Post Mortem, 12/2013
Flight in was fine, took a shuttle from the airport to MGM and hung out at the new Whiskey Down bar in there since I was way too early to check in. Personable bar staff, had a couple shots and beers, then proceeded to throw my first (of very, very many) hundie into a machine outside and promptly lost it. This will be a theme.
Then made my way over to NYNY to check in. The room was comped, and I was staying in a standard room, so I was expecting to pay the resort fee and be on my way up. I get told, despite not being in a suite, that I will again have a $100 per night hold to pay before checking in. Apparently when your room is comped you get charged this fee. This bugs the shit out of me, and despite protesting to the clerk and a "customer service" manager they will not reverse the hold. This despite the fact that there are no amenities in the room, not even a bloody coffee maker. I get the charge at a suite hotel like THEhotel b/c there are actual services in the room, but this was just arbitrary and ridiculous.
So again, just like the last time at THEhotel, I'm molded right off the bat. I go up to my room and try to shake it off, and get a couple hour nap. The Park Avenue rooms in the Century tower at NY are nice enough, small and simple but clean and I had a pretty good view from floor 29 on the back side of the building of Monte Carlo and City Center and the Vegas valley behind. Getting in and out of the room was easy and there are enough landmarks around the casino that I didn't really get lost much.
Went into Nine Fine Irishmen for the first of many times during the trip for Guinness and shots. Met a cool bartender named Dave and hung out at the upstairs bar for a couple hours. The casinos and restaurants in general were pretty light on traffic, the first couple days I had no trouble getting seats at bars wherever I went. I expected to see a lot of Christmas decorations all over everything but it really wasn't noticeable, or at least I didn't notice it.
The rest of the night was sorta...whatever. I bought a Swatch, for some reason. Played and lost a couple more hundie on the slots. Nothing really memorable or exciting. Drank some more. Was in bed by 2a at the latest.
The next morning, Xmas, I was up early, out of the room by 10a and wandered around looking for a bar to hang out in that early, went to a lobby bar at PH and played a little video blackjack waiting to get into BurGR, the gourmet burger place by Gordon Ramsay in Planet Hollywood. Finally got in, sat at the bar, had a chicken burger (BurGR?). It was good, not remarkable. It was cheap, and the beer was good. This by the way would mark the start and end of my glorious plan to visit all the new gourmet burger places that are popping up all over the strip. Seems like all the celeb chefs are having a dick wagging contest over who can make the best cheap-ish good burger place. I then wandered around a little more, drank a little more, and was back in the room early-ish to get a nap for the Xmas night.
Up and at 'em by 5p to have a quick shot at Nine Fine w/Dave and hit my reservation at Gallagher's in NYNY for a Xmas steak dinner. Again as I was alone just sat at the bar and ate, and man, this was one of the highlights of the trip. Had a filet medium well, it was cooked perfectly, just a little bit of char and the middle was still tender. Butter only and steak fries and I was in heaven for a half hour. I finally, FINALLY had a top-shelf meal in Vegas, after all these trips of eating at cafes and shitty sports bars (though I did that on this trip, too). The rest of the night is pretty nondescript again. I made it over to Cosmo, hung there a bit, then back to Monte Carlo and NYNY. Blew a couple more hundred on slots, having no luck whatsoever. Stayed out a little later and hit the rack at 3a.
Day 3, Thursday, got out of bed a little later and made it down to the strip around noon. Had a couple drinks at Diablo's at Monte Carlo, then made my way over to Aria looking to do burger #2 on my burger tour at Todd English's pub in Crystals. Ended up ordering not a cow but turkey from the "Carvery" menu...hmm, yeah, not so much. It was processed turkey. PROCESSED. The day after Christmas. It was a step above Oscar Meyer but clearly came out of a plastic wrapper. Pretty bland meal and it was expensive. Ended up getting drunk enough though on a seasonal Sam ale and Belvedere to for some reason buy a hoodie with the place's logo. I'm fairly certain the meal made me low-level sick for the next day and a half too so I'm not sure what kind of fond memories I'm going to have of the pub when I wear it, but whatever. I never bring souvenirs of Vegas back with me so here's one, at least.
Then rolled back over to have what I thought was going to be one last shot and beer before going up for the traditional nap at Nine Fine, but ended up getting into a conversation with a cute redhead from Australia, Kathy. A little older than my usual target range (she was probably late 30's) but she was very gregarious and I was fairly drunk and the next thing you know we're macking on each other in the bar and I'm in there til, I don't know, 11p? We stumble into the casino and blow through a couple hundie on slots and then...she's in my room.
Yep, Vegas got me laid, finally.
In the morning, said my goodbyes to the lovely Kathy and made preparations to checkout, but then realized I had barely spent any money the previous night in all the frivolity so I decided to stay another night. I felt like, fuck it, this is what you dream about for 3 months at a time between trips, when you have a chance to stay an extra night you take it. NYNY was sold out (this was the 27th, less than a week until NYE) so I jumped over to Ex as I figured that would be about the last, best chance to find a room without spending the whole morning going from low-end resort to the next. I literally got their last room, for full boat $150 including resort fee. At the Excalibur. Whose rooms usually go for $35. Eh, whatever, I had the bullshit $300 deposit from NYNY in my pocket and it was only $75 to change my flight on United to the next day so I was still up in my mind from where I was when I woke up.
Went up to the run down room at Ex and tried, for HOURS, to take a nap, and just couldn't do it. Got maybe a half hour lying down for 4 hours. Lame. I was still hung over from being up late with Kathy the night before but I finally gave up and just went out. Did have a cool moment after I "woke up" though, stood at my window while getting ready to go out looking east over the Vegas valley and watched the sun go down under the Mojave mountains and saw the endless line of airplanes coming in bringing all the partiers from California. It was mesmerizing. One of the really cool little moments of the trip.
Stopped in and said "goodbye and thanks for the memories" to Dave at Nine Fine, then made my way over to Monte Carlo. Played more losing slots, went to the Pub there to get, yes, chicken tenders and have a beer, then went over to Cosmo for the last time. The place was in full NYE weekend mode, the new addition to the Bond bar was open, there were girls dancing on tables everywhere, man, that joint knows how to party. And since I'm not a club guy I know I'm only getting the barest 10% of what's really going on. Sat at The Henry, was feeling pretty tired and weird from lack of sleep, had a couple Bailey's coffees (this would be dumb) which really didn't help. Just wasn't feeling the night, my body wasn't ready for the fourth day apparently, so I just slowly made my way back to the Ex, losing money on slots all the way and crawled into the uncomfortable bed at about 1:30a. Shitty, awful night's sleep, maybe 2 hours the whole night, probably due to the coffee. Ugh.
So I don't necessarily regret the extra day but it was certainly not the best day and my experience (and wallet) would have been no worse off had I left on Friday as was the plan. Got up feeling wiped, got to the airport early and finally got home around noon, Vegas trip #4 on the year being in the books.
It's 3 full days later and I'm still recovering from this one. I slept like the death last night for 8 hours and when I woke up I felt like I needed 8 more. Was back at work today and tomorrow then definitely no NYE for me, just hibernate and maybe go out NY day. I'll have some more thoughts on this trip and my Vegas obsession in general in a following post, til then it's back to bed.
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