A little while ago, I took advantage of fall break and made a trip to the world-famous gambling capital, Las Vegas. My biggest impression from this trip to the LV Strip area was that you can gamble anywhere, on anything—and most importantly, I was both shocked and secretly thrilled when I was somehow upgraded to the top-tier suite at the MGM Grand hotel.:mrgreen:
As soon as I boarded the flight from Chicago to Las Vegas, I heard a few older guys in the row ahead discussing how much money they planned to lose there :arrow: You could say the gambling atmosphere started the moment we got on the plane.
Flying over Chicago~
ORD: a major United HUB, with United aircraft at T1
Flying over the mountains near Las Vegas
After getting off the plane and entering the airport, the very first thing we saw was rows of slot machines right in the middle of the terminal... You can gamble a few rounds after landing, a few more while waiting for your next flight, and even a few while waiting for checked luggage... It really feels like being surrounded by a sea of gambling.
Rows and rows of slot machines are everywhere
We took an Uber, and the driver was Chinese American. Seeing our huge group heading to the hotel to check in—my friends and I were traveling together during fall break—he actually wanted to bet with us on where we were from, with the fare as the wager. And he lost... The guy was really nice and hilarious. He spent the whole ride introducing us to hotels around the LV area, and you couldn’t tell at all that he had just lost the cost of the ride.:lol:
On the first day, we stayed at Embassy Suites by Hilton Convention Center. The room was large and cozy, though the view out the window was basically just barren mountains in the distance.
The lobby photographed from the elevator
Standard shower setup
Not a glamorous city view from the window, but it had its own charm
Our plan for the second day was Death Valley. We got back really late, but still went to line up for the famous buffet at Wynn. I had seen on Weibo that it should cost only $30+, but when my friend came back after buying everyone’s tickets, he told us it was $60+—we got totally ripped off :???:. (Because we went so late, there was only a little over an hour left, so we got in with almost no line:razz:) The fanciest item there was probably the king crab legs, and basically everyone crowded around that section was Asian.....
The exterior of the Wynn building has a very modern design
Let me also recommend an Asian BBQ place that both my friends and I thought was incredibly good: gangnam asian bbq. One of the Korean servers there spoke pretty fluent Chinese too.....
They give you plenty of side dishes, and the meat was marinated really well~
Now for the main event!!!
When we went to check in at MGM grand that night, I vaguely remember it being after 11 pm. There was still a short line in the lobby, maybe more than ten people. So my friend and I got in line properly at the back. When it was finally our turn, there was one white woman and one Black man still working the counters. My friend, being the type to ditch bros for pretty girls, walked right past me to check in with the white woman. That left me and my LD exchanging a helpless look before we headed over to the Black guy—who knew that would be the beginning of our good luck?!
As usual, I told him I wanted to check in. He very kindly pulled up the room and reviewed the information. During that pause, I remembered that I had just gotten an IHG credit card and still hadn’t finished the $2000 minimum spend for the welcome bonus, so I asked whether I could use that card instead of the one I had entered online. He immediately looked up and said no problem, just show him the card I wanted to switch to. I quickly pulled out my wallet, found the card, and handed it to him. Then he took my card and said, “Sir, please wait a moment,” and went to coordinate something.
When he came back, he was all smiles and said, “Sir, I upgraded you to a suite. Normally this goes for more than $1000, but I upgraded you for free this time,” and so on and so forth. Then he handed me the key cards, said he had other things to take care of, and that the original charge on the previous card would be refunded after a while—and then he walked away, leaving me standing there dumbfounded, holding the room key.... The whole process had seemed completely normal. To this day, I still don’t understand why I got upgraded to a suite.... The only things I can think of are that I had casually signed up for MGM’s basic-tier membership when booking the room, or maybe while I was flipping through my wallet he saw my CSR and AMEX Platinum cards? Haha, whatever the reason, none of it matters. I got a free suite upgrade, and that’s all that counts~ No need to mention how my friend looked at me with envy and resentment while holding the key card to his basic room~ haha:mrgree:
(A quick note: in the U.S., “suite” is pronounced a lot like “sweet.” After I got the key cards and realized what had happened, I excitedly told my LD that we’d been upgraded to a suite. My LD looked at me like I was ridiculous and said, “They just gave us candy. Look how excited you are over that.” Me......:???:)
The MGM hotel complex is split into several towers/buildings (Grand, South, North, West wing). The suite we were staying in was in Grand, which is one of the top buildings there. (Walk a little way past the casino next to the lobby, then turn right and you’ll get to Grand.)
The classic MGM golden lion sitting in the lobby (shot in a hurry before leaving)
I was shocked as soon as I walked in—wow, it’s two stories?!
The chandelier was gorgeous
Inner living room on the first floor
A slightly naughty wallpaper design:grin:
The upstairs bedroom was also very nice. Once the curtains went up, you could see the New York-New York roller coaster across the way
This bathroom control system was pretty fun—you could control where the water came out from (there were six outlets in total)
The bathrooms were stocked with Bulgari amenities. There were two bathrooms in the suite, with four full sets altogether... Of course, my LD and I took them all when we checked out:grin: (I later felt a little bad, so I left a token $20 tip...) After we got back, my LD looked it up and found that even the little soap cost more than $20. So does that mean the bath amenities we brought back basically covered the entire room rate of $180+ including tax? :grin:
After wandering around inside until we got tired, we stepped out onto the balcony, which was actually my favorite part of the suite:oops:
This location, this backdrop—it’s really a shame we were too tired after Death Valley to throw a party that night
The view in the distance was fantastic
Taken from the bedroom window in the morning—before 9 am, people were already riding the roller coaster:arrow:
All in all, this Las Vegas trip was elevated tremendously by this unexpected suite upgrade~ We’re actually pretty easy to please, right? As long as we get upgraded to a suite every time, we’ll be happy, haha:mrgreen:
Finally, I’ll wrap up this post with the MGM GRAND room key~
