Much needed get away 12/11-12/16 Semi-Live

Well after a long summer and fall it's finally here! Long story short I ended up having to coach football and volleyball at the same time in the same season this year so I was busy 7 days a week with one or another so I am worn out and needing to bask in the energy of Vegas and revitalize before the start of the 2nd half of the school year. Was trying to hold off until spring when it was warm and the pools are open and great for passing some time but I just couldn't do it. Called the guys up and it didn't take a lot of arm twisting and they were ready to go wheels up and west bound!

Flights:
Flying out of Nashville. Did some trolling and ended up getting our BNA(Nashville) to LAS tickets for $35 plus the carry on fee of $37 I think so just under 80 bucks a piece I think. It's the first time flying Frontier so not really knowing what to expect and to be honest for 80 dollars as long as I land in one piece don't really care. Just checked the available seats and noticed that the exit seats were still open so hoping i can be a good Samaritan and volunteer to help out and volunteer to take those seats up lol.

Flying Spirit back to BNA back. First time flying Spirit as well but for $25 dollar flight plus $40 carry on fee, how could I pass it up. Round trip for under $150.00 is about the best price I've been able to get in a long time. To me it already feels like I am winning!

Room:
Well....I guess I can simply say....wherever I collapse. We have 5 nights comped at the Wynn with $500 free play, standard room from what I've gathered. At the Mirage a one bedroom suite with the separate bedroom and a connector to go with it, $500 Food and Beverage, and a couple of comped UFC fight tickets, and Harrahs gave us a room for the trip, no food and beverage though (first time in a long time i didn't get that) but they did throw in some Rodeo tickets. I'm guessing my lounge time will be spent at the Mirage and then at night the room closest that I can fall into...

Plans:
Getting in later Wednesday night so really just get out...check the heat on the slots see if I can score early and let it ride the rest of the trip or see if it's going to be a grind. Going into the trip I really wouldn't even mind just playing here and there when I feel like it and lounging and relaxing for a good portion of the trip.

Thursday Night: Rodney Carrington
Friday Night: Rodeo
Saturday Night: UFC Fight

At some point I do have plans to try and check out the Voodoo Lounge, OTR, and the Cat's Meow Karaoke thing. Going to be tough to fit it all in by I have faith! But will most likely end up somewhere between Toby Keith's and Carnival Court bouncing around and having a good time like I do on most of my trips.

I am going to try and make daily recaps in some of my lounge time! Cheers! So Long to the long, cold, Kentucky Nights!

 

Have a great time! I'm currently sitting at the airport in indy waiting on my flight!

 

Good luck & enjoy!!

 

Following along, good luck!

 

Following along! Hope you have an awesome time!

 

Have a refreshing trip!

 

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

 

Following along! Hope you have a blast!

 

Sorry it took so long but jam packed first day and a half.

We ended up getting in about 9:30 Wednesday night and got checked in everywhere. By the time all that happen was a lot of time to do nothing...well except gamble and let’s just say wasn’t a great start! After coming back two time zones...working all day...figured that was my cue to go to bed. Did a little bit of walking around and it was kind of dead at my normal spots I like to hang out at. Harrahs piano bar was lively as usual but in the end bed was calling my name!


Thursday:
Much better start! Won on several basis! Had buffet at Cravings in the Mirage and from there went on a lucky streak. Walked next door to Caesars and I’m a huge fossil watch collector so went into Fossil. Had several of my watches with me that needed batteries replaced. Guy was impressed with the collection and changed all the batteries for free! Already winning! Walked around and got some picks. Found a new shop I really liked which was the recycled metals art shop.


They also had these weird healing stones that I had to ask about...lady working got to laughing pretty hard listening to us discuss just how these healing stones were used.

Went on to Caesars to play a little bit and right of the bat stick a 20 in a machine and boom hit a 500 progressive! Score. Slid to the next machine over put in another 20 and bam another 500! On the way out got to feeling it and put a hundred in a Spartacus machine and cashed it out for over a 400 win as well. So was feeling good!




From there my buddy got on a role in the high limit video poker scoring hand pays from Caesars, Bellagio, and The Park. I never hit the hand pays but cashed out up everywhere we went accept the MGM but didn’t push my luck and just accepted the run maybe over for the day lol. Seeing the Christmas displayed through the different hotels and casinos was neat as well.

Decided to take the monorail back and got stuck for about 15 minutes at a stop...which surprisingly I was cool with cause I just chillaxed, cut up and kidded around. Which is why I come to Vegas. Upon finally getting back we decided it was finally time to get the guys part of the trip going and went to the store and grabbed some things to make some adult beverages including my famous Team Captain ingredients...Capt. Morgan, Orange Juice, Sprite, and Sour Mix (never fails!). While there decided to grab some Taco El Gordo.


From that point it was back to the suite...and once the drinks start flowing it was cracking jokes, line dancing rehearsal (It’s PBR out here so we had to freshen up so we didn’t look like idiots lol) and hanging out until dinner time. I was perfectly fine for being done for the day gambling wise. Momma raised a smart man...hit it and quit it lol.


Ended up eating dinner at Ruth Chris at Harrah’s. Had a 500 celebration dinner that needed to be used before the year was up so knocked that up. Delicious. Enough said.

After dinner we hoped in the Tahoe and headed back down to the MGM and for Rodney Carrington’s show. Seen him several times and he’s still hilarious...maybe a little more raunchy than he used to be but we were dying laughing most of the show. Some poor people obviously didn’t know what they were in for and left the show. Makes me wonder how you don’t review shows and learn about them before getting tickets. Becomes a waste at that point.

last stop of the night was to grab a couple of buckets at Toby Keith’s to hang out with the other cowboys and capped it off after closing time piano bar.

Expecting a pretty chill day today. About to head out to grab a snack. Lunch will be at Rolling Smoke BBQ (one of my Vegas must do’s) and probably grab earl of sandwich before heading to the Rodeo tonight. Who knows happens after that. Gambling wise may try to keep it going but if it’s not there don’t plan on pushing it.

Next update coming soon!

 

Congrats on the Quick Hit wins, that's awesome!!

 

Went ahead and decided to hang out down at the Wynn. Nice view this afternoon. Lunch hit the spot as normal...feeling the itch so going to try and see if I can get some luck going at the Wynn and get paid!

 

I don't know what you're eating....but that looks fuckin' fabulous. I'll take 5.

 

Time to pre-flight before some rodeo action....

 

That would be the spudtastic with pork bbq, a little bit of baked beans and potato salad....may have went a little heavy with the potatoes but thought I could use the extra absorption properties

 

Nice wins. Hope your luck continues.

 

Meant to do more updates along the way but time didn’t really allow. Ended up being much more of a jam packed schedule then normal.

Friday night:
Ended up going on over to Harrahs to get the comp rodeo tickets and checking into our room there. Actually liked the room and used it as a crash pad Thursday and Friday night before spending Saturday night back at the Mirage. Not sure of the room type but plenty of room, partially separate seating area, with a descent view I guess. Room 28052 of the valley tower I believe.

Didn't get a chance to do much more gambling other than than losing at the Wynn as I normally do. Not sure why I keep trying. Hardheaded I guess or a glutton for punishment.

Rodeo surprised me. Even though yes I’m from Kentucky never really got into the rodeo growing up but seeing it live for the first time...I’m sold. It was really great and glad I went!

After the rodeo we ended up catching a ride down to Fremont St. I wanted to check out the Cat’s Meow Karaoke Bar for a while and decided to do it. Was actually a pretty good time as well singing along and dancing. The hosts did a good job of keeping the energy up and really enjoyed it. Afterwards we just decided to call it a night and head back to the room after checking out Carnival Court for a while.

Saturday:
Decided to get up and do some gambling a few small wins here and there but nothing really significant. Ended up doing more battling to stay at least even then anything which is pretty much how it turned out. Once I got tired of fighting the battle went and did some Christmas shopping to kill some time while a few of the others in the group did some of the touristy stuff that I’ve done a million times.

While out grabbed some lunch at Diablo’s. Love it! Also glad a diablos is going into the mirage so I don’t have to always go to the Luxor to get it.
After Diablos took the MGM tram network down to Aria and went over to Planet Hollywood and came back down through the Caesar’s properties where I ended up getting a descent little hit on a slot.
300 dollar hit on a penny quick hit at Bally’s. Not the biggest but put me up for the day so decided that would pay for my drinks at the fights and decided to leave it at that!

Pre-fight did some adult drinking in the suite with the fellas before taking the shuttle over to T-Mobile for the main card of the fights. Kind of like the rodeo never really got in to the UFC stuff and definitely not enough to pay 450.00 for tickets like the ones the Mirage comp’d us but hey... if they’re offering I’m going. Fights were actually pretty descent and the last ten seconds of the Usman and Covington fight made it all worth it!

Afterwards to our surprise the fights were not over. Ended up dancing at Carnival Court where not one but two additional fights broke out, of which the best was the 2nd where a female battle royale broke out with lots of kicking, hair-pulling, and slapping which officially marked the closing of Carnival Court for the night. After some Pancakes at the Mirage at 3:30 A.M. called it a night and began to get into recovery mode!


Sunday:
Complete and utter lounge and recover day. Went pretty hard Saturday night so slept in until about 10:30 before getting up and grabbing brunch at Cravings. I didn’t realize after the Rodeo basically a lot shuts down until after Christmas, according to security it’s because there’s a major slow down. But anyway that meant we’ve done a lot of people watching and watching football games.

Did end up getting my Earl of Sandwich before we left.

Can’t go wrong with the Hawaiian Chicken.

Afterwards we took a trip in the High Roller so a few of the guys could see the sights.

Before heading to the airport decided to try my luck on some top dollar...by far one of my favorites. Had a nice little hit that ended the gambling for the trip!

Been hangin at Harrahs for a while now waiting to get to the airport for our red eye which according to my email is already delayed by 45 minutes...smh. Getting
Ready to head that way now and will add my conclusions for the trip from there!

 

Room at Harrahs looks good; I like the little seating area.

 

Trip reflection:

I’ve had a long day to reflect here so waiting at the airport seemed like a perfect time to write it up.

Airlines:
Really pleased with the Frontier Flight and experience in. Will definitely use them again. Spirit is yet to be determined however but having a 45 minutes delay is not off to a good start.

Experiences:
I probably in hindsight overbooked this trip. Having something to do every single night cut into my “party” time but all the events were cool to see. UFC fight if I get that offer again will probably give the tickets to someone with me or maybe sell them. It was a good time but if it wasn’t for the late knock out I would have probably had just as a good time doing some line dancing and drowning my liver or cutting some rug somewhere. Rodeo. Different story. Really enjoyed it!

All in all planning so much took some of the things I wanted to get to out of the equation. I guess Voodoo Lounge and OTR will have to wait until next time unfortunately.

Insights:
Will probably never come back during the National Rodeo Finals...A little over crowded for me. Complete madhouse everywhere. Not sure if there are any other times like that but if you know about them please let me know so I know to avoid them to! The normal Vegas crowd doesn’t bother me but this was too much...especially since I never could get my Starbucks because the line was always a 20 minute wait regardless where I tried. The other thing that didn’t help was a kids cheerleader competition that went Friday and Saturday.

It was the first time I’ve not rented a car in quite sometime. To be honest, determined this was an unnecessary expense as looking at my lyft receipts I came out spending less that renting the car. So in the future will probably avoid the car unless I know I’m going to be taking people around showing them things off the strip, which at this point I avoid.

Also, didn’t realize that the Sunday following the Rodeo until the day after Christmas a lot of things shut down more often according to several people. I was hoping with this red eye to catch some time at the piano bar or a set of Mr and Mrs Smith at Carnival Court to kill sometime before heading to the airport but that didn’t happen. Note to self: don’t come during that time frame.

Last but not least...Vegas is still Vegas! Always a great trip no matter what the outcomes or experiences...because it’s an escape from reality! Luckily with the red eye I am taking tomorrow off as well to have an extra recovery day! Then work four days (maybe...they are calling for snow!) and off for two weeks for Christmas Break!

Can’t wait until the next one! I love this town!

 

Thanks for taking the time.....glad you had some wins on the last day!

 

Good times! Thanks for sharing! Rodeo and UFC are definitely things I would never pay to do but I'd check em out free too, and probably feel the same way you did.