Background: My wife (S) and I, 27 %26amp; 30 respectively, 6 nights over Labor Day weekend for the third straight year. My first TR so hopefully it won’t be a complete train wreck to read.
Will post as a reply....
TR: Mirage 8/29 %26ndash; 9/4Friday - 8/29
S and I both get off work at 11:30 am on Fridays so we scheduled the earliest flight we could make after work. We used our reward points from our credit card for free airfare which is nice because it’s never cheap to fly from Birmingham, Al to Las Vegas. It’s a little frustrating having to fly further away (Atlanta) just to then turn around and fly back the way we just came to Vegas, but oh well, small price for a great destination. Flew Delta and had a pretty uneventful flight.
It was kind of ironic though because on our flight from Bham to Atlanta we were really close the back of the plane and while we were waiting to board in Atlanta, I told S that at least we can’t get any further back. Well, needless to say I was wrong. We were the very last two seats on the plane which meant we were the last two to get off the plane in Vegas. We did arrive 45 minutes early and landed around 6 pm which was awesome! The more time for us to donate money to Las Vegas the better. ?
Normally, we take the shuttle but this time we decided to spend a few extra dollars and take a taxi since we were staying a little further down the strip. Taxi line was long, but moved rather quickly. Decided not to tell the driver “no tunnel” partially to see if we would get “tunneled” and partially because I knew it would be a lot quicker even if we did. Sure enough, into the tunnel we go. Fare was $25 before tip. Check-in at Mirage was easy. We had to wait maybe 15 minutes. Got a pool view room on the 10th floor, but the pool view wasn’t much of a view because mostly our view was of the roof top of the adjoining building. That’s ok. We don’t spend much time in the room anyways.
Renovated room was standard and nice. We had the same complaints that most everyone else seems to have though. The bathrooms are small, very small! We quickly realized that two people were not going to get ready at the same time. Not that it takes me long but still, I like to shave and brush my teeth and hair every once in a while.
By the time we got to our room, we decided to eat something, so we ended up at BLT Burger bar. Neither one of us was starving so we both got a burger and drink and nothing else and were full.
S declared that we had been in Vegas long enough without gambling so she put in $60 and it was gone in no time. Later that night, we got ready and went to Tryst. We decided to walk over to the Wynn since it was “just across the street” from the Mirage. That was a mistake. We don’t mind walking.
We’re both big into fitness and staying active, but since we were going to a nightclub we were dressed nice and S was in her “my feet are killing me” heels. To make matters worse, as it is with every short walk in Vegas, there is no direct, straight path from the Mirage to the Wynn. We should have taken the tram to TI, but we forgot about it since it was our first night and we were too excited to be in Vegas again. Long story short, we cabbed it every other night that we went out.
We finally make it to Tryst and I let S go talk to the club hosts as we were on the guest list and about 5-10 minutes later we were by passing the huge line and going down the stairs that lead into the club. Tryst is a very nice looking club. The music is mainly top-40s. When we first arrived it was not too packed so we could actually dance, but by the time we left, we felt sardines. Also, the drinks here are rather expensive even for Vegas. 2 drinks cost me $33 dollars before tip.
It was here that we had our only celebrity encounter of the night. We were standing against the rail that is next to the lake by the waterfall and we turned around to see Barry Manilow dancing about 5 feet away. We didn’t see him for long. I’m sure he went to his ultra-vip place or somewhere, but it kind of surprised us nonetheless. Note: I say it was Barry Manilow, but S thinks it was Rod Stewart. Who knows, but it was one of the two.....I think. ? I never realized how similar the two can look until you try to figure out which one they are.
On the way back, we stopped at BLT Burger Bar again. They stay open late (2 or 3am) which is good for late night munchies. When we were there the first time I had noticed some yummy sounding desserts so we decided to try something. S got these frozen ice cream cookies (hazelnut/chocolate and vanilla/dark chocolate) and I got a Twinkie milkshake. The milkshake had actual Twinkies in it. Both were good, but the milkshake was so sweet that the both of us couldn’t even finish it.
Day 2 (Bare pool and rude taxi driver) coming up.....
TR: Mirage 8/29 %26ndash; 9/4great job keep it coming
More please.
Loving your report, can%26#39;t wait to hear more
Cas
great tr so far thank you, i%26#39;m staying in the mirage next month so looking forward to the rest of your tr.
Cool, I was at Mirage from 9/1 - 9/4...I probably saw you guys, cuz I see everyone. :)
Good report!
LoveMD,
You just missed seeing Britney Spears then because she was there on August 31st to see Love (Cirque).
:)
Saturday 8/30
Woke up Saturday morning at 6:30 and could not go back to sleep. I tried, but was still too excited to be in Vegas. S on the other hand, had no trouble sleeping. I love sports and naturally sports betting, so I went down to the sportsbook to check the betting lines and to pick 3 or 4 of my most sure-fire bets. It must have been too early to think clearly because my sure winners turned into sure losers capped off by a 3 team parlay with a nice chuck of change riding on it that lost because of Tennessee choking on Labor Day night. Oh well, tomorrow’s Sunday and that means NFL to bet on.
S finally woke up so I went to the Roasted Bean coffee shop to grab a couple of fruit danishes for breakfast. They have your standard pastries, pre-made sandwiches, yogurt, some fruit, etc. They also have plenty of coffees and other juices and sodas to drink. They aren’t too cheap for what you get but then again what is in Vegas, but it was one of the only places to get a quick bite to eat that early. By the time we got ready, it was almost 11 am. We had reserved 2 lounge chairs at Bare for the day, so we headed to the pool to soak up some sun.......and alcohol.
We were one of the first ones there so we were able to pick whichever chairs we wanted. The pool is small, but we knew that before hand. It is lined with lounge chairs and a few daybeds on the ends. Behind the lounge chairs are the cabanas. There is a separate VIP section with its own pool that is elevated. That pool is cool because the side that faces the other, main pool is transparent so you can see people’s legs and waists that are swimming or just hanging around as was the case.
We immediately started off with a pitcher of cocktails which we drank in no time. Our waitress and busser (sp?) were great and I found out that both grew up in the same city that I did. Cool. We stayed the whole day enjoying the music and atmosphere. By 2 pm, the pool was packed and everything was rented out and people were lining the edge of the pools. I was surprised by the amount of women that went topless. They were still the minority, but more than I expected. After our second pitcher of drinks, S became one of them. One other thing, the food there is actually good. We split a pizza and S had lobster tacos (small, but good) at least 3 pitchers of drinks and probably more that I can’t remember. They had other things like fruit and cheese trays, huge sandwiches and other things that sounded good. We left around 5 pm I think.
That night, we had reservations at Tao for 9:30 pm. Out of all of the stuff that we had planned, I was looking forward to dinner and then the club afterwards (guest list). I know it gets mixed reviews, but I’ve never been and wanted to go just to see it if nothing else. At this point, neither of us is feeling up to eating anything let alone going to a club, but I am stubborn and thought that by the time we actually got there we would be ok.
We get to the Venetian and S finally convinces me to skip our reservations since neither one of us would have enjoyed the food when our stomachs were saying “no more!” and why pay for something you won’t enjoy. With the effects of eating and drinking too much still with us, S tells the host to take our name off of the list.
While we were there, S decides that she wants to play a few slots on the way out. As we were walking, she tells me that she had a dream last night that she won a bunch of money on a slot that had 5s all over it. 10 seconds after she tells me this we look over and what do we see, but a bank of slots where the jackpot is 5-5-5. So, S runs over and puts in $40 and here we go. Second or third spin she doubles her money. Good start. I wish I could say that her dream turned into reality, but we ended up walking away breaking even with our original $40. Oh, well. It was a dream after all.
By this time, S’s feet are killing her (a common theme for this trip) so we take the short cab back to the Mirage. So we’re standing in the taxi line and when it gets to us, the guy that helps you get a taxi tells the taxi driver that we want to go to the Mirage. As soon as we get in, the taxi driver says to me something to the effect of “are you going to give me $10?” I say yes. He says to give it to him first, like he didn’t believe me or something. Well, the guy that helped us get the taxi hears this and tells us to get out and starts yelling at the taxi driver to get the hell out of here never show his face at the Venetian again. There’s more yelling but I was too stunned to really pay much attention to it.
The ironic thing is I actually gave the taxi driver that took us from the mirage to the Venetian $10 for the $6.50 trip. So we get in the next cab and we tell him what happened and he was very nice and said that a lot of cab drivers are like that now and don’t want to spend the time for a dollar or 2. As soon as I told him that I would give him $10 he said “really?” and he turned off his meter.
Day 3 as soon as I write it....
Enjoying your TR!
The Mirage is my fav hotel in Vegas...
I actually laughed out loud when I read the part about your wife going topless after the second pitcher of booze, haha...
I also feel her pain! When in Vegas it%26#39;s fun to get dressed up and unfortunately sexy shoes are rarely comfy! I stuck to sneakers by day and heels by night... still didn%26#39;t save me from a few blisters though!
By the way, I%26#39;m totally depressed we didn%26#39;t get to try a twinkie shake during our trip - that sounds AWESOME!
rockfoxxx,
My wife kind of wanted to go topless, but was scared to, but the liquid courage did the trick.
Even wearing comfy shoes during the day didn%26#39;t save her feet at night.
The milkshake was good, but beware....very very sweet! It actually had little chunks of twinkie in it.
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