Please ADD your own Las Vegas Trip Report. Date of Trip: March 20, 2008 to March 26, 2008 Hotel Stayed At: Luxor, The Signature at MGM Report by: Vlad <> From: Austin, TX

Flights

We’ve missed the first US Airways morning flight out of Austin. Ticket agent kindly rebooked us for the next flight to Phoenix but told us that all next two flights to Vegas were filled up so we would have to board 1:55pm in Phoenix. He also recommended that we try standby procedure. Well, we did and were able fly standby on the next flight to Vegas out of Phoenix. The downside was that I’ve cancelled the spa appointment for my lady cuz I was afraid we wouldn’t make it on time.

Our slightly altered itinerary caused us to come up as no shows in US Airways system. We were supposed to board 9:50 am return flight to Phoenix but the agent kindly told us that all flights out of Phoenix were oversold for Monday. Our seats were released since the computer thought we chickened out and stayed in Austin. We were given two options: fly to Phoenix trying to board oversold flights or stay in Vegas till 4:11 pm on Tuesday. Guess which option we took? Vegas Take 2.

The Arrival

The airport was very busy. I’ve bid on Hertz standard car rental via Priceline so I’ve got a Malibu($94). One thing I didn’t like about Hertz was that they assigned the car for me. They did offer Mustang for $5 more which I foolishly didn’t take. $5 in Vegas lasts like 30 seconds. Sigh.

The hotel

I’ve got 4 nights in Luxor starting Thursday till Monday. Check-in to our Pyramid room was quick, partially because I mistakenly parked at Tower valet. I was upset after bitter argument with my girlfriend so I didn’t have the energy to try $20 trick. The clerk initially offered a room on the 13th floor which I indignantly refused. She gave us room at the 5 floor facing the Mandalay Bay.
The room was all average. It didn’t have the bathtub due to the Pyramid floor plans. The downside was that it was an extension of LAX nightclub during early night hours. The bass was literally shaking the room. That fact left me extremely cross but my girlfriend convinced the clerk to move us up to the 24th floor. No 20$ trick was needed.
That room was just fine and was pleasantly lacking Britney Spears at 95 decibels.
Enlightened after a string of losses I’ve decided to splurge on hotel room for Monday night (remember a little Vegas Take 2?). $167 bought us the place in paradise also known as The Signature at MGM Grand. The best hotel room I ever stayed in. A petit suite with king sized bed with softest sheets and down comforter, 42 inch plasma, café style coffee cups. The bathroom! I miss thee: two person Jacuzzi, walk-in shower, dual sinks, 14 inch LCD TV and separate toilet with requisite phone. The suite had a doorbell and electronic privacy system. The Signature had a lot of cool and cozy chill out places sprinkled throughout its 3 towers.

The food

We ate at the following buffets: Planet Hollywood, Paris and Mirage. PH and Mirage were consistently good. Paris buffet disappointed us with its lost focus. It appeared like an all American buffet not a plethora of tasty treats from the land of Careme.
We also ate at the Pyramid Café in Luxor(rather bland) and Pastry/Sandwich shop in Paris(yummy and creative).
We ate these restaurants: Ah Sin in Paris and Hachi in Red Rock. Both places pleased us with their excellent food, attentive service and eye pleasing décor.

Entertainment

We saw The Legends in Concert at The Imperial Palace. We bought VIP tickets ($67 for two) at the Half price ticket booth in Downtown. The show was awesome: pure Vegas and excellent impersonations of various performers. The proximity of IP has introduced us to the 64 oz Mai Tai fish bowl. My girlfriend had a couple of those during our trip. The barkeep wasn’t stingy with the liquor on those ones.
The rest was all people watching. The memorable scene was at the one of the craps tables where muscled guy with trademark New York accent has plunked down $4000, got 4 yellow chips, put them on the don’t pass and promptly lost. His reaction was priceless: he merely shrugged not moving a single facial muscle and walked away.

The relaxation

My girlfriend visited the Spa at Golden Nugget for the lavender dreams treatment ($234) and The Spa at Luxor for massage/facial($200). She was very pleased with both treatments. Now she wants me to learn
to do “that thing” with her neck. As for me, getting 8 hours of sleep in Vegas was a treat.

Gambling

I mostly played craps with a bit of slots sprinkled throughout. The slots were hit or miss: penny slots were all dogs, nickel and quarter weren’t terribly lucrative either. I’ve had some moderate luck with dollar slots in Red Rock ($120 on $1 Moolah), $120 on $1 Wild Cherry machine in Excalibur, miscellaneous $40 - $110 mini jackpots on spinners and blazing sevens machines in Mirage.
I’m died in the wool dice setter. It usually yields pretty decent results unless too many drinks are had, I’m tired, not upset etc. In the nutshell, the window of opportunity is rather narrow. The dice games were played at the following establishments:
Luxor – 3 sessions (-190$ upset, +380$ well rested, -36$ lack of sleep)
Excalibur – 1 session (-200$ over-confident buffoonery on untested tables)
Mandalay Bay – 1 session (-75$ too many coffees with baileys)
MGM Grand – 2 sessions (+125 well rested, -400 last hurrah before flight, $25 min tables)
Mirage – 1 session (+50 a choppy session)
Paris – 1 session (-150$, stop loss could have yielded a decent profit. Some guy cashed a marker for $40k, playing the don’ts. Normally I cause a lot grief to obstinate dark siders but not this time. The guy colored up $29k.)
Red Rock – 1 session (-275$ - broke even midway, continued to play despite the fatigue. Red Rock was the place of the shootout at Red Rock Corral. I’ve been trying to make the point of 4 and had dealers riding on the odds for the decent 36$ tip. Dark siders threw a big red, causing me to crap out. I’ve got really cross with those fellas. So next time a dark sider shoots I place the point for the table min and cheer, he makes the point. I repeat the bet. I rejoice. It’s silly but I felt like I hit a jackpot)
The Binions – (-100$ - dead tired at 3am)
The Palazzo – (-60$ on extremely bouncy tables. No dice control here folks.)
The Caesars Palace (-$75 on extremely bouncy tables.)
The Bellagio – 2 sessions (+100 well rested and slightly sauced, -10$ after almost breaking even after playing with the gang of Asian sharpshooters. The cocktails at Bellagio are the best in Vegas bar none. I highly recommend their libations.)
The Las Vegas Club – 1 session (+500$ - well rested and slightly sauced. That two hour session was the piece de resistance. That session left me up $300 for trip for the second day. Alas, the pleasure was momentary. )


Pros
-cool room at the Signature
-yummy food at Hachi and Ah Sin
-clean slate feeling

Cons
-lack of sleep
-indiscriminate gambling


Vlad <> - Austin, TX    4195

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