Ah Las Vegas, Emily and I got back at 6:00am ET on Monday September 28th, and we had a fantastic time! I’m going to do my best to give a blow by blow review of our time out on the Strip, reviewing restaurants, casinos, hotels, bars, pools, etc. It all depends on how well it comes back to me through the fog….
Thursday
Headed to the airport for our 6:15 flight – always nervous headed to Charlotte-Douglas Airport, but we managed to quickly find a spot in the Long Term 1 parking lot and a shuttle arrived right as we got our bags to the curb. Checked one bag ($15, thanks for the nickle & dime attack US Airways. And thank you for the $15 checking fee to bring the bag home) and we hopped on our non-stop flight to Sin City!
You know it’s going to be a good trip when your bag is one of the first to enter the baggage claim area, and the taxi line is pretty short. Emily and I were quickly en route to Planet Hollywood. Now, if your bag coming off the baggage claim line quickly is a good sign (Third bag off the plane? Awesome!), what kind of a sign is a wrong-way driver while heading to your hotel? I’m not sure which takes precident, but the cabbie laid on the horn and the driver quickly got the point and headed off onto the shoulder. Number of times Death has been dodged: 1.
At the check-in counter, I was able to slip the guy at the front desk a $20 and we were upgraded from a Hollywood Hip room to a Resort Room (wondering the best way to do this? When they ask for your ID and a Credit Card for incidentals, put a folded twenty in-between). I tried to press on for more, mentioning that we were celebrating our recent engagement – the PH had been running a promotion saying “The Drinks are on Us” where you get a free bottle of booze from the ABC store every day of your stay, but because I hadn’t registered specifically for that feature, I was shot down in my attempts to get the free drinks. Oh well, can’t win em all.
The check-in area at the Planet Hollywood is nicely laid out and very sleek looking. The people behind the counter, however, were wearing some sort combination of purple shirts and this crushed-fake-velvet looking black jackets which were looking pretty threadbare – it has the effect of looking pretty slick from across the room but once you’re face to face, you worry that the clerk might hit you up for your spare change in addition to your registration information.
Our view from our Planet Hollywood room.
After our dealings, we made our way to the room, which would up overlooking the Planet Hollywood Pool Area and had views of the Bellagio Fountains, part of Caesar’s Palace, and Paris. We had a very comfortable King sized bed, flat screen TV/Armoir, two lounge chairs with a coffee table between them in the bedroom. The bathroom (which, upon entering the room felt like a sauna, but a few hours of having the A/C on cooled it back down) was very spacious with a glass and tile shower next to a stand alone bathtub. His and her sinks were located on opposite sides of the bathroom.
The weirdest thing about the room was also one of PH’s signature design touches – each room at the Planet Hollywood containes movie memorabilia. I came into the room expecting this, but for some reason I never expected that we would be in the “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” Suite – complete with Juliette Lewis’s outfit from the movie, images of a young Johnny Depp and a very young Leonardo DiCaprio in addition photots of them with the walrus-sized Mama character. I have never actually seen this movie and, somehow, I think that I was better off in the room not knowing what was going on in the scenes that were playing out on our walls.Only other complaint about the room was the lack of drawers. I like taking everything out of my suitcase on a longer stay and setting up home – but between Emily and I – two drawers really wasn’t enough space to get everything out. At least the closet was plenty big enough for our hanging stuff.
Yep, we had this picture large and framed in our "Gilbert Grape" room
Afterwards (since it was getting a little late for the two of us) we decided to tough it out by going to walk the Planet Hollywood floor and find something to eat. Neither of us were really impressed by the casino at Planet Hollywood, we played a couple slot machines and walked around looking at the different tables. We failed completely to find a slot machine game that Emily enjoyed playing at the Turningstone Casino in Utica, NY – “Pick Your Forture”. So we tried to find something that was almost as good (although I don’t think anything ever lived up to that billing). The Sportsbook in the PH was pretty nice with a good number of TVs, decent bar area, and friendly people working the book. I made a few mental notes on the upcoming weekend’s games.
The food at Pink's? Fast, Delicious and a good deal in Las Vegas.
We also stopped by Pink’s, which had recently opened in Planet Hollywood – apparently there are only two Pink’s in the US – I think the other one is somewhere in LA? And this one would up being very tasty and not too pricy. We both tried the hotdogs and had some fries and some beers. Definitly a great spot, especially with the outside seating where you could watch the weird world of Vegas walk by.
Finally, we started to feel the need to get some sleep, so it was off to bed to prepare for the next day.
