trip report: ';the';/GC/mystere/LA

7/18-7/26: this trip included me, boys 9 %26amp; 16, and my pain-in-the-butt older brother who i thank the heavens had own room. ah, sibling rivalry at its best!

before you berate, email Dr. Phil for relieving your angst about kids in vegas. i saved like $500 on info i rec%26#39;d here so i%26#39;m just passing it on. so email him instead of berating me. he even gives diet tips now! go on. ask him.

coffee, tea or bankruptcy?

bought airline tickets back in april from the we-will-be-bankrupt-any-minute whiners otherwise known as delta. could not resist 99 fare each way (to LAS/from LAX). ontime with good movie unlike movieless airtran at same price and no advanced seating. still, nonstop delta flight was packed like a yellow bus on the second day of school.

vip? me?

checked into THE HOTEL at 630 pm (BTW, taxi drove straight there in like 6 minutes for $9, realized last year was raped by taxi driver drove me through tunnel to mgm for $17). no lines. no drama. got tip here and signed up for their paradise club on MB web site in march and at front desk now learn that i am a VIP just for giving my frigging email address! what! so sign up for their email if you%26#39;re thinking of staying there. rates drop to $149 a night and no extra charges for under 14ers (was tipped off here on that too). i rec%26#39;d fully stocked bar in room (wines, hard boos, 20 or so snacks) plus 8 million varieties of icy cold sodas/juices in refrig, which were complimentary (hard boos/beers in frig were not. but was cheap). you also get 2-4-1s.

dahling, this is absolutely fabulous...

believe the hype. this suite is worth the splurge if price seems high to you. honestly, i%26#39;ve stayed in a crappy ramada for $159/nt in miami that smelled like old seawater at captain d%26#39;s while we watched the roaches dance at our feet. and MB really does smell fresh and clean. and the 2 rooms and 2 baths are bigger than they look in all the pictures online. my 3 tvs worked fine and the tvs in the elevators did too. got nice pool view on 30th floor. ';the housekeeping'; blew sheep though here ... i.e. how about you make up my bed and take out the breakfast plates w/out me having to call at 6 freaking pm and ask you to? ';thehotel'; also forgot to give me ';the 5 am wakeup call'; for grand canyon trip (see below). but suddenly remembered 2 days later and called me at 5 am by mistake! gawd! am curious to know if the MB side is like this or only ';the'; side.

step forward! that%26#39;s a long way down!

read too many crappy tour stories here and finally checked BBB online and only scenic and sundance had clean record with them. also a bus seemed too long. train was 5 hours away from vegas any hoover dam way. self-driving eats the whole day and your spirit. a grand was too high to me for a heli. finally decided on scenic airlines because it was running kids special online, so only paid $625 for 3 flying in/out plus 2 hours at canyon. was very scared in canyon areas with no railing thanks to tourguides%26#39; tales about fallen tourists in the middle of picture taking. had crappy lunch as expected on one of these. but was VERY VERY satisfied with this pkg. was picked up at hotel by large chartered bus at 645 am returned at 230. at GC airport chartered bus then takes you to two stops at rim and gives you 45 min to an hour at each on your own. very informative and entertaining speech by driver in between. on return met fun uk people who did not mind my screaming in plane and praying for jesus during return turbulence. TIP: if you are over 6 ft or 200 lbs, those plane seats will not work for you. be warned. never seen such tiny spaces. still highly rate this experience.

mandalay beach

daily mantra -- hour 1: around and around and around the lazy river. hour 2: wave in and out and in and out and in and out. please believe this is not like wet n wild. (nor is the shark reef like sea world. but go ahead and go after 5 pm for the discount admission.) was not overly crowded to me despite many reviews though we were there M-F. still one woman shared with me her scheme of dropping a towel and useless old paperback on a chair at 730 am then coming back after lunch because that was the only way to survive here. (is this a world crisis? gawd!) then she gave me her chair and all was forgiven. TIP: buy your tubes/rafts before you get there for cheap and save the $20/day rental. they%26#39;ll blow them up for you poolside at the surf shack for free/no attitude.

strat/sahara

kids did ridiculously overpriced rides at dangerous altitudes in strat while i hyperventilated on observation deck. simply too high. but i guess worth being able to tell folks you did it. will say was much much better than the PARIS observation deck. much better. (rate eiffel tower along with gondolas-ok once, though overpriced. the travel channel made me do it!) sahara coaster is shady. runs only every 15 minutes though they do not tell you this until AFTER you have bought the unlimited nonrefundable ride pass. buy 1 ticket, ride once and go on with your life. on the contrary, for NYNY use coupon in ';what%26#39;s on'; book and buy multiple rides at once. you%26#39;ll want to do this one again.

mystere

bought the $75 seats online at the TI site few weeks back. ended up with section 203. absolutely perfect. saw all ground and aerial stuff. it is true, there are no bad seats and we were way in back. i didn%26#39;t believe the 8,000 of you who said it. sorry. was good all-around show. much more interesting than the TV cirques have seen on bravo channel.

the first supper

house of blues: stay away even though in perfect MB location! scarey food AND service. spilled a soda and they let the ice sit there and melt on the table while we waited and waited and waited for food. food wait was ridiculously long in mostly empty restaurant (place looked empty all week, now I know why). food arrived while spilled soda continuted to drain down side of table. needless to say food was barely warm and unflavorful. and i hadn%26#39;t had a carb in like 3 weeks so this should have been hoover dam delicious to me even in the worst of recipes. no tip!

fatburger! skinny fries!

great tip. didn%26#39;t even mind $7.99 price for burger/fry/coke. only place in town to get a frigging coke instead of a pepsi. plus was eerily delicious. almost drug-like euphoria. mmmm. maybe all the yelling is cause of hourly tokes out back???

mandalay bay buffet for breakfast: not delicious though cheapo vegas said it was a runner up. maybe they meant lunch/dinner. do something else for breakfast. even cold cereal and a swig of milk at 7 eleven will outdo this one.

kahunaville @ TI after mystere: make a reservation! crowded. in fact all of TI was packed to the gills whole time we were there. casino: no seating all rows all sections. is that the way it always is in the whole place? food was suspiciously good for cheesy hawaiian atmosphere. plus coupons for drinks on back of mystere tickets. fountain show was good in non-smoking section. smoking section was super rowdy and fun-looking for those of you who enjoy thick marlboro mist and inability to see your dinner date. ah, the memories.

misc ';the hotel'; meals: satisfying enough. room service, cafe, coffee bar. hotel food at hotel prices. no surprise. wish the daily pool visits had not drained so much energy or would have eaten in more exciting places in MB and other places. they looked good. did eat at burger bar in mandalay place. (cute little tv at every booth.) did the burger dessert that we saw on the travel channel. tasted nasty but could not believe we were doing what we saw on tv. the travel channel made me do it!

LA LA LA LA LA (that%26#39;s me singing while spending 800 million hours on da freaking LA freeways): this was a pleasant 4 hour drive from the inner sanctum. i recommend this for east coasters who haven%26#39;t ventured to the OC. left vegas on friday afternoon right when rain arrived so was happy about that. this drive is a piece of cake. make that birthday cake cause it%26#39;s exciting if you don%26#39;t see this kind of scenery every day. no hwy confusion until rancho cucamonga when the traffic sets in and the exits get confusing and locals get irritated by tourists in rental cars. saw santa monica, venice beach, long beach, malibu, hollywood, west hollywood, laurel canyon but NO celebrities. ashamed to admit am disappointed about that. am hurt. drank 50 slurpees to drown sorrows since no 7 eleven in ATL. LA did not live up to the hype but glad i did it once. this is all i will say about LA as this is not their forum. oh yeah, will say their forum is not informative. yawn. 1 bonus: glad did not spend $10 in wynn in vegas for kids to see maseratis as saw 10 of them on rodeo drive and sunset for free.

rental car: almost forgot, did rental car w/ LAS pickup and LAX drop off. someone here tipped me off to keep checking online rental rates and cancel and redo reservation as needed. it went down from $384 for a compact (read egg-sized) on avis to $227 for a fullsize on alamo including $60 drop fee for alt. location. keep checking those rental car rates every week! it%26#39;s true!

every year i say am going to do all the things i missed last time. STILL didn%26#39;t get it all in! perhaps next time when singleparent becomes marriedparent once again!

trip report: ';the';/GC/mystere/LA

AWESOME TR!! *insert clapping and whistling smiley here*

I%26#39;m printing this one out too. My kids are all over 21, but they%26#39;re still teenagers at heart and your suggestions will be put to good use!

trip report: ';the';/GC/mystere/LA

nice and humorous trip report. LOL about the stratosphere experience. After reading about those two girls who got stuck on one of those rides a couple of months I still can%26#39;t understand the ';thrill seekers';. At least everyone had fun and ended up being safe. Did they go on the one that dangles over the edge? Just looking at the pictures on the site scared the living daylights out of me! I don%26#39;t think anyone could pay me to get on that thing.

Fatburger, was just outright delicious-grease and all. Totally agree, it%26#39;s well worth the money.

Heck, if I trusted cabdrivers we would have taken a chance on one of them. Instead we took the showtime shuttle to the excalibur for $25 (3 roundtrip tixs). You sure got taken for a ';ride'; your first time going to the mgm. I guess that%26#39;s the chance you take anytime you take a cab.

glad you had a good time

b: kids did the big shot where they shoot up the middle of the tower and the slow rollercoaster that goes around but has a little safety grate underneath it so i felt better. these 2 are the only ones seemed safe. the other 2 seemed suicidal. watching my children hang off the edge of a building somehow seemed ... uh ... mommie dearest like. afterward though, they said it was windy and scarey. i was surprised how windy it was. i was surprised how scared they said they were.

mmm fatburger. do they have fedex service i wonder.

Lol lol lol loved your review.

Can fully relate to the Strat. We did it at night. That%26#39;s the only way you could EVER get me upto the top floor and onto a ride. It was bad enough trying not to look down when stepping into the retchard car thingy. The view is magnificant though, well worth it in the end because I could come home and brag that I had gone on the coaster ride albeit dark.

We are there in Sept again and taking a 16 and 14 yr old and they%26#39;ll want to do the rides also. One thing you didn%26#39;t say was if you played the slots etc. (unless I missed that part....) and I%26#39;m assuming the kids didn%26#39;t get bored.

I was also annoyed at Vegas mainly serving Pepsi. I bought a six pack and left in in my room. More places on the Northstrip sold coke.

Great report. Just one thing confused me. We%26#39;ve stayed at THEHotel before and we%26#39;ll be staying there next week for 2 nights comped. However in the past when we%26#39;ve paid for the room the soft drinks in the bar/refrig area of the room have never been free. Did you have some sort of special offer for free drinks in the room, or did they comp them at checkout?

singleparent: Thanks for the great report! Thanks also for the tip about signing up for their paradise club.

Quick questions: did they give you an automatic discount at check-in? did you tell them that you were a paradise club member? I%26#39;m staying at TheHotel next week, so I%26#39;m just curious how this works. any info would help!! :)

I%26#39;M HAPPY: the automatic discount is not at check in for the rate. it is booked that way. i booked directly online from the MB web site. for example, once I signed up to receive their emails they cookied me, so everytime i came to the site i saw my email address at the top and something like welcome. then when i was ready to make the reservation online i did it while logged in and the screen kicked me into reservation page that already had my name and email and address formatted into it. so i got the posted rates for members. the 149 rate i did not get because it expired before i replied to it. i got the 169 rate. yes, they have 2 for 1 stuff that varies (2 for 1 spa, 2 for 1 drink, etc.). that part seems to change often. the rates seem to also as i just rec%26#39;d one email from them today. in short, i did not tell them anything at check in or check out, it all was computed when i signed up online.

EVONI: the comp thing on what they called ';the private bar'; in the room was strange to me too because i saw how expensive that stuff was on the little rate card. apparently though this break was part of that online member thing but i did not remember the exact details because i did not print it out before i left and didn%26#39;t think about it too much. in fact on the very last day, my teenager noticed that other people%26#39;s room cards did not say VIP and ours did. and i asked about it. and they said yes, VIP. but everything had been computed in my bill already anyway so it was no big deal. believe me, i am the type of person who brings only a couple of rolls of quarters to gamble so i am assuming i was considered VIP ONLY because i signed up online. it couldn%26#39;t be anything else. it would be illegal for them to be running my credit or something, cause i thought that was it maybe. i also thought maybe it was because i was on MGMs mailing list too. but i stayed there last time booked through expedia. so i doubt that. so it must be the online member thing. so i%26#39;m telling everyone to sign up for it.

READ4FUN: YES PEPSI IS ANNOYING. and i ain%26#39;t just say%26#39;n that cuz i%26#39;m in atlanta, home of coke.

96ers: i am embarassed to say on certain nights i simply fell asleep, still on east coast time. in fact, one night we came back from dinner at 11 and i was determined to go to rumjungle and play slots and i fell asleep in the room fully dressed. i got minimal time in playing slots only. and did that mostly in the morning, because unfortunately i woke up on east coast time too (i.e. 6 or 7 am -- really 9 or 10 am east coast) and often played by myself while the rest of the world was still asleep. LOSER!