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Las Vegas Rundown
11 years ago
General
On Wednesday the 17th at 5:40am I was taking off from the Kingston airport enroute to Toronto. Why was I flying at such a crazy time? I was on my way to Las Vegas for InfoCOMM 2014 at the LVCC. The following is my account of the days spent in Sin city.
The flight to Toronto was problem free and we landed on time. I managed to get through the security line and US customs in decent time.. Well as decent as you can when the airport is backed up because ALL of Air Canada's computer systems went down the night before in a heavy storm/local tornado scenario.
I boarded the plane in good time and we were off for the 4 hour trip to Las Vegas. As the plane came in for its landing I was looking out the window and you could already see the strip. The first thing that went by my window as the wheels touched down was the Luxor hotel. This is a sight I have wanted to see for years now and I was finally here.
Upon landing I hopped onto the shuttle bus and over to my hotel, The Monte Carlo hotel. I checked in and had a wonderful view of the pool which was full all the time and had some pretty amazing music. The reason for the amazing music? EDC was also going on over the weekend. This meant my hotel was also full of rave bound kids. Their costumes were pretty awesome overall an it kinda gave me the vibe of a fur con. Hell I was even wearing a lanyard badge with my InfoCOMM credentials on it so it felt even more like a fur con in the hotel.
That feeling went away when I hit the LVCC for InfoCOMM itself. It was all business.
The tradeshow floor was amazing. Lots of manufactures had all their latest gear out on display in amazing booths. I saw more 4k TV's then I ever thought I would, and even got to play with some 4K 10,000+ lumen theatre/venue projectors. There were LED digital sign walls everywhere and all the gear from Monoprice to everything that Black Magic Designs makes all under one MASSIVE roof. I was in heaven. I also picked up my pass to a private party held by Crestron at the Palms hotel.
I spent the day roaming from booth to booth checking out whatever I could until around 4:30 when I decided I had enough and headed back to the hotel. I went to my room and relaxed for an hour or so and then decided to get some food as I had not had much to eat at the convention centre. The Monte Carlo has some great places to eat and I bypassed them all. I just wanted something quick and "cheap" (cheap is a relative word in Las Vegas) so I went over to the fast food area of the hotel and grabbed a chicken sandwich and some fries.
Because the travel and time zone changes as well as being up super early in the morning I crashed pretty early and had a pretty deep sleep.
I was up Thursday morning bright and early and off to a breakfast at the LVCC sponsored by a vendor that we use heavily here. They were going through some of the new trends in education and systems control so I was all over that, seeing as it is my field of work. After breakfast and the meeting I wandered the booths more, getting to the places that I missed and revisiting some of the other spaces. It was a lot to take in but I had some really productive meetings and made some great connections.
At 5pm it was time to roll out to the vendor party at the Palms so I boarded a bus and went to the most amazing poolside party. There was free food, free drinks, live music, dancing people.. it was pretty amazing. The best part was at 7pm when we were sent into the Pearl Theatre at the Palms and got to see a concert. It was Brian Setzer doing an amazing set. He started with a swing set, and then part way through he did some Stray Cats stuff. After that it was more swing music. I was right against the stage and was in heaven. I loved every moment of it. I even got High 5's from every member of the band and Brian twice. I took some amazing pictures during that performance. I am just running them through PhotoShop to balance the colour and everything and I promise to post them soon.
After the concert we were bussed back to our hotel. I decided that I had not had enough and started to walk the strip. I went to New York New York, Excalibur, Ballys, Luxor and a few other hotels just to check them out. I also collect casino chips so I was sure to get a 1$ chip from every one I visited.
Finally at about 2am I rolled in to bed. It was a pretty amazing night.
Friday I had no meeting scheduled and I also has met with everyone I wanted to on Thursday so I decided to roam the strip. I dressed up in a nice shirt with long sleeves (a must in the desert sun) and took a cab over to the Fashion Show Mall about 2 miles from my hotel. There I did some shopping and picked up something at Hot Topic for Xzion. After drooling on new shoes and other shiny expensive things at the mall I started along the strip. I hit every casino I could. At the Wynn hotel I visited the Ferrari dealership and took a walk around the showroom (you have to pay a cover charge to get in there). I also got a souvenir picture of myself in an F430 convertible as well. When they post those images online I will link everyone to them.
After Wynn it was a blur. Hotel after hotel, each one more opulent and crazy then the next. At one I got to try on a Christophe Claret Poker wristwatch worth $195,000 and the sales person at the boutique tried to convince me that I needed to treat myself and buy it. Trust me if I had the money to burn it would be on my wrist as we speak but unless I hit it big at the tables it will forever remain a dream.
I also walked the Venetian hotel and Caesar's Palace. These places are so over the top it is not funny. Indoor markets and canals that look like you are outdoors, complete with day/night cycles. It is mind-bending.
After many hours I finally got back to my room. It took me probably 8 hours to walk just the 2 miles back to my hotel.
When I checked into the hotel I got a coupon for 40% off a ticket to see Blue Man Group who have their own permanent show in the theatre at the hotel. So I decided to go and got a great seat. The show was amazing! It was my second time seeing BMG live, the first was their live touring show, and it was completely different from the theatre show. I was entertained completely and quite happy I went.
After the show I decided to have a really nice dinner at the Brand steakhouse in the hotel. I had a Kobe beef meatball pizza with fresh buffalo mozzarella and it was amazing. For desert I had donut holes filled with Nutella and it had strawberry and peanut butter dipping sauces with it. SOOOO good.
I finally crashed after that and got up early to catch my flight home.
When I was checking out I was expecting a bit of an outlay with the resort fee of $20 a day and internet at $14.99 a day as well as that last dinner on the bill. Turns out the hotel comp'ed the internet access and the meal so I was only in the hole for $60 for the resort fees. SCORE.
This was the last bit of good news that day. As I checked in and got through security at the airport I found out that my flight was delayed by 2 hours in Toronto. This meant that by they time they landed and got the plane ready for the next flight and we got in the air, I was going to miss my connection to Kingston. When we landed in Toronto the flight I should have been on to Kingston had just landed in Kingston without me on it of course.
Air Canada put me up in a hotel for the night which happened to be the International Plaza hotel in Toronto. This hotel was formerly known as the Double Tree by the airport.. or the hotel that Furnal Equinox used to be at. It turns out that even with a name change, the hotel still has terrible service and rude people. So the more things change the more they stay the same.
I finally got on my plane at 8:50am on Sunday and landed 45 minutes later in Kingston. I was quite happy to get home to be honest. It was a long LONG trip.
So I am back, and in my office here at work catching up on everything that I need to, and I am back on the road on Wednesday to take my dad to a liver clinic appointment in Toronto early in the morning.
It never rains but it pours.
At least I have my birthday to look forward to on Sunday.... When I am doing my laundry
That was my week, I am sure it was a lot of TL;DR but I promise to have a few pictures up online soon.
The flight to Toronto was problem free and we landed on time. I managed to get through the security line and US customs in decent time.. Well as decent as you can when the airport is backed up because ALL of Air Canada's computer systems went down the night before in a heavy storm/local tornado scenario.
I boarded the plane in good time and we were off for the 4 hour trip to Las Vegas. As the plane came in for its landing I was looking out the window and you could already see the strip. The first thing that went by my window as the wheels touched down was the Luxor hotel. This is a sight I have wanted to see for years now and I was finally here.
Upon landing I hopped onto the shuttle bus and over to my hotel, The Monte Carlo hotel. I checked in and had a wonderful view of the pool which was full all the time and had some pretty amazing music. The reason for the amazing music? EDC was also going on over the weekend. This meant my hotel was also full of rave bound kids. Their costumes were pretty awesome overall an it kinda gave me the vibe of a fur con. Hell I was even wearing a lanyard badge with my InfoCOMM credentials on it so it felt even more like a fur con in the hotel.
That feeling went away when I hit the LVCC for InfoCOMM itself. It was all business.
The tradeshow floor was amazing. Lots of manufactures had all their latest gear out on display in amazing booths. I saw more 4k TV's then I ever thought I would, and even got to play with some 4K 10,000+ lumen theatre/venue projectors. There were LED digital sign walls everywhere and all the gear from Monoprice to everything that Black Magic Designs makes all under one MASSIVE roof. I was in heaven. I also picked up my pass to a private party held by Crestron at the Palms hotel.
I spent the day roaming from booth to booth checking out whatever I could until around 4:30 when I decided I had enough and headed back to the hotel. I went to my room and relaxed for an hour or so and then decided to get some food as I had not had much to eat at the convention centre. The Monte Carlo has some great places to eat and I bypassed them all. I just wanted something quick and "cheap" (cheap is a relative word in Las Vegas) so I went over to the fast food area of the hotel and grabbed a chicken sandwich and some fries.
Because the travel and time zone changes as well as being up super early in the morning I crashed pretty early and had a pretty deep sleep.
I was up Thursday morning bright and early and off to a breakfast at the LVCC sponsored by a vendor that we use heavily here. They were going through some of the new trends in education and systems control so I was all over that, seeing as it is my field of work. After breakfast and the meeting I wandered the booths more, getting to the places that I missed and revisiting some of the other spaces. It was a lot to take in but I had some really productive meetings and made some great connections.
At 5pm it was time to roll out to the vendor party at the Palms so I boarded a bus and went to the most amazing poolside party. There was free food, free drinks, live music, dancing people.. it was pretty amazing. The best part was at 7pm when we were sent into the Pearl Theatre at the Palms and got to see a concert. It was Brian Setzer doing an amazing set. He started with a swing set, and then part way through he did some Stray Cats stuff. After that it was more swing music. I was right against the stage and was in heaven. I loved every moment of it. I even got High 5's from every member of the band and Brian twice. I took some amazing pictures during that performance. I am just running them through PhotoShop to balance the colour and everything and I promise to post them soon.
After the concert we were bussed back to our hotel. I decided that I had not had enough and started to walk the strip. I went to New York New York, Excalibur, Ballys, Luxor and a few other hotels just to check them out. I also collect casino chips so I was sure to get a 1$ chip from every one I visited.
Finally at about 2am I rolled in to bed. It was a pretty amazing night.
Friday I had no meeting scheduled and I also has met with everyone I wanted to on Thursday so I decided to roam the strip. I dressed up in a nice shirt with long sleeves (a must in the desert sun) and took a cab over to the Fashion Show Mall about 2 miles from my hotel. There I did some shopping and picked up something at Hot Topic for Xzion. After drooling on new shoes and other shiny expensive things at the mall I started along the strip. I hit every casino I could. At the Wynn hotel I visited the Ferrari dealership and took a walk around the showroom (you have to pay a cover charge to get in there). I also got a souvenir picture of myself in an F430 convertible as well. When they post those images online I will link everyone to them.
After Wynn it was a blur. Hotel after hotel, each one more opulent and crazy then the next. At one I got to try on a Christophe Claret Poker wristwatch worth $195,000 and the sales person at the boutique tried to convince me that I needed to treat myself and buy it. Trust me if I had the money to burn it would be on my wrist as we speak but unless I hit it big at the tables it will forever remain a dream.
I also walked the Venetian hotel and Caesar's Palace. These places are so over the top it is not funny. Indoor markets and canals that look like you are outdoors, complete with day/night cycles. It is mind-bending.
After many hours I finally got back to my room. It took me probably 8 hours to walk just the 2 miles back to my hotel.
When I checked into the hotel I got a coupon for 40% off a ticket to see Blue Man Group who have their own permanent show in the theatre at the hotel. So I decided to go and got a great seat. The show was amazing! It was my second time seeing BMG live, the first was their live touring show, and it was completely different from the theatre show. I was entertained completely and quite happy I went.
After the show I decided to have a really nice dinner at the Brand steakhouse in the hotel. I had a Kobe beef meatball pizza with fresh buffalo mozzarella and it was amazing. For desert I had donut holes filled with Nutella and it had strawberry and peanut butter dipping sauces with it. SOOOO good.
I finally crashed after that and got up early to catch my flight home.
When I was checking out I was expecting a bit of an outlay with the resort fee of $20 a day and internet at $14.99 a day as well as that last dinner on the bill. Turns out the hotel comp'ed the internet access and the meal so I was only in the hole for $60 for the resort fees. SCORE.
This was the last bit of good news that day. As I checked in and got through security at the airport I found out that my flight was delayed by 2 hours in Toronto. This meant that by they time they landed and got the plane ready for the next flight and we got in the air, I was going to miss my connection to Kingston. When we landed in Toronto the flight I should have been on to Kingston had just landed in Kingston without me on it of course.
Air Canada put me up in a hotel for the night which happened to be the International Plaza hotel in Toronto. This hotel was formerly known as the Double Tree by the airport.. or the hotel that Furnal Equinox used to be at. It turns out that even with a name change, the hotel still has terrible service and rude people. So the more things change the more they stay the same.
I finally got on my plane at 8:50am on Sunday and landed 45 minutes later in Kingston. I was quite happy to get home to be honest. It was a long LONG trip.
So I am back, and in my office here at work catching up on everything that I need to, and I am back on the road on Wednesday to take my dad to a liver clinic appointment in Toronto early in the morning.
It never rains but it pours.
At least I have my birthday to look forward to on Sunday.... When I am doing my laundry
That was my week, I am sure it was a lot of TL;DR but I promise to have a few pictures up online soon.
It sounds like you really enjoyed your trip, and even if it was because of a missed connection, it was still awesome seeng you in the airport on the way back home! *hugs*
I am glad I got to see you too. It was brief but it was nice *hugs*
Thank you SO much for going out of your way for me as well, I've spent a couple weeks trying to figure out how to find one here without it costing an arm and a leg in shipping. THen last minute it kind of hit me that you were in the US in a tourist trap of a city. I owe ya for sure! *HUGS*
You are welcome hon. I was thinking of heading over to that mall anyway at some point so it was no problem.It meant I got to visit fully half the strip which was nice.
Next time you are down you can pick it up
Well I'm glad you were planning on going over there anyway, I felt bad for taking you so far out of your way, but now not so much. One of these days I need to visit Vegas.
I cant wait to see you all again... and pick up said item. :D