SILICONEER | TRAVEL: Las Vegas Hotels: A Kid's Eyeview | SEPTEMBER 2010

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Las Vegas Hotels: A Kid's Eyeview

Fifth-grader Vansh A. Gupta offers a frank appraisal of what’s cool and what sucks in Las Vegas hotels.

MGM Grand at the Strip in Las Vegas, NV.

I recently visited Las Vegas with my grandparents. We visited a lot of hotels and stayed in one—the MGM Grand. Here’s what I thought about it.

MGM Grand. Our first stop is at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. MGM Grand has up to 32 floors. I stayed on the 16th floor, but I still got a good view from my room. The most sucking thing in the room is that there is no fridge or microwave. For the microwave and fridge you have to pay extra. The only things I liked in the room is the fact that we get a safe, free Internet, a good view, and a comfortable bed. When I am close to the window, it feels like I will fall or fly.

MGM Grand has the theme of a movie studio. In MGM Grand I first saw the Studiowalk (the walkway to the conference center and the Grand Ballroom). In the Studiowalk, I saw different kinds of restaurants. The Studiowalk also leads to the Television City. In Television City what you do is go inside a room full of computers and a Sony HDTV. Then you sit in front of the computer screen towards the TV screen and then the computer switches on. The first thing to do in the computer is to put your information to win a HD, 3D, Sony Bravia TV, with that a Sony home theater system.

The computer will ask you some questions about some shows. Then it shows a show on the TV screen that’s about 25 minutes. After that, back to the computer screen. Then the computer screen takes a survey. The whole process takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Now that I was out of Television City, I went down the stairs or escalator and land right in front of the pool entrance and exit. The pool is very grand, that’s why it’s called the Grand Pool. On the other side I see tons and tons of portraits of famous singers who performed in Las Vegas. When the portraits end you enter the conference center. The conference center is so huge that it can hold 5,000 people and it has up to 7 rooms. To get to the ballroom you have to go through a small bridge.

There are two huge ballrooms that can hold up too 7,000 people. The second thing I saw in MGM Grand is the home of the lions. There were two lions living under one roof and that was so sweet. The house is nice, too, because it has lots of greenery, a waterfall too, and it has carved rocks just like Grand Canyon.

I ate at the Grand Buffet. The Grand Buffet had almost everything — pizza, turkey, chicken, fish, assorted breads, pasta, soup, noodles, shrimp, all sorts of drinks, and desserts.

The shopping mall is called Star Lane Shops.

Then I went to the Star Lane Arcade. In the Arcade I got 160 coins and then played about 60 games. After playing I won about 700 tickets. With those 700 tickets I bought a water gun, 2 police badges, 3 fake spiders, a pair of fake dentures, and a hanging board game.

Excalbur at the Strip in Las Vegas, NV.

Excalibur. Here we are at our second stop, Excalibur. The theme for this hotel is Disneyland. In Excalibur I first played the arcade. I played a game called Laser Room. In Laser Room you have to touch three big buttons to reach the goal. Tip: Try not to touch the lasers, they might hurt you a little and you might get a low score and that’s not good. Then I got 40 coins and played 7 games. I took two 4-D Rides. After that I played three more games. The arcade is huge. The shopping mall is huge, too. When you cross the shopping mall you enter my third stop, which is Luxor.

Luxor at the Strip in Las Vegas, NV.

Luxor. The hotel is shaped like a pyramid and the theme for this hotel is Egypt. In Luxor I first went to the main lobby. The main lobby is beautiful, just amazing. Then I went upstairs and got one movie made of me and my grandma of Las Vegas. In the movie you are in a magic rug and you fly over the entire Las Vegas.

Mandalay Bay/TheHotel. Here is our fourth stop, Mandalay Bay/TheHotel. I first entered the Mandalay Place Shopping Center. It is enormous and fantastic. After crossing it, I entered the casino of Mandalay Bay. I don’t really care for the casino, so let’s move on. Next comes the walkway to the Mandalay Bay Hotel lobby. Over the walkway to the lobby I could see a beautiful fountain with three small fairies holding buckets. Each fairy is holding one marble bucket with two hands tilted. Now let’s head on to the lobby. The lobby is huge and eye-catching. It has an aquarium.

I continued and entered a hotel established by Mandalay Bay in 2008. The name of the hotel is TheHotel. In TheHotel everything starts with (The), for example The Café, The Lobby, The Store, and The Elevators. In TheHotel it gets a little darker and smaller. We came back from TheHotel to Mandalay Bay and took a monorail to Excalibur so we could go back to our hotel.

The Bellagio Hotel at the Strip in Las Vegas, NV.

Bellagio. It is evening in Las Vegas and my grandpa was free from his conference, so we went out for some fun. We went from MGM Grand to Bellagio walking. The theme for this hotel is Italy. First we went to the plain old walkway. After a while, the walkway is very beautiful with gardens, fountains in front of it, and animals everywhere. We continued inside and came to another garden. In this garden everything is the same except the water fountain. This fountain had two holes for water and those two holes throw water in a straight line at the same time, except in different directions.

We continued from the garden to the lobby. In the lobby there are different kinds of flowers between the lobby counters. There are seating arrangements. The seats are shaped liked a circle. In the top water spouts out, the animals come towards you. That was interesting. We visited the Bellagio shopping mall. The beautiful grounds have lots of flowers. Very pretty, indeed!

Lobby of Ceaser's Palace in Las Vegas, NV.

Caesar's Palace. We walked from Bellagio to Caesar’s Palace. In Caesar’s Palace first we saw the car drop-off area. In the left side of your car you will see a nice waterfall with a pretty garden surrounding it. We entered the lobby. Inside the lobby there is a fountain right in front of you. In the fountain there two people holding a marble bucket tilted as if they’re throwing water away in to the fountain. That’s all that was nice in the lobby, but then the lobby was huge too.

The real beauty of Rome (the theme of the hotel) is in the shopping mall. In the shops I saw clothes that cost more than $100. We entered the water fountain where they have all the water shows in Caesar’s Palace. We got there when it was almost time for another show. In the show there is a king in his mansion and it was time to choose the person who will rule the world so then a nice queen and a mean prince came up. Everybody had to tell why he should pick this person. The queen went first with her speech, and then the prince went with his speech. The queen said that, “I will use water powers to rule the world.” Then the prince said that, “I will use fire power.” Then the queen and the prince started fighting. After that the king said: “I have decided the queen will rule the world.” Then the prince got mad and burned the whole mansion down, he even killed the king.

From Caesars Palace we headed back to MGM Grand and in the middle I saw the best musical fountain ever in front of Bellagio.

So what did I think? I think Las Vegas was fun and amazing. It was an enjoyable trip. I was surprised how different parts of world could go into one city.