Hey Guys...

Leaving at 8am tomorrow morning from Toronto for three days in UTAH for my cousin's wedding. We are staying at what is apparently the largest lodge in America, sleeps 60 people! Sunday morning I leave from there to Las Vegas for my 12th trip. Arrive around noon and am staying at Caesars palace.

This should be a great trip! I'm going with three/four different groups so there will be lots of options. I'm a 29 year old guy and will be travelling to Vegas with my 30 year old cousin and her 31 year old husband, both of whom I'm really close with (they are staying at Cromwell). I've done Vegas with them once before, for their wedding in 2014, and it was blast. A girl I've known from high school (no romantic connection, she just has always wanted to go to Vegas so I told her to tag along. She has since started dating a guy who isn't thrilled she's going to Vegas with a guy he's never met, but she's still coming!) is meeting me at the airport on Sunday and is staying with me until we both fly home on Thursday (red eye flight). Interestingly/Lucky enough, a group I go with every summer (a large group of 10-15 people) is also going to be there while I'm there, Saturday to Wednesday. I went to high school with the two brothers (aged 28 and 30) and the older brother's girlfriend, while their whole family (parents, aunts, uncles) also goes with them. The whole group is always a blast and I'll likely be spending most of my time with them. This will be my third straight year hitting Vegas with them. Then on Monday, the rest of my family gets there (mostly an older crowd who I won't spend a ton of time with, but my 33 year old cousin and his 27ish year old fiance will definitely be worth spending time with!) .

Most of the trip will be drinking/gambling, not sure if we will hit up any of the clubs yet or not, I'd say it's unlikely. I've gone to Vegas 11 times and have never come home a winner, so I'm really hoping this is it (or at least come with some of what I've brought). I'm 5,000 TC away from reaching diamond for the second straight year, so that's my main goal, shouldn't be a problem.

No idea how exciting the trip report will be, but I'll try to keep you guys updated as much as I can! Can't wait. It's my first time staying at Caesars (my last 4 trips have been in a 2 Queen suite at the Linq) and I have the Laurel Premium room with a strip view. Through myVegas I have a buffet at Mirage, the secret garden and the shark reef and mandalay booked. I've done all three but I thought they'd be nice for the first-timer going with me to see. Very excited to eat at Burgrr again and to hit up Ellis Island, always a favourite dinner of mine. Also likely using my two free CET tickets to go see Penn and Teller on Monday night as my cousin and her husband have already bought tickets for that night.

Again, can't wait to arrive in Vegas in Sunday and also looking forward to getting to Utah tomorrow, the lodge looks incredible and I've been promised the drinks will be flowing. Hopefully I'll be there just in time to catch the Raptors knock the Heat out of the playoffs.

Here we go!

 

Sounds like a great lead-up to a fun few days in Vegas. Enjoy!

 

Have a great trip!

 

Have a great trip and good luck!!!

 

Hey everyone! I really wanted to do a live trip report for this trip but somethings happened early in the trip and i decided I'd rather do it all at once I got home and the dust settled. If you haven't read the original post, please do as somethings won't make sense until you do. Here goes my first ever trip report!




We start in Utah. For a 16 hour travel day, it wasn't so bad. We had a 5.5 hour flight from Toronto to San Fran, 2.5 hour layover there and then another hour and 20 minutes to Salt Lake City. The drive from SLC to Heber (which is where the wedding was) was absolutely incredible. I will try posting some pictures after on tapatalk of the view. The log cabin we stayed in was the biggest in America and slept 60+ people. It literally was on the top of a mountain and the scenery was beautiful. As soon as we got there, the booze was flowing and it was such a fun night. My family likes to drink and I knew we were all a little nervous about how things would go with the other side of the family (while the guy marrying into my family is not Mormon, much of his family is. He drinks (and keeps up) with us all the time but most of his family do not. We had nothing to worry about, these people didn't judge as at all and we learned a lot from each other. The wedding was amazing, the weather was incredible (it was 24 Celcius both Friday and Saturday while I was there. Starting monday, it would not be above 10 for the rest of the month. Boy did we luck out. After two nights of partying until 4ish AM Utah time, I went to bed Saturday night excited to head to Vegas for the 12th time. I was flying out with my cousin and her husband and the rest of my family was meeting us there on Monday. I was also extremely excited to meet my friend at the airport, who was going to Vegas for the first time ever and staying with me at Caesars. Finally, I was excited to spend time with my two friends families, who arrived a day earlier on Saturday, who I have so much fun with every summer in Vegas.

Tragically, the latter did not happen. I woke up at 5:30am Utah time to a text from my friend to tell me his aunt had passed away in her room at the flamingo just one hour before and that they were already making arrangements to fly home. I was heartbroken. This woman was in her early 60s and just the NICEST and CARING person you'll ever meet. All through high school I would spend a week at her and her husbands cottage every summer with all my friends and they always took such good care of us. In Vegas, she was even more fun, it was her favourite place in the world and she let everyone know it. Just a week before her passing I was talking to her about how much fun we were going to have, so it was tough to lose her just hours before we were going to spend time together. She had a history of heart problems and that is what they believe caused death. She was in her early 60s but still definitely gone too soon.

Sunday: I promise the rest of the report is happier, so stick with me. I arrived to Vegas (with a heavy heart) at around 11:30am PST. My friend was in a separate terminal so I let my cousin and her husband go on without me and I went to find her, which didn't take long. Got to Caesars Palace to check in at about 12:15-12:30 and headed to diamond check in. The room wasn't ready yet, unless I wanted something in the Octavious tower. On advice from here, I knew Augustus was what I wanted so I didn't mind waiting. We checked our bags and headed to The Yard House at the Linq to meet my cousin and watch game 7 of the raptors / Pacers series. After a few half yard beers and watching 3 quarters of the Raptors destroy indiana, we felt confident enough to head to O'Sheas for some three card poker. My friend picked this game up pretty quick (her first time gambling, let alone in Vegas). After an hour or so, I was up $75 or so and she was even. We got a text saying our room was ready so we headed back. The Laurel Premium Room was great and the view was the best I've had in Vegas. We unpacked then headed down to the casino floor to spend my $225 in freeplay at the Elton John slot machine. I turned it into about $500 at one point and still ended up cashing out up a few hundred. After that, I took her to one of my favourite restaurants in Vegas, Cheeseburger Las Vegas in the Miracle Mile. I know it's not fancy, but I've eaten there 12/12 trips now and it's still my favourite burger everywhere. She alse loved the burger and said she definitely wanted to eat the ere. From there, we gambled a bunch at Planet Hollywood and shopped the Miracle Mile a bit. I then met up with my host Hunter and introduced him to my friend. We chatted for 20 minutes or so before heading over to Yolos for some fruity tequila drink. From there, I took my friend to Cosmopoloitan to buy her my favourite drink in Vegas, the Oranje Crusta. It hasn't even been on their menu in years but they always know how to make it. Sadly, this bartender didn't know what it was and told me "I've been here since day 1 and we've never had that on the menu". WRONG, I've bought it 7 straight trips despite it not being on the menu for the last 3 or 4. Anyways, we left without anything and headed back to the Cromwell where we stayed up with my cousin and her husband gambling across our favourite four properties (Cromwell, Linq, Harrahs, Flamingo) until 3-4 am. After day one, I was about about $400 and had earned about 1100 tier credits, plus the extra 1000 bonus. Great start.

Monday: Invited my cousin and her husband to Burgrr at PH for my treat. I had my diamond celebration dinner to use up so we headed there for around 1pm. They were all put off by the lineup but really impressed when my diamond card allowed us to skip it. After that, we played at PH for a bit before going our separate ways. We would meet up again later to see Penn and Teller. I took my friend on a walk down the PH side of the strip to MGM. We had planned to do the full circile but my gambling go the best of me. While I haven't been an MGM property player in years, I coudn't help myself but play a few of their exclusive (and by that I mean non total-rewards) slot machines such as friends and the walking dead. i gave them about $400ish. At this point, the rest of my family had arrived so we monorailed back to Linq to hang out with my cousin J and his fiance at O'sheas. After an hour or so of some cards, we went our separate ways and met up for the show later. Didn't love penn and teller, actually I sort of hated it. ONE trick made me go wow but everything else I found pretty lame. After the show, we stuck around the rio and played slots for an hour followed by another hour of three card poker. We then headed back to our four favourite properties and finished our night out there. I had a bit of a rough gambling day, down about $800 for the trip, which is still better than the $2500 I was down after 2 days last trip in January. So I was thrilled. Earned another 1200 tier credits on the day, plus the 1000 bonus, so I was only 700 away from my trip goal less than half way through the trip. Go me (note: didn't mention where I ate for dinner because oops, we forgot to eat. Damn alcohol / gambling)

Tuesday: One of the most fun days of my life, so let's go. Skipped lunch to gamble and drink more alcohol. God I'm getting hungry. After a few hours of that (I think I lost another $500 or so) we met up with our regular group of four and headed to wallgreens where we bought a ton of big cans of whatever we could think of. Sat in the cousins suite at the Linq (my usual home, so I enjoyed this). The plan today was to go to a couple we had met at the weddings house, who lived 30-ish minutes off the strip. I never had an intention of going (we were going to hit the outlet mall and do a free buffet at the mirage I had), but I sort of got guilted into it. All in all, we had a good time hanging out with the rest of our family who joined us there and drinking a lot of beers. We watched game 1 of the raptors and cavaliers series there and went home around 8 or 9 pm. Back at the cromwell, I lost some money playing the $5 a spin monopoly game before moving onto the penny jurassic park slot. All my cousins loved watching me gamble so we a lot of the time played with my money but we would take turns spinning. Finally we hit the bonus round and my 10 free spins quickly turned into 20, then 30 then 40. Sadly, we were only getting like $2 a spin back. Finally one spin is a ton of wilds and I said (in my drunken state) nice! $174 on that one. My cousin turns to me and said "add a zero, you just won $1744." I froze. TWELVE TRIPS. ZERO HANDPAYS. And it's not like I don't play. I've been diamond the last two years and mostly play slots. I finally did it, I finally won my first hand pay. My friend the first timer was so happy for me. She had heard me talk for weeks about "how this was going to be the trip". When the spins were done the total was $2077, which the government took $6XX of, but I didn't even care. I'll figure out how to get some of that back later, but I'm still on cloud 9 about it. After getting paid we walked away to three card poker. I even bought my first-timer friend in for $100 which was about $75 more than she'd usually buy in for. Third or fourth hand I hit a three of a kind and the happiest person at the table was a 70 year old grandma from Oklahoma. She was drinking lots and having the best time. The whole night she was telling me how much her 23 year old grand daughter would love me. We took a picture and are now facebook friends. She was a blast. THEN if the night couldn't be more fun, someone goes "oh my god it's hugh hefnor!!" Yep. He was at the cromwell for some party and was just steps away from us. We took some pictures. I literally still don't know what I was more excited about, winning my first handpay or seeing the Hef. After that, the girls went to bed so three of us guys went to play the Britney spears slot (once again using my money but taking turns spinning). We had such a blast, drinking white russians until 6am. I don't even know what I lost on the machine but it wasn't too much and we easily drank it in value. at 6:30 am we realized it was still light outside so they headed to bed. I decided to play some blackjack, since that usually is my game and I hadn't touched it yet. I was drunk and stupid and went from $25 to $50 to even a few $100. I think I was down to my last $50 from $400 at one point but eventually cashed out $800, so doubled my money. All in All, even with the big win I still think I broke even on the day, but holy shit was it a fun one. We had made plans to meet at 12:30 the next day to go to Dicks, so when I got back to the room I ripped open the blackout curtian and yelled to my friend "WE SLEPT IN!!! We are late for lunch"...she wakes up and says "damnit I feel like I only slept like two hours"...she quickly realized she had and we both had a good laugh about it. Overall, only down around $800 after three days. ZERO idea on how many tier credits I earned, but I must have JUST missed the 2500 in a day because I woke up well over 15,000, when my goal was only to get to 12,500 for the trip (because the 50% spring bonus would get me back to diamond). Don't need the bonus again, I'm still diamond for another year now!

Wednesday: We ended up sleeping in afterall but still made it the rest of the group by 12:45 and we were not the last ones there. From cromwell we walked to excaliber and had Dicks. What a great time. I'll definitely be back there. The servers were hilarious and off-side and it was right up my alley. My cousin J also paid for my friend and I's lunch and drinks as a thank you for funding our gambling/drinking the night before. He wouldn't take my money but I think I paid him back over the next hour or so buy buying them non-stop slushie drinks from ANYWHERE that served them. We headed over to trop and played some games there before going to MGM and playing some more. It was a pretty expensive day for me. We headed back to PH where we played some more before my friend came up to me and said "we have to go". I wasn't wrong. All six of us were probably 4-5 slushie drinks in by 4pm and we ALWAYS got the extra shot for $1. Everyone went their separate ways for a nap with plans to meet up later. I was so drunk I ended up having a bath by myself just because our tub was so big at Caesars. My friend passed out in bed and long story short, she didn't get out of that bed minus to pee or throw up for the next 14 hours. I met up with the two guys later, with both of their girls nowhere to be found and also in bad shape in bed. Those damn slushie drinks. We ate some pizza at the flamingo, played some 3 card and video poker but called it a night around 1 am. I wasn't very tired so I went back to the room and asked my friend if she wanted to go back out (she had been in bed for 6 hours at this point) but nope, she wasn't in any shape. So I called it an early night, despite it being my last in vegas.

Thursday: Final day in Vegas, taking the redeye home. It was a struggle for both my friend and I to get up, but we did it. My cousin and her husband (the ones I flew into town with) had a noon flight home so I didn't see them this day. I had a free buffet from the mirage from MyVegas and had enough Express Comps at Mlife to pay for my friends as well. We were hungover and didn't eat much and barely took advantage of the all-you drink, but the food was delicious. From here, we went for a walk to miracle mile because I still had a $20 gift card they sent me for being a follower on twitter to spend. I bought a few beers and a pair of socks with it, while my friend, who had barely spent anything on the trip (the perks of being friends with a bunch of gamblers who get comps) bought a $200 pair of sunglasses and a few souvenirs for friends. It's a vegas tradition of mine to not gamble on my last day, mostly because usually I'm 33% over my trip budget after the first four nights, but I decided to play one last $200 at Britney spears slot. I almost lost it all before winning up to $218, and that was it for me. I still had about half my trip bankroll left, I had all the points I needed, I knew I was going to be in good standing for comps for my next trip, it was time to stop and I felt super good about that decision. From there, we met up with J and his fiance and went to see the Las Vegas sign, which was a first for me in my 12 trips and something my friend and I said we had to do this trip. We were both happy we did, it was awesome. From there, we headed back to Yard House for one last meal and a few last beers before heading back to the room, packing up and heading out.

So all in all, the wedding was something I'll never forget and this was easily the best Vegas trip I've ever had, despite a lot of it being with a heavy heart. I can't wait to go back. My cousin's are already planning a January trip but something tells me Sin City will see me before then.

This was my first report, I hope you enjoyed it. I enjoyed writing it and remembering all the fun I had. I'll try to post some pictures (sadly nothing too exciting like a PT report, but hey, I had fun!!)

 

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Sounds like a great time was had by all. Sorry for your loss at the beginning of the trip, but good to see you made the best of the situation. Thanks for the report.

 

awesome trip..sucks about the death
also sucks you miscounted on the 2500TC bonus level.

 

Sorry to hear about the passing of a friend but sounds like you had a great time. Thank for sharing!