Club Tropicana Drinks Are Free (Only if you tip the waitress)

We’re in Vegas, the airport to be exact. Make no doubt about it, even the airport screams Vegas just so you know where you’ve landed just in case the big pyramid and tall pointy building you saw through the plane window didn’t make it patently clear.

Did we get long hauled on the taxi ride to Tropicana? I’m pretty sure we did but we were so caught up looking out the window and commenting on the weather (how very British) that it didn’t matter. That, and I felt uncomfortable asking as it seemed rude (how even more British). It won’t surprise you that I also bottled it when doing the $20 trick at reception.

The Tropicana was a very nice casino; admittedly we had nothing to compare it to but the room was big, the casino floor was a decent size and then there was the piece de resistance. Apart from those pub slot machines you see throughout the UK we’d never played any slot machines – especially anything like the ones you see in Vegas. We’d watched some YouTube videos but we were still a bit anxious as to what to do. Different denominations, credits on the screen instead of the actual money, what to do during a bonus, oh the confusion! But to sum up what happened in just three words;

Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice

Okay, it’s one word three times but then the film reference wouldn’t work. There she stood in all her glory, a Beetlejuice slot machine. One of my favourite films of all time and they’d made a slot machine. Why doesn’t Vegas make more TV, film and music based slots? They’d make a fortune drawing people in and encouraging the uninitiated to play………

Gremlins, Willy Wonka, Family Guy, it seems Vegas knows what it’s doing and it’s doing it well. Dollars were put into the machine and we played, and played and played some more. Did you know, not only do you win more during a bonus but they’re really fun to play? It seems Vegas had cast its first line and I was hooked. A common theme of this trip – we very rarely took advantage of the ‘free’ drinks you can get whilst gambling because we didn’t know what we could ask for and we thought it’d be a bit cheeky. Seriously, if Matt from now could only go back in time to tell Matt of then to just ask for a drink, do the $20 dollar trick and speak up about long hauling. Anyway next machine, Gremlins!

Of course, one of the purposes of these blogs is to show Vegas isn’t just about gambling so me going on about how great the slot machines are is kind of counterproductive but for me it was more about confidence in my surroundings. Harrah’s is very big and the folks found it intimidating. The Tropicana casino floor is nowhere near as big and for 1st time visitors like us (especially me who really doesn’t do crowds) it was ideal. A Starbucks inside the casino also helped ease me in.

We (Jane) had done a schedule for the week so we could make sure we saw everything we wanted. This ranged from the Vegas sign to the Grand Canyon. If you’d like me to go into detail as to what we did this trip such as at the Grand Canyon (We went West Rim and the SkyWalk as amazing), then let me know but I don’t want to bore you all unnecessarily.

As you can see, we managed to fit a lot in; we’d chosen places like Bahama Breeze, Cheesecake Factory, Hooters and Nathans because we had been to these places before in New York, Orlando and Chicago. Choosing places we were familiar with was a good way to inject familiarity into something new just so I didn’t freak out too much, that wouldn’t last as the more we went the more new things I wanted to try and do. Of course I didn’t know that at the time because this would be the only time we’d be going. After doing everything on that timetable, there’s not much else to do apart from possibly see a few more different casinos but once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. Again – this blinkered opinion was to change, actually everything I thought about Vegas was turned on its head in some shape or form.

Vegas was starting to win me over with the slot machines, me hyperventilating over our first ‘big’ win, the great food places, the unique designs of the casinos, the free shows like Bellagio Fountains and the icing on the cake was Halloween.

I probably enjoy Halloween more than Christmas so being in America for Halloween was something I was actually looking forward to. I rarely get excited over things and as friends and family will happily confirm, if you don’t hear me moaning or being extremely passive aggressive about something then I’m either asleep or dead. I guarantee on my gravestone it will have the words ‘Should be alright’ on there.

Anyway, I digress. It was Halloween and everyone (I mean everyone) was dressed up all day and night, the strip was a buzz of activity and there were even chaperoned kids doing trick or treat in the malls and walking down Linq promenade. Matt from the future should have told 2015 Matt to have dressed up, there’s no way he’d be dressed up walking around West Bromwich so when in Vegas just be Vegas and have fun. No judgement, no funny looks, just people being people and if don’t believe me then go to Fremont Street. We finished Halloween watching Evil Dead the musical, I loved it –never have I encountered a blood splattering splash zone – this was nothing like the Shamu show at SeaWorld. Jane fell asleep but in her defence it had been a long day and it really wasn’t Jane’s thing.

Things were going well, I was beginning to realise Vegas wasn’t as brash as I feared it would be. It wasn’t all fur coat and no knickers and actually had substance – I wouldn’t truly realise how much substance until later trips but for now this trip was going to be one we’d look upon fondly and think maybe one day we’ll go back but not yet.

Not yet eh? Not yet being 2016………just one year later.

We saw this on day one on the way to the Vegas sign. Still haven't a clue what it is (and yes I know it's a pink elephant but why, what, when, who ???) If anything was going to tell me Vegas was not going to be what I expected, it was this flipping elephant.