At some point, we stumbled across a monorail. We hopped on, not sure where it was going; it turned out it was going to the Excalibur, the big fake castle we passed on the way in. We got about 50 feet into the Excalibur, and started looking for the way out; neither the Luxor or M. Bay gave off the miasma of stale smoke and cheap, meretricious, gum-mashed-into-the-carpet downmarket failure and desperation that the Excalibur did. I think the three casinos are owned by the same company, and split the market up thusly: Mandalay Bay, posh high-end customers; Luxor, mid-market; Excalibur, bottom-feeders. The M. Bay and Luxor each had some veneer of attempted style, or, at least, kitsch, to gloss over the tawdry point of their existence, but the Excalibur just had unhappy-looking people and decrepit decor.
Our suspicions were reinforced when we realized that while it was a simple thing to get on the monorail to the Excalibur, getting back on the monorail out was a different story, as though the builders didn't want to make it too easy for the hoi polloi[1] to wander into the tonier parts. We eventually gave up on the monorail, and dared venture out into the heat to walk back to the Luxor. By this time it was evening, and the daughter wanted to go for a swim. She and I left the room (5th floor, pyramid; the nice rooms are in the adjacent towers) and discovered it was really not that easy to navigate the place; eventually we found the pool, and found it closed. Closed! at 8:00pm! In freakin' Las Vegas! Shouldn't pools in Las Vegas be open 24 hours a day? With light shows and poolside – no, not pool-side, but in the pool itself – bars? What's the deal here? Faugh.
The next morning, we decided we had the time to go for a quick swim[2], now that the pool had deigned to open and let us in. Thus our one and only picture of Las Vegas:
That's the wall of the pyramid on the left, and, obviously, the M. Bay in the distance. THE hotel is PART of Mandalay BAY, as FAR as I could TELL. Notice discarded beer cans on the little 'island' in the lower left hand corner. Faugh, again[3].
[1]"The term often appears as "the hoi polloi". Some pedants object to that construction, claiming "the" is already part of the term. If you find such people, tell them to go study gebra and drink cohol." – Anu Garg
[2]We were wrong; we didn't have the time.
[3]Yes, I know. We went expecting to have a bad time, and we had a bad time. No surprise there, but we expected to have a better class of bad time. Maybe if we weren't such cheapskates...
Posted by David Fleck at 29 October 2006 09:40 AM
...neither the Luxor or M. Bay gave off the miasma of stale smoke and cheap, meretricious, gum-mashed-into-the-carpet downmarket failure and desperation that the Excalibur did.
Although I wouldn't have put it quite that way, I noticed the same thing. I thought that was the Rat Pack ambience.
When we were there the Luxor had an incredibly lame rip-off of the Star Trek Experience. I take it you didn't bother with that? (They might have given it up; that was 7 years ago.)
Posted by: Angie Schultz on October 29, 2006 12:53 PM
I like the footnote style.
I've been to the Luxor, but so long ago that neither Manadalay Bay nor Excalibur were there.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy on October 29, 2006 03:18 PM
Sounds like LV isn't your kind of place. At least now you know.
I can't say I ever felt a strong urge to visit, myself.
Posted by: Jonathan on October 29, 2006 03:57 PM
A. - Didn't notice anything that looked like a Trek ripoff at the Luxor. Just the previously mentioned shows, some edutainment re: ancient Egypt, and some IMAX movie or other.
A.O.G. - I attribute the footnoting to my academic background. I figure every blogger is entitled to one annoying affectation, and that's mine.
J. - That does seem to be the case. Although I won't deny that there could possibly be some combination of events occuring in L.V. that would be of interest (e.g., the gallery at the Bellagio), I don't think it's really worth the effort to find that combination again.
Posted by: David Fleck on October 29, 2006 05:34 PM
...some edutainment re: ancient Egypt, and some IMAX movie or other.
This may have been the same thing. The Star Trek Experience was a...simulation, culminating in a ride on one of those stationary roller coaster thingies. It was fun (at least the ride part).
The Luxor had an attraction of the same nature, except that it involved archaeologists discovering ancient alien hovercraft inside an Egyptian pyramid. In Las Vegas. Your pedant sensibilities might never have recovered from the assault, so perhaps it's just as well you didn't see it.
Posted by: Angie Schultz on October 30, 2006 07:23 AM
I thought that was the Rat Pack ambience.Well, maybe. But it should have been slimmer, and worn nicer threads.
Posted by: David Fleck on October 30, 2006 07:37 AM