Stuff

This is Vegas – Part 2

Now enough with the complaining about how Vegas didn’t live up to my expectations, and on with all the fun I had.

We arrive on Friday evening at the airport where you can get your bags, get your car and get your room all in one place. I highly recommend checking in at the airport if you’re staying at the MGM Grand, especially if you’re arriving for the weekend along with a thousand other people. You get all the paperwork done before you leave the airport and don’t have to deal with tipping 5 different bell hops when you arrive at the hotel, especially when you only have a backpack or carry-on bags.

Then we were off to the Paris to engorge ourselves on good food and decadent desserts. The portions were HUGE! I ordered the fish. Yes, I know, fish in the middle of a desert? Anyway it was good but it was like they gave me one whole side of the halibut. Luckily we only ordered one side dish. And the dessert. The dessert! Rich, creamy chocolate mousse – yum, yum-yum-yum. I highly recommend the deserts. You’re in Vegas. No one will bat an eye if you order a dinner consisting of various desserts.

So then it was on to “O”. If you try to book tickets and they only have partial view seats, take them. They’re cheap and you don’t miss anything. You mentally block out the railing once the show begins. I’m a Cirque du Soleil fan, so I loved the show. I’ve read reviews by some that they didn’t like it because it was too much of a circus. That is what it’s supposed to be like. So if you don’t like circuses or you can’t get into “artsy-fartsy” stuff, then skip it.

Skip the Venetian shopping and head straight to the Forum. I didn’t see much that I would like to browse at the Venetian, except for Sephora located on the Strip not in the hotel. The Forum has more stores that you would actually buy things at, unlike the Venetian, which is home to the infamous gaudy emporium where Michael Jackson went on a shopping spree. And the Forum has a Shūz store (a shoe store for those who haven’t been to Europe) and a Stuart Weitzman store (the Tiffany of shoes) – enough said.

I loved the people watching you can do too. Sit at the bar in the casino and watch the vacant faces of slot machine gamblers comparing those to the expressions of those at the tables. And while walking along the Strip we heard some of the most precious comments, such as the baby boomer taking a photo of the Siegfried & Roy statue saying “Can’t stand that they’re gay, but that’s the way it works.” Then he went on to say how much he loved the show. Vegas is a land of contrasts.

Vegas is all about hyperbole – in it’s architecture, layout, people and reputation. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *