Thoughts on Vegas

Collette and I just returned from three nights in Las Vegas, and we probably won’t go back. The trip was built around tickets to see Dead & Company at the Sphere on May 15, 2025. The show was great and the Sphere was amazing — that experience alone would’ve made the trip worth it.

We also caught three other shows, all very good to excellent, toured the Mob Museum, and took a half-day trip out to Hoover Dam. We packed a lot into our three days in Vegas. The shows were costly, but worth every dollar.

Everything else felt like premium prices for an average, sometimes below-average, experience. We waited over 30 minutes just to check in. Every corner of the property had some ding, scuff, or stain that should’ve been cleaned, repainted, or repaired. And the prices, which we expected to be high, still managed to surprise us on the upside. Outside of the shows, most of the trip was disappointing.

We stayed at Caesars Palace, centrally located on the Strip. The room wasn’t cheap — with fees, we paid just over $400 a night. Maybe that’s normal by 2025 Vegas standards, but we remember when Vegas was cheap: flights, hotel rooms, food, all of it. The conventional wisdom used to be that they lured you in with cheap prices and made their money on the casino floor.

I guess we just miss the old Vegas; we’re happy to leave the new one for others.