TR from 9/23-9/30 2009, 1st Vegas vacation

I’m going to put my report in catergories to make it easier to read since this very is long.

Flights:Departing NY on Jet Blue was flawless. We got to the airport really early so after our security check we got some breakfast. While sitting waiting for our flight to begin boarding we see this young couple sit in our area. Well the woman had a very short t-shirt/ dress on that was completely see through. Underneath you could see her thong. So needless to say everyone in our area was making comments or shaking their heads. It’s now time to board the plane and as we get up to go in line I see this woman with the see through shirt sitting on her boyfriends lap, legs wide open and her “business” exposed! My husband and I just shake our heads and board our plane. Once we are seated we realize this woman is in our row across the aisle from us on the plane. Throughout the entire flight, everytime she got up and passed in front of the man seated next to her, his eyeballs popped out of his head. This began our adventure to Vegas!
Coming home our red eye flight was slightly delayed due to electrical issues with the plane. A mechanic came on board to check out the lighting. This scared me a little but we were assured everything was fine and took off only 10 min. late. We hit some turbulence due to a thunderstorm below a little scary but no biggie. Our flight attendant was a bit rude to passengers and got a little nasty with my husband when we were ordering our coffee. Between that and the luggage restrictions not so sure I will fly Jet Blue again.

Hotels:We arrived in Las Vegas 30 min. early at 10:30am local time and were concerned with checking in so early. Being that it was midweek we were hoping they would have rooms available. We got a cab from the airport to the Tahiti on Tropicana ave. The ride was short, no more than 15 min. Once we got to the lobby we were the only ones there so there was no lines or wait. They had a room on the 2nd floor ready and available. We were able to go to our room right away. The room was great. It was a 1 bedroom unit. It had a kitchen, livingroom, master bedroom and balcony. Our kitchen had all appliances and kitchen supplies needed. We also had a washer and dryer. The livingroom had a small dinette with 4 chairs and a sofa bed. Our bedroom was a good size with ample closet space and an entrance to the bathroom. From the kitchen there was a foyer that had the washer and dryer and another entrance to the bathroom. The balcony was off the livingroom with a small table and chair set that overlooked the parking lot but in the distance you could see the strip. This room was great bcuz it was quiet and our bedroom window faced the parking lot and not the pool area which is open 24/7. The pool area was great and never crowded. They have a free shuttle which was very convenient. They are a little off the strip but worth staying here again.
We checked into The Hotel at Mandalay Bay on Sept 27th which was a Sunday. My husband is a huge football fan and wanted to be at the sportsbook very early. We woke up sunday morning and checked out of the Tahiti and into The Hotel by 9am. We had a V suite so no need for the $20 trick. They had a room available at the end of the hall which was perfect and quiet. No worries about ppl walking in the hallway to the elevator. The suite was clean and big. Wall to ceiling windows with a strip view. We were on the 19th floor so our view was mainly of the Luxor but that was ok since we were happy to get a room at 9am. It had 2 bathrooms which comes in handy when trying to get ready for a night out. The bedroom was big with a nice tv and again wall to ceiling windows. The pool area was great but crowded on the weekend since Britney Spears was performing there. By Monday it was easy getting a chair. We paid $40 for round tubes for the lazy river and forgot CVS on the strip sold them for $6. My only complaint about this place was that 10 min. after arriving in my room while unpacking, housekeeping let themselves in thinking the room needed to be cleaned. I wasn’t too annoyed with this bcuz I soon realized there is a button on the wall by the door with switches for us to hit when we need housekeeping or want privacy and I wasn’t sure I hit the right button. The day of check out we had a very late flight so we got a half day room rate that enabled us to check out at 6pm. We left our room that day at noon and when we returned at 3pm we were locked out of our room and security happened to be on our floor right behind us and called down to the front desk to reactivate our keys. Rather annoying since we had paid for a half day rate and if security hadn’t been there we would have had to go downstairs. Once we got in our room we began packing to go home and again housekeeping walked in on us thinking we had checked out! I had issues the day before as well with housekeeping bcuz we slept in till 10am and once we left our room for the day to go to the pool housekeeping told us they would clean our room at 2pm and I got back to our room at 4pm and she had just started cleaning. After the bed was made I told her she didn’t have to continue since I wanted to shower and get ready for a night out but she continued her job that took about 45 min.. Very frustrating. When we checked out we mentioned it to the front desk person who barely apologized. Another thing was that we didnt see anything open after 11pm to get a late night snack so if we wanted something we had to walk all the way to the Excaliber that had a McDonalds, krispy kreme open late. Also the free tram from Mandalay Bay to the Excaliber is closed at midnight during the week so its a long walk back to the room from the excaliber. Not so sure I would stay here again!

Restaurants:
First food Bar & Rest, at The Palazzo – was good but nothing to write home about. The philly cheessteak dumplings were really good
Spice Market Buffet at PH – I liked all the food choices. I thought everything was pretty good. My husband had prime rib which was excellent.
Nove at The Palms – This was the best! We went here for my husbands 40th b-day dinner. A little pricey (which was ok with us) but the food and the view were spectacular, I forget which floor its on but its high up. When you eat here you get free admission to the Playboy club which was cool. Our waiter wasn’t the friendliest but he was ok. I would definitely eat here again.
Red, White, & Blue at Mandalay Bay [/I]– this place was good, service was good, portions were good and fairly priced
Canters Deli at Mandalay Bay – we had lunch here while in the sportsbook. My husband and I split a sandwich bcuz it was late and wanted a little something to hold us till dinner. The sandwich was huge and pretty good. I live in NY and we have deli’s all over so there isnt too much I can say here.
Golden Gate on Freemont st. – loved the $1.99 shrimp cocktail (I didn’t get a players card, my bad lol)
Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay – I loved this place. I read about it on these boards and thought it was great. I loved all the choices you have and how you can build your own burger.
Raffles at Mandalay Bay – this place was too pricey for breakfast. I mean breakfast was good but no better than in a diner and much more expensive
Bayside Buffet at Mandalay Bay – we ate here once for dinner and once for breakfast. The dinner buffet was really good. They had plenty of selections and a lot of seafood too. The cioppino was fabulous. This place sucked for breakfast. We went at 10am and lunch was mixed in with the very few breakfast choices. No organization either. Bacon was mixed in with mexican food, never again!

Entertainment/shows:
Freemont st. Experience – I loved seeing downtown, it was great.
Mirage Dolphin & tiger exhibit – I’m a huge dolphin lover so of course I wanted to see this and it was good. Short but good. I probaly wouldn’t pay the high price to go see this again but it was my first vegas trip so I had to see it once.
MGM lion exhibit – this is free and pretty cool. The lions can walk on a glass ceiling above you and its pretty cool. You can also get your pic taken with a lion cub. It cost $25 and you need to line up pretty early since they only take 20 ppl at a time. I got mine done in the afternoon. Picture taking started at 2 but I got in line at 1pm and was the 5th person on line so if you want to do this make sure you get there early.
Eiffel Tower observation deck – this was great and I would recommend it at night. Make sure you wait for the Bellagio fountain show bcuz seeing up there is pretty amazing. The view was incredible
TI Siren Pirate show – if this is your first time in vegas it’s a must do but next time I will skip it, its very crowded and hard to see
Mirage Volcano – pretty cool and a must see for 1st timers
Bellagio fountains – I liked this, there is a schedule on the Bellagio website of the shows start times and what music will be played. Cool day or night, we saw both
Venetian Gondola ride – we did the outdoor one at night. Our gondola driver was fabulous and sang very well. We paid for a private gondola and I believe there were some discount tickets but we didn’t use them. Well worth the money for a private gondola. It was very romantic.
Hoover Dam – this was pretty incredible. We didn’t do a tour and rented a car and got there ourselves which was good. It was 100 degrees that day so after the dam we decided to go to Lake Mead and go to Boulder Beach to cool off. This was such a beautiful place to see. The water seemed clean and was clear but the muddy bottom was like quicksand and felt kinda funny to us.
Playboy Club at The Palms – hubby wanted to see this plus we got in for free. Waitresses and dealers all dressed up in playboy bunny outfits which was cool, it was a bit crowded but it was a Saturday night.
Coyote Ugly at NY NY –[/I] I liked this place, it was really fun. We didn’t have much time, only stopping by for a drink to look at the place but I would go back and hang there for a night.
Minus 5 Bar at Mandalay Bay – this place was sooooo cool and fun. I live in NY so I dunno why we would be so keen on going into a place like this considering we deal with the cold but it was a very fun experience.
Spearmint Rhino - yes I took my hubby there for his 40th b-day. I called them to have them pick us up and they did with a limo, we tipped the driver and no cover was charged as promised. This place was jam packed. No place to sit or stand. Very few ladies in there other than the strippers, thought I read this place was couples friendly? Anyway it was cool to do but we couldn’t stay bcuz we had no place to sit or stand but I was told Wednesday nights are better and less crowded. Our taxi driver recommended Treasures which was couples friendly and not crowded but we were done for the night.


Gambling:I’m not a big gambler at all. I don’t bet a lot on the machines and usually play the penny slots. I found goldfish at the Hard Rock and had fun on that, and came away doubling my money only to lose it elsewhere lol. I also doubled my money downtown again to lose it at Mandalay Bay. I tried all the slots I read about on here and I brought money I wouldn’t mind losing (of course I would be thrilled if I won) so it was no biggie and it was fun anyway. I tried a table game, Texas Hold em with bonuses and progressives, it was great! I didn’t have to worry about messing up anyone’s cards and it was an easy going game. I put down $60 and got over an hours worth of playtime with that adding maybe another $20 in chips. My hubby was up and down the whole week coming home even. He mainly played roulette and texas hold em.

Comps:We are new to this and not big gamblers but we got players cards for Mandalay Bay which are good at MGM, Luxor and I think a few others. Between my husbands card and mine we were comped our half day rate on our room at Mandalay Bay. We charged everything to our room since you are hit with that charge anyway upon check in. Like I said earlier we aren’t big gamblers but if we were there longer we would have more things comped hence the reason the charge stuff to your room : )
I was happy with what we got though


Overall we had a great trip. We came home exhausted from all the walking we did and site seeing but it was well worth it! Btw, a little trick we learned when entering some casinos. There are ppl who approach you and ask how many nights you will be in Vegas, my hubby almost got caught up in that and I had to pull him away and be a little rude. We already own a timeshare and aren’t interested in one (which is what most of these ppl are out to do) so the next time we were approached and asked how many nights we were staying we said it was our last night and then we were left alone. I couldn’t believe how bad they were! Also how funny are these pornslappers? At the end of the trip my husband was going to take all the cards he had been given and hand them right back to them in the same way they do it to you, lol. He never did but I liked the idea. I thought they were a little bit much especially handing them to mothers with children and the elderly, come on! If interested, I put a few pics in my profile of our trip.

 

Sounds like you had a great trip!! Loved your hubby's idea of handing the cards back to the pornslappers....would have been just too funny!

 

Great tr Spunky. Thanks..

 

At Nove Italiano

Get the Black Truffles and Asparagus. Awesome.

Nove will claim to be on floor 55 or so when in actuality it is only floor 42. You must remember that the number 4 is bad luck for asians and most casinos skip floors 40-49 and floor 4.

Still a nice view from Nove.

 

I knew there was a certain number that was considered bad luck but i didnt know which one.
I'll take floor 42 though, thats still high up there.
I love asparagus so I will keep that in mind, thanks

 

Thanks Breanna, yeah it was a fubby idea! Maybe the next trip he'll actually do it lol

 

great report
loved the details of each category

glad you got a players card , amazing offers u will be getting even being a penny slot kinda player , it adds up

 

Very nice TR. Thanks for posting.

later, GVJ

 

Very Nice!!!! Thanks for sharing