Frommer's Las Vegas 2004

SOUTH STRIP 83
which is located smack dab in the middle of everything, including, naturally, the
path between you and the elevators to your room.
Rooms are done in neutrals (a little too much brown for our tastes). They
have vague heraldic overtones and, given the price, are perhaps the best bet on
the Strip for the budget-minded. Note that none of the bathrooms have tubs,
just showers. Guests who have stayed in Tower 2 have complained about the
noise from the roller coaster across the street at New York–New York. (It runs
till 11pm, so early birds should probably stay in a different part of the hotel.)
Frankly, we prefer stopping in for a visit rather than actually settling in here, but
we know others who love the price and the authentic Vegas-tacky atmosphere.
The second floor holds the Medieval Village, where Excalibur’s restaurants
and shops are peppered along winding streets and alleyways, a sort of permanent
Renaissance Faire, which could be reason enough to stay away (or to come). On
the Village’s “Jester’s Stage,” jugglers, puppeteers, and magicians amuse guests
with free 20-minute performances throughout the day. Up here you can access
the enclosed, air-conditioned, moving sidewalk that connects with the Luxor.
There are plenty of restaurants, including the buffet (p. 167). Excalibur won our
hearts forever by installing a branch of Krispy Kreme doughnuts on the second
level, on the way to the Luxor walkway. The Tournament of Kings (p. 256) is
a medieval-style dinner show, and there’s a very loud, claustrophobic casino.
3850 Las Vegas Blvd. S. (at Tropicana Ave.), Las Vegas, NV 89109. & 800/937-7777 or 702/597-7777. Fax
702/597-7163. www.excaliburlasvegas.com. 4,008 units. $49 and up double. Extra person $15. Children
under 13 stay free in parent’s room. AE, DC, DISC, MC, V. Free self- and valet parking. Amenities: Casino;
showrooms; wedding chapel; 11 restaurants; outdoor pool; video arcade; concierge; tour desk; car-rental
desk; shopping arcade; 24-hr. room service; laundry service; dry cleaning; nonsmoking rooms. In room: A/C,
TV w/pay movies, dataport, hair dryer.
Luxor Las Vegas Kids Another hotel that thrills us to our very kitsch-worshipping
souls. How happy you, who share our aesthetic taste—or lack thereof—
will be when you behold the main hotel, a 30-story onyx-hued pyramid, complete
with a really tall 315,000-watt light beam at the top. (The Luxor says that’s
because the Egyptians believed their souls would travel up to heaven in a beam of
light. We think it’s really because it gives them something to brag about: “The
most powerful beam on earth!”) You’ll be giddy when you spy replicas of Cleopatra’s
Needle and the Sphinx gracing the outside. And when you get inside, and see
the towering statues of Ramses and overhear the talking Animatronic camels, well,
you might not care that the lobby tries also to be classy, vaguely Art Deco (influenced
by Egyptian Revival, remember) marble and cherrywood. You will just want
to ride the 39-degree high-speed “inclinators”—that’s what an elevator is when
it works inside a pyramid. (Really, they are part conveyance, part thrill ride—check
out that jolt when they come to a halt!) Great fun, the Luxor, you can gather. Not
as impressive as the real landmarks in the real Egypt, of course. But you knew that.
Once you stop laughing (or screaming) at what greets you, you should be quite
pleased with this hotel. Rooms in the pyramid open onto the vast center that
contains the casino—indeed, ground-level rooms open more or less right into the
action (though many of these have been turned into offices), so if you want only a
short drunken stumble back to your room, these are for you. Otherwise, ask for a
room higher up. The pyramid rooms cross Egyptian kitsch with Art Deco stylings,
including gleaming inlaid wood furniture and a hilarious hieroglyphic bedspread.
Marvelous views are offered through the slanted windows (the higher up the better,
of course), but the bathrooms are shower-only, no tubs. Tower rooms (an expansion
put additional rooms in a tower rather than another pyramid. Drat!) are even