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.