Saturday
Saturday morning we get up early enough to get a nice breakfast. The weekend hours are 6:30 to 10:30, I think we went down around 8 hoping to beat the rush. It was not crowded at all. There were families and quite a few military people in uniform. Looked like Air Force or Air National Guard. I didn’t ask. After we ate we went back to the room. The only thing we had today were tickets to the 7pm Cirque du Soleil show called Zumanity at the New York, New York hotel.
We set up the laptops and got busy reading email, posting on the Soapbox and I wrote my Thursday story. Around noon we were ready to go out. We walked to the Monorail stop at the Convention Center. The desk clerk had said that the station was less than 5 minutes away on foot, a long block. She was right and it didn’t take long to get there.
We rode to the MGM Grand stop and got out, walked through the casino and out to the Strip. Glenn had been looking at the various Las Vegas information guide magazines and we agreed that seeing the Shark exhibit at Mandalay Bay would be cool. The walk from the MGM to Mandalay Bay isn’t too bad because you take the walkway over the strip to reach Excalibur and then there’s a tram that takes you there. We wander through the casino and find the Shark exhibit area “Shark Reef” is the actual name.
There is a pretty long line on one side of the huge area to which the signs had directed us and another long line on the other side of the room. We get in the first line as it is the one that leads to the ticketing window. I hear a guy in front of us say to his female companion that she needs to go stand in the other line as that’s the one for entrance to the venue once you have your ticket. If she stands there they’ll be closer to the entrance by the time he gets the ticket. She goes. This sounds like a good plan to me. I share the plan with Glenn. He’s all for it as well. I go stand in the other line.
Meanwhile a young woman in a bikini top and sarong walks over to the line I’m heading for. Moments later a huge blue parrot lands on her arm. Across the hall is a large cage with other tropical birds and another young lady in a similar costume waits for a while then the parrot flies back to her. The gals give some seeds to youngsters and the parrot eats them out of the children’s hands. Behind me someone is talking about buying birds at swap meets, hand taming them, etc. The line moves very slowly. By the time Glenn shows up with the tickets I’ve moved about half the length of the line forward. We have another 10 or 15 minute wait until we get inside.
Inside it is cool and damp. We see various tanks with different fish, eels, rays. Further on there are two pythons. Around the bend is a tank with piranhas. This one is interesting. It is open at the top. A true moron could stick his (or her) hand right inside. A uniformed guard is standing a bit behind us watching. The tank is crowded with piranhas, looks like the crowd around a 70% off shoe sale, jostling for positions. These ugly things really do have evil looking teeth! I joke to Glenn that I wonder when it’s feeding time; that would be a show. We pass a tank that goes well above our heads. There are small sharks and other fish. Then we enter a cave-like tunnel that leads to a petting pool which has small ray fish flattening themselves against the sandy bottom. I walk around and notice that there are a few of them who are buried in the sand and only their eyes and bits of fins are showing. One ray starts flapping up against the side, splashing water out of the pool to much yelping from girls and boys nearby.
There is a huge cylindrical tank of jellyfish that just fascinates me, Glenn takes a picture. The next area is the big shark tank. There is a hammerhead and a sawtoothed shark as well as many ‘normal’ looking sharks, the list on the website is rather extensive and I don’t know which of them is in this tank versus the other tanks we have passed with smaller sharks. (The list is: blacktip reef sharks, whitetip reef sharks, bonnet-head sharks, nurse sharks, sand tiger sharks, sandbar sharks, zebra sharks, white spotted bamboo sharks, port jackson sharks, lemon sharks).
We finish the tour and I need to use the bathroom. We have to walk back to the petting pool area to use the bathroom. I walk into the ladies room. There is a sound track playing. It is a splashing, burbling sound like gentle waves. If I hadn’t needed to go I would definitely need to now, and since I already had to go with a small amount of urgency this made it even more critical to get into a stall as soon as possible. Looking back it’s actually pretty funny. While I was there I had no sense of humor at all about it.
We leave through the merchandising area, do a little poking around through the souvenirs and then head off back to the main hotel/casino area. Glenn mentions that there is a new facility at Mandalay called “THEhotel” so we strike off in that direction to see what it’s like. There are upscale shops, lots of marble and dark wood. A lounge with big leather club chairs catches our eye and we sit down for a drink. Pina Colada for Glenn (surprised?) and a Tequila Sunrise for me. We notice that there is a room just beside our table and it’s got 2 pool tables. Glenn has recently taken up pool pretty seriously, he has his own very nice cue and has taken a clinic and become a member of a local pool establishment. He and I decide to wander into the room to see what it’s like. The tables are very nice with a camel colored felt and beige chalk instead of blue. We get our drinks and mine is very strong and I haven’t had much to eat. Actually, nothing since breakfast.
After the drinks we move back out through the Mandalay Bay casino (rather tipsily in my case) we were thinking about going back to our hotel to change for the evening show but I decide against it. We walk through Luxor and Excalibur to the Strip and then across to New York, New York. We wander through the New York, New York casino and don’t see any slots under a car. I should digress and explain. Glenn indulges my desire to lose money on Quarter slots if and only if I play them at the machines that have a car as the big jackpot. In many casinos there are sport Beemers and Mercedes, convertible Mustangs, etc. as the jackpot prize. Since there are no cars in NY, NY we go across to Monte Carlo. We find a car and play for a short while but between my hunger and not having a fun time at these particular slots we decide to get dinner.
We wander around and find a Pub and Microbrewery and get a table. I get out the paperwork for the ticket will call to check on when we need to get back. Oops. If we don’t pick up our tickets an hour before the show we can lose them and they’ll be given to the stand-by crowd. The show starts at 7, we have to pick up the tickets by 6 and it’s about 5:20. Waitress, we need that food to-go!
We grab our styrofoam containers and walk briskly out of the Monte Carlo. We exit a different door than we entered and we have to walk down the street to get back to the strip to cross to the New York, New York. We enter the door that advertises the theatre and the Zumanity show’s venue as well. Glenn takes a table just across from the ticket counter, it’s about 5:35 and I go grab our tickets. Glenn goes to get some ketchup, salt and drinks so I start in on my dinner. We ordered the same thing, a thinly sliced steak wrap. I start in on mine and discover something amazing. Modern science has created beef with NO TASTE WHATSOEVER!!!! Even the mushrooms, peppers and onions in the wrap are tasteless. I eat the garlic fries just so I have something to taste. I eat the apple and orange slices for the same reason. I’m tempted to eat the styrofoam.
We were told that the doors opened at 6:15 and they wanted us seated at 6:30. I don’t really understand why but we wandered over around 6:10. A usher type person told us to just move to the area infront of the doors and they’d open shortly. We moseyed up and stood around for a bit, wandered into the gift shop then wandered out. A semi-line had formed outside the two sets of doors. We just stood off to the side of the gift shop near one of the lines. Glenn noted that there was a couple ‘in line’ that was not happy that we were crashing the line. This puzzled me. We’re being let in 45 minutes early. We ALL HAVE ASSIGNED SEATS. What was their issue? We finally are let inside and we go to the usher who escorts us to our seat. The angry couple is taken up to a balcony row seat. Glenn and I have a ‘duo couch’ (like a loveseat) that’s very close to the stage off to the side which didn’t make for the best view but it certainly wasn’t bad since so much of the Cirque du Soleil is in 3 dimensions. Did it make any difference to that couple that we didn’t queue up at the back? Sheesh.
Zumanity is an adult audience only erotically themed show. It was, um, interesting. If you have seen Cirque perform you know that their family shows feature amazing acrobatics and flying artists, humorous acts (not really clowns but their version of clowning) it’s hard to describe and wonderful to watch. Zumanity takes all of the same talents and half the costumes. Glenn went to the bar and got me a Merlot and himself a Zumanitini (shaken not stirred). I’ve had much better Merlot and somehow the plastic cup doesn’t help, but it was ok. The MC is a raunchy gravel voiced person dressed as a female but who knows. There is a dwarf or midget, little person?, who is incredibly buffed out and a talented flying artist. Since they don’t use a traditional trapeze I don’t know what else to call the performers who do the aerial work. I don’t want to spoil anyone’s surprise at the show if they’re going so I won’t go into anymore detail, suffice it to say the warm up to the show is a lot of fun, there are several interesting acts and the ending really took Glenn and I by surprise. We were very glad we went and now we want to see O at the Bellagio really badly!
After the show we weren’t ready to head home, it was barely 9:30. Glenn wanted to go to the Stratosphere. That’s the Las Vegas version of the Seattle Space Needle. There’s a revolving restaurant and bar as well as a roller coaster at the top. We need to get back to the monorail and take it to the northernmost station at the Sahara then walk to the Stratosphere from there. Just outside the MGM station there’s a little frozen drink stand that sells daiquiris and margaritas and, yes, Pina Coladas. Glenn gets the tall one, it’s about 18 inches high. At the monorail station the security person tells us we can’t take the drink aboard. Glenn tries to drink fast. Gets a terrible brain freeze. Guard takes pity and gives Glenn a black trashcan bag to hide his drink in. We get onboard. Then a couple enters with some MGM souvenir glasses and they’re drinking from them. Maybe its just Coke? Right. Glenn is good though and doesn’t drink on the monorail. We hop off at the Sahara and wander through. It’s not too bad – certainly better than the SR *shudder*.
We exit through the Nascar room (yes, Nascar) and are on the street again heading towards the Stratosphere. This is not the Strip. There are tattoo shops and liquor stores, some homeless folk. It’s busy though and I don’t feel afraid. Glenn offers to marry me in the first wedding chapel we see. It’s The Chapel of the Bells and it’s just outside of the Fun City Motel. OK, I don’t know about you but this is not the wedding I’m dreaming of so I tell Glenn if he’s gonna marry me in Vegas it has to be on the bridge of the Enterprise at the Hilton. Since that costs about 3k it’s not gonna happen. Oh well. Maybe next year?
We get to the Stratosphere and find the entrance to the tower. There’s a ticket counter and it costs $9 each. On top of that there’s about an hour wait. Damn. We decide not to go for it this time.
For the last several hours I’ve had a bit of a headache (the Merlot? the dinner?) and my shoulder was aching from carrying my purse all day but my main problem was that I was wearing a new pair of shorts that I hadn’t washed first, just threw in the suitcase. This turned out to be a bad thing as the seams in the leg had chafed my thighs and this was starting to be very painful. We had stopped in the gift shop and picked up a few snacks and I bought Motrin and baby powder. I’d applied the powder in a restroom and taken the Motrin but it really wasn’t helping. There were stores at the Stratosphere so I tell Glenn we’re gonna shop for some shorts or some boxers. We went through a few clothing stores with no luck then finally found a place that had boxers. Bright poker themed boxers. I picked a medium pair thinking medium men’s would fit fine. We find a restroom and I put them on. They were skin tight and barely long enough to cover the chafed spots. Now I’m not a size 4 but I’m not huge either. Medium men’s shorts really would fit just fine. These turn out to be boy’s mediums. Oh well. We walk back to the Sahara and joke about getting tattooed, but it stays a joke and we’ve nothing to show, honest. The monorail stopped running at Midnight so we catch a cab back to Embassy Suites and turn in for the night.
Posted by Dawno at August 3, 2004 07:46 PM