(Ok, so this is way too long and the pictures and videos aren't great. But I was writing it as much for my own memories as for your benefit. Still, I hope you get something out of it)
The idea
ME: “Hey, Jimmy Buffett’s coming to Portland in October. Hey, we should go see him—I’ve always wanted to. Hey, wouldn’t it be cooler if we went and saw him in Vegas? Hey, he’s playing there the weekend of your birthday, and it was our 10th anniversary just a month ago. Let’s go!”
I mentioned it to my good buddy Scott (fraternity brother), who lives down in Dallas. We’d been to Vegas together a couple times before, and always had a great time, whether it was slummin’ it downtown or livin it up at the Palms. It didn’t take long for him to be on board and bringing his girlfriend, and as soon as my wife got the time off from work the trip was all set. Because of the recommendation of a former LVA member “Amytim”, we decided to give Southpoint a shot. Flights booked……Vegas, baby!
Things start to get interesting
So a few weeks go by and Scott mentions that he’s wanting to propose to his girl on this trip. Well, then the floodgates opened and all sorts of ideas started pouring out about how we could surprise the girls with various things and make the trip really special for them. We contemplated booking one of the suites for us to share, but eventually decided the price was just a little too steep and we booked a couple of the standard rooms for about $50 a night.
So now we’re about 2 months away, and Scott and I are texting daily with ideas for the trip. At one point I tell him, “why don’t you write Southpoint a letter and tell them about our weekend—that you’re going to propose, that it’s her first time in Vegas, and that it’s our 10th anniversary and my wife’s birthday….and see if they throw anything our way”. I was really just kidding, since none of us had any history of play there I figured a upfront comp was out of the question. A couple days later I get an e-mail from reservations at Southpoint, saying my room had been cancelled. WTF!?! I send Scott a note first to as if he knew anything about that, and he tells me that they are COMPING us the 2bd 2bath suite, upfront. You know….the suite that you can’t even reserve on the website…you have to do it by phone. Too good to be true, so I send an e-mail to reservations at SP and they confirm his story. I was absolutely floored—none of us had ever stayed or played there before. Literally, Scott had just sent a nice note to them and explained everything, and they threw us the best room in the house.
Well once we knew we had that in the bag, we came up with all sorts of other things to spend the money on. Scott booked a limo, and started talking with the folks at Prime (Bellagio) about the dinner where he was going to propose. We started putting together care packages (outfits, lotions, jewelry, etc) for our girls. Flowers. Spa treatments. Custom engraved shot glasses and champagne flutes. And the best part was, the girls weren’t going to know about ANY of it until we got there……
Heading out
Well, we had a ton of stuff to get done in the days leading up to the trip, which meant packing wasn’t really getting done until about 10pm the night before the flight. Which also meant only about 4 hours of sleep since we had an early flight out of Portland. Had a friend pick us up and take us there, and we were at the gate at about 6:30 for a 7:55 flight. Checked one bag for $20, and carried the garment bag and two other small bags on the plane. In one of the “personal” bags I have the custom shot glasses, clothes, jewelry, and lotion/girlie things for Suzi. That bag wasn’t leaving my side.
Getting there early means there’s time for a double gin and tonic for me,
and a bailey’s and coffee for Suzi. Flight was great…on time, not bumpy, and went by quickly. Was texting Scott right up until the last minute (his flight from Dallas was leaving later). We were so excited about all the secrets we had for the girls, particularly the room. Got the bags and grabbed the shuttle to the new (at least new to us) rental car center.
Our reservation was with Dollar, and we’ve never had a problem with them. Getting in and out of there was speedy and efficient. Suzi was immediately drawn to the bright red dodge charger (she’s a race car driver at heart).
We made our way out of the rental center and immediately took a wrong turn. Although, according to my wife it was someone else’s fault. And I don’t argue when she says that. We’re in a bit of a quandary because we don’t really have time to hit the M resort like I’d originally suggested, but it was going to be quite a while before Scott and Zaira landed and we couldn’t just sit there at the airport. So once we got back on the right road, we headed down South LV Blvd toward Southpoint. Now I didn’t really want to go TO Southpoint because I didn’t want Suzi to be tempted to check if our room was ready, and blow the surprise of the suite. So we stopped at a Circle K not far from the hotel, and got some snacks and water. Suzi says she figures we might as well go back to the airport and just circle the lot until they get there. Again, I know this is not a good idea (we had WAAAAY too much time to kill), but on the other hand the only other option was hitting the hotel and I didn’t want to do that. So back to the airport. Lap 2…..lap 5….lap 10….finally on lap 14 and after some “illegal” parking, we finally saw our companions waiting at the curb.
Got them in the car, and head off to the hotel. It’s about 12:40 by now. On the way there, while playing with the Sirus satellite radio in the car, the song “Informer” by Snow comes on. Which will be important for later in the report, but at the time Scott and I got a big laugh out of it because it reminded us both of a fraternity brother who used to BLAST that song. Get to the hotel (which looks GREAT from the outside), and valet park the car. It’s crunch time. Scott and I were really hoping that the suite would be ready when we got there so that our secret could be held until the last minute. Our plan from the beginning was to send the girls to the gift shop to get some alcohol, while Scott and I checked in. Thankfully (and kudos to SP), the suite was ready. We gave our bags to the bellhop for him to bring up, and Scott and I went off to find the girls. They had grabbed some bottles of booze, and we said well the rooms are ready ,let’s go up. Suzi asked if the rooms are right next to each other, and of course we said “sure, they’re really close”. Take the elevator up to the 25th floor, walk down the hallway. I get my phone out and start taking video. Get to the front door of 2566, and we play it like this is Scott’s room but we’re just going to take a look. Suzi said she kind of started to suspect something when she saw that the doors to the rooms were so far apart. Got the door open and, well, you can see the details here in the video (sorry about my finger….)
]Entering.....
The room: ok, this suite was SWEET! 2bd, 2 jaccuzzi baths, 6 tv’s, 2 huge showers (could have probably fit 4 people in them without anybody touching---not that we tried), awesome beds, bar, full kitchen, dining table, etc. Best room I’ve ever been in. Everything was immaculate and gorgeous.
So the girls go in and start looking around, in awe of how cool the place is. Once they’ve finished looking over every inch of the place, I bust out the custom shot glasses I’ve made and some of the X-rated that the girls bought downstairs. We have a toast, and I mention….oh by the way the room is free. Suzi says, “uh, what? Whaddya mean free?”.
Free, as in, we ain’t paying for it. I told a story about how my friend Amy from the Las Vegas Advisor board had recommended the place and given me the name of a host there, who I contacted and told the story about this weekend being Suzi’s birthday weekend and our 10th anniversary. And that because of that, they comped the suite upfront. That was the story I told in front of everyone….and then later when I had Suzi alone I explained that TRUE story about the letter that Scott wrote to Southpoint. The part about Amy was true, but the rest of it was due to what Scott did…not what I did.
So we get our stuff unpacked, take a couple more shots of the x-rated, and head downstairs to grab some food. I’d heard that Mexican joint at Southpoint was decent, so we headed there. On the way there we start really noticing all the cowboys (well, Suzi noticed them. I was more focused on the cowgirls). Turns out PBR was that weekend, and the place was crawling with ropers and riders. And I don’t know if this is typical at SP, but all we heard was country music, all weekend. Fine with me.
We grabbed a both in the restaurant, and immediately the table next to us introduces themselves and this nice old man tells us that we need to try the lunch special, that it’s the best deal on the menu. Sure thing buddy. Order a couple of margaritas and a corona, partake in the free chips, salsa, and bean dip, and put in our orders. It comes out fast, good, and reasonably priced. It’s not high-end Mexican food by any means, but it was all we needed. Besides, I was itching to get downstairs and throw in a $20. That was easily the longest I’d been in Vegas without pumping some cash into a machine…..
The signup takes on only a couple minutes, and the staff were very friendly. Got our fun book (I declined the bungee cord), and head off to find some full-pay VP machines—not hard to do at SouthPoint. I’ve got a bit of a buzz going, but not enough to excuse what I did next. I tried my players card in all of the machines, for about 5 minutes, and COULD NOT get it to work. I was getting annoyed because hey, we’d been in Vegas for like 5 hours and I had yet to do any gambling. So head on over to the players club and confront the nice lady with, “Hey I’ve tried this in a bunch of machines and it doesn’t work!”. She takes a deep breath and says “Sir, that’s your room key”. I blinked twice and just turned and walked away. Yeah, that wasn’t embarrassing or anything.
So the four of us sat and had a great time at the video poker machines….no big wins but no big losses either. At about 4:30 the girls headed up to the room to start getting ready for the evening. This was the night that we’d all decided we were going to dress up…..and 3 of the four of us knew of the impending proposal that night. Scott and I played for a few more minutes, then headed up. We had a couple more shots, and toasted the evening.
Headed downstairs at 5:30 which was when the limo was there to pick us up. I sort of HAD to tell Suzi about it early (she was worried about who was going to drive later if we were all drinking), but it was a big shock to Zaira. The driver had a couple of roses for the ladies, and a bottle of champagne chilling inside the car. It was a gorgeous ride toward the strip, and we enjoyed every minute of it.
Suzi and I had made up a story early about how we had to meet some old friends at NYNY to watch the Ducks game, because Scott wanted to do the proposal on his own. He took her to Prime at the Bellagio, where they’d given him the best table in the house, laid out a bunch of rose petals on the table, and customized the dessert for them.
Apparently everything went perfectly, and she said yes.
While all this is happening, Suzi and I are at NYNY Sporting Zone (used to be ESPN Zone), to watch the Oregon Ducks pound the hell out of UCLA. The game went as expected, and we had a great time in there. The food is VERY good, the service even better. The staff were right on top of things, cheery, and fun. At about halftime we’d finished our meal and went out to the gaming floor to wait for Scott and Zaira to call. The plan was that when they were all done, we would meet up again, go to the Eiffel tower and take the ride up….maybe have some drinks, etc. But once Suzi and I got out on the NYNY gaming floor we realized how tired we actually were. It had been a LONG day already, and we’d each only gotten about 4 hours of sleep. We checked with Scott to see where they were at, and said that we really needed to just head back to the hotel. We both needed to get into some relaxing clothes and get some rest. So we grabbed a cab back (only about $20), I took Suzi up to the room to put her to bed, and I headed back down to play some solo video poker. I was down there for maybe 2 hours, lost a little while, then got dealt four aces while playing a bonus machine, so that pretty much put me at even for the night.
Decided that was enough, and headed upstairs for bed at about 1:30am.
Day 2 FRIDAY
I think Suzi and I got up around 7:30am, and headed downstairs (after she had her coffee) to play some video poker. One of the things I’d don’t the night before while I was wandering around by myself, was case the entire casino and figure out where all the good machines were. I had this particular game I wanted to play called Super Times Pay poker, and I discovered there was only one bank of five machines in the whole casino. So when we headed downstairs I took Suzi to those machines and we started playing. Started the drinking with a Bloody Mary…Suzi had a Bailey’s/coffee things, and we were off and running. After a while, Scott and Zaira came down. And of course there were hugs all around, a retelling of the proposal, showing off of the ring, and more hugs. Suzi and I were so happy for them—what a great couple. Eventually we all settled in to the bank of five machines and started playing. I can’t remember how all of us did that day, but I’m pretty sure Zaira was the first to hit the four deuces,
and Scott followed not long after. We were all having a great time (and time was passing quickly). Eventually we were all starving and decided to give the buffet at Southpoint a shot. Our original plan was to drive down the the M resort because we’d heard it was a top notch buffet, but when faced with the prospect of driving (we’d ALL been drinking), and undoubtably spending a lot more money than we would at Southpoint, we decided to just stay at our home casino.
On a scale of 1-10, I’d give it about a 6.5 It was very reasonably priced, and tasty. Not a huge variety, and no real specialty or exotic dishes. Pretty pedestrian, but hey all we needed was something in our bellies. I think I had a nice plate of the fresh-cooked stirfry, a salad, some dessert.
If I recall correctly, we headed back up to the room briefly, and grabbed our stuff for a foray to the strip. One of the plans was to hit the roller coaster at NYNY. At least, that was the plan for the other three—I ended up holding the purses and other stuff while they took their ride. We also walked through Mandalay Bay, Excalibur, and the Luxor, and took the monorail for a little while.
Zaira, being a vegas virgin, was duly impressed. Eventually we ended up back at NYNY, hoping to grab a seat at the Sporting Zone to watch the Rangers put away the Yankees and head off to the World Series. We managed to grab a seat in the big room, with tons of viewing options. Again…this place is great. Scott and Zaira got the staff to run Suzi’s name along with a “Happy Birthday” on their sports ticker, which was a nice touch.
I don’t really even recall what we had, but it was good. We headed out after about the 3rd inning, wanting to head back to Southpoint so that Suzi could stop worrying about driving and have some drinks (since it was her birthday).
On the way back, the “Informer” song came on again. Now, Suzi is the ONLY one sober (she’s driving), and the rest of us are having a great time being goofy with this song. If you don’t know it, it’s a totally cheesy, stupid white-rapper song. So we rolled down the window and cranked the music like we were stupid white gangsters. It just got funnier and funnier, and eventually I took a little video of Suzi doing a dance as she drove the car. Good times….good times.
Informer
Knowing that we had booze in the room, we headed back there to watch some more of the game and do some shots of what we had (X-rated and Hypnotiq).
Scott had some custom made champagne flutes with the words “Vegas Violet” engraved in them.
Our intention was to create a signature drink while we were there…something purple in hue since that was Zaira’s favorite color. Well, our first attempt was pretty disgusting. It involved champagne and some berry alcohol and it tasted like Robitussin. Suzi went over to the bar and concocted something else using the Hypnotiq and some of the fruit juices (from the stocked fridge) and it was much better. We all put down a couple drinks, and retreated to our bedrooms.
Now, normally I wouldn’t spend quite this much time in a hotel room in Vegas, but this was a special room. We soaked in the huge jaccuzzi tub (while watching tv), and eventually came back out to the living room towards the 6th or 7th inning. Things were starting to look really good for the Rangers, and Scott was very excited, being a Rangers fan. Some more drinks, yelling as the Rangers hit home runs and eventually took care of business.
The game ended, and Suzi and I headed downstairs to gamble some more, assuming that the other two would come down right behind us. Well, I think we gambled for a while and eventually just ran out of gas, and just as we were going to head back up to the room, Scott and Zaira came down. We gambled a little while longer, and eventually decided we needed some food. This was our one foray into the 24-hour café at Southpoint. They were pretty busy, and the staff was working pretty hard (and not really keeping up). The food was pretty bland and average at best. But again, it filled our bellies and let us get a good night’s sleep without too many ill effects from the alcohol.
Saturday, 23rd
Slept in a little later this day, but still managed to be downstairs at “our” machines by 8:30 or so. Just can’t sleep that much in Vegas. ? This morning Suzi was trying a new drink called a Tic Tac. Something like Absolute Mandarin, Red Bull, and an Triple Sec. I’ll be damned if it doesn’t taste like an orange tic-tac. Well, Suzi got about 3-4 of those over the next couple hours. She also managed to get DEALT four kings on the double double bonus game, and not more than 10 minutes later got DEALT the four kings again!
She was pretty proud of herself. We were having a great time, and doing pretty well with the gambling—at least well enough to keep everyone sitting there and happy.
Around 11am it was time for the girls to go get ready for their spa treatments. Scott and I had set them both up with massages and pedicures in the spa, and Southpoint had graciously offered a nice gift basket that was complimentary. The plan was that they would get to relax in the spa while Scott and I enjoyed some male-bonding in front of a video poker machine and a day’s worth of college football games. We headed first to the hot dog stand over by the sportsbook, which serves GREAT hotdogs for 75cents each (and don’t try to pay with a $20). I think we had two each, and then we went about 30 yards to our left where the bar and sports book were. There wasn’t actually a good game on—and we hadn’t bet on any of them. Unfortunately, Scott’s Longhorns were in the process of getting shocked at home by an Iowa State team. We each had several drinks, played on the same $50 or so for quite a while, and discussed life issues.
Eventually we got hungry again, and walked past the Big Sur Oyster bar. Now, I never usually get to eat seafood around Suzi since she’s “allergic” to it (long story), so the idea of eating crab or shellfish or ANYTHING out of the ocean is pretty appealing on a vacation. We grabbed a couple seats and the bar and debated the menu. Scott finally noticed that they had a special of 1.5lbs of crab legs for about $17 each. Game over. I felt the need to order a salad along with my crablegs, as if that was somehow going to soak up all the alcohol I’d already consumed and the 2 sticks of butter I was going to use to eat my crab legs. Boy, we PLOWED through those things, and they were VERY good. I can’t believe we both finished (and almost ran out of butter).
We could hardly move, but after the bill was paid we wandered to our favorite bank of machines and sat to play some more. It was at this time that we both got royal flushes on the SuperTimes pay machine. Scott got his paying deuces wild, held only 2 to the royal and pulled the other three. He jumped up and did a little happy dance because it was his first one ever. Mine came only about 10 minutes later, having held 4 to the royal and pulling one.
Both were on the nickel game, but it was still exciting for both of us. Around 4:30 we finally had to head back up to the room, as the girls were done with the spa and we all needed to head to the strip.
This was the night that Suzi and I were doing the Jimmy Buffet concert, and Scott and Zaira had planned to hit the Cirque show Mystere at Treasure Island. Hopped in the car, and headed to the strip, which was very crowded. I think Scott and Zaira had planned to have a leisurly dinner, but traffic was so congested they only had about 30 minutes before the show. We dropped them off, and Suzi and I headed to park at the MGM for the concert.
Now at this point we both hit a little bit of a wall. Traffic was getting frustrating, Suzi hadn’t eaten pretty much all day, and the drinking and eating was starting to catch up to us. Honestly, I was out of gas and if someone had just offered us face value for the tickets I might have considered it (glad I didn’t though). We found a café (good, but pricey) in the MGM to grab a bite before the concert, and made our way to the arena. TONS of parrotheads in great outfits, most looking like they’d been drinking all day. Must be a JB concert. Followed the crowd to the arena, and I started to perk up a bit. The arena is nothing special (a little dated) but the people there made it all worthwhile. Frankly, Jimmy Buffet was a LOT better than I expected. The vocals were tight, instruments were great, and a perfect selections of music. Suzi agreed that she loved it—much more than she was anticipating. He came back onstage for a couple encore songs….we stayed for the first one and didn’t recognize it so we bailed to beat the crowd. I would TOTALLY love to see him again though.
Five o'clock
Texted Scott and found that they were making their way to the Paris hotel to take a ride to the top of the Eiffel tower. Suzi and I boarded the car and were able to get there pretty quickly (thanks to my wife’s creative driving). Met up with them and exchanged stories about how wonderful our nights had been. Scott bought some tickets for us all to go up to the top, and it was everything we were hoping for. It was a first for Zaira, obviously, but not for the rest of us. We stayed there for quite a while….at least two full Bellagio water shows….and just breathed in the fun of the evening (and the trip, really). Beautiful night.
Stopped in at the Paris café for their YUMMY French Onion Soup. Our last meal together in Vegas, and what a trip it had been. Went back to the hotel and said our goodbyes---their flight was leaving early in the morning and they were considerate enough to not make us get up and take them to the airport (although we would have). It was sad watching them pack, knowing we wouldn’t see them again for several months, but we shared some hugs and smiles and laughs about all the great things we’d done together.
Suzi and I got a good night’s sleep, and in the morning decided that it was important for us to go to church before we did anything else. Our checkout time was noon, but our flight didn’t leave until about 9pm. We checked the room phone book for the nearest Catholic service, and found one at a shrine over by the Luxor hotel. We always try to go to a Sunday service, even when we’re out of town, and I’m glad that we did. The shrine was beautiful, and the service was full. Honestly, it was a great distraction and gave us some time to calm down and center ourselves on what’s really important.
We got back and rushed a little trying to get everything packed by noon so we could check out. Suzi did the finishing touches as I went downstairs to have our play reviewed by one of the slot hosts, Courtney Whitaker. Got to meet her, and she was able to comp all of the food charges we’d made to the room (about $150 I think). Score!
By this time we had about 5 hours to kill before we needed to have the car back to Dollar. Played quite a bit more VP, had another meal at the Mexican joint. Returned the car around 6pm, sped through the airport security, had an easy flight and back on the ground in PDX around 11pm.
SUMMARY
Best Vegas trip ever. I probably didn’t describe it as such, but really there were SO many great things about this trip I don’t even know where to start. Getting comped the best suite in the hotel without having every been there before. Comped food. Surprises for our ladies. Fun times gambling, seeing the sights, etc. I have a feeling we dropped a few hundred on gambling, but I couldn’t care less. It was an awesome trip and I’m really hoping Scott was serious when he said he wanted to go back there for the bachelor party…..
The idea
ME: “Hey, Jimmy Buffett’s coming to Portland in October. Hey, we should go see him—I’ve always wanted to. Hey, wouldn’t it be cooler if we went and saw him in Vegas? Hey, he’s playing there the weekend of your birthday, and it was our 10th anniversary just a month ago. Let’s go!”
I mentioned it to my good buddy Scott (fraternity brother), who lives down in Dallas. We’d been to Vegas together a couple times before, and always had a great time, whether it was slummin’ it downtown or livin it up at the Palms. It didn’t take long for him to be on board and bringing his girlfriend, and as soon as my wife got the time off from work the trip was all set. Because of the recommendation of a former LVA member “Amytim”, we decided to give Southpoint a shot. Flights booked……Vegas, baby!
Things start to get interesting
So a few weeks go by and Scott mentions that he’s wanting to propose to his girl on this trip. Well, then the floodgates opened and all sorts of ideas started pouring out about how we could surprise the girls with various things and make the trip really special for them. We contemplated booking one of the suites for us to share, but eventually decided the price was just a little too steep and we booked a couple of the standard rooms for about $50 a night.
So now we’re about 2 months away, and Scott and I are texting daily with ideas for the trip. At one point I tell him, “why don’t you write Southpoint a letter and tell them about our weekend—that you’re going to propose, that it’s her first time in Vegas, and that it’s our 10th anniversary and my wife’s birthday….and see if they throw anything our way”. I was really just kidding, since none of us had any history of play there I figured a upfront comp was out of the question. A couple days later I get an e-mail from reservations at Southpoint, saying my room had been cancelled. WTF!?! I send Scott a note first to as if he knew anything about that, and he tells me that they are COMPING us the 2bd 2bath suite, upfront. You know….the suite that you can’t even reserve on the website…you have to do it by phone. Too good to be true, so I send an e-mail to reservations at SP and they confirm his story. I was absolutely floored—none of us had ever stayed or played there before. Literally, Scott had just sent a nice note to them and explained everything, and they threw us the best room in the house.
Well once we knew we had that in the bag, we came up with all sorts of other things to spend the money on. Scott booked a limo, and started talking with the folks at Prime (Bellagio) about the dinner where he was going to propose. We started putting together care packages (outfits, lotions, jewelry, etc) for our girls. Flowers. Spa treatments. Custom engraved shot glasses and champagne flutes. And the best part was, the girls weren’t going to know about ANY of it until we got there……
Heading out
Well, we had a ton of stuff to get done in the days leading up to the trip, which meant packing wasn’t really getting done until about 10pm the night before the flight. Which also meant only about 4 hours of sleep since we had an early flight out of Portland. Had a friend pick us up and take us there, and we were at the gate at about 6:30 for a 7:55 flight. Checked one bag for $20, and carried the garment bag and two other small bags on the plane. In one of the “personal” bags I have the custom shot glasses, clothes, jewelry, and lotion/girlie things for Suzi. That bag wasn’t leaving my side.
Getting there early means there’s time for a double gin and tonic for me,
and a bailey’s and coffee for Suzi. Flight was great…on time, not bumpy, and went by quickly. Was texting Scott right up until the last minute (his flight from Dallas was leaving later). We were so excited about all the secrets we had for the girls, particularly the room. Got the bags and grabbed the shuttle to the new (at least new to us) rental car center. Our reservation was with Dollar, and we’ve never had a problem with them. Getting in and out of there was speedy and efficient. Suzi was immediately drawn to the bright red dodge charger (she’s a race car driver at heart).
We made our way out of the rental center and immediately took a wrong turn. Although, according to my wife it was someone else’s fault. And I don’t argue when she says that. We’re in a bit of a quandary because we don’t really have time to hit the M resort like I’d originally suggested, but it was going to be quite a while before Scott and Zaira landed and we couldn’t just sit there at the airport. So once we got back on the right road, we headed down South LV Blvd toward Southpoint. Now I didn’t really want to go TO Southpoint because I didn’t want Suzi to be tempted to check if our room was ready, and blow the surprise of the suite. So we stopped at a Circle K not far from the hotel, and got some snacks and water. Suzi says she figures we might as well go back to the airport and just circle the lot until they get there. Again, I know this is not a good idea (we had WAAAAY too much time to kill), but on the other hand the only other option was hitting the hotel and I didn’t want to do that. So back to the airport. Lap 2…..lap 5….lap 10….finally on lap 14 and after some “illegal” parking, we finally saw our companions waiting at the curb.
Got them in the car, and head off to the hotel. It’s about 12:40 by now. On the way there, while playing with the Sirus satellite radio in the car, the song “Informer” by Snow comes on. Which will be important for later in the report, but at the time Scott and I got a big laugh out of it because it reminded us both of a fraternity brother who used to BLAST that song. Get to the hotel (which looks GREAT from the outside), and valet park the car. It’s crunch time. Scott and I were really hoping that the suite would be ready when we got there so that our secret could be held until the last minute. Our plan from the beginning was to send the girls to the gift shop to get some alcohol, while Scott and I checked in. Thankfully (and kudos to SP), the suite was ready. We gave our bags to the bellhop for him to bring up, and Scott and I went off to find the girls. They had grabbed some bottles of booze, and we said well the rooms are ready ,let’s go up. Suzi asked if the rooms are right next to each other, and of course we said “sure, they’re really close”. Take the elevator up to the 25th floor, walk down the hallway. I get my phone out and start taking video. Get to the front door of 2566, and we play it like this is Scott’s room but we’re just going to take a look. Suzi said she kind of started to suspect something when she saw that the doors to the rooms were so far apart. Got the door open and, well, you can see the details here in the video (sorry about my finger….)
]Entering.....
The room: ok, this suite was SWEET! 2bd, 2 jaccuzzi baths, 6 tv’s, 2 huge showers (could have probably fit 4 people in them without anybody touching---not that we tried), awesome beds, bar, full kitchen, dining table, etc. Best room I’ve ever been in. Everything was immaculate and gorgeous.
So the girls go in and start looking around, in awe of how cool the place is. Once they’ve finished looking over every inch of the place, I bust out the custom shot glasses I’ve made and some of the X-rated that the girls bought downstairs. We have a toast, and I mention….oh by the way the room is free. Suzi says, “uh, what? Whaddya mean free?”.
Free, as in, we ain’t paying for it. I told a story about how my friend Amy from the Las Vegas Advisor board had recommended the place and given me the name of a host there, who I contacted and told the story about this weekend being Suzi’s birthday weekend and our 10th anniversary. And that because of that, they comped the suite upfront. That was the story I told in front of everyone….and then later when I had Suzi alone I explained that TRUE story about the letter that Scott wrote to Southpoint. The part about Amy was true, but the rest of it was due to what Scott did…not what I did. So we get our stuff unpacked, take a couple more shots of the x-rated, and head downstairs to grab some food. I’d heard that Mexican joint at Southpoint was decent, so we headed there. On the way there we start really noticing all the cowboys (well, Suzi noticed them. I was more focused on the cowgirls). Turns out PBR was that weekend, and the place was crawling with ropers and riders. And I don’t know if this is typical at SP, but all we heard was country music, all weekend. Fine with me.
We grabbed a both in the restaurant, and immediately the table next to us introduces themselves and this nice old man tells us that we need to try the lunch special, that it’s the best deal on the menu. Sure thing buddy. Order a couple of margaritas and a corona, partake in the free chips, salsa, and bean dip, and put in our orders. It comes out fast, good, and reasonably priced. It’s not high-end Mexican food by any means, but it was all we needed. Besides, I was itching to get downstairs and throw in a $20. That was easily the longest I’d been in Vegas without pumping some cash into a machine…..
The signup takes on only a couple minutes, and the staff were very friendly. Got our fun book (I declined the bungee cord), and head off to find some full-pay VP machines—not hard to do at SouthPoint. I’ve got a bit of a buzz going, but not enough to excuse what I did next. I tried my players card in all of the machines, for about 5 minutes, and COULD NOT get it to work. I was getting annoyed because hey, we’d been in Vegas for like 5 hours and I had yet to do any gambling. So head on over to the players club and confront the nice lady with, “Hey I’ve tried this in a bunch of machines and it doesn’t work!”. She takes a deep breath and says “Sir, that’s your room key”. I blinked twice and just turned and walked away. Yeah, that wasn’t embarrassing or anything.
So the four of us sat and had a great time at the video poker machines….no big wins but no big losses either. At about 4:30 the girls headed up to the room to start getting ready for the evening. This was the night that we’d all decided we were going to dress up…..and 3 of the four of us knew of the impending proposal that night. Scott and I played for a few more minutes, then headed up. We had a couple more shots, and toasted the evening.
Headed downstairs at 5:30 which was when the limo was there to pick us up. I sort of HAD to tell Suzi about it early (she was worried about who was going to drive later if we were all drinking), but it was a big shock to Zaira. The driver had a couple of roses for the ladies, and a bottle of champagne chilling inside the car. It was a gorgeous ride toward the strip, and we enjoyed every minute of it.
Suzi and I had made up a story early about how we had to meet some old friends at NYNY to watch the Ducks game, because Scott wanted to do the proposal on his own. He took her to Prime at the Bellagio, where they’d given him the best table in the house, laid out a bunch of rose petals on the table, and customized the dessert for them.
Apparently everything went perfectly, and she said yes.
While all this is happening, Suzi and I are at NYNY Sporting Zone (used to be ESPN Zone), to watch the Oregon Ducks pound the hell out of UCLA. The game went as expected, and we had a great time in there. The food is VERY good, the service even better. The staff were right on top of things, cheery, and fun. At about halftime we’d finished our meal and went out to the gaming floor to wait for Scott and Zaira to call. The plan was that when they were all done, we would meet up again, go to the Eiffel tower and take the ride up….maybe have some drinks, etc. But once Suzi and I got out on the NYNY gaming floor we realized how tired we actually were. It had been a LONG day already, and we’d each only gotten about 4 hours of sleep. We checked with Scott to see where they were at, and said that we really needed to just head back to the hotel. We both needed to get into some relaxing clothes and get some rest. So we grabbed a cab back (only about $20), I took Suzi up to the room to put her to bed, and I headed back down to play some solo video poker. I was down there for maybe 2 hours, lost a little while, then got dealt four aces while playing a bonus machine, so that pretty much put me at even for the night.
Decided that was enough, and headed upstairs for bed at about 1:30am.
Day 2 FRIDAY
I think Suzi and I got up around 7:30am, and headed downstairs (after she had her coffee) to play some video poker. One of the things I’d don’t the night before while I was wandering around by myself, was case the entire casino and figure out where all the good machines were. I had this particular game I wanted to play called Super Times Pay poker, and I discovered there was only one bank of five machines in the whole casino. So when we headed downstairs I took Suzi to those machines and we started playing. Started the drinking with a Bloody Mary…Suzi had a Bailey’s/coffee things, and we were off and running. After a while, Scott and Zaira came down. And of course there were hugs all around, a retelling of the proposal, showing off of the ring, and more hugs. Suzi and I were so happy for them—what a great couple. Eventually we all settled in to the bank of five machines and started playing. I can’t remember how all of us did that day, but I’m pretty sure Zaira was the first to hit the four deuces,
and Scott followed not long after. We were all having a great time (and time was passing quickly). Eventually we were all starving and decided to give the buffet at Southpoint a shot. Our original plan was to drive down the the M resort because we’d heard it was a top notch buffet, but when faced with the prospect of driving (we’d ALL been drinking), and undoubtably spending a lot more money than we would at Southpoint, we decided to just stay at our home casino.
On a scale of 1-10, I’d give it about a 6.5 It was very reasonably priced, and tasty. Not a huge variety, and no real specialty or exotic dishes. Pretty pedestrian, but hey all we needed was something in our bellies. I think I had a nice plate of the fresh-cooked stirfry, a salad, some dessert.
If I recall correctly, we headed back up to the room briefly, and grabbed our stuff for a foray to the strip. One of the plans was to hit the roller coaster at NYNY. At least, that was the plan for the other three—I ended up holding the purses and other stuff while they took their ride. We also walked through Mandalay Bay, Excalibur, and the Luxor, and took the monorail for a little while.
Zaira, being a vegas virgin, was duly impressed. Eventually we ended up back at NYNY, hoping to grab a seat at the Sporting Zone to watch the Rangers put away the Yankees and head off to the World Series. We managed to grab a seat in the big room, with tons of viewing options. Again…this place is great. Scott and Zaira got the staff to run Suzi’s name along with a “Happy Birthday” on their sports ticker, which was a nice touch.
I don’t really even recall what we had, but it was good. We headed out after about the 3rd inning, wanting to head back to Southpoint so that Suzi could stop worrying about driving and have some drinks (since it was her birthday).
On the way back, the “Informer” song came on again. Now, Suzi is the ONLY one sober (she’s driving), and the rest of us are having a great time being goofy with this song. If you don’t know it, it’s a totally cheesy, stupid white-rapper song. So we rolled down the window and cranked the music like we were stupid white gangsters. It just got funnier and funnier, and eventually I took a little video of Suzi doing a dance as she drove the car. Good times….good times.
Informer
Knowing that we had booze in the room, we headed back there to watch some more of the game and do some shots of what we had (X-rated and Hypnotiq).
Scott had some custom made champagne flutes with the words “Vegas Violet” engraved in them.
Our intention was to create a signature drink while we were there…something purple in hue since that was Zaira’s favorite color. Well, our first attempt was pretty disgusting. It involved champagne and some berry alcohol and it tasted like Robitussin. Suzi went over to the bar and concocted something else using the Hypnotiq and some of the fruit juices (from the stocked fridge) and it was much better. We all put down a couple drinks, and retreated to our bedrooms.
Now, normally I wouldn’t spend quite this much time in a hotel room in Vegas, but this was a special room. We soaked in the huge jaccuzzi tub (while watching tv), and eventually came back out to the living room towards the 6th or 7th inning. Things were starting to look really good for the Rangers, and Scott was very excited, being a Rangers fan. Some more drinks, yelling as the Rangers hit home runs and eventually took care of business.
The game ended, and Suzi and I headed downstairs to gamble some more, assuming that the other two would come down right behind us. Well, I think we gambled for a while and eventually just ran out of gas, and just as we were going to head back up to the room, Scott and Zaira came down. We gambled a little while longer, and eventually decided we needed some food. This was our one foray into the 24-hour café at Southpoint. They were pretty busy, and the staff was working pretty hard (and not really keeping up). The food was pretty bland and average at best. But again, it filled our bellies and let us get a good night’s sleep without too many ill effects from the alcohol.
Saturday, 23rd
Slept in a little later this day, but still managed to be downstairs at “our” machines by 8:30 or so. Just can’t sleep that much in Vegas. ? This morning Suzi was trying a new drink called a Tic Tac. Something like Absolute Mandarin, Red Bull, and an Triple Sec. I’ll be damned if it doesn’t taste like an orange tic-tac. Well, Suzi got about 3-4 of those over the next couple hours. She also managed to get DEALT four kings on the double double bonus game, and not more than 10 minutes later got DEALT the four kings again!
She was pretty proud of herself. We were having a great time, and doing pretty well with the gambling—at least well enough to keep everyone sitting there and happy.
Around 11am it was time for the girls to go get ready for their spa treatments. Scott and I had set them both up with massages and pedicures in the spa, and Southpoint had graciously offered a nice gift basket that was complimentary. The plan was that they would get to relax in the spa while Scott and I enjoyed some male-bonding in front of a video poker machine and a day’s worth of college football games. We headed first to the hot dog stand over by the sportsbook, which serves GREAT hotdogs for 75cents each (and don’t try to pay with a $20). I think we had two each, and then we went about 30 yards to our left where the bar and sports book were. There wasn’t actually a good game on—and we hadn’t bet on any of them. Unfortunately, Scott’s Longhorns were in the process of getting shocked at home by an Iowa State team. We each had several drinks, played on the same $50 or so for quite a while, and discussed life issues.
Eventually we got hungry again, and walked past the Big Sur Oyster bar. Now, I never usually get to eat seafood around Suzi since she’s “allergic” to it (long story), so the idea of eating crab or shellfish or ANYTHING out of the ocean is pretty appealing on a vacation. We grabbed a couple seats and the bar and debated the menu. Scott finally noticed that they had a special of 1.5lbs of crab legs for about $17 each. Game over. I felt the need to order a salad along with my crablegs, as if that was somehow going to soak up all the alcohol I’d already consumed and the 2 sticks of butter I was going to use to eat my crab legs. Boy, we PLOWED through those things, and they were VERY good. I can’t believe we both finished (and almost ran out of butter).
We could hardly move, but after the bill was paid we wandered to our favorite bank of machines and sat to play some more. It was at this time that we both got royal flushes on the SuperTimes pay machine. Scott got his paying deuces wild, held only 2 to the royal and pulled the other three. He jumped up and did a little happy dance because it was his first one ever. Mine came only about 10 minutes later, having held 4 to the royal and pulling one.
Both were on the nickel game, but it was still exciting for both of us. Around 4:30 we finally had to head back up to the room, as the girls were done with the spa and we all needed to head to the strip.
This was the night that Suzi and I were doing the Jimmy Buffet concert, and Scott and Zaira had planned to hit the Cirque show Mystere at Treasure Island. Hopped in the car, and headed to the strip, which was very crowded. I think Scott and Zaira had planned to have a leisurly dinner, but traffic was so congested they only had about 30 minutes before the show. We dropped them off, and Suzi and I headed to park at the MGM for the concert.
Now at this point we both hit a little bit of a wall. Traffic was getting frustrating, Suzi hadn’t eaten pretty much all day, and the drinking and eating was starting to catch up to us. Honestly, I was out of gas and if someone had just offered us face value for the tickets I might have considered it (glad I didn’t though). We found a café (good, but pricey) in the MGM to grab a bite before the concert, and made our way to the arena. TONS of parrotheads in great outfits, most looking like they’d been drinking all day. Must be a JB concert. Followed the crowd to the arena, and I started to perk up a bit. The arena is nothing special (a little dated) but the people there made it all worthwhile. Frankly, Jimmy Buffet was a LOT better than I expected. The vocals were tight, instruments were great, and a perfect selections of music. Suzi agreed that she loved it—much more than she was anticipating. He came back onstage for a couple encore songs….we stayed for the first one and didn’t recognize it so we bailed to beat the crowd. I would TOTALLY love to see him again though.
Five o'clock
Texted Scott and found that they were making their way to the Paris hotel to take a ride to the top of the Eiffel tower. Suzi and I boarded the car and were able to get there pretty quickly (thanks to my wife’s creative driving). Met up with them and exchanged stories about how wonderful our nights had been. Scott bought some tickets for us all to go up to the top, and it was everything we were hoping for. It was a first for Zaira, obviously, but not for the rest of us. We stayed there for quite a while….at least two full Bellagio water shows….and just breathed in the fun of the evening (and the trip, really). Beautiful night.
Stopped in at the Paris café for their YUMMY French Onion Soup. Our last meal together in Vegas, and what a trip it had been. Went back to the hotel and said our goodbyes---their flight was leaving early in the morning and they were considerate enough to not make us get up and take them to the airport (although we would have). It was sad watching them pack, knowing we wouldn’t see them again for several months, but we shared some hugs and smiles and laughs about all the great things we’d done together.
Suzi and I got a good night’s sleep, and in the morning decided that it was important for us to go to church before we did anything else. Our checkout time was noon, but our flight didn’t leave until about 9pm. We checked the room phone book for the nearest Catholic service, and found one at a shrine over by the Luxor hotel. We always try to go to a Sunday service, even when we’re out of town, and I’m glad that we did. The shrine was beautiful, and the service was full. Honestly, it was a great distraction and gave us some time to calm down and center ourselves on what’s really important.
We got back and rushed a little trying to get everything packed by noon so we could check out. Suzi did the finishing touches as I went downstairs to have our play reviewed by one of the slot hosts, Courtney Whitaker. Got to meet her, and she was able to comp all of the food charges we’d made to the room (about $150 I think). Score!
By this time we had about 5 hours to kill before we needed to have the car back to Dollar. Played quite a bit more VP, had another meal at the Mexican joint. Returned the car around 6pm, sped through the airport security, had an easy flight and back on the ground in PDX around 11pm.
SUMMARY
Best Vegas trip ever. I probably didn’t describe it as such, but really there were SO many great things about this trip I don’t even know where to start. Getting comped the best suite in the hotel without having every been there before. Comped food. Surprises for our ladies. Fun times gambling, seeing the sights, etc. I have a feeling we dropped a few hundred on gambling, but I couldn’t care less. It was an awesome trip and I’m really hoping Scott was serious when he said he wanted to go back there for the bachelor party…..
