Just got back from a great few days in Vegas…
I did not really keep track of day to day activities, so I’ll break it down to highlights:
Getting There:
My friends and I flew out of Chicago O’hare on Spirit Airlines. As we did on our last trip we upgraded to Spirit Plus, which is their “business class†section. Well worth it! Roundtrip the tickets were $315. You have 2x2 leather seats with added legroom, free booze, and priority check in. It made the 3 plus house flight seem much shorter.
The flight itself was about ½ hour late, but otherwise uneventful. We arrived in Las Vegas and were greeted by our Presidential Limo driver. After a long wait for our bags (close to ½ hour before the baggage carousel even began to spit bag out) we were off to the Bellagio…
The Bellagio and Treasure Island:
We were originally booked for 5 nights at Treasure Island. However, a few weeks after we left I received an e-mail promotion for the Bellagio offering lake view rooms for $122 per night ($151.50 with taxes etc.). We could not pass that up.
Check in was pretty quick, with one snafu… they did not have the room with 2 queen beds we had reserved, but just a king room. So, for the first night we had to make do with a rollaway and switched rooms the next morning.
This was my second time staying at the Bellagio, and if I could afford it, I would stay here every time! The beds are very comfortable, the rooms are nicely appointed, and they recently installed electric drapes in the rooms. On top of that the bathroom is huge with a separate tub and shower.
We had a lake view room on the 28th floor with a great view of the fountain show with Paris in the background.
After 3 nights at the Bellagio it was time to move onto Treasure Island. We had a “tower deluxe†room reserved. The tower deluxe rooms are on higher floors with strip views. Our view was pretty good, looking south down the strip. We could pretty much see from the Venetian down to Mandalay Bay. After coming from the Bellagio, the rooms at TI did not seem nearly as nice… but in actuality, the rooms are pretty nice.
Dining:
We had 2 nice meals this trip, one at the Steakhouse at Circus Circus and one at the Top of the World Restaurant at the Stratosphere.
This was the second time I at the Circus Circus Steakhouse and once again it was great! Excellent service, food and atmosphere… and reasonable prices. I had the NY Strip, which included a side and soup or salad for $34.
The Top of the World was very nice, and I am happy I did it, but don’t think I’d do it again. The food was very good, but very pricy. The view is definitely priced into the menu. However, we also felt service to be lax. Once we were seated it took almost 15 minutes before someone gave us a menu and took our drink orders. I once again ordered a NY Strip which was $42, not including any soup our sides which were $7-$8 each. The desserts looked very tempting, but we were to full to order anything. After dinner here we went to the observation deck above to take in the sights.
Shows:
We took it 3 shows while in town, Mama Mia, Splash and Bottoms Up
Bottoms Up is an afternoon show at the Flamingo. We saw it on a visit last year and decided to see it again. With a coupon where you could find just about everywhere (even at the box office as we discovered) the ticket is about $8.00 which includes a free drink (word of advise, to avoid a watered down drink, order THEN present the free drink coupon…). For the price, the show is not bad… some topless dances, comedy, sketches etc… Some of the comedy reminds me of old Laugh In reruns I used to watch on Nick at Nite.
Splash is the variety show at the Riveria. We bought tickets that day from Tickets Tonight (in the strip mall near the new Hawaiian marketplace and Harley Davidson Café) which were about $23.00. Our original seats were pretty crappy, but with a $20 tip we were seated right up front. All in all the show was good, but very corney. However, I would have been very disappointed if I had paid full price… The show offers topless dancers, ice skaters, magician, comedians etc. and concludes with a few motorcyclists in the circle of death. If you go into it expecting to see something kinda hokey and silly, you’ll enjoy it. Just don’t expect some top notch Broadway caliber production…this is not it.
Mama Mia was great! This was my second time seeing it, and I thought this production was better than the one I saw in Chicago in spring. I would highly recommend it. Tickets are more expensive than other Vegas production shows, but well worth it.
Downtown/Fremont Street Experience
On Friday night after dinner we went to check out the new Fremont Street Experience. I have to say, the new “screen†is really cool, but the show sucked! It was some animated alien attack, we fight back show. What ever happened to the ones set to music that you could dance to should you be intoxicated enough to do so?
Gambling/Drinking etc.
We did most of out gambling at Bellagio and Treasure Island. I found drink service at both places to be decent. I was offered cocktails when just sitting at a machine and not playing. On this trip I played mostly slots and some roulette (the friends I went with are not table game players…) All in all I did OK until the last day. I was up a few bucks then gave most of it back. The good news, I guess, is that insofar as gambling was concerned I broke about even. I was very happy not to have to hit the ATM or cash any travelers checks.
Rental Car
We decided to rent a car for this trip. We went through budget. For 4 days the total was $169 for a Nissan Altima. All went smoothly there. But, in the end I don’t think we got as much use out of it as we could have. We maybe saved $50 or $60 in cab fares. However, we did take a day trip on Saturday to Red Rock Canyon. That was very cool. This was my 12th or so trip to Vegas and I have never left the strip (less to go to Fremont Street downtown). I have never seen the natural desert landscape before.
Well, that is about it. The rest is basically drinking and gambling all meshed into one vodka induced cloud
I did not really keep track of day to day activities, so I’ll break it down to highlights:
Getting There:
My friends and I flew out of Chicago O’hare on Spirit Airlines. As we did on our last trip we upgraded to Spirit Plus, which is their “business class†section. Well worth it! Roundtrip the tickets were $315. You have 2x2 leather seats with added legroom, free booze, and priority check in. It made the 3 plus house flight seem much shorter.
The flight itself was about ½ hour late, but otherwise uneventful. We arrived in Las Vegas and were greeted by our Presidential Limo driver. After a long wait for our bags (close to ½ hour before the baggage carousel even began to spit bag out) we were off to the Bellagio…
The Bellagio and Treasure Island:
We were originally booked for 5 nights at Treasure Island. However, a few weeks after we left I received an e-mail promotion for the Bellagio offering lake view rooms for $122 per night ($151.50 with taxes etc.). We could not pass that up.
Check in was pretty quick, with one snafu… they did not have the room with 2 queen beds we had reserved, but just a king room. So, for the first night we had to make do with a rollaway and switched rooms the next morning.
This was my second time staying at the Bellagio, and if I could afford it, I would stay here every time! The beds are very comfortable, the rooms are nicely appointed, and they recently installed electric drapes in the rooms. On top of that the bathroom is huge with a separate tub and shower.
We had a lake view room on the 28th floor with a great view of the fountain show with Paris in the background.
After 3 nights at the Bellagio it was time to move onto Treasure Island. We had a “tower deluxe†room reserved. The tower deluxe rooms are on higher floors with strip views. Our view was pretty good, looking south down the strip. We could pretty much see from the Venetian down to Mandalay Bay. After coming from the Bellagio, the rooms at TI did not seem nearly as nice… but in actuality, the rooms are pretty nice.
Dining:
We had 2 nice meals this trip, one at the Steakhouse at Circus Circus and one at the Top of the World Restaurant at the Stratosphere.
This was the second time I at the Circus Circus Steakhouse and once again it was great! Excellent service, food and atmosphere… and reasonable prices. I had the NY Strip, which included a side and soup or salad for $34.
The Top of the World was very nice, and I am happy I did it, but don’t think I’d do it again. The food was very good, but very pricy. The view is definitely priced into the menu. However, we also felt service to be lax. Once we were seated it took almost 15 minutes before someone gave us a menu and took our drink orders. I once again ordered a NY Strip which was $42, not including any soup our sides which were $7-$8 each. The desserts looked very tempting, but we were to full to order anything. After dinner here we went to the observation deck above to take in the sights.
Shows:
We took it 3 shows while in town, Mama Mia, Splash and Bottoms Up
Bottoms Up is an afternoon show at the Flamingo. We saw it on a visit last year and decided to see it again. With a coupon where you could find just about everywhere (even at the box office as we discovered) the ticket is about $8.00 which includes a free drink (word of advise, to avoid a watered down drink, order THEN present the free drink coupon…). For the price, the show is not bad… some topless dances, comedy, sketches etc… Some of the comedy reminds me of old Laugh In reruns I used to watch on Nick at Nite.
Splash is the variety show at the Riveria. We bought tickets that day from Tickets Tonight (in the strip mall near the new Hawaiian marketplace and Harley Davidson Café) which were about $23.00. Our original seats were pretty crappy, but with a $20 tip we were seated right up front. All in all the show was good, but very corney. However, I would have been very disappointed if I had paid full price… The show offers topless dancers, ice skaters, magician, comedians etc. and concludes with a few motorcyclists in the circle of death. If you go into it expecting to see something kinda hokey and silly, you’ll enjoy it. Just don’t expect some top notch Broadway caliber production…this is not it.
Mama Mia was great! This was my second time seeing it, and I thought this production was better than the one I saw in Chicago in spring. I would highly recommend it. Tickets are more expensive than other Vegas production shows, but well worth it.
Downtown/Fremont Street Experience
On Friday night after dinner we went to check out the new Fremont Street Experience. I have to say, the new “screen†is really cool, but the show sucked! It was some animated alien attack, we fight back show. What ever happened to the ones set to music that you could dance to should you be intoxicated enough to do so?
Gambling/Drinking etc.
We did most of out gambling at Bellagio and Treasure Island. I found drink service at both places to be decent. I was offered cocktails when just sitting at a machine and not playing. On this trip I played mostly slots and some roulette (the friends I went with are not table game players…) All in all I did OK until the last day. I was up a few bucks then gave most of it back. The good news, I guess, is that insofar as gambling was concerned I broke about even. I was very happy not to have to hit the ATM or cash any travelers checks.
Rental Car
We decided to rent a car for this trip. We went through budget. For 4 days the total was $169 for a Nissan Altima. All went smoothly there. But, in the end I don’t think we got as much use out of it as we could have. We maybe saved $50 or $60 in cab fares. However, we did take a day trip on Saturday to Red Rock Canyon. That was very cool. This was my 12th or so trip to Vegas and I have never left the strip (less to go to Fremont Street downtown). I have never seen the natural desert landscape before.
Well, that is about it. The rest is basically drinking and gambling all meshed into one vodka induced cloud
