As we already mentioned a couple of times on our website we are hooked on Las Vegas. So we decided to take another trip, our fifth one, to this exciting city. Christian’s parents, who had their first Vegas experience in December 2002, also came along.

Our flights should have been as follows:

• Austrian Airlines, OS093, VIE-IAD
  (Vienna - Washington), 11:20am - 3:00pm
• United Airlines, UA1553, IAD-LAS
  (Washington - Las Vegas), 4:55pm - 7:00pm

That was the original plan, but like on our last two trips to North America, there again was a delay in departure of the Austrian Airlines flight. So we arrived in Washington 20 minutes later than scheduled, there we had to wait for the buses to take us to the terminal, then they wouldn't open the terminal doors so we had to wait for another 20 minutes inside the bus. When we finally got in line for immigration we already knew that we could never make our connecting flight. There was a long lineup as another plane full of people had arrived before us and they were in the line ahead of us. We're not certain from where they arrived from but they had to be fingerprinted and digitally photographed. The actual process of getting our stamps into our passports was very fast and the immigration officer was very friendly, although he asked all the usual questions of "why, when and where". As we are citizens of Canada and the European Union there was no need to take pictures or fingerprints.

We then picked up our luggage and sprinted towards our connecting flight. Before we put our luggage onto the conveyor belt we asked a lady at the United Airlines booth, if the plane was still there – in the meantime it was 4:40pm. And as expected she said, that the flight was already closed, she then looked up on her computer system for alternative flights and found available seats on a Delta Airlines flight to Atlanta, and another one from Atlanta to Las Vegas. We were then sent to the SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) booth, where they could rebook us on those flights.

The lady at the SAS booth was very forthcoming and helpful, despite the fact that while she was dealing with our problem some Austrian Airlines guy stopped by, looked at what she was doing and whispered to her "no hotel". Can you believe that? She totally ignored him and proceeded to rebook us on Delta Airlines to Atlanta and then onto Las Vegas.

Going through security at Washington airport was another "interesting" experience. The first of us walked through showed the ticket and the (again very friendly) security person said "oh-oh, that’s not good". Then the second person – again "oh-oh, that’s not good either", then the third, the fourth. It turned out, that on all our tickets there was the code "SSSS" printed on them, which obviously meant "extreme strip search". So the four security officers went through all our carry on baggage, carefully checked our bodies for hidden articles and thoroughly examined our shoes and belts. The experience was neither traumatic nor humiliating, as this was done very professionally and all of the officers were very friendly.

After a good night sleep we started our day with an excellent breakfast at the Paris Las Vegas buffet. Without any doubt we would rate "Le Village Buffet" as one of the best place for having breakfast in Las Vegas. Afterwards, as we went outside to take a walk down the Strip, it was there again – that good feeling of being on vacation and not having to worry about deadlines, meetings, reports, and all the other stuff that enables us to come here in the first place – our jobs. Here we were in the gorgeous Nevada weather, the sun was shining, temperatures were high (around 30 to 35 degrees Celsius), humidity was very low, and there was a light breeze.

On this day we checked out the new Hawaiian Marketplace with its singing (plastic) birds. The building itself was not open to the public yet, but there were lots of shops selling "authentic Hawaiian" stuff under the canopy in front of the building. We did also manage to finally see the rainstorm in the Aladdin desert passage. The rainstorm can be seen Mon-Thu on the hour, Fri-Sun on the half hour. We were also lucky with gambling. Lianne won a couple of bucks at penny slots at the MGM Grand. Can you tell we are low rollers?

Late afternoon we bought bottled water at the 7-11 next to Ellis Island. It's right behind Bally's, and little more than a five minute walk. We stored it in our hotel rooms and then parted ways with the parents, as they were pretty tired from all the walking and they didn’t want to have a big dinner.

So the two of us went to the Venetian, where we had an excellent dinner at the Grand Lux Café. The Grand Lux is owned and operated by the Cheesecake Factory and offers an eclectic selection of over 150 menu items in an elegant but relaxed atmosphere, featuring more than 150 menu items, including pizza, seafood, steaks, burgers and pasta. As we already know the portion sizes of the Cheesecake Factory entrees, we decided to split one salad and one entrée. We had an excellent salad with blue cheese dressing and a pasta dish with grilled shrimp. We also ordered a bottle of Beringer White Zinfandel. Prices are not cheap compared with Vegas buffets, but way below the level we would pay for similar dishes in an equivalent restaurant in our hometown Vienna. One reason for that is of course the very favourable exchange rate US-Dollar vs. Euro.

On our way back to Bally’s we enjoyed the beautiful fountains of Bellagio before heading to our room. We think the fountain show is the best free entertainment in Las Vegas. It never gets boring and we could watch them over and over again. More than 1000 fountains dance in front of the Bellagio, enhanced by music and light. Water soars as high as 75 metres (245 feet) in the air. The free shows begin every half hour Monday to Friday, 3-7pm and Saturday and Sundays noon-7pm and every 15 minutes, 7pm-midnight.

On this day we walked more than 14 kilometres (8.7 miles) – Christian used his pedometer he got for Christmas. Amazing what distances you walk when in Las Vegas.

We spent the day walking the Strip and the occasional stop-over at the casinos. We also went to the new Fashion Show Mall, located just across the Wynn Resort construction site. In the afternoon the parents headed for the Hofbräuhaus, while we went to the Spice Market Buffet in the Aladdin for an early dinner, as we already had our tickets for Mamma Mia (at the Mandalay Bay) at 7pm. Dinner at the Spice Market Buffet can be described as a bit pricey but very yummy. We would rate it as one of the best dinner buffets in Las Vegas. We then took a cab to Mandalay Bay, where we arrived around 6.30pm. Since there was half an hour to the performance, Lianne decided to play "Jackpot Party" at a Nickel Slot – and 20 minutes later she was $ 65 richer. And the evening just got better – Mamma Mia turned out to be the best show we have ever seen. We weren’t sure what to expect, but we surely didn’t expect Mamma Mia to be that entertaining and funny. What a great evening, worth every penny of the $ 172 we paid for the two tickets.

Arriving at the location we saw all the cool SUVs they had there – all of them way bigger that we expected as we thought that their SUVs would be the size of a Chevrolet Blazer. So we booked an upgrade for $ 10 per day, went outside and waited for our car. So the first one arrives, the driver hops out, and it was all ours. At least it could have been, because by the time we were finished testing the seats and tried to figure out, whether our luggage would fit in and if yes, how this could be managed, the next car arrived, … and a third one, and a fourth one and a fifth one. It took quite a long time to decide between five really nice cars, but after more than 20 minutes we finally made our choice: a Buick Rendezvous. We drove off and headed for the Wal-Mart Supercenter on Charleston Boulevard where we spent the next two hours shopping. In the early afternoon we arrived back on the Strip and parked our car at the Paris self parking, which is conveniently located just midway in between Bally’s and Paris. Both hotels are accessible via the internal walkway loaded with shops and restaurants.

After we met up with the parents we went straight to Margaritaville. We read lots of good reviews about Jimmy Buffett’s latest addition to his restaurant chain, so we thought we might give it a try. Margaritaville, located in the Flamingo Hotel, serves Caribbean-American-style cuisine accompanied by very loud music and an erupting margarita volcano. Service was excellent, but regarding the taste, the food is not worth the money they charge for it. The place was very cold too and there was a very unpleasant draft, so we decided not to have desserts.

By the time we made it to Treasure Island, it was getting dark and the place in front of the pirate ships was already packed with people. In fact it was so crowded that people stood on the median of the Las Vegas Boulevard, which caused lots of honking and shouting from drivers trying to avoid running over a tourist running across the busy street. So there we were, standing in front of the Treasure Island waiting for the pirate battle to start. But there are two things that are different to our previous four trips. Firstly the show was not cancelled due to high winds and secondly it is a brand new show called "Sirens of TI". Treasure Island recently changed their image away from the old "pirates’ place" to a more modern and contemporary style. They torn down their old sign – the big wooden skull - and replaced it with a modern one just sporting the letters "T" and "I". And they changed their pirate battle. Now it’s a ship full of singing sirens with very little clothes on battling a band of renegade male pirates in Sirens’ Cove in front of the resort. The male’s ship sinks, they swim over to the girls and then all of them sing and dance together. The performances are free and take place nightly at 7:00, 8:30, 10:00 and 11:30pm.

On our way back to the hotel we passed the Volcano at the Mirage which erupts every 15 minutes until midnight, beginning at 8pm.

It was still daylight when we arrived at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas. Check-in was pretty fast and the staff very friendly. The rooms were overly large and very clean and we loved the tiny window in the shower. Our room (number 837) was located away from construction, and the view was of the pool. The parents’ room faced the construction site, but they were never bothered by any noise. There is a free shuttle bus running every 15 minutes between the Orleans and the Barbary Coast, which is centrally located on the Strip. The room rate was exceptionally good ($ 79) considering that this was on a weekend.

We had dinner at the new "Cravings" buffet at the Mirage Hotel. There was a big hype in the media with their new design so we just had to give it a try. Unfortunately we did not find the whole thing worth the 20 dollars per person. The design and the presentation of the food were really appealing, but the food quality itself was not what we expected from an upscale buffet. Especially the pizza station was a disappointment. We tried three times not to get a piece of pizza with black (burned) bottom, with no luck at all. The dessert station too was nothing special, several items they offered there were just disgusting. Only the salad station we found really good. You just choose the ingredients, dressing and topping, and they mix it and toss it for you.

Because we had overeaten in the past few days we started our day with just muffins and coffee at Seattle's Best, located inside the Orleans Casino, while the parents went for the French Market Buffet. They really liked it, especially as it is good value for your money – except for Sundays the breakfast buffet is only $ 5.95 per person.

We then drove over to the Las Vegas Hilton, where we tried to pick up the parents’ concert tickets for Trent Carlini – "The Dream King". The tickets were purchased in the beginning of April, because it was a birthday present for Christian’s mom and we wanted to make sure, that she and her husband got the best seats. Unfortunately it turned out, that there was mix-up at the booking agency (we booked online at lasvegasshows.com) and Trent Carlini wasn’t even in Las Vegas that day. The Hilton box office refunded us the ticket price and lasvegasshows.com rebooked us to Jubilee at Bally’s. Unfortunately the parents didn’t want to go to that show, so we drove over to Bally’s, they cancelled our tickets, but left a small handling fee on our credit card. But the main thing was: the parents were happy.

We, on the other hand, had already picked up our tickets Friday afternoon at the Mandalay Bay Box Office – Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and Uncle Cracker were in town for Kenny’s "Guitars, Tiki Bars & A Whole Lot of Love Tour".

But before we went to the concert we had to grab some food, so we decided to go to the Bellagio gourmet dinner buffet. Oh boy, was that a good decision. The price was not cheap at all, but the range of food, the presentation and the high quality of the dishes compensated every penny we spent. After all of that good food the two of us walked all the way down to Mandalay Bay. We enjoyed the concert very much. Uncle Kracker started the show with a couple of songs, and then came Rascal Flatts who delivered an excellent performance. Then the crowd went really wild when Kenny Chesney hit the stage. And for an encore all the artists joined together on stage. We had a great evening despite the relatively high ticket price – ticketmaster.com charged us $ 200.80 for the two tickets.

After our hearty breakfast we unfortunately had to leave Las Vegas. The next couple of days we spent in Sequoia National Park, stopped by at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new workplace, the Capitol in Sacramento and visited San Francisco for our final two days in the United States.

Picture content: Las Vegas sign picture, Venetian hotel pictures, gondola, Lianne, construction at Caesar's Palace (pictures), Bellagio, image gallery, Las Vegas strip, photo, foto, picture, Wynn Las Vegas, Le Reve, Lereve, Bally's hotel room pictures, Orleans casino room picture. Lianne and Christian. - Las Vegas trip report (travelogue). Europeans in Las Vegas. - Fotos Strip - Reisebericht Las Vegas.