Suprise Trip for my Girlfriend Dec 12th - 16th (long trip report)

Me and the girlfriend have been together 5 years now, shes currently in Uni and she had worked hard all year and has done really well!

I decided that, as 5 years is a landmark, i would give her the ultimate anniversary present... 4 night trip to Vegas! She has wanted to go for the last 2 years since she turned 21...!!

I should also mention that she had absolutely NO IDEA of the plans. The trip was a complete suprise. I made up some excuses that I had no money and we will just have a quiet anniversary at my place. I even told her not to buy me a card or a gift to save money ha ha!
To be fair to her, she was actually ok with this. But my plans were bigger...

I've been planning it for a few months now. I actually visited Vegas for the first time myself in August on a stag, (the details of which will forever stay in vegas ) and now i well and truly have the bug.

This time I was determined the trip would be different. On the stag we pretty much just got hammered all day and night and although it was an awesome trip, I came back almost feeling like I should have done more...

Anyway... I found a great deal. Direct flights from Edmonton, Canada to Las Vegas with westjet, and 4 nights in the MGM Grand for under $900 Canadian.

To make the deal even sweeter, we would arrve at 9.30am Saturday morning and leave 8.30pm Wednesday evening, so it was more or less 5 full days!! I planned it so we would have Saturday all to ourselves, with one of her best friends and her BF arriving on Sunday. They were both only 21 so I figured they should be up for some late night partying.

With only a couple of weeks to go I stumbled upon the fact that MUSE had a gig in Vegas on the Saturday night. She is a massive fan of muse... and to make things more perfect, 5 years ago when we met... you guessed it... it was at a muse concert here in Edmonton.

This was almost too perfect... what a perfect way to give her an extra anniversary suprise!!! only problem was.... it was totally sold out.

I got some good information from this board, and some suggestions about how to obtain tickets... so that was the plan. I would make an excuse to leave for an hour and head down to the Hard Rock Casino where the gig was being played and score some tickets... easy right!

Anyway... this intro is too long so lets get down to business.

The reveal of the suprise went... well actually, it went perfectly. I told her only hours before we were due to leave. To say she was shocked would be an understatement! She actually cried she was so happy!!! Lets just say that she was quite 'grateful'

I picked her up at 5am and we drove to the airport. The weather was around minus 30... f***ing freezing! The plane left on time and the flight was good, everything went smoothly.

DAY ONE.... THE ANNIVERSARY

I checked in at the airport... tried the $20 trick but the rodeo was in town and she told me to come back tomorrow for the upgrade (I never ended up coming back as our room was fine). She gave me back the $20... along with some complimentry tickets for the shuttle to and from the hotel.

We arrived at the MGM at around 11am... but our room wasnt going to be ready until 3pm so we checked our luggage and she was eager to explore.

We wandered around MGM, NYNY, Excaliber, Mandalay Bay and Luxor. We walked for hours, she was in awe of everything. We polished off a couple of frozen margharitas as well as a few complimentry beers. She must have took about a million photographs ha ha.

Had lunch at nine fine irishmen. Burger and fries (we split it) and a couple of pints of cider. It was great.

I had a few $20's in random slots machines, nothing major. I didnt plan on gambling too much this trip.

My plan was to get her drunk enough to want to take a nap before we went out for dinner... mission accomplished. Around 5pm she wanted a kip, so I left her in the room telling her I wanted to go and gamble for a couple of hours... I made my way to Hard Rock Casino to try and score the tickets.

Soon i realised that this was not going to be easy. The box office girl told me that lots of people are on the lookout for tickets and there is NOTHING available. I tried to bribe her but she told me its illegal (heh). I also tried to bribe a bouncer, but he wasnt impressed.

I had a couple of bartenders keeping an ear out for me... but all looked lost. I sat at the bar, crestfallen, to play some video poker and get some complimentry drinks to ease the pain.

I am originally from England, and a couple of guys at the bar heard my accent and assumed I was attending the Muse gig. I told them of my predicament and one particulary friendly guy vowed to find tickets for me. We chatted for a while.. and eventually exchanged cell numbers. I decided to do a couple more laps of the casino and give my new friend 30 minutes to see if he had better luck than I did.

I was literally just about to leave when I got the phone call... the guy from the bar spoke to the concierge and they had literally been given 3 VIP tickets at the last minute. I ran over there so fast I literally left $18 sitting in one of those cleopatra slots.

I had done it...!!! Dont want to say how much I paid... but I didnt care, I GOT THE TICKETS!!!

Got back to the MGM and we had a great dinner at the italian place in new york new york, enjoyed it a lot... then we headed off to the gig.

WOW!!! Great performance from muse..!!! the seats were awesome, and we had a table and a bar. I thought the drinks might be free, but they were'nt but thats ok.

we both got extremeley drunk and had a fantastic time. What a night.

I cant even remember what we did afterwards... maybe to a bar? maybe gambling? not a clue... but I remember getting in around 3am from what was the best anniversary we ever had.


DAY 2... OLD AND NEW FRIENDS


Like the crazy bastard that I am, I got out of bed at 6am (she wanted to sleep in) and after a couple of tequila shots to steady myself I cabbed down to the Crown and Anchor pub to watch Liverpool v Arsenal.

There were a few Brits in there to watch the game, but about half way through three Irishmen of around my age (29) stumbled through the door and that was that!
We had a great laugh, and despite Liverpool losing the game, I had a great morning. Got their cell numbers with a promise to meet up later in the trip.

I headed back to the hotel to meet my girlfriend and we went over to the Tropicana to meet our friends who had just arrived from Edmonton.

The missus went to look at their room while I decided to try and score a free beer. I sat at a video poker machine near where a waitress was hanging around....

Second spin I got four aces... paid me 800 credits i think... so $200. I was pretty happy with that!

i realised later that if I'd have been smarter with the version of video poker I chose I could have won more... but whatever. $200 extra for the day!!!

This day would be a good gambling day for me. I never won another good amount, but lots of $40 - $80 wins.

we had lunch at the rainforest cafe in the MGM. I've heard mixed reveiws but I thought it was awesome. I had some crazy frozen drink, dont remember what it was called, and the famous lava nacho's.

Holy Sh*t.

That was the biggest plate of nacho's ive ever seen!!!! I didnt even come close to finishing it.

We basically explored casinos again most of the day, and also we went to 'tickets for tonight'. I bought some tickets for David Copperfield and also tickets for Terry Fator. Saved myself a few dollars! Our friends got Jersey Boys instead of Copperfield.

Im ashamed to say that the alcohol caught up with me in the afternoon and I came home to sleep while the rest carried on exploring... but they promised not to go anywhere I hadnt been before so it was cool.

They came to grab me around 7pm and we headed out to fremont street for a night out.

I had a great time!!!! From the moment the crazy showgirls literally pushed us into mermaids we had a right laugh.

the drinks service was brilliant, the waitresses we plying us with all kinds of shots and cocktails constantly while we all dicked around on 1 cent slot machines.

We cruised round a few casinos and checked out a strip club for a while... it was a relaxed but fun night.

we headed back around 2am, where the 21 year olds went to bed and me and my girlfriend wanted to drink some more. We toyed with the idea of going to a nightclub, but she felt underdressed so we ended up playing on the horse racing game in MGM.

We ended up playing for ages, it was a lot of fun. Lots of drunk people screaming at little plastic horses ha ha.

After a couple of hours she wanted to go to bed so i put all my quarters in and bet them all on an 18 to 1 longshot...

That won!!!

I won about $90 and when I counted my cash, with all my small and moderate gambling wins, food and drink for the day cost me nothing. The only thing I paid for was the tickets. Not bad to say I was up from 6am - 4am.


DAY 3.... FAT GUYS SHOULDNT WEAR THONGS

Day 3 got off to a bad start for me. Once again I got up early and went down to the casino. My gambling exploits of the day before got me thinking I was untouchable. Within an hour I had lost $200 on video poker... and i only drank 1 beer.

I made a few $$$ back on slots but by the time I got the text message saying she was good to go I was kicking myself for losing yesterdays winnings.

we met up with the other 2 and went for breakfast at america's in new york new york. When I say breakfast it was past noon.

I had a club sandwich... the food in vegas is tremendous, but i admit im easily pleased!!! But I enjoyed it a lot... but once again it was a LOT of food and I was full... and hungover.

The day was a bit of a write-off for me... we explored the middle part of the strip... bellagio, ceasars palace etc... It was great as i had never seen these hotels before... but I was feeling tired and hungover. I toyed with going for another sleep but the GF was not to keen so I kept going.

Our friends went off before us to watch Jersey boys so we went back to our room and relaxed for a bit before going to Dicks Last Resort.

If ever I needed waking up this was the place. What a crazy bar!!!

They have this insane chubby guy with a mic behind the bar and he was getting everyone going offering free shots and stuff... he was hilarious.

At one point he took his shirt off, poured a bucket of ice over his head and then started humping the bar where some girls were trying to eat their burgers. He was a star.

After that we visited Coyote Ugly, which was pretty good, they had a 2 for 1 drink special on so by the time we were on our way to see Copperfield we were back in the mood to party!!!

Copperfield was, as you would expect, brilliant. I have always wanted to see him my whole life... I was quite pleased when she chose this over a cirque show (i let her choose what shows she wanted me to take her too).

By far the best thing about the show was at the end, when, during his finale i was selected to go up on stage. I had to inpect this big metal cage and I stood literally a metre away from it as he made 13 audience members vanish and teleport to the back of the theatre. Impressive stuff!!!

We had a bit of a early night after that because the next day would be our last and we wanted to go out in style!!!


DAY 4.... THERES ALWAYS FUN TO BE HAD IN VEGAS!!!

Both sets of couples had a bit of a lie in, and then we went to their hotel (tropicana) for the breakfast buffet.

i've read about buffets on here and I dont think the Tropicana gets good reveiws, or is not mentioned much, either way, i wasnt particulary excited to go... but in the end I loved it!!!!

After breakfast we made our way to the shopping outlet place... not the one near the airport, the other one.

Man, we're my legs tired today from all the walking ive done. Im a fit guy, I play and coach soccer, but I was feeling it in the backs of my thighs.

The girls loved the shopping.... I wandered off and ran into my irish friends from the crown and anchor. We had a chat for a bit and I told them that tonights going to be a big night and i will call them later.

I bought a pair of trainers from reebox, a shirt from french connection and a sweater from ted baker. She bought pretty much everything she laid eyes on.

Some good deals to be had thats for certain.

We went back to the strip to drop off the clothes and went out to eat at Planet Hollywood. We had a voucher from tickets for tonight that gave us 50% off our meal.

I had a BBQ chicken pizza that was very enjoyable... she had some kind of spaghetti and a caeser salad. Cant remember what it was exactly but she polished off the lot.

I hadnt touch a drop of alcohol all day today because i wanted to remember the Terry Fator show!!!! I only ever saw him on you tube but i quickly became a huge fan!!!

None of the others had ever heard of him and I dont think they believed me when I said they will love it. They heard 'ventriloquist' and then lost interest.

Needless to say, Mr. Fator was first class and the show was one of the highlights of the trip! Oh yeah, and we saw Carrot Top in there watching the show as well.

After the show it was supposed to be PARTY TIME...

But my 21 year old party animal friends were proving to have not much in the way of party in them.

I think they were tired or something and they just didnt seem up for anything. My girlfriend was trying her best to get them to perk up a bit... finally they agreed to stay out for the night if her friend can go back to the hotel to change her shoes.

Me and my girlfriend went to a few bars and casinos while we waited for almost 2 hours for them to return. At one point we went to O'Sheas. I was quite looking forward to visiting this place, but I have to say it was disapointing. Still we made the best of it for a while and I won a few dollars gambling while we waited for our friends.

I really wanted to go to margaritaville, so we went over to the flamingo. Disaster!!! We were too late and it was closed.

I wasnt sure even what I wanted to do at this point as all my big plans for a huge party night had failed, it was past midnight and we were all sober and out of ideas.

Bills Gambling Hall I salute You.

As we walked past 'Bills' we heard some karaoke going on inside... my GF's friend LOVES karaoke so we went in to check it out.

The sign for $1 margarita's and $1 newcastle caught my eye and soon I was buying drink after drink for everyone... a night that seemed lost was rapidly turning into the funnest night of the entire trip.

The three irish lads turned up and we were set. i wouldnt like to estimate how much we all drank but I spent over $250 just on drinks but it was worth it. We all had a great time!!!

OK so it wasnt a fancy vegas night club like I had in mind but i've realised you never know whats going to happen or where you will end up in this place!!!

Bills Gambling Hall... Mecca of entertainment!!!!

At one point I got 4 of a kind kings on video poker and couldnt work out where all my winnings were until the attendant pointed out i was playing a 5 cent machine ha ha.

DAY 5.... BACK TO REALITY

I someone managed to drunkenly get a late check-out and we slept up until about 15 minutes before we had to leave.

Holy crap I was rough. We all were. we went for lunch at Nine Fine Irishmen (shepherds pie...10 out of 10) and then messed around on some slots until we had to leave. We won $100 on a wheel of furtune game at one point and kept the cash to buy souveneirs in the airport.. (well actually I bought some magic tricks from Houdinis to impress work colleagues but i didnt tell her that!)

Our friends had an extra night, they went to the opening of that new hotel... and apparantly she got hypnotized at some point... they will be on the plane home as i write this.

Our flight was slightly delayed but nothing major and we got home safely, at around 2am... i had to be at work in 6 hours.

Apparantly while we were gone, the temperatures in Edmonton reached minus 46!!!!! Are you kidding me??? ha ha. I thought the weather was lovely in vegas.

Well now im sat at my desk at work reflecting on what was a great vacation, and a wonderful anniversary. I did good. i made her very happy over the last 5 days

I have nothing bad to say about anything... it was all perfect. Perhaps I kind of wish the pools were open, but thats just being picky.

Vegas is awesome and I will return as soon as I can.

I know this was long, but I wanted to write it while everything was fresh in my mind. If you made it this far I hope you enjoyed it. i apologise for any spelling/grammar mistakes.

Merry Christmas,
Danny

 

Nice report. Sounds like you both had a great time. Thanks for posting & happy holidays to you!

 

Very nice report. You have a lucky gf. I too, love Bill.s. Every since the first time we walked in when it was the Barbary Coast. It just feels like a party. Thanks for sharing. Oh and great job on scoring those tix!

 

nice report - shame about the reds but at least the c&a have some decent ale..

 

Danny......great report, really enjoyed the read.

 

awwwww great TR

glad you were able to pull the trip off right up to the last minute

Vegas is a fun place , I took my hubby for his first ever trip and he loved it

 

Excellent trip report. Sounds like you all had a great time.

Liverpool is my team as well. I've never caught a game at Crown & Anchor but everyone loves the place and Liverpool play at Stoke City during my next trip and I plan on catching hopefully a rare road win for the Reds this season.

I like the Tropicana - haven't stayed in a while but like their casino and their new ownership / management plans to put some major upgrades in.

 

its not a great place to watch a game - poorly placed tv's etc - but you get good beer and other fans in there.. worth it for that..

 

Oh Danny.....if my DH would even buy me a plane ticket to surprise me for a trip to Vegas - I would take care of the rest. You are awesome.....

 

great trip report, thanks for sharing!!! 11 more days here, can't wait!

 

Danny - what a sweetie!!!!!!!!!! Gosh what a great surprise. Loved reading your TR, I could tell the English way of writing as soon as I started reading, but then read you flew out of Canada, I was really confused

Merry Christmas to you too!

 

An Irish Canadian? I'm not sure they make enough beer to satisfy that combination! loved it!

 

Thanks every one for reading it... We had a great time.

When she gets the photos on facebook I will post a few of them if you are interested?

 

You did a great job on the trip report and a great job in surprising your girlfriend.

Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

 

Looking forward to the photos.

 

Awesome trippie, Danny!!! Sounds like you had a wonderful time!!! I am excited that you loved Terry Fator!!! We are going to see "A VERY TERRY CHRISTMAS"!!!

P.s. I am checking into Bally's on 12/24...I am going to try the $20.00 trick!!! Hope it works!!!

 

Great report Danny. One suggestion. If she loves Vegas as much as you do...marry this woman as soon as possible!!! You two sound like a great couple.

You know it is a great night of partying when you wake up and know you had a great time, but can't remember a damn thing that happened.

Post those pictures!!

 

Excellent report

You are a romantic.

Who cares what you paid for the MUSE tickets. The whole thing is priceless.

 

what a sweet man you are....i'd love a surprise vegas trip...good on you

 

Great TR..I love Nine fine Irishman...and ElFornia in NYNY..Glad you had a really great time