Highlights from Aug Vegas Trip

QueenDoOver

Dis Diva
Joined
Jan 24, 2009
The temps were triple digit hot. We didn't walk around much until evening. We drank tons of water. I spent several mornings and afternoons at the pool, in the shade, which made it all very lovely. I would hate if I had to be in the sun, or working or anything, but for vacation, it was great! Actually, yesterday here at home at nearly 80 it felt much worse, but that could have been the vacuuming, dusting, dishes, mopping agenda??

We have been going to Vegas every year as a couple since we got married 10 years ago. Here are a couple of pics from our past trips:
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This second picture was taken at the outdoor seating next to the pool at the Paris. They used to have table service there! We loved to go eat outdoors.

So, we have seen and done quite a bit. Every trip we learn a little something else that makes our trip better. We have yet to go OFF strip, although I keep thinking we will. But, we like the shows and we like to gamble (although on a very strict budget and when it's gone it's gone) we like to eat and people watch. That usually takes all of our time, which is usually a 3 day trip. This trip was 6 days but we still didn't leave the strip, primarily because of the temps, but we never ran out of things to do.

Our Strategy:
Join Players Club (We do Caesar Properties), play on properties, receive free hotel nights. (This trip they gave us 6 nights lodging at The Paris and a certificate for a free cruise)

Upon check in, politely ask if there is an upgraded room available. If you have a preference, like a view or location, or a suite, then ask for it. Have a $20 or a $50 in view with your credit card and driver's license, according to length of stay and level of upgrade. When you get one, thank them for their efforts and hand over the tip. This trip we were upgraded to a remodeled Premier Red Room overlooking the pool, the Eiffel Tower and the Bellagio Fountains. (We were at the Paris). This has never failed to work for us. Wish I had known about it sooner.
Pictures of our room and view:
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Just realized that the last pics of daytime view were from our previous trip. That trip we had a blue premium room. The view was actually better that time.

And from the pool it looks like this:
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In General: Tips are very effective. Want free drinks. Play, tip and smile. Ask for a water with every top shelf drink. Tip a buck and they will be back before you are ever out of a drink. I usually turn them away every other offer:)

Food: It is expensive to eat out for 6 days. Buffets are not fabulous, but they are pretty darn good at getting the job done. We did the 24 hour buffet pass two times. Once we used player points to pay for some of it, so two passes cost $66. The other pass was comped on a special they had for players club. So 4 days worth of eating for $66 was amazing. We like Planet Hollywood Spice Market. Good Shrimp Tempura, great Indian food, and tons of good veggies. We also like The Paris buffet. Hubby loves the crepes. We did eat at Caesars once too, and they have lovely homemade ice-cream. Yum! Self-regulation is critical if you go with the buffet pass! Oh, the best part of the buffet pass was that my husband reached platinium level at the players club this trip, so we got front of the line for all of the buffet seatings. This really enhanced our trip. No more standing in line, and they even sometimes stamped our receipt like this:

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This trip, we also decided to do the show pass that Caesar’s offers. They have a little hut out in front of Bally’s that says discount show tickets. The cost is $99 for total rewards members and is good for tickets to as many of the 18 shows they offer in a 48 hour time period. They are only open from noon to 6 or something like that. It is wise to do a little research and know what you want to see before getting your ticket because the 48 hours starts upon purchase. This is what we did:
1:30 Purchase pass, walked into Bally’s, got tickets to 2:30 Price is Right. (Great time!)
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I know this is a horrible picture, but it was fun to spin the wheel and I thought I would show it to you anyhow!
4:30 walked to The Paris, got tickets for The Magic of Paris (Loved it, the marionette artist is amazing)
7:00 walked to Caesars, went to buffet and ate, walked to ticket booth to see if we could sneak into 8:00 show of Absinthe
9:45 Could have walked to Flamingo and done a 10:00 show or to Harrahs for 10:30 Improve but we were done with shows for the night.

Review of Absinthe
We loved this show. The setting is very unique, like a traveling circus tent/carnival show. It is in front of Caesars palace, near Serendipity. It is really a permanent building with air conditioning though, so no worries about the heat! The MC and assistant are hilarious and raunchy. The acts in between rival the best cirque performances I have seen, but you are very close to the performers, so you get an entirely new perspective on how amazing they are. I would have loved to have seen the show again, and will make a point to see it the next time we go.

The next day we could have gone to Harrahs and Flamingo and seen two more afternoon shows, but we were both lazy and instead I went to the spa Normally I go to Qua at Caesars and that is a beautiful spa and I love spending the day there. But I really only had a few hours and wanted a treatment of some sort, and Qua is expensive. So this trip I opted to go to Flamingo, as they had a special for a body scrub, a facial, and a massage. The treatments were excellent and the spa attendant was very attentive and made sure I had anything I needed including cool cucumbers for my eyes and a eucalyptus scented towel for the steam. It was sort of fun because I was the only person in the spa!

Our first show of day two ended up being Barry Manilow. With the show pass, you can buy the premium shows at a discount. So we were able to get tickets to Barry Manilow for $40. We had stopped by the box office the day before and those same tickets were $90 to buy there. When we were waiting for our tickets, I remembered something that I had read about upgrading the seats by tipping the usher to reseat you. So, I was asking the ticketing agent about that, and he assured me that it was possible and the usher’s would know what was available. We ended up taking about 10 extra minutes to get our tickets and were chatting and being friendly the whole time. The ticket guy asked us to wait just one more minute and then went and dug through a pile of tickets before coming back and showing us the upgrade he had gotten. We were about 8 rows back and right in the middle! Probably the best seats in the house! We gladly gave him a $20 tip and he was happy as a clam.
8PM Barry Manilow- Ran until 9:30 Great show. He is an excellent entertainer and tells a great story.
Pictures are all blurry but you get the idea.
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The store selling all the Manilow stuff to fanilows benefits music programs in the schools. I thought that was awesome!
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10:00 Burlesque We again tipped the usher and received front row seats. (we were hustling to get there and never could get a drink, so if you want one and arrive latish, then best to bring one in with you)
$10 per person is the going rate to be reseated to better seats. Have it ready and ask quickly.

Day 3= We had so much fun on Price is Right that we decided to go again, so at 12:30 we went to box office and got our tickets. It didn’t matter that our pass expired at 1:30 before the show started because we already had our tickets. Funny thing was many of the items were the same, and if we would have been called up, we would have known a lot of the prices! But we were not called up, so no problem there!

After the Price is right, we headed to Bally's steakhouse for our last dinner. We had anamazing steak for two with a lobster tail. We also had casino clams which were delightful! The provided me with an endless glass of champagne as we were celebrating our 10 year anniversary. All in all, it was a fabulous meal.

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Two other places we ate were the Japanese restaurant in Bally's food court area. It was delicous, affordable and not super busy. We also ate at Earl of Sandwhich, and it was ok. Really great bread! Our other favorite that we do every trip is Mon Ami Gabi. Really outstanding food, but a bit pricy and can be very busy and difficult to get into.

This trip happened to be sort of crazy in regards to slot machines. Both of us kept hitting wins on really random machines that we just sat at to kill some time while waiting for shows or dinner or something. So we didn't have time to sit and put it all back in. It was so much more fun to walk away with money instead of just putting it in:) Here is picture of my first win, the first morning I woke up, and hubby had been up playing late and told me he thought he had reached platinum level. I went downstairs and put my card in the first machine I came to check the tier balance, decided to play out a $30 ticket that I had left over from the night before, and hit $1000 on my second spin. The casino was empty and there was nobody to celebrate with me, so I took a picture:)
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And then just for fun, because it is such a Vegas phenomena that people dress up as all famous characters to make money, I took this picture:
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Well, I hope something in here will help someone else have a great trip. We love going to Vegas, almost as much as Disney:)

Tracey
 
Awesome review and info, Tracey! I'm glad you had fun. Still bummed it didn't work out for us to meet up. I've been having rotten luck with that lately!! First you, then Mel. :sad2:
Next time for sure!!

Thanks for sharing your tips and trip with us. :)
 
Thanks for reading Beth! I wish you could have made it too, as it would have been really fun to have a girlfriend to hang out with. Totally different experience from hanging with the hubby:)
 
Great review Tracey! We just got back a few days ago from our anniversary trip but I you've given me lots of tips for the next one.

We went off strip quite a bit this trip and really enjoyed it. Dh found driving the strip was fairly easy. We went to Red Rock Canyon which was amazing to see, we went out to Hoover Dam and we went to the outlet malls. Even driving back and forth to hotels during the day was much better than walking in that heat.

I love your restaurant choices too. We did Mon Ami Gabi on our last trip and really enjoyed it. Our must-do restaurant is Hash House.

Thanks for the report and congrats on being married 10 years!
 


Tracey - sounds like you had a fabulous trip!! Good to know on the reseating request/tip too. I never would have thought of that (but I'm definitely going to remember it!!). I've never been to Absinthe, but I think I want to.

So how much cash did you win????? I'm not usually very lucky (of course, I usually only play $5 :rotfl2:) Did you get any pics of your room? I want to stay at Paris. We enjoyed the buffet there too - frozen custard?? Yes, please :upsidedow
 
OOOH! Good Idea! I did take pictures and I will post them as soon as I get a moment:)

And yum, I love the frozen custard at The Paris!
 


And Theresa, I will just say regarding the winnings...we were well into 4 figures! Came home and made an extra house payment. We know the odds of that ever happening again are slim to none but it sure was fun.
 
And Theresa, I will just say regarding the winnings...we were well into 4 figures! Came home and made an extra house payment. We know the odds of that ever happening again are slim to none but it sure was fun.
Wow, you did luck out!! Usually people lose their house payment. :lmao: Glad you had so much fun , and I love the added photos.
 
I'm tellin' ya......we need another girls only trip!! :rolleyes1 :dance3:

Always.

And Theresa, I will just say regarding the winnings...we were well into 4 figures! Came home and made an extra house payment. We know the odds of that ever happening again are slim to none but it sure was fun.

Sweet!!! I once won enough to pay for my dinner and I was absolutely thrilled :upsidedow

Love the pics, Tracey!!
 
And for the record...I would love a girls trip too. Not sure if I will get to go on one for a long time yet, but I would love one!
 
Loved reading about your trip! You and your husband seem to have so much fun:) Happy anniversary!
 
great view at the Paris - we've been staying there for many years, but never once thought about handing over a "tip" at the check-in counter upon (politely) inquiring about a room/view upgrade - yep, next trip i'm discreetly folding a $50 for that Bellagio fountain view!!! ;)
 

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