1. Welcome to VegasMessageBoard
    It appears you are visiting our community as a guest.
    In order to view full-size images, participate in discussions, vote in polls, etc, you will need to Log in or Register.

Vegas Rookie Mistakes

Discussion in 'Misc. Vegas Chat' started by JaDubya, Apr 21, 2020.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Vegas Todd

    Vegas Todd MIA

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2019
    Messages:
    458
    Location:
    Northeast Illinois
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    17
    Another rookie mistake. My 2nd trip, before we left, for about 6 months, I saved all the nickels and quarters I had. I rolled them and put them in a big ziplock in my carry on.
    Well, 1st of all, if lugging all that extra weight wasn't dumb enough, I also got flagged for a search because I had a ''mass'' on the X-ray.
    If those weren't bad enough, I was loudly informed by the screener that I can get change ANYWHERE in Vegas and how much easier it would be to just carry bills.
     
    • Funny Funny x 6
    • Like Like x 1
  2. dmr

    dmr Registered Abuser

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2011
    Messages:
    19,795
    Location:
    Somewhere in Middle America
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    70
    Back when my dear dad passed away, we were sorting his stuff and found in his locker a tool box which contained TONS, almost literally, of rolled dimes and quarters. We were wondering WTF and then realized that these were all the original pure silver dimes and quarters. For some reason (??? forgot) I was the one tasked with dealing with this (even though we had relatives locally to him) so I had to get this roughly 70 pound box of metal coins back to Omaha.

    I phoned the airline (Midwest Express) and they said that it would be some extortive charge to check them as baggage but I could carry it on at no charge. (Yeah, right!) He even said that the crew could assist with it if needed. (Midwest Express was a super airline to fly! I miss them!) Anyway, I got one of those little luggage carts and took off for LAX. At the counter I checked my bags and confirmed that it was OK to take the box as a carry on. They said no problem and if I needed help, just ask.

    Okey-Dokey, or so I thought.

    Then I got up to the checkpoint and asked for help getting the box on the table/belt. This was before 9-11. OMG! The guy called for a supervisor who then called his boss and here they were pawing through this box asking me all kinds of questions as to how I got it and what it was for and whoever told me it was OK to carry it on a plane. They unrolled a few of the rolls, and were talking about if they needed to unroll all of them. I insisted that Midwest Express said it was ok and got a "They should know better than that" kind of answer.

    EVENTUALLY (about 30 minutes at the checkpoint) they figured out that there was no law or regulation saying that I could not carry (??) it on, so they let me go in with it.

    Anyway, when I got home I took the stuff to a rare coin dealer in south Omaha. I was expecting gasps and a bid up in the millions for it. :) :) Well, what I got was "We see this all the time, these are junk coins" and saying maybe if I would go through them I would find 2-3 of them worth a few bucks, but basically they were worth the spot price for scrap silver. Not wanting to have to haul it back home, I took them up on the offer.

    Oh well, and sorry to digress. :)
     
    • Like Like x 3
    • Agree Agree x 1
    • Funny Funny x 1
    • Informative Informative x 1
  3. gradytripp

    gradytripp High-Roller

    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2012
    Messages:
    548
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    20
    1. Walking back to Bellagio from the Atomic Testing Museum. In August. At 2 in the afternoon.
    2. Not really a "mistake," but a humorous lack of knowledge. For at least my first trip, and possibly my second, I thought that the dealer "hand clap" gesture when they go on break was some sort of universal gesture from dealers to say "thanks for playing blackjack with me"! It always brought a little smile to my face. (And still does, even though I now know why they do it.)
     
    • Funny Funny x 5
    • Like Like x 3
    • Love Love x 1
  4. smartone

    smartone VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2011
    Messages:
    9,892
    Location:
    Northern Nevada
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    248
    I first moved to Nevada in 1982 to open a business. I was 24 and my first visit to any casino was in our town of Carson City. I played nickel slot machines and ordered drinks and had a fantastic time, until I went to the restroom. I looked in the mirror and looked like a coal-miner! Apparently, I'd rubbed my nose, my chin, my forehead and just about every other part of my face while playing. Remember, in those days you had your little bucket of coins and moved from machine to machine. The cocktail waitress never said anything to me and I didn't know how dirty the coins were. Lesson learned.
     
    • Funny Funny x 11
    • Like Like x 5
    • Love Love x 2
  5. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2012
    Messages:
    10,689
    Location:
    USA
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    180
    IMHO, a first trip to Vegas that results in a win is pretty much a Pyrrhic victory. It’s not a rookie mistake, per se, but I’d wager that a win on a first trip to Vegas sends more people down the proverbial rabbit hole than those who limp away with a loss.

    A real rookie mistake, which I was guilty of during a lot of my early trips, was trying to do too much over the course of a weekend trip. It took me a while to realize that by trying to do so much I wasn’t really enjoying much of what I did. It was so counterintuitive for me to put the brakes on whilst in Vegas but it was well worth it once I did.

    :peace: :beer:
     
    Annual CCA (Casino Collectibles Association) Show at South Point
    Long Overdue Stay At The Golden Nugget
    • Agree Agree x 3
    • Like Like x 2
  6. GlobalRoamer333

    GlobalRoamer333 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 1, 2019
    Messages:
    51
    Location:
    Australia
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    5
    1: Believing the taxi driver when he told me that the tunnel was the cheapest/most direct route from McCarran to East Flamingo....
    2: Using an ATM on the strip
    3. Having not pre-booked my hotel, and taking my stay day-by-day, (San Remo casino during my old backpacker days), not realising how much the rate would increase on the weekend, after having paid $19.99 for my weekday rate, or how hard it could be to get a room during busy weekends.
    4. Not initially realising that the friendly cute lady chatting me up in the bar was in fact a professional
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2020
    • Like Like x 2
  7. 44inarow

    44inarow VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Sep 8, 2012
    Messages:
    10,845
    Location:
    Las Vegas, NV
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    35
    I see your bus ride to Mirage and raise you a bus ride to the Las Vegas Club.
     
    • Like Like x 1
    • Wow! Wow! x 1
  8. JaDubya

    JaDubya High Roller? Nah...just a Roller

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2020
    Messages:
    4,181
    Location:
    California
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    40
    I’m afraid to ask but...just how long was that bus ride to Las Vegas Club?
     
  9. 44inarow

    44inarow VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Sep 8, 2012
    Messages:
    10,845
    Location:
    Las Vegas, NV
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    35
    One of the main benefits to the proliferation of drugstores on the Strip is that they have fee-free ATMs. They're generally part of Allpoint, which includes most major banks. There are also a few hidden ones scattered around, though you have to know they're there (for example, there are two inside Crystals, one by the restrooms around the corner from the pub, and another at the third-floor mezzanine that takes you up to the tram).
     
    • Informative Informative x 7
  10. 44inarow

    44inarow VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Sep 8, 2012
    Messages:
    10,845
    Location:
    Las Vegas, NV
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    35
    Interminable. And to add insult to injury, when I finally got off the bus, I was at the Las Vegas Club.

    This was also in the days before any of the express routes, and I definitely remember needing at least one transfer, possibly two.
     
    • Wow! Wow! x 1
    • Funny Funny x 1
  11. Drambler

    Drambler High-Roller

    Joined:
    Aug 24, 2011
    Messages:
    787
    Location:
    Columbus OH
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    21
    Trying to hail a cab on the strip. We could not figure out why they would not stop.

    There was this trolley that ran between strip properties. It took forever and when it hit a speed bump the whole thing would shake so bad it was crazy. You could walk ten times faster than it took to get anywhere. I'm still not sure why I got on it.
     
    • Funny Funny x 3
    • Like Like x 1
  12. VegasGroove

    VegasGroove VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2009
    Messages:
    3,311
    Location:
    3h 45m Away
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    60
    Can. Not. Stand. It. Couple years ago, waiting at the gate for boarding and sure enough, here comes "the group". Three couples look to be in their 40s, loud, boisterous, attention-seeking types. Yammering on about VIP-this and my host-that, how they plan to drink from Illinois to Nevada. All this at 6:00a. Some people were rolling their eyes at their antics. It got so bad that an older gentleman went to the gate agent asking if he and his wife could be put on another flight.

    We boarded and they went to the very back of the plane, indicated by their jaunty one-liner song and pointed fingers, "to the back, to the back, to the back". :rolleyes2: They kept it up for about an hour and then blessed silence.
     
    • Funny Funny x 5
  13. stlguy197239

    stlguy197239 VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2018
    Messages:
    2,062
    Location:
    St. Louis
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    14
    On almost every flight I have taken to Vegas there has been this ‘group’. 6 am flights, somehow, are worse than the late night flights.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
    • Funny Funny x 1
  14. Craps all day

    Craps all day Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Nov 14, 2018
    Messages:
    242
    Location:
    Ventura, Ca
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    45
    Telling the wife I only lost a few hundred upon my return...

    ...forgetting the fact that my wife is a non gambling, budget pinching, Vegas hating CPA
     
    • Funny Funny x 7
    • Agree Agree x 3
    • Love Love x 1
  15. Mudhen

    Mudhen Always in Dutch

    Joined:
    May 1, 2018
    Messages:
    1,229
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    1
    The good news, is that they are usually quiet on the flight home, because they are all broke and hung over. :kill:
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
  16. woodsie

    woodsie VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Jan 19, 2012
    Messages:
    1,805
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    18
    Have you arrived yet or still on the bus posting from your mobile? :thumbsup:
     
    • Funny Funny x 4
    • Like Like x 2
  17. booker

    booker VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Oct 26, 2009
    Messages:
    3,782
    Location:
    Coast of Washington State
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    75
    And then there was my second or third trip where I had saved coins in a bag for over a year and had a "great" idea of taking them to the coin slot area and have the cashier run them through the machine.

    So I was off to the cage at Circus Circus (yeah, I know) and the woman there gave me The Look. As she was dumping it in, the machine malfunctioned. I had a sandwich sack filled with dimes – don't ask me why, and fastened with a grocery store twist-em that jammed the works. Maintenance and a suit were called over. I got evil stares. I wanted to crawl under the carpet.
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2020
    • Funny Funny x 9
    • Like Like x 1
  18. JaDubya

    JaDubya High Roller? Nah...just a Roller

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2020
    Messages:
    4,181
    Location:
    California
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    40
    Amazing story!!! I love how you owned that one.:nworthy:
     
    • Like Like x 1
    • Funny Funny x 1
  19. GlobalRoamer333

    GlobalRoamer333 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 1, 2019
    Messages:
    51
    Location:
    Australia
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    5
    Thanks 44inarow
     
  20. Joe Strummer

    Joe Strummer VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Apr 4, 2006
    Messages:
    5,109
    I asked the Food Server at Palace Station Buffet -
    for a Doggie Bag.
    You should have seen the look she gave me !
    That was 30 yrs ago and I still can see the " you stupid jerk " look she gave me !
     
    • Funny Funny x 6
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.