Another couple trip report 7/2014

[jrx13]

So girlfriend and I decided to go to Vegas. We actually arrived Thursday July 24th but had some other things to do so I consider really our party trip Sunday July 27th to Wednesday July 30th.

But let's start with Thursday night. Got in late evening. It was pretty hot. The flight attendant said it was 110F during the day. We were going to get a shuttle but decided to just get a cab. Not sure if it was the right move cause boy the line was long! But we stuck it out - it was moving - just long and wrapped around few times.

Cab guy was kinda jerky. Not sure if it was the heat - I made small talk and he said he was tired - whatever. I told him we were headed to Hard Rock (just for the night) and he let out a sigh - like I guess the fare was too low or something? Whatever.

Had a Tower room at Hard Rock - of course I found out there is an available separate check in desk for guest staying in the Tower. So I checked in the regular desk line (then that's when they guy told me). Went upstairs - didn't have any more water so I ended up buying one from the hotel room - they use sensors like all the other hotels. Luckily I checked the waters (there were two different bottles available) and it looked like one was opened and then refilled back. Glad I caught it, we used unopened one - it was like $9 if I remember right. Oh well - that's what happens when you're desperate. Changed quick and went downstairs to Body English. Never been there before - just had a few drinks and dancing. It's a small dance floor downstairs and they have tables surrounding and upstairs on the upper floor. We didn't check out the upper floor. Cool little place - I guess it used to be pretty popular couple years ago? They had two dancers on stage - one on each side of the DJ. There were actually quite a bit of people for a Thursday night - all ages too (and body types lol). We didn't stay too long since the GF and I both worked that day and then flew in and pretty beat.

[jrx13]

So let's start on Sunday.

So Zedd was playing Sunday at Encore Beach Club. I knew from like two - three weeks before our trip this is where I wanted to be. I've been to Encore once before and really like the place but it is pricey! Especially just the two of us. My GF was born and raised in Nothern California so she can't take heat and sun too well. Knowing this - and the fact that we love pool parties rather than night clubs now - I tried to find a group to do a cabana/daybed split. Tried on here the forums - but no luck. We even tried to talk to some people we met during our previous days to do a share with but also no go. So late Saturday I decide I should just go ahead and buy presale tickets. Well the guys tickets sold out and only female tickets were available. Darn.

So I tell the GF we will just have to go early and get in before the crowd. Cause I'm not sure it will sell out with Zedd being there and it's what I was really looking forward to. Oh right so we are now at TI (Treasure Island). We are too early for check in so left the bags with the bell desk but we made sure we had our swim wear on and I had a tshirt and gf had shorts and tshirt over.

We walked over from TI to EBC and were actually pretty early. They say they open at 11am - we go there maybe 1030 and nobody was in line so we hung out in the casino losing money on slots. Went back at like 1040 and couple people started lining up. Now they have couple different ropes here. I wasn't familiar with last time I went because last time we had bottle service but this time we are trying to get in general admission. Everyone at this moment are lining up in the presale line so gf and I just jump in there. We are about ten or 15 people back. Mostly everyone around us has presale or say the got on the guest list.
We start talking to the group behind us - IIRR it was three girls and three guys. They are talking about how hot it probably will be and they want shade to. Five of them got on the guest list through some host but not one of the guys. So now it's three of us that need tickets - the other have free entrance - I wish I knew how they scored that. Anyway I tell them we need shade to and mention I would be willing to do a table split with them. They say cool! So the line starts moving in - it's about 11:15 am before they really started opening. Of course they let the cabana and daybed lines go first - our group now talks to one of the ladies checking IDs and we inquire about daybed/bottle etc. She says we could share a lilypad but I say aren't those like $1000 minimum? And she says no not on Sundays. She leaves to check and we get to front of the line and intros us to a host guy and he says yeah we can get a lilypad for $600 minimum and it will cover 4 guests entrance. Well we need 3 tickets already so I tell the group let's do it! Cool!


So in case you don't know, lilypad they don't let you eat food on so they don't count food towards your minimum. GF and I haven't eaten yet - we just always eat at the pool parties. Luckily the host walks us over to a lilypad almost right in front of the food ordering station!

The group of six go ahead and order a bottle of Goose - I think it was like $600 so we already hit the minimum. I order a pitcher of the Vodka Lemonade ($95) and like a bunch of waters. The waitress brings out the bottle - but in a "carafe" I think they call it. No bottles near the water is what I presume. So it look like water in a plastic jug lol.

Since we hungry all I have to do is go to the food ordering window and eat like just a few steps away from the lilypad. Great spot and they have a nice umbrella so everyone is happy!

Zedd comes on in the afternoon about 2pm if I remember right. I think we stayed til like 430-5pm. Our lilypad bill with tax and tip came out to like $1600! They ask me to throw in $400. GF and I ordered about 2 1/2 pitchers and bunch of waters. I'm happy with the amount since we got entrance fees, and shade for the day - it was a win win for everyone! And had an awesome time at EBC and got to see Zedd. Oh and I spent probably about $65 total on food and a powerade from the food window.

And I typed a lot! Next update will be our Sunday night which was supposed to be at Eclipse at Mandalay Bay and Noah Ortiz as our host. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way but it still turned out great. Will update soon!

[AxelFoley]

Great read so far! How packed was EBC on a Sunday?

[jrx13]

Great read so far! How packed was EBC on a Sunday?

It was good. The only other time I went to EBC was Labor Day weekend 2012 and of course it was way more packed. But Sunday with Zedd there was still quite a bit of people but I did still see tables/cabanas still open during the day.

So what happened Sunday evening? Well thunderstorms & lightning! One of the reasons we left a little early Sunday was the wind started picking up - Encore already had to take down the umbrelllas. And it got really gloomy and even started drops of rain. So back to the hotel to take quick power nap and pedialyte because we had plans in the evening. Or so we thought.

I had already booked a daybed at Eclipse through Noah for $500 minimum. Remember it's just the two of us. We both haven't been to a night pool party and we were dying to check it out. Especially from the pics I've seen of Eclipse I really wanted to see the lighting. Well it's raining now in Vegas and you can see lightning light up the sky every once in awhile. About 6pm? I get a text from Noah and says Eclipse is canceled and he's moved our reservation to the Bank at Bellagio.

My gf and I are majorly bummed out now...seeing as we are leaving Wednesday and don't know when we will ever get to see Eclipse. So I'm on my phone trying to figure out if Nightswim at XS is still going on. Skrillex is there (plus it's XS) so I know we would only do GA but again we aren't really into night clubs at this point. Well browsing the internet I find that when rain happens they just make Nightswim into regular club. I don't listen to Skrillex music too much so it's still up in the air.

So being courteous I text Noah back and say we don't really feel like going to Bank but thanks. Well he gets back and says what about Drais night club?

Drai's being the newest club of course piqued my interest. But I was like well what's the price cause I don't really feel like spending a lot at night clubs (funny I don't mind at pool parties) and he says same minimum. $500. At this point I'm like well I was going to spend that much anyway and we are in Vegas even with the rain we should make the most of it. And I'm glad we did! We ended up having a great time at Drai's! More in the next report!

[jrx13]

So on to Drai's. I haven't done much research on it. I just know - newest spot, it's on the roof of the Cromwell. In fact I didn't know you can go on the website and be able to click and see table pricing (which makes it interesting on Tuesday).

We take a cab over - it's a pretty short ride from the Cromwell. We get there about 11pm. I think they open at 10. The cab driver drops us off and says "hey if it's slow just go to XS or Hakkasan". We walk up to the entrance on the first floor in the casino. There's no line that we notice. I tell the rope guy "uhh we have reservations with...." I can't remember the name Noah told me to say but the rope guy says oh he's not here right now or something to that effect. So I don't know what the minimum is supposed to be or anything at this point. So a lady host walks us in. I believe her name is Jeannie. Sorry I have her card at home right now. She takes up in the elevator and we walk in. At this point I don't know about the handshake deal too. I'm not a rich guy but I try to give a little something at least from what I read on the forum. I didn't even know about handshakes before. So I'm not sure what to do, as I didn't book through this host and she wasn't the one Noah told me mention. I ended up not giving her anything? I really don't know? She just walked us in and we grabbed the first banquette she showed us. Thoughts?

Now let me tell you it's pretty empty right now but this place looks really well thought out. The dance floor is smack right in the middle and the tables and booths kind of surround it and are slightly elevated almost like stadium seating with a large walkway in the middle. The table hostesses that don't have customers yet are all standing up on these elevated platforms that surround the dance floor and they are all kinda swaying to the beat. It was a great visual effect. Our host seats us at a small table (after checking website I found they are called Banquettes). It's a great view and only few steps away from the dance floor entrance. You can see out the back glass to the pool area but because the occasional lightning the doors are closed. I guess sometimes they leave them open so people have a place to go outside for a bit. We like the look of it and are thinking about if we will ever get to check out the pool party. Oh I forgot to mention we already have plans for Bare on Monday (the next day). Thanks to the forum here, that's where everyone says we should go on a Monday.

So our hostess of course asks us what we would like - I prefer Goose but trying to make my GF happy - I order a bottle of Patron since she loves that. It's about $595 and couple waters puts us over our minimum. We are not sure we can drink a whole bottle so I tell her we will just start passing out drinks if need be.

People are starting to fill in now and it's starting to get busy. We stay seated for a bit just relaxing and drinking. Oh and another thing I didn't mention is Sunday is hip hop night so the GF is super excited. Me being the EDM fan and her being hip hop. Yes it's a wonder how we make it sometimes hahah.

So she's having a blast with the music. The table service was great - the guy was great and always had a lighter ready anytime gf wanted to light her cigarette and we had a security guard right by our table and he said he would watch our bottle and stuff anytime.

So this place is started to get packed and let me tell you the lighting and visuals are amazing here! And since it's so well laid out we can see everything! We went back and forth dancing just the two of us and relaxing back at our table. Another funny thing is my gf had a black dress on that literally matched what the servers were wearing. In fact she got mistaken as one many times. Security and other people not around our table would look at her walking around and dancing with me and give her funny looks. Like why is this girl dancing with this loser

Her dress she tells me helps her every time she gets to the bathroom line. They wisk her to front of line every time and she tells me the bathroom attendants never hit her up for a tip! Hilarious! I remember I was walking to go to the bathroom with her and the security even asked her to go in the womens restroom and get the attendant out for him. Hahah! It's too bad she couldn't sneak in and grab a bottle or do the bottle light show with the other bottle servers when someone ordered a bottle!

So long story short we had a great time here. I don't think we've ever had a better nightclub experience. They started shooting off confetti when the main DJ came on (around 1am) and they had these "cyro cannons" I think they are called that aim at the dance floor and you coulnd't see anything for like three seconds! What a rush! Oh and that huge giant disco LED ball! That thing lowers and raises too! Again back and forth to our table and we could see and feel everything. We were both blown away -this coming from a couple that really doesn't care for night clubs!

We stayed til about 230ish am I think. We couldn't finish our bottle - gf drank as much as she could and I had to stay some what coherent (at least one of us) . We told the waiter (I'm not sure what their title is ? busser?) to just hand the bottle to our table neighbors and he said he couldn't and it was against policy. He said it was health and safety issue. Which makes sense, someone could spike the bottle and then hand it to another person. I said ok.

He took our empty water bottle and put our Patron in there. Gotta love Vegas.

We walked back to TI. It wasn't too far and needed drunk food. Couldn't remember where the pizza was so we went and got McDonald's lol.

After eating at McDonald's with all the other Vegas partygoers we start walking back and it's start raining again. It wasn't raining the whole time at Drai's or before so I was still a little bummed about Eclipse until after experiencing Drai's. I said screw this and didn't want gf nice dress to get all wet, we hailed a cab and took us to TI even thought it was so close

Next day was Bare at Mirage. Noah again hooked us up!

[artedm]

good to hear about that $600 lilly- but like you point out its so easy to hit $600 with just one bottle.

Did you hear about/ know about bottle specials on sunday nights?

[jrx13]

good to hear about that $600 lilly- but like you point out its so easy to hit $600 with just one bottle.

Did you hear about/ know about bottle specials on sunday nights?

No I don't know about these? Where can I find out about specials like these? I am coming back in three weeks for a bachelor party - would be great if we can find some bottle specials like Thursday or Friday night. I'm sure Saturday would be hard pressed to find specials?

[MikeK32]

No I don't know about these? Where can I find out about specials like these? I am coming back in three weeks for a bachelor party - would be great if we can find some bottle specials like Thursday or Friday night. I'm sure Saturday would be hard pressed to find specials?

Sunday night you can go for 2 vodka for 600 at Drais and 2 vodka at XS.
There are specials to be had at the tier 2 clubs on Saturdays as well. For example buy 1 get 1 at 1 oak and the 2 goose for 450 at Tryst.

[kwyjibo]

" Of course they let the cabana and daybed lines go first - our group now talks to one of the ladies checking IDs and we inquire about daybed/bottle etc. She says we could share a lilypad but I say aren't those like $1000 minimum? And she says no not on Sundays. She leaves to check and we get to front of the line and intros us to a host guy and he says yeah we can get a lilypad for $600 minimum and it will cover 4 guests entrance. Well we need 3 tickets already so I tell the group let's do it! Cool!"


$600 for a lilypad at EBC on Sunday? Is that normal? Last time I was at EBC sunday in 2012 the min spend was 2k?


Has the price gone down that much due to competition? thanks

[KinStock77]

I got quoted $2800 on a Sunday but I'm guessing that's for 2 because we had more than 4 people. It was also for Guetta.

[JuiceJH]

He took our empty water bottle and put our Patron in there. Gotta love Vegas.

Haha awesome! My waitress at LIGHT helped pour our goose into water bottles for us too

[jrx13]

Sunday night you can go for 2 vodka for 600 at Drais and 2 vodka at XS.
There are specials to be had at the tier 2 clubs on Saturdays as well. For example buy 1 get 1 at 1 oak and the 2 goose for 450 at Tryst.

Thanks for this! I will be back in two weeks and I will make sure I ask about specials next time.

"

$600 for a lilypad at EBC on Sunday? Is that normal? Last time I was at EBC sunday in 2012 the min spend was 2k?


Has the price gone down that much due to competition? thanks

That I don't know. I was shocked too. I figured it be over $1000 minimum. But you know what - our total bill came to like $1600 anyhow. I put in $400 for my GF and I. Other group had three guys and three girls. So a total of 8 of us split the lilypad which I thought worked out great!




Sorry for the long delay. Let's try to finish this up.

Monday we head to Bare at the Mirage. The day before I texted Noah to put our name down for a chair. Right outside the casino on the way to the pool, there is a hottie that was handing out passes/promoting for Bare. Free for ladies and discount for guys. We didn't need the passes since we were getting a chair but just letting people know. Funny thing about Bare is you have to walk by the Secret Garden entrance and see all the parents with their kids - while we are heading to the topless pool

We talk to host and confirm two chairs - $75 minimum each. There are two pools but we just stayed at the main one. It was pretty sunny and we got two chairs on left side cause Dave the host says it will get shade on that side later in the day. I almost decided to switch to a $500 daybed because at that time there was no shade at all yet but it worked out just like he said later in the day. Plus later in the day it started getting gloomy again (remember rain the day before?)

Had a great time at Bare. Bud Light Las Vegas was there a little later and started handing out free beer. Just had to take a picture with them. If you are on a budget, would be great idea to follow them on Facebook and see what pool party they will be at and score yourself free beer and lime-a-ritas. They did not say there was a limit and gf got quite a few. I don't drink too much beer so I stuck with my pitchers from Bare. We stayed probably til like 4pm or so? Ended up ordering like 3 appetizer plates, and like 2 pitchers I think? Total bill with tax and tip was like $350 I want to say? GF also ended up buying a Bare tank top that says "if you show me yours I'll show you mine" She says she's going to bring it with her to the bacherlorette party next week haha.
The server said it was actually a slow Monday and it's usually busier - I though it wasn't bad. Only about one third of the girls go topless. And they were a lot of people just lounging on chairs and daybeds not really in the pool or topless. We enjoyed the music, wouldn't hesitate to go back.

So after those three parties that was pretty much all we had planned. We were leaving Wednesday late afternoon. So after Bare we just were relaxing and letting our wallets take a break. But then since we were still bummed about missing our first night pool party I did some research and found out Drai's does night Yacht Club on Tuesdays! I told the gf we must do this especially after having so much fun at the nightclub the night before.
Like other say, you can go online and see the table pricing. I got confused with the day and night ones though and since the day pool on Tuesday is more a relaxing day - their prices are super low. I though I could get a pool Banquette for like $200 haha. Turns out you have to click the nightclub on Tuesday even thought it's at the pool area. So $500 was the quote. GF says she can't drink that much and we shouldn't spend that much anymore. I say no problem we will just do GA.

Got to Drai's again on about 11pm. Oh Borgeuous was there and funny story was I saw DVBBS in San Francisco so it was cool that I saw the Borgeuous too since they worked together on Tsunami track.
Off the top of my head I think GA was like $80? $50 for me $30 for her? Can't recall now - darn. Don't know who to hit up for Guest list - oh well.

Long story short - had a great time here even on GA. We stayed mostly at the rear pool. Only about 1/4 of the people show up in swim wear. We of course did! While partying in the water, they were a lot of guys and girls you could tell they wanted to jump in but wore all their nice nightclub clothing. Actually couple people did try to get ni water but got quickly told to get out of the pools. They have an upstairs VIP/Table are but I don't know why people would want this? All most of the people up there stare down at everyone having fun at the main floor? I'd rather get a table in the thick of things but whatever makes people happy!

There is a bar at the back - that's where I got most of my drinks. The bartenders were extremely good looking too. I ended up getting a large Drai's cup. I think it was like $40 - bartender said she could put whatever drink I want in it. Frozen or other. She made me a Long Island. I ended up drinking like two of these large cups the whole night. Cool place on top of the roof - weather was still warm enough to swim. They dropped the beach balls at about 1am when Borgeuous came on. I'm pretty sure a lot of balls went over the side and down onto the street below? Another thing is the bathroom is off to side of the DJ so if you are at the rear pool it takes quite a bit of time to snake through the dance floor and then down some stairs. So start your trek early if you need to go!

I'm sure I forgot some tidbits here and there. I will try to update the trip report as I remember. Thanks for reading!