What happened…
in Vegas.
I can get used to this vacation stuff! The trip was short, but I had a fabulous time.
I found my new favorite slot machine thanks to my friend, Shanan’s, suggestion. The Wizard of Oz is a complete experience for $0.01 to $3.00. I played 10 lines at a penny or two, and it kept paying enough to allow me to play the same $20ish for a couple hours. Totally addictive! The bonuses with Glinda, Wizard and flying monkeys made it worth the wait. I still wouldn’t consider myself a gambler - I still prefer the kind of transaction where you give them money and you get something in return, aka, shopping. But it was fun nonetheless. The best part was the comraderie with the other three people playing - more like a roulette or craps table. One woman would cuss out Glinda the good witch when she didn’t make more than one row wild. Pretty funny.
We had a beautiful suite at Paris with a great view of a parking lot and air conditioning units - but didn’t really care. The bed was stiff and the pillows were small and lumpy. A “heavenly bed,” it was not. The first night, I got a little carried away with the shower gel in the jacuzzi tub and created way too many bubbles for a bubble bath. HA! Good thing it was stocked with a lot of towels… scratchy as they may be. And for such an expensive room, you’d think they’d have a sweet flat panel HD TV, but it was the same small box in a bad armoire from 1989. Lame.
Overall, Paris is a little cheesy… a little too “Disneyfied” with its theme streets and fake storefronts. Everything was made french by simply putting ‘le’ in front of it. Le Reception. Le Cafe. Le Buffet. Le Toilettes. Le Pizza Joint. Yoda would be so disappointed that his ‘pig french’ hasn’t caught on. This should be ‘Center du Business’ - but would certainly be where he spent his entire vacation. Because he’s all about the business. Oh - but speaking of business… the restrooms feature french lessons.
Day two found us at Caesar’s doing some shopping - Joey at Casa Fuente for some exclusive cigars, and me everywhere else. I could have spent a fortune, but walked away with just a cute pair of shoes from Tory Burch. We checked out every case in Tourneau, but practiced restraint. Do we really need more watches?
Afterwards, Joey went off to take a nap while I went to see the art gallery at the Bellagio. RIP OFF. $15 ($13 since I had my AAA card with me) for a room the size of my Paris suite’s bathroom and no more than a dozen paintings. Ugh. Thoroughly disgusted. I had such high expectations.
What could ease my disappointment?
Ahhhh Caesar’s “Qua” Spa. Mecca. Probably the best spa I’ve ever been to - with its multiple baths and tubs and saunas and treatments. Since I didn’t have a full day to enjoy, I just had a superb classic massage then spent some time in the roman baths (the perfect temperature) the arctic room (it snows!), and the herbal sauna. Next trip, I extend for a day and just hang in the spa. Fabulous!
Perhaps my favorite part of the vacation was Le Reve at the Wynn. Blew my mind! Joey enjoyed it too (which, honestly, kind of surprised me), so it made it that much better. I highly recommend the champagne circle seats. They’re even more comfortable and they have a very cool behind-the-scenes video screen to see what is going on back? under? above? stage.
So the overall verdict? I had a blast, but could have used one more day to really enjoy that spa. Joey misses ‘the old Vegas’ with its $3 prime rib buffets, 3 to 1 odds on roulette, and decent-sized drinks. Perhaps the next time we’ll head to Atlantic City, Biloxi or a weekend in New Orleans.
I just hope ‘next time’ doesn’t take another seven years!
