Post Mortem, 3/14.
Been back for a couple weeks, time for a wrap up, I guess, but there's really not much to talk about on this one, pretty standard trip.
Got into town around 11a, took a cab to MGM and went into the new Tap pub for a quick lunch. This was one of the highlights of the whole trip, good beer, a GREAT Cajun turkey sandwich. Nothing but chubby white guys in there, and they're still clearly working out the kinks (the channel I requested to watch got changed about 5 minutes later with no one noticing), but overall a good experience and definitely a "do" on the next trip.
Stayed at the Luxor Towers this time. More check-in drama on this trip, which has become standard for all MGM resorts now and I suppose shouldn't even surprise me. Got to the desk prepared to surrender my $100 a night "hold" on a non-amenities-having room simply b/c it's comped; I've resigned myself to this by now and saved the extra money so it wouldn't affect my trip, but now MGM has found a new way to fuck-start the beginning of a trip. I protested the hold meekly but was ready to surrender the cash when, out of the blue Luxor now has a "no cash" check-in policy, so I now have to surrender a credit card to cover the hold. I had little or nothing on my debit as I had cleared out my account for cash, so as a result they check me in but cut off any charging ability to the room, thus making my $50 in resort credit worthless. More protests, more talking to powerless "supervisors", no joy. I'm so deep into the MGM rewards program now that I'm really almost stuck staying at MGM properties but I swear if I was willing to start over again I'd tear up my MLife card and go TR in a heartbeat.
So once again, as always, ridiculous MGM policies put a damper on what should be a glorious day, checking into a beautiful resort for a 4 day stay, instead making me resent the place I'm supposed to be relaxing in and enjoying. At least this time it means I actually have MORE cash on hand in a way so I get over it and settle into the room. Or the plan was to settle into a room. The first room I'm given is a handicapped-accessible room. It has a roll in shower with a (broken) hand showering nozzle. I'm not handicapped (physically, anyway). I'm not sure if this was a subtle "fuck you" from the front desk guy due to my having caused a kerfuffle, but if it was I was not amused. So I call down, request a regular room, have to load up all my shit and wait for the new keys to be brought up. This finally happens and half hour later I'm finally in my room. The Tower rooms are a step up from the Pyramid rooms but not much of a step. Small and simple, not as horrid as Excalibur's rooms but showing age. Worn carpet, mold around the shower. It's fine, but nothing like the suite at THEhotel (which was also gratis). The shower itself was pretty heavenly, but aside from that run of the mill. As it turned out it didn't matter much as I was in the room less than normal on my trips.
So I get a couple hour nap and get cleaned up for the first night out. This was my first over-the-weekend trip, so it's a Friday night when I get there, and sadly, it's NASCAR weekend. Never have you seen so many unattractive white people wearing baseball caps and cargo shorts and t-shirts with "44" or whatever on them. Pretty much as I predicted. I decided to make the first night a "home" night so I stuck to Luxor, NYNY (Nine Fine), Monte Carlo, Cosmo that night and got well liquored up. Spent a little time in Bond at Cosmo. Wherever I went this trip it seemed mellow in the bars, dunno if the higher-end bars were light due to the clientele in town or if I was just in the wrong places at the wrong times. It was like a fucking Depeche Mode song out there. Ended up the night at the brand new Double Barrel Roadhouse outside MC. Fun atmosphere if a little personality-less at this point, sure it'll take some time to wear in. Was in bed by around 4a.
Saturday morning, up and at 'em fairly early and I make good on my promise to myself to try to get up north more. Walked up from Aria to Mirage, kind of a haul through the sea of NASCAR humanity. Got there and was a little tired and pissed at said humanity, was going to eat at BLT Burger at Mirage which is supposed to be good but sat at the bar for 10 minutes w/o even being acknowledged or offered a glass of water (which I needed) so I jumped out and into the deli there. Had a Stella and a very uninspiring brisket sandwich. Tasteless aside from the au jus. Moseyed out of there and found the Abbey Road bar outside of the Revolution Beatles-themed club. Had a couple good but pricey drinks here and ogled the too-fine bartender for a while. Watched some drunken shlubs getting lucky with some questionable talent in the bar. Again, wrong place wrong time was kind of a theme on this trip, but in this case it was probably for the best.
Started working my way back around 6p by stopping at Bellagio, where I would spend a decent amount of the next two days. Had zero luck on the slots, then around 8p went into the Lily bar and hung out for some time. Hardly anyone in there and the bartender wasn't very personable so I made my way out and from here it gets a little fuzzy, honestly. Spent some quality time at Cosmo in a couple different bars including Vesper (which is dark and kind of seedy, strangely for Cosmopolitan). Got back to the room late after stopping at the McDonald's at Excalibur (why?).
Went straight through w/o a nap the day before so I woke up late Sunday after turning off my alarm, got out of bed around 1p and out to Nine Fine right about as the NASCAR race was ending. Had yet another very mediocre sandwich, a cheese steak this time (what is it with me and Vegas food?), and started working my way up north again. Had a couple beers at The Pub at MC, not much going on there so it was onto the tram and up to Bellagio again. More bad gambling, then ducked into Lily again. This time a personable bartender was there so I hung out in there for quite a while watching the Dubs win. Drank quite a bit. Some guy tried to buy me a $450 shot of some sort of nuclear Hennessy. I said no on principle. For $450 the shot would have had to come with a high class and talented blow job. It did not. Then rolled into Fix at the bar before it got busy. Pretty mellow, mostly just me and the bartenders.
"Pretty mellow" was a summation of time spent in bars on this trip; I think my elitist strategy of trying to avoid the NASCAR crowd may have worked too well, I didn't see much of them but I also didn't see much in the way of an eligible female the entire trip either. Made my drunken way back down the Blvd, stopped again at Double Barrel before they closed then spent some more time on bad gambling duty before stumbling into bed around 7a.
The next morning it was check out, shower, stop into Ri Ra on the way to the airport for one last Guinness and I was out of town at 2p.
Hate to say it, but really a pretty boring trip, although it was still very enjoyable and far superior to spending a night out in SF. Aside from the 2 hours or so at the very start of the trip I never made to the east side of the Strip at all, despite my desire to check out Venetian/Palazzo. Wanted to hit a couple dive bars...no go. Wanted to eat good comfort food and a lot of it, did neither aside from at Tap in the first hour of the trip. I definitely think the timing of the trip was off too. The NASCAR thing seemed to have the Strip all discombobulated. There were people about but the higher end places seemed dead and the other spots I went to had a weird vibe. Never again a trip on NASCAR weekend.
More MGM disappointment, although I did cross into MLife "Gold" status so I will start seeing some serious benefits now on future trips, and somehow bad-gambled enough to get about halfway to "Platinum", where the true pimp shit starts kicking in. As miffed as I am at MGM I'm sure the next good offer coming from a higher end resort (no more Luxor or Ex for me, I'm movin' on up) I'll jump at. Already have a decent one from Mandalay and I'm looking to get tickets to the Soundgarden/NIN show at the end of July, so that could be the next trip. Maybe make a road trip out of this one and see a little bit of the West. I never go anywhere...except Vegas.
Got into town around 11a, took a cab to MGM and went into the new Tap pub for a quick lunch. This was one of the highlights of the whole trip, good beer, a GREAT Cajun turkey sandwich. Nothing but chubby white guys in there, and they're still clearly working out the kinks (the channel I requested to watch got changed about 5 minutes later with no one noticing), but overall a good experience and definitely a "do" on the next trip.
Stayed at the Luxor Towers this time. More check-in drama on this trip, which has become standard for all MGM resorts now and I suppose shouldn't even surprise me. Got to the desk prepared to surrender my $100 a night "hold" on a non-amenities-having room simply b/c it's comped; I've resigned myself to this by now and saved the extra money so it wouldn't affect my trip, but now MGM has found a new way to fuck-start the beginning of a trip. I protested the hold meekly but was ready to surrender the cash when, out of the blue Luxor now has a "no cash" check-in policy, so I now have to surrender a credit card to cover the hold. I had little or nothing on my debit as I had cleared out my account for cash, so as a result they check me in but cut off any charging ability to the room, thus making my $50 in resort credit worthless. More protests, more talking to powerless "supervisors", no joy. I'm so deep into the MGM rewards program now that I'm really almost stuck staying at MGM properties but I swear if I was willing to start over again I'd tear up my MLife card and go TR in a heartbeat.
So once again, as always, ridiculous MGM policies put a damper on what should be a glorious day, checking into a beautiful resort for a 4 day stay, instead making me resent the place I'm supposed to be relaxing in and enjoying. At least this time it means I actually have MORE cash on hand in a way so I get over it and settle into the room. Or the plan was to settle into a room. The first room I'm given is a handicapped-accessible room. It has a roll in shower with a (broken) hand showering nozzle. I'm not handicapped (physically, anyway). I'm not sure if this was a subtle "fuck you" from the front desk guy due to my having caused a kerfuffle, but if it was I was not amused. So I call down, request a regular room, have to load up all my shit and wait for the new keys to be brought up. This finally happens and half hour later I'm finally in my room. The Tower rooms are a step up from the Pyramid rooms but not much of a step. Small and simple, not as horrid as Excalibur's rooms but showing age. Worn carpet, mold around the shower. It's fine, but nothing like the suite at THEhotel (which was also gratis). The shower itself was pretty heavenly, but aside from that run of the mill. As it turned out it didn't matter much as I was in the room less than normal on my trips.
So I get a couple hour nap and get cleaned up for the first night out. This was my first over-the-weekend trip, so it's a Friday night when I get there, and sadly, it's NASCAR weekend. Never have you seen so many unattractive white people wearing baseball caps and cargo shorts and t-shirts with "44" or whatever on them. Pretty much as I predicted. I decided to make the first night a "home" night so I stuck to Luxor, NYNY (Nine Fine), Monte Carlo, Cosmo that night and got well liquored up. Spent a little time in Bond at Cosmo. Wherever I went this trip it seemed mellow in the bars, dunno if the higher-end bars were light due to the clientele in town or if I was just in the wrong places at the wrong times. It was like a fucking Depeche Mode song out there. Ended up the night at the brand new Double Barrel Roadhouse outside MC. Fun atmosphere if a little personality-less at this point, sure it'll take some time to wear in. Was in bed by around 4a.
Saturday morning, up and at 'em fairly early and I make good on my promise to myself to try to get up north more. Walked up from Aria to Mirage, kind of a haul through the sea of NASCAR humanity. Got there and was a little tired and pissed at said humanity, was going to eat at BLT Burger at Mirage which is supposed to be good but sat at the bar for 10 minutes w/o even being acknowledged or offered a glass of water (which I needed) so I jumped out and into the deli there. Had a Stella and a very uninspiring brisket sandwich. Tasteless aside from the au jus. Moseyed out of there and found the Abbey Road bar outside of the Revolution Beatles-themed club. Had a couple good but pricey drinks here and ogled the too-fine bartender for a while. Watched some drunken shlubs getting lucky with some questionable talent in the bar. Again, wrong place wrong time was kind of a theme on this trip, but in this case it was probably for the best.
Started working my way back around 6p by stopping at Bellagio, where I would spend a decent amount of the next two days. Had zero luck on the slots, then around 8p went into the Lily bar and hung out for some time. Hardly anyone in there and the bartender wasn't very personable so I made my way out and from here it gets a little fuzzy, honestly. Spent some quality time at Cosmo in a couple different bars including Vesper (which is dark and kind of seedy, strangely for Cosmopolitan). Got back to the room late after stopping at the McDonald's at Excalibur (why?).
Went straight through w/o a nap the day before so I woke up late Sunday after turning off my alarm, got out of bed around 1p and out to Nine Fine right about as the NASCAR race was ending. Had yet another very mediocre sandwich, a cheese steak this time (what is it with me and Vegas food?), and started working my way up north again. Had a couple beers at The Pub at MC, not much going on there so it was onto the tram and up to Bellagio again. More bad gambling, then ducked into Lily again. This time a personable bartender was there so I hung out in there for quite a while watching the Dubs win. Drank quite a bit. Some guy tried to buy me a $450 shot of some sort of nuclear Hennessy. I said no on principle. For $450 the shot would have had to come with a high class and talented blow job. It did not. Then rolled into Fix at the bar before it got busy. Pretty mellow, mostly just me and the bartenders.
"Pretty mellow" was a summation of time spent in bars on this trip; I think my elitist strategy of trying to avoid the NASCAR crowd may have worked too well, I didn't see much of them but I also didn't see much in the way of an eligible female the entire trip either. Made my drunken way back down the Blvd, stopped again at Double Barrel before they closed then spent some more time on bad gambling duty before stumbling into bed around 7a.
The next morning it was check out, shower, stop into Ri Ra on the way to the airport for one last Guinness and I was out of town at 2p.
Hate to say it, but really a pretty boring trip, although it was still very enjoyable and far superior to spending a night out in SF. Aside from the 2 hours or so at the very start of the trip I never made to the east side of the Strip at all, despite my desire to check out Venetian/Palazzo. Wanted to hit a couple dive bars...no go. Wanted to eat good comfort food and a lot of it, did neither aside from at Tap in the first hour of the trip. I definitely think the timing of the trip was off too. The NASCAR thing seemed to have the Strip all discombobulated. There were people about but the higher end places seemed dead and the other spots I went to had a weird vibe. Never again a trip on NASCAR weekend.
More MGM disappointment, although I did cross into MLife "Gold" status so I will start seeing some serious benefits now on future trips, and somehow bad-gambled enough to get about halfway to "Platinum", where the true pimp shit starts kicking in. As miffed as I am at MGM I'm sure the next good offer coming from a higher end resort (no more Luxor or Ex for me, I'm movin' on up) I'll jump at. Already have a decent one from Mandalay and I'm looking to get tickets to the Soundgarden/NIN show at the end of July, so that could be the next trip. Maybe make a road trip out of this one and see a little bit of the West. I never go anywhere...except Vegas.
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