NO LAST CALL!
° Home Page
° Sign up to be a "PubClubber"

° Las Vegas Guide

Other PubClub
Road Trips:
° Boston/Fenway Park
° The Greek Isles
° Horsing Around
° Long Beach GP
° Running With The Bulls
° Oktoberfest
° Single in the City
° Ski Trip
° St. Patrick's Day

CITY GUIDES:
° Amsterdam
° Australia
° Boston
° Chicago
° Denver
° Florida Visitor's Guide
° Ft. Lauderdale
° Greek Islands
° Hawaii
° Indianapolis
° Jacksonville, FL
° Key West
° Las Vegas
° London
° Los Angeles
° Montreal
° Mexico
° New Orleans
° Pamplona/Ibiza
° Paris
° Phoenix/Scottsdale
° Portland
° Prague
° San Diego
° Seattle
° San Francisco
° South Florida
° Tokyo
° Toronto
° Vancouver

SPECIALS:
° The Bartender
° Pub Journals
° Profiles
° AVP
° Bay to Breakers
° Jazz Fest
° Jimmy Buffett
° Ski Resorts
° Street Scene
° Top Party Schools

Tips, photos, events, bands and a review of New Year's Eve in Las Vegas!

New Year's Eve in Las Vegas!
Two Parties Bring in People to Ring in 2008

The PubClubbers paused for a pose during the casino pub crawl.

Las Vegas, New Year's Eve – It's certainly no sin to spend New Year's Eve in Sin City.

And for 2007-08 the city is really ringing in the New Year with a pair of bashes that the city hopes mashes what is happening in Times Square.

Called America's Party, it's an explosive combination of a fireworks show from one end of the Strip to another and a series of concerts on two stages downtown sthat will be shown live by Direct TV.

New Year's Eve on the Las Vegas Strip

Fireworks are fired off the length of the Strip, quite the spectacle at midnight.

The pulse of Vegas pounds on New Year's Eve.

On any given day – or night – of the year, the world-famous Strip is buzzing with activity. On Dec. 31, it's busy all day and really picks up after dark, especially in front of Caesars and the Flamingo, mainly because of their central location. And it goes late. (Or could it be the margaritas at Jimmy Buffett's bar?)

Approaching midnight, fireworks flare down the hotels from Mandalay Bay to the Stratosphere. This is preceded by a three-minute warm-up show featuring the firing of shells off participating Strip hotels.

But that only sets the scene. The casinos are buzzing and it's perfectly legal to take drinks from bars and casinos onto the Strip (usually in plastic "to go" cups). There are concerts and shows at the various bars and clubs in the casinos.

They all usually end about 1 a.m. By 11, the Strip is already moving., with a countdown to midnight followed by more music. The concert-goers then file out of the venue and into the casinos, lounges, bars and the Strip, creating quite a festive atmosphere. There are lots of single people at these concerts looking for midnight kisses, so this is always a good call.

New Year's Eve Las Vegas Downtown Fremont Street

Long the backup player to the sizzling, sexy starter down on the Strip, downtown is looking to rock in 2007-08. Literally. It is bringing in bands and a "move over Times Square" mentality.

It's not quite the super show of last year when five bands jammed on the stages, but rather a more manageable two, and at a cost of $60 instead of $80.

The setup is pretty casual, just walk in and out of the casinos and shops while drinking cocktails out of football-shaped and sized containers. The Bangles and Doobie Brotheres will be performing on two stages at either end of the five-block area. A light and sound show runs overhead on the lighted "canopy" and confetti showers down at midnight.

The gates open at 5:30 (no one under 18 allowed) with entertainment set to begin at 8. Some restaurants offer packages for entrance and dinner..

It takes place on Fremont Street at – or actually under – what is known as the Fremont Street Experience. This is a light and sound show on the canopy above the street. At midnight it changes to electronic "fireworks" and confetti fills the street.

Downtown is a big block party and people wander in and out of the casinos and shops (the casinos here are smaller and less glitzy than on the Strip). Some restaurants offer packages for entrance and dinner.

Most people are enjoying their cocktailing out of football-sized (and shaped) plastic containers, obtained from the many bars set up outside. Rarely does getting a drink require a wait.

PubClub in Las Vegas, The New Year's Eve Experience

 It was Viva Las Vegas for PubClub.com on one recent New Year's, as a large group of us gathered in the City of Sin and Fun for a weekend celebration.

Talk about ringing in the New Year in style – we went on a bar crawl through several casinos on the Strip (dubbed the Casino Crawl), made child's play out of the nightclub in the Hard Rock and transported ourselves into the next year with several thousand revelers at the downtown Fremont Street Experience. For three days, we rocked and rolled through the streets, pubs and clubs of another of America's cities that never sleeps.

Our instigator was Stan Ruiz whose company – Spiderlink.com – uses one of its massive server systems to host this web site. Stan led us around with the ease and confidence of a cruise ship captain. We, in turn, followed him like ducks at the Peabody Hotel.

With 30 people in the group, the trip had all the potential of either Titanic or the Love Boat, but we neither sank nor swam in that direction. Instead, we cruised through Vegas like pirates in the Caribbean, with our bounty consisting mainly of beer.

The treasures we captured were priceless, timeless memories of causing a stir while passing through the casinos, of kidnapping strangers along the way until they staggered out of the group unable to keep pace, of wondering how the heck all those NYE hours passed so quickly.

The adventure began on Dec. 29, at the Hard Rock Hotel's club, where we had a VIP private booth (right by the oxygen machine, it must be noted). Its Hard Rock location made it ideal for quick escapes to the mingle-happy Circle Bar, a perfect pub-club combination without leaving the building.

The Casino Crawl was mobile madness. We hit lounge bars in Luxor, Tropicana, MGM and New York, New York. The latter two were the most lively, the MGM featuring live entertainment from a pink-wigged, glittery female band and New York, New York a raucous crowd that welcomed us with open arms. NYNY's lounge also has great music and a dance floor and was so lively we abandoned a plan to hit the Monte Carlo and tossed out our anchor right there.

The next night was New Year's Eve and passed on the Strip and instead headed to Fremont Street where, for $30, one can freely roam with drinks the size of footballs. Live bands (we best enjoyed The Bangles) provided music. We met for a nice dinner at Hugo's Cellar,then spun off into small groups to explore the scene and fill our footballs.

At 11:30, we gathered in front of the Golden Nugget and led the entire street in warm-up cheers. At midnight, the place exploded in celebration, confetti and kisses. We then retreated to the closest casino and spent the rest of the night attempting (largely unsuccessfully) to pay for our weekend at the gaming tables.

Most people left the next day, but three stayed an extra night. One was The Bartender, who just had to make an appearance at the VooDoo Lounge (no trip to Vegas is complete without one). It was rockin' and later, he made up for his lost gambling funds of the previous three days with a fun run at a Rio craps table.

For the entire party group, our ship for the New Year had come in.

Our photo journal includes shots from the Casino Crawl, the Fremont Street Experience and, with the Hard rock club. Captan' Stan is sporting shades, bottom photo.

Ride the Party Bus for More PubClub Road Trips

Notes from
The Bartender:

What happened to my last New Year's Eve in Las Vegas?

It came and went faster than a Paris Hilton jail sentence.

One minute, it was 11:30 and we were whooping it up at the Fremont Street Experience and the next thing I knew, it was 3:30 in the morning and we were whopping it up in a nearby casino.

Unlike Paris, however, this was an enjoyable experience. And I was hardly overwhelmed. Las Vegas is definite Bartender territory, especially for New Year's Eve.

Las Vegas puts out a social welcome mat that makes it a dressed-up version of the Greek Islands. People travel in packs, everyone is on holiday and they are quick to strike up a conversation.

It's much more lively at 4 a.m, than 4 p.m., sleep is for when you return home and the ease of obtaining food or drink at any time of the day or night means you are constantly ingesting something into your system – beer, food, water, soda, beer, etc.

After a few days, your body says, "Enough Already!"

Fremont Street is Times Square festive (except it's usually about 30 degrees warmer).

For the record, I still think of NYE as Amateur's Night, a point I made in a pre-trip LA Times article. But I was with a bunch of party pros and in fact, at the end of the trip I was the last one standing.

Well, "standing" might not exactly be the right word but long after everyone had either returned home or gone to sleep, I was squeezing every last bit of enjoyment out of the trip, as if it were the final drops of bubbly out of a champagne bottle.

Finally, after 5 in the morning of the fourth day/night, I jumped in a cab and headed off to dreamland.

It was very pleasant dreaming, indeed.