[tragic312]

Vegas 2 Trip Report

Day 1 – Departure

Rob and I had an early evening flight out of JFK with Jetblue. We got up early so we can take care of the final last minute things, like pack for instance. Our flight was at 5:20 when we would arrive in Dulles (Washington D.C.) at 6:45 and leave there to go to Vegas at 7:50 pm. We left the house around 2:45 to get to JFK early. That wasn’t the case.
We left Jersey with no problem and got through Staten Island with no problem, but then when we entered Brooklyn, everything changed. The traffic was insane. We were going at least 30 miles an hour on this beautiful 72 degree weathered day. The JFK exit on the highway is 19 and we were at exit 4 when this happened. It continued just about all the way to JFK. When we finally reached JFK at 4 pm, we saw that there was no accident, no construction, nothing really happened to make this traffic go so slow. It was just people breaking for no reason. Typical New York/New Jersey driving.
We found a parking spot and made a steady dash to the air train. When we got to Jetblue’s terminal, we got into the massively long line to check in. Rob told me to use one of the kiosks to check in but when I did, it printed out a slip that reads “Oops, there was a problem checking you in.” Rob has been experiencing this for about 2 years now. There is a guy out in this world with the same name and same birthday as Rob but is wanted for murder and my Rob always has to go to the customer service desk to get his name unblocked so he can get on a plane. We were told to go to that line where it moved slower than the faster line we were on! It was nearing 5 when we finally saw someone to take the block off rob’s name. The lady told us that the flight was still open and they could let us on. We just had to run there. And boy did we!! We also had to catch a shuttle to get to the terminal because this place is under construction to connect all the terminals together. We ran through our terminal to get to our gate. With our passes out, we made it to the counter to hand our passes to the lady there when she said, “Sorry I don’t need your passes now.” When we asked her why she said, “You’re plane just arrived.” I yelled out “Are you kidding!” We were so relieved that our plane had just arrived and we weren’t going to miss our flight.
Rob and I went to the bathroom after we were told to have a seat. Rob asked me if I wanted something to drink and I told him I was hungry and to get me something heavy. I didn’t care what it was. While we were in the bathroom, they made an announcement for pre-boarding. So, we figured we had time. When Rob went to the little store to get us some snacks, they announced final boarding! So, I had to wait until they served the snacks to get something to munch on.
The flight went well. We watched TV and relaxed as we flew to Dulles. When we got to Dulles, we grabbed some pizza and practically inhaled our pizza because they were going to board for Vegas. The flight to Vegas went well, too. I took a little nap using my new neck pillow and my eye mask from Jetblue that I saved from our last red eye flight. We arrived in Vegas sometime after 10 pm. When we got our luggage, one of the wheels of our bags was broken off. So, there goes another piece of luggage we had to get ride of. The wheel didn’t even make it back to us. We got our rental car and headed to The Grandview at Las Vegas, our time share.
When we checked in, the lady at the counter took about 5 minute clicking on the computer and making faces while never saying a word to us. We told her non-smoking, we had a letter confirming our reservation. We were starting to get worried. I was about to ask if everything was ok when she finally picked up her head and said, “Ok, how many keys do you need?” I don’t know what the silence and faces were all about but we got our room and were happy about it. Our building was actually behind the lobby, which is a good convenience for when we need the internet. We were on the third floor. The hallways had such a wonderful smell to them. I can’t identify the smell, but they smelled like flowers. It was great. I wish I could bottle up this aroma.
We got to our room and were stunned by the beauty of it. I took a lot of pictures of our apartment, which is what it pretty much was. It had a full kitchen with an oven, microwave and fridge, a washer and dryer so we can do laundry, a dining table, etc. It was the best room we ever had! We unpacked and went to bed sometime around 1:30 in the morning.

DAY 2 – Sunday

I don’t know how I got up 6 hours after we went to bed fully charged and ready to go. Rob, however, wasn’t in the same state that I was in. I watched some TV for a bit and then got dressed to tour around the property to take more pictures. Rob told me to go to the computer room to look up the nearest Wal-Mart so we can do some shopping.
On our way to Wal-Mart, I spotted a food store called Food 4 Less. Rob said we’ll check it out on our way back to our room. While in Wal-Mart, we picked up laundry detergent, some snacks and cereal. On our way back to the time share, we stopped at Food 4 Less and saw the prices!! Oh my God!! The prices for everything was at least a dollar cheaper compared to home. In Jersey, it costs nearly $3 for a gallon of milk. In this store, the price was $2.28! A loaf of bread was $1.50, we pay over $2 for a loaf of bread. We picked up some other things while we were there and then headed back to our room. We made ourselves some sandwiches to hold us over until we went for dinner. We took showers and got dressed. We were going to see The Beatles LOVE by Cirque Du Soleil. I was so excited to see the show. Rob got me tickets for Christmas. We left just 10 after 6 for the 7 PM show. People were oohing and awing on the strip and that caused the traffic to slow down. It was 7 PM when we pulled up to the Mirage. I was so worried that they weren’t going to let us in, but they did, when we made it to the theater.
The show is about the life of the Beatles. When we entered the theater, they had “Get Back” playing and Cirque Du Soleil was dancing all over the 360 degree stage. It was pretty impressive. They did a lot of acrobatic stunts during a lot of the songs. The show played a lot of Beatles songs, like “Yesterday”, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, “Revolution”, “Help”, and many others. It is such a wonderful and beautiful show. If you’re ever in Vegas, go see this show. It’s kind of like attending a Beatles concert, but there’s a circus act to interpret the music.
After the show, we had dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen, where we split a roasted chicken pizza that was really good. We went to the gift shop of the LOVE show after dinner and I picked up a souvenir program. We left the Mirage to head back to the room, where we watched some of “Talledaga Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” starring Will Ferrell.
DAY 3 – Monday

Today was a very active day. We had some breakfast in our room and left shortly after to do some site seeing. We went back to the Mirage to see the White Tiger Habitat. There was only one out but she was beautiful. I took some pictures and filmed her roaming around with a piece of paper stuck in her mouth.
After spending a couple of minutes admiring the tiger, we headed over to the Venetian to go to Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. This is a must see if you guys are ever in Vegas. The wax figures are just identical to the celebrities. You enter in one room and there is Captain Jack Sparrow from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. The room is then filled with all of these movie stars, like Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster. The next room was a room where you can marry George Clooney. The wax figure, however, didn’t look identical to George. The next room was devoted to sports figures, like Tiger Woods and Shaq. The following room was musicians, where you can meet Madonna, Britney Spears, Jimmy Hendrix, etc. After that was the room that housed old Hollywood, like Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, etc. Before leaving that room, you take a souvenir picture with Elvis, where if you hold his hand, he talks to you. The next room was a Nascar room with Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhart. The next room was called the Spirit of America, where you can meet, JFK and Jackie, Abe Lincoln, George Washington, Ben Franklin, Martin Luther King, George W. Bush, and even Princess Diana, along with Buzz Aldren and Neil Armstrong. Then, you are led into the gift shop at the end of the tour.
We headed over to Caesar’s Palace to tour around the Forum Shops, where you can see names like Louis Vuitton, Versace, Prada, etc. We found a show with moving fountains that was pretty cool. It was about Atlantis and his children fighting over who will take over when their father steps down. It was pretty cool. After touring Caesars, I was starting to get hungry. I suggested going to Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grille at Harrah’s. So, we had an early dinner that was really good! After dinner, we headed back to the room to finish watching Ricky Bobby. Rob had to go to bed early because he was getting up early to take the Police Test with Vegas. So, having an early dinner worked out well for us.

Day 4 – Tuesday

While Rob was taking the written test for the police department, I did some laundry and watched TV. When he got back, we had some lunch. We had to go to the food store to pick up some toilet paper and other little things. Today was just a lazy day. We had an Italian dinner at the Regale Italian Restaurant at Excalibur. Rob had to go to bed early because he was getting up early to take the physical test for the Police department.

Day 5 – Wednesday

When I got up, I did some laundry and watched TV while I waited for Rob to call me to tell me how he did with the physical. He came back to the room close to 9 AM to tell me that he failed the physical and would have to come back in March. He laid down to rest and I watched some more TV and did some more laundry. It was so much like being at home, but only with a bigger kitchen that has a dish washer and I don’t have to go far to do laundry.
When Rob got up, we had lunch and got ready to go out. We went over to the Tropicana hotel to check out the Titanic exhibit. It has real artifacts from the wreck site and also recreations of the grand stair case and the promenade deck where the temperature was pretty chilly. It gave you the feeling of what that terrible night was like. In one room, they have a model of what the ship looks like now at the bottom of the Atlantic. It was pretty eerie to see that sight. Then, another room has this big block of ice where you can touch it to see just how cold the water was on that night. It is a pretty impressive tour and worth seeing if you’re into the story of the Titanic.
We left and went over to MGM to see the Lion Habitat. The lions are just so cute! They came out and already were play fighting. I got a lot of it on film. It was just so adorable.
We went back to the room to decide what to do for dinner. When we got back to the room, we looked through the magazines to decide where to go for dinner. Rob picked a place at the Mirage called Kahunaville. We got dressed and headed over to the Mirage. It was almost 6 when we got there. At the Mirage, they have a volcano that goes off at the top of the hour starting at 6. So, we waited and watched the volcano go off. I filmed it while Rob took pictures. After that, we went inside to have dinner. Kahunaville made me feel like I was at O’Hanas. It’s Hawaiian themed and the food was really good. They have dancing fountains in the place.
After dinner, we headed over to Treasure Island to see the Sirens at TI. It’s a pirate show that’s for free that takes place in front of the hotel. If you ever saw “Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous”, there’s a whole scene that’s devoted to this attraction. We got there about 45 minutes before the first show and we had a really good spot. Rob took pictures while I filmed the show. The show is about these female pirates that get a hold of a male pirate and hold him for ransom while his fellow pirates shoot canons at the females to make them give him back. It’s a really cool show that leads a ship sinking, explosions going off and fireworks at the end. It’s about 25 minutes long. After the show, we went back to the Mirage to get the car to go back to the room.

Day 6- Thursday

Today was going to be another active day. We decided to take the trolley to the strip instead of the car. The trolley is supposed to run every 30 minutes. The trolley was late, about 15 minutes to be exact. When we got on the trolley, we learned that it was going to take us to Mandalay Bay, where there you would have to get on another trolley to take you up the strip. We were heading to New York New York to get some lunch at a place called America, where it has a huge map of the U.S. hanging over your head. After lunch, we headed to the M & M World store to pick up some souvenirs. Before we left for Vegas, I asked my nieces what they wanted from Vegas as a present. They asked me what they have and I told them about the M & M store. My niece Frances told me she wanted a pin and my niece Nora told me she wanted Skittles. I didn’t expect to find Skittles in the store when we got there and sure enough, there they were!! I said, “Oh my God! They have skittles!” We figured the skittles would cost more than if we went to any ol’ store to pick them up. I picked up two pins for them and these little beanie baby teddy bears that are the color of their birthstone as gifts. In the store, they have a 3-D show called “I Lost My ‘M’ in Vegas” starring red and yellow. It is a cute 10 minute show that is worth checking out.
After the M & M store, we went back to Toby Keith’s to pick up a souvenir for one of Rob’s friends who’s a Toby Keith fan and who’s birthday just pasted. We took the monorail back to the MGM Grand to head over to Mandalay Bay to catch the trolley. We made reservations earlier in the day to have dinner at the Top of the World restaurant at the Stratosphere for 9 PM. We wanted to head back to our room in good time to shower and change for dinner. When we got to Mandalay Bay, it was 5:15. In theory, the trolley should be coming in 15 minutes. It showed up at 5:45 and it was going north to the strip. When we asked when our trolley was coming, the driver said in 25 minutes. We were upset by this because it is supposed to run every half hour. At 6:10, our trolley showed. Because of the route that the trolley has to go to get back to the Grandview, it took us about 45 minutes to get there. So, in grand total, it took us almost 2 hours to get back to our room. Never again will we take that trolley. We showered and got dressed for dinner. We left at 8 PM and got to the Stratosphere at 8:20. We checked in and went to the lounge area where we waited for our table to be ready. We both had a martini while we waited. I had a Key Lime Pie martini and Rob had a dessert martini.
We had a nice table that gave us a good view of Las Vegas. This restaurant rotates so you can see all of Vegas while you eat. It was pretty impressive. We had such a nice dinner while we were there. We also got our pictures taken and bought the pictures. It reminded me of Chef Mickey’s because the pictures were pretty much shoved in our faces so you felt obligated to buy them. They did come out beautiful though. We got this book with two different pictures of us and a wallet with our individual pictures for $55. It’s really nice.
After dinner, we went to the inside observation deck so I could take pictures. After I took some pictures, and saw that my batteries were starting to die, we left the Stratosphere to go back to our room. I pretty much crashed because I was falling asleep at the table while waiting for dinner to come to us.


DAY 7 – Friday

Friday was a lazy day. We slept in, thought I don’t know if you can count sleeping in at 9:30 AM. But, I guess it can when it was 12:30 PM at home. I made breakfast and did laundry. We had scheduled massages at the Hooters Hotel and Casino for 4 PM. Rob had some things he need to take care of on the computer. So we went to the lobby to use the free wi-fi internet service so he can do whatever he had to do.
Later, we went to the local outlet mall where we did some shopping. We went into a Reebok store where Rob bought two pairs of sneakers and I got a free pair. I also got a fleece, which would just so happen to come in handy on Saturday. We left the mall to go back to the room to drop off our bags. Our car didn’t have a trunk and we didn’t want to leave the bags in plain view while we were getting our massages. Plus, we were told that Hooters Hotel and Casino has a high auto theft rate. We didn’t want to take any chances with that.
After we dropped off our bags, we headed to Hooters to get our massages. I got a Swedish massage while Rob got a sports massage. My massage was great. I had a lot of tight muscles in my shoulders. I told the masseuse to work on my left calf because I felt a cramp in it during the flight to Vegas. She did a really good job of working all the kinks out of my body. I felt so refreshed and like brand new when I was done with my massage.
We left Hooters to go back to our room to shower. We had a hard time picking a place to go out to eat. We didn’t want to get dressed up for dinner because we did that two nights in a row. We just wanted to relax. So, we went to the House of Blues in Mandalay Bay for dinner. The food was really good there. We visited the one in Disney World and enjoyed it there. That’s what made us decide to go to the House of Blues.
We went back to the room to watch a movie. I had “Beerfest” with me but for some reason, the DVD player wouldn’t read it. So, instead, we watched “Wedding Crashers.” Rob recently bought the uncorked edition and we watched about a good hour of the movie before it was midnight. Rob also made nachos that turned out really good. We went to bed after we cleaned up the nacho mess we made.

DAY 8 – Saturday (Departing Vegas)

I woke up with butterflies in my stomach. I didn’t want to go home. I enjoyed myself so much in our timeshare and being in Vegas. I was sad that it was our last day. We got up at 8:15 and I immediately started packing. Rob took care of last minute laundry while I packed. We were done cleaning up the place and packing by 9:30, which was highly unusual for us because Rob tends to slack off when it gets close to check out time.
We checked out and store our luggage at the Grandview while we went out for the day. Rob asked me what hotels we haven’t visited yet. I started spitting out names: Paris Las Vegas, Bally’s, The Bellagio. When I said the Bellagio, Rob was surprised by that. “We didn’t see the Bellagio yet?” So, we parked the car at Hooters, where we picked up a souvenir for a friend and went to MGM to go on the monorail. We got on the monorail and stopped at Bally’s. We toured through Bally’s for a while. We learned that Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas are connected. So, we didn’t have to go outside in the cold to get to Paris. Oh yeah. The weather for this particular day was like Jersey weather. It was about 40 degree with a wind chill that made it feel like it was at least 35. Yet, back at home in Jersey, the temperature for the day was 49. How can that be? We joked all day today and yesterday about the fact that we were in Las Vegas and how it was colder here than it was at home.
While touring through Paris Las Vegas, we bought tickets to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Both of us forgot how cold it was outside. When we got to the top, it was at least 28 degrees. That fleece that I bought yesterday really came in handy. I took a lot of quick pictures so we can leave. It was so beautiful from the top of the Eiffel Tower. The Bellagio fountains went off and played Elvis’ “Viva Las Vegas.”
We left the Eiffel Tower and Paris Las Vegas with intentions of going to the Bellagio next. We were waiting at the corner to cross the street when Rob noticed the Aladdin hotel behind us. He asked me if we visited there, I told him no and we went inside. We toured around for a bit and then found a map of restaurants to get lunch. I picked a place called Blondie’s because of the name and the description of the food: burgers, sandwiches, etc. When we found Blondie’s, there was a line of people waiting to get in. One guy behind us said out loud that there was a 1 hour and 30 minute wait to get inside. There were a lot of tables outside the restaurant that was empty and we were puzzled as to why the hostess wasn’t seating people outside. I went up to the counter to ask if there was a wait to sit outside. The hostess said 10 to 15 minutes. I told Rob that and we left. There was no reason for a 10 to 15 minute wait to be seated outside the restaurant when there were plenty of empty tables. The hostess and waitresses were dressed as cheerleaders so I think the costumes affected their thinking.
We had lunch at a cheeseburger place that was really good. It was all Hawaiian themed and we were seated immediately. After lunch, we toured the Aladdin for a little bit when we came across this little pond with signs next to it saying that it rains every half hour on the weekends. We were just in time to see it rain inside the Hotel. It was pretty cool. There were even thunder sound effects to go with the rain.
We left the Aladdin to finally visit the Bellagio. It is such a beautiful hotel. We didn’t stay in it too long because there wasn’t a lot to see after we passed the lobby. We started to make our way back to Paris when Rob spotted the Deuce bus and suggested on taking the bus instead of the monorail. We hopped on and headed over to Hooters.
It was sometime after 3 when we got there. We went into the gift shop to pick up more souvenirs. Then, we still had time to play some slots. They have machine where you can break your bills for smaller ones. Rob broke a twenty and gave me $10 in singles and a 5. I played a Star Wars slot machine and was immediately losing interest when I was losing. It was a 1 cent machine so it was no big deal but after pushing the button a lot of time and not winning, I was starting to get bored. So, I cashed out and found another game. I ended up, in the end, playing $4 in slots and winning back $2. So, I still lost $2 but it was nice to win back 2 out of the 4 I lost. Rob played more than I did. He thought it was funny how I got bored with the slots so fast. I don’t know how to play cards so I wasn’t going to attempt to go near those tables.
It was just after 4 PM when we had to go back to the Grandview to pick up our bags and head for the airport. We returned the car and got to our terminal in a timely fashion. We were amazed to see how dead it was in the Jetblue check in terminal. We checked in our bags and got through security about 10 minutes later. It was just about 6 when we got to our gate. Our flight was at 7:35 to Long Beach and then leave Long Beach at 9:45 and arrive in JFK at 5:46 AM. I grabbed a sandwich to eat while we were in Vegas. During the flight to Long Beach, I took a 45 minute nap. That’s how long the flight was. We had a 35 minute layover in Long Beach. When we were about to take off, the pilot said our travel time was 4 hours and 20 minutes. He was going to get us home earlier, which he did. We landed in JFK at 5:15 instead of 5:46. I slept the whole way home. My knees hurt from the position I was in but at least my neck wasn’t sore. I had my neck pillow.
We got our luggage after we landed and headed for the air train. We got to the car and left JFK sometime after 6 AM. We got home at 7 AM and went to bed at 8. And that’s the end of our second trip to Vegas.

[tragic312]

don't worry. pictures are coming soon. i'm uploading them to shutterfly as we speak and they're taking forever!

[tragic312]

here are the pictures:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...m5aNEC&notag=1

[dixie]

Tragic- wonderful TR and the photos are awesome- we stayed at the Bellagio and your pictures brought back wonderful memories thanks for sharing

[WishUponAStar]

I just looked at all of them, very cool! i think there was a hidden mickey in the "Billy Idol" picture from the wax museum!! your timeshare place looks very roomy and nice! Oh, and I saw your LAMB for LeSportsac bag on the counter, very cute... I collected that whole first collection

[tragic312]

Originally Posted by WishUponAStar

Oh, and I saw your LAMB for LeSportsac bag on the counter, very cute... I collected that whole first collection

thanks wish. i love that purse. i've had it for so long. i don't use it during the school semesters because i need more things to carry and that bag is not big enough to hold everything. i saw someone at the airport with a bigger version of my bag. i was so excited to see another LAMB fan.