Diva Las Vegas

[mommaU4]

Originally Posted by katieandmattsmom

You girls look sooooooo hot!

You like that huh? Just some outfits we threw together at the last minute.

[Stacerita]

Originally Posted by katieandmattsmom

You girls look sooooooo hot!

Actually, we found all those in Beth's closet.

[mommaU4]

Well for awhile there my closet did partly resemble backstage at Jubilee.

[Queenbillabong]

Hey - why was the Vegas TR moved to the Other California TR board??? Strange...............

[Stacerita]

Originally Posted by Queenbillabong

Hey - why was the Vegas TR moved to the Other California TR board??? Strange...............

I had asked about that. Didn't make sense either since its in Nevada. But was told that they moved it since it wasn't part of the planning anymore. I did ask for it to be moved back so others can find it easier and it could be used as a planning tool too. We'll see.

[Queenbillabong]

I thought I would post a couple of pics from our room at the Venetian. Unfortunately, I did not get a pic from the bedroom area (????), but did get these:



The sitting room area.

and



The bathroom (it's pretty hard to get a pic in the loo without getting a pic of yourself in the mirror )

This is the ceiling in the hallway to the casino (on the way to the room:


And here is the beautiful hallway, looking towards the fountain:



I have to say, the Venetian is a beautiful resort and is one of the best smelling hotels I have ever been in!!! We kept commenting on how nice it smelled

[fairykin]

such a beautiful hotel! i'm so glad you all got to stay there!

[BillyFan]

Great start ladies! I am so in for the next trip!

[jordansmomma]

I agree with Theresa, it smelled AMAZING in there!!
I will try to get my pics posted. soon

[BC Disney Lover]

Originally Posted by Queenbillabong

Oooh, I know, I know



Seriously



Hey, BC!!! Whereabouts in BC?? I'm always looking out for another Canadian here

Hi Queenbillabong,
I'm in Mission, I'd love to come on a future trip, you ladies sound fun!

[Stacerita]

Originally Posted by Queenbillabong

I have to say, the Venetian is a beautiful resort and is one of the best smelling hotels I have ever been in!!! We kept commenting on how nice it smelled

Yep, it smelled better than a lot of the other places.

Originally Posted by BC Disney Lover

Hi Queenbillabong,
I'm in Mission, I'd love to come on a future trip, you ladies sound fun!

I see you are going soon....where are you staying? What plans you got?

[Stacerita]

Her name is rio and she dances on the sand
Just like that river twisting through a dusty land
And when she shines she really shows you all she can
Oh rio dancer across the rio grande

We were on our way to the Rio to get our grub on. Not just any grub, but the Rio Carnival Buffet. I have eaten there some years back and remember it as being good. So hopes were high for this meal. Plus most of us were starving. Either being on the road/air early, or just not getting a chance to eat before we started our day.

We decided to pile the luggage into Beth's van and hop into my car for the trip over to the Rio. There were only 5 of us so it worked out great. Thank goodness my AC was working. Especially since I have the child lock windows that don't roll down and the doors as well. But all is good.

Traffic was not that bad. It was still early on Sunday so that was good. We parked on the top floor of the parking structure next to the Chippendale and Flirt Lounge entrance. Easy to remember where you park when you walk pass the Chippendale pictures on the wall. The down side is that the buffet is on the clear other side of the casino. UGH!

We made our way to the buffet with purpose. Only to find a line that rivals TSMM. Yikes! But we were determined to eat there so we hopped into the line. Seriously? No fast pass for this line? No single rider? Damn! The line moved fairly fast. It gave us all some time to chart. I would almost say the wait was fun, but unfortunately there was a demon spawn in front of us in line. What a brat he was. At one point he ran into Deb on purpose.....he didn't say anything, nor did his parents. When he did it a second time, I said something to that kid. Deb just had surgery on her knee and didn't need that little jerk running into her for his own fun.

Finally we get to the front of the line. Only to find an ATM type machine to pay for our meal. It was super slow. Seemed to take forever and a day for each person to move through it. Once done, we queue up and wait to be seated.

Once seated we were offered mimosas and water, along with whatever drink we wanted. Nice and refreshing. Theresa hit the loo (which only had 4 stalls for that huge restaurant), Deb and Marcie went to get some food, and Beth and I waited for them to get back to the table. Didn't want to leave our bags alone at the table, nor did we want to carry them around the buffet with us.

The buffet was massive. There had tons of different things to chose from. Soups, salads, pizza, Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, American, Middle Eastern, sea food and breakfast food. Plus since it was Sunday they had crab legs. Not to mention the huge array of desserts to choose from.

We all made a couple of trips to the buffet and dessert station, but since we were so hungry, we don't have many pics from that meal. I did manage to take this one. It shows my road kill prime rib.



The table next to us ate their weight in crab legs for sure. I don't think any of us over did it. We did get our money's worth, and had really yummy food though. The coconut gelato was so good!

Our waiter didn't like Canadians much. Too bad for Theresa. She wanted water, so when the waiter came over, he filled Deb's glass, Marcie's glass and my glass. Theresa, trying to be helpful, leaned over so he could have easy access to her glass. She waited for him to fill it with water, but then realized he left the table and skipped her totally. We were laughing so hard. It had to be because she was Canadian eh?

Now we were being bad friends at this point. Not one of us was checking her cell phone. We were supposed to be checking it for when Stacielee landed so we could pick her up. Opps. When we finally checked it, she had already landed, picked up her bags, and was waiting for us. Oh no, we were late. I called her and yes, she was still waiting for us. We still had to go back to the Venetian so I could unload some passengers before I could pick her up. She said she would wait for us instead of taking the shuttle.

So we were off again. Long trek back to the car through the casino. And damn, was the car hot when we got in. Made our way over to the Venetian, slowed down so Beth and Theresa could tuck and roll, then off to the airport to pick up Stacielee.

Now, I have been to the airport there before. But always by cab, so honestly, I wasn't exactly sure where I was going or where to pick her up at. But I was determined and was gonna do it. Lucky for us, it was pretty easy to get there, and finding her was a snap. She was sitting on a bench making friends. And sorry to say, it was hot. But she was in the shade. Thankfully. And good news, she didn't hate us. Wooohoo! Great start to the vacation.

It was getting close to 4 pm so the condos were to be ready. We made our way to Summer Bay Resort to get checked in.



At the front gate they have security. Since I was driving I rolled down my window. I let them know we were checking in, they asked for the name......like I could remember Stacielee's last name and if I could pronounce it correctly. I totally butchered it. Didn't matter though, they let us in without even checking a list. Do I feel safe? Oh well. We are here!

Next up.....picking rooms, unpacking, and a grocery run.

[jordansmomma]

I am hungry just thinking about the buffet!!
Man the food was so good!!

that dang demon child....


he is just lucky I forgot my crutches at home!

[BC Disney Lover]

Originally Posted by Stacerita

Yep, it smelled better than a lot of the other places.



I see you are going soon....where are you staying? What plans you got?

My DH and I are going to be staying at The Flamingo August 24-27. It's our first vacation without kids in 5yrs so it should be fun! The only plans we have so far are tickets to Love our first night, and I want to eat at Margaritaville. I've heardthe view from Voodoo Lounge is great but not sure how we'd fit in because it looks quite trendy. I'm looking forward to this trip report for other ideas.

I also saw that your doing a mini meet in Disney in October, we'll be there until the 24th so I'll be watching for everyone

[Queenbillabong]

Originally Posted by BC Disney Lover

My DH and I are going to be staying at The Flamingo August 24-27. It's our first vacation without kids in 5yrs so it should be fun! The only plans we have so far are tickets to Love our first night, and I want to eat at Margaritaville. I've heardthe view from Voodoo Lounge is great but not sure how we'd fit in because it looks quite trendy. I'm looking forward to this trip report for other ideas.

I also saw that your doing a mini meet in Disney in October, we'll be there until the 24th so I'll be watching for everyone

Oooh, we'll miss you by a week in Vegas (we're going August 17) - but we will be in Disneyland in October at the same time. Where are you staying??? Most of us are at the Hojo.

FYI - for Margaritaville, make sure you eat downstairs - way more interesting. Upstairs is just ho-hum and you can't see any of the cool stuff going on downstairs.

BTW - I'm in South Surrey, so not all that far away We totally NEED more Canadians in this group, eh??