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Superbowl Trip Report - From the UK (1/29 - 3/2)

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by Readingfanman, Feb 11, 2014.

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  1. Readingfanman

    Readingfanman Low-Roller

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    My Trip Report

    Going to split this report up into each day, otherwise I think onn post may be slightly too long! Below is day 1, Weds 29th Jan.

    With this being just my second trip to Vegas, excitement was pretty high for the weeks leading up to the trip. The trip was organised for a combination of my brother who had just turned 21 in mid January, and also coming to come and watch the Superbowl in Vegas for the first time.

    We flew over direct from Gatwick, getting some good beers in on the plane giving a nice buzz. We landed at terminal three at McCarran at about 1PM before finally exiting immigration and customs at about 1:45PM. Thanks to the advice of people who told us not to bother booking a limo as they'd have some outside. We hopped in an SUV with a woman from Bell Trans who had retired to Vegas but wanted to keep working still who had moved over from SoCal. We managed to get her to stop at the sign before driving us round to the Monte Carlo entrance, price with tip of $80.

    We checked in with a nice younger woman at check in who managed to get us a pretty high floor (30), I did try for the remodelled rooms on 29, but she ignored that request sadly. We were situated right at the end of the corridor which was a bit of a pain, long walk from the elevator, but at least we had no foot traffic from the room. Ended up with a good view of Polo Towers, and the MGM complex out of our window. Managed to pick up our MLife cards as well at check in.

    By this point it was around 3:30PM and we were both feeling pretty hungry (It being 11:30PM at home, and having been awake for 18 hours by this point), so we headed over to CVS in front of the Monte Carlo, was pleased to see a tiny number of porn slappers on this trip, and only ever ran into two outside CVS the entire trip. Picked up some snacks and some bud light with limes with the worlds worst bottle opener. should have just picked up cans. Followed this up with a trip to get 20 chicken nuggets from McDonalds and back up to the room for a quick sleep before heading out for the night.

    Plan was to get up around 3 hours later about 9PM and go out and grab some dinner and get our gambling on. Of course, by this point we had both been awake for 22 hours and crashed out. I woke up about 1AM, pretty pissed off. I woke my brother up, we showered and went out anyway.

    Did a small bit of gambling at the Monte Carlo on some Blackjack machines, before my brother hit $75 on a Walking Dead slot from a $.50 spin. Left up from the Monte Carlo and headed north towards Paris and Planet Hollywood. Played a fair bit of roulette in Paris, which my brother enjoyed a lot, and can see him staying there next time he heads out. Ended up leaving Paris and heading back down to Planet Hollywood, taught him how to play VP and we had a few drinks there before looking at the time and realsiing it was about 4:30am. Picked up my very first Earl of Sandwich (Superb, can't believe we only have one of these in London, it rips all over Subway), and headed back to the Monte Carlo with the intention of getting some sleep. Ended up finding a $5 Craps table with just one guy playing, so I stepped up for my first experience on a table game and taught my brother how to play Craps, after having learnt myself on my phone before I came!

    Ended up about even after about an hour and finally decided it was time to head to bed about 6am or so when they raised the minimum to $10.


    Thursday coming up sometime later on!
     
  2. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Upping the minimum at 6am? Does Monte Carlo think they're Bellagio?

    Good start!
     
  3. BayouBengal

    BayouBengal VIP Whale

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    I know that you needed some sleep but they'll "grandfather you in" if you're already at a table when they up a limit and you'd rather play at the lower level. I've done this at roulette as well as craps at both NYNY and Monte Carlo.
     
  4. Readingfanman

    Readingfanman Low-Roller

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    With it being literally my first time on a table, I had no idea they do this. Really useful info thanks.
     
  5. BayouBengal

    BayouBengal VIP Whale

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    And MC seems to be decent with their comps even for low level players. Did you make sure to give your players card to the dealer at the tables? MC and NYNY will rate low players unlike Mirage.:Þ
     
  6. pebbles

    pebbles Micro Roller.

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    Having a quick nap after the long flight never works for me either. I almost always sleep through any alarm we have set. We just try to stay awake as long as possible and hope we get on Vegas time ASAP.
     
  7. Readingfanman

    Readingfanman Low-Roller

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    So, Thursday morning arrived, and we both woke up about 10am, got a quick shower and decided to head to Hash House A Go Go for breakfast. As my brother hadnt seen the strip properly, we decided to walk up from Monte Carlo to The Quad. Took us about 45 minutes, stopped off at a few places on the way, walked past Planet Hollywood but didnt stop and gamble. Sturggled to find HHAGG slightly, very tucked away at the back of The Quad.

    Great breakfast of Chorizo hash and cheese. Very tasty, walked away costing us about $25 each with tip and 2 huge OJ's. Was completely full, ended up eating at the bar. Decided to walk back through some of the casinos whilst we decided what we were going to do during the afternoon. Ended up stopping off at Margaritaville and played Craps there on the $5 table for a couple of hours, cashed out about $50 up and went off to explore Flamingo, which I enjoyed. Left there, and decided to go up the Strip and see the Venetian.

    I managed to catch 25 minutes of a "soccer" game which was the last leg in a parlay I had, saw them go 2-0 down and decided to go explore the Grand Canal Shoppes. Was much less impressed the 2nd time I visited here than the first time, and didnt stick around to watch some circus performer in St Marks Square. Went across to the Fashion Show Mall, in the hunt for some change for the RTC Machine, and ended up wondering round there for a while, it is massive! Had a quick go on Madden and lost $5 in a demo game against my brother on one of the Xbox Ones they had set up. Saw a Ticket booth and got lucky that Score was on offer at the Luxor, paid $20 for tickets and got us some change to buy tickets for the RTC.

    Waited outside the Fashion Show Mall for the bus to turn up, and jumped on the Deuce and headed down to the Luxor to go to Score! Thoroughly enjoyed it, the interactive bits and bobs were ok, but not fantastic. It could be so much better than it is in there sadly. Why not link all your interactive bits together to give you an overall "score" etc? Bit of a shame. The Soccer section was also closed, which was slightly annoying, no sort of warning beforehand. The scout reports for Eli Manning and Philip Rivers they had though were very interesting. Both bough ourselves a photo whilst we were there and decided to head back towards Monte Carlo.

    Went via the funny smelling walkway to Excalibar (Smells exactly the same as when I was there in summer 2012), and decided to stop off in the castle for some roulette on a machine (23 and 11), didnt really hit much, but ended up just about and cashed out before walking back through NYNY to Monte Carlo.

    Had a rest and watched ESPN for an hour or so back at the room, before deciding to get a shower and head out for some dinner. Had a groupon for Burger Brasserie at Paris (It's actually pretty much in Ballys, would have been easier to say it was there!). Walked up the strip to the bar and got us some burgers, I had a blue cheese burger which was fantasttic and an onion ring Eiffel Tower. My brother got Kobe beef and enjoyed it. Both had a few blue moons as well while we were there, and got the check before exploring Ballys for the first time.

    Didnt really enjoy Ballys too much, just never really felt the vibe in there massivley, and left as we had decided to go to Downtown for the evening, for my very first visit there. Got on the Deuce again, and decided to stop off at the Stratosphere . Went up the tower there and rode the Big Shot. Didnt gamble at all there and left to get the bus to Downtown. I can see exactly why people dont like staying there, as compared to the rest of the strip, it does feel less safe certainly. Got the bus to Downtown on the SDX and jumped off at Fremont.

    Was impressed by all the lights etc, but I have to admit it didnt quite have the same effect on me as The Strip does. Watched some terrible band play on the stage for a song or two before having one of the worst red bull imitations (Soapy? Something like that) with Vodka in Binions on a Craps table which was freezing cold. We played there for about an hour before busting out entirely. Headed out and walked towards the Plaza, and went in somewhere else (No idea on the name though...90% sure it was the same place that was in Last Vegas?), and played on a Craps machine, managed to run quite hot and had about 7 or 8 points running and won about half of the money I lost back. Left here about 2:30am and decided instead of trying to hunt down the SDX (not a clue where the stop is at Fremont going south), we jumped in a taxi and paid the $20 back to Monte Carlo.
     
  8. Readingfanman

    Readingfanman Low-Roller

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    Actually, I was surprised at just how well sleeping and then going out worked. It meant we were able to get a night in still, but weren't completely zonked when we went out. Might try it next time again and if I wake up at 2am, still go out for the evening anyway until 5 or 6 and then crash again.

    I didn't do that, to be honest, I figured at the level we were playing, nothing would come of it, so didnt bother. Only really had the MLife card for MyVegas stuff.
     
  9. Readingfanman

    Readingfanman Low-Roller

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    Friday morning came about, weather still chilly for Vegas, very windy and not all that warm either. Showered about 11am and headed downstairs in the Monte Carlo to pick up some breakfast at the cafe. Had a BLT with fries, which was s superb choice, only wish I had eaten there more as for the price, the food was very filling. Good service too.

    Before we had go down for breakfast however, we had rung Battlefield Vegas to pick us up about 12. This was to be one of the highlights, being that we can't shoot at all in the UK really, it's a bit of an attraction when coming to Vegas. I had been shooting before at The Gun Store and was expecting something similar here. Went round to the taxis and there sitting there was a giant military humvee! For 2 of us! I figured they wouldnt bother sending the Humvee for 2 of us, but they did, and we froze the whole way as the wind hit us driving down behind the Strip up towards Battlefield Vegas.

    Got there and purchased our guns, spent a fair bit more than I had planned to there, as I purchased "The Battle Of El Alamein" package which came with a STEN, an Enfield and a BREN. All British weapons of course. I then purchased on top of that a go on the belt fed PKM for an extra $70. My brother went for one of the Call of Duty packages which had four guns in, mainly automatics and I purchased the Desert Eagle rounds for him as a late birthday present as well.

    Safe to say, fantastic time, we had Dave (Doubtful he'll read this, but if he does, TYVM!) as our range instructor, who was first class in helping us out and setting everything up. The PKM was a fantastic gun to shoot, even if it does last all of about 2 minutes! My brother shot the Desert Eagles last, and I can safely say I have never heard such a loud gunshot, his hands were shaking from the recoil. We left there around 1:45PM in the end and got dropped off at the LVH so we could place our Superbowl bets for Sunday.

    I had already established that I thought the Broncos would A)Cover the spread and B) Possibly blow them out , this of course was not the case, and I only won 2 out of my 9 total bets. One being Wilson to score more passing touchdowns than Liverpool goals against West Brom (2.5 V 1), and also Demaryius Thomas to score a TD at anytime. All of my other bets blew out badly. My brother also completely struck out and didnt win a single bet. I imagine the books cleaned up nicely over Superbowl weekend as the majority of the chat seemed to be about Denver.

    We got the monorail back down the strip and jumped off at the MGM so I could go and get some more cash, having dropped most of it in the LVH and Battlefield Vegas. After heading back, it was close to 4PM and we figured we would head up towards the Mirage where one of our MyVegas rewards was as we had a 2-4-1 at their buffet for dinner. We got there in the end about 6PM having stopped off in the Monte Carlo for a few hours , down a little bit.

    Paid $30 between us in the end for the buffet with unlimited drinks, down from what would have been $80 between us (That's horribly expensive, I can only assume Friday counts as a weekend day and they charge more). The buffet was so-so, I always invisage Vegas buffets as a thing of greatness, and this was the third one I've tried and the third one I've been dissapointed with. The food was not bad, I was impressed with the ribs mainly, but the majority of the carving meat was fatty and undercooked, didn't bother with much of that. Left the Mirage and decided to play some $1 roulette at Casino Royale, left here slightly down but not totally out before heading south towards the four corners.

    Went to the MGM for the first time this trip, and forgot just how giant it really is in there, I did search for both Sigma Derby and Lions Share and didnt find either, didnt hang around to look for either of them for long after running $50 through a machine and coining out quickly, we left and planned to go eat wings at Hooters. By this point my buy in for the day was pretty miserable and I was almost flush out of my bankroll for the day, decided to skip Hooters due to the horrible wind, and went into Tropicana where my brother won a small win on the LOTR slot at the back of the casino. I went all or nothing with my bankroll for the day on roulette (Went Red), it of course turned up black. Got very frustrated and went back to Monte Carlo at this point.

    Played some VP at the Ignite bar ($4.50 for a Blue Moon, really? Both of us had money on VP), and slowly decreased from my initial $30 buy in before coining out and deciding enough was enough and wanting to go to bed. My brother wanted to visit the Ice Bar (It looks a bit crap tbh, I have no interest), but he said he'd try win my entry fee on the roulette table on 1 spin, he won it, but it was 4am by this point and decided it was best left alone for the evening. Ended up in bed about 4:30 in a desperatley bad mood having blown most of my days bankroll and feeling rather annoyed at gambling in general at that point!

    Saturday to come later on.
     
  10. smartone

    smartone VIP Whale

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    Wow... lot goin' on here, thanks for sharin'... I liked hearin' about the "funny smellin' walkway!"
     
  11. Readingfanman

    Readingfanman Low-Roller

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    Might as well make the most of it, I won't be back to Vegas for 18 months minimum :( It smells like a mix of bleach and stale smoke. :vomit:
     
  12. Readingfanman

    Readingfanman Low-Roller

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    Saturday morning came. Got up around 10ish, showered and headed to get breakfast at McDonalds. Missed it by about 5 minutes, so got 2 cheesburger meal instead (fantastic idea, why do we not have this worldwide?). Ate that and decided to head over to the Coca Cola store where I had a $25 gift voucher for from myVegas.

    Wondered round a bit in there, was pretty gutted the flavour coca Cola machine wasnt working. Saw a pretty damn good Polar Bear in there complete with blinking eyes and all. Picked up some salt and pepper pots with a holder, very 50's diner, and also a coca cola tin, probably to hold biscuits or teabags or something. Decided to get the $2 small surprise as well as I had it left over from the voucher. It was a big pen, terrible. Not sure what I expected, but I would have preferred just a can of coke in all honesty.

    Left here and decided we were going to head down towards Mandalay Bay to go th Shark Reef, (note the distinct lack of gambling on the Saturday after my horrid day on Friday!) but ended up getting an Aqua Massage outside M&M world. Excellent idea, felt quite refreshed after that, added to that, the guy let me use something called an iPro Massager which was outstanding. If I could get one of those at a good price, I'd snap it up. Did that before walking over to Excalibur and getting the tram down to Mandalay Bay.

    Now, I hadn't bothered to venture here before, and as a casino, it's not bad, but the ceiling is so high, there is so much wasted space here! Crazy. Walked for what seemed like forever to get to the Shark Reef and ended up waiting for about 10 minutes or so to get in. Queue was easily 50 deep by the time we reached the front. Not enough staff! Paid $9 each with a 2-4-1 from myVegas, glad we did, as for almost $20 a piece, I would have been dissapointed. I'm not one for aqauriums hugely just because they are generally very similar, but I really wanted to see the two 360 degrees tunnels they had where the fish and sharks could swim over you, and all around you. However, overall they were very small, and not big enough in the slightest. Left feeling a bit gutted we had bothered! My brother wanted to go up to the Outlets to pick up some Levi's and a new pair of Adidas trainers, so we hopped on the SDX (took us a while though, there doesnt seem to be many buses that far south!).

    Finally got to the Outlets about 3:30ish, and wondered round there looking at different stuff for a while. My brother picked up some Levi's for $50, and we both picked up Adidas trainers for a much cheaper price than at home (I paid $22 for mine, at home they would have cost me $90!), so was pretty pleased with that. Left about 5ish and headed back down the Strip, stopping off at Macys in the Fashion Show Mall, where I bought a sports jacket and got a 10% discount for being a tourist (win!). Left here ready to finally get to the good stuff and go gamble! Went through TI to pick our big game tickets from Gilleys for the next day and got told "get here early, it'll be busy, we open at 12".

    Went back to the room first and showered before heading out. No idea what we did for dinner, think we may have just skipped it entirely without realising possibly! Went out around 10pm, and headed north towards Casino Royale where our aim was to play $1 roulette, I began by playing 23 and all variations which would hit it, and the same with 11, so hitting either would pay big. Covering around 18 numbers in total, but just couldnt catch a break. The dealers soon cottoned on to what I was doing, and a few activley rooted for me to hit it. Truly gutted I didn't hit it at all in there. The worst moment in there would have been the no spin (never seen that before), where the ball stopped on the actual 23 number, but didnt drop in. Would have been a lovely pay out, but not to be! I busted out, and we left heading into Harrah's, where we hadnt yet played, I played some VP in here, and knocked back a few vodka red bulls as we flirted with a few different machines. Had a nice run on the Craps machine and cashed out up from there (after finding $6 in a machine as well which was nice).

    Left here, and walked further south stopping off at a few more casinos along the way, it was about 3am by this point, and we headed over through the Bellagio to jump on the tram on the way back to Monte Carlo. Saw my biggest ever table minimum outside a HL room here as well, $1000 blackjack with a $25000 max. That was pretty cool, despite noone playing on the table. Got back to Monte Carlo and started to play some Blackjack, not sure I ever won more than 2 hands runnings the entire time I was there, and ended up going to bed around 4 to ensure we made it to Gilleys in time the next day. Plan was to get there for opening time!
     
  13. James123

    James123 Tourist

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    Really great TR mate! I'm also British and heading out in April for a very similar vibe of trip that you're having so I've found this very useful indeed. Definitely empaphise with you on the gambling front. I did my first trip 3 years ago and ran so cold the whole time. If you're a Vegas regular it's not such a big deal, but if you're like us and go every year or two maximum, you're just so desperate to have at least some kind of roll!
     
  14. Readingfanman

    Readingfanman Low-Roller

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    :thumbsup:Good to see another fellow UK VMBer! Yeah, by Saturday during the day, I was totally burned out of the losing run I had gone on. Gave up trying to "Conserve" my bankroll, and just played to ruin each time chasing any sort of win. Got me more and more furstrated, and a day off did me good.
     
  15. Readingfanman

    Readingfanman Low-Roller

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    Game day has arrived in the TR! At long last. Apologies to everyone that I'm dragging this out, but I'm typing it up during slow moments at work, so it's taking me a few days.

    Got up around 10am or so and decided to watch ESPN for half hour, and watched a good interview with Richard Sherman in the pre-game. Left the Monte Carlo around 11am and got on the SDX to Gilleys, we arrived at about 11:45, 15 minutes before it opened, thinking we might be in a small queue, but nothing too major and should get good seats.

    We were greeted with this:

    [​IMG]
    I reckon the queue was probably 250-300 people deep by the time we had arrived, this was 4 hours before kick off! Crazy, I knew it would be busy, but never this busy.They opened at 12 on the dot, and we finally got in about 12:15 in the end and got 2 seats in the restraunt with pretty good seats facing a TV. Were sitting next to some Seattle fans on one side, who we didn't really chat too much with, and then about 1ish we were joined by a group of 5 Canadian guys who in their own words "had slept for 8 hours in 4 days" who were all pretty friendly. We ordered Nachos and beer before their "parrty" kicked off at 2PM. Very clever Gilleys. $45 later for 4 beers and Nachos, we were pretty full, and just wanted more drinks. Service was steady throughout but not speedy. Food was average. If I go anywhere again, I'll be going for a all you can drink only package and pay for food.

    The game itself was very dull, and as stated earlier on, nearly all my bets lost. Would have been amusing to see the Broncos shut out entirely. The Seahawks fans were giving it large after the 2nd quarter and felt pretty pleased with themselves in there! One guy oddly enough was wearing his Seahawks jersey and gloves. Note to all - Wear gloves inside, look like a dick. Wear gloves and a short sleeve jersey inside - you look like a total dick.

    We left here about 20 minutes after the game, didnt bother to watch the trophy being handed over, and walked back towards the Monte Carlo to grab a shower and some cash. Ventured out around 8:30ish and grabbed some food from Sbarro, I had a stromboli, I forget how good those things are!

    Ventured back up the strip towards our new extreme low roller hanut, Casino Royale to play roulette, bought in for $100 and was kicking back more Vodka Red Bulls, and ended up with the same dealer as the night before, can't remember his name, but was a middle aged white guy with glasses and little hair. He quickly remembered me once I started palying the 23 again, and seemed to be rooting for me to hit 23 once I was down to my last 3 or 4 spin buy ins. Turns out my luck just ran cold nearly the entire trip, and 23 didn't hit at all again.

    We left here, and walked back through Harrah's again playing some more VP and Craps. Following that, leaving down only a little bit, we went into Paris hunting for a $5 Blackjack machine, knowing we wouldnt find it on a table. We couldnt find one there, and I was convinced there was one in PH. Walked all round there, but couldnt find one anywhere, decided to walk over to the Aria by this point to try and jump on the tram to Monte Carlo. Ended up in Crystals at about 2:30am walking through hoping the tram was actually running. Thankfully it was!

    Went through to Monte Carlo and jumped on a Blackjack machine, didnt do too badly, and moved over to play roulette on one of the machines, stuck my buy in into the machine, and whilst I was putting the last bill in managed to hit my hand on the screen, losing half my buy in by accident without realising I'd bet until it was too late. This annoyed me no end and we didnt stay long before heading off to bed at about 3AM knowing we had to check out in the morning.
     
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