Las Vegas Travel Diaries: Tigers, Big Elvis and our First Casino Win

This blog post relates to our 2010 USA Road Trip. Our first stop was Las Vegas for four days, broken up by an overnight stay at the Grand Canyon. On our final day in Vegas, we visit the white tigers in the Secret Garden, watch a Big Elvis show and get nighttime Strip views at the Stratosphere. These are our Las Vegas Travel Diaries.

It’s the morning after the night before. The night before being my 33rd birthday, a night celebrated with The Beatles and an expensive steak. I manage to sleep until 7:45am. Thanks to the jetlag, this constitutes a lie-in. We don’t have any particular plans today so I let Mr Fletche sleep until 9am before I send him down on the coffee run.

We haven’t explored this end of the Strip yet. We head through our hotel (The Mirage), through Treasure Island, and then over to the Fashion Show Mall to spend my birthday money. Ma Lee kindly thought to gift me dollars. Except, I’m hot, and grouchy and hungry. All I end up buying is a cable to connect our music to the Fletchemobile.

Over to the Palazzo, in search of the Grand Lux Café. We’re seated quickly, I ask for a Bud Light, and get asked for ID. Luckily I have my driving licence with me as explain that I celebrated my 33rd birthday yesterday. But thanks for thinking I look under 21. We get a chicken salad sandwich with fries, ½ pizza ½ salad combo, plus drinks, for $25. Sadly we leave no room for their legendary cheesecake.

We walk through the Venetian back towards the Mirage. It’s off to the Secret Garden to spend some time with the dolphins and the tigers! The dolphins do what they do best (swim around the pool) and the grown tigers and lions do what they do best (snooze in the sun).

The tiger cubs are cute though, and the keeper’s talk is very interesting, particularly when he talks about how they spend pretty much 24/7 with the cubs, and talking about Siegfried & Roy. They clearly do a lot for the conservation and preservation of these animals; but I don’t think that the Secret Garden is really worth the entrance fee. As a Mirage guest, I would have been happier if entrance was included within the Resort Fee, and we were invited to give a donation instead.

Our lazy day has been quite busy so far. It’s over to Bill’s for Big Elvis. We’re there 20 minutes before the show is due to start, and its standing room only. We grab drinks from the bar and perch on the edge of a table. We survey the crowd. We are the youngest there. By a long shot. But hey, its Elvis isn’t it? Everyone knows and loves Elvis right? And Big Elvis is great – amazing voice, great stage presence. After half a dozen songs though we leave to rest our weary legs back home at the Mirage.

We’re revitalised and rejuvenated. We catch the Deuce outside the Flamingo and start the slow, slow journey up the Strip. I wouldn’t recommend the Deuce if you’re in a hurry to get anywhere but it’s a good opportunity to have a look at the less populated end of the Strip.

We get to the Stratosphere and up into the tower just as the sun is setting. The views are magnificent. We’re not sure if we have the stomach for the rides so we content ourselves with photos of the twinkling lights of Las Vegas laid out before us.

Note: It’s very windy up there – be warned if you’re planning on wearing a short lightweight skirt. I speak from experience.

By this time, we’re getting hungry again. Our Grand Lux Meal seems so long ago. I’m worried that Mr Fletche is having no say in the food choices so far.

So: “you choose tonight. Wherever you want to eat”

We get the Deuce back to the Mirage, catching a Volcano show while we’re there, and I wait for Mr Fletche to decide where we’ll eat tonight. I ask what type of food he fancies.

“Something quick; a burger?” After disregarding BLT Burger (he’s still sulking about the cost of last night’s meal and refusing to line the pockets of Mirage any more than we have to), he decides on Denny’s.

Except there is a huge queue and a waiting list. Yes. A waiting list. For Denny’s.

“How about the Cheesecake Factory?”

Mr Fletche is bowing to my knowledge and research on Las Vegas eateries. We make our way through the huge Caesers Palace. Eventually we spy the Cheesecake Factory sign, visible for miles. Unfortunately, the queue is also visible for miles.

Almost crying with hunger, we decide on our last alternative. The Caesars Palace Food Court. One Kung Pao Chicken and one House Chow Mein later, we’re feeling ready to try out the slots at Casino Royale.

Mr Fletche sits down at a machine, and I decide to stick a twenty into the machine next to his. I have a couple of go’s, playing around with bet combinations. I don’t notice the five sevens blinking at me. In fact, I don’t realise until the embarrassingly loud machine finally silences and I’ve banked $30. Thirty whole dollars!

Now I know this isn’t a big win in the grand scale of Vegas wins, but I’m chuffed. My first win. I cash out at $40, I’m $20 up. Mr Fletche has won nothing. I decide that I’ve wrung all I can out of Casino Royale, redeem my ticket, kiss my fresh new $20 notes and we head back to Mirage.

I’m reluctant to gamble more, wanting to end our Vegas trip on a gambling high. But then two seats open up at the Video Roulette, and I can’t resist sticking in one of my newly acquired twenty’s. My strategy is simple; $1 on Black or Red, and $1 on a quadrant of numbers.

Not much is happening. A few $2 wins here and there. I can see my $20 dwindling. And least I’ll break even I thought, determined not to put in another twenty. And then one of the numbers in my quadrant comes up – $13 winnings. Thank you very much!

I change my quadrant selection – it comes up again! Another $13! Good things come in threes, and it’s come up again. I have $47 in the bank. I play a couple more games and then cash out at $40 once more. Mr Fletche won nothing. Again. I am smug gambler. We hang around until we get drinks from a passing cocktail waitress, and take them back to our room. The drinks. Not the cocktail waitress. We’re not that sort of couple.

It’s our last night in Vegas, and it’s been great fun. We reflect on the good points – my gambling luck, LOVE, the jelly-bean Statue of Liberty – and the bad points – Porn-Slappers, the cost of the meal at Kokomo’s, and conclude that it’s been a fantastic experience. We would definitely return (so much we never got to do…swimming pool time, Ellis Island Steak Special, Downtown – and I never even set foot in Wynn/Encore…).

If the rest of our trip is as hectic as our first four days, we’ll definitely need a holiday to get over our holiday! Next stop, we head into California, to Death Valley & Lone Pine.