trip report april 20-25 (day 1)

howdy all... first time poster here, multiple time vegas go'er. another first was that this was a first time with a girlfriend and not with "the boys". definitely a new, but excellent experience.

we booked from april 20-23, but didn't return til early AM on the 25th. crazy and details provided below.

Day 1:
woke up at 5:30 on sat morning to get to jfk for the 7:30 flight. other than a 30 minute delay, we arrived at mccarin without incidence. i booked 3 nights at the bellagio, although i typically stay at the venetian. i figured that i would do something different this go around with my gf. in retrospect, staying from sunday through wed would've been a lot less expensive, since sat night's room rate was $459, with sun and mon being $169. however, we did luck out at checkin, as the front desk woman was so nice and pleasant in trying to accomodate my request for a high floor. she didn't have anything, so she upgraded us to a "fountain view" for free! saved us $50/night. very very cool of her. i was terribly disappointed with the room itself, compared to those at the venetian... i mean, $459 should pay for at least a closet in the wall and not just an armoir in the entertainment center. BUT, and this is a big BUT, the view of the bellagio fountains more than made up for the room disappointment. the view of the water shows from high above really puts a different perspective on how the water comes out and the patterns of the fountains themself. *breathtaking*
we went and walked throught the caesars forum shops and grabbed a quick sandwich at the NY Deli... went on to walk to the venetian and walked through the casino and shops at the venetian. i am always blown away by the ceiling at the ventian shops because it's perpetually "day" there... beautiful but probably the casio's way of making you think that you could stay all day even during the nights. hah... stopped at the grand luxe cafe (same owner as the cheesecake factory) for a bit of dessert and coffee. we went back to the bellagio and got ready for the "Scintas" at the rio that evening. thanks to whoever it was that posted the 2-1 tickets for the scintas here on this forum. we got to the rio a bit early, had some drinks and gambled a bit (usually blackjack). wound up winning about $50 in 15 mins, felt good about having the tix paid for and then really enjoyed the show. they were VERY good and have been receiving excellent reviews. i do recommend this show....
afterwards, we went to the Paris and walked around a bit, looking at the shops there. played a bit of blackjack and wound up getting a breakfast comp for the next morning. we got back to our room at around 1am or so. my gf was exhausted so she went to bed...i wound up gambling til about 4am and then called it quits, up a bit...

what a long day it was. all said, we were up for about 24 hours. will fill in on subsequent days, as it is too much to go over in one mail. hopefully, i'll be less wordy...

nite all. great first day!

 

Nice report, looking forward to the others!

Lucky you being able to see the Bellagio fountains from such a height.