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My first TR for our semi-annual trip 6/14-6/17 MC 1 night Flamingo 2 nights

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by Flying3Vs, Jun 19, 2017.

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  1. Flying3Vs

    Flying3Vs Tourist

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    My Trip Report

    So please bear with me on my first TR. I am long winded in speech and I feel it’s worse when I write. I also tend to jump around.I have been on this message board for YEARS as a self-proclaimed “lurker” (stalker?), but always found an excuse not to write up a report. Clearly, I have matured now. Why I decided to write this up now, on what was the most lackluster trip in the last 6 years, is beyond me. But I suppose it can only go up from here, right?

    Some history: I am in my mid 30’s with a couple kids and wife. I work for a large airline and take advantage of said flight benefits. I typically go out to Vegas twice a year but sometimes a 3rd or 4th time to play in a Hockey tournament. The last couple years it’s been the same crew of 10 for all of these trips, so it’s a grand ol’ time. I never used to gamble at tables out fear of looking stupid. I got real drunk about 7 years ago and said “screw it” and walked up to a Craps table never to look back. Also I think I am hilarious… that can be important here.

    Alright, so let’s begin at the beginning. The wife and I and her brother and his wife are set to get in first with my cousin and her husband and their additional 2 couples flying in from DFW Thursday Night. Initially our trip was set for 2 nights at The Flamingo, because a friend of ours from the other group decided a large Motel was our best bet to have fun. With that being said, I was surprised at the place, but that’s later. Our initial schedule had us out for a 7:30a flight Thursday morning out of PHX on the 15th with a return flight At 4:30p Saturday the 17th. I had been checking the flight loads for the past month to make sure a Thursday to Saturday trip was good. And it’s was wide open for both days at minimum 58 open seats. On Monday, I just decided to check just incase and BOOM. 9 seats available with 23 on Standby. I about lost my shit. I looked up to see what could possibly be going on. I researched conventions, concerts, fights; Nothing that would pull in a sudden surge of people. And then I saw EDC. I immediately thought… “WTF, this thing still exists?” I used to go to that back in ’99 & '00. How the hell does it still plug along? I digress. I moved our flight up Wednesday night at 8:30p. I used my MLife points for a comped room at the MC.

    Wednesday 6/14

    The airport and flight: I am in Phoenix so my flight is about 45min. Just enough time to do nothing, Which is fine. We brought my brother in law and his wife with us and they want to be at the airport 2 and a ½ hours early. Psh, noobs. My wife and I have TSA Pre-check, so we usually arrive about an hour before hand. Anyway, we rolled over 2 hours early and hung out at the Four-Peaks bar until our flight. Flight was surprisingly quicker than the 45 min average. Beverage service wasn’t even a 1/3 of the way complete before we had 15 min before touchdown. Knowing this I may or may not have taken advantage of the fact that asking for an adult beverage or 2 would be given “gratis” to speed up the service. And I was correct. 2 free drinks! Already winning and I am not even in Vegas. This is clearly a positive omen.

    Vague-ess: People are impatient morons on an airplane. I swear common sense andcourtesy goes out the window when de-planing. Some kid in the back of the plane kept trying to push his way to the front for his keyboard he was convinced would mysteriously disappear or be stolen if he didn’t touch it immediately. Normally I just let it go, but he was being rude to the people he was pushing passed and that annoyed me to no end. So I stood up and prevented his great escape from the back. I was in row 23 he in 37, shooting for row 5. I merely stood there and ignored his whining. He was much kinder when he came up to me. I am no bully but I can be judged as such upon first impression, mind you, as I am 6’ 5” and have a sleeve on one arm and a few other large tattoos on the other and I work out fairly regularly and play hockey at least twice a week. Yet I am a lover of nerdy things and pretty ponies and I will be happy to debate the finer points of Star Wars and I love Disneyland far more than any grown man should; so sometimes I will take advantage of the former when if works… like right now. And my pettiness was rewarded with a frustrated whine and a calming down by the offending party and hilarious smiles and head nods from the other passengers. Win two for the trip??? We landed at 9:30 and we were waiting for our Uber around 9:50. Guy took the tunnel, I was too busy talking and forgot, but at 10p on a Wednesday, there was no traffic so it made little difference; though I told my B-I-L that any other time, NEVER TAKE THE TUNNEL. We arrived at the MC at 10:08. Uber: $8.52

    So I did the mobile check-in for MC that morning and arrived into the makeshift lobby to find it 50 people deep and the mobile check-in not available. BS. Wth Is the point? I noticed the single lane for guest services where one service listed was “additional keys”. Well, I had a room number assigned, just no keys, wouldn’t I technically just be needing additional keys? There was no one in that line and was assuming people already tried. But I couldn’t be a part of the sheeple and just stand in line without asking. So I strolled over to the Employee and shared with her my thoughts on her line. She laughed, said I was right gave me keys and a “upgraded room”. Win 3. BOOM! On my way to my room, I told some sheeple in the back of the conga line, about the guest services line since I overheard them talking about the mobile check-in fail. They stared at me like I had just interrupted their deep spiritual talk of what fuzzy boots they would pair with their tutu’s they were wearing for EDC. Fine, stand there like a tool. (coincidentally, when I went down to gamble about an hour later, these folks were still standing in line, albeit, only 3 people to go before they spoke to the check-in folks.)

    Got up to our room… Upgrade? No. Same room, but it didn’t matter, it was 10:30 and I wanted to play some craps. BIL and I walk down at around 11:15 and go straight to the $10 table. I throw down a simple $100 and the cocktail server is right there for my order. Vegas is welcoming me with open arms. She was gone, 5 min. I lost $100 playing the pass line only, before she even got back with my drink. WTH man? Figured I had run out of good luck for the day. I sulked back to my room to sleep at 11:29. Tomorrow was the Flamingo pool, gambling and waiting on our friends flights at 8:30p.

    Thursday 6/15

    Wifey and I woke up at 8:30a. I have a 4 and 2 yr old and 6:30a is sleeping in. I felt lazy yet rested. We were going to go find a place to eat in MC, but figured I would just pay the $30 to get an early check-in to the Flamingo. We Cabbed it to the Dirty Bird and it was $16 after tip. Roll into the lobby and it’s 9a, and again, 50 people deep. My mobile check-in never came so I stood in line but, fortunately, a hostess was asking people if they are checking out and used a CC, to just leave and the bill will be emailed. I went from #50 in line to #6. I was ok with this. The person who checked me in was awesome. Waived my early check-in, moved me from the 2 queen GO room with “High Roller” view, to the same room but on the 19th floor dead center to Caesars Palace. Not a big deal because we spend little time in there, but it is nice to open a curtain to see the sprawling Caesars property. I don’t know why. The room wasn;t bad., and frankly it was far nicer than I was expecting. I usually stay at the MGM in those Exec Suites, so I wasn;t expecting much here. But the rooms are basically very dated with polished up bits here and there, but I like it and the price was quite cheap. Oh Side-note: following the advice of some folks on here, I had jumped on my PrimeNow account and bought a case of water, jerky, protein bars and other small stuff we forgot for all of $24 after tip and it was delivered to the lobby a mere hour after I ordered it at 10a. That was a brilliant idea. I will always do this. We ate at Carlos and Charlies. I had steak and eggs. It was ok. Definitely not $16 good. That’s really all I have to say about that place. But you can’t go wrong with the $5 BM, Margaritas and Sangria.

    We headed for the pool at about 10:45a and it was fairly crowded. Maybe half the day beds were full and we found a spot on a little “peninsula” by the lifeguard chair. Bought a couple buckets of Coors and relaxed for about 4 hours. Played a bit of Craps on the $5 table by the pool.; No luck, but killed an hour and only lost $20. We went back up to our room at 3p for a quick nap and a jaunt over to the Lynq for more craps. We got there at about 4p and started in on the Craps session. My wife took $20 worth of chips and played, but I wasn’t paying attention. I threw down about $700 to add to my TR card and started playing. We were there about 3 hours, drinking and having fun. At 7p I was going to head out to O’Sheas for a beer and to my joy, I was up $600. Oops… How the hell did I miss that? I go and cash in and my wife was behind me, I was totally oblivious as to what was in her hand. I grab a beer and she walks up to me with my Sister-in –Law and hands me $400. I assumed this was her money she pulled out for her gambling, before we started at the Lynq. Nope, apparently with her initial $20 investment from me, she went up $600 and figured she’d give me back some of it because… no idea why. No complaints and she would be set for the rest of the trip. Unfortunately, that was the end of my profitability for this trip and the remainder of my time was all mostly losses culminating in going home with nothing.

    Anyway, our friends show up checked in and were with us at the Flamingo casino at 8:45p. We all moseyed back over to that BBQ place in between Lynq and Flamingo. That wasn’t bad at all. I was a bit surpised. Finished dinner at about 10p and went back to The Lynq for more gambling. I will save you the long story (you’re welcome), But to keep it simple we walked up to a table where a kid had, by my estimation, $3k in the rack in front of him. Mostly green and he was CLEANING UP on the wrong way bets. This apparently wasn’t a red flag to me, and we all lost about half the money we put in but it took 3 hours. AKA, $1000 for me. OOPS! My fault. Once again I went to bed at around 1:30a with my head down in shame… really I was just tired.


    Friday 6/17

    Everyone got up at 8a and ate breakfast at… crap, I don’t even remember. That’s bad. Clearly it was memorable. We moved over to the GO pool at 9a. My cousin was hell-bent on a Day bed, but was told $300 fpr the bed and $200 minimum for the alcohol and drinks. Not bad since there was 10 of us, but $300 for an inanimate object? I walked up with her the 2nd time and chatted a bit with the CS girl, and got it down to $100 for the bed and $50 per person minimum on the spending. I told her we had 8 folks, and a deal was struck: $100 for the bed and $400 on food and drinks. That’s easy to split between 10… I mean 8… people. J Obviously Vegas is expensive, but damn a 24 pack of 16oz coors and a bottle of Skyy Vodka with many mixers for $350… AS A “SPECIAL” Oh well. Minimum almost hit. Our server was awesome. About 1 hour and 3 beers consumed by each of the 7 people drinking them, and we had 27 of our 24 beers still in the cooler? Was I so drunk off 3 Coors lights that I somehow cannot do math?! Apparently I gained a friend in the folks selling daybeds, and she had comped an additional case when our first one was out. All told we were at the pool from 9a to 5p and racked up a $1,500 bill as we randomly had 5 additional friends unexpectedly be in Vegas at the same time, but for EDC, and we had them come over and meet up with us. So $100 per person while drinking and eating for 8 hours. That’s a damn win; and the day progresses.

    So, no one was expecting an 8 hour pool day and most got in a nap, but I didn’t and I was feeling it. But we walked over to The Mirage to gamble and grab a quick bite. At 7p we ate at LVB and it was pretty good. I had the ??? Forgot the name but it’s a burger with a chicken breast with ham and I added bacon. I ate the whole thing plus the curly fries, in less than 10 min. It was good. At about 8p, we went to the craps tables at The Mirage and there were 4 open… One $10 table (completely full with a whole tables worth of people waiting to get in. 2 $50 tables with 2 people on one and none on the other. and 1 $100 table and not a soul on this one. Don’t get the logic there. Why not have 2 $10 tables when there are people literally clamoring on the one already open? The others weren’t reserved as I have seen in the past so it wasn’t like they were waiting on VIP’s or anything.

    Obviously, We didn’t play craps at the mirage but we walked back over to Harrahs and played from about 9p until I quit and walked back to my room out of sheer exhaustion at 1:15a. I also lost $500 in that span. But mostly because I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on. Today I again walked back with my head low, but because I was sleep walking so, we’re good.


    Saturday 6/17

    We woke up at 7a ready to go. We had a 4:30p flight and wanted to hang out with our friends as much as we could. We ate breakfast at the Buffet at the Flamingo. It’s pretty good, nothing special. But for $23 fairly cheap so I wasn’t butt hurt about it. At about 8:30a all 10 of us went over to Harrah’s to play craps. It was fun but I killed the remaining funds by 10:30a. The friends wanted to go back to the pool but my wife and I were not up for pool time, 3 days in a row; especially when they were talking about another daybed and drinking session. We both said our good-byes and we went back to our hotel room to pack. We weren’t prepped to wait until the 4:30 flight so I booked us on the 12:30 flight and headed over to LAS, ready to see our kiddos a little earlier than we planned. We didn’t end up seeing them earlier since our flight landed at 1:30 and we went home and slept until 5:30, at which time my mom dropped them off. We didn’t tell her we took an earlier flight J No guilt felt.

    Overall it was a fun trip. Hopefully I didn’t jump around too much and it wasn’t too hectic. Sorry! I will learn!

    Additional points:

    So I used my MyVegas points to grab a 2 for 1 at NFI, the whiskey flight tasting at MC and I believe a Buffet pass at Bellagio. We did not do one of those. I have 90 days, so we may take a quick morning flight out one Saturday, use them, and fly back the same night.

    This was my first trip in 6 years that I haven’t come home with the money I had earmarked for gambling. A bit disappointing, but it was bound to happen eventually, right?

    Watching the folks come back from EDC Saturday was hilarious and depressing. Here are these folks that have been out since 7p going crazy, some doing drugs, drinking and sweating their asses off and I see them at 7:30a the next morning coming back to go to bed, looking like they just showered and slept for 12 hours. Wth? Maybe they just don’t know how to do it???

    I am terrible at taking pictures. May post some if I find any.

    Next trip may be my birthday at the end of September. Not sure. But will definitely be making a jaunt out there in the near future to use up the MyVegas rewards. Perhaps a TR?
     
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  2. kathiemc23

    kathiemc23 Low-Roller

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    Thank you for posting your report, sorry about the losses. Not exactly sure what a $5 BM is ...... bottomless mimosas?

    Duh ... bloody mary's ....
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2017
  3. Druck

    Druck Tourist

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    Great report. What's EDC?

    $1500 for pool area and drinks sounds crazy. But for that size group, and that many hours it seems like a great deal. I've never looked at that way. I could easy blow that in a couple hours gambling. And nice score on the case of beer. CWs prob deal with lots of entitled jerks.
     
  4. Richard Alpert

    Richard Alpert LOST

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    Great report, @Flying3Vs !
    Thank you! :D

    RICHARD
     
  5. kathiemc23

    kathiemc23 Low-Roller

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  6. bshowell

    bshowell VIP Whale

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    I enjoyed reading this! Hope you do more writing next time, too.
     
  7. Flying3Vs

    Flying3Vs Tourist

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    EDC is basically just a commercialized rave. Lts of happy hardcore and electronic music. Lights and overall craziness. 18 years ago? Glorious... Let's go. Now? I'm good...
     
  8. Flying3Vs

    Flying3Vs Tourist

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    And that was my thought too with the free case. Amazing how things like that happen when you just chat with folks... weird.
     
  9. Robdude

    Robdude Low-Roller

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    Enjoyed the report, has just the right details and good narrative... not long winded at all. As a middle aged father of two young children, I too feel a sense of sadness and amusement seeing the club kids walk back to their hotel at 7am when I'm waking up.
     
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