Clan Casey

5 Aug 2013

You know when you’ve arrived in Vegas – there are pokie machines in the airport. Also there are vending machines not just for snacks but smart phones and other electronic gadgets and accessories.

Even though it was evening it was still pretty hot was we waited in the taxi queue. Fortunately it’s a fairly short trip from the airport to the Strip. This was to be our little bit of indulgence in that we were staying in the 5 star Trump International Hotel.

I have to say that the check in staff member let the brand down. She was very clinical – no smiles, no welcome statements. Just a demand for credit card  and passport and then processing us as quickly as she could. I don’t think she was impressed that we dared to delay the process by asking about how we accessed the wifi. Fortunately the rest of the staff were more pleasant.

Our room was on level 43 and while it didn’t have a view of the strip we had a great view over the city. Despite being so high up I would recommend ear plus as there are late night trains that blow their horns slowly and loudly 4 times each (why oh why). I suspect any hotel on the strip would suffer the noise.

If our room was  standard studio then we were blown away – it was luxurious and spacious. The marble bathroom had double sinks, spa bath, glass doors to toilet (with phone) and walk in shower. There was even a TV set into the mirror!

Our only complaint bout US hotels is that they are not used to the coffee loving habits of kiwis and only give you 2 coffee sachets each day. However, they will oblige if you ask for more – we did. When we commented on this to someone they advised that Americans really only drink coffee in the morning and in fact we often saw coffee shops closed in the afternoon.

6 Aug 2013

We had yet another city pass to collect (Las Vegas Power Pass) with the pick up location being the Planet Hollywood shop at Ceasers Palace Forum Shops. This was perfect as Trump International provide a free shuttle to there – a much better option than walking in 39 degrees C.

Our first real wow moment in Las Vegas had to be walking into the Forum Shops. It is like you are walking the streets of Rome at dusk. Overhead are clouds tinged pink from the ‘setting sun’ and stars twinkling. And they move across the ‘sky’. At ground level are wide streets with a cobbled effect, fountains, ‘outdoor’ restaurant dining. You very quickly forget you are inside.

There are a good range of shops but most out of our budget being the likes of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc. We decided to first head to the upper levels to collect our pass and as the Planet Hollywood was next door to the pass collection point and included a discount on dining we would have brunch there. We decided we would use that time to plan what we do on the pass and when.

We had more planning time than anticipated as the service was poor (note that as slow) even though it was fairly quiet with plenty of free tables. Tables around us who had arrived later were having their meals delivered when Simon asked for an ETA on ours. We were told just 3 mins but as it took around 10 I think they had forgotten and quickly put it together.

When breakfast arrived it was massive – definitely did for breakfast and lunch. We ordered English Cooked Breakfast which in US of course also includes fries.

Nicky, being the geek that she is, had sussed purchase of a Sony (NSZ-GS8) Internet Plater with Google TV. There being a Sony store in the Forum Shops we headed there to acquire it. Next it was back to Trump to drop off purchases and re-stock our water before heading off for the day.

We had decided that we wanted to see a Cirque du Soleil show that night so Nicky went online to suss out prices and where to buy tickets from. We could get 35% off from purchasing online via Treasure Island website for shows that night (where the show was to be held) but I came across Tix4Tinight that promotes half price tickets. You can’t buy from them online but they had a booth in the shopping centre across the road from our hotel so off we went. Their queue wasn’t that long but man it moved slow. After around 30-40 mins we et to the counter and their sale price is more than we could get online – in fact $10 each more. Bugger that and damn their false advertising. We went back to the hotel and purchased online.

We walked to our first stop (Madame Tussauds) from our central shuttle drop off the strip, Ceasars Palace. Yet it was very hot walking but there was so much to see – people galore, amazing themed resorts and shopping. Even in the middle of the day we saw lots of people walking around with these tall oddly shaped coloured plastic glasses that they were drinking from. These turned out to be mainly frozen margaritas. While we did enjoy these ourselves the size of some of these glasses that we saw were mind boggling.

Anyway, had our obligatory photos with all the celebs at Madame Tussauds. Just as well for them they’re just wax dummies as I’d not have been impressed with all the hot sweaty tourists (well it was 39 outside) cuddling up against me for photos.

Next it was across the other side of the road to Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden. Who knows how they came up with the name as it looks nothing like a garden. There are 2 sections – dolphins and cats. A strange mix and dolphins in the desert?

The dolphins at least appeared to have plenty of space over a number of pools. We were lucky enough to arrive at a feeding time which was followed by a performance. They are fantastic animals. We came across a dolphin in another pool without any trainers in sight putting on a performance of his own with a ball. He’d come up to the edge every so often and seemed be teasing the spectators with his ball before heading out to the middle of his pool again. ‘He’ actually seemed to be having fun – I hope so.

The cats area (mainly white tigers and lions) was more of a disappointment. I thought their cages pretty small – not enough space for them to get up a run of more than 3-4 strides. With the heat of the day the cats were sleeping and they did their best to find areas at the back as much as possible away from the public view.

We walked from Siegfried and Roy’s back to Treasure Island Resort as we wanted to see the pirate ships we’d been told about. We sussed out what times their free shows were each night so we could come back for a look since it is only about 10-15 mins walk from our hotel. By now it was  about 4pm and as it was rather a hot long walk from Siegfried and Roy’s a nearby bar beckoned. I treated myself to a sour prickly pear frozen margarita (divine) while Simon had a corona while also indulging himself in his usual game of stealing from my drink too.

Back at the hotel, although we have free internet in our room, we have to pay for internet in the business centre and then per page to print out our show tickets. There goes at least a 1/3 of our ticket price savings.

We headed out for an early dinner so we could also watch the Treasure Island Show. It’s definitely worth seeing. On stage right you have a ship load of pirates and on stage left you have a ship load of sexy female sirens. In between there is a water filled lagoon. The pirate ship trundles along a track in the water. One of the pirates is spell bound by the sirens and leaves his ship for theirs. The remaining pirates attempt to rescue him and a battle ensues involving pyrotechnics, water spouts and the ultimate sinking of the pirate ship. The pirates then all end up on the sirens ship and after singing and dancing and a bit of loving all live happily ever after. Aaahh.

The show for Cirque du Soleil (Mystere) started as soon as we were seated and it wasn’t on stage. We worked out that a spot light was following a particular usher who turned out to be no ordinary usher. Those he picked on got lead a merry dance across seats, across the stage, having tickets ripped up, being swapped out with others already seated, etc.

The mad usher’s performance continued during the show. We have a bloke chosen to be placed in a locked box on stage and we wonder what is going to happen to him. Well – nothing – the action is back at his vacated seat. The usher sits himself next to tha blokes girlfriend. Gives her a rose, orders champagne and glasses, places his arm around her and even has a candle held up by an audience member seated in front. After a few minutes the usher wanders off through the audience and finds another bloke whom he drags off to sit next to ‘girlfriend’ and places his arm around her. Then he’s off back to the stage to let the boyfriend out of the box on stage and sends him back to his seat – only for him to find out of course that there is another bloke in his seat with his arm around his girlfriend. There ere all sorts of funny fillers like this while stage sets were changed.

The main show itself was absolutely amazing and had to be counted as one of the main highlights of our trip to the US. To describe it as a cross between a circus, acrobats and ballet really can’t do it justice. It is impossible to describe all that went on – it was a visual extravaganza. I will try and describe just one act that we found incredible – unfortunately you cannot take photos, even without a flash. Picture 2 guys – one is lying face down with his legs bent up from the knee and on his feet is another guy doing a handstand. Now the guy lying down very, very slowly lowers his legs flat to the ground while the 2nd guy remains in a handstand. And if that wasn’t enough, the first guy now again very slowly raises his legs back up still all the while the 2nd guy remaining in a hand stand. Incredible! Here is a picture I found on the web of these 2 – unfortunately not as described but then again their whole performance was pretty amazing.

Exiting Cirque du Soleil we discovered another Treasure Island pirates show was about to start again and this time we had a chance to see it from the Siren ship end and as opposed to the Pirate ship end. As it was such fun we stayed on to watch before heading back to our hotel for the night.

7 Aug 2013

This morning was an early start with a pick up from our hotel at 7am for our flight to the Grand Canyon and over the Hoover Dam on our way back. We were booked with Vegas 500 Air Tours and would be going to the west rim. Simon was also to be doing the sky walk – Nicky having chickened out.

The flight to the Grand Canyon departs from Henderson Executive Airport – 20kms from the city. On chatting to our pilot, Cameron, because Simon and I both fly he allows us to sit in the co-pilot’s seat. Simon on the way there and me on the way back. Our aircraft is a 7-seater GA8 Airvan so all passengers are guaranteed a window seat.

I missed most of the commentary on the way there as I had trouble working my headset – it turned out that the person prior to me had turned the volume right down. Also, Cameron held up numbers cards in the front was you flew over points so you knew which number to press on your head set radio but as I was so busy looking outside I missed most of these. On the flight back I discovered that I was not alone as most passengers tend to have eyes out the window rather than looking towards the cockpit. Not surprising as the scenery on the way to the Canyon is really interesting. It’s hard to fathom these towns all by themselves in the middle of a desert. What do their citizens do? How do they earn their money?

Our flight from Henderson is a gradual climb from 2,500 feet above sea level to 5,000 feet at Grand Canyon West Airport. I had through it would be quite hot at the Canyon but the temperature is actually a few degrees cooler than Las Vegas. Quite bearable.

There are people galore at the Canyon airport – fortunately they seem to get well spread over the various locations we are shuttled off to by bus as the numbers didn’t seem to bad elsewhere. We had a choice of going off to Eagle point, Guano Point and Hualapai Ranch. We took Cameron’s recommendation and went just to the first two. Our first stop was to Eagle point where the skywalk is.

Eagle Point gets it’s name from a rock formation that looks like and eagle’s head and wings – unfortunately the photos I took don’t show it at all. Simon took off for his skywalk. You can’t take a camera on there (they want to charge you for their photos of course) but as I had stayed on the ground I could take photos of him on it from a distance. The skywalk is a glass bridge in a loop over the Canyon.

What amazed us is that you can walk right up to the edge of the Canyon. There are no roped off areas or hand rails. I am not good on heights so I didn’t go closer than 2-3 feet to the edge. I particularly got nervous when anyone else was near me as I felt if someone stumbled into you when you were at the edge it would be all over rover. Well the drop is up to 1800 metres (6,000 feet) after all. Simon, and plenty of others, had no such qualms walking right up to the edge and peering over. We asked Cameron about the lack of hand rails and he told us they used to have them but there were a number of accidents with people placing greater reliance on them than should and fooling around. Since they have been removed accidents have declined.

Cameron had told us that Guano Point was even more spectacular than Eagle Point and he was right. Gaunao Point is so named as it had a cable/tram that traversed the canyon to a bat cave where guano was collected for fertilizer. The cable was taken out by an air force jet which damaged it’s wing but amazingly pilot and plane survived. You can walk/climb/scramble up a hill behind the abandoned cable station where you can get amazing 360 degree views of the Canyon.

Back at Las Vegas in the afternoon Simon was keen to do the Roller Coaster at New York, New York which was included in his pass. I am scared of heights and couldn’t think of anything worse so stayed back at the hotel. Simon said New York, New York was as incredible as the Ceasers Forum Shops. Again it was like you were outside even though you were inside with the theme this time being 1930’s New York. Because our Power Pass was for 2 adults Simon was given 2 tickets for the roller coaster. He noted a woman with 2 children tossing up whether or not to go for the ride so gave her the second ticket.

Another attraction on our Pass were particularly keen to go to was Eli Roth’s Goretorium. It doesn’t open each day until 5pm so we walked there (it’s quite a way) arriving soon after 5. The theme is a haunted hotel with elements of Pycho, Silence of the Lambs, etc.

You are taken through in very small groups – ours being 5 in total. The remainder of our party was a woman plus her teen age son and a daughter who I would guess at about 10 years. We are told if we get too scared we can call out ‘red red red’, stay where we are and we will b rescued through a side door. I asked, and was told it had already been used 3 x that day. We are also told we must not touch any of the props or the actors. In we go and our first stop is the obligatory photo which we never buy.

Our guide escorts us into an elevator and warns us the original owners of the hotel became mad murders, were committed to an asylum but it seems one has escaped. The elevator jolts to a sudden stop, the lights go out and our guide has gone. The first ‘room’ we enter we we a woman trapped in rollers which will take her to her death. She pleads with us to press the red stop button. I am hesitant because we have been told not to touch the props. Eventually I give in but the machine doesn’t stop but speeds her to her untimely ‘death’.

I have to admit I’m gripping Simon’s arm hard the whole ways through. I keep reminding myself they’re just actors as we are chased with chain saws, jumped out at, and come across a number of disturbing scenes. Remember what was being sewn in Silence of the Lambs?

Well worth it if you like a bit of a scare. The boy in our group loved it. His sister much less so and we kept her in the centre to protect her from being targeted by the actors as much as possible. However, I could see when we made it out she was pleased she had made it the whole way through.

We had dinner and more frozen margaritas at a mexican resturant opposite Eli Roth’s.

Our pass included entry to BeatleShow! at Saxe Theater and as the reviews seemed pretty good we through we might as well see that as opposed to buying tickets for another show. The show was very well done but was it not included with our pass we’d probably have picked something else as while we like the Beetles music we’re not die hard fans.

I wanted to go up the ‘Eiffel Tower’ which was another pass inclusion so we walked there after the show. We stood in the queue for about 15 mins which was hardly moving. We estimated at the pace we could have another hour wait ahead of us which we couldn’t stomach so we gave up and started walking back to Ceasars Palace for the hotel shuttle and came across the fountain show outside Bellagio. Unfortunately the photos don’t convey what we would see by eye – it’s worth watching.

That concluded our last night in Vegas – our 3 nights and days seemed to be over in the blink of an eye. We’d definitely go back as there was so much to see and do. We felt we’d only scratched the surface.