Month: August 2007

On our recent trip to Las Vegas, we stayed at the Luxor Hotel at the south end of the strip.

We got there on a Wednesday afternoon (around 4 pm) and had to wait 15 or 20 minutes in the line to check in. Before we got in that line, we were approached by what we thought was an employee, who asked us how long we were staying and if we were going to see any shows. As it turns out, to get the “free” show tickets, we only had to sit through a three hour presentation. This proved to be the first of many attempts to get us to see some kind of timeshare or something.

So, we finally registered and were given a room on the 11th floor. You get up to your floor via an “inclinator”, which is basically an elevator that goes at a 39 degree angle up the corner. It takes a little getting used to, since when it starts, you move sideways a little.

The Luxor opened in 1993, and is showing its age.  Our room had two queen-size beds that were comfortable enough. The bathroom didn’t have a bath tub, just a shower and commode. The air conditioning unit was similar to the ones you see in the cheap motels that’s installed on the outside wall, except this was on the inside. While we were there, the daytime temperatures reached over 100 degrees each day. The A/C unit wasn’t up to the task of keeping the room cool. But, since we were usually out of the room by 9 or 10 each day and back in the evening, it wasn’t too big a deal. But I couldn’t imagine staying in the room during the day (and that may be the point; the casino floor is very comfortable temperature wise).

On the Atrium level they have several attractions, including a replica of King Tut’s tomb as discovered by Howard Carter in 1922. It’s $15 to get in, and if you spend more than 20 minutes in there, you’re being slower than normal. The admission to us was included in the Power Pack we got, so we saw it at a discount. It’s not worth $15.

We also “rode” their IMAX ride “In Search Of The Obelisk”. This is a motion simulation ride that has a film with actors that couldn’t act their way out of a paper bag. Again, it’s not worth the admission price (but if you get the Power Pass, try it out anyway).

There are several restaurants  and shops on the Atrium level as well. Our first night there we went to the Mexican place, and had their big nacho deal. That and three soft drinks was almost $20. Not a good deal. They also have a food court with a McDonalds (which I never got to eat at, due to the long lines), a Lil Caesar’s Pizza, a Quiznos, and maybe one or two more places. The shops run the gamut from high end to tourist stuff.

We went down to where the buffet was, but never ate there. The buffets on the strip are way too expensive ($12 or $14 for lunch).

As far as the casino goes, it’s ok. They’re remodeling the night club that was apparently in the middle of the casino, so everything was a little confusing. I finally figured out the best way to get to the poker room on Saturday. The signage was terrible (but then I found that to be true in most casinos). They had a couple of $30 tournaments a day, which was the cheapest I saw while there. I played in the Saturday tournament, and found out how bad I am at live poker.

Overall, I’d give it maybe 2.5 stars out of 5. Would I stay there again? Probably not. We really only picked the Luxor because of Criss Angel, and never saw him the first time. There was even an empty spot out front where one of his cars was supposed to be. I guess he made it disappear.

We flew into San Diego from Nashville on a Thursday, rented a car, and checked into the Holiday Inn by the Bay. It’s an OK hotel, and at least they had free WiFi in the room.

On Friday, we went to the “World Famous” San Diego Zoo. It’s a huge place. We took the bus tour for the first 45 minutes there, then walked around looking at the individual animals that the bus wasn’t able to get close to. I think the San Diego Zoo is “world famous” mostly because of Joan Embry’s appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Maybe I was expecting too much, or maybe it was because they had relocated some of the animals to the Wild Animal Park to renovate a section of the park (to, believe it or not, place fake animals in their place), but I was not that impressed.

Saturday, before we drove up to Oceanside, we walked over to the Midway Museum. That’s actually the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier that first sailed just after World War II ended in 1945 and last saw combat action in the first Gulf War. Just across the bay we could see the Navy’s newest carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan.

So, we drove up to Oceanside and visited with family for a few days. On the way back to San Diego on Wednesday, we took the scenic Highway 101, which goes by the coast. We saw some incredible ocean views.

Next up, Vegas!

We got into Las Vegas Wednesday around 3:30 in the afternoon. That’s the first airport I’ve seen with slot machines. We had a pretty packed time planned for Las Vegas. We took advantage of the Las Vegas Power Pack, which gave us three days’ admission into a lot of attractions. I also got a deal on tickets to see the Cirque Du Soleil show Love on Saturday night.

The Power Pass included a two hour visit to Hoover Dam. That’s a pretty incredible structure. We went down into the generator house on the Nevada side. Because of the low water level, they only had about half the generators running.

We also took in the two attractions at the Luxor (which is where we stayed). We went up into the Stratosphere (where people were actually on top riding the three rides). We went to Madam Tussauds Wax Museum, the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, and the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art. Finally, we saw Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and then went to the Adventuredome in Circus Circus.

I’ve never walked so much in my life.

I have to say the highlight was the Cirque Du Soleil show. Those folks were doing incredible acrobatic things, all set to Beatles music. I guess the second highlight was playing in a real live poker game. It was a tournament with 18 players, and I finished 9th. I learned that I’m not that good at poker.

Overall, it was a very nice trip. If I had it to do over again, I would not have rented the car and instead would have taken Amtrak up to Oceanside. Also, I don’t know what I was thinking by booking the trip in August. Although the temperature in Southern California barely got to the mid 70’s, in Las Vegas it reached 100 degrees every day we were there.

I think over the next few days I’ll write more extensive reviews of the places we saw and the attractions we visited.

Well, we got back from our trip out west Sunday night. We were gone for a total of 10 days and visited San Diego, Oceanside, and Las Vegas.

I’d planned on blogging while away, but the only hotel we stayed at with free internet access was in San Diego.  I wasn’t about to pay $10/day to access the net, so being “net free” for a few days was in itself a vacation.

In the next few days I’ll be posting about what we did and saw out west. Some of the highlights were the San Diego Zoo, Hoover Dam, and Las Vegas in general.

I’m writing this from my hotel room in San Diego. We arrived here Thursday night on a flight from Nashville. That’s the first time I’ve flown in a couple of years, and I was dreading the security procedures.

But it was harmless enough. I did my research online before, and knew what we could take and how things had to be packed. About 30 minutes after we got to the gate, a strong thunderstorm blew over, and they had to shut down everything for a while. We’d already been told our 4:55 flight was going to be about 15 minutes late, but the thunderstorm made it even later. We were finally in the air a little after 6.

We went to the San Diego Zoo on Friday. I’d been looking forward to it, but in reality it was somewhat of a letdown. Sure, they had animals there that the Nashville Zoo didn’t have, and the Zoo was a lot bigger. But they had moved quite a few animals to a Wild Animal Park in preparation for renovating some of the park. We did get to see a baby giraffe, which had been born Thursday night.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn on the Bay. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a bay view. Our view overlooked downtown. Just acros the street, they’re building at least three high rises. And they start work shortly before 7 am. Thankfully we’re still operating on Central Time, so we were mostly awake when the construction noise started. But for some reason, they have trains running all night, and those trains had to blow their horn about a half block away.

As I write this (on Saturday), we’re killing time, waiting for the Maritime Museum to open. After that we’re going to check out the USS Midway Museum. Then it’s up to Oceanside for a visit with some relatives. My next post will probably be from Las Vegas.

I hardly ever go to fast food joints and eat inside. I usually go get the food and bring it back home or to work. So I have a lot of experience with drive through lanes at most of the fast food places. After yet another sub-par experience at a drive through tonight, I finally decided to write something about it.

The Drive Through Bill Of Rights

All customers are entitled to have the following from the fast food place:

• Their order read back to them (unless there’s an electronic display of the order)
• Clear sounding audio from the drive-up speaker
• A native English speaker or someone without a heavy accent taking the order
• A napkin, spoon, knife, or fork without having to ask for it
• A drink cup not overfilled so that when you put the straw in, it comes out the straw hole
• Your food or drink inside the wrapper or cup, not dripping on the container
• Your order prepared the way you ask, and fulfilled correctly
• Speedy service (anything over 90 seconds from when you are asked to pull forward is excessive)
• The amount owed given to you before you pull up to the payment window
• The contents of a “large” item to be of greater quantity than the contents of a “small” or “medium” item
• If you’re asked to pull around because they’re cooking something (e.g. fries), then they should wait until that item is ready before packaging the other items

As a corollary, customers should give other customers in line the following considerations:

• No more than 2 feet between cars; if you can parallel park between your car and the car in front of you, pull up
• Pay attention; don’t make the folks behind you wait while you fiddle around when you should be pulling forward
• Know what you want when you get to the speaker
• Have the money ready when you get to the window
• No more than two separate orders per car

I’m sure there are more. Leave me a comment if you have any and I’ll add them as an update to this post.

[Note: I originally posted this on December 18, 2006]