We went out to LA for some college visits and the 17 year old boy and I took a 36 hour side trip to Las Vegas.

Flew in on America West on Halloween. Arrived around 5pm. Checked into the MGM at the airport check-in. Very friendly, very quick. I chit-chatted with the agents about how this was the boy’s first visit and since he was under age, one of the cooler things about the visit would be a nice view, so they gave us a really good room on the 26th floor. We had an option with our plan (see below) to upgrade to a Bungalow Suite, but the view wasn’t as good, so since we were only staying the one night, we stuck with the regular room. We got the slip that would allow us to charge to our room (that’s how the food and spa credit works)..the only potential downside to this was that we had to pick up the Aladdin Gift Card from registration in the actual hotel…..Ba Dum Dum….

We had gotten the Holiday Spree package which included $35 towards food, $35 gift card at Aladdin’s Desert Passage, $25 towards the spa, and an option of $10 upgrade to a Bungalow suite (or $30 for some other type) This works out really well if you are only staying for a day.

Took the CLS shuttle to MGM (It’s $9.95 r/t to the Strip, so it was $19.90 for the two of us. I would have taken a taxi if we were just going to MGM and back but we were going to return from Wynn, so I figured this would be a little cheaper). There were no lines at registration, so we were able to waltz up and pick up the Aladdin stuff with no problem or waits.

Headed to the room which was the next to farthest room from the elevator, but it had a gorgeous view. Decided to use our food credit towards the dinner buffet since both of us take a while to wake up in the mornings and are perfectly happy with Starbucks. No line at all there either (it was about 6ish). Food was yummy. Only criticism was that the crablegs were a little chilled/bordering on icy. But, they were flying off the buffet so fast I’m not surprised.

Originally, I had planned on us going up to Fremont Street to catch the Experience, but decided there was enough to look around at on the Strip to maximize the available time…actually, except for Avenue Q, we wound up doing little that was on our original itinerary.

After dinner, we decided to explore the hotels on the corner Trop/LVB corner, so we wandered across to and through NYNY, Excalibur, and into Luxor. We were up on the show level checking it out when a trio of people came up to us with a pair of tickets someone had given them to the Toxic Audio show. They weren’t able to use them…did we want them? And, so they gave them to us. The show had been underway about three minutes when we got to out really good seats. This is a fabulous show. Toxic Audio is an A Capella group. They vocalize all
their effects, music, and…well…vocals. They do a terrific mix of singing and comedy. There is about 2 minutes of slightly risqué material in the show, otherwise it is fine for all ages.

After we bought one of the Toxic Audio CDs, we went over to Mandalay Bay and visited the Shark Reef. This is located about as far away from the main environs of the hotel as it is possible to be. It is also a stunningly well done aquarium. It is very cool to stop and just sit in one of the several places where the sharks and other sealife swim above and below you.

By the time we got done with that, it was about 11:30, so we took the Tram from Mandalay to the Ex, crossed the street, made our way to the monorail entrance in MGM. One of the guards told us that the Bellagio Fountains operated til 1, so we made the decision to ride all the way to the other end and then back to the stop that would get us to Bellagio. It was a very smooth and quick ride….the main problem being that the entrances are all in the back…away from the Strip, so there is a certain amount of hoofing that one has to do if you use the monorail. But, by the time we got back to Bellagio it was 12:16 and we waited, along with several others, expectantly. Finally, suspecting the worst, I asked a Bellagio worker bee what time the fountains stopped and he told me midnight. Ah, well…que seraa sera…we headed back to MGM on foot.

Just for anybody who cares….I have never ever (even when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale) seen as many drunk young 20-somethings as I did in Las Vegas on Halloween night. Most of them were in costumes ranging from the well-done to the puzzling to one pornaographic. But, they were all totally and completely, publicly and in many cases obnoxiously plastered, blitzed, bombed out of their minds drunk.

Anyway, got back to the hotel and crashed. Next morning, packed up our stuff and discovered my one fatal flaw in our plan. We were stuck hauling our one bag around with us for the day. Since we were not coming back to the south end of the Strip before we left, we couldn’t leave it in the care of the MGM folks. It wan’t a big bag, but still I wish I could have figured out what to do with it.

Went down to one of MGM’s two Starbucks (both of which are hotel-owned franchises so the Starbucks cards won’t work there (which the employees tell me they get many complaints about)) and grabbed a bite. Headed up to Aladdin on the monorail to spend our gift card. Desert Passage is quite the complete little mall and the prices are not too outrageous. We wound up at the Build-a-Bear and…well…built a bear named Warwickshire. After, we ate lunch at a really nice little Mexican chain restaurant called La Salsa Cantina.

We had decided to fill the afternoon with the Mac King show, so off to Harrah’s. We asked at the desk where we could get tickets and were handed a voucher to admit two people for the price of 2 drinks (essentially, it wound up being $7.99 each..the list price for the show having been $19.95, we didn’t feel too badly about this). we were seated in so-so seats…couldn’t figure out exactly what algorithm they used for seating people. I tried a little discreet chit-chat and gratuity with the nice man who sat us and he moved us to the third row right by the stage. We had already found out that Mac King was off and that we would be seeing a performer called Michael Holly. Having not seen Mr. King perform, I have no basis for comparison, but Mr. Holly kept the audience in stitches with his comedy and juggling and some sleight of hand.

We still had a couple of hours to kill til Wynn’s and Avenue Q, so we crossed to take a look at Mirage and TI. IN keeping with our spur of the moment animal-seeking theme, we decided to go on in and visit Seigfried and Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. We were there for the last hour til they closed. Dolphins were less people-attentive than the last time I was there, but the big cats were definitley on the move and the male white lion was extraordinarily
vocal, making some of the most hilarious sounds I have heard come out of a cat of any size.

Time to head for Wynn’s. The show started at TI as we were going past so we stopped to watch it. Can I say that I hate the new show. It’s not even the boys vs. girl theme (I understand that scantilly clad young people seem like it should attract more, but the crowd did not seem to be that more…my 17 year old son was disgusted with it and you’d think he would be right close to their target audience), it’s just badly written and tacky. Given their available resources, it
could have been fabulous….or, at least, decent.

Avenue Q was great, except for a couple of odd lyric changes, it was everything we expected and more. Wynn’s was very pretty. We caught the shuttle at 9:15 back to the airport and got a first class upgrade for the return flight to LA. We were both exhausted, wanted the first
on and first off opportunity as well as more room to veg out our 45 minute flight.

So, I didn’t gamble a lot…mostly random slots. The boy always had to be moving when I stopped to gamble if he wanted to be near me. He probably walked a mile more than I did, circling pillars and walking back and forth. If I played a machine near the outskirts of the
casino, he could curl up on the floor with his PSP.

In our 36 hours, we visited 9 hotels, saw 3 shows, visited 2 zoo equivalents, got to shop some…and even managed to sleep.