The way all of the hotels I walked through are designed, including Treasure Island, is the reception

I had a short trip to Las Vegas, which was my first time there and the first time I've been in a major US city in the past 7 years. It was a bit jarring for me coming here and I thought car rental in miami it would make an interesting story. [1]
Coming from the hotel industry, there is a concept that is fairly well-known that can be applied car rental in miami to any part of the hospitality industry car rental in miami (casinos, restaurants, hotels, airports, etc): when someone has a bad experience at the start of their travels, they put up blinders to ignore the good stuff that happens afterwards, and any additional negative situations get heightened.
My alarm went off at 4:30 AM to ensure I could leave and get to the airport by 6 AM. I knew it was going to be a bit of sacrifice, but it was the only way to make sure I arrived in Vegas in advance of my conference which started real early the next day. To check in, I thought I would use one of the kiosks since a line was forming for the counter. Since I was going to the US, it asks for my final destination, which is fine, but since I purchased my flight with the hotel through WestJet, the system should be smart enough to recognize where I am heading. A small nuisance compared to what happened afterwards.
My flight went to Vancouver where I had to change planes to head on south to Las Vegas. car rental in miami Everyone boarded the plane, car rental in miami plane left the airport to take its place on the runway to get going when the pilot announced we had to turn back due to a maintenance issue. Better safe than sorry, especially in that situation. What was the problem? A faulty blackbox.
Of course, car rental in miami we couldn't leave the plane while they fixed the issue, and the plane had to be turned off while they worked on it. Nearly an hour passes with a full plane, car rental in miami no air conditioning. It doesn't make for a great way to start the trip.
For anyone who's never traveled there, the airport is really close to downtown- so close that when the plane is driving up to the airport, you can clearly see The Strip a few city blocks away. People are already excited to be arriving in Vegas [2] , but seeing those towering and quite distinguishable hotels car rental in miami rising out of the sands is quite a wonder.
Then as I walk out of the gate, the first thing I see? Slot machines. Then a sign advertising a gun place where you can fire off a machine gun. Then a Tap Out store (gear for the UFC). Turn a corner and I see all the restaurants we don't have in Canada (at least in western Canada). All of this combined with all the different personalities walking car rental in miami around make for quite the wakeup call.
The hotel I stayed at, Treasure Island, is located on the north end of The Strip. The shuttle car rental in miami bus drove from the southern point of The Strip past all of the other hotels before arriving at mine. It reminds me about the phrase, "Land of Opportunity." Everywhere you go on The Strip are flashing signs promoting the low minimum bets on the table games, the free drinks, free slot machine play, plus all the various live shows you can see. This isn't even mentioning the billboards that are driving around the city or people wearing shirts passing out flyers promoting "Hot Girls In 20 Minutes."
The way all of the hotels I walked through are designed, including Treasure Island, is the reception area is a good distance away from the elevators to the rooms. car rental in miami You check in at the desk, and then as you're walking to the elevators, you see the slot machines, the table games, the bars, and finally the elevators. These hotels are very, very good at up-selling their products any chance they get. It's incredible to me.
I have been in some major cities before: New York, Chicago, Paris, Vancouver, to name a few, but never have I seen such a mix of personalities all thrown together into relatively small confines. The Strip would be at least an hour walk from one end to the other, and the casino space is huge, but it feels small to me because of how visible everything is. From my hotel window, I can see 20 different casinos/hotels, easier at night. During the daytime, you can see at least five different casinos anywhere on the Strip, car rental in miami depending on which way you're facing.
Everyone car rental in miami has heard about the various themed casinos: Caesar's Palace, the Luxor, the Venetian. The variety between the casinos is only matched by the colourful people here. I don't even know where to begin with this. Las Vegas is a destination city for a few key reasons, from what I can see and have heard:
4. Gambling I have heard stories about how much money people have won and lost in Vegas, and now I'm seeing them. Blackjack tables at home have a maximum of $200 a hand. Here? I've seen upwards of $2,000 on a regular table.
These groups make this city different than other major cities because all the activity car rental in miami is in one area. In New York City, to use a well-known example, wedding parties are getting photos taken in Central car rental in miami Park, meetings would be in Lower Manhattan, gambling is in Atlantic City, partying happens at night.
Las Vegas is a prime example of what Mikhail Bakhtin called the carnivalesque: in essence, a party atmosphere where people are making up the rules. car rental in miami Drinking on the street, buskers everywhere, people dressed up as Optimus Prime and Barney hoping to get tips. The only thing missing is the public nudity of New Orleans (then again, maybe it happens at night and I'm missing out).
I managed to walk through the Strip at different times of the day, and the one thing that stood out to me is how different people's fashion sense changes as the day grows older. First thing in the morning (meaning any time before noon), the older generation of travelers were up walking the Strip, with a few hungover young kids (easily identifiable by the huge sunglasses blocking out the bright sun). It's by far the easiest time of the day to get from Point A to Point B without much pause.
In the early afternoon, there are still the regular tourists walking around, car rental in miami but the young kids' movement is more in line with strutting and sizing up both the competition and the prey. It was during this time that I witnessed something that I thought was a fashion passé: car rental in miami pop-up collars. In Canada, I haven't seen any popped-up collars in my travels, but I have seen and heard about them on American television. I swear I remember hearing about it a good five years ago and thought they would be long gone. Apparently, Las Vegas is a bit of a time machine.
I also saw a larger number of Hawaiian shirts, dresses too small and tight for the bodies that were wearing them, shorts too tight and small on the guys wearing them, and more makeup and hair spray than on a prom night. The perfume lay heavy in the air when walking around after 4 PM, as well, to the point where all the normally nice smelling car rental in miami scents mixed to create an obscure concoction that smelled like sewer gas at times.
Families pushing strollers to check out the water show at Bellagio or fireworks at the Mirage, couples strolling along trying to find those romantic spots to take in the sights, the cat callers car rental in miami come out in force to compete with their clichés compliments in hopes of winning the women who pretend to have never heard those clichés in their life, and the women prowl on the hunt for the places with the most men for the cheapest fees.
It would be wrong of me not to mention not only the street buskers, but the herds of card flickers hoping to entice anyone and everyone into taking a card so they can easily call upon escort services to be at their door in 20 minutes. Advertising is naturally aggressive car rental in miami and competitive for our eyeballs and attention, but these people are the manifestation of gnats in human form. Perhaps, I wouldn't be complaining so much if instead car rental in miami of being approached by sweaty and ragged people wearing t-shirts car rental in miami advertising 1–800-XXX-XXXX, I was approached by young, good-looking, sweaty women wearing car rental in miami t-shirts advertising 1–800-XXX-XXXX.
car rental in miami Sadly, car rental in miami the girls wearing the traditional show-girl car rental in miami uniforms of feathered headdresses and short skirts were almost car rental in miami always standing around car rental in miami with frowning faces. I would probably be doing the same if my day was spent standing in the hot sun hoping someone would take a picture of me and leave me a tip. I am sure they would much rather be the street caller trying car rental in miami to entice people to pull the slot machines on the street to win free credits car rental in miami to Casino Royale [3] .
A curious activity that happened throughout the day when stuck in the pedestrian traffic (I stop short of calling it a mob) was overhearing the many conversations around you, and also participating in small talk with the people in front of you while you waited for the rest of the group to get onto the escalators so you could cross the street [4] . It's the kind of conversation that's saved for flights on an airplane or while taking a cruise. One woman apologized to me for cursing while going up the escalator. Then she took a sip of her Corona in hand. I responded the only way I knew how to:
Everywhere else in the world, people live their lives to certain standards, but in Vegas, people throw them down to the ground and stomp on them. Does it matter that you are sitting by the pool drunk at noon? Not really, there are thousands of others doing the same thing, car rental in miami at the same time as you. Does it matter if you lost $500 in a hand of blackjack? Nope, the only people that will know are the people at your table, whereas at other tables I've played car rental in miami at, people are more than willing to talk about their wins or losses.
The cultural norms of your home town and country take a backseat when you're in Vegas. Even myself, not one to do anything crazy, skipped out on my conference to explore the Strip some more. It was only the morning session on the last day, but if it was anywhere in Canada, I probably would have attended, because majority of the attendees probably would not have been skipping car rental in miami out on it either. I also threw away my paleo diet for three days to devour some of the food items I rarely touch only because I was in Vegas and eating paleo on the