IOL Bash 2002, Las Vegas

Date: October 19, 2002, Las Vegas, Nevada

COUNTDOWN:

Click here to download the IOL event details and maps in an Adobe pdf format

Click here for the Olympia 2002 Event Schedule, Prices and Seating Charts

Cost: Dave Draper/Frank Zane seminar and Bar-b-que — none, no cost. Fitness Expo at the Mr. Olympia site, no charge. People watching in Las Vegas, no charge.

Our picnic is scheduled for Saturday, October 19 at the Paradise Park gazebo in Las Vegas, Nevada. We'll also schedule a casual buffet meet, perhaps on Friday evening between show times and/or Sunday brunch for those hanging out with a desire to spin P.R. stories.

Paradise is a nice park about 3 miles from the Strip; our area is a gazebo-covered spot with collected tables and benches that will be perfect for a casual question & answer session prior to eating and lounging around for the afternoon.

For a variety of mostly good reasons, we opted to have the gig catered rather than doing our own BBQing. Out of town food preparation seemed daunting -- we want to have a good time, not spend three days running around a town where we need a map to find the grocery store. Some digging around led us eventualy to a catering agreement with Virgil's Backyard Barbecue. Can you say "All you can eat tri-tip and bbq turkey"?

Click here for more information on Saturday's get-together

JULY FLASH UPDATE: Frank Zane's the IOL Bash 2002 mystery man—and will be joining Dave for the IOL seminar!

Visit Frank's site by clicking here

Click here for the Bash 2002 Guest List

We have a 10% discount at Southwest Airlines, and a couple of discounts (5-15%) at American Airlines. The McCarran Airport is practically downtown; a taxi will get you to the strip in a few minutes for $8, plus tip.

Click here for our airline discount and reservation info.

I expect most of us will stay at the Tropicana, located on the Strip's four corners nearest to the Mandalay Bay, the anticipated location of the 2002 Mr. Olympia.

Click here to learn how to make your Tropicana reservation.

For those interested in the bodybuilding contests, contestants, fitness expo and Olympia buzz, this is a convenient location, the least expensive, and, in fact, the only hotel with a block of rooms available for the weekend. (The weather in Las Vegas in October is considered perfect; many conventions, business meetings and a major golf tournament are scheduled for the October 19th weekend.) We arranged a group rate of $115 per night (per room, double occupancy) Friday and Saturday, $65 per night the days before or after.

These rates will hold for us until September 18th, when the un-reserved rooms will revert to the going rate at the time, probably in the $160 range. I think it's $10 per person to add up to two more. That's for either a king bed or two queen beds. All the king rooms (and none of the queen rooms) have mirrors over the beds; for a group of bodybuilders, we thought this was important to know in advance. (Guess it's a "ya love it" or "ya hate it" type of thing.) Our group number will be available to us in a week or so.

Click here to learn how to make your Tropicana reservation.

Click here for more on the Tropicana

Those not on a tight budget and/or less interested in the Mr. Olympia and fitness events might like to stay on the opposite end of the Strip. It's a bit fancier, although this does not necessarily mean "dress up;" the Las Vegas dress code is non--existent -- the Strip's a tourist area is packed with every combination from Bermuda shorts to tuxes.

The fountains of the Bellagio and the pirate show at Treasure Island are both free and are must-see events scheduled throughout the evenings. The indoor/outdoor shopping walkways of Paris and the Venetian will soak up a full day, even if you don't open a dusty wallet.

I believe if we were taking a vacation to Las Vegas and money wasn't an important aspect we'd probably stay at Paris. It's unique, central, and you can barely tell you're standing in a [smoky] casino. As with all the Las Vegas hotels, early reservations are based on today's going rates, which are significantly cheaper than they will be nearer to October.

Click here for more on Paris, Las Vegas

If you're travelling by RV or camping, look here:

Click here for more on camping in Las Vegas

And if you're bringing the kids, you'll be amazed at how kid-friendly Las Vegas has become. With younger kids, you may want to check out Circus-Circus (if you go the Circus-Circus route, you may want to rent a car -- it's a bit further down the road); for teens, New York-New York:

Click here for more on Las Vegas family vacations

Click here for Circus Circus

Click here for New York, New York -- Las Vegas style

Here's a map of the Strip area; the Tropicana is # 5 -- Bellagio (and the Bellagio fountains and indoor gardens, which you *must* see) is # 20, about a $6 cab ride, a 3-minute tram ride or a 30-minute walk down the boulevard.

Click here for a Las Vegas "Strip" map

In my opinion, you don't need to rent a car. Everything's in walking distance, or there are piles of cabs and a few hotel-to-hotel trams. (If you decide on a car, at least the hotel parking lots are free.) We'll be travelling to the picnic on Saturday morning in individual cabs, but because the park's off the beaten path (slightly... who are we kidding?), there are few, if any, cabs available on the way back -- we've rented a mini-bus for a couple of hours Saturday afternoon to haul us back to the Strip.

The Mr. Olympia contest, scheduled for Saturday, October 19th, is not yet booked at the Mandalay Bay. According to the group sales manager (yes, for those interested, we can get a group block of discounted tickets), this is not unusual -- events for October don't get booked until June, July or as late as August. Unfortunately we won't have more concrete information until later, but she was not concerned that the booking hadn't yet taken place.

Last year's Olympia events included the Mr. Olympia, Ms. Olympia, Fitness Olympia and prejudging for these events; a banquet, seminar, free muscle movie night on Wednesday; a press conference open to the public, Olympian "open house" greeting event, Muscle Beach and the 3-day free fitness expo. All these events were held in the Mandalay Bay convention center, which is being expanded this spring.

The Tropicana has a good fitness center (better than average as far a hotel centers go) and costs $17 per visit. There's an outdoor pool that's very nice, and, if the weather holds, it flows into the indoor pool so you can swim in and under the hotel and back out into the palm-encased oasis. The oasis was the final selling point for us, by the way; a couple of days into our LV research trip we were desperate for a place to sit -- away from the smoke and the noise, but not in the room. The Tropicana pool is a great place to hang for an hour with a book, or wait to meet up with some IOL pals.

The nearest real gym is the Gold's Gym, East, a 24-hour gym that's about four miles away, costs $15 for a day pass (we're trying to get this to $10 for IOL visitors and this will probably happen) and is *very* well equipped. We'll have no problem taking over a couple of benches for our not-yet-scheduled pressing events.

Click here for Gold's Gym Las Vegas East

It's mandatory that you come to town early or stay late in order to take in a Las Vegas show. The Cirque Du Soleil productions of "O" or "Mystere" (at Bellagio and Treasure Island, respectively) are truly must-see events. There's really nothing like them and no way to give you a glimpse of what you might expect, but perhaps if I tell you that the shows we saw during February -- mid-week, no less -- were sold out weeks in advance, you might have an inkling of how special these shows are. If you can only see one, see "O" if you love water (acrobatics, diving synchronized swimming and much more) or "Mystere" if tumbling, body control and gymnastics are your thing. The music is live in both shows and I promise you, male, female and family, you can't go wrong here.

Other Las Vegas events are ongoing; some have been on a non-stop run for years. One-time events for October won't be scheduled until later this summer. We'll get the updates and keep you posted. Meanwhile, here's are links for these great events (just ignore the odd images for the Cirque shows -- I have no idea why they use these photos to describe and entice):

Click here for "O" at the Bellagio

Click here for "Mystere" at Treasure Island

Click here for more Las Vegas show information

I'm winding down. Much more later; I gotta get to the gym, don't I?

Look for more Vegas stuff here, while you're waiting:

Click here for Vegas.com

Click here for Destination Las Vegas

Click here if ya got culture

Laree

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More later, surely, as thoughts arise. Meanwhile, hope to see you in the Group! Laree