1st TR: Bellagio w/ Family June 11-15

First attempt at a trip report. Hope someone is able to find some useful or entertaining tidbit. Will post narrative as reply. Here's a summary.

Reason: Annual Family Vacation with me, my wife (both in 40's) and 8 yo son

Hotel : Bellagio for 4 nights. 3 were Comped.

Room type: Foutain View King Non Smoking Room Number 14018

Eats: Cafe Bellagio, Jean Philippe Patissiere, Wazuzu, Aria Buffet

Shows: Mystere and Le Reve

Gambling: Slots at Bellagio

Highlight: Making friends with a complete stranger. We'll call him German Dude.

 

Transportation:

Caught the red eye out of Honolulu on Hawaiian Air on one of their new Airbus 330s. The seats move forward a little as you recline back. I'm still not decided if that feature helps to make it anymore comfortable than than the older 767s. There's a video entertainment monitor in the back of each headrest which is nice, but you have to pay with a credit card to access practically any of the features like music channels, movies, games, etc.

Transportation was not part of our offer, but I decided to just try and email our slot host. I figured the worse she could say was no. I was pleasantly surprised to get a response with an itinerary for our transportation!

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Hotel:

We got to the Hotel around 730 am and no-one was working the Invited Guest Checkin line. Which didn't really matter because based on my experience in the past, I never felt I was treated any differently there than at the regular check in/out lines. Everything turned out fine though. No $20 trick or dangling any cash out in the open or anything. I just asked her nicely if there might be any paid or complimentary upgrades available. She said she would check and then asked if a fountain view room is okay. Of course it was more than okay and off we went to our room. I never get tired of this view.

Day...

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Or Night...

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Those Villas sure look cool...

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Dining:

Bellagio Cafe:

I always really liked the ambiance of this Coffe Shop. Whether it be a view of the pools or the conservatory, it's just plain relaxing for me and is our usual choice for breakfast and lunch.

The French onion soup and Bellagio Classic Omelette with lobster, cheese, tomatoes and asparagus was quite awesome!

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Wife really liked the blue-berry pancakes. Son always gets the Bellagio Waffles with Strawberries for Breakfast and the Angus burger for lunch. One day though the bun was over toasted or somethin and was hard as a cracker. Other than that, good food, good service and a great place to start off any day.

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Oh yeah and the Mojitos were really good too!

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Jean Philippe Patissiere:

Besides the awesome pastries, chocolates and crepes, JP also makes some really really good sandwiches! The Ham and Cheese and Prociutto sandwhiches were my favorites. The bread they use is soft and moist...almost a cake like quality to them. They have some kind of seasoned spread they use along with fresh mixed greens that is drizzeled very lightly with dressing. The meat tenderness melts in your mouth and explodes with the mixture of flavors from the spread and dressing.

Wazuzu

Before Le Reve, we were craving for some thing Asian. Wing Lei wasn't open yet and we didn't meet the dress code that was posted anyway. So it was Wazuzu. Very nice setting with a dragon made of crystals adorning the wall behind us. I liked the drunken noodles and wish I ordered it spicier.

I think this was called the Red Dragon Roll. Shrimp tempura in the middle with Ahi (Tuna) on top with some nice crunchy stuff sprinkled.

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Aria Buffet

My wife likes the Aria Buffett because they have Kimchee there that she says is even better than what she makes. For me as long as they have mountain of king and snow crab legs I'm happy. Son likes the Pizza here better than the Bellagio Buffet for whatever reason kids choose something over another.

 

Shows:

Le Reve:

I think the family is starting to get over stimulated by all the shows we've seen over the past few trips. I thought Le Reve was good and a nice break from the run of O shows that we've seen several times in a row now. We sat in section A row D and I think I would've liked to have been further back because there was a lot of action that made you look up, then down then back up again and then back down. If I didn't have arthritis in my neck I probably wouldn't have noticed that detail.

Mystere

Wife and Kid weren't as impressed as I was. I guess I just really like the whole Cirque approach to shows. The costumes, the morphing stages, the music and the amazing demonstration of what the human body can do. We sat in the back of section 205 using a summer of cirque promo. Even though it allowed you to see some of the going ons that were occuring in other parts of the theater, I thought it was too far.

Overall, the family voted O as still our number 1 show.

Gambling:

My wife and I take turns gambling. She gambles during the day while I'm doing pool time or something with my Son and then in the evenings she keeps him busy while I gamble.

One of the only times I can really clear my mind of work is when I'm playing slots. I'm one of those guys who no matter how hard I try, work, especially problematic stuff, creeps into my brain. Hitting the slots (with a few Bellagio Cocktails) really helps reset things for me, like clearing your cache from your internet browser.

First night, machines were killing me. Was down to my last few dollars and then hit 4OAK on this Super Times Pay machine with 5x multiplier that sits near the ATM/Ticket Dispenser and bathroom near the Buffet. Sorry for the blurry pic, but I was having a hard time keeping the camera still.

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I actually hit another 4OAK on the same machine aces with a kicker, but no multiplier. The pic for that didn't come out at all.

Second night nothing special on slots, but did meet German Dude who was there for a wedding...well he was actually there for 2 weddings his own and his nephew's. He and I ended up playing a few hours on the Hot Shots penny slots that was in the bank of penny slots near the elevators and Tutto gift shop. We had a great time cussing out the bonus game when it didn't give us a chance to spin for that million dollars. I personally thanked him and his country for their contibution to the world: the Porsche 911 Turbo and Race Car Drivers Walter Rohrl and Michael Shumacher. Anyway Bud, if you happen to be reading this send me a PM if you ever come to Hawaii.

Third night the stars and moon must've been aligned correctly.

German Dude and I were hitting that Hot Shots penny slots again and as I was waiting for the machine next to him to open up I hit this...

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The lady next to him had some stamina and I needed to gamble on something so I went across the way to the dollar VP and Bam!

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Sorry I didn't get pics of the other 4OAKs that came my way on 25 and 50 cents VP. But overall it was a good enough night to make up for the previous nights' losses.

The final night was like a bad movie that you just can't stop watching. No pics from that. It would be just a bunch of 2 pairs on DDB VP, no bonus spins or games on any of the penny slots...yes...the Cows were NOT mooing very much at all...

Okay that's it! Thanks for reading and thanks for all your help in sharing your own experiences to help us make this trip awesome!

 

Killer, thanks for sharing. I like the kid hand off move as well. She does her thing, you do yours, kid's taken care of all the way. Nice.

 

I can't really tell what is intriguing about the Villas from your picture, all I see is a flat roof top...

 

I'm one of those trip report readers who loves to see the pictures of great wins and good food.

Congratulations on your good fortune.

Good to know that Wazuzu will prepare the dishes as hot as you want.
I'm putting this one up higher on our list of places to eat at Wynncore.

 

they do that on the new Delta planes as well. what that does is change the pivot point of the seat. effectively, what it does is make it so that when you recline, you're taking away leg room from yourself rather than taking it entirely away from the person behind you. your legs get closer to the seat in front of you while your seat goes back less into the person behind you.

the only person it helps is the person who doesn't recline, but the person in front of him does. he has more legroom than before and feels less like the person in front of him is in his lap. but if you're a person who reclines, it doesn't help you any and actually gives you less room.

 

Thanks for the TR. Curious about the "something"'s your and your wife do with your son. I'm trying to upsell Vegas to my sister and her three kids. You've got pool shows and dining out . Anything else you find enjoyable...or choose to avoid?

(Onlookers can bump an existing kids thread or start a new one for a third-party opinion if they wish.)

 

Thanks for your story--Glad ya had fun

 

Your attempt at a trip report was successful. (IMO) Loved all the pics. Thanks for a great read!