Las Vegas - Part 1

December 28th we got to the airport at 6:10am for our 9:30am flight. We got caught up in the whole fufura with the Christmas Day attempted bombing and the after effects being that we had to get to the airport extra early for a few new layers of security. It made for a LONG day. Not that I mind, in the long run, since it will make things safer for everyone. Though at the time, it wasn't great.

We had four layers of security to go through. First we had to put our bags through the X-ray machine (which is normal), then we had to go through the X-ray machines ourselves, then a physical patdown and then our carry-on bags were physically searched. In order to make things easier on ourselves, we decided to check-in everything except my purse and Josh's camera bag. All of that took an hour and a half.

Once all that was complete, we sat around to board our plane. We waited...and waited...and waited. Then we waited some more. The flight could not take off until everyone was on board, and they decided to delay the flight because some passengers were caught up in the extra security measures.

Fine, whatever.

We eventually took off an hour and a half late. I guess I should count myself lucky, the previous day's 9:30am flight didn't take off until 2:00pm. Ugh.

We finally arrived in Vegas (bay-bee) and went to the hotel. We were able to check in early, so we went right up to our room. I took one look inside and noticed that they gave us a room with two double beds - I had requested a room with a king size, so that was a problem. I went down to the front desk and told them what happened and I was told "requests cannot always be filled and if you want a king size bed, you'll have to wait until 3:00 when normal check-in is."

Fine, whatever.

We put our bags in the secured baggage area and went to the Flamingo Hotel for a bite to eat.

Check out the size of the koi in relation to the size of the duck. Insane!




























After lunch, we went back to the hotel and got the keys to room #2. We walked in and this is what we saw...(notice the lovely stains on the floor).












































Needless to say, a call was *immediately* placed to the manager. I told him all that had gone wrong since we arrived (and that I always stay at this hotel), and he apologized profusely. He also told us that he would "do something" for our trouble. He asked me "what would you like me to do?" I told him to "think of something and get back to me".

About ten minutes later, a bellhop came up to our room and transferred our bags to the new room. The manager called us in the new room and said that he was reviewing our reservation details. He told me "the price you are paying is astronomical and I'll reduce your room rate". He ended up not only taking $300 off our stay, but he also sent us free tickets to the shows at the hotel as well as several food vouchers.

Awe.some.

I'll be posting more about our trip during the week...this is just a teaser. ;)