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Where?
South Strip
Ostensible Theme
The name, the décor and the clientele all point to one
unofficial theme- Quartzsite, or any other colony of senior citizens
in the American Southwest.
Clientele The
Ensure Set rules this roost, so no smart-mouths, you young whippersnappers!
Employee costumes
The cocktail waitresses and change ladies embody the Western
casual look with their black vests, white blouses, blue jeans
and hair as big as the great outdoors. Speaking of employees,
more than half of Vacation Village's staff must be security guards.
They, of course, are wearing crime-deterring badges and nightsticks.
Carpet and Other Decor
The most dramatic part of the décor is outdoors, actually.
Some frantic bronze ponies buck and toss their tangled bronze
manes as a hungry bronze puma stalks them among the cacti. After
that, it's pretty anticlimactic. The carpet, with a Native American
motif of geometric shapes and feather-like objects, rivals only
the Plaza's in the amount of grime per square inch. The high
ceiling is accented with terra cotta, dusty rose and teal beams
and plenty of security mirrors.
One point of interest is how VV includes handmade craft items
in its design scheme. For instance, two surprised-looking sheep
with cowboy hats guard the Casino Promotions booth (And I am
not talking about the elderly women behind the booth!). There
are also scarecrows and giant stuffed jesters draped over all
of the prize vehicles. Lots of casinos dabble in kitsch, but
not of the homemade variety. Vacation Village takes the Southwestern
Senior Center chic to its limit!
The background music was the cheesiest of the cheesy honky-tonk
tunes, featuring a healthy amount of Waylon and yodellin'.
Food
The Denny's plays along with cactus, faux pictographs, paintings
of pottery and then utterly confuses its clientele with some
vaguely Asian-looking cranes. For an even faster meal, there's
Roberto's Taco Shop, which presumably serves a exotic Mexican
dish called tacos.
Games
If you have your airline ticket receipt, you can spin a wheel
for cash and prizes within the first 24 hours you're in Las Vegas.
Unfortunately, if you arrived in your very own RV, you're outta
luck; there's no magic wheel for you.
Entertainment
"Koo Koo's" is a bar whose sign features a loopy
little pictograph bird who is, presumably, koo koo. The Arrowhead
Bar is another bar, but it's decorated with neon Indian arrowheads
and icicle lights (available at Kmart for $1.99 for a strand
of 100!).
Other Services
The gift shop has a large collection of Southwest-themed
gifts such as Indian jewelry and hot sauce, along with plenty
of Pokemon for the grandkids. "Hair's the Action" hair
salon has the appropriate amount of twang in the name- just say
it a few times, and see. Vacation Village also serves its clientele
with meeting rooms, banquet facilities and an arcade.
Did it work?
If the theme of this casino was elderly retirees driving their
RVs around the American Southwest, buying Indian jewelry and
organizing impromptu craft bazaars, these folks are right on
the dinero. If that's not what they meant, then this place is
just weird.
Suggestions
Perhaps those creepy dolls in the casino could be replaced
with other crafts- ojos de Dios, chile ristras and other things
endemic to the Southwest.
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