TR- Belated Birthday Trip 7/25-7/28

My husband and I returned on Monday morning (one of the first flights out)

We had a great time in Vegas as usual. We were celebrating my birthday which was earlier in the month as well as celebrating being done with a summer class that we had been taking.

A little about us: We are a recently married couple - we got married at the Flamingo on May 11th. I am in my late 20%26#39;s and my DH is in his early 30%26#39;s.

Lets begin...

We flew out on an early afternoon flight from Phoenix on Southwest. We arrived to the airport exactly 1 hour before the flight was scheduled to leave.. DH was a little testy because I was held up at work and he was worried that we would be late (he is very punctual..I am not) Of course we make it to the airport and check our baggage. Flight status said our flight was on time but in reality it was running about 1 hour late. Luckily, we got to Vegas only 45 minutes late (about 5:45pm).

Our luggage came out quickly at the baggage claim and we were off to the taxi line. I did notice that the Harrahs checkin is no longer in the airport. When the heck did they remove it?

The taxi line was long and it was pretty funny to hear all the people complaining about the heat. Being from Phoenix, although I can%26#39;t say I%26#39;m used to it, it wasn%26#39;t that bad since we were in the shade. We got a cab and off to Bills we went. The lady cab driver was telling us all about how bad traffic has been. Turns out we were lucky and caught very little traffic to Bills. Tipped the lady well and off to checkin we go!

Bills: It was our first time staying here. I had just signed up for a players card when we were in Vegas for our wedding and we received a mailer offer for $67/nt on the weekends and we could use the Flamingo pool (which we never got to use when we were there for our wedding..we totally missed out).

There was only one group ahead of us in line. We received room 210 which had an amazing view of the Bellagio Fountains. It was totally clean and functional. Not to mention a quick walk to the strip.

We cleaned ourselves up, unpacked and started getting ready because we had 8pm reservations at Craftsteak.

I got my nice shoes on, straightened my hair and transformed myself into my Vegas alter-ego. I work in a technical field all day that is less than social or fashionable so when I come to Vegas, all bets are off and I%26#39;m as high maintenance as I can be (to my husbands dismay)

Well on this night I was dressed to the nines with my heels on (big mistake) and we head out. The traffic on Flamingo next to bill%26#39;s was horrendous so a cabbie suggested we walk across the street to the Bally%26#39;s cab line. This would%26#39;ve been fine but walking in heels on concrete was definitely not part of my plan. And yup DH is starting to look annoyed but hey I can%26#39;t walk any faster. We get our cab and get to MGM fairly quickly. Luckily since I am a regular vegas visitor, I know that we can cut through the elevators to get to the restaurants. We arrive 5 minutes before our reservation and DH is still making faces. By now I am ready to stab him with my heel. We exchange some words..decide to drop it and make the most of our dinner. We went for the summer menu which was delicious. The highlights for us were the roasted red pepper appetizer, the amazing sea scallops, the corn on the side (for just being corn, it was really good) and all of the desserts (yup there were three of them and they were huge). DH and I were stuffed and a little buzzed. He had two beers and I had two cocktails (raspberry martini and lemonhead martini - both great) Service was excellent too. Definitely worth the money. An overall great value.

That will be it for now. To be continued...

COming up...Cheap drinking, Pooltime, WarpCore Breach, and LIITs(bad choice) Recovery and finally some gambling..

TR- Belated Birthday Trip 7/25-7/28

By now I am ready to stab him with my heel

Lmaooooo...I can totally picture that!

Brave woman to wear heels in Vegas, without a substitute shoe with you.

';LIITs(bad choice)';

Ow ow ow!!! That%26#39;s like a stab to my heart!!!!!! I LOVE these drinks.... (even though they make you stupid, lol)

TR- Belated Birthday Trip 7/25-7/28

Enjoying your report

Totally enjoying your TR. I know what you mean about DH %26amp; their faces, at least you made the most of it %26amp; not let it ruin your dinner time.

You should have told him.. that he could carry you.. or he could wear the heels!! Lol I%26#39;ve done heels on the strip... not fun... but at least it didn%26#39;t ruin your dinner.

TR Continued: A creepy cabbie and Friday night

When we rolled out of Crafsteak, I had a voicemail from some friends that had driven up from San Diego to join us for the weekend. They were staying at IP. Intro to friends: Crazy C, her partner M and their friend Billy the new kid.

DH and I caught a cab and told the driver we were going to Bill%26#39;s. The cabbie told us that traffic was too bad to go to Bills (wtf) so we told him to take us to Flamingo instead. Our entire drive he complained about how his last fare was unhappy because they were sitting in traffic and that they just could%26#39;ve walked but one of them had heels on. I laughed and agreed that heels aren%26#39;t a good idea. But then he went on and started talking about how he was glad to be rid of his wife. And that it was the best decision he ever made. AND that she wouldn%26#39;t leave until he threatened her with a gun and (get this) put it in her mouth! Me and DH were like OMG creepy! Thankfully, traffic wasn%26#39;t bad for us again and we were thrown off at Flamingo which turned out to be a good choice because we just walked up the little road between Flamingo and Bills and there we were. We didn%26#39;t even have to set foot into Flamingo. But needless to say, we were creeped out.

We went up to the room and changed shoes. My DH needed a short rest so I went to IP to meet our friends and told him to meet us there. I was ready to start the party.

The walk to IP was super quick and I found my friends at Geisha Bar drinking the IP specialty - Mai Tais. (EE%26lt;3vegas history lesson: last time I was in Vegas with C and M, we stayed at IP and drank way too many Mai Tais and I ended up losing my cell phone in a bathroom at the Wynn.)

We went up to their room with because they had brought some specialty (ie strong) beers for us to try. They wanted to wait for DH so I called him and sure enough, he was still laying down. I told him to get over to IP to have some beer. He showed up 15 minutes later. We drank 3 large bottles of the beer in the room and caught up with eachother. At around midnight we decided that we should probably go somewhere. We decided to hit up Bills for there $2 draft beers. A round for 5 people was $10 – a great deal in Vegas.

C is a chatterbox when drinking so it wasn’t long before she had made friends with two guys that were next to us at the bar. They were in town for the Cotto/Margarito fight so they got into a long talk with DH about boxing. Three or so rounds later (1 round courtesy of our new friends), we were all hungry, kind of drunk and definitely tired. C wanted to go to Grand Luxe but we overruled her and settled for the cheaper and closer Victorian Room. It was my first time eating there. Everyone enjoyed there food. DH and I split the Big Deal breakfast and used the $3 off coupon from the Bill’s players card coupon book. We stumbled out of the Victorian room and I sat at a Zeus penny machine and decided to play. This was my first play of the entire trip and I cashed out a $75 ticket after getting a couple of bonus spins. Then it was off to bed at 3am where we slept like babies.

Saturday:

I woke up too freakin early (9:30am) and I was definitely hungover. Rising early after a night of drinking has been a recent occurrence for me. I just can’t sleep it off like I used to. I got up, got ready, took an advil and went downstairs. Bought a expensive water and a pack of cigarettes at the gift shop and decided to play some slots. No luck this morning but I did take advantage of a free cup of coffee from the CW. She even brought me a cup of ice because I don’t like my coffee too hot. Service was good but then again, it was pretty empty. I knew DH would need some water and I really wanted gatorade so I tapped into my vast vegas database in my head and decided to the quickest would be to walk to the Stage Door one block behind Bills. I got two large waters and two gatorades for $5 there. Definitely a good choice for some much needed liquid. Went back to the room and woke up DH. C, M %26amp; Billy and planned to meet them at the Flamingo pool. At this point I needed some food or at the very least..bread =)

DH and I got our swim clothes on, packed the water and the sunscreen and then headed to find some bread. Passed Seattle’s Best @ Bills but nothing caught our attention. We ended up at Java Coast at Flamingo. I got a delicious apple turnover and DH had a fruit and yogurt parfait. I used my total rewards comp points to pay for breakfast. Then it was off to the pool.

Flamingo Pool: Talk about Huge and Full! As soon as we walked in there, I wondered how the heck we missed out on coming when we were in town in May. Waterfalls everywhere and tons of pool space. We walked and walked until we saw 5 open chairs together. Only to find that several of the backs of the chairs didn’t have the capability to be moved up. It wasn’t that big a deal to me. We waited for our friends to arrive and then we got into the water. It was perfect – nice and cold the way a pool should be. We didn’t stay in long and went to get a little sun. As soon as we dried off we went back to dip again. Eventually, we decided it was time for some beers. The funny thing about drinking beers in the hot sun is that you get buzzed super fast. Our first beers were from the bar in the corner of the pools. Apparently business must have been slow there because the bartender was a total a-hole. His tip jar was empty and we didn’t feel compelled to tip him either. For the rest of the day we took our business to another bar that was a little farther but at least the bartenders were nice. At around 3:45 we decided to pack it up and then meet up at 5ish for Dinner at Grand Luxe Café. We were all pretty warm and pretty buzzed by then. Needless to say..we didn’t make it to dinner until almost 8pm and we were tired!

Grand Luxe Café @ the Venetian is a must visit for us. The food is great, the drinks are great and it isn’t too pricey. C%26amp;M have been splitting the Grand Luxer Burger Melt for like 4 years. They always order the same thing. This time we changed it up a bit and ordered some Southwest Quesadilla as an appetizer. DH LOOOVES this quesadilla so if you like quesadillas try it out. For our entrée, DH and I split a huge chicken parmesan and pasta. Billy had a chicken club that could’ve fed four people. The ladies had mojitos, DH had beer and Billy had vodka Red Bull.

After dinner was over we hopped in a cab to go and pay our final respects to the Star Trek Experience @ the LV Hilton. It was pretty full in there too. We got a seat at the bar and ordered a Warp Core Breach. It was almost everyone’s first time there accept for me and C. The funny thing is that C knows NOTHING about Star Trek. In fact, she kept calling it Star Track and I didn’t have the heart to correct her. After finishing the warp core breach, we decided we wanted at Borg Sphere as well. We took some photos with the Ferengi guy that wanders around and then we decided it was time to leave when we were having trouble explaining to C why Seven of Nine is called Seven of Nine. And then we started cracking jokes with eachother. DH didn’t appreciate it when I joked that he was Eight of Fifteen! LOL!

Next we headed over to Heart Bar at PH. It was still relatively not crowded and we had no problems finding an empty table. We didn’t think we were drunk enough from our two huge drinks at the Hilton because we ordered a round of Long Beaches from our waitress. Funny thing is, they didn’t taste like Long Beaches to me. They were way too sweet and not doing the job. FYI: a long beach is pretty much a LIIT with cranberry juice instead of soda. So we decided to step it up and take some Red Headed Sl*t Shots and then had regular LIITs for our final round. We decided we needed to go somewhere more lively so we walked over to Carnival Court. The line was long but moved fast and it was $5 for girls and $10 for guys. As usual for CC it was packed and the crowd was rowdy. When we got there the rock band was finishing up there set and the dance music band was coming up next. Big surprise is at this point I’m not really hearing any music anymore (side effect of alcohol for me). In fact I don’t remember most of that evening at all. I do know we got a table at one point and that I had a drink in my hand the entire time. And then we were at the Mai Tai Bar @ IP….AND then DH and I were eating Eggs Benedict and French Toast at the Victorian Room.

Then it was morning. And the best morning after quotes – “What the heck happened last night?” AND “Wow we drank a lot” AND (my fav for this trip) “I gave you a lap dance at Carnival Court?” Apparently, I didn’t think my DH was having a good enough time. I would be embarrassed but oh yeah..he’s my husband so I don’t care.

I got a text around 11am from C that read “I need bread. Margaritaville?”

We met them about an hour later. The wait was only 15 minutes so we went to the bar where C ordered she and I a much needed Bloody Mary. Man those things really do the trick. We all looked like crap and felt like crap. I felt bad for C, M %26amp; Billy because they had to drive back to SD after lunch. Luckily DH and I still had the rest of the day to recover.

Hmm where was I... Oh yeah margaritaville!

DH and I finally tried the Nachos and yes they were huge and delicious just as everyone said they were. The most perfect hungover food.

After lunch we said goodbye to our friends and we went back to our room at Bills to rest. Then it was gambling time. We did hit and runs all the way down to MGM grand (where I had some free play) Didn%26#39;t really win anywhere. DH had some good luck playing a 2 cent slot at NYNY. And speaking of NYNY the construction there is crazy!

Got to MGM around 5pm, took a look at the adorable lion in the Lion habitat and then went to get my free play and which I quickly lost in a double diamond burger slot. Then before we knew it, it was time to meet a girl I know from Phoenix and her boyfriend at the West Wing Bar for Happy Hour. As usual the Bar was pretty empty so we grabbed a seat and ordered a cranberry vodka double instead of two single drinks. DH had a rum and coke. Our friends arrived shortly after us. After one drink we decided to go someplace where we could smoke. So we went to Centrifuge where there was also plenty of seating open but the drinks were half the size and more expensive than those in the West wing bar - bummer.

After a few rounds, we said goodbye to our friends and then decided to eat dinner at Nine Fine Irishman. We were seated quickly and the food was ok. I had a Guineess Braised Beef Rib w/ Mac and Cheese and Dh had the fish and chips. After dinner we did more hit and run gambling until we got back to Bills. We decided that we would go upstairs and pack before coming back down to gamble. What a great idea. We were packed and ready to go in 30 minutes. Too bad our luck wasn%26#39;t so good that evening. We did have a great time playing Jackpot Party, Hot Shot Progressive Pennies and the new and so popular Wizard of Oz.

We got to bed at the early hour of 11:30pm and had the alarm set to 5am.

We didn%26#39;t sleep well because it was soo noisy in our room due to street noise! We were pretty surprised to considering that this was the third night staying at Bills. I guess coming home drunk in the early morning hours and passing out sheilds you from hearing any street noise at all.

I swear that there were emergency vehicles on the street when we got up at 5am.

So we decided right then and there that although we really like Bill%26#39;s, we will skip the strip view room next time :)

Flight home was typical. We arrived in Phoenix at 8:15am and went straight to work.

Thanks for reading everyone! If there%26#39;s any Q%26#39;s I can answer, ask away!

EE%26lt;3

I give u credit for going staright to work... lol

I bet that was fun...

I usually drive from vegas to LA on Sunday night and get home about 1-2 AM and go to work at 7:30Am, by lunch time, I am hating life and everyone around me....lol

Sounds like you had a great trip, those are the best, when you hit the sheets and its lights out!! even if its light outside.

I just recieved an offer for Bills also, it came with Sun-Thurs $67- 87 and 119.00 for weekends and some free play and 10.00 off meal in the Victorian room....

Did you get a chance to see Big Elvis?

And how was the prices at the Victorian room?

Great TR well imformative yeah got to watch those creepy cab drivers there is a least one in every city ,glad you had a great time in Vegas thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the TR you had a blast. I lived in Phoenix in 1985, I still have 2 brothers there, but one of my fondest memories is running to make the flight and back then you had to go run outside to go up the plank to the plane and they served you champagne complimentary 2 glasses before you landed, just enough time to down em. The flighs in advance were like $15 each way for a whole $30 bucks. Those were the days!