Was in Vegas this past weekend

Finally, some time to post!

I was in Vegas over the weekend, the week before Labor Day. The weather was a bit on the hot side for the first few days then cooled a bit to slightly warm.


Free shows:
Winds cancelled the fountain show at Bellagio. A out of town guest visitor, which we were with, unfortunately missed out on the fountains. nevertheless, we did see the TI pirate show (same show as before the construction with slightly better fireworks and flames), and the Mirage volcano show. To my astonishment, the previous version was actually much better as it depicted lava streaking down! The new Mirage show just had pipes sticking out the water creating mini h-bombs of fire like it was stationary Bellagio fountains. How boring is that? It did have better lava spurting out of the top of the volcano though. In all, the Mirage show is the weakest out of the 3. The best one out if the three, and the most popular, is the fountains at Bellagio. But that's not saying much as it's only mildly entertaining. But hey, it's free.


Eats:
We at the Bellagio buffet on Saturday. Here's the trick. We went in at 3:15pm (dinner starts at 4pm). We got in at lunch price which is $24 instead of $35. You can have both lunch AND dinner items AND save money! I actually preferred the lunch items much more than the dinner items. I'm just not the meaterian. Dinner is meat meat meat.

In their lunch items, I preferred their fish. I had salmon and some other white fish which I can't remember (it was buttery, soft, and melted in the mouth). The sauce on them really brang out the flavor and really made the whole fish items appealing. They were the perfect size too. Those were the best items in the whole meal! Whoever does the sauces there really need some commending! The duck I had as a lunch item tasted like liver and was very dry. Not my type of flavor or texture! No wonder duck isn't popular.

Dinner brought out the rack of lamb and Alaskan king crab legs. At this point I was stuffed so I couldn't finish the lamb piece all the way. I did manage to eat 3 crab legs. I also tried some greasy dove.

And the desserts.. I couldn't get to them :(. I was stuffed by the time I hit the desserts. I tried to eat the creme brulee and mousse had a bit off my fork. Both would've been delicious if eaten. I had a small cone filled with chocolate mousse. I carried it out like a ice cream cone and ate it in the casino 10 minutes later. Yes people in the buffet line were looking. It was quite good.

The next day we had the $10.99 dinner buffet at Main Street Station casino in downtown. It was pretty good, middle of the line buffet. It was much better than the last time we had the buffet there! A lot of items were fried. So that's the methodology employed. The pork chimichanga had a nice and soft pork filling with green sauce. But I would say it was better than most strip buffets. After the buffet, my family members sat down on the casino slots and won a lot! I had to pry my brother off so we could head back home. I walked around the casino once and noticed one deck blackjack! If you can remember the cards, this is better than any blackjack offerings on the strip!


Shows and entertainment:
There's the good news and bad news. The Tix4Tonight booth has moved into Slots O Fun and the check in area of Circus Circus. However, they've raised their fees to $6. It was $5 on my last trip. A few years ago they had another competitor (I can't remember the name). At that time, their fee was only $3. So yes, they're getting greedier every year! That $2 off coupon is just not cutting it anymore!

The good news is there's a place online that you can get the tickets for 50% off and pay only a $3 fee. The shows are the less popular ones. They're available on HalfPriceShows.com !!! PS: Use that link and I get a referral bonus!

Friday night, I saw Carrot Top. I watched him about 2 years ago and he was much better this time around! He's in his prime! Go watch him now! I got the ticket for $39 + fee from Tix4Tonite.

On Saturday, my brother and I hit up the electric go carts at Pole Position in their newest location, Summerlin. They had a $14.95 per race coupon on their website. They have coupons for all their sites. Just forage through them. Btw, they have race track that's closer to the strip. It's their original Las Vegas location right near the Palms, but there were no specials for it. It's also their biggest track.

Anyways, it's worth checking out once. They don't look fast at 45mph if you watch them, but if you get in them, it'll feel crazy TORQUEY and FAST and you'll have to react fast. I'm sure you can get hurt bad if you go head on into their barrier.

With nothing to do late night, I bought tickets to The Comedy Stop at Sahara for 9pm. The standup comedy was pretty good, just not spectacular. Carrottop was much more entertaining. So The Comedy Stop is there if you have nothing else better to do and you want some entertainment. The tickets were $19 + $3 fee from HalfPriceShows.com


Gambling:
Here's another get tip on saving money (even making money)! Get your "win card"
from Circus Circus with your player's club card. They give you $45 of play chips for $30. That's free $15 in gambling money! I used the chips to play blackjack (which is the game 21). The odds are almost 50/50. I can't see how the casino profits on and advantage of less than 1%. They must wait for novices to make bad moves I guess.

So anyways, the trick with the $45 for $30 chips is to play them all. Over time you will lose all of them. You will have to. They have no cash value. You cannot trade them in to the cashier.

That being said, YOU WILL WIN. These winning chips can then be cashed out. I made $70 on my original $30 "investment". This is like stealing from the casino. I can't believe they do this! Now there the kicker. You can get these free chips from a lot of casinos. Here's an old list. Needless to say, I'll be playing blackjack from now on instead of slots. And at $10 per play, Circus Circus count my play on the player's card so I can get free rooms.


Drinking:
I had no clue what "well drinks" were. But there was a coupon for 2 free ones. Since I liked margarita and a drink my buddy introduced me to called a apple martini, I told the bartender give me something sweet, something similiar. Anyways the orange (next day cranberry) vodka was quite flat and watery for my brother and I. The orange was better than the cranberry. The bartender just put way too much cranberry "juice" and not enough alychol.

I then drank lime and pina colada margaritas from inside of Slots O Fun. They were $1.50 with a coupon. They weren't that strong. Just something to drink.


Summary:
It was a good fun trip and I came home with $40 more than I left with! Well, not quite.. I did spend money the shows and food. But you can't count those!