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First, let me thank all my wonderful friends on the ChipBoard that wished me a happy birthday Saturday. I just saw them and my heart is touched that I have so many fantastic people in my life...yes, I am truly blessed!
For some reason, the thought of being in my final year of my 40's depressed me all week (do I HAVE to grow up when I turn 50 next year?). Darrell came home Friday and said "pack yer bags, ya old bag - let's celebrate your birthday in Vegas!" and with that we were headed South (yes, it took me 5 minutes to pack my bag).
I'm mostly writing this trip report for the folks that haven't been to Vegas since the last convention or longer....things have changed in the "land-of-sin-and-sun"!
We checked into Bally's. For a Friday afternoon, the check-in desk line was quite short. The gal that checked us in repeated the same thing we had heard at the Rio during the Superbowl Chip Show - entire floors of the hotels have been semi-permanently closed due to smaller crowds. Good for us, as we once again scored a room high up with a great view.....and yes, it was rainy and cool all weekend. Perfect weather for walking the strip.
If you're not familiar with Vegas, the hotel on the left is the Bellagio (we had a 1/2 view of the fountains at night, still very nice), than the Rio (blue and red) in the distance, than Caesars' to the right with the low brown building below it being Bill's Gambling Hall (formerly The Barbary Coast).
Notice the crane finishing up the newest tower at Caesars'? That tower will be finished on the outside, but the interior WILL NOT be finished. Not much reason to build more empty rooms...the interior will be finished when the economy improves.
Darrell and I immediately noticed that the crowds are down, down, down in Vegas. You may see people walking the strip during the day or early evening. But after 10 pm and before noon , the casinos become eerily empty. People are just not spending as much money here as in the past. We noticed that we could hear the noise of many more TV's drifting into the hallways of our hotel as we walked to our room at night.
A walk through the mall area of Planet Hollywood revealed several fancy-smancy restaurants totally empty Friday evening. We noticed Hamada at the Rio last week running an all you can eat Sushi special for $29...with ONE person sitting and enjoying the Sushi bar....scary!
Did I ask for an expensive dinner?...not me! I wanted to go over to the Orleans and have Friday night seafood buffet. So armed with a 2-4-1 coupon (lord, I love the Las Vegas Advisor coupon book...www.lasvegasadvisor.com), we headed over to the Orleans on the free shuttle bus from the side of Bill's. Strange, the bus isn't even 1/2 full and it's 6:30 pm on a Friday evening! A bigger shock was no waiting line for the buffet. We walked right into the buffet and enjoyed a quiet 1/3 empty restaurant. Service was great and we were pleased that the Orleans serves HOT crab legs (plus fried shrimp, peel-n-eat shrimp, chowder, pizza, Chinese food and tons more) A great meal that cost us a total of $20. Once again, the ride back to Bill's was 1/2 empty.
A walk down the strip (to jiggle the food down) was in order and it was no problem walking anywhere. The only crowds were at the intersections to cross the streets. A great night for picture taking...Out in front of Bally's with the Paris Eiffel Tower to the right.
We walked over to watch the fountains at Bellagio and I was rewarded for my birthday with a show done to the Sinatra song "Luck Be A Lady"...fantastic! Since the crowds are down, we had managed to walk up the narrow sidewalk along the south side of "Lake Bellagio" (towards the Bellagio Hotel) and found a great spot to enjoy Frankie's music while looking across towards the Flamingo, Bally's, Paris, Planet Hollywood, etc.
After watching several fountain shows, Darrell and I wandered back into the Bellagio and checked out the Chinese New Year's display in the conservatory. Really pretty...and once again, notice the lack of any crowd, even though it's 9:30 pm on a Friday night.
We got back to the room after a stop for ice cream (bored fella sitting on the cooler edge when we walked up, boy did he fill our cups to overflowing when I stuffed $2 in his tip jar ). Yup, and we were pooped-out by 11 pm.
Up early Saturday (my birthday!) and I wanted to head over to Decatur Blvd to check out the giant indoor flea market. We headed just past the flea market to Arizona Charlie's to have breakfast. Once again, we used a 2-4-1 Las Vegas Advisor coupon for the buffet. Now the buffet at Arizona Charlie's is nothing spectacular, just plain (but good) breakfast food....the cost was $6 for the BOTH of us! You can't beat that. The gift shop also had matched sticks of dice for $2 - double score!
We got to the flea market as it opened at 10 am, and were surprised at how many vendors have gotten out of the flea market business. Many stalls were empty and available for rent . Last year, the market was stuffed full (abet, much of the wares were very, very over priced as the vendors were obviously hoping to sucker the tourists into high prices). Several vendors were preparing to move their shops from the back of the building to the front. The back part will become totally empty, be walled off, and reopen when the economy improves. We picked up a few non-chip items, but found 90% of what we saw this trip, to be either over priced, or just junk. It was still fun to walk around in hopeless circles in this building though, it's quite big and the entrance cost is $1.
A nap back at Bally's and some more shopping -a trip to See's candy for my birthday present and the Beall's outlet mall south of the strip. The South Point is just a hop and skip from this outlet mall, and I found racks and racks of GREAT deals...so save your pennies ladies and let's go shopping in June!
A wonderful birthday dinner at Garduno's at the Palm's (50% off with the Las Vegas Advisor coupon.....oh you knew that was coming!) and a movie (I wanted to see "Hotel for Dogs", so Darrell took me...cute movie). Late night was dessert and coffee atop the Paris Eiffel Tower in their restaurant..it was so romantic and the service was so excellent that I forgot to take any pictures.
All in all , I'm REALLY looking forward to the convention. Although I am sad that the economy is down (and for anyone that this economy may have hurt), it sure has made Vegas alot calmer with awesome service everywhere we went. Deals on food are everywhere in Vegas and you don't have to wait in terrible lines to get into anything. Many of the casinos are running "happy hours" at some of their bars again and tossing in free appetizers (or 1/2 priced for huge plates of nachos, wings, pot stickers, etc.). The incredible deals we saw in Vegas will allow me more money for chips, dice, etc, etc....so I'm excited!
I look forward to seeing you all soon!
Tammy "older than dirt" Lynch
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