Okay, I may be somewhat caught up on my sleep. My sister (former non-gambler) and I didn't do very much in the way of gambling, and the trip was mostly
along the strip seeing the things she wanted to see that she found on the internet sites, so I won't go through the day to day blows of the trip, but just
use a summary. I'm sure I'll forget something and have to add it later.
Most interesting things we saw ( in no particular order) Of course the main attraction was Bette Midler, and she was FANtastic. The seats (comps by Harrahs were in the second orchestra which was about 10 rows back of the main aisle). The show started about 15 minutes late and the fans were getting antsy, but it started with a whirlwind and it never stopped. It is hard to believe that she is as old as she is, and that she can still perform at that pace. I had seen her show in the 80's, and she was as energetic as ever, if not more. Tip-- if you get shows comped by Harrah's, they say not to pick the tickets up at the box office until 3:30, but I went at noon, and maybe that is why I got such good seats. Big Elvis was great. I had my doubts (since my sister and I were both born in Tupelo and two half sisters married into the Presley family years ago), but he was very entertaining. The area around him was packed, but we managed to squeeze into a couple of standing positions to watch the show. The Lion Habitat at the MGM was mesmerizing. We got there in time for the feeding and there were two normal looking guys in there hand feeding these two huge lions raw meat. Then they used oversized plastic toys to get the lions chasing each other and playing. I mean these were BIG lions, a male and a female, very entertaining. The People --I guess as I get older, I just get more and more amused at watching different types of people, and there were massive crowds there as opposed to my trip in November. I still felt like the place was dominated by overseas visitors, but I soon found out many of them at least at Paris were part of an international education convention for the week. Their name tags read "Dr." this and that and "Dean of," etc. Also, I still wonder why so many people like to buy those big drink bottles (the ones over three feet high) and walk up and down the strip, but I suppose it is a rite of passage, and I would have done the same in my earlier years. Also (and this question is for those of us over 50), why did so many of those people look like they were only 13 or 14 when they were obviously old enough to drink, smoke and gamble????
Food--It seems like most of the restaurants were having "specials" left and right, due to the economy, I guess. We had a great three course meal at one of Bally's restaurants for $19.99 each. I generally don't like the "white tablecloth, waiter seat you, put the cloth napkin in your lap" kind of place, but the price was too good to pass up, and the food was out of this world as I had Caesar salad, Pasta and a wonderful sorbet/ice cream//wafer concoction for dessert. The glass of wine to go along with it was a little expensive, but I still thought it was well worth the price. We also had a wonderful filet mignon at another restaurant (I don't eat it enough to know how to spell it), and I think I hit up every chocolate place we walked by for a sample or two. The breakfast buffet at the Paris is always the best, and in between we had huge salads, Landshark Beer and more at Jimmy Buffet's (we got a seat at the window on the second floor), and some cool burgers (brie and carmelized onions--great) on the strip at another place I can't remember the name of. My sister Pat wanted to eat at Caesar's also, but we just opted for the food court, and it was very good as well. For some items I used my Rewards Credits and for others we just paid cash.
Shopping--I'm not much of a shopper, but my sister certainly always has been. While we walked by every shop on the strip, neither of us bought much of anything. She told me since she has retired from the IRS, she just doesn't "need" anything, but we had fun looking. Actually, the only celeb we saw was while shopping. Pete Rose was at his usual post in Caesar's Forum Shoppes signing autographs. I didn't even ask how much he is charging these days. The last autograph I got from him was for free at spring training in Plant City FL as he had just wrapped up a commercial, but I digress.
The casinos and gambo--Because Pat had not been there before, we went in every casino from Mandalay Bay to Encore. I didn't know if my sister would even want to try a slot machine, but we started dropping a few "coins" here and there. I thought she would like the entertainment of the penny or nickel slots, but she soon found she liked the quarter reels better. (It must be in the blood, as those are my favorite.) Generally, we bet only 1 or 2 quarters at a time and we had a few hits. I had hoped she would luck into a big hit, but the best hit was mine getting purple 7, purple 7, triple play for 540 quarters on a 2 quarter bet. There are just more and more penny and nickel slots, and you just can't find a 50cent slot anywhere. Pat didn't want to try video poker, so we didn't look at any of those.
When Pat flew out on Thursday afternoon, I still had the rest of the day and Friday to myself, so I went looking for some good paying slots at Harrah's, The Flamingo, Caesar's, Paris and Bally's. For some reason I didn't go to the other Harrah's property, the IP, but I seem to forget about that one since it is set back from the strip. Bottom line is that the rest of the time I was there, I basically hit nothing of any note except for a Triple Fire quarter machine at Paris Friday night. I got that one up to $150 before cashing out. And I did get a nickel 2X, 3X machine up to $125 at Bally's before cashing out. So on the slots, I was an overall loser, kind of expected since all my play was on the Strip.
Other random thoughts---At MGM's Studio City, we got to be members of a CBS TV test audience and record our responses to a TV show for them. It was interesting and they gave us lots of free coupons to spend an hour doing that. We saw the Mirage volcano and the Bellagio fountains (about 20 times) since the Bellagio is right across from Paris. The TI Pirate show was cancelled for the night due to high winds. I meant to go see the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Bellagio, but I chose slots instead!!!! The Encore is magnificent. I really wanted to see inside "Sinatra" but it was closed when we went there. There are some great photos of Sinatra and others posted just outside the restaurant. There was nothing much to the M/M Factory Store, etc. I didn't know about the Flamingo gardens area behind the Flamingo hotel, until Pat mentioned it. It is really worth walking through.
I'll have to stop now, and post the rest of this---just a bit more, I promise elsewhere.
Thanks for reading. After I rest a bit, I'll be ready to go back again in the fall------I think.
Most interesting things we saw ( in no particular order) Of course the main attraction was Bette Midler, and she was FANtastic. The seats (comps by Harrahs were in the second orchestra which was about 10 rows back of the main aisle). The show started about 15 minutes late and the fans were getting antsy, but it started with a whirlwind and it never stopped. It is hard to believe that she is as old as she is, and that she can still perform at that pace. I had seen her show in the 80's, and she was as energetic as ever, if not more. Tip-- if you get shows comped by Harrah's, they say not to pick the tickets up at the box office until 3:30, but I went at noon, and maybe that is why I got such good seats. Big Elvis was great. I had my doubts (since my sister and I were both born in Tupelo and two half sisters married into the Presley family years ago), but he was very entertaining. The area around him was packed, but we managed to squeeze into a couple of standing positions to watch the show. The Lion Habitat at the MGM was mesmerizing. We got there in time for the feeding and there were two normal looking guys in there hand feeding these two huge lions raw meat. Then they used oversized plastic toys to get the lions chasing each other and playing. I mean these were BIG lions, a male and a female, very entertaining. The People --I guess as I get older, I just get more and more amused at watching different types of people, and there were massive crowds there as opposed to my trip in November. I still felt like the place was dominated by overseas visitors, but I soon found out many of them at least at Paris were part of an international education convention for the week. Their name tags read "Dr." this and that and "Dean of," etc. Also, I still wonder why so many people like to buy those big drink bottles (the ones over three feet high) and walk up and down the strip, but I suppose it is a rite of passage, and I would have done the same in my earlier years. Also (and this question is for those of us over 50), why did so many of those people look like they were only 13 or 14 when they were obviously old enough to drink, smoke and gamble????
Food--It seems like most of the restaurants were having "specials" left and right, due to the economy, I guess. We had a great three course meal at one of Bally's restaurants for $19.99 each. I generally don't like the "white tablecloth, waiter seat you, put the cloth napkin in your lap" kind of place, but the price was too good to pass up, and the food was out of this world as I had Caesar salad, Pasta and a wonderful sorbet/ice cream//wafer concoction for dessert. The glass of wine to go along with it was a little expensive, but I still thought it was well worth the price. We also had a wonderful filet mignon at another restaurant (I don't eat it enough to know how to spell it), and I think I hit up every chocolate place we walked by for a sample or two. The breakfast buffet at the Paris is always the best, and in between we had huge salads, Landshark Beer and more at Jimmy Buffet's (we got a seat at the window on the second floor), and some cool burgers (brie and carmelized onions--great) on the strip at another place I can't remember the name of. My sister Pat wanted to eat at Caesar's also, but we just opted for the food court, and it was very good as well. For some items I used my Rewards Credits and for others we just paid cash.
Shopping--I'm not much of a shopper, but my sister certainly always has been. While we walked by every shop on the strip, neither of us bought much of anything. She told me since she has retired from the IRS, she just doesn't "need" anything, but we had fun looking. Actually, the only celeb we saw was while shopping. Pete Rose was at his usual post in Caesar's Forum Shoppes signing autographs. I didn't even ask how much he is charging these days. The last autograph I got from him was for free at spring training in Plant City FL as he had just wrapped up a commercial, but I digress.
The casinos and gambo--Because Pat had not been there before, we went in every casino from Mandalay Bay to Encore. I didn't know if my sister would even want to try a slot machine, but we started dropping a few "coins" here and there. I thought she would like the entertainment of the penny or nickel slots, but she soon found she liked the quarter reels better. (It must be in the blood, as those are my favorite.) Generally, we bet only 1 or 2 quarters at a time and we had a few hits. I had hoped she would luck into a big hit, but the best hit was mine getting purple 7, purple 7, triple play for 540 quarters on a 2 quarter bet. There are just more and more penny and nickel slots, and you just can't find a 50cent slot anywhere. Pat didn't want to try video poker, so we didn't look at any of those.
When Pat flew out on Thursday afternoon, I still had the rest of the day and Friday to myself, so I went looking for some good paying slots at Harrah's, The Flamingo, Caesar's, Paris and Bally's. For some reason I didn't go to the other Harrah's property, the IP, but I seem to forget about that one since it is set back from the strip. Bottom line is that the rest of the time I was there, I basically hit nothing of any note except for a Triple Fire quarter machine at Paris Friday night. I got that one up to $150 before cashing out. And I did get a nickel 2X, 3X machine up to $125 at Bally's before cashing out. So on the slots, I was an overall loser, kind of expected since all my play was on the Strip.
Other random thoughts---At MGM's Studio City, we got to be members of a CBS TV test audience and record our responses to a TV show for them. It was interesting and they gave us lots of free coupons to spend an hour doing that. We saw the Mirage volcano and the Bellagio fountains (about 20 times) since the Bellagio is right across from Paris. The TI Pirate show was cancelled for the night due to high winds. I meant to go see the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Bellagio, but I chose slots instead!!!! The Encore is magnificent. I really wanted to see inside "Sinatra" but it was closed when we went there. There are some great photos of Sinatra and others posted just outside the restaurant. There was nothing much to the M/M Factory Store, etc. I didn't know about the Flamingo gardens area behind the Flamingo hotel, until Pat mentioned it. It is really worth walking through.
I'll have to stop now, and post the rest of this---just a bit more, I promise elsewhere.
Thanks for reading. After I rest a bit, I'll be ready to go back again in the fall------I think.
