Arrival at Vegas!
One of my favorite Ikea Co-workers, Nico, invited me to participate in the celebration of his husband’s 40th birthday by joining them on a party bus to Las Vegas. And boy… did we have FUN! I’d already met his husband when he came over to one of my parties and he fit right in with us so when I asked Sex God if he wanted to go, he enthusiastically said YES! Our co-worker got 2 other co-workers and their partners to go with because his husband had loads of co-workers going and while he gets along with them, it’s not as much fun as going with us, heeheehee.
So EARLY Saturday morning we packed and drove to Northridge to meet the bus by 7am for the long 6 hour drive up to Vegas. The most annoying part of that was passing my house on the way to Vegas and thinking I could have saved an hour if they’d given me the option to get picked up! The coordinators had Mimosas and jello shots, beer and hard liquor, which we sampled a bit of (and others sampled a lot of!). They also had donuts, chips and sandwiches for the drive up. There was music playing but it was a BUS so conversation wasn’t as easy as I liked so I ended up doing more napping than chatting! (That turned out to be a good thing…foreshadowing!!)
Poolside!
When we arrived the hotel told us that check in was at 4pm BUT for an extra $20 we could get a room upgrade and early check in. I felt completely scammed! But Sex God shrugged so we paid their extortion and went up to our room. There wasn’t really any set plan for the trip, just a loose outline of Bus, poolside, buffet dinner, club, club, sleep, bus. So after unloading our stuff we joined some of the group down at the hotel’s pool. The drinks were expensive but DELICIOUS! And we also got hungry so had some yummy food, which was a good thing as the buffet turned out to be unappetizing but maybe that was due to how expensive it was. (foreshadowing!!)
We completely forgot that happy hour at the pool began at 3:00 where our delicious drinks would have been half price because after a few hours in the sun we decided we’d love to have some actual alone, no-one-can-hear-us, time and scampered back to the room for some hot sex. And after that, went down for some gambling. Although the gambling lasted for a much shorter time! Sex God wasn’t feeling lucky and the slots ate our money so fast we decided to completely skip ALL gambling for the trip.
By this time we tried to connect with our group and go to the buffet. Though a miscommunication on my part I was confused on the pricing so had a bit of sticker shock at the entrance. Then there was complete confusion about seating with our group, further putting me in a disgruntled mood. The food choices looked overcooked and unappetizing and I can honestly say the only thing I found enjoyable was the coffee ice cream. Which proved to be a mistake later due to my lactose sensitivity!
We managed to hook up with the Ikea Six and get an Uber to the strip. They had plans to hit Fat Tuesday for drinks and since Sex God and I had started our “party festivities” in the room we were content to wander wherever they suggested! Which we managed to do A
Drunken Fun!
LOT of! Walking and talking, drinks in hand, around Vegas was a lot of fun! Nico contacted us that his group had abandoned him a bit so he was going to back to his hotel room. By this time, little Jas had consumed muuuuuuch too much and after several “emptying bouts” was ready to go! We tried to get a Lyft but chose THE WORST place to get picked up and ended up hailing an empty taxi/Lyft off the street, no mean feat since there was 6 of us! (and we’re told a bit illegal, but we had no idea!)
Back to the hotel, Jas and her beau went to their room and we went up to the honeymoon suite to hang with Nico. He’d never partaken so we inducted him down in the hotel’s smoking area. He was adorably disgusted with smoking while trying to get high so we went back up the room. Where he proceeded to announce he didn’t feel anything while eating ALL the snacks and laughing with us while we laughed at that. Then predictably he got tired and we all went to our respective rooms.
I was completely relaxed, dead eyes desperate to close, wanting sleep sooo bad and yet, mind completely awake. And worse… body dealing with too much gas and lots of needed toilet time (damn Ice Cream!) Sex God was the same (sans the toilet time) so we were up for hours trying to sleep, laughing and giggling on how we COULDN’T sleep and shushing each other in our search for sleep. I finally started to come down (and get off the toilet) about 3 am and managed, maybe, 3 hours of much interrupted sleep. Sex God managed NO sleep (hence my “interrupted” sleep lol)
Bus Ride Home
We gave up the search for sleep and went down for breakfast where Sex God tried Keno, remembering it from childhood. It seems quite the rigged game to me but I didn’t burst his delusions as he was having fun. And while he did “win” he didn’t win his money back. After that we popped up to the room and checked out. The bus loaded up at 11am in hopes we’d leave by noon, which was closer to noon-ish lol. Amusingly we all seemed to choose the same seats for the drive back. But this time while the hard core drinkers DID do some partying, most of us just slept on the way back. (note to self….pack a plane pillow for next party bus!)
There was so much traffic on the way out of Vegas (bus at a slow crawl) and then into Los Angeles, (again passing right by my house!) that it took us an extra hour just to get to Northridge. Nico suggested we come to his place to continue the party, but while we would have loved to extend the time, we were pretty exhausted! We had this same problem at Coachella… NOT starting our “partying” early enough to allow for decent sleep!
But I can definitely say that a Party Bus is how I enjoy Vegas. Short, sweet, and with someone else driving!! I’d change the music, though!!