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My girlfriend Melissa and I went to Las Vegas to see a show called
Beatles LOVE, which was in
its final months at the Mirage
(a hotel owned by Hard Rock International).
The show featured Cirque du Soleil performing acrobatics, dancing, etc to Beatles music.
Life's short, so we booked a two-day trip. Normally we like to fly Southwest, but flights were pricey.
We found a flight/hotel deal with Spirit, which is one of the worst airlines, but the price difference
was too hard to resist: we got flights and two nights at the Mirage for hundreds less than our flights
alone would have been with Southwest.
Tuesday June 4. Our friend John (who I'd been to Las Vegas with in 2022 and 2023) drove us to BWI. We boarded the plane with nothing but small backpacks because one of the many things that sucks about Spirit is that if your carry-on is bigger than a briefcase or a Safeway bag it will cost you anywhere from $38 to $79 depending on when you pay. Since we would be traveling for only two days, all we needed to pack was some underwear, socks, and toothbrushes, so we were fine with small bags.
Our seats had approximately three micrometers of padding because God forbid Spirit should make anyone comfortable. There weren't even pockets on the seat backs; there were only slots that barely held the airline menus, which, by the way, offered cans of Bud Light for a mere $10.
After landing...
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...we walked our sore butts to the ground transportation area. The hotels on Las Vegas Boulevard
("The Strip") don't have free airport shuttles, but there are taxis and a pay shuttle. The former was $29 and the
latter was $15 per person ($30 total for us). We chose the latter, and learned that unless you're alone, the
former is better, not only because it costs less, but also because it takes you directly to where you want to go.
Unless your hotel is the very first stop, you have to wait for other passengers to be dropped off at theirs
before you get to yours. The shuttle stopped at 6 hotels before it got to ours, plus we were in late afternoon heavy
traffic, so a trip that normally takes 13 minutes took about an hour.
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We checked into the Mirage a little after 6:00 PM. It was a nice hotel except that the view from our room
included Treason Tower.
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We walked through several hotels: the Venetian, the Palazzo, and the Wynn.
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Then we rode the Deuce to the
Fontainebleau, which had just opened 6 months earlier. I'd hoped it'd be beautiful, but it's just a
casino with bars and restaurants; it doesn't have great décor like most of the other hotels do.
We then Deuced to the Fremont Street Experience, which always has a plethora of things going on: bands, street performers, a zipline, restaurants, bars, and casinos.
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It's covered with the largest video screen
in the world, called Viva Vision, which always has moving images, but every hour on the hour from 6:00 PM to 2:00 AM
it has a special show. Here is a clip from one of the them:
A place called Tony Roma's had a steak and lobster dinner for $13.99 from 9:00 to 11:00 PM, but it was fully booked. It you want to get in on this deal, you have to arrive at 8:00 (when they start taking reservations) and put your name in.
One casino had scantily clad women working the tables and others dancing on platforms. It was actually rather sad and depressing, like a seedy strip club.
Sometime after 11:00 we Deuced back to the Mirage and crashed a little after midnight.
By the way, the hotels are very big and confusing. We got lost in almost every hotel we walked through during our trip. We could get in easily enough, but had a heck of a time finding our way out. I bet they're designed this way to keep people in there as long as possible.
Wednesday June 5. A hot, sunny morning. We walked through several hotels: Caesar's Palace, the Bellagio,
the Cosmopolitan, Excalibur, Park MGM, and others. It was brutally hot in the sun, but fortunately there are
covered walkways between some of the hotels.
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We had a buffet lunch at the Luxor, which was good and had many food choices.
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We walked down to Mandalay Bay, then back up to the Luxor before crossing The Strip and making our way up the
northbound side. We kept alternating between air conditioning and brief schleps in the 106° heat (which
had to be 130° in the sun).
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We stumbled upon BrewDog, a Scottish brewery that has locations in several countries. The Las Vegas location opened
in 2022. All the beers I tried were crisp, clean, and refreshing.
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We stopped in the Rainforest Café.
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We continued northward through more hotels, getting lost in most of them. We walked through an eatery.
Check out the pizza prices.
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The Flamingo had a wildlife habitat.
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I just had to do this:
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When we got back to the room a little before 6:00 we were pretty tired from lots of walking,
some of it in sauna-like conditions. Less than an hour later we went to the Beatles Love show, which
was every bit as great as the reviews. The acrobatics, the lighting, the effects, the choreography,
and everything else was excellent. We had never seen a show like that before.
I didn't take any photos because they wouldn't do the show justice. Here is a teaser:
Then we went across the street to Harrah's piano bar to see dueling pianos, and stayed only about an hour because
we were exhausted. We had done a lot in less than 30 hours. We crashed sometime between 10:00 and 11:00.
Thursday June 6. This would be a travel day. We woke up around 5:00 AM. When we checked out of the hotel
we were surprised with a $95 "resort fee", which was written in the fine print of the email that Spirit Air had sent
us. But even with this extra expense, we still saved hundreds over buying flights and hotel separately. We hopped
into a taxi, which got us to the airport in just over 10 minutes. Our first flight leg was to Sacramento. The
second leg, which went to BWI, was mostly empty, so we each got to lie down across 3 seats. Some friends picked
us up and brought us back to my house. It had been a great trip.
Melissa went home to take care of her dog, and my friends kept me up partying until 2:00 AM. Well, I wasn't awake the whole time.
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