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

Vegas Trip Diary - March 2016

Another trip to Vegas in the books! It's been almost two years since my last trip (read here, here, here, here), so I was excited to return. The weather was perfect! There was just one day where it was warm, but most of the days were nice and cool. 

Here's some snapshots from my trip! 

Container Park in Downtown Las Vegas is such a great place to hang out. They have a great little park for the kids that include a treehouse. 

There's also an outdoor stage area where they hold concerts and movie nights.  There's a number of eateries and cute shops as well. 

We had lunch at Cheffini's, a gourmet hotdog restaurant. I had the Panchero (top), while the Hubz had El Mexicano. We also had regular fries and sweet potato fries. 

I love that Downtown Las Vegas is thriving and growing (read my post from 2014)! A few years back, the streets beyond the Fremont Street Experience would be empty and sketchy, but now there are tons of people walking around, exploring the neighborhood. 

We tried out Eat one morning for breakfast. 

I had the pancakes with apple sausage. The pancakes were the best I've ever had! Crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The Hubz had chicken fried steak. It was the first chicken fried steak I've ever bitten into and thought, "Tastes like steak!" The batter and gravy was great too! My bite was really great, but the Hubz said although the meat was very steak-like, it was a little tough. 

The sign going out the door: 

Note: The chef just recently opened two other restaurants -- Chow and Bite. I'm definitely looking forward to visiting those two restaurants as well. 

This is Manneken Pis. I found out about him via Instagram. The owners of the D installed him at the rear entrance of the casino. Manneken was "dehydrated" when we visited, but I saw another IG posted that stated he would be dispensing beer and to bring your red cups to fill. Not sure if that was an April Fool's Day joke. Here's the plaque to tell you more: 

Did you know that Vegas has a Natural History Museum? It's located just minutes away from Downtown Las Vegas on Las Vegas Blvd., right past the Neon Boneyard. 

It's a great way to spend a couple of non-gambling hours and right next door is Heritage Park: 

We played Bingo at Sam's Town.

The game itself is not difficult. There is regular bingo and variations such as double bingo, crazy letter "T", and "Dual Daub."

What was confusing was the game packages you can purchase. We ended up buying a 42 bingo card package (you play 42 cards at once) and added in a couple of separate cards. We also picked the electronic option so the computer does all the work for you, but you can opt to go the paper route, but I honestly don't know how that works if you have to check multiple cards. 

The lowest payout was about $50 (which would have covered our cost) and the highest payout was about $200. It took an hour to play 12 games. 

We tried a White Castle burger. Maybe I was still full from lunch, but I thought it was just ok. You can buy 100 of them for $150 and they'll pack it in a nice box for you. 

The Bellagio conservatory had Sakura themed display. It was so pretty and smelled so fragrant. We went at night and I meant to come back during the day for better lighting, but we didn't make it back. 

If you want to get a massage while you're in Vegas, please consider Andrea Lipomi, owner of Feetish Spa (read reviews and view more photos here). She's located in Downtown Las Vegas, on the second floor of the Emergency Arts building. 

If I look all loopy in the photo, it's because I'm just so relaxed. Andrea is super sweet and she is great! I'm always happy to support local business! 

Well, that's it for now! I'll post some miscellaneous pictures soon. See you next time, Vegas!