A lazy day in Vegas and the trip home

Thursday - June 4, 2014

This was a super lazy day.  It also started late because for the first night in our trip, I had a bed!  Okay, so its a sofa bed, but it's still a bed.  And I have to say, it's a surprisingly comfortable sofa bed.  Is it as great as a regular bed?  Maybe not, but you know what I appreciated?  Housekeeping staff was super responsive when I called for linens for the sofa bed and showed up within 15 minutes ready to make up the bed.  I ended up just grabbing the bag and doing it myself when the housekeeping girl was clearly afraid of my small fuzzy 15 pound dog.  Nice sheets, nice pillows and a duvet.  I've never had such swanky linens for a sofa bed!

So it was a lazy, lazy morning.  Knowing we were going to gorge ourselves later on at Bellagio, we ate light for breakfast (at oh...10:30 to 11am?) and split off agreeing to meet back at our room at 2 pm so we could head over for our late lunch together.  It was such a lazy day that I don't remember what I did.  Which honestly, is one of the best kind of days. Someone else also had a good day:

We converged back in our room at 2 pm and soon thereafter set off on our 14 minute hike from the Vdara to the Buffet @ Bellagio.  MyVegas pays off once again (thanks mom!) and we all get in free for brunch...which I love because hello!  Bacon!  And the best part of getting there around 2:30-2:40?  You pay for lunch (or our points pay for lunch - and it's MUCH lower for lunch/brunch than dinner) but at 3 pm they change out the brunch food for dinner food.  So you get the best of brunch (omelets, bacon(!), pastries, and eggs benedict) as well as dinner choices (better seafood and better meat selections).  Yay!

comped baby!

We (by we I really mean I) start off with the yummy deliciousness of breakfast food I don't know how to make:

I'm not sure when shrimp pesto pizza became brunch food, but since it's delicious, I'm totally on board with it

Then we get started on dinner deliciousness:

Even mom and dad had a good time stuffing their faces:

You're limited to 2 hours for the buffet, which is plenty of time.  I had to slow down.  So I did, we played on our phones after stuffing our faces for the first 30 minutes or so.  When I had a bit of room and didn't feel like food was coming out of my ears, I moseyed over to the desserts section.  And I gotta say, Bellagio has one of the best dessert selections (sigh).  

One of the best parts of their dessert selection?  They have a fair number of sugar free desserts for diabetics and those on sugar restricted diets as well!  So my mama didn't have to feel bad watching me stuff my fat face.  She also got to indulge in sweets as well.  Most buffets have like, one crappy cake and maybe a pie for their sugar free selection, Bellagio has cakes, pies, tarts and cookies.  My mama is picky, and only snagged 3 - their cake, the napolean, and a strawberry tart: she liked all of it.  

We waddled out of the buffet around 4:30.  Oy.  Mom wanted to play the slots, dad wanted to go watch some sports and I wanted to go shopping - so I headed off towards the Forum Shops @ Caesars.  Well...I conveniently forgot that after indulging in shrimp (even with antihistamines, the only way I can have them without breaking into hives) I can't do anything vigorous.  Which includes walking quickly.  Well, I wanted to get to Caesars quickly, and when I was walking through the Via Bellagio shops that lead to the sky bridge which would take me to Caesars, I started breaking out in hives.  Yeah...that's no bueno.  Well, there goes my shopping trip.  Instead, I stood still for awhile and looked outside trying to slow my heart rate down so my blood wasn't pumping the shrimp poison through my system so fast that the antihistamine couldn't catch up.  And saw a very nice view actually:

I stood there for about 4-5 minutes, and in that span, there were about 3 different people who came up and tried to open the balcony door I was standing next to.  Really?!  I'm guessing though, that you can pay mucho bucks at night to go onto the balcony to watch the fountains, or you have to be some kind of super VIP whale before they'd unlock those balcony doors.  But it would totally offer a fantastic view of the fountains.

Moving at the rate of molasses, I decided to find somewhere to sit down where I can pull out my tablet and read until the hives were under control.  So I strolled (at the speed of a snail) back towards the Vdara and took my time in the Conservatory since I couldn't move any faster anyway.

scary mermaid with too much makeup on

I ended up finding a nice plush chair by the windows overlooking the Bellagio pools close to the Jean Philippe store.  As full as I was, I still considered buying a crepe because I'm a fat ass until I remembered that I was already in the I-hate-myself territory of fullness.  Yeah...a crepe would not be a good idea.  But into the plush chair I went where I whiled away an hour or so before I toddled my way back to the room.  Soon after we had to get ready for Zarkana!

We got the tickets comped through MyVegas and being cheapos, didn't splurge for premium seating, but standard seating for 40,000 loyalty points.  And honestly, it was fine?  We were a bit to the right and about halfway up.  The theater wasn't packed, but it was decently full for a Thursday night -  I would peg attendance at around 80%.  Even though we didn't have primo seats, our view of the stage was great and we saw everything.  None of us brought our real cameras, so all the photos (which they welcome: photos are good.  Flash and video are not) are from our phones, so they didn't come out fabulous.  

During the pre-show they had a few characters prancing through the audience interacting with people to amuse us and to make the time go by faster.  The show started promptly at 7 pm (which I appreciate) and it was super entertaining.  The reviews on the show have been mixed, but I liked it more than Ka and about the same as Mystere.  I would still rank O above it, but it's hard to beat out O.  My dad really, really, really liked it - he was very enthused about it.  Unlike Ka where there was a (kind of) cohesive story, it literally was a bunch of circus acts.  High class, fancy, super awesome circus acts in a custom theater with live music, but stripped to the core, circus acts.  Which is what Cirque du Soleil is anyway - I appreciate that they didn't try to force some kind of overarching theme for the show, but presented great acts in a great way only they know how.

One of the awesome things?  Which honestly, isn't even an act, but something they did to buy time during the transition between sets, is the lady with the blue sand.  It's this chick who has this ginormous table with blue sand and a camera overhead showing her sand art.  She does this all by hand, and this didn't last more than 5 minutes, but she was able to with her hands and blue sand create art pieces super duper quickly.  It was amazing.  Unfortunately, my mom slept through this part.  Sad for her.

the white blur on the bottom right?  That's the sand lady with the spotlight on her.

And there were acrobats, tightrope walkers/jumpers, guys in the funny wheel thing like the chocolate man at Jean Philipped depicted, and the spider lady.  Who was in the web and sang.  And didn't do anything else.  I'm not sure why she's on all the signs and the logo because it's such a small part of the show.  I kept expecting her to do something other than sing, but she never did. 

spider lady floating around the web and singing while the acrobats are flying everywhere

It was a good show and we had a good time.  Overall, well worth the loyalty points.  Really, I think show tickets are the best way to use the points - these tickets are usually $99, the lowest I've seen them for on discount is about $69.  40,000 points is roughly the same as a buffet dinner at a mid-level casino.  You're looking at using 40,000 for a $35-$45 dinner or for a $99 (or $69 depending on the season) show ticket.  I can spend $10 on a sandwich and fill up, but I can't get an equivalent show for those same $10.  

Anyhoo, being an old lady, I was still full and tired enough that I just wanted to go back to the room and veg.  So I did.  And thus ended our slow and lazy day in Vegas.

Friday - June 5, 2015

Being a Friday, it's unfortunate that the hotel couldn't extend our check out very much since they always expect an influx of guests and have to turn the rooms over quickly for the new arrivals.  Even though I'm a gold mlife member, they could only give me until noon to check out.  I've gotten until 1 or 2 pm when I check out on Mondays, but Mondays are very different from Fridays.  We're up by 9 anyway, so my mom and dI decide to load a few things onto our car so we don't have to each carry 3 bags and wrangle our dog when we actually check out.  We also move our car from the roof to the first floor really close to the casino.  Yay!  We wanted to eat breakfast before we left, but because it was so hot outside, we didn't feel like walking anywhere, so my mom asked if we could just eat in Bellagio somewhere.  None of us felt up to the buffet again, so I lead the way to the Cafe Bellagio by the Conservatory.  Where there was a long. ass. line of people waiting to get in since apparently, my idea to eat there wasn't creative or ingenious.  Crap.  Gold card to the rescue!  I lead my parents (both looking around worriedly afraid we'd get kicked out for our boldness) to the invited guests line and flashed my mlife card.  The ONE AND ONLY TIME I GET A BENEFIT since I don't gamble.  And yay!  The line parted, lots of hungry and angry people glared at us, and the hostess immediately lead us to the next available table - which had a view of the pool.

Okay, I'm gonna put this out there: breakfast at Cafe Bellagio will cost more than the buffet.  Do you hear me?  Weekend brunches aside (Saturday and Sundays when it's $29.99), breakfast @ the Buffet is $19.99 a person.  And this comes with juices and coffee.  Breakfast for the three of us with three coffees, a lobster omelet and 2 orders of French toast came to over $80.  So, just saying, if you're a big eater and not burnt out on buffets, that's the way to go if you wanna save a little moola.  However, the atmosphere at the Cafe is ever so much more refined.  That sounds pretentious and kind of moronic, but it's much quieter.  And mellower.  And the crowd is older.  And better dressed.  And this is just the Cafe, not some fancy restaurant.  The waitstaff is fantastic there - our coffees were always topped off, service was efficient and friendly and the food was superbly prepared.  This ain't no Denny's folks, and I like Denny's.  

The only issue with the Cafe?  (other than the exorbitant prices), there's not a whole lot of choice.  My dad is a simple breakfast eater.  He doesn't go for fancy.  All he really likes for breakfast is coffee and toast.  When he's feeling exciting, he'll go for some eggs, but that's about it.  He was very dismayed to find no plain old eggs and toast on the menu.  So he went for the French toast, the only other thing he recognized that he found acceptable.  And he was upset that he had to pay $16 for something IHOP charges $5.99 for.  So he was not really happy at breakfast.  That's cheapo old Chinese men for you.

Because my mom is diabetic, she didn't want any powdered sugar on her French toast, and my dad, who doesn't like sweets anyway, opted for no powdered sugar too.  I have to say, I've never realized how sad French toast looks without powdered sugar.

On the other hand, my lobster omelet was magical.  AND it came with two slices of toast, which I gave my dad.  It had big ass chunks of lobster with asparagus.  I don't know why it came with half a tomato, but the hash browns were good too.  I split the omelet with my mom and had some of her French toast because I like both savory and sweet.  Yes, this is overpriced, but where else can you get a lobster omelet? 

Anyway, even though my dad was pooped faced, my mom and I had a good time at breakfast.  We ate everything (because that's how we roll) and then toddled to our room to finish up the last of our packing.  My favorite thing about tech friendly hotels?  Expedited check out on the TV's.  I'm on the benevolent side of antisocial and hate having to trudge up to the front desk and check out.  I reviewed my folio and then checked out - all on the TV.  And since we'd already made a trip and moved our car, we didn't have as much stuff to lug and didn't have far to go either!

Sadly, there were no photos on the way home, because well, the desert ain't that pretty.  We were fortunately not to hit much traffic on the way home and got home in plenty of time to water the yard and hang out on the patio.  The dog was overjoyed once more to see his own personal toilet after a week of sharing with other dogs.  I was happy to sleep in a bed and have my own bathroom.  But overall, I think we had a successful trip.  It was short, but we managed to safely make it to each destination and saw everything we wanted to see.

We go back to Vegas! Hello buffets!

Wednesday - June 3, 2015

All we had on tap today was to drive back to Vegas and eat like there's no tomorrow.  Because of the distance, we wanted to be on the road by 10:30 am.  Since our December 2014 trip to Vegas we've discovered the myvegas games on Facebook courtesy of my cousin Henry.  Basically, you play slots online (using fake money, do NOT spend real money on it, if you run out they'll give you more money the next day) and you earn credits when you play.  You can then turn those credits into rewards, which is super awesome.  My mama loves the myvegas games and she basically plays for all three of us.  I rarely ever play it, my dad only plays it on his cell phone, but my mama - she plays for all of us on our facebook accounts so we all accrue credits.  In the six months since our last trip to Vegas (where my cousin redeemed a buy one get one free buffet as well as tickets to Mandalay's shark tank) we've all earned enough credits for three rewards each: tickets to Zarkana at Aria (the only Cirque show left I want to see on the Strip), dinner at Cravings - the buffet at The Mirage, and lunch at the buffet at Bellagio. (do you see a theme?  We lurve buffets)  You could use credits (or loyalty points or whatever they call it) for rooms as well, but because we have my Bendi, our choices are limited if we're staying on mlife properties - which we were planning to as the credit redemption we chose all required at least a one night stay at an mlife property for redemption (because we cheap.  We could have used more points if we wanted to go with a non-mlife resort).  That's how we ended up at Vdara.  I actually really like Delano, but the problem is that there's no kitchen and it's also at the very southern end of the Strip.  While the room is much smaller at Vdara, it does come with a small kitchen, a dining table AND I love its premium mid-Strip location that's convenient to all my favorite places to eat.  So it's a toss up: you can give up the great location for a fabulous 2 room suite at Delano, or give up the big ass suite for a much smaller space in a great location.  I chose location since we were only planning on staying for 2 nights.  If we were staying for a longer period I may have prioritized the room itself over the location.

But our morning started again with waffley deliciousness courtesy of the free Days Inn breakfast.  And Bendi too got to have an egg and cheese omelet.  He ate very well this trip.  Since we packed up the night before, we were able to hit the road by 10:15 am.  The plan was to stop for lunch (again) at the In-N-Out in St. George where I'd switch off with my mom and then head directly for Vdara.  And so we start our journey back to civilization!

our backdoor was SOOO convenient for loading and unloading, something we sorely missed in Vegas where you had to walk a gazillion miles (okay, I exaggerate, but at least one) from self-parking to your room (sob!)

goodbye room!  (why is my face the size of the moon?  WHY?!!)

As my mom drove first, I occupied myself listening to music and taking random photos of the landscape that I missed driving into Page.

I guess we can claim we've seen Lake Powell now...from far, far, away, but we've seen it, right?

and we can also claim we've seen the Glen Canyon Dam now, right?

we drive into Utah.  Then we drive back into Arizona.  Then we drive back into Utah again.  Then Arizona.  Again.  Then finally...Nevada.

Mr. Bendi is always happy.  Then again, Mr. Bendi is just happy he wasn't forced to stay home by himself

then he started nodding off after happily looking out the window for a few hours.  

We roll into St. George and head directly for the magical place.  In-N-Out.  Where Bendi got his very own unsalted meat patty which he quickly devoured.  Then he looked at us because he wanted more.  We're weak, so he got some of our meat patties too.  Don't judge me (sob!) 

Refreshed from the delicious combination of meat, melted cheese, grilled onions and fried potatoes, we head off toward Vegas for the next two nights.

We stayed at Vdara for the first time in February of 2014.  It's a great space, the lobby smells magical, and I like that the lack of a casino means it doesn't take 10 years to reach your room.  Also, the lack of a casino means the air is SO. MUCH. BETTER.  No smoking indoors :)  I also like that it's connected to the Bellagio for fun and food (and spa) even though the connection is half assed (it's a freaking open bridge - where's the A/C?), but it's easy to get from Vdara to Bellagio, so you don't feel disconnected from the Strip.  But what sucks?  There's no self-parking available - they're only valet.  Last time we parked at the City Center parking structure earmarked for Aria.  That was a pain in the ass because it necessitated getting on a tram (2 stops) and then going through a series of stairs/escalators before entering the tram stop for Bellagio and still having to traverse the connecting tunnel/open bridge between Bellagio and Vdara.  This time I opted instead to self-park (it's too hard to valet park when you've got a dog to wrangle and need to sort through your luggage to figure out what to bring into the hotel and what not to bring because we didn't need our hiking clothes and shoes and cooking stuff with us in Vegas) in Bellagio's structure instead.  It was a long ass walk - the parking structure is close to their lobby which is about a 9-10 minute walk to Vdara, which totally sucked donkey balls when you're dragging a big ass suitcase around.  However, it was easier than going up the stairs and trying to squeeze into a tram and then having to go down the stairs again.  At least it was flat.  Also, for a Wednesday, the parking structure was PACKED.  We ended up on the top floor and bitched about what a crap space it was.  Until an hour later when mom and I walked back to grab something we forgot out of the car (we meaning DAD, who forgot his PHONE leaving it to melt in the oven of Las Vegas) and realized the entire top deck was now FULL and there were still a lot of cars going around and around hoping someone would leave.  We had to wave off a lot of cars.  No bueno.

Alas, despite the long walk with the dog and our luggage we finally made it to Bellagio.  The benefit of being a smaller hotel?  Check in didn't take as long!  Our room this time was smaller, but it was perfectly serviceable for the three of us.  Last time we had some kind of deluxe suite where there was kind of a divider between the living and sleeping space and there were two TV's.  This time there it was just a "Vdara suite" or something and there was only one TV (sob!).  Oh, how we've come down in the world.  

from the entry: galley kitchen on the left 

the lone sad little TV

You walk in and you're in the galley kitchen.  In a standard (small) suite, it has two burners, two small fridges (one of them is the mini bar) and a microwave with a crazy ass learning curve.  No coffeemaker (sob!), but there's a sign that says dishes, utensils and pots and pans available upon request if you call housekeeper.  Yeah...we're not in Vegas to cook for ourselves.  We're in Vegas to gorge like it's going out of style.  Which I'm pretty sure it has.  Gone out of style that is.  Except for the desperately uncool like us.  

The room wasn't very big, but it fit three comfortably.  I think it would be a little too tight for four though.  Too bad the larger suites aren't dog friendly - I'd totally book one of the panoramic suites if they weren't so doggist.

I appreciate a nice hotel having nice linens - the bed linens and the towels were miles above those of Days Inn...and you know what?  We paid LESS at Vdara than we did for Days Inn.  A lot less.  Granted, we stayed in Vegas during the weekday, but it was also the weekday in Page as well - it's just that in the boonies with a lack of choice, they can butt rape you and there's nothing you can do about it.  :(  But let's not talk about hiney violations. Let's talk about how swanky the bathroom is (I. want. that. tub).  How nice the toiletries were (I can't remember what brand, but they were very nice, and I'm super picky about my toiletries where I almost never use the ones provided by hotels.  I used these), and how we had real glasses in the bathroom to brush our teeth with.  We need so little to keep us happy.

Mr. Bendi is also pleased with the accommodations.

After unpacking and vegging out for a bit in the air conditioned room, we walked to dinner.  Here's the thing, we almost never eat "dinner" in Vegas.  Because we all have such diverse palates, we almost always opt for a buffet so we don't fight over what we want to eat.  Also, buffets tend to have sugar free dessert options where most restaurants don't, so that's always good for my mama.  Because we're cheap Chinese people, we don't want to pay the extra $10-$15 for dinner, so we usually have a light breakfast, a big ass late lunch, and a snack later in case we get hungry.  But dinner pricing begins at 3pm and we knew we weren't going to make that.  As we're going to use our myvegas credits anyway and the dinner @ Bellagio took more credits than my dad had ("he" - by that I mean mom - didn't start playing on his facebook account until pretty late, so he had a lot less credits than we did) I chose Mirage for dinner because 1) it's close to Vdara; 2) the reviews for their buffet, which we haven't been to in over a decade, were pretty good; and 3) my dad had just enough credits for it.  Yay!  So off we went.  Because it was hot like an oven outdoors and we don't believe in unnecessary sweating, we walked to Bellagio and walked though Bellagio to the pedestrian bridge to Caesars Palace.  I thought about going through Caesars, but it's so long and winding it was easier to just cut to the Mirage in front of Caesars.  We were lucky since there was shade, so it wasn't a bad walk at all.  All told, it took probably 15-20 minutes getting there at a slow stroll.

Back in the day we used to frequent Mirage a lot more.  Then too many hotel/casinos started popping up and we liked going to all the different ones to explore.  Because of that, I haven't been to the Mirage in over 10 years.  It was both familiar and a little strange to be back.  The mermaid I remember from my childhood is still there by the lobby, but so much of it has changed!  We went and got our buffets loaded onto our mlife cards (you have to load the rewards from each casino at that casino.  So we couldn't load a Mirage reward at Bellagio) and skipped to the front of the short line for dinner because of our gold mlife cards.  

free!  Free is good!

The vibe at Cravings (which is ENTIRELY different from the space I remembered.  It's been totally redone and expanded to the point that I didn't recognize any part of it at all) is relaxed and mellow.  It's not as large as Bellagio's or Wynn's space, which isn't a bad thing because we were never too far away from the various stations.  I liked the self serve drinks because I don't like having to rely on the waitstaff and I like having different options.  I've also never used one of those magic Coke machines before and had fun trying to figure it out.  

There were a large variety of choices.  I appreciated the charcuterie station.  Who doesn't like meat and cheese?

I'm a cheap cheese eater.  Strictly a cheddar, gouda and mozzarella fan.  Anything fancy or stinky is no bueno for me.

The dessert station was also well stocked.  There wasn't as much variety as Bellagio, but I liked what I tried and there were still plenty of options so everyone should find something they like.  What I didn't appreciate?  The "gelato" station wasn't gelato!  It was just plain old reconstituted soft serve!  Now, there's nothing wrong with crappy reconstituted soft serve - but don't be lying to me and label the station "gelato" getting my hopes up!

The sushi bar was small, but I thought what they offered was done pretty well.  The fish was fresh and the rolls were tasty.  No sashimi, but we're only talking about a $30 buffet here.  And none of us got sick from it!  That's always a good sign, right?

They have meats carved to order (tasty - pretty standard for a nice buffet) and a pasta section too.  I can't say no to carbs and cheese.  So carbs and cheese magically ended up on my plate.

While not overwhelming, their sugar free selections were decent.  My mama enjoyed all three cupcakes (chocolaty, red velvet and lemon), though she wasn't a fan of the apple pie.  The apple pie was a little wet...where there was a kind of clear liquid that oozed from the filling.  That was a little weird.  But she liked all three cupcakes so much she got seconds.  And unlike me, she is NOT obsessed with cake, so that's saying something. 

sugar free desserts

I lurve cake, so of course I was going to fill my plate up with cake.  Now, the blondie (on the right side, sticking out next to the layered red velvet) was eh.  It was dry and crumbly and kind of tasteless.  The only thing I could taste was "sweet".  I'm picky though because I make some pretty damn good blondies and brownies.  Can't cook worth crap, but I'm a decent baker so I'm a little picky (not so picky that I don't inhale supermarket cakes though).  But I was underwhelmed by the blondie.  :(  The carrot cake was good but the red velvet was also kind of tasteless - I couldn't really taste the buttermilk or cocoa and the frosting was really sweet.  The pudding cup thingy was okay and the creme brulee was good.  But when is custard covered with sugar not good?

After we satiated ourselves we slowly strolled back.  On the way we stopped to take some photos because my mama was excited that they had a fake Trevi Fountain.  So we took some photos with the fake fountain because we've been to the real fountain.  Because we're awesome like that.

Then we wandered into the lovely air conditioned confines of Bellagio where a horde of tourists were checking in.  Ignoring them, we wandered over to the conservatory to see what display they had up this time of year.

It was an Under the Seas theme!  Cute!  And the colors were fantastic.  Because we booked tickets for Zarkana, we wandered over to Aria to pick up our tickets at will call.  The interior is beautiful - if they weren't doggist, I'd totally stay here.  Maybe I will in the future when I take a trip without my Bendi.

the scary Zarkana chocolate man.  The scary chocolate man rotates as well.

We stroll back to Vdara from Aria, which was remarkably close.  Huh.  

Hello Vdara!

Mr. Bendi, as always, greeted us enthusiastically.  Luckily for him, my dad couldn't finish the roast beef he got at the buffet and snuck the rest of it back and let Bendi snack on it.  He ended the day very happy.  We all ended the day exhausted, sated, and dusty from the road.  So we all showered and ended the night watching TV and playing on our mobile devices.