The Strip & Cirque Du Soleil

Meg outside Treasure Island
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We both slept well, the room got really cold overnight due to the air con. Andy loved it but Meg had to sleep with her fleece jacket on! After our free breakfast at the hostel we got the 'Duece' bus (you have to here as the intense heat is far too much to walk any reasonable distance) to the mall next to the 'Treasure Island' hotel to try and get tickets for the Celine Dion concert but we found out that she's got the month of July off! That was a real shame as Meg loves Celine Dion's music and really wanted to see her perform live. We then went to 'Treasure Island' which has two full size galleon ships floating outside and went in the hotel to have alook around. AFter we walked over abridge to the other side of the strip to the 'Wynn' which has a large waterfall by it's entrance and a nice floral area inside. This hotel is quite posh and has lovely decor. Andy tried his luck on the one arm bandit machines with a whole dollar but alas no luck! After eating our packed lunch in the nearby 'Fashion Show' mall we got the bus to 'Monte Carlo' and had a look inside before going to 'New York New York'. This place is amazing with a small scale NYC skyline outside (Statue of Liberty, Brookklyn Bridge, Empire State Building etc) and inside it has even more NYC with Central Park, Grand Central Station etc. The floor is cobbled and there are small buildings each as a different shop. We then went over to the 'MGM Grand' the largest hotel in Vegas. This is also very nice and even has a very expensive lion enclosure that is sound proof, temparture controlled etc and the lions only stay in there for 30 minutes a day before going back to their ranch in the country. As there was no Celine, we decided to get tickets to 'KA' by Cirque Du Soleil that was being performed at the MGM later that evening. Next we went to the 'Tropicana' and then 'Excalibur' where Meg won a stuffed toy on the horse racing game where you have to slide a ball up a ramp and into various holes in order to move your horse along (Andy finished 2nd!) After we got a bus to 'Flamingo' (tacky!) and then walked across to 'Ceasar's Palace.' Again amazing, with lots of Roman statues , water features and paintings. Also inside is a big shopping mall with very posh shops and restuarants (Andy's favourite hotel so far!). In here we had dinner at the 'Cheesecake Factory' courtesy of Jim and Simone at Alan & Thomas who very kindly gave us a $25 gift card. Meg loved the cheesecak for which they are famous but couldn't eat it all as felt sick from all the food we had eaten!! We then went back to the MGM to watch the Cirque Du Soleil show - brilliant stunts and acrobatics but the storyline was hard to follow. Nevertheless we both enjoyed it.