New Year's Eve PG 13 Style and the mysterious blue stain

So, let me preface this by saying....yes, we go to Vegas ALOT ( we live in AZ, easy drive) and yes, we are one of those "annoying" families that bring our 7 yr old ( trapped in a 30 yr old mind) with us on every visit. We are respectful of those who are there sans kids and those who were like us at one point to party like rock stars in Vegas. So we "get it" and are mindful of that. No, we never brought the annoying strollers that always seem to nip you right in that sweet spot on your ankles while trying to navigate the strip, and no, we never have or will bring our daughter to any nicer restaurant if there is even a hint of " how much longer"? We have learned in our many, many years of navigating Vegas with our daughter in tow, how to "tag team" it so I can gamble alone, and my husband can as well. So that being said....

My husband had taken 10 days off for Christmas/ New Years. He is in the medical field and getting time off is always a luxury for all of us. He is going to be switching jobs soon, so he needed to burn some vacation time. Perfect. Well after about day 6, we all started to drive each other crazy. It was literally Dec 30, cold and cloudy here in AZ, and I said " Vegas"? That is all it took. Energy re-surged in our home. I called around to see what ( if anything) was still available at The Signature thru the various rental companies. We decided on Bluechip Vegas ( more to come on that later). We used them back in Sept for hubby's birthday and did not have any issues. We took the Jr. Suite ( all that was left) that faced the strip ( perfect for fireworks). Room, check, petsitter, check, packing, check. We were ready to leave first thing, Dec 31.

It was like Christmas morning all over again. The excitement of heading to Vegas for NYE! I was there ( I think) in college many moons ago. Being sans child back then, my drunken mind has slipped. So car packed, coffees in hand we were off. Easy drive, no cops, no traffic. That is until we hit the dreaded Hoover Dam...We had never seen lines like this before. The increased security was painful. But, better safe than sorry. Took us over an hour to make it over the dam, talk about buzz kill. Thank goodness for my Blackberry and daughter having her Nintendo. She did great, me, I was antsy. So bummed that it was now 4pm, we see the Vegas skyline. Then it hits me....Vegas is one hour behind AZ! Hooray! It is only 3pm!

We check into Tower 2 @ Signature without any issues. They were busy and we had a lot of crap with us. I have severe food allergies and so does our daughter, soooo, we bring a lot of food/snacks with us ( more for her, I can live on champagne when needed ). We get our keys and up to the room..

We open the door expecting to see a beautiful suite like we had before...all I can say is "ewwwww". The carpet, filthy, filthy dirty. Blood streaks ( yes, blood) on the wall, huge hair ball on the side of the bed, trash under the bed, holes in the sheets, and to top it off, a strange mysterious blue stain in the jacuzzi. But, we laughed as we tend to have the worse luck around. Cracked open a bottle of champagne, sparkling apple cider and a beer for hubby and got ready to hit the strip.

In true form, hubby took our daughter to visit the lions @ MGM while I hit the slots. I put $20 in a $1 machine and was down to my last 50 cents. Then boom! I hit $250! I had on either side of me 2 college kids ( ah, those were the days) who were both like " nice"! Nice indeed, off to a good start. Cashed that baby out and off to fetch hubby and daughter to show off my quick win. So we decide to take on the strip before it get too crazy. I grab a high end tequila shot with a beer for hubby and indulge in yet another glass of champagne to fuel our journey on the strip. It was only 7pm and it was crazy. Our daughter had one mission and one mission only, to purchase as many light up things as possible. Hat, necklace, sword, crown, you name it, if it lit up she just had to have it.

We stopped and talked to a Vegas police officer. Being this was our first NYE trip w/ a 7yr old in tow, we asked what is a good time to get her off the strip and back to the (dirty) sanctuary of our room. He said no later than 9pm. So, off on the quest to purchase as much NYE light up crap as possible and take in the sights. By 8:30, that officer was dead on. Total craziness, total fun. We headed back toward the Signature with our new treasures in hand; light up sword ( which I think my husband liked more than daughter), light up necklace, light up bunny ears ( which I think I wore more than daughter), and "pimp cup" for hubby I bought as a joke. I took lots of pictures and was uploading live on Facebook for all of our friends to enjoy. The energy was just amazing. Something we really needed as we as a family have been though a lot of personal heartache and needed that energy!

So while we had hoped of taking a swim in the jacuzzi upon returning to the room, decided as we did not know what the mysterious blue stain was, passed and decided on more alcohol for us and more sparkling apple cider for daughter. We ordered room service and enjoyed the sights from our balcony. Daughter was content with the Sponge Bob marathon on TV. We all passed out by 11pm, but set alarm for 11:55 so we could enjoy the fireworks. However, the noise they created, no alarm was needed. WOW! The fireworks were amazing! It was so cool to see. Another midnight toast an back to bed. The life of parents, what can I say?

Next day, I had all intentions of waking up early and getting in a quick workout. My hangover told me other wise. I guess I drank a little more than I thought. Husband woke up with a good o hangover as well. Daughter was up at 6am rearing to go. I guess at some point the night before I told her we would go to Build A Bear and she could get "whatever she wanted"...ughh. Thank god for 24 hr cartoons. She watched while we went back to bed. By 11am we were off the check out Wynn, Palazzo, Venetian, Mirage, you know the usual. The plan was ( and later revised) to hit that end of the strip daytime, hit CityCenter at night. By 2pm, we had done Build A Bear, walked all over and daughter ( and husband) were tired. Back we went to our wonderful suite. They decided to take a nap, me, I decided the best cure for my hangover was some RockStar energy and a good sweat at the gym. I ran 10 miles on the treadmill and felt 110% better.

So, we get dressed and head back down to the MGM so I could gamble and daughter/ husband could take picture with the lion cub. I hit another $350 on a slot! Played it for about 10 mins with again, only $20 in. Again, cashed that baby out, more shopping for me! We went to Planet Hollywood, and around that general area. Daughter was starting to get crabby and we realized it was 8:30 pm and she had not had dinner....oops. So we decided being the responsible parents we are, to spare everyone the 7yr drama @ any eating establishment and head back to the room. We did dinner "white trash style" as I call it. I took out all the frozen crap we lugged from AZ and nuked it, made daughter a make shift pizza, basically a "buffet" of all our left over stuff. I nuked microwave popcorn for me and decided to kill off my bottle of champagne, dinner of champions.

I was upset because we had thought about staying an extra day, but were so grossed out by the room and just too much of a hassle to move all of our crap decided to just leave on Sat ( 1/2). We did not make it to City Center or see alot of what we wanted to see, but, with child, plans need to be adjusted, right? Husband promised we would "come back out" in a few weeks.
We have no family, and really no one we can completely trust ( at this point) to leave daughter at home. We have done the kids quest thing @ Palms and that was ok. Being that everyone right now is sick with something AND it being NYE weekend, we decided to avoid the Palms like the plague. Little eyes are very perceptive

I sent pictures of the suite to the owner of Bluechip and suggested they do a deep clean before the next party checks in. I am looking at Encore, Wynn, Palazzo and Four Seasons for our trip out the last weekend in Jan 1/22? Any suggestions would be welcome. The new PH Westgate looks really nice as well. Never did hear back from Peter @ Bluechip, oh well, not too surprised.

Trip home was uneventful and quick. By 3pm AZ time we were home. Dogs got bored and managed to not only knock over our gianormous xmas tree, but eat( destroy) xmas stockings, ornaments, ect. Ahhh, the joys of travel. So I hope you all are nice and dont flame me for bringing our child to Vegas. We love Vegas and at this point if we want to go, just have to roll with it and do the PG-13 version. Hopefully on our trip in a few weeks we can see/do more. Regardless, it was a great trip and actually came home with some extra cash, which is always nice!
Kim

 

Nice wins!!! Sucks that the room was nasty. I'd love to try Vegas for NYE one year.

 

OK, I won't say anything about your 7 year old in Vegas, since you asked us not to, but can you please explain leaving dogs at home alone for 3 days. Especially if there destroying the house and eating ornaments????

I have 2 dogs, and when I go to Vegas, I have to hire a pet sitter that comes over three times a day to feed them, let them out, play with them , and make sure thy have water.

Maybe I missed something, but if they knocked over your tree, ate stockings, etc., doesn't sound like anybody was watching them.

 

My parents would have had the dogs watch me.

I say good job getting by with what you could.

 

Great report and happy doggone New Year! Thanks for posting!

 

Now really....do you REALLY think we would leave our house for 2 days and leave our 2 huge labs to tend for themselves? Come on now....We have a petsitter who comes 3x a day @ $40 a pop. She does an amazing job. When we leave, we "dog proof" the house. The tree was a slight concern. Our one lab tends to have some anxiety. We felt bad about crating her, so like idiots, we did not on this trip as we though, being gone for less than 2 full days and having the petsitter come 3x a day, it would be ok. I guess it only takes a minute for a 120 dog to knock over a tree.

There were plenty of kids in Vegas, and plenty of irresponsible parents right along with them. Our favorite was these poor kids bundled up in five layers sitting in their strollers on the side of MGM @ like 7pm to get their "spot" for the fireworks. We enjoyed ours in the comfort of our suite on our balcony at midnight. Our daughter has and always will be fine in Vegas, we are responsible parents and always put her safety first and respect not everyone there wants to see kids. We have never had any issues. We all needed this trip to let loose as we suffered a tremendous family tragety 3 days before Thanksgiving. It was fun for all of us to laugh and have fun.

But, then again...why I am justifying myself to you?

 

We are trying to pre-plan for next NYE with other families who are "misfits" like us. We figure if enough of us go, we can trade off babysitting for eachother, so everyone has fun! Believe me, it was painful seeing everyone all dressed up heading out as we were heading in. We still had a great time, just a more "muted" version of NYE Vegas style. Still trying to figure out where we are going to stay in 3 weeks...

 

Did you complain about the room or just accept it? My wife would have went bonkers!

 

I think it sounds wonderful to sit on the balcony for the fireworks on NYE

 

muah haha me too. i would NOT have tolerated that.

 

You bet I complained. I texted, emailed and called Peter w/ Bluechip ( owner) and have heard nothing! I was going crazy ( my husband now admits he was as well, which is a rare thing ). I am usually the one to complain and demand resolution, however, on this one, our hands were kind of tied as we still have not heard anything from the owner. The fireworks from the balcony was amazing and helped a bit. However....we noticed when we left on Sat that our daughter has 3 small dots on her face. They look ( and I am using this very, very lightly mind you) like some type of bug bites. The first thing that came to my mind was " dear God, please tell me she did not get bed bug bites"! Now of course, we mentioned nothing of this to our sweet child, or we would never see her sleep in her own bed! Needless, when we did get home, we left all luggage in the garage and I brought in the laundry as I did it in steaming hot water!

With all the oddities in the room, it would not surprise me if we did have the little critters celebrating with us! Again, we tend to have strange, crazy, bad luck when we travel. Anything strange, even bizarre that would not happen to the normal person, seems to always happen to us. We have learned to deal with it the best we can, drink and laugh it off. The winnings I came home with, helped a lot. AND, we are going back out Jan 20ish? for several days. Any suggestions are more than welcome on where to stay. I posted another thread under hotels. We need a suite sized room. We are looking @ Palazzo, Wynn, Encore, 4 Seasons or new PH towers.

Thanks for all the kind words. You all are awesome!

 

I'm glad to here that you took care of your animals also. The way it was worded, or not worded in your report had me a little worried.
I'm a true animal lover, and believe me there are people that would do this.

I'm glad you came home with some money for your next trip.

The Palazzo rooms can't be beat for their roominess and cleanliness.

 

Glad you all had a nice time even with a yucky room!!

would love to have seen the fireworks from your vantage point too , would have been an amazing view

Have fun later this month

 

Our house is a mini rescue as out 2 kitties are rescue, ( one recovered from liver failure from Nutro pet food, Petsmart still selling re-called food on shelf, part of the reason we came home rather than staying extra day, we were worried about our kitty and wanted to make sure he was still ok, he was fine!), our labs, God love them, they are crazy. Seems the angel on top of the tree with feather just too tempting when Mom isnt around to supervise. That is what I get for spending $100 on the dam angel in the first place right? Our sitter runs and runs them, but like all loyal pets, they do miss us. Going to see in 3 weeks if our babysitter will stay here with the animals. Way more expensive, but more than likely worth it!

Our petsitter is a godsend. When we were in Vegas last summer, a monsoon blew thru and somehow a microburst only hit our house ( again, our bad luck). One of our huge trees was uprooted and came within about 6 inches of going thru our roof! I was working out and she sent me the text. Even in that mess, she handled it ( her hubby is a firefighter and the moved the tree). So, really, I dont worry if something should happen with any of the pets (too much), she is also a dog breeder, so she knows her stuff!

 

All I can say is 10 miles on the treadmill?????

I do about an hour 4 days a week and can get about 4 miles in an hour.....I use more incline than speed. (to burn more calories)

How long does it take to go 10 miles? And at what speeds are you running?

Nice trip report too!

 

Lets just say, I have a lot of energy. I walk 10 miles everyday on an incline of 12% @ 4.8 mph. I used to run marathons until I broke my foot in PF Chengs 3 yrs ago. So, I like to mix it up time to time. That day, I think it was part Rockstar energy drink kicking in and being frustrated with the room, I was going average 8mph/ incline between 4-6%. I got all the alcohol out and felt great. Some people smoke, some drink, me, I just need a good workout to keep balanced Makes me a better wife and mom!

 

Really enjoyed your TR! Can't be mad at ya for your kid - she seems relatively well behaved and being that you only brought one, it's all good!

 

Bella ( our daughter) is an amazing kiddo, she cracks us up all the time. We told her on NYE that people would be acting silly ( just like she does on her birthday) and that adults need to have fun too. She was just like "whatever". When we went in Sept for hubby's birthday, she asked " Mommy what is a stripper", yeah, well that was a fun one to explain. We figure, really, as long as she is off the strip by 9ish not much she will she that she cant see on TV. There are certain casinos that obviously cater more toward sorta family friendly ( Mirage/ Dolphin, MGM/ Tiger (she took a pic w/ cub this trip), PH/ Mall and Build a Bear,Mandaly/ aquarium, so we try to stay around those that we can split up so I can gamble and my hubby and her and do those things. I think in only having 1 and since she is around more adults than kids her own age, she acts a lot older than 8! For NYE, she insisted we all get dressed up eventhough all we did was walk up and down the strip until 8:30, it was pretty funny, but we did it.

Its not bad kids, it is usually bad parents. From some of what we saw on this last trip with some of the kids, our cat had better mothering skills when we fostered her and her kittens. Kinda scary!

 

Bellamom,

What a great trip for your family! Other than the dirty room, you guys seemed to have a great time!

BTW, I love how close-knit the three of you are. It really comes out in your report. Thanks for posting.

 

I promise you she will always remember these trips. That is all you should care about.