Las Vegas..........The Good the Bad and the Very Ugly! Day 1 & 2.......Double whammy!!

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First, some background on the intrepid explorers.

Myself, Gossyboy, 41 years young and married to Kaz, 45. This was our second trip to Vegas. We travelled with my sister Pat, 50 and her husband Graham, 60, who will be known in this report as P & G. Also our dear friend Karen affectionately known on this trip as Roomy as she shared our room to keep the costs of single supplements down. It was these threes first trip to America, not just Vegas.

I won’t bore you with travel details. Only that the flight was a bit late. The beer flowed at Gatwick and the Whiskeys kept coming on the plane. The idea was to drink a few so that sleep was achieved on the way, but as usual we arrived in Vegas absolutely knackered and struggled to stay awake for almost a whole new Wednesday.

Kaz and I had booked a surprise Limo to pick us all up at McCarran. Only about $60 paid from home, so I felt it was a bargain. The poor guy had been waiting for 1 ½ hours, as it took us this long to clear immigration. That was a nightmare! We stood for ages and there was no air-con on this rather warm day so when I asked if we could get a tour of the strip before we dropped off he was not very accommodating…………..
Took us straight to the Bellagio but I still dropped him a $20 for his troubles.

The Bellboys immediately took our luggage and gave us tickets. We entered the hotel lobby, stared at that wondrous ceiling then went straight to the desk with no wait (it was about 2pm). The very helpful man dealt with us quickly and efficiently and listened to our requests. We wanted to upgrade to a Lakeview room but of course none were available. So we made it very clear we did not want to look out at the building site next door. He assured us the pool & garden view rooms he was giving us were perfect. So when we opened our curtains to see the pool & garden view with a wonderful building site backdrop, we decided it would do as the mountains and strip could be seen around the half built hotels and condos. Our bags were swiftly delivered to snap us out of our strip gazing stares.

The view was the least of our worries at this stage. There was a dreadful smell in the room. We all looked around but couldn’t seem to track it down. It wasn’t until Roomy sat down that I realised it was coming from her feet. Bless her, she had been all day in a pair of those new fashionable UGG Boots but once she slipped her feet out of those little beauties all hell let loose!! She was very quickly banished to the bathroom, followed by the boots that walked out on their own, to scrub her feet. Five minutes later she came back in laughing out loud and carrying a small bottle of Bellagio green liquid. She had washed her feet in Mouthwash! At least foot & mouth was not going to survive in Vegas!! I called the bomb disposal people to come and deal with the boots and they swiftly passed them onto the nuclear fallout people. The boots were wrapped and sealed and not seen again until the day we returned.

A quick unpack, once we had been revived and down for a quick tour of the Casino. Then across to Margaritaville @ Flamingo. It was one of our favourite bars from last year. We were shown up on to the rooftop terrace where the overhead heating system was actually making us warmer than we were inside. In fact I had to swap seats with Roomy, as I’m sure I could smell my hair burning! The food here was excellent, the drinks were good and the service was superb………….there are great strip views up here too.
P had the first of her many puddings of the week. She is well known for her love of puds, (I don’t know where she puts it?). I think she tried a pudding at every place we stopped for food. Unfortunately by 8pm the group was flagging and could take no more. To be fair it was 4am in England so we had been on the go for 24hrs.

Tucked up the family then I went down to collect my MGM players club cards. The nice lady took her time to explain I must gamble around $25 a hand for about 4 hrs a day. I would get $10 back for a 1000 points and a free buffet at 2000 points. Once I reached these totals I must go back and see her………….. Oh how excited I was…………….NOT. Even if I had the time to gamble for 4 hours a day, I certainly wouldn’t be playing $25 a hand! But she was so nice I didn’t have the heart to tell her that we would never meet again!

All week there was loads of poker being played at the Bellagio. All part of the WPT Five Diamonds event, so there were huge poker stars all over the place. Being a big fan and player myself I spent an hour or so watching the action. Had a quick $20 in a slot and confirmed my suspicions that I would never get any thing free back from the Bellagio when I went off to bed $20 lighter and with a massive 9 points sitting proudly on my card!!

6th December 2007. Day 2.

I was kind of expecting to get up early today, what with the time difference and all that. So at 2 am I was laying there wondering what I could go and do? My body was telling me gamble, my mind was telling me sleep. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve.
Managed to get back off only to wake again at 4 am. More sleep, then awake at 5am. The girls were snoozing and I was struggling to force my eyes closed. So eventually I gave in at 6am to go get the coffees and teas. I don’t drink hot drinks myself but decided it would be the most beneficial thing I could do at that time. Kaz and Roomy ordered tea and suggested I phone P & G but I didn’t want to disturb them. I reluctantly phoned much to the relief of P who had been up since 1:30 waiting to go out!! She didn’t call me in case she disturbed me!
Drink run to the Bellagio café. The one in the conservatory was the only one open at this time. By the way the conservatory was stunning. Decorated with Christmas displays and a wonderful tree. Mechanical Penguins danced and miniature fountains squirted in time to music. Every morning at this time the unseen workers, like Oompa Loompas, scurried around changing flowers and plants to keep the display looking fresh and fantastic.
How hard can it be to buy 3 teas and a coffee? I was shown into the café and told to go straight to the counter. I waited for 5 minutes before someone came out. I asked for the teas and the coffee.
“What kind of tea?” I was asked.
“I don’t know, I don’t drink it,” says I. “How about some English Breakfasty kind of tea?”
I am them faced with a large box full of assorted tea bags and was asked to choose. I just wanted 3 teas. So I pointed in a very general direction of the box and let the nice lady make the choice. As it was, she chose Lipton’s, which I think was the right choice. Then it was Coffee. Would I like Latte, Mocha, Black, White, Cappuccino, De-Café, good god the list went. I said,
“I just want a Coffee!” in a rather irate way.
The drinks arrived. The teas all came with Honey & Lemon? What’s that about?? And the coffee was very black with a tiny pot of cream. I got away as quick as I could without having to make any more choices and left the honey and lemon there in case anyone wanted toast or to wash their fingers. Made a mental note to send P down tomorrow.
Of course, when I returned to the rooms, it was all wrong. No milk, not enough sugar. G just drunk his coffee as he seldom complains and always goes with the flow. He is so laid back he is horizontal.

7am and we were all ready for breakfast.
I don’t care what everyone says about the Flamingo Buffet, we really enjoyed it last year. So to make sure it was'nt just a lucky day we returned to try it again and we were not disappointed. There was plenty of choice. The food was all good and hot. The server was very attentive, (I am amazed how many of the waitresses in the US are in their more senior years, you certainly get better service from them IMHO)
1 huge breakfast later and we walked to the Venetian (my favourite looking Hotel) to ride the Gondolas. Was a bit early, so walked the shops and decided to come back another day as the battery on Roomys video camera wasn’t charged. As we wandered we dropped endless $10 & $20 into umpteen slots but had no wins to talk of. We all crossed to the Mirage where I looked for a poker S&G tourney to play. Had a few drinks in the bar at the sports book, so I could keep an eye on the game list at the poker room nearby. It took ages so the girls disappeared off to the Fashion Show Mall and left G and I in the bar. Well I waited and waited and finally decided to remove my name off the list and go find the girls.

We spotted them in the Mall quite quickly. There were more bags than you can shake a stick at seemingly moving on their own. When we got within a 10-foot radius of the bags, we spotted the girls underneath. I expected to see a couple of Llamas or a fully laden Yak under there but the girls were free of any bovine assistance.
G and I then supplied the strength and escorted the girls out before they spent any more or pulled any muscles.
It’s fair to say that Roomy is a bit of a shopaholic. Just the mere mention of the word shop brought a manic smile to her face. In fact for the following 5 mornings Roomy woke with the battle cry,
“LETS GO SHOPPING!”

Further down the strip we decide to rest up in the Flamingo. Kaz and Roomy were tired so made their way back to the Bellagio carting all the bags with them. P, G and I were looking for some gambling action to win back the dollars we had lost earlier.
I went straight for my favourite Enchanted Unicorn and turned $10 into $60. P & G are certainly not gamblers but were getting the bug for the slots. They were wandering around picking up small wins here and there until we sat down at the touch screen Roulette. We all lost about $40 each in about 20 minutes so I decide to buy $100 in chips and get some table action. I played Let it Ride. I know it’s bad odds but I hate Blackjack and wanted something that would last me a while. 10 minutes later I’ve lost again. Didn’t get a single hand! To be honest I got more entertainment from the 8 beer induced trips to the urinals.
Back to the Bellagio where I invested my previously won $10 ticket into a $1 poker machine and lost the lot in 1 minute. Just not my day…………
Went to the room for a couple of Whiskeys and took some beautiful sunset shots over the building site and woke up the sleeping beauties to prepare for the night………

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Photos

The Strip
This was taken from the top of the Eifel Tower at the Paris resort.

Bellagio Fountains
Also from atop the Eifel.

Sillohette
View across the Bellagio Fountains towards the Paris.

Strip
Taken from the Voodoo Lounge on the roof of the Palms hotel.

Gondolas
At the Venetian.