Learning Curve Trip, 2015

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I'm flying out on June 1st and love reading this forum to get excited and especially love reading the trip reports, so after much deliberating I decided to open myself up to scrutiny and write about the first time I came to Vegas. It wasn't as wild as some of the ones I've read on here but ah well it was our first time.
Background:
It was June 2015, shortly after graduating from University, so in a sense it was the perfect way to celebrate.

Myself, 23 at the time

CJ 25 at the time

G 23 at the time

3 males and all had never been to vegas before.
Booked 10 nights at The Venetian with a planned trip to LA in the middle. Now I realise that 10 nights is a long time in Vegas but when flying from the UK it seems like a long ass flight just for a night or two. However the second time I came to Vegas I did 7 nights and in June this year we are doing 5, so I'm gradually lowering the stay bit by bit.
WARNING: Sorry if my writing style or some of the language is a little confusing, English and American really aren't the same thing are they? I'll try to be as clear as possible and please remember this is my first time writing a trip report so be gentle.

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DAY ONE:
Our flight was at 7.55am, so we had to be at the airport around 5 and despite the fact that I thought I wouldn't be able to catch a wink of sleep the night before with excitement, I slept like a log and was actually really slow getting my sh*t together and ended up locking up my suitcase without putting ANY socks in there.

So CJ comes to pick G and I up and we head to CJ's for a sausage barm (this is a nationwide argument about whether its a barm, a roll, a cob, a bap, I'm from the North so to me its a barm) while we awaited the cab to take us to Manchester. We had booked one of these all inclusive lounges at the airport which includes breakfast and unlimited free drinks, including alcohol, really really really bad idea. We abuse the free drinks in a very childish manner, bottles of Chang, vodka lemonade (Sprite, 7up), whiskey lemonades, tequilas, all the hits.

Now these lounges aren't meant for such childishness, they are usually full of businessmen who prefer the quiet rather than the noisy Starbucks in the terminals, so we're getting a lot of funny looks. In the booths in the lounges, there are TVs built in, so we decide to put music channels on and cheer everybody up, but the remote doesnt work for our TV, It did however work for the large tv in the bar area, so naturally we aim it at the TV and turn the music up to max volume, but nobody can figure out why. All of the bar staff are rushing around trying to turn it down but to no avail.

Some businessman type eyed us doing it so comes over and tells us that if we don't stop this behaviour that the airport police wont allow us to board the place, CJ didn't like this so had a bit of a verbal with him, before blowing him a few kisses before we left. G and I give CJ a stern talking to about this but in the end we just end up laughing about it, no harm done.

Flew out of Manchester on time, but we're all p*ssing like racehorses every 20 minutes so it wasn't a comfortable start to the flight. Flight was uneventful and by the time we landed we were all hungover as hell, but that warm breeze hitting you in the face temporarily picked us up a little.

Baggage claim was fast and we headed outside to grab a taxi, when a gentleman in a suit asked if we wanted to take an SUV to our hotel. We asked how much and $60 seemed like a reasonable enough amount (I know its treble that of a taxi but it was our first time) so we hopped in. As the chap (man) is putting out cases in the back he asks if we would like any charlie, we all look at each other shocked and politely decline.

Drive to The Venetian was special, as it was our first time seeing Vegas up close, the guy turns the music up and theres this song playing that we hadn't heard before but it was really catchy, so catchy in fact that we couldn't remember how it went ALL the time we were in Vegas and we heard it around 9 times. It was Martin Solveig- Intoxicated, we were trying to remember this but constantly sang "Complicated" instead trying to convince ourselves that it was right.

At check in we PATHETICALLY attempt the $20 trick but nothing comes of it and at the end of the awkward interaction I just said thats for you. The check in guy also asked if we were here for EDC, this was the first time that we all realised the festival was on and we got asked this question around 5 times on the trip, we weren't there for the festival.

We head up to the room to have a look around and it was really nice, 2 big double beds and a double pull out sofa bed which I took. Pool view which was fine. We decided to go and get some water and alcohol for the room and a bite to eat before planning our next move. We headed down and out of the Venetian and everything is overwhelming, the heat, the characters, the casinos, everything just seemed surreal. We saw the Walgreens and decided it was as good a place as any to stock up, grabbed some water, some SoCo, some vodka and a box of Coronitas as we couldn't find regular Coronas.

Just looking at the alcohol was turning our stomachs as the lounge induced hangover was very much alive again, so we head into the food court at the Venetian and decide to try pizza from I believe 50 second pizza? 60 second pizza? I cant remember but it was horrible. We head up to the room and shower, attempt a Coronita but it doesn't go down well, and we all crash and fall asleep at 6pm!! Terrible mistake. Our first day in Vegas was an absolute shamble. Never felt more like a rookie in my life, but definitely a lesson learnt. Well, several lessons learnt, don't abuse the free alcohol in the airport lounge before an 11 hour flight, don't play around with remote controls and music channels when people are trying to read their papers at 7am, its childish.



Next up DAY TWO or should I say, MORNING ONE/DAY TWO

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DAY TWO:

So we all fell asleep at like 6pm on day one only for me to wake up at 1am! Jet lag really is a cruel entity and before this I'd never experienced it so severely. Now I'm not JUST blaming the jet lag, I was still fuzzy headed from the hangover and although I tried my hardest to get back to sleep it wasn't happening, so after around 90 minutes I decided to head downstairs for a look around.

I took my phone with me but only apps using wifi were means of contact as I turn mobile data off when I'm out of UK as it costs a fortune and I wasn't sure if I could get wifi but thankfully I had it everywhere inside of the Venetian which was handy. So I wander around the casino and decide to sit at one of the electronic roulette tables, the ones with the real wheel, but you can place your bets on screen, really handy in my opinion as you dont have to lean over and constantly ask the dealer to place your numbers for you. I wasnt a very big gambler at the time and this was my first experience in a casino, so when I pulled out 40 dollars I was very happy.

I remembered seeing a subway in the food court the day before so I spend 15 minutes or so walking around the resort trying to find the food court again, walk past the canals and all of the stores and eventually find it. "Hey are you here for EDC?' the subway guy asks, 'nope'. We really must have looked like EDC goers back then. So I sit alone in an empty food court picking at my sub when my phone pings and its CJ asking where I am. I was glad because this was not how I imagine my first night/morning in Vegas, perhaps in a subway at 3am, but on the way back from a wild evening was more what I had envisioned.

Some Women seemingly in their 50s walk by shouting and one of them asks me 'how the hell dya get outta here?' I told her I didnt have a clue and I got booed by the crowd. They then asked for a picture with me and I confusedly obliged. I sit back down and CJ arrives looking like I feel and he gets himself a drink from subway and we decide to leave the Venetian and go to Casino Royale. As we walk out of the front of the casino theres nobody around apart from one dude on the bridge outside dressed as Michael Jackson and he's dancing to no music, properly giving it beans on this bridge spinning around and shrieking. CJ and I look at each other and I thought' is this Vegas?'

We manage to get by MJ without having to engage him at all which is a relief and on we go to Casino Royale. I really love this place, it felt like an old school, straight shooting type of place and you cant beat the one dollar (at the time) Michelobs. We grab one of these each, tip a buck each and the bar tender asks 'late night or early morning?' this brought a smile to our faces and we decide a cheers is in order and we start our holiday (vacation). at around 4am, on our second day, we have our first real drink of the stay, how amateur. We have a mooch (a wander) around Casino Royale for a while and then decide to head up to the room to wake G up.

When we get to the room, G is awake but still in bed, he'd been struggling with the jet lag just like us and he seems happy to see the pair of us. We open the curtains and after a while the sun starts to come up as we look out towards the mountains. There really isn't many better feelings in my opinion than that first morning in Vegas, maybe this will relate more to people flying in from the UK and Europe because of the time difference we're always up early but it really is special, to me at least. We decide to head out for breakfast before coming back to get ready for some pool time, Denny's is close by and seeing as we didnt know the area at all and were feeling a little timid, we opted for here.

Outside Denny's is a guy lay down with a guitar and he asks if we'd like to hear some good music, we decline and he screams 'GOOD, CUZ ALL I PLAY IS SHI' (you get the idea). This made us laugh as we headed up to Denny's, we sat down and the other two ordered a breakfast slam or something like that? I just got a mango smoothie as I hadnt long eaten my sub. The guys didnt enjoy their breakfast but my mango smoothie was crackin (good).

We have another mooch (wander) towards Harrah's, Flamingo, Linq etc and play a little more roulette and when a cocktail waitress came over in Linq and asked for ID I realised I didnt have mine, idiotic. I also had gotten up to around 50 dollars on the roulette machine, but thankfully I kind of hurried away with the receipt and decided to cash it later once I had my ID, the cocktail waitress was really polite and understanding about it. G was also up a little from the short playing time we had, CJ didnt play.

So we all head back and get ready for the pool, the UK weather is grim, even in Summer, so we like to get as much sun as we can whilst abroad. We get to the pool around five to nine and have to wait a little before we can go in. The Venetian pools are stunning but really wasnt our scene at all, no music and nothing really going on, now we wasnt hoping for a party pool but just a bit of music would have made lying there a little more tolerable. We decide to take it in turns getting rounds in and I go first and order a bucket of bud light lime, we dont have these in the UK and they're nice and light so you can pretty much drink them all day. $42 I think it was for 6, weeew that wasnt what I was expecting but ah what the hell. These loosen us up a little but like I said there really wasnt anything to the pool area so we were fighting a losing battle, we get talking to a couple of girls in the pool and they mention that they were going to Marquee tonight and that it was a good club, we mention that we might check it out but never do. Some more bud light limes and a frozen cocktail, Pina colada I think I had, around $18, yikes.

The pool got boring by midday so we decide to leave and get something to eat and have a walk up strip. I see a Hangover slot in the Venetian and decide to play, got on the board after hitting a bonus and got quite far but only ended up winning 60 or 70 dollars, still happy with that! We head into Casino Royale to grab a Michelob and to let G get his first of the trip and he plays some fish slot for a while but doesn't win anything, then we walk up strip. We check out a Tix4tonight booth but Penn and Teller are off that week, which G was gutted (upset) about but we decide to get tickets for another magician but I cannot for the life of me figure out what his name was, it was at the Tropicana? as well as tickets to Mike Hammer Downtown the following night. We make it as far as Bally's and decide to head back and stop at Chipotle on the way back as G had wanted to try it, gotta say it wasnt to my tastes, watery burrito that got launched in the nearest bin (trashcan?) I found.

Back in the room we play some music and pour some Soco and limes as we shower and get dressed for our first night in Vegas. Jet lag strikes again and although the alcohol is dragging us along by the bollocks (testicles) we're really struggling, I suggested Carnaval Court because I had read about it on the forum so we decided to bar hop and gamble along the way. We jump on the Sons of Anarchy slot in the Venetian and the lads lose at least $20, I lost $50. They want to play blackjack but none of us had ever played on the tables before so they opted for the electronic ones, I didnt play though as it seemed a total rip off and they both lost every hand. We find the Fat Tuesdays and all get a large one, I got a margarita and although it was strong it got boring very quickly, those things last forever!

Casino Royale for 3 or 4 Michelobs and play a little at Harrah's, get a couple of cocktails from the waitresses whilst playing the roulette and this time I had my ID but didnt get asked for it, go figure. Things get a little blurry at this point but picture suggest that we enjoyed ourselves, Carnaval Court was a major let down but perhaps we were there early and it only got going later on. We all take the knock around 10.30pm (damn jet lag!) and get pizza from a different food court in the Venetian and this was really nice. We crash out around 11.30pm. God this sounds so tame

[artedm]

nice

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DAY THREE

We all wake up around 4.30am, exhausted but couldn’t get back to sleep so we decide to go for a coffee and google tells us theres a place down the street, so we get dressed and walk towards Palazzo, Wynn and Encore and cross the street and grab a coffee and decide we want to check out Circus Circus and figure we’ll walk it. BIG mistake, we’re walking for around 35 minutes or so it felt, and were still nowhere near it! The lads have had enough so we stop by another Dennys to get breakfast, again they both said their food was awful and I had to agree my omelette was vile. This was the last time any of us ever went to a Dennys. We walk back to the Venetian exhausted and irritated at the wasted time and energy and decide to give the pool another try but it isn’t open for a while so we gamble a little but nobody won or lost to my recollection .

Once the pool opens we relax for a bit but eventually get bored after around an hour. We decide to get the buckets in and stand in the pool and this was slightly less boring than lying on the sunbeds. Around 11am we start to hear music, house music, but we cant figure out where it was coming from. Turns out it was TAO Beach, the dayclub at the Venetian, so we wander over from the main pool and the bouncer says that its free admission today for Venetian hotel guests. Score. We head in, put our stuff in the lockers and hop in the pool, we were there early but it soon got busy and we ordered a bucket of beers, around the $50 mark, we’d only walked 100 yards and the price of a bucket had gone up, ah well at least TAO was exciting. The music was good and the people were all friendly, plenty of splashing, chatting and beach balling occurred and it was a genuinely good time. Got speaking to some girls who said they were going to EDC on the Friday, I think CJ got one of their numbers but he never called and we couldn’t have met up anyways as we would be in LA over the weekend until Sunday.

We left TAO around 4pm and headed up to the room and were all in much higher spirits, so we quickly got showered and dressed for Mike Hammer Downtown that night. Some music and SoCo and lime in the room before we headed out and a coronita for the road, hopped into a taxi to head downtown. We had some time to kill before the show so we decided, seeing as we hadn’t eaten, to try Heart Attack Grill and this was another bad decision. The food was fine and the place was cool but it seemed that eating so much just made us all turn into slugs (snail with no shell) lol. We tried our best to get back on the horse with some gambling and cocktails but I felt particularly like my stomach was on fire, not sure if the jet lag had anything to do with it but it was a bad scene.

Mike Hammer was like a run down comedian from Blackpool (no offence anybody from Blackpool) and we couldn’t really wait to get out, but it was funny when he decided to pick on G right at the end. I asked if the lads minded if we headed back because I felt genuinely ill and they put up no fight, so I’m guessing they weren’t feeling too stellar their selves. We head back to hotel around 10 and I struggle to sleep because my stomachs hurting so bad but eventually nod off.

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DAY FOUR

I woke up feeling like a million quid (a pound) (£) and for the first time it was actually a reasonable hour, 6am. So today we had made plans to book the greyhound to LA for the day after but this turned out to be nothing but HASSLE. A lot of lessons were learned today. So we head down to concierge and ask for some info in regards to buying a bus ticket to LA and they gave us the address for the depot downtown. Great, we hop in a taxi to the bus station, this cab ride took FOREVER, we barely made it past TI in the first ten minutes for some reason traffic was so bad. Its hot, we’re sweaty and the cab driver will NOT shut up rambling about beautiful women and how he can set up dates for us direct to our rooms. We get to the terminal and WOW, what a sight, I must say public transport in the US is shocking based on my experiences, I couldn’t imagine having to rely on it for getting to work. There’s people everywhere looking exhausted, lying on the ground looking like they’d been there for 3 weeks and it stank.

So we go up to the window and ask about the times for tomorrows buses to LA, the woman behind the counter was the least helpful person I’ve ever met, she was kind of smirking at us as if she was lying or something and informed us that the buses for tomorrow were sold out even though it was like 9.30am the day before, but it absolutely could happen so we’re pretty annoyed with ourselves for not sorting this out prior to coming to the US and so we head BACK to the Venetian and to concierge to see if they had any advice on us booking a bus for later in our stay and if they could help us calling the hotel in LA to let them know we wouldn’t be coming. The lady behind concierge was really really helpful and she phones the bus terminal to enquire about the bus schedule for the week etc. and she’s informed that there IS tickets still available for tomorrow. What. A. B*tch. Why she do us like that? So we head BACK to the depot to buy the tickets and to ask the woman nicely why she misinformed us about the tickets.

Now I know what you’re thinking, why didn’t we just book the tickets online? Well we only had cash with us, and nobody had enough on the cards that they had with them to buy all 3 tickets and there’s no UK banks in Vegas so we couldn’t go into a branch to put cash into one account. Like I said, HASSLE.

We get there, buy the tickets no problem but the shedevil wasn’t there, hopefully she got fired for LYING to innocent people. Back in a cab to the Venetian, really annoyed, exhausted and STARVING by this point, but we have one more matter of business to conclude before we could start enjoying the day. BACK to concierge to ask if they could phone up Daylight at Mandalay Bay to see if we could pay on the door to see Carl Cox and Loco Dice that afternoon, she did and we could. Food court awaits. We opted for Lobster Me and we all got Lobster Tacos and a Lobster Bloody Mary as all the travelling had made us weary. Both were good and definitely filled a gap.

So we head up to the room and none of us were particularly enthusiastic, because of all the running around we’d been doing and not to help matters but none of us can nap, so we just kind of exist in the room sipping SoCos for a while before making our move to Daylight. ANOTHER taxi ride, right to the opposite end of the strip, traffics terrible and the minute we get up a bit of speed I contemplate throwing myself out of the car but then I eye Mandalay Bay and start feeling slightly better.

We walk through Mandalay Bay to get to Daylight and I must say I love the hotel, really classy place and would stay here, only issue being the location. We get to the window to pay admission and it has substantially gone up from the site price, $90 or something we paid each. But we had come too far now to let that stop us. Daylight is a really cool spot, much bigger than TAO and with Coxy and Dice playing we were in our element. We catch a spot in the shallow part of the pool hoping that the bar will empty out a little but it does not. Getting a drink here was a disgrace, one bar for the entire place was ludicrous but we had no other option but to queue (wait in line?). I finally get to within the next few people when a guy in front asks if I want him to order mine for me and I give him the cash, really helpful! So I buy two coronas and hand him one for the kind gesture. G and CJ also get a corona and we sit in the pool enjoying the music, it’s getting really lively and we’re really glad we came. After a terrible morning we were finally loosening up and enjoying Vegas. The drinks situation became a real problem as none of us wanted to wait 20 minutes to be served at the bar so around 3.30pm we left and went to Margaritaville for some drinks and a bite to eat.

I really like Margaritaville, it’s a nice spot and the Landshark lager is tasty as was the lady who was lowered from the ceiling into a giant blender, a strange sight but we had a laugh watching. A few Margaritas, some beers and then we move onto a patio type bar, but I can’t remember where it was, outside Harrah’s? Or the Flamingo? It’s just a seated area with drinks offers on but it was cool. We head back to change and go out to give Carnaval Court another shot. SoCo is gone so we start on the Vodka and finish the Coronitas and we’re all pretty smashed before we leave the room, which never usually ends well for anybody but we were enjoying it and that’s the main thing. This night was a very very blurry one and picture evidence shows that we had a picture with a Bronson look a like in the lift (elevator), several Alan from Hangover and Elvis guys on the strip, sang with a fairy lady in Carnaval Court, won $150 on roulette and threw up in the sink in the hotel room. CJ must have stayed out on his own because he woke me up giggling in the middle of the night sipping a vodka cranberry (he’s never drank this in his life, which begs the question as to whom or where he got it).

Next is the morning of the 5th day, before we head to LA. After that I’ll be continuing with day Eight, skipping out the LA parts, seeing as this is a Vegas forum. Although LA was and eventful and we almost got savaged by a mean looking biker because of an idiot Armenian cab driver but that’s for another day and another forum.

[AusVIP]

Ahh the learning curve trips... They are the most gruelling ones... Love the detail brother... its a warts and all story

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MORNING OF DAY FIVE

We have alarms set for 8am because our bus was leaving at 10am from Downtown and we wanted to grab breakfast and get there ahead of schedule so that we had no chance of missing the bus, we had been through too much to let it slip now. We had subway in the food court before we got the cab Downtown which was fine, subway is subway. The bus terminal is once again vile, I’m positive I saw the same people there from yesterday and we sat/lay there for 3 hours before getting on the bus, then another 45 minutes once on it before we moved. The driver got on and shouted ‘WELCOME ABOARD THE GREYHOUND, WE’LL GET YOU THERE SAFE, SOUND BUT NEVER ON TIME’. He wasn’t kidding, it was around 6 when we got to LA.

That’s all for this day and we shall reconvene on DAY EIGHT, when we arrive back in Sin City.

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DAY EIGHT

LA was unreal and we didn’t get to do half of the things we had planned but it was great nonetheless, but now it was time to go home to Vegas. I mentioned earlier that I didn’t pack any socks with me because I was rushing on the morning of the flight, well I DID buy some from the CVS, but when I packed my carry on to LA, you guessed it, I forgot to pack any of these socks. The trainers (sneakers) that I had been wearing all around L.A now absolutely REEKED (stank) and on the greyhound back the woman in front of me actually sprayed deodorant in the direction of my feet!! I was getting laughed at from everybody around me but I could only laugh along with them even though I was so embarrassed.

Anyway, enough about the king, lets get back to Vegas chatter.

We arrived back in Vegas around 3ish I think, it was definitely a much smoother ride this time around and we made decent-ish time. We ate at Johnny Rockets and this was really tasty but mega filling. Head up to the room and shower but as we didn’t really have much alcohol left we decided that we would head out for early drinks and to go to Voodoo Lounge at Rio! We stupidly decide to go back to Fat Tuesdays as we wanted to do a little strip walk and do a bit of sight seeing and again these get boring really quickly but do give us a nice buzz while we watch the Mirage Volcanos, very cool. Next stop was Oshea’s and I remember it being surprisingly expensive for a round of draught beers and they were flat. In England if somebody serves you a flat pint with no bubbles in they’ll gladly throw it away and pour you another but this isn’t the case in America as almost every draught beer (not quite a pint but large glass) seemed to go flat very quickly. Oshea’s was the first time we played Blackjack at a table and the dealer was really cool and didn’t rush us or anything but we lost almost every hand so bowed out gracefully.

We kind of catch the fountains but it was one of the slower- jazzy type songs and we were kind of done with it after a minute or so so we moved on and checked out Paris for a spot of roulette. We don’t do to well at roulette and decide its time to go to Voodoo so catch a cab at around 8pm I think it was. Rio was cool, had a similar vibe to Casino Royale and Downtown and the smokiness to go with it. Took us a while to find Voodoo as you have to get an elevator up to it but once we did it was great, we were the first people in there but it quickly got busy. The views from this place are phenomenal and I cant recommend it enough. The bar staff were cool and after our first round of vodka lemonades (7up or sprite) the bartender suggested a Witch Hunter? Witch Doctor? So I ordered one for myself and he looked shocked and said he meant as a sharer between the 3 of us but I ordered it anyway and weeeew this was strong and the lads had to help me out. We decided to split another one between us as well as a corona when the outside bar was opened up.

The DJ was banging and we stayed for what must have been close to 3 hours before we left to gamble at MGM but it was VERY blurry from this point and I didn’t remember a thing after the cab ride, including how we got back to the room but I do remember agreeing with G that tomorrow would be our gambling and drinking day, from the minute we got up we’d hit it big. CJ isn’t really into gambling but he humoured it a few times in Vegas. Like I said, don’t remember getting home but it was around 1am.

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DAY NINE

Woke up with a slightly fuzzy head around 7am, our latest wake up yet, only took us 9 days. There’s something about feeling slightly hungover before going on a day session that give it that extra special feel. As planned G and I get showered and dressed and head down to get a bite before our gambling day, CJ said he was going to call home and sleep some more and maybe hit up the pool and he’d catch us this afternoon and to message when we had wifi, fair enough. G and I went downstairs and opted for Beer&Burger in the Venetian but it wasn’t open yet so we jumped on the roulette and watched some stuff on the sportsbook screens. We wanted to place a bet at the SB but it was a bit overwhelming and we didn’t want to look stupid so we opted out and eventually got seated at B&B and ordered a Brooklyn lager and a burger each, one of the nicest burgers I’ve had. I must say I thought I’d see Brooklyn more in Vegas than I did, we have it back home and I really like it so was hoping to see it a little more than I did.

G and I mooch down the strip playing at Harrah’s, Linq and Cromwell and are about $200 and $300 up respectively and really having the best time, free cocktails in every place, tipping $5 so that we would get refills quickly, it was honestly more than we’d hoped for. We head back to the room, not sure what time but I think it was around 4. CJ is in there and had been out and about sight seeing and had a couple of drinks while he was out, I forget where, but had also polished off whatever was left in the vodka, so he was on a similar to us. We don’t bother getting changed and decide to head out to Hooters to try the boneless chicken wings we’d heard so much about.

Another gobby (talkative) cab driver discussing criminal elements on the ride there but we humoured him whilst we were tipsy. Get to Hooters and each order ten boneless wings and a vodka redbull each as we’re lagging a bit due to the cab journey and I opted for the 911 wings and JESUS they burnt my lips like crazy. The vodka red bulls must have been doubles because we seemed to get hammered whilst in Hooters and there’s several picture of CJ with his head in his hands at the table looking like he’s going to cry, lightweight.

We decide to try Coyote Ugly at NYNY so pay the bill and head over. The walk seemed to take forever, probably because we were trying to keep CJ from stumbling into a craps table or worse, the street. We get there injury free but the bouncer asks us if CJ is in a fit state to come in, and CJ takes it the wrong way but we tell him to shut up and convince the bouncer to let him in. All the time we were in there he’s sat like George Clooney in From Dusk Till Dawn talking sh*t about how the bouncer had really offended him and in the end we left mainly because we were sick of listening to his crap. Oh and by the way CJ is 5ft5 and 9 stone (126lbs) piss wet through, so the likelihood of him doing any damage to anything other than a yoghurt was very low but nobody wants to get into serious trouble on holiday (vacation).

So we decide to head back to Harrah’s and Casino Royale which was really busy and CJ grabs a McDonalds and goes to bed, wise choice. G and I smash Michelobs and grab a $1 footlong hotdog from the back of Casino Royale and head up around 12pm to go to sleep. When we walk in CJ is nowhere to be seen, so I check the bathroom and he’s asleep in the toilet with the phone (yes they had a phone in the toilet) off the hook and lying on the ground next to one of the cards he got handed to on the strip. Guessing he must’ve got their voicemail. We get him into bed and then I watch some TV and it hits me that tomorrow is the last day before nodding off

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DAY 10

Our last full day was uneventful, we hung by the pool, ate at Whitecastle, (one word= aids) and gambled a little before we headed to concierge to see if we could get reservations for Mon Ami Gabi before our magician show at the Tropicana that we booked earlier in the week and once again concierge were perfect and got us in for an early bite around 5pm. Mon Ami was beautiful and one of the nicest steaks I’ve had and the wine we shared was brilliant as well. We decide to walk to the Tropicana, which didn’t seem too bad as it was at a leisurely pace, had some photos with showgirls and gambled a little in MGM before we walk across to Tropicana. As I said I can’t remember the name of this illusionist but he was really good, think it was a German sounding name? We head back pretty much straight after to pack for the next day as we had to be at the airport for 11am. Like I said uneventful. Uneventful and really sad that we’re leaving.

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LAST DAY

Seeing as we had already unpacked the night before, we decided to give the room a bit of a clean up and put away the sofa bed before going down to the food court with our suitcases. Wow, leaving Las Vegas is really really sh*t isn’t it? We go down and play roulette once more and this time I seem to get on a roll, landing 0 and double 0 as well as some of my other favourite numbers I had picked up from wins on the strip and left the table with close to $300, trust this to happen on the last day, but I was really made up (happy). We eat again at Johnny Rockets and again it’s great but really filling, we use the express check out box and grab a taxi to the airport, really miserable time in the cab. Looking out of the window at all of these extravagant hotels as you’re driving to the airport is super depressing but I knew that I’d be back again.

And back again I came, with the Mrs in 2017. Perhaps I’ll write about it but perhaps I wont as the trip was bittersweet.

Enjoyed writing this.

Now I just have to figure out something to keep me busy for the next 36 days before G and I return to Vegas.



Ciao for now

[pobman]

Good man - always enjoy reports from young Brits that don't have a clue! You all went to bed shocking early throughout - I'd recommend getting up later and the odd nap lol

[tomm0]

This trip report makes me emabaressed to be English.
Every single mistake made under the sun. Dear me.

[Monty_carlos]

Mate, first off thanks for putting your experience into words. I’ve thought about writing reports but honestly just can’t be arsed.

Secondly, fair play to you for going back to Vegas after your first experience panning out like that. I guess each to their own and different people head to Vegas for different reasons but you didn’t even get to a nightclub?!?!

Every year I go it tops the previous year and you learn something different. This newly acquired knowledge usually consists of things that you will definitely not do again and things you definitely will do again but better! I’m heading out in June and cannot f**cking wait!!!