Day 3 - "gambling" at Excaliber

My mother refers to arcade/carnival-type games as "kiddie gambling." And she's right. It's pretty much gambling - except for instead of money and cars, you're playing for cheap toys and candy that you could buy at a fraction of the cost you spend trying to win them. But, it's "fun."

Excaliber has one of the best kiddie gambling centers (next is Circus Circus, which we visit later in the week). However... it's become rather dated. Nonetheless, it was a great place to waste $20.

As soon as I entered the kiddie casino, I spotted Mickey Mouse. Now, if you haven't figured it out by now, I am a HUGE Disney fan. And I LOVE Mickey Mouse. The plush Mickey Mouses were cheap-looking - nothing in comparison to the plush Mickeys you can purchase at WDW. However, in the "medium" prizes sat a gondola Mickey. How, exactly, he related to Excaliber, I'm am unsure. The Venetian, maybe... but Excaliber??? It didn't matter. I HAD to have one!

My dad gave me $3 to start off and we split up. The game was simple - spend $1 to toss three baseballs into a 9x9 grid to get three in a row. For an extra dollar, you could purchase a fourth ball. Easy, right? Well, I spent my first $3 on that game and went back to Dad emptihanded. He tried to convince me to give up - to play other games. But there were no other Disney prizes. So, Dad agreed to come back and play the game for me. He ended up getting three in a row on the fourth ball, which won me the small prize - a 4-inch Mickey that looked like he popped out of a cereal box. Dad played again - and lost on the fourth ball. He walked away while I tried to convince the guy working to allow me to pay him $4 and give back my small prize in order to get the gondola Mickey, but he kept telling me he couldn't. I walked away heartbroken.

But I wouldn't give up. I came back a third time with Rachel. Now, Rachel is no athlete. Rachel has little hand-eye coordination. But she was willing to play, and that's all that mattered. I waited back as she walked up to the booth. The first ball fell onto the floor. "She doesn't have a chance," Dad muttered. The attendant picked up the ball and gave it back to her, and she tossed it into the grid. Second in the grid. Third... three in a row! I immediately walked up and forcefully handed the attendant my stuffed cereal Mickey, and he gave me gondola Mickey. I was so happy. For $8, I won (err... Dad and Rachel one) a gondola Mickey! H elooks like he's worth $8... maybe $6.


Here's gondola Mickey!

Well, after that, we still had some change to spend, so Rachel, Dad, and I went to the arcade games and started playing - better to try for tickets than more cheap plush. At least we could exchange tickets for candy.

I won 50 tickets on some Spongebob drop-the-quarter-on-the-square game. And we wasted a bunch of quarters.


Big Bertha was looking a little old...


I'm just helping Rachel out...


Okay... I'm totally cheating.

We then went upstairs to find the height/weight/age guesser. Rachel was convinced that she could fool him on her weight, and I figured I might could get him on age. But he cost $5 and none of the prizes were anything we wanted, so we passed.