Gringo Tour 08/09 - Part 15

We were a little groggy in the morning - Ant way so more than I was...! I thought I might hop downstairs to the Golden Arches before Breakfast closed at 11am - I had got there about quarter to 10 and bought myself and Ant a sausage and egg mcmuffin. Although shameful - it did the spot.

I got dressed and showered and felt OK (if a little tired due to the fact that we didn't get back to the hotel till 5am) - but Ant needed more rest - so I did some sightseeing/shopping down the strip without him.

I had decided to check out all of the hotels I had missed yesterday. First stop was the Tropicana Hotel (which was at the MGM Grand/Excalibur/NY NY crossroads). It was a little retro but high on cheese.

I then thought I might check out the H&M store at the Planet Hollywood Hotel (which didn't appear to have any relation to the Arnold restaurant - although freakishly - there was a Planet Hollywood restaurant at the Forum shopping centre next to Caesars.... which I had thought had all gone bust or something 5 years ago...?). Although there was allegedly a sale on at H&M (being Boxing Day and all) - hardly anything decent was on sale - so I bought a full price hoody and t-shirt. I've noticed I've started to lose my "bargin-whore" tag and am now finding myself buying the full-price stuff - I had spent $300 on new clothes before I left Australia at Sydney - and the tee I bought at San Diego was also full price... or something.

The Planet Hollywood hotel felt a little crappy (in a sterile sort of way) so I continued down the Strip on my trek of visiting all of the casinos I "didn't do" the previous day.

Right next door to Planet Hollywood was probably my favourite casino - "Paris" which was a bit like NY NY - in that the casino was a mish-mash of Paris landmarks including a mini-Eiffel Tower and a bit of a Louvre facade. The casino inside was quite classy (dare I say it with a "C") - with all of the hotel staff dressed up in Parisian style (including the drink waitresses looking like Moulin Rouge dancers). There were even metro stops and stuff inside the Casino.

I then checked out a collection of "cheap n nasty" casinos including Flamingoes (which was all 70s pink neon with a mirrored (and very low) ceiling and had Donnie and Marie shop (Marie needs to cut back on the Botox)), Imperial Palace (which gaming floor smelt like Subway... gross), Harrah's (I used the bathroom there) and Casino Royale (I don't think James Bond would be seen dead in there).

I decided to fork out $5USD and get a day pass to the "Duece" - a big double decker bus which goes up and down the strip. I caught it around Wynn and got off at the Riveria (which wasn't that far away really - but I was lazy American style). The Riveria was fairly clapped out (with a "k") - another casino which hadn't been renovated since 1962. I headed across the road to one of my retro favourites "Circus Circus". It sort of looked like someone had chucked a grenade at half of the Circus Circus sign (a scary looking giant clown) and although it was very retro - it had a big indoor themepark. I also think it was the casino that was in the Diamonds Are Forever movie (and didn't look like it had been renovated since). Circus Circus seemed a little bit like Excalibur in that it was a more "family orientated" casino, despite the acres of gaming tables and slots (of the machine variety).

Speaking about slots - I went to what had the best name in Vegas - "Slots A Fun"... It was small, dingy but how could you not like that name...?! I'm not sure if there is a sister strip club somewhere in Vegas??

It was getting late in the day - and I had promised to see Ant back at the Luxor by 3:30pm. I caught the Deuce back in the direction of the Luxor - but it was a big mistake. Firstly - it was chockers with the heater on high - which seemed like very appropriate climate control since I was wearing my big heavy winter coat. Secondly - the bus was slower than a snail's pace. An old invalid grandma with no leg or bowel control could crawl faster than the Deuce. The car traffic on the strip was unbelievable... Not sure why you would bother driving down it if the invalid grandma could beat you??! I didn't want to upset Ant and I wanted to be there by 3:30pm - so I hopped off the next stop (which was about 200m away from where I had caught it - which took 15 mins) and I had raced down the Strip on foot. It's quite a distance and you have to compete with pedestrian traffic - and there is a a tonne of overhead walkways (some of which force you to walk through private-property casinos??!).

I ended up being about 15 minutes late - but Ant didn't mind... Because of my lack of sleep - I decided to crash and Ant went out - did a bit of shopping at the Fashion Show Mall (including the man-whore A&F store) and he took my advice and had checked out the Paris Casino - which he liked...

Because we are cheap and tacky people - we decided to have dinner at the all-you-can-eat buffet at the Luxor (instead of the Excalibur). Because the Luxor is a "klassier" hotel than the Excalibur - the buffet was definitely more better quality than Excalibur's effort. It was a little more pricey (maybe $5USD more than Excalibur) - but the quality of food was way better. You could even get someone to cook you up a steak or hamburger (but of course - gratuity was extra).

After dinner (we were both pretty tired) - we decided to check out the more up-market sister hotel of the Luxor - Mandalay Bay which was right next door. This felt a bit more like the 5 star sister of the Luxor and Excalibur (the Luxor being a 3-4 star brother and the Excalibur being the 2-3 star dodgy uncle). Although we wanted to see a show in Vegas - we were a bit tired on our last night (also - we were to shy to buy tickets to the "Thunder from Downunder - although men were allowed to buy tickets"). Until next time...