Sleep – ain’t no sleeping in vegas man… TR 11/28 – 12/1

Sleep – ain’t no sleeping in vegas man… TR 11/28 – 12/1

AKA Vegas Virgins go out to play

Long TR. Summary at the bottom. Comments very welcome and may be ignored if I disagree with them



The who what where why….

Mike- that’s me. Nearing 40, English native living in New Hampshire. Been known to drink on occasion and have the odd bet here and there… However that rarely happens these days now I’m settled down and a responsible member of society. Mostly. Always wanted to go to Vegas but combinations of factors stopped it – mostly due to the fact that keeping a roof over the head of Management and Jr management is top priority.
Pete – same age. Lives in England. Married and with more kids than me! Used to go drinking a lot with a local reprobate but has practically stopped since that character moved abroad…

Anyway Pete had a lot of vacation stored and had to use before year end. So as the wife has returned to college and the kids are at school he can’t go with them so he decides to do his xmas shopping in New Hampshire – figuring that with the exchange rate the cost of the trip will be a wash for the xmas present – so he calls me to check if its ok to land on my door step… no worries. I arrange for him to arrive Thanksgiving eve and stay for 2 weeks.
A couple of days after the arrangement is made I was poking around online and I saw that I had airmiles that were expiring - enough for a couple of trips inside the USA. I wanted a weekend away with Pete anyway – guy time, drinking, smoking, lying about golf and our sex life – usual stuff. I check out Boston, New York, Montreal – but kept coming back to the thought of Vegas. Check out hotel prices… Ok – lets bite the bullet and go for it…. talk to management!! She is a “Hell yes – do it – I don’t want to go so you may as well.†So I call Pete…â€Pete – fancy a trip to Vegas….†(Thought it would be best to tell him rather than spring it – beside his wife would kill me if I didn’t tell her…).

Petes all for it – his wife is good with it – and my wife wants payback – a girls time out in New York when Petes wife turns up next year – Damn now THAT will cost me!! OK – lets do it – everyone is in agreement, the airmile seats are available, I can get time off work – basically the stars lined up and told me to get my ass to Vegas. So I did.

After a lot of time checking out message boards and asking the same old questions that everyone else asks I have a 20 page document of things for consideration to do in Vegas.

Tuesday, 28th November.

Wifes out so she can’t give me a lift to Boston so it’s the bus. Get the early one to make sure we get there in plenty of time. Hahaha. Didn’t we just. Flight was delayed so end up spending nearly 5 hours in Boston. Great. COME ON PEOPLE VEGAS IS WAITING FOR ME. Finally get off the ground – no worries about missing a connection as the flight is just stopping in Chicago then onto Vegas. More Delays. Get in at 10.30pm vegas time. Woo hoo – only been up some 17 hours and traveling for 14 of that.

Get a cab and hoy it straight to Main Street so we can drop our bag off and get a full nights sleep. Yeah right. Check in (got the hotel for 3 nights at $40 a night) and head out for some food. We are hungry. Man hungry. Need meat. So off we go to the Upper Deck at the LV club. Check the menu out and then get the little card with the graveyards specials. Steak and eggs and hash browns for 3.50. Now that’s man food. Lets do it. so we down that (great great value and pretty bloody good food) along with coffee and water and decide just to take a quick look down Fremont Street before getting some sleep. So off we go hitting all the casinos on the LV club side of the street. Picking up a beer here and there and dropping enough coin in the slots to get drinks. Low level slots. Very low level. Good fun though – won a few dollars – normally as much as I was handing out in tips so I’m good with that. Spent a bit of time on the Star Wars machine and was chatting to some guy who’d spend 6 hours churning through a Dollar on the same machine at the Bellagio – and got very drunk in the process!

Ended up down by Neonopolis so as I’d heard that you could get coupons for out of staters at the FSE office I took a quick look for that – couldn’t find it – however like a beacon in the darkness of night I saw the sign.. EL CORTEZ.
Its 3am, downtown Vegas – hell it has to be done – over we stroll. Saw nothing on the way ( it was very cold for vegas though – and still warmer than normal NH temps so no problems there) Go into the cortez and took a look around – hurrah $3 blackjack!! SO I sit down for a $20 session whilst Pete hits another slot. Get playing and then I get the “Can the El Cortez buy you a drink, Sir†Hell yes it can – a vodka tonic please. I love that phrase. So carried on playing and got the drink. The worst VT of my life. It was rank, awful, terrible gross. I drank it.

The money bled away and I quit the table – a whole $15 down but wise to the quality of the vodka. I took my new drink (beer) and went to find Pete – who was having a great time – by the look of it he was at least $2 up. As he’d never played live table games in a casino I got him to make a move over to the blackjack for a session. We played ok, kept drinking (no vodka) and both made a bit of money – I won back all my previous losses and posted about $10 extra on top. It was late though and I was tired – so we decided to quit and made our way back up Fremont popping our heads in a couple of casinos to have a look – very quiet thought (who would have thunk that on the coldest Tuesday night in vegas in November for years) We popped into the Plaza and found our way to the poker table for a quick look - very rowdy, very friendly and a decent crowd – however I was too tired to jump in – but we knew where we could get a game at some point.

So back to Main Street for some sleep where we did the sensible thing – walked straight through the casino and took a left into the Brewpub. I was heading for the elevators. Hey - it’s a mistake that anyone could make. Plus it was happy hour so we felt obliged to have a drink. Or 2. tested the beers (I like the Nitro Porter), made a couple of drunken “Guess where I am?†calls and then I decided to call it quits. Not that I wanted to sleep but there was still a few days left in Vegas! Finally go to the room (it was clean , fairly quiet and had a good view of the Plaza and the start of Fremont Street) and into bed at 6.40. At 6.42 my phone goes and it the wife calling to make sure we’d arrived. Ten minutes later finally settled down for a long deep sleep. Woke at 10.30am – saw that Pete had made it back so I headed into the bathroom to make as much noise as I could.
He woke up not seeing the funny side of things but that wasn’t my problem so I told he that we were going a’hunting for coupons and tickets so he’d better get a move on.

Wednesday.
We got out of the room about 11ish. (I didn’t even take my watch with me – couldn’t care less about the time). And head down the FSE to locate the office. Finally got it and was given a coupon sheet for some down town places. Got out and had a quick look at them – umm – nothing too great but as we were there we decided some food would be a good idea- at that end it was Mollys or the Paradise buffet. We went with the Paradise (you then have to exchange the coupon for a voucher at the Players club). No queue so straight in for the lunch buffet. Food wasn’t great – tried bits of everything and wasn’t too keen on going back up – but as I was still hungry I tried the salad bar. Excellent – loads of cold cuts on there so I Grabbed a load of them and bread, sauces and salad and proceeded to make monster sandwiches out of them. Stage Deli – eat ya heart out!!!. Bread wasn’t great but the rest was ok. So loaded up on sandwiches and didn’t need to worry about food again for a while so we headed out to the ½ price ticket office across the street and managed to get tickets to the Fab Forever show at the V theater for later that day.
Having sorted that we returned to the hotel and grabbed cameras etc for the trip up the strip. I went down to the bell desk to ask for more info about the busses to the strip – I’d heard that it was a “cat†bus.
“Hi – I need to go up the strip – where do I get the Cat fromâ€
“Right hereâ€
“Here? Great – where?â€
“Just outside the doorâ€
“thanks – and what time does it go?â€
“Whenever you like – We’ll get one for youâ€
(I’m now thinking what a great service this is – I like it!) “and where exactly does it drop off?â€
“Where ever you wantâ€
“Really – so I could get it back home to New Hampshire?â€
“I’m sure you could if you could afford itâ€
“Why? How much is it?â€
“Depends where you are goingâ€
“Are you talking about the Bus to the Strip – because that’s what I wantâ€
“Bus? No – you were asking about cabsâ€
arrrrghhh. Beats head against nicely polished desk.

Anyway it turns out I wanted the Duece. Double decker bus from the Bus Station (or the stop right by Fremont and LV Boulevard). Cost - $5 for a 24 hour pass or $2 for a single trip. And no the driver can’t make change. So we jump on that and head up the strip – just looking around and see in whats going on. Jump off opposite Paris and have a look – few photos then heading to the Dessert Passage to get our tickets.

No problem doing that but its still an hour or so to the show so that means beer!! Popped into Blondies for a beer (this was the place that I was intending to check out for football (soccer) which it was showing but I hadn’t got there in time for the game I wanted). Wandered in. The bar was rammed – the tables were free but after waiting 5 minutes for Service and getting nowhere we quit and went over to the Mexican bar across the passage and had a couple there. Able to get to the bar on the inside that looks out so we just drank and people watched for a bit.
Joined the queue for the show and waited to get in – The VIP bit is all the seats with tables in the middle – I wasn’t that bothered but when we did get in we were able to snag a couple of the bar stools at the back – meaning we looked out above the rest of the crowd and got an excellent view. The show was very good – all live so its wasn’t perfect Musically but that was fine. Too much linking between the sets and too much of the later Beatles stuff but that’s a personal thing. The only bad thing are the accents – mostly they were terrible!! However the music and getting the crowd going worked fine. Couldn’t believe some people leaving early though (about 5 or 6) – nutters. Having no-one behind us meant that we were obstructing anyones view as we stood up and danced, swayed and generally enjoyed ourselves. If you like the Beatles – go see it – the ½ price tickets are good value.
Got out of there and walked around the rest of the Dessert Passage – very impressively done with the sky etc. dropped into the Aladdin for a quick gamble and a beer – which the Aladdin paid me $5 to drink. Once we’d got a beer we left and wandered up the strip as far as NYNY, taking a few photos and looking around.
Jumped back on the deuce to downtown and checked out the strip view at night. Jumped off at Fremont and took a wander up the street. Rodeo was in town so there were plenty and Country and Western bands playing, some chick (Deanna Carter?) on stage (covered up in a very big coat due to the weather) and some others I didn’t recognize plus one poor guy at the Plaza end of the street who no-one was listening to!! Got a few pics of the street and signs and each other plus someone riding the mechanical bull – which I declined! OK – its nearly 10pm, we want drink but we have cameras etc – so we quickly dump them at the room and get back to Fremont. I suggest going to La Bayou for a drink. However Pete isn’t keen on the idea of fruit drinks so I suggest a Mudslide to him. “Mudslide? Whats a Mudslide?†He says. “Its Chocolate based†I say. “Oh that’s ok – I can drink thatâ€. OH dear. In we go – getting beads on the way of course. We belly up to the bar at the back and I order a cranberry based drink. They are nearly out of it as they top it up with some orange shite. Pete orders the mudslide. Naturally we order double the alcohol and end up with some fecking monster Football of death. Pete decides to play the slots in there. And wins – real coins. He’s impressed. So he carries on playing. I lose $5 so I stop and watch him – he keeps playing for ever (it seems) – and the combination of machine hopping, juggling real coins, smoking and drinking stupid drinks is getting harder and harder. About 2/3rds of the way down the drink (in less than an hour) I can see that he’s shutting down. He can’t see it. We leave and stand on the street for a bit discussing what to do next. Which basically involves me trying to persuade him to ditch the drink so that we can play all night before he has too much. His response alternates between telling me how much cheaper this drink is than in England (logic which I was struggling to follow as he’d never heard of a mudslide an hour earlier – but I wasn’t going to argue) and that meant he had to finish it – and then he’d be agreeing with me that he had to ditch the drink – but nodding at me and drinking really fast - like a kid with a carton of juice that you have to take away – trying their best to finish it. The only thing I couldn’t do is take a drink out of his hands – that would be morally wrong. Eventually it was ditched – ¾ gone on the agreement that we get some food and that instead of mudslides we go and watch mudwrestling instead (drunk logic!!). So we went off to the diner in the Golden gate and ordered a couple of 99c shrimp cocktails and ordered one of the speciallity sandwiches to split – however by the time we’d changed the sandwich around to suit us it looked nothing like the one on the menu. I’m sure the staff have seen it all before. We sat and started eating – well I did. Pete tried the shrimp and didn’t like the sauce (how he could taste it I don’t know) – then started the drunk slump on the table. I kindly left him to it whilst I finished my shrimp and sandwich, poked him a couple of times to ascertain the level of consciousness then, feeling safe, I ate his ½ of the sandwich as well. With that all done and no danger of Pete carrying on drinking that night, the best course of action was to return to the room. I got some water – woke him and got him to drink it. then it was straight out of the side entrance in order that he’d be able to see the hotel. Bad move – he though that was good enough and decided he needed to sit and rest. On the sidewalk outside the golden gate. A couple of smokes later he still wasn’t ready (- although he was telling me that he’d be fine and that I could just go gamble and leave him there on the floor because he’d be fine…ummmm) so I had a chat the to the Security Guard for about 10 minutes about the area and where he went out. As he put it – he didn’t drink or play in Fremont street – he preferred places where the Prostitutes didn’t have syphilis! OK then.
I eventually got Pete up and moving and we did the drunken best buddy walk down the street – me holding him up! Got back to the room and given the state he was in I decided that if he puked I didn’t want anything to do with it – so I left him with strict instructions to sleep and call me when he woke – if I wasn’t back by then!

Naturally I did the sensible thing. Went drinking cos I hadn’t had enough! Wandered down to the Plaza and sat at a machine for 30 mins or so to sort myself out (aided by beer). Then decided it was time for blackjack – got on a $5 game with a couple of cowboys and spend an excellent 3 hours drinking vodka and tonic (MUCH better than the El Cortez) and slowly bleeding off a couple of hundred bucks. Very choppy session but a couple of runs had the dealer hitting everything. I quit after that and took a walk over to the Poker room (room? Space!) Only 1 table playing and looked like a good mix so I jumped in for another 50. just what I needed to be doing at 4am drunk!! Held my own for about 90 mins then Pete called – he’d woken up and wondered where I was – when I told him he said he’d join me. At that point I started losing!! Down to about $10 when he pitched up – mainly to one guy called jeff – nice guy – happy to be winning but he was hitting everything. I bought another 40 when Pete turned up and carried on – just then jeff’s luck turned – to the point that if he was in a pot I was calling out “Jeff’s in - I’m betting’ without looking at my cards and would then proceed to beat him 9 out of 10 times. Wound up playing til about 9.30 am then Pete and I were the only ones left on the table – and I’m not paying a dealer to play heads up with him! (PS Pete did hit 4 9’s in this session – a bonus $90 for him – which he promptly lost!!) I Cashed out $10 so a 4 hour session for about $80 down – oh well.. Being as I’d had about 3 to 4 hours sleep in the previous 50 odd hours (and I was a little bit drunk ) I decided that it was time to eat and crash. Headed over to MSS for the breakfast Buffet – pretty good – especially the omelets – then I finally hit the room and passed out whilst Pete went and played.

4 hours later I woke and grabbed a shower – washed my face and realized that my eyes were very bright – bright red that is!! I manned up, got dressed and headed back to the plaza, tried to called Pete but got no response so I stuck a $5 in a machine and got a drink – then got a call from him. “Where are you?†I ask, “Las Vegas†he replies.. “No shit Sherlock!â€â€¦ turns out he meant the LV club.. I cashed out and headed over there and met up. We tooled around a few casinos doing some hit and runs on machines (especially the Star wars ones and one called Triple 7 stars or something for me. I came the the conclusion that the best machine to play on was the one next to Mike. I couldn’t hit a damn thing and everytime someone sat down next to me they’d win. Even Pete did it – sat down next to me – could hit decided to cash out and pressed max bet by mistake – and quickly turn a dollar into $30 – on the penny machine… arrrggggg.

I was still a bit of a mess so after a few more hours drinking we decided to eat and head back to MSS for the Filet Minion and shrimp buffet (2 for 1 of course!) – pretty good. After that it was time to be sensible and play a bit more at various casinos – mainly the plaza with live music in the background (not too close – it was a C&W band) until about 2am then get some sleep – after all we actually had a plan! It was the last night in the hotel but our flight didn’t leave until 12.30am the next day so I got a late check out to max the time in the room if needed. So a 2am crash then up and at them the next morning – I wanted to try Poker again – but fairly sober this time. SO off to the early morning session at the plaza – fairly lively group of people – good laugh and the first 5 hands I got were playable so my $40 buy in turned into about $150 very quickly. The guy next to me was calling everything - and he didn’t have a hand – he didn’t last long. I did get a long streak of nothing but still played a couple and lost. Then I hit the biggest stack on the table for a healthy cash return when his qq88 was beaten by my king 8 full house – he wasn’t too happy about that!! Did about 4 hours at the table in which pete got wiped after 3 hours and I cashed out $100 from by $40 buy in – more than happy with that.(you meant I play better poker the more sober I am – now there’s a novel idea..)

We did get to see the worlds oldest cocktail waitress though – to be fair she probably looked good in the 20’s. that’s the 1920’s.

Back to the hotel and check out then we left the bags at MSS and casino hopped – back to the El Cortez for the afternoon and table hopped. Luck completely turned on me there – got 2 $20 buy ins at $3 blackjack completely wiped out then hit $5 pai gow. I was up for a while and colored up $50 and went for a walk. Back to the table after 30 mins. Pete was still there and still had his original $5 chip on the bet – he hadn’t lost in an hour and was about $40 up!! I bought back in and promptly lost it whilst Pete went down about $15. We cashed out of the El Cortez – me down in there about $100 and Pete up maybe $20 by the end. Casino hopped back down Fremont – including a $10 in free slot play at the Nugget which lasted a good 2 hours! Getting busy as it was Friday and mostly cowboys in town. We took a last wander back cashing out machine tickets then collected the bags (carry on only) and went over to the Transportation center to get the Deuce up the strip. It was dark and the center has its fair share of undesirables but it was well lit and had a couple of security guards there. Additionally it looks like the Deuce won’t leave until the next one is there so there’s always a bus to get on (looks like they do the same at the Fremont street stop as well). I certainly never felt unsafe there – no problems.

Up the strip we had a walk into a couple of bars (still quiet) did a couple of hours in O’sheas and the Flamingo then wandered off to the Bellagio to find the Stars Wars machine. I can see how you could get drunk there – the machines are right by a cocktail waitresses station!! However it was busy and only 4 out of the 6 machines were working. Played there for a while then decided to get a cab back to the airport. Arrived there at about 10.30pm. Most amusing watching everyone waiting for the plane. Some of them looked so rough that I felt much better. Flights were uneventful (to Boston via Dallas) and I was so tired that I slept most of the way. Management turned up to collect us and wheel us back home… where we got some beer out and started playing cards……

Summary
Flights – busy on the way out and delayed. Not good. Quiet and on time on the way back. I needed that.
Hotel – MSS for $40 a night. Decent enough hotel and price.
Coupons. Out of staters – get the 2 for 1’s from the FSE office- great value and painless to get (once you locate the office!!)
Transportation – the Deuce – very clean and efficient. Good value – makes casino hopping on the strip easy and very good for getting downtown.


Casinos:
Loved the El Cortez – first time. Took money off me 2nd time – “Can the El Cortez buy you a Drink?†had me in stitches and I kept repeating it. Worst V&T ever.
The Nugget – ok but was a bit busy for my liking – but that was a Friday night and it was cold outside.
MSS – played machines here not a single table game.
Plaza. Smelled of Carpet cleaner and smoke. Right up my street – especially for a boys trip! Poker room and staff was very friendly and just right for my first live casino poker games.
The rest that I visited – ok and nothing memorable to make them stand out.

Food and drink.
Pretty good drink service most of the time – the worst was for a while at the Plaza playing blackjack – but that could have been a deliberate ploy to get rid of the loud, drunk South African who was doing his best to live up to the phrase “Never met a Nice South Africanâ€
MSS buffet – good – plenty of choice- great value with a 241. drinks from the 777 – great to have whilst gambling – or on their own.
LV club graveyard steak – fantastic- just what we needed to kick off our Vegas experience.
Plaza buffet. Had a 241 and it still wasn;t value for money. Don’t do it.
Paradise buffet. OK
Golden Gate – nice. I think. I was tired and emotional by then.
La Bayou. Don’t do double the alcohol if you are planning a long night - or want to keep some brain cells. Has to be tried though…
Deep fried Twinkies. No I did not. Blleerggh - even the adverts for then made me feel like shite.
Not too sure what else I ate or where.

Gambling
72 hours. 2 in a show. 13 sleeping. Chances to gamble – 58 hours. All meals, cabs and the deuce and show tickets were paid for in cash. As were tips. I spent $400 for that time – being as about $290 went on the one monster drinking , blackjack and poker session (my own fault – I knew enough to bail out but I was having a great laugh at the time and didn’t want to leave) and a further $80 in about 2 hours in the El Cortez then the rest of the time was for a net $30. Machines were fairly kind to me in small increments and useful to keep the drinks flowing.


General.
3 days at that pace was enough forme – any longer and I’d have had to sleep more – didn’t want to do that. Could have seen more of the strip but downtown was close and being able to walk around easily from one casino to the next was very appealing. From what I did see of the strip you could easily walk from one property to the next but getting into and out of each casino was a pain (O’sheas was fine). Any longer and you have to build in some shows into the schedule etc. 3 days with no specific plan was good. It also helped that Fremont Street was quiet – easy to navigate around.
Next time I’d probably stay at the plaza (as I spent a fair amount of time gambling there – plus they have Seattles best coffee there – that was handy!) May as well have the comps if you are accumulating them anyway.

However if I came back with Management then I’d looking into the strip.. maybe…


The huge list – we didn’t do much on it – but didn’t expect to. Guess that leaves plenty for next time..


As for Pete – he’d never been to a casino before and wasn’t sure he’d enjoy it. He’s already talking about going back – especially as he did fairly well – the whole thing cost him about $200 – including flights and hotels!!

And he sure as hell knows what a mudslide is now…!!!

“Can the El Cortez buy you a drink†HELL YES.


The Liver was bad – the Liver was punished.

Thanks,

Mike.

NOT a Vegas virgin anymore...

 

Mike, thanks for the report, it was a good one.

Instead of asking for a vodka and tonic, ask for an Absolut and Tonic or some other decent vodka.

 

Mike,
That was a refreshing read. I felt like I was right there with you guys. You really put some enthusiasm into your TR.
Not only that, but you got did an excellent job of time management.

 

That was one of the best trip reports ever.

 

yeah - I should have done. wasn;t thinking striaght. Or maybe it was the ice that was off

you felt like you were right there!! you got a hurting liver too?? I think time management was primarily based on keep going til you can't anymore. Literally a couple of times!!!

Thnak you. I'll tell management that and that to further improve my trip reports I'll need to revisit.

 

Outstanding report! That is how a quick trip to Vegas is supposed to be. Glad you took advantage of your time there!

 

One of the best ever!!!
Easy reading and detailed.

The part about the old waitress reminds me of a time I had a 60+ year old waitress at the Vegas club wearing a cheerleading outfit.vericose veins

 

Bravo! Great TR!! Thats the way to do it!

Sticky

 

Mike-
Great report. Reminds me of my visits there. And don't worry about the list. Every time I go out there I make a list of all the things I want to do (that I haven't done yet) and still have yet to fulfill more then two things on my list in one trip. The list is more of a brainstorming for other ideas then a have-to.
And yes...next time you stay downtown, the Plaza is a good place to stay....as is the El Cortez if you stay in the Tower. Both have very nice rooms for the price.
And I feel your pain/pleasure at staying at a table and spending more because you are having such a good time. Been there - done that....I just keep telling myself that the money I lose is worth the cheap entertainment of the yahoos around me.
Hopefully you can get out there one March and meet up with us other liver-punishing degenerates.

Larry

 

Nice trip, you hit the highlights of downtown. Good job at the poker tables.

 

Classic !.

Cheers, ECS.

 

Enjoyed the TR. Don't you just love downtown Vegas for all the low limit stuff.

David

 

well done, Mike! it reminds me of the 11th commandment...thou shalt not waste alcohol. Being as you're from the UK, I'd think you'd prefer Gin and Bitters

 

gin?? umm - well if there's nothing else I would but.....

 

Remember your quote about the liver Mike.

David

 

True – but I’m being nice to it at the moment. Just a gentle bathing in Malbec.