Las Vegas trip report.

Old Jun 24th, 2005, 07:13 PM
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Las Vegas trip report.

I flew out for our company's convention and had a great time. I did not have much personal time, but I thought I would post a few observations about my trip. This will be my first trip report.

Monday we flew out @ 6am in the morning, and had an almost 4 hour layover at Philly. I was pleased that we left on time and our US Air flight was fine.

We had shuttles from our company standing by to get to the hotels. The guys in our party were staying at the Luxor, we girls at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay.

Our room was gorgeous!!! We stayed at Mandalay Bay last year, and I guess I did not realize that we weren't staying in the same place. The Hotel room had a half bath to the right as you walked into the room. You walked into a spacious room, with a nice desk, chair and fax machine, couch, comfy chair, to end tables, framed asian inspired artwork ,and a huge entertainment center with a large flat screen plasma tv. Nice.

Oh, ya, forgot about the bar, sink and frige.

Open door and walk into bedroom with two beds with nice padded headboards, a large mirrored and wood piece, with a large tv, slightly smaller than the living area, flanked by two double door closets for clothing, drawers in the middle, robes, slippers and ample space and plenty of hangers.

The bathroom was spacious, nice size glass shower, large deep tub, double sink, and seperated toilet area. Small flat screen tv and phone in bath.

The decor was neutral, but not boring. The couch a grey-green with a pop of orange pillows for color. I opened up the curtains to expose the floor to ceiling windows and let in the Vegas lights and view.

The decor in the lobby and in The Hotel was sort of art decoish? It was nice, softly lit with thin strips of black, soft and elegant. Big vases on tables through the hallway filled with large calla-lillies. Very clean lines.
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Old Jun 24th, 2005, 07:34 PM
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The guys thought that their room at the Luxor was nice (I never did get to see it) until they picked us up to head out for the night. They said, "We did not know that we were slumming until we came here. Not fair!" (same price) It took them nano seconds to find a sports event on our tv.

We had to drag them out of there to register for our convention. We did a bunch of work stuff, we ate the food that our company had provided us through the hotel. The food has always been good. Which I think is pretty impressive, since they have to feed 6000 people.

They have a opening night party, so we spent most of our time with the entertainment and things that they provided.

I had to stop at Border Grill for one margarita. They are the best on the planet! We walked around the hotel, and they gambled, I watched. We actually went to sleep pretty early we all had to be up at 6am to do business stuff.

They arranged for us to see a special show of the Blue Man Group. It was good, but I am glad that it was free, and I did not have to pay $100 for a ticket. ( I thought Mystere was worth that price) The show was different.

They actually tailored a few things to be relevant to our company. That was neat.

After a day of working, free night!

We had not left Mandalay Bay for the entire day and a half, but must have walked for miles. It took a half an hour to walk from the convention floor to The Luxor to see the Blue Man Group.

When you walk anywhere allow plenty of time! It was weird to walk that much and never even go outside!

The tram that connects Mandalay Bay , Luxor, and Excaliber is free and very convienent.

We took it and walked over the bridge to NY NY and one of the girls and one of the guys picked up these large frozen drinks at Coyote Ugly. They were 14$ each. Refills, $9. We ended up taking the monorail and going to Caesars Palace and the Forum shops.
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Old Jun 24th, 2005, 07:50 PM
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Again, the hotel is just so huge and there are so many shops there. Alot of nice highend designers and I was like a kid in a candy store. I managed to behave myself and only stick to my mission. Penhaligons for Violetta perfume and Bluebell, and one of there leather items. My splurge!

We had left our companions in the casino. They said that we were gone for an hour and ten minutes. I thought it was 45 minutes. I did not dally and we walked quickly. It is amazing how huge these hotels are.

We walked through the Bellagio and watched the fountains for a while. Went through MGM and saw a huge lion that was acting like a pussycat with the two guys that were in his cage.

We ate at the Bayside Buffet? at Mandalay Bay. We waited almost a half an hour to be seated. We got there at approx 7pm.

The server was very nice. He was running his butt off he had a lot of tables and it was busy.

The buffet had king crab legs, dungoness
crab legs, nice size peel and eat shrimp, steamed mussles, clams, fried shrimp, scallops, a pasta station, grilled meats, carved meats, duck, and chinese dishes as well.

The dessert table had german chocolate cake, eclairs, cream puffs, chocolate mousse, carrot cake, pies........

The price was almost $25.00. Everything
I ate was good.



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Old Jun 24th, 2005, 08:04 PM
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Our flight was early on thursday morning and I am not sure why I bothered to go to sleep. I had to be up at 4am for a 6am flight, so I slept for an hour and 45 minutes.

The flight home was fine. Until I got to Philly. I had accumulated a lot of things from thr convention and had to check the small suitcase I brought. I am a light packer and if I would have brought the larger carry on I would have been okay. But no, had to check it. All of my fellow managers know I never do that because I lost luggage never to be seen or heard from again

Our layover was 4 hours it turned into three hours passed that. With no info from US Air, and we ended uo changing gates three times. Not that anyone ever gave us any info! There were a lot of people really annoyed. When we got to the last gate and hopefully asked if one of the three planes out there was on, we were told that we were bothering her and "it's a parking lot out there right now, we are very busy" Gee, thanks, well I am very tired and would like to go home sometime. Geepers.

Well we finally got home, almost 3 hours late. I go to the baggage claim and all my friend's luggage comes out. But not, you guessed it, mine!

I waited around today until 3pm until I got it. I am just greatful that I got my luggage back this time.

Thanks to Jbee and BigJim for the discussion on buffets and where to get good crab legs!
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Old Jun 26th, 2005, 09:57 AM
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I pulled out my convention stuff and found my info from Mandalay Bay and THEhotel at Mandalay Bay. Before I tossed it I thought I would give some specifics about what THEhotel and Mandalay had to offer.

THEhotel suites are 750 square feet, and have a wet bar and a 42" screen plasma TV. It says that they are the largest standard rooms in Vegas. It was certainly very comfortable, nicely decorated.

Bathrooms were marble and granite, with seperate shower and tub.

There are high speed internet connections and fax machines in every room.

Food/restaurants/lounges:

the cafe
the lounge
VIP lounge
MIX restaurant and lounge (I think that this is Alain Ducasse's restaurant. I did not see the inside from THEhotel only the outside. I am told that it was gorgeous, innovative food and expensive
by one of our collegues)


Mandalay Bay has At least 23 restaurants
16 shops, 8 entertainment and lounges, spa, pool and salon, as well as 41 unique boutiques and dining in Mandalay Place.

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Old Jun 26th, 2005, 01:02 PM
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You've put a lot of effort into writing this here, so I just wanted to say thanks for the very informative trip report! At least one person has been reading the whole thing and enjoying it.

And isn't wonderful to know that you're "bothering" the people at the airport when you are simply asking them to do their job!?!?! Customer service includes assisting customers who have questions when their flight is horribly delayed, even if you are really busy at the moment.
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Old Jun 26th, 2005, 04:41 PM
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Thanks jlm_mi, it's nice to know that it was read and enjoyed by one person anyway.

I think it was an even more rude awakening after the great service at the hotel and convention center, and the great people from my company helping and teaching us to improve our service.

I can tell you I am really going to avoid Philly and US Air when I have the choice.
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Old Jun 26th, 2005, 04:45 PM
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Hi dsm!
Glad you had such a good time in Vegas..and that you liked your hotel. Did you go to the Aquarium in Mandalay Bay? It is very nice.
I love Penhaligons, my favorites are Lily of the Valley and the Foaming Lavender Bath Oil
Thanks for posting
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Old Jun 26th, 2005, 04:55 PM
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Hi Scarlett! How goes the packing?

Would you believe that I have been there twice and have not had enough time to see the aquarium?

The one day I went down in the morning (i was up early) but it did not open until 10am, I think. (while I was there I seemed to be on east coast time. Up at 5 AM. Now that I was home I seem to be more on Vegas time.)

It is really hard when you are there and you have to do work, I'll tell you that!

I do manage to behave myself. They pretty much track you to make sure that you get all your work done. Maybe someday I will get to go just for fun.

I like Lilly of the Valley also. I usually buy Crabtree and Evelyn's though. Smells lovely but less expensive than Penhaligons.
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Old Jun 26th, 2005, 04:59 PM
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I have trained family members to get me certain things when they cannot think of what to get, Penhaligons is a great gift
Yes, I am packing and packing and .... LOL
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Old Jun 26th, 2005, 05:07 PM
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Scarlett, can husbands be trained this way? If so, can I please sign up for one of your seminars??
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Old Jun 26th, 2005, 07:27 PM
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LOL, what a super idea, a seminar for husband on how to shop for gifts!

although I have to say, the Yankee impressed me when I met him with his gifting ability..maybe he should give the seminar

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Old Jun 27th, 2005, 11:16 PM
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dsm22 - glad you enjoyed Vegas and the Mandalay Bay and the buffet! Just to let you know, we just returned from Vegas too and I think we discovered another outstanding buffet....at the new Wynn Hotel. VERY good!! And very good crab legs too!! Prices are about the same as Bellagio.

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Old Jun 28th, 2005, 02:25 PM
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Next convention is 2007 for us. But I have a friend going out at the end of the week, I will let her know about Wynn.


I have never seen someone eat more crab than tw of the people that I was with. I think they must have went up 6 times.

They were quite happy.
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Old Jun 29th, 2005, 07:37 AM
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Nice trip report dsm22!

Having never stayed at Mandalay Bay I found this to be very informative. Thanks for sharing!

AL
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