Less Frustration, Please?
Could I please have a little less frustration on this trip? This morning I got to the Tropicana with no problems by taking a bus, but then when I went to the box office with my confirmation email there was a sign saying the Titanic exhibit was closed until further notice. The woman behind the desk claimed that I was automatically refunded when the exhibit closed last Saturday, but she didn’t know when it would be reopening. She was rather rude about it - I guess she’s been dealing with this a lot.
So since I was down at that end of town, I figured I’d go on the Manhattan Express roller coaster at NY-NY. I got all the way through the casino 
and up to the entrance, only to find that it wouldn’t open until 11:00am. By this point I was pretty annoyed! I figured I would move my afternoon plans up and head down to the Golden Nugget to meet the deaf dealer there. I had to wander through just about every hallway at the MGM Grand to find the monorail entrance! I actually liked the $5 monorail ride, though - they have entertaining recorded commentary. So I took it to the Sahara station, and then got on a bus to the Golden Nugget ($1.25)
I had heard about the deaf dealer from a DeafNation video, which featured a guy. When I got there, I asked an idle dealer about “a deaf dealer,” and she said “oh yes, she starts at 12:00″ - and sure enough, she turned out to be female! Her game was three-card poker, and her shift apparently started with a break, so I used my Sidekick to look up the game while she was out. It looked awfully confusing so I figured I’d ask if I could just watch. She was very nice, and happy to chat with me as she worked; it was amusing to see how she communicated with the players - mostly gesturally. She did have a little “hearing impaired” sign, but one guy didn’t see it wand was confused when she didn’t respond to his question about the minimum bet; one of the other players stepped in to tell him. After a while she had me ask a player where he was from, and I interpreted a couple of questions between her and the players.
It turns out she works at the Wynn too - if only I’d known, I could have saved myself the solo trip downtown! She’ll be there tomorrow from 12-8, so I might go visit her again. She said there were about six deaf dealers in Vegas overall, including her husband (who I gathered was the guy in the DN video). When it was time for her next break, I said I’d be going, and I headed for the Downtown Transit Center to take another $2 bus back to the Strip.
Filed under daily life | Comment (0)Bad Bus Ride
Today did not start well. We were on the bus by 7:40 but it did not leave at 8:00 because some people hadn’t shown up. The dispatcher finally gave the driver authorization to leave at 8:30. I saw that we were heading out of the city, and then I dozed off. I woke up 20 minutes later and went to the bathroom. As I walked there I noticed the bus was on some serious curves, and I wondered “What part of I-95 has these curves?” When I got back to my seat I looked around and I saw we were on the DC Beltway approching I-270! That seemed odd, but I knew we had another stop so I figured we needed to go up 270 to get there. And then…we drove past the exit for 270. I ran up to the driver and said “Are we supposed to be going south?” She said her directions said 95N to New York, and the only sign she saw was 95N to Baltimore. I said “uh…that’s where we needed to go.” And then I went back to my seat…but we kept going south!
I went back up to the front and said “Do you need help getting turned around?” So I guided her onto River Road…and she tried to go left instead of right as I’d indicated. So she backed up on the roadway and then went right. She had mentioned she was supposed to take exit 6 to Wilmington, and I explained how she needed to take the left side ramp before the Delaware Memorial Bridge. When I got up to go back to my seat, a guy sitting up front whispered “can you come back for Wilmington?” I laughed, and he said “no, I’m serious.” So I stayed awake all through Maryland. A tried to call the cruise line and the bus company but got nothing helpful. At that split, I was back up front but didn’t say anything. She made it okay on her own, but then I had to direct her to the bus station too - and I’ve never been there! She had a terrible time negotiating turns, and drove up on the curb a couple of times. This woman was clearly in the wrong job! Fortunately one of the people we picked up in Wilmington guided her to the New Jersey Turnpike and from there she was fine…except for missing a turn trying to get to the port in Bayonne.
After all that, check-in was a breeze. We slipped our “water” bottles (one with vodka and one with rum) past security and got on board. I led us to the rooms and we sat down for a bit. Next, we took a bit of a walk around, then came back to the room. Just as we were taking a short nap, an announcement came on for the muster drill. So we put on our lifejackets and went to our muster station, etc. Then we came back to the room to finish our nap.
Dinner was fine. It took a couple of minutes to get my vegetarian menu, and it took a long time to get my soda. (I got the “soda package,” which is unlimited sodas for $5/day…they are $2.50 each and I usually drink at least two a day, so it’s a good buy for me.) For dinner I had a fruit soup, a small plate of fruit as an appetizer, some salad, and very tasty tempeh in peanut sauce. I got two desserts - cheesecake, and lychee ice cream which I shared with A.
Next we went to guest relations and complained about the bus. They’re going to follow up with us after they tell the head office. So we went back to A’s parents room and shared some champagne and conversation before bed. Then I took a shower (in our room, of course) and got water all over the place - the shower head kept wanting to point out into the rest of the bathroom. I didn’t know the hose was twisted, but when I got out I told A and she fixed the hose. So now I’ve been writing this, and I’m going to bed - oh, before I forget - lots of motion on board, very noticeable rocking of the ship no matter where you go.
Filed under bermuda, travel | Comment (0)Just Random Stuff
Could somebody please explain to me how the Republic of Ireland is connected to both France and Benelux by train and not boat? WTF?
Tip: do not watch The Sixth Sense for the first time ever late at night and then have to go into the basement to do laundry.
In other news, I am totally obsessed with Faerie Bubbles.
Oh, I updated the design on my site. I finally gave up trying to find Illogirly and making my own fall layout, so I found a very nice one from Quixotic Pixels. I love that she included a blank header graphic! It was pretty easy to tweak for WordPress, although I had to do a bit of funky stuff with the comments section because the provided layout didn’t have comments. So if you’re reading on LiveJournal or have chosen a different skin (i.e., you’re not using the “default”), go check it out. Yes, it is a very dark design, but I like it!
These are goofy quiz results. Nothing to see here, move along.
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