Our last full day in Vegas was spent half relaxing, half going all over the place. We woke up around 10am, as usual, and spent some time journaling and writing the blog post. I spent the next two hours navigating Jess's computer, catching brief moments of Wi-Fi where I could add the photographs to the blog. It's been a process the whole time and it wasn't going to get easier any time soon. Luckily, today was my last day doing that so I can't complain too much. While I finagled Jess and I watched whatever was on TV while we chit-chatted and enjoyed the room. We had our two burritos, of course, but tried to space out our food eating so we would have an empty stomach for all the pasta we were planning on consuming.
We stayed chillaxing and generally hanging around in the room until 3:30pm when we were dressed and ready for our one outing of the day to Bally's Buca de Depepo for their $13.99 All You Can Eat Pasta. We brought along Jess's student ID as well, in case the Eiffel Tower was open and we were feeling like going up. We knew we would have to try and finagle me getting the student discount because my ID was, as I said, home in Florida because why would I have thought to bring it? Now, technically, neither Jess nor I are current students, but student ID's don't have expiration dates and $27 to go to the top of a tower in Vegas is a life-ruining amount of money as far as I'm concerned. So, we packed it and Jess's phone to see if maybe showing them my Stetson Acceptance email would be enough. This was all supposing it was even up and running at all.
We arrived at Paris around 4 but stopped off at the Eiffel Tower ticket booth first to see if they were actually running. There was a line and people seemed to be buying tickets so we assumed it must be back up and worked out a plan of attack for the ID situation. We decided our best grift was acting like we're gonna pull out both, then being shocked when there's only one. Shock would turn to panic as we pull a bit of us trying to remember where we could have left it. It was my ID so I would play the Nervous Nelly desperately searching and trying to remember when it could be while Jess would be a Pollyanna, optimistically assuring me it's probably back at the hotel room in the wallet. The grift worked, cause while Jess and I have limited skills we are award winning actors and we've considered it lucky for many people we didn't turn to con-jobs or MLM's. The tickets with the discount were $13.50, which is still more than the student discount to go to the top of the actual Eiffel Tower, but it was more reasonable and we were cool with paying $27 flat for both of us.
We bought tickets for the 6pm-7pm hour, meaning we could get in line at any point between that hour, which gave us plenty of time to head over and get food! We arrived at Buca's around 4:30 and were seated right away. The hostess recognized us from yesterday when we asked about the mean and we had a laugh about us never being able to blend in! We ordered two waters and the AYCE pasta right away and we were given it right away! The pasta's are all already made and sitting in giant vats with a chef where you can see him making and seasoning it so they're always ready to go. If I was at Olive Garden I would've been sitting 20 minutes to get served and another 20 for one bowl of fettucine alfredo. Instead we were served immediately four fabulous bowls of pasta! The AYCE deal starts you off with one bowl of each pasta you can have, regular spaghetti and red sauce, penne alfredo, baked ziti, and some broccoli and cheese pasta dish that wasn't listed on the menu so we never knew the name. It's possible it was on the menu and we're just dippys who don't know words for food, but it was green and cheesy! From those 4 you eat all of them, or whatever you like, then order repeat bowls of the ones you like the best. We liked the baked ziti best and knew we would be ordering more bowls of that one. The alfredo was great, but I already feel it's too filling for an AYCE.
While we were eating the table next to us was getting their water drinks cleared when a glass slipped from the waiters hand and spilled all over the man sitting there! Nightmare fodder! The waiter seemed so sorry, and so upset, and we were worried he was going to get in trouble, but the couple seated there was very polite and understanding. The manager came over after to do damage control and they again said they were fine. The manager asked if they wanted free drinks or deserts and they initially refused, saying it wasn't necessary, but hen she asked again they asked if they could get one of the meals comped. The manager was happy to oblige and the couple was happy no matter what, so life was good all around.
We ate 6 bowls of pasta in total, ordering two more of the baked ziti, meaning our order was really $5 a bowl which we were totally satisfied with! We couldn't believe they offered this great deal for so cheap period! $13.99 for one bowl of pasta is cheap for Vegas prices! But AYCE? Insane! We didn't eat any bread mostly because we didn't get any. We didn't even know e were supposed to until our waiter asked us if we needed more pasta or bread, at which point he seemed to realize he never brought us any. We just waived it off saying we were totally good, so full on pasta, which was true. I was very grateful we didn't have bread brought because I would have either been tempted to eat it and lose pasta space or it would have been wasted because we were saving room for pasta. At this point during the dinner I got up to see about splitting a $20 so I would have tip money and I was directed to a machine that does it for you! You just put whatever you have in and it splits it into smaller bills for you! Wish we had one of those at work, people always need bills split! Wish we had more of them everywhere actually, I mean how convenient!
With that fascinating discovery made we meandered through Bally's to Paris, strolling leisurely as we still had 25 minutes before 6:00pm. We popped into a Viva Vegas store, another one of those tacky Vegas shops all over the strip, and searched for a gift for our father. We'd gotten one for our mother on the Linq Promenade but still hadn't found anything for dad. We thought we found the perfect thing, a $3.99 shift but it turns out it was not only in the $9.99 section but they charge $2 extra for XXL's in a practice I refer to as a Fat Tax. There's arguably no reason to charge more for the extra size besides hating fat people. That's it. "But the extra fabric", no, the fabric difference between an XS and an L are significantly larger than an L and XXL and there's no price difference for those. It's absolute nonsense. So, we didn't get the shirt, but we did discover a lovely unicorn-pegasus Vegas stuffed animal that I just had to have. I'd gotten my new cup, but I needed a new stuffed animal, and this one as exactly what I needed! That purchase in hand we headed for the escalator to the Eiffel Tower elevator. Except the tickets they sent to the Tracphone wouldn't open so we had to go back, stand in line, and get them printed. It did gie us a chance to hit the bathroom again though, as we were told there wouldn't be one in line or at the top so it was our last chance, and boy were we glad we did! The line wasn't exceptionally long on the bridge to the elevator, but because they could only take one group at a time up and they only had two elevators we waited for almost hour, from 6:30pm to 7:20pm before we got to go up. By then the line was way longer and people were going to be waiting for likely 2 hours to go up. Hope they didn't have reservations to keep anywhere!
In the elevator the girl operating it chit-chatted with us about having bangs and how they never grow in right and how self-trimming is a reality but it always comes our wrong. She as sweet and we liked her a lot. At the top we were 7 minutes off from the Bellagio Fountain show, of which the Eiffel Tower had a perfect view! Except, of course, for the cage that surrounds the whole thing which seemed to surprise everyone up there. Jess and I knew it was the same at the top of the actual Eiffel Tower but... yeah? They don't want people falling, jumping, or dropping things. That's how it is. Regardless, Jess and I got a great spot and watched the show, a My Heart Will Go On performance which we both agreed was way longer than the daytime performance! It was awesome, but the view period was too! You could see the whole strip and city from up there, all lit up in it's evening glow! We hung around and just looked at it for quite a while before we joined the increasingly long line to go back downstairs. We apparently got up there just in time as the second elevator had malfunctioned and they were now don to one. Double yikes for the people waiting to get up! We didn't wait too long, maybe 15 minutes, but we chitchatted with the attendant directing people about elevator malfunctions at our hotel and how the elevator people never actually fix the problem. Inside the elevator we talked with the operator about being twins and all it's glory, a topic of which we get to be experts, and exited the whole experience around 8:30pm.
The walk home took half an hour as we were enjoying our last walk through the strip and we walked into the Tropicana at exactly 9pm. We knew we were going to miss the evening dinner we're provided but after the pasta we knew we weren't going to be hungry for the rest of the evening and were fine with that. We decided this evening, at long last, we were going to do some gambling! Yes, actual gambling! I split our remaining $20 into four $5 (the splitter at our hotel asking you how you would like to split it rather than deciding for you like at Bally's) leaving us with five $5 to spend at the moment. Our first $5 game was a Lucky 8 slots spinner thing which we liked a lot! Jess got it up to $8, but we weren't looking to win really, just play so we put it all back into the game eventually. We wandered and played a Wonder Woman slot, FarmVille slot, Clinko, and some other random named one. With that we were out of money but we elected to get changed into some warmer clothes, drop off our stuff, get one of our Four Loco's (which we'd started in the afternoon before leaving for lunch), grab more money and go play some more!
We grabbed two $20's and headed right back to the Lucky 8 game! It had a Chinese theme and a fun minigame you could unlock if you got three Power Wheels in a row and Jess and I had really enjoyed it so we decided to return to that one and play $20, then put the second $20 when we ran out cause it was our favourite and we were having a blast playing! We did get carded while there, which I'd been prepared for and had brought our ID's in my pocket! I know we look (and sometimes act) like we're 16 year old idiots but the woman was very friendly, just doing her job and I respect it! Kids shouldn't be gambling, it's not chill and I totally get them enforcing it strongly! Gambling is dangerous for adults, let alone teenagers and children who aren't clear what's going on and see it as a game. She swung by a few times that evening to check on us, probably to make sue were in fact just overly peppy and giggly girls and not gambling while drunk out of our mind. We did have a drink though, the Four Loco but we finished it at a certain point so I sent myself back up for the room and got the second one for us. We merrily drank that as we continued to play our fun game. We loved getting the Power Wheels because you got to play a game where you had to 'catch' koi fish that swam across the screen and that was super fun. Also you got more money when you got the game but we were really just looking for fun times!
We kept getting our money back though, kept getting back to just about or a little over $20 so we just kept playing! At a certain point Jess went up for the bathroom and asked someone the time and it was 11:30pm on the dot. We knew we had to be up around 8am the following morning and we'd been playing for about 2 hours by then but we weren't sure we wanted to cash out yet. Almost immediately after we got one final Power Wheel that put us at $30.51 and we decided that was the time to cash out! We we're going to get higher than $30 back from $20 in so we took our ticket, cashed out at the same machine you split bills at, and returned to the room. Jess was significantly more buzzed than I was so she laid down and ate the chicken fingers we hadn't finished the night before while I got everything packed around her. Everything that could be put away, was, and was put away efficiently and orderly. We needed to now be able to fit the large Paris cup into one of the bags so I had to be creative with the packing. It wasn't really difficult though, as long as all the clothes were put in one suitcase there was plenty of room in the other for anything we had! We would have to carry the large fan and the stuffed pega-corn, but we didn't think that would be a problem when we went on the plane.
With as much packed as I could manage for the evening I set an alarm for 8am, though technically I set it for 11am because my clock had never changed to Vegas time and every time I've tried to adjust it in the past it's screwed everything us so I just lived with it. Alarm set and ready Jess and I crawled into our beds, watched 2 Broke Girls, and talked about how much fun we'd had that evening, our first night ever gambling! It was a total Stripperella series finale night and a perfect closing evening to our fabulous time in Vegas!
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