Please ADD your own Las Vegas Trip Report. Date of Trip: May 16, 2004 to November 30, 1999 Hotel Stayed At: THEhotel Report by: KTINCA <> From: CALIFORNIA

Sunday May 16th
We flew out of Oakland 11:30am using free RR tickets, arrived at 12:30pm and took a cab to THEhotel at Mandalay Bay.
When this trip was booked in April we had offers for MB at $119 per night and for THEhotel at $149. Seeing as we had free airfare we decided this was the time to see if the higher rate for THEhotel was justified.

We arrived at 1:00pm, knowing the Jones-Tarver fight held there the night before might make it tough to get a room earlier. I asked for a room away from the elevator, and mentioned that because we were staying 5 nights we would appreciate some kind of view.

Explained that I had called and requested a fridge for my medication, and was told by the reservation clerk that all rooms came with a fridge. This is not so! They come with an honor bar. The desk clerk apologized and said he would send a fridge up. He said they did not have a clean room now, but he could upgrade us to an end suite for the same rate. He said if we didn’t mind waiting we could have our bags sent up, the fridge would be delivered and then the room would be cleaned shortly. We were given room 37815, end of the hall four floors from the top.
I did not try the $20 trick, but did tip $20 upon leaving in appreciation.

Warning: IMO one of the best things about reading trip reports is learning about new places to stay or dine. A friend asked for a description of the rooms at THEhotel, so I actually took measurements and notes. Following is a lengthy description of our suite, if this does not interest please scroll down.

Because we had an end suite it was a little bigger, with better views, but other than that basically the same as the standard suites.
As you enter there is a 10ft tile entranceway. On the right is a small bathroom with toilet and commode.
You then enter the living room, which is 18ft by 12ft. On the left wall is an entertainment center with a 42” plasma TV and a DVD player. Just past the entertainment center is a 5ft wood desk with glass top. There is a phone, fax-printer, keyboard with wireless internet. No monitor, as the plasma TV is used as a monitor (no I wasn’t tempted to read my email on a 42” screen).
Directly behind the desk, the back wall is a 12ft floor-to-ceiling window looking north up the strip. Our view from this room included the Rio & Palms, the pools at Luxor and Excalibur, and a northern view up the strip.
The right wall has a 7ft couch facing the TV, large glass end tables with lamps. There is also a glass coffee table and an extra chair.
In the front, across from the window, is the wet-bar & honor bar.
You had better like dark brown. Everything in this room, with the exception of the couch and matching chair (which are green) is dark brown or glass, including the carpet and wall covering. The décor is decidedly modern.
On the right is the bedroom door.
As you enter the bedroom (also 12ft by 18ft minus a few edges due to corner room) the bed is on the left. King bed with pillowtop. On each side of the bed are large tables with 1 drawer. Phone on one side and radio/cd player alarm on the other.
Left of the bed is a nook with a chair and an 8ft window facing northwest.
On the back wall across from the bed is a 32” plasma TV, there are also 6 small drawers below the TV. Taking up the rest of that wall is another 8ft floor-to-ceiling window facing north, with a view of the airport and part of the Mandalay Bay beach.
On the right is a 5ft wide closet with mirrored doors. In the closet are 3 small drawers, a safe, ironing board, robes & slippers, and a short shelf. The only thing they forgot was to leave room for clothes.
This room has lighter brown carpet and drapes, and feels warmer than the living room. Next to the closet is the bathroom.
As you enter in the upper left corner is a 13” flatscreen HD TV, which is placed 6ft high facing the tub. There is a 6 ft vanity with twin sinks and 9 small shelves. On each side of the wall there is a 5 ft mirror with another 6 small shelves. There’s also a make-up mirror and a digital scale.
The marble tub is 6ft long and 4 ft deep, and easily large enough for two. This is set in a marble area on the back wall. The tub and separate shower are both done in black marble.
There is a separate room for the toilet.
Pluses of this suite: Separate a/c in each room with own controls. Drapes that are extra large and on tracks that overlap by at least a foot.
Minuses: Not enough closet space., barely enough room for a small suitcase, and not enough room for hanging clothes. No plastic laundry bags for dirty clothes (only a small cloth bag for dry cleaning). Four TINY wastebaskets, the size of icebuckets. Apparently sophisticated people have neither dirty clothes nor garbage.
Excesses: The phone in the bathroom has 2 lines and a hold button, for those who have to conduct business wherever they are. HDTV (regular definition isn’t good enough?). 3 TV Guides (you really need one in the bathroom?).

We have to leave the room to let the maid clean, so we walk to the Luxor in search of $5 Pai Gow Poker (the only limit my wife will play). There is one $5 table and it is full. So I go looking for a decent quarte VP machine. I know I won’t find 9/6 JOB, but want to find the best machines they have.

My wife can not walk through the casino searching for playable machines, so I sit her down at a .25 double diamond machine to wait for my return. My wife does not play slot machines often, but when she does she prefers quarter double diamond.
I return to find my wife staring at the machine, which is showing 3 double diamonds. She has hit the first slot machine jackpot of her life!
It took her a while to realize that 1600 credits is really $400.

A few minutes later I drag her away with her winning ticket. We find seats at the Pai Gow Poker table, play for a couple of hours, both winning a few dollars.
Neither one of us is really hungry that night, so dinner is at the Noodle House at Mandalay Bay.
VP at Monte Carlo for a couple of hours, holding our own, and then we call it a night.
End our 1st day up over $500 (mostly hers.).

Monday May 17th.
The kindly guests who had our room before us were nice enough to have left the alarm set for 7am (just in case we wanted to waste our time sleeping in).

Breakfast was at THEcafe, basically a fancy coffee shop. I had lox & eggs and she had an interesting French toast stack, with fresh strawberries, bananas, and berries. Good food in a quiet atmosphere, $37 with tip.

At 9am we started our hike to the river. In order to get to the MB pool area from THEhotel the SHORTEST route entails taking the elevator to the lobby, leaving the hotel by the front entrance, entering Mandalay Bay through the parking entrance, walking past Red Square and RED White Blue restaurants, then up to the events center. Down another escalator to the beach level, exit the building, and walk a couple of hundred yards to the pool areas side entrance.
If this seems like a long way, it is. About the same as walking from one Vegas megaresort to the one next door. And as a bonus, you get to make this walk in bathing suit and sandals.
Due to my wife’s current breathing problems we literally had to stop along the way.
This is by far the most common complaint about staying at THEhotel.

As far as my wife is concerned the Mandalay Bay river is the #1 reason to go to Las Vegas. Others may go to gamble or the nightlife or the dining---my wife comes to Las Vegas to lounge by this river. If she had to take a shuttle to get there from our room she would.

I stay at the river until around noon, which is about all the sun I can stand. My wife will stay for a few more hours.
After a quick hotdog at the MB deli by the racebook, I head over to Luxor.
I find a Pai Gow (tiles) table with a young couple playing and decide to join them. I enjoy playing Pai Gow but don’t get the chance often. In the California cardrooms it is played for such high stakes that I do not play. The Luxor has a $10 table which suites me fine, $20-$40 is more my range. I got to play for over an hour, won $60, and had a good time.

Picked up the wife, and we decided Italian sounded good for dinner, so we went to La Provencal at Paris. This is a casual place right next to the crepes stand, where you can get a table in the avenue and eat while people watching. My wife had pasta and I had a really terrific parmesan baked chicken. Not only was the chicken excellent, but the side dishes matched perfectly. I highly recommend this place. But then again you can probably say that about any place you eat at Paris.

After dinner we walked over to Barbary Coast to play some Pai Gow Poker. Played a couple of hours and both won a few dollars (a very pleasant trend).

Tuesday May 18th.
A day of very high winds. The news warned of high gusts, and that people with allergies or breathing problems should try and stay in. Due to my wife’s current condition we decided to take this seriously. Of course there aren’t many better places to be stuck inside than Las Vegas,

We walked over to Four Seasons for breakfast at the Veranda (one of my wife’s favorites). Of course there was no outside service because of the wind, but the Veranda is still beautiful in the morning. Service is top notch and the quality is what you would expect from Four Seasons. My wife had her favorite cinnamon-raisin French toast and I had ham & eggs (sometimes I have no imagination). Cost was $44 and well worth it.

No pool time due to the wind, so we headed over to Luxor. Played a little VP and got no play for our money, so we tried Pai Gow Poker and we both lost a few dollars. My wife even tried some nickel slots, but nothing was working. This was our first losing session of the trip, so we decided this was not the time to play.
Went back to the room and took a nap. One of the nice thing about staying 5 or 6 nights is that you don’t feel you have to be doing something all the time.

Went to the Rain Forrest Café at MGM for dinner around 5. We had never been there, but our grandson loves this place so we decided to give it a try. We both had a specialty pina colada, I had a shrimp platter and she had ribs ($62 without tip).I would recommend this place for families because of the décor, but we won’t be rushing back.

Walked to Monte Carlo for some VP. On the south strip there are not any quarter 9/6 JOB machines left, but Monte Carlo has a few 9/5 machines on the floor. Actually they have 6 machines, down from 12 in March.
We spent the evening playing there. I broke even and my wife won a little. At least we stopped the bad streak of that morning.

Wednesday May 19th.
Coffee and pastries from the stand near the lobby for breakfast, and then on to the river around 10am. As usual I leave around noon and the wife stays for more sun. Stop for a quick hot dog, and I am ready to start my day.

We had decided we might want to see a show this night, so I took a walk down to tickets2nite to see what was available. We kind of wanted to see David Brenner but he does not perform Wednesdays. My wife likes Neil Diamond so I picked up tickets to Jay Whites tribute at the Riviera.

Walked back to MB around 2:00 but she was still at the pool, so I went to the poker room and was seated in a $4-$8 game. I played for a couple of hours winning $180.
Picked up the wife around 5pm and took a cab to Riviera. The bad part about using the ½ price outlets is that you still have to go to the theatre and exchange the vouchers for tickets. This was my first visit to Riviera in 10-12 years. We had an hour to kill, so I went looking for some decent VP. To my surprise there were no quarter 9/6 JOB or even a reasonable facsimile. So I went to find a Pai Gow Poker game; only 1 table, and it was $15 minimum.

Who do these guys think they are? Don’t they know they’re an older property on the bad part of the strip? Didn’t it occur to them that maybe they should have decent paytables, and low limit games to entice people into their casino? Maybe they still think they’re one of the top properties. If we didn’t have show tickets I would have walked out.
To kill time we found some nickel video WOF slots. My wife fell in love with these. She played 40 minutes and turned $5 into $20.

Jay White had open seating and a small half-filled theatre. We got a table in front near center. We though the show was all right, but wouldn’t pay $35.

After the show we ate at the Riviera food court, and then went back to her nickel WOF. I lose $15-$20 and she turns $5 into 1000 credits. Unfortunately the machine doesn’t hold that many. After about 10 minutes of being ignored, I flag somebody down and am told there are 15-20 people in front of us. Another 10 minutes go by (seems longer) and someone comes along and verifies the machine is empty. It takes another 15 minutes for someone else to come by and fill the machine. 35 minutes for some nickels!
Remind me to go back to the Riviera real soon.

Wife had never been to Slots of Fun, so we went to see it (she played $5 in nickels so MB would know we’d been there) and then over to Circus Circus.
12pm we catch the only cab at CC back to THEhotel.
BTW: When we took a cab to the Riviera I tipped the driver $5, because I knew it might be a while before he got another fare there. The cabbie who brought us back from CC got $14 for a $10.40 fare. I figure he would get a decent fare quickly at MB. Don’t know if this was fair, but it seemed right to me at the time.

Thursday May 20th
Coffee, pastry, and back to the river again. This time we both left around noon. We wanted to go to Green Valley Ranch, just to see what it was like. We had heard on this board there is a free shuttle from MB to GVR. We took the 2:30 shuttle and were dropped off at the GVR lobby. We were very impressed with the hotel. Upscale, and obviously meant to be the jewel of the Station Casino hotels.
We signed up for the slot club (given $5 free play), walked around looking at the dining options and found the buffet which was closed from 3-4pm. We had heard good things about it so decided to wait and have dinner there.

Walked around looking for VP and once again found no 9/6 JOB, though there were plenty at the next level and more deuces machines than at any casino I’ve ever seen. I guess they feel that they are more like a megaresort and don’t need the best paytables to attract players. Being a new casino all the machines are TITO. I played .25 VP, hit one set of quads turning $20 into $40.

Dinner buffet is $15.99, but $2 discount with slot card. We were impressed with the buffet. They have a really large asian selection and probably the best grill/stirfry station I have seen, with a large variety of items. I would rate this buffet equal to the Aladdin, but not MB or Paris.

Back to VP. I sit down at a multi-denominational machine, put in my $40 ticket and start playing at the $1 level. I don’t hit anything big, but after ½ hour I am up to $140, so I switch the machine to quarters. I’m waiting for the 7:30 shuttle back to MB. At 7:05 I cash out with $103. Except the ticket doesn’t come out. In a casino with all TITO machines there are not a whole lot of slot employees walking around. I don’t know which is more frustrating; waiting for a machine fill or trying to find someone to fix a jammed ticket. After what seemed like forever, someone came by and I got my ticket just in time to catch the shuttle (the next one was 2 hours later).

It was our last night and we hadn’t seen the conservatory yet, so we headed to Bellagio. They were in the middle of a changeover. The new theme is patriotic for Memorial Day and July 4th. Lots of flags, flowers, and a giant Liberty Bell in the area where the butterflies are in the spring exhibit.

Walked across to Barbary Coast for some Pai Gow Poker. We hit a good table with friendly people, and my wife just didn’t want to stop playing. We played from 9 until 2am. She ended up losing $15 and I won $40. But she had a good time, and after all that’s why we are here.

Friday May 21st
Leaving at 1pm. We slept late so we decided to skip the river and have a leisurely breakfast instead. We went to the buffet at Mandalay Bay. A very under-rated buffet, consistently good, served in a beautiful room, with a very nice selection of fresh fruits.

Redeemed our points at the One Club, and before we knew it, it was time to leave for the airport.

Financially we did very well this trip. Came to town with around $900, paid our hotel bill ($994) in cash. Spent 5 nights, and who knows how much for meals and cabfare (not to mention tips) and returned with over $600.

We didn’t really have any plans for this trip besides getting some rest. So we spent more time playing VP and Pai Gow Poker than usual.
We take 3 or 4 trips to Vegas a year and every one is different.
The next trip will be in early October when it cools down.

Hope you were entertained by this report and possibly found it useful. And wish you some of the luck we enjoyed on your next trip.










KTINCA <> - CALIFORNIA    4174

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