Las Vegas Holiday 2007

Las Vegas Holiday

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Detailed Las Vegas holiday report
Everything you need to see and do in Las Vegas:
The best places to eat, gamble, the best tours and shows, and best Vegas buffets
June 23 - June 30, 2007
By Henry Tenby

We have anxiously read so many of online Vegas holiday reports over the past few months leading up to our recent trip (that we really appreciate), we felt compelled to provide the details of our own one week Vegas holiday as quickly as we could. We just got back night before last, so here goes. We had a really excellent trip, and this report is extensive and very detailed, but we hope everyone finds it useful and interesting. By the way, at the end of our report we have a special security warning for single women traveling to Vegas to be aware of. Here goes..

My better half (IME) and I booked our holiday about two months in advance through the USAirwaysVacations.com website and booked a six night visit air and hotel package at the Flamingo for about $800 US per person.

We visit Vegas about once a year and always book air and hotel through US Airways vacations (formerly America West Vacations) and have always been pleased with their product. They also offer the very best air and hotel package prices out of our home town of Vancouver, Canada, and no other airline/tour operator can compete with their prices, which are consistently the lowest. This is our fifth Vegas visit and we love the place, and it was also our visit to the Flamingo, which was recommended by my Uncle due to its excellent location and superb pool. As the Monte Carlo (our regular hotel) is in the midst of a construction zone, it made sense to try the Flamingo this time. My sister (M) from Toronto joined us for the last three days, and she also flew with US Airways and stayed at the Flamingo.

DAY 1) SUNDAY JUNE 24
Our US Air morning flight from Vancouver via Phoenix was on time and pleasant as always. Had a three hour wait in PHX but that was no problem as we were happy to finally be on holiday! We arrived in Vegas on schedule at 1423. We had carry bags only so went to the Flamingo's airport check in desk on the arrivals level, and this was extremely convenient! Just a 10 minute wait in the line, and the pleasant check in agent had processed us into room 10024 in just a few minutes. There was no line up for the taxis and as there was just two of us, we jumped in a cab and were at the hotel within 10 minutes. We were amazed at how quiet the airport was given it was Sunday afternoon (as Thursdays and Sundays are tourist changeover days in Vegas). We went straight up to our room and pleasantly found that our room was right beside the elevator, so not far to walk! The room was not a "Go" premier room, but was what they call an executive suite, and it was very nice and spacious. It faced due south out over Bally’s with views towards Paris. Not the best view from the tenth floor but still very pleasant. And we had no noise problems at all from the elevators. Some people have written that their Flamingo rooms were showing their wear, but this was not the case for this room. We were really pleased with it, as it was not a long hike from the room to elevators, lobby, or the strip as is the case with many other strip properties.

Arriving at the Flamingo Hotel
After placing our valuables in the room safe and a quick freshen up, we set out on foot down the strip to the Showcase Mall. We always enjoy looking at the M&M and Coke Store and enjoyed our visit. We have wanted to see the Rat Pack tribute to Sammy, Dean, Frank and Joey at the Greek Isles for many years, so we purchased half price tickets to this evening’s show at 2015 from the half price tickets outlet at the Showcase Mall. Tickets were reduced from $75 down to $37.50 each plus tax. We then walked North up to the new Planet Hollywood (PH) to have a look at their new set up. It is nice and new and funky in the casino, but nothing inspiring per say. The Miracle Mile shops have had the blue sky ceiling replaced with silver ceiling panels adhered to the ceiling, which are nothing special. The Arabian city theme has been toned down (removed) and quite frankly we much preferred the Arabian desert them that used to give the shopping center a nice foreign atmosphere. As for the casino make-over, there is no special or unique theme, so we really cannot say it is better than the Arabian themed Aladdin casino. We did our first gambling on our favourite Wheel of Fortune (WOF) game, and lost some money. We are not big gamblers and for this trip, we put $300 to our gaming budget.

After a quick look around the casino and the Miracle Mile Shops, it was pushing 1700, and time for dinner. As we did not want to rush dinner, we decided to eat at the Spice Market Buffet in PH. We are huge fans of Vegas high end buffets, and love our seafood and Alaska King Crab (AKC) legs. The Spice Market buffet is pretty much unchanged, and it still rates an A+++ in our books! Cost was $53 for the two of us, and we spent a good hour plus leisurely enjoying our meal. Service was good, and the crab legs were of good size. Not huge but good.

We then took a cab over to the Greek Isles and arrived by 1930, so we had time to have a look around before the show. In the past the Rat Pack show was at 1930, which was too early for us to have dinner in advance of the show. They’ve now pushed the show time to 2015 which makes it more convenient to have an unrushed dinner before hand, so that worked very nicely for us. Before the show we played some slots, and broke even more or less.

Around 1945 we joined the growing line to enter the show room, and were seated around 2000ish. We were seated on a table on the upper back row (not the closer floor level tables) and I was sitting towards the back of the table and our view of the show was perfect. No obstructions at all. As for the show, it lasted about 90 minutes and both IME and I enjoyed it. The fellow who played Dean Martin was the best, however I particularly liked the Joey Bishop character as well, and thought he was very funny. IME thought the Marilyn Monroe act was a bit too much. She singled out a 75 year old man (married for 50 years) for the Happy Birthday song treatment. She basically gave him a lap dance and shoved her cleavage in his face (Joe Bishop commented “Lucky Bastard”), and it was somewhat funny. But IME didn’t think it was fair to give this treatment to a 75 year old man. A 40 year old man would have been much better taste in her opinion. IME didn’t like how before the show they went around taking everyone’s photos, asking people to pose for their portraits while they waited for the show to start. The singing and wise cracking between the characters was rather entertaining, and we’re glad we finally have seen this show. But I don’t think we need to see it again.

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