Given that it had been nearly six years since my last trip to Vegas, I was surprised at how little was new. I already mentioned the Desert Passage shops and the only other real addition was the Wynn. There is, however, a lot of construction going on. The process of turning Aladdin into Planet Hollywood involves adding condominiums, for example. There was also some other large and unidentified construction project across the street, next to the Monte Carlo. Mandalay Bay did add another hotel piece ("The Hotel") and I think the Hooters Hotel is new, but I didn't get quite as far south as there. Meandering around the South Strip, including a bit of browing at shops and a little gambling took up several hours. New York New York is still the architectural wonder of that part of the city. I also had to revisit the lions at the MGM Grand, who were behaving in typical cat fashion - sleep, sleep some more, roll over and stretch and yawn, go back to sleep.
I'd made a spa appointment for the afternoon, so went back to the Aladdin for that. The Elemis Spa is tucked away in a corner of the Mezzanine and the signage was a bit confusing, so I wandered a bit until I found it. (For the benefit of others, you have to go down the corridor with the South Tower elevators.) The receptionist had a hard time finding my appointment, but eventually figured out that they'd scheduled it for the wrong Saturday. Most mysterious, since I had called on Monday and they supposedly only make appointments a week out, so there shouldn't have been any ambiguity. She got it sorted out, though, and all was well.
I'd had a difficult time selecting from the spa menu and had finally settled on the aroma stone massage and warming ocean bath. The latter proved to be a roughly half-hour soak in a jacuzzi with scented minerals. There was new age music playing in the room, which also had lights cycling through a range of pastel colors. It was pleasant and relaxing enough, but I'm not sure it was really any more therapeutic than just the warm jacuzzi itself would be.
As for the massage, that involved all sorts of things, from a cactus bristle exfoliant (extremely enjoyable) to warm stones being placed on various parts of my body to a scalp massage with some sort of frangipani stuff. Never having had a real massage before, I have no standard for comparison, but it was definitely relaxing. I discovered that I particularly like having my legs massaged.
My evening involved a different kind of sensory overload. Namely, seeing Cirque du Soleil's new show, "Love." I'm somewhat skeptical of spectacle, but this was worth the (expensive) admission. It's hard to imagine the engineering that goes into their special effects. Apparently, the theatre itself cost several million to build. There are actual Beatles outtakes, along with the array of lights and smoke and aerialists and dancers and costumes and so on. I highly recommend it.
What with bodily indulgence, visual excitement and a meal here and there, it was hard to find time to gamble! I did play a bit more video poker, with less success. I tend to look at gambling strictly as entertainment. I may lose twenty bucks, but if I do that a quarter at a time over a couple of hours, it's reasonable value..
Copyright 2006 Miriam H. Nadel