July 24 - Norm's point of view

Lynn has shared with you her perspective of our time in Las Vegas and now you'll get mine.  I've not read her's yet so this is just the plain "as I see them" call.  First of all the room we had was great. Big, huge windows with a 21st floor view of the strip.  Nice bathroom, comfortable bed, and a fully stocked mini-bar.  It also had free wi-if, which seemed standard in all of the hotels we stayed in, so better than others, but none the less it got us through what we needed most days. The wi-if appeared to  have a charge connected to it when I went to sign up.  So I went to the front desk to find out what the status of it was, a good move on my part.  After waiting in line for about fifteen minutes while some brainless people addressed some very inane issues, I finally got to the person I was to see about my question.  Her first comment to me was an apology for my wait time.  She explained that the Internet was part of the daily $28.00 resort fee that was imposed on every room, and so for waiting so long in line she comped my resort fee, saving us $56.00 plus tax.  Also with respect to our room we were charged three $4.00 charges for use of the mini bar, which we didn't use except to keep a few of our personal things cold.  When I asked about it at check out, I told them that we didn't take anything from the mini bar so they said they would inventory it, and they removed the charges from the bill. I was very impressed with the overall hotel experience, with the exception of the cost of the restaurant food.  We ate twice at the food court, and once at the brunch buffet (only because we were comped a 2 for 1 deal).   Perhaps had we been just spending a weekend or even a week there we would have tried a restaurant or two as there were some great ones available,  but with the cost of our trip to this point being what it is and having a week to go, forget the food at the hotel.  We went for a walk on the strip and it was about 106 degrees out.  It was crowded and full of people trying to make a quick buck, so all of that combined left Lynn with a not so good first impression.  I'd like to go back for longer than one day when it's a bit more comfortable out.  I know that it's crowded most of the time, so that, and the panhandlers and people trying make as living on the street you just have to deal with. In some respects it's a lot like NYC, mainly the Times Square area.  We wanted to go to see a show while there and stood in line at the "tickets4tonight" booth and got tickets to see Penn & Teller.  That was probably the best thing we did, besides losing about twenty bucks playing the penny slot machines.  All in all, I think that we need to try Vegas again under different circumstances, not towards the end of lifetime tour but as a single selective vacation.  After Penn & Teller we went back to the hotel where we were staying,played the slots for a brief time, had a snack, and went to bed for in the morning we head to Utah and the National Parks.