Cass & Rob do Vegas, Disney style! :) Trip Report with pics!

[Timon]

So I started to write a pre-trip report on my website

(you can read it and see pics here: http://cassworld.ca/vegas08.htm)

but decided to post the actual report on the DIS because it’s so much easier to add/edit/post the photos in the forums.

Ok, let’s get started!

Day 1 October 13th, 2008

Unlike when we go to Disney, I was actually able to get some sleep the night before we left! Got to bed around midnight and was awakened by my alarm at 4 AM. When I went to bed, I almost forgot to set the alarm. I haven’t used an alarm clock since Kira was born almost 2 years ago, I almost forgot how to set it LOL!

Showered and got ready, packed the last of my stuff while Rob did the same. My sister picked us up at 5:30 and off to the airport we went!

Yay, vacation time!!

We had checked-in online the day before so we got into the line to drop off our bags. There was a long line to get through the US Customs Pre-clearance area but we made it through with no problems and although we were still in Calgary, we were technically in the USA now!

Still looks like Canada to me

Rob was trembling by this time and he desperately needed some Tim Horton’s coffee. Unfortunately, they don’t offer bagels at the airport location so I just skipped breakfast. Rob got a donut and muffin and his coffee and was all happy again.

Rob and his addiction...

We had an uneventful 2 hour flight to Las Vegas and landed just after 10 AM. I wasn’t expecting to land in Terminal 1 as our airline is still listed as being in Terminal 2. So after a very long trek to the luggage belt, we still waited about 20 minutes before any luggage even came down.

The traditional airplane self portrait

Let the de-icing begin!

Buh bye Calgary!

Hello Lost Wages!

Oh look, the Hoover Dam! Can you see Megatron??

Been here for 5 whole minutes and he's working already!

Grabbed our bags and headed outside for the shuttle to the Car Rental place. They’ve moved all the car rental places to one off-site area now, which is rather convenient actually. Found the Dollar area and skipped the counter and went straight to the garage booth since we are Fastbreak members. It took awhile but eventually we had our papers in hand and were told to wait at the line for the guy to show us to our car. I had booked a “Lock low and go” rate which means we would get at least an intermediate vehicle. The guy took our papers, said “Ahhh a wild card!!” and looked around to what few vehicles he had left. He said to me “This doesn’t happen often, but go ahead and pick one of those Pacifica’s”, to which I replied…”Cool! What’s a Pacifica?” He smirked and told me it’s an SUV. Ok, so we head off in the direction of two sort-of SUV-looking vehicles and pick the red one.

Did the once-over to check for dings and scratches and off we went! A right, a right and a right and we were on the strip!

Look, a Pacifica!

Welcome to Las Vegas, please leave your paycheque with guest services when you check in, thank you, thank you very much!

This is where we really wanted to stay...

But this is where we stayed..

Proceeded to the Luxor and got us checked-in. Our room was ready but we were STARVING so we went to the Food Court to get some Nathan’s. The fries were amazing as always but the hot dog was gross!! The bun was so stale, it was falling apart. Now it’s not often that I find a hot dog that I don’t like but this was just not edible! Good thing I filled up on fries LOL!

On our way out, Rob grabbed an ice cream. I took one lick (usually my limit as I am not an ice cream girl) and then asked him where his was!! It was soooo good!! We devoured it together while waiting in line to get our Players Club cards.

Nathan's foodage

Do you see the ickiness??

Back off buster, it's all mine!!!

Finally we grabbed our luggage from the car and headed to the East Tower to find our room. I had requested an airport view, and we got it. Well, it was a partial airport view but we could see planes land and take off all day long so we were happy. The room, which was a Player Deluxe Room was awesome! It had a 42” Plasma screen TV, a nice little work area with internet, a mini-bar area with a little fridge and the comfiest BED I have ever slept on!!!!!!! And the best pillows ever to boot!!!

Room photos...

This is MY bed. MINE all MINE I say!!!

After unpacking all our junk we would be using for the next 6 days, we decided to do some touring. The Mandalay Bay was being built the last time we were in Vegas so I was anxious to finally see it. I had really wanted to stay here but the rooms were still $249/night just before we left and that was just too pricey for us!

There is a lovely walkway between the Luxor and MB called Mandalay Place which is filled with shops and restaurants. We nicknamed it the wind tunnel as we got blasted with 30 mph winds each time we entered it. I meant to get a picture of my hair blowing in the wind but I never did.

As we descended the escalators into MB, I fell in love….with the smell! OMG, it smelled gooooood in here!

You see, I’m a smell girl, as Rob likes to call me. I never thought of myself as having a sensitive nose but I like me a good smell!!! I often remember things from their smell. Good and bad. It’s one of my least favourite things about going to Disney World, you come across a lot of really stinky people. In Vegas, however, you come across a lot of good smelling people. For me, what turns my head is not a good looking chap, but rather a good smelling one! I still remember walking into the Tropicana the very first time ten years ago, I was walking past a very well dressed gentleman who was getting into his car. He wasn’t particularly good looking, but he smelled fabulous!!!!!! While my body continued to walk away, my nose lingered a few extra seconds just so I could smell him. LOL!


Continued in the next post....

 

[Timon]

Ahem…where were we? Oh yeah…Mandalay Bay!!

So not only did I love the smell of this place but I liked everything about it! I loved the décor, the casino, the shops.

Walking down what I would call restaurant row, I was totally awestruck! I came across a restaurant named China Grill. Now I don’t like Chinese Food and after reading the posted menu, I would probably never eat here but it was the most beautiful restaurant I have ever seen! Not only was the outside amazing but you could see right through into the inside and it was glorious! Everyone has their own tastes and for me, China Grill was made for moi! Outside, there are these two amazing fountains filled with these little twinkle lights sculpture-things. I know. I’m not very apt at explaining them, which is why I took about 60 photos of them! So, you already know that I am a smell girl, what you don’t know yet is that I am a twinkle light girl too! I am a huge sucker for any lights that twinkle. I know. Easy to please, right? Actually, no but gimme a good smell and some twinkle lights and I am all set!! So, there I was sitting outside this restaurant that wasn’t even open (at least it didn’t look like anyone was in there) listening to the beautiful waterfalls and watching these amazing lights. Sigh.

Me likey here!

My glorious twinkle light sculpture thingies! That's the technical term!

Good thing I have a very patient husband! Ok, so he was checking his mail on his blackberry in front of the steak place while I stalked the China Grill.

Moving on, we passed more shops and places to eat while I admired amazing chandeliers and just soaked it all up.

Next time, we stay here. Period.

We walked all the way to the Shark Reef, (I don’t even like fish, so I am not paying $17 each to go look at them!) and then we walked back into the lobby area. I popped into a store and made my first purchase of the trip…a shirt that says I heart Mandalay Bay! Oh boy, do I ever heart MB!!!


I got me a tee shirt!

Just gorgeous!

We explored until there was nothing left to explore and then hesitantly hopped on the monorail to Excalibur.

This is where we got married.

Really?

Are you sure?

It was yucky.

Not what we remembered, that’s for sure!

Pretty much if you smoked, smelled bad, acted rude and were completely intoxicated, this was the place to come!

We snuck upstairs real quick to see if we could get a picture of us at the Chapel but there was no one there so we did a quick self-portrait and got the hell out of Dodge!!


Let's just tell everyone we got married at the Mandalay Bay, ok hun?

We walked back to Luxor and decided we needed some sustenance so we found the deli and split a club sandwich. This is where we got our first taste of just how expensive things were going to be.

Now, this is a DELI, not a sit down restaurant, no fancy-schmancy place with hoity-toity waiters to serve you…just a counter service deli. So I look at the menu and see the Turkey Club for $10.95!! Ok, well at least that comes with fries. Right?

No?

What about a drink?

No?

Does it comes with bread??

Ooooh THAT was included!!! YAY!!!

So, with ONE turkey club sandwich, one fruit salad and two of the teeniest tiniest waters I have ever seen, the total for this little “snack” was $27!!!

Ummm…I may need to sell a kidney to pay for food for the next 5 days!

What irks me is that it wasn’t even that good. It was dry like the Vegas desert, the fruit wasn’t all that fresh and I polished off my water in two big gulps!

He's smiling because he hasn't tasted it yet LOL!

Dis was a whittle dwhy!!

Back to the room we went.

While we were getting ready, Rob logged onto MSN and started a video call to our little princess. It was so awesome! We got to see and hear her every day on the webcam. She was doing really well with her auntie and uncle and was having lots of fun! I was so glad we did this, it really gave us a nice little boost that we needed everyday. Thanks Auntie Heaver! We both missed her a lot! A lot more than I even thought!

So, all high from our Kira fix, we got all purty and left early for the Wynn. We had tickets for Le Reve and I was looking forward to seeing it!


There's ma princess!!!!

All clean and purty!

Good thing we left early because it took forever to get to the Wynn!

I snapped this picture on the way….

The reason being…

The night Rob and I met (back in 1996) there was a hypnotist at the bar that we were at. We actually met online on a local BBS, anyone remember those? This was before chatting on the internet was popular. Anyways, every Wednesday this BBS had meets at a local bar and despite my insistence that I would never actually attend one of those meets, one March night, for some reason that I still can’t understand, I decided at the very last minute to attend one of those meets. Rob was the second person that I met that night. Later that night, Rob was one of the volunteers for the hypnotist show. He apparently is a prime candidate (read fresh meat lol!) to be hypnotized. It was quite hilarious actually. I personally would NEVER volunteer for that but it was fun to watch.

Where am I going with this, you ask?

Well, the dude in that photo is the guy who hypnotized Rob! His name is Anthony Cools and now has his own show at Paris!! It’s pretty funny because this guy actually started out as a DJ in that bar when I was 16 (yes, I was a very bad girl sneaking into the bars underage, shhhh don’t tell anyone! ) and then decided to do some shows at the bar and now he is on the Las Vegas strip!

Personally, I think the dude is a tool so there’s no way I would go see his show but I thought it was appropriate him being there in Vegas for our 10th anniversary!




Continued in the next post....

 

[Timon]

So, we made it to the Wynn in a record time of 30 minutes and decided to valet the car since I had me on some high heels that were already killing me and well, it’s free. Gotta love free valet, right?

I hope we Wynn!!

From all the great reviews I have read about this place, I really thought I was gonna love this place. Yeah, don’t believe everything you read people! It reminded me way too much of the Bellagio, which I loathe. It was a tad better than Bellagio but not much. It was very hoity-toity and even though we were dressed up, I still felt like the poor relations that really don’t belong.

The theatre area was gorgeous!

We explored as much as my achy feet let me and then went in search of the theatre. We had some time to kill so Rob found the little coffee shop and dropped $17 bucks on a coffee, small fruit cup and a chocolate croissant. Rob almost spewed when he tasted the coffee, the croissant was not too good and the fruit was decently fresh. Hmmm, still trying to find some good food in Vegas.

Drugstore Cafe snacks

Finally it was time for our first show of the trip. The theatre was gorgeous!! Very intimate with only 12 rows of seats. We were in the very first row, what they call the Splash Zone. No worries, we only got a few drops of water on us the entire time and being that close was awesome!!!!

Hard to get a decent picture of the theatre.

I absolutely loved this show. I wish I had a dollar for every time the word WOW came out of my mouth (cus then I could lose all of it at the slots too! LOL more on that later!). I asked Rob what he thought and he said “Ehh”. Rob and I have very different tastes in everything. Usually if I like something, he doesn’t and vice-versa. If I find something funny, he doesn’t. I think one thing, he thinks another. We are so black and white, sometimes I wonder how we are so damn happy still after 13 years but it works for us so I am not complaining

There were only two things I didn’t like about the show. First was the soundtrack they played while waiting for the show to start. It was looping every minute or so and it got real old real fast! After 30 minutes, it was darn right annoying. The other thing I didn’t enjoy was the creepy looking baby-kid-thing in the bubble that warned you to turn off all cell phones and pagers. Just weird and just plain wrong!!

We were planning on going to the dinner buffet at the Wynn but I just wasn’t feeling this place and my feet were killing me. Who the heck invented high heels anyway??? GOTTA be a guy!!

So we went in search of the valet pick-up area, which became a running game/joke the whole trip. Some hotels have it down to a science and some just suck at it! You would think that the Wynn, being so dang pricey and new would be one of the best run valets around, right? Wrong, think again! We followed the sign that pointed to the valet, went outside and looked around. No signs, no valets around. Nothing.

Ok.

Is this a game??? Guess where the people who hold the keys to your vehicle are!!! We went right and hoped we would find something. Oh…there was a line of people…looks hopeful…no signs. These people could be lining up to get their shoes shined, who knows???? Up pulls a taxi…ahhhh the taxi line. Keep walking….keep walking…hmm there is a little booth on the right…no signs….walk up to the window, peer inside and slide our valet stub under the glass window with great hope and wonder. Houston, we have liftoff!!! They didn’t give us a weird look and they said it would be a few minutes so we assumed it was the right place. Not that you would know that of course, considering there are NO signs.

So there we sat, waiting for the car. Waiting and waiting. Finally, a red Pacifica with a bent license plate (that’s how I recognized it as our vehicle for the next 5 days!) pulled up! Slip the dude a few bucks and back to the Luxor we go!

Changed into a t-shirt, shorts and Crocs and off we went in search of some sustenance.

A little aside, if you will.

Let’s talk Crocs for a moment.

Unlike Disney, where the shoe du jour is the Croc, I only witnessed one other person wearing Crocs the entire week! Have these casino-going gamblers not heard of the glorious comfort contained in the Croc?

I was getting looks all week long after people saw my chosen footwear. They were not looks of adornment either. They were more like “What the HECK are you wearing on your feet????” kind of looks.

Now I admit that I used to be one of those people. When Crocs first came out, I was like excuse me?? Those are the ugliest things I have ever seen and I am so not ever wearing them! It took me years after they came out to even try them on! But once they went on my feet, they never came off. At least by the time I started wearing them, they had come out with some decent colours. I don’t think I could ever wear those bright orange, green and pink ones. I own two pair, the light blue ones and the light pink ones. Ugly? Yes. Shockingly ugly? Not so much.

I like them because, well they are super comfy but also because my feet can breathe in them. I am almost always hot. If I wear socks, my feet sweat and I feel like passing out. The only time you will find me in socks is if it’s -30º C outside and I have to! Even then, I am grumpy about it. I own 6 pairs of socks and they are all Disney socks. I bought them in 1999 and they still look brand new.

So, Crocs are my new best friend. She’s an ugly best friend that is very much misunderstood but she’s still my friend. So, let them stare!! My feet may look ugly, but I can walk all day long in them, either in WDW or on the Strip and my feet still feel good. Go ahead, limp away in those clogs ladies…I’ll take my Crocs, thanks!

So comfy again, we walked over to Mandalay Bay and decided to try Raffles Café. I ask for a booth, like I always do and she took us to a half booth, half table thing. I wasn’t happy. I asked if they had a whole booth available and she said no and left. She’s lucky that I don’t have a certain power that I have wanted to possess for a very long time now. The power of zapping people. It’s something I have yearned for since I was about 16 when people really started to pi$$ me off. Just a nice little strong “zzzzzzzzttt” is what some people need. Just enough voltage to make them think twice about being a jerk the next time. It’s all I want. Is that really too much to ask for???

Fine.

Whatever.

Zzzzzztttt.

So, there we were at this half-booth table, not too happy but as soon as we sat down, I started to laugh. The table was so long, it was almost ridiculous! It felt like those really long tables you see in movies, you know, the ones that rich people own. The kind where you need a megaphone to actually converse with your dinner mate.

Can you hear me now? This photo just doesn't do that table justice LOL!

So, we made the best of it and ordered.

Crap. I almost forgot we were in the States. All they have down here is brewed iced tea. Yes, I know you can add some sugar but it’s just not the same. I like my Nestea Iced Tea. The Canadian kind. It’s my least favourite part of traveling to the US of A. What to drink then??? Hmmm, I only drink iced tea and milk. I used to drink Diet-coke by the gallon ( that is totally Rob’s fault!) but I gave that stuff up about 6 years ago. I can’t drink the regular stuff though, too sweet for me. So, I ordered a diet-coke. Sorry, make that a diet-Pepsi. Blech.

Funnily enough, by the end of the week, after drinking it for 6 days, I was craving it! I got home, had some iced tea and thought…dang, I wish I had a diet-coke!!

I ordered a burger and Rob ordered the waffle.

You could tell Rob was really tired by this point in time. When he got his waffle, he smirked at it and said “Oh look, a W!!!”

I laughed so hard, I almost spewed my diet-choke all over my burger!!

Ummm…babe…we are in the Mandalay Bay, I am pretty sure that it’s an M, not a W. LOL!

He looked at it again, turned it upside down and said “Oh” LOL!

The Waffle LOL!

I devoured my burger and fries, it was soooo good! Finally, some decent food!!

Yum-o!

**Edited to add that this meal was $30 + tip!**

Rob was about to pass out in his Waffle, so he went back to the room and checked his mail and went to bed.

I decided that it was time I did some gambling.

Unfortunately, I was too tired and too chicken to try my hand at the blackjack tables. So, I ended up losing a whole bunch of 20’s in the slot machines.

Little did I know that this was the beginning of a very loooong losing streak.

I suck.

Step away Cass, step away.

And so I did and back to the room just in time to say good-night to Rob.

Pull back the covers and melt into that glorious, heavenly bed!

 

[A fat english gent]

Just one or two observations dear.....

Hotel looks Great,how much was it?...

Is the self portrait in the room of Rob optional?....Hopefully they'd be times when i wouldn't necessarily want Rob looking over at me....

The Buttie looks Yummy (their i said it)...

Wow Only in Las Vegas can they have flying saucers flying about the resort....

Why you refused to send Kira abroad to further her learning of the English language is beyond me...

Loving the honesty as always Cass....

 

[oybolshoi]

Great start Cass and you look fabulous!!!

We love love loved Mandalay Bay when we stayed there in April ... just keep an eye on their website because they offer some great deals - we got our room for $175 per night.

Sorry about some of your bad food ... the prices were insane, weren't they?

Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

 

[captchris]

Wow great trip report. I have always enjoyed reading your trippies, so detailed and great picture to go along with it!

I will look forward to days 2-7.

 

[Timon]

Just one or two observations dear.....

Hotel looks Great,how much was it?...

About $135/night. Friday was a little higher not much though.

Is the self portrait in the room of Rob optional?....Hopefully they'd be times when i wouldn't necessarily want Rob looking over at me....

LOL, Yeah...tell me about it! Actually, I am a loner girl. As much as I love the man, I NEED my time alone! I was glad to have more than one room when we got home

The Buttie looks Yummy (their i said it)...

You get bonus points here every time you use that word

Wow Only in Las Vegas can they have flying saucers flying about the resort....

You have no idea

Why you refused to send Kira abroad to further her learning of the English language is beyond me...

That's a little too far for my liking

Loving the honesty as always Cass....

Thanks for reading hun! A few comments above in red

Great start Cass and you look fabulous!!!

We love love loved Mandalay Bay when we stayed there in April ... just keep an eye on their website because they offer some great deals - we got our room for $175 per night.

Sorry about some of your bad food ... the prices were insane, weren't they?

Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Thanks Bendy I don't think Rob will be going back anytime soon. At the end of the trip he said "I'm good for another 10 years" That's ok, he can stay here and I will go back to Mandalay Bay for a gambling week-end

Wow great trip report. I have always enjoyed reading your trippies, so detailed and great picture to go along with it!

I will look forward to days 2-7.

Thanks Chris, glad to have you on board. There's tons of stuff to do in Vegas, you don't have to gamble to enjoy it. It's a very unique town, nothing else like it anywhere

 

[MissMichelle]

Lovin it Cass...I have never had a desire to go to Vegas--until recently..and your report isn't helping--the MB looks gorgeous!! Sorry to hear about all the crappy food though--hope you found some good fare later on...
Can't wait to read more

 

[GOS]

Not sure if this is the best place for this report since this is a DISNEY Trip report board but since we are “Disney” people and often make references to Disney in this report, I thought I would post it here anyway. It’s completely G-rated even though we were in the City of Sin. The only other place I thought I could put this was the Community Board, but this board is filled with Trip Report lovin’ DISers, so if the mods would be so kind as to leave it here, I would be so grateful!

Loving it so far Cass. I agree with you about the wind tunnel to MB. You're room looked great. A lot more comfortable than the slopping roof in the pyramid rooms.

 

[GOS]

All clean and purty!

Wow,you both look so good. You've lost so much weight Cass.

 

[Walt & Di]

TImon dresses up NICE..yes, I am flirting

What Food Touching.. That was from Mike in his absence....

Excellent Report

Walt

 

[captchris]

I don't like my food touching either! I also eat things separately. I guess I am weird!

 

[Timon]

Loving it so far Cass. I agree with you about the wind tunnel to MB. You're room looked great. A lot more comfortable than the slopping roof in the pyramid rooms.

Yeah, it was a nice room, WAY better than those slanted things! I am so glad we stayed in the Tower!

Wow,you both look so good. You've lost so much weight Cass.

Thanks Heather. Actually, I weigh the same now as I did on the KK1 cruise. I was retarted and gained 21 pounds after I came home, so I have spent the last 5 months getting rid of the 21 pounds. Now I have 25 more to lose before the BOB cruise

TImon dresses up NICE..yes, I am flirting

What Food Touching.. That was from Mike in his absence....

Excellent Report

Walt

Thanks hun

Yeah, Mikey not gonna likey this report. I like my food touching I sure hope they are having a blast on their cruise right now

 

[Timon]

I don't like my food touching either! I also eat things separately. I guess I am weird!

Hahaha, another one!! Well, you've joined the right group. I think there are 5 or 6 BOBers who don't like their food touching. Maybe you guys can have your own DIS meet onboard. Get it specially catered...ALL separate plates!!

I will be your photographer!

 

[Timon]

Lovin it Cass...I have never had a desire to go to Vegas--until recently..and your report isn't helping--the MB looks gorgeous!! Sorry to hear about all the crappy food though--hope you found some good fare later on...
Can't wait to read more

Thanks MissMichelle.

I'm working on day two right now, should be up in the next hour or so, just gotta go through my pics

 

[OhMari]

Sorry, but I have to move this to the Community Board. The OP has been notified.

Great pictures.

 

[LittleBlue22]

I love your TRs! Hooray!

 

[Nagle]

We were actually in Vegas from the 12th to the 15th. Spent the first night at South Point and then the next two nights at THEHotel at Mandalay Bay. Then we went to Sedona for three nights. Had a great time.

John

 

[bettyann29]

Cass.. Im so glad I came across this TR.. I love reading your TR's..

You and Rob are looking so great.. Parenthood definitely fits you guys.. I saw the pictures of Kira on the dresser.. its obvious how blessed you guys are..

Great 1st day.. Cant wait to hear about the rest of your trip.. Me and DH havent been to LV, but it is definitely on our to do list..

Keep it coming!

 

[Jillpie]

omg, I found a Cass and Rob report, with chocolate croissants to boot!! You just made my night, seriously. Cass, you are not going to believe this, but my husband was there on business last week, at the same time! His conference was at the MGM Grand, from the 12th to the 16th. He loved the hotel, but hated the casinos, it was too smoky smelling for him, not his cup of tea. He thought the hotels were very cool though. He was too beat to do anything at night, the conference took everything out of him. I hated him being gone! I'll die if I see him in any of your pictures! Oh I can't wait for more, please don't make us wait!