Vivaaaaa Las Vegas!
Part 2.
Well after an eventful night, we woke up surprisingly well. Fliss had plans to get her tattoo today and after 3 weeks with a large group I really just wanted a day to myself, so I was going to go out and see ALL the hotels in one day! I'd been told you couldn't do it, but, if you've ever met me, you'll know I don't listen!
I'd consulted the map and organised my route. I was going to start at the Mandalay Bay and work my way all the way to The Venetian.
I actually ended up hitting New York New York first from where I entered the strip, the whole thing is a replica of the New York skyline with a roller-coaster wrapping around the hotel. It's insane!! The inside is even set up like the streets of New York with restaurants, shops and bars all around. I wanted to have a go on the roller coaster but it was $14!? and I had way more planned for the day anyway so I then headed to Excalibur. Excalibur for me was quite disappointing, it looks amazing from the outside as it's just like a castle with it's turrets but inside only the entrance hall resembles a castle, the rest is just the same junk machines and casino tables. I didn't stay there long.
The Luxor and The Mandalay Bay actually had a walk way between them which I didn't realise, so I got a nice break away from the crazy desert heat! Well I actually ended up being in these hotels for about 3 hours, one because I enjoyed them but two because I actually got very lost in one!! The Luxor is the large pyramid hotel with the sphinx in front, this was one of the main hotel I wanted to see inside, and it was one of my favourites! It was one of the only ones that stuck with their theme inside the hotel as well as outside. Inside had an Egyptian feel but still remained clean, sleek and black. It was a really cool hotel! I went to visit two exhibitions while in The Luxor - The Human Body and The Titanic Artefacts Exhibition. Both were SO fascinating! Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take photos in either which annoys the crap out of me! (I still took a few sneaky ones though, I paid $45 I'm getting photos!!). The Titanic held lots artefacts discovered from the wreck site but it also gave information on real passengers of the titanic, some who survived and other who didn't. It was absolutely fascinating learning about the people who boarded the ship and their reasons for it. It also gave true representations of what it was like staying in each class and the types of people in those classes. At the start I was also given a card with a passengers details on which it was told to check at the end to see whether they had survived or not, which I thought was pretty cool! (Except my guy didn't survive...)
I spent about 2 hours in this exhibition alone, I've always been fascinated by Titanic so I was loving being able to take my time and read up about it. Just to let you know, a 3rd class ticket would cost in today's money - £900. A regular 1st class ticket would cost £47,500 and a 1st class suite ticket was a crazy £103,000!?!? Insane! They also have the largest wreck piece of Titanic ever retrieved on display which is a part of the hull and port windows.
The Human Body exhibition was just creepy if I'm honest! I was expecting to see parts of the human body but I wasn't expecting to see full skeletons of muscle and eyes and mouths and ALL BODY PARTS... Including the reproductive kind! All apart from that it was super interesting! I got to see nervous systems, digestive system, full skeletons, individual bones, muscles, embryos (which I must say was odd..) and even saw a model of all the veins in the entire human body!
Ok this was where I got totally lost! After finishing the exhibitions I somehow got on a travelator which was heading to Mandalay Bay, I thought that quite lucky as I was heading there. Until it came to getting out of Mandalay Bay. DAMN those places are big! And you will not see an exit sign or clock in a casino anywhere! Oh, and most of the staff I bumped into didn't speak English!? I was wandering round like a lost soul for about 40 minutes? All I could keep finding was the car park... Twice!? Thankfully I found a member of staff who spoke English and got out of there! I was now heading south on the strip.
I walked back past the Luxor and New York New York, crossed the road (which are a mission themselves, you have to cross using bridges on most roads!) and ended up outside Bellagio again. Well considering I was too drunk to even remember the fountain show, I decided to stand and watch it again, they really are so good!
I made it all the way down to the Venetian! I even managed to fit in Planet Hollywood and Paris which weren't even on my list! That was thanks to a totally interesting Italian guy from 'Milano', who worked in fashion but partied in Vegas and basically city hopped for a living (what a life!?), who kindly showed me round a few hotels after I got chatting to him while getting a coffee (totally into coffee now!) and agreed to be my tour guide! I wanted to visit the palms but it was WAY out the way and over an interstate so I didn't manage to see that.
I got back to the hotel at about 5, just in time to meet Fliss after getting her tattoo. She got a skull and cross bones with an American bandana, it's so cute and he's called Chad! The rest of the group were chilling by the pool and I found out they'd bought tickets for Penn & Teller's show. I LOVE PENN & TELLER!!! We ran over to the box office and managed to get two tickets! How exciting!!
The shuttle bus between Bally's and Rio was just around the corner from our hotel so we had chance to get all fancy!
We hadn't had chance to get any food and I'd only eaten a subway at 11am! So once we'd go our seats we left to go to Starbucks which was right outside the theatre. Starbucks have happy hours!? All pastries and cakes were $2! Well obviously I hammered that! When we walked back through the guy on the door, who we'd previously spoke to, said he'd upgrade our seats! Bonus! We were moved from the balcony to about 6 rows from the front!! Turns out, it pays to be greedy bitches and leaving for food!
The show was absolutely amazing and hilarious! Their routine was just seamless, I love l try and catch magicians out if I can but there was just no way you could see how they did the trick! My favourite was with an America flag where he set fire to it on one side of the stage and I was so focused on watching him I didn't realised it had appeared on the other side! GOBSMACKED! What else really impressed me was the time they took out to interact with the audience, as we were exiting they were in the entrance hall taking photos with people!
(Box selfie!)
Before getting back to the hotel we hit up a Johnny Rockets burger parlour. Oh my lord! It was so good, it could rival In'N'Out burger! However the sweet potato fries tasted like them were done in sweet frying oil because they tasted like doughnuts... Yeah that was odd, I'm not complaining though! Fries and doughnut together!?
By this point I was majorly flacking. With very little sleep and being on the go from 10am, I was falling asleep in my Johnny Rocket! So glad I had a bed to go back to!
Two days in Yosemite national park tomorrow! Not before we visit natural hot springs first though!
x
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