We visit Las Vegas twice a year usually for about 3 and a
half weeks at a time and are very much creatures of habit. We breakfast every
morning in the McDonald's opposite our hotel as I enjoy their fruit and maple oatmeal
and Jim enjoys their burritos. We are both over 60 so have a bus pass for half
price travel and buy a 30 day bus pass for $32.50 each which is very
reasonable. We are not big gamblers by any means - usually betting 20c a spin
and we play together for entertainment rather than trying to make a profit and
we enjoy the advantage of getting drinks for the price of a tip!
Tuesday 27 September
Caught our 2 flights from Edinburgh to London and London
to Las Vegas and landed on time at Terminal 3 at McCarran. Transferred over to
Terminal 1 and waited for the Palace Station shuttle bus. It arrived on time
and in no time we were at our hotel and we were pleasantly surprised with a
free upgrade to a Tower room. It could have been because we stayed there for 23
nights in April/May this year and we are already booked for 23 nights next
April.
Wednesday 28
September
After breakfast we walked up to the Money Tree and bought
our 30 day reduced fare bus tickets then took the Sahara Express westbound all
the way to Red Rock Casino where we played a few slots and redeemed a myvegas
reward for 2 free lunch buffets. On the way back we stopped off at a Smart
& Final to pick up vodka and tonic. Spent a few hours in the casino at
night.
Thursday 29
September
Spent time at the pool before setting off for Green
Valley Ranch. We have been there before so I knew roughly which buses to get
but my memory wasn't as good as I thought and we missed getting off at the
correct stop to change buses and went way too far along Sahara Avenue. We ended
up getting another bus back then catching the correct bus but by that time we
did all this and waited for buses we wouldn't have been in time to redeem our 2
free myvegas lunch buffets so decided to get off at Flamingo and catch another
bus to the Silver Sevens for a 2 for 1 and arrived there at 2.30pm - their
lunch finished at 2pm and dinner didn't start until 4pm. Off we went again on
the bus over to the Gold Coast for a 2 for 1 lunch and arrived just in time for
it closing at 3pm. Our next hope was the Palms over the road where we had a 50%
off voucher. Luckily their buffet didn't close between lunch and dinner so we
finally had our late lunch. Spent a few hours in the casino at night.
Note to self - must research bus routes a bit better in
the future!
Friday 30
September
Relaxed at the pool before catching the bus to Red Rock
again to redeem a myvegas reward for 2 free games of ten pin bowling for each
of us (I won!) Next we redeemed another myvegas reward for 2 free lunch
buffets. Caught a different bus back so we could visit a Walmart at Decatur and
also a 99c store where we bought various items. Caught 2 buses back to our
hotel from there and relaxed before gambling for a few hours in the casino.
Saturday 1 October
After breakfast we relaxed at the pool for a while before
catching the 119 bus from just round the corner from the Palace Station. It
goes on the freeway and only takes about 7 or 8 minutes to get to centre Strip,
which is very convenient. We got off at Treasure Island and walked to the
Mirage to pick up our free tickets to The Beatles Love and Tournament of Kings
courtesy of myvegas. We had thought of going to see Celine Dion this time but
we discovered that the tickets would cost nearly $200 each so we decided to
check out the tickets for the Donny & Marie show at the Flamingo instead.
The cheapest tickets were $115 but we asked if there were discounts for seniors
and the girl confirmed that there were for people over 65 so after checking
Jim's passport she offered us 2 seats about half way back for $48 each. Thank
you very much! We asked if we could pay with Total Rewards points and she
confirmed we could if one card would cover the entire cost. Luckily Jim had
$100 on his so she swiped it and handed over the tickets - what a result! (The
reason that we have so many points on our cards is because we take part in
Social Rewards where you watch videos and share things on facebook to
accumulate points which you convert to dollars.) Travelled back to the Palace
Station and had a 2 for 1 buffet courtesy of a myvegas reward. Gambled for a
few hours in the casino at night.
Sunday 2 October
After breakfast and time at the pool we treated today as
a rest day and watched some of the Ryder Cup and did some laundry. We travelled
to the Strip and walked up to the Burger King next to the Stratosphere for our
dinner before visiting the Stratosphere to see some of the cocktail waitresses
that we were friendly with before we moved to the Palace Station. Gambled for a
few hours in our hotel when we got back.
Monday 3 October
Had breakfast but didn't go to the pool today as it was a
bit breezy and chilly. Instead we caught the bus to the Las Vegas Advisor's
offices to pick up another Members Rewards Coupon Book. From there we walked
down to the Gold Coast where we both played $10 and got $10 free on the slots
from the coupon book. (We already had one coupon book from our vacation in
April but we hadn't used that one then) We both picked some lucky slots and
made a total profit of $35.31. At night we went to see the Tournament of Kings
at Excalibur. It's the second time we've seen it and we enjoyed both the show
and the food but we both agreed that twice is enough seeing it. Gambled in our
hotel at night.
Tuesday 4 October
Had breakfast and relaxed at the pool for
a while. Later on we made our way to the Mirage for our free buffet there at
Cravings courtesy of myvegas. Walked along to the Bellagio to film and
take photos of the conservatory. I don't usually like the Autumnal scenes with
the many pumpkins in them but this year it seemed to be more colourful.
We were just in time to see a fountain show on the way out but it was
set to a piece of classical music that we weren't familiar with so
we've seen a lot better ones. Caught the Deuce up to the Palazzo and
filmed their flower display and then walked over to the new fountain display at
Wynn which is very good. Caught the 119 bus back to our hotel and gambled
at night in the casino.
Wednesday 5 October
Had breakfast and caught the 2 buses to
the Walmart at Decatur/Charleston to buy sun lotion and some cigars for a
friend back home. Lay at the pool for a while and then had a late
lunch using a 2 for 1myvegas reward plus a $5 off which Jim won last weekend
and paid using half points. Gambled in the casino at night.
Thursday 6 October
Had breakfast and spent time at the
pool. Returned to our room to Skype our son back home then do some laundry.
Went for a late lunch at the buffet in our hotel using a 2 for 1 coupon
from the LVA Members Reward Coupon book (total $8.10). Played slots for a
while and then caught the 119 bus to the Palazzo and walked to the Flamingo to see the
Donny and Marie Show. We enjoyed the parts where they sang together but
unfortunately that wasn't very often as they took it in turns to sing on their
own for about 20 minutes at a time. We were impressed with Marie as she sang
lots of different music genres including country, rock, musicals and opera. On
the whole we enjoyed the show. Walked back to the Fashion Show Mall and caught
the 119 back to the Palace Station and gambled in the casino.
Friday 7 October
Had breakfast and relaxed at the pool
for a while. We then set off for Green Valley Ranch again - this time getting
off at the correct stop and changing to the 111 bus. When we arrived we
went straight to the players club and exchanged our myvegas reward for our
2 free lunch buffets. Afterwards we had a wander through the casino and
out to the pool area which is beautiful. The journey back on the 2 buses
seemed very long so I doubt if we will venture to Green Valley Ranch
again. When we got the elevator down to the casino at night we met a young couple from Ireland who were only in Las Vegas for 5 days. We
chatted for ages and ended up showing them the Feast buffet which they
hadn't discovered yet. We also got them to sign up to the players club to
get their buffet cheaper and to earn boarding pass points. They had
never gambled before either so we explained how we played the slots and
they soon picked it up.
Saturday 8 October
Had breakfast and decided to take the
bus over to the Fashion Show Mall to book tickets for the show Baz at the
Palazzo. When we arrived at the Tix4tonight outlet who should we bump into
but the young Irish couple from our hotel that we met last night. We had
recommended that they see the Beatles Love show so they were booking it when we arrived. We
took them over to the Wynn to see the carousel and the hot air balloon
made out of fresh flowers and the statue of Popeye then over to the Palazzo and
the Venetian to see the gondolas and St Marks Square. We then crossed over
to the Mirage to show them where the Beatles Love theatre was so they knew
where to go to at night. We left them there and walked back up to the
Fashion Show Mall and caught the 119 bus back to the Palace Station. We
had our dinner at the buffet in our hotel using a 2 for 1 buffet courtesy of
myvegas. Caught the 119 bus back over to
the Palazzo to see our show - Baz. I'd heard a lot of great reports about
this show from when it was at Mandalay Bay a couple of years ago and since
it is only at the Palazzo until February we decided that now was the time
to see it. When we arrived we were asked if we wanted to sit on the
stage - well that threw us straight away! We declined mainly because
we thought the cast members might interact with us and we didn't
want that. The show is all about 3 films that Baz Luhrman directed -
Romeo & Juliet, Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby and I presumed that there would be songs from those
films that we knew - wrong. The stories from all 3 films were all mashed
up together with a lot of songs we had never heard of. The only good parts
were when the dancers came on as they were excellent. I've never known 90
minutes last so long! Caught the 119 bus back to our hotel and gambled in
the casino.
Sunday 9 October
Had breakfast and relaxed at the pool for
a while before catching the SX then the BHX down to Sam's Town to meet up
with friends who live in Las Vegas. We had coffee/tea together and chatted
for ages before catching the buses back to our hotel where we bought a
Subway meal and ate it in our room. Gambled in the casino at night.
Monday 10 October
Had breakfast and spent time at the pool.
Caught the SX then the SDX to Fremont Street and played free play with
coupons in the LVA Members Reward coupon book. We played $10 free play in
El Cortez - $7.41 profit, Downtown Grand - $13.46 profit, Plaza - $5.60
& $2.90 profit as we both had a coupon for there, 4 Queens - $5.72 profit and Binions -
$6.30 profit. We had a 2 for 1 buffet in Main Street Station (LVA coupon
total $12.97 total) before returning to our hotel. Gambled at night in our
casino and we noticed that they had replaced the very old and worn out
chairs in part of the casino with lovely new ones. We presume that this is
one of the first steps in the renovation of the hotel. They have already
started plans to move the bingo parlour to a different position so things
are on the move.
Tuesday 11 October
Had breakfast and relaxed at the pool
before catching the SX, the Deuce then the HDX down to Sunset Station at
Henderson. Visited the Walmart and the 99c store next to the hotel then
redeemed a myvegas reward for a free lunch buffet for each of us. Caught
the 3 buses back to our hotel. Gambled in the casino at night where wins
were very scarce.
Wednesday 12 October
Had breakfast and spent time at the
pool. Caught the 119 bus north then changed to the 106 bus to take us up to
Santa Fe casino where we met up with Carol who we met when she worked at
registration in the Stratosphere when we used to stay there. We enjoyed
chatting with her and catching up with all the news. Caught the 106 then the 119 back to our
hotel and then relaxed until it was time to gamble.
Thursday 13 October
Had breakfast and just as we left
McDonald's we were met by the sight of the whole of Sahara Avenue going
westbound completely cleared of traffic . Someone informed us that it was
because the vice president, Joe Biden, was about to pass by. A couple of
minutes later a huge convoy of cars, police cars, paramedics and
motorcyclists went past. There must have been at least 50 vehicles altogether
- just for one man! We spent time at the pool then decided to go for a
game of bingo but the queues for buying books were really long and there
weren't many seats left so we decided against it and played a few slots
instead. We had a late lunch at our buffet with a 2 for 1 myvegas voucher
plus a $5 off which I won on the Station casino promotion last weekend
(total cost $2.69). Caught the 119 over to Treasure Island and walked down
to Harrahs and crossed over to the Mirage to meet up with our friends from
Wales to go in and see the Beatle Love show which we both
got free with playing myvegas. The show has been revamped for the 10th anniversary
and had a lot of new segments which we hadn't seen before so it was just
like seeing a new show. It was amazing as always. When we left we caught the
tram to TI then walked over to show our friends the new fountain show at
the Wynn and also the carousel and hot air balloon inside the Wynn.
Our friends then caught the Deuce to where they are staying Downtown and
we caught the 119 over to the Palace Station.
Friday 14 October
Had breakfast and then set off to do
slot matchplay in Ellis Island (+$2), Hooters (+$7.79) and Orleans
(+$10.02) with the LVA Members Reward book and the American Casino Guide.
We also used a 2 for 1 voucher for the buffet in the Orleans before
catching the 104 then the SX back to our hotel. Relaxed then gambled in
the casino at night.
Saturday 15 October
Had breakfast and returned to our room
and noticed from our bedroom window that the freeway had been closed off by the
police and the traffic was held up for miles back. We later found out that
there had been a fatal shooting and it took quite a while for the road to
be reopened. Went to Arizona Charlie's for a late lunch and later on
gambled in our casino.
Sunday 16 October
Had breakfast but couldn't lie at the pool
as they were both shut due to high winds. Instead we caught the SX to the
Strip and walked through the SLS and then on to Westgate where we redeemed
$10 free play from the LVA Members Reward book - profit of $7.18. We
then caught the 108 down to the Mardi Gras for us both to redeem a $10 matchplay
but first of all we had to sign up to get their players card. We then
discovered that by signing up we automatically got a $10 matchplay. We
should probably have left as soon as we arrived but we went ahead and out
of the 36 slot machines there we managed to find 2 to play. After we'd
played through $10 the $10 freeplay automatically appeared on our slot. At
the end I was $1 down but thankfully Jim was $15.95 up so we were in
profit. We pressed to cash out and discovered that we had to wait for a
hand pay as they don't have TITO! We couldn't wait to leave that place and
definitely won't be back. We caught the 108 outside and narrowly missed a
202 at Flamingo so we started to walk up to the Strip and caught the 119
bus on Koval which took us to the Fashion Show Mall. We then walked to
the Mirage because the Beatles Love theatre were allowing people in to
see rehearsals of the show from 3pm to 3.30pm so we queued up just
before 3pm. We saw acrobats training on trampolines just like we'd seen
in the show and the girl gave us various bits of interesting information about the show and how it came about and took questions from
the audience. After we came out we crossed over to Harrahs to play $5
through each to keep our Total Rewards points active then walked up to the
Fashion Show Mall to catch the 119 back to Sahara where we had a light meal
in McDonalds to give us a rest from all the buffets we've had. Gambled in
the casino at night and for once we had some decent wins.
Monday 17 October
Had breakfast then relaxed at the pool as
it is open again (the winds have died down today). Skyped our son for an
hour and then met up with our friends from Wales again and took them up to
show them our room. We chatted for ages and then they caught the bus back
to their hotel Downtown. Had another break from all the buffets we've been
having and had a Subway for our evening meal. Gambled in the casino at
night.
Tuesday 18 October
Sadly I've no idea what we did today as
I failed to record anything but I think we must have gone back to Sunset
Station as I seem to recall that we still had 2 free dinner buffets from
myvegas so I'm pretty sure that we must have redeemed them today.
Wednesday 19 October
Had breakfast then relaxed at the pool.
Played a few slots as it's 10 times points today with My Generation
Wednesday. Played a game of bingo using up our points (no luck) then went for
a 2 for 1 buffet which we had managed to purchase from myvegas at the last
minute. Checked in for our flight tomorrow then watched the presidential
debate from the Thomas and Mack center in Las Vegas - best comedy program
we've seen since we got here! Gambled in the casino after it was finished.
Thursday 20 October
Had breakfast and managed to secure a
late checkout until 2pm. Relaxed at the pool for a while before packing
our suitcases for the journey home. Caught the 2pm Palace Station shuttle
to the airport and caught the first of our 2 flights for the long journey
home.
Here are a few more photos that I took:-
Here are a few more photos that I took:-
These photos were taken outside the Venetian - we've never noticed the footprints or the plaque before so I don't know if they are new.
I took these photos from the TV in our room. Elton John was having a charity tennis match in front of Caesars Palace (as he does every year) to raise money for his foundation and they showed it live on TV. As well as Elton and Billy Jean King appearing there was also John McEnroe, Andy Roddick, Martina Navratalova, Maria Sharapova and various other tennis players taking part.
You can now hire bikes in Las Vegas - this photo was taken in between the SLS and Walgreens on Sahara Avenue
These photos were taken in the Forum Shops