Wednesday 17 September
Caught the 11.25am flight from Edinburgh down to Heathrow and then the connecting flight to Las Vegas. Arrived safely and took a taxi to the Rio. Checked in and unpacked. We have a newly remodelled Strip view room on the 11th floor and we are really pleased with it. Gambled a little bit at night before going to bed exhausted as we didn't sleep much on the flight.
Thursday 18 September
Had breakfast in the Palms
then played some slots in the Gold Coast before buying water in Walgreens. The rain came on just as we got back to the Rio and lasted the whole day so we decided just to have showers and a sleep to adjust to the time difference. Had a Philly Cheese steak from the food court in the Rio for dinner and ate it in our room. Played slots at night in the Rio and hit a big bonus of $117.80 playing 25c a spin 😲😊
Friday 19 September
Had breakfast then caught the 104 and the 206 to Bonneville Transit Center (bus station) to buy our 15 day reduced fare bus tickets for $17 each. Walked along to Fremont Street through the Golden Nugget
Golden Gate and the Plaza then played a few slots in Binions. Walked along to El Cortez and presented our boarding passes to get $10 free play each which we turned $16. Caught the Deuce and the 202 to the Palms and had a meal from Panda Express for our dinner. Played slots in the Rio at night and had one big win on Coyote Moon for $28.60 playing 20c a spin.
Saturday 20 September
Had breakfast then took the bus to the Sahara Hotel where we will be staying in January for a look around. We ventured out to their pool area which is free to the public and discovered that it had huge screens showing sports matches.
Played some slots breaking even then walked along to Fontainebleau and played some there too. Next we visited Circus Circus and Resorts World before catching the buses back to the Palms where we had dinner. Played slots at night in the Rio and had one big win on Twin Win of $30.00 playing 15c a spin.
Sunday 21 September
Took the 202 along Flamingo westbound for 5 stops to a different McDs for breakfast this morning and then jumped back on the 202 to the end of the line to a big shopping district which included a huge Target. Bought a few items then caught the 202 back to our hotel. Spent time at the pool
then bought a Smashburger each
and ate it up in our room watching the world go by on the Strip from our window.
Played slots at night in the Rio.
Monday 22 September
Had breakfast up at the McDs at Decatur then caught the 103 along to Arizona Charlie's and had fun playing all our favourite slots. Returned to our hotel via the food court in the Palms to have an ice-cream cone to keep us going until our meal at the show tonight. Relaxed and changed then caught the bus over to the Strip and made our way to Excalibur for the Tournament of Kings show. We enjoyed the show as always.
Played a few slots in Excalibur after the show then made our way over to MGM Grand for the David Copperfield show. We booked this when MGM had a promotion on called the Summer of Entertainment and were offering premium tickets for $50. Our seats were 3 rows back and I was petrified the whole show in case he selected me to help with an illusion.
He performed some very big illustrations like appearing on a motorbike out of nowhere in a previously empty box, making a car appear out of nowhere, have a gigantic flying saucer fly over the audience and making an animatronic t-rex appear in a previously empty box. Oh and he had a little animatronic friend reminiscent of Yoda which appeared out of an empty box. This friend spoke and moved (more coherently than Yoda 😂) and we didn't have a clue how it did that. We found it quite hard to hear David Copperfield's dialogue but his illusions were first class. Caught the Deuce and the 202 back to the Rio and played slots for a short time.
Tuesday 23 September
Had breakfast at the McDs at Decatur then caught the 103 along to a shopping district at Sahara where we visited TJ Maxx, 5 Below, Dollar Tree and Ross Dress for Less. Next we visited the Virgin Hotel on Paradise for a look round as we haven't been in there for many years and came out $10 up. Dinner was at Magnolia's in the Four Queens with a 2 for 1 voucher from the LVA book. We both had the soup and then the pork chops.
Found our favourite slots machine (Golden Egypt) in the Four Queens and ended up $12 ahead on it so our winnings today paid for our dinner 😄
Wednesday 24 September
Had breakfast then took the 202 to the Bellagio to see the Autumn conservatory display. As always there were lots of pumpkins and Autumnal flowers - very nice.
Later on we caught the 202 all the way to Sam's Town to meet up with our friends, Ann and Alan, who live in Las Vegas. We ate in the Panda Express there before we met up with them in Dunkin' Donuts. We chatted for over 3 hours catching up with all our news.
Thursday 25 September
Had breakfast then caught the buses up to Red Rock casino were we had fun playing all our favourite slots. Caught the SX and stopped off at Palace Station for their $5.99 cheeseburger and fries offer in the Brass Fork cafe. What a bargain and it was delicious.
Played some slots in the Sahara before returning to our hotel. Quick change of clothes then out to see O at the Bellagio. We've seen it twice before Covid and we noticed quite a few new features that they have added. Great show and we had brilliant seats for $50 in the MGM Summer of Entertainment offer.
We were sat next to a couple of English girls who we discovered were YouTubers and have a channel called Passport to Paradise and have been vlogging each day of their trip. We subscribed to their channel and will watch their videos when we get a spare moment. Played slots in the Rio afterwards.
Friday 26 September
Had breakfast then caught the 104 and the 117 to South Point. Watched a little bit of the equestrian competition in the arena before playing loads of our favourite slots.
It started to rain with some fork lightning when we came out with a storm warning on our phones. Caught the buses to Paris casino and walked through to the Horseshoe and exited at the food court to walk down to Ellis Island for dinner. What a mistake that was! The traffic lights were out at Koval probably due to the storm so we had to jay walk very carefully over to Ellis Island only to be told that most of their power was out due to the storm so we had to jay walk back over the road and then try to cross 9 lanes of slow moving traffic on Flamingo to catch the 202 back to the Rio. Talk about taking your life in your hands - it was really scary 🥺😱 Had a Philly Cheesesteak from the food court and ate it in our room. Played slots at night in the Rio.
Saturday 27 September
Had breakfast then caught the bus to Town Square to visit the TJ Maxx then travelled to the SSTT to catch the 212 to Sunset Station. What a transformation in Sunset Station with the new race and sports book - they've done a great job there.
The restrooms all looked brand new as well. We played all our favourite slots on one $20 bill and cashed out $20 so pleased with that. Caught the 212 and the Deuce to Paris and walked through Horseshoe to Ellis Island and used our 2 for 1 coupon from the LVA book in the Village Café. We both had the fish and chips and we didn't realise until we'd nearly finished that Jim didn't have any tartar sauce and I had 2 pots which I thought were both for me and might be different sauces. They must have put both of them on my plate by mistake 🫢
Caught the 202 back to the Rio and played slots at night.
Sunday 28 September
Had breakfast then caught the 202 over to the Strip and visited The Cromwell, Flamingo
the Linq, Harrah's, Casino Royale playing a little in each. We then walked through the Venetian and the Palazzo and sat in the Sports Book in the Wynn to watch the end of the Ryder Cup seeing Europe retain the trophy. Caught the Deuce down to Planet Hollywood and used a coupon for the Earl of Sandwich - buy one combo meal and get a free sandwich. Caught the bus back to our hotel and played slots at night.
Monday 29 September
We were just leaving our hotel for breakfast when someone tapped me on the shoulder and I turned round to find our son, Ross, standing there 😲 We nearly passed out when we saw him. He only booked his trip very recently and didn't tell us as he wanted to surprise us. He certainly did that. We all went for breakfast then Ross was doing challenges on the slots that his husband had set for him - today's challenge was to play $20 through on 5 retro slots machines in the Gold Coast. We had fun watching him and amazingly he broke even at the end of the challenge. Ross returned to Excalibur where he is staying and we returned to the Rio to rest (and recover from the shock of seeing Ross!) and get ready for our show at Mandalay Bay. We met up later with Ross at the Excalibur food court for a meal. Our show - MJ One was amazing. We had seen it over 10 years ago and there were loads of new scenes in it plus indoor drones. Played slots at night in the Rio.
Wednesday 1 October
Had breakfast then asked at registration for a late check out. We were lucky that they gave us till 4pm for free. Met up with Ross and went to Ellis Island as Ross hadn't seen all the major changes there. Caught the 119 to the Wynn for Ross to do his daily challenge and then went next door to the Palazzo to get our photos taken with the Wizard of Oz display.
Thursday 2 October
Spent longer in the BA lounge than we originally thought as our flight up to Edinburgh was delayed by an hour and a half.
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This is the first time that we have stayed in the Rio and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there and we loved our room.
Our holiday was made extra special when our son, Ross, arrived to surprise us 💖
Here are a few more photos from our trip:-
Yes - you can ride the Strip in a shopping trolley/cart - only in Vegas 😄