Trip Report: New Years Vegas Visit 2016-2017
BigAzMarty shares his Trip Report from New Year’s Eve.
Hi all, BigAZMarty here with the couples report for New Year’s Eve from Las Vegas (a trip report).
Well, we did it! We finally saw a New Year’s Eve fireworks display in Las Vegas!!! We had a recent PH trip right before my birthday and now we have another trip for New Year’s fireworks and a Bruno Mars concert (two of my wife’s bucket list items). We’ve been in Las Vegas before at New Year’s but have had extremely bad luck with the weather (Rain will stop any fireworks display due to the electrical issues). So here goes:
Days 1 & 2
Mandalay Bay for two days (see my Mandalay Bay Executive King Suite room review from earlier this week for details right here for this part of the trip).
Day 3
We leave Mandalay Bay for PH for the rest of the trip. We decide since it’s early it’s time to see the Linq Promenade again as Virgil’s BBQ is open (yes it was and it was good brisket), and if In ‘N Out was open (not yet). Or, if the new Canter’s deli was open (it also was not). We decided to go into Virgil’s, and you can read that report as well right here (expensive but good brisket). We arrived and used the High Roller Valet (my wife’s diamond card to the rescue!). Walked up and checked for new stuff, ate at Virgil’s and then explored The Linq a bit through O’Sheas and up to almost the front and then back out into the Promenade. We cut through not exactly at the front to avoid the mass amount of costumed and odd buskers up there, and yes I counted at least four furries/cartoon characters and at least two scantily clad women in 54-degree weather posing with tourists, so it was crowded up there. We walk back down and check out Amorino’s Gelato (nice looking but I’m guessing they were shorting the servings a bit as they were nowhere close to the size Michael had pictures of…i.e. no napkins required). Wasn’t impressive that day…so we moved down to where In ‘N Out will be, and it’s almost done.
They still have to fix the broken palm (of the two crossing palms, one broke about 2/3 of the way up and is just dangling), there will be another company store there at a little booth cut out of the front of the facade. It looks like this will probably be the biggest and probably the one they will make the most money on but might still be undersized for the strip crowds on weekends and holidays. We stopped into Sprinkles, and my wife got a Double Chocolate, and I got a Triple Cinnamon cupcake to go. At this point, we’ve seen the rest of the “construction” walls before, and we did smell and see the Fish and Chips that Gordon is serving up (pretty healthy sized servings). Once we were done, we got the car out of valet and tipped and left for PH. PH’s normal valet was full, but lucky Diamond and Seven Stars valet was still open. We go inside, and the rooms were still not ready, so we went up to the casino floor Starbucks and grabbed coffee for my wife and hot cocoa for me and eat our Sprinkles Cupcakes and have our hot beverages. On completion, we hit the VP machines for a bit and then head down to the Diamond Check-In (cell services is conked out again in the casino floor so we never got the call the room was ready). Pick up our keys and I ask is it on the Aria/MGM side? It was, and room 2139 which we find is perfect for our viewing needs. We hit the room, call up Bell services and unload the bags. I check the water pressure as this is the same floor that had the low water pressure the week of Dec 17. It’s good and strong again so no issue there. At this point my wife is getting antsy, so we head back down where she has no luck, and I hit several 4OAKS, but have horrible luck on my 100 play penny VP machine. However, it was way more fun than MB as at least someone was winning. Oh yeah…there is now an Elvira bank of machines near Earl of Sandwich…and I heard something new….she pops up and yells “BUFFALOOOOO” it’s hilarious, and I hit it for another $80 my wife hit it up for $60. We eventually play ourselves out about 10 PM and I say “play some Black Jack” to her, and I head to the room. My wife is back up by 11:30 pretty even so that was a good 1.5 hours of rated play and we crash.
Day 4
We order room service (breakfast) and it’s really good. We finish getting ready (i.e. my wife) and then head down. We play for a while, do some Miracle Mile shopping (my wife gets some bath bombs at Basin, she’s not a fan of Lush…and then search for a top at White House Black Market that ends up being an hour-long event of trying things on). She’s happy, and we hit up the ABC store there for (2 for $1) 1-liter waters (this is a must at any LV Casino Hotel). We head back up to the room and change; it’s Bruno tonight, and we need to start early because UFC is also at T-Mobile on the same night (yup Rhonda gets dropped quickly there). At about 5 PM we walk to Aria and start to play. I get lucky on 4OAKS, and she eventually gets hungry and wants to try the Burger Lounge. I’m not that hungry, so I just get a Lavender Mint lemonade, and she has what she said is one of the best burgers she’s had, and the fries beat Smash Burgers by a mile. After she’s finished, we head to Monte Carlo. We find a VP Double Double Bonus progressive bank and park it for a bit; nothing hits for either of us, and it’s about 8 PM by now, so we saunter to the line at Park Theater. This time they have it figured out, and we are in quickly and easily this time….we are at the top to the far left (Section 407 Row D Seats 7 and 8). I get my wife water at the concession stand (no line yet) and come and sit, the seats are a little nicer and don’t jam my hips with the drink holder this time. But, due to the steep angle of the rows they didn’t quite make the rows deep enough and I have to be careful, or I’ll knee someone in the back of the head. At about 1/2 hour before “official” showtime of 9 PM a DJ Cassity comes out and DJ’s. I swear he has probably unhinged about 5 of the big acoustic tiles by the time he’s over and The Park Theater will need to examine their sub-woofers for damage after the show (I know I’ve heard that sub-woofer killing distortion before). Bruno finally makes it out about 15 minutes late (this is now a common occurrence as they did the same for The Pretenders and Stevie Nicks)…that part sucks…there is no reason a show should start late. But boy was it worth it, it was 1.5 hours of pure non-stop fun, only one encore song but his playlist is fairly short, and he has covers as well that are really good. If you get the chance, it’s a really good time and my wife was up dancing to most of the songs. We head out, and this part sucked, they made us go down the freaking stairs….all 3-4 levels of them. And, then, across the full and busy 1st floor to the exit. We get to the exit and head back to the progressive bank and again, nothing. I mess around with OMG Puppies and hit $60. We leave Monte Carlo and head to Aria; Jean-Philippe Patisserie is still open, and my wife says gelato? I say sure since Bellagio has killed off one of the best shops there for it. It was fantastic, double-scoop of Chocolate Mint Chip…oh so good! Then we head back and crash in the room.
Day 5 New Year’s Eve
Oh no…it was cloudy the night before but it’s getting darker in the morning, and it might rain (just our luck). We head down and try our luck after another breakfast via room service (boy it’s really good). The play today at PH is really sucky (mostly 3OAKS dealt and never get the 4th card)…so I go up to watch a game, my wife heads to Cosmo…has decent luck and comes and grabs me. We head back over, and I hit ~$80 in Wiz of Oz Ruby Slippers and then get another $80 on a 4OAK nearby. We are having some fun again, we get to about 3 PM, and she’s hungry, and Milk Bar is open, but the line was long. I tell her about Secret Pizza and she’s like sure…we go in about 3rd or 4th in line, she goes cheese, and I go veggie with a soda each. There is room at the counter to eat, and the pizza is very good…better than Pin-Up Pizza. We admire the 2nd level of the Chandelier Bar and then head back to PH. I watch some games, and she heads down for some BlackJack. It’s about 5 PM, so I head down and meet up with her. The street hadn’t closed yet so we play a bit (no luck) and finally notice it’s getting empty, so I go up to check the exits and the streets are closed to traffic and people are on the strip walking about in the street. I head back and grab my wife, and we head out into the chilly air. Now it had been misting for a bit, but it had stopped, and we walked to Bellagio fountains, watched the crowd, got some second-hand funky smoke (yup they were lighting up on the sidewalks…even though that is still illegal…no public area smoking). Started to head back and the Fountains started up…we watched from the middle of the intersection of LV Blvd and Paris/Bellagio Way. Was awesome to see it through the trees and all those people milling about. At this point my wife is cold, and she’s a little crowd-averse, so it’s getting closed in for her, so we head back to the room and well that view is just awesome.
We had perfect views of Aria and MGM Grand (Mandalay Bay was originally on the list but did not have any fireworks from their roof) as the giant Aria sign did the countdown we cracked the air vents and enjoyed the sights and sounds of New Year’s fireworks from our room with a view. I was going to take pictures, but since this was the first time in 26 Year’s that we’d been there and it wasn’t being ruined by rain, I figured it was much better just to be a couple for that amount of time and just enjoy it. 12:00 to 12:08 and it was fairly exact, the Aria and MGM were timed together really nicely, and it was a fantastic show. We enjoyed it and my wife finished up her drink, and we relax for a bit before getting some sleep as check out is the next morning.
Day 6 New Year’s Day
We wake up and open the blinds and wow…just wow, sunrise reflecting off the City Center Buildings.
We get packed, get ready, and are out of the building by 9 AM PST and on our way home. Easy drive and we drive through the back of the storm but were home by 2 PM (Home is MST this time of year)…so about 4 hours and we are already planning for the April trip where we will see Green Day at MGM Garden Arena. A good time but didn’t pay near as well as the last trip, so we’ll have to save a little more for our bankroll for that April trip.
[Photos: BigAzMarty]
A computer professional who has worked at several types of positions with several different businesses and still learning and changing.
Introduced properly to Las Vegas and Laughlin by the spouse and have been going ever since 1990.
A frequent visitor from not to far away where it’s almost always 10 degrees warmer than Vegas.
3 thoughts on “Trip Report: New Years Vegas Visit 2016-2017”
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1. Hate to hear Amorino’s Gelato was not impressive that day. I went about a month ago and it was excellent and plentiful.
2. I hope some day, one day I can have a six day trip to Vegas!!!!
Another great read. Love the “We finish getting ready (i.e. my wife)” I guess most men feel that way.Bruno is GREAT. Saw him at MSG the same time year he performed during the super bowl alone, not the year with beyonce. Took my 9 and 7 year old too and we danced the entire time. Well worth the almost 200 a piece tickets Fries betting SMASH BUGER!!! No way…MUST try in May.
Omg. We arrived and left on the exact same date!!