Restaurants | Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City

Going to keep this simple. EDIT: this isn’t simple and I should write a short story on this.
I am generally risk averse. I hate losing $100 at the casino, I hate paying extra for guac at chipotles, I will return something or price match an item for a few dollars of savings. I am generally frugal.
But, I somehow had no issues losing 10k in options...
How I started
I remember my first trades like they were yesterday. I was trading the first hydrogen run-up in 2014 (FCEL, BLDP, PLUG) and made a few hundred dollars over a couple weeks.
I quickly progressed to penny stocks / biotech binary events and general stock market gambling mid-2014. I was making a few % here and there but the trend was down in total account value. I was the king of buying the peak in run-ups. I managed to make it out of 2014 close to break-even to slightly down.
WSB Era
March 2015 was my first option trade. It was an AXP - American Express - monthly option trade. I saw one of the regular option traders/services post a block of 10,000 calls that had been bought for 1.3 and I followed the trade with 10 call options for a total of $1300.
I woke up the next day to an analyst upgrade on AXP and was up 50% on my position. I was addicted! I day-dreamed for days about my AXP over night success. I think around that time there was some sort of Buffet buyout of Heinz and an option trade that was up a ridiculous amount of %%%. I wanted to hit it BIG.
I came up with the idea that all I needed to reach my goal was a few 100% over night gains/ 1k>2k>4k>8k> etc. I convinced myself that I would have no problems being patient for the exact criteria that I had set and worked on some other trades.
Remember, the first win is always free.
I was trading options pretty regularly from March 2015 until August 2016. During my best week I was up 20k and could feel the milli within reach. I can remember the exact option trade (HTZ) and I was trading weeklies on it.
For those who have been in the market long enough, you will remember the huge drawdown of August 2015.
I lost half my account value on QCOM calls (100 of them) that I followed at the beginning of July and never materialized. I watched them eventually go to 0. It was another 10,000 block that was probably a hedge or sold.
In August 2015 there were some issues with China and all of us woke up to stocks gapping down huge. Unfortunately my idea of buying far dated calls during the following days/weeks after the crash went sideways. I quickly learned that an increase in volatility causes a rise in option prices and I was paying a premium for calls that were going to lose value very quickly (the infamous IV crush).
I kept trading options into the end of 2015 and managed to maintain my account value positive but the trading fees for the year amounted to $30,000+. My broker was loving it.
I tried all the services, all the strategies. I created rules for my option plays: 1. No earnings 2. Only follow the big buys at a discount (10,000 blocks or more). 3. No weekly options 4. Take profit right away 5. Take losses quickly 6. etc.
I had a whole note book of option plays that I was writing down and following. I was paying for option services that all of you know about - remember, they make money on the services and not trading.
I even figured out a loop-hole with my broker: if I didn’t have enough money in my account, I could change my ask price to .01 and then change it to market buy and I would only need to accept a warning ⚠️ for the order to go through. I was able to day trade the option and make money, who cares if I didnt have enough? After a few months of this, I got a call from my broker that told me to stop and that I would be suspended if I continued with this.
By the way, I was always able to satisfy the debit on the account - so it wasn’t an issue of lack of funds.
Lost it all. Started taking money from lines of credits, every penny that I earned and losing it quicker and quicker.
I was a full on gambler but I was convinced that 8 trades would offset all the losses. I kept getting drawn in to the idea that I could hit a homerun and make it out a hero.
I eventually hit rock bottom on some weekly expiring FSLR options that I bought hours before expiration and said to myself - what the f are you doing? I resolved to invest for the long term and stop throwing tendies away.
The feeling was reinforced during the birth of my first born and I thought - what a loser this kid will think of me if he knew how much I was gambling and wasting my life. It was a really powerful moment looking at my kid and reflecting on this idea.
I decided at that point I was going to save every penny I had and invest it on new issues with potential.
Fall 2016
TTD, COUP and NTNX IPO ‘ed I decided I was going to throw every dollar at these and did so for the next few months. I eventually started using margin (up to 215%) and buying these for the next 6 months. They paid out and managed to make it over 100k within the year.
The first 100k was hard but once I crossed it, I never fell below this magic number.
2017 - I did some day trading but it was mostly obsessing over the above issues. I did gamble on a few options here and there but never more than 1k.
2018 - SFIX was my big winner, I bought a gap up in June 2018 and my combined account value had crossed 400k by August 2018. I was really struggling at crossing the 500k account value and experienced 3 x 30-40% drawdowns over the next 2 years before I finally crossed the 500k barrier and have never looked back.
I still made some mistakes over the next few months - AKAO & GSUM come to mind. Both of these resulted in 20k+ losses. Fortunately my winners were much bigger than my losers.
I thought about giving up and moving to index funds - but i was doing well - just experiencing large drawdowns because of leverage.
2019 big winners were CRON SWAV STNE.
2017 / 2018 / 2019 all had six digit capital gains on my tax returns.
At the beginning of 2020 I was still day trading on margin (180-220%) and got a call from my broker that they were tightening up my margin as my account was analyzed by the risk department and deemed too risky. Believe it or not this was right before the covid crash. I brought my margin down to 100-110% of account value and even though the drawdown from covid hit hard, I wasn’t wiped out.
I stayed the course and bought FSLY / RH during the big march drawdown and this resulted in some nice gains over the next few months.
I am constantly changing and testing my investment strategy but let me tell you that obsessing over 1 or 2 ideas and throwing every penny at it and holding for a few years is the best strategy. It may not work at some point but right now it does.
I still day trade but I trade with 10k or less on each individual position. It allows me minimize my losses and my winners are 1-7%. I am able to consistently make between 3-700$/ a day on day trades using the above strategy. I still take losses and still dream about hitting it big with an option trade but dont feel the need to put it all on the line every month / week.
I finally crossed into the two , club. I know people are going to ask for proof or ban but I am not earning anything for posting and the details about some of the trades should be proof enough that I kept a detailed journal of it all. I have way more to write but these are the highlights.
Eventually I will share how I build a position in a story I love. I still sell buy and sell to early but I am working on improving.
TL:DR - I gambled, lost it all and gambled some more lost more. I made it out alive. I have only sold calls/puts lately.
The one common denominator in all successful people is how much they obsess over 1 or 2 ideas. Do the same. All the winners on this sub have gone all in on one idea (FSLY / TSLA ). Stick with new stories or ones that are changing and go all in...wait a second, I didnt learn anything.

I'm a Vegas regular. I travel there for work and play between 6-10 times a year. I've been to Vegas somewhere around 70 times.
Here are some tips, in no particular order.
Orleans Arena is "off strip". It is part of the Orleans Hotel and Casino. If you choose to stay at The Orleans, you will have a 10 minute ubelyft back and forth from the strip. The Strip is the part of Vegas that you always see when you think of Vegas. It's called Las Vegas Boulavard. Orleans is a property that basically has nothing around it, and there is not really much to see without a 20 minute walk to the Palms, or a 20 minute walk to the Rio.
If you are only going to eat, drink, and breathe RLCS, staying at the Orleans is probably a good idea. But if you want to experience Vegas, you want to stay on the strip.
Lodging can be had for cheap, up to more expensive. The cost of hotel rooms is usually based on the property location on the strip, as the more central hotels are the nicer ones.
Bellagio, Aria, and the Cosmo are the best places to stay that are in the middle. They will cost anywhere between $250-$400 a night. A great central location hotel that is more economical is Planet Hollywood, which is right across from the Bellagio. Rooms can be had here for closer to $150 a night.
If you go to the end of the strip, you can have rooms for under $100, such as treasure island, Park MGM, NYNY, and Mandalay Bay, and if you really want to live economical on strip, you can go somewhere like Luxor (far end of strip) The Linq (more middle) and The Mirage.
Any of the places listed above are on strip, and you can get the full Vegas experience. Hotels such as the Palms, Gold Coast, the Rio, Stratosphere, and the Hard Rock are so far off strip that they are extremely isolated from walking distance to most of the action in Vegas.
Weather.... You're going to the Western US in the Desert, the Western US in the Desert is not what you would expect in November. You will be lucky to see temperatures above 70F, and at night it will drop down into the low 40's. Bring warm clothes!
Walking around vegas:
DO NOT, and I repeat DO NOT purchase a single thing from a street vendor. They will try selling you drink coupons, VIP tickets to shows, discounted show tickets, and just about any drug imaginable. Do not give any of these people money for any reason.
While I do not any drugs, some of my friends do, and now that marijuana is completely legal in Las Vegas, everyone raves about going to Essence Cannabis Dispensary. I've been there, and it is amazing, but I can't really speak for their product.
Skanks.... DO NOT be taken advantage of the "street walkers" and "casino crawlers" that are trying to be your friend, will want to go to your room, and after "the deed" is complete, will extort you for money. The rule of thumb, if a girl approaches you in a casino, or on the strip and is acting over friendly, they are probably a hooker, and their pimp is probably within shouting distance.
You can drink on the strip, but you CANNOT have glass. It is usually cheaper to purchase liquor or beer from one of the many CVS stores on strip.
All casinos will give you free drinks while you are playing, but sometimes the waitresses are few and far between. If you are going to be at a craps table or a slot machine for a long time, it is always a good idea to tip them very well and they will come by often.
I stay at the Bellagio the most, but my favorite places to gamble (I don't play slot machines) is a place called O'Sheas in The Linq. It is a total party atmosphere with live bands, beer pong, bean bags, and tons of table games. I think there are close to 50 tables. I'm a sucker for 3 card, and can play there for 10 hours straight.
McCarran international airport (LAS) is a nice place. Do NOT play slot machines there, as the odds are the worst of any place in Nevada. If you have an Amex Cent/Plat card, they have a Centurion lounge which has a full bar, and huge food selection, all for free.
Do not take a Taxi if you don't have to. Taxi drivers in Vegas are notorious for taking "the long way home" and you will be taken advantage of. There is a huge amount of Lyft and Ubers in the city at all times of the day. DO NOT rent a car in vegas. Parking is expensive and driving is pure gridlock.
Last but not least, if you have time, go to the "old strip" which is called Freemont Street. Old vegas is amazing, and there are a bunch of places that should be seen. You can go to the heart attack grill and get spanked for not eating your bacon cheeseburger with 50 strips of bacon, or you can go to the D Casino and have dealers in underwear. Street performers are everywhere, and it is just a good time. WATCH OUT FOR PICK POCKETERS!
Food is expensive in Vegas. The days of "cheap buffets" are gone. A burgefries will set you back somewhere around $20 in the casinos, and the chain restaurants have heavily inflated prices. The best place to eat on the strip is the miracle mile mall that is attached to planet hollywood. A bunch of the restaurants in there offer amazing drink specials and very affordable food.
I hope I covered some basics, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask, and I'll help you out the best I can.

Outside shit

Market shit

Tasty shit

Art shit

Performance shit

Gig Shit

Education Shit

Christmas Shit

New Year Shit

Other shit

Last day shit

Shit you guys suggested

Jon Hopkins - $60 - Book - Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst - Sun

Trackwork This Weekend
Key

(No day tag) This event is on both days
$x This event costs $s. For varying ticket prices Standard Adult is used
Book Booking is required, or at least encouraged
Kid This event is particularly child friendly, or is aimed at children.
Pet this event is particularly pet friendly
Sat This event is on Saturday
SOLD OUT This event has sold out
Sun This event is on Sunday

Need more? Resource list!
dark_skeleton made an applet so you can be notified when I post one of these threads.
There’s a heap more new year’s eve shit listed here and check out the Fireworks Mega Thread as well.

Because of the bridge, there is a limit to the size of cruise ship that can come into Baltimore. I thought that might make for the fairest possible comparison between two ships across different lines. Please keep in mind that while I have attempted to be as comprehensive and unbiased as possible, this is from my perspective. As a result, some items (e.g. youth program) I reviewed may have no relevance to you while other items (all-inclusive drink package) I didn't review at all may be extremely important to you.
Many times where I say "on the Pride/Grandeur", the statement is true across the entire Carnival/Royal line but I have stuck with this usage specifically because I do not know enough to know which is specific just to the ship and which isn't.
About Me: I am in my early 40's and cruise with my wife and two daughters (ages 10 and 12). I primarily cruise Carnival because of the cost to value factor but we have no brand loyalty and all three cruises booked in 2018 are on 3 different lines (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian). Besides cost, I choose cruises based on itineraries as I like to go to at least one new place each time I cruise which is hard to do without also leaving from new ports each time.
Ship Factoids

Completed: Pride = 2001, Grandeur = 1996
Last Upgraded: Pride = 2014, Grandeur = 2017
State rooms: Pride = 1062, Grandeur = 1142
Passengers: Pride = 2124, Grandeur = 2446

Cruise Cost
I'm a deal hunter and, in both cases, the cruise was booked at least 9 months in advance and the price was monitored daily for price drops. The prices below are per person per day keeping in mind a family of 4 sharing a single interior cabin.

Cruise Fare Including Taxes/Fees: Pride = $58.54, Grandeur = $66.13
Daily Gratuities: Pride = $12.95, Grandeur = $14.50
Add-on Gratuity: Pride = 15%, Grandeur = 18%

I will cover the cost of specific items like room service separately. The add-on gratuity is here because I didn't really have anywhere else to fit it but if you order a drink at a show or eat in the specialty dining, this reflects what will be tacked on to the bill automatically on the respective ships.
The $9.14 a day difference may not seem like much but for a family of 4 over a week adds up to $255.92
Cabin Size/Amenities
An interior cabin for 4 passengers was compared. The Carnival Pride is a slightly larger ship but has fewer cabins and can accommodate fewer passengers. This was very apparent in the size of the cabin as it seemed luxuriously spacious in comparison to the Grandeur. The Pride has a mini-fridge where as the Grandeur does not. The Grandeur has a flat screen TV on an adjustable wall mount while the Pride still has a big old CRT TV. You can find the average square footage by searching online but I don't think it will really help to appreciate just how tiny the Grandeur rooms were in comparison.
Internet
Internet at sea sucks which is nowhere more apparent than on the Carnival Pride. That being said, the cost for their value plan when booked in advance is $4 per day. On the Grandeur, the price was $15.95 per day. At that price, surely it was going to be blazing fast in comparison right? WRONG I only got a 24 hour pass and after the first hour, I went to customer service to cancel and get a refund. I talked to several people who said the same thing (no coverage in the cabin, only works when everyone else is asleep, etc.) but I also talked to someone who said he was video chatting on a daily basis so I will just leave this with a caveat emptor
Technology
The Carnival Pride has the Carnival Hub App which is a game changer. This free phone app gives you access to your stateroom charges, deck plans, activity guide, menus, etc. An optional capability for a one time fee of $5 for the entire cruise, allows you to chat with other guests on the ship. With younger children, this was huge. And because it was only local communication (no satellite uplink required), it was fast and reliable. Apparently RC has a similar app but it isn't available on the Grandeur.
The Grandeur has touch screen displays at the stairs on each deck which allows you to get an activity guide, see today's menu as well as map out how to get to something on the ship. This was really cool and the Pride didn't have this though it was available from the Hub App.
The Carnival Pride had a number of kiosks through-out the ship where you could check your room charges as well as on the TV in your room and the Hub App but the Grandeur had none of these - you had to go to Guest Services and get a print out each time (what a waste of paper).
The Grandeur had self-service soda machines for people who purchased the soda package but the Pride does not.
Gift Cards
This may seem like an odd thing to review but as I mentioned before, I am a value shopper and can get gift cards for at least 10% off which is a significant savings. Online and on the Pride, I could use a gift card to pay for anything (cruise fare, taxes, gratuities, excursions, etc.) and the process was easy - just enter the gift card information. The Grandeur was excruciating painful in comparison. When the gift certificates arrived in the mail, I discovered that I had to hand write information and then mail them back to Royal and that it could only be applied towards the base cruise fare. Once received, Royal then marked my account as being handled by a travel agent (I'm not making this up) which meant I could no longer have full control of my account online and had to call and explain each time any time I wanted to make a change.
Bring Your Own WateJuice/Soda
I'm not covering alcohol but I believe both ships allow each adult guest over the age of 21 to bring on a certain size bottle of wine/champagne.
Carnival Pride's official policy is that each guest, regardless of age is allowed to bring 12 cans/cartons of juice/soda/sparkling water. These must be placed in your carry-on luggage. Bottles (plastic/glass) are specifically prohibited.
The Grandeur's official policy is that no outside drinks are allowed aside from the alcohol allowance mentioned previously. In practice, they seem to look the other way for bottled water.
Effectively, you can bring bottled water on the Grandeur but not the Pride. You can bring 12 cans/cartons per person of juice/soda on the Pride but not the Grandeur.
Both ships make medically necessary allowances (you can bring on distilled water for a CPAP machine for instance).
Food/Dining
We always get "early dining" but both ships offered 3 options (early, late, my-time). The only difference to note was that early dining is 6 PM on the Pride but is 5:30 PM on the Grandeur.
The quality of the food in the main dining was great on both ships. The service in main dining is also excellent on both ships. The only difference between the two was the options offered. On the Pride, there is a section for "rare finds" where you might get to try something that you might not otherwise have such as frog legs or rabbit. On the Pride, there is also a section for "local" which is representative of whichever port you just departed from (Caribbean jerked chicken for instance). The Grandeur didn't have these on the menu and by the end of the cruise, the offerings seemed repetitive.
The buffet dining is a different story all together. The Windjammer on the Grandeur is tiny in comparison to the Pride's Lido. This was problematic for two reasons. First, seating. Second, offerings. The Pride has a ton of places where you can tell someone what you want and how you want it and they will make it for you (Blue Iguana for tacos/burritos/fajitas, Guy's Burger's for hamburgers, The Deli for hot/cold sandwiches, the Pizza Pirate for pizza, etc.) as well as a number of cuisine specific self-serve (my wife loves the Asian food from Chopsticks). On the Grandeur, I didn't really see any made-to-order food options in the Windjammer except for breakfast at the omelet making station which the Pride also has.
While I have tried a number of specialty dining options on a number of ships/lines, the only equivalent specialty dining that I experienced on both ships was the sushi restaurants (Pride = Bonsai, Grandeur = Izumi). Both were excellent. I think the Grandeur had the edge in terms of range of offering but the Pride had two options that I thought were unique. First, there is a "boat for two" for $22 which comes out on a literal boat and was too much for my wife and I to finish. Second, they had a "surprise and delight" feature (again, $22 for two) which was the chef's choice. Again, I think the Grandeur had a wider selection of options but the a la carte pricing was a bit more.
EDIT: My wife just informed me of one other difference which I was unaware of as I skipped the second formal night on the Grandeur. On the Pride, when they had lobster and filet mignon on the menu, she was allowed to order as many as she wanted. On the Grandeur, she was told only one lobster tail per guest. Because I didn't come to dinner that night, she ordered one for me and then ate two.
Excursions
Since this is a highly personal choice, it is hard to provide any meaningful comparison but there are two things worth pointing out. On the Pride, excursion prices are fairly stable and you likely will not see any discounts unless you follow John Heald and find one of the rare promo codes. On the Grandeur, the prices seemed to change all the time and every week I was getting an email offering a certain percentage off different excursions. I'm not sure either is superior but as they are different, I wanted to point them out. The second thing I wanted to mention I struggled if I should include or not as it has more to do with itinerary. The Pride tends to arrive at port early in the morning and depart around early dining giving you quite awhile to book whatever excursion you want. The Grandeur had weird arrival/departure times which made excursions more difficult to plan. Nassau for instance (Pride 8AM - 5PM, Grandeur 1PM - 11:59PM).
Entertainment
Kids: I couldn't keep my youngest daughter out of the youth program on either ship so I would say they are equivalent. Both ships have an arcade as well as age designated areas and lots of things for the kids to do. That is where the equivalency ends as Carnival wins this category hands down. On the Grandeur, kids are not allowed in the first row of shows and in the first 3 rows must be accompanied by an adult. On the Pride, every comedian must have a family friendly show in addition to the adult only show. The Pride has two water slides and a Splash Zone. The Grandeur has a rock climbing wall. The Pride has a ton of family targeted entertainment such as Hasbro The Game show where as the Grandeur seemed to tolerate those under 16. The Pride had events such as the Dr. Seuss breakfast ($5 per person) and Build-A-Bear where as I don't remember a single thing like that on the Grandeur.
Adults/General: The Grandeur only had 1 location where it put on shows (The Palladium) which is a two deck theater. On the Pride, there were two locations - the Butterfly lounge which doubled as the Punchliner Comedy Club and the Taj Mahal which is a three deck theater. The Grandeur did shows with a live band which it called an orchestra. The downside to this was they took up a lot of space which limited the size of the performance of whatever act was performing. On the Pride, they put on shows that use moving floors, backdrops with projected scenes as well, pyrotechnics as well as raised/lowered floors. None of that was possible on the Grandeur. On the Grandeur, there only ever seemed to be a single show that was repeated twice to accommodate differences in dining times. On the Pride, there seemed to be multiple different shows every night where the one in the main theater was repeated. For instance, there might have been three comedy routines in the Punchliner (1 family friendly by the first comedian, a later adult only by a second comedian and then the last show would be another adult only by the same comedian as the family friendly). That same night, they might have a magician in the main Taj Majal theater perform the same act twice.
Laundry
On the Grandeur, you need to check towels in/out using your sea pass card where there is a $25 charge for any towel not returned. These are roughly the same size as the bath towels - just colored blue. On the Pride, 4 towels are in your state room (more available upon request) and are giant beach towels. The cost if one is lost is $22. Oddly enough, you may also buy a brand new one for $22 if you want one to keep (they are nice towels).
The Pride has self-service launderettes on nearly every deck. The price recently went up to $3.25 to wash and $3.25 to dry for a total of $6.50 to do a load of laundry ($8 if you also need to buy detergent but we bring our own pods). The Grandeur doesn't offer any self-service laundry and charges $34.99 to do a small bag of laundry.
Room Service
Continental breakfast is free on both the Pride and the Grandeur. The only notable difference is the hours (Pride = 5AM-10AM, Grandeur = 6AM-11AM).
Room service is $7.95 + 18% gratuity on the Grandeur. It is more complicated on the Pride due to recent changes. The Pride stopped offering complimentary room service 24 hours a day but expanded the menu. From 6 AM until 10 PM, there are still complimentary room service items available but it now offers several other items during this time that range from $2 to $6. From 10 PM until 6 AM, an expanded menu is available with items ranging from $2 to $6.
Miscellaneous
I like beer - different styles of beer. The Pride doesn't have a lot of craft beer options. The Grandeur didn't have any. I ended up drinking Newcastle the entire Grandeur trip. On the Pride, I at least had a handful of options.
The Pride does not change the clock to match local times when in port but the Grandeur does. I watched both systems cause problems with other guests and do not feel one is superior to another. The important thing to remember is that even though you are on "island time", you must remain vigilant if you are supposed to be in a certain place at a certain time.
Trivia on the Pride is on the honor system (self-scoring) where as you are instructed to swap sheets on the Grandeur. The Pride gives out "ships on a stick" and sometimes medals as prizes where the Grandeur gives out a wide range of items (pens, highlighters, key chains, carabiner, etc.).
Both ships have a section of the casino marked as non-smoking. Until the Grandeur, I thought that was like saying you have a non-peeing section in the pool. I was so surprised on the Grandeur of the lack of smoke smell that I actually played black-jack several times. This was not the case on the Pride where I would actually go up a deck just to avoid walking through it.
On the Grandeur, while in port, my daughter couldn't sign herself in/out of the youth program despite my authorization that she could do so. I can't remember if this was also the case on the Pride. I think we may have only noticed this again because of the weird port arrival/departure times.
The Pride had a dedicated "game" room, library and chapel. If the Grandeur had these things, I didn't find them but they did have a bookcase that served as their library.
The Pride has bathrobes available upon request for any category cabin and any loyalty level guest. The Grandeur only has bathrobes available for higher level cabin categories/loyalty levels.
I have only cruised on the Grandeur once but towel animals didn't seem to be important. On the Pride, we had a new animal every single night in our room but on the Grandeur it seemed to be once every few nights. On the Pride, one morning the entire Lido deck was covered in towel animals - in extremely creative ways. Nothing like it happened on the Grandeur. This may not seem like much but the kids were kind of let down.
This really isn't about the ships so I hesitated to add it but I feel it is an important distinction. Royal's website is a hot mess compared to Carnival's.
Closing Thoughts
While the Pride provides much better value dollar for dollar, we had a great time on both ships and would go on either again for the right price/itinerary.
If I didn't cover something that you want to know about, please ask. Both ship's have "The Quest" for instance which I didn't cover but would be happy to discuss if someone wants to know more.

I went on vacation to Las Vegas with my wife from July 2nd-7th. This was my 5th trip and our 3rd together. Here's my (excessively long) trip report:
Hotel
This time we stayed at the Cosmopolitan, and we had a Terrace Studio Fountain View room. It was our first stay at Cosmo (I'd been to Wynn, Luxor, Aria Sky Suites, and Bellagio previously), and the hotel was great. I thought our room was nicer than the one we had at Bellagio last year and for a cheaper price (friend who is a travel agent got us a pretty good deal). Literally the only downside I can think of is not being able to listen to the fountain music on TV. We were in the Chelsea Tower (which is larger than Boulevard), and had a great balcony view.
Cosmo definitely attracts a younger crowd than some of the other casinos on the strip- lots of people in their 20s and 30s staying here. There are two main pools, one in each tower. When we went down to the Chelsea Pool around 11am on the 3rd, literally every seat was already taken. Note: Chelsea Tower is much larger than Boulevard, but its pool is much smaller. We hiked over to the Boulevard Pool and settled in. Great view looking over the strip with a livlier atmosphere than you'll find at the Bellagio's pools. Also worth noting the water is pretty shallow- no more than 4' deep. The most amusing part of our swimming experience was watching an Asian kid, probably 10 years old, swim all around the place, bumping in to every other group there, and saying hi. Seemed odd that he was basically on his own at that age, but he was clearly having a helluva time.
One of the best parts about Cosmo is its location- right in the center of the strip, which makes an easy walk to most of the other casinos. It has a great selection of restaurants (see below) and modern decor as well. One notable omission in my opinion is it doesn't have any shows/productions in house. The casino also doesn't have a poker room, but I didn't end up playing during this trip anyhow. Easy walk to the Bellagio or Aria poker rooms regardless.
Checkin to the hotel was very easy. Our flight got in to Vegas at about 8am on Sunday, so the room wasn't ready yet when we arrived. They took down all my info, and we left our bags with the bellhop. They sent a text message when the room was ready around noon, and they brought the bags up to our room. I used the online checkout on Friday morning. Easy peasy.
Uber
Side note- I'd never used Uber before this trip. Definitely recommend it for others in the same boat. Cheap/easy to use, and I liked riding with the average Uber driver more than the average cabbie. Each hotel has its own pickup/dropoff location for UbeLyft- just ask any employee, and they'll point you in the right direction. I never had to wait more than five minutes to get my ride.
Shows/attractions
The only show we saw on this trip was Ka at the MGM Grand. I'd pretty much recommend any Cirque du Soleil show on the strip- they're all pretty amazing. O at the Bellagio is probably my favorite, but Ka was great in its own right. Supposedly it's unique among Cirque shows in that it has a big storyline, but uh... I'd just say there's not much of one. Amusing moment before the show: I get a text message from my wife, who is sitting right next to me. "Am I sitting next to a drag queen?" I looked over. Yes, yes you are.
We also made a trip to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. I felt like the line for tickets was pretty absurdly long. I realized the reason for that when we got in- the whole aquarium was about half as big as I expected, so they needed to keep the flow of people in fairly slow. Having said that, the exhibits they did have were great, and there was no shortage of staff floating around to answer any questions you might have. Definitely a good spot to bring the family to in Vegas.
Food
The biggest reason we love Vegas is the food. Yes, my wife and I are the annoying people who post pictures of thier food on Facebook. The great thing about Vegas is there's multiple restaurant for just about any cuisine you can imagine right on the strip.
Wicked Spoon Buffet at Cosmopolitan (7-2-17 brunch): I like to hit up a buffet once whenever I visit Vegas, and none have disappointed. These places definitely aren't the Golden Corral. Our flight got in pretty early Sunday, so stuffing ourselves at the buffet and having extra time before dinner seemed like a good idea. To start things off, I'm a sucker for an omelette station, so I grabbed a Denver style omelette. Added some cheesy hash brown casserole (one of the best things I had), and a verrine. I have no idea what a verrine is, but it was basically a shot glass filled with mashed avocado, grapefruit, and a bit of crab. Good stuff. Had I stopped here, I would have had a normal sized brunch by most people's standards. Of course the entire point of a Vegas buffet is getting full value by stuffing yourself so full you can't walk, so I made more trips.
Next up I grabbed a jerk chicken thigh, a few pieces of spicy tuna sushi, some house-made italian sausage, and yogurt/fruit. The jerk chicken was perfect in that after the first bite I thought- that's not that spicy. 3 bites in, I'm feeling it a bit. By the end, I'm chugging my coffee/juice.
Finally it was time for dessert. When I first visited Vegas back in 2005, my friend informed me that the #1 rule of Vegas buffets is that you must try the bread pudding. You are not supposed to question the reasoning behind the rule, nor are you supposed to debate whether it's necessary. You simply do it. Wicked Spoon featured a bourbon white chocolate bread pudding. It was good, but I wasn't sure what to make of it since it tasted more like butterscotch than bourbon to me. I also had half a mango danish and some little chocolate tart. I thought I was done at this point until my wife brought back some gelato. I couldn't sit there and watch her eat, so I ended up getting some coconut-lime gelato for myself. The selection is pretty ridiculous- about 18 flavors to choose from. After the gelato, I finally waved the white flag.
Picasso at Bellagio (7-2-17 dinner): We've been wanting to visit Picasso for a while now. I was going to book a reservation here for our honeymoon back in 2014, but as it turns out they typically take a 2 week vacation in July every year. We ran into the same problem last year, but they were open on Sunday the 2nd this time before closing. Finally, we had our chance.
Picasso is basically fancy-pants French fine dining at its best. If you've ever seen the movie Ocean's Eleven, the restaurant scene was filmed there. We were seated at a table next to the window with the Bellagio fountain outside, and my wife had a real Picasso painting above her shoulder. So uh... not bad. I wore a suit and tie, but you really don't need to- wear khakis and a nice shirt, and you'll fit in fine.
We both ordered from the four course prix fixe tasting menu. My goal when eating out at nice places is to get stuff I don't cook myself / haven't tried much before. First course I got the poached oysters. The dish was basically smooth, melt-in-your-mouth like butter. Next up was the foie gras. This was the second time I've foie gras, and I've decided it's just not my thing. I could tell it was prepared properly, but I just don't think it has much flavor. The rhubarb chutney on the side was good, though. For the entree, I had the roasted milk-fed veal chop. After the first bite I literally started laughing, basically thinking, "Where has this been all my life?" Literally one of the best things I've ever eaten. If I had to nitpick, it was cooked a touch rare for my liking. But it was amazing. I wanted a lighter dessert given how much food I'd stuffed myself with that day, so I got a pineapple tart with prickly pear sorbet. Almost too pretty to eat.
Picasso is definitely the type of restaurant you take your date to if you're wanting to impress them. I like Le Cirque a bit more based on my two trips there previously. Le Cirque is a much smaller restaurant, just feels like a more intimate setting, and the service seemed a little more personal. But really you can't go wrong either way. Also, it was a nice touch seeing the chef, Julian Serrano, as we left the restaurant.
China Poblano at Cosmopolitan (7-3-17 lunch): The best way to explain China Poblano is that it seems like one person wanted to start up a Mexican restaurant at Cosmo, one person wanted to start up a Chinese restaurant, and then some executive asked, "Why don't we have both?" There are literally two different kitchens in the same restaurant, and the food is served tapas style- dishes just come out one by one whenever they're ready.
We started off with the queso fundido for an appetizer- pretty standard stuff. I ordered two tacos from the Mexican menu, one taco suadero (brisket), one carnitas. The brisket was good, the carnitas was great. Because if eating a taco with pork rinds on it is wrong, then I don't want to be right. I decided to get Mongolian beef lettuce from the Chinese menu, because I remember reading an IAMA from a Chinese restaurant owner a while back who said that was one of the best things on the menu that people rarely ordered. And he was right. We skipped dessert since our stomachs were still half full from eating the day before.
Estiatorio Milos at Cosmopolitan (7-3-17 dinner): Milos is proof that food doesn't have to be fancy to be fantastic. They just use high-quality ingredients, use a simple preparation, and let the food do the talking. The neat part about this place is that they really don't have specific fish on the menu. Instead you walk up to the fish case, pick out the one you want, and let your server know how you want it prepared. And marvel at the produce while you're at it.
We ordered the tzatziki as an appetizer, and at first I wasn't going to take a picture of it since it's just tzatziki. And then I tasted it. And I decided it deserved a picture- the best I've ever had. Next up was a Greek salad which was ridiculously good. Those definitely aren't the tomatoes you buy at Kroger. We chose lithrini, which seemed like a generic white fish, for our entree. Pan-seared with lemon, capers, and herbs. Some basic potatoes and broccoli for our sides. Milos is one of our top recommendations for people visiting Vegas.
Milk Bar at Cosmopolitan (7-3-17 dessert): We skipped dessert at Milos because we wanted to try out the Milk Bar. I grabbed one of the much-hyped compost cookies, which I actually thought was nothing special, and a spiked chocolate malt milkshake. The shake was awesome. I ended up coming back later in the trip and got a spiked coffee shake as well. Not sure they're worth $12 apiece, but you're in Vegas, so what the hell.
Eiffel Tower Restaurant (7-4-17 lunch): My wife had put this on the list of places to visit a month ahead of time, so we ended up going here for lunch. You enter the restaurant by going up an elevator in the main floor of the casino, and the doors open to give you a nice view of the kitchen. I always like restaurants where you can see people work in an open kitchen, so I thought this was a nice touch. We had reservations for when the restaurant opened, so we managed to snag one of the best tables in the place with a great view of the strip. We started off with the cheese tray as an appetizer, which was most notable for the honeycomb. I think that's the first time I've ever had real honeycomb, and it was delicious. I decided to go brunch-ish for my meal and order the lobster eggs benedict, which was easily the best eggs benedict I've ever had. We shared a frozen strawberry souffle for dessert, and the best compliment I can give about this is that we immediately began looking up recipes to make our own when we got back to our hotel room. Overall a great meal, and I think we'll head back here for dinner during our next trip to Vegas.
Tetsu at Aria (7-4-17 dinner): I'd wanted to visit a Japanese steakhouse while in town (especially since the favorite place in my town was run down by new ownership and closed), and I was a little surprised to find there weren't many options. Tetsu is actually a sectioned off portion of the BarMasa restaurant in Aria, and you can order sushi from BarMasa's menu while there. Which I did. I'm far from a sushi connoisseur, but I thought it tasted like a standard salmon roll- good, but I wasn't blown away by it or anything.
As far as the hibachi grill itself goes, the first thing to note is that the chefs basically just prepare the food in front of you but don't put on any sort of show. So if you're wanting to impress the family with a flaming onion volcano and eggs juggled on a spatula, this isn't your place. It's about the food, and the food was fantastic. I had the whole lobster, which is every bit as good as it looks. The chili shrimp cilantro fried rice was as good as the lobster, and I had some brussels sprouts on the side. My wife got the fingerling potatoes as a more photogenic side dish to her chicken. They also serve prime A5 Japanese Ohmi beef, but I couldn't justify spending $132 on a 4 oz steak. We had chocolate sesame ice cream for dessert, and the sesame was actually a lot stronger than I thought it would be (might actually put some people off).
Of course one of the fun parts of eating at these places is talking to people seated with you at the table. One of the ladies next to us teased a server, trying to get his name badge, Harvey (definitely not his given name), since apparently a guy named Harvey founded the golf club she worked at. Even went so far as to summon the manager to see if she could get the badge, but ultimately she failed in her negotiations. Everyone at the table had a laugh about the situation.
Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay (7-5-17 lunch): We were looking for a lunch spot down on this end of the strip before heading to the aquarium, and the Burger Bar (actually located in a walkway between Mandalay Bay and Luxor) came recommended by several people. To start with, they had a great beer menu. I ordered the classic bacon cheeseburger with onion rings. Great burger, cooked perfectly. I know there are several excellent burger joints on the strip, so it's probably not worth making a special trip far out of your way to come here. It's a great option if you want a burger and are on the south end of the strip, though.
Lemongrass at Aria (7-5-17 dinner): Next up, some Thai food. We had some pot stickers for an appetizer, which I thought were pretty average. Nothing to stand out here from your average takeout in either taste or presentation. My wife decided to order some wonton soup to share, and I'm glad she did. It was freakin' amazing- easily the best part of the meal. I wanted something light for my meal, so I ordered the garlic and lime steamed cod. The surprised reaction of the waitress seemed to imply that nobody ever ordered that. It was good, but you better love lime if you get it.
As luck would have it, the one time we received poor (exceptionally slow) service on the trip was when we had our meal before a show. We had to skip dessert so that we could make it down to MGM Grand in time to see Ka.
Olives at Bellagio (7-6-17 lunch): We thought about hitting up Lago for lunch, but since we were headed to Sinatra for dinner we wanted to avoid back to back Italian. Olives had a nice deal on a 3 course prix fixe lunch menu, so we ordered from that. I had the Caesar salad to start, followed it up with fish and chips, and finished it off with tiramisu. A bit of an odd combo, but a good meal. Nothing exceptional. Great server, though.
Sinatra at Encore (7-6-17 dinner): Another place we'd wanted to visit on previous trips but never had a chance to. There's tons of Frank Sinatra themed memorabilia in the place, including a Grammy, Emmy, and Oscar as you walk in the door. I'd describe the place as lively but classy as hell- which is pretty much what you'd want when going to a Rat Pack themed place.
To start off with, I ordered an Old Fashioned. It's one of my favorite drinks to order because everyone does it differently, and you never know what you're going to get. Well, it was the best Old Fashioned I've had in my left. I meant to ask the waiter what type of boorbon they used, but ultimately forgot. We ended up sharing the estiva for an appetizer, which is basically a watermelon salad. I ordered the gnochetti for my entree, which tasted great, but the portion size kind of left me wondering where the rest of it was. We shared the panna cotta for dessert, which was as good as it looked.
Eggslut at Cosmopolitan (7-7-17 breakfast): Eggslut is a casual stand at Cosmo that pretty much sells egg sandwiches all day long. I had the Fairfax with bacon, which is pretty much what they're known for. I think the reason why it was such a great sandwich was they kept the eggs inside creamy, whereas most breakfast sandwiches have the eggs cooked hard as a rock. When you walk up to the place your first thought is- whoa! Only $8... finally a reasonably priced meal. And then you realize they charge $5 for a cup of coffee or orange juice, and you remember you're still in Vegas. Regardless, this place is a good stop for breakfast or a late night snack.
Overall a great trip. Can't wait to go back again and try some different places.

6 Nights in Vegas - On a Budget

A little background on us. I’m 35 my wife is 28. We aren’t major gamblers by any stretch, but we usually hit up a local casino maybe once a month, twice if we do good, and usually gambling about $100 a piece each time. We are both huge sports fans, especially college sports (Notre Dame). I’m a bit of a tightwad most of the time.
The morning of April 2, 2016 I asked her if she wanted to marry me (both of us have been married once before), she said yes. I bought tickets that morning, didn’t tell anyone our plans and drove from South Bend Indiana area to Chicago O’Hare, and arrived in Vegas right around dark.
The first couple of Hotels I tried for were booked, but we ended up finding a room at Planet Hollywood (which we spent all of about 4 hours in). We then flew out the next morning, spending a total of about 12 hours in Vegas.
This time around, after finding out my kids would be with their mom over Spring Break, I decided to save up and actually plan a trip this time. We debated Florida, Canada, the Smokies, and ended up deciding on Vegas.
Tuesday – March 27 We stayed the night at Blue Chip Casino (BOYD Gaming) in Michigan City Indiana (halfway to O’Hare). Both of us had comps for a free room and Buffet’s as well and about $75 worth of food credit that we had been saving for our Vegas trip. They also gave me a $25 gas card. We decided to gamble $100, and lost pretty quickly. After eating our “free buffets” we decided to go to bed, anticipating an early morning.
Wednesday – March 28 Once we got to O’Hare, we went and checked our 1 bag in at the Spirit Airlines desk. Everything at Spirit is A la Carte, and I had paid for 1 checked bag, however the lady in front of me discovered that their checked bags cost even more if over 40lbs. I had gone with Spirit to save a buck, and overall the experience wasn’t terrible, but I’ve had much better experiences with other non-discount airlines. After arriving in Vegas, we rode the bus from the airport to the Rental Car facility, and in short time had our new car for the week. The nice lady at Payless tried selling me several extras, and I politely declined each of them. I’ve come to expect the sales pitch no matter what rental company I use, and overall my experience with these guys was very good. We ended up changing reservations last minute for our Hotel due to additional offers I received while at Blue Chip. After checking in at the Fremont (all 6 nights) we unpacked, stopped at IN & OUT Burger, and made a run to Wal-Mart for snacks and drinks. We then decided to go check out the Nuwu Dispensary, we were both very impressed with the selection, cleanliness, and friendliness of everyone we talked to there (we are novices at this lol). After making a “small” purchase, we decided to drive out to Mount Charleston for the evening and ended up catching the sunset before driving back into town. We spent the rest of the evening walking around Fremont Street mostly just people watching, before we grabbed a snack from the Café inside the Fremont and went back to our room for the night. The food was average at best, but the price was right, even if I hadn’t used my points.
Thursday – March 29 We slept in until about 9:30, and slowly made our way over to the Hoover Dam. On our way to the Dam, we stopped at Sunset Station for their Brunch Buffet, and were really impressed, especially for the $7 price. After gambling a little and not winning we continued to the Dam. Waze had me going some crazy roads that I’d never taken before to get there, and took us about 3 times longer than I had ever remembered. After getting closer and seeing all of the traffic/road construction I now knew why. All of the lower parking lots were full, so we drove to the little gift shop on the Arizona side (I was surprised to see the road now ends here), got a couple of little souvenirs for our boys, and walked around a little bit before exploring Lake Meade a little and driving back to Fremont. After relaxing for a little bit we again decided to walk around Fremont Street and ended up getting Margaritas and Enchilada Nacho’s at Nachodaddy’s. I would highly recommend this place if you want a good drink and great nachos, we both loved it, and our bartenders were great. After walking back to the Fremont and going back and forth on winning/losing at the slot machines, my wife got a bonus feature on the machine she was playing, when I noticed a guy standing behind her watching. He looked really familiar, and after seeing “Deez Nuts” on the back of his jacket, I realized he was the youtube star from the Deez Nuts video. He posed for a picture with my wife and then went on his way. We gambled for a few hours and went to bed about even on the day.
Friday – March 30 After grabbing coffee from Dunkin Donuts inside the Fremont, we decided to drive down to Primm, because my wife had never been to California. We stopped at the truck stop and decided against topping off on gas, due to the price being over $4/gallon. We walked around the shop, found some more souvenirs for the kids, and ate lunch at Qdoba. After driving around behind the outlet mall, I realized there wasn’t a sign saying welcome to California, so I hopped on I15 and continued South/West until she got to see her sign. We went a few exits and decided a trip all the way to Baker wasn’t worth the drive, so we turned around just past the giant solar farm on the right. In the stretch from about a mile outside of Primm to where we turned around, we passed probably a dozen of each Nevada State Police and California Highway Patrol, many of which were on motorcycles and all of which had at least 1 car pulled over. About the time we made it back into Vegas, my buddy’s flight from Washington DC had arrived (he’s getting ready to leave for Japan for the next 3 years) so we went and picked him up at his hotel (Hooters). My wife won some money on the “Vacation” machine in Hooters and we decided to go walk the strip, which wasn’t a bad walk at all. We ended up going through the MGM, across to the Aria/Monte Carlo area and decided all the bars were a bit too busy due to a Golden Knights game getting ready to start. We walked over to Excalibur and rode the monorail to Mandalay Bay. We spent the rest of the evening here, and I decided to bet on Notre Dame Women, which turned out to be a good bet. My buddy, being born in Connecticut bet on UConn and that pretty much set the tone for his luck the rest of his trip. My wife and I ended up getting a giant hot dog/pepsi combo for $3.99 at the Café inside the Fremont after returning, and it was a better bet than the Chinese food we had tried earlier in the week.
Saturday – March 31 Another buddy of ours had moved to Vegas about 6 weeks ago, while his wife and kids are moving out there today. He called me late Saturday morning, and had us meet him out at the RV Dealership he works for. After getting a tour of their half million dollar Motorhomes (built here in Indiana), we hopped in his convertible and rode out to Red Rock Canyon. The line to get in was about 100 cars long, and it looked like they were only letting a few in every 15 minutes, so we drove out along that area and headed back a different way to the south side of town. The company he works for sponsors the Horse Arena at the South Point Casino, so we rode over, watched some of the show, and got the behind the scenes tour of the stalls, practice arena, and got to meet the horses/cowboys. We ended up spending most of the day at South Point, and we really enjoyed it, probably our favorite one on the “strip” so to speak. We ate dinner at Baja Miguel’s and all enjoyed our food. Later on Saturday night we rode back to downtown. My buddy that now lives in Vegas, took us to Container Park, which was really cool. After that we walked back down Fremont Street and I had bet earlier on Michigan beating Loyola in Men’s basketball. Another good choice, however I had to find a casino with a sports book that could cash me out. We ended up going to “The D” and really enjoyed the atmosphere/older machines. My wife ended up playing the old school Horse Racing Quarter Machine upstairs and stayed on it for quite a while. We ended up heading back to the Fremont, where we gambled the rest of our “$200 limit” for the day, and did pretty good. After several hours of gambling, we decided we were hungry, so we walked over to the Café at Binions, and were really impressed with what we had.
Sunday – April 1 We ate the Breakfast Buffet at the Fremont (comped), took an Uber back to our rental car on the other side of town, picked our buddy up at Hooters and headed north to Zion National Park. A couple hours later we arrived and were somewhat surprised that it wasn’t completely packed. My buddy has a free pass (Military) so we saved $30 on the gate fee. We spent most of the day at Zion, climbing, hiking, and exploring, it was my 4th time there, but the first time for my wife and buddy, and while my wife isn’t a hiker like me, she really enjoyed it and mentioned that it was one of her top 3 things we did on our trip. On our way back to town we stopped at Casa Blanca in Mesquite for a few hours, we didn’t do any good, but enjoyed the change of pace from the Vegas casinos.
Monday – April 2 We walked the strip again, and ate the brunch buffet at the Bellagio. It was really good, but if I hadn’t used the buy 1 get 1 free coupon I had, I wouldn’t have been quite as impressed. We walked around the strip some more, and ended up buying tickets to X-Country for my wife and I for the 10pm show at Harrah’s. The lady at the Box Office didn’t offer any discount, but when I asked about using my players card, she gave me a $10/ticket discount on the tickets. After that we drove across town to Sams Town (Boyd Gaming) and gambled for a few hours, I remembered a Steak House from several years back that I really enjoyed here, but we ended deciding against it for our anniversary meal. After going back to our hotel to change and shower, we ended up going to Viva Zapata’s (based on Reddit reviews). We weren’t disappointed! The food was amazing, the atmosphere even better, and the wait staff was the best! Our waiter asked what brought us out there, I told him it was our 2 year anniversary and we had flown in from Indiana to celebrate. We were enjoying the live Mariachi music, but started getting a little anxious as we were waiting on our bill (we wanted to get to Harrah’s by 9:30). A few minutes later here came the wait staff/musician to our table, put giant sombrero’s on us, gave us a couple of churros and each of us a shot of Tequila (no charge) while they sang us a song. I tipped them well and we were on our way to the show. My wife is a huge country music fan, and while I enjoy some of the older stuff, I’m more of a metalhead. I was pleasantly surprised at the price of our tickets, and for the money, the show wasn’t bad. 1 of the dancers really stood out from the rest though, but all in all it was a good experience. I wanted to go see Absinthe but found out they weren’t playing on Monday night. After our show we walked down to the Bellagio Fountains to see a show before heading back to the hotel.
Tuesday – April 3 We spent most of the morning packing up from our 6 nights at the Fremont, I checked with the Casino host to see about possibly comping more than 2 of our nights, but she showed me where my score in their algorithm was only a 65, and needed to be 100 to qualify for more. I still only paid $165 for the 4 nights I had to pay for, which was more than fair in my opinion, considering how little time we actually spent in the room. We went to Hooters and gambled for about 20 minutes, winning a couple hundred dollars, then took my buddy to the airport. Our flight wasn’t until 6:30pm, so we drove back North and had to try another Reddit suggestion for our last meal in town. We ended up at Hamburger Hut as we love to eat wings, and although the location and building were a bit sketchy, we ordered hot wings, a hot dog, and chili fries, this was our favorite food of the trip. We also really enjoyed hanging with some of the locals while we ate lunch. After eating lunch we hit up Walmart by the airport to find some last minute souvenirs to take back home, and then returned our rental car and waited a few hours for our flight back home.
What I would recommend
Sight Seeing - Zion National Park, Red Rock Canyon, Lake Mead, Container Park (especially if you have kids)
Food - Hamburger Hut, Viva Zapata’s, In & Out Burger, Nachodaddy, Hotdogs at South Point, Breakfast Buffet at Sunset Station, also saved a bunch of money by getting snacks and drinks for our room at the grocery store on day 1.
Casinos – As a gambler, the ones off the Strip seemed to pay better, but the ones on the strip were much classier and had newer slots you can’t find elsewhere. My 3 favorite were the Fremont, The D, and South Point. My wife really enjoyed seeing the sights at the Bellagio, the Flamingo, and others on the Strip. No matter what, if you’re going to gamble, get a players card, it saved me a bunch of money.
Transportation – If you like to do more than just stay in town and walk all week, I’d highly recommend getting a rental car like we did (about $200 for the week for a nice sized car), but if you don’t plan on going on long day trips like we did, UbeLyft would be great.
Entertainment – XCountry at Harrahs wasn’t the top show I’ve ever seen, but 2 tickets for $80 something and a happy wife, I can’t complain at all. Watching all the entrepreneurs on Fremont Street as well as the stage shows for free was hard to beat, and any trip to Vegas should include the Bellagio Fountains, the Flamingo Habitat, and any other free entertainment you can find along the strip.
What I wouldn’t recommend
Airlines – don’t go with the budget airlines expecting to save a bunch of money if you plan on taking a bag with you, checked or carry on, prefer to pick your seats out in advance, or want to get a snack while flying.
Food – While we didn’t really have any “bad” experiences, the café and Buffet at the Fremont were probably my least favorite, but I can’t complain because I didn’t have to pay for anything at either of them. Also I was looking forward to checking out Heart Attack Grill (based on Ducktales review), but they were packed and took Cash Only fyi.
Sight Seeing – Fremont Street after dark really isn’t the place to take your small kids but be sure to take them to Container Park during the day, Hoover Dam (unless you go early), Red Rock Canyon scenic trail on a holiday weekend. Pawn Stars was packed and if you’ve seen it once, the excitement kind of wore off, and they apparently charge for parking now. I parked up the street for free and only had a short walk, but the people trying to push you to buy extras outside of the store really kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

GREEN DAY REVOLUTION RADIO TOUR
August 20, 2017 / Riverbend Music Center / Cincinnati, OH
General Info:
Doors: 5:30pm
Show: 7:00pm
If you have GA lawn, I'd suggest getting there as early as possible. Riverbend is an older amphitheater, built more for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra than with rock concerts in mind, so it's built for sound, not sight. There are honestly a lot of places your view is going to be terrible, if you can see anything at all.
Concert Capacity:20,500 (6,000 reserved seats and 14,500 on the lawn)
Weather: 89°/67° - Mostly sunny with 72% humidity. It's gonna be hot and sticky. Prepare accordingly and please hydrate.
Opening band: Catfish & The Bottleman
Getting There:
Address: 6295 Kellogg Ave. Cincinnati, Ohio 45230 venue photo
Directions: Here. PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE SIGNS POSTED AROUND THE EXIT. Riverbend is right next to Belterra Park Casino and Coney Island Amusement Park, so sometimes concert traffic will be directed one way and casino traffic a different way even though they are in the same direction.
Parking: Parking is included in the price of every ticket. Ample parking is available in all surrounding lots labeled Event Parking. Additional parking for concerts will be available at Coney Island. Accessible parking is available in all lots.
If you get there before parking opens, or if you don't want to deal with waiting forever to get out of the parking lot once the show ends, you can park at Belterra Casino next door and walk over.
Fan Meet Up:
If anyone is interested in a meet up before or after let me know and I'll work on setting it up. I'd recommend Belterra next door if we don't have anyone under 21 (I know at least one person from this subreddit who is attending is turning 21 at midnight so we'll need to buy them a drink.)
Set Lists:
Last Show: Toronto, ON
This Show: Cincinnati, OH
Notes:
Please keep all show discussion in this thread, any posts related to this concert (besides photo's & video) will be deleted.
I'm more than happy to provide recommendations for places to eat or hang out, especially if you're coming from out of town, but that's hard without knowing preferences so comment below or message me and I'll help you out. I've lived in Cincinnati more than half my life (I live less than 15 minutes from the venue) and this city has a lot of unique things to offer.
Try some freaking Skyline. If you're not into the classic chili spaghetti, they have a super delicious vegetarian chili too, and GREAT salads, and are very reasonably priced.
If you've got time and also the money to spend and are over 21, the buffet at the casino next door to the venue is great and is fantastic at catering to specific dietary needs and special requests. I'm vegetarian with allergies and my sister needs everything gluten-free and it's one of the few places we both can enjoy ourselves without stressing about it.

This is our second trip to Vegas this year. This was not a typical Vegas trip as we planned on staying in most of our vacation.
The first trip, my wife and I dutifully spent 4 days visiting and sightseeing as much as possible.
This time around we were looking for a staycation away from home, and Vegas at this time was the most affordable.

Hilton Grand Vacations at the Flamingo
I dont know how old this property is, but it seems newish. I booked it in a hurry because it came with a one bedroom suite and a full kitchen. We wanted to stay in and just unplug so this place seemed perfect.
After booking we found out that the Flamingo Go Pool plays loud music everyday 9AM - 6PM during the warm seasons and that a lot of guests were super mad about being able to hear the non-stop music in their hotel room.
This worried me a lot and I tried to do more research on the place, but there was no conclusive evidence that the music wouldnt be bothersome. Some guests reported that the music was no bother, and others were furious.
Since I was staying 5 nights, I tried to tip the front desk $50 and asked for the quietest room they could get me because I heard about all the complaints. The receptionist refused the tip and said there wasnt much they could do but give me two options of rooms. One on a higher floor, overlooking the party pool, and the other on a very low floor in the corner. I guessed the lower floor would be quieter, because the higher room was directly in line of sight with the speakers.
Good new was that were not at all bothered with the music. Most days we couldnt hear it without focusing on it.

Day One - The entrance to the Hilton is hidden off to the right on the way to the Flamingo valet area. After unpacking real quick we headed out to get food and supplies for the week. We planned on going to Costco, but it was closed. We ended up going to Sprouts (which is great, but the meat and seafood counter didnt seem as fresh as in SoCal), Albertsons/Vons. We got a case of water, beer, steaks, cheeses, breads, and some veggies. When we got back to the hotel, we had the bellman bring up our groceries and got started on some steaks. We watched Game of Thrones and went to bed.
Day Two - We woke up, watched Game of Thrones, went to the Hilton pool (this is a separate pool from the Go Pool), drank some beers, made some lunch, and got dressed. Not necessarily in that order. In the evening we watched Beatles Love and it was awesome if you like the Beatles. We wanted to try Spagos, but they were closed so we walked across the street to White Castle. White Castle here is great, although I've never had it other than the frozen stuff. The frozen stuff actually tastes a like the fresh stuff, but I dont know if its a good or bad thing. We ate a bunch and were happy tho. Then we go some $1 beers at Casino Royale, lost $40 to slots and walked home.
Day Three - Same morning routine. Wake up, eat, drink, Game of Thrones, Minecraft. We met a friend and checked out Downtown Las Vegas. The entire street is fun with street performers and lots of bars. We decided on pizza at Pizza Rock, and was not impressed. Their famous margarita pizza is burnt. I like burnt charred foods, but the pizza was a little too much char and a little underdone. We tried a regular pepperoni pizza, which was better but nothing special. Then we spent most of our time at Oddfellows drinking cheap beer and waiting for karaoke. Oddfellows was a cool bar and they were playing Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (my favorite). The place reminded me if a hip bar scene in Los Angeles. We never made it to karaoke and retired for the night.
Day Four - Same morning routine. We went to lunch at Lotus of Siam. Great spot. We love Thai, and have our favorites here in LA. This place was as good as or better than some of our favorite spots. This video with Anthony Bourdain is a good guide for this place. We werent happy with our pizza the previous day, so we went out in search of Secret Pizza. Secret Pizza did not dissapoint. What I assume is the owner was working the pizza and he looked like he could have been related to the owner of one of my favorite NY pizza places. Last time we tried Pin-up Pizza, and its hard to say which one is better. They were both pretty close.
Day Five - We tried out the Go Pool. As a guest of HGV at Flamingo, we had a line pass to get in. The pool isnt as big as I imagined and it was bustling. It was surprisingly fun, and the DJ played some good songs. We hung out and enjoyed the pool for an hour or so. Watch where you step here though, I thought there were stairs leading into the pool and mis-stepped landing on my butt. I bruised my tailbone and it still hurts. :( We then went thrift store shopping. There are some large Goodwills here and we went to Savers. After thrift store shopping, we went back to the strip to the Hermes store in Caesars. We bought a nice scarf and checked out Spago's. Spago's was delicious, but we found that it wasnt as experimental feeling as the one in Los Angeles. No complaints about the food. We then checked out the High Roller. There was a guy selling tickets at the street entrance and sold tickets for $5 off. The High Roller was pretty amazing even without booze. It goes around once during your 30 minute ride and it is massive. Because it looks like a ferris wheel, I dont think people can wrap around their heads how big and how high this thing goes.
Day Six - We packed up and went to Wicked Spoon. First we went to the Las Vegas Advisor office to buy a coupon book for $37. It included a BOGO Wicked Spoon coupon, and we might use the other coupons later. Wicked Spoon is a nice buffet. The carving station meats were are very well done (the beef was served rare, but it was well done as in delicious). There were a lot of delicious things to try. In comparison with The Bachannal, we liked this place better. For the price, Bachannal wasnt worth it for us. The Wicked Spoon hit a good price to value ratio. On our way out, we played some roulette and won a little spending money. We hurried back to the Hermes store and picked up another scarf! On the way home to Los Angeles, we stopped by the oldest Del Taco. The food they had was of better quality than a regular Del Taco.

Anyway, I'd stay at the Hilton Grand Vacations at the Flamingo again. Its right by the strip near the center. Its a great value, and it comes with a bedroom and kitchen (they have a one room bedroom only rooms too)
Thanks Vegas!

This was our first time to Vegas so I figured I'd give a quick recap of our experience.
We ended up staying at the Aria our first night. I did a lot of research and I wanted something close to the action and a little on the upscale side. Aria is a very nice and modern place. I signed up for their Mlife program and got a small discount on the room. I was content with what we booked so I didn't try for the upgrade trick.
All in all, Aria is pretty cool. The room was really nice and high tech with a really cool bathtub/shower combo that me and the girlfriend took advantage of. We had a room with a strip view and was very cool to see all the action from our window at night.
First day we hit up the Aria buffet right before the switch from lunch to dinner so saved a few bucks. Great food options, I ate a small oceans worth of crab legs. Also plenty of options for my vegan gf, she got her money's worth.
That night we spent most of our time at the Aria casino and bars and hit the cosmo and the fountains briefly. We found ourselves preferring the Aria.
Second day we went to the cosmo's Wicked Spoon buffet. It was a bit more expensive than the Aria's and not as good imo. My gf had a hard time finding much vegan options during their brunch time.
During the day, we visited most of the casinos and hotels on the strip, a ton of walking but we were prepared with comfy clothes and shoes thanks to previous reviews.
We left the strip to our second destination, Red Rock Resort. Much more laid back and true resort-like feel. Our room had one of the most amazing views of the mountains I have ever seen in person. Very nice room, not as upscale as the Aria but a fraction of the price.
That night we ate at Libre in the resort after doing some research. One of the best vegan experiences we have ever had at a non vegan-only restaurant. So many options for my gf that even came with vegan cheese and sour cream. She legitimately lost her shit, was probably her most enjoyable part of the whole trip.
We spent our night at the casino and bars at the resort. $5 drinks and blackjack mins so our money went a long way. Had an infinitely more fun time there than Aria at night.
Last day we were planning to hike out at Red Rock but our schedule was a bit tight so we ate at the Café at the resort (not great but there was a massive line for the buffet) then pool lounged until our flight.
Our next visit, the only thing I will do differently is just stay all nights at the Red Rock and catch an Uber to the strip for a night and do a bit more research on vegan options.
TLDR Aria was nice but expensive. Red Rock had what we were looking for and really enjoyed it. Vegan options are available but you might have to look around some.

Hey everyone, had an AMAZING time! Going to give a TL/DR (as much as I can!!!) version, questions welcome!
Fremont -> dirty, grungy, New orleans vibe. Good AND bad. Cheaper thrills if thats a concern. Plenty of fun to be had.
DJ Tiesto @ Wet Republic -> lame lame lame. Ive wanted to see Tiesto since I was a kid, it was a huge let down. Find some other DJ's to see, unless its a "bucket list" item.
Wet Republic -> Great pools, sound stage was awesome. Drinks were ABSURDLY expensive. Im talking 49$ for a mixed drink, 15$ bud lights. Atmosphere is very "cabo". Cool place.
Porter Robinson @ Hakkasan -> BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE. It was a fantastic show!
Hakkasan -> Top notch club. No one was drinking([alcohol], yes we all know why), great vibe, great security, the whole atmosphere was incredible, bottle service wasnt even close to "needed", at the end of the night, it wasnt worth it at all. Shout out to the security guy that got us waters all night (for a "fee" haha).
Golden Nugget Hotel -> fine for sleeping. Was clean and pleasant, very cost effective for what we got.
Golden Nugget Pool -> swimming next to the shark tank was insanely cool. Decent pool, but dont pay to get in here. Super chill and relaxing, great for unwinding, but not for "enjoying vegas". Drinks and food were moderately priced, was alright.
Beatles Love Cirque show -> WOW 10/10 show. I have a new found appreciation for the Beatles, and the performance was spectacular. Definitely something you NEED to do in Vegas.
Mirage Volcano -> cool as hell, make some time to see it.
Lil Jon -> this was surprising. Very awesome to see him live. He played a huge variety of stuff, from Queen (I shit you not) to his own stuff (obviously).
Jewel Nightclub @ Aria -> Little more "ratchet" than Hakkasan. The setup was nice, and drinks were hella expensive. We had 4 girls and 2 guys, so we wound up getting bottle service free (Not planned, I swear! Dude said his friends didnt show up, and he needed people). Little more on the "ow my ears are bleeding" side than hakkasan as well. If Hakkasan was a 10, I'd give this place a solid 7.5.
Bellagio Fountains -> these were way cooler than I expected them to be, we spent probably 4 or 5 hours watching them over the weekend. Good spot in the middle to meet or plan your adventures.
Linq High Roller -> We got in around 1am, and it was just our group in the place. My friends said that it was packed last time they went and wasnt enjoyable. If you can get in late and its lookin empty, definitely do this ride. I threw the bartender a pretty big tip, and we DEFINITELY got our money's worth out of it. Over 20 drinks between the 4 of us lol. I think if theres a big group, you have to wait for everyone to have a drink, which would put a big damper on that.
Legends of Rock @ stratosphere -> Campy show, but pretty cool. Sit down venue, so you can relax and just enjoy the show lol.
Lyft was greatly superior to Uber for us there. Cheaper, and virtually no wait at any time of day. 10-15 bucks to go from strip to strip, including tips.
Blue Ribbon Steak House @ Bellagio -> garbage. Overpriced, tacky, service was hilariously bad, food was not good at all (not a single person finished their plate).
Claim Jumper @ Golden Nugget -> Decent food, fair prices.
Tournament Of Kings -> more for kids or LARGE GROUPS than we anticipated. The food was alright. I would say pass if youre in a group of less than 8, or you dont have kids. On the flip side, the section next to us had a group of probably 15-20 people, and they had an awesome time lol. Our section was full of kids and older people, so we didnt really get a chance to "get into it" without some dirty looks. Really ruined it for me personally. All in all, its ok.
Things I didn't consider ->

The buffets get HUGE lines at "dinner hours".
We spent a lot of time deciding what to do. Some planning would have gone a long way. The couple we went with used to live their, but that doesnt mean they knew what WE wanted to do.
Alcohol is WAY more expensive than I dared to think about.
You WILL be pegged as a tourist, no ifs ands or buts.
They REALLY like their strip clubs down there lol.
I wish we spent more time walking around and seeing the insides of the nicer casinos.
We really would have done well with a "down" day. We went strong for 5 days, and not being in my young 20s anymore, Im still hurtin haha. We went thurs-weds, monday would have been great to just do absolutely nothing but rehydrate and walk around the strip lol.
Get reservations. We wasted a lot of time waiting.
Get on guest lists. We got lucky with our friends knowing what to do, but getting on a guest list isnt hard at all. Got to walk into the Lil Jon show for free. Maybe was the ratio too.

Im sure Im forgetting something lol. Had a great time, and thanks to those that gave me great advice in my trip planning thread.

Dear Redditors of Las Vegas,
I want to thank you all for the advice and wisdom on this subreddit, which led to the perfect trip for myself (23M) and my lady friend (22F). I thought the least I could do to express my gratitude was to provide a trip report for those looking to visit in the future.
The trip was from 3/11 – 3/17, during our spring break. We’re from a school in New York and we set out here because we found some cheap plane tickets and wanted to have a nice relaxing time and stuff ourselves with good food, not necessarily for the casinos and the nightlife. I had been here 3 years ago as an under-21 year old, so it was nice to have the “real Vegas” experience.
Lodging: Stayed at Vdara Sat-Thurs with Mlife rates. Did the $20 trick and we were upgraded to a fountain-view suite. Gorgeous. I really recommend this hotel if you’re looking for a relatively quiet time. It doesn’t have a casino which perhaps attracts a calmer crowd, but the walk to the Bellagio or Aria is less than 10 minutes each so you can still satisfy your gambling needs. I don’t talk much about the casinos below, but we definitely did a fair share of gambling during our stay.
Transportation: We did have a rental car which made transportation easy. Valet was complementary, but please make sure to tip! They’ll take care of you.
Saturday 3/12

KOMEX – only because I came here 3 years ago and had fond memories of it. So good.
“O” show – Was a pretty cool show, but I was honestly underwhelmed by it. Had pretty good seats right in front of the VIP seating, which was unoccupied… so my GF and I hopped the fence and sat there instead, which was neat.

We also spent a while walking around the strip, getting acclimated, and looking at the cool hotels, to include Caesar’s Palace, Bellagio, and the Venetian.
Sunday

Bachi Burger – also to reunite with a previous memory. I still think this is one of the top 3 burgers I’ve ever had. The oxtail chili cheese fries are recommended by others to be a “must”, but I personally prefer the truffle fries.
Red Rock Canyon – Beautiful drive and hiking.
Monta Ramen – I’m a huge ramen fan and I understood this was the –best- ramen place in Vegas. It was very good, I’d say there are better places in NYC though.
Sweets Raku – in the same complex as Monta Ramen. They have some neat desserts that they make right in front of you, lovely experience.
Steve Aoki @ Hakkasan – We did it just for the experience (when in Rome, right?) and I used to be a big Steve Aoki fan back in the day. We showed up around 2230 and he didn’t come on until midnight, but we kind of got tired of the place and the crowd and left before he showed up.

Monday

Brunch @ Bacchanal Buffet, Caesar’s Palace – This was awesome! We had the groupon deal and it was impressively cheap. Midway through our meal they switched to their lunch menu so we got the best of both worlds there.
Gordon Ramsey’s Burgr – onion rings were incredible. The burger was pretty good as well.
Secret Pizza place @ Cosmo – was decent pizza but nothing impressive. It also wasn’t hard to find because there were a lot of people eating pizza right outside of the hallway…

We were in a food coma for a long time after the buffet so we napped and lounged around all day. Did some walking around the strip, watched the Bellagio fountain show for real. It was good.
Tuesday

Hoover Dam & Grand Canyon (West)

This was a great time, but I was unprepared for Grand Canyon West. I had initially wanted to go to the National Park side (GC South) but since it’s a much longer drive, settled for GC West. I didn’t expect the hefty entrance fee and I complained about being a part of the largest scam of all time, but the memories made it worth. There is about a $30 extra charge to go on the skywalk. I recommend you don’t do this – we just stood right next to the skywalk and got just about the same experience.
We had in n’ out on the way back. Always a good time.
Wednesday

Wicked Spoon @ Cosmo – Good buffet and the dishes were interesting, with different types of fusion here and there. Bone Marrow was weird.
The Eiffel tower @ Paris Las Vegas – I’m not sure how much this is but it was free for us so we went for it. The Bellagio fountains went off while we were up in the tower and it was a whole new view in itself! The wait was definitely worth it, can’t comment on the price though.

Thursday

Mint Indian Bistro – very good lunch buffet, big fan of indian food.
Atomic Testing Museum – We went here because we were looking for things to do at this point, but I guess it was appropriate because I’m a nuke minor. Pretty informative, the staff know their nuclear testing history. There’s an exhibit at the end about Area 51/Aliens for which I was excited, but it looked more like a high schooler’s science fair project.
Earl of Sandwich - Last meal in Vegas here. I could seriously eat these every day.

Overall, it was a magical time and I cannot wait to be back. Thank you again to everyone for helping me come up with a great trip.
Things I wish I had done but didn’t: Studio B Buffet @ M Resort (for the price and unlimited drinks), GC South, Zion, hit the jackpot.
TL;DR: Had an awesome time in Vegas thanks to this subreddit. Stayed at Vdara, went to the “O” show, and ate a lot of good food.
EDIT: I still have the excel file I used to list all the restaurants and activities for the trip. It's pretty messy with some comments, but if anyone is interested I'll either send it to you or post the google doc link in the comments.
EDIT #2: Fixed a stupid mistake. Thanks jgiesea

Las Vegas as a destination...sucks. It seems like like the hotels nickel and dime people FOR EVERYTHING. Want to use the pool, or the gym, or the concierge? Well, today is your lucky day! The hotels took all of the services and activities that used to be FREE and used them as an excuse to charge a resort fee... If that wans't bad enough, now the hotels are charging for PARKING! But don't worry, they are only charging so they can provide you with new infrastructure and better service... if you believe that I know a Nigerian prince that would like to talk to you.
So you payed to park, you paid for your over priced room, and finally you paid the stupid resort fee. Now it should get better right? I mean, you payed so much the hotels have to offer something right? NOPE! Gone are free buffet vouchers, gone are free drinks, gone is pretty much any sign of value. The drinks at the casino bars are about 4-5x overpriced - NO, I don't want to pay 22 dollars for a real cadallac margarita (patron gold, lime juice, Contreau w/ Grand Marnier. I was told that Vegas is transitioning from a gambling destination to luxery nightclubs and high end pool parties. They wonder why people don't gamble as much, sure the economy plays a part but the main reason is: no one wins anymore!! The slots and other machines have been tightened down to the point where not only do you expect to lose money, it isn't even fun anymore. Put $100 bucks in lose it all before even 1 "bonus game" comes up. Don't get me wrong, you will "win". Ya, you "win" $0.15... too bad the spin cost ya $5. The casinos don't bother to run any worth while promos anymore, the slot and video poker machines have been tightened up, and the casinos don't comp shit anymore. Instead of a free buffet, now you get 10% off a buffet! Instead of a free night, you get a "Super Special Player's Club Rate" (great, 8% off...on the weekdays).
So back to this Luxery night club scene. Here is a Vegas night club explained: Charge guests at least $30 to get in, drinks have to be $20 each and be light on anything that is not RC Cola or cheap sugary syrup, for music - choose between electronic that all sounds the same after 45 minutes or whatever rap songs that everyone heard 1000 times on the radio making the drive, Man... really? Am I the ONLY one here that is sick of nightclubs?
I can't be the only one that is sick of these "cool" hotels. The only guy I know that brags about staying in the [Fancy Pants Hotel] is a 350 fat guy who posts quotes like "It's hard being friends with girls when all they want is sex" on Facebook daily - who although he swears he has "boned a ton of super hot girls, some models even", he has NEVER had a GF. In fact, no one has EVER seen him spit game, touch a girl (the notorious arm gram doesn't count, might even prove my point further), or bring a girl home (Maybe you have met his brother - the guy that is always showing of his bottle of Cristal, the same one he has had for 5 years...) . However, it seems that there are enough of these losers dying to impress women by their baller ~~economy room with view~~ "penthouse" that go to those Luxury nightclubs to make Vegas turn into douche bag central.
Sure, there are still a couple of good values left - but they are dying fast. One can get 4 real Patron Cadillac margaritas for the price of one at [fancy pants hotel] by taking a trip down the strip to Circus Circus or Stratusphere. If you can stomach the smell of regret and cheap hookers. The Hard Rock is still doing the 777 deal, however the cab ride is probably going to cost ya triple that each way. The Casino Royale has Michelobe Ultra's (a type of beer that no one knows exists outside that small casino) and what they call "margaritas" for $1. Plus they have the only 100x odds craps on the strip (which is actually pretty damn good, craps has one of the lowest house edges available). The Magnoila cafe has a descent prime rib dinner that with coupon comes to ~$10. Sure one can go downtown and have some fun for less, but lets be honest. If the fancy lights aren't above you, you have a good chance to getting robbed/mugged/assaulted.
The sad thing is I don't see the last good values lasting too long. Iconic hotels like the Riviera and the Sands is just the beginning, in a couple more years all the values on the strip will be replaced with "luxury hotels" following MGM's lead: Charge for Parking, Charge Resort fees, Charge for what used be complimentary. RAPE people for nightclub entrance, nightclub drinks and Shows (although last time I went I did get a good deal on Blue Man Group and Phantom of the Opera tickets...but only after I spent hours looking). One has to wonder, what the fuck are they going to charge for next? House keeping? Towels? Soap and Shampoo? Is there going to be a curtain over the window next time I go, with a dollar fee to open for 15 minutes? Is the AC going to be p4p?
Sorry for the rant, I just honestly think that resort fees and having to pay for parking in a place like Las Vegas should be criminal. I remember my mom grabbing a handful of my quarters (that I was using at the ARCADE) to play the slots while waiting for my pops to come down from the room and winning 400 in quarters. I remember my neighbor that would get so many free nights he couldn't possibly using them all just from comps from buying in $800 at the poker table. I remember my friends parents going to Vegas every weekend they could, and winning. They used to keep track of their winnings vs. money spent on gambling, room, food, etc. They said they hardly ever had years where they were in the red more than 1k - and most of the time they either didn't spend anything or came home with more than they left with. Those same people not only don't keep track anymore - they have basically stopped gambling. They both played Video Poker, and it has gotten to the point where they don't even enjoy it anymore. Last time I saw them in Vegas we met up at a hotel for dinner. I went to get my friend, her dad and I drinks from the bar (because all they would comp was "mixed drinks", that could best be described as a splash of the lowest of the low plastic bottle rum or vodka - honestly can't tell which its so god awful - combined with "soda" that makes those shitty bargain brand sodas seem like nectar of the gods). I was gone no longer than 5 minutes, and when I returned her dad wanted to leave. He had lost almost $300 dollars in video poker...in less than 5 minutes. He wasn't playing a crazy high roller machine either, he was playing $0.50/credit and 5 credits. He didn't win (not counting pairs) one hand. He didn't even get dealt a 3 of a kind (which anyone who plays video poker knows, is one of the most exciting things because your praying for that 4th one and a nice win!) once!
Tl;Dr: Vegas sucks. With the addition of resort fees and parking fees and the transition from a gambling destination to a luxury night club destination it is quickly turning into tool central.

A quick backstory here, I live in Cincinnati (and therefore hate you by default..I am sorry this is basic sportslogic) and recently visited your city for the first time a couple of weeks ago.
A good friend of mine recently moved there and is an install tech in...less than desirable parts of town. We rolled out for about a week through the hood (as he calls it "hoodstompin") doing install work and taking in the sights as we went along and time permitted.
While I was there, I saw:
The graff wall. This came about somewhat by accident. My friend had mentioned it and we are both fans. We were trying to navigate our way to the Arch (must see spot?) and randomly ran across the graff wall. Seriously, this is the coolest fucking thing I have ever seen in my entire life. So much great artwork.
Every nasty ass ghetto in Saint Louis. Here in Cincy, we have "Over The Rhine" which is supposed to/reported as being "the most dangerous neighborhood in America". Yeah. Eff that. We did installs in neighborhoods where cars would roll by with folks wearing all red, staring at us, the only white kids for probably a square mile, hard and I was legit concerned for my safety. I can walk pretty much anywhere here in Cincy, any time of the day and not really sweat too much. Not the case. I seriously felt like I was going to get shot numerous times. So...props?
The Arch. That shit was cool. I mean, if you're going to go to StL, you might as well? Ran the steps going up to it. Got on queue to ride up to the top but between a radiation scare at security (wtf?) and timing of the next ride up..it didn't work out. Nonetheless, still got a great shot of your Arch and enjoyed walking along the river.
St Peters. This is where my friend stays down there. Nice spot. Seems quiet, mostly families and normal folks. Enjoyed that a lot.
Ameristar Casino Buffet. I demanded this happen. I am a skinny kid but a secret fat ass that has spent plenty of time in Las Vegas to know that if there is a casino buffet around..you need to hit that shit up. It was ok. Food was decent..availability was kind of shitty and the price effing sucked. Still worth it though.
Clubs. The only club I went to was the Old Rock House. A few buddies were DJing there so we went down to check it out. Super cool club. We have nothing like it here. Definitely enjoyed my time although the bar staff can seriously suck a dick.
Old 5th Street. Hit this up on St. Patty's Day night. Was pretty subdued given the time but seems like a cool place.
The #1 observation I have about Saint Louis is pretty simple: Ya'll have Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too goddamn many motherfucking signs and zones. I noticed this immediately and cut up on it the entire time I was in town.
There's speed safety zones, accident avoidance zones, no parking zones, keep your cornhole tight zones. Fuck, man. More zones than any rational personal could logically keep track of. Everywhere else I've been across the country there is a highway sign like every mile..half mile maybe. Nah, son. In the 'Lou, there's a sign every goddamn hundred feet and it's fucking annoying..not to mention confusing. You don't know where you stand at any particular point in time if you are driving on the highway other than that you better go slow as shit and not do anything remotely questionable unless you want to get assraped by some podunk township cop trying to reach his "performance incentive" for the month.
I hate to be negative but that shit was ridiculous. Down on 5th street, I even saw a "Do Not Posts Signs In This Zone" Sign. What in the actual fuck is that?
All in all, I enjoyed my 5 or so days in Saint Louis and honestly, it is someplace I probably wouldn't mind living but there are some stark differences between your fair town and well..everywhere else. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

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1920's Party
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Flapper Party Ideas: The 1920's was not all about the gangsters ruling the street. There was also a lot of glitz and glamour. When you think of a 1920's woman dressed up for a night on the town you can not help but think about the flapper girls. Select some flapper headbands for the ladies and maybe some pearl white beads or feather boas. The men will look great in one of the multiple styles of top hats available at all different price points.
Music Party Ideas: The 1920's were a time of big bands and leading performers. We have developed an entire hat style just to fit the big band style. Take a look at our Chairman New Year's Eve Party Kits for your next big band themed new year's eve party. You will also find music note decorations that will fit this idea perfectly.
Sherlock Holmes Party Ideas: If a gangster came to visit and a flapper girl went missing while the big band was playing, then you need someone to solve the crime. Have a 1920's murder mystery party featuring Sherlock Holmes as your leading detective. Grab Sherlock's Bowler hat and some white spats and let the investigating begin! You can also head on over to our Halloween Section and set the scene of the crime.
Speakeasy Party Ideas: The 1920's Speakeasy theme is the perfect idea for New Year's Eve. It incorporates drinks with partying which is what New Year's Eve is all about! Create some specialty cocktails that are reminiscent of a old time speak easy and grab some high class black and white party decorations that fit the theme perfectly. Your bartender will be slinging vintage drinks to a group of people right out of the history books.
Cigar Room Party Ideas: In the 1920's cigars and cigarettes were just a way of life. They were symbolic of the upper class. When you look back at old photographs you will see men and women smoking in their finest attire. We actually offer an New Year's Eve Party Kit that includes horns that look like cigars. Take a look at our Havana Assortment for 50 to see some of the nicest looking horns and hats that you will find. You can also select from fake cigars and cigarettes that look like they are actually lit.
1950's Party
1950's Theme Ideas Plan Your Next 1950's Era Party Jump back in time to the 1950's. When Soda Jerks served you pop at the local dinner and you took your main squeeze to the drive ins for a movie. Toss on a poodle skirt and style a pompadour for your next 1950's party. Party Express is your one stop shop when it comes to creating the perfect environment for your 1950's Party.
If you are looking for some great ideas for hosting a 1950's themed party, then you have come to the right place. PartyExpress.com has over 100 different items to fit your theme perfectly. A 1950's themed party is the perfect theme for a New Year's Eve Party. So select some pink and blue new year's eve party kits and then start to decorate and accessorize with the many different options and styles that are available from Party Express.
Ideas for Planning a 1950's Party If you are looking to turn your event space into a sock hop, soda shop, or drive in let Party Express be your guide to creating the perfect 1950's Party theme.
First comes the decorations. Grab some glittered banners and jukebox centerpieces to turn a your venue into an old soda shop. Then you can serve dessert with our tissue banana splits. They are perfect to set around the dessert table of buffet. There are tons of cutouts available to place on the walls like pink Cadillacs, 1950's sign cutouts, and musical notes and records. Your guests will have a blast remembering the gold old days and the simpler times of the 1950's.
But wait, you are not done yet. What will your guests be wearing at this beautifully decorated party? Take a look around, there are dozens of different party favor giveaways for your party. Maybe some inexpensive music note beads, or a greaser comb to keeps that pompadour in shape. If that is not your style, then certainly some record beads or horn rimmed glasses will do the trick. Your servers will look amazing in our pink poodle skirt costume accessory and chiffon scarf. You name it, we have the perfect party supplies and ideas for your 1950's Rock & Roll New Year's Eve party.
1960's Party
1960's Ideas
Ideas For a 1960's Theme Party It's time to get groovy and start planning for your 1960's themed party. Let your hippie side show and dig deep for that old tie dyed T-Shirt. If you don't have all of those goodies left from the 1960's do not fear, Party Express has you covered!
Let the party supplies and costume accessories that are offered at PartyExpress.com be your guide to planning a 1960's themed party. You will find all kinds of peace sign favors, tie-dyed decorations, and hippie costume accessories. Party Express has everything that you need to turn your event space into a psychedelic dream. You can start out by hanging tie-dyed banners over every entrance way. This will let your guests know that they are about to walk through a time warp to the 1960's. Once inside they will see peace sign whirls hanging from the ceiling and maybe even some hippie bus centerpieces on the table full of little snacks and goodies.
Look The Part in Tie-Dyed Hippie Costume Accessories Your guests have to look the part when they are dancing the night away at your special event. So hand out some groovy costume accessories to them as they walk in the door. Some great ideas include peace sign beads, tie-dyed bandanas, or mod tops. You could go really crazy and turn all of your guests into hippies with our hippie costume kit. Your hippies will have everything they need to look and dress the party for this one of a kind party.
Make peace not war this New Year's Eve and throw an 1960's party that your guests will never forget. The 1960's might be a blur to them now, but your party is sure to stay fresh in their minds. They will be getting their groove on all night light as they are sporting tie-dyed colors and peace signs. So do not hesitate. Start planning your 1960's themed new year's eve party today!
1970's Party
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Create Custom Invitations Create a custom invitation that matches the colors and theme of your 1970's Party. Party Express will customize our invitations to meet your event's needs. Invitations are the best way to let your prospective guests know that you are having a party and to fill the event space on December 31st. So intrigue your guests with one of our professionally designed custom new year's eve invitation.
Disco Decorations The decorations are the specialty for Party Express. We have hundreds of different 1970's themed new year's eve decorations. Whether you are looking for graffiti buses to put on the table as centerpieces or large 1970's paper cutouts to place on the walls you are sure to be able to turn your event space into a disco party that no one will ever forget! If you are serving food at your party we have the perfect disco ball tableware to serve all of those fancy little finger foods.
The 1970's were an era of bright colors, disco balls, and dance floors. PartyExpress.com has all of those great designs and more to decorate your bar or ballroom. Your guests will be filled with enthusiasm when they walk in and see all of the hard work that you did, that really was not all that difficult at all. Simply take your items out of the package and hang them up!
1970's Costume Accessories and Party Favors It would not be a party unless you were handing out hats, tiaras, and other celebratory aides to your guests. Party Express has developed some of the best and inexpensive Party Favors for you guests to utilize throughout the night. You will find New Year's Eve Party Kits in the theme of disco, along with hats, tiaras, horns, and beads that all compliment the design.
Give your bartenders an instant Afro with our Afro wig. This is one of the best quality and largest Afro wigs on the market and it will bring joy and laughter to all of your guests. You can even choose to give your guests some fancy 1970's era eyeglasses, or maybe even a disco ball bead.
Dress your guests this year in the theme of your 1970's disco party and watch the personalities shine!
1980's Party
TOTALLY RAD 80’S THEME PARTY IDEAS The 80's were a time like no other. Technology was booming and so were the speakers on that giant boombox radio. Our selection of 1980's themed party favors is full of the nostalgia that you would expect when walking into an old arcade, or watching a retro movie.
The 1980's was defined by loud music, extreme colors, and big hair. You will want to bring as many of these ideas together as possible as you are planning you 1980's themed New Year's Eve Party. The good news is that the Party Supplies and Decorations that you will find right here at PartyExpress.com will embody everything that was the 1980's. So lets get started planning your totally rad and every memorable 1980's themed party today.
Get Your Guests to Dress Funky Getting your guests to dress the party has never been more simple! Party Express has designed multiple party kits for the new year that completely embody what it meant to live in the 1980's. Simply select one of our 1980's themed party kits that include hats, horns, tiaras, and beads. Some of them even include glow accessories, which was huge in the 1980's. If you are more of a design your own party type of person, then we have dozen of different costume accessories that you can mix and match to create the perfect assortment of party favors for your event.
Some great items that will fit your 1980's party theme perfectly would include shutter shades, video game beads, retro button, and the instant nerd kit. No matter how small the freebie, your guests will be chomping at the bit to get whatever it is that you will be handing out on the New Year. So dress your nerds and your jocks how you think they should look with the great party favors and discounted costume accessories available from PartyExpress.com.
RETRO 80'S DECORATIONS Let's set the mood for the party with some retro 1980's party decoration. Make your guests step back a couple of decades in time when they walk into your event space. You can create different sections, usually in each corner of the room. Here are some ideas for each section.
Gamer Section Create a gamer section of your event space with some of our 8-bit retro game style party favors. Hang some decorations from the ceiling with decorations that resemble the age old arcade games of the eighties. You could even set up an old tube TV and gaming console to let your guests enjoy the nostalgia that they had lived decades ago. They will be leveling up your party as they play through the old games that they had enjoyed in their childhood.
80's Rock Music Decorations This is a good section to set up around the DJ booth. With this you can get some of our 1980's signs and inflatable boomboxes to set around the DJ. Not only will your guests be enjoying the sounds of the 1980's but they will also be enjoying the familiar sights of what was 1980's rock & roll. This is a great place to incorporate some of our graffiti props and cassette tape decorations. So get out that old 80's mix tape and start to ROCK!
Retro Movie Section The 80's were a time for some of the most memorable movies every created. So take a trip Back to The 1980's and relive the magic with some of our movie inspired party decorations. This would be a great area to play some of those flicks on an old tube TV. So hang some 80's signs and turn on that blurry tube TV. The nostalgia will be too much for your guests and they will have a great time at your 1980's themed NYE Party!
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Casino Night Party Supplies and Decorations Casino theme parties are a great way to make your guests think that they are high rollers on The Vegas Strip. Take out the play money and let your gets start rolling the dice with our casino themed decorations, hats, tiaras, and beads.
Casino themed parties not only create a fun atmosphere, but they also give your guests exciting happenings throughout the evening that will fill their evening with lots of laughs and excitement. Hand out some fake poker chips and let your guests try their luck at the tables. Be sure to have some great prizes for your guests to win. The prizes should be something that you find useful and that your guests will hold on to for many years to come. This will create lasting impressions every time they go to use the give a way item that you provided to them for hitting the jackpot.
Place Your Bets with Our Casino Night Decorations Hit the jackpot with the casino themed decorations and party favors that you will find at PartyExpress.com. We have all of the traditional red and black card suit decorations that you would expect at a poker party, along with some that you might never have seen before.
Start the party out right by decorating your event space with the many decorations that we have available. Place some poker centerpieces on the tables and hang some card suit ceiling decorations up above. Then you can tie some poker themed balloons to all of the centerpieces and hang a Poker night banner over the doorway.
Do not forget to hand out some exquisite beads and necklaces to all of your guests. This will really get them into the gambling mood. In addition you could purchase some poker night hats and visors, or maybe even a playing card tiara.
If you look hard enough you might even find some large paper slot machines and blackjack party sets. These are a great way to set up your very own casino in your event space. You can scatter some playing card confetti around the tables to create a real poker night party atmosphere.
If handing out casino party favors are more your style we even have some chocolate favors bags that are themed specifically for your poker night party. So do not shop anywhere else. Party Express has everything that you need to have a successful and fun casino night party.

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