Hope some of you guys apprecaite it I will be as detailed as possible.
We arrived Wednesday around 3pm local time via Southwest from Chicago. Flight was fine and arrived early as usual with southwest.
A little bit about myself. Im 30 years old and handicap sports full time. Im traveling with my mom/dad and were meeting my brother whose in the miitary that is stationed on the west coast. This is my 15th time in LV. I love the action, people and fine dining of Las Vegas.
First night we are staying at the MGM Grand. I always stay at Wynn but we have a penthouse rented at MGM signature for the final five days so it was just easier this time to stay at the MGM Grand the first time. MGM Grand is nothing special for me especially since i spend 90% of my time on the opposite side of the strip. It was more of a convience for us to stay there.
Wednesday Night; My first meal always in LV is at the Burger Bar inside the Mandalay Bay Place its tradition for my brother and I. The american kobe burger with cheddar cheese is the best burger ive had anywhere. The skinny fries and deep fried pickels are always a must. I usually take it easy the first night especially since were there for six days. My Mom and Dad havnt been to LV in 10 years and its changed some for them. We walked the strip showed them a few things answered questions had a few drinks and that was it for them for the night. My brother and I then hit the tables, we play 21 and craps.
Thursday: We slept in a bit and then headed over to Wynn for their breakfast buffet after that we headed over to the bellagio to catch the bowl games and drink some. Bellagio does comp drinks, will not let you buy points and if you want to make a 7 point teaser on a pro football game it must be three teams. I try not to bet at these books i do it all offshore. My mom wanted to take the four of us to a comedy show at the trop and with some regrets i went along for the ride. The show featured two male comdeians who were unbelievably funny i was shocked to see how good the rated R show was. Tickets were $29 or $39 im not sure. After the show we headed over to New York-New York for dinner. Im from the Chicago area and have Italian background. We had dinner at NY-NY Pizza. XL Cheese Pizza, four pops, order of six garlic knots was $50 and worth every penny. The guy who runs the joint is very nice and brought my pizza to my table seconds after it was taken out of the oven per my request. Everyone who loves pizza, probably not as much as me, should and needs to try this place. The night ended with gambling and drinking. Friday is NYE and the strip was starting to get busy.
Friday: New Years Eve in LV, my first time out there at this time of year. Slept in some and headed over to the bellagio to watch the games and drink. Headed back to the hotel early evening then headed out to the M Resort to have dinner and hang out. This was around 6pm and people were packing onto the strip like cattle. We had dinner at Marinellis, had a few drinks at 32 degrees draft and checked the resort out. M Resort is a great hotel/casino/resort with great people working there. Taxi cab from the strip is $30 each way. After dinner we headed back to the strip. My brother and I had headed to the Cosmopolitan which is the new upscale and trendy hotel on the strip. It was jam packed due to the grand opening and had over 1200 celebs on hand. Our penthouse balcony at the MGM Signature overlooked all of city center, monte carlo and planet hollywood. We headed back there to catch the fireworks and then proceeded to head over to the Mandalay Bay for their NYE block party where we drank, gambled and people watched. They estimated 300K people in LV for New Years and they close the strip down from 6pm to 4am, no cars were allowed.
Saturday: Woke up early and headed over to the Bellagio for the games. We stayed there until the end of the 3Q of the Conn/Oklahoma game. For dinner we ate at Society Cafe inside Encore one of my favs. Steaks and burgers were good. Great sides and good service. Everynight at the eastside lounge inside Encore they have two guys playing dueling pianos and they were great. Dueling pianos is something i dont get into by these guys were very good. Models who serve that is what Wynn calls his cocktail servers and hes not kidding. At night you wont find better looking cockatil servers anywhere else. Finished the night gambling and drinking again.
Sunday: Woke up early and once again went over to the Bellagio. Watched the NFL games up until the end of the end of the Packers/Bears game. After the end of that game he headed over to Venetian/Palazzo and gambled. Met for dinner at Wynn around 9pm. We went to the Pizza Place and the pizza IMO was slightly better then NY-NY but take nothing away from NY-NY. We had the XL Cheese, Pep and Meatball pizza, garlic knots, meatball sliders and four drinks. Great meat! We gambled some more and headed back early to catch up on some sleep.
Monday: This is our final full day here. The strip was dead and we headed downtwon to roll dice. Did some sightseeing and headed over to Mandalay to watch the Va Tech/Stanford game. After the game we had dinner at Battistas Hole in the wall. For people who enjoy homemade italian food and have never ate at this vegas landmark your missing out. Its about one block from the strip behind Bills Gambling Hall. For $25 per person you get all you can drink white and red wine, salad or minestrone soup, garlic bread and cappachino. If you get the steak which i did not this time you also get a side of pasta. Its a local joint with a feel that reminds me of the italian joints we have at home. There are pictures throughout the place with celebs who have dined there.
Tuesday: Woke up later then usual headed over to NY-NY to grab and soft pretzel(3rd one of the trip they are very good) and headed to McCarren. Great laid back trip and didnt step foot into one club, first time ive done that.
The weather we had was terrible. Atleast 20 degrees each day below the average with high winds. Monday is snowed two inches schools and some roads were closed.
The MGM Signature penthouse was great, i had no intentions of staying there but because of our situation (mom/dad, brother and I) it worked out great. There is a set of double doors that lead into a small foyer area with two sets of doors. One set of doors lead into a one bedroom suite(mom/dad) and the second room lead into a two bedroom suite(brother and I) We had a blacony over looking the strip and had a corner unit that overlooked the private airport at McCarren. The roof slept four on the 34th floor(of 38) cost $2200 for us all and thats over new years where one resort room could cost $500 for that night alone.
The Cosmopolitan is something else, very high priced with high limits and people everywhere. From the outside it looks like all rooms have a terrace.
Las Vegas was slow on Monday and Tuesday but as we were leaving everyone was coming in for the CES convention, I love this town.
Brett
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