My Anniversary TR (Palazzo, Love, Jersey Boys)

My Anniversary TR (Palazzo, Love, Jersey Boys)

Background: This was our second trip to Las Vegas. First time was in September for 3 days as part of a cross country road trip. We had our teen son with us on the first visit so were unable to see much that trip. This time we went for 3 days to celebrate our wedding anniversary! (Please pay no mind to the crappy grammar as I%26#39;m really, really tired right now.)

Will post as reply!

My Anniversary TR (Palazzo, Love, Jersey Boys)

Day 1 (Our Anniversary)

Flight with Midwest Airlines from Milwaukee scheduled to depart at 7:25 am. We get to to the airport by 6:00 and get through security within a few minutes. Read a book and waited for boarding call. We had seats in row 5 (upgraded seats) so we are last to board. We sit for awhile and from our window I see the captain examining the plane. He has a worried look on his face. Great, this can%26#39;t be good. A few minutes later the flight attendant announces that we have a %26#39;minor maintenance issue%26#39; and it should only take a few minutes. Maintenance checks out the plane and we get another update. We are leaking fuel and must go back inside the terminal as it isn%26#39;t safe to be on board. Estimated wait time we%26#39;re told is 1 hour. Everyone sighs as we leave the plane. At this point hubby got angry and started whining about how we%26#39;re missing valuable Vegas time, blah, blah...blah. I told him to calm down and be positive. I said, ';do you want to be on that plane in the air when the fuel is leaking or do you want to wait awhile? It%26#39;s not the airlines fault that it has a fuel leak. Things break, that%26#39;s life, get over it'; I figured there was no point in crying over it since complaining/whining wouldn%26#39;t get us to Vegas any sooner. By 9:15 we get an update, it seems that the fuel leak is so severe that it will take all day to repair. Midwest has chosen to snag us a different plane rather than cancel our flight. New scheduled depart time is 1:00 pm. They cancel a flight to Washington, DC and we are off the ground by 1:15 after waiting 5+ hours. For our patience we are each given a $75 travel voucher, extra soda and cheese crackers. Smooth flight and we are told by the captain that our flight path is different than the usual flight path so we are able to fly right over the Grand Canyon. Great view! We arrive at LAS at around 2:40 and catch the shuttle bus to the rental car facility. Went directly to the garage since we signed up for Dollar Express, grabbed our Ford Fusion at a rate of $9.50/day and we were off to The Palazzo.

Arrived at The Palazzo and self parked. Headed for the check in and only had one couple in front of us. When asked how our day was going we told her about our 5+ hour flight delay. She then told us that they no longer had any Luxury Suites left and that we would be given a Bella Suite on the 33rd floor. Her name was Divina and she was very nice! We get to our room #919 and we had a view of Wynn, the golf course and Las Vegas Blvd from Fashion Show mall north. I%26#39;ll post photos of our view with my Palazzo review sometime this week. The room was set up exactly like our Bella Suite at The Venetian was but obviously everything in this room was newer and in better shape. The Palazzo does have a strong fragrance though not as strong as The Venetian. It was a little off putting at both places this time but after about 10 minutes we got used to it. The rooms had no fragrance.

We went downstairs to the Grand Lux for early dinner. I ordered the Crispy Caramel Chicken with a chocolate martini and hubby had the Shaking Beef. My dinner was great but hubby didn%26#39;t care for his. His beef was very chewy so he didn%26#39;t eat more than half of his dinner. After we ate I went over the Club Grazie to get my $100 in slot credit loaded onto my card. The guy only gave me $50 so I had to go back to the line again and a nice lady added the other $50 and apologized for the confusion. We played a few slots at The Venetian and then headed accross the street to The Mirage. Signed up for the players card and were given free slot credits. Hubby turned his into over $60 while I blew through all of my credits and won zilch. Had tickets to see LOVE so headed over to the Love theater. I got a 32 oz Bahama Mama and Hubby got a 32 oz Brandy and Coke for about $32.00 before tip. The seating was about 75% full. Our seats were Section 305, Row DD, Seats 3-4. Terrible seats in my opinion. They pack people like sardines in this theater. We had a slightly obstructed view and when the man in the seat in front of me leaned forward I couldn%26#39;t see. Everyone in our section was griping about the seats. Also at the beginning of the show they have lights that are shining right in your eyes because we sat so high. In my opinion the best seats for this show would be on the level with section #205. Anything higher is a more limited view and anything lower and your neck would hurt from looking up all of the time. I will definitely go to see this show again but I%26#39;ll pay extra to get seats on the second level next time. At one point I had to use the restroom but was blocked in so we both got up and crawled over several people and spoke to the usher. I asked him if we could sit in the empty row behind us so that we wouldn%26#39;t have to keep crawling over people and he said that was fine. From the new row we were able to see more since I could see over that guy%26#39;s head! LOVE was wonderful and I enjoyed every moment of the show. I have adored the Beatles music my whole life so this was quite a treat for me! After the show we headed back to The Palazzo and played a few more slots before heading up to our room to crash for the night. Yippeee, I%26#39;m up $124 but now I have blisters on both of my feet, crap!!!

My Anniversary TR (Palazzo, Love, Jersey Boys)

Day 2

I wake up after only getting a total of maybe four hours of sleep all together. The air is so dry that I%26#39;m getting a nosebleed. Not fun at all. Hop into the shower, get dressed and head downstairs. Made a pit stop at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for a Mocha Latte. We played some slots at The Palazzo and then headed over to The Venetian through the first floor. Played for awhile there and then headed south on the strip. This was to be a day of seeing the casinos that we weren%26#39;t able to see before and signing up for players cards. Went to Casino Royale first and only stayed a few minutes. Not my cup of tea. Next stop Harrah%26#39;s where hubby got a free t-shirt for signing up for the players card. Next stop Imperial Palace. I expected this place to be dumpy but it wasn%26#39;t bad at all. The drink service was the fastest and most attentive that I%26#39;ve seen! I wasn%26#39;t in there maybe 4 minutes and I was already being asked what I wanted to drink! After this we headed for Flamingo where I got a free t-shirt for signing up. Next stop Bill%26#39;s and then down to Bally%26#39;s. I was pleasantly surprised that Bally%26#39;s was as nice as it was. I was under the impression that it was really rundown but I found it to be pretty nice. Although I haven%26#39;t seen the rooms so maybe that%26#39;s what people are basing it on? Next stop was Paris where I won about $45 on the Lil%26#39; Lady slot machine then onto Planet Hollywood. This place is not for me. It%26#39;s too hip and I really felt out of place here. Did some shopping for the family at the Miracle Mile shops and then headed back towards The Palazzo for dinner. Once again we went to The Grand Lux. I had a Mia Tai and the Veal Saltimbocco (which is what I had in September as well) and it was just ok this time. I couldn%26#39;t chew through the first piece of veal and was even unable to cut it with my knife. The second piece was much more tender but the flavor just wasn%26#39;t as good as it was last time. Hubby ordered the Sunday Night Pasta and he really liked it. I doubt that we%26#39;ll eat here again on our future trips, though.

Headed over to the slots and played for a couple more hours then headed up to the room to shower and change for the 9:30 show for Jersey Boys. We lined up outside of the doors to our section by 9:10 and stood there waiting as the crowd grew larger. They were running behind and weren%26#39;t allowing anyone to be seated. It got so stuffy in the hall/stairway that an elderly woman fainted and hit the floor pretty hard. People were fanning her with the Playbills. She came to and was ok but decided to stay seated on the floor. I overheard one of the ushers speaking into a mic and said ';we have old people out here dropping like flies, when can we let these people in to be seated?'; Our seats were section 10, row BB, seats 20-21 and once again they were terrible seats. I had the isle seat and my view was obstructed by a railing and the large chairs in the handicapped section. I literally couldn%26#39;t see the entire right side of the stage. Majority of the people in our section were very unhappy and began complaining to the ushers. I went over and spoke with the usher and explained to him that I was not able to see the whole stage and he offered to move us to better seats. We ended up sitting in section 5, row LF, seats 20-21. These seats we very good and I had an excellent view of the entire stage for the rest of the show! He told me that they aren%26#39;t supposed to offer to change people to better seats and that they are only allowed to move you to better seats if you ask. The show was great and the singing was spectacular! We left right as they began to sing the last song ';Who Loves You'; because I was falling asleep. NOT because of the show but because jet-lag had caught up with me and no matter how hard I tried I couldn%26#39;t keep my eyes open. By this point it was past midnight and I was working off of only four hours of sleep. I just couldn%26#39;t hold on any longer. Once in bed I was out like a light until 7:00 am.

Day 3

We woke up at a little past 7:00 am and I felt great! Went into the bathroom and hopped onto the scale...WHAT...in two days I%26#39;ve gained 4lbs...YIKES!! How did I manage that?! Showered, dressed and off to The Coffee Bean and Tea leaf for a Vanilla Latte this time. Today%26#39;s plan is to hit a few neighboring casinos again, see downtown, go to Mandalay Bay-Luxor-Excalibur for the first time, drop off the rental car and then catch our 6:30 pm flight back to Milwaukee. Strolled over to McDonald%26#39;s for some breakfast and sat eating as some guy kept screaming racial slurs at the girl behind the counter for not giving him the correct order. He kept calling her Mamacita and she was doing a fine job at completely ignoring him. An amusing way to start off a morning. Played a little more at Harrah%26#39;s and then headed back to The Venetian to get in some more shopping. At this point I realized that I have no room in our carry on luggage for all of the shopping that we did. Notice I said we not I because hubby went hog wild, too! So off to target on the corner of Maryland Prkwy and Flamingo for a piece of luggage. Head back to The Palazzo and quickly pack the luggage. Head downstairs to check out and sign my bill and we%26#39;re off! Next stop downtown! We are right in front of the Stratosphere at a light when we see this nutty bum screaming at a carload of people driving by. Clearly this guy has issues with Irish people based on the expletives were heard. Then this Asian couple (poor things) happen to be walking down the sidewalk toward him and he unleashed on this young couple calling them dirty **expletive**, insert racist name here, so on and so on. Talk about crazy. Now I completey understand why people say to avoid the Strat and Circus Circus area like the plague! We get to downtown and valet park at Binion%26#39;s. Walk around and sign up for club cards at all of the casinos. Of course do some more shopping since we now have a big piece of luggage that still has room in it and I want to get my money%26#39;s worth for the $15 luggage fee!!! Start walking under the canopy when an old and very thin woman walks right past me while looking at the ground amd mumbling. Right then I catch a strong whiff of urine and notice that she has peed all down the front of her pants. Ummm, ok this is an experience. Then another crazy person and another, and another, wth...where do they come from?

We go into the Golden Nugget and sign up for the club cards. We each played our free slot credits and once again I lost and huubby made us $37! Woohoo he says, there%26#39;s our lunch money! Next stop Golden Gate and lunch at the Bay City Diner for an experience that I%26#39;ll probably never forget. Hubby orders the $7.99 prime rib and I order a Rueben Melt. Why did I order a sandwhich you might ask? Well, because I firgured it was the one thing that a diner couldn%26#39;t screw up. I was mistaken. I could barely chew the corned beef. This seems to be an ongoing theme on this trip. Is it a sign that I should give up meat and go full on vegan? Perhaps, who knows! FYI: I am 33 years old and have my natural teeth which have always served me well so I think it was just bad cuts of meat that I was served on this trip. I ask hubby how his lunch is and his reply was ';it tastes like $7.99 prime rib'; and I said what did you expect...Texas Roadhouse?! Meanwhile the couple next to me have me in stitches. She looks like the lady from the statue in Harrah%26#39;s (puffed up beehive, bleached blonde straw for hair, eyebrows drawn on with BLACK pencil and tight black/gold spandex body suit with a belt no less) and he is Richard Dreyfus plus 400lbs. He orders the prime rib (';as rare as possible with lots of extra fat';), onion ring stack, two large shrimp cocktail, fried shrimp, two baskets of rolls with lots of extra butter and he topped it off with a salad (';lots of extra blue cheese, please';). This keep in mind is just his order she didn%26#39;t even start her order yet which turned out to be nearly as large. The whole time he held a conversation while chewing and food kept falling from his mouth. It was like watching cousin Eddie from Vegas Vacation. Then for the finale he picked his nose at the end and ate it! At this point I wonder if I%26#39;m in the twilight zone and I think to myself this can%26#39;t get any worst. Right then it did..the older man to my left decided that he wanted to scratch some very private itches and not through the clothes mind you....he went straight for the pot-o-gold. After a few minutes he finished and proceeded to pick up his shrimp, eat it and lick his fingers. THAT%26#39;S IT, I%26#39;VE SEEN ENOUGH! We leave our food half eaten, plop a $5 tip on the table and go pay the check. For those of you who have eaten here you know that right before you enter the second dining area they have a few small tables right next to each other. That is where we were seated. Mr. Dreyfus was about 3 feet to my right and Mr. Itchy Pants was about 4 feet to my left. We walked at a very brisk pace to Binion%26#39;s and tipped the very nice valet $5 and bolted toward the strip! Next stop Mandalay Bay!

We arrive at Mandalay Place and valet the car. Walk through the mall and head down into the casino. Stroll around admiring it%26#39;s massiveness, cleanliness and wonderful fragrance of what appeared to be coconut. YUM! Ride the tram to Luxor and wander around there for awhile. Then we walked over to Excalibur. Didn%26#39;t really like it there so tried to locate the tram to head back to MB. Hubby asks a security guard, ';Can you please tell me how I can get to the tram'; and the security guard says ';with your feet, walking.'; Well, thanks, that was really helpful! After wandering aimlessly for a few more minutes we found our way to the tram and were headed back to the coconut smell. Killed a little more time at MB and then picked up the car and tipped the valet $5.

Filled the rental car with a whopping $5.29 in gas and return and get our bill for $32.13. Not bad! Catch the shuttle bus to McCarran and check the luggage. As we approach security a young guy in his early twenties is being a comedian (he thinks he%26#39;s Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents) and he keeps making his girlfriend laugh. He kept saying loudly ';what%26#39;s wrong with saying bomb in an airport, bomb, ba-bomb-bomb-ba-bomb-bomb'; and of course his girlfriend thought it was ';freakin hilarious'; but one of security didn%26#39;t find it as amusing so they approached him and said come with me. The look and he and his grilfriend%26#39;s faces were just priceless. I wonder if security realized that this was a line from a movie and wanted to have a little fun with him. Either way we never saw that couple again. We got through security quickly with no hassles, caught the tram to terminal D and ate some dinner at Chili%26#39;s Too. Boarded the plane, swallowed an 800mg Ibuprofen for the sore legs/feet and massive blisters that I had acquired on both feet. Asked the flight attendant for a pillow and took a nap. Right after the pilot announced that we were approaching the airport I turn to hubby and said ';wow, that was one of the smoothest plane rides I%26#39;ve ever been on'; and with those words I jinxed us. The plane started to shake badly and the wings kept dipping left and right. Majority of the people on the plane had a look of fear plastered to their faces. We came down really hard do to the crosswinds and heard a loud pop then the pilot slammed on the brakes and nearly gave us whiplash. Note to self: Keep mouth shut next time. Waited 25 minutes for the luggage to appear and then we went home. By this time it%26#39;s nearly 2:00 am and our teen son says he can%26#39;t wait until tomorrow to see what we bought for him. So, after giving him his loot and cleaning up I finally got to bed by 3:30 am. Now, I sit here typing this with only having two cups of weak coffee in my system. I look like something that the cat dragged in and I still haven%26#39;t eaten breakfast.

Summary: I had a wonderful time even with all the crap that happened. I will stick to the strip from Wynn to MB for all future trips. Downtown wasn%26#39;t my cup of tea and it reminded me more of Atlantic City. Grand Lux is good but not great enough for me to keep going back. LOVE and Jersey Boys were EXCELLENT and I would see them both again in a heartbeat. My favorite shows are now LOVE, Mystere and Jersey Boys. (I%26#39;ve seen Ka but hated it.) I will not be a tighwad and always opt for better seats for all future shows. I won%26#39;t venture back in to Casino Royale for fear of sticking to the seats. I often hear people say that there isn%26#39;t a bad seat in the house for these shows. I have to disagree. That would apply to Mystere and Ka as the seating set up is quite good. But, for LOVE and Jersey Boys it just isn%26#39;t the case. These theaters are much more compact and the seating is at a much steeper angle. For Love and Jersey Boys I%26#39;d never buy any tickets in the high seats ever again. The weather was beautiful and the temps were record breaking! We already have our plane tickets and room reserved for March and I can%26#39;t wait to go back! Sorry if I bored anybody to death with this trip report.

Loved your TR! Your downtown ';experience'; was priceless!!!

Thanks for the TR! Fun to read!

Happy Anniversary and thanks for the TR. Wife and I are going to be staying at Palazzo Jan 1-4 and appreciate the review.

Enjoyed your report, a disappointing start and a bumpy finish! but it sounds like you had a great time. Congrats on your anniversary!

Thanks for the entertaining TR! Had me laughing a couple of times.

We also had crummy seats for Jersey Boys. From your description it sounds like we had the exact same seats. We snuck down to better seating after the lights went down and the ushers were gone. No one stopped us or said anything and we could see much, much better. We were lucky that they weren%26#39;t sold out though and there were a lot of empty seats, otherwise we would have been very unhappy through the entire show.

400lb Mr. Dreyfus and Mr itchy pants? Haha - this was not boring at all - very entertaining - thanks!

Loved your TR - yep, gain 4 lbs and go get a vanilla latte, sounds great!

We also had lousy seats for Jersey Boys - first row mezzanine, which in any other theater is great, but the stupid bars (THREE of them) were right in my sightlines (speaking of sightlines, usually theaters are built so that if everyone sits back in their seats, everyone can see - takes one person to lean forward and it messes it up for everyone).

I DID love our 3rd level LOVE seats, though.

Anyway, quite an adventure, enjoyed it.