Everything Las Vegas: Steve’s Trip Report: June 20th-26th.

From the moment I awoke on the morning of the 20th, I started cringing as I knew I had to travel through O’Hare Airport or, as it is better know, “The Twilight Zone” of airports. But thank goodness, all my worries were eased when my connecting flight out of O’Hare left EARLY.

I was out of McCarran and at the Las Vegas Hilton in less than an hour. Check-In at the Hilton was very smooth and my room, a mini-suite, was simply outstanding. Being that I was arriving late in the afternoon, I decided just to go to the Hilton buffet rather than a formal sit down dinner. I played a few horse races and spent a few hours playing Pai Gow and just called it a night.

Gambling:

I mostly played horses, Pai Gow and slots everyday. I was doing very well,
never being down more than $140.00 at any given time. When I was down the
$140.00 from the horses, I put a $20 bill in a $1.00 Triple Star machine and hit for
$160.00 so I was back to even. This was the theme for the entire trip. Going
into the last afternoon, I was only down $40.00 for the entire trip.

I ended up losing a little more than $300 for the entire trip and that
included airfare, food, hotel and incidentals.

Hotels:

I stayed the first 3 nights at the Las Vegas Hilton then spent the last 3
nights at the Imperial Palace.

This was the first time I stayed at the Hilton and I was very impressed.
Customer service is outstanding. The employees are helpful and courteous. One even
walked me to an elevator that I couldn’t find. Only one Pit Boss didn’t greet
me with a friendly “Hello” or a “Good Luck.” Everyone else was wonderful.

I do have to mention the Las Vegas Hiltons’ racebook’s “Daily Double” Ruth
and Rosemary. Ruth who is by far one of the nicest people you will ever want to
meet in Las Vegas. She is a human dynamo whose adreneline for customer service
starts long before most of us are even up. I mean at 7:30 am she is already a
ball of fire and she treated me like a King. Rosemary was also very kind to
me and was instrumental in arranging my room and dining reservations. Both
ladies are great assets to the Las Vegas Hilton.

My friend Jay Kornegay, has some remarkable people at the race and sportsbook
and everyone of them gave me a “hello,” “thanks.” or “good luck.” This is a
great place to play and with Jay’s forthcoming improvements such as new
lighting, individual TV monitors and a VIP betting area, it will make the atmosphere
even that much better. With most of the Strip casinos downsizing the race and
sportsbooks, I think the LVH has the right idea in improving theirs. This is a
great place to play and Jay is to be commended on the job he is doing.

In general, there was really not too much I didn’t enjoy about staying at the
Hilton. One thing I did miss was there wasn’t too much of a”snack food”
choice after dinner hours were over. If you got hungry after 10 p.m., you were
really out of luck except for room service. Based on a conversation I had with Ira
Sternberg, that situation will be addressed in the future. Sternberg, who is
Vice-President of Communications & Community Relations is the driving force
within the inner-workings of the new direction the LVH is going and I think that
all the signs are pointing in the right direction.

Please note there are rates as low as $49.00 a night at the LVH’s website:
www.lvhilton.com. If you don’t mind staying off the Strip, the Las Vegas
Hilton is in a class by itself. I was at the Strip in about 3 minutes taking the
monorail. I found it to be very cost efficient and very time saving.

My last three nights at the Imperial Palace were just fine. My pal Bob Cohen
put me in a Strip-View room on the 16th floor. As always, the room was clean
and ready for me when I checked in.

Customer service remains the same..excellent and the I.P. is still a very
friendly place to play. Their comping system is one of the best in Las Vegas. I
like playing horses at the I.P. because it is still one of the few racebooks to
devote the entire room to horseplayers. There is, however, a noticeable lack
of customer friendliness, not so much with the writers, but with management.
When Jay Kornegay and his staff were there, no one would walk by you without
saying HELLO. That doesn’t happen anymore and that could be a reason the
racebook was not as busy as it usually is. But all-in-all, it was ok.

The Legends Pit is still hopping and people have a great time playing with
the celebrity dealers. The casino was always filled and the dealers are the
friendliest in Las Vegas. The problem I had were the people that I played with
weren’t. I like to have fun when I play but these people were just not there to
have fun.

I do enjoy staying at the I.P. and if you are interested, just email me and I
will send you Bob Cohen’s contact info. Bob does a wonderful job for my
newsletter members.

Food:

I can now officially proclaim the Las Vegas Hilton’s Steakhouse as Las Vegas’
best Steakhouse. I was supposed to only have one dinner there but due to the
Garden of the Dragon restaurant being closed I was lucky enough to have dinner
at the Steakhouse on two consecutive nights. Talk about lightning striking
two times in the same place!

The first night I was there I got the large-cut Filet Mignon. I can’t put
into words how good this steak was. Flavorful and cooked to perfection might be
just adequate. Along with the steak I had what could have been entered into the
Guiness Book Of Records as the World’s Largest Baked Potato, I could barely
finish half of it I also had steamed asparagus which were remarkable. The
potato and the sides can be shared by two people easily. My dinner was topped of
with a goblet of fresh berries.

The second night I had the Bone-In Ribeye. Although like the Filet, it also
was very flavorful and cooked to perfection. However, I found the Filet to be
the better tasting of the two. I was smart this time and had the French Onion
Soup, which was excellent and stayed away from the monstrous baked potato. I
substituted sauteed spinach instead of asparagus.

The service at the restaurant is phenomenal. I never had to ask for refills
on my beverage as it was refilled as soon as it was finished. The atmosphere is
old Vegas and it is very romantic, even for a single person.

Steakhouse manager Jay DeRiso is very cordial and personally came over to my
table to make sure everything was perfect. “Perfect” would be the best way to
describe dining at the Las Vegas Hilton Steakhouse as it is simply that..
“Perfect.”

The only other meals I had at the Hilton were the lunch buffets. The only
blemish was the Saturday Brunch where the non-breakfast items were not visually
appetizing or appealing so I did not even try them. The hand-carved Turkey and
Prime Rib were fine.

I also have to mention that the Buffet staff at the LVH did do a wonderful
job setting up for the Members Meeting we had at the buffet. It’s too bad that
half the members that said they were going to be there didn’t come. The people
that did come had a great time.

Al Dente at Bally’s:

If it’s Italian you’re craving look no further than Al Dente at Bally’s. It’s
very good and the best part about the restaurant it that it’s very reasonable
priced. The host and the creme de la creme of Las Vegas Maitre D’s, Ilario
Pescol will personally see to it that your meal will be a very pleasant
experience.

My meal started with Minestrone Soup (excellent) followed by a wonderful
house salad. As the main course I chose the Chicken with asparagus and tomatoes
and in a cheese sauce which due to the fact that I don’t eat cheese was
prepared especially the way that I requested it and it was so good. I ended the meal
with 3 flavors of sorbet that topped off a simply wonderful meal.

Service as with all Bally’s restaurants was attentive and knowledgeable. It
was really nice to be made to feel special and that is exactly how I felt.

I can’t express enough the kindness that IIario has shown to both me and to
Eileen whenever we dine at either Al Dente or the indescribable Sterling
Brunch. You can’t help but like him. He is one of a kind.

Bally’s Steakhouse.

Even though I have had dinner at the Steakhouse a few times in the past, this
was the first time I met the host Mario even though he has been there for
quite some time. Mario oversees everything that goes on at the Steakhouse and he
does a great job as everything was perfect for my dinner.

I had the Filet Mignon and as always it was cooked to perfection and very
tasty. I also had the Steakhouse Salad, Baked Potato and steamed asparagus. The
service as always was top notch.

This is a very romantic room and the food is wonderful. The entire staff will
go out of their way to accommodate your every whim. If you don’t see it on
the menu, just ask for it.

Bally’s Steakhouse is definitely a Las Vegas classic. I highly recommend it.

I did have two buffets at the I.P. and as always, it’s hit or miss. This time
that’s exactly what it was, one hit, one miss. I was also disappointed that
there was no cucumber and tomato salad. It was replaced by cole slaw. I also
remember that Prime Rib was served at the dinner buffet but now you can only get
it on the weekend unless you go to the Imperial Buffet in the Cafe.

SHOWS: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

The Good:
Splash: The New Edition at the Riviera.

Bravo to Jeff Kutash, who triumphantly returns as Director of Splash. The
shows new version is the best in the 20+ year history of the show.

Take a deep breath when the nostalgic photos first appear on the screen
because from then on it’s hard to catch your breath. The show is non-stop from
start to finish.

There are four remaining acts for the older version of the show.

Los Latin Cowboys, Hugo Latorre and Eduardo Lome are funnier then ever as the
comedians in the show. They interact perfectly with the audience throughout
the show. They are also masters of the conga drums and the Spanish Bolos.

The Richard Brothers are the second remaining act and are simply fantastic
jugglers. Some of the stuff they do is unbelievable. They juggle just about
anything and everything they can get their hands on.

The ice-skating team of Mikhail Panin and Margarita Barber also remain and to
see what they do in such a limited amount of space is phenomenal.

Bela Tabak’s Riders of the Thunderdome have been with the show for many years
and this is the highlight of the show. The act features up to four
motorcycles inside a globe all going in four different directions.

New to the show is Vitale who does what I would have to call a “silk curtain”
routine. He actually wraps himself up in this curtain like material and free
falls from different heights in the showroom.

There is an adultish “Sin City” routine inserted into the mix and it is
tastefully done.
I also liked the tributes to Elvis, Ann-Margret, Tom Jones and Mama Mia.

In other words, I liked the entire show from start to finish. The nostalgic
photos between the acts gets to be a little too much but other than that the
show is flawless.

This show no longer makes a SPLASH, it hit’s you like a TIDAL WAVE!

The Good:
The World’s Greatest Magic Show at the Greek Isles.

Wow, what a great time I had at this show. It has a great concept: Put 6 of
the world’s best magicians in one show and have them perform their best
illusions. Great concept = great show.

The host for this particular evening was Kozak who looks more like an extra
in a barfight scene from a western movie than a magician, but he does some
funny jokes and some amazing illusions.

Kozak returns periodically to infuse his comedy and magic between the sets
and is a great crowd pleaser.

Also appearing that night was Joesph Gabriel who does some amazing illusions
with birds that has to be seen to be believed. I saw it and still don’t
believe it.

The Majestix, Michael Giles and Stacy Jones are a great team of illusionists
that did some awesome diappearing/reappearing illusions that thrilled the
audience.

Kevin James, a slight of hand illusionist kept the crowd on the edge of their
seats with all his tricks. He is also a great storyteller which is the
starting point of most of his illusions including the mind-boggling Paper Rose
illusion.

This is also a family show and kids made a large portion of the audience and
I have to say they were all well behaved. They are also an intricate part of
some of the acts.

I had a great time of this show and I highly recommend it to my readers.

On May 20, 2005, The World’s Greatest Magic Show
received the following awards:

Magic Show of The Year 2005
Kevin James for Most Original Magician 2005
Kozak for Entertainer of The Year 2005
The Majestix for Illusionists of The Year 2005
Joseph Gabriel for Best Manipulations by a Magician 2005

The Bad:
BITE at the Stratosphere.

I always hate going to a late show in Las Vegas as I am usually tired from
the days action. In this case I don’t think it mattered if this was a prime time
show. It just was not good.

It tells the story of a Vampire who is looking for a Queen. How he finds her
at the end of the show is a mystery to me as all he does is grunt during the
entire show. The music is very loud and it cuts off from one song to another
sometimes right in the middle of a line. The dancing was sub par and seemed the
same during every routine.

The show featured a male lead singer who did what started to be a great
version of “Come Sail Away” but ended up sounding like “Red Sails In The Sunset.”
He tried to do “Stairway To Heaven” and I wanted to find the “Staircase to the
Casino Floor.”

Also very tacky were the obvious “plants” that they had in the audience that
they brought onstage.

The girls were very sexy and at the end of the show invited the audience to
party with them at the Crazy Armadillo lounge. I don’t think they had any
takers.

THE UGLY:
Tropical Passions at the Sahara
NOTE: This show closed two days after I saw it.

I have seen and wrote reviews on just about every show in Las Vegas. I saw
Tropical Passions on June 19th and it became the first show I ever walked out
on.

The music and dancing were barely tolerable but the singing was horrible and
unlistenable. The older male singer was not only bad, he had either a wad of
chewing gum in his mouth or some kind of taffy as he could be seen chewing in
between the words of songs he was singing. It was unprofessional not to mention
annoying.

The end came for me when the younger male singer tried to do a version of the
Righteous Brothers classic, Unchained Melody. It was so bad that the Spanish
speaking people of the audience were saying Muy Mal which means “very bad” in
Spanish.

This was probably the worst show I have ever seen (most of it anyway) in Las
Vegas.

I also got a personal tour of Wynn Las Vegas from a very cordial and
personable Executive Host. I was very impressed with the casino, especially the
restaurants where it was obvious that Wynn Las Vegas made sure that all of their 16
restaurants presented a completely different atmosphere for your dining p
leasure. I was also shown one of the “Standard” rooms and it was beautiful, sort of
patterned like the Venetian’s room/suite without the sunken sitting area.

I also saw the high-rollers slot area that features Las Vegas’ only $5000
slot machine. ( I decided not to play it as I only play 2-coin machines!) It’s a
Triple Diamond machine and if you get all three Triple Diamonds to line up you
win two and a half million dollars.

I also saw various denominations of the popular Triple Star Machines. I saw
them in $10,$25 and $100 coin in. The payoffs were amazing.

There is also a wonderful Casino Host named Shannon in the high roller area
who was very helpful with my questions and seemed very interested in my
newsletter.

All-in All, it was another great trip even if I was without my favorite Vegas
partner. Eileen and I will be going back to Vegas in Mid-August.

Steve

This list is sponsored by VegasMediaGroup.com and RateVegas.com.

Posted on July 1st, 2005 by MrVegas98
Filed under: Uncategorized