Vegas Vacation Recap, Part 1 – The Venue and the Kids

I took the family to Las Vegas for vacation this year. Due to work schedules and complimentary flight tickets, this occurred in August, by far the hottest (and busiest) time of year. The heat I expected, but candidly, I had no idea it’d be so busy: who the heck goes to Vegas to escape the summer heat of Seattle?

Lots of people, it would seem. We stayed at Circus Circus on the strip; check-in would have taken two hours, if not for “No Wait” check-in. If you stay there, use the service (you have to call their 800 number a day or two before you check in). We got two adjoining rooms (one dark and quiet, one light and noisy) for the five of us.

The Circus is known to be a “kid friendly” hotel, rife with clowns, circus acts and a cool midway (dads: if you’re losing at the craps tables, make yourself feel good by winning a stuffie for your kids). That said, I saw the hotel more as “kid tolerant”; we all know the littles aren’t allowed near the gaming (they can pass through, but must keep moving), but there’s really no other activities to keep them busy.

Well, that’s not entirely fair. There is stuff to do, all at a reasonable cost, with parent supervision. The Circus boasts the Adventuredome, “Five Acres of Indoor Fun”, essentially an indoor theme park with a midway and roller coaster. We did two days at the ‘dome, in air-conditioned comfort. The kids got a little bored after a few hours, so we broke for lunch and naps and returned that evening on those days. I highly recommend the Canyon Blaster (roller coaster); it’s quite a treat: two inverted loops leading in to a corkscrew. Fun, and not as teeth-rattling as the Manhattan Express at New York, New York.

We also did the pool. A lot. For $5 ($2.50 at Target, I’m sure) we procured floating devices and the kids wore themselves out in the warm water. As our three kids are basically transparent, we used sunblock SP-googol to avoid burns.

What the Circus (and Vegas) lacks (well, we didn’t find it) is trusted, reliable and reasonable supervision for the littles so the adults can escape for a few hours. It’s easier to get a call girl to come to the room than a babysitter. We almost considered it. Okay. I’m kidding. It would have been less expensive to drop them off at the brothel 😛

We did our gaming in shifts, and divided and conquered the littles for other walks and magic shows.

Oh. Two words for magic: Lance Burton. See him at the Monte Carlo. Amazing slight-of-hand, tremendous act and very personable. My youngest spent some stage time with him (and about 11 other kids) making a parakeet named Elvis disappear. She still talks about it on a daily basis.

This is part of five articles. While I saw / did enough for ten, these remained a part of my memory by the time I got to the keyboard. Links to all the articles follow:

Vegas Vacation Recap, Part 1 – The Venue and the Kids

Vegas Vacation Recap, Part 2 – The People and the Strip

Vegas Vacation Recap, Part 3 – Sunrise on the Strip

Vegas Vacation Recap, Part 4 – The Pink Chip

Vegas Vacation Recap, Part 5 – I play Craps