Vegas Trip Diary March 2025

 March is a great time to go to Vegas! We visited the first week of March, and the weather never went above 60 degrees (the air was cool and crisp!) and it wasn't crowded at all!

Since we're frequent visitors to the 9th Island, our trips have gone from "go-go-go" to "slow-slow-slow" so it was definitely a relaxing trip. We stayed the Cal, Hawaii's home away from home, and ventured out to the Strip on one day.

Here's how it unfolded . . . 

Did you know that if you show your boarding pass at the El Cortzel player's club/rewards desk within 24 hours of arrival you can get some freebies? It includes $10 free slot play, $25 match play and a free drink. This perk is available once a year; multiple if you earn 100 tier credits on your prior trip that year.

I put in my free $10 slot play into this Happy Prosperous slot machine and was lucky to hit a bonus! This was a great way to start our trip! 

I started playing video poker on this trip and I had a nice win during this session. Unfortunately I wasn't lucky enough to replicate this. LOL.

Wheel of Fortune remains popular, but there aren't as many machines as before. This was a nice bonus.

We played bingo at the Plaza. I haven't hit bingo yet out of the several times we've played, so on our next trip, I'll still play, but I won't buy as many cards.

There was a two-day Super Bingo Tournament at the Plaza when were there, so we needed to wait until the sessions were over. before we played in the late afternoon. A huge convention hall had tables and tables of bingo players. With your entry, they provide you breakfast and lunch and there are special room rates as well. I think I may do this one day! :-)

Unfortunately, our trip coincided with the week that switched out the conservatory display. One week earlier, we would have experienced the Chinese New Year display; one week later, the Spring display.

It's kinda cool to see them putting everything together.

I'm sure these pictures won't do the actual display justice.

We could still walk around the back portion of the conservatory, so I was able to view this live floral frame. 

It was very windy on the day we visited the Strip.

We visited this really cool art installation called Colors of Mexico, showcasing the culture of Mexico. Located at Fashion Show Mall with FREE admission, it consisted of several rooms with displays, including digital ones. It was really cool. Does anyone know how to add video to Blogger? There is an option to upload media, but it never works. I would love to be able to include videos on this blog to show you how cool it was.

Every time I go to Vegas, I get obsessed with something, whether it be a new machine, a new souvenir or things to do. This time it was Silver Strike slot machines that dispenses collector coins.

This one was from the Plaza. Each machine has several different, limited edition coins you can collect. 

This one is from Four Queens. The machines are quarter machines and you play three credits per pull. I didn't have to play a lot before I got the coins. It says on the coins that they are worth $10. Not sure if I actually tried to redeem them at the cashier's cage they would give me $10? I looked it up on the internet and a $10 Silver Strike coin are 42mm in diameter, has a .999  pure silver core and a heavey gold electroplated outer brass ring. Total silver content is about .65 oz. There's even a Silver Strike Club where you can buy/sell/trade coins, and they hold meet-ups in Vegas!

There was this really cool racing game that I found at New York New York. It's a slot machine and the bonus rounds allows you to race a car, similar to Mario Cart.

It was super fun! I didn't win a lot on the racing rounds. I only bet the minimum and I didn't do very well (as usual) during the races. I think I raced about 4-5 times and I won less than $2 each time. But it was sure fun! I will definitely be back to play this machine.

On our December 2024 trip to Vegas, we stumbled upon a wrestling match at the Container Park. On this trip, we witnessed the 2025 World Sign Spinning Championship on Fremont Street! Yes! Who knew there was such a thing! We only stayed to watch a few contestants, but we were impressed by their skills. Again, I wish I knew how to upload videos to Blogger!

This post is getting pretty long, so I'll do a food post separately. I'll end here with a congratulations Boyd Gaming who is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. A lot of the staff were wearing "Cheers to 50 Years" shirts (I asked if customers could buy them, but unfortunately we can't), the table game felts had 50th anniversary branding as well as chips and player's club cards. Happy Birthday Boyd!

Thanks for reading!

More from this trip:

• Vegas Eats 2025

Las Vegas 2024

 This blog entry is going to be a big dump of all the trips to Las Vegas taken in 2024. I'm going to start it as a continuation of our summer trip, which include visits to Universal Studios Hollywood and Disneyland.

After two fun-filled days at Disneyland and California Adventure, we headed to Las Vegas via car. At first we were going to take a flight, but it was pretty pricey, considering there were four of us. So we decided to do what a lot of Californians do . . . drive to Vegas!

Being from Hawaii, a 45 minute drive is considered long, so this was definitely an experience for us. Here's some observations from someone who has never driven anywhere outside of Hawaii:

• California is a very large state! The drive was about five hours. It takes us five hours to fly from Hawaii to California! So I was very worried about driving for that long.
• I was fascinated and amazed at all the big rig trucks on the road. Too many to count! You don't see this in Hawaii, and I wondered what they were carrying and where they were going.
• Driving over the mountain pass was pretty cool. There was a stretch where it was advised to turn off the air conditioner to avoid overheating. I'm not sure if everyone does it, but I'm one to follow directions, so off the air conditioner went!
• I've watched You Tube videos of different places can stop during this drive, but we didn't do any of it. Maybe next time we will.
• It was a shock when we stopped for lunch at In-N-Out at Barstow. We went from nice mild weather to HOT HOT HOT weather. It is not tolerable because "it's DRY heat!" LOL. It's still HOT!
• Once we crossed the border, Las Vegas was just a short 45 minutes away!

OK . . . so the following are just random photos in no particular order.

Summer display at the Bellagio Conservatory.

Milk tea from the Arte Museum Tea Bar. This was a cool experience.

I recommend the Arte Museum. It kinda reminds me of the Team Lab experiences in Japan.

This is one of my favorite rooms at the Arte Museum. My picture doesn't do it justice.

Some eats from the Proper Eats Food Hall at Aria.

Views that never get old. Bellagio at night.

Paris from the Bellagio fountains.

I'll probably never hit a jackpot, but small wins are always nice!

A mocha latte from Pink Box always hits the spot on a hot day!

Tried Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips. Super expensive, but it was good.

Lots of LSU and USC supporters during our September trip. Energy was super high. It was a good game! Unexpected win for USC.

Stopped by Resort World to get a Junior's cheesecake!

Hot dog and a PBR for $2 at the Downtown Grand. I think they raised it to $3 and they serve a different beer now.

We checked out Fountainbleau. It's a beautiful casino. These pictures are just from walking from the parking structure through the lobby to the casino.

 

Playing Bingo in Downtown Las Vegas at the Plaza. Bingo is so high tech now with a lot of different rules and cards you can buy. Green pack, blue pack, yellow pack, etc. I've played Bingo a few times now and I normally get about 40-ish cards. Thank goodness for automation. I've never won, but the hubz has gotten bingo a few times. Small amounts, but there are people who will win a few hundred during the session!

At the Cal. Santa getting some surf time before the big day.

Holiday display at the Bellagio. So pretty and smelled so good. They were pumping a holiday smelling scent in the air.

I went roller skating on my December trip!

It was Flippers' Roller Boogie Palace located at Tao Beach Club at the Venetian. They covered the pool area with flooring.

I had the whole place to myself! Just the DJ, the skate marshal and another employee dancing outside of the rink. I went at night because I didn't want to skate in the sun, even though it was December and chilly. I didn't realize they closed at 8 p.m. and I got there at 7 p.m. When I got up to the rink area, two other ladies were leaving, leaving me there all by myself! It was the best time! :-) I hope they have this again next winter! If not, I'll need to try ice skating at one of the pop-up rinks.

When I visited Main Street Station on our December trip, I was surprised to see a lot of slot machines and the table games gone. It was just a big empty space!

But they were just changing out the carpet. The top of the picture is the new carpet, with the old at the bottom. Can't wait to see the final result on my next trip.

I played at my first ever slot tournament! It was a two day tournament and each player played one session on each day. The people with the top five scores won cash prizes and the next 50 won slot credits. Each session was three minutes long and let me tell you, pressing on that button for three minutes is hard! Of course I did not place, but it was a fun six minutes!

While strolling around Container Park in Downtown Las Vegas, I stumbled upon a wrestling match and stopped to watch for a bit. I wonder if this is how The Rock got his start. Wrestling at these types of venues.

And that's a wrap for 2024! Oh wait, I do have one more post left -- a review of Circa, so please check that at well. Thanks for reading! I hope to visit Vegas in 2025 and will be better at posting on a timely basis and with better photos as well.

Read more from this trip (sort of):

• Universal Studios Summer 2024
• Disneyland Summer 2024