Vegas Report

So we're back from our quick little trip to Vegas. It was a nice getaway, and the weather was perfect! It was warm enough to hang out at the pool (a little breezy, but not too bad), and perfect weather for walking around the Strip. We spent some quality time at the "beach" each day, and really enjoyed the sunshine. When we returned to work on Thursday, we were greeted back with snow in the valley! What?! I don't know why everyone was acting so suprised. This is Utah people!

The Mandalay Bay was one of the nicest (if not the nicest) hotels I've stayed in. I loved it! The lobby and common areas were so elegant, and the hotel rooms were pretty nice themselves. I might consider splurging and trying to get into hotels like this more often just to avoid the accomodations we were afforded at places like the Tropicana, but then again, who am I kidding? I'm so frugal, I'll probably only do it if we got another great deal!

Here is a pic of our room. Very nice, very clean. I've never been in a hotel that had a down mattress pad for added comfort. Very nice!

Here is a pic from our hotel room to the pool below. I loved this view! The pool area (the Beach) was made up of many different pools. The beach and wave pool were really cool, but it was so crowded down there! There were a ton of chairs everywhere, but we were always hard pressed to find one. People would line up before 9 a.m. to get in there when the pool opened in order to reserve a chair. Our first day there, after trying forever to find some seats, we ended up finding a little piece of beach located between the tube rental place, and the rich people's cabanas. We spread out our towels and watched as other people wandered over. Jeff and I called it the "poor man's beach." We were the second-rate people who couldn't afford the luxuries of a beach chair. Kind of funny! Our second day we were a little more lucky. We went down there not even expecting to be able to find a spot on the Poor Man's Beach. We're walking around trying to scope out a seat, and a lady walks up behind me and whispers in my ear, "Need some chairs?" It reminded me of being on the beaches of Mexico, when the beach peddlers quietly walk behind you saying, "You want some weed?" I was like, "Yes!", so we walked us over to some chairs that her group had just vacated to move over to the chairs that allowed you to lounge. Although they weren't the best chairs, they were something. We spent time in the water, and then after awhile the group that had given up their first chairs decided to leave, and found us again to give us their lounge chairs. On top of that, they also gave us their float tube to use on the lazy river, and a bucket of ice (random, I know, but I thought it was funny they just wanted to give us everything). Thank goodness that someone finally decided to take pity on a fat prego woman in the sun! Jeff and I really enjoyed this day at "the Beach," and we passed the favor on by trying to find someone "worthy" of our chairs and tube when we were done.

Like I said, I really enjoyed the Mandalay Bay. There were a couple of items I wanted to note that I thought were cool. Keep in mind, I'm easily entertained. First up, I thought it was cool that the alarm clock was an iHome. You could dock your iPod right up to it.

Second was the large flat screen TV in our room. It turned out to be perfect for Jeff to sit back and watch the Jazz game from our own room. I was worried that he was going to want to try to watch it in some sports bar. Baby wouldn't have lasted that long! I also thought it was cool that there was another small flat screen in the bathroom. Who has that? :)

The beach was definately a nice part of the hotel too, and I even like that fact that they went as far as incorporating some acquatic wildlife into the whole "Beach" theme. Below you will see a pic of a beached whale that Jeff happened to snap right before she was rolled back into the wave pool. Enjoy!
He, He! J/K! Ignore the ugly face in the pic. I meant to crop it out, but I'm too lazy at this point!

Overall our stay at Mandalay Bay was great. I would highly recommend the hotel, however, there are a few items I would caution about.

1. First and foremost, there is definately and elevator problem at the hotel. We had a bank of 8 elevators that services floors 17-34 (we were on 18). Wait times were sometimes 15 minutes to get an elevator. It was ridiculous! Pretty much every guest caught the jist that is was a big problem, and it became a joke everytime we were all waiting for one. People would even jump on any elevator that opened it's doors on our floor (a rare occasion), even if it meant that they had to ride all the way up just to get back down. Apparently Mandalay Bay knows it is a problem, but they have chosen to do nothing about it.

2. The chair situation at the beach is a problem. There are hundreds of chairs, all "taken", yet there is not that many people in the pool (the pools were never over-crowded by any means!).

3. The wave pool was a little bit of a dissapointment. Although it was nice that it was not crowded (hello Raging Waters!), it was a little lame that the "waves" consisted of one wave about every 5 minutes. I like the wave pool at Raging waters where you have 15 minutes of waves, followed by 15 minutes of no waves (at least that is how it was back in the day). Oh, and there were not flotation devices allowed in the wave pool. Lame.