Las Vegas Hilton

The husband and I have made regular visits to Las Vegas for a number of years now. We're not huge gamblers, though we do enjoy playing various of the slot machines. I only do slots and don't do table games at all. The husband enjoys craps, and he even knows how to play! We've also enjoyed looking at the architecture and decor of the various hotels/casinos as well as trying out different restaurants.

One place that we have made a point of visiting on each trip is the Las Vegas Hilton. We had originally gone to look around like everything else, but there was the added appeal of Star Trek: The Experience. They had a section that simulated the Promenade from the Star Trek television show "Deep Space Nine". They even had a restaurant named Quark's. There were a couple of stores, some with regular merchandise like t-shirts and plush, and some with the higher-end stuff. They also had an attraction where you were put into the story of a Star Trek happening. I really liked the Klingon version, but I hated the Borg version because at the end of that one, you get rescued by Voyager. Ugh, please, just let the Borg take me then.

We went on the attraction once, and it was fun (and the museum section was cool too), but for the experience and the price, it wasn't something we felt the need to do again. We did enjoy browsing around the shop, and we had dinner at Quark's once.

The other nice thing is that adjacent to the whole Star Trek area is the SpaceQuest casino, which was, to me, a little less stuffy than the main casino, and they had good music too. We always made it a point of visiting the Hilton once on each trip to wander around the Promenade and play in the casino.

Well, the Star Trek section closed in early September of this year. Our trip came about two weeks afterward, and the area was completely closed off, though nothing had been done to it yet. I'm not sure what their plans are for it. The SpaceQuest casino was still there, and the Star Wars slot machines were still there, but the Star Trek machines that the husband had found during our earlier March trip had been moved to the main casino. I actually spent some time looking around the SpaceQuest casino, but I literally did not find one machine that I wanted to play, so I ended up back in the main casino.

We had figured that with the closing of the Star Trek section, there really wasn't going to be any reason to go back to the Hilton anymore. However, since the husband found the Star Trek slots and really likes them, and for the moment, they don't seem to be anywhere else, we'll be going back so he can play them.

I played for a little bit on a machine that was new to me that was kind of fun but which fairly quickly put me in this mega-bonus round that just kept going and going and going like the Energizer bunny, and when all was said and done, I had won something like $60 on a penny machine, so I quit. And then I looked for something else to do.

I had seen signs posted in various places about something called Football Central. Well, we were there on a Sunday, and the second set of football games for the day would still be going, so I figured I'd go and see what it was like. Yes, I like watching NFL games. I followed the signs, figuring it would be some room with some big-screen TVs set up or something. And then I walked into an auditorium, with five huge giant screens. Not TVs, but more like the giant screens that are normally up in any Sports Book. Five of them, with five different games. They only had the sound from one of them on, and it wasn't the one I was most interested in, but that was ok, since I could still follow the action of the one I really wanted to watch, and the game with the sound on ended up being an amazing game. And I got to glance at the other games on the other screens as well.

As I mentioned, it was like an auditorium, not just some dinky little room. They had rows and rows of seats lined up, and it was crowded, but not packed, so finding a decent seat wasn't an issue at all. There were signs about inexpensive food and beer being sold from an adjacent room/restaurant, but I'd already had brunch so wasn't hungry.

I loved sitting in that room and watching the games, especially since I was around a lot of people who were really into it as well. The husband came into the room a bit later, and we watched the various games for a little while.

If I lived closer, I'd so be planting myself at the Hilton every Sunday during the NFL season. I guess that means it's a good thing I don't live nearby because then I really wouldn't get anything done on Sundays while professional football is on.

Here's a link to official information about Football Central, but I'm not understanding the "11 huge screens" thing. I didn't miscount - there were 5. Maybe they've changed it since that web page was first constructed. But no matter - it's still an awesome place.

So, while we thought we'd be leaving the Las Vegas Hilton behind, it looks like we'll still be making visits there, probably moreso during football season if we're in town.


This trip report from April 2002 has some information about a visit to the Promenade. Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

This trip report from March 2003 includes information from another visit to the Promenade as well as our dinner at Quark's. Scroll down to about half-way through the report.

And this little trip report is about my first ride on the Las Vegas monorail, which included a really cool feature on a particular monorail as it approached the Hilton.

Here's information about a really cute t-shirt that I'd found in the Promenade during our March trip.

magical memories - Phil Collins in Las Vegas

Last year, during Genesis' Turn It On Again Tour, I travelled to such exotic places as Hartford, San Jose and Sacramento to see them, but I still remember the first time I travelled out of town (out of state no less!) to see Phil Collins.

This was in 1994, in support of the album "Both Sides". The album didn't do as well in the States as Phil's prior releases - it was darker and more introspective and sounded the least like what casual fans of his expected. And the darker, more introspective, and unexpected nature of the songs is probably the reasons why it's one of my favorite albums of his.

On that tour, he played The Great Western Forum in Los Angeles on two nights, and I'm sure I must have gone to one of them, even though I don't remember it. But I do know that about a week prior to his L.A. dates, I saw him at the Grand Garden Arena at the MGM Hotel on July 30. I don't remember how or why I decided to see him in Las Vegas. I hadn't been visiting Las Vegas much back then, and I certainly wasn't travelling to see concerts or shows. I do remember that I had mentioned wanting to go to a friend, and she was coincidentally going to be in Las Vegas with her family that same weekend, and she wanted to see him too, so she suggested that we go to the concert together. I said ok, but that I was going to be wanting the best tickets available, so if there weren't two good seats together, I'd be buying two separate seats, and I was going to keep the better seat. She knew how much I liked Phil, even back then, and I wasn't about to have a conversation with her anyway during Phil's concert, so she agreed. I did end up getting two separate seats, about 4 rows apart but in the same section, with the closer seat on the aisle, so I was going to take that one.

I ended up driving out to Las Vegas with a different friend, and we hung out except for the night of the concert. She spent the evening doing her own thing, and I met up with my other friend for dinner before the concert. When we walked into the arena, we found and took our respective seats. I looked around, and I remember thinking it was a pretty good seat. I was at a level where I had a good view of the stage - not too high, not too low - and I was relatively close. And I was on the aisle, so I had a little more room.

The tour had travelled west in the States, and I had been following the tour and reading reviews on a Phil Collins mailing list, so I knew how the concert would proceed. When the concert started, the house lights went off and the lights on the stage went on, as well as moving spotlights everywhere, and then Phil started singing. I knew from reading the reviews that he would appear at the top of the arena somewhere and then make his way down to the stage. As everyone looked around for him, I finally saw him - he was making his way to the stage via the aisle right next to me. Oh my goodness. How amazing was that? It took him maybe 30 seconds to get to me. As he was walking down, people were patting him on the back or touching his arms, which he probably expected since he was walking among the general audience. In that 30 seconds, I had to think about what I was going to do. Was I going to touch his arm or pat his back? Could I touch him at all? Normally, that would be rude, and I'm not prone to being intrusive to celebrities, but this was a case where it would be totally acceptable. My mind raced in those few seconds, as he sang and came closer and closer. And ultimately, I couldn't do it. I was a stranger to him, and it wasn't like I was introducing myself and shaking his hand, and even though he was presenting himself for the opportunity for strangers to touch him, I couldn't do it. I don't regret it - I don't see that it would have made any difference in my life if I *had* touched him. But just having him walk down the stairs RIGHT NEXT TO ME was the thrill that couldn't be topped.

It was a great concert, and I had a great time. After the concert, the friend and I talked about the concert a bit, and then she went back to her room and family. I was too wired to go back to my room or go to sleep, and I just wanted to relive the concert in my head, so I tried to find somewhere just to hang out. I remember that trying to find somewhere just to sit - not gamble, not drink - at the MGM that Saturday night was near impossible. I think I eventually found somewhere, though I can't really remember much else. The next day as we were driving home, I know I talked off the ear of the friend that I'd driven to Las Vegas with, and she very graciously indulged me by asking questions and actually being interested in everything, and I do mean *everything*, I was telling her about the concert. She said it was actually fun to listen to how excited I was as I told her the stories.

I did see Phil at the Grand Garden Arena again, this time during the "First Final Farewell Tour" in August of 2004.

But I will never forget the feeling I got when I first saw him and realized he was going to be coming down my aisle on the night of July 30, 1994.

"I am NOT a cuties man!"

As I've previously mentioned, we were in Las Vegas over Easter weekend, and we spent some time at the Hilton Hotel, which has a whole section themed to Star Trek, including a restaurant and a store. I always like to browse around the store to see what cool new merchandise they might have. And I sure found some. But instead of having anything to bring home, a picture is all I have.



(For those uninitiated, from left to right is an Andorian, Bajoran, Ferengi, Vulcan, Orion, Klingon, Borg, and a Cardassian. No Romulan, but it might have been difficult to differentiate between cuties versions of a Vulcan and a Romulan. And interesting that there's no human.)

They had t-shirts with this logo on it, and I absolutely love it. Disney has a whole line of merchandise using characters in the cuties form, and I love that line. So how cool is it to have cutie Trek characters, labeled with "a small universe" no less?

You know what would have been even cooler? IF THEY'D MADE THESE FRICKIN' T-SHIRTS IN ADULT SIZES AS WELL AND NOT JUST KIDS' SIZES!!!!!!! Apparently, they have more in common with Disney than I thought.

I love that the Cardassian is included, but my favorite is the Borg. Awww, cuties Borg! A few of the characters had their own individual t-shirts, and the Borg was one of them. I so wanted one. But even the large or extra-large (I forget which size it was) kids' shirt that I held up was so not going to fit me, and Thumper already has enough clothes to wear. (Some of you will understand what that means. The rest of you will just figure I'm being totally weird. Again.) If they'd made the t-shirts in adult sizes, I probably would have bought the Borg one and the entire cast one.

But, I went to Vegas, and all I got was that frickin' picture.

Tropicana Hotel and Casino - hotel review

When we've spent time in Las Vegas, we've stayed at various hotels for various reasons. I'm not one to be willing to pay large amounts of money to stay in a fancy hotel if I'm not going to be doing much more than using the room for sleeping. If I'm going to be spending time in the hotel or using their amenities, then that's a different situation, but to me, it doesn't make sense to pay for a multitude of luxuries that you're never going to use.

On our recent trip over Easter weekend to Las Vegas, we decided we didn't want to stay at one of the nicer hotels because we were going to be busy and not spending much time in the hotel. With the holiday weekend and spring break and the NCAA tournament, prices were higher than normal. However, we knew that we wanted to be near Las Vegas Blvd. and Tropicana, since that area was where we'd be spending a lot of time, so after finding a good deal on a room at the Tropicana, we decided to stay there. The hotel is on the fourth corner that includes MGM, New York New York and Excalibur, so it's a terrific location.

We drove from the airport to the hotel, and immediately, you could tell it was an older hotel, which in and of itself wasn't a problem. However, a lot of the escalators in the hotel weren't working, and from the looks of it, they hadn't been running for some time. There was a lot about the place that also seemed very run-down. Down one hallway on the way to the parking area, there were some nice black-and-white photos of Las Vegas' early days which were interesting to look at. I understand that the Tropicana is one of the oldest hotels on the strip - I'm just not sure it should look so obviously like one of the oldest hotels on the strip.

The decor of our room was bamboo-themed but the theming extended to everything, including the dresser and the walls, so that was a bit much. Our room ended up being in a wing at the far end of the hotel, so we had to walk the gauntlet of merchandising carts/kiosks every time we went back and forth to the room, and it was also fairly far away from the parking.

The view out the window of our room gave us the Hooters Hotel and Casino on one side and a nearby church on the other side, so I thought that was pretty funny. When in hotels, we've become accustomed to having some kind of refrigerator so that we can get some water and other drinks and keep them cold. Since the room did not already have a refrigerator, the husband called the front desk to ask for one. "What do you want it for?" was the question he was asked. Ummm, to put things inside to keep cold? What do most people want a refrigerator for? To make toast? To put their shoes in? The person asked if we needed it for medication, and we said no, so he said ok, they're going to have to charge us. Ummm, ok. From that part of the conversation, I'm presuming that if we *had* wanted it for medication, then they wouldn't have charged us, but since we just wanted it for normal, ordinary refrigeratory stuff, they would charge us. Ok.

One of the worst parts of our stay was that at the bottom of the stairs leading to and from the casino floor were people working for Tahiti Village, and they were VERY AGGRESSIVE every time you walked by. They were very intrusive and on several occasions, even belligerent if you didn't stop and talk to them, all the while playing the "but I'm just trying to give you something nice for free" card. No, actually, you're verbally assaulting me several times a day. It's one thing to get that on the street (not to mention the other bank of Tahiti Village people right outside the hotel) when so many people are handing our flyers and trying to get you into their show, but I didn't expect to have to deal with that in my hotel. I guess it's worth whatever money Tahiti Village pays the Tropicana for them to allow the people to assault their own customers. If I had ever wanted to even consider looking at Tahiti Village, the behaviour of their reps would turn me away. Besides, why would I do something Tanya Roberts wants me to do?

I don't envision ever staying there again, given the combination of the state of the hotel, the long walk to and from the room, and the obnoxious Tahiti Village people assaulting you at every turn, making a bad start and end to your day. If we need to stay in that part of the city, we'll spend the little bit more to stay at one of the other hotels.

Of course, then there's the question of how much longer the hotel might be there. I happened upon this news story last week that the owner of the Tropicana Hotels in Las Vegas and Atlantic City has filed for bankruptcy. It's a bit interesting that the branch in Atlantic City lost their gaming license several months ago and so the property is in the process of being sold.

Maybe someone can come in and buy the place and renovate it so that it's "classic" and not just "old".

"21" - movie review

I hadn't heard that they were making this movie, but when I first saw the trailer, I knew I wanted to see it. I already knew about the story not from news reports of the actual events, but because I had already read the book called "Bringing Down the House" by Ben Mezrich, whose accounts of the events this movie was based on.

A professor at MIT teaches a handful of brilliant students how to count cards and beat the odds in Las Vegas to win enormous amounts of money. It's not illegal, but the casinos are definitely not happy about it. They have their own back-room (or probably more appropriately, underground rooms) methods of dealing with it. I don't know if I would have been more interested in the setup if I hadn't read the book, but when they were explaining the method of counting cards and the code words that were used to mean other things, I wasn't nearly as intrigued by the movie as I had been by the book. There was also much more discussion about using disguises in the book than was depicted in the movie.

Jim Sturgess played the lead student in this film, and I thought he was really good in playing all the different beats, the rise and fall of his character. I completely didn't realize that I'd seen him recently in another film - he played the brother in "The Other Boleyn Girl".

Kevin Spacey played the MIT professor, and he was in fine form, as you'd expect. He plays bad really well.

Kate Bosworth, most recently known for playing Lois Lane in "Superman Returns", was ok. I thought her love interest story with the lead student was kinda boring - I can't remember if that followed the book.

Laurence Fishburne was just awesome in this film as one of the security guys out to catch the card counters. He's calm, cool and calculating, and he doesn't need the police to take care of his problems.

Josh Gad isn't a name I know, but I certainly recognize the actor. He plays Ryan on "Back to You", and he was quite good in this film.

Much of the film was shot in actual Las Vegas casinos - Planet Hollywood, Red Rock and Hard Rock. Their names are displayed and mentioned all over the movie. The film even had its premiere at the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino (site of the former Aladdin Hotel and Casino). It surprises me a little that Las Vegas casinos embraced the film this much, but at least they were smaller casinos and not the big-name ones. I would imagine the big casinos don't need the publicity or the hassle that would have been created during shooting. I don't know if card counting is legal or not now, but at least they make it clear that you can't really get away with it nowadays.

The film did take some serious liberties with Las Vegas geography. At one point, some of the people are supposed to be in the penthouse suite at the Hard Rock, which magically has an amazing view of the Bellagio water show directly across the street. Hmmmm.

I do recommend this movie as it has an interesting story told well with very good performances. However, if you enjoyed the movie, I would also recommend the book as well.

strange new worlds

As I mentioned previously, we were in Las Vegas about a week ago, and the Hilton Hotel's Spacequest casino is a favorite of ours, and we also enjoy looking through the Promenade shops at the Star Trek merchandise. On this visit, we noticed a postcard advertising that a Star Trek convention was scheduled to be held at the Hilton in August. Wow. It of course makes perfect sense, but can you imagine the convergence of Trekkies/ers that are going to be there come early August? This is the first I've heard about it, but apparently, they've been holding an annual Star Trek convention at the Hilton in Las Vegas since 2002. I wonder if the Hilton warns other guests booking for that time about the convention and what to expect from their fellow hotel guests. I can imagine the surprise that some people might have when they encounter groups of costume-adorned people wandering around the hotel. When we went to Celebration IV, the Star Wars convention, last year, there were designated hotels that people going to the convention could book, but at least they were pretty spread out among a number of hotels. In this case, I would expect the concentration of people would be staying at the Hilton directly since it would be most convenient and since I would expect there would be some kind of special convention rate.

I'm wondering what it's like for the people working the Promenade shops when the Star Trek experts descend on the place. On one visit we made with friends some time ago, the husband and one friend did the Star Trek Adventure (when they only had the Klingon one), and another friend and I wandered around the Promenade. One person working in the shops kept trying in impress us with his knowledge and experience as it pertained to Star Trek, but for differing reasons, it didn't work on either of us.

In talking about the convention to friends over the weekend, I had mis-remembered that the convention was going to be in September. It turns out that we will most likely be making another trip to Vegas this year, in September, and I was wondering if it was the same weekend. There's a tiny part of me that would have thought it was interesting just to pop in and sight-see the convention goers. However, since the convention is in August and we wouldn't be going until September, that's now a moot point. But at least that means we'll be able to play in the Spacequest casino in relative peace.

In my previous life, I attended Star Trek conventions for a couple of years, and they were fun. All the conventions were run by Creation Entertainment, and I went to a few non-Star Trek conventions run by Creation as well. Creation as a company has their upsides and downsides when it comes to conventions they put on, but everything I know/experienced was from multiple years ago, so I have no idea what it's like now.

In the Promenade area, they have a replicator that's supposed to be able to produce foods from different cultures. The sound was working, but the picture was not. I'm thinking they might want to get that fixed before August.

I've got a bad feeling about this

Ever since I became interested in/liked/loved/been obsessed with Star Wars, my interest has encompassed all manner of Star Wars-related stuff, including things like toys and DVDs and random other things that have drained my bank account.

Well, on our trip last weekend to Las Vegas, I found something else Star Wars-related that is going to further drain my bank account.




Yep, Star Wars slot machines.

Oddly enough, the first place I saw them was at Spacequest, the space-themed casino at the Las Vegas Hilton, home of the Star Trek Experience adventures (Klingon adventure - good; Borg adventure - bad) and Quark's Restaurant (home of the ever popular warp core drink and newest addition to the drink family, James Tea Kirk) and the Promenade shops. (The Spacequest casino is one of our favorites, and we always make a point of spending some time there and browsing around the Promenade when we're in Vegas. It indulges my still-existing Star Trek interest, and I love the Spacequest casino because it's got nice atmosphere and usually fun slots and great music. BTW, they have a Star Trek-themed slot machine too, which the husband played for quite some time and really liked. If he wants to talk about it, he can be guest-blogger for the day sometime. Or if you're interested, just ask him about it.) I thought it was pretty funny that the Star Trek-adjacent casino had Star Wars slots. They had two different ones there, one for Star Wars, and one for the Dark Side. The Star Wars one was based on the first film, and they had the various characters as the wheel entries. If you won a particular bet with a particular character, it would play a little snippet of a scene of them from the film, and during the spins, it would play various themes from the movie. There were also two bonuses, one that was a Death Star Bonus, and if you hit that, then the Death Star above the machine would spin and determine what bonus points you got. There was also this cool lightsabre bonus where if you got both Vader and Ben Kenobi on one of your played lines, it would trigger the lightsabre duel between them from the first film, and you had to pick which one would win. Both times I got it, I picked Ben, and both times, Vader won. I was wondering if it was programmed that way because the film was that way, but I saw other people get the bonus where Ben won.

On the Dark Side one, all the characters were Empire characters and droids and such, and you'd get snippets of those characters if you won with them. They had a bonus where Vader and an Imperial guard were there and you picked planets, but it just gave you points depending on what you picked. I was disappointed - it's the Dark Side - you should be blowing up planets for points! I only got the bonus when I was in a casino that was loud with the machine sounds turned down, so I have no idea what Vader or the guard was saying. I wanted to play it again in a quieter place but didn't get a chance to.

I saw these same slots at New York, New York, but they also had a third one, themed to The Empire Strikes Back. It had characters from the film, and it played scenes from that movie when you hit certain characters. There was a Jedi Training bonus where you were on Dagobah with Yoda, and you picked the various objects that Luke had to levitate, including a rock, R2 and the x-wing. If you picked correctly, you could end up picking all of the objects and really scoring big - I managed to guess correctly once and get all of them. There was also a Bespin free spin bonus that was triggered if you got both Han and Leia on lines that you were playing. Once triggered, you got transported to Bespin with Lando talking to you, and you got as many free spins as you could until both Han and Boba Fett showed up on the same spin. At that point, the wheel Han is on is frozen, with the picture of Han in carbonite, but the entire row becomes wild cards, and then a bonus wheel spins to determine how many free spins you get, and that many free spins goes, and you earn whatever you can. One time, during the free spins, I managed to get Han and Boba Fett again, so I had two wheels that were frozen and all wild cards. I scored really high on that one!

Of all the games, I liked the Empire one best, and it's also the one that paid off the best. The Empire gave me a total of about $30, so I was happy. The Star Wars one was cool because of the lightsabre bonus. I really wanted to like the Dark Side one, but it really needed more extras to make it more fun.

I'm not a big gambling person, and it's not like I couldn't just put my DVDs in and watch the movies themselves, but it was fun playing slot machines themed to Star Wars. I'm hoping they'll do a Jedi one as well.

We had been making annual visits to Las Vegas, but our last trip was in Spring 2004, and I had made a short 24-hour trip in August of 2004 but did very little gambling because of the time constraints. The Star Wars slots apparently came out in 2004, according to this article. Here's a link to a page that has video of the Star Wars and Dark Side machines. You get just a quick glimpse of the Empire one - it's the one with Yoda sitting on top. Here's another article about the machine, with a screen capture shot. And here's a more involved article taking you through the Star Wars machine step by step. I'm going to have to read through that article thoroughly before our next trip.

I could completely see myself playing on those machines for hours, just feeding money in as needed. They're penny machines, but you can bet several dollars at a time, if you play all the lines for the max amount.

Hmmm, wonder when our next Vegas trip will be.