This was our first trip to Las Vegas in five years. What prompted us to go was a nice offer from Wynn for 3 free nights plus several hundred dollars in free play. We are definitely not high rollers & never played much at Wynn during our previous visits to Las Vegas, so we don't know why we got the offer. Sue's Diamond status at Caesars properties gave us another 4 free nights in Las Vegas which we were able to schedule back to back with the Wynn stay. Since we live in New Jersey & have casinos, the main attraction of Las Vegas for us is the variety of shows available & the winter weather.
For the Caesars part of the trip we chose to stay at the Rio Resort because it is off the Las Vegas Strip which tends to be less crowded & every room is a mini-suite with floor to ceiling windows. We found the Rio to Harrah's free shuttle convenient when going to & from a Harrah's show. We enjoyed the Rio with its very nice rooms & friendly staff. Sue's Diamond card allowed us to use VIP Check-in (& free bottled water).
Wynn was beautiful. The room was spacious with a view of the golf course & waterfall from the 23rd floor. The room had nice central electronic controls: to open/close the curtains, turn on / dim / turn off the lights & control the nightlight under the bathroom sinks. The 2 large vases of red tulips at the bottom of the elevators were replaced daily; a nice touch. We enjoyed the Wynn with its very nice rooms & friendly staff.
Our son joined us from Denver for the middle part of this trip. He got free rooms at the Rio & then Flamingo.
Food is not a big item with us, but we did have a dinner at the Voodoo Steakhouse at the Rio. The steak was very good & the nighttime view from the 50th floor is very nice. We were able to use Sue's $100 Diamond Renewal coupon to make the cost reasonable.
We saw four shows on this trip. We attended Le Reve at Wynn, but made it even better by taking the Backstage Tour. The tour was held at 4 PM & took about an hour. We had two guides who took us from below the pool level all the way up to the Low Grid level, about 60 feet above the pool. We met & talked to several of the backstage staff about their work and saw many of the props used in the show. The show started at 7 PM. We have seen several of the Cirque shows & this show was on a par with those; Le Reve most closely resembles "O" since it is water based. We enjoyed the show & having the Backstage Tour prior to the show added to the enjoyment.
Sue's Caesars Diamond card entitled her to two free show tickets per month from a list provided at the Total Rewards Center. My Platinum card entitled me to Buy One Get One Free tickets from the same list. The Total Rewards Center issues you a voucher for the show you choose & you go to the corresponding casino to actually book the show & get the tickets.
The list of shows included Flamingo: Vinnie Favorito & Legends in Concert,
Harrah's: Defending the Caveman, Improv, Mac King & Million Dollar Quartet
Paris: Eiffel Tower Experience
Quad: Jeff Civillico & Frank Marino's Divas
Rio: Penn & Teller, XRock & MJ Live
With the two free tickets we saw Defending the Caveman at Harrah's. It is a one man monologue about male/female relationships. Females in the audience reacted to some of the lines while males enjoyed other lines, but it was too slow for our tastes.
We also saw Jeff Civillico at the Quad using our Buy One Get One Free tickets. Jeff is a humorous juggler who gets the audience involved in his act. We thoroughly enjoyed this show.
The last show we saw was Terry Fator at the Mirage. We booked great seats online about a month before the trip. We both thoroughly enjoyed this show.
The highlight of the trip was a Segway tour of the Las Vegas Strip. We booked the tour with Segway of Las Vegas (segwaylasvegas.com). Bob Stevens (Segway Bob) met us at our hotel. He brought the Segways in his van. Sue & I had ridden a Segway once before in the Bahamas, but our adult son had not. After 5 to 10 minutes of training we were off. We started at 10 AM so the sidewalks weren't overly crowded. We started at Wynn & went down the Strip to MGM where we crossed over to NY NY & proceeded to the Fashion Show Mall & back to Wynn. We stopped periodically for Segway Bob to give us some history or interesting facts about the area. The tour took about 2 hours. We were amazed that we went into elevators, on pedestrian overpasses, into shopping malls and even through one casino while on the Segways.
On the gambling side, we played mostly at the hotels we stayed in & the ones we visited for shows. That included Wynn, Rio, Flamingo, Harrah's & Mirage. As expected, the video poker selection was limited with generally poor pay tables. On the last morning we played 2 hours at Palms & found the VP more to our liking.
Sue hit three Royal Flushes at Rio & came out well ahead. I did not. My best run was on a short pay Quick Quads Triple Play quarters at Rio. I hit 12 Quick Quads in about 2 hours, 2 of them dealt. But the law of averages caught up to me. I wish Four of a Royal paid something.
The biggest expense on the trip was the non-free shows. We could have gotten away a lot cheaper, but we were willing to splurge for the associated tours & great show seats. We used frequent flyer miles for our first class airfare & Total Reward credits for several meals & internet access, etc. at Caesars properties as well as Sue's Diamond Renewal Coupon.
It was a very enjoyable trip & inexpensive trip.
From Bob B.
