Las Vegas - July 2011

This week I was in Las Vegas. Here are some quick note of my trip:

Weekdays in Vegas are awesome. Driving from LA is more sane and the crowds are more classy. Avoid the weekends when all the LA douchebags show up!

I stayed at Circus Circus (West Tower is nicest) and Riviera. At Riviera, try to stay in the Monaco Tower. It was actually much nicer than Circus Circus and much much nicer than the other Riviera rooms. It was so nice, heck, it didn't even seem like it was part of Riviera. I believe it's their newest tower.

The atmosphere at Fremont Downtown was awesome. There was nice warm weather and lots of folks and music and costumed characters! I went around 8-9pm. Got validated for 4 hours at California for parking in their garage, Binions has 3 hours validation, and Main Street Station has validated outdoor parking too but it's more of a walk. The Downtown Fremont Street Experience was the highlight of my trip. Go NOW to Vegas to enjoy the warm night weather before it gets too hot or winter cold!

Now to crown the king of all buffets.. The buffet at Cosmopolitian was awesome. I had the lunch for $22 like around 1:15pm (they close it at 2pm). I would say they have the BEST buffet in town, surpassing Bellagio and Wynn. They spice up a lot of things (desserts had a bit of a kick). They give one free drink, of which, I had the bloody mary. It had a lot of black pepper that dissolved as I drank it. Quite a kick! Hence the name Wicked Spoon. How true is their slogan "Just the right amount of wrong"! Dinner will be like $35. Oh Cosmo has a secret pizza place on the third floor and a slice is only like $3.75. Ask around on the 3rd floor if you can't find it! In the garage, they have a west and east elevator. If driving into the parking garage, drive to the end and park. It's close to the east elevator (valet area), which takes you up to the 2nd floor and third floors where the restaurants are right there. It's still quite a walk to get to the Wicked Spoon buffet though!

Also, while you're at Cosmo you can get $100 in losses refunded with $100 of credit! And if you play at the Book & Stage bar, the bartender will give you free drinks (depends on the time you play). Also, there's one other place where they will give you free drinks too but I don't remember the name. Ask around.

As for shows, I saw the Lion King (30% off found on BroadwayBox.com). I sat in the FRONT row. Unfortunately, my head was below stage level so I couldn't see all the way down to the feet nor could I see the surface of the stage so I did miss some of the action. It was an okay show (not quite my type of show). There were a lot of blacks at the show! I prefer Phantom of the Opera.

Then I saw Mike Hammer at Four Queens at 7pm. He was hilarious! They have a $9.95 bookmark/card near players club there which was about half off admission. The coupon came with a free (well) drink. It's a low budget show but the guy has quite a bit of personality. A lot of people brought kids to the Hammer show since it's PG. They also have a drag queen show "La Cage" at 9pm at Four Queens that looks funny which I haven't seen. It was perfect timing to go see the Hammer show, since I can hit the Fremont Experience at 8pm and enjoy the warm weather and festive crowd.

Next I saw Absinthe at Caesars Palace (cheaper tickets available at tix4tonite). Tix4tonite has $2 off coupon on their website. This ticket cost me about $50. It was a funny adult show hosted in the round circus tent built out of wood in open air at the Beer Garden. It's quite a walk and takes awhile to find but it's right near the strip where everyone walks (near Serendipity, the restaurant bldg right on the strip). Overall, it was entertaining. The ring leader was dressed like Hitler and made lewd jokes. Definitely low brow rumor, but hilarious at times.

No magic this trip (well Mike Hammer did some magic tricks)!

Oh Tropicana has $200 back (it's like $100 right away and $100 on your next trip) if you lose. My parents did ok there. And Las Vegas Club casino downtown advertises itself as having the loosest slots. Me and my parents played there and didn't do so well, so buyer beware.

While at Tropicana, I did hit up the Mob Experience (I got a Groupon for $19 for it). It was.... Well if you have time to waste go, else there's better options.. The most interesting thing was the government throwing Meyer Lansky out of his casino ownership and him complaining about all the bad things the government did. I listened to a bit of his speech and am hoping to find it on the internet somewhere. Also, they were playing a film on how the mob didn't want Hollywood's Godfather movie made. Hoping to find that online somewhere too.

Anyways, when you're in Vegas time flies, so have a schedule ready or else you will miss out on shows and stuff like I did. The tough part is getting in dinner and shows since they both happen about the same time.

I wish I had another 3 days to see all the shows and take advantage of the gambling cash back programs. I didn't use the one at Cosmo :(.

Me Organized? Hardly! If I was, I would've done a lot more things! I wanted to go see so many more shows like Nunsense (religious humor), Cashetta (drag queen), and Jan Rouven, a European magician looked real nice from Youtube! Other ones I haven't watched that i wanted to were The Magic of Paris, The Amazing Johnathan, and Marriage can be Murder.

I've heard good things about happy hour at The Palm at the Forum shops at Caesars (no time for me to take advantage of it!):
http://www.thepalm.com/PrimeTime

And I just found this deal: $20.11 for a course lunch at cosmo's ESTIATORIO MILOS (I found this deal after the trip!):
http://www.cosmopolitanlasvegas.com/pdf/menu/MilosAugust2011.pdf