Holiday in Hell-My Vegas vacation

This could be a book but for brevity's sake I will keep it as short as possible.

Saturday May 1st- US Airways changed gates on us in Charlotte (Batlimore-Charlotte-Vegas) and the salsa spilled inside my carry on as we got our food to go because we had to go from the "B" gates to the "D" gates-a t-shrit and jacket got messed up.

On the Charlotte to Vegas flight some drunken loud mouth had everyone pissed off (he actually woke ME up which is hard to do) I think everyone thought that we were going to have a throw down in the back section of the 757- not me mind you but the drunken idiot and another passenger.

Our cabbie didn't know where he was going (new time share we were staying at)and he slowed to about 10 MPH on the 215 beltway (with stoplights) that goes around Vegas. He almost caused 6 wrecks on the way-I had to call the resort and direct him (literally).

Sunday- Calamity on the trolly and the in-laws decide not to get off with us at New York New York when THEIR DAUGHTER (my wife) was feeling ill. The "shuttle" from the resort was by appointment only and my father-in-law decided that we would hit the strip at 12:15 and stay until 11:15, looooooooong day. We ended up waiting for an hour and a half for the ride home. I felt like I was in prison but we HAD to take the FREE shuttle we just couldn't take a taxi.

Monday-thier "hour and a half" sales meeting ended up taking 6 hours as they almost bought into it. We ate and gambled at the Palms that night.

Tuesday-AWESOME buffet at the Belagio, not a bad day

Wednesday-Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon-awesome

We got there at about 1 PM and we walked 1 mile and ended at 3PM-that is 1/2 a freakin' mile an hour. On the way back a mad trucker (people in Vegas drive like maniacs) distracted me and I missed our last turn off. The in-laws saw the opening to create stress and stomp on my post-Canyon natural high. Once we got to the resort I finally informed them "Look I feel good and you aren't going to make me feel bad so save your breath" that was about as well received as when I screamed at the guy who waved us past him in the Venetian front door and then proceeding to pull out in front of me-screaming "YOU F**KING IDIOT" so that he could hear me through two car windows (ours and his) did not go over well.

Thursday- the 10AM run to drop them off at the strip became a 12 Noon run as they couldn't find their traveler's checks and spent 90 minutes looking for them and comparing their receipts which didn't help in finding the checks. Some alone time with my wife and sun bathing by the pool. We met them for dinner at 6:30 at P.F. Changs (yum) then dropped them off (another hour out of my life) and we went to Circus Circus (which is a freak show) to see the rotating bar of Fear and Loathing fame (it was closed and it doesn't serve alcohol anymore anyway) rode a roller coaster and The "Big Shot" at 1,100 feet atop the Stratosphere and had a drink at the Paris hotel.

Friday-get us the hell out of Vegas. All went well until the last twenty minutes of the flight into Baltimore, lightning streaked through the sky and there was much turbulence followed by the pilot announcing that we would be on the "honor system" on drinks and seat backs and trays WOULD ALL PERSONNEL GET TO THEIR SEATS AND BUCKLE UP IMMEDIATELY!!!

I didn't see the runway until we were only about 60 feet off the ground. We really thought we were going to die for a few minutes there.

We drove home and got in at 2 AM-the kitties still love us.

DDMQ

No I only lost $70 net for the week.

not making me feel any better about it. LOL

$15 before 3:30 ($24 after). Wild boar ribs, lots of great fish, rack of lamb, AWESOME desserts.

until 5:00.

Sorry your vacation didn't go so well. Seems very few people who come here actually leave happy anymore.

I actually had a British couple come up to me when I was sitting outside on a break last week asking where there was a coin-op laundromat they could drive their car to, because the hotel they were staying at wanted something like SEVENTY DOLLARS to dry-clean a few articles of clothing. Finally, since neither me nor the other dealers breaking with me on the outside benches knew where a close-by laudromat was, we told them to go to a nearby apartment complex and act as though they were guests of a resident.

I cannot WAIT to get the hell outta here, and if anyone asked me where they should go and what they should do while they came here for a visit I'd simply tell them NOT TO COME IN THE FIRST PLACE!!

If you do decide to come here again, however, I hope your visit will pan out much better than this last one did....

I actually like Veags when the in-laws weren't around.

Do people always drive like that?

Between the drivers and the complete lack of planning in this city, getting around is more often than not a complete nightmare.

I heard that Phoenix was bad a while back, but when I went there to meet my wife-to-be and spent some time driving around I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. It's almost enough to make me want to just sell my car for whatever I can get for it, pay the damn loan off, and be done with the whole mess until I can finally move out of here.

Things must have changed since I was out there. Boulder dam and the canyon should make up for the mess down in Vegas though. I remember my first glance at the canyon, my jaw dropped and a loud mf came out.
I'm glad you made it back safe and didn't meet a bad end on the runway.

:eyes:

that's what I want to know DAMMIT!

:bounce::evilgrin:

No, seriously, sorry you had such a lousy time, but it sounds like the problem was the in-laws rather than Vegas. Would it have been any better if you had been in Paris, Venice or Hawaii? I doubt it.

I've only been here a year, but Vegas is quickly spiralling out of control. The housing market is so over-inflated that only the very well off - or those willing to overextend themselves - can afford a home. Houses that were going for $250,000 when we moved here are now around $400,000! The traffic is an absolute disaster. The drive from my place in Summerlin to The Strip is roughly 13 miles. With Rt 95 under constant re-construction and with at least 4 or 5 scary accidents on it each day, the jaunt to the Strip can take an hour. The local backroads aren't much better.

As for the Strip itself, it's evolving into an over-priced gougefest. I was here on biz back in '99 and had the misfortune of staying at the Hilton. I remember dropping off a sealed, totally ready to send FedEx envelope at their biz center. They charged my company $25 *for handling*! The handling consisted of turning around and dropping my envelope in a waiting FedEx pick-up box.

The buffet at the Bellagio is spectacular, though. The one at The Paris ain't bad either.

Oh well. It looks like I may be moving to Salt Lake City anyway.

or at least it seemed like that. We stayed on Grand Canyon Dr. ("The Cliffs at Peace Canyon") just off Peace dr. and Teepee kust off Tropicana.

The problem wasn't Vegas itself it was the in-laws. Usually we get along great but my wife said "I knew this was a mistake" after about two hours.

Could the state spring for some visible signs to let you know when to take an exit or are they in cahoots with the casinos and trying to keep you disoriented and not able to leave?

Realtors say that there's currently an inventory of about 2,000 homes available in LV. They're used to having 9,000 homes available.

Ditto rent.

I haven't been to Vegas in years, but it sounds like a lot of the insane deals on hotel stays and the like have evaporated...I'd guess this is a side-effect of it becoming even more family-friendly and theme-parkish over the last decade or so. I'd like to tootle out there soon, for a ride, just because.

At least that was what we were told by several waiters/watiresses. I had always heard of how cheap it was to eat but it wasn't as low as I expected. Apparently the casinos figured that they might as well make money off the meals and alcohol (standard price for beer was $5) just in case someone stays there but doesn't gamble.

I don't know but that is what we were told.

Still have fond memories of the buffet at the Sahara....mmmm...

Viva Las Vegas, baby.