The drive to Vegas went quite well. No real traffic to speak of, and even with two stops, made it in right about five hours. Listened to Shakira and Bob Newhart, an odd combination, I will admit. A cold front was moving in, so it wasn't even that unbearably hot, for those mountain passes where they advise turning off one's a/c. Checked in at Paris, and found our room on the 21st floor. Not much of a view, looked out at some timeshares, with the mountains on the side. Hoped maybe I'd get to watch a thunderstorm in the mountains sometime during the trip, but never saw any. Certainly a very nice room, but I still think I prefer Bally's. The room was big enough, but on the small side for a luxury resort. The armoire was a nice touch. Nicer bathroom than Bally's, with separate tub and shower. No separate water closet, but the toilet was set back in a slightly recessed nook, intended I suppose to give the illusion of privacy. Yet it wasn't set back nearly far enough, so that when one sat on the toilet, one couldn't help but watch oneself crapping in the full-length mirror on the door. Not an attractive sight. But they give you bath gel as well as the standard toiletries, the beds were comfortable, and housekeeping kept things tidy. Water pressure is usually the final arbiter for me in judging a room, but since my foot is bandaged and I don't feel like dealing with garbage bags, I've been taking baths. But the tub was spacious, and reasonably easy to enter and exit without dampening my left foot. So all in all, a good room, but considering it is newer and more expensive than Bally's, I think Bally's wins in the comparison (to be fair, I've only had queen beds at Paris, and king beds at Bally's, so maybe it is somewhat an apples-to-oranges comparison).
Overall, the service at Paris is pretty good. I did have one complaint with how the marketing department took care of me and my comped show tickets. The offer I was staying on was for two free nights in the hotel and two tickets to see We Will Rock You, their new musical based on the songs of Queen. First, when I called a few months ago and made the reservations, they tried to book me on some other offer I'd received, and I had to practically argue with the woman on the phone that I'd rather have two show tickets valued at $200+ rather than some food credit or whatever she was pushing. But I got it straightened out with her eventually, and reserved two tickets for the second night I was there. When I checked in, nothing was said about the tickets until I asked, and the front desk directed me to a line at the ticket office. I wait in line, and they have no record of the tickets. After fumbling with the computer awhile, she figures out that it was a comp offer from a room package, and tells me those tickets aren't available until the day of the show, so I should come back around noon the next day. So I do, no line this time, but still no show tickets. The clerk I spoke to this time was quite helpful, telling me that I need to actually call marketing from the hotel and tell them I want to get the tickets that were reserved for me. Seemed odd, but I was glad that the third person I talked to knew what to do. So I called marketing, she said I had tickets reserved for the 7:00 show, and she'd put them right in, and to check the ticket booth a half-hour later. I check about twenty minutes later, and they aren't there yet. Which is okay, so I leave and come back a few hours later, a bit of a line-up again, and again no tickets. The manager comes out, calls marketing, and goes in the back, and comes out again with my tickets. It seems that marketing never got me my tickets until the ticket office called them. It was all a minor inconvenience, but just seems odd, in that I assume most of the people staying in Paris on comps who play at my level or above received the same and similar offers, and how hard should it be to redeem it? Was the marketing person about to put it in the computer, when she spotted a bee in her office, and had to spend the rest of the afternoon trying to shoo it out a window? That's my theory. What stinks about the matter, though, is that I had rather bad seats, and I think if they had gotten my tickets in at the proper time, I would have had much better seats, since I think they lock up good seats for VIPs until the afternoon of the show. So all in all, I was a little annoyed. I was going to complain, but I would be complaining to the ticket booth staff, who did everything they could to help me, and not marketing that dropped the ball. So I just let it go. Like I said, the tickets cost over $100 with the entertainment tax, so I shouldn't bitch about having to jump through a few hoops for two tickets.
So I got my tickets and saw the 7:00 show of We Will Rock You on Wednesday. The show opened on Monday, so I was one of the first to see it, which is exciting. I was looking forward to it, though also nervous, whether it would be a travesty or a loving tribute. I must say I was disappointed in it, but still felt it had a lot going for it, and certainly by no means hated it. For the first half-hour or so, I did think it was awful, but it improved markedly in the second half. I knew very little about the plot, and was a bit chagrined that the story blatantly ripped off from the classic Aerosmith video game Revolution X, though with less blood. It's the future, and real rock has been replaced by computer-programmed pop pablum called, of course, GaGa. And our hero is Galileo Figaro ("Bohemian Rhapsody" surfaces in fragments as a sacred texts of the inevitable rebellion), a dreamer who channels snippets of rock lyrics (apparently with no filters--everything from "Who put the bob in the bop-shu-bop" to "Who let the dogs out?") and therefore in the only one who can revive rock and roll. The musical, in other words, postulates the novel notion that rock and roll, as it were, will never die. Or die and then come back, like Jesus.
We Will Rock You uses this message of the primacy of rock to attack pop culture, in particular American Idol, which makes it unfortunate that some of the more over-produced numbers sound exactly like a Queen cover on American Idol. It criticizes pop culture, yet jumps at any opportunity to appropriate it for a hackneyed joke. I'll avoid a minor spoiler, and just say one joke that actually was amusing, stemming from the fragments of our culture that made it to the future without context, was unfortunately repeated about a dozen times until the humor was long gone.
But perhaps I'm being too harsh. Musically, the production was pretty good, if a bit over-produced at times. The band was good, as were the on-stage talent. A few numbers involving the whole company were a bit muddled, "Radio GaGa" in particular (which was almost a blessing, as I nearly missed the fact that they changed the lyrics to insert a lame reference to the internet). But "It's a Kind of Magic" just really came together well, early in the show, and was the first hint the show might have some life in it. Unfortunately, the staging of this one, with dancers in some lame "futuristic" uniform, and with the Killer Queen and Khashoggi twirling slowly on some platform, gesticulating wildly as if their spinning was supposed to be a thrilling sight. Sorry, but twirling does not a spectacle make. And it closes strongly, with "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" ending the show. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is tacked on to the end, which is odd, since they seemed to be building to it, then decide that "We Are the Champions" is a more logical closer. But I suppose it's better to throw "Rhapsody" in as a sort of encore then to stretch the story even more to accommodate it.
Let's see, what else to complain about. "Under Pressure" is tacked on in a truncated version, just to advance the plot a little and bring the two love interests together, and seemed a bit too perky. They used, I believe, "No One But You" for a moving musical tribute to musicians who died young. A good choice, and of course it's vital to acknowledge Mercury's passing somewhere in the show, but the decision to also acknowledge practically every other musician who ever died made it feel more calculated and manipulative, offering something for everyone. The musical's casual equating of Freddie Mercury and Elvis is also questionable, no offense to Mr. Mercury. On the plus side, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," "I Want it All," and "Seven Seas of Rhye" were all well-done, and the unnecessary references to the Paris Casino thrown into the show didn't do much damage. To summarize, there were lots of problems I had with the show, but musically it was fairly sound, and hopefully will improve with time (it opened on Monday, though I understand this is the London cast, at least in the major roles, so I don't know if that's an excuse). If I paid $100 for a seat, I'd be very disappointed, but for free, it's worth seeing.
Most of my time on the Strip, I never left the Paris/Bally's complex (both because of my foot, and because I like to gamble there). So I ate there a lot. The buffet at Paris was good as usual. I had it for breakfast my last morning at Paris, and wasn't very hungry, but after eating one plateful of food, already felt I'd justified the price. The crepes later were just icing on the cake. It is also the first time I ever saw Nutella at a buffet. But the best meal I had was at the Paris coffee shop, Le Café Île St. Louis. I'd often heard it described as over-priced, and after seeing how over-priced Bally's coffee shop was, I had concerns. But for the quality, I found it remarkably reasonable. Sandwiches for about eight dollars, with generous portions, and plenty of both American and French entrees at under fifteen dollars. Chad had the French Dip (I suppose that marginally fits the casino theme), and could barely eat half. I had Coquilles St. Jacques, and it was wonderful. I'd never had it before, and thought the potatoes were a garnish, but it was actually served on top like a pot pie crust, sort of. But it was delicious, and more then made up for skipping the Paris buffet for dinner and never getting their delicious bouillabaisse. I had a banana split for dessert, which was quite big and good, though it only had chocolate sauce, and no fruit toppings, save the banana. The service was great, and though it was a bit noisy being right by the casino, it had a nice atmosphere. I made fun of what they call outdoor seating, which is seating underneath the canopy painted on the ceiling of the casino, but it actually did have some of the charm of actually eating al fresco. I'd highly recommend it, though the wait for a table can be long (I had a line pass, fortunately).
I spent two nights there, then spent one night at the Fremont. I believe the last time I stayed there, I said I would never stay their again, but this time, I mean it. Unlike last time, there was nothing horribly wrong with my room, it was just small and cramped, and the air conditioning was noisy. I was on the tenth floor, with a view of a parking garage. I only stayed there because my friend wanted to stay downtown. I gambled about a half-hour before I decided I'd had enough of that and drove back to the strip. Downtown is okay for low-rollers, but I think even those with a modest budget can get some good treatment on the strip. I was surprised by how many comps my friend got, just playing Pai Gow and some slots for fairly reasonable stakes. Downtown has some old-school charm, but a lot of it just stinks. I do regret that I never got around to watching the new Fremont Street Experience light show, or getting a $0.99 shrimp cocktail at the Golden Gate, but I don't think Downtown has much to offer me anymore.
I won't bore you with all the details of my gambling. I'll just say I lost money, but not an unreasonable amount. I lost a ton my last night at Paris, when I gambled until 4 AM, just digging the hole deeper and deeper. That session is the reason why I didn't leave a winner, and so I learned a lesson, not to throw good money after bad, and accept a modest loss rather then going broke. But the Stardust was very good to me, as was the Las Vegas Hilton. It was the second time I gambled at the Hilton, and I enjoyed it, and found comps reasonable to get. I didn't consciously gamble there with this in mind, but I realized later it could be good to get in their good graces; if Harrah's merger with Caesars goes through, and they ruin Caesars properties as I'm sure they will, I'll need a new place to gamble. I hear good things about the Las Vegas Hilton, and the new owners seem to be doing a good job of improving the place. There were some real characters gambling there. And the monorail makes it a much more convenient location than it used to be. I could certainly do worse.
So all-in-all, it was a good trip. I lost money, but I saw a show, ate some fine meals, came to realize that Downtown blows, and realized that as long as the other members of your party understand that you came to gamble, going to Vegas with someone isn't too bad. I'm going back in November, though I'd love to work out a quick trip before that.
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