November 22nd, 2009

Heartbreak in Las Vegas

About a month or two ago, my Travel Tale about my the trip to Las Vegas referred to in my post about Caesar’s Palace was pub­lished on Trav­el­ing Mom. Check it out!

When I was 20 weeks preg­nant, my fiancé and I, at my impa­tient mother’s urg­ing, aban­doned our plans to wed the fol­low­ing fall and headed for a whirl­wind wed­ding in Las Vegas. Instead, we dis­cov­ered an over­whelm­ing ache and fear that we carry with us still.

My preg­nancy was plagued with hyper­eme­sis– severe nau­sea and vom­it­ing that lasts the dura­tion of the preg­nancy and usu­ally results in dehy­dra­tion, mal­nu­tri­tion, and the loss of at least 5 per­cent (most time 10 per­cent) of pre-pregnancy weight and con­stant leak­ing. Nev­er­the­less, I got the OK to travel, even though I did not want to go to Vegas. As much as I wanted to marry my best friend, I did not want this kind of wedding.

A Gru­el­ing Trip

We left Oneonta, New York, on a Fri­day in Feb­ru­ary and drove three hours to the New Wind­sor, New York, where my soon-to-be sister-in-law cut hair. She gave her brother a hair­cut, then we took her mini­van to the Bronx where I got my hair done. It was a long night. It takes for­ever to do black hair and this time it took even longer because of my fre­quent trips to the bath­room. When Andrew finally picked me up, I was uncom­fort­able and extremely tired. We drove to my mother’s house on the other side of the Bronx, where I slept uncom­fort­ably in a green recliner. Lit­tle did I know that things would get even more uncom­fort­able the next day. [Read the rest at Trav­el­ing Mom]

November 15th, 2009

Campassion in the City of Sin

When you expe­ri­ence a tragedy while on vaca­tion, the way the hotel staff treats you can deter­mine how you view that brand for­ever. For me, suf­fer­ing a preg­nancy loss dur­ing what would have been my wed­ding was enough to ruin my view of Las Vegas for­ever.  How­ever, the com­pas­sion­ate and top-notch cus­tomer ser­vice of the hotel staff made me a life­long fan of Cae­sars Palace.

Prior to agree­ing to get mar­ried in Las Vegas I had a very short-sided opin­ion of The Strip. My view was lim­ited to what I had seen in movies. And when my mother sug­gested that we stay at one of the hotels located on The Strip, I imme­di­ately demanded that we look at the best lux­ury hotels in Las Vegas because there was no way that I would be stay­ing at econ­omy hotel.  My mom, a long time fan of Cae­sars Palace, rec­om­mend that we stay there and offered to split the cost. I agreed, but I remem­ber think­ing that if it did not cost at least $300 a night then it would not be a good hotel.

But I was wrong. From the moment we walked in I was in awe of the way they treated us. When we dis­closed that we would be get­ting mar­ried while in Vegas, the Guest Ser­vices Rep­re­sen­ta­tive imme­di­ately upgraded us to a deluxe room at no addi­tional cost. In fact, she even offered to pro­vide us with a list of the best restau­rants atwhich to dine after wed­ding. She also pro­vided us with the names of a few chapels in the area. I was extremely grate­ful for that because while we had been plan­ning for a month before, I was preg­nant and very few plans were actu­ally finalized.

Unfor­tu­nately, shortly after check in I went into early labor and needed to be rushed to the hos­pi­tal.  The Concierge was the first to arrive at our room with secu­rity in tow. They made sure that we knew that an ambu­lance was on its way and assured us that they would get in touch with our fam­i­lies who were not cur­rently in their rooms. They even con­tacted Andrew’s par­ents who stayed at a dif­fer­ent hotel to ensure that they knew what was hap­pen­ing. And when the ambu­lance arrived, the EMT’s, hotel secu­rity, a police offi­cer, and the Concierge rushed me through the casino and into the await­ing ambulance.

Their atten­tive­ness did not stop there. They checked on my hus­band after he returned to the hotel the next day and sent him a com­pli­men­tary lunch. When the staff learned what hap­pened the man­ager offered to extend our stay until I was cleared to fly giv­ing us one night for free and the addi­tional night at a dis­counted rate. And while they still sent us our con­grat­u­la­tory gift in honor of the mar­riage that did not take place, they treated us with kind­ness and showed empa­thy despite the thou­sands of other guest that they had to service.

To me, Cae­sars Palace will always be my first choice in hotels when pos­si­ble. While it is located in the mid­dle of The Strip in Sin City, the staff there believes in the Golden Rule.

*This is a Trav­el­ing Mom Ded­i­cated Post. Learn More.