My first trip to Vegas, all grown up and stuff
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Last weekend was a good weekend. I hadn’t visited Vegas after I turned gambling age. In fact, I don’t think I’ve been there since high school, so it was awesome to go this time with Kelvin… and for free! Yay for company trips! If you just want to know how well we did money-wise, Kelvin summarized our trip in craps winnings. If you want to hear a long, rambling description of our trip with pictures, well, read on.
Friday
Got up early (early being like 7:30AM) and got to the airport to catch 9:45AM flight. The security line in Terminal A was insanely long, going through the terminal and out into the parking garage. It was longer than right after 9-11. Everyone made their flight (there were 46 people from Kelvin’s company’s group on this flight), and while the shaky descent into Las Vegas made me nauseous, we made it into McCarran Airport a-okay. Spiffy ghetto-fabulous limos took us to our hotel, with half the group riding in an extra long white van, with the rest of us riding in an extra long pick-up truck.
We were dropped off in some obscure underground location only used for buses and limos underneath the Venetian. We were staying at the adjacent Palazzo, which is currently the newest casino on the The Strip (but it seems like it’s just an extension of the Venetian). We walked over and checked in, but we were given a room with two queen beds instead of a single king like we requested, which was disappointing. Also disappointing was that the other employees were spread all over the hotel. We were on floor 21, while others we talked to were on floors 10, 19, 38, and 41, just as a sample. I guess the rooms weren’t booked early enough to get a block?
Palazzo advertises that all their rooms are suites, and I have to admit our room was pretty nice. We weren’t fortunate enough to get a view of the strip; instead, we got a lovely view of Wynn’s golf course. I think a room is a “suite” when it has a living room area, which our room had. The suite had a total of 3 different TVs: 1 in the living area, bedroom area, and in the bathroom. And apparently nicer rooms yield less perks, like no HBO and no free internet. Instead, we get fancy remote control operated window shades (which was pretty awesome) and a bathroom scale (which let me know I gained a little more than 2 lbs. over the course of the weekend).
After getting our luggage settled, we met up with the some of Kelvin’s coworkers for lunch. Unable to figure out what we wanted, we wandered around the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian. The fake sky ceiling makes it look remarkably similar to the mall at Caesar’s Palace. We eventually settled for lunch at Postrio. Postrio had several ball-shaped appetizers that looked really good, but I unfortunately didn’t get any. I got their linguine with clams, which was delicious (loved the chili flakes added for zest). Kelvin seemed to enjoy his chicken fettuccine alfredo as well. We got gelato from a store nearby, but it wasn’t very good (the gelato place in downtown Mountain View is MUCH better) and way overpriced (like $6 for a scoop of ONE flavor). Lunch was over, and we parted ways with our fellow diners.
Ted had told me about Coke World before I left for Vegas, where you can try 16 different kinds of Coke, so Kelvin and I began our trek there as it sounded enticing to me. Passing through the Venetian casino area, I tried some slots so I could officially legally gamble for the first time in my life. I think I lost all of the $1 or $5 I spent. We left the Venetian to walk towards Coke World (by MGM Grand). We were greeted with scorching sun, immediately becoming dehydrated and in Kelvin’s case, sunburnt. Yeah, I kinda forgot to buy a bottle of water before leaving the Venetian, which was pretty stupid. And of course, there was no obvious place to buy water as we headed south. We stopped by Harrah’s, where I played more slots and turn $5 into $16, which was nice. Since we were in the area, we wandered around Imperial Palace, searching for the Bank of America ATM that Google Maps said was located there. Apparently the Google Maps location is totally misleading; we finally looked at the address to find out it was located in the Caesar shops across the street. Lame. Then we crossed the street, wandered around Caesar’s Palace, and found the ATM in the middle of the mall. We further wandered around the mall, trying to find an exit and ending up on the wrong end of Caesar’s Palace, causing us to be even further away from Coke World. It was still freaking hot, and at this point, we decided that this whole walking business really sucks, so we’ll just turn around and go to Coke World tomorrow. We walked past The Mirage and checked out Treasure Island (which is retardedly called TI now), then crossed the street back to Venetian.
We still had a few hours until a company cocktail reception, so Kelvin stopped to play his favorite gambling game, craps. We hung around the craps table for a while, hoping to get a waitress to come by and give us drinks since we were dying of thirst. Nobody came until Kelvin was up $50 or so. Then I didn’t want to leave until she came back and gave us water, which unfortunately led to Kelvin become $55 under, making the waters rather expensive. We left with the loss and water and took a nap in our hotel room until the cocktail reception.
At the cocktail reception, we got our free giant stack of $5 bills and Monorail passes for the next day. Drink options were somewhat limited, and Kelvin wasn’t happy with the bartender calling him a “girly” when he tried to order me a Blue Hawaiian. Not being social butterflies, we left to go get dinner. We originally wanted to go to Cut, but it turned out to be really expensive (we should have figured that out when we were 10x under dressed for the place) and required reservations. Instead we went to Noodle Asia, a Chinese restaurant with expectedly overpriced menu items. I was immediately sold on the place when I saw beef noodles on the menu; Kelvin got BBQ pork and duck on rice. Surprisingly enough, the food was very good! My beef noodles tasted yummy and was pretty authentic, and Kelvin’s BBQ dish was neat and not overly greasy. My only critique is that my beef noodles didn’t have bok choy (which I personally feel should be required in all beef noodles), but for some reason Kelvin’s dish had bok choy, so he just gave me his. We got authentically bad service, barely ever seeing our waiter, and the restaurant had a high percentage of Asian people, so I know we weren’t the only ones who thought it was good.
I really love that everything in Las Vegas closes late (or just doesn’t close). Unfortunately, Kelvin and I are old people now, so I think we just went to our hotel room after dinner. After washing all the stinky smoke off our bodies (I really missed Nazi California’s anti-indoor-smoking laws while in Vegas), we watched TV in bed until we passed out.
Saturday
We were hoping to get up early so we could look for low minimum craps tables, but the best we could do was 10AM. We made it downstairs to the Palazzo casino area, looking for cheaper crap tables. Unfortunately, even before noon, the smallest minimum is $10. We found a table, and Kelvin made his bets. I got to shoot for him, and as it turns out, I was having a good morning. After rolling points, it would take a while for me to crap out, and I kept rolling 4s and 10s. By the time I crapped out on my last run, Kelvin turned our $300 to $710. We also happened to have a great dealer for that table, so that along with the other patrons at the table, it was a pretty good experience.
We went over to Harrah’s to catch a ride on the Monorail. We somehow got lost on the way and took this horribly long roundabout way to the stop that included walking outside in same random alleyways and parking garages. On the Monorail, we headed to our lunch destination, the Hilton. Or more specifically, the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton. Or even more specifically, Quark’s Bar & Restaurant at the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton. There, we were greeted by a Borg, and since we were early, we checked out the store.
When it was time for lunch, we were taken to “The Captain’s Lounge”, which is just a room upstairs for private functions. The company had also gotten the entire bar area, so I think half of the folks were upstairs and the rest were downstairs. I was disappointed the lunch buffet we were getting didn’t include any of the fun stuff on the restaurant menu, but this was quickly made up by the fact that everything was so freaking good. I wish I had eaten less pasta and more prime rib. Mmmm… prime rib. Here, we were given our free tickets to the Star Trek Experience, which is a small museum with two simulator rides. We were also given souvenir cups (one Federation and one Klingon… I think a third purple option was Ferengi) and t-shirts. *Edited cuz Kelvin made me :P*
When we were done stuffing ourselves, it was time to experience Star Trek! The museum itself is okay, basically a long hallway with pictures and text talking about the history of Star Trek. There were also window displays of random memorabilia, props, and costumes. We didn’t pay much attention to these; we just wanted to ride the rides. First we checked out Borg Invasion 4D, which is basically a 3D movie experience with weird glasses and everything. The second ride was Klingon Encounter, a simulator ride in a shuttle craft. Both rides were really fun, as live actors were part of both experiences. They acted their parts very well, never leaving their role while leading the audience to the main attractions and improvising with any hecklers. The only problem I had with these attractions was the Klingon Experience made me SO NAUSEOUS. I love simulator rides, but I didn’t realize one could make me sick until I rode this one. I had to sit down for 15 minutes after the ride so I wouldn’t puke out my prime rib. I am SO glad I rode Klingon Encounter after Borg Invasion. Anyone else going to the Star Trek Experience should keep that in mind. Overall though, I did enjoy my Star Trek Experience.
Originally, I had wanted to go to Circus Circus after the Hilton. (Yes, I know it’s ghetto, but what kid didn’t grow up on the Midway?) We rode the Monorail to the north end, realized it was still a long walk to Circus Circus, and decided to just miss it this time around. Instead, we stayed on the Monorail and went to the south end, where the line stops at MGM Grand. We walked through the casino and headed to Coke World. Once again, we were blasted by the desert sun, but we eventually made it. The second floor is where they have Coke-serving bars, and here you can do their “Tastes of the World”, where you sample 16 sodas for $7. I was disappointed it wasn’t 16 different kinds of Coca-Colas and instead was mostly a weird variety of fruity drinks; I guess I’ll have to go to Atlanta for the different Coca-Colas. The Beverly from Italy was disgusting. The Aquarius Citrus from Taiwan was basically Pocari Sweat. I rather liked the Kinley Lemon and Krest Ginger Ale (I think) from Israel. Kelvin liked Kin Cider from Ireland best. The cups are deceiving in size, as there was way too much soda for two people. I managed to maybe finish 3 or 4 cups after tasting all of them. Like many folks around us trying the same thing, most of it ended up being tossed. It’s still a cool thing to try at least once. Afterwards, we bought several souvenirs (only place we bought souvenirs at the entire trip), including a visor so I wouldn’t die walking around.
We went back to the MGM Grand where Kelvin had seen a $5 craps table. Kelvin managed to get up another $100, and we left to Excalibur to check out its midway since we didn’t go to Circus Circus. After being disappointed with its somewhat lame midway (in comparison to Circus Circus anyway), we walked over to New York New York, where we were supposed to meet some coworkers later. We waited an eternity for a crappy hot dog to snack on from one of the shops in the food court. We met with said coworkers and had dinner at a American-Chinese restaurant called Chin Chin. I wasn’t excited about this at first, but thankfully, the overpriced generic American Chinese dishes were actually pretty good.
After dinner, our group walked back to the MGM Grand, where we were seeing Ka, a Cirque du Soleil show. It was decent, but I didn’t think it was as great as other people around me seemed to think. Ka is known for its emphasis on narrative, and I think as a result, they sacrifice a bit in the acrobatics and stunts and… circus stuff that I like to see. Maybe all Cirque du Soleil shows are like this, but Kelvin saw a different Cirque du Soleil show before and felt the same way as I did about Ka. He was surprised with the amount of cables used. The Asian-ish theme and martial arts performances made it sort of a live action wire fu show. We were pretty close, but way off to the side, and I was a little annoyed with how some elements really suffered at a side view (i.e. the scene “The Deep”). But the show still had its awesome parts. The coolest thing was definitely the stage. What you would think is the stage is just a giant pit; the real stage is a giant rotating platform that pops out of the giant pit. It’s a mechanical wonder, rotating very quickly in certain scenes and turning to be fully upright (great for human pachinko!). As a result, the same stage is a beach and a mountain. I loved the “this rope tied around my wrist is the only thing keeping me from dying” acrobatics, though having the glittering Tarzan guy who was just wearing a thong swing around above you was kinda… distracting. The guys jogging in life-size hamster wheels were pretty cool too, and I enjoyed the rocky ship swinging acrobats off to their watery deaths. The show ended with some sort of weird vertical battle and an explosion I totally didn’t understand (but messed up my vision for like 5 minutes). The show wasn’t the best thing ever, but it was still pretty good. btw, if you check out this show, keep in mind that they are UBER serious about their no camera policy.
After Ka, we were pretty pooped again. And like old people, we went back to our hotels to pass out in front of the TV again.
Sunday
On the way back to our hotel the night before, we passed by a casino called Casino Royale offering 100x odds with a $5 minimum, but the tables were totally packed. We got up this morning to make sure to hit it while it wouldn’t be busy. We checked out and put our luggage in storage, then we headed out. Somehow, SOMEHOW, we managed to get lost on the way there, trying to find the bridge thingy that exits the Venetian in that direction. We ended up looping through the Grand Canal shops before leaving through an inefficient exit. Honestly, I don’t know get how we do it.
We made it to Casino Royale, and we were the only ones at the craps table, with the exception of one guy who popped in for a little bit. The dealers were a bunch of old guys. They were friendly, but they were sticklers to craps rules. Kelvin had said before that dealers at some of the cheaper casinos have a cow when your dice don’t hit the back wall. I didn’t know what he was talking about, as the Venetian, MGM Grand, and Palazzo dealers never cared. But the old fellas here did, which made me nervous. My nervousness caused me to touch the dice with both hands, which the dealers also had a cow about. And what’s worse, my rolls here were the complete opposite of yesterday. We lost $300 almost instantly. We weren’t even betting 100x odds, I think at most $30 a bet. I seemed to constantly crap immediately after rolling a point. Considering how short our play time was and how unfun it was, we left really disheartened.
We went back to the Venetian for lunch, but it was still early. I gave Kelvin the $200 from my wallet so he could play some more craps. Thankfully, there was a lady at the table who was rolling well, and we got $105 back. We also had another good dealer. Kelvin and the guy next to me were making some noob-ish moves, and while I wouldn’t call the dealer super nice, he was very patient and good at explaining. There was something about him that was very assuring. The atmosphere at the table was good, too, with the one lady rolling well. While we didn’t win back all we lost from Casino Royale, the amount we did got back plus the pleasant environment was a better note to leave Vegas on. I really like the social environment of craps, since everybody wins and loses together. And if you roll well, everyone gives you credit for being a great roller. If you roll poorly, well, it’s not your fault cuz it’s just random dice. People from all over support each other at the craps table, which I think it’s neat, even though it’s all kind of silly when you think about it. I mean, you’re just rolling dice.
We ate lunch at The Grand Lux Cafe, a restaurant chain by the folks who made Cheesecake Factory. It is a lot like Cheesecake Factory, except it’s open 24 hours. We had some yummy steaks and great service from a guy who reminded us of the nice waiter we see at Al’s all the time. I wasted more money on slots (after a couple decent breaks in the beginning, I pretty much lost nonstop since Saturday… stupid slots). At this point, we were out of small bills for me to waste, and we didn’t want to break any of our big bills from the craps wins (or risk it in more craps). We were pretty much done with Vegas. It was about an hour before our shuttle, so we went to pick up our luggage at luggage services.
At the luggage services desk, we handed them our ticket and waited. And waited. We watched the luggage guys cart and carry out countless bags, none of which were ours. We thought there was a long queue and they were just taking a long time with all the luggage, but then at the almost half hour mark we recognized a coworker who gave them a ticket, waited a few minutes, and got their luggage. With a reference, we asked about our single bag. The lady at the counter said the ticket was gone, so someone must be getting it now. We waited a little more, and the lady also began to wonder where our bag went. She went in the back to find the person with our ticket, but no one had our ticket. She randomly got a luggage boy and told Kelvin to go with him to look for the bag. And then I waited even longer until a huge group from Kelvin’s company came and received their luggage as well. I think they noticed how worried I look, cuz they may have waited for us a little bit. But the shuttle time was coming up, so they eventually left. Eventually, the shuttle time of 1:45PM came, and about 5 minutes later, Kelvin popped out with our bag. After searching the entire main luggage room, the parking overflow area, and some hidden mystery luggage room, Kelvin finally noticed our bag near the entrance of the main luggage room, almost completely concealed by other luggage from falling off a pile. Where did our original ticket go? Nobody knows. Calling to make sure the shuttle was still there, we sprinted across the Palazzo casino area and Venetian conference room hallway to reach our shuttle in time. I spent the entire ride, fuming about how incompetent the Palazzo is. I might have to write a letter and complain about that one.
Thankfully, our flight home was fairly smooth and ended up being 25 minutes early, so I didn’t come home grumpy. After dropping our stuff off at home, we caught up on internet stuff, had dinner at Bucca di Beppo at Oakridge, and went to watch The Forbidden Kingdom. (Jackie Chan vs. Jet Li = fists full of awesome.) Aside from a few snags, the weekend was pretty nice. We even netted positive! 2.5 days wasn’t enough tho, and I know from the past 9 days is too much, so I think next time we’ll have to go 4 or 5 days. Kelvin and I are even debating on maybe having our bachelor/bachelorette party there. Hah, we’ll see.
Edited to add: I forgot to mention that I was never once carded. I’m officially old :(
New thing I learned today: It is considered bad luck if rolled dice hits hands. If they fly out of the table, it’s bad luck to catch them, and they’re safe to be picked up once they hit the floor. Mentioning “seven” after a point is considered bad luck.
It’s good luck for first time females to shoot the dice, but not first time males. It’s bad luck to be the first at a craps table since the dice are “cold”. This actually kinda explains our craps results a bit.
Last weekend was a good weekend. I hadn’t visited Vegas after I turned gambling age. In fact, I don’t think I’ve been there since high school, so it was awesome to go this time with Kelvin… and for free! Yay for company trips! If you just want to know how well we did money-wise, Kelvin summarized our trip in craps winnings. If you want to hear a long, rambling description of our trip with pictures, well, read on.
Friday
Got up early (early being like 7:30AM) and got to the airport to catch 9:45AM flight. The security line in Terminal A was insanely long, going through the terminal and out into the parking garage. It was longer than right after 9-11. Everyone made their flight (there were 46 people from Kelvin’s company’s group on this flight), and while the shaky descent into Las Vegas made me nauseous, we made it into McCarran Airport a-okay. Spiffy ghetto-fabulous limos took us to our hotel, with half the group riding in an extra long white van, with the rest of us riding in an extra long pick-up truck.
We were dropped off in some obscure underground location only used for buses and limos underneath the Venetian. We were staying at the adjacent Palazzo, which is currently the newest casino on the The Strip (but it seems like it’s just an extension of the Venetian). We walked over and checked in, but we were given a room with two queen beds instead of a single king like we requested, which was disappointing. Also disappointing was that the other employees were spread all over the hotel. We were on floor 21, while others we talked to were on floors 10, 19, 38, and 41, just as a sample. I guess the rooms weren’t booked early enough to get a block?
Palazzo advertises that all their rooms are suites, and I have to admit our room was pretty nice. We weren’t fortunate enough to get a view of the strip; instead, we got a lovely view of Wynn’s golf course. I think a room is a “suite” when it has a living room area, which our room had. The suite had a total of 3 different TVs: 1 in the living area, bedroom area, and in the bathroom. And apparently nicer rooms yield less perks, like no HBO and no free internet. Instead, we get fancy remote control operated window shades (which was pretty awesome) and a bathroom scale (which let me know I gained a little more than 2 lbs. over the course of the weekend).
After getting our luggage settled, we met up with the some of Kelvin’s coworkers for lunch. Unable to figure out what we wanted, we wandered around the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian. The fake sky ceiling makes it look remarkably similar to the mall at Caesar’s Palace. We eventually settled for lunch at Postrio. Postrio had several ball-shaped appetizers that looked really good, but I unfortunately didn’t get any. I got their linguine with clams, which was delicious (loved the chili flakes added for zest). Kelvin seemed to enjoy his chicken fettuccine alfredo as well. We got gelato from a store nearby, but it wasn’t very good (the gelato place in downtown Mountain View is MUCH better) and way overpriced (like $6 for a scoop of ONE flavor). Lunch was over, and we parted ways with our fellow diners.
Ted had told me about Coke World before I left for Vegas, where you can try 16 different kinds of Coke, so Kelvin and I began our trek there as it sounded enticing to me. Passing through the Venetian casino area, I tried some slots so I could officially legally gamble for the first time in my life. I think I lost all of the $1 or $5 I spent. We left the Venetian to walk towards Coke World (by MGM Grand). We were greeted with scorching sun, immediately becoming dehydrated and in Kelvin’s case, sunburnt. Yeah, I kinda forgot to buy a bottle of water before leaving the Venetian, which was pretty stupid. And of course, there was no obvious place to buy water as we headed south. We stopped by Harrah’s, where I played more slots and turn $5 into $16, which was nice. Since we were in the area, we wandered around Imperial Palace, searching for the Bank of America ATM that Google Maps said was located there. Apparently the Google Maps location is totally misleading; we finally looked at the address to find out it was located in the Caesar shops across the street. Lame. Then we crossed the street, wandered around Caesar’s Palace, and found the ATM in the middle of the mall. We further wandered around the mall, trying to find an exit and ending up on the wrong end of Caesar’s Palace, causing us to be even further away from Coke World. It was still freaking hot, and at this point, we decided that this whole walking business really sucks, so we’ll just turn around and go to Coke World tomorrow. We walked past The Mirage and checked out Treasure Island (which is retardedly called TI now), then crossed the street back to Venetian.
We still had a few hours until a company cocktail reception, so Kelvin stopped to play his favorite gambling game, craps. We hung around the craps table for a while, hoping to get a waitress to come by and give us drinks since we were dying of thirst. Nobody came until Kelvin was up $50 or so. Then I didn’t want to leave until she came back and gave us water, which unfortunately led to Kelvin become $55 under, making the waters rather expensive. We left with the loss and water and took a nap in our hotel room until the cocktail reception.
At the cocktail reception, we got our free giant stack of $5 bills and Monorail passes for the next day. Drink options were somewhat limited, and Kelvin wasn’t happy with the bartender calling him a “girly” when he tried to order me a Blue Hawaiian. Not being social butterflies, we left to go get dinner. We originally wanted to go to Cut, but it turned out to be really expensive (we should have figured that out when we were 10x under dressed for the place) and required reservations. Instead we went to Noodle Asia, a Chinese restaurant with expectedly overpriced menu items. I was immediately sold on the place when I saw beef noodles on the menu; Kelvin got BBQ pork and duck on rice. Surprisingly enough, the food was very good! My beef noodles tasted yummy and was pretty authentic, and Kelvin’s BBQ dish was neat and not overly greasy. My only critique is that my beef noodles didn’t have bok choy (which I personally feel should be required in all beef noodles), but for some reason Kelvin’s dish had bok choy, so he just gave me his. We got authentically bad service, barely ever seeing our waiter, and the restaurant had a high percentage of Asian people, so I know we weren’t the only ones who thought it was good.
I really love that everything in Las Vegas closes late (or just doesn’t close). Unfortunately, Kelvin and I are old people now, so I think we just went to our hotel room after dinner. After washing all the stinky smoke off our bodies (I really missed Nazi California’s anti-indoor-smoking laws while in Vegas), we watched TV in bed until we passed out.
Saturday
We were hoping to get up early so we could look for low minimum craps tables, but the best we could do was 10AM. We made it downstairs to the Palazzo casino area, looking for cheaper crap tables. Unfortunately, even before noon, the smallest minimum is $10. We found a table, and Kelvin made his bets. I got to shoot for him, and as it turns out, I was having a good morning. After rolling points, it would take a while for me to crap out, and I kept rolling 4s and 10s. By the time I crapped out on my last run, Kelvin turned our $300 to $710. We also happened to have a great dealer for that table, so that along with the other patrons at the table, it was a pretty good experience.
We went over to Harrah’s to catch a ride on the Monorail. We somehow got lost on the way and took this horribly long roundabout way to the stop that included walking outside in same random alleyways and parking garages. On the Monorail, we headed to our lunch destination, the Hilton. Or more specifically, the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton. Or even more specifically, Quark’s Bar & Restaurant at the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton. There, we were greeted by a Borg, and since we were early, we checked out the store.
When it was time for lunch, we were taken to “The Captain’s Lounge”, which is just a room upstairs for private functions. The company had also gotten the entire bar area, so I think half of the folks were upstairs and the rest were downstairs. I was disappointed the lunch buffet we were getting didn’t include any of the fun stuff on the restaurant menu, but this was quickly made up by the fact that everything was so freaking good. I wish I had eaten less pasta and more prime rib. Mmmm… prime rib. Here, we were given our free tickets to the Star Trek Experience, which is a small museum with two simulator rides. We were also given souvenir cups (one Federation and one Klingon… I think a third purple option was Ferengi) and t-shirts. *Edited cuz Kelvin made me :P*
When we were done stuffing ourselves, it was time to experience Star Trek! The museum itself is okay, basically a long hallway with pictures and text talking about the history of Star Trek. There were also window displays of random memorabilia, props, and costumes. We didn’t pay much attention to these; we just wanted to ride the rides. First we checked out Borg Invasion 4D, which is basically a 3D movie experience with weird glasses and everything. The second ride was Klingon Encounter, a simulator ride in a shuttle craft. Both rides were really fun, as live actors were part of both experiences. They acted their parts very well, never leaving their role while leading the audience to the main attractions and improvising with any hecklers. The only problem I had with these attractions was the Klingon Experience made me SO NAUSEOUS. I love simulator rides, but I didn’t realize one could make me sick until I rode this one. I had to sit down for 15 minutes after the ride so I wouldn’t puke out my prime rib. I am SO glad I rode Klingon Encounter after Borg Invasion. Anyone else going to the Star Trek Experience should keep that in mind. Overall though, I did enjoy my Star Trek Experience.
Originally, I had wanted to go to Circus Circus after the Hilton. (Yes, I know it’s ghetto, but what kid didn’t grow up on the Midway?) We rode the Monorail to the north end, realized it was still a long walk to Circus Circus, and decided to just miss it this time around. Instead, we stayed on the Monorail and went to the south end, where the line stops at MGM Grand. We walked through the casino and headed to Coke World. Once again, we were blasted by the desert sun, but we eventually made it. The second floor is where they have Coke-serving bars, and here you can do their “Tastes of the World”, where you sample 16 sodas for $7. I was disappointed it wasn’t 16 different kinds of Coca-Colas and instead was mostly a weird variety of fruity drinks; I guess I’ll have to go to Atlanta for the different Coca-Colas. The Beverly from Italy was disgusting. The Aquarius Citrus from Taiwan was basically Pocari Sweat. I rather liked the Kinley Lemon and Krest Ginger Ale (I think) from Israel. Kelvin liked Kin Cider from Ireland best. The cups are deceiving in size, as there was way too much soda for two people. I managed to maybe finish 3 or 4 cups after tasting all of them. Like many folks around us trying the same thing, most of it ended up being tossed. It’s still a cool thing to try at least once. Afterwards, we bought several souvenirs (only place we bought souvenirs at the entire trip), including a visor so I wouldn’t die walking around.
We went back to the MGM Grand where Kelvin had seen a $5 craps table. Kelvin managed to get up another $100, and we left to Excalibur to check out its midway since we didn’t go to Circus Circus. After being disappointed with its somewhat lame midway (in comparison to Circus Circus anyway), we walked over to New York New York, where we were supposed to meet some coworkers later. We waited an eternity for a crappy hot dog to snack on from one of the shops in the food court. We met with said coworkers and had dinner at a American-Chinese restaurant called Chin Chin. I wasn’t excited about this at first, but thankfully, the overpriced generic American Chinese dishes were actually pretty good.
After dinner, our group walked back to the MGM Grand, where we were seeing Ka, a Cirque du Soleil show. It was decent, but I didn’t think it was as great as other people around me seemed to think. Ka is known for its emphasis on narrative, and I think as a result, they sacrifice a bit in the acrobatics and stunts and… circus stuff that I like to see. Maybe all Cirque du Soleil shows are like this, but Kelvin saw a different Cirque du Soleil show before and felt the same way as I did about Ka. He was surprised with the amount of cables used. The Asian-ish theme and martial arts performances made it sort of a live action wire fu show. We were pretty close, but way off to the side, and I was a little annoyed with how some elements really suffered at a side view (i.e. the scene “The Deep”). But the show still had its awesome parts. The coolest thing was definitely the stage. What you would think is the stage is just a giant pit; the real stage is a giant rotating platform that pops out of the giant pit. It’s a mechanical wonder, rotating very quickly in certain scenes and turning to be fully upright (great for human pachinko!). As a result, the same stage is a beach and a mountain. I loved the “this rope tied around my wrist is the only thing keeping me from dying” acrobatics, though having the glittering Tarzan guy who was just wearing a thong swing around above you was kinda… distracting. The guys jogging in life-size hamster wheels were pretty cool too, and I enjoyed the rocky ship swinging acrobats off to their watery deaths. The show ended with some sort of weird vertical battle and an explosion I totally didn’t understand (but messed up my vision for like 5 minutes). The show wasn’t the best thing ever, but it was still pretty good. btw, if you check out this show, keep in mind that they are UBER serious about their no camera policy.
After Ka, we were pretty pooped again. And like old people, we went back to our hotels to pass out in front of the TV again.
Sunday
On the way back to our hotel the night before, we passed by a casino called Casino Royale offering 100x odds with a $5 minimum, but the tables were totally packed. We got up this morning to make sure to hit it while it wouldn’t be busy. We checked out and put our luggage in storage, then we headed out. Somehow, SOMEHOW, we managed to get lost on the way there, trying to find the bridge thingy that exits the Venetian in that direction. We ended up looping through the Grand Canal shops before leaving through an inefficient exit. Honestly, I don’t know get how we do it.
We made it to Casino Royale, and we were the only ones at the craps table, with the exception of one guy who popped in for a little bit. The dealers were a bunch of old guys. They were friendly, but they were sticklers to craps rules. Kelvin had said before that dealers at some of the cheaper casinos have a cow when your dice don’t hit the back wall. I didn’t know what he was talking about, as the Venetian, MGM Grand, and Palazzo dealers never cared. But the old fellas here did, which made me nervous. My nervousness caused me to touch the dice with both hands, which the dealers also had a cow about. And what’s worse, my rolls here were the complete opposite of yesterday. We lost $300 almost instantly. We weren’t even betting 100x odds, I think at most $30 a bet. I seemed to constantly crap immediately after rolling a point. Considering how short our play time was and how unfun it was, we left really disheartened.
We went back to the Venetian for lunch, but it was still early. I gave Kelvin the $200 from my wallet so he could play some more craps. Thankfully, there was a lady at the table who was rolling well, and we got $105 back. We also had another good dealer. Kelvin and the guy next to me were making some noob-ish moves, and while I wouldn’t call the dealer super nice, he was very patient and good at explaining. There was something about him that was very assuring. The atmosphere at the table was good, too, with the one lady rolling well. While we didn’t win back all we lost from Casino Royale, the amount we did got back plus the pleasant environment was a better note to leave Vegas on. I really like the social environment of craps, since everybody wins and loses together. And if you roll well, everyone gives you credit for being a great roller. If you roll poorly, well, it’s not your fault cuz it’s just random dice. People from all over support each other at the craps table, which I think it’s neat, even though it’s all kind of silly when you think about it. I mean, you’re just rolling dice.
We ate lunch at The Grand Lux Cafe, a restaurant chain by the folks who made Cheesecake Factory. It is a lot like Cheesecake Factory, except it’s open 24 hours. We had some yummy steaks and great service from a guy who reminded us of the nice waiter we see at Al’s all the time. I wasted more money on slots (after a couple decent breaks in the beginning, I pretty much lost nonstop since Saturday… stupid slots). At this point, we were out of small bills for me to waste, and we didn’t want to break any of our big bills from the craps wins (or risk it in more craps). We were pretty much done with Vegas. It was about an hour before our shuttle, so we went to pick up our luggage at luggage services.
At the luggage services desk, we handed them our ticket and waited. And waited. We watched the luggage guys cart and carry out countless bags, none of which were ours. We thought there was a long queue and they were just taking a long time with all the luggage, but then at the almost half hour mark we recognized a coworker who gave them a ticket, waited a few minutes, and got their luggage. With a reference, we asked about our single bag. The lady at the counter said the ticket was gone, so someone must be getting it now. We waited a little more, and the lady also began to wonder where our bag went. She went in the back to find the person with our ticket, but no one had our ticket. She randomly got a luggage boy and told Kelvin to go with him to look for the bag. And then I waited even longer until a huge group from Kelvin’s company came and received their luggage as well. I think they noticed how worried I look, cuz they may have waited for us a little bit. But the shuttle time was coming up, so they eventually left. Eventually, the shuttle time of 1:45PM came, and about 5 minutes later, Kelvin popped out with our bag. After searching the entire main luggage room, the parking overflow area, and some hidden mystery luggage room, Kelvin finally noticed our bag near the entrance of the main luggage room, almost completely concealed by other luggage from falling off a pile. Where did our original ticket go? Nobody knows. Calling to make sure the shuttle was still there, we sprinted across the Palazzo casino area and Venetian conference room hallway to reach our shuttle in time. I spent the entire ride, fuming about how incompetent the Palazzo is. I might have to write a letter and complain about that one.
Thankfully, our flight home was fairly smooth and ended up being 25 minutes early, so I didn’t come home grumpy. After dropping our stuff off at home, we caught up on internet stuff, had dinner at Bucca di Beppo at Oakridge, and went to watch The Forbidden Kingdom. (Jackie Chan vs. Jet Li = fists full of awesome.) Aside from a few snags, the weekend was pretty nice. We even netted positive! 2.5 days wasn’t enough tho, and I know from the past 9 days is too much, so I think next time we’ll have to go 4 or 5 days. Kelvin and I are even debating on maybe having our bachelor/bachelorette party there. Hah, we’ll see.
Edited to add: I forgot to mention that I was never once carded. I’m officially old :(
New thing I learned today: It is considered bad luck if rolled dice hits hands. If they fly out of the table, it’s bad luck to catch them, and they’re safe to be picked up once they hit the floor. Mentioning “seven” after a point is considered bad luck.
It’s good luck for first time females to shoot the dice, but not first time males. It’s bad luck to be the first at a craps table since the dice are “cold”. This actually kinda explains our craps results a bit.
