Our Vegas trip began with a non-stop flight out of Spokane Wa on Jan 16th. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 1:30pm and we planned to get to the airport at around noon.

We made a stop at a Safeway store in Spokane to pick up some sandwhiches for the flight and got to the airport in plenty of time. Of course since we had so much time to spare, there was no one at checkin, so we breezed right through that. Than walked up to security and guess what? Yup, no one on line there either. Little did we know that this no waiting trend would continue more or less uninterputed through out our visit.

We were pumped up, things were going so smoothly, but when we got to the gate we found our flight had been delayed 1 hour due to high winds in Las Vegas. So after waiting for what seemed like forever, the flight finally left and 2 hours later we were landing in Vegas.

Headed to baggae claim and after only waiting a few minutes our luggsge arrived. We walked out to the taxi line and walked right up to our cab. A $17.00 fare got us to the South Coast casino arriving about 5:30pm.

There are 2 banks of elevators, 6 cars per bank that service the guest room floors. One handles floors 2-12 and the other bank handles floors 14-25. This is nice, since it speeds up your trips. Going to the casino from our room, once we hit the 14th floor, we expressed it past the last 12 floors.
	We found the halls to be bright and smoke odor free.
This carpeting design is employed all over the hotel/casino.
	We were very pleased with our room. It was large, bright, and smelled really nice. Remember, this casino is less than 1 month old, so it still has that "new" smell.
We asked for 2 queen beds, and they were great. Big and comfortable and I really like the pillows, they were so fluffy.
>	After a hard day pounding the strip or doing battle against the slots, it sure was nice to crawl into one of these beds for a good nights sleep.
And nothing compliments a super comfortable bed like a 42" plasma high def wide screen TV with remote control. This really spoiled us. Now we are going to buy one of these puppies.
	The dressing area of the bathroom was large and the vanity could easily accomidate 2 people. The sink was deep which helped minimize splashing.
The toilet and bath/shower combo were in a seperate room and was plenty large enough to be comfortable. There was even a phone on the wall next to the toilet. I've never actually talked to someone on the phone while "taking care of busines", but I can see where that might be convieient.
	The dressing area came complete with hair dryer and really cool 1 cup coffee maker. There was only one packet each of regular/decaf coffee, but a note and nice tip to house keeping ensured a more than ample supply of regular coffee packets for the rest of our stay. The packets come with a single coffee serving in filter and tray for the coffee maker, all disposable.
The room also has a 6 drawer dresser and wireless keyboard and high speed internet connection if you have a lap top. Internet accesss cost like $10.00 a day I beleive.
>	Never having stayed in this area before, I didn't bother with trying the $20.00 trick for a better view. Hell I didn't know what views were even available, but this was ours.
I don't know what the mountain in the background with the snow is, but it looked nice. As you can see, this area is not really developed yet.
	This is just outside the covered arrival area.
Same view only a little further away.
	I guess they don't want you to take a pager into the sports book.

Since this is a new casino, and information is somewhat scarce on it's services, I'll take a few minutes to try and fill some of those blanks.

The South Coast has a Child Care Center right in the casino, 2nd floor. The cost is $6.00 per hour, per child. Parents must remain in the casino while their children are in the facility.

Facility staff are prohibited from administering any medicines or medications to the child whatsoever. Children are not permitted to self medicate themselves. If a child needs medications, the parents or guardian must be present to administer them personally no exceptions.

Children will only be released to a parent or guardian listed on the care contract. Picture identification is required. There is a security guard posted directly outside the facilty.

There is a 16 screen multiplex theater in the South Coast. Cost for tickets is $6.50 for shows before 6:00pm, about 9 bucks for others. It has a full service snack bar/cafe and is a nice diversion from gaming all day. We caught the movie "Fun with Dick and Jane" and enjoyed it a lot. Seats are arena style, and very comfortable.

The Garden Buffett is not too bad as buffets go. Cost is comparable with other Coast properties, with Monday night being steak night and Wed night being seafood night.

We took in the Steak Night and I found the filet mignon to be very tasty. I did not care for the strip steaks they were serving. Our meal included a free bottle of wine (we chose Merlot) with a coupon from our Fun Book.

Breakfast was not too bad, standard breakfast foods, but the omlette bar cooked my omlette exactly the way I like them. There was a lot of fresh fruits, which I filled up on.

I noticed during my stay that there were at least one $5.00 BJ and Craps table and even a $1.00 roulette table. We are not table game players, perfering the slots, so I can't comment on the games. We usually play the 25 cent slots, but I'll go as high as the dollar slots if I'm feeling lucky. For long time play we move down to nickle slots.

This time around, we decided to cash out of any machine where we racked up a $50.00 win or more and put that money into our "booty pool". Than at the end of the trip we would count up what we had and see where we were.

This worked out well, and imagine our surprise when the booty pool count came up at $2,000 when we got home. That 42" plasma TV is looking a lot closer this week than last.

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Marie had the first lucky jackpot of the trip on this $360.00 payout at the South Coast
	A closer look at her jackpot. Notice you have the option to change the amount you can wager on the machine. I don't remember seeing those on my last visit.
A short time later I racked up this nice little win.
	A close up view of my little bit of luck.
A quaint little win at the MGM.
	Marie didn't want to be out done, so she made her own contribution to the pool.
A cheerful little $200 win on the dollar slots in the Flamingo.
	I don't remember where I got this win. I think it might have been the MGM.
This was one of 4 hits I got outside Tony Roma's at the Freemont down town. Decided to play a few games while waiting for a table. I put a total of four $5.00 bills into this machine and took $211.00 out.
	Later that night back at the South Coast I lined up this little $90.00 gem.

There were a number of additional smaller jackpots, but even the small ones added up to a nice little haul for this trip.

The Luxor has always been one of my favorite places to visit. I just like the theme here
	I like this greeting at the entrance when you step off the tram.
Ah... The obelisk....
	I wonder if these actually mean anything?
The Flamingo pool was closed to almost everyone!
	I met this little fella on the bridge between NY/NY and MGM. He gave me a nasty look for having the nerve to interupt his lunch, a sarcastic little chirp, than flew off.
Heres a view of the Stratosphere taken from the monorail station at the Saharah. The thing on the left that looks like a crane is actually a ride.
	Heres another view. On the right, you can see the ride that dangles people out over the edge..... You can also see the "Big Shot" ride and roller coaster.
Here we have an alien show from the Freemont St experience.
	A little salute to the good old USA.
And yet still more.
	Here we have the infamous Deep Fried Twinkie. It is actually very good, though it contains about a gazillion calories.

This was a fun trip (they all are when you win, right?). I mentioned earlier that this trip seemed to have a No Waiting policy. I was surprised, but with the exception of having to wait for a table at Tony Roma's and a short wait for a Duce bus at the Flamingo, it seemd that our timing was perfect.

If we wanted to take the monorail north, it was coming into the station as we entered. If we wanted to go south, the southbound was approaching as we walked into the station.

After spending a night downtown, we walked to the bus stop, lo and behold, there was a duce bus, getting ready to pull out. We boarded, and got choice seats on the upper level.

There did not appear to be nearly as many people on the strip and downtown as in past visits. For us, that was a good thing, I hate having to battle crowds.

I really liked this casino. Being new, it smelled good and looked good. I quit smoking about 7 months ago, so my nose is still very sensitive to the smell of cigarette smoke. I can smell it from 1/4 mile away. I could detect no such odors in the room or non-smoking floors, nor as a general rule in the casino, unless someone was smoking near by. Everything worked according to design specifications. All the staff were pleasant and helpful.

The only draw back was it was so far from the heart of the action. It is about a 7 mile trip to the strip, and depending on traffic, it is a trip that could take close to an hour.

Being new it did not have the same amount of cabs that strip hotels have, so it could be a long wait for a taxi. You can have the Bell Desk call a cab for you but you will still have a wait.

As like other coast properties, this one has a shuttle that runs from the South Coast to the Barbary Coast. Originally, it was running about once an hour. But they seemed to have streamlined that a little.

The shuttles are posted with signs that say you must present a room key to ride the shuttle, but I only saw one instaence where a driver actually asked for them.

The shuttles only hold 19 people and I notcied some drivers tend to leave once the bus gets full, so even if the schedule shows a depart time of say 10:45, it may depart a lot sooner than that. It is a good idea to get to the pick up point early, just in case.

The shuttle picks up and departs from the exit next to the Silverado Steak House. They had just started an airport shuttle, but it only runs twice a day and I don't have the schedule or pick up times available.

Well this concludes my trip report. I hope you enjoyed reading it and seeing my pictures. I'm not the worlds best photographer, but I did my best.

Would I stay at the South Coast again? Yes, probably, once the shuttle and taxi situation improves. As I said, I really liked the place and the folks working there seem to be doing their best to make their guests happy.

Comments or Questions