April when we walked out at the end of the trip with just $5 in tip money. But not as good as last Oct when we walked out with more then 100% of the bankroll. That's Vegas for ya. Win some, lose some, but always a good time.
Final thoughts- seemed almost normal crowd size. There were actually convention folks at both Paris & Bellagio which was surprising as so many companies I know of still are not doing biz travel. Only saw about 6 people on scooters that didn't appear to need them. There were no 'mask police', there were signs everywhere and most people complied but saw enough blatantly not even attempting and never was once told to pull it up between drinks or drags of cigarettes like happened in in April or last October. I never felt unsafe on the strip. There were about two homeless per pedestrian bridge. And saw at least one obvious mentally ill person ranting to no one per day but they all kept to themselves. Still saw a lot of dogs (even saw one take a crap on Bellagio's floor near baccarat as the owner was trying to sprint the dog outside at 7am) but thankfully only one on someone's lap while gambling (seriously people leave your pets at home!). Much less kids than I saw in April but that was around Easter/spring break time. Uber times & prices seem normal. Restaurants didn't have much wait time, I honestly think during the week you only need reservations for higher end. Was a wonderful trip but with 3 trips in the last 12 months I think we're going to skip a spring trip and just go to Atlantis Bahamas in January and will see Vegas again next October (unless of course we win big in Atlantis).
