Day 5 of my Fall 2024 Vegas trip. October 11

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It is Friday. Moving day.  I did my usual slow moving getting ready and packed everything up into this backpack.  I do find the backpack lighter to move around with but I find digging through all the various pockets pretty annoying.

I said goodbye to my fabulous Fountainebleau room and went downstairs to check out at 11.  I could never manage to get their app to work for me even though I had asked for some help with it at the Rewards desk, so I decided to check out physically.   The lineup in the lobby was enormous so I walked over to a desk that said Invited Guests.  I told them I wanted to check out and they pointed to the huge line across the room.  I said that I was an Invited Guest and they said “ Oh well then, we can help you here.”   I don’t even know what an Invited Guest is to tell you the truth.  I am staying here on an offer.  Does that make me Invited?  I don’t know but she checked me out in three seconds so I trudged off  to Rideshare.  I asked for a copy of my bill to be emailed to me but never received it.

I caught a ride share down to Planet Hollywood where I was meeting up with the kids who are spending the last days of their trip here. I wanted to bring them to the Gordon Ramsey burger place because we had enjoyed it so much on our last trip together.  I used my four comped drinks on beverages for us all.  We all ordered burgers.  Mike and I had onion rings and a Terin got a side salad.  They only give you five onion rings but man are they tasty!  I ate all five before I even touched my burger.  I ate half of my burger because I wanted to save room for that incredible sticky toffee ice cream bar for dessert.  We all loved those but Terin said Martha Stewart’s lemon meringue pie is better. I agreed.  It was nice to have that meal all paid for with my points.  I appreciate the Gordon Ramsey places taking our points on a one to one basis, unlike some restaurants that take double our points.

After we ate I said goodbye to Mike and Terin who were off to see the new Terrifier movie and do something at night called the Magical Forest and Halloveen at Opportunity Village.

I went to get a ride share to the Plaza.

This was the first bad experience I have had this trip.  When I got in I asked the driver to please take surface streets and NO HIGHWAYS.  He looked at me and acknowledged what I said with a nod.  He never spoke a word.  At one point he started to approach a highway ramp and I repeated myself.  I don’t know if he didn’t understand me or just chose to ignore me but he headed for the blankety blank highway anyway.  As always it was a nightmare.  I got to the Plaza alive but a gave the ride a poor review.  The drivers need to be able to speak enough English to communicate. 

Once at the Plaza I was able to check in right away.  It was around 2:30 at this point.  I went up to my room and sent a message to Linda Mary, a fellow Vegas aficionado. I was going to meet up with her and Deby, the Admin from Facebook’s Vegas Downtown Report.  We chose 7 pm as the meeting time.  I was sleepy after that heavy lunch so I just climbed into bed for the afternoon.

At 6:30 I went downstairs and parked myself at a double seater slot that had a view of both PinkBox and the hallway next to Hash House. We located each other and went over to the sports book bar to have a chat.  Had a lovely long conversation getting to know Deby.  As she said we have lots in common.   Linda had to move down the bar to get a functioning machine so I didn’t get to talk to her as much this time. I think we went our separate ways around nine. I went over to my favourite old Game King and played until 11 pm on $100.  I lost it eventually but I love that you can make it last that long!  Called it a night after that.

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Day 4 of my Fall 2024 Vegas trip Thursday October 10

 

Today began like every other day, me closely scrutinizing the pool activities outside my window.  I have been praising the Fountainebleau for having the deck chairs laid out in a spacious manner. They were staggered and not all crammed into together like some pool decks are. But on Thursday morning, I noticed them putting out stacks of more chairs. I’m assuming this is in preparation for the weekend, so then there was a lot more chairs crowded into the area than there had been. I am not a fan of that. I guess it doesn’t matter since I am not out there anyhow.  Ha.  Also I hadn’t noticed music the other three days I was here, but on Thursday, I could hear music all day. It wasn’t particularly loud or annoying, but I could definitely hear music.

After scribbling my normal trip report notes I got up and got dressed. I decided not to play at Fontainebleau since I was going downtown for the day. I headed for the ride share area which is approximately 20 miles from my room.  After my usual problems of trying to figure out which car is mine the driver waved me over and we headed for Golden Gate.  As always I instructed the driver to only take surface streets.  No highways.

When I got downtown I walked through Golden Gate into the ABC store next door as I needed a few things. I bought some Claritin for my son has he hadn’t brought any with him. It was only $12 for five pills, ha ha. Bought some protein bars as I was running low. 

Then I continued into Circa and sat down at a bank of Mo Mummy machines. I can never get the MO Mummy machines downtown to work as nicely for me as they do in some other places. I ran some money through all three of those machines with no success so I got up and tried a few other slots.  I wasn’t really having any luck anywhere. I was just killing a few hours before the kids were to join me at 5 o’clock for dinner. Also, I like to keep my some comps coming from the D and Circa  in case I need a downtown room besides my Plaza home.  I sat down at a Hot Pots machine and finally got some good bonus and ended up with $360 so I took the money and ran.  

I told the kids to meet me at Vegas Vicky.  It wound up with me being on level two and them on level one and me hollering down at Mike trying to tell him to come up the elevator.  Finally we connected and we decided to go to 8 East for some Chinese food.  I have only eaten there once before and I really liked the rice dish that I got but this time I decided to be all wild and crazy and try something new. Usually a mistake for me. My son was going to have some thing called Pad Thai, which I’ve never tried before, but he said it was good so I decided to try it too. Unfortunately, I was not a fan so I didn’t eat much of it. But both Terin and Michael really seem to enjoy their meals, They like things hot so they kept adding additional stuff to their food to make it hotter.  Yuck!

The highlight of the night was the Mike Hammer show over at the Four Queens. I had bought VIP seats, knowing full well that that meant you’ll probably be part of the show.  I was fine with that. As expected, Mike Hammer made fun of my son throughout the entire show. At one point he brought Terin up on stage with him to do a trick, and he even threw a couple of jabs my way, even though I remained down in the audience. It was hilarious. It really was. We had a wonderful time.

Next, the kids decided that they wanted Halloween themed Pink Box donuts down at the Plaza. Even though I’ve stayed at the Plaza every trip I have yet to try a  Pinkbox doughnut. I decided I was going to try one tonight. The kids both got Halloween themed ones and I got some kind of butterscotch doughnut. Yummy!  Best donut I’ve ever had. After that we went out in front of the Plaza and walked down to the rideshare area. Michael called a Lyft to take us to two different places, to drop me at Fontainebleau, and to take them on down to the Cosmo. 

Michael had brought Terin downtown on three other trips, but only in the daytime, so she had never experienced the insanity that is downtown at night. She was quite amazed by all the goings on, as I knew she would be.  I think she thought some of the circle entertainment quite questionable.  Lol.  We got to see two giant apes.  I find them amusing.

We had a pleasant ride back to our hotels with a friendly driver, who agreed to take the surface streets like I like.  When I got back to the Fountainebleau , I went immediately to bed. Didn’t have enough energy to do any more playing that night. Just for giggles I decided to check the step counter I have on my phone and it said I took 8000 steps today! That may not sound like a lot for some people but for someone who is as crippled up as I am now that’s a lot! Also I took 5000 steps yesterday and 5000 steps the day before that. So if nothing else Vegas certainly forces me to exercise! Lol.

Included down below is a tutorial on the FB shower if you are interested.

Day Three of my Fall 2024 Trip. Wednesday October 9

 

By virtue of the fact that I am on the sixth floor right over the pool has me observing it closely and I’m quite confused by a lot of the goings-on that are happening down there. Perhaps someone can explain it to me. The first thing is there are men submerged in the water at 6 AM. The pool doesn’t open till eight so I’m assuming these guys are fixing something or cleaning something? I don’t know.  They did this at all the pools.

 There are several pools and I’ve noticed with the one I am closest to even though it’s not very big, there are three lifeguards in chairs guarding it. I’ve also noticed that at one end there’s a sloped entry into the water and some poor person holding a flotation device literally stands there all day long guarding that entrance, which I don’t understand. Aren’t the other three lifeguards enough? At least they give him or her an umbrella to stand under.  Luckily they change shifts, so the same person isn’t standing there all day, but it seems like overkill to me. 

What is most confusing is this situation with the BIRD. I saw a lady with a bad limp, carrying a big black bird before the pool was open and I was amazed at that. I thought “Is he some kind of nighttime employee? Is his shift over?”  But no, a few hours later she and the bird were out again, and the bird seem to be doing this thing where he would fly away from his keeper and go up into the trees and the umbrellas, and then fly back to her.  They did this procedure around all the pools.  I am mystified. I don’t know what he’s looking for.  Is he on the lookout for vermin?  Does anyone know?  Please tell me. It is driving me crazy.  Study the video down below of the bird activity.

I left the room about 11 am today and went in search of some breakfast.  I had noticed a counter that had yogurt parfaits in it yesterday and I thought ( wrongly) that this would be a quick cheap meal.  I asked for a yogurt parfait, a muffin, and a glass of water. They will not give you a glass of water if their lives depended on it so I changed my order to a small coffee.  The price for those three things was $30. In Canadian that’s $45. Just incredible. Those three things would have cost me less than 15 dollars at home.   Good thing I have some nuts and protein bars in my room for some cheap sustenance.  Tomorrow’s breakfast will be room food. 

I went down to the casino to play for awhile.  I tried a few new slots which was a mistake.  I tried something called Railroad Riches and when I finally got a bonus it was for only 7 dollars.  Occasionally cats would fall out of the sky and give you a couple bucks but not much.   Now I understand why no one was playing those games.  You can’t keep playing for long with those kind of results!  I returned to my mummies. 

I finally located that giant gold sculpture!!!  It only took several days of wandering.  I think this hotel is absolutely fabulous but it is kind of overwhelming for me with my walking issues.   I will be relieved to move to the Plaza on Friday where everything isn’t so far from everything else and I am not perpetually LOST!  

Around 2 pm I went back to my room.  Ate my overpriced muffin.  Rested for awhile.

Mike and Terin came to have dinner with me at 5 pm because they were going to the Keith Urban show here at Fountainebleau.  We  ate at Capons in the food court.  Both kids had burgers and I tried their excuse for chicken tenders.  I was not a fan.  Too crispy.  Too spicy.  Terin and I had chocolate milkshakes.  Those were tasty. 

Then I brought the kids up to see my room and to relax until showtime.  They were suitably impressed with how fancy everything is here at this hotel.  When they left I just retired for the night.

The kids did the High Roller today along with shopping and exploring.

Fall 2024 Trip Day Two October 8

 

It is Wednesday morning and I must start this post by issuing a warning. If you ever stay at Fountainebleau , you may find that you never leave the bed. This bed is so incredibly comfortable. Your entire vacation may be spent right here!

On to tell you about Tuesday. I spent the morning lying in this bed doing Monday’s trip report, but then I knew I had to tackle the shower. The shower here is enormous. I mean you could fit 15 people in it if you really wanted to, but I was concerned about if the floor would be slippery and I always wish there was a railing to hold onto. There is also no hooks or anything to put your washcloth on. It also appears that you have to stand under the shower spray in order to adjust the temperature, but I found once I actually got in that I could stand a little to one side so it wasn’t too bad. And I was happy to note that  while the tile on the floor is shiny, it wasn’t slippery so that was good for me. ( I have some mobility issues at this point of my life) so I successfully managed to get clean without killing myself.  I placed my phone on the bathroom floor just in I fell and had to crawl out of the shower. Then I went on to use the super sonic air dryer in this place. I didn’t study what brand it was, but it’s actually the strongest air dryer I’ve ever used. My hair was dry in one minute.

I looked longingly out of my window and wished I could walk over to Ross and Peppermill but I know I would make myself even more ouchy than I already am if I attempted it so I decided to stay put. 

Once  I had completed my morning  toilette I went downstairs to the second floor in search of this food hall area. I had to walk about 40 miles from the guest elevators to this food hall, but I found it eventually. Many of the restaurants weren’t open yet, but the bagel place was doing a booming business so I approached it with some trepidation. If I had been smart, I would’ve studied the menu up in my room before I came downstairs but I wasn’t smart and I stood there, trying to read the menu signs. I could see the titles of things, but the teeny tiny descriptions underneath were not visible to me.  So the menu was a mystery.  I wound up ordering the cheapest option which was a guava bagel and I don’t even know what guava is!  Happily it was delicious so I enjoyed my morning meal.

This report should be entitled “ What is wrong with Bonnie?”.  It would be a fairly long list. About 25 years ago I had Lasik surgery. One eye had to be done twice. Ever since then that eye gets irritated very easily, and I have to put eyedrops in daily. I am in need of cataract surgery, but the eye doctor told me that sometimes when you’ve had Lasik surgery first it is more difficult for them to find the correct lens for your eyes. So I am fearful of having the cataract surgery and haven’t gotten around to doing it yet. Hence, my inability to read signs.  There, you now  know more about me than you ever wanted to know. Sorry about that.

After eating, I went downstairs to the casino in search of my beloved Mo Mummy machines. I found one and settled in but I noticed that the $200 in FreePlay I was supposed to have wasn’t present so I went over to the Rewards desk and asked about it and apparently I needed to have my drivers license with me in order to prove who I was. A credit card would not suffice.  So I had to go all the way back up to the room (which to a normal person isn’t far but for me it’s a long trudge ) to get my drivers license and come back to the desk and then they put the $200 in FreePlay on my account. I settled back into the Mo Mummy machine and played for hours.  I eventually got up to visit the women’s washroom. ( I bypassed the men’s this time!  Yay me!) I tried a few other machines.  I even went to Suzanne’s (Matt Bridger) chickens but they were not kind to me at all.  I gave up on them and returned to my mummies.

At one point in the afternoon, a young man walked up to me and I thought “Oh no! Is this is some kind of scam?”  But no,  it was a host and my first thought is always “Why is a host approaching me?”  Apparently he’s a fairly new host so maybe I was some kind of trial person?  We had a nice chat and I remarked to him that I am no big spender. I was betting $.75 at a time. But he said it’s not so much about how big your bet is but about the amount of time you spend in the casino.  ( Is he saying that that spending six hours at a Mo Mummy machine is crazy? LOL)  Anyhow he has my information now and he said the usual “ If you need any help call me” thing.

By 5 PM I was tired and ready to call it quits. I had the usual gambling day, up and down, up and down but I was going back to the room with a $200 ticket so that was good. I stopped again at the food court to take dinner back to my room and decided to try one of Capon’s burgers. Once again, I stood there a while, trying to decipher the sign. I went with a classic burger, which, unfortunately had dill pickles on it.  $16.   It was kind of wet, but it tasted good. I also purchased a ten dollar scoop of ice cream.  It had pretzels stuck in it which I could have lived without but it was ok.

I watched the news and conked out around 7 pm and woke up around 7 am this morning.  I think this is the first time in my life I have slept the clock around!  This bed is magical! 

The kids went to the Museum of Illusions and had a blast. I am adding a few of their pictures.

Follow Along on this Fall 2024 Trip

 

Monday, October 7, 2024

Day one of the trip.

It is actually day two now
but I think I’ve recovered enough from day one to write about it.

As we always do, we checked into the Comfort Inn Inn, Romulus, Michigan on Sunday night in preparation for our flying to Vegas on Monday morning. It is definitely not a fancy place but we like the fact that it’s mere inches from the airport and they have a free van that takes you over in the morning. None of us got a good sleep on Sunday night. I slept for only two hours. That is not a good way to begin what you know is going to be a very long travel day. 
Various things went wrong during the day. Some of them just aggravating, some of them downright maddening. The first issue was that the Comfort Inn  had neglected to write down that we needed the transfer van at 7:30 in the morning when we checked in Sunday evening so when we came out in the morning to get the van there was no van.    They had to call for it so that was solved easily enough.

The worst part of the day was trying to check in for our flight at Spirit Airlines. I know what you’re thinking,  flying Spirit was our first mistake. Apparently Spirit has decided that they no longer intend to help you in any way in obtaining your boarding pass or getting your luggage processed. I normally get wheelchair assistance but I know that Spirit’s gates are directly behind security so I didn’t need a wheelchair to get that distance.  So I didn’t head for the wheelchairs instead I walked up to a counter that was labelled Assistance but I discovered that the only assistance they actually offer was to tell you to do everything yourself.  Yup. No one helps you do anything in Spirit’s world.  I don’t know if all airlines are going to go this way but it is very frustrating.  It might be enough to stop me from flying at all.

You are first sent to a machine to print out your boarding pass. That was relatively painless. We obtained our boarding passes and luggage tags quickly. Next you are directed to a machine to check in your luggage. This was the problem. There are a series of steps, but when you get to the step where you have to scan your boarding pass and then scan your passport, we had a lot of problems. For some unknown reason it would not accept either my passport or Terin’s passport. It kept saying Failed.  We tried over and over.  There was a staff person present but he was helping other people because everyone was having problems.  Eventually a bunch of red lights came on and our machine froze completely.  We were ready to tear our hair out at this point.  Eventually a lady came over and just overrode everything and we were accepted. Then you have to wrestle your bags onto this floor level conveyer belt.  What happens if you are disabled and not able to do all this?  This new way of doing things really annoys me.  How is this better or faster than them just printing my boarding pass, taking my bag and sending me on my way?

Then we moved over to security where even though I had a walker, not a wheelchair, they allowed us into a shorter line.  Security screening was easy and we were off to our gate.  Our flight was on time and ran smoothly.  I had purchased the Big Front Seats and now it seems that they give you snacks and drinks free with those seats so that was a pleasant surprise.   I was able to get a wheelchair helper fairly quickly at Harry Reid airport and he was a super nice guy. We picked up our suitcases and then went to the taxi line which was enormous.  I mentioned to him that on my last trip, the wheelchair assistant had managed to get me to the head of the line at the taxi cab line, so he persisted and managed to do that for us again, which we were very happy about because the line was about 500 people long!  I tipped our guy twenty bucks for his help. They put us in a van and we were off to the Cosmopolitan.

We needed an actual meal and I knew the Henry closes at 2 pm so we scampered over there right away.  We were told that we were on a waiting list and that has happened to me before so I wasn’t surprised.  We only waited about 20 minutes or so before we had a table.  As usual the food was really tasty.  Terin had a chicken sandwich, Mike had a Cobb salad and I had the tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich.  Our waiter was so sweet and charming I gave him a big tip.

Next I went over to the MGM Rewards desk in the hopes of tier matching but sadly that had ended Sept 30, a few days before our trip.  Sigh.  So much for that idea.

It was about 2:15 when we went to check in.  There wasn’t a room ready but he gave me some keys and said the room was being “ expedited “ and that we would be called when it was ready. We sat on benches and waited for an hour and a half with no word.  Doesn’t seem very expedited to me!  Finally I called them to save us the trouble of staggering over to the desk again and they gave us a number and said it was ready.  We assumed, incorrectly, that the keys that we had been given would open the room and work in the elevator.  They did not.  So we went back down to the first floor and stood in yet another line to get functioning keys!  Glory hallelujah!  They worked!

So that situation was settled and I made my slow painful way back the Uber area.  As always I have the issue of not knowing one car from another and also the fact that in Canada license plates are on both the front and the back of a vehicle. Here I have to run into traffic in order to catch a glimpse of the back of the car.  Finally I was settled in a nice Infinity on my way to Fountainebleau to stay for the first time.  Check in was quick.  I don’t know where anything is here so it took awhile to find the guest elevators.  They sure are a long way from the desk!

Initially I was disappointed because I was on a low floor but I shouldn’t have been.  My view is still stunning and I can still see the top half of the Sphere.  There isn’t much I can say about this place that hasn’t be said before.  The hallways are so wide and beautiful I could live in them!  The room is fabulous.  Everything is spotless and smells wonderful.  I have never stayed in a hotel with all these beautiful fancy extras. Glass glasses, fancy soap dishes, etc etc etc.  I am not a huge fan of modern furniture but I can tolerate it here. And oh the bed is amazing!!  So comfortable!

By the time all of this had been accomplished it was around 4:30 pm and we were all so exhausted that we all just crashed.  We were all asleep by 7 pm. I woke up briefly at 10 pm but then slept again till 5 am.

  ( Which is 8 am in my world.  Very late for me)

I have no plans today except to relax and recover from yesterday. .I think I could quite happily sit in this room for 4 days and never move at all!