09-14OCT07 - Las Vegas, NV

 Tuesday morning we were back at New York, New York, to participate in the time share presentation. We boarded a bus with many other tourists who were expecting a “free gift” after the presentation. We were taken to a condominium building next to the airport. Upon arrival each couple was assigned a person to explain the benefits of their approach to the time share world. Long story, short, after three hours of our time we finally got our “free” tickets for that evening’s Mystere show. Next time we’ll probably just buy the tickets!

The rest of the week was spent just lazing around the RV park during the day, and then checking out one of the mega casinos at night. There are so many mega casinos now and The Strip is so congested that trying to move between casinos is difficult. One change Dan noted from his visits to Las Vegas in the late 70s, is that the good deals that casinos used to offer to get you into their property are pretty much gone. Meals in the casinos, including buffets, are more expensive than most restaurants; tickets to shows cost as much or more than Broadway; hotel room cost close to $200 for a cheap room; and the cost of drinks at the bar are high. In fact the local paper had an article about the cost of a vacation in Las Vegas and noted that because Vegas is now the number one tourist destination in the USA (we are talking one million visitors through the airport every month) the mega casinos can charge whatever they want.

About the only freebies available are the free shows or demonstrations that some of the casino put on outside their building (some are inside like the circus acts at Circus, Circus). During the week we saw the dancing water fountains at the Bellagio (very good); the pirate battle at Treasure Island (Dan liked it, Corrie didn’t); the volcano at the Mirage (pretty poor); and story of Atlantis at Ceasar’s (pretty poor).

We also found time to ride our bikes around the base. On one of these bike rides we discovered a museum on the base dedicated to the Air Force aerial demonstration team, The Thunderbirds. It was interesting and we were allowed to go onto the flight line for an up close and personal look at one of the jets used by The Thunderbirds.

http://thunderbirds.airforce.com/