After work on the second day my room key would not work. I went to my coworker’s room and used his [...]]]> The rooms of The Venetian certainly were nice as I mentioned before. The service left me desiring a little however. I’m a bit tired of relating the story so I’ll give the short version.

After work on the second day my room key would not work. I went to my coworker’s room and used his phone to call and ask for another room key. After a few security-related questions they said they’d send one right up. About 30 minutes later a man came to the door and gave me the new keys. I went to try them and of course they didn’t work as well. I was tired of waiting around so I came back to my coworker’s room and called them again explaining I thought something was wrong with the door and asking them to send someone to look at the door. Again they said “right away” and so I figured it would be taken care of. Seeing how long it took them to send just a key, I went to another friend’s room who had an Xbox and some entertainment. I stayed there a couple hours then came back to my room to find the key still didn’t work — now it was really getting annoying. I went down to the front desk and explained exactly what had happened, including the fact that I had already tried different room keys. So they sent me up with another set of keys and told me to check in with the security to have them assist me. Basically, I ended up waiting another 30min after getting security to use their master lock and finally the engineers came up and had to reprogram my door before it worked. So it was about 3hrs from when I originally asked them to fix the door and I had to work early the next day. I expected an apology or something at least but I guess I was forgotten. I’m not one to complain loudly to the staff (that’s what my blog is for, right?) so I just stuck it out the rest of the week in my suite.

Sooooo, the entire time I was in Vegas I only got out of the hotel for about 3 or 4 hours total. I looked out to the bright morning sun every day before leaving my room and heading to the convention rooms, but that’s just the way it goes. It was still better than walking around in the rain in Washington to me. Oh, and one more good thing about the Venetian is their Internet price was reasonable at $4.98/24hrs when I’ve seen others as high as $17 for the same period. So yup, that’s enough Vegas for a while. On to L.A. this week!

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect and with tickets above $100 a piece it was a bit of work talking myself [...]]]>

I just returned to my hotel room at The Wynn after seeing their show La Rêve. What can I say that hasn’t already been said? Probably nothing but as usual I’ll still say it.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect and with tickets above $100 a piece it was a bit of work talking myself into it but I figured since I’m in Vegas and don’t gamble I should at least partake in a show! It’s described as a collection of dreams and advertised to be an aerial and aquatic show. It certainly surpassed all my expectations.

I’m not sure if the story line has much to do with it but as far as I could tell it begins with a woman going to sleep. Wait — first let me set the stage for you. The theatre is a theatre in the round so there really is not many bad seats in the house. The stage is set in a pool with one million gallons of water and metal platforms that raise and lower throughout the show. All around the auditorium above and behind the audience are large screens which function as a backdrop to each sequence with subtle lighting and sometimes a background to the set. So this woman goes to sleep on a bed in the middle of the pool and slowly disappears below the surface. Meanwhile performers come down from above suspended and several dreamlike characters push for their turn to act their part in the dream. There are revolving themes of good, evil, light, dark, and humor during the performance. With a crack, rain begins to pour down from the heavens straight into the pool as you smell the moisture in the air. The storm continues for a while with the lightning and thunder drawing you into their world of dreams.

I won’t describe every scene and I couldn’t even if I tried but I’ll just say what I found most remarkable about the entire show. The combination of gymnastics, acrobatics, synchronized swimming and diving were just awesome. Several times the men would come down from above while the women reached for them and either slipped or gained grip for an amazing foot-lock at 40 or 50 feet. Other times there were gymnastics performed on the raised stage — one which resembled a pommel horse but on flat ground. Two men began performing feats of strength and flexibility with a finale of walking off the stage with one inverted on the other’s shoulders and not touching anywhere else but at the shoulders. Hard to describe some of these things so that’s just more reason I suggest you go see it if possible.

One dive was from the very top of the arena which must have been above 50 feet. Incredible. The synchronized swimming just added to the whole artful feel of the show. Something about symmetry just makes me feel all-right! Besides, when they weren’t swimming they were splashing around the water at the edge and just seemed like they were enjoying their time as I did while in the dream.

So there you have my recommendation. Very nice!