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Articles: My Experience | My Trip to Vegas, Disney & Hollywood
- Mrs. sharmila Sanka
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Our trip to Las Vegas on July 23rd 2005 was a dream and its fulfillment was planned well even though the trip was not so expected. My husband, 5 year old daughter and myself first flew to Las Vegas from Arkansas and it was 1 A.M. (Pacific Standard Time) As Vegas is in Nevada state, it is 2 hours behind our Central Standard Time and so we were so tired and sleepy after changing 2 flights to get to this place. We rented a Subaru in the airport as per our Vacation package (which included air ticket, car and hotel) and drove on the Casino Strip road. Believe it was beautiful and two eyes weren't sufficient to fill the brightness of the lightings of all the casinos which were on the same road on both sides. Each one was more beautiful than the other. Some of the names of the casinos were – Luxor (Pyramid shape), Riviera, Circus Circus, Bellagio, Venetian, Ceaser Palace, Excalibur, Aladdin, Stratosphere and many more. That street was full of people with different kinds of costumes. Every person seemed to be like a Hollywood actor. They were decked up like anything, walking with fun as their attire. Cars moved only an inch per minute as the road on the Casino strip was crowded with vehicles while people were walking on pavements. The road was filled with noise of laughter, fun and music coming from the vehicles.
We at last headed to our motel Circus, Circus which was especially meant for kids. We slept peacefully that night and started on our tour at 11 A.M. Our mouths were craving for Indian food after tasting the non-Indian food multiple times in those hours of sojourn. We went to Gandhi restaurant where in food seemed to be very tasty to our Indian tongues.
The casinos were not just casinos alone but were a conglomeration of Casino, Shopping Mall, Restaurant and Motel. We went to the most important Casinos and we almost covered them in 2 days. Bellagio was too good to enjoy. There was a musical Water Fountain Show free of charge that took place in front of that casino every 15-30 minutes. There was a song being played and the water moved accordingly. The fountains went all the way up
Hundreds of feet and the movements of the fountains were so romantic swinging left to right and vice versa as if they were lovers as described in the song. It was so beautiful that we watched that show 4 times during our stay.
We then went to the casino ‘Venetian’ and went around and at last rested our tired feet in a boat above the water inside that casino which costed around $60 for 3 of us. Other people watched from the sides of the river while few got in to several boats for a pleasant evening ride. They made 3 of us sit in the boat and the rider sang a song for our couple and a character’s song for our daughter. The ride was pleasant and good.
After 2 days, we went to Disney land-my daughter’s dreamland in Los Angeles in the state of California. Each ticket costed $60 each. As we entered, Cinderella appeared and my daughter was so very excited to see her. While some kids took her autograph, my daughter took pictures with her and even I got excited to watch someone dressed up just like Cinderella. We went for some rides which were thrilling and scary too. While on the rides, I wanted to hold my daughter with one hand and she left both her hands waving in the air and was laughing trying to imitate the other kids sitting right before her.
We went to the Princess' Castles and many other places there. We went for 'Snow White and 7 Dwarfs' Show and she was really excited as she saw live this story being depicted in the evening. We went into few houses where the whole environment was exactly as described in the children’s books like Cinderella, Snow white etc.
There was a Parade at 6 P.M of all the Disney characters for everyone to watch every character that was missed the whole day. In the parade, we saw witches from the stories and many more characters like Mickey, Goofy, Snow white, Mermaid, Peter pan and all the princesses. After that when the Sun started to shade away, we moved on to the pathway beside the lake for our next show i.e. the Laser show of Mickey. Just by the laser rays, we could view a lengthy show. This show was awesome and it was worth traveling those many hours. It was beautiful and one should never miss it when they go to Disney Land. It was unbelievable.
As the sky was wrapped with darkness, we were ready for the last item of the Disney Land i.e. Fireworks. That was also beautiful to watch. It was like a biggest festival for the Children. It was sad to move away from this Disney land as it was the time of closure. I prayed to God to bless this precious place of thrill, enthusiasm and fun- a dream land for every kid.
We then went to Los Angeles to visit UNIVERSAL STUDIOS-Hollywood. We first went on Hollywood tour where in we were taken in a variety bus and were shown some wonders on the way. There was one person who was explaining the greatness of Hollywood as well as showing us some scenes from motion pictures. (Movies) There was a Television in front of us in the bus. He showed us the rain and flood scene from an English movie on the TV and he immediately remote controlled and there was rain coming from electrical pole sort of things outside our bus. It was exactly as if it was raining. It was so much fun to watch that. Once more he remote controlled and there was flood oozing from a small opening and our bus was in the middle of the flooded water. It was wonderful.
Next we were taken to a fake island and there was a lake and we saw a shark kill a cop and blood was oozing out of his body. It was not real of course. Fake Sharks were moving in the lake. We moved on and we were taken into a dark cave sort of thing. There were dinosaurs bending towards our bus and we all shouted and no doubt the kids screamed thinking it was real. There was an air plane which started to burn before us. There was a car which was about to fall on our bus and stopped like magic with a rope tied to it.
Then we were taken in to a Subway station and were told it was a hot scene ready to be shot as there was supposed to be a shooting in few hours. A train was coming from the opposite end and there was supposed to be an earth quake and our bus was shaking like hell. A car was on fire above us. The train was broken into pieces due to earth quake. It was then we realized what was happening. Then after few seconds, the train was perfect in shape as usual as all the broken compartments got together and it started to move dumping us in great shock. Every bit of our Hollywood tour was thrilling and awesome. We didn’t know what would happen next.
We went for a ride in Hollywood. We were asked to sit carefully as our boat went for a ride to Jurassic park with fake dinosaurs at our side moving. We were taken inside a dark cave with dinosaurs screaming aloud. We were scared. We were suddenly taken to a steep place and then slowly brought down and then suddenly with a great speed dumped from top to bottom into the water. It was so unexpected and terrible but surely a thrilling ride. It was too good. I never experienced such fun before.
We were walking and suddenly my daughter was excited to see her dream friend-a Television character DORA-The explorer. She was her childhood friend on TV since Roopali was a month old. She took pictures with Dora. She hugged her too. She found few other characters and even Spider man. I was also excited to see him in that costume. She took pictures with him too. He gave some poses and asked her to imitate him.
We bade good bye to Hollywood asking God to bless all the places which promote happiness and peace and that such places should not be destructed any time for it gives enjoyment to all the people who come to this place.
We drove back to Vegas and we had one more day to see the rest of the Casinos. I went to one casino with one of my Arkansas friend named Sowjanya who also visited Vegas. I played in one of the top casinos ‘Wynn’ and just lost $65. While all of us sitting at that particular table were playing Black jack for the minimum bet i.e. $15, a person next to me was playing $5000 per bet who might be a millionaire. He played 20 lakh rupees per bet one at a time.
My husband and my friend’s husband had gone to Ferrari car showroom in ‘Wynn’ casino itself with the kids. They were used cars and each one costed 650,000 U.S. dollars. Then we went for a buffet in Riviera casino hotel where we had more than 100 varieties of food. Varieties of Dessert were too many and were too yummy.
Then we went to casino-Stratosphere. It looked a like a globe on a thin pole dressed up in colorful lights of beauty. We went inside and got into an elevator to find ourselves thousand feet from below and we were inside the globe. It had the transparent glass material around it and we could view the maximum view of Las Vegas from above. It was so scaring to even go near and touch the glass. Our eyes didn’t dare to stop reeling at that moment. At our top was the remaining part of the pole. It was that place where in there were rides sliding to the edge of the pole. Viewing from the globe i.e. the centre part of the standing casino itself was killing, not to talk about viewing sitting on a slide sliding downwards a little bit showing the whole of Vegas. My heart would have stopped beating if I had gone for that ride. There were some people who went on those rides and according to me only the people with real guts and people who do not care for their lives could go on those rides. It was too scary. That casino looked beautiful at night from outside with beautiful colours.
We then went to Luxor a Casino built in the shape of a Pyramid. The moment we entered, it was beautiful, pleasant and serene. There were rooms on the top for people who booked that casino. I bought a miniature pyramid as I heard having pyramid in a house is auspicious and it is an embodiment of healing power and energy. We took Roopali to ‘Circus Circus’ adventure dome where in it was full of fun for kids. It was in the shape of a globe of course standing on earth and not flying in the air like Stratosphere. We visited many more Casinos and then back to bed with our tired legs which were dumb and numb enough to walk any more. We went on almost all the rides and it was really cool.
Next we went to Grand Canyon- deep and beautiful mountains. It was scenic and Sun Set was beautiful and also the rocks with the Sun’s rays falling upon them which made them look differently with different colours. We took many pictures and flew home happily and with a sense of contentment. Our hearts whispered- ‘It was worth flying that far.’
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