Vegas Trilogy: Conclusion

Ok, one more post about our trip to Las Vegas and I'll promise to shut up about it.  A few times during the trip, Todd asked if I was composing blog entries in my head... most of the time I was... after doing this for awhile, it is kinda funny that you start to think about things in your life as blog-worthy or not!

So after yesterday's "all Cooper" Vegas post, I decided to just make this a trilogy and round it out with all the things that I had yet to mention... so here we go...

We had the strangest lunch/dinner combo ever.  On the way up, we stopped at Taco Bell ... for dinner, it was something slightly more fancy... Wolfgang Puck's Spago at Caesars Palace's Forum Shops.

In between those two meals, I wasn't quite sure I was going to make it.  Now this was my birthday... so I was feeling my new age (and more!).  I had a horrible headache (felt like a steel pole going through my head at an angle just above my right eye).  I don't know if it was lack of food, lack of caffeine, car sickness, altitude change, or what... but it was so bad, I even had the dry heaves... the birthday celebration was in peril.  Thankfully it started waning at dinner... and was pretty much gone during the Elton John show.  I think that was so much of a sensory overload that my brain just was too distracted to hold onto the headache.

For yet another year, we were surprised to see the same Chippendale guy taking photos with mostly middle-aged ladies after the Masquerade in the Sky show at The Rio.  I won't re-cap the entire story about this guy (you can read last year's entry!)... but we can't believe he's still doing it!  I guess it must pay far better than I think, now that it's been three years running.  But his body is still holding up quite well... so no complaints.  We caught him with this one lady, I am guessing in her early 60s, bending over while he pretended to spank her... yowza!

Although they are popping up in other casinos, The Rio is one place where you can consistently have male cocktail waiters.  Now they have a dual-job at The Rio as "bever-entainers"... if they are not serving drinks they are up on stages throughout the casino singing or dancing.  In our regular video poker cove, we were fortunate enough to always have a male waiter serving the area.  The first night we had a particularly yummy one that had us wondering if that "slipping the room number" thing actually works... haha!

This was our first trip to Vegas since the Harrah's Corporation has taken control of most of the central Strip... they always owned Harrah's and The Rio... but have recently picked up Caesars, Flamingo, Bally's and Paris.  I don't know if this had anything to do with it... but I actually won $$$ at Caesars for the first time in the 10+ years I have been going to Vegas.  It was also nice to be able to use my player's card at all these places.  Even after getting two meals totally comped with reward credits, I still ended up with more credits than I arrived with.

Sometimes I even think I over-do it with the gambling, but then there will always be someone else who sits down next to me and makes me feel somewhat less insane.  So I was playing quarter Triple Play video poker which is one of my bigger risks when it comes to gaming... it's $3.75 a hand... and it's quite easy to play at least a dozen hands a minute.  Ok, crazy... that even I try not to think about it...  fortunately you at least "break-even" on enough hands that it is not as scary as it sounds.   

So anyhow, a very nice lady from Michigan sits down next to me... returning after getting more $$$... and starts playing 50-cent Five Play... or $12.50 a hand!  I literally lose track of the number of $100 bills she feeds into the machine, but at least $600s worth... and in about an hour!  Worse yet, she's playing Triple Double Bonus... granted it earns greater rewards for hitting big hands (four of a kind combos), but you sacrifice on more common hands... i.e. getting 10 credits for a 3-of-a-kind, instead of 15... which is one particular hand I am not willing to negotiate with (especially since that's my "break even" hand).  I feel guilty when I hit some big hands... and eventually leave and wish her luck as she still presses on.

Finally, we decided to try the Tix4Tonight booth on Thursday.  Like NYC's TKTS booth for Broadway shows... it's discounted tickets for shows for that night.  To make a long story short (and considering how long this entry is already, I think that's quite necessary), it was NOT worth the time and effort.  The shows are posted at 10:30am with tix going on sale at 11am. Most shows are the highly promoted 50% off (though fees are added on)... bigger/older shows like Cirque's Le Reve or Mystere are 20% off... and the really BIG shows are just not available.  So we killed about 2 hours... considered Le Reve, but then decided to go with the 50% off V The Ultimate Variety Show at the Aladdin (soon to be Planet Hollywood).  It was a good show (think "America's Got Talent" - magician, comedian, juggler, etc.), probably worth the discounted price... even though we were stuck in a back corner and the "theater" had the feel of watching a show out of someone's garage... but we were open to do "whatever" and that's what we got... my advice... if you really want to see a show, just pay full price and get your tickets well in advance

So I guess that's it... hopefully!   If I can't remember something by now, it's probably not worth writing about.

Comments

[Jeff]

Heh, no need to promise to "shut up" about it! Now that Thom and I live somewhat closer to Vegas (a short plane ride from the Bay Area), we might be going there more often. I love hearing all the ins and outs!