12/03 - 12/12, 2010 - Vegas part 1/3

[ashroid]

Who: 3 others (GF, co-worker and running buddy, known from now on as “RB”) and myself
What: see below
When: December 3 – 12, 2010
Where: PH (one night)/Excalibur (one night)/Summer Bay (seven nights)
Why: my birthday, one year with GF, the Las Vegas ½ marathon and of course, why the f*** not?

What (happened):

Friday, December 3

GF, RB and I arrive Friday. We pick up the rental car, a Nissan Versa (Priceline bid for 220.49 taxes included for 9 nights) and head to Excalibur to drop off RB. He’s staying there since it was close to the start/finish line for the ½ and full marathon. GF and I had to pick up keys for PH as we’re staying with my parents at PH for the first night (they had a free stay offer there from Thursday-Sunday).

Before that though, we went to pick up a cooler, some food and drinks at Food 4 Less.

My parents, however, were at M Resort! Thank goodness for a car. GF & I drove out there. M Resort is really nice. You can definitely tell it’s more of a locals casino. No cheesy handouts, no porno cards in your face; it’s a classy casino.

After the drive out to M Resort, we headed back to PH to finally check in. I’d been texting back-and-forth with Sweat_shop about meeting up that night. He was really keen on heading out. GF didn’t want to go out, so I headed out with Sweat_shop. He’d tried to get into Tao the night before, but the lineup was too long, so I’d made arrangements with a connect at Tao. He put myself +3 on the list. Two others, female co-workers from my part-time job wanted to go out too. One of them was also running the ½ marathon.

We arrive at Tao around midnight. It was quite busy. My connect wasn’t able to come out, so he asked me to speak to Mike. Mike happened to be at the podium holding the clipboard. After a few questions and showing him the text from my connect, we got in (under 2 minutes!)

Tao was packed inside. The lounge, the Opium room, the main room, the bar by the Buddha. Everyone seems to want to book the main room, but for my tastes, it’s too packed. The Opium room had more of my music, but I was trying to manage my time with Sweat_shop and my co-workers. I hadn’t had much to drink, but Sweat_shop was @ least 4 ahead of me. One of my co-workers was drinking too.

I finally had my first A.M.F. It’s nice, though a little sweet for my taste. After a while though, I went through a rotation of A.M.Fs, G&Ts and JD shots. I met up with my Tao connect at the Rock bar inside Tao (below the lofts in the main room). I can’t remember much after that. I had to look at his Sweat_shop’s report. I think we went to the Rockhouse after. It was dying down at that point, so somehow, I went back to PH.

I got back to the hotel probably around 5:30.

Saturday, December 4

Had breakfast with my parents and GF at the Earl of Sandwich inside PH. My parents had a lot of Harrah’s reward points. They don’t go to Las Vegas often, so they encouraged GF & I to order as much food as we wanted so they could burn through their rewards points.

Then headed w/ GF to the Sands/Venetian to the ½ marathon/marathon expo to pick up my race package. By that time, I think all the open-bar wristbands for XS on Sunday were handed out. Met up with RB & spent a few hours there.

GF and I moved to Excalibur later that afternoon to share a room w/ RB. I didn’t want to have to run/walk from PH to Mandalay Bay on Sunday for the race. After some dinner and hanging out, GF & I headed to LAX to check it out and say hi to some connects there. We didn’t get there until a little after midnight, but we didn’t stay long. Compared to Tao, it was not as busy.

Got to bed at 1:30ish.

Sunday, December 5

Race Day – woke up at 5:30, got ready and got to the start line shortly before 7 am. It was cold, but the adrenaline of running the Strip more than compensated for it. For 3 years, I’d been telling myself I was going to run the Strip one day. It became part of my bucket list. At certain points, it hit me and I got somewhat emotional. I never thought I’d be able to run and enjoy it, never mind running a long distance.

Though I didn’t get the time I had hoped, I’m happy with myself that I did it, came out of it with no injuries and can strike it off my running and life bucket list.

Later that day, met up with my parents, GF and RB at PH. Again, my parents wanted us to help them burn through their rewards points. I think we ordered more than 60.00 of food and drink from Earl of Sandwich. Said goodbye to them and they were on their way to the airport.

Went to Otto’s @ the Venetian for dinner to meet up with a group of people from my running club. Sorry, but I’m not big on paying high prices for small portions. I’ve eaten Italian food in Italy and this was pathetic. In fairness the food was good. I had to leave GF and RB @ Ottos to get to the airport to pick up a co-worker from my day job. After picking her up, waiting for GF and RB to get back from Venetian.

We ended up going to Vanity that night. Met up with Sweat_shop at HRH for a few drinks before meeting up with Darryl. There was an offer of a free bottle, but we had to balance out the ratio. Our ratio was pretty bad; it was something like 11 guys/4 females. We got into Vanity around 10:30 and it wasn’t busy at that point. From my group, we all gave something to Darryl to take care of the staff inside. Got to our table, which was small, but considering it was one bottle, I didn’t care. I knew for like 15 people, one bottle was going to be finished in under 10 minutes. Knowing all of this, I told my GF to drink as much as she could since I knew the other girls would and wouldn’t give a shit about anyone else.


· OK – my take on this club: I like it. I like the layout. But, I was really disappointed with how dead it was for a Sunday. I’m willing to consider there could have been other factors such as the time of year (December), big events (the Wrangler NFR aka “the rodeo” – which had almost all the cowboys hang out in MGM bars and events instead) and of course, the economy.

Once the bottle was polished off, the 2 other girls (meaning not my GF and co-worker) booked it pretty quick. Bottle whores. I wasn’t impressed with a lot of the guys either. I made my own fun and drank with Sweat_shop, GF and RB at the bar.

Unfortunately, it never got packed. So we left and ended up at Mr. Luckys.

Monday, December 6

Didn’t really do much on that day. We walked around and then did some shopping at the Las Vegas Outlet Center. The plan was to try to meet up with Sweat_shop and head out. I was f***ing beat though at the end of the day, so we just walked in the northerly direction on the strip. They had a B1G1 deal on PBR and Jack & Coke @ King Ink. Jet looked packed, but I wasn’t dressed for it and I didn’t feel like going in. I also passed by Revolution Lounge and that was dead. FYI : I was informed that Sunday nights are gay nights.

[ashroid]

12/03 - 12/12, 2010 - Vegas part 2/3

Tuesday, December 7

This was the day I picked to do table service@ Pure for my GF, RB, co-worker and I. It almost turned into a clusterf*ck because my co-worker bailed out on doing tables. Because of that, RB didn’t want to do tables since he didn’t want her to be by herself (GF, RB and co-worker are all first-timers to Las Vegas). I called up my connect, Brandon Ring (whom coincidentally I met him before he was listed as a Jack Colton approved contact) and explained the situation. He was totally cool about it. I told him I still wanted to do a bottle between her and I. I wanted my GF to see why I like Las Vegas. I asked him several things:

· A table in the white room
· A table for just her and I
· A low bottle minimum (whatever the lowest would be)

Later that day, I got a PM from LS6 who was in town with 2 other friends, but they didn’t want to go out. So, I asked if he wanted to roll into doing a bottle with my GF & I. He agreed. I didn’t know until later it was his first time to do bottles.

We ended up at Pure around 11:00-11:30. Brandon met us at the entrance and walked us in. I said hi to another connect at the door (one of the door hosts/security). He led us into the white room and behind some ropes in the direction of the stairs. As we approach the stairs, I think WTF? He led us to Table 4, a table on the upper tier of the left side of the dance floor. To say I was stunned was an understatement.

I understand that Pure is considered by many to be a Tier 2 nightclub now (meaning that places like XS/Vanity/Tao/Tryst are ranked higher), but for good or bad, I’ve always had a memorable night there. So, I was going in with the thinking that I was going to have a good night. This added to it.

We ended up picking up a lower end bottle of vodka (no G1 deal, but I didn’t care). About an hour later, co-worker and RB are texting me to get them in. I got them in shortly thereafter and it kind of went sour from here.

My GF was having a good time, LS6 was having a good time, I was having a good time because my GF (my first priority that night) was having a good time. But, co-worker looked bored. I think this was partly because she doesn’t drink (a lot more on that later).

We ended up leaving around 3:30-4:00. GF has now given the thumbs up on the value of bottle service.

Wednesday, December 8

We went shopping again. We were invited to LAX as Luciano Cadenza was performing. I had no idea who he was. I was just told that he’s big. We were so tired though from going out, so we made some meals and just hung out since we were going out early the next day. The only drinking we did was at Carnival Court.

Thursday, December 9

After some breakfast, we drove out to Hoover Dam. There were plans to go to Grand Canyon, but by that time in our stay, I was getting frustrated with trying to figure out stuff to do. Co-worker didn’t seem very interested in doing much, GF could tell I was getting irritated by co-worker and RB was only concerned with hanging out with her.

We ended up getting to Hoover Dam early afternoon. GF and I decided to do the long tour. It seemed co-worker only did it because she didn’t want to wait in the car or just pick her ass while we were doing stuff. RB probably did it so co-worker wouldn’t get bored.

While this was all happening, another Jack Colton member, RVK99 and I were messaging each other. We planned to meet later that night.

Later that night, co-worker and RB did they own thing, while GF and I went to Town Square to have a celebratory dinner: for my b-day, for us being together 1 year and just because. I told her I didn’t want anything super fancy and wanted to concentrate more on the taste of the food instead of the presentation. I chose Yard House. Though, it seemed casual, GF seemed to enjoy it.

After dinner, we headed out to Tryst. My connect at Tryst/XS was gracious in getting us on the guest list. I gotta admit, I was shocked at how packed it wasn’t! It definitely seemed out of character for that few people (even at midnight, if I remember right, not all the tables inside were filled). After a few drinks, I texted RVK99.

RVK99 and his buddy were at Tao, which was a place I wanted to show GF. He was saying that it was slammed and they had a table with 12 girls. Off to Tao we went.

My connect at Tao got us in and RVK99 was right. It was slammed. Every room. GF and I found RVK99’s table and he had some cuties there. I found a group of them were from Guatemala with one of them celebrating her bachelorette party weekend.

RVK99 was popping bottles: 3 bottles of Belvedere, a Veuve Cliquot, what seemed to be unlimited VOSS and later on, a Dom Perignon.

Here’s where it went sort of south: I was suggested by the host of the table/the one who was buying the liquor (not a Tao host) that if my GF wanted to stay, he could take her home. He also suggested this to my GF though I didn’t know about this until later. GF also told me that the host wanted to dance with her (no problem to her or I) and asked if he could grab her ass. Granted, the host was drunk, but that is crossing the line. Out of respect, I didn’t drink any of the host’s liquor, except the glass of champagne that I was offered. I told GF to drink whatever the fuck she wanted though…and she did.

At first I thought it was funny in a pathetic way, but later on, it bothered me. It was satisfying though that when we left around 4:00 am (Tao was closing at 4:30) that it was just the host and his friend left at the table, with 1 bottle of Belvedere, a bottle of Veuve Cliquot and an almost full bottle of Dom Perignon…with NO girls around him! J

Friday, December 10

Got up a little hungover, had some breakfast and hung out for the day. Did more shopping. At night, though, we ended up going to LAX, Centrifuge @ MGM, Carnival Court, Tao, tried to get into Tryst but was able to get into XS and finished it off at Spearmint Rhino – with GF in tow.

I called up for the free limo/cover promotion and were picked up within 15 minutes at the Encore entrance.

GF really enjoyed it, so much that she wanted to give me a lap dance. But, security nixed that quickly. RB, on the other hand was getting barraged by more girls than he could handle. At one point, he had to slow it down by downing shooters with one of the girls.

Since GF and I weren’t getting any attention, we just ordered some steak quesadillas instead.

After about an hour, we went home.

Saturday, December 11

For the last night, I just wanted to keep it low-key. We were looking for a way to see the GSP/Koschek fight and got a reservation at Lagasse’s Stadium. They had a reasonable offer of 25.00 minimum to spend on food/beverage.

As the day went on, messaged with Amanda221 since she wanted to see the fights also.

It was really nice to meet Amanda221. She is very pretty, intelligent and well-spoken.

After the fights, Amanda221 went to LAVO, while RB, GF & I decided to just hit up the hotel bars. First, we started at Centrifuge. Normally, I’m not interested in hotel bars. But, with the 2-for-1 coupons floating around (2 GG & ginger ale for 5.41 anyone?), it was too hard to pass up. After several rounds there, we bounced to Carnival Court. My GF really enjoyed this spot because of it’s casual atmosphere. Yeah, there’s a lot of cougars/past-their-primers there, but no one seems to give a shit if you’re a “baller”. Plus, they have great bartenders who can flair and some that are internationally recognized. We finished the night there.

[ashroid]

12/03 - 12/12, 2010 - Vegas part 3/3

Sunday, December 12

Most of the morning was spent on finalizing packing and cooking. Since we had bought so much food, we needed to have it cooked or put into containers.

Part of the day was spent at the Gun Store where I shot a semi-automatic rifle and Sig 226, while RB shot the Desert Eagle and I think the M4. GF hates guns, so she just sat and listened to music.

We made it to the airport with time to spare.

Thoughts:

I wasn’t sure how this trip would be considering: a.) I’d never taken anyone I’m in a relationship with to Las Vegas. I said to myself and others that the only way I’d taken a significant other is if I thought it was going somewhere.

I was taken aback at how…not busy it was at some of the clubs. Some are widely considered to be Tier 1 clubs. I chalk it up to the Rodeo, but I can’t ever remember some of those clubs being like that.

· Something I really noticed: most of the hotspots now are north of Caesars Palace: Tao, Tryst, XS, Surrender…while it seems south of Caesars Palace, it’s a different story.

· It will be interesting with Angel Management Group taking over much of Pure Management Group’s properties.

I was really disappointed in the conduct of the JC member at Tao. That was not appropriate. It’s one thing to proposition a girl’s who involved in a relationship. But, it’s another thing to do it WITH her boyfriend present! No fucking respect man. That’s why I had to take stock in that he went home with a big bill and no girls. OK. Maybe Palmela.

I don’t know if I could do a full week on a budget again, especially when summer will be coming. And with the weather being too cold to enjoy the pool, we didn’t even bother.

But, it’s a good time to go with your girlfriend/spouse/partner/whatever you call it, if you want to take them for the first time.

[JWalkSC]

Great write-up! I was there for the half-marathon that weekend too and you're right, whether it was the rodeo, the weather or just being December (I believe it's usually fairly dead that month until closer to New Years) the clubs didn't seem as packed. I went to Vanity Friday night and it was fun, but surprisingly dead by 1:30. The Hard Rock in general was kind of quiet for a Friday night.

You should have just tried to go to XS anyway for the after-race party. I had a friend who didn't get a wristband, but showed pictures from the marathon on her camera and they let her in no problem. It was only open bar for an hour, but I think I managed 6 or 7 Grey Goose and Red Bulls in that span!

[YYZLAS]

Great TR...bummer about badly-behaving people. But lol to racking up his bar tab.

[MammaJett]

Great trip report and PROPS for partying, 4 hours sleep then running the half marathon! Wow!
Glad you and the GF had a good time but sounds like you know who to take and not take on a future trip!

[ashroid]

MammaJett, I don't think I ever said why my co-worker was bored. Get this: a few days after my co-worker booked her Las Vegas flight, she told me she wouldn't be drinking. She admitted she's a full-blown alcoholic and is in recovery. I was like "WTF?"

I got grief from mutual friends asking me "Why is she going to Las Vegas? Don't you know about her problem? Don't make her drink!" People were giving me grief about HER problem. I had to tell everyone we knew that co-worker told me about her drinking problem AFTER she booked to come to Las Vegas.

[Sweat_shop]

I was always wandering what happen after I left but good to hear you had fun any plans for 2011 marathon it's being run at night this year which is different and might be a little easier and give more time to recover from the hangovers lol

Parts after tao Included the rock house and I believe the steak and egg special at bills.

[MammaJett]

UGH! I guess it is possible to have a good time in Vegas without drinking but why not just go to Branson instead?

AND Sweat Shop-ooh boy! If I survive the Denver R&R Half (altitude) then I might have to think about running the Vegas one-- at night-that could be an amazing and/or killer experience!

[HunterDallas]

GREAT TR!!!! A week in Vegas and u would be reading my obituary not a trip report. Way to pace yourself!

I was there with a group of seven (three girls, four guys) for the half marathon too (some did the full), it was a great weekend. No clubs for the group that weekend, just bars and CRAPS!!

[Sweat_shop]

Yeah the Vegas one is Alot of fun only thing I didnt like was it was cold in the morning but this fixes everything now just kind of shitty for the full marathon after the first 13 miles u go off strip and that wouldn't be to fun... I wanna do the Vegas one this year but guess we will see how the Dallas rock and roll marathon goes tmr

[drugpusher]

Ashroid,

What part of lagasse's did you sit for ufc? Did you have a good view of the tv's? We're thinking of going there for ufc on sat of MDW.

Sorry, but I have to ask. Was the dude who propositioned your gf rkvk99 or his friend? He's always in the get connected forum.

Kind regards,

[ashroid]

Hey Sweat_shop, I don't know if I'll be running the Las Vegas 1/2 this year. I'm looking at doing the Seattle 1/2 in June. I just came back from there this weekend.

I hope Dallas was good to you. I heard Deep Elum is a good time?!?!?!

drugpusher - I sat outside. It was cold, but they had heatlamps, so you should be fine. The table minimums were really low (25.00 per head). With that, I spent it on a meal and a drink.