My July Invasion

[Augger]

Hey all,

This is very long, just warning you right now...

Just thought I would jot down some thoughts about my latest Vegas trip. We ended up doing late Wednesday to early Monday (July 17-22). By pure coincidence we ended up going the same weekend as the Invasion, and it turned out to be a very good thing. I would most definitely schedule future trips around an Invasion if possible.

I have been to Vegas numerous times, and while I had used jackcolton.com previously as a resource this was the first time I was going to be actually meeting forum members. My wife had some concerns about hooking up with "random internet people", and I had to say I shared her reluctance somewhat but I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained. My general theory was that if things were weird we never really had to see these people again after one quick meet up on the first day.

So first things first, if you are going to an invasion get involved ahead of time! By getting involved on the forums, Google doc, and Groupme chat, I was able to find like minded folks who wanted to hit the same spots I was interested in, whether or not these were official Invasion stops. You get a vague feel for who is who, and it makes the introductions on day one a bit less odd. Everyone was very friendly and helpful to the new guy (me), and my only real issue was that because all these folks knew each other so well from the past, I felt a bit intimidated, but it was nothing a warm hello and a handshake didn't overcome again and again once we arrived.


Day .5 (Wed night)

As I teach Psychology, and use a bunch of his Youtube stuff in my class, I got my group to go see Hypnotist Marc Savard on Wednesday night. It was a very good show, he got several of the folks on stage to do some absolutely hilarious things. Good cheap activity. (http://www.marcsavard.com/)



Day 1 -

Tao Beach

I was originally scheduled to join a large JC group in one of the large front cabanas at Tao Beach. Due to an error on my part (people were not seeing my outgoing groupme messages) I was a very late addition to the group, which was already pretty full, Pete who set up the group very nicely let me be a late addition, but let me know they were pretty darn full already. Not wanting to put anyone out on my very first day, I called up Chris Traer at Tao Beach, and got a very nice rate on another section of the front Cabana.

My deal was the 5+2 - 500 minimum, plus a 200 comp. (still needed to tip on the extra $200), plus a tip to Chris. I was very happy overall with the deal and Chris was very easy to work with.

The day was extremely fun. We got to meet the JC forum folks for the first time, and everyone was extremely friendly, and I never felt out of place just walking up and saying 'hi' to anyone. We also had the good fortune to meet Noah Ortiz from the Light group who had taken time out of his hosting schedule to come hang out have a few drinks with all of us. I had not been to Tao Beach before, the pool itself was about the same size as Bare Pool, but there was more room around the pool than Bare offers, still a very small pool though. I thought the music was good, mostly EDM, with some other stuff thrown in. My small group of Wife, I, Brother in Law, and Sis in Law hit our tab with the last minute addition of some t-shirts and whatnot. Overall service was excellent, and the party itself while it started small picked up steam, and was an excellent little event.
As my liver isn't really up to multiple events these days (hey I just turned 40), we generally either did a pool event or a Club event each day.

More coming in the comments...

[Augger]

Day 2 -

Jeep Adventure

On Day two my wife had signed us up for a Desert Jeep tour thing. It sounded fun, and was a great experience. (http://www.lasvegasrockcrawlers.com/). We did the Nellis tour which was very close to the strip, only about a 25 minute drive on the highway. About two minutes after leaving the highway we were going up and down huge hills, and sliding around in the sand. The folks running the tour were very nice, and the whole experience was pretty cool, a different thing to do from all the hard core partying. Oddly enough we weren't the only ones on the narrow trails that day, some company was filming a Range Rover commercial and we actually drove right through the production.

Friday night the In-laws were leaving the next day and everyone wanted to do something low key, so we wandered the strip for a bit and eventually took over a blackjack free bet table at Casino Royale. Yes I know, its a bit of a dump, but we had our own table, no one really lost a lot of money, and the random people we were sitting with were all super friendly. It was one of those nights were everyone had a fun time gambling, and in the end as a group we probably ended up even, but got 3-4 hours of free drinks and entertainment, so we walked out very happy.


Day 3 -

Wow!

Day three began and I was absolutely jonesing to get back into the party scene after taking an entire day off. Of course my wife decided this would be an excellent time to go shopping, and so shop we did. Now I am a guy who doesn't like shopping much, but when the wife is going to go out hunting for tiny bikini's/club clothes, I hand her the credit card and say yes dear. This took most of the morning and honestly wasn't that eventful, I had given up hope for this excursion all together when wife announced that she was bummed out about the bikini selection we had seen so far. For example there was a dedicated bikini shop in the mall next to PH (fashion show mall?), but the suits there were less than inspiring. I think Chrissy referred to them as "Granny-like". Thank god for the internet, as my smart phone led us across the street to the Cosmo, where wouldn't you know it they had a bikini shop specializing in Brazilian Bikinis, hallelujah. So second tiniest bikini was selected (Damn you Molly Brown shop for not having the correct size of the tiniest one) and everyone was happy.

Now I had not mentioned this before, but I had been going back and forth with a number of hosts about plans for Saturday and Sunday. I had talked to Noah from the Light Group, Dave from Rehab, and Rob from MDC. Dave and Rob were good contacts and gave me exactly what I asked them for:

Dave from Rehab offered 2 spots at the VIP pool on Sunday for $500
Rob offered a Daybed for Sunday at EBC for $1000

It was Noah Ortiz who went way above and beyond though. After meeting Noah on Thursday he kept in constant contact about my plans, and was always letting me know what he had to offer. He was super helpful throughout the trip whether I was planning with him or not. I had actually told him Chrissy and I would probably be doing a bed at Daylight on Saturday, so I am sure he was not real happy with me when I told him I was going shopping instead. He took it in stride and was never anything less than cordial and extremely helpful.

As the evening moved on, the choices were to hit Act with the official JC group or to visit Light where many of the Invasion folks seemed to be heading. I had heard some really good things about Light, so I convinced Chrissy it was the place to be, even though we did not have any sort of hook-up. I had tried to jump into a group with some other folks but once again, because of my original errors using groupme in pre-planning they had 12 folks before I could jump in. I was bummed but figured we would have a good time anyway. I shot Noah a text and just asked if he could get us a walk-in so we wouldn't have to stand in what were already extremely long lines. Even though he was already slammed at the podium, Noah took time out to greet us, and got us right in. I literally waited about 90 seconds. He actually took us ahead of table groups that were waiting. Needless to say he got a good tip.

We got there pretty early so we were able to check the lay of the land before things got totally insane. The club itself felt like a giant rectangle with about 3 or 4 levels, including an upstairs area. One long side of the rectangle was the bar, the other long side was the DJ and dance floor. I honestly was ready to just hang out but after about 20 minutes we started seeing some of the JC folks we had met at Tao Beach, and they graciously invited us to hang out with them. All this came to a screeching halt when the security guy wouldn't let us near their table. I explained the situation but it just wasn't happening, and I understood the guy was just doing his job, no biggies. Back out we went, and now Noah and the other Light door guys were literally swamped with people. It was like a tide of folks coming at them that they were trying to sort and deal with. In all this craziness, I was able to get Noah's attention, and give him the quick low down. He grabbed one of the doormen, and basically told him to take care of it. The guy was extremely apologetic (for no reason really), took us to the security guy, and got us the correct stamp, and we were good to go for the rest of the night. We didn't partake of the alcohol at the table (we hadn't chipped in after all), but just having a place to sit/stand makes all the difference in the world in what would become a totally packed club.

So about the place itself. If you haven't been to Light, just go. You know that feeling you get when you walk out of the club and say to yourself, "Wow that was fun, but damn it was still expensive, maybe I should have spent the money some other way." Light was the first time I walked out of a club and said holy crap that was completely worth it. The music was on point, the crowd (while very packed in) was cool. The presentation overall was mind blowing. The ever changing lights actually seemed to match the music, instead of just sort of hitting on the beat, it actually looked like they were hard wired into the music. On top of all that, they had the acrobats and cirque folks come out and do their thing on a regular basis which only added to the electricity. Absolutely great experience, easily the best club set up I have ever experienced. The whole thing was just, "Wow".

[Augger]

Last Day

Sunday Funday!

The official JC group was going to Rehab, while other groups seemed to be going all over the place. I had planned on Rehab myself and was going to hit the VIP pool thing. (Which if you do Rehab, I highly recommend). I had done Rehab three times before, but back then it was the absolute king of pool parties. Tiesto was actually spinning the last time I went, so it has been a few years. All the stuff I had read on the forums were pointing me away from it though. So while I was heading that way, I was still thinking about going someplace else. My first inclination was EBC, but the $1000 tab with extras would have been like $1400 for just me and my wife and that was just too much cash for two people. The other big issue was that for the first time in all my years of going to Vegas, the weather was actually bad! My big fear was putting out a giant wad of cash only to have the rain come pouring in, and then I get to sit on a wet daybed and watch my last day of fun soak gently away. Sadly it did actually rain off and on all morning. Nothing hard, but enough to get you wet. Frankly though I didn't care, as I don't get too many days in Vegas I wasn't about to give a day away.

It was just then that Noah shot me a text and asked if I wanted to hit Daylight. Now my general research seemed to indicate that Daylight was decent on Sunday's with an Open format. I told him I would think about it, my main concern being would anyone else actually be there. I mentioned Rehab to Noah and he said he thought Daylight was far superior (good pride in your own event, I thought). We threw some numbers around and Noah got me an awesome deal on a daybed, too good to pass up I thought. So off we went to Daylight.

So its Sunday with crappy weather and when we showed up Daylight was empty. I was pretty sure I made a mistake at this point, but what the heck we were there. Within minutes of sitting down the rain began, and went off and on for about 45 minutes. Never strong just a drizzle or slightly more. Eventually the rain slacked and finally went away. At this point the people started to flow in, and while the party was never really packed it felt like a good crowd by the middle of the afternoon. I would say about 2/3 of the cabana's and beds actually saw use, so that sort of day. I liked Daylight, but there is no getting around it feels like a pool they dug out of the parking lot, it doesn't feel built into the rest of the hotel at all, none of the palm trees around the pool stuff. I am not a designer so this isn't a big deal to me, and if I was here to see a big time DJ the sight lines would have been awesome. The pool itself was a good size, say about 3/4 of an Olympic pool, much larger than some of the mini-pools like Bare or Tao. The crowd was a bit sketchy, almost kind of what I would have expected from Rehab honestly, but everyone was very friendly and my wife and I had a really good low key day...So while Daylight didn't blow me away, it was overall a good experience, I would try it again.

We had a 6am flight out the next day, so we wandered out of the party around 5, hit Hugo's Cellar for dinner a few hours later, packed up and hit the hay...

Overall it was a great trip, made even better by meeting some great folks along the way. Just wanted to thank all the forum members for your tips and ideas plus it was just outstanding to finally meet you all. Special thanks obviously to Noah Ortiz, who was just awesome throughout the trip. Hope to see you all again next year!

Chris (Augger)

[Universal]

Good report.

[not a vet but no rookie]

Good TR, I must check out Light on my next trip

[wat]

Good report, man! Still pissed I never made it out to Light/Daylight, but that's my own fault. Glad you had fun!

BTW, did we meet @ Tao Beach? lol.

[vietnamtouris]

A nice TR, I will have check out Light on my next trip

[Jhaulotte]

Nice T.R. Augger

[weisguy]

Glad you were able to join us at Light on that Saturday. We had almost the same group on Sunday at Hakkasan, and was a blast as well.

[stanletmontena]

Thanks for the warning! And a very nice writeup by the way!

[Augger]

I think we did meet you Wat, but my memory is pretty hazy about the later afternoon at Tao Beach...By the time we introduced ourselves that purple slushee redbull drink stuff was kicking my tail.

[wat]

I think we did meet you Wat, but my memory is pretty hazy about the later afternoon at Tao Beach...By the time we introduced ourselves that purple slushee redbull drink stuff was kicking my tail.

Hahaha ... same here, man. That frozen blueberry Red Bull was killer.

I was posted up with gubuju, nighthawk06si (whatever his handle is) and some others in the center cabana. I recall meeting a bunch of Invasion peeps that day, even some I don't recall getting numbers from. Haha.

[wat]

lol yes you both met at Tao Beach. Augger was the couple at the table to your left directly next to you guys Wat. Chris, wat was one of the 4 asians at the table I was standing at.

(ps. when i went to correct my spelling of the word "Asian", it tried to make it say assassin...odd)

Haha ... Noah, the renaissance man. Takes care of you getting into clubs AND reminds you of shit you did when you're too gone to remember. Now I kinda remember.

[Augger]

Just to clarify, we weren't the chicks from the OC who were all having their birthday that day, though they were interesting folks and fun to hang out with. We were the people right next to you guys in the Front Cabana...This was us:

1150a.jpg

As I said before, great to meet you guys, and thanks so much for setting up the pre-game stuff like the google doc, and the groupme chat...

Chris