Stratton's MGM TR 7/10-7/13, the long and boring version

There will be a number of installments to this, so rather than make you hunt for them, I will post them all as replies to this same thread. Be warned, I am secretly just an old fuddy-duddy so there is no drunken debauchery to be found in this report.

I don%26#39;t want no complaints about the length. If you want the short version, it%26#39;s here: …tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g45963-i10-k13322…

Stratton's MGM TR 7/10-7/13, the long and boring version

So far all I see is Stratton%26#39;s back....doesn%26#39;t get any shorter.....lol

Stratton's MGM TR 7/10-7/13, the long and boring version

lmao Lowrance..........that was short and very sweet, stratton, lol ;)

Ok it isn%26#39;t too long, but it is boring - lol!

It has been like 10 minutes now, ya know!

Still waiting.......

maybe it is the ';long and boring'; wait? just kidding.

PART ONE: Death From Above

Let me begin with the basics. I am a single man in my early 30s. This was my fourth trip to LV and my first solo trip. I booked a Grand Tower room for three nights (Tue-Thu) at MGM with a great rate of $70 per night through a promo code found on FatWallet. My flight was booked direct with Delta, returning on Friday night so as to give me maximum time in Vegas.

My flight out of Boston Logan was supposed to leave at 7:00 PM Tuesday and arrive in Vegas around 10:15. I worked a full day at the office Tuesday beginning at 7:30 AM so I didn%26#39;t plan much for that first night, which turned out to be a good thing (%26lt;----foreshadowing).

Before leaving for the airport I checked online and found my flight was delayed. No big deal, I thought. Then it was delayed again. When the delay hit two hours, I called the airline and asked the reason for the delay. They weren%26#39;t sure, but they believed it was weather related. I checked the Logan site and some flights were getting out. Since I was on a non-stop flight, I called Delta back and asked if they could rebook me on a connecting flight that might be able to get out. No such luck. The problem turned out to be that the plane that was coming in from Atlanta could not land because of fog (you would think in our century of laser-guided robot bombs and Google Earth, that someone would have figured out how to land a plane in fog by now, but I guess not.) In total, the flight was delayed 3 1/2 hours. I only live about half an hour from the airport, so I waited it out at home.

When I finally get to the airport, it%26#39;s after 9 PM and the terminal is like a ghost town. There are only two Delta employees visible in the entire terminal. I use the self-check-in kiosk to get my boarding pass and then go to the counter to check my bag. The clerk asks me where I%26#39;m going and I very clearly say ';Las Vegas'; - it%26#39;s also on my boarding pass which i show her. I watch her tag my suitcase and throw it upside down on the conveyor belt (thanks a lot). Most importantly of all, I get the little claim check, you know, just in case anything happens to my luggage. (%26lt;---foreshadowing)

I clear security without incident and arrive at the gate. There are a lot of people waiting, the AC isn%26#39;t working as well as it should (it was in the mid 90s that day), and it appears the airline has broken out free water bottles and snacks for the disgruntled passengers. Of course, there%26#39;s no water left for me, and i can%26#39;t buy any because it%26#39;s after 10 PM and all the concessions in the terminal are CLOSED. I avail myself of the water fountain near the restrooms and wait. Our plane finally arrives around 10:15 and it seems to t6ake a half-hour to get everyone off so they can clean it. Meanwhile, they keep announcing that there are upgrades available to first-class for $150 - but not to my ';category'; of ticket. I try to read my book and be patient. The flight finally begins boarding at 10:45 PM, when it was supposed to depart. Boarding goes OK, I have a window seat next to an older lady who brought her own blanket to keep her legs warm (she is wearing shorts.) This is good because older folks have been raised properly and know how to behave on a plane without bothering anybody, so she and I get along fine. Along with the other guy in our row, we even coordinated our restroom and leg-stretching breaks so that they didn%26#39;t have to keep getting up to let someone out.

Flight finally gets off the ground. All I want to do is nap, but I can%26#39;t because all the people in front of me want to do is yap. The movie starts and I hope it will shut them up as the headphones on Delta are free. Unfortunately, I can hear the movie quite well even without the headphones. I tell the flight attendant and she says that the sound isn%26#39;t coming from the speaker but from someone%26#39;s armrest headset jack that is not being used and has the volume turned up all the way. (Now we know why the headsets are free.) It%26#39;s not until 2/3 of the way through the movie that they find it and fix it, by then I have given up on sleep and am reading. After the interminable snack and beverage service it FINALLY quiets down and I am able to nap a little bit. By the time we are approaching our destination, I am awake. Let me state this for the record: I did not notice any unusual turbulence in the approach to Las Vegas, nor have I ever noticed any. Maybe I%26#39;m just used to turbulence, I don%26#39;t know. The landing to me seemed routine. Local time in Vegas when we land is 1:45 AM - again, three and a half hours after I was supposed to arrive. Needless to say, I am tired.

We deplane and I am the first one at the baggage claim (I walk fast.) This does me no good, as I wait and wait and wait and my bag never shows up. My first paranoid thought is that someone has taken my bag by mistake and I mill around for a few minutes to see if they will come walking back with it. Finally I give up and get in the WTFAMB line (Where The F*** Are My Bags). I wait about 15 minutes, when I get to the counter I give them my priceless claim check. They check the computer and within seconds tell me, ';Your bag is coming tomorrow!';, in a tone that says ';Why would you even expect it to come on the same day as your flight, idiot?'; I can only guess that because I checked in much later than everyone else, my bag wasn%26#39;t in the same place and for whatever reason never made it onto the flight. They tell me my bag is coming in the next morning on a flight that arrives at 10 AM. They give me a number I can call and promise to deliver my bag to the MGM Grand sometime before 6 PM (!) It%26#39;s now about 2:50 AM, and all I want to do is get to the hotel, get in my room, and get some sleep. So I head outside with my carry-on, the taxi line at that hour is negligible, and I tell my driver, ';MGM Grand, please.';

NEXT: Part Deux - Why it S**ks to Arrive at your Hotel At 3 AM.

O.K., good start. Thank you for the intro. Next?: -%26gt;

Hope the rest of the trip was better for you. Maybe a big jackpot made you forget all this. Can%26#39;t wait to read the rest.

Oh, what a start to a vacation. Things have to get better, right?

Can%26#39;t wait for part 2.

Certainly not boring, but what a rotten start to your vacation. No one should have to have so many things go wrong, before they even leave their airport.

Waiting for Part Deux.