Rubbing the Magic Lamp in a gondola
Our trip to Vegas this past weekend went pretty well. We were able to book, through the magic of Priceline, a room at the Venetian for $83 + tax, so that really started things off on the right foot. The standard room is quite large - it's got a sunken "living" area and a raised sleeping area, kinda like a suite. The bathroom was well-marbled with two sinks, a tub and a separate shower, and a toilet room. It also had a separate makeup area, so that gave us more space than we knew what to do with. The living area also contained a fax/printer, and the hotel would send you a printout of your room charges that way. I was hoping they'd give us a little gondola toy to play with in the tub, but no dice.
After our stay at the Venetian, we moved on to the Aladdin. Paul and Maureen were staying there also, and since it's changing to the *blech* Planet Hollywood at the start of the year, we figured we might as well stay there while it's still nice. ;-) And it was. The standard room was about half the size of the Venetian, but the bathroom was comparable, with separate shower/tub and a toilet room. It only had one sink, but we toughed it out. :-)
We saw "Mystere" (yeah, I know there's supposed to be an accent in there) at the Treasure Island - sorry, the "TI" - on Saturday night. It was well worth the price. This was the second Cirque du Soleil show I've seen live; the first was La Nouba at Walt Disney World. There was a lot of audience participation in this particular show, more so than I was expecting. The "audience clown" went around spilling/pouring bags of popcorn on people throughout the show, and generally being an amusing nuisance. Unlike La Nouba, Beth and I didn't get ushered onto the main stage by the clown, for which I am grateful. The theatre was a bit smaller in person than the seating layout makes it look, so our seats were much better than I thought they'd be. I'm looking forward to seeing "O" and "Zumanity" on future Vegas trips.
We watched the Bellagio fountain show from atop the Eiffel Tower at Paris, and that was pretty cool. I had no idea the tower was so tall - it's second only to the Stratosphere in terms of height on the strip. From the ground, it doesn't look like it's as tall as some of the hotel towers around it, but it definitely is.
We ate at a nice place at the Venetian whose name I forget, and had buffets at the Aladdin (my favorite), the Mandalay Bay, the Bellagio and the Paris. I don't think I'll eat again for a week.
Our iPod got a workout on the drive to and from. I had bought a few comedy CDs and audio books to listen to, and that worked out very nicely. The only gotcha was that I'd brought the power cord but forgot the iPod docking station, so we had to grab a car charger at the Apple Store in Fashion Show Mall in Vegas as we'd run the battery down almost completely on the drive to Vegas. The mall itself was nice and huge, but the Apple Store within was perhaps one of the smallest I've seen.
In the end, everyone had a good time, and very little gambling was done (although I did manage to win $50 at BJ). I look forward to future trips like this. :-)