Pops904
11-19-2005, 06:05 PM
OK, I promise not to rant about airlines, airports, airport security, etc...
ONCE WE HIT VEGAS, the rest of the trip was PERFECT!
We rented a car for the very first time and will rent again on every future trip. Vegas is really easy to navigate, not really being all that big, and is laid out in a very orderly fashion. (Here'a a tip: Boulder Highway and Freemont Street are one and the same! If you head east on Freemont away from the canopy of the Experience, the name soon changes to Boulder Highway and you come to Boulder Station, Arizona Charlie's, and Sam's Town.) It's hard to get truly lost, because you can see the Stratusphere from almost anywhere in town. (another hint: if you aren't going to Henderson, or out sight-seeing for desert, if you pass the mountains, you've gone too far!)
We stayed at The Golden Nugget for the first time, and will return again and again! The standard room there was almost as large as the standard suites at The Rio, and far larger and nicer than the standard rooms at The Plaza. The bathroom was large, with marble tile floors and granite countertops. Just outside the bathroom was a nice dressing table with seat, lighted makeup mirror, large wall mirror and granite countertop. The beds were super-comfy, and there was an iron, ironing board, and a safe in the closet. The only thing lacking was a coffeemaker. A quick walk down Freemont to the 24hour Walgreens took care of that, with a 4-cup coffeemaker, two mugs, coffee, filters, sweetner, creamer, enough for all week for about $20.00. We could relax and have coffee in the room before getting dressed in the morning, and when we went downstairs we would see lots of people (mostly men) already dressed and carrying two cups of coffee in take-out cups back toward the elevators. We believe we had outsmarted them. I've done that bit before, having to get up and dressed and go fetch morning coffee back to the room for me and my wife. I like my way much better.
Being low-rollers, we like to stay downtown and frequent the casinos along Freemont, and the outlying off-strip properties. We always go to the strip to sight-see and people-watch, but we always feel like the table limits are lower and the slot machines are looser at the off-strip places. I had fairly good luck at the nickel slots, hitting several times over the days we were there for around one hundred bucks a pop, pretty impressive for nickel machines. My luck was consistently better at roulette, playing on the two-dollar tables in Binions and Fitzgerald's I was consistently doubling or tripling my buy-ins. My wife was having lousy luck at blackjack, unusual for her, but she redeemed herself by winning a thousand bucks at bingo during the morning session at The Plaza.
At Le Bayou, the little hole-in-the-wall place between The Golden Nugget and The Golden Gate, they only have slots, but we've always found them to be fairly loose. In the back, they have a wall of slushy machines with various flavors and alcohol combinations of frozen drinks. BEWARE! |I bought a margarita in a 44-ounce plastic glass shaped like a football and was FRIED by the time I had consumed 1/4 of it! I managed to down it all over the space of the next 2 hours, but it was the most drunk I had been in 20 years!!! Well worth the price if getting zonked is your mission, but I had to go to bed early that night, because I was too drunk to operate a slot machine! (sort of like being too drunk to fish!) Fortunately my sweet understanding wife led me safely to my room and bed, and she wasn't mad at me the next day. I didn't drink for the rest of the trip. My tongue was still numb til noon the next day!
Food highlights: The buffet at Main Street Station was as good as I had remembered it. The food and service at The Upper Deck coffeeshop over The Las Vegas Club was excellent and inexpensive. The food and service was good at Tony Roma's inside the Freemont, surprising because the place is hugely busy always, and the mexican resaurant at Arizona Charlie's with their salsa bar was also great!
Food dissapointments: Service and food quality at Binion's coffeeshop was not nearly as good as our last trip. The steak and lobster special was almost inedible! Particularly disturbing was the buffet at Sam's Town. We had another couple with us, Vegas first-timers, and we had bragged about how bountiful fabulous and delicious the buffet was.When we ate there, the food was cold and tasteless, and the desserts were stale, even though it was evening dinner prime time! To say the least, I was embarrassed after touting it highly to my friends!
Anyway, all in all a great trip! Came home with only $200 less than we originally had when we left home! (and any time you can spend a week in Vegas and do that, it is a GREAT trip!)
Going again in late March to celebrate my son's 21st birthday. Gonna rent a car again, gonna stay at The Golden nugget again, gonna party like rockstars again, gonna try to win again! Gonna make better travel plans, but I promised no ranting about airlines and such....
But that's just me.....
ONCE WE HIT VEGAS, the rest of the trip was PERFECT!
We rented a car for the very first time and will rent again on every future trip. Vegas is really easy to navigate, not really being all that big, and is laid out in a very orderly fashion. (Here'a a tip: Boulder Highway and Freemont Street are one and the same! If you head east on Freemont away from the canopy of the Experience, the name soon changes to Boulder Highway and you come to Boulder Station, Arizona Charlie's, and Sam's Town.) It's hard to get truly lost, because you can see the Stratusphere from almost anywhere in town. (another hint: if you aren't going to Henderson, or out sight-seeing for desert, if you pass the mountains, you've gone too far!)
We stayed at The Golden Nugget for the first time, and will return again and again! The standard room there was almost as large as the standard suites at The Rio, and far larger and nicer than the standard rooms at The Plaza. The bathroom was large, with marble tile floors and granite countertops. Just outside the bathroom was a nice dressing table with seat, lighted makeup mirror, large wall mirror and granite countertop. The beds were super-comfy, and there was an iron, ironing board, and a safe in the closet. The only thing lacking was a coffeemaker. A quick walk down Freemont to the 24hour Walgreens took care of that, with a 4-cup coffeemaker, two mugs, coffee, filters, sweetner, creamer, enough for all week for about $20.00. We could relax and have coffee in the room before getting dressed in the morning, and when we went downstairs we would see lots of people (mostly men) already dressed and carrying two cups of coffee in take-out cups back toward the elevators. We believe we had outsmarted them. I've done that bit before, having to get up and dressed and go fetch morning coffee back to the room for me and my wife. I like my way much better.
Being low-rollers, we like to stay downtown and frequent the casinos along Freemont, and the outlying off-strip properties. We always go to the strip to sight-see and people-watch, but we always feel like the table limits are lower and the slot machines are looser at the off-strip places. I had fairly good luck at the nickel slots, hitting several times over the days we were there for around one hundred bucks a pop, pretty impressive for nickel machines. My luck was consistently better at roulette, playing on the two-dollar tables in Binions and Fitzgerald's I was consistently doubling or tripling my buy-ins. My wife was having lousy luck at blackjack, unusual for her, but she redeemed herself by winning a thousand bucks at bingo during the morning session at The Plaza.
At Le Bayou, the little hole-in-the-wall place between The Golden Nugget and The Golden Gate, they only have slots, but we've always found them to be fairly loose. In the back, they have a wall of slushy machines with various flavors and alcohol combinations of frozen drinks. BEWARE! |I bought a margarita in a 44-ounce plastic glass shaped like a football and was FRIED by the time I had consumed 1/4 of it! I managed to down it all over the space of the next 2 hours, but it was the most drunk I had been in 20 years!!! Well worth the price if getting zonked is your mission, but I had to go to bed early that night, because I was too drunk to operate a slot machine! (sort of like being too drunk to fish!) Fortunately my sweet understanding wife led me safely to my room and bed, and she wasn't mad at me the next day. I didn't drink for the rest of the trip. My tongue was still numb til noon the next day!
Food highlights: The buffet at Main Street Station was as good as I had remembered it. The food and service at The Upper Deck coffeeshop over The Las Vegas Club was excellent and inexpensive. The food and service was good at Tony Roma's inside the Freemont, surprising because the place is hugely busy always, and the mexican resaurant at Arizona Charlie's with their salsa bar was also great!
Food dissapointments: Service and food quality at Binion's coffeeshop was not nearly as good as our last trip. The steak and lobster special was almost inedible! Particularly disturbing was the buffet at Sam's Town. We had another couple with us, Vegas first-timers, and we had bragged about how bountiful fabulous and delicious the buffet was.When we ate there, the food was cold and tasteless, and the desserts were stale, even though it was evening dinner prime time! To say the least, I was embarrassed after touting it highly to my friends!
Anyway, all in all a great trip! Came home with only $200 less than we originally had when we left home! (and any time you can spend a week in Vegas and do that, it is a GREAT trip!)
Going again in late March to celebrate my son's 21st birthday. Gonna rent a car again, gonna stay at The Golden nugget again, gonna party like rockstars again, gonna try to win again! Gonna make better travel plans, but I promised no ranting about airlines and such....
But that's just me.....