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Early Mornings Downtown, what do you like to do?

Discussion in 'Downtown Hotels' started by McGoo, Mar 18, 2013.

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  1. McGoo

    McGoo Low-Roller

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    Being on East Coast time the first few mornings I find myself wide awake very early in the morning. In fact during my last trip I awoke at 6am which is not unusual for me, showered and headed to the boar's head bar for VP, breakfast stout and bailey/coffees, but the more stouts and baileys I drank I found it increasingly more difficult to tell time. I try not to look at my watch while in Vegas but I snuck a peek and it read 5:30am, but how could that be? I didn't get up until 6am. I started to think I was in some sort of wonderful time warp where only in Vegas does the time move backwards. it then dawned on me that when I checked in the day before, before I got drunk, that my room alarm clock was 2 hours fast, meaning I got up at 4am.

    I personally like getting up early and doing some quiet gambling and breakfast. I tend to enjoy the days more than the nights, when it get busy.

    I used to get up, shower, hit a VP bar for some blue moons or other wheat beers, and drink as much as possible before I forced myself to have breakfast. After which I grabbed the deuce to the IP for Aces Cracked. Sadly no more aces cracked at the IP (Quad).

    For you Downtown early birds, what do you like to do?
     
  2. Buddha

    Buddha VIP Whale

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    Our mornings are somewhat similar, in that we are early risers, have some coffee in the room, and often down in the casino playing VP by 7:00 am, with a Bloody Mary at our side. As you said, the mornings are nice and quiet for playing VP ... with breakfast generally about 8:30 ... and then back to the VP machines.
     
  3. McGoo

    McGoo Low-Roller

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    I think the only problem with early Fremont mornings, is the panhandlers. Since there are few people walking around, I get asked and stopped quite a bit. It's sort of uncomfortable for me walking around at that time.
     
  4. McGoo

    McGoo Low-Roller

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    What casino on Fremont has the best coffee on the floor or bar?
     
  5. Royal Flusher

    Royal Flusher Savvy Gambler

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    Boy I wish I knew the answer to this one... it's mostly all shite.

    I like to use my points to get a latte at Lappert's but they don't open till 6:00am I think.

    If I'm desperate I'll go over to Starbucks at the Nugget - I think they open earlier than 6:00. Five maybe?
     
  6. McGoo

    McGoo Low-Roller

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    I have a couple nights at the ElCortez, so I might grab a coffee at the beat on my way to MSS.

    Hey Flusher, does Magnolia's still have the Chicken Fried Steak breakfast? Your last report said they did, but when I was there in late Jan, it was off the special board, and I could not find it on the menu. It was always a breakfast tradition for me.
     
  7. split10's?

    split10's? Low-Roller

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    i would like to contribute to this thread but most mornings downtown, if able to stand, i generally just try to walk a little, outdoors if possible. Generally have no destination, maybe somewhere for a water. Early am is a good/interesting time for walking ogden or carson streets. Once i have a cuppa coffee down i can often finally transition from survival to enjoyment mode...
     
  8. topcard

    topcard Here's to $10 3:2 two-deck, $5 Craps, and $5 UTH!

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    My normal, 'central-time' wake-up time in order to go to work is 5 AM.
    So, you can well understand that I also tend to rise very early when I'm out there... 5 AM vegas time is a typical start of my day. (yes - I sleep-in!)
    Since I usually stay at the Fremont, my first stop after disembarking the elevator is the convenient Dunkin' Donuts, next to Lanai Express.
    Decent breakfast sandwiches and normal, plain black coffee every bit as good as Starbuck's.
    If the 2-deck pitch game isn't packed, I'll play there for +/- $100... all the while ordering Sobe's Red Bull imitation from the cocktail waitress, careful to remind her "no vodka". (Sorry, but the Fremont's coffee is virtually undrinkable.) Then it's a 3 minute stroll to the only open 3-card poker table this early in downtown - the Nugget.
    By 8 AM, I feel perfectly comfortable with rousting my vegas buddy from his semi-drunken slumber so that he can join me in yet another attempt to deprive the downtown casinos of some of their money. Then it's off to the races!

    The panhandlers? Yeah - in the early morning hours, they seem to focus in on any apparently-sober gambler walking along Fremont or Ogden. But the standard "nope - not today" reply to their appeals for my money has always seemed to work, with literally zero "confrontational" incidents.
    (There was one time when a particularly persistent guy followed me into LVC, right up to the blackjack table I just bought in at...he then insisted that the least I could do is to order him a "free" cocktail from the waitress. I pointed to the bar and told him, "If you want to order a drink, the bar's right there". He left after that.)
     
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  9. Huddler

    Huddler VIP Whale

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    There is a Dunkin Donuts inside the Fremont Casino at the very back. Dunkin has the best coffee to me. I stagger down there get a cup and walk all the way down to the El Cortez and back trying to get some fresh air and walk off my hangover...:eek: I then go play some bartop VP and start drinking bloody Marys or beer.
     
  10. Military Mike

    Military Mike Low-Roller

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    Ah a Dunk's in down town music to my ears. Best and only Coffee in MA, everything else is just crap
     
  11. Pocketaces

    Pocketaces Tourist

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    Great thread. Most of my early morning routine is the same. I get up, get a coffee, and hit the machines or an empty dice table. After the coffee is gone I get a few beers in me to get the cobwebs out from the night before. Like another poster said after about +/-100 and +/- 6 beers I see if anyone else is up and hungry. After a breakfast it is time to start looking at that days sports lines.

    By then its 11am and the rest of the world is up and time to find a nice poker game to settle in to while keeping an eye on the scores....

    Great thread! Can't wait to read everyone else's.

    :beer:
     
  12. maineguy

    maineguy Low-Roller

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    After a coffee, a room snack, and shower, then, (if I don't head out to out lying casino like towards Henderson or just drive), I'll take my bottle of water and look for a quiet BJ table or low min VP game, or just wander taking pics like a good tourist (I always have a pocket camera). Then...I'll either take in an early or late, lunch buffet (MSS, or Mkt St. salad bar+).
    I treat the panhandler's like I do the Mexican beach "Sellers",........no eye contact......... keep walking.
     
  13. aliasyoshi

    aliasyoshi Low-Roller

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    Sounds pretty much like my mornings, too. But no room snack, coffee from McD's or Dunkin, and probably Pai Gow or the craps bubble game instead of BJ. Then wait for the wife or buddy to wake up to head out to Henderson or some other local area to eat and gamble cheap. I also enjoy being asked if I know where to get any blow at 7 am. VEGAS!!!! :drunk:
     
  14. maineguy

    maineguy Low-Roller

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    cool....who has bubble craps downtown?
     
  15. sammasseur

    sammasseur VIP Whale

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    Fremont in the early morning is the absolute best time of the day, especially the morning after a holiday. New Year's Day is spectacularly quiet - the cleanup crews have already done their work and everyone is gone. It's like you're the only people alive. You can go anywhere and do anything, get immediately served for breakfast, enjoy the hush of the streets and casinos. Fantastic.
     
  16. Iu25

    Iu25 High-Roller

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    I tend to stay up late while in Vegas, 3-4am is not unheard of which is really 6-7am back home, but I usually only sleep for 3-4 hours so I am back up around 8am at latest usually. If I tied one off the night before I tend to get up, shower and hit the casino for a bloody mary, then I like to walk Fremont just taking in the peace and quiet. Its really a great time to explore the depths of some of the casinos and side streets of Downtown. Take a trip to the upper area of the Plaza, some really neat stuff used to be up there back in the day. Sneak upstairs of binions or the old mint if you can, stop over at MSS and take the tour of all the imported treasures they have in there as well! I love to walk around the casinos and check out the little used areas. Some of my best memories of Vegas are the early mornings on Fremont, as Sam said its almost like you are the only person down there at times. I will be there over Easter weekend this year and am hoping Easter will be especially quiet down there. Cant wait, you have got me even more excited just thinking about this!!
     
  17. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

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    Sorry about that. Dunkin' Donuts coffee ranks somewhere between McDonalds and the swill they offer us for free in the office at work. Not offensive, but nothing I would seek out.

    For half the price, McDonalds coffee is twice as good.
     
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  18. sammasseur

    sammasseur VIP Whale

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    If you haven't done so already, you might enjoy my photo album of some of these places you've described in your explorations:

    http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2214234361079.2130532.1404176376&type=1&l=617b907557
     
  19. Iu25

    Iu25 High-Roller

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    I have seen them Sam, great pics, seeing them a few years ago was one of the reasons I started combing the corners of the DT casinos!
     
  20. Joe Strummer

    Joe Strummer VIP Whale

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    My early mornings Downtown used to be a
    "Steak + Eggs" Special.
    There used to be MANY choices...not so, anymore.
    .
    I walk around..........say "NO" to some of the most
    incredibly "cracked out",toothless, dirty clothed, stoned,
    half eyes closed, running make up, mussed haired, skin bruises,
    damn ugly, never in a million years even if I was dead drunk, filth holed -
    HO's in the world ! :evillaugh
    .
    I like the casino's a little quiet w/ a burst of applause from
    a drunk crap table.......the early morning cooler air....and the
    stench/piss/vomit on the cement, being washed off of Fremont.
    .
    Usually, head over to Walgreen's for some daily supplies -
    Walk thru any number of Sportsbooks to see the first lines of the day -
    or any scores I might have missed.
    .
    Always on the lookout, for some really drunk, dubious MF'ers to grin at !:wave:
    "That might have been me last evening ?"
    :thumbsup:
     
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