Hi everyone! I hope you all are having a relaxing Memorial Day.
My wife and I just got back from MDW in Vegas (minus Monday), and it was a fantastic trip! Details are as follows...
Pre-trip: This year, we have been planning our Vegas trips around UFC events, so we invited some friends to go with us. All looked to be going well with our group of four until about two weeks out, where one guy had major car problems and had to spend his Vegas money on getting a new transmission (among other parts) for his truck. The other friend notified us a few days before the trip that his father had passed and he needed to go out of town for the funeral. I am not a superstitious man, but this trip started to feel like it might be doomed. Completely understandable cancellations on both guy's parts, so all you can do is say "That sucks" and move on. We had to cancel our table reservations at two places, because rocking a table with just two people is kind of excessive in my opinion.
Moving on to the trip!
Day 1: Traveling by car from Central California was beyond easy on Thursday morning. We left at this time by design, because we figured that most people would not have Thursday off of work and would be traveling either that night or Friday morning. Super easy drive. We check into Excalibur (we almost always go cheap with hotel rooms because we only use them for sleeping), get our stuff settled in the room, relax a bit, and then get ready for dinner and the club afterward. We catch a cab over to The Venetian.
We were able to poke around in the Palazzo shopping area both before and after our dinner, which was a lot of fun. My wife had never seen that area, and had a good time looking around in the rare book store (highly recommended), as well as some of the clothing stores. We had dinner at Sushisamba, which was good but nothing really special or anything. The price was reasonable and we only paid like 120 for our check (an alcoholic drink a piece).
Next up was our first visit to TAO. We had presales and it was incredibly easy to get in around club opening. Literally no wait. We were very impressed with the decor and the layout of the place. After spending some time exploring around, we settled in around the main dance floor and bar area and went to work on some booze. I am a decent tipper and the drinks were strong, much much stronger than the drinks we had when we were at Pure in March, and I completely underestimated the strength. More on that in a minute. We followed the advice to tip well and use the same bartender the whole night. The bartender remembered us and what we were drinking (RBV's) and hooked it up strong. Later in the night there were lines for the bathrooms, which my wife and I were able to completely ignore by tipping the guy standing by them. Skipping bathroom lines tends to make some people in the line upset, but fuck em for being cheapskates. The crowd was beautiful beyond belief, we chatted up many nice people there, and the crowd had an amazing vibe that added much to the atmosphere.
As the night progressed, we were getting drunker and drunker, dancing our asses off in the main room. We were eagerly anticipating the arrival of DJ Chuckie, when my wife had to go to the bathroom. I followed her and hung out by the bar until she got back. The next thing I know, I wake up in my bed back at the hotel. WTF?!? I later find out from my wife that I put my head down on the freakin' bar and I was escorted out of the club by security for being too drunk (understandable). The rest of the night's events I am aware of only because my wife told me about them. I stilldon't recall a damn thing. One of the security guys escorts us out through some back way and helps us grab a taxi outside. My wife is having to hold me upright. We get into a cab and this crazy hispanic lady driving the cab starts yelling and freaking out about the possibility of my throwing up in the cab. I don't.
We somehow make it up to the hallway where our room is, and I just fall completely over. My wife has to drag me all the way down the hallway and into the room, while I am kicking and screaming, drunk out of my mind. She is five feet tall and only 105 pounds and I am 195 pounds and 5'11" so it was a struggle. I got buttons ripped of my shirt and some huge rug burns on my back and ass. Good times.
Before I move to day 2, I have to say that I am impressed with the professionalism and helpfulness of the staff at TAO. When I was looking in rough shape, I was offered bottled water at no charge. Everyone was very courteous to my wife when we were being led out, and the gentleman even helped flag us down a cab. Top notch staff, who didn't have to be helpful considering my situation. If anyone that works at TAO reads this, thank you!
Day 2: The complete first half of the day was shot from recovery time. I wake up and drink some pedialyte (awesome for re-hydration) and a mess of water. Strangely, aside from being tired and having the stares, I do not feel hungover. We get our shit together in enough time to make it to the MGM Grand Garden Arena to see the UFC 146 weigh ins. We have dinner reservations at the Cosmopolitan for a bit later, but decide to blow them off so we can eat a big meal a little bit earlier.
Marquee was on tap for that night, and we are super excited even though we are still freakin' tired and drained from the previous night. We arrive and again, have no issues getting in the door immediately with our presales. It feels really weird having to climb a ton of stairs to get to the club, and the area you have to climb is not really part of the casino, so it is an ugly set of metal stairs with no decor or anything. We get in and begin to explore the area. We marvel at the astonishingly beautiful decor. We especially like that you can easily make your way outside and hang out there if you wish. As the club gets more full, we begin to see a major flaw in the design of the club: the dance floor is WAY WAY WAY too small in the main room. This is made even more apparent as more people show up. Benny Benassi is supposed to come on at 1ish, and it is damned near impossible to get anywhere inside. We found the crowd and the staff to be much much more pushy and rude, and my wife (who is tiny) was constantly getting run over by pushy people (staff and customers). During most portions of the night, most people were not even dancing, but were just standing around taking pictures. The crowd was very beautiful (moreso than TAO the previous night) but was complete shit because there was no good vibe, no energy that added to the atmosphere. The crowd and the main room layout was almost enough to make us just leave.
We stay for about 30 minutes of the Benassi set and decide to call it a night due to crowd lameness and it being too packed. There are only so many times my wife can get knocked over by guys that walk right through her. We ended up hanging out at some random bar at the MGM for the rest of the night.
In the end, Marquee was a pretty big let down. It is nice looking, but that is about it. Maybe on a less busy night or industry night it is worth going to, but we will probably be avoiding it when we head back over IDW and LDW later this year.
Day 3:
This was our best day by far. Slept in until it was time to head over to the MGM Grand Garden Arena for UFC 146. It was an amazing card, and I was lucky to be able to sell my spare two tickets pretty quickly that day to people I met. I won't go into detail about the show, but it was fantastic and the energy was electric. We definitely left on a super rush of excitement. We meet a couple of friends at Buca di Beppo after the show and enjoy a great meal with these fine individuals.
Surrender was on tap for that night with Tiesto playing. I was a little nervous that we were going to arrive pretty late (midnight). I didn't want it to be at capacity when we got there, and we didn't want to miss any of Tiesto's set. We were pleasantly surprised when we were AGAIN let in with zero wait. We were able to get from out of the cab into the club within fifteen minutes.
We were immediately stunned by how beautiful the outdoor area was upon entering. We could already feel a level of excitement in the air that was present in smaller amounts at TAO and was completely absent at Marquee. The crowd was friendly, it was clear everyone was having a great time, and we saw WAY WAY more hot people there than TAO or Marquee. It was pretty much impossible to get into the main room where the DJ is, but it didn't matter because there were tons of people outside all dancing and having a blast. There were also planters and other objects to sit down on, so my wife and I alternated between chatting and having a drink at a planter, and dancing in the middle area of the pool area. We had a wonderful time.
Cont....
My wife and I just got back from MDW in Vegas (minus Monday), and it was a fantastic trip! Details are as follows...
Pre-trip: This year, we have been planning our Vegas trips around UFC events, so we invited some friends to go with us. All looked to be going well with our group of four until about two weeks out, where one guy had major car problems and had to spend his Vegas money on getting a new transmission (among other parts) for his truck. The other friend notified us a few days before the trip that his father had passed and he needed to go out of town for the funeral. I am not a superstitious man, but this trip started to feel like it might be doomed. Completely understandable cancellations on both guy's parts, so all you can do is say "That sucks" and move on. We had to cancel our table reservations at two places, because rocking a table with just two people is kind of excessive in my opinion.
Moving on to the trip!
Day 1: Traveling by car from Central California was beyond easy on Thursday morning. We left at this time by design, because we figured that most people would not have Thursday off of work and would be traveling either that night or Friday morning. Super easy drive. We check into Excalibur (we almost always go cheap with hotel rooms because we only use them for sleeping), get our stuff settled in the room, relax a bit, and then get ready for dinner and the club afterward. We catch a cab over to The Venetian.
We were able to poke around in the Palazzo shopping area both before and after our dinner, which was a lot of fun. My wife had never seen that area, and had a good time looking around in the rare book store (highly recommended), as well as some of the clothing stores. We had dinner at Sushisamba, which was good but nothing really special or anything. The price was reasonable and we only paid like 120 for our check (an alcoholic drink a piece).
Next up was our first visit to TAO. We had presales and it was incredibly easy to get in around club opening. Literally no wait. We were very impressed with the decor and the layout of the place. After spending some time exploring around, we settled in around the main dance floor and bar area and went to work on some booze. I am a decent tipper and the drinks were strong, much much stronger than the drinks we had when we were at Pure in March, and I completely underestimated the strength. More on that in a minute. We followed the advice to tip well and use the same bartender the whole night. The bartender remembered us and what we were drinking (RBV's) and hooked it up strong. Later in the night there were lines for the bathrooms, which my wife and I were able to completely ignore by tipping the guy standing by them. Skipping bathroom lines tends to make some people in the line upset, but fuck em for being cheapskates. The crowd was beautiful beyond belief, we chatted up many nice people there, and the crowd had an amazing vibe that added much to the atmosphere.
As the night progressed, we were getting drunker and drunker, dancing our asses off in the main room. We were eagerly anticipating the arrival of DJ Chuckie, when my wife had to go to the bathroom. I followed her and hung out by the bar until she got back. The next thing I know, I wake up in my bed back at the hotel. WTF?!? I later find out from my wife that I put my head down on the freakin' bar and I was escorted out of the club by security for being too drunk (understandable). The rest of the night's events I am aware of only because my wife told me about them. I stilldon't recall a damn thing. One of the security guys escorts us out through some back way and helps us grab a taxi outside. My wife is having to hold me upright. We get into a cab and this crazy hispanic lady driving the cab starts yelling and freaking out about the possibility of my throwing up in the cab. I don't.
We somehow make it up to the hallway where our room is, and I just fall completely over. My wife has to drag me all the way down the hallway and into the room, while I am kicking and screaming, drunk out of my mind. She is five feet tall and only 105 pounds and I am 195 pounds and 5'11" so it was a struggle. I got buttons ripped of my shirt and some huge rug burns on my back and ass. Good times.
Before I move to day 2, I have to say that I am impressed with the professionalism and helpfulness of the staff at TAO. When I was looking in rough shape, I was offered bottled water at no charge. Everyone was very courteous to my wife when we were being led out, and the gentleman even helped flag us down a cab. Top notch staff, who didn't have to be helpful considering my situation. If anyone that works at TAO reads this, thank you!
Day 2: The complete first half of the day was shot from recovery time. I wake up and drink some pedialyte (awesome for re-hydration) and a mess of water. Strangely, aside from being tired and having the stares, I do not feel hungover. We get our shit together in enough time to make it to the MGM Grand Garden Arena to see the UFC 146 weigh ins. We have dinner reservations at the Cosmopolitan for a bit later, but decide to blow them off so we can eat a big meal a little bit earlier.
Marquee was on tap for that night, and we are super excited even though we are still freakin' tired and drained from the previous night. We arrive and again, have no issues getting in the door immediately with our presales. It feels really weird having to climb a ton of stairs to get to the club, and the area you have to climb is not really part of the casino, so it is an ugly set of metal stairs with no decor or anything. We get in and begin to explore the area. We marvel at the astonishingly beautiful decor. We especially like that you can easily make your way outside and hang out there if you wish. As the club gets more full, we begin to see a major flaw in the design of the club: the dance floor is WAY WAY WAY too small in the main room. This is made even more apparent as more people show up. Benny Benassi is supposed to come on at 1ish, and it is damned near impossible to get anywhere inside. We found the crowd and the staff to be much much more pushy and rude, and my wife (who is tiny) was constantly getting run over by pushy people (staff and customers). During most portions of the night, most people were not even dancing, but were just standing around taking pictures. The crowd was very beautiful (moreso than TAO the previous night) but was complete shit because there was no good vibe, no energy that added to the atmosphere. The crowd and the main room layout was almost enough to make us just leave.
We stay for about 30 minutes of the Benassi set and decide to call it a night due to crowd lameness and it being too packed. There are only so many times my wife can get knocked over by guys that walk right through her. We ended up hanging out at some random bar at the MGM for the rest of the night.
In the end, Marquee was a pretty big let down. It is nice looking, but that is about it. Maybe on a less busy night or industry night it is worth going to, but we will probably be avoiding it when we head back over IDW and LDW later this year.
Day 3:
This was our best day by far. Slept in until it was time to head over to the MGM Grand Garden Arena for UFC 146. It was an amazing card, and I was lucky to be able to sell my spare two tickets pretty quickly that day to people I met. I won't go into detail about the show, but it was fantastic and the energy was electric. We definitely left on a super rush of excitement. We meet a couple of friends at Buca di Beppo after the show and enjoy a great meal with these fine individuals.
Surrender was on tap for that night with Tiesto playing. I was a little nervous that we were going to arrive pretty late (midnight). I didn't want it to be at capacity when we got there, and we didn't want to miss any of Tiesto's set. We were pleasantly surprised when we were AGAIN let in with zero wait. We were able to get from out of the cab into the club within fifteen minutes.
We were immediately stunned by how beautiful the outdoor area was upon entering. We could already feel a level of excitement in the air that was present in smaller amounts at TAO and was completely absent at Marquee. The crowd was friendly, it was clear everyone was having a great time, and we saw WAY WAY more hot people there than TAO or Marquee. It was pretty much impossible to get into the main room where the DJ is, but it didn't matter because there were tons of people outside all dancing and having a blast. There were also planters and other objects to sit down on, so my wife and I alternated between chatting and having a drink at a planter, and dancing in the middle area of the pool area. We had a wonderful time.
Cont....
you wouldn't want some video appearing on tmz in the near future.
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