7 Days in Vegas » Trip Reports

Vegas 2009 Day Five – Gambling at South Point, Check in at Excalibur

Alfie11 — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:58:14 +0000

Day five was a relaxation day and time to have a little fun down on the casino floor. We had a 12 noon checkout time at South Point and woke up on Sunday morning, checked out and loaded our luggage in the car. Then we went back into the Casino and played Baccarat for a good 5-6 hours. The Baccarat at South Point was the best Baccarat I have played in Vegas, they have several tables running and they have great drink service.

After an afternoon on the tables we decided to head up to our final hotel destination which was Excalibur on the South end of the Strip. I had purposely booked the low end rooms @ $39/night hoping that we could do the $20 Sandwich Trick for a free upgrade but I failed miserably in my first attempts and we ended up in the medieval rooms with a semi-strip view. You can read about my attempt at the $20 sandwich trick here.

Once we got checked in at Excalibur we decided to do a little casino wandering heading through Luxor down to Mandaley Bay and back.

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Vegas 2009 Trip Report – Day One

Alfie11 — Mon, 11 May 2009 09:16:53 +0000

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.

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Countdown to Las Vegas – 184 Days.

Alfie11 — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 07:36:30 +0000

I wish I could travel to Vegas more often but right now it looks like I can only book one Vacation per year. When I go back I’m going to travel in late April again into early May as I found this was when the weather was just starting to heat up and the pools should be open. We had perfect weather there on our last trip and I can’t wait to get there and play some poker, golf, and feast at all the buffets.

Some things I miss:

Mike from American Shooters

Firing machine guns at the local gun ranges;
Cruising down the Strip in the Rental at night;
Mountain biking through Cottonwood Valley and trying not to run over Rattlesnakes;
Going to the Bellagio buffet and trying one bite of everything. (So wasteful but who cares….)
Just the good feeling you get in your stomach knowing your thousands of miles away from your daily life and routine.

Only 184 Days to go…

Until then I’ll be slowly crossing the days off my calendar.

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Las Vegas Overload – Too much to do in 7 Days

Alfie11 — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:45:55 +0000

What is the worst part about a week in Vegas? The flight home. A close second: hangovers and herpes…. J/K

There is too much to do, too much to see, Too many casinos and resorts to visit them all within 7 days. The only thing you can think about once you get home from your trip is when can you go back.

For myself, it will be 365 days until I return to the Nevada desert for another week of freedom. I’ll be looking to get back there late April 2009 which gives me lots of time to plan my next trip and I’ll have a much better idea where I want to stay and where I want to play.

Places I want to stay when I go back:

Bellagio or Venetian: I feel liked I’ve stayed at the lower end of hotels (Golden Nugget) which was good for the price but this time I’m going to splurge and stay at a 5 star on the Strip.
Venetian

Places I will avoid when I go back:

Downtown: I can’t think of a reason to go downtown other than the light show on Freemont St. or some cheap gambling.

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Las Vegas Trip Report – April 24, 2008 Day Two

Alfie11 — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:45:23 +0000

Day two, was really day one for us because we had wasted most of yesterday by flying and getting settled into our hotel room. I finally got my wireless connection going so I had a decent Internet connection for the week.

We got up around noon, went to the Las Vegas Outlet Center south of the airport. This place is the biggest outlet mall I’ve ever seen it’s well over a mile long and has 130 different outlet stores. All big brand names are sold there and everything is half the price you would expect it to be. Only had an hour to grab some stuff but I would be back here a few times through the week to get a new wardrobe, something to take home from Vegas if I can’t take down the casino as planned.

Las Vegas Outlet Center

We were hitting the links at 2:30pm at the Angel Park Golf Course so we drove on up there. Everything about Angel Park was top notch. The service staff are friendly, one of the guys bringing carts out offered to put my new spikes in for me while I was getting ready, thought that was good service. The most impressive part of the day for me was the rental clubs the gave me, brand new Callaway Hyper X Woods and X20 Irons, better than my own clubs from home. By the end of the day I wanted to buy a set but I though I would just go back to the hotel and try to win some money to pay for them.

Angel Park Pro shop

Got back to the Nugget around 7pm, went down to the Shark Tank to go for a swim. This is probably one of the best things about the Golden Nugget is their sweet pool, with a shark tank that you can swim around from all sides. Or just take the Water slide down and go through the middle of the tank. Great way to relax after a great round of Golf.

Golden Nugget Shark Tank Pool

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The #1 Must Do Las Vegas Day Trip – ATV Touring through the Nevada Desert

Alfie11 — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:36:44 +0000

If there is only one thing I would recommend to anybody who has ever ridden an ATV or Dirtbikes, it is to take a tour through the Nevada desert with one. This is your chance for the ultimate dream ride on some pretty sick machines. Once your done it leaves you with the taste of sand in your mouth, dirty, and begging for more.

We booked it online through American Adventure Tours and we lucked out by having a small group of riders (6) and the guide was pretty cool too.

ATV Tour Guide Seth

The Day starts early and its best to do it with some good rest instead of a hangover. They offer free pickup service anywhere on the strip, we met up with our tour Guide Seth at 8am in a van with a trailer and some bikes hooked up on the back. We filled out out our paperwork as we drove to Bellagio and Flamingo to pick up the other 4 people then headed 30 minutes south to the middle of the desert.

Las Vegas Extreme ATV Tour - Taking a break on the mountain

Why does this day have to end? I could have went on the afternoon tour if I wanted but we had some other things to do in the afternoon so we headed back to the Strip to get back to the room and clean up for the night.

Las Vegas ATV Tours - Great Views

When you should go: Seth told us between October and March is the best time for good weather. We went in late April and it was perfect.

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