Las-Vegas, Luxury Hotels

05/22 - I (G) and my traveling companion (B) flew in on Thursday on WestJet. I’ll just say right now that the weather was terrible! The first three days were around 60 degrees, raining, cloudy, and windy. Luckily we had brought pants and long-sleeved shirts but we saw some scantily dressed girls who were freezing, having only brought their party clothes! It didn’t get really warm until Tuesday.

We rented a car for the week. We usually rent a car for a couple of days but for $50 extra, we saved about $200 on not having to get taxis and public transit, we could follow our own schedule, and we could go farther afield without problems. We got a Hertz rental car with a CAA discount for $123.90. The car was only a GMC but it was fine for the week.

At the hotel, we got our room with the balcony we requested. The Signature is a condo hotel, and our room (22-617) was really nice. Large bathroom with two sinks, TV, huge whirlpool tub, shower, and a separate room for the toilet. The bed was very comfortable with 300-thread count sheets. The kitchen had a fridge, cook top, microwave, blender, toaster, coffee maker, and the cupboards and drawers had all the necessary stuff such as dishes, glassware, cutlery, cooking supplies, etc. There was also a sitting area with a desk, coffee table, chairs, sofa, etc. During our trip, we picked up bread, juice, butter, jam, pop, etc. and were able to eat in our room when we didn’t want to go out for some overpriced snacks or pay for room service.

One thing I’ll clear up right now. On tripadvisor.com, we had read time and again about the incredibly long walk (20 mins.) from the Signature to the casino at MGM. For the record, it takes less than three minutes to cover the distance to MGM, which includes walking on the moving walkways. If you stand on the walkways, it takes about 5 minutes. It then takes around 3 minutes to walk through the shopping area of the MGM to get to the casino. Yes, I had a timer feature on my watch and I used it!

For dinner, we each had a slice from the Mamma Ilardo’s at MGM’s food court. I highly recommend this for a quick snack.

05/23 – We drove out to Red Rock Casino and had their buffet breakfast. The price was good if you signed up for their slot club ($6.99 each) and the food wasn’t bad. We played a bit and lost a bit. We then went on to Costco and picked up some wine, bread, and other stuff for the room. For lunch, we had Hash House A Go Go and the portions were HUGE! I had a sandwich which had a breaded piece of pork that must have been 7 inches across. B had a pancake which was really thick and took up the entire plate ($32 incl. tip). After getting back to the hotel and giving the car to the valet (Signature doesn’t have self parking), we walked along the strip, played some, and lost some. This pattern would continue for a few days. We’d be up a few dollars and then immediately lose so that every day ended in a loss. So depressing!

One thing I found was that I can’t sleep on feather pillows. All the blood is pressed out of my ears and I keep waking up in pain. I called down to the front desk on Friday and within 30 minutes two memory foam pillows were delivered and they were great. My sleep improved immensely.

05/24 – On Saturday, we decided to have the Paris buffet for breakfast which was very good ($36 incl. tip). They have little glass jars of jam and honey which we “accidentally” took with us. We would eat from those in the room with our bread from Costco later in the trip.

One of the nice things about Signature is that they have bottled water on hand that they give you at the valet, and leave in your room. Once we figured that out, we always asked for a couple of bottles each morning, and that kept us going throughout the day. You pay a $15 “resort” fee (plus tax) for each night’s stay but that fee gets you water, a morning newspaper (two on Sunday), access to any of their private pools (one pool for each tower), and 24 access to their gym.

We then walked from our hotel all the way up to Palazzo, stopping in various places along the way. We crossed over to Fashion Show Mall, shopped a bit, then walked all the way back. I was wearing my pedometer the whole trip and on this day, we walked over 30,000 steps. For those who don’t know, that’s equal to walking over 20 km. Boy, were we tired that night!

When we went into Planet Hollywood to renew our slot club membership, we found out they were having a daily pull on their giant slot machine, and a slot tournament. As we love those things we did them every day. At the end of the week, we had won two tote bags, three flashlights, and four key chains. We also won tickets to Stomp Out Loud, which just floored me as we had already bought tickets for Sunday night. Their prizes have no cash exchange value, so I went down to the next prize level and got the tote bag. The slot tournament is like most, where you have 5 minutes to get as many points as possible. Anything over 5,000 gets you a flashlight, over 6,000 is a tote bag, over 7,000 is Stomp tickets. Then, over 8,500, you get $50 in free slot play. The big one, though, is anything over 12,000 points gets you $1000 cash. We didn’t hear of anyone winning it but we did see some 9000 scores, so I guess it’s possible.

05/25 – A couple of months ago, I received an invitation to stay at Orleans for $99 which included three nights and a slot tournament. Since I’m considering that later in the year, we decided to have breakfast at their buffet. As this was Sunday, their breakfast was actually brunch and included all their lunch items as well. It was really good and although the hotel is small, I’d definitely consider staying there.

We then went to the Town Center shopping area south of the strip. This is new to us and has lots of little streets with shops, playgrounds, food vendors, etc. It’s on the west side of the strip just north of the outlet mall. There’s also a Fry’s there. For those who don’t know (and we certainly didn’t), Fry’s is a huge store selling everything! I guess you’d call it a department store but it had electronics, furniture, appliances, etc. B could barely tear himself away from all the stuff, and it had the longest walk to get the cashiers I’ve ever seen. It must be all of 500 feet with, of course, more stuff to sell.

As we were seeing Stomp that night, we decided to get Mamma Ilardo’s pizza and eat in the room. We then went to see Stomp and we LOVED it. We had third row tickets but because it’s a smaller theatre on the second floor of the casino, I don’t think there were any bad seats. The show is people making music with everyday items, such as keys, papers, brooms, etc. It had humour, audience participation, acrobatics, and it was just wonderful. I highly recommend it.

05/26 – As part of staying at Signature, we received a $25 “activity” credit and we decided to use that at the MGM buffet. Because of the credit, we got a line pass. This will probably be my first and only time to get a line pass, so I felt really important and was grinning at passing 20 people to get right to the front for seating.

One of the activities we enjoy in Vegas is seeing a movie and we decided to go to Orleans and see Indiana Jones. The movie wasn’t so great but the theatre was nice and had comfortable seats.

After that, we went to the outlet mall south of the strip and shopped a little bit. The weather was getting a little better, around 70 degrees with some cloud, so we had hope for the rest of the trip. The rest of the evening was spent gambling at various places and, of course, losing. I had enjoyed my Crown & Cokes each night but we decided to go to Fat Tuesday’s and buy one of those ridiculous tourist glasses with a frozen Pina Colada. Well, I’ll say now that it was great! We got one that was $10.75, and then refills cost $7.75.

05/27 – Today, we decided on Peppermill for breakfast which was really good. I had French toast and B had turkey sausage and bacon. Of course, huge portions again but friendly staff and the prices were pretty good ($35 incl. tip).

We then drove out to Lake Las Vegas which was beautiful. We played Lucky Ladies blackjack and I got $125 from a $1 bet because I was dealt two Heart Queens! This was huge for me – I couldn’t believe it. The only thing that would have made it better is if the dealer had a blackjack, in which case my $1 bet would have paid off 1000 to 1. B and I both left the table up which was a huge relief as this was our first winning session of the entire trip. We then wandered around looking at the lake and the village with shops and restaurants. There were also lots of housing developments in the area so we tried to see some model homes but couldn’t find any in the time we had left. Of course, the cheapest home seemed to be $500K but maybe next time!

Then, on a tip from a trip report, we stopped at the Pinball Hall of Fame. This place is simply four long rows of old and new pinball machines back to back but it was great. We spent less than $20 and spent over an hour playing all sorts of things. This is now added to my “must do” list for every visit.

05/28 – Our last day already. We had the Planet Hollywood buffet for breakfast which was good ($37 incl. tip). We then went on to the Atomic Testing Museum ($12 each) which was interesting. The hallways follow a timeline of atomic development and testing and there were a couple of short videos to watch. Unfortunately, the museum wasn’t very interactive and the explanations were so wordy. It took them three paragraphs to say what two sentences could have explained.

After that, we decided to stay up late and play. Since we’re low rollers, we prefer $5 tables and I really wanted to play 3-card poker as we hadn’t played many table games throughout the visit. It started off not great – I lost $90 then B lost $25 on Lucky Ladies blackjack. However, half an hour later, I decided to sit down again at the 3-card poker table and B joined me after a few hands. Well, two hours later, we both left the table very happy. We had both received straight flushes! For each of us, this was our first time ever. We also had good dealers and fun players, which made all the difference in the energy at the table.

We then decided to hit McDonald’s at 2:00 am and fell into bed around 3:00.

05/29 – Since this was our last day and we were flying out at 12:15, we decided to have breakfast in the room and finished up the bread, juice, etc. while packing. We then returned the rental car and got to the airport.