Steve
09-16-2005, 03:08 AM
Hi Steve. Sheryl and I finished our recent Vegas trip a couple of weeks ago so I wanted to provide your readers who may be interested, with a little trip report. Actually, it's not so little as we were there for two weeks! We usually stay at least 10 days and we almost always drive which is a pretty big thing since we are in Missouri. But we love the drive.
We left on Thursday, June 1st and stayed a night in Amarillo, one night in Albuquerque, and another at the Grand Canyon before driving into Las Vegas on Sunday. The Grand Canyon was great and we had a real fun time at the Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque. We were very surprised to see such a sharp casino there. And they had one of the nicest poker rooms I've ever seen. We both play poker so much of our trip revolved around poker.
And along that subject, while in Las Vegas we played poker at Circus Circus, Plaza, Golden Nugget, Binion's, Gold Coast, Sahara, Harrah's, The Cannery, and we spent a lot of time playing in The World Series of Poker at Rio. Of all the regular casino poker rooms, the one we liked the best was Harrah's. It's large, new, and it is a real "room" that is completely enclosed with no smoking which is nice for us. Nobody is allowed to take cigarettes in the poker room, at all. In many rooms they say you can't smoke at the tables but people are allowed to step 2 feet away and light up so the end result is that it is a smoking room. So if you don't smoke, Harrah's is the poker room for you.
We also played in a lot of the casinos' daily poker tournaments. By far, the best one is the 7:00 PM tournament at Sahara. The cost is $40, they have 1 rebuy, 1 add on, and they always have 100+ participants. The payout is usually about the top 10 and first place paid $3000 the night we played. A very nice tournament.
Food: The best lunch/dinner deal was at the Riveria. We had coupons we got from the internet from Bill Here's web site, for Katy's Restaurant. It was buy 1 get one free with no catches. They have a 24 hour a day steak special for a 16 ounce T-Bone for $9.99 so we went in there more than once to pay $9.99 for two T-Bone dinners. It came with all the trimmings and the steak was great!I don't know how it can get much better than that. For the first time we tried that big hot dog at Westward HO. We had the $1.49, 1/ 1/2 pound hot dog with onions and chili and added the giant $1.49 strawberry shortcake. Those two items along with drinks, were more than we could both eat. It cost just over $4.00. A great deal and they were quite tasty too! A note about the coupons; we ordered many coupons from Bill's site. Unfortunately, a majority of them were not as advertised. One that was advertised as "buy one dinner get one free" was actually a coupon that required us to buy two tickets to a fairly expensive show, and only THEN did we get the buy 1 get one dinner free. This was not mentioned on the web site. Another was for a restaurant at Riveria (Jax) for dinner and they no longer serve dinner. Several coupons were for places that were either closed or simply didn't honor the coupon. The good news is that the total shipping and postage for all the coupons was about $25 and we saved much more than that with the few coupons that were still good. Any time you can get two 16oz T-Bone dinners for $9.99, you're doing quite well!So I'm not complaining really, I just want your readers who may be ordering the coupons on Bill Here's web site to realize that many will be expired or no good for other reasons.
By far, the best breakfast deal we could find in Las Vegas, is Arizona Charlie's. They have a ham and eggs breakfast that is fantastic! A HUGE slice of ham steak. Not that cheezy lunch meat kind of ham either. Theirs is the ham with the bone in it, a real piece of meat. Very large, enough for two really, and it comes with eggs, the best hash browns I've ever had, and toast or biscuits and gravy which were also very good...the price is $2.79. For $2.99 you can make it steak and eggs. What a deal! We ate there several times.
For dinner we had a lot of prime rib because most of the coffee shops in Las Vegas has specials and as poker players we got coupons every day. Since returning to Missouri I have been joking with my friends that I am never going to eat another prime rib dinner or steak and eggs breakfast again! We all know that will change in a few weeks...I'll be ready to go again.
Hotel: When we first made our reservations we decided to stay in 3 hotels over a 12 day period as we usually do. We like to stay at different places and we don't mind moving to see a little change. About a week before we left I got a late response from the Plaza. Their offer was so good I was able to cancel the other reservations, pay the small fee for canceling two of them, and we still came out way ahead. We stayed 12 consecutive days which included a weekend, and the cost was $240. That's the best hotel deal I've ever had. And we are not big gamblers. Those who play poker know that unlike other table games, they do not rate you and give you discounts on rooms based on play. They'll give you a "casino rate" if you play but it was $49 a night and we were able to do much better online. So when Plaza made this offer I was amazed and we were very happy with the Plaza.
Regarding the Plaza, it wasn't perfect. As most know, it is an older place. It has recently been purchased by Barrick Gaming and it has had some improvements so it is better than say, a year or two ago. The biggest drawback is the fact that it's next door to the bus station. When I wanted to make bets on my St. Louis Cardinals and watch the games, although Plaza has a nice sports book with comfortable chairs and couches, I could never get a seat! It was always crowded and it was quite obvious that most of the people in the chairs were neither hotel guests nor gamblers. They were people from the bus station. I think Plaza needs to address that and I intend to let them know. Having said this, I would still go back, there were many other benefits that more than outweighed any drawbacks. We played a lot of poker there, it was a blast, and their night poker room manager J.D., is about the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet.
Shows: We saw 6 shows if you include the 4 at the Plaza. The Plaza had Larry G. Jones, a magician, and two comedians. We thoroughly enjoyed 3 of the 4 shows. The magician guy was our favorite. He was very interactive with the audience, I am sure anybody would enjoy him. The two comedians were somewhat risque but that doesn't bother us at all, it was not a famly show nor was it billed as such. And I like humor. Frankly, neither of us liked Larry G. Jones a lot. I am not much on impersonation shows so I'm not a good judge. I didn't even like Danny Gans and he's one of the hottest acts in Veags. But Sheryl likes that kind of act and loved Danny Gans and she didn't like Jones much either. He just didn't seem that good to us. He had a lot of energy, he seems like and from what I've read, I'm sure he is a very nice man. We just didn't get much out of his show. I realize that we may be in a minority here, I noticed that the other guests seemed to really enjoy him. And Jones' show did have it's moments. It just wasn't for us. But the way I look at it, all four shows at the Plaza are such good prices, they're all $20 or less for 2 guests and that includes drinks. So I'd suggest anybody go see any or all of these shows.
We left on Thursday, June 1st and stayed a night in Amarillo, one night in Albuquerque, and another at the Grand Canyon before driving into Las Vegas on Sunday. The Grand Canyon was great and we had a real fun time at the Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque. We were very surprised to see such a sharp casino there. And they had one of the nicest poker rooms I've ever seen. We both play poker so much of our trip revolved around poker.
And along that subject, while in Las Vegas we played poker at Circus Circus, Plaza, Golden Nugget, Binion's, Gold Coast, Sahara, Harrah's, The Cannery, and we spent a lot of time playing in The World Series of Poker at Rio. Of all the regular casino poker rooms, the one we liked the best was Harrah's. It's large, new, and it is a real "room" that is completely enclosed with no smoking which is nice for us. Nobody is allowed to take cigarettes in the poker room, at all. In many rooms they say you can't smoke at the tables but people are allowed to step 2 feet away and light up so the end result is that it is a smoking room. So if you don't smoke, Harrah's is the poker room for you.
We also played in a lot of the casinos' daily poker tournaments. By far, the best one is the 7:00 PM tournament at Sahara. The cost is $40, they have 1 rebuy, 1 add on, and they always have 100+ participants. The payout is usually about the top 10 and first place paid $3000 the night we played. A very nice tournament.
Food: The best lunch/dinner deal was at the Riveria. We had coupons we got from the internet from Bill Here's web site, for Katy's Restaurant. It was buy 1 get one free with no catches. They have a 24 hour a day steak special for a 16 ounce T-Bone for $9.99 so we went in there more than once to pay $9.99 for two T-Bone dinners. It came with all the trimmings and the steak was great!I don't know how it can get much better than that. For the first time we tried that big hot dog at Westward HO. We had the $1.49, 1/ 1/2 pound hot dog with onions and chili and added the giant $1.49 strawberry shortcake. Those two items along with drinks, were more than we could both eat. It cost just over $4.00. A great deal and they were quite tasty too! A note about the coupons; we ordered many coupons from Bill's site. Unfortunately, a majority of them were not as advertised. One that was advertised as "buy one dinner get one free" was actually a coupon that required us to buy two tickets to a fairly expensive show, and only THEN did we get the buy 1 get one dinner free. This was not mentioned on the web site. Another was for a restaurant at Riveria (Jax) for dinner and they no longer serve dinner. Several coupons were for places that were either closed or simply didn't honor the coupon. The good news is that the total shipping and postage for all the coupons was about $25 and we saved much more than that with the few coupons that were still good. Any time you can get two 16oz T-Bone dinners for $9.99, you're doing quite well!So I'm not complaining really, I just want your readers who may be ordering the coupons on Bill Here's web site to realize that many will be expired or no good for other reasons.
By far, the best breakfast deal we could find in Las Vegas, is Arizona Charlie's. They have a ham and eggs breakfast that is fantastic! A HUGE slice of ham steak. Not that cheezy lunch meat kind of ham either. Theirs is the ham with the bone in it, a real piece of meat. Very large, enough for two really, and it comes with eggs, the best hash browns I've ever had, and toast or biscuits and gravy which were also very good...the price is $2.79. For $2.99 you can make it steak and eggs. What a deal! We ate there several times.
For dinner we had a lot of prime rib because most of the coffee shops in Las Vegas has specials and as poker players we got coupons every day. Since returning to Missouri I have been joking with my friends that I am never going to eat another prime rib dinner or steak and eggs breakfast again! We all know that will change in a few weeks...I'll be ready to go again.
Hotel: When we first made our reservations we decided to stay in 3 hotels over a 12 day period as we usually do. We like to stay at different places and we don't mind moving to see a little change. About a week before we left I got a late response from the Plaza. Their offer was so good I was able to cancel the other reservations, pay the small fee for canceling two of them, and we still came out way ahead. We stayed 12 consecutive days which included a weekend, and the cost was $240. That's the best hotel deal I've ever had. And we are not big gamblers. Those who play poker know that unlike other table games, they do not rate you and give you discounts on rooms based on play. They'll give you a "casino rate" if you play but it was $49 a night and we were able to do much better online. So when Plaza made this offer I was amazed and we were very happy with the Plaza.
Regarding the Plaza, it wasn't perfect. As most know, it is an older place. It has recently been purchased by Barrick Gaming and it has had some improvements so it is better than say, a year or two ago. The biggest drawback is the fact that it's next door to the bus station. When I wanted to make bets on my St. Louis Cardinals and watch the games, although Plaza has a nice sports book with comfortable chairs and couches, I could never get a seat! It was always crowded and it was quite obvious that most of the people in the chairs were neither hotel guests nor gamblers. They were people from the bus station. I think Plaza needs to address that and I intend to let them know. Having said this, I would still go back, there were many other benefits that more than outweighed any drawbacks. We played a lot of poker there, it was a blast, and their night poker room manager J.D., is about the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet.
Shows: We saw 6 shows if you include the 4 at the Plaza. The Plaza had Larry G. Jones, a magician, and two comedians. We thoroughly enjoyed 3 of the 4 shows. The magician guy was our favorite. He was very interactive with the audience, I am sure anybody would enjoy him. The two comedians were somewhat risque but that doesn't bother us at all, it was not a famly show nor was it billed as such. And I like humor. Frankly, neither of us liked Larry G. Jones a lot. I am not much on impersonation shows so I'm not a good judge. I didn't even like Danny Gans and he's one of the hottest acts in Veags. But Sheryl likes that kind of act and loved Danny Gans and she didn't like Jones much either. He just didn't seem that good to us. He had a lot of energy, he seems like and from what I've read, I'm sure he is a very nice man. We just didn't get much out of his show. I realize that we may be in a minority here, I noticed that the other guests seemed to really enjoy him. And Jones' show did have it's moments. It just wasn't for us. But the way I look at it, all four shows at the Plaza are such good prices, they're all $20 or less for 2 guests and that includes drinks. So I'd suggest anybody go see any or all of these shows.