I married a "Vegas Person"....

[ponch62]

So we just got back from Vegas. So much happened I have to start writing soon or I am going to forget the details that I actually do remember. Just giving the setup for now, probably going to take a few days to get the whole thing written. If you saw my trip report from last August ("So I took my wife to Vegas...") then you know my trip reports are not the typical "who hooked up with who" types of reports, but more focused on the fun things we did as a couple along with some helpful tips that hopefully benefit a few folks along the way. I am finding there are actually a lot more couples on these boards than people realize, most just don't post a whole lot, they are the "lurkers".

Since I don't have a lot of time to write at the current moment I'll just leave you with a quick preview. This trip we were joined by our neighbors, and also met up with some other couples from the JC community. The report will include 3 dayclubs and 3 nightclubs in 3 days, six well known DJ reviews, and my wife barreling past a security guard with no regard for her own safety in order to give us one of the greatest moments we have ever had in Vegas. Plenty of other stuff to mix in, more to come soon!

[Cirilo Medina]

Patiently waiting!

[ponch62]

So let's start with the cast of characters.* The main characters in the story are myself, my wife, and our neighbors.* In keeping with tradition we will use nicknames to protect the innocent by not tossing around names.* Let's call them FN and MN. (Female Neighbor and Male Neighbor).* Supporting characters are some really fun new friends we coordinated with for a table out in Vegas on the JC forums, they can identify themselves if they like, but for now we will call couple one Chi Town and couple two UK.* Any guesses on where they are from?

So let's take the story from the beginning.* I like to plan out our whole trip before we head out so that everything goes smoothly and I don't have to think about much of anything once we arrive.* So as with the rest of the Vegas people I started watching for lineups to drop as early as December.* It seemed like it took a little longer than usual this year for some of the lineups to start hitting, but eventually things started falling into place and I had our plan laid out.* Originally we had a group of 8 friends set to go out on this trip, but as things got closer, we lost half of the group.* We knew we wanted a table at least one night, and have experience working with Bobby at XS, so we lined up a table to see Avicii at XS for the Friday we arrived.* To get a decent location we were going to need to buy two bottles and deliver a solid handshake, which is a bit much for two couples, so I set out to recruiting on the forums.* This is how we connected with Chi Town and UK.* More on this part of the story later, we thankfully did NOT end up seeing Avicii!

Now that you know the cast, let's get on with the show. FN and MN got to Vegas on Thursday, my wife and I did not fly in until Friday. When my wife and I landed at a little after 11am, we grabbed our bags and headed over to Elara to get checked in. We have stayed here before and really like it, from the strip it looks like it is located just off strip, but its actually connected to the Miracle Mile shops. I would bet there are multiple hotels on the strip that the walk from being on the strip to the elevators that take you up to your room is actually further than it is at Elara. The rooms are nice, the cab lines are short, and its centrally located, perfect for us. We were in our room by 1215 and dropped our bags , changed into swim gear and were on our way.

We wanted something light to eat and to get a couple drinks in us before heading off to EBC. Wife was craving chips and queso, so we wandered into Cabo Wabo outside Planet Hollywood to grab something. Honestly, it was fine, but I felt it was pretty overpriced even for Vegas standards, wouldn't recommend it. After tip we spent $90 on chips and 2 drinks a piece.

We told FN and MN we would meet them at 2pm outside EBC. We all had bought presales and I had a host contact ready if the line looked like it was going to be a problem. It wasn't, took about 10 minutes to get thru the line. Now FN/MN are fun people, but do not have near the Vegas experience that my wife and I do, this was their first pool party. I should have warned them and I didn't think about it, MN had a completely full backpack with him when we got to the front of the line. For those that don't know, EBC darn near does a body cavity search upon entry. It took over 20 minutes for them to finish searching the bag and they topped it off by making him trash the ibuprofen in the bag. We hit two other pools and three other nightclubs over the weekend and saw no one else search anywhere near the way EBC did.

Anyway, once we got over that hurdle, things went pretty smooth. EBC had a good size crowd, but it wasn't so bad you couldn't get a drink or move around well. Honestly I had planned to take it somewhat easy at EBC because I knew we had a table booked Friday night and a I wanted to get max enjoyment out of that. But the vibe was good, the bartenders looked bored, and hell I had just gotten to Vegas and couldn't help myself. Not too much eventful really here at EBC on this day, they didn't seem to pull out all the bells and whistles I have seen in the past (no ferris wheel or water cannons)

Alesso was playing and he played a really solid set. He got in everything you would expect, all the hits, and some remixes of some popular songs, the crowd loved it. The only negative was he is almost like seeing a pop star instead of a DJ, and didn't seem to engage the crowd as much as some of the other acts we saw over the weekend. Still I would recommend seeing him especially if you have girls in your group, they generally love the stuff they can hear on the radio! We left a little after 5pm, right as Alesso was finishing up. I hate where the EBC exit takes you out at, its a freaking pain to have to walk around the building to catch a cab. We got back to Elara about 530, and my wife needed to get in a nap, so I dropped her in the room and went to gamble a bit. Yes, I know I should try and nap, I just can't do it in Vegas, it seems so wasteful, I am only there three days!

Gonna leave it here for now, coming up next is our table night, by far the best experience of the trip, I'll try to get it added soon.

[artedm]

[matt1983]

Yeah, Elara is a nice hotel. Love the location, and the big hot tub in the bedroom.

[ponch62]

I gambled for about an hour and a half, mostly just some slots so I could grab a few drinks. I came out up about $30 plus my drinks and decided I should put something in my stomach before the night. I swung into Earl of Sandwich to grab a quick bite, it’s quick and easy and the sandwiches are great, also grabbed on to go to take up to my wife.

I titled this report “I married a Vegas person” but hadn’t really gotten into the reasons I gave it that title. The first example was that as I was headed up to the room I was expecting to have to drag her out of bed after the day at EBC, but as I walk into the room I notice she has already showered and is working on her hair while blaring Kaskade’s recent LA set on Soundcloud. There’s nothing worse than feeling like you are having to drag someone into having a good time with you, life is so much better when both parties are on the same page. Seeing her ready to get the night kicked off got me extremely fired up. I got myself ready and we started to head out for what was going to be an amazing night.

I mentioned earlier we had been scheduled to see Avicii at XS for our table. However, about a week and a half before we were set to arrive, Avicii canceled all of his Vegas shows for the 3^rd time in 3 years. SO I went into scramble mode, contacted Chi Town and UK and asked what other options they would consider. I thought the whole thing was going to fall apart, but we all agreed a good second option was seeing Eric Prydz at Marquee. If I am being 100% honest, I wanted this to be our first option all along, but Prydz style is so much different than the guys that are more mainstream/top 40ish these days, and generally that’s what the ladies want to see. Prydz was without question at the top of my list of DJs I had not seen live that I wanted to see. I had contacted Cliff Orr at Marquee about a week before arrival to get some numbers and due to the fact this was Eric Prydz first ever show at Marquee and the fact he just doesn’t play in Vegas a whole lot, the back wall table prices we got originally we about $1k more than what we wanted to spend, so things were not looking good. I got with our group and we agreed to spend a little more, but still were going to be a little short of what our quote was. I continued to talk to Cliff and eventually we got to a point where he told me he felt pretty solid he could get us inside for what we were willing to spend if we got to Marquee at opening. Cliff is very easy to work with if you have not worked with him before, quick responses and very straightforward about your options. I had never worked directly with him before, and I am not sure he even knows this, but I had referred friends his way in the past just based off the positive reviews I have seen here on this site. So I feel like we are in good shape at this point, I couldn’t be more excited, I kept saying to my wife “Eric Freakin’ Prydz!", I think I was starting to drive her a bit nuts at this point, but she let me keep on with it.

We walked across to Marquee, very convenient from where we were staying, just thru the shops and across the bridge. The next big hurdle is making sure the folks we were coordinating the table with (Chi Town and UK) make it to the meet up spot. We had been keeping consistent communication leading up to this point, but you just never know how reliable people you haven’t actually met before are going to be. We immediately saw MN/FN when we got to the meet up spot, now we just had to keep our eyes open for people that looked dressed to go out and seemed to be looking around for others. It ended up working out pretty well, UK arrived first and they were super friendly and a few minutes later Chi Town made their appearance and seemed to fit in as well. So now we are all set, its about 10 minutes before Marquee opens and I text Cliff asking him about how we should proceed, he texts back immediately to come get checked in, they have not opened and there is already a huge line to get in. He was right, we got to the table line and it was already about 50 people deep before we got in line. I am a little freaked at this point, because for us it was pretty much a situation in which we had no interest in a table at Marquee that was outside the main room. We connect with Cliff pretty quickly and get checked in, and were walking toward our table by 10:15. Cliff tells us we are all set and we have our inside table locked down and we are actually going to be right next to the artist’s table. This all sounds pretty cool, but I really didn'’t care so much about being next to the artist’s table because I am figuring this just means its’s going to be full of Prydz entourage, but I am ecstatic about the fact we are all set for the show. The table location is ok when we get to it was in the 90’s so it’s more of a side view than a direct shot, but probably the closest view of the DJ of all the back wall tables which is nice. We see the roped off tables next to us and assume that must be the table for the Prydz entourage. At this point again, I am just relieved we are inside, time to relax and enjoy the night.

Our waitress was Yasmin, and folks let me tell you, if you can request Yasmin as a server at Marquee, do so. Without question the best service I have seen and a Vegas club in my life. Last year at XS we partnered up with another couple from the forums and we wanted to settle everything right at the beginning, so we closed out the minimum and tip immediately after sitting down we literally saw her twice over the next five hours. I was worried about the same thing happening here, as we wanted to settle everything up front again since most of us did not know each other. Yasmin helped us figure out our best options to get everything coordinated with our split, then got us rolling with a 1.75 of vodka. Frankly with our minimum being what it was, we were going to have a tough time getting through everything we were going to order, especially since Cliff had thrown in a comp bottle of Dom that they were going to bring out upon request. So we get things going, its gonna be awhile til the real show starts, DJ Lema was the opener and played a solid warm up set. As the drinks started to flow, our group got more comfortable with each other and started to get a little more chatty. I cannot tell you how well the group we put together worked out, everyone was friendly, got along really well. It gets to be about 1am and we have finished our bottle of Dom and are on to our next bottle of Vodka when I look over to our left and to my amazement, Eric Prydz is sitting at his table. Never thought this was going to happen, I thought it was going to just going to be his crew hanging out there. My wife didn’t know what he looked like and at this point I went from calling him “Eric Freakin’ Prydz” to looking at my wife and saying “"Holy shit, that’s Eric Fuckin’ Prydz!"” I barely got it out of my mouth before I see my wife barreling past his security guard to ask him if we can get a picture (I found out later she never saw the security guy standing there and just wandered into the space). The security guard is trying to move her back, my wife is apologizing and Prydz steps up to say he’s fine with the pic. I get ready to take it and my wife says “"No way, get in here"” and they pulled me in for the shot as well (seeing this show was WAY more important to me than my wife, and she knew it) I shook Prydz hand, tell him I am excited for the set, and a few minutes later he is headed up to the stage to kick things off.

As far as Prydz set goes, absolutely amazing. Flawless transitions, stuff we have heard for years and new stuff I had never heard, completely mesmerizing. So much of what you hear in electronic music now sounds the same with different lyrics, but this set was completely unique. The vibe at the club during the set was absolutely amazing, the place was packed inside, I never made it outside to see what it looked like out there because I didn’t want to miss any of the show. For my tastes in music, this was the absolute perfect show. He played til little after 3:30, as expected closed with “"Opus"” which was a great way to cap things off. This set is what DJ’ing used to be and I think many hope it will become again, less about the songs charting and more about creating a great vibe in the club, can’t wait to see him again.

[ponch62]

Too many characters, had to break this post into two!

As far as our crew goes, we were all struggling to make it through our minimum, we had now nearly finished almost 3 liters of Vodka between the 8 of us and had ordered several rounds of beers to try and get there (when you are groups of couples, there isn’t a lot of handing out free drinks to randoms, its all on you to finish the minimum). Finally I looked at Yasmin and said “We need to finish off the minimum, bring us shots of something that will get it done” She took care of it, for all I know it could have been water or 151 and I would not have known the difference, we took the last round of shots and got set to start wrapping up the night. Everyone seemed to have a great time, talked with Chi Town some, they were in good spirits, talked with UK more early in the night, got tougher a bit later because as the liquor flows that British accent REALLY starts to kick in, not to mention I was having a hard enough time understanding English just in general at this point. FN/MN seemed to be having a great time as well, this was their first time doing bottle service. My wife kicked it with me the whole night, was a little concerned she would not like Prydz set, but she loved it and we spent most of the night dancing and drinking (when she wasn't busy securing the best photo op of my life!). MN hit the vodka really hard, FN put away her fair share too, and the shots capping the night were probably a bad idea for everyone involved! We were there nearly 6 hours and I swear it felt like 2 hours.

We headed out close to 4am, said our goodbyes to everyone and headed back toward our hotel. It was closer to walk to Elara than it was to walk through Cosmo to the cabs, so we headed that way. I found out the next day for some reason FN/MN walked back to Caesar’s, I am not sure they could even explain why, not sure anyone was making really clear decisions at this point. I found out the next day that MN had a bit of an issue after arriving back at their hotel, let’s just say some of the Vodka didn’t stay in it’s new home. First time doing bottle service is a dangerous thing, its tough to track how much you drank and you just never want to leave that kind of money on the table! That pretty much wraps the night, it was an amazing all around experience. Marquee has backed down on having some of the top DJ’s on a consistent basis and I think some people have given it a bit of a downgrade when it comes to where it ranks on the club tier system, but on this night it was an amazing place to be. From the host, to the DJ, to the service, A+ experience for us.

Next up is another round at Marquee, this time during the day, and dinner at one of the newest restaurants in town. Update soon!

[kp3205]

Great TR so far!!!!

[Cirilo Medina]

Eric Fuckin Prydz!!! I was bumping his Ultra set as I was reading this. I'd see him over any of the other commercial DJ's, any day of the week

[ponch62]

Thanks for the positive feedback so far, I will try to get the next part up soon.

Ya Cirilo, we saw 6 DJs over the weekend, all were what I would consider good, but 2 stood out musically (Prydz was definitely 1, the other is yet to come) and 1 stood out from a straight up performance standpoint which is yet to come as well. I'll try to get the next part out soon.

[ponch62]

On with Saturday!

I think we finally got to sleep around 5am, the next thing I remember is rolling over to check the time and seeing it was 9:45am. This concerned me, I NEVER sleep that late in Vegas. My wife heard me checking the time and said she had gotten me a present. Said she had woken up a little after 7am and gone down to pick up Gatorade and Tylenol, I had never even noticed she left, what an amazing woman! I drank my Gatorade, popped the meds and went down to grab breakfast while my wife went back to sleep. Hit Earl of Sandwich again for a breakfast sandwich, when I find something good, I stick with it! I gambled a little bit, then went back up to check on my wife around 11am. We weren't in a big hurry this morning, we had presales for Dash Berlin at MDC and if entry was an issue Cliff was on standby to help us out. My wife wanted to grab a bite so we wandered down to Yolo's in Planet Hollywood and ordered just some appetizers. I wasn't quite ready to climb back on the horse yet, but my wife started sucking down a margarita. After we finished, she realized she still needed a little more recovery time and went back to the room to rest a bit more.

I wandered over to Caesars sports book to watch a little baseball. When I got there, FN texted to ask what we were up to, I told her my wife was resting but I was in the sports book. She sent MN down to hang out while she finished getting ready, then joined us shortly after. At this point I didn't know exactly how rough a night MN had, but based on some of FN's comments, I knew it wasn't good! He powered thru like a champ tho, one thing about people in Vegas I always respect, if you drink a little too much one day, that's fine, just don't let it ruin the next day for you or the people around you by complaining all day, and he certainly did not. About 115pm MN/FN decided they were going to do a little shopping, they had not bought MDC tickets and did not seem ready to fire things back up just yet, so I headed back to get my wife moving.

I got back to the room a little before 2pm and this time did have to wake my wife up. She got moving pretty quickly tho and we were out the door by about 215pm. We got over to MDC about 230 and there was a short presale line, took about 15 minutes to get in. This was my first time at MDC, and it was freaking packed. I know Dash Berlin is a big draw out there, but they even had several tables INSIDE the nightclub sold for the day. Most people were fighting for drinks around the outdoor bar, but they had both indoor bars open as well where you could get much faster service. MDC was pretty cool, I really think the vibe itself wasn't far off what we experienced at EBC. Maybe we just caught it on a good day since Dash was there, but seemed like a great party. The people watching was tremendous. There were two girls that literally spent two straight hours grinding on guys crotches, even at one point putting both hands on the ground and grinding away. Ladies, I get that it's Vegas, and the show was entertaining, but try sprinkling in just a little dignity!

My wife and I both like Dash a lot and figured we would like his show a lot and we did, but coming off the Prydz show from the night before I was wanting a bit more. He plays all the crowd pleasing songs and mixes well, but his energy seemed a bit lower than I have seen it before, and the set was VERY similar to his Ultra set in March, which I guess is to be expected. Again, not saying we didn't like it, his sets really amp the crowd up, the bar had just been set really high on Friday. We stayed til Dash was finishing a little after 5pm and I took my wife back to catch a quick nap before dinner.

I again ran down to gamble for a bit and keep my buzz going. I came back up around 7pm and again my wife was in prep mode, and went back to the same Kaskade set from the night before as her prep music. I made fun of her for going back to the same set, but she likes it a lot, so whatever, it was fine. We had reservations set for 815pm at Beauty & Essex, the newest restaurant at Cosmo, so we were out the door by a little after 8pm and were arriving right on time. We met MN/FN before heading in. The entrance to this place is SPECTACULAR. If you haven't heard about it, the front appears to be a pawn shop from the outside. A pawn shop...in the Cosmo...something just doesn't seem right! But if your are just walking by and did not know it was a restaurant, you would definitely wonder what the hell is going on. There is an unmarked door on the far left side of the pawn shop (the door blends into the wall well so most people don't see it from the outside), this door opens directly to the hostess stand where you check in with reservations. From there, you walk into a cool little bar area with a DJ before entering the actual restaurant. Guys no joke, Cosmo now has the top 2 pre-club restaurants between this one and STK. The food is a variety of different types of small plates, it's tough to describe exactly the type of food because they have a little of everything, steak, seafood, chicken, pasta, I believe there may have even been sushi options but I don't remember for sure. Really cool experience, the food was all great, we shared 7 dishes between the 4 of us, and they had some cool craft cocktails as well. You should definitely check this place out, even if it's just for drinks at the bar.

Gonna leave it here for now, on to Caesars and Omnia next, and boy was it a freaking circus!!!

[fromBtoD]

I'm one of those lurking couples people. I love your TRs. Thanks for these tips so far, I'm jealous you got to see Eric Prydz! The place at the Cosmo sounds awesome thanks fot that tip, too.

[ponch62]

I'm one of those lurking couples people. I love your TRs. Thanks for these tips so far, I'm jealous you got to see Eric Prydz! The place at the Cosmo sounds awesome thanks fot that tip, too.

Thanks. I only talk about lurkers because I was one for such a long time! I joined the site in 2008 and I think it was 2013 before I reached 20 posts!

[Schuffler]

Sounds like your wife is a trooper. Mine can't hang in Vegas and causes drama. One time I was half tempted to leave her behind the Stratosphere so she doesn't come to Vegas with me any more.

[ponch62]

Sounds like your wife is a trooper. Mine can't hang in Vegas and causes drama. One time I was half tempted to leave her behind the Stratosphere so she doesn't come to Vegas with me any more.

Ya, hang in there, it wasn't always like this. I put so much effort into planning our trips, and much of the planning is aimed at finding ways to make things enjoyable for both of us. For example, if we don't have a table, I try to arrange as late as possible entry so she is not standing around in heels all night. Also I try to pick DJs based on music she likes (Skrillex is a no go for her!). I have a good time regardless of what we do in Vegas, by making sure I think about how things are going to effect her, she stays happy and wanting to come back for more. I am sure she wonders why I am not more like this at home!