More Las Vegas

Trip Start Aug 13, 2007
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Trip End Nov 12, 2007

Flag of United States  , Nevada,
Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Drove down to the Luxor Casino late this morning. The Luxor has an Egyptian theme going, with a huge black glass pyramid, and a big fake Sphinx out the front. After taking some photos we hopped on the free monorail that connected to the next Casino up, The Excalibur (complete with a medieval shaped castle, it looked more like Disneyland to us). Having read in guide books about the free magic show & free fire-breathing Dragon animatronics out the front, this casino was high on our priority list. But after asking a security guard where these shows were, we were told to our annoyed disappointment that since MGM had taken over the Excalibur that they no longer had either show. So we ended up taking the kids downstairs where they had a sideshow type area (teaching kids to gamble young...??!). We let the kids have one game of something each, and they chose a fishing game (where everyone was a winner - smart kids. I gues they figured the odds of getting something in the other games weren't good. They each won a soft toy snake.

Over the road to another casino, The Tropicana, which was meant to have a free bird show - but a security guard there informed us that they no longer do that either! Vegas is definitely re-chaning their image from 'Family Friendly' back to sleazy again. We then went into the MGM Grand casino and watched two beautiful young male lions wrestling and playing in their spacious enclosure. W got some really good, close up looks at them too.
I had to laugh when one of the lions went right up to the glass to have a wee, and there was an explosion of tussling & flashes going off as all the tourists in that area snapped pictures of him - oh pluh-eeeeze! Next we went to the 'New York, New York' casino, which has a smaller scale model of the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State building. Lion up close
Lion up close
 There is also a huge rollercoaster that goes around the building & does several terrifying looking loops & spins. Fred ummed & ahhed about going, finally I shoved him into the entrance. He came off the rollercoaster looking rather pale and green, he said it was the scariest rollercoaster he'd ever been on...and we haven't even got to Disneyland yet!

The next Casino we went to (by the way, there isn't much in Vegas apart from Casinos!!) was Caesars Palace, where Celine Dion performs every night. We found our way through masses of expensive designer shops, with a fake blue sky above (it's meant to make you think you are walking in Italy, I think...not so hard to believe when you see the outrageous prices for everything there) to a fountain that puts on a free animatronics show every hour - and yes, it actually did happen like it was supposed to! There was also a huge aquarium that the kids enjoyed seeing. After finding our way out of that labyrinth of a casino we walked down the Strip looking for somewhere reasonably priced to eat, but we ended back up at Denny's again, as everything was soooo expensive. A nice elderly couple in Denny's gave Josh & Kate a 'Harrahs' (another Casino) roll up blanket each, as they said they didn't want them.

After dinner we walked back down to Treausre Island and got a different spot where the kids could see better - mainly the second ship that actually sinks, they missed that last night. By the time that show was finished, we were all exhausted & headed back to the 5th Wheel. Can't say in all honesty that I'd ever want to come to Vegas again, not my cup of tea at all.
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