Vegas- Without Kids

Going to Vegas with and without kids creates a very different experience! In this episode, Jon and Jenn talk about what to do in Las Vegas without children. The two best things about Vegas are the pools and restaurants. Some of their favorite restaurants are Buddy V's, Morimoto, Eifel Tower and Guy Savoy.

Trying to figure out the best hotel to stay at? MGM Grand is their favorite, but in this episode they'll also review The Linq, Venetian, Mandalay Bay, New York New York and more. Also the best shows on the strip. Have you seen "O"? What about "La Reve"? Jon also shares a story about seeing David Copperfield and leaving his drivers license back home!

Transcript from our podcast:

Vegas Without Kids

Jon: Welcome to a brand-new episode of Our Savings Starts Tomorrow. Pour your wine pour your wine over there and stop glaring at me

Jen: Do a Podcasts, they say,

Jon: It'll be good for your marriage, they said.

Jen: Oh my God.

Jon: So, if you've never listened to our show, my name is John and my wife, Jen is sitting right next to me. And we are a 20 minute podcast where we just tell you about different trips and adventures we've been on. And we also have an Instagram page, which is our savings starts tomorrow. Jen pours the wine and I'm in charge of the technical stuff.

Jen: Yeah. And you know what I feel like I'm doing really well.

Jon: Yeah, you are.

Jon: Every week. We don't touch this .... We have a laptop, we have like a couple of things the microphones. There's not a lot here.

Jen: Yeah. I know. And still there's issues every damn week.

Jon: It takes 20 minutes to record, but 30 minutes to set up for [inaudible01:03]. And about another 30 afterwards for you just to tell me how terrible I am at my job, what are we drinking?

Jen: So we're having a Charles Shaw,

Jon: Yeah we are.

Jen: Organic Chardonnay bootlegged from Idaho.

Jon: So we live in Utah and Trader Joe's here can't sell two bucks, three bucks Chuck. So when friends drive to Idaho or wherever, there's a trader Joe's.

Jen: That sells wine.

Jon: They hide it in their car.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: So the Popo don't catch them and they bring it back here for us. This is where it's gotten we're thinking about even getting a PO box in Idaho.

Jen: Don't tell people.

Jon: Don't tell,

Jen: Don't tell people.

Jon: I'll put it on our Instagram page. We don't have time for this. We have so much to get to. It's such a short podcast because it's Vegas...

Jen: Viva Las Vegas.

Jon: Without kids ...

Jen: Without kids ...

Jon: Which is always just, you know,

Jen: [Inaudible01:59].

Jon: We've done Vegas with and without kids. And this is more for like, if you're, I don't know, 22 and older, if you're looking for ideas, if you're looking to go to Pakistan.

Jen: 22 and older?

Jon: 32 and older.

Jen: 35 and older,

Jon: If you're looking to do like the Hakkasan or the Omni or whatever the cool clubs are, that’s not us.

Jen: No, that’s definitely not us.

Jon: We are not club people. Although even at 22, we were not club people.

Jen: No, that's never been our jam.

Jon: Its crowded, it's sweaty. It's loud.

Jen: It starts so late.

Jon: Yeah. We've always been early people. They're like, yeah, man, just get in line around 11:30 PM and opens it like 1:00.

Jen: PM?

Jon: Yeah.

Jen: That's ridiculous. I'm in bed by then. Even in Vegas,

Jon: We love Vegas so for really the two reasons pools ...

Jen: I love their pools.

Jon: And then the restaurants...

Jen: Love their restaurant.

Jon: Vegas has some of the best restaurants in the world.

Jen: Yeah. It's just fun. And it's an easy getaway for us in Utah. But even when we were lived in California,

Jon: It was a four-hour drive, nine hours always driving home because you get stuck in the traffic. But for a quick 45-minute flight. But we actually just went there. If you remember from a few episodes ago Jen couldn't speak because she had gone too hard in Vegas.

Jen: I was tired.

Jon: And we went out there to see Bruno Mars at the brand new park theater. We didn't realize this, but the Monte Carlo turned into the Park Hotel.

Jen: Oh, is that what it was?

Jon: Yea.

Jen: Oh, okay. We thought that it was at MGM. So we had like our driver take us to the MGM and then he's like, what are you doing? And it was like a whole thing.

Jon: A mess.

Jen: Then we had to go somewhere else.

Jon: So there is a difference between the MGM hotel and the MGM Park hotel, two very different locations. Park theater is nice though.

Jen: Oh my gosh,

Jon: Gorgeous.

Jen: So nice

Jon: I'll go back to see another show there.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: It's big 5,000 seats.

Jen: Yeah. I was actually surprised at how big it was .

Jon: Yeah. And Bruno Mars was amazing. He's doing a small residency there, so if you're thinking about going,

Jen: It was so good. You know, I'm a Bruno Mars fan and I know that you weren't like super looking forward to going, but once we were there ...

Jon: We didn't want to leave.

Jen: We didn't want to leave. We stayed the whole time, which actually doesn't happen very often.

Jon: What was really cool, which we also had heard ahead of time that we didn't know we would like that they take your phones away.

Jen: Well, they don't take it away. They put it in, like they.

Jon: They beat you with a Billy club and then they take your phone from you.

Jen: They put them in these little pouches.

Jon: Yeah.

Jen: And then it seals it. And it's like ... it's almost like a seal that if you get like razors at the store...

Jon: Yea exactly.

Jen: Like CDs or something like you can't open it unless you go to someone and they have like a little tool that like opens it.

Jon: And we were worried because we wanted to take photos for our Instagram page and video. But once we got inside, it was so much fun not to have our phone.

Jen: And there was like no one in front of us, like with their phone.

Jon: [inaudible05:09]the person who's trying to record the whole concert. Who will never watch the concept footage again. You're not going to do it.

Jen: No.

Jon: Come Karen,

Jen: No one looks at that. No.

Jon: No never. So that was... It was fun. It was like a two-hour show; It was a blast. For some reason though. Jen decided we're at a concert... we had like one or two beverages ahead of time. We get there I'm like, Hey, let's get a drink before we sit down. And you decided to get us red wine in the like it's hot. People are standing up and dancing and you get us red wine.

Jen: Well, we had had wine at dinner.

Jon: Yeah at dinner.

Jen: And so I just...

Jon: Let’s keep going,

Jen: Okay, well, if we're going to go there, someone forgot their ID. And so I had to get all of our drinks because you were afraid that you were going to get ID'ed, which by the way, never happened the entire time trip.

Jon: I am now at the age where I can go to Las Vegas and not once get carded.

Jen: Not one time,

Jon: Not one time.

Jen: Not one, no, no there was one time.

Jon: Oh, at the crappiest hotel,

Jen: I know at their craps table at like three in the morning.

Jon: The one hotel it was me and a bunch of college bros.

Jen: I know.

Jon: And they decided to check my ID.

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: Okay. So we

Jen: Let's tell the story.

Jen: I’m sorry.

Jon: No, no. Let's just tell the story.

Jen: Okay fine.

Jon: We got to the airport and we have clear.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: And clear actually doesn't make you check your ID because they scan your, your eyeballs.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: And so...

Jen: Highly recommend clear by the way.

Jon: Its Awesome, yeah. I hear you need clear and TSA, pre-check we don't do the pre-check but we have clear. So we get to a restaurant at the salt lake city, airport, and we sit down and we're like, well, let's have a drink while we wait for the flight. And as they do it, everywhere here, Utah IDs constantly, we get carded and Jen, you pull out your ID and I start pulling it through my wallet and my pocket and realize I don't have my ID.

Jen: Oh my gosh. I've never been more angry at ... I mean, I've been angry with you, but this is up there.

Jon: You were so upset. You were so upset that the server left us and did not come back to the table for like 40 minutes.

Jen: I know .

Jon: She did not want to be involved with what was going on. And I suggested driving home or...

Jen: There was not enough time.

Jon: No.

Jen: There was not enough time for you to go home, get your ID, come back and make a flight. And there was no flights the rest of the night.

Jon: So, we went to Vegas without an ID for me. Didn't matter at all.

Jen: No.

Jon: The only time someone asked me for a photo identification to get our Bruno Mars tickets. And you know what I did, I used my Costco membership.

Jen: I know and the guy laughed at you.

Jon: And gave me the tickets.

Jon: So it didn't even matter. So, okay that's our ID story for Las Vegas. But one of our favorite hotels we've always stayed at is the MGM Grand.

Jen: I don't know why people don't love it, which is we do. I just think that we've been there so many times. It just feels so familiar. Like I know the layout ...

Jon: It's like nine miles from the door of the hotel to a room.

Jen: Oh, it is long.

Jon: Its forever

Jen: That's like every hotel though. Every hotel they're all so big. And it just, you don't want to forget something in your room.

Jon: Oh no that's the worst.

Jen: It’s like forgetting your ID at your hour house.

Jon: But why do we love the MGM grand?

Jen: Because of the pool,

Jon: The pool.

Jen: They have the best pool

Jon: The best pool in Las Vegas MGM Grand.

Jen: They have a great lazy river and you can just get like a big drink and just kind of float in the lazy river. It's awesome.

Jon: It's the best, get a bucket of beer. It's weird because I've been with my wife in that lazy river for 12 hours. I never saw her go out and use the bathroom. I don't know.

Jen: You know what? No one else does.

Jon: No one does.

Jen: No one does.

Jon: I know I'm hyper aware of it. So that's why we love the MGM Grand we've stayed at other hotels. And we'll talk more about like great hotels with kids in another podcast episode, but we stayed at the Link

Jen: Oh God.

Jon: Okay. Hold on. Before you trash The Link, I love the location of The Link. It’s right in the thick of it.

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: That's about all I can say about The Link that's positive.

Jen: Okay. We stayed there, I feel like when it was brand new and they had the cheesiest games everywhere, that was like, their whole shtick was like yard games. I feel like there was like beer pong everywhere. A pool just like randomly throughout the hotel.

Jon: Giant checkers. You could actually play rock paper scissors with some of the dealers I think. It was like the national Lampoon's Vegas vacation that's what it felt like.

Jen: It was just really, really young.

Jon: Yeah. We were just too old for the place and like the rooms and everything. It was one of those where you got like a top sheet, but if you wanted more than that, they would charge you for it

Jen: I think we ended up staying there actually, because we got stuck.

Jon: We had a flight problem.

Jen: Yeah. We had a flight problem.

Jon: But if, we're going to talk The Link we at least have to say at least The Link isn't Circus Circus.

Jen: Oh no. Nothing can really compared to the Circus Circus.

Jon: Here's the thing If you're going to Vegas again, this would be more like.

Jen: Don't go there.

Jon: Maybe in your twenties and you just want to party and have a good time.

Jen: Nope.

Jon: Go stay at Circus Circus. It was like $20 for a room.

Jen: People get murdered.

Jon: There was a homicide tape. I swear on a few of them.

Jen: There was no, we had no towels.

Jon: Or pillows.

Jen: Or pillows like we asked for some, we never got them.

Jon: No, this was years ago by the way,

Jen: This was years ago.

Jon: I don't think it's gotten better.

Jen: I would not recommend it. I can't even believe that still a thing

Jon: A thing. Yeah. But some of the good hotels we do, like, and we've been to another one that is kind of mid-range, but New York, New York.

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: It's perfect, the rooms are okay. The price is never expensive.

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: Never once seen the pool.

Jen: Oh, you know what? I've never seen it the pool either. [crosstalk10:55]

Jon: Yeah, we've just never gone to the pool at New York, New York.

Jen: Nope.

Jon: It's usually been like for one night. It was not really pool time. The Venetian, we just stayed at when we went to the Bruno Mars show. Beautiful rooms.

Jen: The room was amazing.

Jon: Yeah.

Jen: We'll post photos of the room.

Jon: Yeah and then even the pool,

Jen: But the pool was really nice too.

Jon: Yeah, so I liked the Venetian.

Jen: I didn't like how we checked in though. It wasn't grandiose enough for me.

Jon: What do you want?

Jen: With like the MGM it's like this huge.

Jon: Production.

Jen: Entrance.

Jon: Oh , hmm, hmm .You want that?

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: It was just a smaller room to check in.

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: That's literally the only, well, okay. Caesar's. You've stayed at Caesar's for work.

Jen: I have stay there , it's nice. I think that we should say there next time, actually,

Jon: It's one of those hotels that never has a discounted room.

Jen: I know.

Jon: Never.

Jen: It's crazy. It's crazy. But the room that I I've stayed there for a conference a couple of times and the rooms are really nice.

Jon: And Mandalay bay is one of my favorites.

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: I love it, I like the smell.

Jen: They have a good pool too.

Jon: Oh they have a wave pool. They have a topless pool fellows.

Jen: Hey or ladies.

Jon: Ladies. You know what's great about that topless pool too. You know like how like a lot of people when they go like, oh, you never want to go to a nude beach because the people who are nude, you don't want to see, that's not the case at the Mandalay bay pool because it's like the dancers go there to hang out. So it's worth the extra money. That's what I'm just helping out. Yeah. It shows we've gone to a bunch over the years

Jen: Yeah. I mean, if you haven't done a show, I would definitely recommend it.

Jon: What would be your favorite show that we've seen in Las Vegas?

Jen: Let's see.

Jon: You wrote down like a list of things we seen.

Jen: I know , I actually really did like Le Reve.

Jon: Le Reve is like the rip off version of 'O', so, 'O', was first.

Jen: You think it’s the rip off version?

Jon: I just mean in the sense that I guess like, "O", was the first water show and then the wind decided to make their own water show,

Jen: But like the diving into, I think that you didn't enjoy it as much as I did, but I thought it was amazing,

Jon: Yeah. I thought It was great. I also like how it smells of chlorine.

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: It reminded me of High School Swim. The whole place did.

Jen: David Copperfield,

Jon: David Copperfield I grew up loving magic and I've always wanted to see David Copperfield. And my mom actually surprised me for a birthday in middle school to see David Copperfield. But since she surprised me, I used to wear glasses. She didn't tell me to bring my glasses. And we sat in the very back, like the cheapest of cheap seats. Like she might've been working as an usher. [inaudible13:23]? And I couldn't see the show, I was blind. I missed the whole show. I heard a lot of people going, oh, that's an applause. That's amazing. I can't believe I saw that. And I didn't know what was happening. So flash forward, Jen's heard me complain about it for years. And we are in Vegas and David Copperfield is performing at the MGM. And so we're like, let's go tonight. Let's see it. And we buy last minute tickets to see David Copperfield. And we go inside and we sit and it's kind of like a Vegas showroom where we were sharing a table

Jen: Like a booth.

Jon: With other people and they were like, oh, we've seen the show many times. We love it. And we're like, okay yeah, this sounds great. And they're like, you know, when Drew Carey comes out, he's hilarious. And he always gets the crowd going I hope they pick me today. We're like, that's weird I didn't know drew Carey was part of David Copperfield, but Hey Vegas, baby, can't wait to happen. And then they were like, oh yeah but, then Ryan Styles is always our favorite and that's.

Jen: Who's line is it anyway? Yeah.

Jon: We realized that it wasn't David Copperfield night in the theater. It was Who's line is it anyway?

Jen: Yeah, we bought tickets for the wrong show. The people, at the box office were nice enough to exchange those for us. And then we actually did see David Copperfield,

Jon: Who by the way was great.

Jen: He was great.

Jon: And He's was fun. And I checked it this morning, he’s still performing. You can get a ticket for $80 these days.

Jen: And how old is he? Like a hundred. Yeah.

Jon: He doesn't move around as much as he used to, but you know what I like about him, he still tries to be sexy. You know? Like he still has like the shirt on button to like the navel and he like, he thrusts his hips a little bit.

Jen: Oh yeah he's Vegas.

Jon: Like, yeah, he's completely Vegas. We saw KA.

Jen: Yep. We've seen KA .

Jon: It's another one of those search terms.

Jen: So Zumanity.

Jon: So Zumanity. So Zumanity is the one where they're like.

Jen: It's a little risky.

Jon: Yeah. Yeah. And then we see some comedy shows as well. In fact I have a friend who just opened a comedy club Wise Guys, Las Vegas.

Jen: Oh, that’s cool.

Jon: So go check out wise guys. Like we said, at the beginning of this podcast, two things we love the most about Vegas are the pools and the restaurants. So restaurants,

Jen: I mean, we've, we've gone to Vegas. We've been to Vegas when I've been pregnant.

Jon: Oh yeah.

Jen: And those are some of the best trips.

Jon: We didn’t drink we ate.

Jen: We just ate our way through Vegas,

Jon: No one of us couldn’t drink but still Favorite restaurant.

Jen: Oh gosh.

Jon: Which one is it?

Jen: I'm looking at the list. Okay, I know this is going to sound stupid.

Jon: I hope it’s the one I think it is.

Jen: I really like Buddy V's.

Jon: Me too

Jen: Is it great food?

Jon: No,

Jen: I don't know. I just like it

Jon: Buddy V the cake boss.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: He has an Italian restaurant. I don't know if It's in the Venetian or if it's in Palazzo cause they're kind of connected, but it looks across at treasure island.

Jen: Yeah,

Jon: The view's great.

Jen: Yep.

Jon: The foods fine.

Jen: It's pretty good.

Jon: It's fun.

Jen: And It's actually like fairly affordable for a Vegas restaurant.

Jon: And you got to actually make sure you make a reservation because it's super exciting. Get his

Jen: Get his mama's meatballs. They're really good. They're really good.

Jon: Last time we went big It was our anniversary.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: And we went to, I'm going to call it Guy Savoy, but it was like [inaudible16:35]. Yeah. If you want to pronounce it the correct way

Jen: Its super hoity toity, Frenchie.

Jon: Yeah, it’s like a really expensive restaurant. But think of it this way if you're going to go and spend a thousand dollars on the tables, or if you're going to go see a show and buy a bunch of drinks, to me, it's all sixes. It's ...what are you going to do? We really didn't gamble. Instead we decided to drop her money at this restaurant. And it was really expensive still, but it was such a cool experience they rolled over a butter tray at one point, scooped butter out and then salted it in front of you. Well,

Jen: Well it was because it was like butter from this specific spot in France,

Jon: This one cow.

Jen: This one.

Jon: Poor cow, he just kept alive for his butter.

Jen: One French cow.

Jon: Yes, exactly. You get to choose what kind of bread. you want

Jen: Oh, and they make this fresh bread and there was like 20 different kinds of breads to choose from. But they only like, let you choose two

Jon: Like no more. I'm like, no, I just want more carbs.

Jen: I like the lemon bread. It tasted like lemon. It was, it was insane

Jon: The whole meal was just, every single entree was like a show.

Jen: It was a show.

Jon: It was worth. We'll take, we have a bunch of photos of that. So we'll post those up on our Instagram.

Jen: Because everyone loves looking at food.

Jon: People don't do it a lot. So we'll kind of stand out. Morimoto is our favorite sushi recipe?

Jen: Well, cause it's an MGM.

Jon: So of course of course it is .

Jen: I know it's good.

Jon: We've eaten at the Eiffel tower restaurant, which is at the Paris. It overlooks it's beautiful.

Jen: It is pretty up there.

Jon: In fact, if you're celebrating like.

Jen: Something fancy

Jon: Go to the Eiffel tower restaurant.

Jen: An anniversary or something or birthday, I think we did that for your birthday one year.

Jon: Gordon Ramsey steak.

Jen: You can’t go wrong

Jon: I just wanted to Gordon Ramsey to show up though.

Jen: Yeah. He wasn't like,

Jon: My head was on a swivel, I was excited that's what I want. And then Hash House A Go Go is not, well now there's one on the strip, but I say, leave the strip, go to the original one.

Jen: I liked the original one.

Jon: Yeah. And it's been like on every food network show possible.

Jen: Yeah. I think there's a bunch now around, so it's probably not as like exciting.

Jon: As cool as it used to be?

Jen: Yeah

Jon: And then a few other things before we end this podcast, for one thing, I do smoke cigars from time to time and I would recommend the cigar bar at Caesars. If you liked something,

Jen: We always go there. It's fun. It's a nice like nightcap for us instead of going to a club

Jon: Pakistan.

Jen: Yeah. No.

Jon: One day,

Jen: No, we go to the cigar bar.

Jon: Of course oh, we did this thing we've never done before we bought a day bed at the pool. And I know that sounds like stupid, expensive,

Jen: Cause it was, but yeah, our savings starts tomorrow and, but you know, what? Would do it again?

Jon: I think that if we had another couple and we split it because you have to hit a certain amount of money with drinks and food.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: It would have been near what we would have spent anyway.

Jen: Yeah.

Jen: It was so nice.

Jon: Yeah,

Jen: Because it was so hot; we always go in the summer, God awful hot. And so it gave us like a spot that was shaded. The lady constantly was like, Kay, what do you want? Like, we didn't have to think twice about it. We ended up ordering like a lot of random drinks and then we would taste it and be like, nah, I don't like it.

Jon: Couple bottle services.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: It was a fun way to do it.

Jen: It was, it was fun.

Jon: And it was cheaper than the cabanas by a lot. So I don't know if you have like a, I think you can get up to six people on a day bed. I'm telling you it's not bad.

Jen: It's not bad.

Jon: [inaudible19:49].

Jen: No.

Jon: You can always shop

Jen: There is so much shopping to be done in Vegas.

Jon: You know I thought it was weird though. I felt like there was a lot of places that were kind of closed certain areas. Did you feel that way?

Jen: This time we didn't do a ton of walking around.

Jon: I was looking, I, you sent me on a mission to go find a phone charger. Oh, that's at one point. So that's when I was noticing that you sent the guy without the ID to wander around Las Vegas. And then of course slots, our favorite slot when we do play is "Wheel of Fortune" and the best time to go to Las Vegas without kids. Go during EDC (The electric daisy carnival). Because there will be a lot young’un there. And listen,

Jen: First of all, good people watching.

Jon: Oh my gosh. I wanted to tell so many young women that their fathers love them because you should not put duct tape over those places. It did not look enjoyable, but like it's a blast. And everyone that goes out late to this club in the middle of the desert, right. They take buses out there.

Jen: So then the strip is kind of empty.

Jon: Yeah. And then they come back like at five in the morning, all hopped up on what foosballs and they sleep till two in the afternoon.

Jen: So then the pool.

Jon: it's empty.

Jen: It's empty.

Jon: It's honestly the best piece of advice if you sat around this long through the podcast, go during EDC. I think it's usually in October. I could be wrong about that, but okay. This is us where we beg you to tell a friend, tell two friends.

Jen: Tell two friends,

Jon: Share the message, Spread the good word.

Jen: Okay.

Jon: And if you don't mind giving us a review, that would be amazing and of course you can always follow us on Instagram as well. It's our savings starts tomorrow.