Wednesday November 1st 2017

After two days of fighting the Las Vegas traffic I decided to leave most of the driving to someone else today. I caught the 11:40 shuttle from Sam’s Town Casino to the strip. Checking out the changes on the south end of the strip was today’s objective.

The 11:40 shuttle dropped me off at Harrahs around noon. I had either three hours or 7 hours before the return shuttle. My plan was to catch the 3:05 return shuttle. I learned that the inconvenient shuttle times are a very new thing. The company that was running the shuttle service for the casino suspended operations at the end of September. The casino now has a single bus instead of two. It makes a run to the strip and back to Sam’s Town then makes a run downtown and back.

Lady Liberty in front of the New York New York hotel and casino.

My tour of the south strip was mostly a lot of walking. I walked south on the east side of the strip to Planet Hollywood then crossed the street to the Cosmopolitan, the Crystals Mall, and Aria Casino. Not much seemed to have changed at any of those places. The big changes are taking place at the Monte Carlo Casino. There are construction walls up all the way from the entrance next to the Aria, through the casino and out to the strip. MGM is in the process of updating and rebranding the hotel casino as the Park MGM.

I stopped for lunch in New York New York at the Fulton Fish Market. I had fish and chips that were a couple of dollars cheaper than the fish and chips I had last week at Gordon Ramsey’s Fish & Chips in the Linq Promenade. I have to say today’s fish and chips weren’t as good.

Lion in front of MGM Grand hotel and casino.

The pedestrian bridge across Tropicana Avenue from New York New York to Excalibur is closed for construction so I crossed the strip to the MGM Grand then across Tropicana to the Tropicana Casino. There was nothing exciting to report at either of these casinos. After crossing back across the strip, I caught the tram from in front of the Excalibur down to the Mandala Bay Hotel and Casino.

The tram passed by the site of the tragic Las Vegas shooting a month ago. The organizers of the event were allowed to start clearing the site out and taking down the structures today. Over the last month law enforcement has been collecting evidence. Then the lawyers and their support crews representing the victims had a court ordered period of time to search for evidence to support their lawsuits. They aren’t looking for evidence related to the shooting, but rather evidence that the organizers and support groups didn’t do enough to prevent the incident or support the victims once the incident started. Something about that reminds me of vultures around a body.

When I reached Mandalay Bay I had less than an hour to get back to Harrahs for my return shuttle. I walked quickly back through Luxor and Excalibur. They seemed to be pretty much the same as they were in the spring. I skipped my plan stop for dessert at the Dairy Queen in Excalibur and continued to make my way back up the strip. I made it back to the shuttle stop with five minutes to spare.

I really didn’t have enough time to enjoy the south strip areas. I never gave the machines any love which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. More significantly I didn’t pause long enough to really see the sights or people watch. Observing the characters that visit this city is always fun. The shuttle with its current schedule isn’t really a good option. I think it’s back to driving for me.