My First Time in Las Vegas: VegasRy

The first time I was in Las Vegas was March of 1999. Bellagio had just opened, Venetian was undergoing its finishing touches, and the Wynn was a distant memory. This was also waaaay before Las Vegas was as big as it is today, with little to no exposure in the media, being before The Real World, Ocean’s 11, and Las Vegas the TV show. The spring break destination came down to between Disneyland and Las Vegas, and I distinctly remember being asked: ‘So we are going to go and look at a bunch of hotels?’ Thankfully, (or not, depending on your viewpoint) I won that argument.

We stayed at Treasure Island and were upgraded to a corner room (This was long before the 20$ trick entered our universe) and were blown away by the sheer size of everything, and how over-the-top everything was. We ended up walking the entire strip, from Treasure Island all the way to Mandalay Bay and back.

We ate at Spago (Because it was in Showgirls) and The Buccaneer Bay Club (Long gone, Social House now), and saw O, as it was the best show on the strip at the time (Some would say it still is). Even before the days of ultra-lounges and 150$ show tickets, and it was all pretty over-whelming and pretty exciting as we were in the middle of the biggest building boom of the last 40 years. The next few times in Las Vegas there was always something new to see, which kept us coming back…many, many times.

Gambling-wise, I remember playing at Bellagio way back when 5$ tables were still plentiful, and after a session, I had a few silver, one dollar coins, and threw them into at nearby slot machine to get rid of them. Turns out I won 160$ on the 2^nd spin, a lot of money for a college student back them. (Side Note: I have since put well over 200$ into that same machine and have yet to win a dime…I swear they did it on purpose)

My favorite memory of this trip was when we saw the Bellagio for the first time. Naturally, we were blown away, and I wanted to bring back a souvenir for all of my buddies back in Iowa. So I went to the Bellagio gift shop and bought maybe 8 shot glasses, a decanter, mug, etc. Being the first night we were there, with the energy still running through my body, we ended up walking the entire strip, all the way to Mandalay Bay, all the time carrying my heavy as hell glassware.

The best part of this story though, was the next day when I realized that Bellagio, Mirage, and Treasure Island (TI was years away) were owned by the same company, and the very same items I purchased and dragged all the way up and down the strip…were available downstairs in the very hotel that we were staying at.

We’ve come a long way…the Excalibur hasn’t.