Hi to all – First time poster, long time reader. And what better way to start on here than with my first post being a trip report. After months of anticipation and reading a wealth of information on this site, I was really jacked for this trip. Unfortunately, I wish I could say the trip was as good as my anticipation. I do get to Vegas quite a bit but in a rare drought, hadn’t been since May last year. This was a quick, three day Vegas outing. When my buddies and I do Vegas, we go 100mph and hit it hard, which in my experience is far better than a long, draining five day trip. I’ll break it down play-by-play by the day:
Friday
Left Washington, DC on a Friday morning and landed in Vegas just prior to 11am local time. Met three of my buddies at the airport (miraculously all flights were on time) and headed straight to Palazzo. We tried the $20 sandwich at check-in and it worked like a treat as we were promptly upgraded from a Fortuna Suite to a Siena Suite. Beautiful setup but we didn’t have time to admire our surroundings. It was time for a day session at the pool. We’re all single, professional men in our early 30s and obviously looking to spend some money and meet as many beautiful women as possible on this trip. So… Where better to start than the pool of course.
We grabbed a cab and headed straight to Stratosphere. I know they revamped their pool and I’d heard great things so couldn’t wait to check it out. We grabbed a bite to eat and were poolside by 1:30. I walked out expecting to see lovely ladies but walked out and… Absolute silence. Apart from a few people over 50 milling around with some rum punch, the place was DEAD. But we heard great things so decided to grab a waitress and order up, waiting for things to turn better. They didn’t. By 3:00pm we were wondering where things went wrong. After all, Palms and Tao Beach apparently throw great pool parties on Fridays, but we’d heard this was THE place to pickup.
There was no need to waste more time and we headed straight for Trump. We had dinner reservations back at the hotel around 7:00 but wanted to check out the lobby bar in Trump since I’d heard it’s one of the great places to pick up and people watch around happy hour. But again, a pretty dead scene. No worries I thought, the trip is young.
Grabbed dinner at CUT. Phenomenal meal and then it was time to get ready. Showered in the room, pregamed with a few drinks, and we were off to Mixx at Mandalay. I’d been before (although not on a Friday night), but knowing it’s great and wanting to ensure we’d have a spot, we’d already reserved a table there a month ago. We arrived around 11:30 and once again… a dead bar. We were one of the only tables. Great view of the city of course, but where are all the people?! We settled in for a drinking session hoping things would pick up. They didn’t. We talked to one lame crowd of girls and that’s about it. Just a beautiful bar with some ridiculously loud music and no people.
After blowing some cash but not too bad (Amazingly we kept it under a grand), we walked out in frustration and cabbed it back to Palazzo. Went to bed in a state of confusion at 2:00. Yes, that’s BY FAR the earliest I’ve ever been to bed in Las Vegas.
Saturday
Up at 11 and surprisingly well-rested after a rare early night in Vegas. We had breakfast and finished up around 12:30. After last night, we were determined to right the ship and woke up raring to go for a quality pool session. We were walking outside near the pool and could actually hear the music building from Tao Beach, but decided to press on and head straight to Luxor. I’d been to their pool before and although it’s a fair bit quieter than some of the other hotels, my friends and I all had a great session there and picked up some smoking hot ladies there 3 years ago.
We arrive and guess what… IT’S FAMILY DAY! No fucking joke, we’re talking Dads wading through the water with kids on their shoulders, and Moms with big canvas bags by the pool (The filthy, reusable ones you see at Whole Foods.) I even saw one woman attempt to breastfeed in her chair. At this point I began to ask myself the existential question one should never have to ask in that town, “Am I really in Las Vegas right now?” We were so frustrated I decided to just get rocked by the pool bar and hope things would pick up. They didn’t. We spent our afternoon getting hammered, wasting our money and watching baseball on the bar TV. Worse off, I didn’t even have a bet on the game to make me care.
We could have hit another hotel pool of course (Treasure Island came to mind), but I didn’t really feel like spending my afternoon in Vegas cabs in hopes of finding something better. I heard Luxor was the place to be on Saturdays and I had a great plan (So I thought) and wanted to stick to it. What a fucking disaster.Around 4:30 we cabbed it back to the hotel but had hit a wall and it was time for a nap.
We woke up at 7:30 and decided to walk down to Lavo’s main bar to scope out the scene. We met a beautiful group of ladies who were going to Marquee that very night and asked if we wanted to share a table with them. We passed. We figured The Cosmopolitan is just too new, so much so that no one is actually going there yet, kind of like Aria was when it first opened. Besides, we’d already booked a table at Jet, a far better club so we were heading there no matter what. We did try and persuade these girls for the better part of an h our to join us, but they weren’t having it. Shame cause all of them were absolutely smoking. Six of them, four of us. I like those numbers any day. Too bad, they could have come to a great club and instead chose what was likely a very lame evening. Their loss.
Off to Jet. Finally, we have a crowded club. Thank God. But a half hour into our table service, I’m noticing something’s off. Nope, it’s not the ratio. (While not favorable, it’s not the worst you could imagine. It was pretty bad for Vegas though.) It’s the lack of beautiful ladies. It was as if they took all of the mediocre and overweight girls that couldn’t get into other clubs, scooped them up, and dumped them all at Jet. It was awful. Within the hour, I realized the only hot girls worth hitting on were the waitresses. A tough strategy, to be sure, but it’s certainly doable. My friends had all struck out completely with what mediocre girls there were, but our server did agree to join me for a late night drink.
She was a woman of her word and called me upon leaving work. She suggested hanging out where I was staying at Palazzo and gambling for a bit but I tried to get her over to Mixx (the view always is a deal closer for me). She wasn’t having it and stopped responding to my texts around 4am. Oh well. I walked through the casino floor and found my drunk buddies at the roulette table and found a scene of absolute carnage. Each had lost well over $2k. It was time to sound the retreat for the night. All in all, an atrocious evening.
Sunday
Up at 11. We had a late red-eye home to DC at 11:30pm and actually booked the room for that next night as well. (We always do this to ensure we have a place to keep our stuff and more importantly, take ladies during the day). I actually enjoy the daylife in Vegas more than the nightlife anyway, so this usually works out just fine.
Out the lobby, and off to the pool at Circus Circus we go. I hadn’t been there in years but had recently read all the buzz about it GOING OFF on Sunday afternoons, apparently on a Hard Rock-esque level. Also apparently better than Encore Beach Club which is curiously getting a lot of buzz these days. Nevertheless, Circus Circus has apparently undergone a renaissance and has established a strong scene now.
We were pumped. We arrive and sure, it’s crowded, but with what appears to be a NASCAR convention without the models. Again… WHAT… THE… FUCK? By now, we all felt this trip had turned into a bad episode of the Twilight Zone. We stayed, hoping we’d run into a few throngs of college chicks on a cheap summer vacation. Nope. We wasted another $300 each with drinks by the pool and around 4:30 decided to call it a day. Nothing much left to report except dinner back at the hotel and (sadly), an empty suite (the lone bright spot of the trip I should add).
It’s just a tragedy that not one lovely lady got to see inside that suite… We hopped the red-eye home to IAD in a near-depressed state and all went to work like zombies. What a fucking, EPIC letdown of a vacation, if you can even call it that.
So… What went wrong? I felt we’d established a really good gameplan before going out and came home in a state of shock at how dead things really were. Perhaps the economy is far worse than I realize here in DC. Is Vegas dying? I could have found a better scene in DC (and for those of you that haven't been here, believe me that’s saying something!) Bear in mind this was in the middle of summer (August 5th-7th). Not peak season, mind you, but Vegas is still reliable for a great crowd this time of year, especially during the day at pools.
I’ve been to Vegas upwards of ten times over the years and being a veteran, really feel like I can’t put a foot wrong in that town. But this was a bad dream. A total nightmare for the ages. I’m looking to go again in mid-October. I want to hear only from the Vegas veterans out there… What went wrong?
Friday
Left Washington, DC on a Friday morning and landed in Vegas just prior to 11am local time. Met three of my buddies at the airport (miraculously all flights were on time) and headed straight to Palazzo. We tried the $20 sandwich at check-in and it worked like a treat as we were promptly upgraded from a Fortuna Suite to a Siena Suite. Beautiful setup but we didn’t have time to admire our surroundings. It was time for a day session at the pool. We’re all single, professional men in our early 30s and obviously looking to spend some money and meet as many beautiful women as possible on this trip. So… Where better to start than the pool of course.
We grabbed a cab and headed straight to Stratosphere. I know they revamped their pool and I’d heard great things so couldn’t wait to check it out. We grabbed a bite to eat and were poolside by 1:30. I walked out expecting to see lovely ladies but walked out and… Absolute silence. Apart from a few people over 50 milling around with some rum punch, the place was DEAD. But we heard great things so decided to grab a waitress and order up, waiting for things to turn better. They didn’t. By 3:00pm we were wondering where things went wrong. After all, Palms and Tao Beach apparently throw great pool parties on Fridays, but we’d heard this was THE place to pickup.
There was no need to waste more time and we headed straight for Trump. We had dinner reservations back at the hotel around 7:00 but wanted to check out the lobby bar in Trump since I’d heard it’s one of the great places to pick up and people watch around happy hour. But again, a pretty dead scene. No worries I thought, the trip is young.
Grabbed dinner at CUT. Phenomenal meal and then it was time to get ready. Showered in the room, pregamed with a few drinks, and we were off to Mixx at Mandalay. I’d been before (although not on a Friday night), but knowing it’s great and wanting to ensure we’d have a spot, we’d already reserved a table there a month ago. We arrived around 11:30 and once again… a dead bar. We were one of the only tables. Great view of the city of course, but where are all the people?! We settled in for a drinking session hoping things would pick up. They didn’t. We talked to one lame crowd of girls and that’s about it. Just a beautiful bar with some ridiculously loud music and no people.
After blowing some cash but not too bad (Amazingly we kept it under a grand), we walked out in frustration and cabbed it back to Palazzo. Went to bed in a state of confusion at 2:00. Yes, that’s BY FAR the earliest I’ve ever been to bed in Las Vegas.
Saturday
Up at 11 and surprisingly well-rested after a rare early night in Vegas. We had breakfast and finished up around 12:30. After last night, we were determined to right the ship and woke up raring to go for a quality pool session. We were walking outside near the pool and could actually hear the music building from Tao Beach, but decided to press on and head straight to Luxor. I’d been to their pool before and although it’s a fair bit quieter than some of the other hotels, my friends and I all had a great session there and picked up some smoking hot ladies there 3 years ago.
We arrive and guess what… IT’S FAMILY DAY! No fucking joke, we’re talking Dads wading through the water with kids on their shoulders, and Moms with big canvas bags by the pool (The filthy, reusable ones you see at Whole Foods.) I even saw one woman attempt to breastfeed in her chair. At this point I began to ask myself the existential question one should never have to ask in that town, “Am I really in Las Vegas right now?” We were so frustrated I decided to just get rocked by the pool bar and hope things would pick up. They didn’t. We spent our afternoon getting hammered, wasting our money and watching baseball on the bar TV. Worse off, I didn’t even have a bet on the game to make me care.
We could have hit another hotel pool of course (Treasure Island came to mind), but I didn’t really feel like spending my afternoon in Vegas cabs in hopes of finding something better. I heard Luxor was the place to be on Saturdays and I had a great plan (So I thought) and wanted to stick to it. What a fucking disaster.Around 4:30 we cabbed it back to the hotel but had hit a wall and it was time for a nap.
We woke up at 7:30 and decided to walk down to Lavo’s main bar to scope out the scene. We met a beautiful group of ladies who were going to Marquee that very night and asked if we wanted to share a table with them. We passed. We figured The Cosmopolitan is just too new, so much so that no one is actually going there yet, kind of like Aria was when it first opened. Besides, we’d already booked a table at Jet, a far better club so we were heading there no matter what. We did try and persuade these girls for the better part of an h our to join us, but they weren’t having it. Shame cause all of them were absolutely smoking. Six of them, four of us. I like those numbers any day. Too bad, they could have come to a great club and instead chose what was likely a very lame evening. Their loss.
Off to Jet. Finally, we have a crowded club. Thank God. But a half hour into our table service, I’m noticing something’s off. Nope, it’s not the ratio. (While not favorable, it’s not the worst you could imagine. It was pretty bad for Vegas though.) It’s the lack of beautiful ladies. It was as if they took all of the mediocre and overweight girls that couldn’t get into other clubs, scooped them up, and dumped them all at Jet. It was awful. Within the hour, I realized the only hot girls worth hitting on were the waitresses. A tough strategy, to be sure, but it’s certainly doable. My friends had all struck out completely with what mediocre girls there were, but our server did agree to join me for a late night drink.
She was a woman of her word and called me upon leaving work. She suggested hanging out where I was staying at Palazzo and gambling for a bit but I tried to get her over to Mixx (the view always is a deal closer for me). She wasn’t having it and stopped responding to my texts around 4am. Oh well. I walked through the casino floor and found my drunk buddies at the roulette table and found a scene of absolute carnage. Each had lost well over $2k. It was time to sound the retreat for the night. All in all, an atrocious evening.
Sunday
Up at 11. We had a late red-eye home to DC at 11:30pm and actually booked the room for that next night as well. (We always do this to ensure we have a place to keep our stuff and more importantly, take ladies during the day). I actually enjoy the daylife in Vegas more than the nightlife anyway, so this usually works out just fine.
Out the lobby, and off to the pool at Circus Circus we go. I hadn’t been there in years but had recently read all the buzz about it GOING OFF on Sunday afternoons, apparently on a Hard Rock-esque level. Also apparently better than Encore Beach Club which is curiously getting a lot of buzz these days. Nevertheless, Circus Circus has apparently undergone a renaissance and has established a strong scene now.
We were pumped. We arrive and sure, it’s crowded, but with what appears to be a NASCAR convention without the models. Again… WHAT… THE… FUCK? By now, we all felt this trip had turned into a bad episode of the Twilight Zone. We stayed, hoping we’d run into a few throngs of college chicks on a cheap summer vacation. Nope. We wasted another $300 each with drinks by the pool and around 4:30 decided to call it a day. Nothing much left to report except dinner back at the hotel and (sadly), an empty suite (the lone bright spot of the trip I should add).
It’s just a tragedy that not one lovely lady got to see inside that suite… We hopped the red-eye home to IAD in a near-depressed state and all went to work like zombies. What a fucking, EPIC letdown of a vacation, if you can even call it that.
So… What went wrong? I felt we’d established a really good gameplan before going out and came home in a state of shock at how dead things really were. Perhaps the economy is far worse than I realize here in DC. Is Vegas dying? I could have found a better scene in DC (and for those of you that haven't been here, believe me that’s saying something!) Bear in mind this was in the middle of summer (August 5th-7th). Not peak season, mind you, but Vegas is still reliable for a great crowd this time of year, especially during the day at pools.
I’ve been to Vegas upwards of ten times over the years and being a veteran, really feel like I can’t put a foot wrong in that town. But this was a bad dream. A total nightmare for the ages. I’m looking to go again in mid-October. I want to hear only from the Vegas veterans out there… What went wrong?
you chose JET over MARQUEE....it happens but i think ppl who dont go every year dont realize Vegas changes EVERY 6 MONTHS to A YEAR...
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