Guess who's back, back again....

Thanks to the wonderful people at Four Queens we were able to get two South Tower rooms with fridges for an absolute bargain. No one took any convincing to go back but this time we'd do it differently. Less of us trying to fit in as much as possible, a more relaxed approach and seeing more of what Downtown had to deliver.

Also this year was our trip to Orlando. It's something we have tried to do every four years so we did what I now accept was bloody crazy as we went to Orlando for two weeks, had a 2 week break then went to Vegas. Good job this trip was going to be a more relaxed affair.

What's that I hear you ask? Did you do another itinerary that you're going to share with us? Why, of course we did. As you can see, not as packed full as previous years but we were trying to be a bit more relaxed (honestly, we consider this amount of stuff to do as relaxed). Never let it be said that we don't make the most out of a vacation, most of the sitting down this trip would be at the slots.

Downtown Las Vegas, the Fremont Experience and surrounding areas, to say these places are quite divisive is an understatement. It's difficult to explain the difference between the Las Vegas Strip and Downtown without annoying someone. What I will say is in my opinion, Downtown Vegas has more character, there are street performers that will either amaze or offend you. There are a couple of stages with Live Acts and DJs, the casinos are all great and simpler than the Monoliths that are Wynn, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay etc and things are just that bit cheaper. Are the slots looser? Statistically I don't know, people say they are and this year was going to be the year that would really surprise us but more about that later.

There are some gems of places to eat, there's also the weird and wonderful such as the Heart Attack Grill. The casinos Downtown have shows too and although we hadn't planned one this year there was plenty of other things for us to do.

Then you have those who think Downtown Vegas is rough, dirty and scary, full of unsavoury characters. Now we know it freaked out Mom and Dad first visit but anything would have that year. We enjoyed it the previous year, I think the folks actually found it more relaxed at a slightly slower pace than the Strip and less walking between places helped a lot. If we were going to love or hate Downtown then this would be the trip we'd find out.

It definitely was a good idea staying Downtown. Away from the Fremont Experience that is itself a marvel to watch you had the Mob Museum, Neon Museum, Slotzilla, Fear The Walking Dead Experience and much more.

I genuinely can't think of a negative, critical thing to say about our Downtown experience. Everything we did was fun and interesting, I wish we'd have stopped at the Downtown Container Park longer and tried the Atomic Liquor Bar (but there's always the next year…. ). We're pretty simple folks (no jokes please) and Downtown suited us to the ground. We still visited the Strip and as always it was fun, a full Hoover Dam trip and a ride on a Paddle Steamer topped off a great holiday.

I have to add how great Banger Brewing was, everything was great but as a person who really likes his craft beers and micro breweries I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a look around. At the time it was limited numbers and free to do the tour. I think you have to pay now. The tour was interesting, there was the four of us and a stranger. At the end of it as we sat down we were given a few samplers. I say a few, I mean two trays of I think 8 half pints of different craft beers. The stranger had left so it was us 4. Mom and Jane don't drink craft beers and dad is very fussy so it's me and around 6 pints of beer in total after dad's had his.

Was I a bit tipsy? You could say that and in any other situation it'd be a recipe but disaster but it would actually be my saviour.

Next stop - The Heart Attack Grill.

The hunger had kicked in so I ordered a Triple Bypass burger (crazy I know) and another beer. Jane ordered a Vodka shot in a syringe and red wine that came in a drip bag. The drip bag contained over one bottle of wine, a great novelty but neither Jane nor Dad actually liked the wine so because I'll eat or drink almost anything I finished off the wine. All food was eaten* so no bottoms were slapped with a large wooden panel and we went off merrily on our way with me merrier than most.

*okay so I lied. Most of the food was eaten, the Triple bypass had a whole massive chunky slice of red onion between each patty - I just couldn't eat what equated to a whole onion so what could I do? I didn't want the punishment and no-one could help me.

Luckily we were very close to a bin (rookie mistake Heart Attack Grill) so with no one looking we quickly threw them in the bin.

How could this trip get any better? I'll tell you how with one word.

Buffalo!

It wasn't just Buffalo Gold but it did give us our biggest win. Lady luck was definitely shining on us this holiday and we felt like we couldn't lose (if you ignore Airplane at The Cosmopolitan - that was painful).

The one night we were about to go back to the room but Jane wanted to carry on. I didn't fancy losing the money we'd won (always the optimist) so I went back to the room and left Jane to it. When she comes back after losing I can say "I told you so".

However, she hit a bonus that had people gathered around her as she won big on the Walking Dead 2 and happily skipped up to the room to prove me wrong.

Disclaimer - Jane didn't and doesn't skip but she did rub it in my face and quite deservedly so.

Here is the video of highlights from the trip for you all to enjoy.

I can't remember how much we won but it was enough to pay for a trip next year with spending money….

So…. It'd be rude to not go back next year wouldn't it?