Please ADD your own Las Vegas Trip Report. Date of Trip: April 10, 2003 to April 13, 2003 Hotel Stayed At: Bally's Report by: Traci <> From: Dallas

Just got back from my trip earlier today, and had an absolute blast! Long trip report ahead....

4/10/03 Thursday - Left DFW bright and early at 7:40am. It was me, my husband, and our friends A & B, who had never been before. Flight left on time, and arrived in Vegas almost 30 minutes ahead of time, so we got there about 8:20am Vegas time. Grabbed a taxi and made our way to Bally's (no tunnel!). Early check-in wasn't until 10:15, so we blew about $100 each on the .25 Wheel of Fortune before we even checked in. We got checked in straight up at 10:15. Their room was ready, but ours wasn't clean yet so we put all our stuff in their room until ours was ready. We were on the 17th floor, rooms 1723 and 1727. We had a nice view of Flamingo, Caesars, Barbary Coast, Rio, Treasure Island, Venetian, Imperial Palace, Stratosphere, and Maxim, which is being remodeled. The rooms were nice, no complaints there. There's also a bunch of remodeling being done at Bally's, which was only noticable around the sports book & mall area. After we checked in, we had lunch at the buffet at Bally's, which was pretty damn good. We stuffed our faces and headed over to Barbary Coast to gamble. I lost about $300 more there. A & I hit up a cheap roulette table. A had never played roulette before, and hit 3 numbers in a row. She cashed out for a nice chunk, and we popped into Flamingo for a second, and decided to keep going. We walked for a ways, and stopped in O'Sheas, Harrah's, Casino Royale, and Venetian. They were doing some serious construction at Caesars across the street, and we stopped to check out a building being demolished right next to the Forum Shops along with about 20 other people. The crane hit the building dead-on, and a huge chunk fell, and we all cheered (it's the simple things that make us happy....) We went to Madame Tussauds, and took about 2 rolls of pictures. My favorites are B bending over in front of Elton John and my husband bending over in front of Liberace. Good times... We went back to Barbary Coast to check out Big Elvis, but he was a no show, so the casino bought everyone a round of drinks who was waiting to see him. Then we went back to the hotel and took a long, much needed nap. We got up and had dinner at the Tequila Bar at Bally's about 9pm (or 11pm Dallas time, we were all screwed up on time). We used our coupons there for buy one get one entree free, and buy on get one margarita free. The food was pretty good, but the peach margarita was to die for. We walked over to Paris and went to the Eiffel Tower and watched a fountain show across the street, then walked across the street to see one up close, and of course it was awesome. The last show fountain show we saw was to that damn Titanic song by Celine Dion. I'm going to vent for a second here, so bear with me. I despise Celine Dion. With a passion. And she's everywhere in Vegas. Everywhere. At Caesars. On Caesars billboard. Playing in the buffet at Bally's. At the Bellagio fountain show. On magazines. In taxis. Everywhere, I tell you. Please make her go away. Anyway, we went back to Bally's, and I won about $100, then went to bed at some point that night.

Friday 4/11/03 - Got up & had lunch at Bally's buffet again. It was the exact same menu as the day before. And when I say exact, I mean, everything was the exact same as the day before, and in the exact same spot. I decided that was the last time I'd eat there. Anyway, we gambled for about 4 hours, and I lot a couple hundred more. My husband played at the sports book, and won the money I had lost. We walked back over to Barbary Coast to see Big Elvis would actually make it this time. He did, and he was as good as the last time I saw him, and still as big as I remember him. We (excuse me, I) got drunk and decided it would be a good idea to go to the Stratosphere and ride the rides. We did the roller coaster first, and boy did that blow. That ride is horrible. It's like a kiddie ride. Anyway, we went to the Big Shot next. We all got up there, and the boys chickened out and gave us their tickets so we could ride it twice. My throat still hurts from screaming like a little girl, and I'm sure the alcohol didn't make me overreact at all. I swear. So then we rode it again, and this time I'm laughing hysterically & trying not to puke at the same time. The picture was priceless, a combination of terror, about to be sick, and laughing like a maniac. I wish I had bought it. My husband & I played some double exposure BJ there. What a rip. Four times I had 20 and I had to hit. We then took a taxi to Hard Rock and had dinner at the Pink Taco. I think this place is totally overrated. I got a mohito (a drink), and it sucked. I got the pink tacos, and they sucked. The brownie dessert was good, though. I gambled for a bit while the boys sat in the sports book, and lost about $200 at Let it Ride. We had tickets to Sum 41/No Use For A Name at the Joint. What a cool venue that place is. I didn't much care for the concert (not my kind of music) though. Everyone else I was with had a good time. I liked the Hard Rock, but I just didn't feel young/pretty/skinny/hip enough to be there, and I'm not old/ugly/fat/un-hip at all.. It's like the prettiest of the pretty people there. A pretty-people convention. Even the dealers were cooler than me. I wanted to leave as quickly as possible and get back to Bally's so I'd feel pretty again. We gambled til about 2 at Bally's, then went to bed.

Saturday 4/12/03- Got up and thought we'd try the brunch at Bally's, because surely the menu would be different this time. It was until about 11:30, them they brought out the old faithful menu again, and I left after scarfing down about 5 pounds of scrambled eggs. Went to the sports book at Bally's and made a ton of stupid long-shot horse racing bets. Boy, that was a superb idea. Once I was down about $200, I made a trifecta box bet on horses with good odds. Well, I got it, but there were only 5 horses that ran the race. My husband called it the weakest trifecta win ever, but I was still pumped that I actually won something. I bet $12 on it, and walked away with about $15 to show for it. A & I left the boys there, and took a taxi to MGM and checked out the Lion Habitat, then went to M&M World. If you ever plan to visit here, please listen to me. The people who designed M&M world want you to get hurt, and hurt other people. There is an escalator that goes to the 2nd floor of this place. Now keep in mind the capacity of this place couldn't be more than 150 people. There were about 500 people there. At the top of the escalator they put merchandise RIGHT THERE at the top of the escalator. So all the people that get upstairs who are just looking to blow their money on anything with and M or an M on it stop and oogle at the M&M crap. They just stop, at the top of the escalator. Guess what happens to the people still on the escalator? You got it. There's no where to go, up or down, because there's people behind you, and in front of you. It was like a scene from America's Funniest Home Videos, but it's not funny when you're part of it. We bought some M&M crap and left, and went to the crappy gift shop right next to it, and bought some more crap. I'd had enough crowds and people who can't figure out how to walk, so we took a taxi back to Bally's. At lunch at Sbarro (eh) I played blackjack for about 4 hours, and actually made $60. My husband lost $200 at the sports book. Our friends had Jubilee tickets, and we had tickets for Amazing Johnathan that night, so we got ready and ate at the Deli and Flamingo. Eh. Got to the showroom, and our seats were in the front row. I was one inch away from the stage, looking straight up at him. He picked on both me and my husband. We tried to hand my husband a $100 bill to see of it was real, and everytime my husband tried to grab it, Johnathan would pull it back and laugh it him. This went on about 10 times, then my husband just sat down and gave up. At the end of the show, he pulls out this ball and covers it with a scarf. The ball kind of moves on it's own, and he's got it over his crotch so it looks like he's got this giant thingie, and it's just going nuts. So he looks at me and is mouthing "I love you.....I love you", and the spotlight is shining right on me. It doesn't sound as funny as it was. It was a great show. I met him afterwards, bought his book, and took a picture with him & Psychic Tanya. We went back to Bally's and played BJ for a while. 3 drunk stupid people sat at our table, and the tool that sat next to my husband did everything wrong. My husband and another guy at the table had enough because he was making us all lose, so they told him when we was about to do something stupid, but he did it anyways. Even the dealer was telling him to listen to us. He then hit about 200 blackjacks in a row, and told us we didn't know what we were talking about, because he was winning. I should've gotten up when I realized what a jackass he was, but I was doing well & didn't want to leave. That cost me about $400, and I got mad and went to bed about 4am.

Sunday 4/13/03 - Got up, checked out. Found out our last night had been comped too (we had the 1st 2 nights free), so that ruled. Got to McCarran, and it was insane there. Took us about an hour to get to the gate, and by that time it was already boarding. Flight was uneventful, and got to Dallas about 10 minutes early.

Final thoughts on the trip
*Don't get drunk & ride the Stratosphere rides
*M&M World is evil
*Celine Dion needs to go away
*Amazing Johnathan is great
*Bally's is awesome, I plan on staying there from now on
*Bally's needs to work on their lunch buffet menu
*There's a reason the horse is 50-1
*I can never, ever win on a slot machine
*If a dumbass sits next to you in BJ, don't tough it out in hopes that he will listen to you, or leave. He won't.
*Pens that have people on it that get naked when you turn them upside down will always be funny
*Hot dogs are good. We had them at the airport, Barbary Coast, Flamingo, and Bally's. They're good wherever you go.
*I tried to get downtown to see the Mardi Gras stuff, and to see Gary, but it just didn't work out. I was too busy giving Bally's all my money.
*We managed to lose over a grand between to 2 of us, but that's ok. We'll win it back next time

That's it! We're already planning our next trip!

Traci <> - Dallas    1308

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