 
This is some sceneary on the plane ride into Las Vegas. Starting in the 4th picture,
you can see the Hoover Dam... we flew almost directly over it. The last pictures
shows just how close the airport is to the strip.
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Here's the famous pyramid at the Luxor, where we stayed. These pictures basically
progress up the main driveway to the entrance.
   
More pictures of the outside of the Luxor. This set of pictures was taken from the
sidewalk that runs in front of the Luxor as we walked south down towards Mandalay Bay.
Being a pyramid, it really doesn't have a bad side...
Here's a pharaoh statue that sits right at the driveway entrance to Luxor. That's
Greg and Missy in the 2nd and 3rd pics. The last pic is the Luxor obelisk with
Mandalay Bay in the background. It was hard to get a good shot of the obelisk but
it's another famous Luxor landmark.
Here's the taxi drop off and the front doors to the Luxor.
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Here's the room we stayed at in the Luxor... 22065 on the 22nd floor of the pyramid.
As you can see in the first pic, the outside wall is slanted inwards. The
last three pics is the view out of our window to the west. You can see the Luxor
pools below, but honestly, they aren't that great compared to others in Vegas. The
room was very nice with plenty of space and comfy beds. We didn't spend much time in
the room, but it was good and the price was really good.
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This is the central lobby that you see immediately upon entering the Luxor. Since it
was December when we visited, they had the Christmas tree up in the center of the lobby.
It's a pretty large area with lots of kewl Egyptian statues plus some small wishing
pools to the left and right of the casino entrance, which is directly under the large
screen. I liked the lobby a lot.
The two pictures on the left are the hotel check in area, which of course is Egyptian
themed with some kewl art behind the desks. The picture on the right is the exit of
the Luxor buffet. We ate there the first day and I didn't take any more pictures
since I thought we'd be back, but instead, we sampled some other buffets and never made it
back to the Luxor buffet. I thought it was pretty good, but nothing extra special.
The setting was ok, but it was in the basement so there were no views, just lots of
Egyptian stuff around.
Above the casino level, was the Atrium level where they had a few shops and lots of
activities, like the IMAX, the Theatre, King Tut's Tomb, an arcade and lots more stuff.
There was no roof on the area other than the pyramid itself so it was pretty kewl
to walk around up there even though the space isn't very big.
This set of pictures is from the walkway leading to our room on the 22nd floor.
Since you are inside a pyramid, the effect is pretty wild. Each level going up has
fewer rooms and the hallways are nearer the center so if you lean over and look down, you
can't see the hallway below you... it's kind of like being suspended 22 floors up.
Definitely not for those afraid of heights. The pictures show the huge open area
inside the pyramid - it's a pretty kewl place.
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Mandalay Bay is the nearest casino to the Luxor and they are actually connected inside via
a short walkway with shops. However, we decided to walk down on the outside to get a
better view of the outside of Mandalay Bay. The first three pics show the outside of
the main hotel building. The 4th is "The Hotel" at Mandalay Bay which is a
separate tower near the back of the property. The last 3 pics show different
features on the way up to the casino entrance. Mandalay Bay is way on the south end
of the strip and definitely off the beaten path. |
 
These pics are taken in the hotel lobby area of Mandalay Bay. The hotel has a shark
reef and a huge wavepool in back which we didn't visit, so I don't have any pictures.
The theme seemed to be a tropical ocean type theme but it's not as well-defined as
the other casino themes. Still... really nice looking lobby with a huge aquarium in
the center.
These pics are of the Mandalay Bay casino floor. The House of Blues bar is along one
wall of the casino and it looks pretty kewl. Otherwise the casino is fairly average.
I played poker here on the first night and lost $10 over about 4 hours of play.
This is where I saw the two big high hand jackpots won. Overall though, I
wasn't really impressed with their poker "area". They have around 12
tables but it's squeezed inbetween the sports book and the casino... it's ok, but there's
better in Vegas.
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Here's the outside of the Excalibur. This is the hotel directly to the North of the
Luxor. It has a medieval theme and obviously, a large castle in the center of the
two Hotel buildings. It's a pretty kewl looking place actually.
These pictures were taken at the entrance to the Excalibur. You can see Greg and
Missy posing for the camera in the two pics on the right.
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Here's a few quick pictures inside the Excalibur. From what I've heard from other
people, I thought the Excalibur would be pretty lame, but it was actually really nice.
Both Greg and I really liked it. It definitely is geared towards kids though.
Their show is a Medieval Times type thing and they have a big arcade right under
the casino. A pretty kid-friendly place but not bad for adults either.
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The outside of New York, New York which is just to the North of the Excalibur hotel.
I'm personally not a huge fan of the city of New York so I wasn't expecting too
much out of this hotel but even I had to admit, they did a really great job on the
exterior. The Statue of Liberty and the skyline are very picturesque.
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Here's some pictures of the inside of New York, New York. It's pretty nice on the
inside as well. The second pic on the bottom is in the Times Square bar area and
it's the place where they have Duelling Piano shows. We missed it but the show is
pretty kewl from what I hear and it's free! Overall, NYNY was pretty nice... I liked
it.
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Here's the Tropicana. The top left three were taken right in front of the hotel and
the last on the top row is the main casino area you see right when you walk in. The
left three on the bottom are from the parking lot over by Hooters and the last on the
bottom is from the walkway between MGM and NYNY. Tropicana is a totally old school
casino. It's nice, but the casino entrance has the flashing lights, the ceiling is
low and the slots are packed in tight. They did have a free slot pull for a car in
the front, plus some promo give-aways like a free deck of cards. Greg and Missy went
twice... hehe.
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A couple quick pictures of Hooters, which is just off the strip to the east of the
Tropicana. Hooters actually purchased an older casino and redecorated it, but you
can tell it's an old property. It's not very nice inside and even with Hooters girls
bringing cocktails and dealing, it's not that nice of a place. Look at the picture
on the right at your own peril.
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A bunch of angles of the MGM Grand casino. MGM is directly north of Tropicana and
directly across the strip from NYNY. The first picture is from the Tropicana parking
lot, the next is from the east side (away from the strip). The middle two are from
right in front and the last two are from across the street at NYNY. I was surprised
how close the lion is to the street... there isn't much room to take a picture at all and
the entrance isn't anywhere near the lion. For as big a deal as they make about the
lion, you have to go out of your way to see it. I didn't like the outside of MGM
very much to be honest.
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Here are some pictures of the inside of MGM. The third picture is the top of a large
central, circular bar area which looked really kewl but wasn't open while we were there.
The three pics on the right are the Rainforest Cafe inside MGM. While I
didn't like the outside of MGM very much, the inside was quite nice. Other people
I've talked to said they didn't like it since it was so huge, but I really didn't notice
the size that much. It was big, but still managable. We did have lunch here at
their buffet the second day and it was very good. I didn't expect much from MGM, but
I actually liked it quite a bit.
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Inside the MGM, right next to the casino area, they have a nice Lion habitat. They
have at least 2 adults and 2 cubs on display. On the top row of pics, you can see
overall shots of the habitat, the gift shop, and a closeup of a lion sleeping. The
habitat wraps around a glass walkway so you can see the lions pretty upclose. The
bottom row is a bunch of the lion cubs playing together. It's a nice environment.
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Here's the M&M World store. It's just north of MGM in the middle of a bunch of
shops. M&M World is a huge store, four stories high, loaded with every piece of
M&M merchandise you could imagine. It just so happened that they were holding
customer appreciation days while we were there with 33% off everything so we bought a lot
of stuff. We weren't planning on stopping but we couldn't pass it up. The two
pics on the right are the M&M stock car that was inside the store.
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The outside of the Monte Carlo which is just to the north of NYNY after a few shops.
The above pics are actually of the two separate but identical entrances from the
strip. Monte Carlo doesn't get a lot of press but it's actually a really nice
property. I was impressed. The second picture always brings a laugh because
every hotel we walked into had a Starbucks. It got very predictable after awhile.
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The inside of the Monte Carlo which I also found quite nice. It's a pretty simple
elegant design inside which I really liked. The poker room was small but it was very
separated from the casino, it was an actual room and it was very nicely decorated. I
didn't play there, but I really liked it.
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This was a huge construction project going on between the Bellagio and the Monte Carlo.
Greg and Missy found out from some cab driver that it's supposed to be a big
city-center area. Whatever it is, it looks to be pretty huge.
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Some pictures of the Aladdin hotel from across the street. We went in last year so
we didn't go in this time but I couldn't resist a few pictures.
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The outside of Paris from across the street. Paris is a good-looking photogenic
hotel from the outside. It has so many interesting things to look at, I really like
how it looks. We didn't go in last year, but we definitely did this time.
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Our first night in Vegas, we had dinner at the Paris buffet. They have it set up
like a small french village and it's really nice. The food was excellent and the
environment was nice so we really enjoyed ourselves.
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Here's the casino area of Paris. The whole "paint the ceiling to look like the
sky" thing has been overdone to death, but I still like it. It's also kewl how
the legs of the Eiffel Tower go right through the casino. Yet another casino that I
really liked. The pic on the far right is the Arc de Triumph (dunno if I spelled
that right) that sits right at the drive-up entrance to the hotel.
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Since we discovered last year that the Eiffel Tower was directly across from the Bellagio,
we had to go up this year. Here's a bunch of pics of the Bellagio before and during
one of their Christmas themed fountain shows. Believe it or not, even though the
Eiffel Tower is higher than every hotel in the vicinity, we could still hear the music
from the fountain show all the way up there. Pretty awesome.
   
A series of shots facing north from the Eiffel Tower. Caesar's
Palace and the Flamingo are the most prominent but you can see all the way up the strip
from here.
   
The pic on the left is looking directly down at the Paris casino beneath us. The
rest of the pics face south with the Aladdin rather prominent in the foreground. The
Eiffel Tower is awesome... I highly recommend it. We wouldn't stayed longer but it
was about 9:30 at night and quite cold up there,
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Ah the Bellagio, my favorite. Here's a bunch of pictures from the front walkway in
front of Bellagio. The last day, I waited over an hour for a fountains show but they
must have been working on them because all we got is a short spray and that was it.
Kinda disappointing but it's still an amazing view. I even caught someone getting
wedding photos in front.
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Some pictures from street level of the Bellagio at night. I was walking over to
Paris when I caught the fountain show across the street so I fired a few pictures...
it's impossible to resist.
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Here's the garden area adjacent to the Bellagio lobby all decorated for Christmas.
Bellagio does a super job with their decorations and the hotel is simply immaculate all
the time.
The famous hotel lobby at the Bellagio.
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Here's a place at Bellagio we didn't make it to last year... the pools at the back of
Bellagio. Yet another beautiful area, although they didn't let me walk down to the
pool decks since I wasn't a guest. Maybe some year we'll stay here... hehe.
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My one and only shot of the Flamingo where we stayed last year. They kinda changed
the front a bit and I can't say it's for the better. I actually noticed a few hotels
doing huge billboard style ads on the sides of their main buildings. If they keep it
up, the strip will be one big billboard. Kinda sucks... detracts from the nice look
of the hotels.
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Since I took a lot of pics last year, I didn't take any pics outside of Caesar's Palace
but they did open a brand new poker room this year and I have to say, it is super nice.
The left pic is the entrance... you have to go down a short hallway to get to the
completely separate poker room. The second pic is an overall view of the room but
you can really only see the main area in the pic. The last picture is an area off to
the right that is slightly separated and then there's another whole big room in the back.
I think there are 50 tables in all and the room is very well run. While I was
there, they started up a $4-$8 HORSE table which would have been fun if I had more time.
As it was, I played about 4 hours, all $4-$8 limit hold-em and ended up down $50.
This is a great poker room and I will be back.
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I played poker at the Venetian the second night but I couldn't resist coming out to the
front balcony of the Venetian to take these pics. I really love this part of the
strip.
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The drive up entrance, hotel lobby and hallway to the casino at the Venetian. This
hotel cost something like $1.8 Billion to build and you can see why... it's stunningly
beautiful inside and out.
This is the area just inside the walk-in area of the Venetian. This ceiling painting
is amazing. Since last year, the Blue Man Group show moved up from the Luxor to the
Venetian so they have the guys positioned in this area to promote the show.
The Canal Shops area of the Venetian. I took a quick trip back here to find the gift
shop and I just love this area. It's so comfortable and relaxing. Check last
year's photos for a lot more pics of the Canal Shops.
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Here's the Venetian poker room. The left two pics are the main poker area and the
right pic is a peek inside a separate area they probably use for high stakes players.
The poker area isn't really separate from the casino but it's super nice and they
even have a little lounge area for players waiting to get into a game. Also, the
Venetian has the best cocktail waitresses bar none. Gambling wise, the Venetian made
the trip for me. I was down every other place I played but I was up $190 at
Venetian. Needless to say, I'll be back here too.
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The last hotel we went to on the 2nd day was the Palms. I had about a half hour to
kill before Greg and Missy showed up for dinner so I wandered around the casino. To
be honest, I didn't like the Palms much at all. It's weird that I noticed but the
ceilings were really, really busy, unattractive and fairly low. It just didn't work
and made the whole thing feel unsettling somehow. Also, the poker rooms were
separated but were very small and not decorated at all. It looked like playing in a
conference room or something. I was not impressed.
However, one thing that definitely impressed us was N9NE steakhouse where we had dinner.
The pic on the right is from our table. The celing light was purple most of
the night but it was red by the time I took the picture. We got there at 9:30 which
wouldn't seem all that late, but we were the last ones to get a table and we were the last
ones out of there. But that didn't matter... the food was fabulous. Missy had
a 16 oz. filet, Greg a 22 oz porterhouse and I had a 24 ounce ribeye. Add bread,
potato and an amazing lobster bisque soup and we ate it all. It was awesome to say
the least. Well worth the cost and I highly recommend it.
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The other part of the Palms we really enjoyed was Ghost Bar, which is on the 55th floor
(the roof really) of the main Palms tower. Part of the bar is indoors and part is
out on the balcony looking out over the strip. You can see almost 360 degrees around
and it is a stunning view. Greg managed to score free passes from his cabbie and we
didn't order a single drink so we basically got to go up for free which was super-nice.
The views above are all looking east towards the Rio hotel which is between the
Palms and the strip.
 
More views to the right of the Rio. You can make out Caesar's Palace, the Flamingo
and Bellagio pretty clearly.
Views facing the south end of the strip. You can see MGM, Monte Carlo, NYNY, Luxor
and Mandalay Bay. The pyramid at the Luxor where we stayed has the brightest light
on the entire planet shining up into the night sky and it was easily visible from the
Palms, a couple miles away. In fact, even if we looked straight up at the stars from
the top of the Palms, the Luxor light was still clearly visible in the sky.
Some random views to the north and south of the Palms... you can't really see the strip in
these.
The Palms actually has two towers, the main tower where Ghost Bar is, and the
"Fantasy" tower where the Playboy club is. These are pictures of the other
Palms tower right next door. The last picture is looking straight down through the
small piece of glass floor at Ghost Bar. A small piece of the balcony hangs out over
the edge of the roof and they put a small three foot by three foot glass portion of the
floor in so you can look straight down, 55 stories down to the ground. Problem is,
it was filthy so pictures were nearly impossible... but I tried.
Overall, the Palms was a really trendy place and we had to dress up to be there.
Normally we would have felt very out of place, but it was so quiet in Vegas the week we
were there, it really didn't matter and we had a really great time at the Palms.
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A couple of final shots of the strip from the airplane on our takeoff from the Las Vegas
airport.
As you can tell from the mammoth amount of pictures, we saw and did a heck of a lot in our
two and a half days. We were going nonstop but we did take time for some nice meals
and we hung out at Ghost Bar just talking for awhile so we did have some time to relax.
Can't wait for the next trip!!!
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