ihavenoego
Tourist
Starring:
Me (Andrew) aka the Force of Corruption
Rachel aka the Kiwi (who coined the name of this "team")
Karen aka the Shopoholic
Oliver (Karen’s husband) aka the Hallucinator
Mike aka Spaboy
August 23rd
The annual “Andrew takes his team from work (past and present) to Las Vegas†trip started out as usual, weeks before the departure date. Three short-notice dropouts (one thought moving to NYC was more important, one thought going to Greece for a family wedding was a better choice and the third decided to go with his girlfriend to Greece). But even before that my favourite traveling companion, Angie aka “the Supermodel†couldn’t get the time off because of her new job. C’est la vie. Luckily, it took all of 15 seconds to convince Rachel, Karen and Oliver to join the festivities.
For the actual trip, I would be arriving in Las Vegas today, followed by Rachel, Karen and Oliver tomorrow (the 24th) and Mike on the 25th (it’s all about the cheap airfare).
This was going to be my first “international†trip since the “British liquid event†which meant packing a check-in bag (OK, as I was bringing a gift for my host). First off, it appeared that the security measures put in place at Vancouver International Airport were a little anal-retentive. Once you pass through security, all liquids were served in open-mouthed cups (think drinking hot Starbucks without the lid) and you couldn’t even get a straw from the fast-food joints. But thanks to membership in the Alaska Airlines Boardroom, that was a non-issue for me.
Plane (Alaska 694) left Vancouver and arrived in Las Vegas on schedule (kind of surprising) with the usual assortment of wedding/stag/blue hairs aboard, all excited about the possibilities in Sin City.
The wait for check-in luggage was not too bad, but as I had expected, my bag was damaged (a brand new, never used Samsonite courtesy of a hospital lottery). Thank you inept baggage handlers!
Cabbed it to Mandalay Bay, actually waited some time at VIP check-in (and this was at 11 pm) due to it being UFC weekend (more on that later). Wasn’t in a rush so just chatted with other guests (having my executive suite comped upfront, let’s one relax and take it easy, and the champagne didn’t hurt either).
August 24th
Got settled into #24334 (the Tahiti wing as my usually Fiji suite was housing some UFC fighters, but more on that later), then went down to Raffles Café for my usual first meal (24 previous trips to Mandalay Bay and always the same first meal) of a 4-egg omelet, tiramisu and a Mountain Dew. The meal is my superstition, I had it on each of the two days I was at MB during opening weekend in 1999, and on both days I pulled $12,500 out of the Little Green Men nickel slots. Haven’t won anything that big since but I haven’t lost more than $1,000 on a trip since then either.
The rest of the day was spent doing a coupon run on the Strip, checking in Rachel, Karen & Oliver into their rooms earlier (not due to arrive until 10 pm) but needed to stock the rooms with “beverages†before their arrival, playing the slots and my usual buy in for $600 at an Mandalay Bay roulette table and go for broke (luckily, after 5 hours I had to leave for the airport, up $105 which I tipped out, leaving me with a purple and black in the pocket).
Got to the airport at 11:30 (BTW – did you know taxis technically cannot drop you off at “Arrivals?â€), as Alaska alerted me to a delay in Karen and Oliver’s schedule (Rachel was flying United via San Francisco). Plane arrived at its new time, 11:47 pm, which was great as Rachel plane should have arrived 5 minutes earlier. Went to the United baggage carousel to wait, saw a very exhausted but happy Rachel.
What I did not know until just then was that Rachel’s United flight from Vancouver to San Fran was cancelled and they booked her on the Alaska 694 flight. Poor thing had to sit around at YVR for 6 hours. Here’s the kicker though, as we ran out of time before the trip, I never got a chance to introduce Rachel, Karen, Oliver and Mike to each other (worked for/with me at the hospital in different departments or time frames), Rachel, Karen & Oliver spent the flight trying to spot the other.
Collected the luggage and cabbed it back to Mandalay Bay. Settled them in, and that’s when they noticed the “beverages†:wine; Drank for a bit, then gave them the quick night tour before grabbing a bite at Raffles.
Nothing better than the wide-eyed wonder of Vegas Virgins. I guess it’s about time that I explain the nicknames. I refer to Rachel as the Kiwi as she’s a citizen of New Zealand, in Canada on a work visa. Karen as the Shopoholic, that’s self-explanatory (be afraid all ye Outlet Malls, be very afraid). Oliver as the Hallucinator, hey, if you go from being an internet poker addict to spending all evening hours in the poker rooms of the Luxor, Excalibur, MGM Grand, Sahara and finally the Mandalay Bay, you’ll tend to hallucinate too (he did end the four days up $100, not enough for the $300k diamond earrings that Karen was eyeing at The Forum Shops though). Mike has attended everyone of my summer excursions and two summers ago discovered the benefits of Spa Mandalay (we could have referred to him as “Backstreet Boy†as last year on lark, he said that we should attend the BSB concert, which my host courteously helped us out with). As for me, “the Force of Corruption,†well I had “promised†Rachel and Karen’s supervisors that I would watch over them, like I would actually do what someone lower on the org chart would ask of me. No, instead, I told everyone straight off that this year my job was to feed their addictions (smoking, shopping, poker and Wheel of Fortune, respectively) and to ensure that everyone at least completed the Seven Deadly Sins once.
OK, now I’m going to speed up this overly long trip report a bit.
August 25th
Morning spa treatments for Rachel and Karen. A variety of gaming for me and hours 1 through 10 of live poker for Oliver. Met for buffet lunch, except for Rachel, who had fallen asleep on the beach and we wouldn’t see again until 5 pm. Afternoon, Oliver back at the poker (a tourney at Sahara), while I fed Karen’s shopping addiction (reduced my gaming, which was good as I was playing much bigger stakes this trip, $1-$5 slots and min $200 table bets). Karen and I were running late (needed to get back to Mandalay for dinner as we have 7:30 Mystere tix), so we cabbed from the Forum Shops. Interesting ride, the driver had just driven a couple (military man shipping off tomorrow) to a drive through wedding chapel, where he acted as photographer and best man
Rachel finally showed up, not burnt!! Must be the Kiwi genes. Ate at rm seafood in Mandalay Place. Not bad, but for the best seafood/Japanese/sushi in the world come to Vancouver and try Tojo’s, he invented most of the sushi you eat.
Mystere was amazing as usual (I took Angie and Mike last year). The Virgins were amazed. Made our way back to Mandalay to meet up with Mike (didn’t go to the airport to get him as he knows his way around). Again, I had checked him in earlier this day.
Rachel: “What’s Mike like?â€
Me: “Tall, fit, great guy… and he’s 24â€
Rachel and Karen: “Hmmmmâ€
Around 10 pm, we met Mike in the Lobby, Rachel takes an immediate liking to the hot 24-year-old (12 hours later, his nickname is changed to Mantoy
).
August 26th
More drinking and partying ensues, around 3 am the married couple call it a night (finger quotes), “riiiight!†After some drinks in my suite, during which, Mike proposes to Rachel with a black straw ring, Rachel, Mike and I continue to drink in the Island Lounge (we were staying up as Rachel had another spa appointment in 5 hours). Meet Rob and Scotty “the hotty†from Florida, who along with the staff and the other guests at the Lounge provide their two cents on Rachel and Mike. Not only did the bartender’s “do you love him†comment throw them off there game, the street poetry rap off between Mike and some guy gave them time to sober up, no thanks to me (I even scared the crap out of them by having my host book the Chapel by the Bay for 3 pm). OK, so the wedding was off but they had booked an “appointment†for “consummation†at 10:30 am, after the spa treatments. And it was my job (according to them) to make sure everyone made the appointment. So, just before 8:30 am I walked Rachel to the spa, checked her in and told her I would be back to pick her up at 10:30. Went back to the Island Lounge, Mike had wandered off, Rob told me that Mike was heading back to his room, waving his arm in that Captain Jack Sparrow drunken pointing sort of way.
So I went off and did some gaming until 10:30. Returned to the spa, but Rachel was running long. Little did I know that at 10:33 Mike phoned my room and left a message (which I wouldn’t get until 6 pm as I never went back up), in a very horny voice, “Andrewwww, where are you guys? Is Rachel still coming?†Keep it in your pants, we’re only a few minutes late. Arrived at his room at 10:38 and left the Kiwi to turn Spaboy into Mantoy.
Didn’t see them again until dinner at the Burger Bar, followed by LOVE, which everyone enjoyed (although I really don’t see it as a “Cirque†per se). Followed by more drinking and partying, followed by another Kiwi and Mantoy go around. Poor Shopoholic was left frustrated yet again by the poker addicted Hallucinator. And while I did have my share of fun that night, as you can probably read into this report, I would have rather spent it with the Supermodel.
August 27th
Rachel left at 7 am (cheap flight). The rest of us did the Champagne Brunch and Shark Reef, Karen and Oliver even got bobble-head dolls of themselves made. Met a bunch of UFC fighters in VIP, one guest yelled to his girlfriend to take his place in line, and ran off like a schoolgirl to get a picture and autograph. Arrived at McCarran for our 4:25 flight, where, “hey, you can buy bottled drinks past security!!!†Boarded the plane with the other tired Vancouverites, full of good times and great (if somewhat hazy) memories. And they have all invited themselves along for my next trip (OK, actually, the trip after the next, see the post script).
And yes, Rachel and Mike are still a couple, awwwww!!!
Post script: My next trip is set for November 26th but this weekend I learned that Angie is a big UFC fan, so now the next trip will be October 13th for UFC 64 at Mandalay Bay :wink As for Rachel, Karen, Oliver and Mike failing to adhere to “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas†now everyone they work with wants to join in on the November trip, luckily, I’m not comping or buying, whew.
Damn, that was a lot longer trip report than I had planned on writing!
Andrew
Me (Andrew) aka the Force of Corruption
Rachel aka the Kiwi (who coined the name of this "team")
Karen aka the Shopoholic
Oliver (Karen’s husband) aka the Hallucinator
Mike aka Spaboy
August 23rd
The annual “Andrew takes his team from work (past and present) to Las Vegas†trip started out as usual, weeks before the departure date. Three short-notice dropouts (one thought moving to NYC was more important, one thought going to Greece for a family wedding was a better choice and the third decided to go with his girlfriend to Greece). But even before that my favourite traveling companion, Angie aka “the Supermodel†couldn’t get the time off because of her new job. C’est la vie. Luckily, it took all of 15 seconds to convince Rachel, Karen and Oliver to join the festivities.
For the actual trip, I would be arriving in Las Vegas today, followed by Rachel, Karen and Oliver tomorrow (the 24th) and Mike on the 25th (it’s all about the cheap airfare).
This was going to be my first “international†trip since the “British liquid event†which meant packing a check-in bag (OK, as I was bringing a gift for my host). First off, it appeared that the security measures put in place at Vancouver International Airport were a little anal-retentive. Once you pass through security, all liquids were served in open-mouthed cups (think drinking hot Starbucks without the lid) and you couldn’t even get a straw from the fast-food joints. But thanks to membership in the Alaska Airlines Boardroom, that was a non-issue for me.
Plane (Alaska 694) left Vancouver and arrived in Las Vegas on schedule (kind of surprising) with the usual assortment of wedding/stag/blue hairs aboard, all excited about the possibilities in Sin City.
The wait for check-in luggage was not too bad, but as I had expected, my bag was damaged (a brand new, never used Samsonite courtesy of a hospital lottery). Thank you inept baggage handlers!
Cabbed it to Mandalay Bay, actually waited some time at VIP check-in (and this was at 11 pm) due to it being UFC weekend (more on that later). Wasn’t in a rush so just chatted with other guests (having my executive suite comped upfront, let’s one relax and take it easy, and the champagne didn’t hurt either).
August 24th
Got settled into #24334 (the Tahiti wing as my usually Fiji suite was housing some UFC fighters, but more on that later), then went down to Raffles Café for my usual first meal (24 previous trips to Mandalay Bay and always the same first meal) of a 4-egg omelet, tiramisu and a Mountain Dew. The meal is my superstition, I had it on each of the two days I was at MB during opening weekend in 1999, and on both days I pulled $12,500 out of the Little Green Men nickel slots. Haven’t won anything that big since but I haven’t lost more than $1,000 on a trip since then either.
The rest of the day was spent doing a coupon run on the Strip, checking in Rachel, Karen & Oliver into their rooms earlier (not due to arrive until 10 pm) but needed to stock the rooms with “beverages†before their arrival, playing the slots and my usual buy in for $600 at an Mandalay Bay roulette table and go for broke (luckily, after 5 hours I had to leave for the airport, up $105 which I tipped out, leaving me with a purple and black in the pocket).
Got to the airport at 11:30 (BTW – did you know taxis technically cannot drop you off at “Arrivals?â€), as Alaska alerted me to a delay in Karen and Oliver’s schedule (Rachel was flying United via San Francisco). Plane arrived at its new time, 11:47 pm, which was great as Rachel plane should have arrived 5 minutes earlier. Went to the United baggage carousel to wait, saw a very exhausted but happy Rachel.
What I did not know until just then was that Rachel’s United flight from Vancouver to San Fran was cancelled and they booked her on the Alaska 694 flight. Poor thing had to sit around at YVR for 6 hours. Here’s the kicker though, as we ran out of time before the trip, I never got a chance to introduce Rachel, Karen, Oliver and Mike to each other (worked for/with me at the hospital in different departments or time frames), Rachel, Karen & Oliver spent the flight trying to spot the other.
Collected the luggage and cabbed it back to Mandalay Bay. Settled them in, and that’s when they noticed the “beverages†:wine; Drank for a bit, then gave them the quick night tour before grabbing a bite at Raffles.
Nothing better than the wide-eyed wonder of Vegas Virgins. I guess it’s about time that I explain the nicknames. I refer to Rachel as the Kiwi as she’s a citizen of New Zealand, in Canada on a work visa. Karen as the Shopoholic, that’s self-explanatory (be afraid all ye Outlet Malls, be very afraid). Oliver as the Hallucinator, hey, if you go from being an internet poker addict to spending all evening hours in the poker rooms of the Luxor, Excalibur, MGM Grand, Sahara and finally the Mandalay Bay, you’ll tend to hallucinate too (he did end the four days up $100, not enough for the $300k diamond earrings that Karen was eyeing at The Forum Shops though). Mike has attended everyone of my summer excursions and two summers ago discovered the benefits of Spa Mandalay (we could have referred to him as “Backstreet Boy†as last year on lark, he said that we should attend the BSB concert, which my host courteously helped us out with). As for me, “the Force of Corruption,†well I had “promised†Rachel and Karen’s supervisors that I would watch over them, like I would actually do what someone lower on the org chart would ask of me. No, instead, I told everyone straight off that this year my job was to feed their addictions (smoking, shopping, poker and Wheel of Fortune, respectively) and to ensure that everyone at least completed the Seven Deadly Sins once.
OK, now I’m going to speed up this overly long trip report a bit.
August 25th
Morning spa treatments for Rachel and Karen. A variety of gaming for me and hours 1 through 10 of live poker for Oliver. Met for buffet lunch, except for Rachel, who had fallen asleep on the beach and we wouldn’t see again until 5 pm. Afternoon, Oliver back at the poker (a tourney at Sahara), while I fed Karen’s shopping addiction (reduced my gaming, which was good as I was playing much bigger stakes this trip, $1-$5 slots and min $200 table bets). Karen and I were running late (needed to get back to Mandalay for dinner as we have 7:30 Mystere tix), so we cabbed from the Forum Shops. Interesting ride, the driver had just driven a couple (military man shipping off tomorrow) to a drive through wedding chapel, where he acted as photographer and best man
Rachel finally showed up, not burnt!! Must be the Kiwi genes. Ate at rm seafood in Mandalay Place. Not bad, but for the best seafood/Japanese/sushi in the world come to Vancouver and try Tojo’s, he invented most of the sushi you eat.
Mystere was amazing as usual (I took Angie and Mike last year). The Virgins were amazed. Made our way back to Mandalay to meet up with Mike (didn’t go to the airport to get him as he knows his way around). Again, I had checked him in earlier this day.
Rachel: “What’s Mike like?â€
Me: “Tall, fit, great guy… and he’s 24â€
Rachel and Karen: “Hmmmmâ€
Around 10 pm, we met Mike in the Lobby, Rachel takes an immediate liking to the hot 24-year-old (12 hours later, his nickname is changed to Mantoy
).August 26th
More drinking and partying ensues, around 3 am the married couple call it a night (finger quotes), “riiiight!†After some drinks in my suite, during which, Mike proposes to Rachel with a black straw ring, Rachel, Mike and I continue to drink in the Island Lounge (we were staying up as Rachel had another spa appointment in 5 hours). Meet Rob and Scotty “the hotty†from Florida, who along with the staff and the other guests at the Lounge provide their two cents on Rachel and Mike. Not only did the bartender’s “do you love him†comment throw them off there game, the street poetry rap off between Mike and some guy gave them time to sober up, no thanks to me (I even scared the crap out of them by having my host book the Chapel by the Bay for 3 pm). OK, so the wedding was off but they had booked an “appointment†for “consummation†at 10:30 am, after the spa treatments. And it was my job (according to them) to make sure everyone made the appointment. So, just before 8:30 am I walked Rachel to the spa, checked her in and told her I would be back to pick her up at 10:30. Went back to the Island Lounge, Mike had wandered off, Rob told me that Mike was heading back to his room, waving his arm in that Captain Jack Sparrow drunken pointing sort of way.
So I went off and did some gaming until 10:30. Returned to the spa, but Rachel was running long. Little did I know that at 10:33 Mike phoned my room and left a message (which I wouldn’t get until 6 pm as I never went back up), in a very horny voice, “Andrewwww, where are you guys? Is Rachel still coming?†Keep it in your pants, we’re only a few minutes late. Arrived at his room at 10:38 and left the Kiwi to turn Spaboy into Mantoy.
Didn’t see them again until dinner at the Burger Bar, followed by LOVE, which everyone enjoyed (although I really don’t see it as a “Cirque†per se). Followed by more drinking and partying, followed by another Kiwi and Mantoy go around. Poor Shopoholic was left frustrated yet again by the poker addicted Hallucinator. And while I did have my share of fun that night, as you can probably read into this report, I would have rather spent it with the Supermodel.
August 27th
Rachel left at 7 am (cheap flight). The rest of us did the Champagne Brunch and Shark Reef, Karen and Oliver even got bobble-head dolls of themselves made. Met a bunch of UFC fighters in VIP, one guest yelled to his girlfriend to take his place in line, and ran off like a schoolgirl to get a picture and autograph. Arrived at McCarran for our 4:25 flight, where, “hey, you can buy bottled drinks past security!!!†Boarded the plane with the other tired Vancouverites, full of good times and great (if somewhat hazy) memories. And they have all invited themselves along for my next trip (OK, actually, the trip after the next, see the post script).
And yes, Rachel and Mike are still a couple, awwwww!!!
Post script: My next trip is set for November 26th but this weekend I learned that Angie is a big UFC fan, so now the next trip will be October 13th for UFC 64 at Mandalay Bay :wink As for Rachel, Karen, Oliver and Mike failing to adhere to “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas†now everyone they work with wants to join in on the November trip, luckily, I’m not comping or buying, whew.
Damn, that was a lot longer trip report than I had planned on writing!
Andrew
