Las Vegas 2

What can I say about Las Vegas that will make any sense? Probably not much and many of you have been here already so have your own impressions. I can understand that some people are snooty about how outrageous it is in a Disneyland/world sort of way but also in the Disney style it is a lot of fun.

Excalibur at night

entrance to the Luxor with the pyramid behind

New York New York "skyline"

top of the escalator in New York New York

The Venetian Casino

Elvis and David Bowie!

 And you know what – it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. It’s a place to party and have fun and everyone is hustling for your first and last buck. There is no hypocrisy about the presentation which is quite refreshing.

Each major casino property is enormous, and each one is trying to outdo or at least keep up with the others. Parking is plentiful and free; washrooms, except at the Luxor, are also plentiful; there is always something to do or look at; the architecture is amazing; shopping is great; people watching is the best anywhere. Yes, the shows are expensive, the food portions are ridiculously large, people smoke indoors, traffic is nuts on Friday and Saturday evenings, and there are strange groups of bachelor and bachelorette pre-wedding parties, (I’ve never understood the “last days of freedom before I am chained down forever” school of thought).

You have to be fit to visit Vegas and except occasionally at night we are not seeing women tottering around on 5 inch heels. We’ve walked and walked and walked; just to explore one property from end to end can be a kilometre. Leave the bar shoes at home!

inside the Venetian

Our timeshare resort Tahiti Village is immediately south of the airport, about 10 minutes from the strip and there is a free shuttle every half hour. So we have a peaceful apartment to retreat to and today we are just hanging out here before taking in some of the freebie shows: the volcano at the Mirage, the fountains at the Bellagio, Lake of Dreams at Wynn and a non-free , gondola ride at the Venetian. Three of the four main stage shows we’ve attended were fabulous, the fourth, Criss Angel, was pretty awful. Some of his illusions were really good but it was filled in by tasteless and tacky humour, very loud music and no sign of the Cirque component that is supposed to be part of it. We were very disappointed as we expected to be wowed. On the other hand, Donny and Marie Osmond were fantastic (I wasn’t a huge fan but am now), as were Vegas the Show and the Jersey Boys. A real bonus with Donny & Marie was that they performed at the Flamingo which is the last theatre of its type in Vegas. So cool to see it and we had a booth to ourselves!

the Flamingo theatre

We are beginning to wind down from the excitement here, leaving on Tuesday for a couple of days in Scottsdale before going to Sedona for a week of hiking in that beautiful area. So far all is well!