I'm back

I'm back from Vegas feeling refreshed but considerably poorer.

I've approved all comments that were left on my posts over the last week and turned moderation off again. Many thanks to Stuart Hayward for handling all the moderation on his posts while I was away.

Comments

[Adjustah on 09.04.06 at 16:17]

Welcome back.

"Hi my name is Adjustah. It has been 7 days since my last caption competition..."

[Full Fullish on 10.04.06 at 00:29]

Welcome back Phil! So how was it? I trust you guys had a good time. It's going to take a few weeks to get it out of your system, trust me! :)

[His Excellency, Uncle Elvis II on 10.04.06 at 05:12]

Welcome back, amigo. Hope you had a good time.

[SmokingGun on 10.04.06 at 12:10]

Yeah well, go away again will you. I'm finally starting to get some work done. ;)

Did you notice how the planes leaving vegas always seem a little lighter? Looking forward to your take on Sin City....

[Adjustah on 10.04.06 at 12:38]

Yeah, seriously - productivity must have been up island-wide last week! ;)

[Two Cents on 10.04.06 at 13:13]

Phil,

Welcome back !!

I don't know how much more "No-LIB" I would have been able to handle. That being said, I was able to finish my 2007 projections ahead of schedule instead of my usual last second finish.

Paul

[Phil on 11.04.06 at 23:16]

What I’ll miss about Vegas:

• The Bellagio: Probably the nicest hotel room I have ever stayed in. Our spacious corner room on the tenth floor of their spa tower had giant windows with an unimpeded view of the Paris and mid-Strip area in one direction and the south-Strip in the other. Not to mention a luxurious, marble-floored bathroom with whirlpool bath, shower and a wall-mounted plasma TV.

• The boobs: I probably saw more bare breasts in a single performance of Jubilee! than I will in the rest of my life.

• Video poker: A great way to gamble for a decent length of time without losing too much money.

• The desert: A lot more varied than I was expecting. Red Rock Canyon was particularly interesting.

• The casino in the Paris: the only one with a bit of atmosphere. The others seemed universally brown.
  

What I won’t:

• Smoking: It sometimes seemed as if every smoker in the rest of the United States had fled the bans in their home states and taken refuge in the city. The place has the most permissive attitude to smoking I’ve encountered anywhere in the US. You can smoke pretty much everywhere – in the casinos, the restaurants, the restrooms and the public areas of the hotels – and it’s a right that’s enthusiastically exercised. Perhaps when they’re thinking of the theme for one of the hotels now under construction someone might consider “smoke-free” a suitable choice. Particularly unpleasant when your wife is pregnant and is supposed to be avoiding exposure to second hand smoke.

• Tipping: I’ve always hated the American tipping culture, but Vegas took it to extremes. For example, you were expected to tip when eating at the buffets – even though you pay as you go in (i.e. before you have received the service), and serve yourself with food.

• The crowds: It wasn’t too bad during the week, but Saturday was a zoo.

• $38.99 each for two rides and a small museum at Star Trek: The Experience.

• Cirque du Soleil: I fell asleep during “O”, although that may have had something to do with the fact that we went to a 10.30pm performance and I was still jet-lagged. Some of the bits I saw were impressive, but the clowns sucked, and overall it just confirmed my opinion that CDS is grossly overrated.

• Slots: What’s the attraction with these? They involve no skill whatsoever and offer some of the poorest odds in the casino.

• The tacky hotels: Excalibur was probably the worst.
  

All in all I enjoyed Vegas much more than I was expecting. That said, it’s not a place I could go back to year after year.

[TJL on 12.04.06 at 09:00]

"Slots: What’s the attraction with these? They involve no skill whatsoever..."

I think you answered your own question.

[loki on 12.04.06 at 09:19]

"The tacky hotels: Excalibur was probably the worst."

I take it that you didn't make it up to Circus Circus, then? It makes the Excalibur look like the Ritz......

[Phil on 12.04.06 at 13:55]

loki

Circus Circus was one hotel we didn't get to. By the sounds of it, I'm glad we didn't.

I thought the Luxor was pretty ugly on the inside too.

[loki on 12.04.06 at 14:16]

"loki

Circus Circus was one hotel we didn't get to. By the sounds of it, I'm glad we didn't.

I thought the Luxor was pretty ugly on the inside too."

Circus Circus is bloody awful. To make matters worse, it's right on the edge of the no-man's land between Downtown and the strip, so the neighbourhood resembles something out of 'Mad Max'. The Luxor was definitely the biggest let-down out of all the hotels that we visited: it's stunning from the exterior, but it's just gloomy once you get in.