Shark Reef is cool. Overpriced, but cool. I usually stay at the Mandalay Bay, so i see it as part of my hotel fun (though separately priced). Don't know if I would make a special trip, but it's nice.


If they've added some live music touches to Ka, it's an improvement. When I saw the show soon after it opened, there were no curtain calls by hidden live musicians. The score features a full orchestra and 50-person choir. Um, they are NOT there.


But if they are that hidden, and the sound is heard exclusively through the headsets embedded in each seat, then the point of live music is nearly ruined anyway.


To be fair, O's music can only be heard through the sound system, though it's performed live. The orchestra is sequesterd away in a huge sound booth. Too much water onstage.


Zumanity and Mystere share obviously live music ... and the shows are fantastically enriched by this element.

I heard the McDonalds in Las Vegas is to die for!

Especially the Royal with Cheese over at the Paris Las Vegas hotel.

Shark Reef is like Star Trek Experience for us. We've been out to Mandalay Bay three times over the years and each time we kind of plan on doing Shark Reef, see the prices and say "never mind."

So just like with Star Trek Experience I guess we'll finally do it when they announce it is closing.


Is the 57-man orchestra and 40 person choir on the soundtrack the same music heard during the show? The couple sites I checked seemed to indicate it was a significantly beefed up performance for the CD.

Regardless though, for me (and I know I'm perhaps unusual in this) recorded or live makes absolutely no difference. But whatever part of the music is live, was live from the beginning. The Ka web site has a comment from a bass guitar player talking about getting the job just a day or two before the show opened. During the show the musicians were never prominently featured but rather generally just rocking out in the deep background of a scene and then at curtain call they were out on a back platform while the main performers were taking their bows up front.

A friend of mine was married at the Mandalay Bay and had the party in a suite at THE Hotel. Yes, it's really called that. Quite the swanky modern experience. Decor was very impressive. Here's the suite, but the hallways alone were amazing. There was a humongous Warhol in the lobby.

No it isn't. Its called THEhotel.

Get yur facts straight damnit.










Looks like a cool place BTW.

Hmmm Swanky Lounges certainly are tempting - So far it looks like I'll be there the 19th to the 22nd.

So these Cirque things, how hard is it to go to as a last minute sort of thing?

THEhotel was the ultra-swankiest place i've ever stayed in Vegas. zapppop and i shared a suite there ... hmmm, last October exactly.


It got a little tiring when everything in the place was called THEcafe or THEnewstand, but all was forgiven when the toilet paper in our suite bathrooms was adorned with labels "TheTP"





Oh, and our favorite hotel in Paris is l'hotel. Go figure.