Hello Tangerineys and welcome to what is going to be a more serious video than you've come
to expect on our channel.
It is March 12th and we are currently in Las Vegas.
Just in the past couple of days we've seen a lot of changes here because of the Coronavirus.
Conferences are being cancelled, buffets are closing, major changes are happening in the
casinos.
So we wanted to give you guys an update of what's going on here in Las Vegas and how
the Conoravirus is affecting everything.
Since we are literally right in the middle of it, like just in the past couple of days
a lot has changed, and more is on the horizon.
And for those of you who are expecting a third Acapulco video, that is coming, but since
this is a time-sensitive matter, we decided to release this video first.
Just in the past 24 hours, we have a whole bunch of new announcements.
For example, the NBA announced that they're suspending their season until further notice
after a player tested positive for the Coronavirus.
The NCAA tournament is canceled.
And the PGA Tour canceled the Players Championship.
Alright, so we have an update for you.
Since shooting this video about 6 hours ago, the Wynn has announced that they're closing their
buffets, their nightclubs, and their theaters until further notice.
And we also learned that the Hakassan Group is doing the same with their nightclubs.
So it seems that the virus is literally shutting down Vegas.
And what has it been like in the casinos?
Well, the biggest and most major noticeable difference is that there are hand-sanitizing
stations everywhere!
On all of the entrances, outside of bathrooms, especially like we noticed in the Wynn we noticed they
have it outside of the buffet.
And just about every casino has it.
Caesars I think was taking its sweet time but we noticed those popping up just over
the past couple days.
As we were staying here during these four days is the 3rd biggest conference that comes
to Las Vegas.
It's not only the third biggest conference but it's also March Madness so room prices
were sky high!
For one night this week we actually had to go stay at Rio because everything else was
wildly expensive or completely sold out.
But despite that, we can very easily tell that there are fewer people here and we have
heard of people in our Las Vegas Facebook group that people are canceling their travels.
Family members of mine are canceling their travels.
We've heard there are lots of conventions canceling and despite it being one of the
busiest times of year, comparing this to when we were here on Memorial Day Weekend, there's
no comparison whatsoever.
Absolutely not, I mean, I would've expected it to be shoulder-to-shoulder just like it
was then.
And it's totally not.
Not in the casinos, not at the buffets.
Let's talk about buffets.
We've actually seen the transition start to happen.
A few days ago we went to the Wynn Buffet.
Well, we've really been going there every day because it's amazing!
[Laughter] And they were basically politely forcing you to sanitize your hands before
you enter the buffet.
I am very pro-actions like that, I mean, it's like of like "oh, this is weird" but you know if everyone's
doing that on the way in, people are not bringing all of their germs and touching all of the
spoons, and spatulas, and handles, and silverware, and all that.
I was like "They must have done their research because I had read about a while back when
there was a virus or some sickness outbreak and they were having big problems in cruise
ships.
By just making everyone sanitize their hands on the way in and out of the dining hall,
they were able to completely stop the spread of that.
Because a buffet is like the petri dish of disease transmission.
Just imagine - just think about what goes on there: You're eating, you're wiping your
mouth, you're licking your fingers.
And then after doing that, you go and you grab another plate, and you grab all the serving
utensils to fill up your plate.
And then 500 more people do the same thing behind you, wiping their face, grabbing the
same utensils.
So basically, it's like you're making out with 500 people at the buffet in one night.
It's no wonder diseases are spread there.
So then what happened after that?
After the normal buffet experience.
"Normal" where we just had to sanitize our hands on the way in.
Well the next day we go back and they have implemented their Coronavirus protocol, let's
say.
And they had "Food Ambassadors".
These are people who will hand you the plate and then dish out the stuff for you.
I loved that.
You just tell them what you want, how much you want, and then they put it on your plate.
Uh-huh.
I thought it was going to be weird, it was less weird than I thought.
The only problem that I had was that they would take the plate from you after you have
touched it, and then dish it out, and then hand the plate back to you.
I think if they really wanted to prevent the spread of anything, they would either allow
you to hold the plate 100% of the time while dishing stuff out to you, or they would take
the plate and walk around with you.
And this was their very first day doing it, and in talking to some of the employees there,
they were just made aware of the situation, so yesterday they didn't know what was going
on.
Most of these people it sounded like were actual servers, like the people who would bring your
drinks out to you and cater to you while you're at the buffet.
And they were just called in last minute to be these "food ambassadors" to hand out plates
and dish things out to you.
And you asked one of them if he has ever seen anything like it.
Absolutely not!
He said "Absolutely not."
Not that I expected that but this does seem like a pretty drastic measure.
I commend Wynn for being at the forefront of this, or like ahead of the curve, because
MGM is waiting for 1, 2, 3 more days to close down all of their buffets and that's MGM's
response.
They're closing down all of their buffets.
And we went to the Aria buffet twice earlier on this trip, which is also an MGM buffet,
but they didn't have any of these measures in place.
No, it just seemed like business as usual. They weren't sanitizing hands, just serving yourself as usual.
Another crazy thing that has happened just while we've been in Vegas is that the US border
has been shut down to all European travelers.
Of course, there are countries over in Europe, like Italy, which are in a complete state
of emergency.
Or a country of emergency?
Yeah, state of emergency.
And I just heard that Angela Merkel of Germany said that they expect for the majority, or most
of their citizens to get infected.
It's really ramping up and so that made us think about our travel plans that we have
and any changes that we might be making.
Because with the US border being closed to Europeans, how easy would it be for Mexico
to close its border to the US?
Uh-huh.
Or vice-versa or something.
Yeah, for example, next month I have a trip planned - leaving Mexico and going to visit
my Dad in Missouri.
And I'm thinking about canceling that trip because I don't want to get stuck in the US
when Maddie's in Mexico - like if the border closes or something like that.
I mean, obviously worst case scenario would be getting the Coronavirus but also one of
us getting stuck on each side of the border, and then our lease is ending.
Or Laska's in Mexico and we're in the US.
Uh-huh.
Like at this point I'm a little bit concerned that we're not going to be able to get back
to Mexico.
Like you just don't know.
This has all seemed to happen so fast.
Yeah, it's happening really fast!
Like in 3 days, tons of big executive orders or big changes have happened.
Not just in Vegas, but globally.
So, it's not for another 6 days that we go back to Mexico, so we're just kind of crossing
our fingers that it doesn't escalate too terribly before then.
But the craziest thing about Vegas and the changes that are happening here, and the
fact that there was just a potentially-reported case that came out of a convention attendee
that was staying at Mirage.
We were actually staying at Mirage so that's a little personal.
But the crazy thing about Vegas is that it's like, as you were saying, the perfect storm
for anyone who might contract this virus.
So what happens before you come to Vegas?
You're probably excited for your trip, you're not getting much sleep.
And then you have to fly on a dirty, nasty plane with those gross tray tables.
But planes are just gross in many ways.
And people get sick on planes all the time.
You guys should follow the Instagram "passengershaming" to see what actually goes on on planes that
you don't always see like people putting their grungy feet all up over everything. And doing
Unspeakable things!
But anyway, we're getting off topic.
Anyway, so you get to Vegas, and what are you doing?
You're drinking a lot, you're not getting much sleep, you're going out to clubs, you're
being around places with tons of people!
You were just reading a book, actually, on sleep and not getting sufficient sleep.
Yeah.
Like even depriving yourself of one hour of sleep is going to make you way more likely
to get sick, or make mistakes, or get in a car accident, or have a heart attack.
Yeah, there was this study, for those getting 7 or 8 hours of sleep a night versus those
getting 5 hours of sleep a night - Those getting 5 hours of sleep are 5 times more likely to
contract a virus.
So anyway, you're in Vegas.
I mean, even while we've been here, I do my best, I do my darndest to get 8 hours of sleep
a night - but while we were here, it's hard to get more than 6 or 7 hours of sleep.
It is.
So we are making ourselves more susceptible to contracting this virus.
But then like you're saying, people are drinking alcohol and they're doing other unhealthy
practices.
So, with hundreds of thousands of people coming to Vegas every single day, every single week,
the casinos have taken their own precautions to try to combat this perfect storm that is
happening for people to contract the virus.
Some of those things include: We've noticed that there are way more cleaning personnel
going all along the machines, spraying them down, wiping them down.
Outside of Palazzo, I believe it was, we saw on two consecutive days, a lady standing there
with a rag, cleaning the escalator banister that's just going and going and going.
Her job was just literally to stand there and sanitize that.
And we saw the same lady two days in a row.
So they are making as many efforts as they can, however, if everybody's not doing their
part, there's no way to stop the spread of this.
Any time we touch a slot machine or something gross like that - actually literally anything,
if it's a communal surface of any kind, we're hand sanitizing before we do the next thing.
Or at least trying to, and trying not to touch our face, and things like that.
That's been a difficult one for me but I'm definitely much more mindful of not touching
my nose, my eyes, my mouth, whatever.
Not touching my face at all because that's one of the easier ways you can contract it
is by putting those germs on your mucus membranes.
I think this would also be a very bad time to go to clubs.
We're not really club-goers so this isn't something that really applies to us but I'm
surprised those haven't been shut down yet.
You know this is big when they're shutting down nightclubs because that is a huge moneymaker
for casinos.
I mean, for example, they charged us 30 mother f-ing dollars for a water bottle one time
when we went to a nightclub.
And that's a water bottle!
So for drinks, it's even more than that.
So you really do know this is serious.
And that is a serious breeding ground for this virus, so good for them for making that
tough call.
But, they haven't shut down the casinos yet.
Another big moneymaker that they're not willing to lose [Laughter].
Just so you guys know, we will have at least two non-coronavirus Las Vegas videos coming
out for you, so you might consider subscribing to our channel if you want to see those.
On the end screen in just a moment here, we're going to link our Las Vegas playlist where
you can see all the videos we've made in Vegas, where we give you tons of tips and tricks
for how to have a great time here on a budget.
So thank you guys for watching, hopefully, this gave you a little update about what it's
like here in Las Vegas.
But hey, before you go, one more thing...
[Bell Ringing] Gong that bell!
So you will be the very first to be notified when we release our upcoming Las Vegas videos.
And we'll see you soon!