Rave: First Trip to Vegas

[heyzeus]

Definitely buy the dankest, cheapest tallboy of malt liquor to walk up and down the strip drinking. It's legal! And shady men will hand you color brochures of naked women who, for a nominal fee, will come to your room faster than a pizza.

All of the new fancy casinos are pretty much the same. Huge, shiny, with some asinine gimmick like a roller coaster or a gondola in a fake canal. The newer/fancier places don't have cheap table games either, especially at night, which sucks. Go to one of the older, seedier places to play $5 blackjack all night and get hammered on free, watered down drinks. One of them even has a little person dressed as a leprechaun who occasionally dances on the bar.

Personally, I like the casinos with a sports book (particularly the one at Bellagio). You can plunk down a $10 bet on a game, and then sit in a nice leather chair watching games on 100 tv's while they bring you drinks. This is most awesome on an NFL sunday, but maybe you can bet on and watch a Cards game.

There are a lot of douchey ultra lounges where everyone goes to spend $15/drink and hope that britney spears or tara reid or some cooze like that shows up, so that they can feel like bigshots. These places suck. And even if a celeb showed up, they'll be ushered to some VIP area where they don't have to be around the commoners.

[thrill]

All of the new fancy casinos are pretty much the same. Huge, shiny, with some asinine gimmick like a roller coaster or a gondola in a fake canal. The newer/fancier places don't have cheap table games either, especially at night, which sucks. Go to one of the older, seedier

Don't do this. The old strip SUCKS. It's just as expensive, filled with exclusively unattractive people and instead of embracing old Vegas rat pack charm, they've all been refurbished to look as much like a new casino looked in the 80's as possible. It's lame. Also, Fremont street is bull [expletive]. Too loud, too many kids etc.

Personally, I like the casinos with a sports book (particularly the one at Bellagio). You can plunk down a $10 bet on a game, and then sit in a nice leather chair watching games on 100 tv's while they bring you drinks. This is most awesome on an NFL sunday, but maybe you

This is my favorite Vegas activity. Drinking and filling out betting tickets, spreading out my receipts on my table and getting drunk while I watch.

There are a lot of douchey ultra lounges where everyone goes to spend $15/drink and hope that britney spears or tara reid or some cooze like that shows up, so that they can feel like bigshots. These places suck. And even if a celeb showed up, they'll be ushered to some VIP area where they don't have to be around the commoners.

Yeah.

[Hudler]

There is a bus that runs from one end of the strip to the other, for something like three bucks. the only problem with it is the people you have ride with, but it stops at every casino.

[Jocephus]

i dunno, vegas doesn't appeal to me all that much. maybe if i had friends that were going i would go. that would mean i would need some friends though.

[vinsanity]

Definitely buy the dankest, cheapest tallboy of malt liquor to walk up and down the strip drinking. It's legal! And shady men will hand you color brochures of naked women who, for a nominal fee, will come to your room faster than a pizza.

All of the new fancy casinos are pretty much the same. Huge, shiny, with some asinine gimmick like a roller coaster or a gondola in a fake canal. The newer/fancier places don't have cheap table games either, especially at night, which sucks. Go to one of the older, seedier places to play $5 blackjack all night and get hammered on free, watered down drinks. One of them even has a little person dressed as a leprechaun who occasionally dances on the bar.

Personally, I like the casinos with a sports book (particularly the one at Bellagio).

Not that your advice is off, but there was one $5 table of BJ at the Bellagio when I went during the CES (huge convention BTW) a few years back. There's only one and it was packed until we walked by at 4 am. But they give you Kennedy Half Dollars when you hit black jack.

Then we went back to the Hilton or some [expletive] off strip where we stayed (not bad considering the cost of the cabs vs the increase price of rooms, but if I go back I'll be on strip) and played BJ till 7 am and was winning $200 till a stripper cut the deck (hand shuffled) and I lit myself on fire. Left when I was up $150.

I've heard learn craps - it's supposedly really exciting and feels more like a team effort and less intense than black jack.

If you go to a booby bar schedule it through some sort of planner. For something like $90 bucks a head we got a limo to the Spearmint Rhino, no line, cover, table together (apparently a huge deal?) and in the SVIP (Semi-VIP) section. Plus for every bottle we bought we got one bottle of house vodka. So you drop $200 on a bottle of whatever (jack), you get a 1L bottle and coke/sprite/whatever then you get a 1L bottle of vodka and mixers with it. Our little asian friend (best man) dropped an entire signing bonus (~$3k) in a few hours (no one told him no sex in the champagne room), cabbed home alone and the other 4 of us then spent the next 6 hours trying to finish 4L of vodka/whiskey/rum, talking to semi nude chicks with big fake knockers and getting lap dances (occasionally 'free' for mixing em a drink). We then walked outside and had a 'Varsity Blues' moment when the sun was in our eyes.

Cabby handed the groom-to-be a book of call girls on the way back, but his fiance had actually come to vegas with her family as well. Driver was appalled he'd "bring sand to the beach". Her name was Sandy. We laughed.

[expletive] love Vegas.

[Fat_Bulldog]

I don't think I should ever go to Vegas.

[maddash]

Get laid.

[Maclowery]

The four nights I spent in Vegas for a bachelor party/soldier back from overseas mega-party was about the most fun I've ever had.

We didn't go see any shows or basically anything touristy other than drunken wandering around the strip, and old downtown. So no good stories for mom, etc. What we did do was drink to excess for 96 hours, eat at all the cheap buffets, etc, that we could to save money for booze, strippers, and cabs, lose one of the 6 guys for 2 days a la Hangover, attend a great UNLV/Utah basketball game, and play a hilariously crappy round of golf on that course directly under the airport's approach path.

I recommend bringing at least three hundred dollars or so more than your initial estimation of expenses. Even if you aren't a gambler, heavy drinker, or bachelor-party-drunkard throwing cash at severely overpriced strippers, that place sucks money out of your wallet.

[heyzeus]

All of the new fancy casinos are pretty much the same. Huge, shiny, with some asinine gimmick like a roller coaster or a gondola in a fake canal. The newer/fancier places don't have cheap table games either, especially at night, which sucks. Go to one of the older, seedier

Don't do this. The old strip SUCKS. It's just as expensive, filled with exclusively unattractive people and instead of embracing old Vegas rat pack charm, they've all been refurbished to look as much like a new casino looked in the 80's as possible. It's lame. Also, Fremont street is bull [expletive]. Too loud, too many kids etc.

I agree, don't go to Fremont street, which is a tourist trap only without anything for tourists to do and is too far to walk from the heart of the strip, but not worth a cab ride. But I still think part of Vegas is going to a crappy run down casino and playing cheap blackjack with ugly people. That's America, dammit. The place with the leprechaun is O'Sheas, and it is a pit of despair, perfect to experience old Vegas. It's actually located in the newer part of the strip, too. Somehow it didn't get torn down.

Oh, some of the newer hotels have topless pools, but I hear you have to either be staying there or pay a stoopid fee to get in, like $30.

[thrill]

I recommend bringing at least three hundred dollars or so more than your initial estimation of expenses. Even if you aren't a gambler, heavy drinker, or bachelor-party-drunkard throwing cash at severely overpriced strippers, that place sucks money out of your wallet.

This. Stash $100 somewhere inconvenient. I typically drive to Vegas so I lock it in my glove box. Just put it somewhere like in your suit case or what not so you aren't carrying it when you're out and about. You'll be glad to have the extra money for the trip home after you've spent everything else. Don't play slots, don't play video poker and definitely hit up at least one classy buffet when you're really really hungry. I recommend the Wynn or Bellagio. Gorge yourself on delicious foods and never ending mimosas. Spend a day drinking at a swim up bar.