Day 1, August 17th 2008
Waking up in the Holiday Inn Santa Fe we were both sad to depart New Mexico but also very much looking forward to the next stage of our holiday, 6 nights in Las Vegas. We checked out, got in the hire car and shot down the I25 to Albuquerque Sunport, dropped off the hire car at Hertz (first time using them in the USA, highly recommend) and then checked in for our short flight to Las Vegas on Southwest Airlines (excellent as always).
We arrived at McCarran International ahead of time at approximately 11.15am and it was a straight dash to the baggage reclaim to pick up the bags, and also to check in at the MGM Grand desk at the airport. Kelly waited for the bags and I checked in, it was painless as usual with no queue and a very friendly staff member informed me that although the room was not ready (we didn't expect it to be) it was currently being serviced and would be available in an hour or so. At this time she also informed me of the process of using the $25 dining credit and the two free West Wing drinks, something which was not mentioned at check in last year and that we had to find out. Basically, it's very simple, just charge to the room and they will automatically come off the bill for checkout.
With room keys and baggage in hand we headed out for our first taste of the August Vegas heat and joined the reasonably long but quickly moving taxi queue. It was hot, very hot and we had just come from New Mexico where temperatures were upto the high 80's most days. As I mentioned the taxi queue moved quickly and we were soon on our way to the MGM Grand ("no tunnel obviously", I mentioned to the driver which brought a laugh). Cost $15 which included a $3 tip.
Arriving at the MGM main entrance brought back memories of last year and with the knowledge of the hotel layout, we quickly found a house phone to ring up to see if the room was ready. It had only been about 20mins since we checked in, but we were glad to hear that the room was ready and we headed up to the 28th floor where we had been allocated room 114. This was our first actual stay in a Grand Tower room (cost $69 a night S-T, $119 F) and we were very impressed. It was much bigger than any other Vegas standard room we had stayed in (Luxor, NYNY, Excalibur) with a lovely king bed, impressive furnishings (including some great MGM black and white pictures) and a fairly sizeable bathroom. Ok it wasn't the Celebrity Spa Suite we had last year but it was still excellent. Unfortunately we didn't get our requested Strip View but we were not that disappointed (more on that later). We did have a great view out the back of the moutains, the pool area and the Signature towers. All in all very very impressed.
After a quick clean up we headed downstairs for some food and ended up in the food court where 2 huge slices of pizza, 4 garlic rolls and a bucket of Diet Coke were very quickly consumed. Fed and watered we headed out of the front entrance of the MGM onto the bridge across the strip to the NYNY. We didn't really have much planned for the first day to be honest as we thought we would be hanging around for the room to be ready, but having been able to check in early, we decided we would utilise the time and take in the usual South Strip properties of Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur and NYNY.
First stop, Mandalay Bay via the tram from the Excalibur. I don't know what it is about this place but it grows on me everytime and is a potential hotel for next time. I think I like the fact that the attractions are understated, the casino is bright and airy (and never too busy) and it has a number of good restaurant options. People moan about the fact that it is too far south, but is it really? If you can put up with the location of NYNY or Excalibur in my mind Mandalay Bay is no worse off, with it being just a short 2 minute ride on the tram. Anyway, main purpose of this visit was not to gamble, or do any of the attractions but to check out the Burger Bar restaurant in Mandalay Place for a dinner option. This had been highly recommend by forum members of TA, and with my love of burgers was an essential visit on one of our six nights. Good sign, at 2pm(ish) there were about 20 people waiting outside for a table. I asked Kelly if she fancied heading there tonight which she agreed too, and we set off for the Luxor safe in the knowledge we had made one dinner decision quite easily. At this point I mentioned that judging by the queue at lunch we could be in for a wait later but we didn't care, the menu looked amazing and the food smelt delicious in passing.
To the Luxor we headed, once again with nothing planned but just for a look at the improvements they have made. To me it seems as though the heart has been ripped out of the place, there wasn't quite the buzz like there was when we stayed there and with the transformation away from the Egyptian theme (it's a Pyramid, what can you do?) I just didn't like it. It was the first indication to us of the lower end properties trying to beef up their profiles a bit to match some of the classier establishments with fancy bars and restaurants. I might be being a little harsh though, to be honest we only stopped by for 15mins or so, but it must have made little impression as we didn't venture back there for the rest of the holiday.
I've always had a soft spot for the Excalibur since we stayed there on our round the world trip in 2006 and as most people on here will already be aware of was sorely tempted by the $41 rates offered for our dates. I'm glad we didn't. Kids and kids and some more kids everywhere. Add into the equation the most smokiest casino area on the strip and it wasn't a pleasant half hour spent. On the plus side, we did see the best ever t-shirt offering ever at Dick's Last Resort (They have Hooters, we have Dick's) which appealed to my sense of humour quite nicely. As we stepped out of the exit to the Excalibur we breathed a huge sigh of relief and headed over to NYNY.
To top off a fairly average start to the Vegas part of our holiday, NYNY was a major disappointment as well. I had read about the construction taking place indoors but didn't expect anything quite on the scale that confronted us coming down the escalator. The whole middle of the casino was boarded up, and upon closer inspection on the way up to the arcade/roller coaster area, was completely down to the foundations. Drills were going off, hammers were hammering. If I had booked in there and not been warned of the construction I would have kicked up a serious fuss, it was a total mess. And for the life of me, I just don't know why? Why change a good thing? The Central Park area of the casino was very well themed and fitted in well with the rest of the hotel. Again a case of improvement for improvements sake. Sure, be ahead of the game, but NYNY was comfortably the best themed hotel on the strip anyway and didn't need wholesale changes.
We did head up to the arcade for some basketball which Kelly won comfortably, but with the drills ringing in our ears we headed back across the strip bridge to the relative peace and quietness of the MGM (I never thought I would say that). Having visited those properties in record time, it was still only 4ish in the afternoon, and I knew Kelly wanted to desperately get down to the pool so we headed back to the room and changed and went down. The walk really is nothing, people moan all the time on other forums but it only took 5 minutes from the lift area. Now to add insult to injury on our first day, we were horrified by the crowds at the pool. This is August, it's supposed to be off peak, yet every sun lounger is taken and all the pools are full to capacity. We eventually found some room at the Directors Pool (I think it was anyway, the Adults only pool). Now I am not really a pool person, especially with a perforated ear drum which needs to avoid water at all times, so I opted for a lounger and let Kelly have her pool time. I had picked up some of the free Vegas magazines prior to coming down so it was good to take them in but I didn't bargain for the noise coming from the Wet Republic pool area though. Sure it was a Sunday and it was still party time but the music was way too loud, it was like Ibiza on heat!!! There was obviously a DJ playing a set, and the crowds were lapping it up, but for all the other guests in the main pool area it was force fed and not in a pleasant way. It was at this very point that I did have some reservations about coming back to Vegas so quickly. The heat was unbearable, the crowds were unbearable, the pool area was littered with bottles and cigarette butts, the South Strip properties felt over familiar.......it was just not a great start. After what seemed a very long hour, Kelly had swam enough and with much glee we returned to our room. We agreed that if we were going to hit the pool at any point on this holiday, it would have to be the morning. Lesson learnt.
From here on in and for the rest of our time in Vegas things pick up nicely you will be pleased to learn (mostly).
After a nice rest watching some TV and de-sweating, showers and change we headed out around 7pm to Mandalay Place for our first evening meal at the Burger Bar. As predicted there was a wait, 20mins approximately we were told. Now I am normally very happy to wait, especially with such a tempting menu but it does bug me when groups of 3's and 4's are seated prior to 2's despite being lower on the wait list. This has happened a few times before in the US. Sure I don't want a booth which seats 6, but tables of 4 should be allocated to couples as well as groups. Our wait time had since got to 30mins, so when the totally clueless front desk girl had gone in the restaurant to check on available tables, I grabbed a look at the list. After our name had been put down, there were 10 other groups listed, 7 of which who had been seated ahead of us. As I was about to complain, a fellow couple who had also been waiting since we had queried their wait and why groups were going in ahead of them. This alerted the girl to the fact that they had missed both us off. They were just looking at the last name uncrossed on the list and seating them, despite there being two uncrossed names further up. DOH!!! Suffice to say, we were the next name called.
Our server was a dude, and I thought he was going to be a bit rubbish but he came and took our drinks order and then meal choices and after a slight delay where he went to check on why the food was taking so long we finally got to tuck into our gourmet burgers. I won't go into too much detail on the menu, but you get to choose your meat first (I went for Black Angus, Kel went for Turkey), then you choose the toppings from various lists and all are priced seperately. You can go totally over the top i.e. Kobe beef, foie gras etc, but most people were fairly sensible and despite both our meals coming out at around $15 each, it was probably the best burger I have ever tasted. The major plus point was getting to choose the type of fries you wanted. Sure you could have standard skinny fries or steak fries, but I opted for the buttermilk Zucchini fries which were to die for. All in all, very impressed and with a bill of just over $40 for the two of us, very cheap as well. The desserts are also burger themed although obviously of the sweet variety but we were way too full for that.
After a short walk back to the tram station for the ride across to Excalibur, and then the walk to the MGM we sat down in the casino and gambled our first dollars on the slots. Despite it being a Sunday, drinks service seemed pretty non existent, but we managed to get a few bottles of Bud Light, and gambled for a few hours. I hit 150 credits on a 25c, which gave me $37.50 but that was the best we managed. The slots seemed tight to me, but I was hoping for better luck in the remaining 5 days and nights.
Very full (still) but reasonably sober we retired to our room and crashed out on the glorious king bed. It had been an underwhelming start to our Vegas trip aside from the evening meal, but there was plenty of time for things to pick up. We had 5 shows to look forward to, and surely the gambling and drinks service would pick up as well? Wouldn't it?
More to follow......
Glad you're feeling a bit better today.
Their Steak Diane is superb though
