On Saturday morning, around 10:30 a.m., the day of the Usher concert, I stretched and looked out of our high-rise hotel window at towering casinos on the strip. “We got a good view of the parade later,” I said to Ron, referring to the Stanley Cup Victory Parade for the Vegas Golden Knights. 

Being a morning person, Ron had already been downstairs to grab something to eat and a coffee. As we chatted, someone knocked. We looked at each other since we left a “do not disturb” sign on the door because I like to sleep late. “That’s probably housekeeping, ask them for fresh towels,” I said, as Ron headed to the door. After she opened it, I heard a man say, “We’re security and we need to come in and search for weapons.”

WTF? I screamed, “Ron, shut that door, don’t let them in here. That doesn’t sound right!”

I sat up in bed, mind racing. Were crooks trying to rob us? Did they think we were stupid? 

Ron closed the door and walked back. She looked as shocked as I felt.

“What they look like, are they in uniform?” I asked.

“It’s a tall guy with a woman,” she said.

Great, they’re working in pairs, I figure.

“I’m calling the front desk,” I shouted. “I’ve never heard of such and I travel around the world.”

Front desk answered the phone. I told the clerk: There’s a man and a woman claiming to be security outside our door and they want to search our room! 

“Are they still there?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll call security and call you right back,” he said.

Feeling better, I tiptoed to peer through the peephole at these losers. As Ron said, a tall man was waiting in front of the door with a woman next to him who looked like she eats bullets for snacks. A housekeeper was also with them. I noticed the man had a wire hanging from his ear. Just then, he got a call. 

I heard him say, “Yes, we’re here now. Ok. Let her know.” They’re legit. I ran back to my bed to answer the phone.

“It’s security, please let them in,” said the front desk clerk I had spoken to minutes earlier.

 Ron opened the door as I jumped back in bed and pulled the covers over me.

The man with the ruler straight posture entered — let’s call him Fred. “Are you two the only ones in the room,” he asked. We say yes and he visibly relaxed. For some odd reason, so did I.

Meanwhile, the woman — let’s call her Sue –immediately searched the bathroom and the closet, where the only thing hanging was my cute Usher outfit.

“We’re searching the room for long weapons because you have a do-not-disturb sign on your door, your room overlooks the strip and they’re having a parade today for the NHL hockey champions. Any time housekeeping can’t get in and we have events on the strip, we must search.”

We learned this has been the protocol ever since the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history occurred in Las Vegas in 2017. They have to do this. My memory was jarred. How could I forget a shooter killing 58 concert-goers and injuring hundreds more from his Mandalay Bay Resorts window?  (Probably because of the constant barrage of shootings my brain can’t recall them all? But still). I felt bad and immediately apologized for not remembering. 

“You two did the right thing, I tell Mom to act the same way,” he said, as Sue laser-eyed the corners.

Turns out MGM has like $800 million to spend on security measures following that horrific event. Maids are trained to look for weapons when they clean the room, but since we opted for no service, we triggered an alert. For our troubles, we were treated to brunch, which turned out to be quite tasty and filling.

In hindsight, however, I wonder why they didn’t check our luggage. I know from movies, long guns can be disassembled. My brother said security took one look at me and Ron’s glasses and knew with our eyesight we couldn’t be sharp shooters. He’s a bit of a ham, so there’s that.

Anyway, we thought the day’s weirdness was over and thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon resort-hopping. Because of the parade, the strip closed down early as well as the bridges that lead across the strip from one hotel to the other. So we decided to leave for the concert an hour early, even though we were literally four blocks from the Dolby Theater. (The reason we stayed at MGM).

At 8:15 p.m., we learned the bridge from our hotel to the New York-New York Hotel & Casino was closed. Great! We went outside and saw people were still taking the escalator up to it. We hopped on the escalator and quickly learned why they were trying to restrict access. We stood in the same spot on the bridge for 25 minutes. I started to panic; was there a weight limit?  We couldn’t go backwards, even if we wanted to.  

Just then, I saw a towering, muscular man, followed by other hunky men, snaking across the bridge. I don’t know if was sheer force moving them forward, but I knew they were onto something. It was almost like a low-key Conga line without music. “Ron, come on,” I said, heading to the tail end of the silent train. I grabbed the shirt of the last man, who was holding onto his girlfriend and said in his ear, “I’m going to hold on to your shirt.”

“Baby, hold on,” he said. And we congaed across the bridge.

Whew. We now had 20 minutes to spare before showtime.

We leave New York-New York but all roads are closed. We can’t cross the street. It’s blocked off because the parade ended near the Dolby Theater! I’m livid because Usher brings in tons of money with his residency for Las Vegas and they end the parade in the worst spot. WTF?  I ran to a cop. “We have Usher tickers. How do we get across the street to the Dolby,” which was roped off.

“Go to the guy over there, show him your tickets and he’ll let you in.”

We entered the Dolby theater 45 minutes after we left our hotel room. But so many people couldn’t get to the concert that Usher delayed his show for 40 minutes. A deejay kept us in good spirits. Honestly, all was forgotten once Usher performed. Of course, I was over the moon when he and his crew skated. I’d see his show again but my packed schedule won’t allow it. 

The good news is the trip ended well. The next day, we lucked up while browsing in the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian Resort and ate dinner at the Sugar Cane Raw Bar Grill, which offered globally-inspired small plates. Hours later, the upgrade gods smiled on us on for the flight home and we sat in First Class. As we took off, I toasted to the fact it had been 20 years since we had last visited Las Vegas. We don’t recall much from our earlier visits. But we won’t forget this one.