5 Nights of Work and Play - GN/Bellagio

Forgot my dates : 4/12 - 4/17

What’s up y’all?? I’ll try and make this semi-live, posts rate will drop off on Monday as work picks up.

Finally time to head back to my favorite place. In town mostly for a work conference with lots of forced team building. Decided to fly in a couple days early to get my required Fremont time in.

This time I’m at the GN, first time staying here. Ended up finding a $100/night rate from a third party so I couldn’t say no! I’m in the mood for a bit of pool lounging so it works out well (of course it’s raining as soon as I escape the eternal rains of the PNW ).

Plan on mostly playing low limit VP and Craps while I’m downtown, then some higher blind poker cash games with coworkers once I move to the strip. Also super excited for the NBA playoffs tipping off while I’m in town. Have a stash of cash on my MGM sports app from my last visit that I’ve been itching to use. Ripcity baby! Let’s go Blazers!!

First time on Sun Country Airlines, pretty meh. Just a Southwest plane with a different flight crew. Paid the $24 for an upgraded seat and a “free” drink. Got into town about 10:30 am, perfect amount of time to stash my bag with the bell and pickup some pot. I’m a medical patient in Oregon, so I’m very thankful that Nevada went the legalization route (plus they recognize out of state mmj cards!).

So far I’m onboard with my Carson Tower King room. It’s a solid base and I don’t mind the walk (yet at least).

Time for some grub before hitting the tables!

 

Good luck!!

 

Have a great trip.

 

Got my room, immediately passed out for a couple hours. Back with my haul from Thrive, pregaming a bit before dinner and VP at The D.

People seem to rip on the Carson Tower but it’s awesome having the Uber pickup/dropoff right by the elevator.

The banana gummies are fantastic! Maybe the best flavor gummy edible I’ve had.

 

New hours for The Cal’s prime Rib special!!! Only served til 6pm. I got the MSC about 9 minutes too late. Off to Triple George for the first in a series of shrimp cocktails...

 

Pot roast from Triple George was fantastic. Love their happy hour but hadn’t had dinner there yet. Carrots were solid too, I’ll definitely be back for more.

 

This Golden Knights game is bananas!!! Six goals in the first period alone. Still no 4OAKs at longbar, think a craps break is in order.

 

Hope things turn around after your bathroom stop.

 

Love the pic of you at Triple George! Hope your trip is amazing!

Vegasworm

 

I have never minded the Carson tower walk.....and I just cut out the Uber/Lyft door and over to the Rush tower casino. Easy and fast. Have fun!!

 

Got wrecked at anything gambling related yesterday (saw someone hit a royal at 3 card though!), so thought I’d give the new barbershop at El Cortez a shot instead and they’re closed Saturday early afternoon! Seems like ripe barbering time to me.

Gave El Buen Pastor a try after drunkenly ignoring them every previous trip. Solid tacos!! Off to see David Copperfield’s early show with some coworkers now. Think the last show I saw in Vegas was Sigfried and Roy way back as a kid.

 

Great start!
I hope your trip has more highs than lows!
Sorry to hear about the work part, though...

RICHARD

 

Copperfield was a ton of fun! Forgot how cheesey the dude is, you can definitely see a bit of “oh lord I’ve been doing this for so long” at times. He’s great though, love watching him coax audience participation.

 

Spent most of the night with coworkers on the strip. I can’t afford those tables on the weekends so it was mechanical horse racing and slots-o-clock. Broke even all day. The Irish coworkers are baffled by slot machines, but seem to appreciate the ponies and are curious about the tables. Gonna try and get them to some lower limit places since they’re complete no-rollers and utter gambling newbies.

We hit up Citizens at Mandalay for dinner, it was pretty mediocre all around. The nachos looked fantastic on other tables though, I’d happily split them with a group.

El Buen Pastor’s burrito is pretty subpar, stick with the tacos.

Tomorrow I move over to The Bellagio. Looking forward to the room, not so much the casino. I’ll probably be sticking to VP the rest of the trip (save the night I steal away the coworkers for some cheap steaks and limits).

 

Recouped some of my losses at the sports book today. Portland and the Golden Knights both winning was great.

Tried out Top Golf for the first time. I’m not much of a golfer but it’s a great atmosphere to hang out in. I see why so many sales people use it for customer outings, lol.

Bellagio is a nice place! I’ve only ever walked through it, but staying in the spa tower is solid. The conservatory is absolutely lovely right now.

Taught the Irish coworkers about basic VP strategy and what the core differences between JoB, DB, and DDB are. All the Portland folk are baffled by $15 drinks, it’s pretty funny. I’m surprised by the number of non-gamblers with us.

Snacks at The Bellagio is solid imo. They don’t have many late night choices (odd to me considering how many people are up at midnight on Sunday night), but both the nachos and burger hit the spot.

 

Enjoying the report. Are they still doing renovations on the Bellagio casino floor?

 

Yeah, they are. The west side of the casino is still blocked off with curtains for construction.

 

Wowieeee. I just woke up from a two day nap basically. Things only got more intense once work started.

Monday was great! Hours of talks and some technical enablement, went pretty well. Then that night we had the pool patio rented out for dinner and drinks. I gotta say, dinner on the Bellagio patio with the lights in the background is a lovely place to be.

We all got a bit antsy and decided to check out Axehole for some weapons throwing (axes, Spears, throwing stars, etc). It was a ton of fun! Axe throwing has become a bit of a tradition for my team and it was great to introduce some others to it. It’s definitely worth paying the extra $15 for the expanded options. Just axes are fun, but the rest are a blast.

After axe throwing most went back to sleep, one other Portlander and one of the Dublin teammates followed me down Fremont since I had been talking it up. Introduced them both to the wonderful blue world of AMFs and we spent a solid hour yelling at Sigma Derby at The D. After that we headed downstairs for some craps (finally ended a gambling session up! Only $100, but still). Everyone fell in love with downtown over the strip and I felt like my duty was done.

Only negative was White Castle. I had never been but one coworker NEEDED IT. Ended up being a 30 minute wait with really not that many people in line. Pretty disappointing imo, wouldn’t go back unless it was to satisfy a friend which is well worth the wait imo.

Tuesday was bananas. Worked all day then had our dinner and awards ceremony at Aria’s club JEWEL. Terrible place to have a dinner, but the party was fun. Sadly they made me pour out my flask but luckily they let me keep the flask itself.

Left a bit early since dancing isn’t my jam, ended up walking the strip with one of my closest work friends. We just enjoyed the night and had some cocktails while watching The Blazers destroy Oklahoma City. Put me up another $100 with that win. Ended up drinking at The LINQ, i really like their bar/sports sitting area. It’s a tad bland but welcoming and relaxing enough.

Wednesday was great, some deep technical enablement (my kind of stuff since I’m not on the sales side) and a closing motivational speaker. I had a few hours before my flight so I got some drinks with the coworkers who stayed an extra night and ended up hitting for $210 on slots. Great way to walk away.

Overall it was an awesome trip. Busy busy busy, but fun. Can’t wait to go back in August, no work then so should be a bit more free to explore and do my own thing.

One thing I have to say is that Bellagio really disappointed me. Outside of the conservatory it just doesn’t feel as upscale as it wants to. The catered food for work meals was pretty mediocre, there were complaints from many people. One of my coworkers even found a bed bug and they couldn’t move him rooms since the hotel was full. Instead he just had to stay up while they cleaned from 1-2 am. I don’t think I’d stay there again if it was my decision.