I'm back from my Vegas trip. I believe there are two Hiltons in Vegas? I saw another hotel with a big "H" on it and assumed it was the Hilton. We stayed at the bigger/newer one near the Stratosphere. The hotel was very nice, no complaints at all. I found two types of slot machines I really liked! I managed to limit myself to $100-ish (okay maybe a bit more!).
Yes, the magic show was Dirk Arthur at the Tropicana. You are right: the theater layout was odd and our seats weren't particularly good. Some of the tricks were decent but the whole act was a bit cheesy and Dirk seemed to think rather a lot of himself. Anyway, for $22 a person I guess you get what you pay for.

The last trick was quite impressive (it made my girlfriend jump and nearly spill her drink!) and it was nice to see the big cats. Oh, and the Tropicana looked like a dump. I imagine that many people here are already aware of this fact but I wouldn't want to stay there.
As we were only in Vegas from Friday evening until Sunday lunchtime, we didn't have time to go in many of the hotels. We had dinner at this Italian restaurant in the Excalibur on Saturday night and we also went into the Body exhibition in the Luxor. I was keen on checking out the Titanic exhibition too but was already choking back the tears caused by the $68 ($34 each) price tag for the Body thing. I also wanted to go into the Star Trek Experience but ran out of time (it's not much of an excuse really seeing how the Experience was in the hotel we were staying at).
We took the elevator to the top of the Stratosphere too. The view is probably better at night but it would be difficult to take photos at night. They don't allow tripods up there, which I would understand if it was a glass floor but it isn't. Maybe it's to stop somebody from swinging a tripod into one of the windows and breaking it? I don't know. But yeah, without a tripod I can't imagine a night photo coming out very well unless you have a very steady hand! But the views were great during the day too.
The worst part of the trip was the traffic on the way there. I wasn't sure what the traffic would be like on Boxing Day. It's not a holiday here but, of course, it's still the day after Christmas and you never know. Anyhow, it took us 7 hours to get from LA to Vegas when it should be do-able in 5 hours max. The traffic was better coming back but was a nightmare around Primm. The traffic was heavy anyway (averaging about 20mph around Primm) and a traffic light problem by the I15 freeway entrance in Primm didn't help matters. People illegally using the shoulder as a fourth freeway lane also made the situation interesting.
All in all, I greatly enjoyed Vegas... certainly more than last time I went. I can now see why some people fly there from LA, even though it's not that far away, just to avoid the traffic. Still, I do like having my own car there so I'd probably drive it again. I can now also see why a lot of people can spend a week or two there. If you go to shows and exhibitions, there would easily be enough to do in a week. Of course, that also means spending a lot more money... maybe next year!