Last week I was in Las Vegas with my sister, Kelly, and her family and her husband's family (this is not the sister I went to Disney with). I have taken this trip several times in the past. It's always a nice trip, but not a great trip. This trip fell into the same category as the rest. It's funny, everyone keeps going on the trip, yet no one seems to love it. But it's cheap for my family so I guess that's a big part of it.
Here is a profile of the trip: We stay at the Hilton Grand Vacations on the strip in 2 - 2 or 3 bedroom suites. We go to the pool in the morning, do an activity with the kids in the afternoon and go out for lunch. We have dinner out with the whole group (11 of us) to a child friendly restaurant. We'll usually see 1 show during the trip. After dinner most of the adults go out gambling for a few hours, the Dad's stay out later then the rest of us girls.
What I like about the trip: it's pretty relaxing. I have very little control over what we do, I just choose if there is something I want to or don't want to do. Mostly, I just go with the flow and that's nice. I enjoy relaxing by the pool with a drink and a book, chatting and watching the kids in the pool. I also like exploring Vegas. Since I have been there a few times I know the layout fairly well and have seen most of the casinos/resorts/hotels. But there is always something new there and there are plenty of things I haven't done there. But, I do sometimes have to make and find opportunities.
What I don't like: It's a little over indulgent of the kids. The afternoons often consist of trips to game rooms. There's so much there to do that has a little more substance to it, but they seem to end up in game rooms everyday and sometimes more then 1 in a day. And the game rooms aren't cheap. I'm just glad I don't have to bank roll a kid on one of these trips! Gambling, I'm not a big gambler and at night it's all about gambling. I'll go out a few nights and play some blackjack but it seems if I don't feel like going out that there is something wrong with me and I don't like that feeling. I don't think that it helps on this trip that my body was totally on the wrong hourly schedule to be gambling at night and I never adjusted. On this trip I was a little frustrated with the eating arrangements. Due to the surgery I had in July I'm a bit restricted on what I can eat - I can't use my front teeth so am forced to eat food on the softer side and I didn't feel like anyone other then my mother took that into consideration when choosing restaurants.
But in the end it was a nice vacation, I got to see a Cirque Du Soliel show which was on my things to do in Vegas list.
