Please ADD your own Las Vegas Trip Report. Date of Trip: May 14, 2006 to May 19, 2006 Hotel Stayed At: MIRAGE/MANDALAY BAY PART I Report by: ktinca <> From: california

TR—5/14/06-5/19/06 A “Restful” Trip Without Much Sleep

A couple of days before we left I asked my wife if there was anything special she wanted to do this trip. Her answer was: REST.
So we made very few plans, no advance reservations for restaurants or shows.

This TR is going to have very little about gambling (I will include a few poker stories) for a fairly simple reason; this was not a good trip for my wife. She plays VP, Pai Gow Poker, and Video WOF. During the entire trip she only left a machine or table ahead twice and both of those were very small wins. It isn’t the amount of money, because she really only lost about $300-$400, but we all know how frustrating it is to NEVER win. It is also not a coincidence that she played more slots than normal, and because of where we stayed the best available VP was 9/5 or 8/5 JOB.

Arrived at Mirage Sunday around 11:30am. Proceeded to invited guest check-in where there was only one person in front of us. This is our 1st stay at Mirage and I was impressed with the service overall including at check-in.
We were staying in a one bedroom Tower Suite, requested a quiet room away from the elevator with a pool view (this also includes a southern view of the strip). Asked for a line pass for our stay. It was given with a smile and an extra one for my wife in case we weren’t together at mealtime.

We were given suite B-14. I LOVE THIS. Even if I have been drinking I can remember B-14. One of my LV pet peeves is 5-digit hotel room numbers. Later in the week at MB I had to deal with room 28211. B-14 is just SO MUCH EASIER.

Because there are a couple of members of this Board who will be staying in Tower Suites for the 1st time, I actually wrote down a few notes about the suite, and will now give my impressions and go into a long boring description. I will put this into one long paragraph, so if your not interested scroll down.
Some excellent photos have been posted, but they can’t provide depth or details, so I will ramble about the suite and hopefully provide info of use.

These suites have a lot of tile, including the large entrance-way which has a small settee. On the right is a full bar, granite top, with 2 bar stools. The bar is well appointed with accessories, it also has a sink and a small fridge.
Did I mention there was a lot of tile? There are area rugs in the living room and dining room, but you cannot walk from room to room without walking on tile. The bedroom is completely carpeted but you won’t want to walk around barefoot (slippers are provided in the closet).
The living room includes 2 7-foot couches arranged in an L-shape, one along the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the other separating living & dining areas.
Both face the entertainment center (armoire type) and there is a large glass coffee table and 2 end tables for lamps.
The entertainment center has a 32” TV, along with a stereo, cd player, and a vcr. This is also where the internet connection is, which is kind of inconvenient, as you would have to use the coffee table to do any work, as there is no desk in the suite. Given a choice, most would prefer the bar as a work area, but there is no connection there.
The main area, which includes living room & dining room is 18x30 feet, with 30 feet of floor-to-ceiling windows.
The dining room has a full table with 4 chairs and impressive chandelier with enough light to actually use. You can see the TV from the dining room table.
According to my wife (who notices these things) everything in the suite matches. All the furniture matches the rest, the fabric on the dining room chairs matches that of the barstools, the design of the lamps matches the living room drapes, etc.
Large French Doors separate the bedroom. The bedroom is 12x16, but seems smaller due to the chest with the TV at the foot of the bed. King Bed with small chest drawers on each side. There is also one comfortable chair. And, in one of the very few concessions to modern technology, there is a cd player/alarm clock.
The bathroom is very spacious, with the main bath area 10x14. This room includes a small jacuzzi/tub (probably the smallest I’ve seen in a suite) a separate shower, and the dual vanity and make-up desk.
On the left is a hall 4x12 feet. At the end of the hall is a bureau with 6 drawers for clothes. To the right of this is a room for the toilet & bidet, quite large by LV standards for these rooms. Next to the toilet room is the walk-in closet. This is also good size and includes the safe.
The suite had 4 phones, and amazingly enough our non-smoking suite had 7 ashtrays. The AC worked well and was surprisingly quiet, with separate controls for bedroom & living room.
The suite and its furnishings are somewhat dated, not as modern or up-to-date as Wynn or THEhotel, but we found it extremely comfortable.

I found it funny that the suite had a VCR (who would think to bring tapes to LV?) but the furnishings are 15 years old and that was the best available at the time, while all the newer hotels have DVD players.
So I assume the suites at Imperial Palace have a Sony Beta-Max and those at Stardust & Flamingo come with black/white TVs.

After having our bags brought up, we went down to the Caribe Café for lunch. Nothing special, typical LV coffee shop, food ok and slightly overpriced.

Went to see the poker room, which was hosting the WPT poker tournament during our stay. The final event started that day and the 384 entrants required the entire poker room, plus a number of tables on the outside.

I considered the tournament a major inconvenience, as it meant I wouldn’t be able to use the poker room at my own hotel, but my wife didn’t see it that way. She had the chance to meet & see some of the players she’s seen on TV. Also, I’ve never enjoyed watching live tournament poker, even if I had a friend or partner playing after I was eliminated.

She did get to see & meet a few players she recognized, and there was one table Sunday that had 4 well-known players including Freddie Deeb (quite friendly) Amir Vahedi, Eli Elezra, and Ted Forrest (only Ted made it past the 1st day).
She saw Todd Brunson and wanted to meet him, but I explained that while I had played with his dad a few times, I didn’t know Todd.
I spent some time looking for a friend who plays in some of these WPT events (takes a while to check out all those tables), spoke to Scotty Nguyen during a break, and he didn’t think Sam had made this tournament.
Too bad, it would have been nice for my wife to have a friend to root for.
She did find someone to root for however when Men the Master saw her standing watching, walked over gave her a hug, and wished her a Happy Mothers Day.

While we usually don’t make plans for our 1st night in town this night it was unavoidable. The final episode of Survivor was on TV!
Room service for dinner and 3 hours of TV. Nice to have a comfortable suite with a dining room on a night like this.

After the show played some VP for a while and got to bed around 1:30am.
So much for our 1st day of “rest”.

Monday 15th: This is to be our pool day at Mirage. The temperatures this week were around 100 degrees each day, with 8am being around 85.
I can only take so much sun & heat, so for us it is down to the pool early. We skipped breakfast and opened the pool at 8am. Coffee and muffins poolside is a standard LV breakfast for us.

The mad rush for chairs at Mirage was as bad as we had heard. We picked out a couple of seats a few minutes after 8, but by 8:15am every chair along the pool itself or in a prime location was taken.

The pool is an important part of the LV experience for us, and we enjoyed the one at Mirage. We found the atmosphere and landscaping relaxing, and while it’s not Mandalay Bay, we will consider it in our future plans.

Around 10 it was time for a Pina Colada. Waitress came by asked if we wanted small or large drinks (a large Pina Colada is $12.50) so of course I ordered large. Word of warning: at the Mirage pool when they say LARGE, they mean it!

I left my wife at the pool around 11:30, when it was around 95 degrees, so I could start the day while she spent a few more hours at the pool.
My job was to go down to Aladdin and pick up tickets for Fab Four that evening. Normally I would have to go to one of the ½ price outlets, but we found a coupon for ½ off in one of the magazines, so I was able to save the service fee.

After picking up the tickets I had a few hours to kill so it was time for some poker. Thought about the cardrooms in the Aladdin area and decided MGM would probably provide the easiest games, so walked over there. But all they had going were 2 games, both 2-4 limit which I won’t play.

So I grabbed a cab to check out the new room at the Venetian. They had 8 tables going including two $4-$8 games which, though full, had no list, so I didn’t have to wait long. As others have said the room is very nice, with a very comfortable waiting area, and plenty of room between tables.

Got a fair amount of hands to play, but couldn’t do much with them after the flop, managed to hold my own and was a few dollars ahead. Around a quarter after 4 called my wife to remind her that the show is at 6pm and I would be back soon. So I got a couple of racks and was picking up my chips when the dealer accidently dealt me in. Naturally I get AdQh, so I raise and get a couple of callers. The flop comes 9,J,Q all diamonds. 1st player bets, #2 folds, I raise, #1 raises, I call. Turn card Ah. I bet, he raises, I call. River card blank. I bet, the other player shows 10d and folds.
So instead of leaving just over even (I didn’t have a chance to rack all the chips for an exact count) I win the last hand and leave over $100 ahead.
Everyone who plays poker regularly knows I also have stories about losing the last hand.
I found a good mixture of players at Venetian and will definitely return.

I had called my wife to let her know I was on my way. The phone rang quite a few times and I was afraid she might have fallen asleep. When she finally answered I heard strange noise in the backround and asked where she was. She said she was in the tub, and the noise was the Jacuzzi. Now, there are 4 phones in our suite, but none by the tub. The only phone in the bathroom is in the room with the toilet and bidet, about 25 feet away, so she used the phone in the bedroom, which was closer.
I had this mental picture of her jumping out of the tub, grabbing a towel, running around looking for a phone, and couldn’t help but laugh.
The ONLY call she gets in Las Vegas and she gets caught in the tub.
I told you her luck was bad this trip.

Fab Four was outstanding as usual. Interestingly enough, just like the Beatles, they are also getting a little older and making adjustments. This Paul is making the same pace adjustment singing Yesterday that the real Paul McCartney had to make as he got older. And I now think they are doing a better job on the Sgt. Pepper segment than on the early Beatle era. Of course this is JMO and everyone should see it and judge for themselves.

After the show we headed over to Paris for dinner. Le Provencal was only a 20 minute wait at 8pm, so we decided it was worth waiting. One of our favorite medium priced restaurants in LV, good food at a good price ($60) and 2 of the servers sang a duet from “Phantom of the Opera” that my wife said was very good.
We love the restaurants at Paris---if it wasn’t for the pool, the rooms, and the poor gambling we might even consider staying there.

Walked over to Barbary Coast for some Pai Gow poker. Had to wait for seats at a $5 table but eventually a couple opened up. The dealer (bank) was hot and when it was my turn I took the bank, got a decent hand and made a few dollars. My wife recognizing what was happening then took the bank (she doesn’t often) and typical for this trip, got the only really bad bank hand we had seen. A few hands later she took my advice and we left, I was up a little, but she was leaving down again.

We then discovered the new penny Mega-WOF and watched for awhile. Very exciting, a lot of spinning the big wheel, but it seems nobody leaves a winner. Eighty cents per spin with very little return, it can go awful fast. Everyone keeps playing trying to spin the big wheel, talked to a number of people who lost more than they intended. Great machine for the casino, although we really like the 2-person seats. We put in $60 without getting to spin the wheel, or much of anything else.

Went back to Mirage and my wife started watching the poker tournament. They had to get down to 27 players before they could stop for the night. They paid 38 places, so once they get down around 40 play slows down dramatically as players try and wait for others get knocked out, so they can be one of the players to cash (starting at $10,000). It took over 90 minutes to get from 41 to 38 players. Of course, my wife didn’t want to leave, she wanted to stay for the end.

Then just after 12pm they got down to 28. Everyone was grateful they would be able to stop soon for the night (including me). Long story short; players went all in 6 or 7 times but won every time, it wasn’t until 1:30am that the 28th player was finally eliminated. Because of the late finish the next days start was pushed back an hour so the players could get some rest.

In the meantime my wife has met a rabid newbie poker player who is star-struck and is trying to glean poker advice. My wife, being the wonderful person she is, drags me into the conversation so I can help, and we are talking poker for the next hour.

After another “restful day” it’s right to sleep at 3:30am.

To be continued
Fortunately, it’s going to get shorter.
Then again, the way I ramble, maybe not.

ktinca <> - california    3123

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