48 Hours to Go

The Stardust Hotel and Casino is a throwback to the 1960’s and that is why I chose it. You don't have to wander around past the zoos, gladiators and roller coasters just trying to the find the buffet, but you do have to pass the slot machines on your way to the front desk.

We stayed in a standard hotel room, comfortable with two double beds and a large, clean bathroom. I was bummed we were only on the second floor (nothing more embarrassing than getting on an elevator full of people and pressing the number 2). The Stardust has everything the mega-casino have, just on a smaller scale; a quaint shopping mall, excellent buffet, nightclub with live bands and slots, slots, slots. They also have a sports booking section on the north side, which was a great for NBA playoffs.

The best feature of the Stardust is its swimming pools. The Stardust has two, one a modern-looking pool more for lying around and being seen than swimming. In between the pools are two hot tubs complete with rock grotto waterfall. The second pool is in front of the two-story villas, which gives it a more intimate feel. The service is impeccable with polite young lifeguards who fetch your lounge chair for you and place it wherever you want, including on the grass under the trees. As I lie in my lounge chair soaking up the early morning Vegas sun, I could just imagine all the famous Hollywood stars who used to stay at here in the 60’s, Lucy and Desi Arnez sitting in chairs while their kids played in the pool, Dean Martin ordering cocktails from the poolside bar, Bob Hope practicing his putting on the grass near the villas …The Stardust is right on the Strip, but it is miles away when you are at the Stardust pool.

The only disappointing part of the hotel was the 4-die, hand-crank penny squishing machine in front of the video arcade was out of order. We checked with management to see if someone could fix it, but being a weekend, no one from the penny company wanted to come out.

The Stardust is on the northern end of the Strip next to the Fashion Show Mall. The mega-resorts of Treasure Island, The Venetian and the Mirage are on the other side of the mall, a good walk, but you can handle it or just ride the Strip Trolley that picks people up out front every 15 minutes. Five dollars gets a 24-hour pass for the trolley and you can ride it up and down all day listening to Betsy singing "we be turning, we be turning!" and "bumby bumb ahead, hold ‘em if you got ‘em!" With this much fun to be found, I’d stay at the Stardust again in a minute.

Going to Vegas was a chance to visit the newest Margaritaville at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino. With the trademark neon parrot shining down on us below, Margaritaville fit right in with the rest of Las Vegas.

Located on the north corner of the Flamingo facing the Strip, the place is huge, with three full bars, the largest of which is the volcano bar near the front of the restaurant. Booths are designed to look like the backs of fishing boats, including giant reels and rods protruding from them, and across the restaurant, some tables are set up on a wooden deck that overlooks the harbor of booths. The tables have old magazine articles or postcards about Florida, Jimmy, or anything tropical under the glass, which makes for interesting reading while waiting for your food. A tiki hut is the soundstage where bands play at 10pm nightly. For the real views, however, one must walk up the steps behind the volcano bar to the second-story deck that overlooks the Strip. With a smaller tiki bar and a stage for an acoustic performer, the views up here are spectacular, with bar stools all around the edge for you to enjoy an interesting side view of the Bellagio water show and, of course, all the passersby and cars traversing the Strip.

Now the nitty gritty: The margaritas are fabulous! I can’t imagine why you would drink anything else at Margaritaville. Made with Margaritaville tequila, they are the smoothest you will ever have. They were so good that I stopped twice at the walk-up bar right on the Strip each night we went out so I could enjoy a margarita to-go. Dinner was a chicken Caesar salad with lots of hot, grilled chicken. I had to eat lightly because I still had a lot of Strip to walk before the night was over. Unfortunately, dinner was also LOUD, because we didn’t eat until almost 10pm, and that’s when the house band takes over.

Officially opened in January 2004, Margaritaville Las Vegas is the first of the chain to locate west of the Mississippi (the others are in Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, Mexico, and the Caribbean) and is definitely the place to go for a laid back, good time.

Tips for visiting Margaritaville Las Vegas: Go early! On Fridays and Saturdays, the restaurant does not take reservations, and the wait can be up to two hours. Because our flight into Vegas was delayed, we were unable to get there before 8:30pm and suffered the consequences. However, there’s a lot to see. We spent half our wait shopping the gift shop adjacent to the bar and then spent the other half on the second story drinking our margaritas and watching the water show across the street. It was certainly not a bad way to spend the evening; Margaritaville is everything you’d expect, with the fun and glam of Vegas thrown in.

"If anyone, should ever write my life story…" Gladys Knight puts on a heck of a show at the Flamingo Showroom almost every night. The night we were there was certainly no exception. After picking up our reserved tickets at the counter we were seated in the very front table next to the stage with the stage steps behind us. Short of sitting on the stage, we couldn’t have been any closer. We manage to get there early and we waited for our table to fill up. A waitress came to take our drink order and several young men in tuxedos went from table to table, including ours, to take pictures of everyone that you could buy after the show.

The show started with Gladys singing "Love Overboard," one of my favorites. Gladys has tons of energy and loves to talk to the audience, which I like, because she makes you feel like we were all friends. Her brother, Bubba, is the comic relief. He comes running through the middle of the audience, up the stairs behind our chairs and onto the stage and doesn’t stop running. Playing the role of oddball relative, he shows up when you least expect him and adds his particular spin on whatever song Gladys happens to be singing. And can Gladys sing. Celine Dion, Gladys has got you beat. She just turned 60 and looks fabulous to boot. She performs with a live band and four talented back up singers and all five of them do a Motown tribute that will have you grooving in your seats. She performs for an hour and half straight and takes the audience on an enjoyable ride.

As she neared the end of the show, she talked the audience and shared a story about how a week ago a bride and groom came to she her show right after they got married, gown and tuxedo still on, and how proud she was to be able to share that day with them and about how happy she was to share her songs with us. Just then a couple in the crowd shouted out that this was the fifth time in one year that they had come to see her. Then and there, Gladys offered them tickets to see her next time they came back to Las Vegas as her personal guests. For her encore she sang "Midnight Train to Georgia" with her back up singers and Bubba doing all the classic Pips moves and vocals.

Gladys Knight performs Tuesday through Saturday and shows start at 7:30pm. The only downside was the show had already started by the time we got our drinks so I was trying to figure out tip for the waitress while Gladys was singing. As early as we arrived for the show, we should have had our drinks sooner. Tickets are $65 to $75 and you can reserve tickets by calling (702) 733-3333.

Apparently I didn’t do my pre-trip planning very well because I didn’t discover comedian Kevin James was at the Mirage in Las Vegas until I got in line for the Mirage buffet and saw his poster hanging on the wall at the event ticket counter. "One Night Only" the poster said. I told my mom what a funny guy Kevin James was, you know, Wednesday nights, the King of Queens? Unfortunately, the West Wing was on at the same time so my mom had no idea who Kevin James was. Since the line for the Mirage buffet was quite long, I sauntered over to the ticket counter to inquire about the show. He was there for one night, two shows; one at 9pm and the other at 10:30pm. We already had tickets to see Gladys Knight at the Flamingo, but that show was at seven. Plenty of time to make the 10:30 show. I asked the woman at the counter if there were still tickets available. No, sold out. However, I was told, if I came back to the ticket counter 15 minutes prior to the show, the Mirage will release any held tickets that haven’t been picked up yet for the general public to buy. Ok, I thought, good to know. I took my place back in the buffet line with my mom and relayed the same information to her. The Mirage was one of her favorite casinos so she had no problem coming back after the Flamingo show.

Timing is everything, they say. While my mom played nickel slots near the front entrance of the Mirage, I quickly strolled back to where the event sales desk was at the back of the casino. A line had already formed and it was quite long. It snaked around the side of the ticket counter down the hall toward the Danny Gans Theater. The end of the line was near the restrooms, which were quite busy as people on their way to the Kevin James performance stopped in before entering the theater. I took my place in line, but fortunately I still had a good portion of my margarita left that I had purchased from the walk up bar at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville restaurant (also at the Flamingo) to keep me company. There were two gentlemen in front of me and a young couple behind. A woman from the ticket counter kept coming around the corner and counting us. She did this several times. Why she didn’t just write the number down I don’t know. Every time she came an older man in front of me would ask if they had any tickets. She kept saying, "I don’t know."

At 10:30, when I thought there was no hope, the ticket woman came around the corner to count us AGAIN, and when the older gentleman asked his question, she replied they did have tickets available, but she didn’t know if they had enough for everyone in line. With that the two gentlemen in front of me left along with several of the couples and a group of students. I had no money to gamble and I was sure Mom was perfectly happy plucking down her nickels so I kept waiting.

Now with the on-call line thinned out the ticket woman came back and announced that they had tickets. Someone ahead of me in line asked if they would miss any of the show. She said Kevin had an opening act and wouldn’t actually take the stage until 11pm and that we should all have our tickets by then. That made everyone very happy and soon the line was shortening as the ticket counter started to sell the remaining tickets.

I approached and announced I wanted two tickets, a different woman told me I was getting the last pair and that there were only single seat tickets left. Fantastic! I soon as I had the tickets in hand, I ran, yes ran, back through the Mirage casino, past the baccarat tables, the sports book and all the slots until I reached the small group of nickel machines near the front. Then, of course, I had to search to find which machine my mother was perched at. When I found her I held the tickets high and said, "I got ‘em!"

"Really?" She couldn’t believe it. The slots kept her so busy; she thought I’d only been gone a few minutes. We quickly headed back through the casino, again, and walked the broad hall that led to the Lance Burton Theater. There was a bar between two grand staircases that led up to the theater entrance. We skipped the bar and went up the steps to the closest usher to find out where our seats were. He walked us down the theater stairs and in the very middle right on the isle were two empty seats just for us. We couldn’t have had better seats unless we were in the front row.

The opening act had just finished and he announced Kevin James onto the stage while ACDC/’s Back in Black played over the system. The next hour contained laugh after hysterical laugh as Kevin went through his set. Even my mom, who’d never heard of him, could not contain herself as Kevin told jokes about playing black jack, being engaged to his girlfriend and best of all, the "Water Ski Bit."

It was after midnight and I was exhausted from all the laughing. Nothing left to do now but gamble, I guess. Thanks to the Mirage Ticket Counter Attendant for telling me about the released tickets. They do that for every show if anyone ever needs something to do at the last minute. I wonder if Caesar’s does that for Celine Dion???

For a spectacular view of the Las Vegas strip, pay the $9 to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel and Casino. Yeah, it’s cheesy, but your camera will love it.

Once you enter the front of the casino, walk straight towards the back where you’ll see a gift shop and the ticket counter for the Tower. After you have your ticket you walk up the stairs next to the counter and onto a bridge that rises over the casino. First you have your photo taken by a Paris photographer and then you get into the line for the elevator ride up. There are four elevators that work in the tower. One takes people to the Eiffel Tower restaurant and that’s a separate entrance for which you must have reservations. One elevator takes people up and they have two that take people down. That’s because only so many people can fit onto the elevators and they have to control that. While the wait may be long to go up, once you are at the top you can stay there as long as you like.

All the casino employees speak in French and English while you ride up the windowed elevator, giving you interesting facts about the Las Vegas tower versus the real thing in Paris. For example, the Las Vegas tower is a half scale to the original and the top is 460 feet above the strip. Another fact is the rivets on the Vegas tower are for show only and are glued on. Sometimes they have a tendency to fall off, so if you see a rivet missing, you need to keep in mind that the rivets are not what hold up the Vegas tower and it won’t come crashing down. The tower staff just glue on another rivet.

As you ride up the elevator, you have a window to look out on the city and if you’re afraid of heights, the trip up can be daunting. Once at the top, the platform is completely enclosed in thick wire with small squares cut into it at various places and heights for people to take on obstructed photos. The tower provides 360 degree views of the strip and a spectacular overhead view of the Belagio water show. You can even hear the music. Open from 10am to 1am weather permitting, we visited the tower at 10:30 at night and stayed at the top for a good 15 minutes taking photos from every side. The nighttime neon made for quite a sight, however, I’m sure the daytime views with the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range on the North would also make for wonderful photos.

Did we enjoy the Eiffel Tower, yes, but I admit $9 is a lot of money for an elevator ride. It’s one of those things that you should do at least once on a trip to Vegas just to say you did, but pass it up on your next trip so you have more money for the slot machines.