Tuesday

I started the day with breakfast at the “Spice Market Buffet” where $20 buys you all you can eat from dozens of choices, including custom omelettes, lox and bagels and enough bacon to employ a dozen cardiac surgeons. I'm sure everyone is asked “Would you like the all day, all properties buffet pass for $40”, but if you saw my gut, you wouldn't want to see me coming back for lunch and dinner too.

When I finished breakfast it was time to visit Caesars Palace, which was about a 15 minute walk. The tour of Caesars Palace included a couple of high-end suites, but unfortunately for our group, most suites were full, so we didn't get to see “The Hangover Suite.” but you can see that they have some nice rooms for their top players.From the suite tour we went on a SWEET tour of the Qua Spa and fitness center.

Sweet, because it's very nice place and we get a free pass. Unfortunately the hotels in vegas are so huge, that you often make decisions based on how much your feet hurt. My particular problem is that i wanted to work out on the stepper, but didn't want to walk back to Planet Hollywood for my work out clothes.

We had lunch at Serendipity an ice cream/sandwich shop located in front of Caesars palace along the side walk of Las Vegas Blvd. You can walk right in without going all the way into the casino, hotel or mall. If you haven't been to their place in NYC make sure to try their Frozen Hot Chocolate. After that, i'll definitely work out at the spa.

Thankfully $50 bucks at the Nike store got me shorts and shirt and saves a 30 minute round trip to the room. One workout and an hour or two in the hot tubs, steam room, arctic room (55F with snowflakes falling) and chilling in the tea lounge I was relaxed and pretty much ready for sleep. This is where the Diamond Life event doesn't accurately reflect the life of the player, dinner was scheduled at 6pm at the Strip House, the Planet Hollywood steak house.

A real player can stay back in the room and chill out and skip dinner, but i feel obligated to both our readers and Harrah's the i make it to all the events. It was an easy sacrifice on my part, since it was a chance to meet more of the Harrah's management team and eat some great beef Filet and NY Strip steak, which combined with their potatoes Romanoff and creamed truffle spinach were absolutely delicious. I'm a huge creamed spinach fan, but a number of fellow Diamond bloggers had similar opinion.

After dinner it was time to see “Peepshow” staring Holly Madison, which is the topless show at Planet Hollywood. The show was enjoyable and not just because of topless women, but because it was fun. Don't bother bringing your camera and turn off your phone; they will search your bag before letting you in.

Once the show ends we meet up as a group and prepare to head to the hottest Nightclub on the strip, Pure at Caesars Palace. The trip to Pure for me, was really taking one the team. I hate loud clubs, i'm into classic rock, not hip-hop and dance music and i don't like being in crowds. When we arrived at Pure there were dozens of people waiting in line to get in.

Here it was a reservation by the Harrah's PR group, that got us in the fast lane and led us up to a rooftop cabana complete with A/C. I stayed for a couple of drinks then headed back to my room to get some sleep. The younger folks spent couple more hours there and seemed to have enjoyed the extra time.

Wednesday

So this day is all about the Expendables premiere. We don't meet up as a group again until 2:30 so i have a few hours to myself. I went to breakfast, then to the casino to play a bit of craps and poker and do my best to help pay Harrah's back for my trip. Despite winning $300 on slots, the lose 700 on craps and poker nearly drained my bankroll for the week. We met up for a meet and greet with Randy Couture at a bar in the casino. After some drinks with the other members of the group we headed off to the high limit table games and met with Harrah's VP of Table games and a free $100 bet for each of us at the blackjack table.

Bill Z, the VP told us about how the casinos deal with the big money players, those who come to make millions of Dollars of bets during a trip. Big players should call a number of casinos to see which will offer the best deals. Bill also had a few stories about cheaters, thieves and a player turned away who went to MGM and beat them for $25 million dollars. After Bill had chatted with us we went on to play our $100 blackjack hand. 5 of us sat down, played a hand.

One guy hit and busted, then the dealer busted, leaving 4 of the 5 of us $100 richer.After locking myself out my room i went back to the strip house restaurant where an “Expendables” tweetup as scheduled so we eat, drink and tweet about the day. The tuna tartar, open face sliders and slices of their strip steaks were great, though i do wish they'd stock Sam Adams and more European beers.

Then it was time to go wait with the “traditional” media along the red carpet for Sly Stallone and other celebrities to arrive for the premier of “Expendables” movie. After 3 hours of standing and few decent celebrity shots i've learned 2 things, first the young guys feet hurt as much or more than mine and that i don't think i'll do that again. The red carpet finally cleared, the movie premier began, about 90 minutes later. It was definitely a guy movie with all the formulaic devices: Somali pirates, rogue secret agents, drug dealers, etc. We even got a car chase and shoot out through the city and all kinds of bad guys being killed in all kind of nasty ways.

It was loud, funny and i felt, an enjoyable comic book, like Sgt. Fury when i was a kid. Rather than calling it “Expendables” they probably should have called it “The stuntman and explosives industry jobs act”. I've never seen so many explosions or such a huge stunt crew in a single movie.With the movie over, it was time for the after party where drinks, shrimps and other goodies were available and plentiful. They even had a sweet table with many of the same items we had Monday night. I spent an hour trying to mingle, in a room where the music was too loud for this old guy. So i headed off to bed thinking of heading back home in the morning.

Thursday

This morning I went to the coffee shop, Planet Dailies for a breakfast of Lobster Benedict, a version of the classic with lobster meat and asparagus under the eggs, priced at $20. It was quite the value with 2 claws worth of meat under each egg and most importantly it was delicious, with the English Muffin still slightly crunchy throughout my meal. I asked for and received an extra hour to check-out and headed to the airport, via a Planet Hollywood limo, driven by a retired Coast Guard chopper pilot for my 2pm flight home.

I certainly enjoyed living the diamond life and strongly encourage anyone who heads out to the casino to join the player perks programs. I thank Harrah'sTotal Rewards for the trip and for not missing a beat. I give this program a positive review because it was a very positive experience in Las Vegas, a place I love to visit.