TR - Monte Carlo 9/17 - 9/22

My wife and I stayed at the Monte Carlo on Sept 17-22. Flew from Tampa on America West. A little back ground on us. I am 40 and the wife is 34. This is our 3rd trip with the first being our wedding at the Luxor. Our trip this year was postponed twice. First in May because I needed surgery and the second in August because of a serious illness with one of our dogs. Here is our trip report, sorry it’s so long.

Flights: Book America West (really US Air). Had a 5:10 PM flight with a connection in Phoenix and was to arrive in Vegas at 8:30 PM. Got to airport 2 hours before the flight. Flight was on time when we left the house and by the time we got to the airport there was an hour delay. America West does not has self check-in Kiosks so had to wait in line. Finally left Tampa at 6:30. Connection in Phoenix now 8:30 and arriving at 9:30. One hour difference was no big deal. Yeah right! While waiting to board I notice that they are not load the bags onto the plane. They make an announcement that the tower has asked that we not board. After waiting another hour we were told that the plane had a problem. Please go to another gate and get on another plane. What really bothered me was that they would not tell us the status and at time I saw them get a little rude with the passengers. Get to the other gate and finally board. They then tell us to get off the plane so that they can do a safety check. Off the plane we go and wait another hour. Back on again with no explanation and take off. Get to Vegas and bag arrive within 15 minutes. About a 10 minute wait for a taxi and arrive at the Monte Carlo at 1:20 AM.

Casino: The Monte Carlo is very nice. Smells great when you walk in! Room was very nice with 2 queen sized beds. Strip view and a safe in the room. When we finally got to the hotel I was too tired to ask or care about an upgrade. I was traveling the past two weeks on business. The week prior to our trip I had flown to Puerto Rico for business on Tuesday and got home Friday evening. My son had a birthday that Saturday and then we were off on Sunday. Overall we liked the hotel and the location. In our opinion they only downside was that it is kind of dead. We like the party atmosphere of some of the other hotels but all in all no real complaints.

Entertainment: We try to see two shows every trip. One topless and anything else my wife would like to see. When we got up Monday my wife decided she wanted to see Love. So we ate breakfast and headed to the Mirage. The only seating was on Thursday. No big deal. Walked around for a while and decided it was time to head back and rest up for the night. That evening walked over to the MGM and had dinner at so steakhouse (Don’t even remember the name). Very expense and neither were impressed. Walked the area and had a few drinks then back to the MC. Went to Houdini’s Lounge and drank some more. Since we are trying for a baby and the time was right we headed to the room. Tuesday we decided that we wanted to see Erocktica at the Rio. Got there and found out it was dark that night but got a free ticket for Wednesday. Headed back to the strip and basically walked around drinking and throwing some money at various slots and VP machines. Wednesday was our big party night. I am an early riser and most mornings consist of me getting up and going down for coffee and spending about an hour or so at VP. This morning I stopped on the Spa level and decided to treat my beautiful bride to a two hour Spa session. Got everything arranged for 1PM. Went to pickup my wife for breakfast and told her she had an appointment at 1. She was ecstatic and said I was getting lucky tonight! She loved the Spa and decided that we were going to the Rio early for the buffet and to look around since we have really never spent any time over there. Got cleaned up and dressed (wife was dressed to kill….man she is hot!) and headed over to the Rio. The buffet was great with a little of something for everyone. By this time the drinking must commence. Went to the IBar and hung around there. We decided to give the casino some money and played slots and VP until show time. The show was good singing was great and the women hot. We both enjoyed it. After the show my wife wanted to go to the Voodoo Lounge so we headed up. It was not too crowded and the band was decent. Had a few (or a lot I think!) and after a couple of hours is was time to head back to the MC. My wife was not done and we went to the lounge for a nightcap. Had a few more then went to the room to get lucky. Thursday was recovery day at the pool. The weather is cooling down but nice. The water was freezing and I did not swim. The pool area is very nice with something for everyone. That evening we saw Love. We thought it was very good. The music is great and the performance is awesome. I would recommend this show to anyone. Well Friday is our last day. Got a late check-out and our flight leaves at 11PM. We basically spent the day walking around and shopping. Played roulette at Mandalay Bay for a few hours.

A few general observations:

The taxi drivers that we got all were very friendly. We never felt that we were “taken for a ride”. The driver on the way back from the RIO on Wednesday forgot to start the meter and did not notice until halfway to the MC. I felt bad and made sure that I tipped a little extra.

The weather was good but it is starting to cool down. Only one day in the 90’s. It did get windy and with the construction next to the MC the dust really got kicked up.

The construction next to the MC starts at 6AM. I am sure the MC does not control it but it is a pain.

Well that’s about it. We are not big gamblers but like to throw some money out there. We were down a little but the whole point for us is to have fun win or lose. We are already making plans for next year. We like to stay at different places and are looking at TI or something else in the area of the strip. Hope you enjoyed!

Very nice report. Glad to see you liked "Love". It's on my to do list.
That construction going on next to Monte Carlo is a real pain, when walking from NYNY to Bellagio, as I did a few weeks ago, the noice and dust flying everywhere was a real turn off.

Thanks for the nice report. Good luck with gettin lucky

Thank you. The other thing I noticed was that there seems to be more time share people then ever before. Maybe it's just me. My wife was getting annoyed with the porn slapper but at least if you ignore them they really just leave you alone. But these time share jerks are pretty pushy.

NO trip report is every too long. Sounds like you had a very nice time. Nice treat for your wife with the spa visit. We like staying at the Monte Carlo and do so once a year and then pick a different hotel for our second visit. This year we are skipping the MC though, just too much construction etc. in that area. Thanks for sharing your trip, enjoyed reading about it.

You had a safe in your room? That's great to hear. Maybe they are redoing the rooms and adding safes. They must read the boards and realize that the lack of safes in the rooms knocks their review down a peg.

I wouldn't have thought about the construction noise next door.

That's why I like reading trip reports. I'm always either learning something new, or updating what I've learned before.

Thanks for taking the time to write it up.

No problem....About the construction, they are preparing the ground right now to the left of the MC as you are looking at the stip. Right now this consists of breaking up and remove the cement foundation of the old building using large crane mounted jack hammers. So starting at 6 Am the jack hammers start up. As they work their way down another crane comes in and drops these pieces of cement into dump trucks. Oh well, I was in Vegas so nothing really mattered anyway.

Thanks for the TR post,

I wish my wife would let me check out a topless show. :o I read that you were in PR for business, did you ever gamble at the casinos there? If so what was your impression compared to Vegas casinos? I get there several times a year on business also.

PR does not even come close to the Vegas casinos in my opinion. There are small and the atmosphere is stuffy.

Don't EVER apologize for a TR being too long! LOL

I think the people that only write a line or two or one paragraph and call

THAT a trip report should apologize!!!!

Rock On!

Thanks for posting!

Frank, great trip report, doesn't matter the length my friend, a report is a report.

Good luck on the baby. Your report reminds me of my trip two years ago with my wife. We were at the IP, had been trying for a baby for awhile and not having much luck due to some fertility issues.

A lot of our trip was spent drinking and relaxing. Also saw Erockticka and treated my wife to her first Vegas spa appointment. Needless to say its 2 1/2 years later now and my little one is running around all over the place. Best of luck to you both.

DonQ, just my thoughts on PR casino. I've only been down there once for work. I liked it, I mean for what it is. A small casino with lower minimums. It was dead when we were there, (we were at Intercontinental) and they took pretty good care of us, no problem getting minimum lowered to $5 for an empty table and had a great crew playing craps by myself, even got me a bottle of rum to take home, after they learned my taste for it. Again not Vegas, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

Thanks Jinx....fertility issues here too but we are hopefully past that now. Funny thing is my mother-in-law stays at our house when we are in vegas. When we got back I told her that she should be excited that next time she gets to stay with three dogs and a baby! Wonder if she will ever talk to me again.