Wednesday April 29th has finally arrived, my annual trip to Vegas is here, the countdown started somewhere in the mid 200’s and now I’m all done school and ready to get back to the desert for a week in the place city on earth.
Day started in Ottawa, ON around 4:30am EST. Only got about 2 hours sleep because I was too excited knowing I would be in Vegas in less than 12 hours. Got up had a shower, called a cab to take us to the airport.
5:30am: Arrived at Ottawa International Airport, checked our bags at Westjet then headed straight to Timmy’s to get our last Canadian coffee and something to keep us awake for our two flights.
7:00am-8:00am – Flight, Ottawa to Toronto, first flight with Westjet and I was pretty happy with it, mostly impressed with the in seat TV’s with satellite service. This allowed me to watch hockey highlights for my entire flight, something that I would soon be missing for a week. Strangely the sports channels in Vegas don’t show hockey highlights 24/7 like they do here in Canada.
8:00am-9:30am – Layover in Toronto – Waited about an hour to board our flight to Vegas.
9:30am-2:30pmEST – Flight into Vegas. This might have been the longest flight ever it seemed like, I had waited a whole year for this flight and I kept peeking out the windows waiting to see the red rocks, and Grand Canyon. Time to reset the watches 3 hours back. We landed around 11:30am local time, everyone started clapping once we landed safely, ready to get the party started.
11:30am: Got off the plane, headed down to the baggage area to grab our bags, then we headed to the rental car shuttle bus.
McCarren Airport Tram Las Vegas
12:00pm: Got off the rental car shuttle bus and headed straight to the Alamo parking lot. Showed the lot attendant my receipt that I printed out before hand and he told me to go pick a car in the premium lot. Alamo and National share the same lot. There were about 5 cars in the lot, the nicest looking one was a Dodge Charger so we packed it up and went to start it but couldn’t find the key. Went back to the lot attendant and he put us in a nicer looking Charger SXT, key included.
On the rental car shuttle bus
12:15pm: Finally, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I make out of the rental parking garage like a bandit ready to go start making money hand over fist from the casino of my choice. So I’m cruising down Las Vegas Blvd, getting used to the feel of the rental car and taking a few pics along the way. First thing I notice is the palm trees and billboards reminding me that I am back in Vegas.
Welcome to Las Vegas
12:30pm: That feeling of excitement starts to kick in and we head straight to the Bellagio for a lunch buffet. The Bellagio buffet is the Rolls Royce of Vegas buffets and I purposely didn’t eat on the plane so I would have lots of room to eat one of everything on the buffet. Can’t really remember exactly what I ate, but this buffet had everything from BBQ ribs, Roast Turkey, Duck, King Crab Legs, 6 different types of fresh pizza, ton’s of seafood, amazing fresh baked cookies, cakes, self serve ice cream machines with real chocolate sauce, fresh fruits, and free drinks (pop, water and juice). Price for two Bellagio lunch buffets: $43 + $4 tip. Worth every penny.
Bellagio Lobby Entrance Flowers
2:00pm: Now that I had some food in my stomach it was time to take care of business as usual. Let’s head to the roulette table to see if the wheel will pay for my Buffet lunch. I feel like my first bet of the week will set the tone for the trip. Let’s see what happens…Buy in for $100. Throw down $25 on Red….2 BLACK…damn it..let’s push it..$50 on Red…..16 RED. Sweet hit the RED for a quick $25 profit, decide to get out while I’m ahead. Thanks Bellagio for the free lunch..I’ll be back next year
Walk over to the Bellagio gift shop to grab a cool money clip and then outside to walk around and check out the fountains. We were staying across the street at Planet Hollywood for the first two nights so we made our way over there to check in.
View of Planet Hollywood from Bellagio
4:00pm: Check in at Planet Hollywood, everything goes smooth and quickly, the desk clerk Adam was friendly and hooked us up with a coupon book and with some good stuff on it ($25 match play, $25 buffet coupon, lots more…) He put us on the 11th floor in one of the Hollywood Hip rooms, which is a standard room at the Planet Hollywood. The view was decent but our view of the Bellagio fountains were blocked by the Miracle Miles shop roof.
View from Planet Hollywood - Floor 11
Spent the rest of the night chilling in the middle of the strip. Played some table games at Planet Hollywood and used my $25 match play to turn $25 into $75 on the roulette table. After a long flight, and day of travel we didn’t venture too far from the hotel and just kept it simple on day one.
Sleeping was easy on the comfortable beds at PH and I would come to miss these beds towards the end of my trip.
Comfortable Beds at Planet Hollywood
Last thing I can remember was sittin down at a dead game of Poker at Bill’s and thinking I’m too tired to play so I went back to the room to crash and rest up for day two.
May 11th, 2009 | Tags: Bellagio Buffet, Planet Hollywod Check In, Planet Hollywood Match Play | Category: 7 Days in Vegas, Car Rentals, Trip Reports, Vegas Trip Planning | Leave a comment
