Vegas With My Sons - Day 2

DAY 1
Probably a boring post for most of you, but thought I'd share a fun trip I had with two of my sons to Vegas recently. We have 4 kids and have taken them each to Vegas when they turn 21. I've been about 20 times and want them to share in the fun and excitement that we've experienced in Vegas. This is my first post so my apologies if I'm going into too much detail.

Two of my boys (aged 28 and 23) and I decided it was time to go to Vegas again, you know how you get that itch (and I don't mean a gambling itch....there's plenty of casinos around us to satisfy any gaming urges....I mean a Vegas itch). We're not huge gamblers (I bring $1,000 and they bring $500 each for the 4 days) but we gamble non stop and more love the whole aura of Vegas rather than the gambling just itself.

After staying at many places on the strip I've come to favour Fremont St. as my favourite place to stay, particularly at the Golden Nugget, which I love. The kids love Fremont St. too for the unique people watching, cheaper limits, faster booze at the tables and close proximity of all the casinos.

First day we got there at 9:30 a.m. Vegas time (from Toronto) which is so perfect as it gave us the whole day. Got our rental car fast and headed to the Nugget to check in. Was a time when I would have taken them to the Klondike first (so they could play 10 cent roulette) but alas that has been gone for awhile. So is the Westward Ho, where I would have taken them for a 99 cent 28 oz. Margarita and the ridiculously huge hot dogs for $1 at the back deli. This kind of makes me sound like a cheapskate but that's not it. I just think it was cool to show them these amazing deals in Vegas.

Anyway, got checked in and they took advantage right away of the free drink coupons in the funbook we each received from the Nugget. (Big deal, free drinks, when you can get them anytime you're playing anyway...I don't get it, but they loved it....so what the heck). Played a little free slots (free slot play they got for signing up to the slot club) and some BJ. Then went to bring them to the Paradise Buffet at the Fremont (a favourite haunt of mine since my parents brought me there years ago...more nostolgic to me than anything) but it was closed for remodelling. Headed to the Main Street Station (first hotel I stayed in when I was brought down to Vegas by my dad for my 21st....35 years ago but was just newly opened and was a Holiday Inn I think and the casino was not yet open, just the hotel part) to check out the buffet there for the first time. Was pleasantly surprised by how good it was and got some coupons for discounts on the buffet. After eating I sat down to a 10 play video poker game, 25 cent denomination and hit 4 jacks within my first five plays....that was nice...got me up some money to start off the day. We gambled there for awhile and then at the Plaza (first casino I ever gambled in, again 35 years ago). As we were walking down Fremont, one of my sons said he wanted to check out the deep fried Oreos at Mermaids. So I went in with him and stood there with my hands in my pockets, determined not to waste a cent in this place. My other son stuck $20 bucks in a machine and says "C'mon let's play while we're waiting". I say "If I'm going to lose money, it's not going to be in friggin Mermaids (I'm not a slot player anyway...prefer live poker, craps and BJ). Anyway, he convinced me to stick $5 in a nickel machine. Ok, the rest of this little adventure is no word of a lie.......3 hours later we're still in Mermaids and RIPPED.....and I'm still on the same $5 I started with. I mean the waitress was coming around every 2 minutes....we'd have 3 drinks each still to drink and she'd still drop more. And the drinks were strong...I couldn't believe it. I was drinking Colorado Bulldogs and got wasted. And....I couldn't lose. In all the times I've been to Vegas I don't think I've ever gone to bed before 2 a.m. but this particular day, I got up from the m/c's with two buckets full of nickels, bounced off the sides of the machines as I was making my way down the aisle to the dumpy cashier cage at the back, nickels flying all over the place (so my sons tell me), stumbled across Fremont St. to the Nugget and was in bed by 9 p.m. Oh..and as a grand finale at Mermaids, I went in the woman's washroom by mistake. I'm looking around for the urinal just as a woman comes out of the stall and says in an angry (and I don't blame her) voice...."You're in the wrong washroom". I don't even drink a lot normally but man, did this place get me wasted.

The boys, being young of course, stayed up and told me they went for the $4.99 steak at the Gold Spike and then played for hours at the Sigma Horse Derby at the D. If this has been of any interest to you, I'll continue with day 2-4 where we go to see the Tragically Hip at the Mandalay Bay, visit the Pawn Stars location and other assorted minutia.

DAY 2
Started off early (surprisingly enough, given the state of affairs the previous night). I'm a real stickler for not wasting a minute of time when we're in Vegas by sleeping in late. The boys were pretty groggy headed but so was I, so too bad for them and 'up and atom' it was by 8:30 a.m. We marched down (and then up) to the buffet at the Golden Nugget which I always enjoy because I think the room is great, the view is nice overlooking the pool if you get a window table and the food selection and quality is pretty good too. After wandering around the food items I ended up putting a croissant and a slice of honey dew melon on my plate and that was about all I could stomach. My sons were joking non stop about how hung over and reliving our slot machine antics of the night before. I was definitely hung over but I had two of these amazing Advil gel caps and by the end of breakfast I was feeling perfect.

We headed up to the strip and I parked at Bill's. My favourite spot to park (the IP) was all under construction because they were turning it into the Quad so parking there easily did not look like an option (at least as far as I could tell). We're walking through Bill's and a woman asks if we've signed up for the club and says you get five bucks if you do. Of course the boys ask if the $5 can be used at the bar and when she says "yes", they sign up. With beers at the bar being $1 they loved this and we played there awhile while they went through their five beers each. I know we're starting to sound like a trailer park, alcoholic family here but we're really not....it's just what seems to happen in Vegas.

We walked along the strip, stopping in at Flamingo, Harrahs and made our way to the Venetian. One of my sons and I wanted to play poker so we headed to the poker room (man do they have gorgeous cocktail waitresses there). My son sits at a $1-2 NL table and I found a $5-10 NL table. I know all the poker rooms are non smoking now but I usually have a new, unlit cigar in my mouth when I sit down to play. Some guy starts chirping about "Hey pal, it's non smoking here" and I don't say anything. He makes another snarky comment a few seconds later and I just look at the dealer and the dealer smiles at me as if to say "just ignore him". My second hand I get dealt A-10 suited. The flop is 2-5-10 rainbow. A few small bets and I raise it by $60 I think. The guy who was chirping goes all in. Everyone folds and it's back to me and I'm the last one left in still to call or fold. So now I'm faced with either maybe winning a nice pot or going broke on my second hand. (I had sat down with $350). Anyway, I decide to call and this guy's got 3-6! So he's hoping for a 4. An ace comes on the turn and a nine on the river. I win! This guy starts telling me how he was ahead of me the whole way and I shouldn't have won and what a stupid piece of luck for me to win. I just look up at him and say "Please, do it again...all day long". He's sitting there fuming, I'm loving it. I never really had much action after that hand except for a few small pots but got caught calling a few early bets only to fold later after a big raise pre flop (amateur mistakes by me). After a couple of hours my other son (who was off playing BJ came to get us and we headed off). My son won $125 at the $1-2 NL table and I ended up being ahead $310 from my table....mainly from that one pot.

We walked up the strip towards the MGM Grand. My sons were still full from their GN buffet but I was now starving so I'm embarrassed to say that I stopped in at the McDonalds and grabbed something to tide me over. We spend some time at the MGM sports book and bet a few races, nobody cashed. I can't believe how big the MGM casino is...it seems to go on forever. They have a great Davidoff cigar shop where we bought a few sticks (it's kinda pricey though). Headed over to the NYNY and found a 3 card poker table. Ended up staying there for a couple of hours on a decent run of luck where we won $35, $95 and $125 respectively...so not too bad for a suckers game. Played some craps and immediately lost about $150, no one was getting any rolls...a wrong bettor would probably have done ok at this table. Wandered around for a little more and finished the day on the strip at Caesar's Forum shops...always good for people watching and looking at the things you'd like to have (yeah, I know a lot of it is affordable but it's the stuff that's not affordable that's really eye catching).

Headed back to the GN to shower and get ready for the evening. Headed out on Boulder Highway (the boys had never been there) and they sure enjoyed looking at the seediness of the derelict motels, bars and signs as you head from Fremont St. to Boulder Highway. Stopped in at Sam's Town to play some BJ and some VP and lost a few bucks there. Then headed to East Side Cannery and caught my favourite Vegas band there. I've seen them a few times and they're great. They're called The Fab and of course they do Beatles music. They do it almost note for note and it's soooooooo good. After the show we headed back to Fremont and gambled at the D (I mostly watched the boys play but put down one $100 bet on BJ and won, so that was nice). We also played the Sigma horse racing game on the second floor for about an hour and that was a blast. You can last a long time with $10 of quarters. We ate at the Golden Gate restaurant and then gambled a little more at the Horseshoe, which was dead, especially for a Friday night. Ended up going to bed about 2 a.m. and up a little money for the trip.

Next - DAY 3 and our amazing time at the House of Blues.

Great trip report - sounds like a great day. My son has just turned 18 and we cant wait til we can do Vegas correctly!

Can I humbly suggest a few paragraph breaks to make it easier to read on screen!

One word: Paragraphs.

Ok, sorry, I listened to you folks and added some paragraph spaces. Thanks for the input.

Nice trip so far. Since you're staying downtown you should walk over to Main Street Station for some yummy brews.

Love the reports, keep them coming.

In my first post I talk about having lunch at the MSS Garden Court buffet and how nice it is. We did also have a beer at the pub there where they brew their own. And yes, they were very good. Thanks for the comment.

I missed day 1, sorry about that.

I don't even see how to look at the Day 1 post now. Can you advise how I'd find it? Thanks.

Thanks Alan.

DAY 3

Quote: JoeZ

I know we're starting to sound like a trailer park, alcoholic family here but we're really not....it's just what seems to happen in Vegas.

I got a really good chuckle out of that! Great write up, I love to hear peoples trip reports. THANKS!

Quote: JoeZ

Oh..and as a grand finale at Mermaids, I went in the woman's washroom by mistake. I'm looking around for the urinal just as a woman comes out of the stall and says in an angry (and I don't blame her) voice...."You're in the wrong washroom". I don't even drink a lot normally but man, did this place get me wasted.

Been there, done that - twice - and both times sober. (Once at a theater in London, where I followed a group of people headed to the restrooms and didn't notice that the men had separated from the women just before the entrance to the women's room), and once at IP (I am so used to those blue "Men" and "Women" signs that, when I didn't see them at IP, I just walked into what I thought was the men's room).)

Quote:

Started off early (surprisingly enough, given the state of affairs the previous night). I'm a real stickler for not wasting a minute of time when we're in Vegas by sleeping in late. The boys were pretty groggy headed but so was I, so too bad for them and 'up and atom' it was by 8:30 a.m.

I'm sorry, but you used "early" and "8:30 AM" in a combination that is unfamiliar to me. If I haven't been in at least two casinos by 8:30 AM, it's because one of them required a bit of a walk (for example, from the Strip to Silverton, which looks a lot shorter than it is because there's no way to enter except by walking around the parking lot on the far side of the casino).

Quote: ThatDonGuy

Been there, done that - twice - and both times sober. (Once at a theater in London, where I followed a group of people headed to the restrooms and didn't notice that the men had separated from the women just before the entrance to the women's room), and once at IP (I am so used to those blue "Men" and "Women" signs that, when I didn't see them at IP, I just walked into what I thought was the men's room).)


I'm sorry, but you used "early" and "8:30 AM" in a combination that is unfamiliar to me. If I haven't been in at least two casinos by 8:30 AM, it's because one of them required a bit of a walk (for example, from the Strip to Silverton, which looks a lot shorter than it is because there's no way to enter except by walking around the parking lot on the far side of the casino).

You're right about the 8:30 but remember, this was after a night of lottttts of booze and I think they rolled in around 4:30 a.m. So it was a choice of crashing a little earlier that night or catching a bit more sleep that morning. I elected the bit more sleep in the morning. Good point though....8:30 is not early, for sure.

Its damn early in my book - at least in Vegas.

Quote: Nostron

Its damn early in my book - at least in Vegas.

It is to me too...but I struggle to sleep beyond 10am in Vegas, even if I was up til 4am. :-\

That is s funny. I am glad to know that I am not the only one who can't sleep in Vegas. I could be up till 4am and wasted but I will still be out of the room by 8am.

I always get up early in Vegas due to my bodyclock is on East Coast time. I typically get up around 6 to 7am in Vegas , which translates to 9am to 10am body clock time.

Hey Joe, great stories. Question where were you "allowed" to smoke your cigars? Even Vegas is banning the smoking of cigars in a lot of places. I am curious a to where you were able to smoke without hassle.

The best place for me that I know of is the sports book at the mirage. Any other ideas would be great.

Very enjoyable trip report. I like the way you give details without getting bogged down in the details to the point of being boring.

I'm not much of a drinker either but something about free drinks and gambling that just go together. I'm just fortunate that I don't get stupid like some people do. The nights when I've stayed up all night drinking and gambling were the nights when I was winning the most. Nothing like getting drunk for free and winning money!

Looking forward to reading the next installments.

Quote: JW17

Hey Joe, great stories. Question where were you "allowed" to smoke your cigars? Even Vegas is banning the smoking of cigars in a lot of places. I am curious a to where you were able to smoke without hassle.

The best place for me that I know of is the sports book at the mirage. Any other ideas would be great.

Never did find a poker room that allowed smoking but I believe we smoked cigars in many other casinos we were in. For sure at the Golden Nugget, the Plaza, Main Street Station, MGM Grand and Flamingo. Those are just the places that I remember smoking in. I have to say at one point I felt kind of bad. I was playing VP at MSS and my sons were playing BJ and were both smoking cigars. I was also smoking a cigar and went over to join them at the table. An older lady, who was smoking cigarettes, says "Oh, no....not another cigar"....but she said it in a thoroughly disgusted voice (and I guess I really can't blame her)...then she says "How rude" and I thought to myself "Yeah, well I'm sure you have no problem puffing away on that cigarette when non smokers are at your table"....so then I didn't feel quite as bad.

A cig smoker said that? that would have pissed me off - If I have to sit w/ smokers - I'd rather be next to a cigar.

Quote: JoeZ

Probably a boring post for most of you, but thought I'd share a fun trip

Its always fun to have someone share their experiences... and it sure as hell saves me alot in air fare!!

Quote: JoeZ

wanted to check out the deep fried Oreos at Mermaids he convinced me to stick $5 in a nickel machine. Ok, ..3 hours later we're still in Mermaids and RIPPED.....and I'm still on the same $5 I started with. I mean the waitress was coming around every 2 minutes....we'd have 3 drinks each still to drink and she'd still drop more. And the drinks were strong...I couldn't believe it. I was drinking Colorado Bulldogs and got wasted. And....I couldn't lose.

Okay, I will not ask other posters to confirm whether they could nor couldn't lose at the slots in Mermaids... but I would like to hear from others if they have had similar experiences in Mermaids since I view it as a slots and half-naked women place without a hotel and without table games or anything but slots and booze a few well known culinary items involving Oreos and Doritos.
Can other posters confirm the liberal drink service at Mermaids? It sounds like a good place for locals to hit for getting sauced.
I mean Vodka, Kahlúa, cream, and a splash of Coca-Cola, .... round after round!

In many of the upscale joints... CWs are referred to as Tray Lizards.... with reason!!

I wasn't even in the place long enough to comment about the drinks/service, but they used to (perhaps still do - I haven't been back to check) have machines where you could either hit the spin button on the front or pull the arm down to spin the reels. Being fairly young, I hadn't seen very many machines that let you pull the arm down so I wanted to play that way. After a few spins, the reels were spinning and spinning.. After 30 seconds I thought I was about to hit it big, thinking the machine was causing some kind of dramatic effect. After 2-3 minutes, the reels were still spinning so I called over an attendant and she notified me that happens all the time when pulling the arm.. Okay then! That was really the only reason I had stopped in, so I left after only a few minutes total in the place.

Joe - Is there a Day 3 on it's way?

Where is day 3, or did you not survive it?

Quote: Alan

Where is day 3, or did you not survive it?

Those Anti-Cigar folks take no prisoners :(

Quote: JW17

Question where were you "allowed" to smoke your cigars? Even Vegas is banning the smoking of cigars in a lot of places. I am curious a to where you were able to smoke without hassle.

Which Vegas properties prohibit cigars on the casino floor? I'm only aware of the Tuscany on East Flamingo.

I know nothing about tobacco, but is there a clear delineation between cigarettes and cigars? Some of the vilest smokes look like "hybrids" that are the size of a cigarette, but with the room-clearing obnoxiousness of a cigar.

I know the Tuscany doesn't, also Ellis Islands new sports book does not allow smoking. I do not think any Cantor books allow smoking either.

And maybe my wording was bad, I think it is allowed, but very frowned upon. A better question would have been who is the most cigar friendly.

Sorry, I probably still don't understand, but the casinos seem reluctant to establish clear rules because I guess they think they can avoid offending anyone by being vague about it. Cigar smoking should not be "frowned upon." It should be either allowed or disallowed, no in-between. But I could imagine if they banned cigars only, they may have the problem of patrons claiming, "oh no, this is technically a cigarette."

Hopefully JoeZ is ok and gives us the much anticipated part 3.

Sorry so late in finding this excellent trip report but what happened to day 3?

Hey Wizard how about a spot just for trip reports instead of them being scattered anywhere? Just a thought ,love a good trip report .

I am a little confused by the 'bill's' reference. The OP, JoeZ stated that he parked at bills, and as he was walking through bills, he was asked to get a players card. Bills has been closed since February, both casino and parking.

This was a terribly dated trip report.