I thought nothing would surprise me here anymore, however a few things that have struck me:
- this place is designed as a huge maze with networks of identical corridors. I think the idea is that when you inevitably get lost you repair to the casino for a cheeky gamble before continuing on your way.
- This place is absolutely enormous. The other night I was working in my room and got thirsty. Now there’s no water in the room and tap water here is revolting. Presumably the plan is that when you pop out for something to drink, you can play some slots on the way or have a cheeky gamble….. Anyway, to get to the nearest water shop I have to: walk down several corridors to the lift, take the lift down 9 floors, along various corridors to the skybridge, walk across and into a series of identical atria, take a lift down 3 floors to the shop level, along several corridors and into the food court. That takes 7 minutes. One way. It is at least 10 mins from the room to the outside world! Not surprisingly the place is full of lost souls trying to remember which identical but non-linked tower their room is in. Presumably this gets worse later as people start drinking.
- I still can’t get over how tacky casinos are. People come here on holiday. Why?
- People really do gamble 24 hours a day. I’ve been through the casino at 5am (was leaving for airport not returning home 😉 and 7am and whilst the place isn’t packed, there are quite a few tables and slot machines occupied by people who obviously aren’t the early rising type.
- Despite tales of economy induced woe Vegas is actually pretty busy still. Yes the Wynn hotel keeps emailing me to ask me to stay and the Starbucks queues were shorter at the event I attended, but the Venetian was full and restaurant reservations were a nightmare. So not as bad as previously reported methinks.