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The Mirage in Vegas was all a dream

18th July 202417th July 2024 funtime65

Farewell to one of the great fixtures on The Strip but for me The Mirage in Vegas was all a dream. From which I woke up but felt I was still hallucinating.

No, not from a trip on the Strip but the effects of the jet lag from the flight from Dublin.

In my defence I wasn’t the only one who nodded off during the Cirque du Soleil Beatles Love show.

With veteran of Vegas and the travel scene, Gerry Benson, also in slumber during the show.

Of course the Cirque du Soliel show was an acrobatic and musical assault on the senses and prepared me well for Neon City.

Eruption of joy

The Strip, or Las Vegas Boulevard, is like no other stretch of entertainment real estate.

And gives new meaning to the term ‘keeping up with the Joneses’.

Particularly when you have to compete with Sphinxes, Eiffel Towers and gondolas.

But the Mirage fair held its own with its $30million volcano spewing out ‘lava’ in hourly eruptions since 1989.

All of which we witnessed from our hotel The Venetian across the Strip.

Where gondoliers plied their trade on the Grand Canal and under the Rialto Bridge.

Vegas can be a bit of a blur and that probably means that you’re doing it right.

Bridging the continents

Glamour set: Miss America meets Mr Scotland in Vegas

And so following the Beatles Love show I decided to take 40 winks in my room only to be woken by a call saying I was expected for the group dinner downstairs.

And so groggy and on autodrive I stumbled my way past the Grand Canal and into a fresco-filled room in the Venetian.

Who needs hallucinogens when you have these alternate universes all around you.

Sadly, now The Mirage is to be replaced by a Hard Rock and some of the magic will be lost.

Neon Museum is a blinder

Signs of the times: At the Neon Museum with Beverley

Not that it will be lost for ever with the lettering and fixtures probably being rehoused now in the lovingly preserved Neon Museum.

Where Beverley Saperstein guided us around the lot where old Vegas resorts and their signs go to rest.

No resting though for Beverley, then voted Vegas’s Senior Citizen of the Year.

All dangly Liberace earrings, given to her by the great showman.

So next time we’re back we’ll be expecting to see a new addition at the Neon Museum.

The Mirage in Vegas was all a dream. But one I lived through… or so I was told.

America, Countries, Deals, Sport

Taylor, Travis and Sports Vegas

11th February 202411th February 2024 funtime65

They used to come for the boxing now Neon City is box office for all sports as we all tune in to watch Taylor, Travis and Sports Vegas.

For Swifties everywhere tonight’s match-up is all about their favourite girl and her beau Mr Kelce.

Who they’ll tell you has a very tight end.

Vegas, in many ways is the natural location for the Super Bowl.

Even if it is hosting the world’s biggest annual showpiece for the first time.

Because Vegas brings showbiz and sport together like nowhere else.

Push Cassidy

And how we love to take in both on our travels.

Which our friends at Cassidy Travel know only too well.

CT run a range of American sports offers with gridiron fans already over enjoying the 49ers and Chiefs in Vegas.

Now knowing too that each of us have our own gridiron team and favourite destinations they have us covered there.

With packages to New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vegas, Chicago and Tennessee.

Patriots Games

All with their own merits while our own favourites New England are there too.

With the likes of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, Dallas and Seattle.

And old new friends in Pittsburgh who honoured us with our very own Steelers ‘terrible towel’.

In Irish green rather than Steelers yellow… for their visit to the recent Meet the Media travel get-together in Dublin.

Big shots

But for the day that’s in it and because we left our own sporting mark on Neon City.

At Topgolf range shooting towards the skyline…

And then firing at Chucky targets at Machine Guns Vegas.

The big shots, of course, this weekend are on the gridiron.

With Taylor, Travis and Sports Vegas.

Central America, Countries, Deals

Mexico for swinging

9th May 20239th May 2023 funtime65

It’s an oft-asked question… where’s good for a sunny couple’s holiday and there were no sunnier couple than the all-American pair inviting me down to Mexico for a swinging couple’s holiday?

Innocent abroad as I was I took the polo-shirted middle-aged man and his librarian-type wife at their word.

As we sipped cocktails at the Harrah’s Hotel off the Strip in Las Vegas.

While all the time my pal Martin from the north of Ireland was shooting me looks.

Before he just about rescued me when we were ready to exchange details and they were about to tell me about their ‘special’ getaway with their club down in Cancun.

Beach Cassidy and the Sundance kids

No such confusions with our old friends from Ireland Cassidy Travel.

They have just the thing for my itchy-footed companion in life who never tires of telling me that she never gewts away.

And that’s a seven-night all-inclusive stay at the 3* Rui Lupita in Playa del Carmen for travel on June 12 for €1099pps.

Marriachi midfielder: A bit of Mexican fun

We’re told the stunning Caribbean eachside resort is surrounded by tropical gardens and offers

And has a choice of four pools, four restaurants and live shows and entertainment.

Mex my day

Now, I’ve flirted with Mayheecho over the years.

From packing bowls with tortilla chips and guacemole during my post-University stint as a busboy in Boston, Massachussets as well as many other jobs.

To dancing along to the Marriachi bands in Orlando and hanging with the Three Caballeros at Epcot and in Annaheim.

While later this month by the grace of Deo I’ll be channeling my best Tex Mex in San Antonio as part of the American Travel Fair.

So Ole, it has to be Mexico for a swinging couple’s holiday.

Countries, UK

Why, why, why Delilah?

2nd February 20232nd February 2023 funtime65

The female revellers laughed and sang it on the Royal Caribbean party ship with just as much gusto… why, why, why Delilah?

And why, why, why, you might ask have the Welsh Rugby Union cancelled the party and sports anthem?

Because there’s a line in it about jealous Palestinian Samson stabbing his girlfriend because she had taken up with a lover.

Well, by that logic, we should probably ban Othello because he smothered Desdemona… and she hadn’t even kissed Cassio.

Or Romeo & Juliet because he duped her into a joint suicide.

And any number of songs that tell of fictional love stories gone bad.

Anthem as well

Hell, while we’re at what about rugby/national anthems?

And the ‘racist’ verse in God Save The Queen about sending Marshall Wade, rebellious Scots to slay.

Yeah, they’ll keep that but try to ban the England rugby favourite Swing Low Sweet Chariot which is in celebration of Harriet Tubman.

No, the whole thing has gone bonkers and I fear that we have lost the battle and maybe even the war.

Woke me up

I confess I didn’t even know about the concept of woke when I was accused of not being ‘woke enough’.

By an Irish wedding magazine editor who insisted on correcting me in South Africa every time I said ‘he’ and ‘she’ to ‘they’.

And how does this feed into our common thread of travel?

Well, if we’re not careful we’ll homogenise the world and become po faced about life, death, sex, violence… you know the thing.

It’s what I call the ‘literal brigade’, those killjoys who take everything literally and also misuse literally.

As in ‘I literally died’.

Literally genius

Well, to carry on a theme the apparatchiks in the corridors of power are literally wasting their time.

If they think they can get the Welsh rugby fans to desist from singing this belter from one of their favourite sons Tom Jones…

Well, I experienced first hand in my year in Cardiff how passionate and thrawn (obstinate) the Welsh are.

So whether it’s Tom’s Wales, a cruise ship in the English Channel or Las Vegas where he had women throwing their knickers at him…

Then don’t let any woke warrior tell you you can’t sing Why, why, why Delilah?

America, Asia, Countries, Europe, UK

World’s ugliest building!

21st January 2023 funtime65

So Scotland’s Holyrood is the world’s ugliest building in the world! But we ask about yours and how’s that for a parliament?

It feels a bit unfair to Holyrood at the foot of Edinburgh’s most famous street, the Royal Mile.

Yes, it may not have the river vista of a Houses of Parliament or the Mall walkway of the Capitol in Washington DC.

Capitol idea: On the hill in Washington DC

But Enric Miralles’s £414m edifice with its boats theme (no, me neither) is hardly the Scott Monument rocket eyesore on Princes Street.

Of course beauty is always in the eye in the beholder.

Not that I put much faith in the Buildworkd twitter survey.

And who chose Holyrood ahead of the likes of the J Edgar Hoover Building in Washington DC and the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea?

Brit hit list

On the surface the British entrants in the survey surely should be less aesthetic than Holyrood…

Newport Train Station, Preston Train Station, the Royal Liverpool Hospital and the MI5 Building in London among them.

But then again in this strangest of surveys there are some odd picks among the American buildings.

Some probably more politically motivated, like with Holyrood.

American scream

And Trump’s name in glittering gold in his titular hotel in Las Vegas will do that for many.

I’d argue too against dissing Denver Airport having spent 12 hours there and availed of their putting course on the roof.

Or the Watergate Complex, other than its association with Nixon’s crimes.

And it seems politically even-handed with liberal Boston City Hall in the cradle of the American Revolution.

On the hit list for the twitter haters.

Now perhaps that’s it that the twitterati dislike more what’s inside Holyrood than what it looks like outside.

Something to Prague about

But what about you do you think Holyrood is the world’s ugliest building!

And maybe leave you with this… the Prague television tower with its climbing babies was once the world’s second ugliest building.

The Czech capital edifice surpassed by the North Koreans again. And so there’s hope for Holyrood yet.

America, Countries

Canyonlands a dam fine sight

11th January 202311th January 2023 funtime65

It’s the water of life sustaining three states and north Mexico and anyone who’s been agrees… Canyonlands a dam fine sight.

For many the first sight of the cavernous expanse is out of Las Vegas when you view the Hoover Dam below.

And for those of us who pass over the hydroelectric works that fuel our own regions, well there’s no passing over this.

At least not without your jaw open.

Wonders will never cease

Top of the Choppers: En route to the Canyon

At the sight of the 726ft high and 1244ft long First Wonder of the Industrial World.

Where 90 years ago this year the first concrete was poured into the structure which created the Lake Mead reservoir.

And now means 16 million people are provided with water.

And believe me you’ll be grateful to Herbert Hoover for the aqua that is gold in the Mojave desert.

Water marvel

So as well as marking that first concrete mould for the construction which was completed in 1935 why are we focusing today on the Hoover Dam.

Other than, of course, that water preservation amid the warming Earth has never been more important.

The Hoover Dam and its hinterland is a must-see on Platinum Travel’s Enchanting Canyonlands package.

The Irish Travel specialists are offering a one-week guided tour that includes the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park.

And that will also include a trip to Sedona to marvel at the towering red rocks, and we’re fans from Colorado, and explore the funky shops.

Then travel to Grand Canyon National Park, where you can board a helicopter or a fixed wing aircraft to fly above the canyon’s floor.

Later meet a local expert, who will share the history of the natural wonder.

Navajo go, go

For the boy (or girl) racer in you hop on an 4×4 vehicle in the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.

With a Navajo and learn about their tribal heritage.

Changed days a 4×4 we hear you say although we imagine there will be Navajo tales of derring-do on horseback too.

If that’s not enough, then you can also take in the cliff-and-canyon landscape of Zion National Park in comfort.

From €3,550 including flights & full tour per-person based on two sharing.

All of which makes Canyonlands a dam fine sight.

Countries, Deals, Sport

Rock up for Wrestlemania

21st September 202221st September 2022 funtime65

He’s the lord of the ring, the hottest ticket in town, who you can see for yourself if you rock up for Wrestlemania.

And the best folk to tag along with to see The Rock come out of retirement at Wrestlemania 39 in Los Angeles next year are Cassidy Sports Travel.

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson debuted at Wrestlemania 25 years ago and has competed at 11 events.

Counting such other luminaries as Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin and John Cena as his opponents.

And dropping jumping clotheslines, Samoan drops and running shoulderbreakers along the way.

Wrestlemania has been right up there with the NBA as the world’s biggest indoor entertainment sport.

And yes debates will rage over how scripted it is.

But nobody can deny that is pure entertainment.

And the SOFI stadium in La-La Land is just the venue for the antics as it hosted the latest Super Bowl.

The Fighting Irish

The hybrid of Mixed Martial Arts has proved to be a gateway into Wrestling for many.

And Conor McGregor‘s successes in Las Vegas have prompted an Irish following for WWE too.

Ireland boasts a rich seam of wrestlers who will be represented across in LA at Wrestlemania.

And wherever the Fighting Irish go then their fans go with them… so look out for Finn Balor and Sheamus & Becky Lynch when you get over there.

So here’s what Cassidy are billing…

Wrestlemania Goes Hollywood

Wrestlemania 39 Package with return flights will see you stay for five nights at a 3* hotel in LAX area, travelling on March 30 with prices from €1,830pp.

And you will get the goldens tickets for Wrestlemania Nights 1 & 2 (Saturday 1^st and Sunday 2^nd April).

Making the grade

Upgrades Available on Request for the Smackdown Event – 31^st March – €550pp Supplement

Raw Event – 3^rd April – €650pp Supplement

Wrestlemania will take place in SOFI Stadium – an incredible venue & host of the latest Super Bowl!

Drop into Cassidy Travel or contact them on 01 8779853.

Countries, Europe

Black Drac and Blackjack

16th July 2022 funtime65

Think Romania and chances are it’ll be Count Dracula rather than counting cards but Transylvania is home to Black Drac and Blackjack.

And you thought Monte Carlo was where all the high rollers hang out.

Well, central Europe has a rich casino tradition with the suavest of the suave playing the tables in Czechia.

At the Grandhotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary in the opening shots of Casino Royale.

Dog Holliday

My own gambling credentials are more Dog Holliday than Doc Holliday.

Despite what the pictures from the Knott’s Berry Farm old-style casino in California might show.

As anyone who had seen my dice hop the craps table in Las Vegas, where I earned the nickname Hannibal, will testify.

Cards on the table I prefer to keep my money in my pocket and divert it to the bar but there is a gambling tourist out there.

Casinogrounds

Kerching: And would the Simpsons like it?

And we, and Casinogrounds, aim to please and know you players want to keep your shekels to spend on chips.

The online gambling site analysed the number of casinos and the average cost of hotels in 35 European countries.

And they arrived at these best gambling holiday destinations in Europe.

And putting the rummy into Romania, the land of Black Drac and Blackjack comes out top ahead of Czechia.

Rummy in Romania

The land of Black Drac and Blackjack boasts 439 casinos, and the second cheapest cost of hotels after Albania.

And hang onto your hat, that’s an average £19.57 for your room.

Now if you want to channel your inner James Bond then you’ll have a choice of 421 casinos in Czechia.

And while if you can afford it then the Pupp is the biz.

You don’t have to break the bank at any of the Bohemians’ other hotels with the average price of a room only £38.17.

Do you take a Czech?

The Pupp and the Pupparazzi: At the Grandhotel Pupp

Czechia’s neighbour Slovakia is also a big draw for gamblers with 223 casinos.

And you’ll get change out of £40 at ab average £39.88 per room.

The rest of the top ten is made up of Balkans and Baltics with our favourite Croatians and Bosnia and Herzovinans featuring.

While Poland and the three interlinked states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are also flagged up.

Cheap as chips

Of course the burning question is just how cheap are those rooms in Albania.

Well, hold your breath, the average room is £14.19 and there are 54 casinos throughout the country.

So you can throw your money around, and your dice.

America, Countries

Honeymoon in Vegas

16th April 202216th April 2022 funtime65

If you’ve seen the movie and visited Neon City you’ll know you’re never too far from finding yourself on Honeymoon in Vegas.

Whether you’ve been ‘volunteered’ to get hitched like Martin and Peter at the Graceland Wedding Chapel.

Or you’ve been won over by Cami from Utah at Harrah’s party bar on the Strip then Vegas can tempt you into sealing a deal.

Vegas has become inexorably linked with a spontaneous and over the top wedding and honeymoon destination.

And unsurprisingly it’s many Americans’ go-to honeymoon holiday according to website Lovehoney who have listed the Insta faves.

And, of course, when you’re romancing in Vegas then you cuddle up with your loved one on the gondola.

Take a gondola

If you’re lucky enough, and surely your sweetheart deserves the best, you’ll be staying at The Venetian or its sister hotel The Palazzo.

Where clearly the Italian theme continues with fabulous frescoes.

We all know fireworks go off when you’re in love, and fountains spring up.

And in Vegas the nightly Bellagio Fountains display is where the magic happens.

While you shouldn’t miss out either on that Insta must, the Grand Canyon photo backdrop.

While Vegas scores for many, what Americans love most on honeymoon is a bit of hula-hula.

A Hula of love

And a Luau which is an evening of Hawaiian traditional music, dancing and culture.

While a dawn trip up to the summit of Haleakala will give you that earth-stopping moment with your sweetheart.

And it’s what 28,000 snap-happy honeymooners have done.

We heart New York

And is there a more romantic setting in the Oo, Es of Eh than Central Park from a horse-drawn carriage.

Unless, of course, you’re at the top of the Empire State Building.

And if you are in an Empire State of Mind and have some music in you then of course you have to head for Broadway.

For Hamilton or whatever else is hot these days.

From Maui to Miami

Another Little Havana: In Biscayne, Miami

And Maui, in second with 7,900 Insta hashtags sits in the archipelago of Hawaii.

It is famed for its volcanic black sand beaches, and I can vouch for the black stuff from Tenerife.

But also its beautiful gardens and the trail to Waimoku Falls.

You’ll not be surprised either to see Floridian favourites Orlando and Miami hashtagged too.

By the experts obviously who know the difference between Little Havana and a Cuban restaurant in Biscayne.

And that top ten again

So if you’re thinking of America for your wedding holiday then go for bust and choose a Honeymoon in Vegas.

Or Maui or New York or Miami or any of these must-visit destinations.

America, Asia, Countries, Europe, UK

Our own world bank of foreign exchange

20th March 202220th March 2022 funtime65

Over time we can all build up our own world bank of foreign exchange.

My Dear Old Dad, in his dwindling years, would count out his own chest of pesetas, escudos, drachmas, francs, lira and deutschmarks.

There are, of course, glass cases in airports where we can now donate our left-over foreign money for charity.

But if you’re resourceful, and have a winning smile (Daddy’s Little Girl), you can walk off your plane with foreign money.

And in these straitened times we need all, and every kind of legit money, from wherever it comes.

The Queen’s coin

The most trusted coins in the UK are, of course, those with the Queen’s head on it.

And a roaring trade is done too on commemorative coins of the monarch.

With this Platinum Year of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign marked by the release of a limited number of coins to mark her 75 years.

They range on the Royal Mint from the UK 50p Brilliant Uncirculated Coin at £7 for the most pressed subject.

To the gold bullion Queen’s Jubilee Sovereign Set at £1,800, but be patient they’re awaiting stock.

Pawn Stars

Money shot: Miss America meets Mr Scotland in Vegas

Now if you think that that’s extravagant in these cash-strapped times then remember that gold appreciates in value.

Not that I’m advising you to scour your jewellery box and head for the pawn shop.

Although having seen the prices of old artefacts in the most famous pawn store in the world, the Pawn Stars shop in Vegas.

My fellow Britons famously and sneeringly accuse the Americans of having no history.

But here in the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop and across any number of fairs across the States specialising in music, war or whatever disproves that.

Coining it in

Bandanaman and the Bandanettes In Denver

And if you can’t afford a Confederate coin then you can always buy one of those say Buffalo Bill coins from the souvenir shop in Lookout Mountain in Colorado.

Coins have been with us since Roman days and before, the Lydians in modern-day Turkey credited with the first in 600BC.

And we always live in hope that all that digging that The Green-Fingered One does in our back garden will yield some treasure.

For now I’ll just hope that my commemorative C$2 Calgary Winter Olympics coin has appreciated in value.

Because I’m not holding out much hope for my Jordanian dinar note in our own world bank of foreign exchange.

Saddam hucksters

I did dodge a bullet (maybe even literally) when I body swerved the hucksters trying to sell Saddam Hussein Iraqi notes outside Petra.

Best stick to the coin-pressing machines and the money-making exercise that is The Royal Mint Collection.

It’s about time, is it not, that that wealth dripped down to us.?