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Chuppa's TR Sept 1st - 9th (First Solo Trip) - FULL REPORT (Long)

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by Chuppa76, Sep 27, 2009.

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  1. Chuppa76

    Chuppa76 Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2007
    Messages:
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    Location:
    Melbourne, Australia
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    15

    My Trip Report

    I will post each day as a reply (warning I always write very detailed TRs so this is going to be LONG)

    A bit of background information...

    I'm a 33 y.o Aussie making her first solo international trip.
    This would be my fourth trip to Vegas in the last four years. It's my favourite place on earth and I feel I know it pretty well, so I had no reservations in going there alone.

    Flight - Qantas
    Flights were booked using air mile (frequent flyer) points, so I only had to pay the taxes on my international flight.

    Accommodation - 8 nights @ Mandalay Bay
    Got a great host at Mandalay Bay who offered:
    5 nights comped with 3 nights @ $79.99 per night
    Limo pick up & drop off at airport
    2 complimentary tickets to Nickelback concert at MGM Grand Arena from Sept 6th

    The deals above were the only reason I could manage to go to Vegas this year. It was an opportunity too good to pass up. My countdown started at 116 sleeps, and it quickly became 0 more sleeps!

    Hope u enjoy my TR

    Chups :wave:
     
  2. Chuppa76

    Chuppa76 Low-Roller

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Melbourne, Australia
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    15
    Day 1 – Sept 1st

    You can check out my pics here...
    http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=110412&id=555755868&l=c84d68882f

    Day 1 – Sept 1st

    Up mega early 4.30am! Too excited to sleep. All final checks done to luggage and around the house. Easy trip to the airport. Said goodbye to my parents who were stressing about me travelling alone (only-child syndrome) haha! They’ll live.

    I had a domestic check in to begin with in Melbourne, so it was easy and painless. Was able to check in all the way to final destination, and was handed my three boarding passes. In all the excitement I forgot to ask the check-in clerk where my seats were. Knowing my luck probably right in the middle of the plane. Anyway it was done now. Had a bit of a wander thru Melbourne airport, but really just wanted to get my journey started.

    Flights were ok. First fight Melb-Sydney was 50 mins. I had an aisle seat and no one next to met, so I’m thinking “good startâ€. Hit Sydney airport with 35 mins before the international flight was due to leave. Had to go thru departing immigration in Sydney which took ages so I had to hurry to the gate and whilst I had a quick restroom stop I hear on the PA that it was the Final Call for my international flight!!! So I bolted to the gate and made it.

    I got to my seat…. And of course it’s smack bang in the middle with two people to my right and one to my left. I thanked my lucky stars I made a restroom stop before boarding! The flight was long. Slept on and off. Read some of my book. Watched The Hangover which was excellent way to prep me for Vegas! I had Oceans Eleven on my iPhone, but didn’t think I had enough charge.

    Landed LA, cleared immigration and customs and made my way to the gate. Freshened up and felt fine. Flight to Las Vegas was painless. Had a window seat with no one next to me, so that was great. Managed to get some great photos landing of the strip. Started chatting to some girls also from Melbourne who were staying at TI. Had a laugh. Thought we might catch up later in the week.

    Got to baggage claim and found my man Mike from Mandalay Bay waiting with my name on his sign. Thought it was sooooo cool! I should do VIP all the time! Haha! Made me feel important. Baggage came really quick and we were off. Limo was a gold-y coloured one, but still very cool. Quick trip to Mandalay Went via tunnell and I had a laugh with him telling him how everyone on the forums tells u to avoid the tunnell at all costs! LOL!

    Checked in at the VIP lounge. Requested North Strip View room and was accommodated with 14231. Lovely room. King bed, 2 chaise lounges, desk, 42in flat screen tv, 22in flat screen tv in bathroom, huge bathroom at that and an absolutely stunning view! Took photos of the room (while it was still clean) and then unpacked all my stuff before having a shower and getting ready to hit Vegas with a storm!

    Had a bit of a wander around Mandalay looking for my favourite slots etc. I noticed a lot of the ones I liked were still where they were last time! Hehe. Creature of habits we are. I had to change my player’s card which stopped working since last time. After a couple of hours my feet were starting to hurt as they had swollen on the plane ride, I decided to go up for a little nap.

    As I was going to the elevators I saw the entry for The Foundation Room. Now this was on my ‘must do’ list for this trip, so I had a bit of a chat to the door woman and she said she’d put my name down on the guest list for tonight before 11am. Sweet!

    Up in the room, collapsed on the bed and had a nap. Woke up around 8pm, oops, a bit longer than I wanted, but oh well! LOL! Got ready and went up to The Foundation Room. Wow! What an amazing place. As you get off the elevators you’re greeted by a Buddha-looking statue. The décor is very dark and very Eastern. I liked it! I went into the lounge and headed straight for the patio. OMG! What a View. Absolutely stunning view seeing all the way down the strip. Took some pics and then went inside and ordered a Choctini ($15) and chatted to the bartender. You can’t smoke in the lounge until the stop serving food (1am) so I headed back out to the patio. I was still in awe. I took a pic with my phone and sent it to two really good friends back home who instantly came back with “we’re soooo jealousâ€!! Met some girls from Seattle and chatted with them for a while. We took pics for each other and it was fun.

    Stayed up there for a bit then headed back down to the casino. Was feeling a bit peckish but not too much, plus it late, so I didn’t want a full meal. First place I found was Raffles Café and went in there. Just ordered their Angus Burger. Man, I completely forget how huge portions are here! The burger itself was massive, and the side of fries was about 1kg of potatoes!! Needless to say I only finished half. After the meal went for a bit more of a gamble, but nothing was hitting so about 3am I went up to the room to sleep.
     
  3. TheDMan62

    TheDMan62 Low-Roller

    Joined:
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    Great start, looking forward to the rest. You had an awesome view from your room!!!
     
  4. pywakit

    pywakit Low-Roller

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    You GO Girl !!!!
     
  5. saintpauljeff

    saintpauljeff VIP Whale

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    Humph. Wish I could have gotten a host @ MB, i'm getting married there next week and i'm not even staying at that hotel
     
  6. BlackJackBauer21

    BlackJackBauer21 Tourist

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    GREAT PICS!

    we're DEF. gonna hit up The Foundation Room when we go in two weeks.
     
  7. jpatter471

    jpatter471 Low-Roller

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    loved the pics!!! Great TR.
     
  8. Rick1323

    Rick1323 Low-Roller

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    Awesome start...more please!
     
  9. Chuppa76

    Chuppa76 Low-Roller

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    Day 2 – Sept 2nd

    Day 2 – Sept 2nd

    After all my tossing and turning I slept a total of 2.5 hours! I woke up with a bit of a sore throat and a blocked nose… I thought ‘great, just what I need’. Went down to the lobby shop and picked up some Sudafed and some throat spray and lozengers.

    I was feeling a bit peckish so I went to the Mandalay buffet for breakfast. Breakfast buffet was $16.99 plus tax. I thought it was a nice buffet. Food looked really good. Only issue is when I sat down I realised I wasn’t as hungry as I thought. LOL! I still managed to get through some food… haha! Started with bacon strips, sausage, and potatoes with bread. After the hot food, I got some french toast, pancakes and apple crepe. I wasn’t too keen on the crepe, but the french toast and pancakes were yummy. Had them with pecan maple syrup! Yum! By this time I was basically full, but I went back for a small bowl of fruit to cleanse my pallet. Just had some pineapple, melon and strawberries.

    One thing I noticed at breakdfast is that there was no where to make toast! Maybe I missed it, but I went around a couple of times and ddn’t see anything. Is this normal in Vegas? I remember doing a breakfast buffet at the Grand Lux last year and they did have a toast rack. But I can’t remember the Bellagio buffet from a couple of years ago.

    After breakfast I went back up to the room took my sudafed and throat spray and then got reay to go shopping. This morning I went to the Boulevard Mall, which is a surburban mall just off the strip. Cab from Mandalay Bay was $21 (inc tip). Got to the mall for 10am and went straight to Torrid. I had never been here before, but have heard great things about this place. I picked out a lot of clothes to wear and spent the next 45 mins in the dressing room. As I was trying different things on I started feeling worse and then at once stage I had a small panic attack in the dressing room. After a few minutes I was ok and continued trying clothes on. I left Torrid after an hour and buying a skirt and a sweater. The poor sales woman probably thought she would have gotten better sales out of me.

    From Torrid I went to Lane Bryant and again took quite a few things into the change room. At one stage I went out to try and get a different size and locked myself out of the change room. And this is where things started to go bad…. I had another panic attack and started hyperventilating. The sales girl was lovely and took me back into the charge room and tried to calm me down. She bought me some water and stayed with me. I felt like an idiot, but couldn’t help myself. I stayed in the change room for almost an hour trying to calm down, and then when I felt better I left. All my shopping had been forgotten! At this stage I was also shivering with cold. I put on the sweater I had bought from Torrid and walked outside to get a cab.

    When I got to Mandalay and I went straight up to my room and went to bed I hadn’t slept much the night before so I thought maybe it was a combination of things. At this stage I think it was about midday, which is the middle of the night in Australia, so I couldn’t really ring anyone. So I tried to sleep, but I had no luck. I was just lying in bed continuing to have panic attacks. I was kind of freaked out at this stage because this hadn’t happened to me before and I didn’t know what to do.

    After a couple of hours I txt a friend back in Australia who had been through this and she was wonderful. She called me straight away and she talked me thru my anxiety due to being sick. By now I felt I was burning up with fever. She thought I should go to the doctor, but I felt as though I had no energy to leave the room, and the thought of having to find a doctor actually made me start to panic again. I spoke to her for a while longer, we made a plan to look on the internet a bit later when I have calmed down and try and find a medical clinic. As I continued to talk with her, I started feeling calmer and it helped me tremendously. I was still very sick though and my throat felt like I was swallowing razor blades. I still had a fever and I was freezing cold (even though the weather was 104)!!!

    The only thing for me to do was have a day of bed rest. I didn’t want this to go on for my entire trip. I wasn’t hungry but needed to eat something because of the medication, so I rang room service and asked for some garlic toast which they normally serve with their pasta. The woman was great. I told her I wasn’t well and that I had a killer throat , so she said she’ll make sure the toast wasn’t done too crispy for me, she also asked if I wanted some Saltines (?) crackers which I thought was really nice. I also asked for a soda and a bucket of ice.

    It was funny to receive a full trolley of room service and when they took off the food lid it showed 2 little pieces of garlic toast, but for that time it was all that I could swallow. I ate my food and had my soda with a heap of ice and felt a little better. I was still cold so I put the heater on and went into bed. I woke up about an hour later and was completely drenched in sweat from my fever. I got up and had a shower and called for housekeeping to come and change my bed. The housekeeper was a sweet lady called Merlina who went about and did the room while I just sat half-dying on the sofa. I called down to conceirge and recevied the details on the closest medical clinic which was located on Harmon Avenue. This made me feel a bit better knowing that there was somewhere I could go if I needed to.

    After an hour or so I started feeling a little better, but still not enough to leave the room. I had my laptop on and was watching tv. I was thinking to myself… I can’t believe I’ve flown half way around the world to do what I usually do at home!!!

    Another hour or so later I got a bit of my appetite back so I ordered some proper food from room service. I ordered the homemade pizza and a crème brulee. I managed to eat a third of the pizza and the dessert, and then I was feeling really tired so I fell asleep, only to be woken up at 4am again drenched in sweat and still shivering. I had another shower, but this time instead of calling housekeeping up at that time of the morning, I just changed sleeping sides of my bed.
     
  10. TheDMan62

    TheDMan62 Low-Roller

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    I cant imagine anything worse than being sick in Vegas.
     
  11. Chuppa76

    Chuppa76 Low-Roller

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    Sick in Vegas

    DMan, I've got to say it was the worst feeling ever! I have not been that sick for years! It would have been ok if I just had sniffles and a sore throat, but the fact that it made my body ache and gave me no energy to leave the room... especially for a die hard Vegas fan like myself, was the worst!
    (But don't worry, trip gets better! :woohoo:)
     
  12. jpw711

    jpw711 Is that your cat?

    Joined:
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    Good report so far, except for being sick, it really does suck to be sick in Vegas, especially after that long of a flight, LAS is SYD is long, really long if you go via Honolulu and Auckland.

    Keep those room service reports coming, will be at THE Hotel in November and we pretty much only eat room service. Something about being drunk I guess.
     
    No reason to go home yet.
  13. jpw711

    jpw711 Is that your cat?

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    Looking at your pictures, the Hangover breakfast pic, I said Good Lord. Where is that at?
     
    No reason to go home yet.
  14. ez369

    ez369 High-Roller

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    Looks to be at Raffles Cafe at Mandalay.. that'd be my guess! :licklips:

    Anyhow, thanks for posting all the pics Chuppa!!
     
  15. Chuppa76

    Chuppa76 Low-Roller

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    Room Service & Food

    jpw, i think I had more room service on this trip than any other. That could be because I was sick, but also sometimes it served well as a quick snack.

    I liked the room service at Mandalay. Over my stay I ordered the following food, and I must say everything was delicious and actually served pretty timely. No long delays even on Friday & Sunday.
    - garlic toast (lol, i was sick)
    - Pizza (you choose four toppings that you want, it was delicious)
    - Creme Brulee
    - Steak Sandwich
    - Chicken wings

    The hangover breakfast was at Raffles Cafe at Mandalay. They serve a 24 hour breakfast which is great for those days when you wake up a little worse for wear!! :eek: Haha!
     
  16. jpw711

    jpw711 Is that your cat?

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    Then I'm there for that breakfast, my system doesn't usually allow me to eat that early (not because I'm hungover as I don't drink at home), but that picture looked to good to be true, look at all that meat!

    Thanks for the info on the room service, were the wings hot or mild?
     
    No reason to go home yet.
  17. Chuppa76

    Chuppa76 Low-Roller

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    You could choose your own spicyness for the wings... I'm not a fan of hot wings, so I just went for mild and they were really good!
     
  18. VegasDiva

    VegasDiva VIP Whale

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    Great TR so far
    excellent pics too

    Glad you were able to get yourself there altho not feeling too perk y

    looking forward to the rest of the TR
     
  19. Reston

    Reston VIP Whale

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    OK, Chups, I'm hooked. Want to hear more! :)
     
  20. LadyRose

    LadyRose High-Roller

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    Great trip report. Sorry you were sick in vegas. That has to be the worst. Awesome pics.. Thanks :nworthy:
     
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