Trip Report - Solo Vegas, the Quad - Dec 19th to 26th

Been to Vegas about 4 times so far with friends but doing a solo trip for a week coming up. A little scared about going solo to be honest and my goal is to stay under budget and not go completely Degen..

Previous Vegas trips have been 2-3 day trips and I've stayed at Harrahs, Luxor and Palms. I'm looking forward to a break and just relaxing.

Got 3 nights comped at the Quad and am paying $70 for the entire stay 12/19 - 12/26. I've read some of the reviews of this place and am abit worried it's going to be really terrible in which case I'd spend on a room somewhere decent (but my fingers are crossed that it will be OK).

Got a great deal on a flight out thru Priceline - paying ~300 bucks for the round trip airfare.

I'm hoping to spend no more than 300 a day for everything.. If I have to get a different hotel room that may be an exception but other than that I'm hoping to budget 300 a day for food/bev (not a big drinker but will hit a buffet or 2), gambling, site seeing (more on this below) & shows (this is a maybe - but i haven't done a vegas show in my 4 previous trips but if money looks good I'd do one of the Cirque shows).

Regarding site seeing, I am interested in seeing the Grand Canyon and Red Rock Canyon. From talking to friends/coworkers, everyone said I could rent a car for a few days and do both or take a tour. Everyone recommended taking a tour.. I'm interested in photography and I'm worried a tour would mean I couldn't spend as much time as I need to get the perfect pic.

I'm also interested in going to Downtown which I haven't done before as well as checking out the Pawnstar's place.

Any recommendations from people would be most appreciated!

 

Since you have to pay for a couple of the nights anyways i would suggest mixing it up and staying at least one night downtown. Depending on what day you go, golden nugget has the wed and thurs for $42 a night and The D is in the low $30's I believe.
I used to strictly stay on the strip but on this past visit I stayed downtown part of the trip and I highly recomend it. I really enjoyed hanging out at the bars and playing VP and getting drinks for free. Plus you can find cheap table games and dining options are alot cheaper for the most part.
Also, if you are a poker player, playing 2-4 limit poker at Golden Nugget or Binions is good to kill time and not spend a ton of money. The drink service at both of the poker rooms have been pretty quick and you get to hang back and talk to some people that are playing. The 2-4 limit tables tend to be pretty social.
As for shows, I'm not big on cirque shows so I can't help you on that, but if you want to see a comedy show, I would check the 1/2 price ticket stand to see what comedians are at Brad Garrett's Comedy Club at MGM. Sometime its a couple good up and comers and sometimes some big name stars stop by there and you can score a ticket for like $35. (the club is a small venue, so even if you are in the back its still not bad seats).

Good luck on your trip!!!

 

Renting a car to visit Red Rock Canyon is a good idea... especially if you want the freedom to explore and take pictures.

Driving solo to the Grand Canyon is a different story though. It is a 300 mile 5 hour drive from downtown Vegas to the visitor center in the Grand Canyon. That means 10 hours of driving for the round trip. If you plan on doing that in a day then you'll be exhausted by the day's end. With 2 people you can alternate the driving chores and get some rest while the other is driving.

I took a tour the first time out to the Grand Canyon. Wake up at 4am, wait for the tour shuttle by 5am... leave Vegas around 7 / 7:30 and get to the Grand Canyon around 2pm. Sunset is around 4:30/5pm this time of year so you only have a few hours of sunlight.

I now drive there but stay overnight. Just can't see enough in just a few hours.

 

I been to the pawn stars. It was a different then on tv. It is very small. and half of it is their stuff they are selling like tshirts such. It is mostly of chumlee. I got to see the old man thru the window. You barely see them. I do recommend going to rick dales ( rick's restoration). Go to rick's restoration it has their site the address. They give tours. I got to meet rick and tyler. Enjoy your trip!

 

South Point is always a great hotel for the rate. usually $70 - $80 on the weekend.

 

So far so good/checked in/20 buck trick/first drinks and wins

Checked in at quad/ip around 4.. Did the 20 buck trick and room I got is decent.. Nothing to write home about but it's clean and on a high floor..

There was a 30 or so minute line to check in..

Hit JOB at the Bar at the Ip played for 10 mins got a cpl of free drinks and won 10 bucks too..

Not sure how I feel about the dealer entertainers yet.. Rod Stewart guy looks legit.. They had some drag queens as Donna summers and Katy perry (at least i think they were dudes - if not just some butch girls)

Burger palace here does a BOGO so ill prolly hit that up before I go out..7 bux for 2 cheeseburgers sounds like a deal.

 

It's cold here

Just an FYI it's cold here now 46/32 high low.. Need a jacket + sweater to handle outside temps

 

Good Luck in Las Vegas!

Hey Akfromohio

Thanks for the tip on the temp I will be heading to Vegas Jan 28 to Feb 1. I will make sure I take a jacket. Good luck and win lots.

 

If you haven't already gone to the Grand Canyon I might suggest a solo trip to the Valley of Fire instead. We usually go after breakfast and are back to the casinos in the late afternoon. Its only about 50 miles from Vegas and very easy to find. Head up I-15 toward Utah. You'll see a sign to turn right for VoF. Drive back that road a couple miles until you come to the park. You'll see some imilar scenery like the Grand Canyon. It's amazing there. Movies have been filmed there for the fantastic scenery. Its great for photograhy. Its one of my favorite diversions in the area.

Hope you have a good solo time. Thats my desire. To go just once ALONE.

 

Bills & Bellagio

Lost 150 playing JOB at Bills.. Kinda sucked cos I wasn't even getting any 2pairs or trips at all

Bellagio poker room is very legit.. Played 1-3 NL there.. Place reminds me of the Borgata.. They don't skimp on the drinks and serve whatever u want in good glassware.. Had a bunch of red bull vodkas so I'm feeling buzzed now.. Bellagio Also has free wifi u can hop on for a few hrs.. Lost 200 in their poker room but I can't complain it was fun ..

Any suggestions for end of the world party places for Friday?

 

Day 2 report

Day 2 is in and not a good day from a winking standpoint but fun nonetheless..

Couldn't sleep at night - heater kept waking me up but I forced myself to stay in bed till 6am. Headed out around 7am.. First place I went is the Stage Door Casino next to Ballys slightly off strip.. Started the day with a hot dog and budlight for $2.50.. Not bad and the bartender is eye candy too.. Anyway I gambled 20 bucks on the tabletops there Blackjack and JOB.. No luck really..

Next I went to the Flamingo and sat at a 1-2 NL table.. Had fun here for around 3hrs and I walked out +20 from there..Dealers, players and waitresses all nice - no hotties here tho..

Next I hit up some slots in Margaritaville.. Lost 40 and headed back to the room to get some work done.. Had 3 hrs of work to do including a 1.5 hr conf call.. By the time I was done with work it was 1 vegas time and I headed out towards the Venetian. Walked around the stores in Venetian and Palazzo just people watching and window shopping.. Venetian Xmas display is quite nice.. The mall areas are very full.. I also went to the Walgreens next to the Venetian - regular prices here so that's good..

I was getting hungry now so I went to the ny pizza place by the McDonald's next to harrahs.. 5 or so bucks for a nice slice of pep pizza.. Not really NY pizza but decent..

Next casino I hit up was Casino Royale.. Waited to get a card but staff were really not paying any attention in the check-in/comp card room.. Hit up the bar and played JOB lost a quick 60.. Then I saw a blackjack table called Free Bet and sat down with 200.. Free bet basically is BJ but the house will pay for doubling for u.. However dealer pushes with 22.. This hurts u a lot apparently.. I lost 200 very quickly (20 mins tops)..

Meanwhile my email was blowing up with work stuff.. Since I needed to deal with a few work things I headed back to the room at the quad.. As I headed back to the room I walked by a guy coughing up a lung.. I covered up as best as I could but the guy wasn't covering up at all.. (Not cool man - you gotta do your part..)

Ok so did an hour of solid work and now time is 5pm and I want to go downtown.. I've never been downtown and I was planning to take the Sams town shuttle from harrahs.. I just missed the Sams town bus so I decide to take the deuces or express from Paris.. I stopped at flamingo on the way over and here is where my luck took a detour to the shitter..

Played craps and I was solo on a table.. Put 200 on the table and crapped out 6 times without making a point.. I started getting tilted a bit at this point so I hit up a BJ table with 200 more.. Had some nice wins here and got it up to 400 pretty quickly.. Now I got greedy and played and lost a few 100 buck hands.. Determined to win it back, I put 200 on the next hand:

I get 6 6 with the dealer showing a 6.. I realize this is a doubling hand but I didn't have cash on me.. I quickly hit up an ATM and pulled out 400 just in case I got a double or something.. Of course next card is another 6 so I split again.. Then I get 3 tens so three hands of 16 with dealer showing a 6(total bet of 600 bucks).. Dealer turns her card over and has 6 6 then hits a 8.. Unfuckingbelievable...

Then I went back to my room to lick my wounds and figure out the damage.. So far I'm down 1500 total..

I take an hour or so to calm down then I took the bus to downtown.. I'll say downtown is very cool.. Totally different vibe than the Strip.. You feel like you are walking back in time a few decades..

Played at The D.. Bad luck continues here - dropped 150 in wheel of fortune.. Just got 1 spin for 25 bucks.. Bad luck was just me tho - guy next to me put in 100 and got 3 spins (best of 400) and cashed out with 550..

Next I hit up a blackjack table - lots of ppl at this table don't know how to play BJ.. They proceed to lose there shirts.. I dropped another 350 here... The D is pretty cool tho.. Hottie dealers, nice bar.. I didn't get any comps (not even a Coney Island dog) which was disappointing..

Next I walked thru the el Cortez and grabbed dinner at the Thai place on Fremont st (I think it's called Le Thai).. I sat at the bar there and got the green curry with brown rice and a Thai iced coffee.. Amazing tasty food here.. Also, the portion sizes are huge..The place was swamped with some big group but the service staff did a great job.. The part-owner GM was overseeing everything from the bar and making sure everything ran smoothly.. It reminded me of when I was a food/bev manager some years ago.. I had a short chat with the GM - she's definitely a hottie! Dinner was 22 bucks with tip..

After this I headed back to the hotel.. Total loss for the day was ~1600 bucks for everything.. Expensive fucking day is all I can say.. Need to pump the breaks or get some wins to last till the 26th without going broke.. So far total loss in 2 days is ~2k..

 

Day 2 - Reports - editted

Day 2 is in and not a good day from a gambling standpoint but fun nonetheless..

Couldn't sleep at night - heater kept waking me up but I forced myself to stay in bed till 6am. Headed out around 7am.. First place I went is the Stage Door Casino next to Ballys slightly off strip.. Started the day with a hot dog and budlight for $2.50.. Not bad and the bartender is eye candy too.. Anyway I gambled 20 bucks on the tabletops there Blackjack and JOB.. No luck really..

Next I went to the Flamingo and sat at a 1-2 NL table.. Had fun here for around 3hrs and I walked out +20 from there..Dealers, players and waitresses all nice - no hotties here tho..

Next I hit up some slots in Margaritaville.. Lost 40 and headed back to the room to get some work done.. Had 3 hrs of work to do including a 1.5 hr conf call.. By the time I was done with work it was 1 vegas time and I headed out towards the Venetian. Walked around the stores in Venetian and Palazzo just people watching and window shopping.. Venetian Xmas display is quite nice.. The mall areas are very full.. I also went to the Walgreens next to the Venetian - regular prices here so that's good..

I was getting hungry now so I went to the ny pizza place by the McDonald's next to harrahs.. 5 or so bucks for a nice slice of pep pizza.. Not really NY pizza but decent..

Next casino I hit up was Casino Royale.. Waited to get a card but staff were really not paying any attention in the check-in/comp card room.. Hit up the bar and played JOB lost a quick 60.. Then I saw a blackjack table called Free Bet and sat down with 200.. Free bet basically is BJ but the house will pay for doubling for u.. However dealer pushes with 22.. This hurts u a lot apparently.. I lost 200 very quickly (20 mins tops)..

Meanwhile my email was blowing up with work stuff.. Since I needed to deal with a few work things I headed back to the room at the quad.. As I headed back to the room I walked by a guy coughing up a lung.. I covered up as best as I could but the guy wasn't covering up at all.. (Not cool man - you gotta do your part..)

Ok so did an hour of solid work and now time is 5pm and I want to go downtown.. I've never been downtown and I was planning to take the Sams town shuttle from harrahs.. I just missed the Sams town bus so I decide to take the deuces or express from Paris.. I stopped at flamingo on the way over and here is where my luck took a detour to the shitter..

Played craps and I was solo on a table.. Put 200 on the table and crapped out 6 times without making a point.. I started getting tilted a bit at this point so I hit up a BJ table with 200 more.. Had some nice wins here and got it up to 400 pretty quickly.. Now I got greedy and played and lost a few 100 buck hands.. Determined to win it back, I put 200 on the next hand:

I get 6 6 with the dealer showing a 6.. I realize this is a splitting hand but I didn't have cash on me.. I quickly hit up an ATM and pulled out 400 just in case I got a double or something.. Of course next card is another 6 so I split again.. Then I get 3 tens so three hands of 16 with dealer showing a 6(total bet of 600 bucks).. Dealer turns her card over and has 6 6 then hits a 8.. Unfuckingbelievable...

Then I went back to my room to lick my wounds and figure out the damage.. So far I'm down 1500 total trip to date..

I take an hour or so to calm down then I took the bus to downtown.. I'll say downtown is very cool.. Totally different vibe than the Strip.. You feel like you are walking back in time a few decades..

Played at The D.. Bad luck continues here - dropped 150 in wheel of fortune.. Just got 1 spin for 25 bucks.. Bad luck was just me tho - guy next to me put in 100 and got 3 spins (best of 400) and cashed out with 550..

Next I hit up a blackjack table - lots of ppl at this table don't know how to play BJ.. They proceed to lose there shirts.. I dropped another 350 here... The D is pretty cool tho.. Hottie dealers, nice bar.. I didn't get any comps (not even a Coney Island dog) which was disappointing..

Next I walked thru the el Cortez and grabbed dinner at the Thai place on Fremont st (I think it's called Le Thai).. I sat at the bar there and got the green curry with brown rice and a Thai iced coffee.. Amazing tasty food here.. Also, the portion sizes are huge..The place was swamped with some big group but the service staff did a great job.. The part-owner GM was overseeing everything from the bar and making sure everything ran smoothly.. It reminded me of when I was a food/bev manager some years ago.. I had a short chat with the GM - she's definitely a hottie! Dinner was 22 bucks with tip..

After this I headed back to the hotel.. Total loss for the day was ~1600 bucks for everything.. Expensive fucking day is all I can say.. Need to pump the breaks or get some wins to last till the 26th without going broke.. So far total loss in 2 days is ~2k..

Worse than the gambling losses is that I feel sick as a dog on Day 3 when I woke up.. Guy coughing near me definitely fucked me up.. Out I go for halls and hot tea..

 

Day 3..sickly and luck continues

Woke up at 5am and was feeling like crap right away.. Body aching, shivering etc.. I think I have the flu but hoping I can just take meds early and often to overcome this..

Willed myself out the door by 545 and ran over to Bills for $7 steak and eggs... I added hot tea and my bill was 11 bucks.. Great value here 2 eggs, a nice size steak, hash browns/ home fries and 2 pieces of buttered toast.. I took my time and it was after 7 by the time I got out and was stuffed.. Had a few work emails so I went back to the room and was still not feeling great.. At least food was fantastic..

Dealt with work stuff till 9 and I had a window between 9 and 10 where I didn't have work.. Went down without jacket (big mistake) and hit up craps and promptly dropped 100.. Hit a few craps on come out rolls but other than that was terrible.. I've thrown fire 4-5 times in ac and Windsor so starting to get worried abt my crap skills/luck..

Went at BJ for the next 30 mins and dropped 600 (yowza) at the end dealer was telling me to slow down but I wanted to get back money b4 10 and more work stuff.. I also noticed casino was freezing (it really is cold with renovations leaving lots of uninsulated parts)..

Got back to room and am feeling pretty sickly now.. Don't feel good enough to even make it to gift shop for NyQuil at this point. Just cranking the heat hydrating and sleeping now.

 

Sorry to read you're not feeling well. Hopefully your luck will change if you need to stretch that bankroll for another 5 days. Poker seems to be working out best for you -- its also a good place to play for a long time while conserving your bankroll and still have a great time.

Keep updating!

 

Why not hit one of those "Doc in a Boxes"

Get something for that flu.Dont neccesarily blame the guy coughing,better odds you got that on the plane or just touched something somewhere and bang.
I had a coughing fit last night and I'm not sick at all.
Hope you feel better and win back some of that cash.

 

To piggyback on jerseyguy, you can visit a minute clinic right at CVS. I hope you feel better! That flu seems to be everywhere lately and is pretty awful (especially the strain from Ohio, fellow Ohioan). I'm guessing the quad doesn't have room service?

 

Day 4 - feeling better, luck is way worse..

Starting to feel better now.. However luck is much worse.. Played poker at aria lost 800.. Lost 500 at blackjack same place.. Played roulette at Bellagio and lost 400 there..

 

Glad your feeling better

You gotta really watch when you travel ,places like Vegas,cruise ships etc. you have people from god knows where carrying all kinds of nasty crap.
The sickest I've been in one hell of a long time was on a cruise in Hawaii.
Now win that money back!!

 

Day 5- poker and bj

Played in a poker tourney at harrahs lost 60..

Played blackjack after tourney and won 100... So far so good - watching football now for abit

 

How much of tip to change sheets/bedding

I'm going to ask housekeeper to change out my sheets & bedding - how much of a tip is appropriate with that request - I was thinking $5 -lemme know what u think..