Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Vegas! We haven’t been since January of 1990 and boy has it
changed. It was always over the top but now it is outsized and even further over
the top. We didn’t even recognize any part of the airport.
So, we were up at 4am to get to the airport 2 hours in
advance of our flight. We took TTA bus 100 to the airport again. We didn’t
realize it until the day before departure and too late, but Clay can go get a
photo ID with them and ride for free now. We had an expensive breakfast at
Carolina Ale House since it was open and in sight of our gate. Clay had
pancakes and I had French toast and neither were served as described on the
menu. I think they were about $10 each and a disappointment. At least we got
glasses of ice water so we could fill my bottle with ice cold water for the day
out of it.
We flew American Airlines and had to change planes in DFW. We shared
a cup of mini pretzel dogs at Auntie Anne’s in the DFW airport. They were
funny, but really good. They were some kind of spicy little brats instead of
just hot dogs. American served absolutely no snacks and none were even offered
for sale. On both legs as we ordered Cokes, we were just handed a dirty
unopened can and a bit later a small plastic cup with ice in it. I guess it is
quicker to get through the plane that way. The S80’s we flew should have been
identical and we were in 8A & B on the 2 seat side on each leg. On the
first leg we were on the bulkhead and on the second leg we were one row back.
You figure it out. We didn’t have any problems at all, but it still is just a
nightmare for me to fly. We had some turbulence late into the first flight (or
I did) and I got nauseous and it took hours to stop. I hate everything about
flying except for the speed, I guess. We flew over Hoover Dam. So, it is 7:15pm
here in Las Vegas, but after 10pm at home and in my mind! I have been exhausted
since 3pm.
We got a Toyota Corolla rental car at Budget by the airport and
Clay’s GPS brought us right here without any problems. We are staying at the
Bellagio for the first 2 nights. We just drove right into self-parking and it
is convenient and free. We have been parking on 2, but I think we have figured
out that if we enter the first bay that would be level one and direct entry to
the casino floor and hotel registration. We had reserved a fountain view room
online at Bellagio’s website. We were assigned a strip view room in the spa
tower. We went up there without understanding the layout yet. It was only a
partial fountain view as we saw the first show of the day at 3pm. You had to
stand right at one side of the window and turn your head to see most of the
fountain lake. We wound up being upsold to a full fountain view room in the
Bellagio Tower. Our room is 15062. I think it is $50 dollars more, maybe per day. I’m not sure. I
will check the paper work after we get home. (I have checked the paperwork and I still don't know. It is impossible to understand. Clay didn't understand it either when we went to check out but he finally agreed to it. Our total bill with one meal and drinks and 2 nights was $708.79.) I think Clay was willing to pay
anything not to hear me bellyache about it for 2 days. The first woman who
checked us in told us we had a $100 food credit on our room key cards. Now, I
guess we’ll see if the $100 stayed after the room change and new keys, etc. (It did.) The
fountains though are amazing. The first song we saw was Elvis’ Viva Las Vegas
and it was funny. The best one so far was Time to Say Goodbye. Next was actually some Christmas song. The
early ones were good, but after dark they add lights and even though they are
all white it really adds a lot to it. The last song was Singing in the Rain.
Adorable! The played 2 or 3 country/western ones. The accompanying music is on
channel 22 on the TV. For some reason, you aren’t allowed to type 22 to get to
that channel you can type 21 or 23 and arrow to it though. Go figure, since
every time you want 22 you are in a hurry. The fountains put on a show Monday thru
Friday every 30 minutes at the top and bottom of the hour from 3pm to 7pm, from
then to midnight it is every 15 minutes. I wanted to see it from outside to see if
it was different without the dirty window and glare from the room lights. Also
from the room, it seems like the boom from the water cannons must be
overwhelming. You can hear and feel it up on the 15th floor with the
entire Casino between here and there. I asked where of the Concierge and he
said they have a bar downstairs off the casino called Hyde that you can go to
an outside rooftop terrace and watch it but after 10pm it becomes a nightclub with a
cover charge. I wanted to go so Clay could get some photos, but he wanted to
eat first and when we came back he didn’t want to go.
We saw an In-n-Out Burger on the way here and decided to
go there for dinner tonight. Clay has been wanting to eat there for years. There
has always been some reason when we are near one that he hasn’t and at some
point it became a real quest. Well, now
we’ve been and honestly I think I can say we haven’t been missing anything. It
was alright. It was probably even good, but after all the hype I think we were
both a little let down. The buns are nicely toasted so you get a crisp bite
with every bite. (But Steak and Shake does that too and serves on real plates!) The fries were not great though they seemed homemade. Maybe we
should have gotten shakes, but they were pouring gallon jugs into the machine
as we stood there to order and it just didn’t look appealing to me.
When we got back to Bellagio after eating burgers, we found
the fitness center. Open from 6am to 8pm. Clay will pass today but they had
about 20 treadmills. Not to mention all the other equipment. You have to go
through the spa to get there and it looks like you have to pay to get in there
and use it, but it is included with your room. At the $25 a day resort fee that
is supposed to cover that, you’d think it would be open 24 hours. Then we looked at
Chihuly which was a disappointment after Seattle! Even the Chihuly ceiling at
the Reception desk was not as impressive or well-lit as the Chihuly Glass in
Seattle. A little bit of a letdown. We had read a lot about the Conservatory
garden but it looked like some kind of crazy Halloween harvest village scene
and a lot of it looked fake. (I think maybe a lot of the giant pumpkins were actually real.)
Then we
went to Jean Philippe Patisserie and checked out the 11 foot tall 3 chocolate fountain.
Crazy! They had a life-sized Grinch as their Christmas decoration. I think it was made of chocolate! Clay wanted
dessert so we shared a $10.50 chocolate crepe with a $2 scoop of dulce de leche
gelato. It was good. Clay says he has to go back tomorrow to get Pistachio. Of
course he does. Tomorrow we have a reservation at 7:30pm at Circo here in
Bellagio. We have picked up all of our Cirque du Soleil tickets at the
Bellagio’s O box office. So, we have nothing before us but 7 nights of Cirque
shows and changing hotels every 2 nights. We don’t have any firm plans beyond
that.
Clay has already gone to bed at 8pm here. I am waiting for
one more fountain show and then lights out for me too.
Bellagio’s hotel rooms in both towers are similar in size
and appearance and layout. We are in 15062 in the Bellagio Tower with a full
fountain view, whatever they call it. The bathrooms are huge. The king size bed
is a little hard for my tastes. But it is a very nice room. There is a lighted
magnifying mirror on the bathroom wall as well as a bathroom scale under the
one sink. The cabinet holding the one sink comes up to my torso and I can
barely reach the sink to brush my teeth. What is up with that? There are
drawers in it and one holds a full size hair dryer for those who need it. There
is a large bathtub as well as a free standing walk-in shower. The toilet has
some kind of jet flush which is effective but a little scary every time. There
is no nightlight but there is a double electrical outlet right by the toilet so
bring one with you! It is very dark in the room once you push the button to
close the drapes. I think there is too much Strip light if you just close the
sheers with the buttons and besides if you get up in the night it is usually to
the bathroom and no light from the window would help you out there. You need a
nightlight. There is a minifridge, but it is a minibar and we were warned that
if we lifted and even looked at anything in there that we’d be charged for it
and so it not try to put our own stuff in there or we’d incur charges. That
doesn’t seem very resortish. It does explain the fact that we haven’t found a
pantry or convenience type store here onsite I guess. We do have an ice bucket
and there is an ice machine near the elevators, but with a fridge to put the
bucket in, well… points off. More points off for no in room coffee machines,
but I guess they don’t want you in your room and not shedding cash. Too bad
because the room is very quiet and has the great fountain view. I will say the
furniture is not laid out for fountain viewing. We moved the chairs so we could
sit in front of the window and watch and when we came back from dinner, there
had been turn down service (points for that nice touch, by the way) and the
chairs had been moved. We looked for a safe to put our $1000 worth of Cirque
tickets in and couldn’t find one. We were thinking points off to Bellagio for
that. Then I was looking all over the room on every surface and checking every
drawer not believing that they did not have any of their restaurants’ menu, but
they didn’t. That was when I found the safe in the drawer of one of the bedside
tables. We used it, but neither of us feel it is too “safe” as it looks like
someone could just take the table or the drawer from the room if they wanted
it.
Photos
Photos
