Letter: New Year’s visitor feels he was cheated

Sunday, Jan. 9, 2000 | 9:48 a.m.

While preparing for the evening in our hotel room Friday night we watched on television as every major city in the world welcomed 2000 with events and celebrations, each more spectacular than the last, culminating with Times Square in New York's massive gathering. After the ball dropped we headed out to the Strip to find ... nothing.

The lack of fireworks was bad enough, but couldn't some effort have been made to give us visitors who didn't buy the thousand-dollar show tickets something to see? How much effort would it have taken, say, for the Mirage to have timed their volcano blast to go off at midnight instead of 11:55? Or for Strip casinos to briefly dim their lights only to have them explode in color and light again at midnight?

Don't get me wrong, we all had a great time, but probably no better a time than had we visited a month earlier or later. We left the city feeling like we had been denied a special experience promised to us, and knowing that we would most likely not entrust Las Vegas with a major event again.

KEN GOLDSTEIN Seattle