Club Wyndham Desert Blue

Club Wyndham Desert Blue is a very nice resort in Vegas. I enjoy gambling, and I like visiting Vegas, so I was amped and ready to return.

On this trip, I would be taking a buddy that has always wanted to go but has not been to Vegas. Basically, our deal was that he would pay for his airfare, but since I had the writing hook up through TZort, he could stay at the resort with me for free. Not a bad deal for a friend on a budget.

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Day One Travel & Arrival

Traveling to Vegas for me always involves a flight. Given Vegas’s popularity the flights are plentiful and the ticket prices are cheap.

I was able to find a ticket for a larger legroom seat similar to business class for only $550 round trip at the time of my flight. It also included 1 checked back and 1 carry-on. If you were flying without a carry-on, you can find flights for as low as $130 on Frontier or other discount providers. Just know that the legroom is only a maximum of 28 inches. If, like me, you have long legs that may be near impossible for you.

Here you can go without a rental car pretty easily if you will be staying close to the casino area since the airport is just 4.5 miles from the resort. The resort itself is just blocked from Caesars and several other major casinos, so I opted to just grab a cab to the resort.

When I arrived at the resort, I was impressed by the view of the resort as the cab pulled in. You turn in from West Twain Ave and into a park-like setting with a large covered area in front of the impressive-sized building. There is a complementary valet here if you have a rental or have driven to the resort.

Villa Amenities

Then the resort itself offers all of these options.

Resort Amenities

The resort offers studio units, then 1-4-bedroom units as well. From nearly 600 sq feet in size to over 2,400 sq ft villas. The availability here is generous. With abundant outdoor pools, pool bars, cabanas, and sunbathing areas.

After getting checked in, I walked around and viewed the many amenities at the resort. I will provide a detailed list of you as normal, but this resort has everything I look for. It also has a convenience store and a café, which makes life easier. As I walked around, I even grabbed a premade sandwich from the convenience store before seeing something I liked in the café, so I ordered there as well.

My Bedroom Presidential Villa has a nice-sized kitchen, so I also grabbed a few snack items and some things for breakfast just in case. I put those away when I returned to my room as well as my little premade sub, so I was set for later.

It was not late,, so I decided to walk over to one of the nearby casinos. Across West Twain, there is the small Gold Coast Casino as well as the Rio Convention Center and Casino. The Palms Casino is also just a few blocks distance away through large parking lots.

You can walk across West Harmon to get to the larger Casinos like MGM but you do not see people walking much given the heat. People tend to only walk the strip and just grab a cab or Uber from one area to another. Even though they are close, it just logistically seems to work better. Also, with so much alcohol around walking on side streets or across bridges just seems sketchy.

Most people just get dropped at a key point on Las Vegas Blvd and then walk from one location to another from that point. It is certainly easier than parking your car or even using the valet at the major casinos.

While at Gold Coast I enjoyed some slots, and then blackjack. The casino is nice and clean but does have a more dated feeling to it.

After an hour or so, I did walk over to Aria mostly just to see if I could do that. It was OK, but really it would be much smarter to be driven. In this part of the city, there is a sea of ramps, overpasses, and underpasses. So, it never feels like there is a good place to walk. Aria is part of the MGM brand and it is modern and very large.

MGM has the MLife brand cards and loyalty program. Until this trip, it was one of the few large brands of casinos that I did not have a loyalty card. I chose to grab one since I planned to play for a few hours. When you spend money or run money through a loyalty card or players’ card, you can earn points to spend on comped items and experiences.

Aria has slots, table games, a sports book, and even poker rooms. When I gamble, I play slots about 20-30% of the time and the rest of the time you will find me playing blackjack. I am not a card counter or anything, but I understand the rules of play for blackjack.

Tonight I left Gold Coast after just a short while there and walked to Aria before dark. I ended up staying into the night some because I was doing OK and the tables and the drinks were flowing well. Sometimes drinks go down easy, sometimes they don’t. I quit playing around 3-4 in the morning and then grabbed a car back to the resort. I was up well for the day, and if I did not play anymore on the trip, my entire vacation could have been paid for. Sometimes you should just stop, and other times I just look at it as playing for fun and the free drinks.

Day Two the Strip

I woke up and had a light breakfast in the room. My thought was I would eat light gamble a little more and earn a free buffet somewhere based on the amount I was gambling and running through a player’s card.

Bellagio

I had my driver drop me at the Bellagio so I could start my play there, then move to Caesars next door since they often have one of the better buffets in town. While I like the look of the Bellagio, I did not fare well. After about 2 hours there I moved to Caesars. Bellagio is also a Mlife card location, so I already might have enough for the buffet with them and I can use those points as a benefit if I need to if Caesars does not work well for me.

Buffet Time

It turns out Caesars went very well for me. I lost money in blackjack but tried a high-traffic slot machine and won a nice chunk that I pulled out and put on my player’s account. This took a few hours, but I was up even more. Now at this point, I did not care if I comped a meal or not. I headed to the BACCHANAL BUFFET they say it is the largest buffet in, Vegas with over 25,000 square feet of space dedicated to the buffet. They have hundreds of items from 9 kitchens and a sea of talented chefs. Here they limit your time at the buffet to 90 minutes, but that is more than enough time for even the hardiest eater on the planet.

The buffet features American, seafood, sushi, Mediterranean, dim sum, and more. As well as many vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options.

After eating more than I can remember in years at one meal. I needed to walk off some of this, so I headed out for the strip. Across the street are Harrah’s and the Venetian. The Venetian also has a number of shows and a great deal of entertainment available. I might get tickets to a show or two while I am in town. Who knows, I might see if I can get some tickets with my player’s points from one of the casinos. I like doing that because even though you are not normal; it does feel like you are getting the show or food, or experience for free. On the rare occasion when gambling that you are ahead of the game, they are free experiences.

One thing that is neat for couples at the Venetian is the gondola rides. There is both an indoor and an outdoor version, so you can always do this if you want to. If you would rather cool off, there is the -5 experience with a bar and even your glasses are made from ice. That is nice on very hot days.

If you are not a gambler but want to learn, every casino offers classes to make you more comfortable. Or check out the wax figures at Madame Tussauds Las Vegas. People who love selfies like to hit this spot up for those almost impossible shots with a celebrity.

Day Three More of Vegas

I really enjoyed yesterday with the walk from location to location on the strip. Starting fairly early with the buffet worked well but today I think I will use my winnings and eat at some places I might not try was I not ahead of the game in winnings.

I said to myself, you are here in town, spend it.

Today I am starting the day off at the breakfast buffet at Wynn. This is the top-rated breakfast buffet in town. They open at 8 AM and I was there not too long after they opened. The hours and days of the week here matter and do vary, so check the website for details. The food was good, and it was nice having the breakfast items available.

Today I wanted to gamble some more but also see if I could find some unique experiences. Maybe something that at least felt high roller. Just to treat me and have fun.

After a hearty breakfast, I decided to hit a spa. There are amazing spas at the casinos and resorts for sure. But I went a little on the path and chose a more retail location. You might wonder why if I was going more, high roller style and that was because of the extras offered. I chose a place called Luxury Thai Spa. There you could get a 4 hands massage for 1 hour or more. I chose a 1.5-hour session. I figured I could always go to one of the larger casino locations too later if I still wanted to check out.

The first 20 minutes were almost painful because I was so tight, but after the first hour, I was just as calm and relaxed as I had ever been. Afterward, I chose to do another Ala cart style experience at a local float tank/room experience. This is where you go into a heated pool in a room or tank that has very high salt content, so you literally float very easily. You can also opt for sensory deprivation, which I prefer because it is very relaxing. Since your body feels so supported in the water, all of your muscles relax and your mind can wander quickly in the darkness.

Between the massage and the float, I was already into the afternoon now, and ready to gamble some again.

This time I headed to Caesars again because I wanted to start the day by waking back up some with the High Roller observation wheel happy hour ride. It is the largest observation wheel in the world and you can take a happy hour ride with an open bar that is a 30-minute ride with an all-you-can-drink experience. It goes up to 550 feet and has giant gondolas that have full-size bars and staff and look like they can easily hold 20 people or more.

After the amazing observation wheel and open bar experience, it was time to head back for a show that was comped and provided me with a front-row seat to a local hypnosis show.

Want an amazing Vegas experience you need to book with TZort for sure.