Postal

Went to KV for about the sixth time, stayed with my husband at the Venetian for the first time while my son and his best friend stayed at the Flamingo. The Venetian was everything I expected and we had a wonderful view from the 18th floor of the pool deck and looking north up the strip. Considering the Venetian only cost $59 more that the Flamingo ($129 vs $70), it was a great deal.

We enjoyed the new Cirque show LOVE, which moved me to tears a couple of times because the Beatles were so much a part of my growing up. We loved the whole show and my husband is talking about flying back just to see it again. (Not likely)

We also enjoyed a wonderful $18.80 per person lunch at Commanders Palace with 25 cent martinis. Even at that reasonable price, it was our only splurge as the rest of our meals we ate at buffets or food courts.

Main Street Station buffet used to be our favorite but even the Flamingo dinner buffet was much better - in fact the Flamingo dinner buffet has improved up to the level of Sunset Station and the Orleans, in my opinion. I had a very nice NY Strip at the Orleans buffet.

For the first time, I had lots of luck at the Venetian. We got a free $25 slot credit when we checked in, I never used any of my own money, and that $25 start played up to about $400 in the three days we stayed there. Same thing with the free $10 from the Flamingo - turned it into a couple of hundred at the Flamingo and Harrah's.

This is the first trip where I actually returned with more money than I left with!

They were filming Oceans 13 while we were there (8/6-11), but aside from having detours set up for filming sites, we didn't actually see any filming. Not that we were looking that hard, but I'm pretty sure I would notice Al Pacino (the cast was staying at Bellagio) without trying!

I was lucky this trip, but the slots were tighter than I can remember them ever being before - both on and off the strip - so most of my winnings were from video poker and blackjack. Also, I got tired of seeing penny slots everywhere - even a 1000 coin win is only $10.00 and I was betting at least $1.00 per spin. What a racket.

We went home the first day of the extra security and had no problems whatsoever.

Oh, and I thought I'd put in a plug for Payless Rental Cars. We always rent a car in LV and Payless had reserved a mid-size car for only $85 total for four days. When I arrived, they offered me a PT Cruiser and I said it wasn't large enough so I was forced to upgrade to an SUV ("The next size up") for $10 per day.

It was much larger and nicer and I didn;t think $10 more per day was unreasonable, but I thought their tactics were, so I wrote to the company when I returned and they refunded the upgrade and charge and gave me a coupon for a free upgrade next time. Now that's the way you're supposed to do business!

My only other observation is that LV was full of foreigners due to our weak dollar.

Postal

I don't know how many times I typed KV, but of course it's LV!!!

wanderluster

Thanks for your report, very helpful!

Lori

Just an observation here for anyone interested .. We go to Vegas often and there are always a great number of foreign visitors around - it is a prime vacation spot for foreign tourists. It may/may not have anything to do with weak dollar, tourists just seem to flock to Vegas no matter what . Many of the visitors from abroad come on package tours (the way many Americans go to Europe, the Orient, Hawaii etc.). There are also a great many people who were born in other countries living in the US, particularly the Southwest (within 5-8 hr. drive from Vegas) so over the years the nationalities of the Vegas visitor has changed.

I'm glad you enjoyed Love, I am seeing it in Oct. and cannot wait and it was good to see Payless Car acknowledged your complaint.

JJ5

I enjoyed this report. Thanks.

I too, the two times I have been to a casino this year (Niagara Falls and Detroit locations)- have been disgusted by the floor space of the 1 cent and 2 cent slots. What a rip-off, because the paybacks are so much less and people are still betting about 50 cents to a dollar a pull. If they need to flood the areas with slots, 5 cents and 25 cents should be the majority with some decent paybacks. I ostracize those slots myself. I like the dime level which you can't find many places, and statistically I know why.

Yes, electronic poker and blackjack are much better choices.

And I totally agree with Lori, because they have closed the Japanese and Chinese "desks" at several of the big hotels on the Strip. There used to be MORE Asian before (5 to 7 years ago) than are coming now. It was because of Japanese fluctuations and not about our dollar. There are still huge numbers of people from outside of the USA going into and out of LV every single day. It and WDW are the two biggest draws, like it or not.

FainaAgain

I'm surprised, too, by those penny slots! And I love them The only place we couldn't find it was Bellagio - the cheapest they had was 2 penny! Ha ha!

I think those are designed for people who want to have fun without losing much (The Agains )

50 cents a pull? Sorry, don't have that much to lose! Our pulls are 5 cents each. No, I am not cheap. Just choose to waste my money on other things.

JJ5

But, FainaAgain, if you are playing 5 cents a pull, you statistically will not win back your "put in". You won't with luck ON your side, come even. It's the math. Percentage pay back decreases with slot basic unit of input.

It will all just go in, ker-plunk.

FainaAgain

JJ5, keep in mind, you're talking about ME. With me, any statistic fail. The rules don't apply.

Last time in Vegas, we sat down to play only when tired, lose a couple of bucks, move on. Sometimes won. So we approximately break even each trip.

JJ5

Then you are very, very lucky- because you won't over time with the low count lowball slot machines.

trippinkpj

I heard about that steak buffet at the Orleans. We're going to be there next June for a family reunion, and I'm really looking forward to it.