Mid-Life Crisis Trip Report

[Dyur21]

My wife and I just got back from Vegas. We travelled 9/18-9/21. By far the best trip we have been on and as such I figured I would provide a trip report to give some details that may help someone else enjoy their experience more.

I turned 40 last week and my wife set this trip up as a sort of surprise. We have been to Vegas many times and while we contemplated going to Miami this time (mainly because I think we felt kinda self conscious about going to Vegas on every vacation without our kids, people constantly bust our chops on going out there after every trip; reality is folks think it is immature BUT if they ever tried going with us they would be addicted just like we are) but chose not to do so based off of 1) weather concerns (I.e. Hurricane Season) 2) lack of day clubs 3) advice obtained from this site. I was a little nervous that we would be burned out on Vegas because we just went last summer but we chose to do it again anyway.

My wife set the following club gauntlet for us mainly due to DJ's in question:

Friday (9/18) Surrender (Lil Jon)
Saturday (9/19) EBC (Guetta)
Saturday (9/19) Marquee (Bennassi)
Sunday (9/20) EBC (Zedd) (we ate tickets for wet, EBC was too good to pass up)
Sunday (9/20) XS Nightswim (R L Greime)

Based on where we were planning on spending our time we decided to stay at the Wynn. We bought tickets to all of the Wynn Venues thru the concierge, which in some cases seemed only slightly marked up and in others they seemed incredibly marked up from the online price, all in all these tickets worked out very well, I will get into that more later but I think they were worth it.

We arrived in Vegas Friday around 6:00pm. We were both awake at 6:30am EST and could not sleep on the plane. This all made me worried because we had big plans and starting off far in sleep deficit land seemed like a disaster waiting to happen.

Because we were flying in on a Friday evening I was worried that the cab line would be out of control so I opted to have a Sedan from the concierge pick us up, cost was around 80 after tip so while more expensive than a cab a good way to start out.

Get to the Wynn, no wait for check in. The employee checking us in offered us a $30/night upgrade for a panoramic view room, I passed because we were basically using the room as a locker. Turns out we ended up with a great view anyway, one thing about this, our room was facing fashion show mall, this was key in the morning As no morning sun seemed to bother us.

I was not fond of the restaurant options in the Wynn/encore, nothing fast and the nice options were not really appealing for some reason. We end up eating at Wazuzu which was good, we should have probably went all out for a nicer dinner Friday because we ended up needing to cancel our Saturday and Sunday reservations because of our waking up late from the day clubs. Wazuzu did have a interesting mix of folk inside, which I guess the encore always did; a mix of people who just had spent the day at EBC and older couples. The drinks at Wazuzu were good/strong and about the same if not less than in the clubs.

We end up finishing dinner around 9:30 and head to one of the hotel bars to have a few drinks before heading into Surrender. This was a good move because it kept my wife's feet from being tired and we got to pregame.

There was a line but nothing tragic, nevertheless we are told because we have the concierge tickets that we should go directly to the side of the front door and they would let us in, worked well.

By this point it was around 11, we walk in and the club is empty. So we head to the pool bar portion to continue to drink, for the record they did let my wife sit on a couch without bottle service and they did give me free water with all drinks. Not much of a wait for the drinks at the bar, but not much love for my heavy tipping either. Pretty much immediately my wife wants to dance which is a bit of a problem because the place is still a little empty and (largely due to the fact that we were drinking already for 3 hours) I think we were being the most rowdy people there at that point. Things fill up pretty quickly around midnight, if I were trying to save money I could have easily pregamed until 12 and came down and got right in with the tickets.

So the decision on where to go Friday was a hard one. We really wanted to go to Drai's mainly because we love that venue but they had a concert which would not be our thing (we watched some YouTube stuff of the same artist there and we did not think that it would be our scene). We ruled out Hak because everything we read here said GA there was a disaster. We ruled out XS because Guetta was there and we did not want to go back to back. Marquee was on our agenda for Saturday. I have been to light and did not like it which left us with Omnia Or Surrender, I am sad to say that Wynncore's persistent lambasting of The GA experience at Omnia on seemingly every thread during the weeks leading up to this trip had worn me down (the picture of the big guy on the stretcher was the straw that broke the camels back, hits too close to home). So we checked out some you tube stuff of lil Jon and it looked like it would be fun.

Although Surrender is small we were able to access the dance floor anytime we wanted and the place was fairly full. I liked the place, fun vibe and nice outside feature allowing you to sit down if you wanted to. You could easily talk outside and then go back inside to get nuts.

One disadvantage of Surrender is the bathroom situation, why would they only have one opened up? There was a 30 person line for the men's room!! Makes no sense. My wife figured out early on that you could leave surrender, walk to the right out in the casino like 5 steps and access an empty casino bathroom and get immediate re-entry.

Lil Jon came on around 1-1:30. He put on a fun set, not just playing his music he played a good mix of stuff and while not more impressive than Guetta or Zedd he was better than anyone else we saw on this or any other trip.

My wife always seems to gravitate to the front at all of these places so we were right to the left of the stage when he played his shots song so of course he sends shots down for the girls in the first row, my wife gets given one by one of his guys; it was red and she said it tasted like cough syrup, she almost threw up and it was hilarious. I will never be able to attend a football game again and not think of that when his music comes on. Really great night.

Lil Jon went off stage around 3-3:30, we were up for 24 hours and drinking very hard for the last 6 at that point. I could feel myself blacking out (I had converted to shots at some point which was better logistically but in retrospect playing with fire), so other than the evidence of the time stamp on some random picture of my wife near those moraccas on the path to the Wynn taken at 3:45am I have no idea how or when we got home. My wife remembered little as well BUT she did remember forcing us to drink the coconut water I had stocked the room (I have never been so happy to see an empty bottle in the trash the next morning), such a good woman, for the first time of many this trip she saved the day.

Hope this is not too detailed or boring and I hope it gives some good info for folks. At some point I'll type out Saturday which was by far the funnest day ever (well Sunday was close)!

[artedm]

glad you had a good time!

[kp3205]

Good to see us married 40+ yo peeps get represented!! Keep it coming.

[MikeK32]

Great start!

[Cirilo Medina]

That coconut water, it works great for me IF I somehow remember to drink it the night before! It's a Vegas staple

[matt1983]

No such thing as a boring trip report, sir. Keep it coming.

[Dyur21]

Saturday -EBC

We wake up Saturday morning around 8:30, one thing about Vegas is I can never sleep there, it is almost like they pump oxygen in to the rooms to make you wake up, in short I would have preferred to have gotten a few more hours banked up.
We were both pretty messed up the night before and we did not eat anything so we were not feeling great, with that said we did not feel like total disasters either (thanks coconut water).

We were both a little nauseous so we waited an hour or so to grab breakfast. One thing I tried different this trip was taking a tremendous amount of vitamins in the morning and before we went out, this seemed to make a big difference because once they kicked in we both felt perfect.

We ate breakfast a the deli in the Wynn, I think zoozoocrackers, we pretty much ended up there for pretty much every meal because we never seemed to have the patience to wait for meals. They give you a lot of food, we ate like a quarter of what they gave us, this always seems like a problem in Vegas I have to force myself to eat.

Once we were done eating we walked the casino a bit and headed to see where you get into EBC. It was only around 11:00 but there was already a big line. So we headed up to the room to try to sleep a little before we headed down to EBC but that was hopeless, there was no way we were going to be resting at all given how pumped we were. So we got dressed and headed down.

We get down to EBC and walked directly in past all lines and right in with the concierge tickets. I brought a backpack with a spare set of shoes for each of us as well as a change of clothes and sunscreen and I checked those in the bag check right inside EBC, this cost $40 and was a waste of money for these reasons...

1) we were staying in the hotel, what could happen. (I had a pair of sandals stolen at rehab one time and the spare saved me so I am forever prepared)

2) the bathroom attendant has sunscreen

This place is fantastic. Everyone here is laid back but everything builds throughout the day until complete bedlam erupts when the headliner comes on.

We contemplated getting a daybed or cabana with some guys who we met on this site, we did meet up with them right as Guetta was going off, group of good guys and it would have been a great time. With that said I was glad we held off on the daybed and would recommend just doing GA for these reasons:

1) it is nice to not be anchored anywhere because you are then free to mingle throughout the pool. The crowd is extremely friendly everyone seems very eager to party and it is a great way to meet people, FAR superior to anything at night IMO.

2) very little wait time for drinks at the bar. I made sure that I picked one bartender at the very beginning of the day and went to her every time. I tipped her $30 on the first drink then normal the rest of the day and she treated us very well (anytime that the bar was slammed, as soon as she saw me in back of the line she would tell me to meet her on the side of the bar (waitress area), she met me with the drinks (she knew what I was buying because we were drinking a ton) thus I did not wait. Tipping pays off.

We end up getting a seat on the side of the pool which we used for about an hour or two while we were drinking. I was impressed that somehow they seem to have the concrete painted in such a way so as to minimize the heat from the sun, it was a very sunny day yet the concrete was not hot at all (my feet burned walking around at rehab, MDC and Liquid (stupid black AstroTurf mat)). It also gets some shade later in the day.

One problem with EBC is that the drinks are served in regular cups with no lids so you have exposure to the toxic water if you are drinking in the pool, because of this I wanted to be crushed and relatively done drinking by the time Guetta went on (because we wanted to be in the pool as it would undoubtedly be crazy), so we go into a two minute offense on drinks around 2:00 which led to us both being absolutely destroyed by 3:30 which was pretty awesome.

We head to the middle pool and as soon as we walk in I notice that a girl is topless dancing on the pole in the middle, by the time I point this out to my wife the topless girl is being grabbed and thrown out of EBC, this sets the tone of absolute insanity.

Things are pretty crazy in the pool with people splashing and going nuts before Guetta comes on so when he comes on it is unbelievable. My wife decides she wants to dance, I don't want to because it is crowded up in the front and the pool is way to fun to want to leave so I suggest that she dance up by the pole, at first she says no way BUT a combination of her drunkeness and the realization that it was the best spot for her to see everything and be able to dance the way she wanted led her to climb on up to the pole. I go grab some more drinks (this was unnecessary as we were like cartoon characters at this point) and come back to see that my wife has made friends with all of the dancing girls they are giving her "dance like a stripper lessons", would have made for a great picture.

Guetta gets off stage and things start to calm down but not before my wife starts tying bow tie knots on me and every other guy there, one guy gets scared and says "are you going to hurt me?" (Legitimate fear) as she starts tying this knot around his neck she says "don't worry honey I am just going to make you look awesome".

This was by far the craziest scene I have ever been a part of, I am sure it gets somewhat better on holiday weekends but man it was awesome. Everyone around us probably thought we were incredibly obnoxious but wow what a great day. Far and away the best time I have had at any club (night or day) anywhere, no jerks, no stuck up girls just a great vibe about the place, really awesome.

We leave around 5:30-6:00, by this time it did not take long to get our stuff from the bag check (there was a huge line all day at this by the way). We grab something to eat prior to going up to our room, Devour it and head up to our room.

I don't really know anything that happened after we ate other than we passed out, the bad thing was that I did not set alarms nor did I request a wake up call so our plans for the evening (Marquee) were left very much so up to chance. This post has probably been too long, I'll gather some thoughts on the rest of Saturday night soon.

[wat]

Good stuff - EBC sounds like it was bumpin!

[Dyur21]

Saturday - Marquee
Prior to this trip the thing that my wife was looking most forward to was seeing Benny Bennassi at Marquee on Saturday, so getting completely wasted at EBC and passing out around 7:00pm was not necessarily a recipe for success.

The last thing I remember was crushing a sandwich and then nothing until boom, my wife is waking me up, we both are naked, the window is open looking at a night sky lit Las Vegas blvd. and I am thinking you have got to be kidding me we slept thru the night it is 3:00am. I start to panic and run to turn lights on to ascertain what time it is, my wife tells me to calm down it is only 10:00, she explains she had woken up 10 minutes prior and done the same thing. (There is nothing worse than waking up at 3am and realizing that you wasted a valuable night in Vegas, we got lucky I should have done pre day club planning.).

I feel pretty good all things considered, I see evidence of coconut water consumption so I am guessing that and the food saved me. I hop in the shower and we get ready to go. My wife is pumped, I am kinda like, man I am worn out do we really need to go out again tonight. On a post a month or so ago about going to a day club and night club in the same day jbrav007 made a comment that to do the double you have to "kill the little bitch inside of all of us saying don't go out stay in and sleep"; I can testify that this is true BUT once you get out you are fine.

We get a cab around 11 and head to the Cosmo. My wife was pumped about getting to Marquee so I did not know if we were up for dinner that said we were hungry we grabbed a slice of pizza from secret pizza and headed to the chandelier bar.

I had never been to the chandelier bar but I get why people often recommend it as an alternative to the clubs, lots of traffic and a good vibe. We sit down and get some drinks and my wife strikes up a conversation with a women that comes over to sit by us while I am grabbing some drinks. The women is very attractive in her 30's I would say and she is flirting with my wife to some extent. My first instinct is to get uncomfortable because I am thinking she is paid talent but as the conversation continues it is clear that she is somewhat drunk, she is married and she is in town with her husband and another couple who are all sitting five feet away from us. We finish our drinks and our new friend says she wants some fireball so I go get us three shots and a couple of more drinks (in retrospect the husband and couple that was with them looked like they wanted to punch me in the face for giving her a shot). After the shots things take an strange turn, the women starts talking to my wife about her sex life and how her husband was a loser who can not satisfy her BUT she is doing this in the most confrontational way possible by more or less shouting it towards the people she was with. The husband comes over and asks her to calm down in a very subtle way. By this point my wife is back to buzzing with the shot and drinks so she is oblivious to the confrontation that was brewing so she continues talk with the women albeit trying to steer away from the sex talk but the women persists and starts asking about our relationship my wife starts some diatribe about how great I am and this only makes things get weirder as the women starts asking if we want to hang out with her. This comment makes me think that she is paid talent once again and my wife is completely oblivious thinking the woman wants to go to marquee with us. At this point I decide to pull the plug on this and say it is time to head into marquee and I make something up about it being midnight and we have to get in because the pre sale tickets that are not good after midnight. The women asks where we are staying and asks my wife is we would be cool "hanging out with her all night" and something about making it a very satisfying night, she stroked my wife's back and behind in a way that made my wife finally see what was up, my wife instantly sobers up and looks at me with fear saying "lets go now". The women followed us for a few steps and then her husband yelled at her and they started fighting, we headed for the line at marquee. In another reality this could have ended in a much much more fascinating manner, we are married the time for those shenanigans was long ago. My wife is a little flustered but no worse for wear and we laugh a lot about it once we get into marquee.

My general take on Marquee is that it is always going to give you a solid experience, it will not be the highlight of any trip unless you have a tier 1 table on the dance floor but I do think it is always going to be a good time because there is a lot of room for GA and there are two separate dj's going at any given time. Inevitably on any future trip we will end up here at some point.

We head to the outdoor area to continue drinking before Bennassi comes on. The bartender claims he recognized me from our last trip (I actually recognized him, weird I tipped hard then) and comps me the first round, I tip him the price of the first round and this in turn ensures that for the rest of the night no matter if it is patron, goose or jack 3/4 of the glass is liquor and I never wait in line. I like the back bar because there is a water cooler there and that encourages you to drink water every time you get a drink, this does make getting drunk harder but in also makes the next day so much better.

My wife ends up dancing a little to the hip hop dj outside but starts to complain that her feet are hurting, we find a couch with some waitresses and a bouncer next to them and I ask if it is cool if she sits for a little bit, they say it's cool they do not have them sold. She rests up for about 15 minutes and I continue to drink a lot and we decide that we should head in to see Bennassi.

We get into the main club and they are not letting anyone in on the main dance floor, some dudes near the dance floor ask if she wants to dance at their table, she explains that I come with her as baggage, they do not care and tell us to come in. She ends up dancing on the top of the booth which is good because it accomplishes several things, she is able to dance and see Bennassi, I am able to go get more drinks while she is dancing without being worried about being separated (I am not some tool that is going to drink someone else's bottle), and she recruits girls to come to their table (she is very good at this, rare is the trip to a club that she does not end up befriending good looking girls would be an excellent wing man for single dudes).

Once I come back with the drinks a bouncer who had stopped us from going into the dance floor because it was full told us that we could go on now. My wife thanked the guys with the table and we headed into the dance floor and had a great time. The crowd was about perfect at Marquee it was full but not packed like sardines.

Around 4 my wife was starting to wear out so we left, they actually let us use the elevators this time. The walk down the steps out of marquee was always something that made no sense to me so this was a welcome change.

We hit secret pizza for the second time in six hours, we see several people passed out on the couches on that level of the Cosmo and we head back to the Wynn. All around a good night.

[Dyur21]

EBC (again) - Sunday

We woke up Sunday around 9:30, so once again not much sleep, we both wanted to sleep but we were excited and we were in pretty good shape (marquee water + pizza + coconut water). In a wise move I immediately call the front desk and ask for a wake up call and reminder call at 10:00pm and 10:15 pm, no way we're were going to miss nightswim that night.

The first thing we had to decide was where to go today. I had bought pre sale tickets for wet republic logic being that going to the same venue on back to back days would suck. A combination of things led to us deciding to eat the pre sale tickets - advice from JC people we met up with on Saturday night (they said EBC was far superior to Wet based on their experience that week), our strong desire to go hard at nightswim that night (less travel = more recovery in between), our mind blowing experience at EBC Saturday and my wife's desire to see Zedd over garrix. Given all of this we decide to get tickets to go to see Zedd at EBC (at the time I thought that I would regret the lost money and the loss of a chance to see one other venue, no regrets at all after this day).

Neither of us are hungry or really in need of anything because we both feel great (in a relative way) so we debate what to do as it is only around 10am. My wife suggests that we check out the wynn's main pool so we have a general lay of the land of the hotel for any future visit considerations. The wynn's pool (at least to us) was difficult to find, poor signage and general confusion. We find it and it is huge. Of all the hotels we have stayed at in Vegas I would say this "main" pool was the most bland of all of them (granted it was 10 in the morning) it is impressive but pretty stuffy.

We see the European sunbathing pool and my wife seems intrigued (bucket list type of thing) I say f it lets go so we head there. First time we ever had done that, it was a little weird, there were two very attractive girls there topless , I have to believe they were somehow compensated to be there they were not bashful at all and were to some extent putting on a show. There were also a handful of normal girls topless so my wife said screw it and joined in and took her top off, this lasted for like 10 minutes until she became self conscious mainly because once you are there in the pool you start to realize that there are a decent amount of older guys without women with them hanging out staring (can't blame them for staring or her for getting weirded out). She puts her top back on and we chill for a little but we start thinking about drinking at that pool, I pull the plug on that and say lets just get to EBC and get after it.

At this point we really do not feel like eating but realizing that we have a long day ahead of us I make us go get soup somewhere in the Wynn, while wearing our bathing suits (classy).

We get to EBC around noon, same story as the day before we get preferential treatment and do not wait in any line which is good because they are already long. Today I did not bring the backpack, saved 40 bucks. We stash our shoes and shirts (cover up) under a lifeguard stand, we never pick them up until we leave at 6 or so, no one bothered them.

We head to the same bar as the day before and the same bartender is there, she remembers us and tells us not to expect things to be as crazy as the day before because "that was one of the craziest days we have seen all season". Things were more subdued on Sunday but only in a relative way when compared to Saturday (any place else and I would have said Sunday was the craziest thing I had ever seen). One unforeseen benefit of going to EBC the second day in a row was the bartender who I tipped hard Saturday, she remembered us and treated us the same way Sunday (hard drinks mostly all liquor and no wait as soon as she saw me she started pouring plus she gave us bottles of water each trip up for no charge).

Prior to Zedd going on EBC was pretty tame on Sunday, still a great time just tame. We wandered around the pools and on the dance floor and what not. We were feeling great so we were drinking a lot. Since we watched Guetta from the pool my wife was determined to watch Zedd from the dance floor so she made sure she had a spot in the middle about 25 feet back about a half hour before he was supposed to go on.

I have never been of the mind that the DJ mattered at any of these clubs prior to this trip, really I figured the venue was they key to having a good time; this trip and the Zedd set changed my mind completely. The place went from calm to completely crazy when he started playing. I was very skeptical of Zedd before this because I have heard some of his music and I thought his set would be lame but I even got caught up in the energy of the place it was awesome, he was the best dj we saw while we were out there.

Shortly after Zedd started the guy next to me motions for me to turn around, we turn around and see that the waitresses are wheeling this crazy Rose bowl float like thing with many waitresses strapped on seats at various heights towards us. The Float like thing stops directly in from of us, I notice each waitress is armed with two bottles of champagne and my drunk mind figures out what is about to happen. I get my wife to turn around about 20 seconds before we are attacked by champagne showers. As soon as Zedd's first song gets to a crazy part all of the waitresses let lose with the champagne along with confetti it is truly nuts; my wife, myself and everyone else getting sprayed could not stop laughing, it was so freaking funny (I don't know why but it was). Eyes burning and all, this was awesome! We hang on the dance floor until Zedd goes off.

We go back into the middle pool after Zedd and continue drinking, some girl about 25 feet from me starts puking everywhere. This was one of those slow motion moments where everyone is saying noooooooo while running away. We hurdle our way from the middle pool to another pool and start to wrap up our day. We end up leaving EBC sometime shortly after 6:00.

We ate somewhere in the Wynn complex with our swimsuits still on, I am sure we were great guests as I could not stop humming (droning) that tremor song in a pretty loud way according to my wife. Somehow we get back up to the room and pass out. I did force us to really hydrate hard after EBC because I thought nightswim would be the highlight of this trip and I did not want that screwed up

[wat]

Champagne showers & Zedd? Sick.

Keep it going - great TR so far!

[Dyur21]

Sunday night - XS Nightswim

Prior to the trip we got really hyped for Nightswim mainly because of comments posted on this site and a snapchat of Diplo's from Labor Day weekend that a JC user pointed out to me that painted a picture of pure insanity. Our hype convinced me that this would be the event of the trip and that I should make sure we were on our collective "A" game for this night. Up until this point of the trip I think that I had made all good decisions and I regretted nothing, with regard to XS - Nightswim I think I messed up and I will detail that below.

We passed out after EBC, at 10:00 I got a wake up call which I picked up and slammed down, fortunately we had gotten a back up wake up call for 10:15 and this one had the intended effect. We got up and to some extent were still buzzing/hungover. Grabbed a shower and got ready to go. (Requested a wake up call for 7:30am as our flight was at 8:00)

On the whole I think Nightswim was awesome BUT the experience could have been much better and in general there were several things that I wish I would have thought about prior to going to Nightswim.

We wore swimsuits to Nightswim, this in and of itself is weird because about 50% of the crowd is in swimsuits and 50% is dressed like they are going to a club. For me it did not matter, this did make my wife feel weird. With our tickets we walked right in with no line, there was quite a line out front, we entered around 11:00. The club portion of XS was empty, the bouncers led us to the pool area and when we walked out there we were taken aback at how large the facility is. The pool is one big pool with a center bar casino island type thing. Lights changing colors everywhere but still very dimly lit. There were inflatables everywhere it was pretty funny. We wander a little to get our bearings
And get a drink.

MY BIGGEST REGRET OF THE TRIP:

Prior to the trip I had been in contact with a group of guys looking to do bottle service at Nightswim. I was hesitant to OK this because on previous trips where we have done the night/day/night/day/night gauntlet the last night was always an iffy proposition, so I did not want to commit to something and then flake out and not show up for them (i.e. Ruin their night). We hung out with these guys some Saturday at EBC and Saturday night at the Cosmo, they were good guys and we talked about still getting a table at Nightswim briefly, we agreed that we would see what was up Sunday and go from there. Because we were on the bender of all time I neglected to reach out to them until 10:30PM and never mentioned the table. In hindsight I should have coordinated something with them or tried others at EBC because we had talked to enough people over the two and a half days to string a group together (at Nightswim so many people came up to us to BS that we had partied with the previous day's (it was pretty cool like a brotherhood of drunks), a little forethought and I could have been working on getting a group together for Sunday night). I completely discounted the need for a table at Nightswim as my GA efforts had worked out so well everywhere else.

Getting drinks at XS in GA was terrible. Even at 11:00 this was a problem. We waited a long time everytime. There are only two bars open and while one is very large it is inundated with people. No matter of tipping or bouncer strategy was going to help me and what sucked was I knew it was a problem from the get go at 11 (should have asked about a daybed right then).

If we had a couch, daybed, whatever this would have saved valuable time (with other advantages as outlined later). My guess is that I spent at least an hour in lines over the course of the night and daybeds had to be reasonable because there were a ton available.

So after many trips of not getting burned by the long lines referred to at the bar at Vegas clubs on this site I got burned, if we ever are lucky enough to try this type of trip again I will figure out a way to do bottle service at any tier 1 club we go to, the experience would have been much better.

We finally get drinks and head to the pool, I was sort of trying to talk my wife out of getting in right away but she was too fascinated by the madness. We stash our stuff in a bush, no one disturbed it all night (they did have a bag check somewhere), and get in. The water was like a hot tub, the presence of the inflatables made it crazy. People throwing large whales and whatnot, it was awesome.

In like two seconds we finish our drinks and get out to get more, this is when we realize that it is a little cold out. Because it was mid September it was in the low seventy's at night so this was a little bit of an issue. My wife was freezing and she spotted a real hot tub right by the bar she sat in it while I went to get drinks. At this point I went to two drinks at a time the rest of the night to minimize the line, this kinda sucks when you are fighting off flying sharks in the pool.

We decide to walk around the complex to check it out before we get back into the pool. The place is absolutely huge, one bad thing in my opinion is that the sound is not really loud throughout, more like background noise when you get to the other side of the pool. While this makes sense as the hotel is right there and it is 1 in the morning it was just a different acoustic experience from EBC where the sound was amazing everywhere. One other oddity is that no one was really dancing, while the pool is nuts outside the pool reminded me of a trip to the mall in middle school with everyone just walking around almost in a circle around the club.

We get back into the pool when the headliner starts, RL Grime. In the lead up to our trip there were several posts on this site about this Nightswim and RL Grime in particular, basically they were warning that Grime plays a different type of EDM and that not everyone likes it. I am not saying he was bad it was just different from everything else we had been hearing. People were nuts in the pool but not really all that energetic outside of the pool. That said it was pretty dark and I was drinking a lot so I could be over doing it with regard to the lack of energy outside of the pool.

Eventually they kick everyone out of the pool and we end up on the dancefloor, at this point I realize it has to be late because there are only a handful of people dancing. Without much warning they stop the music, hit the lights and the club is closing.

We head back to the Wynn , I realize my wife has taken off her cover up (lost somewhere) and is now roaming the Wynn at 4-5 in the morning in a bikini. I am a mess, she is lobbying for Drai's (my original plan for Sunday was to get dressed after Nightswim, head to Drai's until 7:00 go back collect luggage and go to airport then sleep on plane).

She convinces me that a little food will reenergize me so I sit at a slot machine while she goes into some restaurant to get bagels or something. The visual here was funny because here she is in a bikini dropping money on the floor every two seconds because she is smashed while the rest of the line are business people with jet lag starting their days waiting for their morning coffee and for some reason we are the only folks around who look like they had been at Nightswim so we stick out like a sore thumb. She has to wake me up at the slot machine that I decided to sit by.

I remember nothing else. I wake up to the wake up call at 7:30, I am half dressed for Drai's, my wife told me that she tried to get me going but I passed out.

All in all Nightswim was a great time but it was the victim of unfair expectations, expectations that were too high based on the rest of the trip and posts we saw about Labor Day weekend. I would go back BUT with a table. It would be nicer in August or July when it is really hot at night too, this was a factor. The visuals of Nightswim are impressive, I never even mentioned the 30 foot flames shooting out from on top of the screen above the DJ booth, it is an impressive place and the shear madness of the pool with the inflatables was like nothing I have ever seen (including EBC).

We catch our flight and head home.

My take on the Wynn:

We stayed here because I knew it would save us time and hassle because I knew I wanted to go to at least EBC, XS and Surrender. It did save us time and cab fares in that sense. The convenience was awesome and the concierge tickets were really beneficial. For all of those reasons if we were planning another trip centered around these venues I would be sure to stay here as while it was more expensive than most places that extra cost can be justified in savings on fares and time.

I was not a fan of the restaurant selection (there are not a lot of fast options). If I were coming out on a gambling centered trip I would not stay here because the casino seems very stuffy, not really a fun scene in my opinion.

All that said the room was the nicest I have ever had in Vegas and the service was better than anywhere else I have been as well.

It also felt safer than anyplace I had stayed before, I think this is why we both went all out in relation to drinking. I have never gotten as drunk or partied as hard as I did on this trip, I attribute that to the fact that I knew I could get us home easily and did not need to worry about navigating a cab trip. My wife will beg her friends to stay here on any trip she takes with her girlfriends in the future, because it does seem like a safe bet for a group of girls.

This trip could be it for our Vegas Club careers, when you have kids you never know if another opportunity will arise. This trip has left us only further addicted and wanting more, if we could go two times a year I think we would. So while I hope this is not it, if it is I know we went out with a trip that was by far our best!

[fromBtoD]

I've got the Vegas bug (we go LDW!!) so I was reading through TRs. Love this one, you all sound just like us - older, married, with kids, but throw it down like rock stars in Vegas. I hear you, I can't eat nor sleep in Vegas either. And yes, we get those looks - "Oh. You're going to Vegas for your anniversary again?" Thanks for the fun read, have fun on your next trip.

[sactownguy]

Nice report. I hope you guys have made it back. I am the same way but a few years older than you. I love going to Vegas. Wife goes since I love it. Trip coming up soon. Woooo whooooooo!