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HIGH ROLLER HAS NEW MEANING

By Bob Lindsey    

 Recalling several visits over the years to Las Vegas, the one thing that stands out is the always changing landscape of this sprawling metropolis. There’s always something new to blend with vintage Las Vegas.   

   I hadn’t been there for almost a decade, but my wife had been there on a girls trip four years ago and thus I knew about some of the new attractions, hotel-casinos and out-of- town places to visit.  On previous trips, we always tried to fit in a visit to one of the scenic “out-of-town” attractions such as the Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon, Grand Canyon West, Mt. Charleston, Hoover Dam and Lake Mead.  Heck, one time we drove all the way from Las Vegas to Zion National Park in Utah with our travel friends.   

    Our  recent Las Vegas trip for four days in late October didn’t allow us time for out-of town  explorations. We decided to concentrate on the many new experiences in town,  which included Halloween night and plenty of bizarre costumes and sights—some  would  need  to be classified as R  for anyone with kids.    

   One of the best bargains we found online was a visit to the Venetian Resort Hotel for the Grand Trio package at $75 per person.  It included a  sparkling clear water gondola ride on the Venetian lake, an Italian meal at Buddy V’s Ristorante in the Grand Canal Shoppes and tickets to the famed Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum.

   The museum has dramatically changed since our last visit with the  addition of movie, theater, and sports stars from recent decades.  Elvis continues to be a mainstay, (photo below)  but he is now in good company with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez, Robert De Niro, the Spice Girls, Molly Cyrus, Michael Jordan, and many, many more celebrities.  Allow an hour or more to take it all in.  And be sure to see the 4D super heroes film that is also part of the package.     

   It’s always interesting to check out the changing interiors of the big hotel casinos such as Caesar’s Palace, Paris, Bellagio, and the City Center complex on The Strip (see story on Foodie tour at left)  ) and compare and contrast them to the older hotels on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas.   

    Having recently ridden the big St. Louis Wheel (don’t call it Ferris) at Union Station St. Louis, we wanted to be sure to ride the High Roller in Vegas, which, at 590 feet,  is currently the tallest wheel in the world.  The High Roller  (right photo) moves at only one foot per second and its pods can hold up to 20 people each.  It doesn’t stop to let you on or off, but goes slowly enough that riders can walk on and off while it’s moving.  The views of the city and vast surrounding area at night are breathtaking, but not really scary.  It’s about a half-hour ride and a great way to end the evening.

LAS VEGAS HAS IT FOR EXTENDED WEEKEND GETAWAYS, INCLUDING A 1-RING CIRCUS

My most profound takeaway, which shouldn’t have surprised me, was how much more expensive the city has become.  Gone are the inexpensive buffets and show tickets.  You have to look closely to find the deals of old Las Vegas such a cheap, but quality hotel buffets, reasonably priced show tickets with a little less variety than many of our previous trips, and lodging is more Tickets to see Lady Gaga ranged from $400 to $6,000!  Obviously, we didn’t see her show.  There are deals on hotel stays, but some come with stipulations.    

    We signed up for a 4-star hotel package (at the Westin Resort) online that was listed at $140 for three nights, but it came with an additional cost of $35 per night resort fee and a required two-hour orientation tour (which was actually three hours).  For our time listening to the sales pitch for vacation ownership, we were given tickets to one of the hottest new shows in town, ABSINTHE, a European style one-ring circus held in a large tent on the grounds of Caesars Palace. 

   The outstanding performances included multi skilled tap dancers,  roller skaters, trapeze artists, and more. They were so close to our seats that we could almost touch them and almost did on one occasion.

 We enjoyed the performers and their amazing skills, but could have done without the over-the-top raunchy comedians, which included the ringmaster and his foul-mouth assistant. We were forewarned about the language, so it wasn’t a shock and show itself was worth it.   

   One of the smartest decisions we made was to not rent a car in Las Vegas.  The traffic is horrendous and Uber or Lyft are much more convenient and economical and rarely do you wait longer than 4-5 minutes.  For transportation to and from the airport, a prepaid airport van ticket is the way to go.   

    We celebrated our last day in Las Vegas with an amazing all-you-can eat brunch buffet at Le Village in the Paris Resort & Casino.  We had a $25 discount from our orientation tour, so brunch for two ended up being only $40, including unlimited mimosas.  Since we weren’t driving, we could indulge! We had a leisurely meal, taking time to sample breakfast and lunch foods that were both International and American.  Then, it was off to the airport in our scheduled van for our three-hour flight back to St. Louis. All we needed for the flight were a few Southwest Airline snacks.     

  As always, we crammed as much as we could in a few days in this adult playground and and brought back memories of Vegas past trips and added a new chapter.