It was Mom's 67th birthday and she had gotten a decent offer from Wynn for $139 midweek and an offer from the Imperial Palace for $69 weekends. Since neither of us had ever stayed at Wynn, we decided to take them up on the offer.
July 29
As always, I rented a car from Hertz since it is never more than $25 a day. Lisa dropped us off at John Wayne airport at 11AM and after some confusion at the rental counter, we were on our way by 11:30. With some traffic and a stop at Tommy Burger in Barstow, we pulled into the IP at 3:45. Along the way, we saw the most amazing thing. Some assh**e in an Infinity was literally driving down the middle of I-15 from Baker to Vegas! He was in both lanes, tailgating 2 people at once. It was unbelievable!
Once we got to the IP, check in was fast and we were on our way in minutes. On the way to the room, we get stopped by a timeshare troll who asks, "Are you guys a couple?" I look at him dead in the eye and say, "Are you high, she's my mother!" He stammers for a second then gets huffy and replies, "Im sorry but DONT ever accuse me of being high!" Ok, you are just stupid then. I would have taking the first option. Once in our room at the very back of the building, we relax for a few minutes in what is one of the worst rooms I have ever had in Vegas. The blackout shades have dozens of holes in them, a hole in the wall outside the room, a broken TV remote and more stains on the carpet than I can count. I wasn't expecting the Ritz Carlton but it was pretty bad. We will tough it out for one night.
After hanging out for a little while, we go down to the casino and Mom gets her free play and we proceed to gamble for a little while. I got some play off a short pay machine and she makes a little playing slots. We then head over to the valet to get the car. Today was Mom';s birthday so we drove out to Henderson to pickup her cousin, Richard, who lives there. He takes us to a nice little Italian restaurant in downtown Henderson for dinner. It was great meal at an unbelievable price. The place was called Emory's and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a nice non-casino restaurant in that part of town. After dinner,we quickly stopped by the Fiesta Henderson so Richard and Mom can get their freeplay the went back to his house to enjoyed his view of the strip for a little while.
We drove back to the IP, dropped off the car and had a few drinks from the Funbook we got at check-in before walking over to the Barbary Coast to play some 3 play NSUD. The mid-strip was absolutely packed on Saturday night. You could barely even move inside the BC. We played for about an hour before heading back to the IP to call it a night.
July 30
I woke early and walked over to Harrahs to hit Starbucks then went back to wake up Mom. We walked back over to Harrahs to hit the coffee shop for breakfast but the line is incredibly long and the comp line was only for 7 Star Members. I knew the Diamond in a Day plan they had was going to make Diamond status worthless and my thoughts seems to be coming true. We decided not wait and we hit Starbucks again for some danish instead.
We walked back to the IP and used a 2-4-1 to see the classic auto collection. In all of my trips to Vegas, I have never seen it. It was quite cool with many a unique car. It was interesting to see a 1930s Dusenberg next to an 86 IROC Z-28! Afterwards, we went back to the room, packed up and checked out. I didn't think we would be able to check into Wynn yet so we drove over to Caesars to quickly run in and get property maps for CP and the Forum Shops. It took much shorter than I expected so I decided to just to head over to Wynn to see if we could check in. It was only 12:45 but they were giving out rooms already. From valet to front desk, no less than 5 people asked if they could help us. Quite classy. At the desk, I asked nicely for a room on a high floor at he gave us one of the 60th, top floor. We had an awesome view of the golf couse and the south Strip. The room, needless to say, we quite an upgrade from the dump that is the IP. Mechanical drapes, flat panel TVs, robes and slippers; hands down one of the nicest rooms I have ever had.
We relaxed for a few minutes in the room before going down and checking out the pool. As soon as we walked out the door, there was someone offering us bottled water. A very nice touch. We went over to the bar and had a drink while enjoying the view. A daiquiri and a Long Island Ice Tea came to $24, $27 with tip! Now we know how they are paying for the place! We milked every last drop out of drinks then decided to walk over to Venetian for a quick lunch.
The V is next door and it looks like a close walk but in 105 degree heat, it is quite a haul. Mom is not a spring chicken anymore and it was a hard walk for her. Every trip requires a stop at Nathan's Hot Dog although it didn't seem worth it after the walk there! After lunch, we decided to try taking "the Duece" bus the one block back to Wynn but ended up waiting 20 minutes for it. Luckily, we were in the shade while we waited. After getting back to Wynn, we played for a little while before getting ready for dinner.
I never tried the LV Hilton buffet so we used the 2-4-1 in the POV to check it out. It's not the biggest buffet in Vegas but there was no line and everything I tried was very good. It was well worth the $20 for both of us. We then went back to Wynn. Mom decided to soak in the huge tub while I went down to hit the machines. I was able to get a seat at the bank of good machines and managed to hit 4 dueces but gave most of it back. I ended up keeping a little of it before going back to the room and calling it a night.
July 31
We both woke up and went down stairs for coffee and a quick bite. There are 3000 rooms at Wynn but only 1 place to get a cup of coffee. The line was huge but it moved pretty fast. Everything at Wynn costs an arm and a leg. 2 coffees and 2 danishes were $16! We played for a little while before hitting the Red Club booth for our free buffets. I made the 250 points with no problem as was told that I actually could have 4 buffets! We went back upstairs, got a 1PM checkout simply by asking, packed up and then went down for the lunch buffet. It is a gorgeous room with good service and the selection of food was pretty good. The dessert bar was awesome. I don't know if I would pay full price for it but if I can get a discount or a comp, I would definitely be back.
We then checked out, loaded the car and drove over to Rio to get Lisa a gift. She loves those glass flower things and a shop at Rio always has them at a good price. It was a quick in and out, less than 10 minutes. I was trying to time when I would get back into the LA area so I would miss rush hour but we had some time to kill. We drove out to South Coast to check it out and get a property map. We played for a little while, both winning a little on the way out of town. We were on the road at 3:30 and with some traffic, were back at Hertz to drop the car off at 7PM.
Some Random Musings...
It was a nice little trip to spend some time with Mom. If was a very different trip than going solo or with Lisa. It was, of course, too short so I don't feel like I got my Vegas fix.
The IP is a total dump and judging by the lack of maintenance or any mention that it is a Harrahs casino, Im guessing it is not long for this world.
Wynn was absolutely stunning. Although everything is expensive, you feel like a high roller just being there. I will definitely be taking them up on any offers I get from them.
One interesting thing I did notice... You would think that Wynn would have all the "beautiful people" and the IP would be filled with white trash but it was quite different. The IP was like a friggin sorority house filled with people just minutes over 21 years old. I couldn't believe how many little black dresses I saw on Saturday night. On contrast, Wynn was filled with many people in their 40s and 50s, enjoying their money.
It was nice to get to a non-casino restaurant. It is very rare when I do and Emory's was great find. I now need to start planning for my "Farewell to the Stardust" trip next month. Hopefully, it will make it that long!
