Vegas, baby
I took the week off for vacation, and during that time I went to Las Vegas with my dad. First things first: I didn't plan to gamble much, but I brought some cash so I could at least keep myself entertained in between doing actual things. I'd been to Vegas before when I was little, but new hotels sprout up there every year so I kind of just wanted to go to some shows and check out the strip again. We were there for three days.
Day 1:
Flew in Thursday, the plan was to eat dinner with my great uncle and then go see the Cirque du Soleil show "O" at the Bellagio. We stayed at the Mirage. My great uncle is an accountant at the Riviera, so once we got settled in the hotel we walked down the strip to the Riviera by way of the Venetian, Palazzo, and Wynn, which are across the street from the Mirage. For reference, here's a map of the strip.
After dinner we headed over to the Bellagio (saw the fountains on the way over--the fountains are neat), bummed around there for a while, etc. This is the first place we gambled, which is funny, because the Bellagio is f'ing expensive. We got a drink at a bar and threw a little cash into the video blackjack there to kill time before the show.
The Cirque du Soleil show was fun. It was a water-themed show, in a theatre specifically built for it. The stage was a big pool, with a floor that raised and lowered in sections so that sometimes the thing was 100+ feet deep, sometimes shallow enough to look like they were walking on the water, and sometimes solid. I saw Saltimbanco when it came to Madison, and I think the acts were more impressive in that, but I could gawk forever at the stage/sets/costumes/etc. in O. I've really become a big fan of Cirque du Soleil.
The Paris is across the street from the Bellagio, so after the show we snapped some pictures of the Eiffel Tower as a joke since my mom just got back from a trip to Europe.
Ceiling inside the Venetian
Venetian advertising: Simultaneously promoting the wax museum and the Blue Man Group show.
Shops inside the Venetian. All of the newer hotels are essentially hotel/casino/shopping malls.
The conservatory at the Bellagio.
Glass flower at the Bellagio.
It wouldn't be Vegas without a big tree guy.
Me @ the Eiffel Tower.
I bet the French really love this place.
View of the strip from our hotel room.
Day 2:
Friday we started out by taking a cab down to the Luxor, the point being to start at the Luxor and walk back to the Mirage, checking out the hotels in between (namely, the Luxor, Excalibur, New York-New York, Planet Hollywood [formerly the Aladdin], Paris, O'Shea's, and Caesars Palace). Uncle Doug got us tickets to a comedy show at the Riviera, so after our thoroughly exhausting walk down the strip, we cooled it in the Mirage for a while then went back to the Riviera, killed some time eating and doing a little gambling, and watched a sort of mediocre comedy set.
Very flattering picture at the 3D IMAX show at the Luxor.
Outside New York-New York. The roller coaster there rattled us around something fierce, but it was pretty good otherwise.
A better shot of Paris. We went up the Eiffel Tower to take some pictures.
View from the tower down to the hotel's pool.
View of the Bellagio from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
View down the strip. The one with the gold ads on top is the Mirage. A lot of the big hotels sell ad space on them now.
View down the other side of the strip. I think the stuff under construction on the right is going to be a city center.
Roman robots. Ok, so in Caesars Palace they have this fountain with animatronic statues. This, like a lot of things in Vegas, was undergoing maintenance of some kind, so it was all exposed gears and stuff (see: robot overlord seated in chair). I think they should leave it this way.
Day 3:
Saturday we slept in and then drove downtown to do some gambling there, where it's a little cheaper. We played some roulette at I want to say Fitzgeralds, but I'm not 100% sure. Roulette incidentally has a really steep house edge, but it has really simple betting rules so it's still pretty fun to play to and it moves pretty slowly so you can waste some time on it. Needless to say we didn't win anything at roulette.
Actually now I can't remember if we played roulette on Day 2 at O'Shea's on the strip or if we did that downtown. Oh, I also haven't mentioned yet that I caught a vicious cold the day before I flew out there, so for the whole trip I was drugged and congested. Sweet.
Anyway, next we walked over to the Plaza, gambled a little more there, and went to a pretty standard Vegas show, Viva Las Vegas. Dancing girls, magicians, comedians, and all that. Pretty entertaining, and free (although I now have a Players Club card for the Plaza, whooopeee). Then it was back to the Mirage to eat dinner and get ready for another show, Spamalot! Third row seats! Oh man, so fun! Before dinner, though, we checked out the animals at the Mirage--used to be Siegfried and Roy's hotel before Roy got eaten by a tiger. But they had some tigers and dolphins and the like, so we checked those out. Then ate dinner. I played some more video blackjack to kill a little time... I put $40 bucks in the machine, accidentally hit the 'bet max credits' button and so bet $40 dollars on one hand of blackjack. Won that hand thankfully, then played a couple of hands for $10 apiece, then figured I'd go down to $1 apiece. So in my mind, the way to cycle it back to 1 was to hit max credits again, then hit the bet one credit button to get back to 1. Nope, I was now betting $80 on my next hand of blackjack, which I thankfully won again, which paid for dinner. That was the extent of my gambling aside from the money lost in the big wheel of fortune slots and roulette. Everything else was drinks and shows. The rest of the trip: Took a nap, walked over to the Wynn for Spamalot, slept an hour, then to the airport at 4AM for the flight back. My ears hurt and I'm still sick, so I took Monday off, too.
Ok, that's all.
Day 1:
Flew in Thursday, the plan was to eat dinner with my great uncle and then go see the Cirque du Soleil show "O" at the Bellagio. We stayed at the Mirage. My great uncle is an accountant at the Riviera, so once we got settled in the hotel we walked down the strip to the Riviera by way of the Venetian, Palazzo, and Wynn, which are across the street from the Mirage. For reference, here's a map of the strip.
After dinner we headed over to the Bellagio (saw the fountains on the way over--the fountains are neat), bummed around there for a while, etc. This is the first place we gambled, which is funny, because the Bellagio is f'ing expensive. We got a drink at a bar and threw a little cash into the video blackjack there to kill time before the show.
The Cirque du Soleil show was fun. It was a water-themed show, in a theatre specifically built for it. The stage was a big pool, with a floor that raised and lowered in sections so that sometimes the thing was 100+ feet deep, sometimes shallow enough to look like they were walking on the water, and sometimes solid. I saw Saltimbanco when it came to Madison, and I think the acts were more impressive in that, but I could gawk forever at the stage/sets/costumes/etc. in O. I've really become a big fan of Cirque du Soleil.
The Paris is across the street from the Bellagio, so after the show we snapped some pictures of the Eiffel Tower as a joke since my mom just got back from a trip to Europe.
Ceiling inside the Venetian
Venetian advertising: Simultaneously promoting the wax museum and the Blue Man Group show.
Shops inside the Venetian. All of the newer hotels are essentially hotel/casino/shopping malls.
The conservatory at the Bellagio.
Glass flower at the Bellagio.
It wouldn't be Vegas without a big tree guy.
Me @ the Eiffel Tower.
I bet the French really love this place.
View of the strip from our hotel room.
Day 2:
Friday we started out by taking a cab down to the Luxor, the point being to start at the Luxor and walk back to the Mirage, checking out the hotels in between (namely, the Luxor, Excalibur, New York-New York, Planet Hollywood [formerly the Aladdin], Paris, O'Shea's, and Caesars Palace). Uncle Doug got us tickets to a comedy show at the Riviera, so after our thoroughly exhausting walk down the strip, we cooled it in the Mirage for a while then went back to the Riviera, killed some time eating and doing a little gambling, and watched a sort of mediocre comedy set.
Very flattering picture at the 3D IMAX show at the Luxor.
Outside New York-New York. The roller coaster there rattled us around something fierce, but it was pretty good otherwise.
A better shot of Paris. We went up the Eiffel Tower to take some pictures.
View from the tower down to the hotel's pool.
View of the Bellagio from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
View down the strip. The one with the gold ads on top is the Mirage. A lot of the big hotels sell ad space on them now.
View down the other side of the strip. I think the stuff under construction on the right is going to be a city center.
Roman robots. Ok, so in Caesars Palace they have this fountain with animatronic statues. This, like a lot of things in Vegas, was undergoing maintenance of some kind, so it was all exposed gears and stuff (see: robot overlord seated in chair). I think they should leave it this way.
Day 3:
Saturday we slept in and then drove downtown to do some gambling there, where it's a little cheaper. We played some roulette at I want to say Fitzgeralds, but I'm not 100% sure. Roulette incidentally has a really steep house edge, but it has really simple betting rules so it's still pretty fun to play to and it moves pretty slowly so you can waste some time on it. Needless to say we didn't win anything at roulette.
Actually now I can't remember if we played roulette on Day 2 at O'Shea's on the strip or if we did that downtown. Oh, I also haven't mentioned yet that I caught a vicious cold the day before I flew out there, so for the whole trip I was drugged and congested. Sweet.
Anyway, next we walked over to the Plaza, gambled a little more there, and went to a pretty standard Vegas show, Viva Las Vegas. Dancing girls, magicians, comedians, and all that. Pretty entertaining, and free (although I now have a Players Club card for the Plaza, whooopeee). Then it was back to the Mirage to eat dinner and get ready for another show, Spamalot! Third row seats! Oh man, so fun! Before dinner, though, we checked out the animals at the Mirage--used to be Siegfried and Roy's hotel before Roy got eaten by a tiger. But they had some tigers and dolphins and the like, so we checked those out. Then ate dinner. I played some more video blackjack to kill a little time... I put $40 bucks in the machine, accidentally hit the 'bet max credits' button and so bet $40 dollars on one hand of blackjack. Won that hand thankfully, then played a couple of hands for $10 apiece, then figured I'd go down to $1 apiece. So in my mind, the way to cycle it back to 1 was to hit max credits again, then hit the bet one credit button to get back to 1. Nope, I was now betting $80 on my next hand of blackjack, which I thankfully won again, which paid for dinner. That was the extent of my gambling aside from the money lost in the big wheel of fortune slots and roulette. Everything else was drinks and shows. The rest of the trip: Took a nap, walked over to the Wynn for Spamalot, slept an hour, then to the airport at 4AM for the flight back. My ears hurt and I'm still sick, so I took Monday off, too.
Ok, that's all.