Viva Las Vegas

• Posted on Dan
• in travel
• on November 19, 2007
• 1 Comment.

This was Kristin’s third time to Vegas, but my first, so you’ll hear our tales from my virgin eyes. Vegas is a strange town, there’s drugs, sex, and rock and roll. Oh yea, and there’s gambling too. I think there are many different ways you could see Vegas, and I’m thrilled with how we saw Vegas, plus we didn’t gamble a cent. Strangely, we stayed up working 24 hours straight before our trip, because we’re crazy! After a 6am flight, you might think we took a nap. Wrong. The hotel couldn’t give us a room at 8am, so we freshened up in their staff bathroom and hit The Strip.

We felt like we actually stayed in MGM, as we were there 2 to 3 times a day because we had a free shuttle from our hotel to MGM. I learned there are no real attractions besides the gigantic themed monstrosities. Everybody knows of the Bellagio dancing fountains, and they didn’t disappoint. We stood by the lake and watched the fountains for over an hour, and that was just the first day! The view of the entire city (and the Bellagio fountains) from the Paris Eiffel Tower is rather incredible. (Edit by KK: Also incredible, the number of callgirl cards that Dan managed to collect in 2.5 days. It’s really a pretty impressive stack sitting here in our apartment.)

We saw Ka, one of those fancy Cirque du Soleil shows. Actually, it was amazing! The theater is apparently the most expensive in the world, specifically built for Ka, and the show itself was somewhat reminiscent of traditional Japanese theater. There is no spoken word in the entire show and it’s a bit startling when the guys grunt at you when you hand them your ticket. Apparently people walkout because they don’t like it, my guess being that they don’t understand it’s not a traditional Cirque show and don’t pay attention to garner the nuances of the plot. We were fortunately had a nice long chat with the gift store lady, who filled us in prior to going to the show. So if you plan to go see Ka, we’ll pass on the tale, or you can just buy a program.

My critique for the rest of Vegas can be summarized as follows:
MGM -lions! big lions! in the hotel! We watched them for about 45 minutes one day. They look just like James and Lily.
NY, NY – Actually enjoyable inside walking “the streets of NY.” Didn’t get to ride the roller coaster…next time.
Excalibar – You could skip it, except it’s where Krispy Kreme is.
Luxor – The side of the pyramid is a huge ad for Absolut now, but the elevators go diagonally.
Mandalay Bay – they must pump incense or perfume in; it smelled amazing. KK’s favorite.
Bellagio – Fountains! That’s all really. Didn’t overly love it.
Planet Hollywood – It’s where we sat in the bar and watched Tech play, which ended up being very disappointing. Go-go dancers among the card tables at night. Saw Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher filming a movie.
Venetian – Please donate to the “So Dan & KK can stay here next time” fund.
Paris – Eiffel Tower is worth it. Minus the old lady next to us giving us advice on shows (thumbs up: Jubilee, the topless revue at Bally’s. thumbs down: Cirque. hmmm.)
Ceasar’s Palace – they have fountains and stuff. But go for Vosges chocolates!
The Mirage – ummm….we ate at the Jewish deli? Otherwise, nothing remarkable.
Treasure Island – I’ll be honest, the vixen sirens vs. shipwreck pirates show sucked. It felt like a renaissance fair when you can’t tell if people are pirates, or fairies, or goth, or what.
The Wynn – gorgeous, screams extravagance, and they charge you $10 just to walk in the Ferrari Maserati showroom. But gorgeous.