Lloyd and I didn’t get married. I didn’t wake up with a tiger in my hotel room (a la The Hangover movie). But, we had a damn good time.
THE PALMS
We stayed at The Palms. The Palms was my request. I’m a celebrity-aholic. It was high on my agenda to see a celebrity. And we did…
How much was is to stay at the Palms? Not bad. The price was one reason we decided on Vegas for our annual lovers’ getaway. We got a package deal on Orbitz. We paid $412 each for both the flight and the hotel (4 days and 3 nights).
FREE WEEKDAY PERKS
We got a few free perks since we were there during the week. The Palms gave us free passes to two clubs that I’ve seen mentioned in the trash magazines (one of my many guilty pleasures): Ghostbar and The Playboy Club.
Now, as I said before I left, I am no longer a college party girl. I’m mature and all grown-up, okay? I write a blog for crying out loud.
We went to both clubs. Just to say we did.
We were not impressed. We bought two drinks in The Playboy Club and it cost us $25 after tip! No, thanks! We took some pictures (it had a great view of the Strip), downed our drinks, and high-tailed our Midwestern butts out of that place.
We stopped by Ghostbar on our way back to our room. It was more or less the same as The Playboy Club, except it did have a fabulous outdoor patio (below) which is pretty surreal when you’re 55 stories in the sky.
P.S. Flava Flav was at the Playboy Club the night after us. Um, too bad we missed that.
GAMBLING
Lloyd taught me the Blackjack technique for the hundredth time and I finally listened to him. I dominated in Blackjack one night at the, uh, “less fancy” casinos – won about 50 bucks.
Can you really dominate at gambling? No. Do not get cocky with gambling. It always wins. You start off getting a couple good hands and next thing you know you’re emptying your emergency fund savings, taking out payday loans, and forgetting all about that personal finance crap you blogged about last week.
I lost that $50 the last night. Well played, gambling. Well played.
CASH
My number one Vegas tip: Bring cash! This did not occur to me before I left and I had to get cash out of the casino ATMs and got owned big time on ATM fees!
If you do forget your cash, take out a large lump sum ONE time. Otherwise, you’re gonna get slammed with ATM fees while you’re there.
Most of my cash went to cabs. Not a fan! I am so happy that cabs are not popular in Kansas City. They are crazy expensive! Plus, since we stayed off the Strip, we had to take more cabs than the normal Vegas-vacationer would.
EATING OUT
We (by that I mean me) looove eating out! We always go all out on vacations when it comes to eating out.
We tried to eat fairly cheap for lunch and breakfast, but we had a couple fancy dinners. We had steak and lobster one night and spent about $70 each that night. Note to self: lobster is amazing, but steak is better.
I know I preach Restaurant.com all the time, but it saved us about $150 on this trip. We used a $75 off coupon the night that we had steak and lobster. It was SO worth it.
SHOWS
We saw the Cirque de Soleil show – Ka. It was at the MGM Grand and it was amazing! The performers are crazy, but wow, they have such a gift! We snagged a couple tickets at those Half-Priced Tickets stands that they have all along the Strip. Our hotel quoted us tickets for $135, but we got them for $75. I definitely recommend the Half-Priced Tickets stands! They were selling tons of tickets for much cheaper than full price. I think there are four located on the Strip, so check ’em out if you’re there anytime soon!
POOLS & CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS
Wow – The Palms was pretty amazing, but their pool was out of this world. The best people-watching I’ve seen in my life! I have never seen more people try to act like they were “somebody”. It was the best free entertainment we could find.
Watch out though – the drinks will get you. One beer was $9.00! Tally in the tip and that’s one expensive drink!
Remember how I said we saw a celebrity? Well, it was at the pool. The second day we were there, we noticed a huge group of people that had rented out a cabana. We didn’t really think anything of it until we saw the guy with the mohawk and the tattoos on his head. Only a celebrity would rock that look.
Turns out, we saw Chuck Liddell, the UFC fighter. Disappointed? Me, too.
However, Chuck was quite the entertainer. There were about 5-7 girls surrounding him at all times and he seemed to be feeling pretty good (if you know what I mean). He was shaking his hips and throwing punches in the air all day long. It was like reality TV….right in front of you.
Wouldn’t you know it, I found out through Twitter that Nicky Hilton showed up to The Palms the same day we left. Darn it!
HOW MUCH DID I SPEND?
I prepaid for the hotel and flight ($412) and had budgeted to spend abut $500 while I was there. I’m happy to report that total expenditures for the entire trip were about $889!
Now you know everything! Well, not everything… What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!
I love your description of vegas..very entertaining 🙂
@munchkin – Thanks!! 😀
So glad you had a ton of fun!! You sound hilarious, and the coolest type to visit Vegas with! Isn’t it insane how expensive drinks are in Vegas? I think think that’s where they make all their money. When my husband and I went, it was also about $400 for flight/hotel for 4 nights, but we spent at least $150/night on just cocktails. The worst was when we bought $12 shots at that club XS in the Wynn. I had to force suppress my shock, but it’s not like we’re in Vegas everyday, right? Bottoms up! LoL. 😉
LOL! The $12 shots made me laugh. It’s funny how you can rationalize those sort of things when you’re in Vegas and you’re already several drinks into the night. Vegas is such a trip!! LOL.
Now I know what to expect when I go to Vegas! Thanks for your blog as I feel prepared…now I just need to ask when my boyfriend gets time off from work…
Ohhh have fun!! Let me know if you have any other questions!
You did great in Vegas! Great savings on the Ka show for sure. How funny about the *celeb*.
hey! the last time i went to vegas we stayed at the Palms and almost did the exact same stuff as you did…in fact, i had to double check this post to see if we were there at the same time 😉 sadly, we weren’t. but looks like we do have great taste!