February 14 - 21 Bellagio / Aria

SATURDAY FEB 14

I was traveling to Vegas for a work conference. My conference was from Sun Feb 15 to Wed Feb 18. The conference was being held at The Bellagio. The plan was for my wife to join me on Tuesday afternoon and then we would both come back on Friday Feb 20. We would stay longer to have more non-work time together but my sister was watching our child.

My wife “allowed me” to purchase a first class upgrade for the flight out, so that was good. I had 7:50 flight out of PHL which gets in about 10:30 AM local Time. This gives me most of the first day of free time before my conference starts the next day. The flight was uneventful. As usual, the US AIR first class breakfast leaves something to desire.

I had rented a car through Hertz, since I like to drive places and not be limited to the strip. I got a matchbox car, or they called it a Chevy Spark. I like going to John Mulls Road Kill Grill, so drove out there for lunch before I checked into the Bellagio.

It was more crowded than usual. They had the outside setup going and there was some sort of Blues group meeting there that day. It took a while to get my food, but I love BBQ so I am ok with the wait. It also felt good to sit in the sun and eat, since I had just left the NE weather behind.




I got to the Bellagio after 1:00 pm. There were only a few people waiting to check-in and it went quickly. I was given a room in the SPA tower since it is closer to the conference area. Last year, I had stayed in the main tower. The SPA tower is fine, and it is good because it is very close to the tram to Aria, but it is HIKE to the casino floor or out to the strip. The room was standard Bellagio, very nice, well kept and clean. Housekeeping was good, as well as turn down service. The first night I didn’t need turndown service, and spoke with the housekeeper, scored a bunch of chocolate.

I played some Video Poker, as well as a poker tournament at Bally’s but no significant wins or losses.



SUNDAY FEB 15

This was a pretty mellow day. My conference started in the afternoon, so I played a morning poker tournament and then went to Hooters for lunch. I played some $5 blackjack, but lost under $100.
I registered for my conference, went to the afternoon session and the cocktail reception.

MONDAY FEB 16

This was the first full day of the conference, so that took up most of my day. Back home they were calling for storm that night and into Tuesday morning. We were worried that my wife’s flight would be cancelled, so she called and was able to get the last seat (really, the last row middle seat) on the 5 something flight that afternoon. She had only 2 hours to pack and get to the airport in time. I had used miles for her flight, so they charged $25; I think cause of an award processing fee, but no change fee because of the storm. They said because it was a pro-active move to an earlier flight rather than later or something. We were fine with that.

After the conference, I went to Memphis Championship BBQ to try that out. My full review is on another travel site, but I thought it was just ok overall.

After dinner, I went to the Hat Shop in Mandalay Bay to get a new panama style fedora. I needed a new tan one.

I picked up my wife at the airport; her flight was pretty much on time, which was good. This worked out better, since my wife would have 3 full days in Vegas.

That night, I was playing Video Poker and got my first Hand Pay. It was only $200. I hit four 3’s at Bellagio on some machine that took a max bet of 10 quarters. The attendant was over to pay me my money before I could even try to signal for someone.




TUESDAY FEB 17

We had Zarkana premium seats from MyVegas for tonight. I thought Zarkana was pretty good, but as with most Cirque shows, they could have cut out 1 or 2 of the acts that weren’t as entertaining. The seats from MyVegas were pretty close but to the right, the clowns came into our section before the show. The theater was maybe 75% filled for the show. I liked it better than KA.

After Zarkana we played some slots and checked out the Linq area. My wife hadn’t been to Vegas since February of last year so she had never been.



WEDNESDAY FEB 18

This was the last day of my conference and my included Bellagio nights, I could of added nights at Bellagio, but my wife had never stayed at Aria, so I figured we would move over there. I purchased early check in so that we wouldn’t be without a room having to check out of Bellagio. We checked into Aria around 9:15, check in was very quick and we had a strip view. I will say the short time we were there, the housekeeping was terrible. We didn’t receive turndown service that night or any service the next day. That was probably because my wife had DND on in the morning, but we were out of the room from around 12:30 PM until that evening. I had a $100 resort credit with my rooms, so my wife got a pedicure, which still cost me $60 since it was $130 and she tipped $30.

We decided to see another show or 2 and went with Carrot Top and then Fantasy that is in the same theater at the Luxor. After my conference we started heading down to Luxor.

We had an early dinner at Bobby’s Burger Palace. Overall the burger was very good, but we didn’t’ care for the fries that much.

We had 2 free entries to the Ice Bar at Monte Carlo, courtesy of MyVegas. There was nobody else there when we went in. This was a pretty cool (pun intended) experience to do once, but I wouldn’t need to do it again. The glasses were made of ice and the drinks were around $12 each, give or take depending on what you got. We talked with the Bartender while in there and my second drink was pretty strong. He even gave us a sample taste of one of the liquors my wife wasn’t sure of. They don’t let you take cameras or phones in, so we bought there pictures they took.

We say Carrot Top first. The theater is on the small side, and although we bought the tickets that morning, we had front row seats. I would highly recommend this show, he was funny, did a mixture of prop comedy and jokes, and had some timely jokes in there, so he keeps it fresh. My wife even got hit with the toilet paper roll gun. You cannot take pictures during the show, they are very strict about this with signs all over and announcements, I mean seriously, it’s carrot top.

We exited after Carrot Top and then waited in line to go back in for the Fantasy show. We had the fourth row, which is the aisle and give you more legroom. The show was pretty bad; the comedian was not very funny. I don’t think she was the regular comedian for the show. It was also annoying because the guy behind us was talking most of the time. You of course also can’t take pictures during Fantasy, but the dancers, singer and comedian were in the lobby after the show to have pictures taken with them.




THURSDAY FEB 19

I played the 9:00 poker Tournament at Bally’s. I chopped 1st and 2nd place with another player and we each won $370. I went back to the room, where my wife was still sleeping at noon and we decided to go to the Road Kill Grill for lunch since I love BBQ, and my wife is ok eating pulled pork and likes their Mac and Cheese.. It was just as crowded as earlier in the week but they were serving from inside.

On the way, my wife saw all the BINGO signs at the off strip casinos and wanted to try Bingo. We looked online while eating lunch and saw most played bingo every odd hour during the day. We decided to stop at Fiesta Rancho Casino on the way back to play some bingo. It was a little confusing cause they do all kind of different sheets and hard way, double bingo etc. Becky in the bingo room was great and explained everything to us as well as checked in on us during the games to make sure we were ok. We went for the cheapest package that was $8 each. My wife actually hit a bingo and won $50. They do only paper here, which was fine because my wife remembers using the daubers and such playing with her grandmother. It was a fun way to spend an hour.

I mostly played video poker that night or slots with my wife. No significant wins or losses. I did play the machine at Aria that hit for over a million dollars the next night.



FRIDAY FEB 20

We had an early 7:00 am flight. Got Gas, returned the rental car and had an uneventful flight back home. The flight back is always shorter and we arrived about 25 minutes early as well. Of course it is PHL, so you have to wait a minimum of 30 minutes for luggage to start appearing in baggage claim.

 

Great trip report. That barbeque looks amazing. Will have to check it out.

 

Great report!!! Love the wife's smile at the show... happy wife=happy life!

 

Great report! Sounds like fun!

 

Great trip report! I know exactly which VP machines at Bellagio that you hit your four 3's on. I play those every time we stay there.