21 Days in Vegas and the Diceman!

My annual trip to Nevada.......

Resturants:
Several meals in the Island Cafe at the Stardust. Love that prime rib. 9/10. P.F. Changs at the Aladdin. Great view of the strip. 8/10. Also had a great meal at the Peppermill. 9/10.

Market Cafe at the California. Again, great prime rib. 9/10. Hit Lucky's 24/7 Cafe at the Hard Rock. Great steak and shrimp combo. 9/10. Service is outstanding. Orleans again delivers outstanding fajitas at Don Miguels. 10/10.

Dinner at Bahama Breezes on Flamingo. 9/10. What can they do wrong? Nothing. Call ahead seating worked fine. Went to the Las Vegas Hlton, which is under a massive rennovation, and visited Bennihannas. 9/10. Superb across the board.

Across from Hard Rock is a new Johnny Rockets and Cold Stone Creamery. 8/10. Who does not like ice cream? Also revisited the Rainforest Cafe in MGM. 9/10. Go mojo bones go!

Easy on the buffets this trip, only hitting the Palms and Rio Seafood. 8/10 each. Hit Sam's Town Fireside on seafood night. 8/10. Also had sandwiches a few times at that bakery joint in the Paris. 8/10. Great bagette rolls.

Shows:
Saw a full Masquerade in the Sky show at the Rio, with a full stage production. 9/10. Nothing but hot women and dancers. Saw bikini bull riding at the Frontier inside Gilleys. 7/10. Lots of girls, just plain crowded.

If you love Elvis, he goes non stop at Barbary Coast nightly, including a 350 pounder, who has to sit, and all night through the wee hours at the Legendary Stardust, which is still me favorite. I love purple.

At Sam's Town got to see the full fountain show, which runs a double of country tunes and ends with Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA. 7/10. Usual Bellagio shows. 7/10. No holiday tunes yet.

The Wynn. Well, over hype comes to mind. I think Steve Wynn pocketed some of that $2.6 billion. Lots of bad color schemes, molded trimwork from Home Depot, and chandeliers that are no comparison to the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. They have this waterfall show with 2, count 'em, two, flowers that bloom with the music. Whoop de doo. They have the same waterfall layout at the Pittsburgh Zoo, and that was installed in the early 1970's.

I am not sure what the draw is here, but mark my words, when the Stardust is rebuilt, they will unleash fury on the Wynn. How do you have fun there? Its borderline creepy. Look at the Borgata in Atlantic City and see what grandeur you get for half the price.

Gambling:
Hit some nice sports wagers including a Monday Night parlay. Cashed in some futures, gotta love the Angels and White Sox. I took a beating at New York New York, but the Bar at Times Square is a jammin place.

Great Dollar slots at Caesers, Stardust, California, and especially the Freemont. Bottom line here is that the Boyd Gaming properties; Stardust, Sam's Town, California, Orleans, and Fremont all deliver with good payouts, great food, and pure wild west Vegas atmosphere. No sissies need attend.

Extras:
Sheplers western shop at Sam's Town. The PBR has World Championships that week, and the place was rockin. Frontier mud wrestling, boring. Took a nice drive out I-215 to Green Valley Ranch, which from their parking garage and you have a total panoramic view of the whole strip.

Also took a trip to North Vegas. Found the storage yards for old neons, with cars up on blocks across the street, and a very large dog running down the street towards our suv. No dog can outrun the 24 valve V-6. Visited Jerry's Nugget and Poker Palace. There is no reason to visit the latter unless you are going to rob it.

Andrew Dice Clay:
At the Luxor, the Diceman commeth! In row 12, I sat in my glory, seeing one of my favorite comedians of all time. He gave us 75 minutes of pure madness, and I even got a signed playbill for my wall. I love you Diceman! And the Luxor valet! Park on the side, and tell them when you are coming. I explained the Diceman show, and when I came out, the Infiniti suv was waiting. What service.

I can't wait to return in January! *** Edited 12/3/2005 8:41:59 PM UTC by Agent Johnson***

Excellent, excellent, excellent!

I love Andrew Dice Clay as well.... whoda thunk it?

Nice Tr, AJ. :)

Did the diceman have fresh material? I haven't seen him in a year and I'm hearing mixed reviews lately. He was fairly good last time I saw him. I wish he would go back on O&A. If he hasn't updated his act, I'd rather take the all day pass on Speed.

I can't wait to get there. Only 17 more days!

Great TR. I'll definitely be using your restaurant reviews on my next trip.

Wynn seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it design experiment. My wife and I visited on recommendation from a friend. We loved it, but other friends taking the same recommendation couldn't stand it - the colors just clashed with their sense of good taste.

I am more than aware of the opulance that Wynn is trying to show the Strip, but I just think Stevie Wonder picked the colors. I did like the background music.

The Diceman had new material. He was late starting the show because his wife was yelling at him from LA over the phone. Apparently Dice got engaged the day before, and called her with the good news. Go figure.

It's been about 6 years since I was in Vegas...just shortly before Speed opened, so it's cool to see the Bahama Breeze chain has opened a restaurant there. I'll still probably avoid the chains when I get back to Vegas tho...too many places to eat there not to!

I prefer to be downtown (Freemont Street) for most of my gambling. The slots are definitely better at Freemont and I prefer the much friendlier atmosphere of the table games downtown to the stuffy dealers you find on the strip.

Damn, I miss our annual February trips.

I also like to avoid the chains while in Vegas. My favorite is Batista's Hole-in-the-Wall. Great Italian food!

-Tambo (who also misses his February visits to Sin City)

Bit seen on an old sketch comedy show-

PEOPLE NOT IN TOUCH WITH REALITY Andrew Dice Clay on phone with agent "No really I'm just in a slump right now. I'll be back bigger than ever!"

The Hole in the Wall is closing in the Spring, fyi. Harrahs owns everything down the street including the closed Bourbon Street.

Diceman does not smoke anymore, which adds to his jolliness.

Man, Andrew Dice Clay was great back in the early to mid 90's. His material started getting repetitive toward the late 90's.

Glad to hear he has new material. I wish he would release some DVD's or something now since I have no plans of hitting Vegas.

I'm not one of those people that finds him offensive, I just don't think he's funny. I mean, even I tell better dick and fart jokes, and I'm decidedly not funny most of the time.

It's not so much his jokes Jeff that I liked about him. It was his interaction with the audience especially in the first 3 rows. Just the insults on people and the audience firing back at times had me rolling.

I almost forgot. I was at the Hard Rock on Halloween, and they had a major $5000 1st prize costume party. I saw an array of costumes that included: Minnie Mouse, strippers, harem girls, the Pope with Nuns, fat Superman, rock stars, the Hamburgalar with the Fry Guys, several female anatomy representations, flashers, and a pair of Sumo Wrestlers who got stuck in the elevator. That was good times. 10/10.