July 11-17 Recap & Reviews

New to the site and plan to do a semi-live TR in September so I figured I'd do a quick recap from last week.

My wife and I stayed at the Flamingo for the first time and had a Flamingo Executive Room on the 27th floor comped for all 6 nights. Amazing view of the Strip across from Caesars - they were still cleaning up from the motorcycle jump that happened a few days before we arrived and trees magically re-appeared throughout the week. We've stayed at pretty much every CET property now (except Cromwell which is coming in September) and of all those on that side of the street we like the location of Flamingo the best so far. But there were some warts (more on that later).

There was a summer "quest for rewards" happening with CET so getting as many badges as possible was on the list of things to do.

Wednesday, July 11
Arrived fairly late at 9pm coming from Detroit so we had planned to call it an early night and start early in the morning. But Ghiradelli's was calling us and as always didn't disappoint.

Thursday, July 12
Super crappy start to the day / trip as we received an email from the kennel that our Lab had passed away overnight. He was old but still it wasn't expected. Took some time to regroup and make some calls home to handle the arrangements, then moved forward with vacation. Walked over to Le Creperie at Paris for breakfast - great as always. Then back to Flamingo to relax at the pool for a couple hours before it got too hot. For people like us who don't drink a ton, $17 each for a cocktail at the pool seemed a bit excessive. By about noon it was time to grab a quick bit at Cafe Go in Flamingo (nothing to write home about, but convenient being right next to the hotel elevators) then off to Cromwell to get the badges for tables and slots (which we did). Dinner that evening was at Battista's Hole in the Wall which has sentimental value for my wife and her family, and is a great value place. Shared a Chicken Parm. They also have a dessert cappuccino which is really good and included with the meal. A little more gambling at Linq then dessert at Guy Fieri's which was somewhat disappointing (and less than $25 so didn't even get the badge).

Friday, July 13
Friday the 13th in Vegas. Perhaps we should have been more superstitious about it. My wife had her spa treatment at Flamingo which was good enough for her to book another appointment when we're back in September (closest spa to the Cromwell). While she was at the spa I headed over to the Rio to get the two badges. Got the slot one but it took $100 to do it. Went to a $15 BJ table - won the first hand then lost 9 straight. In 5 minutes. So not much fun at the Rio which also had the added benefit of me taking an Uber to get there and back - so I spent $20 in travel to lose $200 in about 15 minutes. Boo. Lunch at Margaritaville was again just ok. Wasn't particularly busy in there but when the Jimmy Buffet music started they played it so darn loud it was uncomfortable. The afternoon was Madamme Toussaud's wax museum using a 2-for-1 MyVegas coupon and it was surprisingly good. Then dinner at Bacchanal, which I used my $100 celebration dinner for so it only cost $30. Every time we eat at that buffet we leave there uncomfortably full - and this was no exception. But at the time it was soooo good. Something else I learned is that (and maybe it's just because I'm diamond) is that you can order anything you want at the buffet and they'll make it for you. I had them make a chicken fettuccine Alfredo which was yummy but filling (stupid me). More gambling at Caesars to get the 2 badges but no big wins (there's a theme developing with the gambling).

Saturday, July 14
We felt fat from the previous night's buffet so we went down to the workout room at Flamingo for a morning run. Originally we were going to do more pool time but it looked super busy so instead hopped on the monorail and went up to SLS since we'd never been there before and I wanted to check out some of the construction projects going on in the area. Ended up walking from SLS all the way to Palazzo which may have not been the best idea in the heat. Signed up for Grazie and played a bit at V/P and also did their new signup slot tournament thingie - both of us doing rather well. Back to Harrah's for a quick lunch at Fulton Street Food Hall (to get the badge) and some gambling at Harrah's to get the two badges. Dinner was at Rao's in Caesar's and we both thought it was very, very good. She had the crab carbonera and I had the chicken parmesan. Then back over to V/P to collect the free play earned earlier in the day, and for a bit more gambling which was very meh.

Sunday, July 15
A whole lotta nothing in the morning but ended up at Luxor to do the free daily slot tournament which my wife had a free 2nd entry from MyVegas for. She did pretty good both rounds but not enough; I was one of the lowest scores that day. Then over to Nine Fine Irishmen for drinks in memory of her mom who passed away earlier this year (something we did the week before she passed and will do every trip going forward). We were originally going to see Jabbawockeez in the afternoon but it seemed a bit expensive. So instead we went over to TopGolf which I had done before but was a new experience for her. We're both semi-competitive golfers so neither of us really enjoyed TopGolf all that much - in fact we left early. So back to Planet Hollywood to get the badges, then to Paris for those badges, and then to dinner at BLT Steak at Bally's. Our host was supposed to join us for dinner but couldn't make it - but the meal (and tip) was still completely comped. Even if it weren't - the BLT Steak experience is our new favourite steakhouse in Vegas. The popovers are amazing. We had to eat kinda quickly since our host also got us tickets for Piff the Magic Dragon back at Flamingo. Despite the bad seats we ended up in, that was a very good show - more of a comedy show than a magic show, although the magic he does is very very good. After the show we were craving some dessert so we went back to BLT steak since dinner was so good. Dessert didn't disappoint over there. Wrapped up the night gambling at Bally's to get the two badges - again nothing spectacular.

Monday, July 16
Breakfast at Le Creperie again. When we stay at Paris it's a no-brainer to go there multiple times, and even staying at Flamingo - for us anyway - it's worth the walk over. Some more gambling at Paris & Bally's and still not having much luck. Dinner was at the Mirage Buffet courtesy of a 2-for-1 MyVegas coupon, and we still think that the Mirage Buffet (even without the 2-for-1) is the best value buffet on the strip. In the evening it was off to Brad Garrett's comedy club since he was performing that night and it was a bucket list thing for my wife. It was okay but you pay a steep premium when Brad performs and overall I don't think it was worth it. Glad it's off the bucket list as there are many other cheaper comedy clubs available. Just enough time to get a couple souvenirs for the children and call it an early night.

Tuesday, July 17
Up at 5:30am to catch the 8am flight back home

Overall it was a decent trip. We have an amazing host who comped the Piff show, my wife's spa treatment, and several hundred dollars of other charges to the room. Some RCs were used for that, but he comped way more than what we had available. My wife's father is going to be there in August for the first time since his wife passed earlier this year, and he's going to be there with a couple buddies so our host was able to upgrade their reservation from a crummy 2-queen to a 1-king + 2-queen high-floor suite. So yeah, our host is awesome.

The gambling sucked and we lost every penny we came there to gamble with, but still had fun doing it. We treat our gambling budget as entertainment dollars so as long as we're entertained we're good. Winning anything is just an added bonus and happens most trips, just not this one.

We did have a beef with the Flamingo though and it was with those Wyndham vultures that try to co-exist with the other humans walking around just trying to enjoy their vacation. These people are everywhere in Vegas but it seems like the ones at Flamingo are way more aggressive than elsewhere. They had a booth next to the Habitat elevators which were the ones we used to get to our room, and it didn't matter if we were carrying hot food in our hands to go eat in the room they would try to stop and talk to us. One lady even tried to follow us out the door when we were going out to the pool area. That feedback has been given to our host, to the Flamingo, and to anyone else who asks - it just reflects so poorly on the Flamingo and it really doesn't have anything to do with them. I didn't see any Wyndham people at the Cromwell so at least we won't have to deal with them in September.

Apologies for the lack of pictures with this TR - I'm new here but figured I'd try out a recap first and get ready to do a better & more live one in September (with pictures)! Thanks for reading and hopefully there's something of value in there with the reviews of the things we did

 

Thanks @tringlomane

 

Forgot about the breakfast we did one of the mornings. There's a new donut place in Linq (I forget the name maybe "Corner Kitchen & Donuts"?) next to Nook Express which makes fresh made-to-order mini-donuts. I think it was like $8 for a 6-pack or something like that - very reasonable and very, very good as fresh donuts tend to be.

Linq Donuts by shaunpeet posted Jul 22, 2018 at 10:13 PM

 

Question for all the veteran Vegas Fanatics on here - for pictures containing faces of either myself and/or my wife should I be obscuring the faces? I can understand if the picture in question is a little risque but what about posing at a dinner table or something?