Halloweenies 2017

October 25 - November 1

Just back from a 6-day trip which covered the weekend before Halloween. This was also scheduled to celebrate the 5th wedding anniversary of two of our friends (@StickyFingers007 and @SnertAlert) who originally met off the board, but mainly getting together with many of the old "March Madness" buffoons. I thought I would share a few pictures and some highlights. Mainly just piecing everything together from old text messages, Facebook posts, and pictures on my phone.

Flew in via Delta using my Skymiles for first-class one way. I kinda wish I was in coach going out as they were offering $600 for seats as they were over booked. First boneheaded move of the trip.


But I do enjoy a complimentary beverage and the comfy seats

The ride from the airport was slightly eventful and the cabbie, (yeah, the line was non-existant and I didn't feel like walking to the Ride Share location) tried to drop me off at Ballys instead of Flamingo. I thought this was just a mistake, but figured later on that this may be the cabbie's "new trick."

I had used the online check-in at home for the Flamingo and made quick work of the kiosk to get my keys. The Flamingo really let me down my first night though. I am not hard to please, but I do at least expect a clean room. The Studio Queen was dirty, which, for me, means the previous occupants paperwork is still in the room and there is a used glass in the bathroom. I was pretty salty by being on the 4th floor and this made me wonder if the room had been turned after the last folks abandoned ship (and I mean that because their paperwork showed they were supposed to be in that room from the 24th-27th.) I called down, got the "we're sold out" spiel, and was told they would send housekeeping up after I told them I wasn't confident that the sheets and towels had been changed if those little things had been missed. I was pretty pissed, but I had plans to meet @UKFanatic at Caesars for a bit as well and hanging out with @atcmurph and @texas_aggie_girl_93 later, so I messed up the bed a little, to see if they did any real work, then headed out for the evening.

I got back to the room several hours later and saw the glasses had been replaced and the bed adjusted, but wasn't really sure they did anything else since the paperwork was still on the night stand. I was tired and thought "whatever, I've stayed in dinkier rooms, if the worst is they left someone else's paperwork in there, so be it."

At least until I woke up the next morning and was getting ready to take a shower. When I saw the bar of used soap in the shower, I said, no way in hell was I staying in a room they couldn't take care of. I called down to the front desk and was adamant that I was switching rooms as I found it gross that this room had so many minor issues that I wasn't sure if it had ever been truly cleaned since the last guest. Anyway, this time they were able to get me the same room except on the 19th floor and told me to go down and get my keys at the key/mail desk. I must have looked like hell as I packed my bags, threw on the previous day's clothes and a cap, then headed down to the front desk. The nice clerk, Shawn, at least apologized after asking why I wanted to change rooms and I went into full detail. For my trouble, they removed my first night’s resort fee and also gave me $30 in resort credit to use. This was also in addition to another $10 per night resort credit I was going to get from waiving any housekeeping service (there's some irony right there.)

As an aside, when I filled out the survey they send after you stay, I let them have it with both barrels, but also gave an atta boy to Shawn and the morning phone person. Still haven't heard anything from CET. Figures.

Anyway, the picture from the room:


But back to more fun things, that first night, me and the ladies stopped at Brooklyn Bowl for happy hour and had some Drunken Palmers and some appetizers after watching the World Series game at Caesars with UKFanatic. They had a live performance going on at the same time, but all we could hear the girl say was "Bitch ****." This would end up being a rally cry for the rest of the trip.


Rum Punch on the left, Drunken Palmer on the right. Stuck in the middle with you...

The next morning/afternoon, the ladies and I stopped at Carlos n Charlies to burn up my resort credit (little did I realize Flamingo resort credit's don't work there.) The food was good, but the 1/2 price frozen margaritas was nasssssty. One bright side to this was the waitress brought a bottle of tequila over and poured about 2-4 more ounces of additional booze in the drinks after we had been drinking them for a few minutes.

Also, I'm not sure what the deal is with them, but this is the second time in 6 months that I have eaten there and they were continuously doing raffles for some charity giving away 3 night hotel stays in Cancun. A couple of different people at the bar "won" while we were there, so who knows.


The mango margaritas tasted as nasty as they look.

So the married couple got in that afternoon and we met up with them at the Mirage and played for a bit. They were catching Love that evening, so we all broke up until after the show. We caught back up with everyone later on and saddled up to $10 Pai Gow table for a bit and eventually IllMarty and his girlfriend arrived and we covered all 6 spots at the table. We logged about 4 hours at that table, though the one thing that stuck out to me was looking over to Snert who was drinking something other than his usual Crown and Coke. It was in a glass slightly larger than a shot glass and was reddish yellow in color.

“What are you drinking?”
“It’s a Washington Apple."
“It looks more like a specimen cup and you need to drink more water.”

Always a great time when you get a fun dealer who cuts up with your group, especially when no one really walked away with that big of a loss. Marty had seen a sign for pancakes over by the Pantry so we headed over there with the intentions of having an early pancake breakfast. Of course, just about all of us ended up getting chicken fried steak instead.


Mmmm chicken fried steak….

Friday, I met up with a few of the group at In-N-Out at the Linq Promenade. That place was packed. Marty found us a table outside, though I advise against it with the gaggle of pigeons living out there.


Snert and Sticky’s lunch

Afterwards, we headed down to Cromwell and Marty and I got our heads beat in at the craps table. He headed off to lick his wounds, but I was determined to at least roll once. I stuck around long enough to see 3 more shooters along with myself roll and get most of my bankroll back. I’ll take that. We piddled around for a bit at Cromwell playing a few slots, then over to Bellagio to do the same. TAG93 met up with us, but the majority of the group was heading back to their hotels to rest up. Since I skipped lunch at In-N-Out, TAG93 and I hit the Bellagio Café. We got a few appetizers and kinda “eh” Rueben sandwiches. The food was nothing to write home about, though the quesadilla appy was pretty good.


Bellagio Café Rueben….

We headed back toward CET properties and I was feeling a nap coming on. The remainder of the group (the girls) along with one surprise attendee were getting in today and I wanted to make sure I was still game ready for the evening.

After my nap, headed over to the Mirage to meet up with Beach Crazy, Pattiinontario, Sin (AKA the girls) along with TAG93, Murph, Sticky, and Snert as we planned out the evening. We mainly just sat around, catching up, and making runs up to Snert and Sticky’s room to refill our drinks and beers. Should have setup base camp in the girl’s room as Sin was able to negotiate a tremendous deal with the front desk to upgrade to a 2 bedroom Penthouse suite. I really should fly her out on my next trip to work an upgrade for me! Marty and his girlfriend meet up with us after their Ringo Starr concert (bastards!) and, after clearing out all of the Bud Light Lime in Snert’s cooler, we headed back over to the Linq Promenade, as I messaged the surprise attendee who just landed to drop his bags at the Flamingo and join us.

We get over to Brooklyn Bowl and find out they are having a concert and aren’t having happy hour or letting anyone in without tickets. Well that blows as those Drunken Palmers were so close. We start heading back out of the Promenade trying to decide what we should do instead, as we realize Marty’s girlfriend isn’t with us. Come to find out, she was working a deal with the doorman at Brooklyn Bowl and somehow managed to get us all in.

I think it went more like “Listen, we’ve got 10 hungry and thirsty folks here and we plan on drinking until you all tell us to leave.” Works for me…

We get wanded and patted down then head up to the restaurant. I head off to the restroom and text Scratch73 to tell the doorman he was with the group that they just let in. I get back to the table to find the waitress asks what I would like to drink.

“Well, a Drunken Palmer of course!”
“They’ve already ordered a couple of pitchers, do you want your own?”
“Yes!”
She didn't think I was funny...

Scratch73 shows up soon after with a security escort and everyone except TAG93 (his sister) and myself are surprised. I catch hell for keeping the secret for so long, but it’s good to have a good chunk of my “Vegas Friends” here. We order up some sliders and fries, but we’re mainly here for the booze. No idea who the entertainment was, but lord knows the 11 of us at the table were much more entertaining.


The Gang’s all here…

We stagger out of Brooklyn Bowl onto the Promenade right after the concert let out. There were folks handing out gummy bears at the base of the escalator who emphasized “These are edible, not edibles.” Well hell, who needs those! Anyway, there may or may not have been some violating of the Halloween statues along the Promenade, but there sure were a ton of laughs. I honestly don’t remember what happened after this…


Halloween Strong…

Saturday morning, Marty shoots a text to me about breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi. Ugh, I just wanna sleep. Scratch73 was staying with me, hence the need for 2 beds, and gives me hell about wanting to go. Well shit, tell Marty we’ll meet up with them after I wash some Brooklyn Bowl off me. We get a patio table and Marty, his girlfriend, Scratch, and myself enjoy a relaxing morning breakfast. Afterwards, we donate to the Paris Game of Thrones and Buffalo machines, then head back to the Flaming-O to catch some college games. Snert joins us at the Patio Bar where video poker is just killing me. Scratch seems to be having luck as he always does when he gambles with me. Fooker…

The early games aren’t that interesting and I refuse to lose any more to those video poker machines, so we all head back to our rooms to “pre-game” and get ready for Downtown.

The original plan was to meet at Mirage about 7 then head downtown together, but a few costume malfunctions kinda put a kink in those plans, so Marty, his GF, Scratch, and I were heading down from Flamingo instead. We tried to get a Lyft, but the cell and Internet service was horrible this trip so we ended up taking a cab Downtown. Sure enough, just like when I arrived, the cabbie played dumb when we told him drop us off at the Plaza and seemed to be headed for the Golden Nugget instead saying he thought that was where we told him to go.

We meet up with the girls at the Plaza and head inside to find Sticky, Snert, and TAG93. We’re quickly told we can’t stay there when we head over to the bar to get a drink. This is pretty funny considering, just outside their doors in the porte-cochère, was a Plaza sponsored Halloween event with all kinds of folks in costume, face paint, and all that jazz.

We head back outside and grab a few photos of each other, then over to the Golden Gate and grab some drinks from their outdoor bar. It’s pretty crowded and loud at that end, so we make our way thru the crowds, getting stopped every once in a while by folks who want pictures.

I’m going to add some costume pics down the page in a bit, but this is one of my favorites and I hope you’ll indulge me the story. So, this woman and her mother, who was in a wheel chair, come up to the girls and want a picture of them with her mother. The girls are all for it and take a few pictures with this lady’s mom. The woman pulls out some money and starts to hand it to the girls, I assume thinking that we are all buskers working for tips. Of course, the girls turn it down then ask this lady to get in a pic with all of us, so pictures were taken with her camera and one of ours. Afterwards, you could see tears in her eyes and she smiled and told us thank you. I’m not sure what the story was, but you could tell we really made her day.


We made some new friends

At some point, Sticky’s previously broken ankle was bothering her and she headed into The D to sit at a machine to take a load off. Of course, Beach Crazy wasn’t allowed in because of her face paint, so her, the girls, and I headed back out onto Fremont. Soon after, Marty was kicked out for his prop sword too. Either way, we found a spot near one of the Fremont stages and listened to Zowie Bowie play and “enjoy” a few drinks. I say “enjoy” as the drinks that they were making at The D bar were AT LEAST 75% alcohol and 25% mixer in a HUGE plastic cup. These led to Marty and his girlfriend re-enacting the limbo contest from our previous Vegas Halloween excursion, but this time with Marty’s sword. People love that shit.

Unfortunately, even without the classic riding of the Grain Train, we had one derailment and another who got pretty close. And neither one were me this time! Yep, those drinks were STOUT. We end up calling it a night to get those folks home.









I think most all of us were slow playing Sunday morning. Scratch and I headed over to Mirage to meet up with the NFL watchers for the Seattle/Houston game. Last year, the Lobby Bar at Mirage ran a happy hour during NFL games; 3-for-1. Wishful thinking that they would continue that again this year, but they were running a 2-for-1 happy hour between 1PM and 3PM. It took some effort to get the bartenders to change one of the TVs over to the game, but, by halftime, we felt the need to gamble and drink instead. Once again, we found an empty $10 Pai Gow table and saddled up. As luck would have it, the Pit Critters were more than happy to change the channel on the TV in the pit to the game though.


Love taking over a table with friends

We logged a few hours at that table with the Mirage not getting rich from us. It was now dinner time and someone suggested a good steak, so we headed over to Ruths Chris to find out it would be a 2 hour wait for our group of 6. Yeah, no. Instead, back over to Mirage we went and decided on Stack instead. The waiter convinced Scratch and myself to share the Ultimate Surf and Turf which included a 2lb Stuffed Maine Lobster and a 40oz Porterhouse Steak along with 2 sides and a wedge salad. Thinking back on this, I must have been pretty drunk because that is a TON of food. I’ve never had lobster before, so that was something new for me. It was good, but Ruths Chris would have been much, much better and I don’t see myself spending that much money on a meal at Stack again.


Lobster and a medium rare porterhouse steak

After dinner, we played hit and miss on the slots for a bit, not being able to find a craps table with the minimums that we liked. We met up with the girls, who had dinner with our local friend Liz and her daughter at California Pizza Kitchen, and puttered around the Mirage for a bit. You could tell the trip was winding down for some of us though. We ended saying our goodbyes to Beach Crazy and TAG93, as they both were leaving early Monday, then called it a night.

I get a text from Marty Monday morning about meeting up for breakfast at Guy Fieri’s. Sounds like a plan as Scratch and I were checking out of the Flaming-O and headed over to Aria for a night, courtesy of MyVegas. No food porn this time, but the Ringer Burger was pretty good. After breakfast, we head up to finish packing then head up to Marty’s room as we were expecting to say our goodbyes, but he was on the phone getting his flight changed to Tuesday to spend an extra day away from the snow in the Midwest. W00T! He also had some work to do and his girlfriend was headed to the pool, so we told him we’d catch up with them later at Aria.

I had got an email from Aria earlier about doing check-in through the Internet. Just click the link, fill in some info, and they will email you when your room is ready. Then it’s just as simple as going up and getting keys to the room. Sounded simple enough.

Scratch and I caught a cab to Aria and we got in line for the mobile check-in to get our keys. It was pretty simple, but I thought it was odd it really didn’t give you any option to add a name to the room or offer an upsell or anything else. We get the keys and head up to the room. I think it’s an understatement, but a regular room at Aria makes the Flamingo look just sad. I’d love to make Aria or Cosmo my home base while in Vegas, but I’d rather save the money for gambling and drinking. But then again, if I was visiting with mixed company, I’d probably opt for the nicer room.

We head downstairs and meet up with Sin and Patti who had moved from the Mirage to Aria on the same MyVegas deal as us. We putter around on some slots, when Sticky and Snert swing by to hang out before their flight home that evening along with Marty and his girlfriend.

Somewhere in here, I realized that Scratch’s name wasn’t on the room and he wouldn’t be able to use his MyVegas rewards without that. I headed back to the front desk and asked someone if I needed to stand in line to add a name to my room. He pointed me to the VIP line and said they’d take care of me. Sure enough, much shorter line and they quickly got his name added to the room and updated some of my personal info too.

My luck had finally swung around and I started winning a few here and there as I would take a win and run on different machines. Buffalo was good to me, along with a new Willy Wonka machine, and even Betty White got in on the action. I hadn’t really been keeping up with my losses for the trip, but, by the end of the day, I had almost all of my bankroll back in my pocket.





We said our goodbyes to Sticky and Snert who were headed back to Mirage for a rest before their flight. Marty was thinking Ruths Chris again, but the rest of us had a free dinner buffet at Aria thru MyVegas. We convinced him to go to dinner with us and he was glad we did. We decided to go about 5PM as Sin was headed to the airport about 8PM and she wanted time to enjoy dinner with the rest of us. The line was non-existent and we quickly were seated. Marty and his girlfriend opted for the drink package, which had a sign at the entrance of get 2-for-1 for $19.99. I think between the 6 of us, we tried just about everything, but the winner was definitely the Cowboy Steak. It made the porterhouse I had the night before look like hamburger and even Marty gave it raves over Stack as well. Granted, it’s not Ruths Chris good, but it was damn tasty.

After dinner, we said our goodbyes to Sin then headed over to Monte Carlo as we couldn’t find a craps table for less than $25. Monte Carlo is… well… sad now. It seems everything is boarded up and it just feels sterile and lifeless anymore. Granted, it wasn’t a ball of fun before, but it reminded me of some of the sad days of the Vegas club with so much dead space all around. Craps didn’t go well and we lost our buy ins pretty quick. Some of the others were hitting up the slots and I think Scratch got a decent win on some Walking Dead slot, but for the most part you could tell the trip was winding down for all of us. We said our goodbyes to Marty and his girlfriend and Patti, Scratch, and myself headed back over to Aria where we said goodbye to Patti and headed up to the room to catch up on the Walking Dead and call it a night.

The next morning, I headed out the North Entrance and tried to hail a Lyft for the airport. Just seemed to be a lot of trouble with the GPS or something as the first one went to the front entrance while the second one I hailed was parked along the area marked for Uber. On the flight home, I was able to score a first-class upgrade on United, so I got the easy lane for security and grabbed a sandwich at Port Of Sub.

Overall, another fun trip with a bunch of great people and having done Halloween weekend with them again was the cherry on top. It was a special time 5 years ago to witness Sticky and Snert get married and was just as special to help them celebrate their anniversary in Vegas. Too bad a few of our local friends weren’t able to make it out, but there is a possibility of doing this again next year.

As always, there’s a bunch of stuff I wish we could have done or restaurants we could have eaten at, but there is always the next time. Digging through my wallet, I see that last night at Aria brought me practically back to even, so I’m counting this trip as a winner.


And one more, for the road...

 

Very nice of you all to invite the woman and her mom into your [non-busker] circle of friends!
Looks like lots of good times were had.
Sorry about leaving my paperwork behind, though!
Thanks for the TR, SH0CK!

RICHARD

 

Thanks so much for posting & especially the pics....good to see UTD pics of some of the old-timers from the early days of crazy meets....!!

 

Don't look at me! I coordinated this upcoming trip while on the way to the airport during THIS trip.

Get'er done!

 

What a fun looking group - amazing how well y'all got around and everyone made it to the meetups - a sign of a good trip! EEWWW on the first Flamingo room - you shoulda sent those pics along with your review - disgusssting for sure.

Enjoyed the pics and commentary Thanks for sharing!

 

Love the Halloween costumes and seeing all the fun Downtown.
Some nice wins on the slots and V/P.
Thanks so much for writing this up and showing us what a great time was had by everybody.
Don't blame you about the room not being cleaned. I'd have given them holy hell too.

 

Looks like a lot of fun! And "even" is a win!

 

Thanks for the report Scott. It was great to see some of the old crowd again.

 

I want that Hoodie! That's the ones they were wearing in the dugout. Where can I get one?

 

I got it at Dick’s Sporting Goods but I live in Houston, so may be easier for me. I would suggest MLBshop.com or the Astros online store.

 

Ummm...

 

You'll have to excuse him, he's still recovering from Vegas... and the World Series win...

 

Sounds like a great trip with friends!! I️ loved all the pictures, esp the costume ones

 

It was so wonderful to have most of the band back together. I can't wait till we do it again.