Please ADD your own Las Vegas Trip Report. Date of Trip: May 15, 2005 to November 30, 1999 Hotel Stayed At: WYNN---ACM AWARDS PT III Report by: KTINCA <> From: CALIFORNIA

TR—PART 3 BALANCE OF WYNN STAY

Thursday 19th

During our tour of the hotel the previous day we had gone into the Country Club Grill. The hostess recommended we stop by for breakfast. She said it was a nice quiet place for breakfast that people hadn’t discovered yet, and reservations weren’t required.
She was right.

The tables look right out onto the golf course. A $5 tip got us the end table overlooking the waterfall on the 18th hole.
Wife had the waffle with fresh berries recommended by our waitress and I had a smoked salmon omelette. Very relaxing venue for breakfast, bill with tip was $41.

After breakfast we found the Keno lounge---What a find!
This is the nicest Keno area I have ever seen. The word lounge is totally appropriate. The entire lounge only seats around 25. There are 4 separate seating areas. All have 6 high backed leather chairs (some with pillows) surrounding a coffee table. There are also end tables for drinks. The chairs are arranged to encourage conversation just as they would be in a den. In addition to this a CW is assigned this area and drink service is excellent.

We ordered drinks and my wife was playing keno and conversing with a couple from Ohio. So I went to the racebook to pick up a California form.
BTW: For those interested keno is $2 minimum, with $1 way tickets.
I spent an hour or so playing keno and handicapping a few races.

That afternoon we spent a couple of hours in the racebook. The Wynn racebook is not large but is modern and has a quiet atmosphere that my wife really liked. The sportsbook section looked very small but comfortable.

We ordered a couple of Bailey’s & coffee and settled in. Because of the very casual handicapping we were not going to bet any sizable amounts, but found the service to be very friendly. No drink tickets needed and CW was very attentive.

I bet $20 on a horse at Hollywood, but my horse broke down and didn’t finish. Then my wife put a few dollars on a horse at Golden Gate and it didn’t get a good start. This is called bad racing luck.

Then we both liked the same horse at Hollywood so I bet $10WP. Horse ran well, but could not beat heavy favorite. Because the favorite won it only paid $2.80 to place.

I had 1 more race handicapped at Hollywood, so I took my big winning ticket and placed $5WP on my choice. This left $4, so I bought another $2WP ticket on my horse, and gave it as a tip to the lady ticketseller at the racebook.

The horse won, paying $20.20 to win and $11.80 to place. In other words, she received a $32 tip for handling a $10 bet. Needless to say I made a friend.

My wife then wanted to do a little shopping. They say at Wynn everything is for sale, even the linens & the bed. We did go to the shop where the beds are sold and it is true. If you are interested you can buy a set of twin Wynn beds with mattresses for a mere $1200, and they will arrange shipping.

My wife wanted 2 items in particular. The Country Club Grill had vases on the tables, which held a single flower, she wanted a couple for herself and possibly some as gifts. She also wanted some of the hand lotion that was used in the rooms as a gift for a woman who works for her.

Despite what they claim, they did not have either of these items for sale. So while my wife could buy some gifts, she did not get the items she really wanted.

We had 8:00pm dinner reservations at SW Steakhouse. Because I think some people might be interested I will go into detail about our experience there, if your not interested just scroll down.

The reason our reservations were for 8 was because sunset was around 7:45 and I wanted to take advantage of the fountain shows.
Just like MAG, you cannot make reservations for outside seating.

So we showed up around 7:45 to request an outside table. Walked up to the Maitre D with a $20 bill in my hand and requested a nice table outside. He said it might take a few minutes please have a seat on the couch. For the next 10 minutes he guided people around, seating most inside, but a few lucky people outside. Finally a couple who had been waiting around 20 minutes was seated outside.

Then he came over to us and said “Mr. T, we have a table for you now”. And we were taken to “The Table”. You know the one. Many fine restaurants have one just like it. It’s the one in the perfect location that the Maitre D keeps passing by, as he takes patrons to other tables. The one that sits empty most of the night.
At SW this table is right next to the lake, directly in the middle with a perfect view of the fountain shows.

$20 changed hands “Thank you sir, but that really wasn’t necessary”. UH HUH.
Another example of the power of “Positive Tipping”.

BTW: We saw the couple who had waited 20 minutes, they had a small outside table situated near a pole, each could see the lake, but from a different side of the pole.
We learned some time ago that a nice dinner cannot be rushed, and we no longer try to have dinner at a top restaurant and see a show the same night. So this was to be our only nice dinner of the trip.

We mentioned to our waiter that we had been running around all week and were looking forward to finally being able to relax. He assured us that would not be a problem and we should enjoy our evening and the experience.

Dinner: Instead of a description I will post our bill, as some are probably interested. Remember you have the option of scrolling down if not interested.

Water 1 Evian Large 7.00
1 crabcake appetizer 18.00
1 caesar salad 12.00
1 Asparagus salad 16.00
2 Ribeye, bone in 104.00
1 Puree potato 8.00
1 Potato Au Gratin 8.00
1 Glass Merlot 16.00
1 Coffee 4.00
1 Bailey’s coffee 8.50
1 Ding Dong 10.00
Tax 15.86
Total 227.36

The food was perfectly prepared and the service was good. I consider this about equal to Delmonicos.

A little after 10 the chef came by, stopping at a few tables to chat. He came by our table, to ask if everything was all right, and specifically asked my wife if she liked the dessert. Apparently, it is his creation and he is quite proud of it.
Fountain shows: There were 3 short shows after 8 (they were waiting for it to get dark enough) and then longer shows at 9, 10 &11. Six shows in all. We know!

Taking our time, and not being rushed, we were finished with our meal around 10:15 (started at 8). The waiter came by, asked if we wanted more coffee, said no rush, stay and enjoy the last show. A few minutes later one of the busboys came over and said, feel free to stay for the last show at 10:30. The waiter came by again and said “no rush, just checking if you need anything”. So we waited and no 10:30 show. So we figured it out. They didn’t want us to leave!
They didn’t want a new party sitting down at their table at 10:30 and taking an hour and ½ for dinner.
So we called the waiter, and said we understood , and asked for more coffee if we were going to wait for the last show. We considered it our good deed of the day.
So dinner took 3 hours, and we saw all 6 fountain shows.

After that a little VP and it was enough for the night.

Friday 20th

Last Day. Had an 8:15pm flight so planned on leaving around 6.

Woke up before 7, snuck out so wife could sleep. Went downstairs to registration. When I had checked in I had asked for 2 things: A line pass to the buffet for Friday morning, and late check-out. The clerk produced the line pass and noted check-out at 1pm,which was all she could authorize. She said I should check Friday morning to see if I could get check-out extended.
I knew we didn’t have much hope on Friday, but stopped by anyway. They were understanding---but it was Friday and they were sold out. They did extend it till 2pm.

Then I went over to the concierge with a copy of our SWA flight invoice and asked them to print out our boarding passes. For those who needlessly worry even at 7:30 we got A passes #13&14.

Went over to a bank of $1 JOB machines for a Bailey’s & coffee to start the day. Put in $60, playing slowly talking to a guy on his annual visit from Minnesota. Ended up killing an hour and cashing out with $180.

We went to the buffet for breakfast around 9 ($14.50 per person). As others have said, nice but not really exceptional. I had a shrimp omelette, bacon & a little ham. Then some fresh berries in sour cream (they actually have a station to mix your fruit, yoghurt & granola to order) and bananas & cream for dessert. The one thing that was disappointing was that they did not have any fresh sliced smoked salmon.
They had some smoked salmon wrapped appetizers, and they even had lox & cream cheese pizza, but no sliced lox.
My wife had smoked trout, which she enjoys, and she said the bagels were good.
But I don’t consider a buffet top quality unless they have my lox.

Went to the Keno lounge after breakfast, once again met some friendly people. Including one lady who has been staying at the Stardust for years, but has to visit Wynn because the Stardust shut down their Keno room. Stayed for an hour. Then bought a ticket for 21 games ($105) so we could go upstairs relax, pack, and watch keno on TV. BTW: Got $68 back on the ticket.

Checked out around 2 and had our bags picked up. Spent the rest of the day playing VP.
Had a late lunch at the Terrace Pointe Café. Expensive, upper class coffee shop food, with a view of the pool. Kind of limited selection, prefer Raffles at MB.

Checked at players club found I had earned around 600 points and my wife around 350, this gave us a net of $17 back---and it would drop off in 3 months.

Went to the bell desk, asked them to bring out luggage. They said wait next to taxi line and luggage will be brought out, saving wait in long line.

Trip highlights:

A lot of good country music performances.
Three hour dinner at SW Steakhouse.
Wife kept getting extra spin on WOF and ended up with 12 spins in one bonus round.
Met some nice people, both at country music concerts & at Wynn.

Observations & Opinions

Spent almost 6 full days in LV and only set foot in 4 hotel/casinos
(Monte Carlo, Mandalay Bay, Barbary Coast & Wynn).
For us, Monte Carlo has a nicer pool than Wynn.
Enjoyed ACM awards & festivities—don’t know if we’ll go again.

Wynn: Rooms are nice, better than Bellagio, but not THEhotel.
Best Keno lounge in town.
Nice racebook.
Excellent service and employee attitudes.
Not as crowded as Bellagio was when it first opened.
Wynn actually has better VP than most of the strip hotels.
FOR US THE LOCATION SUCKS. We did not leave Wynn because there is no place in that area we want to go.
People complain about MB’s location, but at least there are places I might want to go on the south end, there are none close to Wynn.

Will we go back to Wynn?
We might go back for a special event or at an off time. We would not go back during prime pool season.

But we did enjoy our stay there.

BTW: Brought $1200 in cash and came home with $800. This means we actually came out slightly ahead, because we spent more than $400 in tips & incidentals.

Hope some of this is useful, and apologize for the length.

God, October sure seems far away!

KTINCA <> - CALIFORNIA    3758

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