Here’s a quick recap on this last trip:

Gosh, we did so much!

Saturday

Saturday we got into McCarran airport at around noon and headed straight to check into NYNY. Because of our gold status with MGM, our room was immediately available, which is typically unheard of. We got complimentary waters which was very important, because the name of the game is to STAY HYDRATED like this is a music festival. I even recommend heading to a CVS or Walgreens to get a case of water to keep in your room. We brought a filtering water bottle with us, because, tap water, ew. (Affiliate link!)

First order of business was to head to the casino floor and get some drinks and play some games. The Stevie Nicks show wasn’t until 7pm, so we had some time. We started at NYNY, then went to Excalibur next door for a while, then we headed back to the room to freshen up and head to T-Mobile Arena. We realized we hadn’t stopped to eat, so when we got into the venue, we grabbed some kinda gross chicken tenders that just had a strange taste, and those came with fries, and we got an energy drink and a soda.

The show was good, the venue was good, but here’s my pro tip takeaway: be mindful of where your seats are in relation to the stairs. We sat facing the stage on the right hand side of the arena, and our seats were to the right of the stairway. So all night we had folks going up and down the stairs like they were getting paid to ruin other concert goers’ views. From here on out, I’ll be sure to book seats so that we’re on the opposite side of the stairways. Ruined a bunch of video I took.

And since 7pm is 10pm Richmond time, by the time the show was over, I was basically dead exhausted. But we did get a coffee mug while everyone was still watching the encore which was a Tom Petty cover. We went immediately back to the room and went to bed. The good thing about staying at NYNY was that it was literally right next door to T-Mobile Arena and we didn’t have far to walk at all.

A little about the hotel room. They have (all?) been recently renovated. We booked this specific room because the listing on the website stated that it was a tub/shower combo and it had a shower door, and not a shower curtain, but guess what? There was shower curtain in the bathroom. Sigh. Also, the bathroom door is so large that you could kill someone sitting on the toilet if you open the door on them by accident. Like, why was it so friggin wide?! There was no hook or place for your towel in or next to the shower.

There was a tiny closet for the ironing board. Like that’s all that would fit in there. No fridge, not even a minibar. There was no top to the top drawer in the… dresser? It was a very large entertainment cabinet that housed the tv, a place to hang clothes, the safe, only two drawers, and a bench under the tv.

There was a weird mirror finish on the closet wall next to the tv giving a strange double image from the TV on that side. The AC unit isn’t consistent, kept waking up because I got hot, then the air kicked in and I got cold. Upside is there’s no beam of light hitting you in the face in the morning because of the mirrored finish on the window. Other upside – it was super duper clean and the bed was nice. But it was free, so can’t complain. We thought about telling the front desk about the shower curtain thing, but we just dealt with it. Overall impression is that this type of room is for a one or two night stay, maybe just a weekend, where you just need a place to sleep and shower. It’s your basic room, and for that type of stay, I can’t fault it.

Sunday

Sunday morning we had plans to go to the buffet at MGM Grand for breakfast, since we’d had it on a previous trip and we knew it was a solid option. We had a bogo from redeeming points in the MyVegas app. More on that later in another post. It’s a whole thing. Well wouldn’t you know it, the MGM rewards system went completely down when we arrived at the buffet.

The lovely ladies at the host stand suggested we go over to the rewards center and see what to do, since the reward for the bogo wasn’t a paper voucher, it was saved to our players cards. So we wander back over there, even though we’re absolutely starving and borderline hangry, and the system is down for them as well. We can’t even log into the MGM app on our phones, either. The folks at the reward center were super nice, and they wrote us out a paper voucher, for two free buffets, you know, for the inconvenience. Finally we walk back to the buffet, give them the voucher and go get seated.

Not a lot of folks in there, so we went right up to the omelet line instead of waiting the usual 8 people deep during busy times. We had wonderful over easy eggs and an omelet with everything in it that was available: ham, bacon, spinach, mushrooms, tomato, onion, and cheddar cheese. The omelet chef’s name was Joseph and he was just great to talk to. He used individual omelet sized pans that were perfectly sized to keep the egg from running all over the place while it’s trying to firm up.

Also, there was fresh fruit, it was on the rind – maybe that’s so it’s easier for kids to eat? Just pick it up and go to town? Not my style, so I cut all the good parts off with a knife and fork. Also available are self serve scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon, sausages, corned beef hash. Cereal. I feel like I remember there being some sort of Asian lunch option? Self serve beverages. There’s a salad bar available in the back. Prices are $28 – $37 depending on day of the week. Pricier on the weekend. There was also all you can drink mimosas, wine, and beer that you can purchase for $19.

We played a little at MGM Grand, then headed back to the room to get ready to go to Green Valley Ranch off strip to see what that property is about because we’d never been. The rideshare took about 25 minutes to get there. We stayed for four and a half hours and I came out way on top. I had an incredible run on Buffalo and then another great run on an old school Mighty Cash. I came in with $300 and left with $500. And I was down for the first couple hours. And the property was stunning. We didn’t eat there, whoops, we get to playing sometimes and forget to feed ourselves. We’ll definitely go back, and maybe then we’ll check out some food. We had a reservation at Carbone for 7:30pm, so we left GVR and went back to the room to get ready for dinner.

Carbone… what can I say? The entire experience end to end was lux. From check-in to getting seated to the waitstaff, everything was perfect. You get started off with various breads and butter, pickled cauliflower, and a cured meat plate where the Soppressata (an Italian dry salami) was rolled up to look like little flowers. And the back waiter (learned this term today – the person responsible for your water and bread, etc.) brings you a giant wheel of parmesan cheese that he cuts a chunk off for you.

This was our second time and we got exactly the same thing we had before because it was so good. Meatballs as big as tennis balls. The Spicy Rigatoni Vodka. And holy crap the most delicious carpaccio I’ve had, maybe besides the one at Prime (at Bellagio). This carpaccio is next level. Here’s a link to the recipe from the Michelin star site. I like to take a bite, close my eyes, and just savor the flavor. Pro tip – do this on your first bite of everything at a fancy restaurant. Not only are you there for the atmosphere and the fantastic service, you’re there first and foremost for the food.

Speaking of atmosphere! They’re playing 50’s and 60’s bangers like Sinatra and the Righteous Brothers, it’s just dimly lit enough, there’s a huge chandelier in the main dining room, there are little red alcoves around the exterior with curtains drawn open on either side of each alcove. In the center of the room are champagne colored semi circle booths. Pricey, but so so worth it. I can’t recommend this place enough.

After Carbone, we played slots at Aria, then went to Cosmopolitan, then that wasn’t enough, so we went to Park MGM, then we went back to the room. I was completely wiped out. And that’s the thing, it’s exhausting going from property to property.

Monday

We woke up and headed to Delano by way of the tram from Excalibur to Mandalay Bay for breakfast at Della’s Kitchen. We got fruit, the ricotta toast, and a huge carnitas burrito. Always one of out favorite places. Then we hit the slots at Mandalay. After that, I really wanted to go to the Miracle Mile shops next to Planet Hollywood, so we took a rideshare over there.

I like this mall because it’s not one of the super high end ones – I can actually afford to shop here if I was so inclined. There were a couple of sweatshirts I had my eye on at Billabong, but I wouldn’t have had room in my bag to bring them home! Maybe if they’re still there next month I’ll pick something up. We played a little at Planet Hollywood, then went back to the room to get ready to meet some friends at Meepleville – a board game cafe about 20 minutes from the strip.

You can check out board games and play as many as you’d like. We played Disney Trivial Pursuit, which, spoiler, wasn’t a deck of questions just geared to Disney, and it was from 1984, and even the kid’s edition was pretty hard! Then we played Junk Art where you build towers with different shaped pieces and try not to let them crash. We rounded out the evening with Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, which is a Slap Jack style fast paced card game. My hands were sore after that! They serve some light food options, so we got cheesy bacon tots because we forgot to feed ourselves lunch again. We spent almost 4 hours there then left our friends and went back to NYNY.

We wanted to get some matzo ball soup and chicken noodle soup from Greenberg’s Deli but by the time we got there they had RUN OUT OF NOODLES for my chicken noodle soup. I was hungry (thirsty?) so I just got the broth. The matzo ball soup was basic, nothing to write home about. Still hungry, went to America Cafe which is open 24/7 and ordered chicken tenders and mozzarella sticks to go to take back to the room. Those tendies and sticks were NO JOKE. There were like 10 sticks and maybe 5-6 tendies. It was a surprising amount of food.

And the waiter was so nice. He gave us waters to go while we were waiting. Stay hydrated! He said he had a guy come up hammered in a onesie one night and he gave him a water and he walked like 10 feet from the bar and fell flat out on the floor. Luckily we’ve never had it that bad. Drink water and take Tylenol! We had so much food that we couldn’t eat it all, and with no fridge or microwave, we had no choice but to trash the leftovers, unfortunately.

Tuesday

Last full day. Tuesday. We started by getting breakfast at 48th and Crepe at the hotel. We had a ham and cheese and a strawberry marscapone crepe. I found the ham and cheese large and delicious, but the strawberry marscapone was underwhelming. We then ventured over to Planet Hollywood for a couple more hours, then I really wanted to hit Casino Royale on this trip because I did pretty well there on a previous trip.

We played there for a couple hours and I didn’t go broke! But there was a homeless lady who smelled unfortunate and sat next to me while I was playing a double diamond machine. She got mad that I wasn’t winning, she kept saying, “aw come on, give it to her!” which was pretty comical…. until she asked to hit the button. Oh hell no. I had to get up and get out of there!

We went to the last stop of the night at the Venetian and had Black Tap finally for dinner. The last time we tried to go there, they weren’t taking reservations and the line was too long. We got our name on the list and played for a bit. I coaxed an Athena machine to give me a couple bonuses, and it was time to eat. First order of business was to get some milkshakes. Check these out!

There was so much whipped cream that the server, Robert, brought out a separate plate for each one to scoop off the whipped cream onto the plate. While the presentation was incredible, the shake itself was very thick, and I couldn’t even drink it all. I did eat a lot of the candy, and I even brought one of the rock candy sticks onto the plane with me haha. For the main course we had burgers, which came out well done even though we asked for medium. Robert sent one of them back and it came back perfect, I just took mine to the face anyway. The onion rings were great.

We left Black Tap and it was time for the musical. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures inside the theater, but then they said we could take them when it was over?? The show was incredible; it was opening night. Here’s a link to a YouTube video of the intro; you can look up more about this incredible show if you’re so inclined. It’s about the lives of the 6 wives of Henry VIII. There was one act where they were all basically at a rave and they had these lime green sunglasses on, so after the show we got 2 pair and a pair of socks. I don’t even remember playing any more after the show, I think we just went back to the room.

Wednesday – Departure Day

We decided to have breakfast over at Bellagio so that we could play a little over there and see the display at the conservatory. Bellagio has a little quick eats place called Snacks that’s open 24/7 and they have pretty great food actually. We got a breakfast pizza and a bacon, egg, and cheese croissant. We went to the conservatory and it smelled so amazing, just like a Spring day. The display was stunning. My three little pictures below don’t do it justice, here’s a link to a walkthrough on YouTube, complete with a behind the scenes look at the construction phase. Then we hit the machines for the last hour before we had to head to the airport. I did really well on that last power hour!

I’ll make another page about the flight to and from including some pictures of the in-seat experience. We arrived back in Richmond at maybe 8:30pm. I’ve included a list of all the expenses so folks could get an idea on what something like this costs. I hope this is helpful!

Expenses

These are all the charges that appeared on my card after the trip was over:

breakfast at the airport – $56.29

taxi to NYNY from airport – flat fee incl tip – $33.86

all Uber – $5.51, $22.05, $11.50

all Lyft – $23.48, $58.75, $12.96, $15.04

plane snacks – $23.00

tmobile arena food – $27.09

coffee mug – $43.51

food @ Meepleville – $26.12

socks and sunglasses from Six the Musical – $45

starbucks @ NYNY – $30

pizza hut @ casino royale – $12.45

black tap @ the Venetian – $78.40

taxi to NYNY from Venetian – $16.94

tickets to Six – $303.78

tickets to Stevie Nicks – $293.16

NYNY all charges to room less $250 resort credit – $195.69 – including dinner at Carbone, various drinks like water from quick places, a couple shots of Bailey’s for that Starbucks run, other food on MGM properties, etc.

Grand total – $1,334.58

Flight on Breeze nice class (just one personal item allowed) – $487.85 round trip 2 people direct flight both ways

For the nights that we stayed, an example of a Saturday – Wednesday stay at the NYNY hotel in a strip view King room, rack rate on MGM’s website, you’re looking at around $150/night. However, since we are gold tier members, we got the room and resort fees completely comped.