Caesars Palace

BigAZMarty’s Trip Report: July 4th Weekend


BigAzMArty shares his trip from July 4th Weekend…

Hey, all! BigAZMarty here….reporting on our trip to Las Vegas over 4th of July weekend.

So the wife was thinking “you know we NEVER go to Las Vegas for 4th of July, and we missed the last New Years celebrations due to me being on call and locked into my hometown in case of emergency.” We’d previously only been in Las Vegas once on the 4th and were trapped in South Point due to severe thunderstorms over the entire weekend. We could only see a bit of the Green Valley Ranch fireworks from our windows right before another storm rolled through (lightning competing with the fireworks). So being her normal deal-hunting self, she looked through MLife. This was ruled out due to Garth and Tricia concerts that jacked up room rates. Total Rewards was next, and a lot was not available in our normal places until I looked at Bally’s (she never looks here)….and boy would I pay for this later. I spotted an Anthology Suite Room in the Indigo Tower completely comp’d. We took it as that was one of my bucket lists (yeah I have no idea how low of standards an Anthology Suite was at Bally’s) as it’s an old classic Las Vegas “resort” suite. We get packed and head out on Thursday, driving for several hours through some massive desert thunderstorms (Kingman, AZ through Boulder City, NV was what people back east call a cloudburst situation). After that, we break out at Railroad Pass and then clear skies. We get to Bally’s close to 7:45 PM, valet park, and go into the Diamond Check in. They give us two bottles of water and we head to the room and unpack. Uh-oh. Read the room review here.

20160701_142840

We then proceed to head over to the Paris through the linked shops and stop at JJ’s (not Jimmy John’s mind you). For once, the pizza at the quick window looked good (usually we go inside for the sandwiches as they are usually really good…but there was a long line and we didn’t notice a diamond line that was separate). We were in a hurry so we grabbed two slices each and a soda with their normal deal. It was much better than expected but not fantastic. Afterward, we head into Paris and gamble a little get a little up, head back to Bally’s and immediately drop back. We head to the room because we are wiped out about 1 AM. We sleep to about 7-8AM and then get ready. We are out of the room by 10. My wife and I need some sundries we had run out of at home, so we went through the shops through Paris again. We checked out Hexx store (almost identical to the old Sugar Factory store) and head to Planet Hollywood to the Sephora store to get what we had missed. After that, we decided we’d done PH last visit so let’s go to Bellagio. So, across the street to the long escalator ride we go. We walk through the lobby to her favorite free thing to do: the Conservatory where Under the Sea is still there, Michael Movestro reported on it earlier here.

Dory, Under The Sea, Bellagio Conservatory 2016,

After going through the display and visiting the nicest smelling gift store (Giardini) in Las Vegas, we get to the casino and play $40 each in the side by side Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers nickel machines. A total bust, not even a ruby slippers bonus (remember this now). We start to head towards the Bellagio buffet and have a fantastic brunch style meal. The wife and I both had late breakfast (her scrambled eggs to my custom omelet with potatoes as well as sausage, bacon, and some fruit. Then we hit the dessert area and call it quits. We rolled out of there fairly stuffed and journeyed over to a little cove of slot machines that have the Flinstones, Jurrasic Park, and Big Bang Theory games. We win some at Flinstones and Jurassic Park and then both sit at the Big Bang Theory and process to ramp it up to over $160 on the plus side and cash out. We journey over to the bank of VP quarter machines and make a Bellagio deposit near the Lago’s area….big fat goose egg there. We then head back to home base at Bally’s and get to the room and decide we better swim as clouds are building on the horizon and we better figure out if we are using the LV Monorail to get to SLS or taking the car (good vantage point to see Palace Station’s fireworks that night). We get to the pool, get 1 towel each and it’s fairly busy so we found two chairs and moved them around to the sun’s orientation and then took a dip. At no time were we approached by the drink girl (yup just one tatted up girl in a blue bikini serving the entire pool area). I float in the deep end of the pool (which is an awesome way to decompress your spine and something all LV pools need to have nowadays…3.5′ to 4′ is not a great pool to me) for about 30-45 minutes. My wife joins me for 15 of those. One thing to note if you are going to spend any time on the free strap chairs at the Bally’s Blu Pool: get two towels to cover the chair…it’s not cleaned regularly.

We get out of the pool, drop the towels in the bin and then notice the monorail. We look at it and notice for under $60 we can get two 72-hour passes. We decide to not use the car the entire weekend. Up to the room to change and then back down as it’s getting up to about 7 pm’ish we need to get those passes and head out. Down to the station and it’s actually probably #2 on nice stations for the monorail….MGM being #1. We board the Northbound train and after stops at Flamingo, Linq/Harrah’s, LV Convention Center and Westgate…we arrive at SLS. Now, a funny thing I noticed, inside the train has some ad about bringing your new monorail pass to the SLS slot club and win Freeplay…what the heck. So we walk through the property which immediately reminds us of a much bigger Cromwell than anything else. We get to the Slot Club and sign up and we got, I think, $40 in Freeplay and burn through it on VP. We then play on some other slot machines to get close to the 9PM show. We ask slot attendants and security in SLS if it is O.K. to go to the top of the self-park garage strip side to view the fireworks…all say yes. We head up and are up there with about maybe 10 people when I notice metallic banging noises over at Lucky Dragon. Just as I’m commenting to the wife about them starting up construction again, up the ramp comes a bicycling security guard with the bicycle helmet, reflective vest and shorts on a 21-speed mountain bike saying “you can’t be here” and that everyone in the casino was wrong. So we head to the elevator bay to try and get to the front sidewalk when the fireworks start to go off. Now, mind you we and another couple left that front area but 6 people didn’t and they are watching still with the security guard there. We also realize we have a great view from near the elevator bay and watch the show from there…the couple that was with us said they couldn’t even get to the Palace Station so they turned around to come to the SLS to see it. All in all great show and right after the show nature started to respond with wind and lightning in the distance so we made our escape to the monorail and back to Bally’s before the skies opened back up and ended up playing there for the night after a stop at the Blizz frozen yogurt shop in Bally’s.

July 4th

The 2nd of July we head back to the pool in the morning, grab two towels each and the pool area is much quieter and cleaner. We got done with our hour or so in the sun and hit Tequila and Taqueria’s at Bally’s for lunch after cleaning up from the pool visit. Nice waitresses. We get the Chips and Salsa and pay for the Queso which also comes with a Spicy Guac that was excellent. Then, we order the chicken enchiladas and the wife shoots over the avocado to me. We actually enjoyed it and would probably go there again if in the area looking to eat. We head over to Paris for a bit to do some VP and another run at the Big Bang Theory Slot there. We almost got down to zero when it went on a lucky streak and we cashed out to about $100 to the plus side after it started to slide back to tight. We then come back to Bally’s room to freshen up a bit and took the monorail to Harrah’s and had dinner at the Fulton Food Hall. I have a fruit plate, and my wife has a baked potato…we still feel the Mexican in us. We then head to The Mirage where we were to see Jay Leno. Great show and he brought up some of the more generational items we never thought of…like emulating a rotating phone dial to anyone under say 30 doesn’t mean anything to them. Hilarious time and not a swear word in the whole show. On the way out we hit another Big Bang Theory machine and again good times. We head back to Harrah’s where I hit a regular 4OAK on VP while waiting for the wife. We monorail back to Bally’s and call it a night (2 AM).

It’s Sunday the 3rd, and it’s the big celebration of Caesars 50th Anniversary. We got up so late that housekeeping calls to check on us when they can schedule the room clean (we were out of there in 1/2 an hour after that call). We headed again for the pool. You can rent floats for $10 but I have floating ability in spades so don’t rent it. We get back to the room and freshen up and head out for a basic quick bite. We go down to Wahlburgers, and it’s still got like 40 people in line to get in. We head to the side aisles where the misters are and hoof it over to Bellagio. We hit up Snacks just inside from the shops to the right…it’s expensive but really really good. Wife had a cheeseburger that she said was like a mix of In-N-Out and Freddy’s Frozen Custard burgers…really good in other words. I had the Pepperoni Pizza, which was also really good, much better than the JJ’s slices in the Paris shops. Snacks has one neat thing they don’t advertise…the soda fountain drinks have free refills. So after we are done, we ask for a refill and head out to the casino floor. We try the new Wizard of Oz Twister Bonus machines, no luck, but we made up for it on the other side with the newer Wonka machines. We headed to our little cubby hole and no luck at Big Bang Theory. We headed back to the nickel Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers (see, persistence pays off) and bang we both get Ruby Slippers bonus rounds and then my wife gets the Wizard Bonus with Dorothy double spins for $100. Then I get the witch bonus with Dorothy ‘witch saver’ for about $200. We cash out and start to head out back to Bally’s…we did stop at the front VP bank but no luck there (for us) but we got to witness the only seen Royal Flush we’ve been around at MGM properties on the 10 play progressive just inside from the shops. Hand pay of over $2000 and taxes because it was over the $1200 limit. Lucky lady and she was loving it.

My wife pouted for a bit because I wanted to play that bank and she nixed it due to the 10 play. I take her down to the Bellagio Cafe Gelato and we have a little sweet before heading back to Bally’s. Freshen up in the room…and we play a little at Bally’s before we realize it’s about 8 PM. We cross the street mid-Bally’s to the Cromwell valet entrance (the pedestrian bridges to Caesars Palace were just nuts so we avoided it) and play up and down for an hour (VP even, Batman Up, Wheel of Fortune DOWN for first time) and then we went to the front side between The Cromwell and Flamingo to watch the Red Bull stunt team arrive strip-side from the air. Then 13 minutes of Caesars fireworks…totally awesome view from the front. Greg C. got it from the back here. We head back into the Cromwell where we find our favorite VP and play for about an hour or more. We head back to Bally’s about even. We play at Bally’s and it eats our lunch, just drained, nothing coming up at all and super tight. We head to the room but I offer the wife some Black Jack time. She heads down and I don’t see her until much later with the news she hit the progressive quarter DDB VP Bank at Paris….great night for her and saves the day.

The actual 4th of July we get up, and monorail to MGM…we have a busy day. At MGM we hit up the Avenue Cafe…and breakfast was served 24 hours, so we did breakfast. We both did the big breakfast and split the fruit plate I ordered. That is one really good cafe at MGM Grand. We wander the floor and hit on the Big Bang Theory right after a guy gets wiped out playing $1 a spin. We jump on and within maybe 15 minutes we get on a roll we’ve never seen. We only had $40 in and were messing around with the $1 and $3 spins. When it started to pick up we went to $3 and $5 spins when Wilds and Penny line up for a $150 win. Then add in a couple of nicer paying Bazinga bonus wheels we grew to almost $400 in the machine….we then play around down and up for another 30 mins and finally cash out at $300. Head to NYNY hit the Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers there, no bueno. My wife sees a slot she wants to play, and I take $100 to a MegaBucks machine, the one with that weird multiplier (2x/3x/4x) that bumps around. I think I was on the 3rd spin and it freaking hits $550! I play it down to $500 (took a severe dive after the win) and cash out. We play there for a while burning through the day’s winnings. Knowing we have another show later on we head back to MGM to the station. We got lost in the shops and had to double back to find the monorail station (poor signage at roofline signs). We go all the way to Westgate and after about an hour of losing we head back to Bally’s. We hit the Paris Diamond Lounge and after the waiter avoids us like the plague after the first drink we leave, not at all like our last time in this Diamond Lounge. Back to the room to freshen up and back to the monorail to the Linq where we play a bit (we never win at the Linq although we really like the remodel…it just doesn’t like us to gamble there). But, we have free show tickets to Diva’s.

My wife had a choice of Diva’s at Linq or Legends in Concert at Flamingo. She’s seen impersonators or cover bands before but had never seen a show with female impersonators before. Now, a long time ago I was dragged to Boylesque at either Silver Slipper or New Frontier by an old girlfriend, thinking I would hate it, but I had a great time and laughed a lot…so what the heck. Although Frank was ill, the stand-in for him did a fantastic job and had everyone in stitches for most of the MC portion of the show. My wife enjoyed it a lot as the performances were on par with the actual persons they imitated. One thing to note about the Linq Theater: the VIP and Booth seating is close but not that comfortable..try the area behind the booths much bigger and better-upholstered chairs. Somehow we also got free tickets good through Oct for Legends in Concert as well, so it was a good night. It was late, so we had expired our monorail passes and decided to hoof it to Bally’s. I went to the room since I was driving home the next morning and wife finally got the BlackJack time. She came up maybe $40 up within an hour, and we crashed until someone set off those aerobomb fireworks hourly until 4 AM in the morning. I sleep until 7 AM, and we express check out at 8:30 AM and then wait 15 minutes for someone to show up at the valet just to get our car. After that, we headed home. No traffic to speak of and made it to my house by 1 PM.

A busy and good trip except for room/hotel choice. For the next couple of trips I’ve lost the choice of hotel/room picking but we achieved our goal of getting well into Diamond from Platinum level at Caesars and Pearl at MGM (just a tiny bit more and Gold for another year…even so we have free self-park for another year at minimum). We got to see Jay Leno (paid) and Diva’s (free) plus great fireworks shows for free and tried out a lot of new North Strip places SLS (liked the look and vibe of the casino, it was empty but still won overall there). And then Westgate (they’ve done a really good job refreshing this casino and SuperBook was HUGE, just wasn’t lucky there). Caesars could learn from SLS and Westgate with Bally’s. At no time should a Caesars property feel rundown or let go, you took on the name, make it count. I miss having the room/hotel picks due to that.

Oh, some gambling things I’ve observed: loose at Paris, Bellagio, MGM Grand, NYNY…middling at Mirage, Harrah’s, The Cromwell, SLS….tight as hell at Bally’s, The Linq, Westgate (less than an hour here but liked the casino..just didn’t payout this visit).

[Photos: BigAZMarty, Blizz, Michael Movestro | Cover: Greg C]

3 thoughts on “BigAZMarty’s Trip Report: July 4th Weekend

  1. Unfortunately, the article needs to be edited again as there is a repeating section. Otherwise, a good, detailed article.

  2. Glad I’m not the only one who had terrible luck at Ballys that weekend. Not a four of a kind to be found!

Comments are closed.

Previous post Casa Fuente Cigar Lounge – A “Day Spa” For Guys
Next post Michael Pags: Memories Of The Riviera