VEGAS: 19th August (General)

Day/Night 3: Friday 19th August (General)

This morning I woke up at 8:30AM giving me a not-ideal four and a half hours sleep. After my Starbucks routine it was off out at a fairly late 11:30AM with a view to exploring the 3 casinos in the south end of the strip that I kind of failed to take in properly yesterday due to tiredness. With the relentless sun burning down and already a party atmosphere in the air, it had to be a large $4 can of Coors Light to sip as I made my way south. Now I know times are hard in our current economic climate but there's got to be a healthier way to make a living than standing out in the searing heat of Vegas, waving at passers-by while ensconced inside a massively heavy Disney character outfit!? Insane!

Anyway, this walk was all about getting to Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Excalibur but before I could explore that area properly, I had one of the most outstanding crossroads on the strip to take in and that'll be the view outside Tropicana. This has to be one of THE most spectacular views of the strip and, I'll tell you right now, when you're a visitor to Vegas and you have a large can of Coors Light in your hand and you've walked a bit of the strip and you still have well over a week to spend in this city - and you look up the Camelot-style castle of Excalibur on one corner with its red and blue cone spires, the landscape of the city of New York on the other corner with the arm of the Statue of Liberty and the skyscrapers reaching up into the sky (with the added roller-coaster track in the background to give it a twist) AND you see the huge and proud majestic golden lion of the MGM looking outward to survey its domain - you feel pretty damn good I can tell you!

New York/New York: So good I did the photo twice:

Based on the Camelot theme, Excalibur's unique interior feature were the turrets and the small stained glass effect of the panels that made their way around the upper wall of the casino and that featured images of knights with their swords and shining armour. Luxor, the huge and distinctive black pyramid with the sphinx and the hieroglyphic encrusted pillars outside, housed a casino with a mainly black and grey colour scheme with a dark brown carpet. After you are transported via moving walkways from Excalibur to Luxor and then pass through one or two more moving walkways along with food courts and a fairly small shopping mall, you end up at Mandalay Bay. Apart from its absolutely huge sportsbook area and screen, along with the interesting 30s style lamps that hung from the ceiling with their sparkling crystal and stylish red, brown and yellow mosiac pattern there is not really much else to say about Mandaly Bay.

I decided to stride on out to its far reaches and observed its swimming pool and the entrance to its "Shark Reef" aquariam but wasn't really tempted to delve deeper. In a way I got the impression that MB is a bit like the Wynn casino and Encore in the far north of the main strip - fancy and stylish and elegant an' all but a little too far from the main action to be a main contender.

Doubling back for a quick 30 minute poker session at Luxor (Session #4), it was then onto Tropicana. I was briefly tempted by Luxor's Titanic exhibition but decided to give it a miss. With a very new and shiny white and red colour scheme, Tropicana is certainly one of the most brightest casino on the strip. It has a white polished marble floor, very comfy beige chairs and a deep orange carpet with a leafy pattern. Like the Flamingo, I'm still undecided about the coconut/Malibu aroma that they pump into the casino floor though. Interestingly, it was the only poker room so far that failed to furnish me with an available seat straight away and although this means I will need to make a return visit, with it being quite small I can't say I was too disappointed.  

After this, it meant the long walk back to Harrah's but not before I decided to pop into MGM to cool off. This place has the biggest casino floor space in Vegas and it also boasts a massive circular concourse reception area as you enter its main entrance. I'm still not so sure about the lionesses in the glass tank but on listening to the commentary about how the enclosure is sound-proof and smell-proof and has been created to keep them as calm and as peaceful as possible (at a cost of well over $9m), it appears that they are well taken care of. They also have about 30 odd of these big cats that they bring in on a kind of rota basis so I guess it's not as inhumane as you might think.

After my most lengthy sleep so far, from 7PM-12:30AM, it was time for the evening poker sessions. With the itinerary completely out the window and a foot long roll from Subway (shoulda been a 6 inch - I always regret going large) it was onto Bally's for Session #5 and a new discovery - a mall linking Bally's to Paris! Then, with the time at 4:15AM it was a 90 minute stint at MGM for Session #6. Finally, with the time at 6AM, it was onto the coconut/Malibu scented Tropicana - and no, I decided that I was no longer a fan of this scented lark. The fact that I was disappointed, yet again, at getting onto a table may have had something to do with it - but at least the glorious cool and calm walk back to Harrah's at such an early hour made up for it.

I'll let you know how I got on at those poker sessions in my next post.