Whoever proclaimed conspicuous consumption dead in the 1990s forgot to tell the 22 million or so tourists who flocked to Las Vegas last year, the throngs who plunk quarters into slots with dreams of hearing a crash of clunking coins, the hordes who shout numbers with each toss of the dice.
They forgot to tell superstar illusionists Siegfried and Roy, whose sell-out spectacle of a show includes a disappearing elephant and 10 white tigers, all at the Mirage Hotel, where a "volcano" out front "erupts" every 15 minutes.They forgot to tell the developers of The Forum, a shopping center unlike anything else, which will open at Caesars Palace in May. Full of marble (real and faux), statues and fountains, it includes an arched ceiling that will gradually change with the time of the day, from afternoon sky blue to midnight navy - complete with stars - at night. The Forum's showpiece will be a fountain with Roman god statues that come to life when a laser "lightning bolt" strikes Bacchus' form each hour. All of this is near a shoe store that will sell 7,000 types of athletic shoes and contain half of a basketball court and a running track so shoppers can try out the shoes.
Las Vegas always is a shock to the senses - an eye-popping knock-out of neon at night, with downtown's "Glitter Gulch" of hotels with lights even brighter than those on Las Vegas Boulevard, known as "the strip." Glance out of the doors at downtown's Golden Nugget casino at midnight and you will swear it is noon. In daylight Las Vegas can be depressing - so much concrete and seams that show.
But night? Aaaaah. Life through a rosy neon glow looks so good.
Conspicuous consumption dead?
Hardly. Conspicuous consumption thrives in the pleasure palaces of this corner of Nevada.
THE BEST HOTELS
My room at Caesars Palace didn't have a round bed with a mirror over it and a whirlpool bathtub next to it, as do some, but the bathroom had more marble than a quarry and separate shower and toilet stalls - complete with a phone, pen, note pad and ashtray. Bedroom colors were cooly subdued grays, and my whirlpool was in the bathroom. All for a rack rate of $160 (real high rollers stay free, of course, some of them ensconced in a two-story "fantasy" suite with windows overlooking the strip). Room service breakfast was served with a rose.
Bob Sehlinger, who wrote "The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World," a standard for Orlando travelers, has just come out with "The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas," another winner ($12, Prentice Hall). His picks of best hotels are Caesars Palace, Desert Inn (the only hotel on the strip with a golf course), Rio (Latin style, all suites, an overpass away from the strip), Golden Nugget, Riviera, Tropicana, Palace Station, Stardust and Flamingo Hilton.
"The Zagat Travel Survey, Western States," a book ($9.95) compiling opinionated ratings by ordinary travelers, proclaims the best rooms to be in the Alexis Park, Golden Nugget, Caesars Palace, Desert Inn, Mirage, Bally's, Las Vegas Hilton and Tropicana - in that order.
You can get midweek rooms at the Stardust, Freemont and Fitzgeralds, for example, for under $30. Unlike the rest of the world, Las Vegas prices zip right up with the crowds on weekends.
BEST SHOWS
Siegfried and Roy's prices match the show - it's $72.85 a ticket, if you can get one (you cannot buy them before the day of the show, and Anthony Curtis, editor of the splendid Las Vegas Advisor newsletter, suggests hitting the box office one hour prior to the late show, when tickets that have not been picked up are sold). S and R is a combination of "Star Wars," "ET," "Cats," "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and a Chinese melodrama with a cast of thousands, many of them wearing Darth Vader costumes.
In addition to the disappearing animals and the two prancing illusionists with taut faces, there is a three-story mechanical dragon with laser eyes and fire in its nostrils. There's a lot of smoke in the one-hour, 40-minute show.
Superstar shows in Vegas are no longer cheap. Liza Minnelli tickets were $80 and up and it cost $70 to catch a close-up of Julio Iglesias.
If the kids are along - and that is Las Vegas' new thrust, believe it or not - take them to "King Arthur's Tournament" at the Excalibur - knights on horseback with jousting and a dinner you eat with your hands - all for $24.95.
BEST EATING
Here we have some disagreements, none of which I can dispute, since on the three-night business trip, I ate at Caesars Palace's La Piazza food court (quite good with a variety of salad bars, pizzas and other healthful and quick foods) and a coffee shop, as well as the $12-something buffet at Binions Horseshoe in downtown's Glitter Gulch. It was good value with lots to eat.
The cheap buffets have a trillion people in line.
If you have the stamina and time, Sehlinger suggests you try these buffets for the "best and the most interesting food:" Bally's Big Kitchen, Flamingo Crown Room Ethnic Buffet, Caesars Palace Platinum Buffet, Palace Station - The Feast, Golden Nugget - The Buffet, Fremont Paradise Buffet and the Frontier Friday Seafood Extravaganza.
Zagat's hotel choices for the best food are: Golden Nugget, Mirage, Caesars Palace, Alexis Park, Desert Inn, Las Vegas Hilton, Four Queens and Bally's.
Then, of course, you could listen to our taxi driver - La Strada for Italian food is the perfect place, he insisted. And Hugo's in Four Queens. A four-ace rating good for a royal flush.
For tourist information, contact the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau, 3150 Paradise Road, Rd., Las Vegas, Nev. 89109-9096; 702-892-0711.
HITTING THE COUPON JACKPOT
Las Vegas' nickname could be Coupon City.
There are a jillion or so discount coupons (but why is it they never seem to be for anything I want to do?). And if you go in July or November or December, they practically give you the place; some say you can get a hotel room for $10 (OK, not at Caesars Palace or the Mirage).
So where to get the coupons? Listen to Anthony Curtis, publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor newsletter, something every Vegas visitor should order before a trip:
- Ask your travel agent or wholesaler; most packages include coupons.
- Check the freebie magazines.
- Stop at "coupon reloading stations" in motel lobbies (not in the grand hotels; they don't seem to have them). El Morocco, on the strip between the Riviera and Silver City, has scads of coupons.
- Ask in casinos if they have any coupon books. Usually you have to show an out-of-state driver's license.
- The best coupons now are at the Sands, where you get a free coffee mug, free afternoon show the next day and $1 off a meal.
- If a casino says you need a coupon, ask at the desk if any are available.
- Those signs identifying little buildings as Official Tourist Bureaus are not quite true; most are ticket brokers for shows and sightseeing.
The Las Vegas Advisor costs $5 for a single issue of the newly expanded 12-page newsletter; a one-year subscription costs $45. Contact Huntington Press, P.O. Box 28041, Las Vegas, Nev. 89126; 702-871-4363.