Sin-City Six
Apr. 15th, 2012 03:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jamesqWow, it's been over a month since I blogged. I blame this on my utter despair over anything political right now. Thankfully I just came back from Vegas, giving me lots of grist for the mill!
Several months of planning went into this trip, and by planning, I mean nagging everyone I know to join me. Having had an earlier trip get whittled down from eight people to just me meant I knew that this was only going to go off if the stars were right and this time they were. Rounding out the trip was Brian, Tasha, Bruce, Allison and Melissa, the last being from the Windy City and everyone else coming from Cowtown.
Our Saturday flight out left early in the morning and included a four-hour stop in Salt Lake City. On the bright side, being with friends makes waiting for planes easy and painless. We passed the time getting an early start on the drinking (Polygamy Porter - why have just one?), gaming (we taught SNB and BAB how to play a game that I was always told was called "Chinese Craps". Turns out that's an entirely different game from what we were playing, which is a lot like Yahtzee) and general carousing.
We got to Las Vegas on time and got to our hotel in short order. Our hotel this time around was the Bellagio, which I normally would be far too cheap to stay at, but we got a sweetheart of a deal off of Expedia. Pushing our luck, we all tried the $20-trick (slip a twenty to the front desk clerk and ask for a complimentary upgrade) which we were all successful at. Bruce and Allison were upgrade to a spa-suite (which seemed to differ from standard rooms via the addition of a jetted tub and an extra sink). Brian and Tasha were upgraded to Lake-view, but had their $20 given back to them - possibly because it was their first anniversary. I also got a lake-view, but without having my $20 returned.
At first I wasn't enthused about seeing the fountains - I'd seen them before and reasoned that if I wanted to see them again, I could just walk out to the street. Of course, that wasn't accounting for the long walks typical of Vegas hotel rooms. Putting the fountain channel on the TV and watching multiple shows was a remarkable amount of fun, and damn easy if you were just hanging out in the room.
One of the first things we wanted to was make using our smart phones cheaper. Telus (one of the Canadian cellular phone carriers) bones you on roaming charges - Getting the cheapest roaming package that included data, voice and messaging would have been about $30 - which only reduced our per minute rates. So we opted to go to T-Mobile (There's one on Maryland and Flamingo) and buy a SIM card and six-days worth of pre-paid usage. We each got a Nevada phone number, voice, data and texting for a grand total of $21. The cab ride was the most expensive part of the operation. Service was good for communicating with each other, data was a little spotty, but not unusable.
Melissa joined us soon after and we headed out to Margaritaville for supper and frozen concoctions. We retired back to the Bellagio for some gambling.
Sunday I got up far too early for Las Vegas and went for a jog. Not knowing where to go, I figured I'd simply run around the block that the Bellagio was on. It turns out that's not actually possible. I ended up on the west side of I-15 standing in some warehouse's parking lot looking up at a billboard advertised, among other things, a strip club's upcoming Easter egg hunt. I had passed under Flamingo and couldn't see if I should continue north to the next major cross street (quite a distance) or turn around and go back (also quite a distance). Finally I scrambled up an embankment where pedestrians really shouldn't have been going and managed to get back to the hotel. sadly, my adventures clobbered my knee - I could still walk no problem, but every-time I had to climb stairs, it gave me a gentle reminder that I was through running for this vacation. Oh well.
During the day we had breakfast at Jean-Philippe Patisserie, which consisted of a variety of crepes. After, we relaxed by the pool. Supper was at Cafe Ile St. Louis at ParisLV. Then it was off to Bally's for some old-school Vegas showgirls.
Donn Arden's Jubilee! was that show and it was fabulous. It was Allison's idea to go see it and I'm glad she insisted. When the house lights went down I whispered to her "This better not suck" because that's what you say to the person who made you go. The curtains opened and suddenly there were about fifty gorgeous women dancing around wearing outlandish costumes that all managed to avoid covering their breasts. I leaned back to Allison and whispered "I take it all back!"
Of course one of the selling points for me personally is the fact that one of the sequences is about Titanic. I have a standing offer for my friends that if we're in Vegas at the same time, and they want to go to Luxor's Titanic exhibit, I'll go with them so I can play professor. This version did not disappoint, although - strangely for Jubilee - Cameron's movie had more nipples in it (it was the only sequence that didn't have some element of nudity). Still, they went immediately into the number for the next act without a break, which was jarring. One moment we see Titanic sink and five seconds later there's a bunch of women dressed like Mary-Lou Retton singing "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy".
We had a great time, and I need the red sequinned tuxedo the male dancers were wearing in one of the numbers. It was fabulous.
Monday we trekked back over to Paris to indulge in le Creperie. Last time I was there they half-assed it and I was disappointed. This time they were back to making excellent crepes and we managed to find enough seating for all six of us. We followed this up with a walk around the Miracle Mile, MGM Grand and NYNY, where we bought tickets for Zumanity.
Our pre-Zumanity supper (after a dash back to Bellagio to change into classier clothing and give the roulette table some of my money) was at Pearl. It was a good meal... but... There's a limit to how good Chinese food can be. The food was good, and the service was presentation was great, but in the end, there are Calgary restaurants serving food just as good as Pearl for a fraction of the cost. If you do go, be aware that the amount of food served is enormous our party of six probably ate 2/3 of what was served to us.
We got to Zumanity in sufficient tie to take in the pre-show. Zumanity is more cabaret than traditional Cirque show. It explores sexuality from first kiss to vanilla sex to romance to kink. Quite a bit of comedy too, which I think is a good thing since there's nothing like a good laugh to cut through the nervousness of sex (provided you don't also point while laughing). I liked Zumanity (aside from some external issues - more on that below), but felt that it was like trying to force two good things together to make something greater than the sum of its parts and failing. Like accompanying a plate of sushi with a milkshake - I like both, but they don't really go together. In the end I focused on the parts and stopped worrying about how they fit together.
Sadly, the one really shitty part of the whole week happened during Zumanity. Mel and I ended up sitting next to some drunken, loud-mouthed Guidette who would not shut up. The dingbat (as we dubbed her later) was asked several times by the ushers to leave and about halfway through the show they finally asked us if we wanted to move to other seats. We took them up on this offer and ended up moving from the last row of section 102 to the middle of row C. Unfortunately, we ended up disturbing about ten other patrons to do this and we couldn't exactly explain to them that we were being moved because of someone else's ignorant behaviour - we just looked like a couple of super-late patrons.
After the show I requested a manager to suggest that a better solution was to have simply ejected the dingbat - Neither Mel nor myself needed nicer seats (though they were very nice). Turns out the dingbat and her partner were ejected about five minutes after we were moved (she still wouldn't shut up and got belligerent with security). According to one of NYNY's security guards, they were a hair's breath from being handed over to LVMP. Of course at this point anything I had to complain about vanished - I wanted dingbat removed and they had done so, giving me and Mel better seats in the process. It sucks that we missed two minutes of the show and disturbed other patrons, but c'est la vie.
After the show we met up again with the rest of our merry band and wandered around through NYNY. Maybe the dingbat put me in a negative state of mind, but it looked like there were a lot of stereotypical New York folk staying at the resort. This kind of baffles me because when I go on vacation I'd like it to be different from what I'm used to. A friend did suggest that there is a certain appeal to "just like home, only warmer".
If there was a Canadian-themed resort I probably wouldn't stay at it. Well maybe I would if it had a Cirque show based off of the music of Great Big Sea featuring acrobatic, scantily-clad Mounties. But honestly, who wouldn't love something like that?
Later that night we returned to Bellagio for some gambling. We ended up closing out one of the pits; The last spin of the roulette wheel hit a number shared by Allison and I because we share a birthday. When we cheered our good luck the pit boss asked us what our actual birthday was - turns out it was his birthday too. I broke even that night because of that spin.
Tuesday started with delicious crab cakes benedict at Cafe Bellagio:
Mel had to leave the trip early so we all said goodbye to her. I've learned over my life that friendship is not transitive (that is, If A and B are friends and B and C are friends, that's no guarantee that A and C will get along), but it's certainly nice when it does happen. I've known Mel for only seven days (three at the wedding, four in Vegas), but we got along like we've known each other much longer. I wish she could have stayed until Thursday.
She did leave a little reminder - she forgot her jacket in the room. The Bellagio business center helped my ship it back to Chicago for her.
The two couples wanted a date night so I was left at odd ends for the day. This is OK because I needed to recharge my social batteries. I also wanted to see Viva Elvis which no one else was enthusiastic about. I spent the afternoon wandering around the Forum shops, occasionally gambling and finally ended up in Aria for my pre-show supper. I had Prosciutto and Burrata at Wolfgang Puck's Pizzeria and Cucina:
I followed it up with a pizza that was about the same price and quality as the better ones I can get back in Calgary. Then it was off to Viva Elvis.
I'll admit, I went into this show with low expectations - the show is being cancelled in August and I only really went because I knew this was going to be my last chance to do so. Turns out a lot of people were thinking the same thing as I was because the show, while not sold out, was very full. I'd estimate that the entire orchestra section was used as well as 1/3 to 1/2 of the balcony. Not bad for Tuesday night in a show that was failing to meet expectations.
The pre-show consists of pairs of Elvis fan girls prowling around the audience acting like inebriated, but friendly, club habitués. The two older couples on either side of me where commenting between themselves about who these people were.
I really liked the show, it was probably my favourite of the three shows I saw this trip and my second favourite Cirque show (Love being the first). I liked primarily for the music and choreography - I'm a huge fan of big musical production numbers, so the Cirque shows that focus on that tend to be my favorites. Some of the acrobatics worked very well (especially Blue Suede Shoes, Jailhouse Rock and Suspicious Minds). Others seemed shoehorned in merely because they had a cool act that needed to go in some Cirque show, and Viva Elvis was available (Western Scene and Bossa Nova Baby). When the dance, music and acrobatics meshed just right, Viva Elvis was a great show, but it didn't quite do it often enough or consistently enough to achieve overall greatness. Given a few more years to refine the show I think it would have done much better, but right now it seems too much like Cirque was trying to recapture the lightning of Love but couldn't quite manage it. A pity, because I'd happily see this show again even with its faults. Sadly, I'm not getting back to Las Vegas before it closes unless I win the lottery.
If you do go see Viva Elvis, keep an eye out for the blonde drummer - he was about the most energetic musician I've seen in a long time!
A lot of the Viva Elvis-branded merchandise is half off in the gift shop - get your beer and shot glasses now!
On my walk between Aria and the Cosmopolitan, I was treated to another show:
I watched this little spectacle for awhile. Pulled over for some traffic violation, the cops clearly thought there was more to it because they spent awhile searching the guy's car. I guess they thought he was a drug dealer or something. He certainly had a fat stack of cash on him. Looks can be deceiving though because they eventually just wrote him a citation and let him go. Everything was handled professionally, but why wouldn't it be with a TV crew and a hundred tourists watching. Hopefully they're like that in the suburbs too. Excitement over, I continued on to the Cosmopolitan to buy a $1 chip for twenty dollars.
I ran into Brian and Tasha while I was there. Brian informed me that he had learned how to play (basic) craps and had made some money at it. Having had a consistent losing streak at Roulette this trip he decided to try something new and was almost won back everything he'd lost! We played a little craps back at the Bellagio and I managed to win a little bit too by aping his bets. I still haven't the first clue how to play craps, but it looks like a ridiculous amount of fun, so I'll have to figure it out for my next trip. Brian ended up leaving Vegas a winner because of his switch from roulette to craps.
The problem with staying up until 3 in the morning? Not waking up until noon. And by "problem" I mean "greatest thing ever". Wednesday began with lunch at Olives restaurant at the Bellagio. Good food, middling service.
We travelled around trying to find a decent rental car for Wednesday and Thursday and found one at Fox rental. On the way back to the strip we found a pub attached to a Tommy Bahama's store that had a fairly good happy hour consisting of a variety of rum and tapas. We also went to Lee's discount liquor to find some cheap not-available-in-Canada booze.
We scheduled no shows that night because we decided to get a limo tour of the strip/downtown instead. The tour normally includes pick up and drop off at your base hotel, then trips to the Welcome sign, Bellagio fountains, Mirage Volcano and TI pirate show. We kind of broke this since we were staying at the Bellagio (and had thus seen the fountains many times over the week). We managed to miss the volcano due to timing and the pirate show due to inclimate weather (apparently trapeze acts and fireworks don't mix with high winds). Instead we did a lot of drinking, checking out the live and dead resorts and basically tooled around with stops at the World's Largest Gift Shop and the Stratosphere.
We went to the Stratosphere lounge to enjoy a quick drink and take in the view. There was a very decent lounge band playing and they called up a newlywed couple to dance.
Quick aside here: One of the reasons we picked this weekend to go to Vegas was to take in some of the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender. Circumstances conspired to prevent this, but it did mean that there were a lot of good-looking people wandering around Vegas wearing retro clothing, which pleased me greatly. I need some rockabilly clothing, since it makes even ugly guys like me look half-decent. No sideburns though.
Anyway, the newlywed couple had clearly come down to Vegas as part of the weekender and they were dressed the part. They got up in front of the band and proceeded to dance up a storm. They made swing dancing look effortless and put the bug back into my brain to learn how to do it. Now if I can only stomp down on the huge amount of anxiety that raises in me. Seriously, why can't I just do it?
We watched the couple dance, marveled at the view from Las Vegas' highest building (over 100m taller than anything in Calgary), pounded back some shots, then hustled back to our limo. We had the driver drop us off at Fremont Street, which none of us had ever been to before.
Why have I not gone to Fremont Street before? It's a fun vibe and the gambling is cheap. Don't get me wrong, I love dressing up like a big shot in the nicer strip casinos, but sometimes you just want to throw around 25 cent chips in your shorts and tee shirt with the other thousandaires. The Fitz is where I had my single best spin of the roulette wheel. I had a five dollar chip I didn't feel like cashing because of a long line up so I threw it onto 17 and it came up!
We did some hit and run gambling at a bunch of the downtown casinos and had a pretty good time (it helped that we were all pretty drunk). Eventually hunger overtook us and we went to some cheap 24-hour casino diner (Du-Par's). You know what, despite the high expectations of eating at high end restaurants all week, Du-Par's prime rib was delicious and exactly what the doctor ordered.
Definitely going to spend more time downtown next trip. If only because this picture must be true:
Thursday was our last day in Vegas. We had a late flight out (scheduled for 2100, but ended up being 2130, thanks to a snowstorm in Calgary. Ugh). We went shopping at the North Premium Outlet mall, which was fun and would have been better if I hadn't hit the weight limit of my checked luggage.
We had a few hours to kill so we took in Monster Mini Golf Featuring KISS. Mini golf with florescent black-light art and every bad KISS cliche and pun imaginable? Oh yeah we had a great time - only yard-long drinks with lanyards could have made it better. The art on the walls consisted of lots of Vegas icons crossed with KISS. Here's an example:
Finally we took the car back to Fox and then took the shuttle bus to the shuttle bus to the airport. The TSA helpfully analysed our drinks before we boarded the plane to see if they were delicious enough. Actually this was to make sure none of our drinks were bombs. Apparently someone told them that the 100ml limitation on liquids could be worked around by simply taking multiple containers and mixing them after passing security. Thus they check your bottle before boarding the plane. Thankfully no would-be terrorist could bypass that check by simply putting the bottle into their knapsack.
We got back to Calgary happy and exhausted, which is how Las Vegas trips really should end. Don't know when I'll be back, but I will be. There's still plenty I haven't seen yet. Five nights might be a little too much though. Three or four is perfect for me.
There is a slightly shorter version of this trip report at the Vegas Message Boards, in case you're interested.
Several months of planning went into this trip, and by planning, I mean nagging everyone I know to join me. Having had an earlier trip get whittled down from eight people to just me meant I knew that this was only going to go off if the stars were right and this time they were. Rounding out the trip was Brian, Tasha, Bruce, Allison and Melissa, the last being from the Windy City and everyone else coming from Cowtown.
Our Saturday flight out left early in the morning and included a four-hour stop in Salt Lake City. On the bright side, being with friends makes waiting for planes easy and painless. We passed the time getting an early start on the drinking (Polygamy Porter - why have just one?), gaming (we taught SNB and BAB how to play a game that I was always told was called "Chinese Craps". Turns out that's an entirely different game from what we were playing, which is a lot like Yahtzee) and general carousing.
We got to Las Vegas on time and got to our hotel in short order. Our hotel this time around was the Bellagio, which I normally would be far too cheap to stay at, but we got a sweetheart of a deal off of Expedia. Pushing our luck, we all tried the $20-trick (slip a twenty to the front desk clerk and ask for a complimentary upgrade) which we were all successful at. Bruce and Allison were upgrade to a spa-suite (which seemed to differ from standard rooms via the addition of a jetted tub and an extra sink). Brian and Tasha were upgraded to Lake-view, but had their $20 given back to them - possibly because it was their first anniversary. I also got a lake-view, but without having my $20 returned.
At first I wasn't enthused about seeing the fountains - I'd seen them before and reasoned that if I wanted to see them again, I could just walk out to the street. Of course, that wasn't accounting for the long walks typical of Vegas hotel rooms. Putting the fountain channel on the TV and watching multiple shows was a remarkable amount of fun, and damn easy if you were just hanging out in the room.
One of the first things we wanted to was make using our smart phones cheaper. Telus (one of the Canadian cellular phone carriers) bones you on roaming charges - Getting the cheapest roaming package that included data, voice and messaging would have been about $30 - which only reduced our per minute rates. So we opted to go to T-Mobile (There's one on Maryland and Flamingo) and buy a SIM card and six-days worth of pre-paid usage. We each got a Nevada phone number, voice, data and texting for a grand total of $21. The cab ride was the most expensive part of the operation. Service was good for communicating with each other, data was a little spotty, but not unusable.
Melissa joined us soon after and we headed out to Margaritaville for supper and frozen concoctions. We retired back to the Bellagio for some gambling.
Sunday I got up far too early for Las Vegas and went for a jog. Not knowing where to go, I figured I'd simply run around the block that the Bellagio was on. It turns out that's not actually possible. I ended up on the west side of I-15 standing in some warehouse's parking lot looking up at a billboard advertised, among other things, a strip club's upcoming Easter egg hunt. I had passed under Flamingo and couldn't see if I should continue north to the next major cross street (quite a distance) or turn around and go back (also quite a distance). Finally I scrambled up an embankment where pedestrians really shouldn't have been going and managed to get back to the hotel. sadly, my adventures clobbered my knee - I could still walk no problem, but every-time I had to climb stairs, it gave me a gentle reminder that I was through running for this vacation. Oh well.
During the day we had breakfast at Jean-Philippe Patisserie, which consisted of a variety of crepes. After, we relaxed by the pool. Supper was at Cafe Ile St. Louis at ParisLV. Then it was off to Bally's for some old-school Vegas showgirls.
Donn Arden's Jubilee! was that show and it was fabulous. It was Allison's idea to go see it and I'm glad she insisted. When the house lights went down I whispered to her "This better not suck" because that's what you say to the person who made you go. The curtains opened and suddenly there were about fifty gorgeous women dancing around wearing outlandish costumes that all managed to avoid covering their breasts. I leaned back to Allison and whispered "I take it all back!"
Of course one of the selling points for me personally is the fact that one of the sequences is about Titanic. I have a standing offer for my friends that if we're in Vegas at the same time, and they want to go to Luxor's Titanic exhibit, I'll go with them so I can play professor. This version did not disappoint, although - strangely for Jubilee - Cameron's movie had more nipples in it (it was the only sequence that didn't have some element of nudity). Still, they went immediately into the number for the next act without a break, which was jarring. One moment we see Titanic sink and five seconds later there's a bunch of women dressed like Mary-Lou Retton singing "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy".
We had a great time, and I need the red sequinned tuxedo the male dancers were wearing in one of the numbers. It was fabulous.
Monday we trekked back over to Paris to indulge in le Creperie. Last time I was there they half-assed it and I was disappointed. This time they were back to making excellent crepes and we managed to find enough seating for all six of us. We followed this up with a walk around the Miracle Mile, MGM Grand and NYNY, where we bought tickets for Zumanity.
Our pre-Zumanity supper (after a dash back to Bellagio to change into classier clothing and give the roulette table some of my money) was at Pearl. It was a good meal... but... There's a limit to how good Chinese food can be. The food was good, and the service was presentation was great, but in the end, there are Calgary restaurants serving food just as good as Pearl for a fraction of the cost. If you do go, be aware that the amount of food served is enormous our party of six probably ate 2/3 of what was served to us.
We got to Zumanity in sufficient tie to take in the pre-show. Zumanity is more cabaret than traditional Cirque show. It explores sexuality from first kiss to vanilla sex to romance to kink. Quite a bit of comedy too, which I think is a good thing since there's nothing like a good laugh to cut through the nervousness of sex (provided you don't also point while laughing). I liked Zumanity (aside from some external issues - more on that below), but felt that it was like trying to force two good things together to make something greater than the sum of its parts and failing. Like accompanying a plate of sushi with a milkshake - I like both, but they don't really go together. In the end I focused on the parts and stopped worrying about how they fit together.
Sadly, the one really shitty part of the whole week happened during Zumanity. Mel and I ended up sitting next to some drunken, loud-mouthed Guidette who would not shut up. The dingbat (as we dubbed her later) was asked several times by the ushers to leave and about halfway through the show they finally asked us if we wanted to move to other seats. We took them up on this offer and ended up moving from the last row of section 102 to the middle of row C. Unfortunately, we ended up disturbing about ten other patrons to do this and we couldn't exactly explain to them that we were being moved because of someone else's ignorant behaviour - we just looked like a couple of super-late patrons.
After the show I requested a manager to suggest that a better solution was to have simply ejected the dingbat - Neither Mel nor myself needed nicer seats (though they were very nice). Turns out the dingbat and her partner were ejected about five minutes after we were moved (she still wouldn't shut up and got belligerent with security). According to one of NYNY's security guards, they were a hair's breath from being handed over to LVMP. Of course at this point anything I had to complain about vanished - I wanted dingbat removed and they had done so, giving me and Mel better seats in the process. It sucks that we missed two minutes of the show and disturbed other patrons, but c'est la vie.
After the show we met up again with the rest of our merry band and wandered around through NYNY. Maybe the dingbat put me in a negative state of mind, but it looked like there were a lot of stereotypical New York folk staying at the resort. This kind of baffles me because when I go on vacation I'd like it to be different from what I'm used to. A friend did suggest that there is a certain appeal to "just like home, only warmer".
If there was a Canadian-themed resort I probably wouldn't stay at it. Well maybe I would if it had a Cirque show based off of the music of Great Big Sea featuring acrobatic, scantily-clad Mounties. But honestly, who wouldn't love something like that?
Later that night we returned to Bellagio for some gambling. We ended up closing out one of the pits; The last spin of the roulette wheel hit a number shared by Allison and I because we share a birthday. When we cheered our good luck the pit boss asked us what our actual birthday was - turns out it was his birthday too. I broke even that night because of that spin.
Tuesday started with delicious crab cakes benedict at Cafe Bellagio:
Mel had to leave the trip early so we all said goodbye to her. I've learned over my life that friendship is not transitive (that is, If A and B are friends and B and C are friends, that's no guarantee that A and C will get along), but it's certainly nice when it does happen. I've known Mel for only seven days (three at the wedding, four in Vegas), but we got along like we've known each other much longer. I wish she could have stayed until Thursday.
She did leave a little reminder - she forgot her jacket in the room. The Bellagio business center helped my ship it back to Chicago for her.
The two couples wanted a date night so I was left at odd ends for the day. This is OK because I needed to recharge my social batteries. I also wanted to see Viva Elvis which no one else was enthusiastic about. I spent the afternoon wandering around the Forum shops, occasionally gambling and finally ended up in Aria for my pre-show supper. I had Prosciutto and Burrata at Wolfgang Puck's Pizzeria and Cucina:
I followed it up with a pizza that was about the same price and quality as the better ones I can get back in Calgary. Then it was off to Viva Elvis.
I'll admit, I went into this show with low expectations - the show is being cancelled in August and I only really went because I knew this was going to be my last chance to do so. Turns out a lot of people were thinking the same thing as I was because the show, while not sold out, was very full. I'd estimate that the entire orchestra section was used as well as 1/3 to 1/2 of the balcony. Not bad for Tuesday night in a show that was failing to meet expectations.
The pre-show consists of pairs of Elvis fan girls prowling around the audience acting like inebriated, but friendly, club habitués. The two older couples on either side of me where commenting between themselves about who these people were.
"Is this your first Cirque du Soleil show?"One couple immediately "got" it, the other didn't - not their thing I guess.
"Yes"
"They typically send out performers to mingle with the audience and warm them up - these girls are part of the show."
I really liked the show, it was probably my favourite of the three shows I saw this trip and my second favourite Cirque show (Love being the first). I liked primarily for the music and choreography - I'm a huge fan of big musical production numbers, so the Cirque shows that focus on that tend to be my favorites. Some of the acrobatics worked very well (especially Blue Suede Shoes, Jailhouse Rock and Suspicious Minds). Others seemed shoehorned in merely because they had a cool act that needed to go in some Cirque show, and Viva Elvis was available (Western Scene and Bossa Nova Baby). When the dance, music and acrobatics meshed just right, Viva Elvis was a great show, but it didn't quite do it often enough or consistently enough to achieve overall greatness. Given a few more years to refine the show I think it would have done much better, but right now it seems too much like Cirque was trying to recapture the lightning of Love but couldn't quite manage it. A pity, because I'd happily see this show again even with its faults. Sadly, I'm not getting back to Las Vegas before it closes unless I win the lottery.
If you do go see Viva Elvis, keep an eye out for the blonde drummer - he was about the most energetic musician I've seen in a long time!
A lot of the Viva Elvis-branded merchandise is half off in the gift shop - get your beer and shot glasses now!
On my walk between Aria and the Cosmopolitan, I was treated to another show:
I watched this little spectacle for awhile. Pulled over for some traffic violation, the cops clearly thought there was more to it because they spent awhile searching the guy's car. I guess they thought he was a drug dealer or something. He certainly had a fat stack of cash on him. Looks can be deceiving though because they eventually just wrote him a citation and let him go. Everything was handled professionally, but why wouldn't it be with a TV crew and a hundred tourists watching. Hopefully they're like that in the suburbs too. Excitement over, I continued on to the Cosmopolitan to buy a $1 chip for twenty dollars.
I ran into Brian and Tasha while I was there. Brian informed me that he had learned how to play (basic) craps and had made some money at it. Having had a consistent losing streak at Roulette this trip he decided to try something new and was almost won back everything he'd lost! We played a little craps back at the Bellagio and I managed to win a little bit too by aping his bets. I still haven't the first clue how to play craps, but it looks like a ridiculous amount of fun, so I'll have to figure it out for my next trip. Brian ended up leaving Vegas a winner because of his switch from roulette to craps.
The problem with staying up until 3 in the morning? Not waking up until noon. And by "problem" I mean "greatest thing ever". Wednesday began with lunch at Olives restaurant at the Bellagio. Good food, middling service.
We travelled around trying to find a decent rental car for Wednesday and Thursday and found one at Fox rental. On the way back to the strip we found a pub attached to a Tommy Bahama's store that had a fairly good happy hour consisting of a variety of rum and tapas. We also went to Lee's discount liquor to find some cheap not-available-in-Canada booze.
We scheduled no shows that night because we decided to get a limo tour of the strip/downtown instead. The tour normally includes pick up and drop off at your base hotel, then trips to the Welcome sign, Bellagio fountains, Mirage Volcano and TI pirate show. We kind of broke this since we were staying at the Bellagio (and had thus seen the fountains many times over the week). We managed to miss the volcano due to timing and the pirate show due to inclimate weather (apparently trapeze acts and fireworks don't mix with high winds). Instead we did a lot of drinking, checking out the live and dead resorts and basically tooled around with stops at the World's Largest Gift Shop and the Stratosphere.
We went to the Stratosphere lounge to enjoy a quick drink and take in the view. There was a very decent lounge band playing and they called up a newlywed couple to dance.
Quick aside here: One of the reasons we picked this weekend to go to Vegas was to take in some of the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender. Circumstances conspired to prevent this, but it did mean that there were a lot of good-looking people wandering around Vegas wearing retro clothing, which pleased me greatly. I need some rockabilly clothing, since it makes even ugly guys like me look half-decent. No sideburns though.
Anyway, the newlywed couple had clearly come down to Vegas as part of the weekender and they were dressed the part. They got up in front of the band and proceeded to dance up a storm. They made swing dancing look effortless and put the bug back into my brain to learn how to do it. Now if I can only stomp down on the huge amount of anxiety that raises in me. Seriously, why can't I just do it?
We watched the couple dance, marveled at the view from Las Vegas' highest building (over 100m taller than anything in Calgary), pounded back some shots, then hustled back to our limo. We had the driver drop us off at Fremont Street, which none of us had ever been to before.
Why have I not gone to Fremont Street before? It's a fun vibe and the gambling is cheap. Don't get me wrong, I love dressing up like a big shot in the nicer strip casinos, but sometimes you just want to throw around 25 cent chips in your shorts and tee shirt with the other thousandaires. The Fitz is where I had my single best spin of the roulette wheel. I had a five dollar chip I didn't feel like cashing because of a long line up so I threw it onto 17 and it came up!
We did some hit and run gambling at a bunch of the downtown casinos and had a pretty good time (it helped that we were all pretty drunk). Eventually hunger overtook us and we went to some cheap 24-hour casino diner (Du-Par's). You know what, despite the high expectations of eating at high end restaurants all week, Du-Par's prime rib was delicious and exactly what the doctor ordered.
Definitely going to spend more time downtown next trip. If only because this picture must be true:
Thursday was our last day in Vegas. We had a late flight out (scheduled for 2100, but ended up being 2130, thanks to a snowstorm in Calgary. Ugh). We went shopping at the North Premium Outlet mall, which was fun and would have been better if I hadn't hit the weight limit of my checked luggage.
We had a few hours to kill so we took in Monster Mini Golf Featuring KISS. Mini golf with florescent black-light art and every bad KISS cliche and pun imaginable? Oh yeah we had a great time - only yard-long drinks with lanyards could have made it better. The art on the walls consisted of lots of Vegas icons crossed with KISS. Here's an example:
Finally we took the car back to Fox and then took the shuttle bus to the shuttle bus to the airport. The TSA helpfully analysed our drinks before we boarded the plane to see if they were delicious enough. Actually this was to make sure none of our drinks were bombs. Apparently someone told them that the 100ml limitation on liquids could be worked around by simply taking multiple containers and mixing them after passing security. Thus they check your bottle before boarding the plane. Thankfully no would-be terrorist could bypass that check by simply putting the bottle into their knapsack.
We got back to Calgary happy and exhausted, which is how Las Vegas trips really should end. Don't know when I'll be back, but I will be. There's still plenty I haven't seen yet. Five nights might be a little too much though. Three or four is perfect for me.
There is a slightly shorter version of this trip report at the Vegas Message Boards, in case you're interested.
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