Day 3
Thursday June 24, 2010
Today is moving day and we're heading to Las Vegas. We were up early enough to pack up our things, and head out to the airport. First stop was to check out and apply some comp dollars to the room service charge and then it was off to valet to get the car. Dee called down to the valet from the room and they had our car ready when we got down there. All in all the staff here were about as friendly as you can get.
We left with plenty of time to get back to Phoenix. I gassed up just outside of the rental car facility and then it was onward to the airport. Dropping the car at Avis was easy but I did have to stop at the booth to get things squared away and then it was on to the terminal to check in for the flight.
We were once again flying with Southwest. I booked this flight back in March for $49 per person. A check of the fares a few days ago showed this flight was now $125. That's insane for an hour long flight. Check in went very well and security was a breeze. I was surprised at how few people there were in the terminal at this time of day.
After security we were walking to our terminal and a sky cap with a cart offered us a ride. I initially declined as we don't mind walking but he insisted we take a ride to "Keep America working"! He was very entertaining on the ride to gate C-19. Since we had plenty of time we grabbed at bite at the over priced Burger King in the terminal. We shared an original chicken sandwich value meal for the great rate of $7.89.
When we boarded we were able to get seats together. This flight is so short. We were scheduled to depart at 1:25pm and arrive in Las Vegas at 2:35pm. Before we even reached our altitude we were already making our final approach. We barely had time to drink our soda by the time they had to collect all the trash. Before long I saw Lake Mead, Hoover Dam and the casinos out in Henderson.
After we landed we taxied for a while and then finally got off the plane. We took the monorail over to the main terminal and headed down to baggage claim. Our bags took no time to arrive and may have actually been out before we even got there. From baggage claim it was off to the rental car shuttle.
I actually had 3 different reservation booked all at great rates. One was with Avis, one with Alamo and one with Dollar that I booked a few weeks ago. The Dollar rate was by far the cheapest but for a mid sized car. I actually scored a rate of $85 per week but I've been hearing way too many horror stories about Dollar the past few months so I was hesitant. The rates I had with Alamo and Avis were about the same and were slightly higher but for a full sized car. I opted to take the car from Avis simply because of my First Preferred status and what I consider better customer service. When we arrived my name was up on the scoreboard but I had to make a quick stop at the Preferred counter to hand in my coupon. The base rate I had was $385 for the 3 week rental and I had a coupon for $40 off a 10 day or more rental taking the rate down to $345. Things went well here and our car was in D-18. It was a brand new silver Chevy Impala with only 4 miles on it! This was like a jackpot since we had this car for the next 3 weeks.
We were now officially in Las Vegas and headed to my friend Anne's house to pick up our tote of essentials and then on to Silverton. Check in was a breeze here as it always is. We were also checking into a second room that was for Dee cousin Wendy and her husband Rick. I arranged it with my casino host to have them be allowed to check in early as they were getting in at 8:30am. While I was checking in Dee went to the pool to see if Rick and Wendy were there and found them.
I booked our room with a mail offer good for 3 nights and $75 free play. My host took care of Rick & Wendy's room so everything was covered. We were given a suite that our host scored for us as celebration of our honeymoon. We were assigned suite 2036. This suite is designed to look like a cabin at a lodge. The entry way is hard wood floors and to the left when you walk in there is a wet bar area and dining room table. Farther into the room is the living room area with a few arm chairs, couch, large coffee table, and big flat screen TV. There are 2 entry ways into the bedroom that has a king bed, night stands, arm chair, TV cabinet/dresser combo with a standard TV. A large Jacuzzi separates the bedroom from the bathroom area. The vanity area is open to the bedroom with double vanities and make up mirror. Off to the side of the vanity is a separate room with the toilet and shower. The shower has a standard head, rain shower and side jets. It also has views of the pool area. All in all this is a great suite.
Once we got up here we got our stuff unpacked and Rick and Wendy came down for a quick look and it was off to dinner at the Sundance Grill. Tonight they had a surf and turf special with a small steak and 5 fried shrimp with a drink, veggies, potato, soup or salad and strawberry tall cake for $14.95. 3 of us had that and Dee had salmon. The food was really good and I used points to pay the bill and for the month of June you get a 50% discount when paying with points so this was a great deal! We also played a few games of Keno while we ate and didn't hit anything. Sometimes I wonder why we bother.
After dinner we gave Rick and Wendy a driving tour of some of the Strip and parked over at Bill's. The plan was to go over to Flamingo and collect our monthly free show tickets for being diamond members. I've been diamond for many years and Dee just recently scored a diamond card through diamond in a day in Atlantic City. We let Rick and Wendy pick the show and they chose Frank Marino's Divas. We got our vouchers and walked over to Imperial Palace to the box office to get the tickets. We got a table at the end of the stage in the second section. The show wasn't until 10pm and it was only 7:30 now so we took a walking tour of the trip with Rick and Wendy.
During the tour we saw the Mirage volcano, which was almost new to me since I hadn't seen it since they revamped it. We also saw the Sirens of TI which I thought was a total joke and just an excuse to put scantily clad girls out in front of the property. I thought the original volcano and pirate show were far better. We ended up walking down to Wynn & Encore before heading back to the Imperial Palace for the show.
We had assigned seating and entered through the diamond door. For those that have seen La Cage at the Riviera this show is exactly the same including the jokes. There were a few different performers but for the most part if you've seen La Cage, don't waste your time or money seeing this show. Since the show is the same as La Cage, so is my review. I'm not into it and it's way over priced to see people lip sync as the ticket strange from $43 to $87 however, there are 2 for 1 coupons all over the place and even on the counter at the Imperial Palace box office. My suggestion is unless you are into the gowns and seeing dudes dress up like girls, skip this show and see something else.
We got back to the Silverton after the show at about midnight. Rick and Wendy were pushing towards being up for 24 hours so they went to bed and I hit the casino with Dee. We both played some 10-play video poker. I usually do pretty well on these machines but tonight that was not happening. I was dealt very few winners, and in the hour we played the best dealt winners we had were a few 3 of a kinds and Dee got a straight and I got a flush and that was it. I did draw 4 aces and a straight flush but that didn't stop the bleeding. I dropped $600 and Dee got out lucky only losing $100 for $700 in losses in just about an hour and only ran 7k through the machines.
It was now going on towards 2am so it was time to hit the bed.
Total win/loss for the day -$700
Total comps for the day $544