Sometimes I spend my morning laying in bed and watching TV if I can't sleep. Monday wasn't entirely intended to be that way, but I did have plans to watch "The Price is Right" that morning, specifically because a guy I've followed via YouTube for a couple of years, Adam the Woo, was in the audience for the taping of the show, scheduled for Oct. 30. He didn't say if he was a contestant on the show, and I still don't know. Due to what I have to assume was a hastily scheduled episode meant to promote the "Bad Moms" Christmas flick being released on Nov. 1, his episode was bumped, and not to the next day. It is now scheduled to air on a Wednesday in January.
But I watched the actresses from the flick parade around the stage and screech too often when they'd open their mouths. I miss the simpler days when the show wasn't constantly looking for some sort of promotional gimmick to tie into the show.
I mad eggs, over easy, and bagels for our breakfast. I soon realized that without purchasing any sort of butter or nonstick spray, the eggs didn't flip so easily, despite having an alleged nonstick pan. It didn't help that I didn't have a large, flat spatula for flipping the eggs. There were utensils provided, but the only spatula in the bunch was the kind you use to scrape the side of a mixing bowl when you're dumping the contents into a pan. The eggs looked less than glamorous, but they were edible. I guess I should have made scrambled eggs that first morning.
We spent plenty of time in the pool, and it was a warm day. The average high temp in Vegas on Halloween is 74F. On the day before Halloween it was in the low 80s, and we loved it. (By comparison, it was 45-50 degrees cooler back home in Minneapolis that afternoon.) We soaked up plenty of sun, and I went for a dip in the pool occasionally to cool off. The Tahiti Village pool is heated, most of the time. It was like bath water on that Monday.
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| Yes, I drink cheap domestic beer in aluminum bottles when at the pool in Vegas. Shame on me. |
We also spent some time floating in their lazy river, which is adjacent to the main pool. The lazy river doesn't seem to get much sun, at least in late October, and the water wasn't as warm. It was pleasant enough, and I'll bet it's great in July, but I wasn't going to spend two hours floating around the river, especially since I had to steer my girlfriend away from every water feature that rained down upon the river. She seemed to have an aversion to the pool water.
We didn't plan ahead, so we didn't have any pre-made sandwiches for our lunch. We decided to go to the Denny's on the perimeter of the property for a late lunch and spend more on that meal than we'd spend on dinner. Go figure.
Our evening was built around my desire to return to Las Vegas Haunts, the other local haunted attraction with a history in Vegas. Las Vegas Haunts has two mazes, an asylum and a hotel. They're run very similar to the Freakling Bros. mazes, you have to send small groups into the maze because there are areas that take time to pass through.
My girlfriend, not wanting to visit the attraction, fond a nail place nearby, so I dropped her off there prior to my showing up for the haunted mazes, which opened at 6:30 p.m.
I was near the front of the line when the entry gates opened, so I decided I could skip spending the extra $10 for the VIP ticket. I spent $25 for their two mazes and got in line for the hotel first. I worked in an asylum maze for years at my seasonal Halloween job, so I have an affection for the asylum theme, and therefore wanted it to be my finale.
As I said, I was returning to Las Vegas Haunts, as I visited their attraction in 2011 when I made my first Halloween trip to Vegas. (I went to both haunted Las Vegas Haunts and Freakling Bros. on the same Sunday night that year.) My return visit was six years to the date of my first visit, Oct. 30.
Since it was the beginning of the night and I had no friends with me, I was able to go through the hotel by myself. I assumed I'd be added to a family or other group, but that wasn't the case. Although I had been there six years prior, I didn't remember much about their attractions, so it could have been exactly the same and I wouldn't have known it.
Following the hotel, there was already a decent line that accumulated for the asylum. I forgot just how long the stagger is between each group, and it took longer than I anticipated to enter. I regretted not spending the $10 for a VIP ticket. I would have been done 30 minutes sooner, and my girlfriend wouldn't have been stuck waiting for me.
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| I won't win an award for my iPhone photos, but this is the entryway into the asylum at Las Vegas Haunts. |
Both Las Vegas Haunts mazes have really good set decorations and plenty of actors. They don't put on as spectacular of a show overall when compared to Freakling Bros., but it's entertaining. They have a great effect using fog and a room in their asylum, and there's a room in the hotel with several doors that you have to open before you find your way out.
I wouldn't say Las Vegas Haunts is fun for the whole family, it will creep out children and scare those who jump at the site of their shadow, but it's not as intense as Freakling Bros.
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| Somehow they get away with not paying the actors in their haunted attractions. I don't get it. Their website claims you do receive perks for your effort. The only perk I'd accept is straight cash, homey. |
After picking up my girlfriend we headed back to Ellis Island. Las Vegas Haunts was set up in the parking lot of Meadows Mall, just west of Springs Preserve, so we were somewhat close to downtown, but we decided to go back to Ellis Island for a 2-for-1 meal at their BBQ restaurant.
We arrived after 8 p.m. and didn't have to wait to be seated. We ordered the same meals we always do, the half chicken, half rack of ribs combo. After our order I ran out to the casino and put $5 into a poker machine to play hands of video blackjack at $2 a hand. I wanted to print the player's club discount coupon for running $5 through the machine, and managed to win $2 for playing a few hands. With our Las Vegas Advisor coupon and our player's club discount, we spent $14.30 on two meals, pre-tip.
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| I don't look creepy at all. Yes, I'm wearing a five-year-old T-shirt representing the amusement park of death in Minnesota, where I work each fall. |
During our dinner I was able to see the end of the Broncos/Chiefs Monday Night Football game. Remember that sports bet from Sunday. I bet $40 on the Chiefs at -7. The Chiefs kicked a field goal in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter that gave them a 16-point lead. I was quite confident that I was going to win. Then Denver runs a two-minute offense that ends with a touchdown and cuts the lead to 10. The failed two-point conversion pretty much iced the game for Kansas City with a couple of minutes left, but Denver did get the ball back with a little time to attempt to score once more. A late, meaningless touchdown would have made me a loser against the spread, but thankfully that didn't happen.
After dinner we cashed in our three free rounds of drinks coupon at the bar, and I continued to play really cheap video blackjack and keno. I ran enough cash through the machine to redeem two free play coupons, and each coupon gave me $10 in free play. I used the free play on $5 hands of video blackjack and won three of four hands. That free play, and my modest winnings at 50-cent and $1 video blackjack gave me $40 in winnings.
I also spent 30 minutes or so playing blackjack in the pit. I wouldn't say I had great luck, but I won a hand with a $10 match play, and I received a free $25 bet for buying in at $100 and having a Las Vegas Advisor coupon. When I finally played that free bet I was dealt a 14. The hand was against some high card, so I hit, and made 20. The dealer also made 20, so we pushed. I was dealt a lousy 13 or 14 hand again, and had to hit against a high card. I made another 20, and the dealer didn't beat me, so I won $25. When I cashed out I was $25 up, so that tells me I didn't have a winning session, but I was happy to walk way with more than I bought in with, and I left Ellis Island that night with a modest $101 in profit. My girlfriend won a little money playing cheap slots, too.
Our night concluded with pints of Bud Light in the hot tub, which wasn't very hot. The heat had been cut, so the hot tub was merely warm. But we chatted with a couple from Cleveland for a few minutes and drank our beer before retiring for the night.
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