After breakfast we purchased day tickets for the monorail and boarded the train to the MGM Grand hotel to see what the Game Works is all about. Marco read about it in his Lonely Planet guide of Vegas.
At the one to last station the monorail had a technical problem (what we don't know), so we waited for like 15 min before deciding to go walking the last kilometer. We had to walk through the Paris hotel. You guessed it, themed like Paris :-). The interior of all the European themed hotels look rather the same. Small facades of house, a blue sky with some clouds overhead and plants and other ornaments to give you the feel you're walking outside in the early evening. So there were shops, with French names, restaurants, with French names and even the slot machines were under those green cast iron free standing roof things (for lack of a better word). Again lots of noise (drives you crazy after a while) and the cliche carpets in the casino area. The same everywhere!
We finally escaped the hotel and got something to drink on the Strip. By now all the hustle and bustle of Vegas became mind numbing. But we still had the Game Works to check out. Unfortunately it was nothing more than a big arcade hall. Plenty of nice machines, but nothing special. So we didn't stay long.
After that we crossed the street and checked out the New York hotel. Again basically the same hotel as all the others. Same casino style (60's), same shops, same grandeur, same long long hallways. But we weren't scared off so easily so we crossed the street again and looked at the Excalibur hotel. The castle on the outside looks more like something made from those kiddy wooden play blocks. Inside we discovered they ran three 4D films! Sponge Bob, The deep plunge (or something) and a Dino movie. Ofcourse we had nog option but to test these. After waiting about a quarter of an hour, there were some technical difficulties, we went in. Oh boy, was this stuff from yesterday. No real theming, just a scruffy waiting line (no people) and a theater with castle themed (painted) walls. There were about six rows of chairs that were placed on movable platforms. Big lap bars hold you to your seat.
For the Sponge Bob movie, our first, we were alone and just our row of chairs moved. It's a bit like those large simulators (eg. STE) but then the simple version. Add wind effects, water effects (squirts) and moving wires (against your legs) and you've the 4th dimension. The movies used standard 3D polarized glasses.
During the movies it's a lot of bumping and shaking. Not all perfectly synchronized to the movie, but reasonably so. The Sponge Bob theme didn't suit the 3 and 4D effect very well IMHO. Next was the log plung movie. There you sit on (or actually are) a log that moves through a roller coaster ride in a computer generated world (looks a bit like the Myst worlds for those who've seen the adventure game). Here it lacked a lot of synch and they could have added some extra bumps at numerous moments in the movie, but alas.
The last one, Dino Encounter, was the best. Flying in a helicopter and riding in a car works best. You know the real thing (instead of being a log or biking with Sponge Bob) and the sound effects and voices helped to enhance the experience.
All in all not bad (for $12.95) but no way near attractions like STE.
You can imagine we had our fill by then (2.30pm or so) and we walked back to the monorail station in the MGM Grand hotel (the biggest of the world!). Now that hotel took us by surprise. Although the casino part was comparable to the other hotels (the carpet was a little more stylish although still floral) the rest of the hotel was way better. Modern, quiet(er) and very well designed. Some of the restaurants we saw looked really awesome, especially when compared to the rest of Vegas. This is a hotel one imagines when thinking of Las Vegas. Class with a casino.
Oh, they had something extra (apart from a Rainforest Cafe), a lion area in which real lions lived. All glassed off in the front with a walk through tunnel (like in aquaria). At any time there are three lionesses in the display area. The rotate throughout the day so that any lion is only visible for the public for limited amount of hours a day. They've got a total of 38 lions, although it wasn't clear where they live. The most impressive thing about this is the fact that the lions looked very relaxed and content. They walked around, played with balls, gnawed big bones, etc. Normally in a zoo lions either lay still and do nothing or pace around of boredom. These lions actually enjoyed themselves! Really special.
After that is was on the monorail and back to the hotel (around 3.30pm) to give our overloaded minds and feet a little rest.
Oh, Marco decided to through away a couple of bucks a the slot machines. You can't say you've been to Vegas without any gambling, right? He decided to play save and used the classic slot machine with bets of $0.25 (I know, wild). Well, he spent about $10-$11 and won $23!! Yes, really. Came away with a profit. :-)))
We had our last dinner at our favorite Thai around the corner. After that Marco jumped on the monorail one last time to get a peek of the Strip by night. Not as flashy as you always see in movies. Guess that's primarily caused by all the building activities on the Strip that leaves a lot of dark holes. The rest? Mostly video billboards. Only a few places with running old fashioned lights. Nope, Vegas isn't what they want us to think it is.
Well that's it. This is the last blog entry of our Vegas trip. Tomorrow it's up at 7am, cab at 8am and plane at 11:35am.
I hope you've enjoyed reading it! CU all.
Marco
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