Las Vegas - July 1999 - My first trip

While I was in California for the first time in 1999 my cousin offered to drive me to Las Vegas for the day, and since I was 21 I said, “Yeah!” I knew the old Disney Mark IV Monorails were sent to Vegas, so my primary purpose of going was to see the monorails I grew up with from my childhood. I rode up in front of those monorails when I was a kid. The monorails that made me want to be a monorail pilot when I grew up. This video has a lot of quick cuts of Vegas casinos and long shots of monorails. I don’t know why I filmed little 2 second shots of all the casinos, maybe because I was running out of tape, or battery. Maybe I wasn’t that interested in casinos and more interested in monorails. I wish I took longer shots because there are so many classic 90s Vegas gems in here. Insert a coin, pull the arm, and check out this jackpot of Las Vegas classics.
STORIES AND TRIVIA:
0:08 Zzyzx Rd. If you are traveling from L.A. to Vegas you will pass this road. My first time seeing it I had to take a video. I said, “What the heck is that!?”
0:09 Las Vegas Blvd. South. Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign. This landmark was erected in 1959.
0:20 Bally’s/MGM Grand Monorail. First things first, I wanted to see the old Mark IV Monorail from Disney World. A lot of footage was taken here. We rode from MGM Grand to Bally’s.
0:50 Barbary Coast. This casino opened in 1979 and closed in 2007. My wife and I had a 1 am pancake dinner here once.
0:52 Bally’s. I filmed a little bit of the casino here, but was told by security I could not film people gaming. I understand. In 2003 my wife and I stayed here. Now it’s called Horseshoe.
0:53 Caesars Palace. I went outside and filmed Caesars, and since it was July, I experienced a heat I never experienced in Florida, and I thought my skin was burning. It was well over 100 degrees. Most of the day we stayed inside.
0:54 Flamingo. This classic hotel has been on The Strip since 1946.
0:55 Bally’s/MGM monorail. We rode the monorail back to the MGM Grand and I got to see both trains: the white and blue Bally’s monorail and the gold and green MGM Grand monorail.
1:20 Excalibur. We drove over here so I could see the tram and I gambled for the first time. I knew how to play roulette, so I tried that and after a few rolls my $1 on double zero hit and a stack of chips were pushed in my direction. I had a smile on my face for 2 hours. When I cashed out I had earned $52 total.
1:26 Excalibur/Mandalay Bay Tram. Here’s a full video I took on this: • Excalibur-Luxor-Mandal...
1:42 New York New York. This hotel was somewhat new in 1999, it opened in 1997.
1:43 Paris. A little bit of construction is shown on the new Paris Las Vegas casino, which opened a few months later in Sept. 1999.
1:44 New Frontier, Stardust, & Desert Inn. All hotels that are now extinct. New Frontier closed in 2007, Stardust in 2006, and Desert Inn in 2000. The Wynn Las Vegas replaced the Desert Inn.
1:46 Riviera & LaConcha Motel. The old El Morocco Motel was a Korean BBQ restaurant in 1999. The Riviera closed in 2015. I liked the food court here.
1:50 Treasure Island. The classic sign in this video was changed to TI in my future Vegas trips.
1:52 Hard Rock Hotel/Cafe. I used my roulette winnings to treat my cousin to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I had a milkshake in a souvenir pilsner and saved the glass. I put it with my HRC Orlando glass I got when I took Mrs. Share a Dream to Universal in 1998. Since then I now have over 40 HRC glasses. The Hard Rock Casino closed in 2020.
2:11 Las Vegas Hilton. This used to be the International Hotel.
2:14 Stratosphere. The total height is 1,149 ft.
2:20 Fremont Street Experience. This street was in Honey I Blew Up the Kid, so I wanted to see Vegas Vic and all the old school Vegas casinos.
2:24 Fremont & 4 Queens. Fremont opened in 1956 and the 4 Queens in 1966.
2:32 Golden Nugget. Steve Wynn was the youngest Vegas casino owner when he bought a majority share of this hotel in 1973.
2:34 Binion’s Horseshoe. Former home of the World Series of Poker.
2:35 Pioneer Club. This closed in 1995, but the sign was still on the building along with Vegas Vic in 1999.
2:37 Golden Goose & Golden Gate. In 1980 Vegas Vickie was placed next to the Golden Goose sign. The Golden Gate is the oldest Vegas hotel opening in 1906.
2:44 Plaza. I definitely wanted to see this hotel since it was in Back to the Future 2 and Cool World.
2:55 Fitzgeralds. This became The D in 2012.
2:56 Gold Spike. The MTV show Real World: Go Big or Go Home was filmed here.
2:57 Sam Boyd’s California. Several of my friends & family from Hawaii stay here.
3:05 The Mirage. I was able to see the volcano erupt from the car window.
3:14 Planet Hollywood. This restaurant opened in the Forum Shops in 1994 and just recently closed in 2023, but the Planet Hollywood Casino is still standing.
3:18 O’Sheas. The leprechaun mascot here is named Paddy.
3:22 Luxor. This casino contains the world’s largest atrium.

[@shutterbugstravel]

I saw your comment on the Justin Scarred video about finding the lost monorail. I used to drive these monorails in Vegas, and was curious about what footage you had. Thank you for posting this!

[@ShareaDreamComeTrue]

My friend and I went to a warehouse in Kissimmee where they had Mark IV Silver and Red. We worked for Disney so they let us in and I took about 30 minutes of video of the old monorails. The front cab, all the buttons, the cars, the seats, underneath, everything. Sadly I can’t show it because I still work for Disney.

[@shutterbugstravel]

@@ShareaDreamComeTrue That's awesome! There's something special about the IVs...I miss the sounds of the the doors opening and closing the most. Now that I've found your channel, I'll have to check out some of your other videos. We are Disneylanders, but hubs grew up going to WDW. I haven't posted any of my videos yet...our channel is a work in progress

[@jvargas6034]

Well, It Is A Shamed That The Mirage Closed As Of Wednesday, July 17, 2024

[@ShareaDreamComeTrue]

@@jvargas6034 I should update my description.