Las Vegas Vacation - May 2007
Two weeks ago, Karen and I got back from another vacation in Las Vegas (“Vegas”). This time we stayed five days (May 27-June 1, 2007). Originally, we planned to only stay for three days because our hotel, The Venetian, was comping us the room for that time, but we chose to extend our stay. The reason we got the room comped was because of the quality of Karen’s video poker play during our trip to Vegas last December (2006).
The weather consistently had highs in the mid-90’s (96-97 degrees) during the day and lows in the low/mid-70’s (72-75 degrees) at night. Fortunately, the heat is a dry heat, that to me is more tolerable and comfortable (I don’t do well in humidity), but Vegas is still a desert with all that implies. Fortunately, air conditioning is a way of life, and as we walked down the strip, we felt refreshing blasts of cold air through open doorways. The hotels had water misters that sprayed a cooling mist of water spaced along the walkways leading to the main entrance and at the taxi passenger-waiting cue. When we did venture outside during the daytime, it wasn’t for that long. Mostly we ventured out at night. When we did leave the hotel during the day, it was to go to breakfast or lunch at the buffets located across the street at The Mirage and Treasure Island. The exception to walking outside during the day was walking down the strip to the Bellagio for a Cirque du Soleil show, and when I wanted to take a few daytime photos in the immediate area.
I did have a list of things I wanted to see and do, like see Lance Burton’s Magic Show, visit the neon sign museum and boneyard, take some new photos of placed I missed the first time round, retake some photos with my digital camera (my camera’s batteries died and I had to use a CVS disposable one for some of my shots), go see Freemont Street experience again, take one of the gondola rides at the Venetian, and a few other things.
Sadly, much like the previous trip to Vegas, I got sick about half-way through the vacation, well not really a sick, but I developed sinus issues that resulted in a cough and me popping Sudafed at regular intervals throughout the day. Interestingly though, a waitress serving wine at a gallery show in the Venetian commented that many people get sick during the summer because of going back/forth between the highly air conditioned buildings and the dessert heat outside. My cough more or less went away within a week of coming home.
The Venetian
Once again, we stayed at The Venetian, and once again we had a fantastic experience. For starters we were upgraded to one of the newly renovated suites (suite 22-324) in the Venetian Tower. The room was fundamentally the same as our first suite, but with some marked differences: the furniture placement changed a bit, the bathroom had a flatscreen TV in it, the honor bar didn’t have snacks-just drinks, and the drapes and curtains were motorized and operated by a remote control. We had a more than slightly better view--we could see part of the strip, but only a direct view of part of the Mirage resort/casino. We also received a $50 food credit.
For Karen’s birthday, the hotel sent her a card and a gift of a branded Venetian bathrobe. We also received an additional $100 food credit from the Front Desk manager because we complained about being woken up at 6:30 AM by workmen doing renovations on the hotel rooms. Apparently, we weren’t the first to complain about the noise. He said the renovations were ongoing, but the workmen should not have started that early. The Front End manager called up our account and saw that we ate at Postrio (see dining below) and issued us the credit.
On check out day, we found out that we received four comp tickets to Gordie Brown’s show at the Venetian. Brown is the Venetian’s resident act who does impressions, comedy, and music. Sadly we found out about the tickets, because had known that we got them, we would have taken in the show. Still, the tickets are good through the end of August 2007; but I don’t think we’ll get back in time to use them because it would be during the height of the summer, and no one should be in the desert at the height of the summer, and there is also the our respective work situations and available vacation time.
I did check out the pool area that consisted of multiple swimming pools, whirlpool for lounging, a bar, areas for tanning, open air showers for pre/post swim rinsing off, and booth where you could get fresh towels. I did ask if they had a lap pool--I like swimming and wanted the exercise--but they didn’t. The swimming pools weren’t designed for swimming; they were for socializing. Basically, you went in the water and talked with people while drinking tasty alcoholic beverages from the bar, and tanned yourself.
Dining
This trip we ate at both the buffets and sit-down restaurants. We ate at the buffets for breakfast/lunch and at the sit-down restaurants for dinner. As much as I like the concept of an “all-you-can-eat” buffet, I have to admit that they all kind of blend into each other on the second and more trips to Vegas. With a few minor variations, they all offer the types of food choices.
Buffets:
For buffets, we ate at Cravings @ the Mirage and The Buffet at TI @ Treasure Island. Much like my first trip to vegas, we timed going to the breakfast buffet within a half-hour of the transition to the lunch menu, so we got both the breakfast and lunch choices at the breakfast price.
Sit-Down Dining:
For sit-down dining we ate at Café Bellagio @ The Bellagio resort/casino; Grand Lux Café , Tao, and Postrio all at The Venetian resort/casino. The two really “big” meals we had were at Tao Restaurant & Nightclub and Postrio.
Tao Restaurant & Nightclub
On Karen’s birthday we had dinner at one of the restaurants in our hotel, Tao, a pan-Asian restaurant serving Chinese (Hong Kong style), Japanese, and Thai cuisines, as well as doubling as one of the strip’s hottest nightclubs. Tao Las Vegas is a sister venue to the original Tao in New York City. The restaurant is located on the first level and the nightclub is located upstairs.
The interior of Tao is amazing-we only saw the restaurant level though. The style is contemporary Asian chic-mostly Chinese influences. Some highlights of the interior design include the following: The main entrance is a short corridor lined on both sides with stone
basins filled with water floating flowers. In the main dining room: A giant gold Buddha sits above a fountain filled with koi. The wall behind the statue is made of exposed brick with has small ledges in it, on each ledge is a small Buddah statuettes. Another wall has several display compartments, each containing an opium pipe.
Our meal at Tao was amazing. We started with drinks--I had the “Lychee Martini” (Grey Goose, Triple Sec, and Fresh Lychee Puree) and Karen had the signature drink, the “Taotini”(Absolute Mandarin, Stolichnaya Raspberry, Malibu Rum, Cranberry, and Fresh Lime Juice). I enjoyed my drink but after having a sip of hers, thought she got the better of the two. When we ordered another round of drinks, she got another Taotini and I got one was well. Our appetizer was Crisp Lobster and Shrimp Dumplings with Ginger Jiang King Sauce, and following our waiter’s suggestion, we ordered a bowl of steamed Jasmine Rice to pour the remaining sauce over after the dumplings were eaten. For the main course, I got the Roasted Thai Buddha Chicken and Karen got the Soy Ginger Glazed Salmon with Udon Noodles and Spinach. For dessert we got a giant fortune cookie with each side respectively filled with a white and dark chocolate mousse. The edges of the fortune cookie had a coating of dark chocolate and a sprinkling of hazelnuts on the chocolate.
Postrio
Located in the St. Mark’s Square area of the Venetian’s Grand Canal Shoppes, is Postrio, one of celebrity Chef Wolfgang Puck’s restaurants.
We started the meal with a complimentary amuse bouche of two bite-sized croquettes filled sent by the Chef and an appetizer of Sauteed Ingrid Bengis Sea Scallops (w/ roasted hedgehog mushrooms, sunchokes, golden beets, brown butter). For the main course I had the Peking Style Roasted Duck (w/ warm sesame crepes, Asian vegetable salad, spiced pear sauce) and Karen had the Postrio salmon en papillote (w/, caramelized vegetables, Yukon potatoes, shallot-herb butter). For dessert, we split a 15-layer yellow cake topped with vanilla ice cream. We accompanied the dessert with a flavored cappuccino-I had hazelnut and Karen had vanilla. Two complimentary chocolates followed the meal. The best part of the meal was getting it for free--more on this later though.
We even had a celebrity sighting, Nigel Lythgoe, (co-)Executive Producer of American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance. Karen immediately recognized him as being a celebrity, I was the one who knew the name-the odd thing being I had only seen his picture and name when they flashed on him in the audience of American Idol last season. His identity was doubly confirmed by a news report that Karen heard stating that Lythgoe was taping a two-night live broadcast of the show at Mandalay Bay.
Cafe Bellagio
Cafe Bellagio was nothing remarkable, just a nice sit-down casual dining restaurant. I was really impressed by their Reuben sandwich because the bread was grilled in the same way grilled cheese is made.
Gambling
I reprised my strategy for the gambling tables Slots and/or Video Poker and Blackjack-table game. I even stepped outside my usual gambling M.O. and went to the ATM for more money, as well as tapping into funds I set aside for incidental expenses. Usually this is something I would never do, but since we extended our trip by two days, I thought why not (afterall, I DID only plan for three days of gambling). Sadly, Vegas was not good to me this trip--I got my butt kicked and lost everything.
One funny thing did happen, an idiot scammer trying to get away with something got their comeuppance. Karen and I were playing video poker at a bank of machines, seated between us was a man who eventually got up and left, leaving his cash out ticket behind. I looked at the ticket and saw that it was only for one cent ($.01). I then moved into his seat and played next to Karen, having moved the ticket to the machine I was formerly playing at. After I ran out of money, I got up to walk about the hotel for a while Karen continued to play. After about an hour, I came back and sat down next to her after moving the ticket to an empty game next to me.
Soon after I sat down, a woman who was playing at the end console got and started to leave, walking past us in the process. She just starts to round the bank of consoles we were all playing it and must have spied the cash out ticket laying unattended. She comes back and says ‘Excuse me, I forgot my ticket.” She then takes the $.01 ticket and leaves. I immediately told Karen what happened and started to make fun of her. I wish I could have seen the look on her face when she saw the amount of the ticket her slick move landed her. Shortly thereafter, she came back sat down and played another few rounds at a machine in our bank of machines. For some reason, she didn’t look too happy.
Shows
This time we saw two “paid admission shows” and one new free show. We also saw the Mirage’s free Volcano show again.
• Cirque du Soliel’s “O” (“Cirque”) @ The Bellagio.
Unfortunately, I booked the show late (a week before we were going to be there) and could only get limited view seats--3rd row balcony. I wasn’t pleased, but it was a birthday gift and I wanted Karen to see the show. Monday and Tuesday were the show’s dark days and we planned on leaving Wednesday, so that left us with one day. Surprisingly, our seats were pretty decent. A hand railing was in the way without really being in the way.
I didn’t really care for this Cirque show. I was a bit bored with it (and having a small touch of jet lag didn’t help)--It was mostly acrobatics and diving into the water. I was impressed by the stage though, because the show entirely takes place in a water tank. There were two interesting bits where a supposed “audience member” was pulled up on stage and encouraged to climb and dive into the tank. Karen actually fell for it, but I knew it was a plant. Aside from the obvious liability issues of using a “civilian,” what would be the odds of pulling a civilian who knows how to dive? (Having once been a lifeguard and a competitive swimmer, I know that if you hit the water wrong, it can be like hitting a wall of concrete-you can break your neck.)
• Star Trek: The Experience @ The Hilton
The two shows were Klingon Encounter, simulator ride; and Borg Invasion 4D,
4-D movie. We also saw a prop museum featuring, well, props from all the Star Trek TV series and movies.
The Klingon Encounter featured our shuttlecraft being chased through a wormhole by Klingon warships bent on destroying us. The Borg Invasion 4D was a 4-D movie show that required “special glasses” to watch. The plot involved the audience being captured and almost assimilated by the Borg and their cube spaceship. I thought the Borg show was the better of the two.
• “The Sirens of TI” @ Treasure Island
This show was a free show that occurred outside the Treasure Island (“TI”) resort/casino. It is a typical Las Vegas T&A rock musical pitting Pirates against Sirens. I was a bit disappointed with the show. It was over-the-top and a bit campy (but, it is Vegas after-all); I was expecting to see the first TI show when it was the Pirates vs. the British Navy.
Miscellaneous
We also explored the Mirage Hotel and saw the huge aquarium behind the front desk in the check-in area.
Conclusion
Overall, it was another good trip. I never got to do a bunch of the things I wanted to do because we were either gambling and/or tired, so we never got to them. I guess on the next trip we’ll have to get to the “to see and do” list.
The weather consistently had highs in the mid-90’s (96-97 degrees) during the day and lows in the low/mid-70’s (72-75 degrees) at night. Fortunately, the heat is a dry heat, that to me is more tolerable and comfortable (I don’t do well in humidity), but Vegas is still a desert with all that implies. Fortunately, air conditioning is a way of life, and as we walked down the strip, we felt refreshing blasts of cold air through open doorways. The hotels had water misters that sprayed a cooling mist of water spaced along the walkways leading to the main entrance and at the taxi passenger-waiting cue. When we did venture outside during the daytime, it wasn’t for that long. Mostly we ventured out at night. When we did leave the hotel during the day, it was to go to breakfast or lunch at the buffets located across the street at The Mirage and Treasure Island. The exception to walking outside during the day was walking down the strip to the Bellagio for a Cirque du Soleil show, and when I wanted to take a few daytime photos in the immediate area.
I did have a list of things I wanted to see and do, like see Lance Burton’s Magic Show, visit the neon sign museum and boneyard, take some new photos of placed I missed the first time round, retake some photos with my digital camera (my camera’s batteries died and I had to use a CVS disposable one for some of my shots), go see Freemont Street experience again, take one of the gondola rides at the Venetian, and a few other things.
Sadly, much like the previous trip to Vegas, I got sick about half-way through the vacation, well not really a sick, but I developed sinus issues that resulted in a cough and me popping Sudafed at regular intervals throughout the day. Interestingly though, a waitress serving wine at a gallery show in the Venetian commented that many people get sick during the summer because of going back/forth between the highly air conditioned buildings and the dessert heat outside. My cough more or less went away within a week of coming home.
The Venetian
Once again, we stayed at The Venetian, and once again we had a fantastic experience. For starters we were upgraded to one of the newly renovated suites (suite 22-324) in the Venetian Tower. The room was fundamentally the same as our first suite, but with some marked differences: the furniture placement changed a bit, the bathroom had a flatscreen TV in it, the honor bar didn’t have snacks-just drinks, and the drapes and curtains were motorized and operated by a remote control. We had a more than slightly better view--we could see part of the strip, but only a direct view of part of the Mirage resort/casino. We also received a $50 food credit.
For Karen’s birthday, the hotel sent her a card and a gift of a branded Venetian bathrobe. We also received an additional $100 food credit from the Front Desk manager because we complained about being woken up at 6:30 AM by workmen doing renovations on the hotel rooms. Apparently, we weren’t the first to complain about the noise. He said the renovations were ongoing, but the workmen should not have started that early. The Front End manager called up our account and saw that we ate at Postrio (see dining below) and issued us the credit.
On check out day, we found out that we received four comp tickets to Gordie Brown’s show at the Venetian. Brown is the Venetian’s resident act who does impressions, comedy, and music. Sadly we found out about the tickets, because had known that we got them, we would have taken in the show. Still, the tickets are good through the end of August 2007; but I don’t think we’ll get back in time to use them because it would be during the height of the summer, and no one should be in the desert at the height of the summer, and there is also the our respective work situations and available vacation time.
I did check out the pool area that consisted of multiple swimming pools, whirlpool for lounging, a bar, areas for tanning, open air showers for pre/post swim rinsing off, and booth where you could get fresh towels. I did ask if they had a lap pool--I like swimming and wanted the exercise--but they didn’t. The swimming pools weren’t designed for swimming; they were for socializing. Basically, you went in the water and talked with people while drinking tasty alcoholic beverages from the bar, and tanned yourself.
Dining
This trip we ate at both the buffets and sit-down restaurants. We ate at the buffets for breakfast/lunch and at the sit-down restaurants for dinner. As much as I like the concept of an “all-you-can-eat” buffet, I have to admit that they all kind of blend into each other on the second and more trips to Vegas. With a few minor variations, they all offer the types of food choices.
Buffets:
For buffets, we ate at Cravings @ the Mirage and The Buffet at TI @ Treasure Island. Much like my first trip to vegas, we timed going to the breakfast buffet within a half-hour of the transition to the lunch menu, so we got both the breakfast and lunch choices at the breakfast price.
Sit-Down Dining:
For sit-down dining we ate at Café Bellagio @ The Bellagio resort/casino; Grand Lux Café , Tao, and Postrio all at The Venetian resort/casino. The two really “big” meals we had were at Tao Restaurant & Nightclub and Postrio.
Tao Restaurant & Nightclub
On Karen’s birthday we had dinner at one of the restaurants in our hotel, Tao, a pan-Asian restaurant serving Chinese (Hong Kong style), Japanese, and Thai cuisines, as well as doubling as one of the strip’s hottest nightclubs. Tao Las Vegas is a sister venue to the original Tao in New York City. The restaurant is located on the first level and the nightclub is located upstairs.
The interior of Tao is amazing-we only saw the restaurant level though. The style is contemporary Asian chic-mostly Chinese influences. Some highlights of the interior design include the following: The main entrance is a short corridor lined on both sides with stone
basins filled with water floating flowers. In the main dining room: A giant gold Buddha sits above a fountain filled with koi. The wall behind the statue is made of exposed brick with has small ledges in it, on each ledge is a small Buddah statuettes. Another wall has several display compartments, each containing an opium pipe.
Our meal at Tao was amazing. We started with drinks--I had the “Lychee Martini” (Grey Goose, Triple Sec, and Fresh Lychee Puree) and Karen had the signature drink, the “Taotini”(Absolute Mandarin, Stolichnaya Raspberry, Malibu Rum, Cranberry, and Fresh Lime Juice). I enjoyed my drink but after having a sip of hers, thought she got the better of the two. When we ordered another round of drinks, she got another Taotini and I got one was well. Our appetizer was Crisp Lobster and Shrimp Dumplings with Ginger Jiang King Sauce, and following our waiter’s suggestion, we ordered a bowl of steamed Jasmine Rice to pour the remaining sauce over after the dumplings were eaten. For the main course, I got the Roasted Thai Buddha Chicken and Karen got the Soy Ginger Glazed Salmon with Udon Noodles and Spinach. For dessert we got a giant fortune cookie with each side respectively filled with a white and dark chocolate mousse. The edges of the fortune cookie had a coating of dark chocolate and a sprinkling of hazelnuts on the chocolate.
Postrio
Located in the St. Mark’s Square area of the Venetian’s Grand Canal Shoppes, is Postrio, one of celebrity Chef Wolfgang Puck’s restaurants.
We started the meal with a complimentary amuse bouche of two bite-sized croquettes filled sent by the Chef and an appetizer of Sauteed Ingrid Bengis Sea Scallops (w/ roasted hedgehog mushrooms, sunchokes, golden beets, brown butter). For the main course I had the Peking Style Roasted Duck (w/ warm sesame crepes, Asian vegetable salad, spiced pear sauce) and Karen had the Postrio salmon en papillote (w/, caramelized vegetables, Yukon potatoes, shallot-herb butter). For dessert, we split a 15-layer yellow cake topped with vanilla ice cream. We accompanied the dessert with a flavored cappuccino-I had hazelnut and Karen had vanilla. Two complimentary chocolates followed the meal. The best part of the meal was getting it for free--more on this later though.
We even had a celebrity sighting, Nigel Lythgoe, (co-)Executive Producer of American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance. Karen immediately recognized him as being a celebrity, I was the one who knew the name-the odd thing being I had only seen his picture and name when they flashed on him in the audience of American Idol last season. His identity was doubly confirmed by a news report that Karen heard stating that Lythgoe was taping a two-night live broadcast of the show at Mandalay Bay.
Cafe Bellagio
Cafe Bellagio was nothing remarkable, just a nice sit-down casual dining restaurant. I was really impressed by their Reuben sandwich because the bread was grilled in the same way grilled cheese is made.
Gambling
I reprised my strategy for the gambling tables Slots and/or Video Poker and Blackjack-table game. I even stepped outside my usual gambling M.O. and went to the ATM for more money, as well as tapping into funds I set aside for incidental expenses. Usually this is something I would never do, but since we extended our trip by two days, I thought why not (afterall, I DID only plan for three days of gambling). Sadly, Vegas was not good to me this trip--I got my butt kicked and lost everything.
One funny thing did happen, an idiot scammer trying to get away with something got their comeuppance. Karen and I were playing video poker at a bank of machines, seated between us was a man who eventually got up and left, leaving his cash out ticket behind. I looked at the ticket and saw that it was only for one cent ($.01). I then moved into his seat and played next to Karen, having moved the ticket to the machine I was formerly playing at. After I ran out of money, I got up to walk about the hotel for a while Karen continued to play. After about an hour, I came back and sat down next to her after moving the ticket to an empty game next to me.
Soon after I sat down, a woman who was playing at the end console got and started to leave, walking past us in the process. She just starts to round the bank of consoles we were all playing it and must have spied the cash out ticket laying unattended. She comes back and says ‘Excuse me, I forgot my ticket.” She then takes the $.01 ticket and leaves. I immediately told Karen what happened and started to make fun of her. I wish I could have seen the look on her face when she saw the amount of the ticket her slick move landed her. Shortly thereafter, she came back sat down and played another few rounds at a machine in our bank of machines. For some reason, she didn’t look too happy.
Shows
This time we saw two “paid admission shows” and one new free show. We also saw the Mirage’s free Volcano show again.
• Cirque du Soliel’s “O” (“Cirque”) @ The Bellagio.
Unfortunately, I booked the show late (a week before we were going to be there) and could only get limited view seats--3rd row balcony. I wasn’t pleased, but it was a birthday gift and I wanted Karen to see the show. Monday and Tuesday were the show’s dark days and we planned on leaving Wednesday, so that left us with one day. Surprisingly, our seats were pretty decent. A hand railing was in the way without really being in the way.
I didn’t really care for this Cirque show. I was a bit bored with it (and having a small touch of jet lag didn’t help)--It was mostly acrobatics and diving into the water. I was impressed by the stage though, because the show entirely takes place in a water tank. There were two interesting bits where a supposed “audience member” was pulled up on stage and encouraged to climb and dive into the tank. Karen actually fell for it, but I knew it was a plant. Aside from the obvious liability issues of using a “civilian,” what would be the odds of pulling a civilian who knows how to dive? (Having once been a lifeguard and a competitive swimmer, I know that if you hit the water wrong, it can be like hitting a wall of concrete-you can break your neck.)
• Star Trek: The Experience @ The Hilton
The two shows were Klingon Encounter, simulator ride; and Borg Invasion 4D,
4-D movie. We also saw a prop museum featuring, well, props from all the Star Trek TV series and movies.
The Klingon Encounter featured our shuttlecraft being chased through a wormhole by Klingon warships bent on destroying us. The Borg Invasion 4D was a 4-D movie show that required “special glasses” to watch. The plot involved the audience being captured and almost assimilated by the Borg and their cube spaceship. I thought the Borg show was the better of the two.
• “The Sirens of TI” @ Treasure Island
This show was a free show that occurred outside the Treasure Island (“TI”) resort/casino. It is a typical Las Vegas T&A rock musical pitting Pirates against Sirens. I was a bit disappointed with the show. It was over-the-top and a bit campy (but, it is Vegas after-all); I was expecting to see the first TI show when it was the Pirates vs. the British Navy.
Miscellaneous
We also explored the Mirage Hotel and saw the huge aquarium behind the front desk in the check-in area.
Conclusion
Overall, it was another good trip. I never got to do a bunch of the things I wanted to do because we were either gambling and/or tired, so we never got to them. I guess on the next trip we’ll have to get to the “to see and do” list.