Live TR - July 22 to Aug 2

[Saints10]

Hi guys, will try to do a live TR depending on how the trip pans out.

As background, I am a 25 year old from Melbourne Australia. Travelling with 2 other male friends.

21/7
Arrive in LA after 14 hour flight around 6pm. Clear immigration and head to the hotel we booked near lax. Went and ate dinner at the dennys next door and had a few drinks (the bar at dennys was actually shut, but the manager opened it us for us specially haha). Decided on having an easy night as we know what was to come. All 3 of us in bed by 11pm.

[Saints10]

Sorry for doing this in parts but I am using my iPhone, and for some reason it is difficult to scroll down once the text I'm typing fills this box.

21/7 continued (and some of 22/7)
We all wake up about 3am and one friend decides he can't sleep so says he wants to go to downtown la. The other friend agrees. I say I'm gonna keep sleeping as I want to be fresh for Vegas. They leave and I go back to sleep, waking about 9am just to see them get back to the room. Apparently they caught a cab downtown to some bars then caught the train back. God knows how they did that seeing as they have never been to LA before. Anyway we get our stuff together and head to lax for a midday flight to Vegas

22/7 to follow

[Saints10]

22/7

Flight arrives in Vegas, and we cab it to Mandalay bay. Driver goes via the tunnel and then trys to get us to ring up strippers to come to our room..cab fare was $19.70, what a rip off.

Arrive at hotel approximately 2pm. Go to check in desk with $20 sandwich ready. We already have a 2 bedroom suite booked so there is nothing really to upgrade to, but I want some extras. I ask if we can get a fridge in the room and the lady says it's normally $25 per day for that, but she will have one brought up free of charge (awesome!!). As it's my friends first time in Vegas, I also want a strip view. She taps away on her computer and then goes in the back room for about 5 mins before coming back and saying we have a room on the 28th floor that looks straight up the strip (awesome again !!) the room is not ready yet she gives us a card with a number to call in an hour or so to check if it's ready.

We go to one of the bars at Mandalay and have about 5 rounds of drinks whilst talking to the bartenders. My friend falls in love with one the bartenders and is trying to get her to come visit him in Australia. He says he wants to marry her lol. Anyway she finished her shift and they swapped email adresses with a promise to meet up later in our trip. We call the front desk (for the second time) and our room is finally ready about 4pm.

We head up and open the door. Wow ! This room is insane ! Wish I could post pics here. We call for our bags to come up and then unpack our clothes. My 2 friends say they are too tired and want to sleep (I did tell them not to go out last night). I say fuck it, I'm not tired so I'm going downstairs. I walk around the casino for a bit taking it all in before putting down $100 on a $15 blackjack table. Cash out about 30 mins later with $225, not a bad start to the trip throw the dealer a tip and wander off. Find a 25c VP machine and promptly lose $20 (I have gotten 3 coronas for free whilst I have been playing so I'm not disappointed). Move onto a deal or no deal machine and cash out $25 up. Decide that's enough lick for the moment so I walk outside and go to the liquer store across the street. Buy insanely cheap jack Daniels and Jim beam bottles (compared to home), some coke and some bottled water. Nearly die carrying it all back to the room (hope the other 2 appreciate this !!) as it's hot outside. Get back to the room about 7pm and they are both still sleeping. It's then I realize I should of brought some men with me to Vegas, not ladies. At present I'm ready to head out tonight and they are still sleeping it's about time I get their sorry asses out of bed. Hopefully we go out tonight.....

[joelDOWNUNDER]

Hhahah good to see your up a bit of money already mate! I think i hit one number on roulette and that was my only win for the trip lol... and i had the EXACT same problem with my mate i went with.... just fucken slept the whole time, it does your head in.... trust me get them up or they'll regret sleeping their days away. After all the spray's i gave my mate for sleeping so much, he realised on the flight home i was right.

[Virtualized]

Glad to see that you are having fun. I'm coming in on Thursday night, 8:30 flight, showering and heading strait to Tao. Have fun!

[anthonyc023]

you lose most the time at slots

[wat]

Damn! July 22 - Aug 2nd?!

Good luck, sir! I don't blame you for not remembering to post.

[mrankimonki]

last update to this was july 22nd... clearly... didnt make it too far or did he? i'm waiting!

[Saints10]

Hi guys,

Apologies for not keeping this up to date. After the first day, every day seemed to blend into each other and I forgot to update.

In a nutshell, we figured 11 days was probably too long. By the end, we were all pretty crabby with each other as the lack of sleep and vegas life took its toll. Still we had a blast. Few points:

- We went to Tao one night and Lavo another. After that, we decided the clubs were way too packed, meaning it was impossible to move around or actually dance without hanging out in another persons pocket. This is why we decided to stick to the bars and lounges after this. Plus it is much easier to talk to people.

- We all thought Mandalay Bay was excellent. Yes, its a bit far away, but the service, the excellent pool, the food all makes up for it.

- Checked out alot of the bars and lounges, all were pretty good, eyecandy at Mandalay was fun as well seeing as it was 'home base'.

- The accent works !

- Had a run in with a working girl who didnt let on to this fact at first. All was resolved tho without me ending up buried in the desert somewhere.

- I love vegas. Hope to make it back one day

Cheers guys

[jonesy]

Good too see another sainter on board!

We're heading off in 2 weeks tomorrow. Willl be trying to get the game v Richmond online in Vegas somewhere...It will also be supercoach prelim and grand final weeks.....wonder if any of the casino's will open a book on our supercoach league!

Good too see you had a blast

[Sensei Rob]

ESPN 3 has free online streaming Live games, we watched the Ess V Haw game our first weekend there it was about 1am well my mate was watching it in the room i kept running up as it was close then Buddy kicked a freak from the boundary line and i was back on the piss. Im a mad bomber and trust me u will not give a toss about footy, I go every week here.
On the last weekend I was sitting at the bar at the V and watching continual baseball stuff, Lebron James saga and then out of nowhere Haw V Gee started LIVE on ESPN 2. So luck of the draw I suppose.

Enjoy your trip!

[Saints10]

I must admit, I didn't see any hint of footy whilst I was over there. I was able to update my dreamteam and supercoach on my iPhone tho, you just have to factor in the time difference

I found myself following the last 10.mins of the saints v hawks draw on my phone whilst it was like 3am and I was partying in bar at one of the casinos. But yeah rob is right, you don't really think (or care) about it whilst you are there, and I go every week as well. Think I may have just checked my dreamteam scores after the weekend was over tho !

[joelDOWNUNDER]

Dude i had the exact experience with going to lounges and bars instead of clubs....for all the exact same reason you listed lol. Unless youre doing bottle service obviously.

Yeah i didnt even bother with my supercoach pretty much on my whole 2 weeks i was over there..... barlow broke his leg when i was over there and didnt even bother to change that lol.
I would of been rapt to catch a game if it came on tv though!

[jonesy]

My supercoach side is more important than my life itself.

It is non negiotiable that I have constant online access. Especially as it will be Supercoach grand final week. If I do not win the SC grand finals and finish top 100, my year,and trip to Vegas will be ruined....

All supercoach jokes a side,any tips for a pack of 5 Melbournite blokes looking to run amuk?! Any must do places?
TBH I'm quite happy to just sit at a casino bar and tell the locals about compulsory crocodile fighting lessons from 5 years of age that we have to undertake here,but a couple of the others will be looking for the 'in' places no doubt