bobmacliberty

The page that I read said 1 pilot, 1 specialist, and 3 paying passengers. Like Andrew said, 5 souls, no matter what you call them.

Looks delicious.

What a fantastic trip! The pre-game stuff on the ice...Vegas being Vegas. 😁 And what a great gift to Robyn!! Wow.

Since people were asking, I posted a link to the thread in question. 🤷‍♂️

Yup. One of my posts went poof.

Oberon.

If you do go back, I recommend spending a few hours at the Alligator Farm Zoological Park across the street from the lighthouse. It looks a little touristy but it's surprisingly good to walk through.

Knowledge is Good!

We had dinner last night at a restaurant called David's...one of the slightly fancier places on the island (nothing is REALLY fancy other than maybe the high-end restaurant in the Ritz). We generally prefer more casual places to eat but it's fun to dress up every now and then. I started with a nice Old Fashioned. My entree was a "Filet Lobster Oscar Mignon" with a lobster tail instead of crab meat. I was very tempted by the Sole Meuniere but couldn't pass up the lobster. Sole Meuniere was my favorite dish at a restaurant that we would always frequent in Geneva when there on business. Micheline also went with the Filet but no Oscar treatment. Hers came with a delicious demi-glace. When she mentioned how good it was to the waiter, he brought out some extra demi-glace and extra bernaise for us. I chose wisely, especially with a nice Napa Cab. We were too stuffed to order any dessert, but they brought out some small macarons anyway. I managed to find some room left in my stomach...delicious. After dinner, we went to our neighbor's house where they had bourbon slushies sitting by their pool. What a great evening.

For me there's two colors...blue and everything else. Unfortunately, I've been told that not all shades of blue go together. So yes...I check with Micheline before going out the door.

This describes my marriage perfectly...both figuratively and literally. "Do these pants go with this shirt?"

I don't know if DirectTV works the same as YouTubeTV (which we have), but I assume it does. Anything that we record is actually recorded on a YouTube server somewhere (i.e., "in the cloud"). It's not recorded on a box that I have in my house. I just need an internet connection to be able to play it back. I'm guessing that's what happened to you with Jeopardy. Nasty storm that rolled through last night. Hopefully your power stayed on this time.

Wow. We had a little bit of rain and heard some loud thunder, but no lightning near us. Good thing you had those LED lanterns. Which subdivision?

Any more detail that you want to provide would be great. Love your reports. Did you eat at The Columbia Restaurant? Or Osprey Tacos/Old Coast Ales? I'm also interested in what you thought of the Fountain of Youth Museum. I've heard everything from it being very tacky to it being interesting and educational. We're thinking of going there on our next St. Augustine day trip.

I really wish you hadn't told me this. 🤣 Cheers!

Did you try a Duck Fart at the Red Dog?

I'm pretty sure that we had a really nice dinner at a restaurant in the Barbary Coast when I first went to Vegas for my roommate's brother's graduation. Their parents treated us to dinner and according to my (not always trustworthy) memory, it was a fancy place. Does that sound familiar?

The other thing about the Floataway Lounge is you can only see it if you're logged in. Not a problem for any of us but could affect some lurkers and those stuck in an infinite Monopoly loop like M8. Doesn't matter to me where this thread is located. I keep it open in a tab so I can always quickly get to it. I can understand the logic behind moving it...this isn't really a Royal specific thread and the mods want to keep things organized. That said, I'd rather just see it stay where it is. If we stay here, I'd expect this discussion to come up again every few months. 🤷‍♂️

Were you anywhere near the Slauson Cutoff?

Vegas almost always comes down to money...how much you have and how much you're willing to spend. I haven't been in a few years so I'd verify that what I say below still exists. For free, there are several small "shows" along the strip. Fountains of Bellagio Volcano eruption in front of the Mirage Circus acts at Circus Circus Lions at MGM Grand Freemont Street Experience downtown (massive multi-block long overhead screen and light show) Conservatory inside Bellagio with rotating exhibits Animatronics show with fire and water in Caesar's Forum Shops (mall next to Caesar's) There was a show called Sirens of TI in front of Treasure Island that closed a few years ago. There were rumors of a replacement show but I don't know if that ever happened. For paid shows, I'm a big fan of the Cirque du Soleil shows. I'd highly recommend O (Bellagio), KA (MGM Grand), and Mystere (TI). I've seen O and KA twice. Love (Beatles themed show at Mirage) is also supposed to be good but I've not seen it. Cirque shows are not cheap though. Similar to last minute Broadway tickets, you can supposedly get last minute Cirque tickets at a good discount. I've never done it and don't know the details. There are other magic, singing, dancing shows if that's their thing. Since they are now 21, there are several fun bars in Vegas Dueling piano bar in Harrah's Live bands and flair bar at Carnaval Court by Harrah's Gilley's Saloon and Dance Hall in TI Coyote Ugly in New York New York (like the movie) There used to be a flair bar (bartenders juggle bottles and shakers) in TI but I don't know if it's still there. There are several high end nightclubs (think hundreds of people on a dance floor with a DJ blasting music and all kinds of special effects happening. We've been to Tao (Venetian) and the Ghost Bar at the Palms (off strip). The most popular nightclubs seem to constantly change and it was 2011 when we last visited one. Too old now (actually, too old then). These are often very expensive just to get in, let alone to order drinks. Depending on where they stay, the pool complexes can be worth a day. Mandalay Bay has probably the most famous pool area, complete with wave pool, but all of the bigger resorts have big pool areas. I don't know how much this would appeal to 21 year olds, but it's worth just wandering through several of the hotels. Bellagio, Wynn, Venetian, MGM Grand, New York New York, even Rio off strip, are all interesting to see. There are several "amusement park" like rides scattered throughout the Vegas area. The roller coaster at New York New York was fun. The rides at the top of The Strat can range from mildly scary (Big Shot...done it) to downright terrifying (X-Scream..nope, nope, nope). There's a zip line in the Freemont Street Experience in downtown Vegas. The High Roller Observation Wheel was the largest of its type when opened but was surpassed by the new wheel in Dubai. It's a cool way to get a great view of Vegas. All of these rides have a separate fee. There are several museum type places...the Mob Musuem, Madame Tussaud's, Neon Museum, Titanic Exhibition at Luxor. We've only done Madame Tussaud's but we were surprised by how much we enjoyed it. There are zillions of restaurants in Vegas ranging from fast food to super high end. One interesting one that we did was the restaurant in the Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas. It's right across the street from the Fountains of Bellagio and about 10 stories up, so you get a great view of the show. I agree that Trip Advisor is a good way to evaluate restaurants of different costs and food types. I usually line up with the ratings given by travelers on Trip Advisor. If they want to gamble on something other than slot machines cheaply, the best ways are to gamble during the day/off hours or go to a more local casino off the strip. A Google search will turn up several local places. Harrah's used to have a blackjack section where the dealer was a celebrity impersonator...Marliyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, etc. Table games at the bigger name casinos on the strip will start with a $25 minimum bet during busy times, and those may be hard to find. And of course, there's shopping everywhere. Again, I don't know how much time 21 year olds will want to spend shopping. I'd also warn them of a couple of things. There will probably be people trying to hand you little cards as you walk down the sidewalk. These are usually cards advertising escort services or other similar business ventures. Just ignore them and walk by. There are several street entertainers and people dressed up in costumes. If you get your picture taken with them, they expect a tip. Happy to answer any questions they may have although like I said earlier, it's been a few years.

Went to my first baseball game (actually a double header) yesterday in several years...the AAA Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp hosting the Nashville Sounds. The son of good friends of ours from Cincinnati is pitching for Nashville. I might have mentioned this before but he's quickly worked his way up from the Arizona Rookie League and now just one step below the majors. His parents have been traveling around to watch him play. He's a middle reliever, so they never know when he's going to pitch. He got into the first game with Nashville trailing by 2. He struggled with control a bit and the first batter he faced hit an easy ground ball to first. The first baseman bobbled it and the batter was safe (error). He gave up his first AAA home run to the next batter. He settled down after that and struck out 2 batters but he was not at all happy with his performance. Untitled video (2).mp4 Minor league ballparks are always fun. The Jacksonville stadium has a tiki bar in left field. Not a bad way to watch a ball game.

We just started watching a really good TV series on Paramount+ called the The Offer. It's about the making of The Godfather. We're hooked. Good performances by several actors with Miles Teller (Rooster from Top Gun Maverick) in the lead role as the movie's producer Al Ruddy. The actors who play young Marlon Brando and Al Pacino are amazingly like the real people. Juno Temple (Keeley on Ted Lasso) plays Ruddy's secretary and it's weird seeing her talking with an American accent. I highly recommend watching.

I loved going to CES. I'm a tech/gadget nerd and CES was heaven. So many massive booths from the big companies but also so many interesting little booths from a no name company touting their new invention that would hopefully make them rich. I also enjoyed the large keynote speeches from the major companies announcing what's new for them. What a huge production those were, including celebrity actors and musicians. I enjoyed watching the Microsoft keynote speech at the packed MGM Grand Arena along with thousands of my closest friends...all waiting to see what Bill Gates had to say.

I first went to Vegas sometime around 1985. My roommate's little brother was graduating from UNLV. It was VERY different back then. You could get those great food deals that you mentioned. My roommate's brother introduced us to a small place in front of Circus Circus called Slots A Fun. Great place for cheap gambling and cheap beer for those who were on a budget. I used to go to Vegas annually for Comdex and then the CES show. I watched Vegas change several times. I remember when they tried to "clean it up" and make it more family friendly. That didn't last long. They brought in celebrity chefs and the cost of food skyrocketed. One by one, the old places were knocked down/imploded and replaced with mega resorts. I remember staying at the Dunes once. Cool place. I don't mind the current version since it's a little more upscale and has great shows. But I do miss the old version.

You just keep giving me more reasons to visit Sydney! Amazing.