Las Vegas Forum: 'One For the Ages' ND Fan's Bachelor Party Trip Report

Prelude:

I was engaged on New Year’s Eve in 2011 to the love of my life and, knowing my family, there was only one way to celebrate. Since that happened over a year ago, I made one other Vegas trip to March Madness last year:

tripadvisor.com/…32064829

That was our annual trip to Vegas with friends, but this one was bound to be a little more special. My brother and father have been planning this my whole life. It was my ninth trip to Las Vegas. Our favorite hotel is the Flamingo, and we threw a hell of a bachelor party for my brother there a few years back, so it was only natural to return. We got confirmation that 27 friends and family would be joining us. I’ll spare you from naming everyone and just let you know it was my family, college friends and my fiancée’s brother and father. Everyone was staying at the Flamingo so it was nice to have us all at the home base.

We chose this weekend because typically the weekend after the Super Bowl err Big Game is traditionally a slow weekend. Also, the wedding is in April and with everyone coming from out of town we didn’t want our friends and family to have to travel so close to the wedding. The weather ended up being GORGEOUS so it was a great time to head out. However, we did not anticipate a large convention and the Rugby Sevens tournament happening at the same time. It was busier than expected but not any more expensive for rooms and flights. We also ran into lower table minimums which was a nice relief from March Madness. The plans have been set, so let it be written.

We started Wednesday night when my future brother in-law and his roommate stayed at our house in Indianapolis in anticipation of our 6:30 AM flight. I was up late Wednesday night, I was almost asleep when I thought to myself “man, I’m about to fall asleep, then when I wake up, it’s VEGAS!” Well, that was the worst thing that ever could have happened. Thinking about Vegas had me up for the next two hours. I was up early at 4:30AM to shower and pack the car. We left for the Indy airport at 5 and ran into stopped traffic on the highway to the airport due to an accident. We took a few back roads and made it without incident. Checked in, got my boarding pass (it was a B 16 with Southwest by checking in 24 hours in advance.) The three guys found three seats together and we were off!

My father had arrived the night before and checked into the suite. He rented a minivan for a day to help shuttle everyone and pick up some supplies for the bachelor party on Friday night. He picked us up at 7:30 after an uneventful and early flight. When I saw my Dad at the airport he seemed very concerned rather than happy to see me. We found out a family member was diagnosed with bladder cancer for the second time. Not a good start, but he’s beat it before and he will again. We got our free checked bags and hit the van. On our way out of the parking garage we got a call from another friend who had landed about 45 minutes early (this became a theme.) We had to keep circling (somehow Vegas does not have a cell phone lot?) and eventually picked up our friend before heading out for supplies. I think Las Vegas should have a cell phone lot that you can gamble in, it would clean up.

We headed out to Lee’s Discount Liquor on Flamingo to get the goods for the bachelor party. Our shopping list: 6 cases of beer, gin, rum, spiced rum, vodka, more vodka, baileys, butterscotch schnapps, whiskey and of course, Jagermeister. After $281 at Lee’s we hit a local supermarket for cups, stirrers, mixers, red bull, tonic water, trash bags, paper towels and other assorted necessities. We headed back to the Flamingo start an incredible, unforgettable weekend.

Up next, we hit it, early and hard…

So glad to see you made it back in one piece without a trip to the hospital or jail!!! Classic updates, though impressively discrete. Looking forward to reading the whole story here man...

Oh goodness. I've seen you partied out and sleep-free. It can only go downhill from there. LOL :) Looking forward to reading more!

Oh my, I am looking forward to reading more of this report!!

This is starting off good. Looking foward to the rest.

Good read so far. Can't wait to hear the rest.

Can't wait to read the rest of this TR...

Looking forward to more.

Day 1 (part 1)

We arrived to the Flamingo around 10 o’clock. We grabbed a luggage cart to handle all the booze. On the way up to the room the woman helping to handle the bags asked me (there were four young guys and my Dad) “are you a sports team?”

My reply, “no, we just drink like one.”

We hit room 27040 at the Flamingo and started setting some things up. The room was a Neapolitan Suite, with one king bed off-set from the large living area. I love the GO Rooms at the Flamingo. The style is just totally Vegas and it’s honestly the best deal on the strip. We iced up the beer in the tub and put all the alcohol on the dresser. My brother would be arriving a little later in the day and we would be getting a standard GO Room a few doors down while my Dad slept in the suite. The views were amazing. Looking right at the fountains I sat down for a second really soaking in the moment.

My future father-in-law soon arrived with a few other friends. His plane was 50 minutes early. 50 minutes? I have no idea how airline travel works. I mean, tail winds, I get it, but 50 minutes just doesn’t make sense to me. My Dad was going to head to pick up my Brother, I had been in Vegas for hours and hadn’t lost any money yet so it was time to go donate. We headed down to Flamingo’s casino but didn’t find anything worth playing. We wandered over to Bill’s and were happy to find an empty $5 craps table. My college friends had not played before so I taught them the game while trying not to lose all of my money right away.

The cocktail waitress was very quick and nice talking to us about why we were in town. She asked me what I wanted, hmmm. Well, we’re only going to be here for four days so I need to get all the drinking in I can. After having four or five cocktails in the room before heading out we kept the party going with some Jager and Red Bull. We continued to gamble as I treaded water winning some and losing some and then losing some and then losing some. Where’s that ATM? More Jager, more Red Bull. Finally the waitress asked what I wanted and I remember saying “If I don’t slow down now, I’m never going to make it tonight. I’ll have a vodka Red Bull.”

None of us had breakfast/lunch yet so we decided to hit a quick lunch at Margaritaville. I proceeded to make love to some nachos and boneless Jamaica Mistaka wings. A quick note about the Margaritaville Casino addition to the Flamingo. I love it. I know it’s small but they really went all out with the theme tied through to the carpet and table felt. The “5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar” is really cool to and it opens up to the outside which is nice when the weather was so awesome. At lunch I got one of my favorite drinks, an “Incommunicado“ which is light rum, dark rum, vodka, gin, triple sec, tequila, cranberry juice and pineapple juice. It was a perfect choice considering I was tired of remembering everything. After massacring some chips, cheese, chicken and guacamole we decided to do some sight seeing.

My friend Tom had never been to Vegas before so we wanted to go see everything. We walked North up the strip from Bill’s. Two friends decided to split a yard of daiquiri from Rockhouse outside IP. My one friend was hammered drunk and walked up to the bar yelling “I’ll have one of those whale bones!” The waitress had no idea what he was talking about. “A WHALE BONE, A WHALE BONE, A WHALE BONE.”

“Dude, just point to what you want so we can do something else today.”

He finally got his whale bone daiquiri and we headed up the strip. We wandered in and out of The Venetian and Wynn. One place I was finally excited about seeing was Encore. Although I’ve been several times since it was built I had never been inside. I have heard so many good things I had to see what all the fuss was about. It was really opulent and immaculately clean. The decorations for Chinese New Year combined with the attention to detail and employees maintaining everything really made this place over-the-top. After seeing it, one word comes to mind: Lame. We were honestly the only people in this place. It was the middle of the day on a Thursday (the strip between Venetian and Planet Hollywood was so packed it was tough to walk down the sidewalk) and it was a ghost town. I counted less than 10 people playing table games (nothing less than a $25 minimum) and more employees than gamblers and guests. I have no idea how this place makes money other than it has to be a few whales turning it into their own personal casino.

I headed back to Flamingo to go up to the room to meet up with my Brother and get all of our things settled in the room. I wanted to take a quick nap (read, pass out) so I could hit it hard in the evening. I closed the shades and put on some soothing music (read, Skrillex) and tried to close my eyes a little. The room was spinning, but it’s okay, because it was REALLY going to be spinning at night.

Up next, it’s tough to stop drinking when everyone is buying you drinks…