Taxman
02-20-2004, 02:38 PM
Hi all, It seems vegas trip recounts are popular here and I figured I'd give mine as well, for posterity's sake. I was in fact in Vegas over Valentine's weekend (though not on Valentine's day) with my girlfriend and a few other friends as well. All but one of us are under 21. I myself am still an agonizing 3 months shy of the date. So what were we all doing there? Well, getting drunk and gambling of course!
You see, it all started some time ago when I suprised my girlfriend with Sting tickets for his show in Phoenix (we live in San Diego). We would drive up friday afternoon (the 13th), see the concert on the 14th and go up to the Grand Canyon afterward. Well that bastard Sting decided to get sick two days before the concert and suddenlt going to Phoenix seemed a little less enticing thus we decided to hit up Vegas. We invited my friends along and sunday morning found us crusing up I-15. Through AAA we got great rates in the Paris and subsequently found ourselves on the 30th floor with a pretty decent view of the city. For anyone itnerested I love the Paris and recommend it. Central location, great rooms, great buffet, a lot of fun.
Now being mostly pre 21 and being big wimps, we spent our first few hours wandering around the various casinos, finding dinner wandering a little more before we retired to the room to guzzle some wine we had brought with us. After that we hit the town again. Suddenly people left and right were offering us drinks and security guards were giving us directions without a second look. Knowing that they usually card at the cages, we trusted our good post 21 friend to cash out for us (not that we won too much, or at all really). Being the only poker player of my friends and the biggest wimp, I never tried to sit down in any of the poker rooms. Also somehow I don't think my girlfriend would have appreciated me vanishing for hours. I guess I'll have to go donate some other time when I'm actually 21 (set a date for June!).
On Monday we tried the Paris breakfast buffet, which was good and then crashed for most of the day in our room (after staying up until 5 am the night before, only to wake up at 8 for the buffet). That evening we saw the Second City show in the Flamingo which was great. I was laughing for most of the show and only one or two sketches out of probably two dozen seemed weak to me. Waitress there had no problem serving us beer though we generally sucked at the art of tipping giving her $2 for 4 drinks and $5 for 2 and finding the most ackward ways of tip delivery. After hitting up the Rio buffet we wandered around a little more but inevitably passed out in the room around 2 am. having class at 12:30 the next day we had to wake up at 5:30 and drive all the way back. Being the reason behind this, I was forced to do all of the driving.
All in all I had a fantastic time and I can't wait to come back again. I found the key to being under 21 is acting like you belong. You do need to look relatively old as well and I think I had an easier time when I was just with my girlfriend than with a group. I think people expect those who are in the casino to be over 21 unless it's obviously not the case. For all you kids out there I think your best bet is just acquiring a single drink. To do this I've found the strange little bars in the middle of the casino with video poker machines in the bar top worked best. Just sit down and play a little video poker and after a few minutes ask for a drink. Best part is it'll even be free because you're gambling. Just don't forget to tip the bartender. After that just wander around with your cup acting drunk (or being drunk) and nobody will question you. Just try not to win too much money or you may indeed get questioned /images/graemlins/wink.gif. My friends and I were still too afraid to move to the table games as they attend to attract spectators, so I'm not 100% sure how easy that is to pull off. I know my over 21 friend played blackjack for 2 hours without being questioned once. Of course he looks like he's 28, so that might have had something to do with it. Even if you don't want to travel down that path I think Vegas has plenty to offer the under 21 crowd. Of course it's tourture not being able to take advantage of everything the ciy has available.
I did stop by the Bellagio and Mirage cardrooms on sunday evening just to scope things out and I must say that there were a lot of middle age mopes hanging around . Must have been 2+2's night off right /images/graemlins/grin.gif. If anyone noticed a tall skinny white boy in a bright red collard shirt hanging on the rail, that was me. Anyway that's pretty much it I guess. Kudos to you if you actually read this whole thing.
Taxman
You see, it all started some time ago when I suprised my girlfriend with Sting tickets for his show in Phoenix (we live in San Diego). We would drive up friday afternoon (the 13th), see the concert on the 14th and go up to the Grand Canyon afterward. Well that bastard Sting decided to get sick two days before the concert and suddenlt going to Phoenix seemed a little less enticing thus we decided to hit up Vegas. We invited my friends along and sunday morning found us crusing up I-15. Through AAA we got great rates in the Paris and subsequently found ourselves on the 30th floor with a pretty decent view of the city. For anyone itnerested I love the Paris and recommend it. Central location, great rooms, great buffet, a lot of fun.
Now being mostly pre 21 and being big wimps, we spent our first few hours wandering around the various casinos, finding dinner wandering a little more before we retired to the room to guzzle some wine we had brought with us. After that we hit the town again. Suddenly people left and right were offering us drinks and security guards were giving us directions without a second look. Knowing that they usually card at the cages, we trusted our good post 21 friend to cash out for us (not that we won too much, or at all really). Being the only poker player of my friends and the biggest wimp, I never tried to sit down in any of the poker rooms. Also somehow I don't think my girlfriend would have appreciated me vanishing for hours. I guess I'll have to go donate some other time when I'm actually 21 (set a date for June!).
On Monday we tried the Paris breakfast buffet, which was good and then crashed for most of the day in our room (after staying up until 5 am the night before, only to wake up at 8 for the buffet). That evening we saw the Second City show in the Flamingo which was great. I was laughing for most of the show and only one or two sketches out of probably two dozen seemed weak to me. Waitress there had no problem serving us beer though we generally sucked at the art of tipping giving her $2 for 4 drinks and $5 for 2 and finding the most ackward ways of tip delivery. After hitting up the Rio buffet we wandered around a little more but inevitably passed out in the room around 2 am. having class at 12:30 the next day we had to wake up at 5:30 and drive all the way back. Being the reason behind this, I was forced to do all of the driving.
All in all I had a fantastic time and I can't wait to come back again. I found the key to being under 21 is acting like you belong. You do need to look relatively old as well and I think I had an easier time when I was just with my girlfriend than with a group. I think people expect those who are in the casino to be over 21 unless it's obviously not the case. For all you kids out there I think your best bet is just acquiring a single drink. To do this I've found the strange little bars in the middle of the casino with video poker machines in the bar top worked best. Just sit down and play a little video poker and after a few minutes ask for a drink. Best part is it'll even be free because you're gambling. Just don't forget to tip the bartender. After that just wander around with your cup acting drunk (or being drunk) and nobody will question you. Just try not to win too much money or you may indeed get questioned /images/graemlins/wink.gif. My friends and I were still too afraid to move to the table games as they attend to attract spectators, so I'm not 100% sure how easy that is to pull off. I know my over 21 friend played blackjack for 2 hours without being questioned once. Of course he looks like he's 28, so that might have had something to do with it. Even if you don't want to travel down that path I think Vegas has plenty to offer the under 21 crowd. Of course it's tourture not being able to take advantage of everything the ciy has available.
I did stop by the Bellagio and Mirage cardrooms on sunday evening just to scope things out and I must say that there were a lot of middle age mopes hanging around . Must have been 2+2's night off right /images/graemlins/grin.gif. If anyone noticed a tall skinny white boy in a bright red collard shirt hanging on the rail, that was me. Anyway that's pretty much it I guess. Kudos to you if you actually read this whole thing.
Taxman