Ask the Slot Expert: New Year's Eve on the Las Vegas Strip

All the years I lived in New Jersey, I never went to Times Square to watch the ball drop. It wasn't easy to get into the city from where I lived. Despite having a large number of people commuting into New York, my line did not have direct service into the city. It was not electrified, so we had to switch to another line in Newark.

Travel challenges weren't the real reason I didn't go to Times Square. There was no way I was going to stand for hours waiting for a 60-second event. And I especially did not want to have to devise a solution for when I had to visit The Necessary.

Many years ago, though, I went to the Las Vegas Strip for New Year's Eve.

Continental had some super-cheap fare for EWRLAS when you flew out on 12/31 and returned on 1/1. I was sold on a Las Vegas daytrip. (That's not the craziest trip I've made. I've done a couple of daytrips to London.)

The year was 1997. Besides the cheap fare, my other reason for going was to see a new, heavily hyped lighting effect at Luxor.

I don't remember when I got to Las Vegas or what I did for most of the day. I do remember that I had a meal at the Luxor buffet.

I also remember trying to figure out where to park. I was able to snag a spot on the top of Caesars Palace's garage. At some point I realized that the location might be a problem. I had to get back to the airport for a flight not much past midnight, maybe between 1AM and 2AM. I wasn't sure how I would be able to get across the strip in time to make the flight.

I bailed on Caesars and looked for something on the east side of the strip. After a bit of searching, I found a spot in one of the Tropicana's surface lots. Perfect. I walked over to Luxor, anxious to see the new light show.

At midnight, the new lights were turned on. The big light show was merely chaser lights installed on the corners of the pyramid. Big whoop. It certainly did not live up to the hype.

This video must be from that night. One of the anchors mentions turning on the lights at Luxor. She said the lights are "quite amazing, quite surreal." Okay. Maybe if you don't get out much.

Granted, the black pyramid was pretty much a black hole at night. You really couldn't tell there was anything there. The chaser lights at least let you see an outline of the building.

The funny thing is that I don't remember there being any fireworks. Maybe my disappointment with the Luxor lights drove that memory out of my brain. Or maybe I had to start going back to the airport during the fireworks show.

It was warmish, about 35 degrees, when I left Newark. That was good because I didn't need a heavy coat. I could get by with a light jacket, which would also be perfect for Las Vegas. Rather than park in the off-airport lot I usually used, I splurged on a spot in short-term parking because I was going to be gone for less than 24 hours.

It was unseasonably cold when I got back to Newark. The temperature was 18 degrees. Half the temperature from when I left.

Coincidentally, 18 was also the number of minutes I wandered around the short-term lot trying to find my car wearing only a light jacket totally inadequate for the temperature.

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