Las Vegas Trip Report
Mar 27th, 2019, 10:41 AM
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Las Vegas Trip Report
We had a great time in Las Vegas, in good part to the many Fodorites who offered their advice and ideas! So here goes...
The flight
Due to the grounding of the Max8s we had a flight change. I felt lucky to get new plans with Westjet so quickly and easily but it did mean that our non-stop flight to Las Vegas suddenly had one 3-hour stop in Winnipeg so we got in early evening instead of mid-afternoon. By the time we got to the hotel, checked in and unpacked, it was about 8 pm – not so late but after a tiring travel day all we did was have dinner in the hotel and check out the casino and shops. We were staying at the Palazzo but a walk around the Venetian is an evening in itself! Fortunately, our flight home remained non-stop.
The hotel
The Palazzo was fabulous. Our suite (bedroom then two steps down to living room) was 720 square feet and beautifully decorated. I know people who live in condos smaller than that! The bathroom alone was about 10x10 not even counting the extra little toilet room, with a double sink vanity, a shower and separate huge, deep bathtub and a little dressing table. I've gotten used to a phone in the bathroom but this is the first time I've had a TV in there. Here's what it looked like with minor differences in the furniture and art but this is pretty much it:
https://www.venetian.com/towers/the-...ry-suites.html
Every inch of the hotel was spotlessly clean and the service, especially the concierge service was excellent. No complaints at all about the hotel except that the pool was under construction and off limits while we were there but we wouldn’t have had time to use it anyway.
The view from our room was good – the Wynn hotel across the road and the mountains beyond that.
What we did
We saw a great comic at the LA Comedy Club at the Stratosphere, Cher and the Cirque du Soliel Beatles show, LOVE, both of which were fabulous. The concierge arranged for both the comedy club and LOVE for us and got us discounts for both.
We did a lot of ton of walking – as anyone knows who’s been to LV, the hotels look close together but because they’re so huge, there’s actually a lot of walking between (and in) them. The Palazzo was quite elegant, the Venetion way over the top but I thought the most beautiful lobby was the Bellagio, with it’s gorgeous Chihouly ceiling and Samurai warrior sculpture. Beyond the reception area, in the Conservatory there was a beautiful Japanese garden display where everything was made of flower petals – amazing!
The other hotel that I thought was so much fun (just the outside – we didn’t go in) was New York New York which is designed to look like a Manhattan streetscape, complete with Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty!
Neither of us is much of a gambler but I do like the poker slots and lost, won and re-lost my usual twenty bucks. We visited Fremont Street and especially loved the Container Park! We also went to the arts district where we had a great lunch and stopped in at a couple of the fun junk stores and we also went to the great neon boneyard.
Where we ate
Well, I apologize to the Fodorites who gave us great restaurant tips but we generally ate in places that were just convenient to where we were at the time – mostly good, as it turns out.
We had dinner at the Grand Luxe in our hotel twice, once on the night we checked in and then just before LOVE across the street at the Mirage because we didn’t see anything there that tempted us. I should have realized that the Grand Luxe was the higher end version of the Cheesecake Factory because the décor is so similar but the food is, IMO, much better. We’d been to the Grand Luxe in Miami so we were already familiar with it. Good food, good prices, good service.
We had a lunch on the terrace of the Hexx at the Paris Hotel, good for people watching, OK food. That night we wanted to be at the Stratosphere so we had dinner at the Italian restaurant there (Fellini’s, I think) and I’d say that while it wasn’t terrible, it was probably the only poor meal we had on this trip.
One of our best meals, however, was lunch at a Mexican restaurant, Casa Don Juan, in the arts district. We just stepped in without knowing anything about it but it was quite lively and the food was good. The waiter said they’d been in business there for 22 years.
After the Cher show at the Park MGM we wanted just a light bite of late dinner so we stepped into Eataly for pizza slices and dessert. I’ve never been to Eataly in NY and there’s one opening here in Toronto later this year so I wanted to give it a try. I have to say it’s not the kind of restaurant I love. I’ve been to those ‘food station’ type of restaurants before and I find that it’s hard to get what I want, especially when we’re with other people. Everybody is always going somewhere to get something and you don’t get much time to sit down together for a proper meal. That said, it’s fine for grabbing a quick bite, especially if there’s just the two of you.
What we missed
My SO decided not to play golf after all because there was so much other stuff to do. We really did most of what we wanted to do but if I had to do it over again I’d leave one night unplanned so we could see the Fremont Street Experience and the Bellagio fountains. I know they run during the day but we never happened to be in the right place at the right time. I’d also like to see the “Brilliant” show at the neon boneyard but we were there during the day. We didn’t have time to visit the Mob Museum and I’d definitely like to see that. We didn’t take either the Deuce or the monorail but we did opt for the hop-on hop-off bus on our last day because it was chilly and a little drizzly (other days were beautiful – sunny and mid-70s!) and we were walked out. We hopped on and hopped off a couple of times.
Someone here said that four nights was too many nights in Las Vegas but I don’t agree. I could easily have amused myself for five or six nights. Of course, cost is an issue – there are hundreds of shows to see, if you have the bucks!
So it's a short, quick trip report but if anyone needs more info, just ask. Many thanks again to everyone who was so generous with their advice!
The flight
Due to the grounding of the Max8s we had a flight change. I felt lucky to get new plans with Westjet so quickly and easily but it did mean that our non-stop flight to Las Vegas suddenly had one 3-hour stop in Winnipeg so we got in early evening instead of mid-afternoon. By the time we got to the hotel, checked in and unpacked, it was about 8 pm – not so late but after a tiring travel day all we did was have dinner in the hotel and check out the casino and shops. We were staying at the Palazzo but a walk around the Venetian is an evening in itself! Fortunately, our flight home remained non-stop.
The hotel
The Palazzo was fabulous. Our suite (bedroom then two steps down to living room) was 720 square feet and beautifully decorated. I know people who live in condos smaller than that! The bathroom alone was about 10x10 not even counting the extra little toilet room, with a double sink vanity, a shower and separate huge, deep bathtub and a little dressing table. I've gotten used to a phone in the bathroom but this is the first time I've had a TV in there. Here's what it looked like with minor differences in the furniture and art but this is pretty much it:
https://www.venetian.com/towers/the-...ry-suites.html
Every inch of the hotel was spotlessly clean and the service, especially the concierge service was excellent. No complaints at all about the hotel except that the pool was under construction and off limits while we were there but we wouldn’t have had time to use it anyway.
The view from our room was good – the Wynn hotel across the road and the mountains beyond that.
What we did
We saw a great comic at the LA Comedy Club at the Stratosphere, Cher and the Cirque du Soliel Beatles show, LOVE, both of which were fabulous. The concierge arranged for both the comedy club and LOVE for us and got us discounts for both.
We did a lot of ton of walking – as anyone knows who’s been to LV, the hotels look close together but because they’re so huge, there’s actually a lot of walking between (and in) them. The Palazzo was quite elegant, the Venetion way over the top but I thought the most beautiful lobby was the Bellagio, with it’s gorgeous Chihouly ceiling and Samurai warrior sculpture. Beyond the reception area, in the Conservatory there was a beautiful Japanese garden display where everything was made of flower petals – amazing!
The other hotel that I thought was so much fun (just the outside – we didn’t go in) was New York New York which is designed to look like a Manhattan streetscape, complete with Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty!
Neither of us is much of a gambler but I do like the poker slots and lost, won and re-lost my usual twenty bucks. We visited Fremont Street and especially loved the Container Park! We also went to the arts district where we had a great lunch and stopped in at a couple of the fun junk stores and we also went to the great neon boneyard.
Where we ate
Well, I apologize to the Fodorites who gave us great restaurant tips but we generally ate in places that were just convenient to where we were at the time – mostly good, as it turns out.
We had dinner at the Grand Luxe in our hotel twice, once on the night we checked in and then just before LOVE across the street at the Mirage because we didn’t see anything there that tempted us. I should have realized that the Grand Luxe was the higher end version of the Cheesecake Factory because the décor is so similar but the food is, IMO, much better. We’d been to the Grand Luxe in Miami so we were already familiar with it. Good food, good prices, good service.
We had a lunch on the terrace of the Hexx at the Paris Hotel, good for people watching, OK food. That night we wanted to be at the Stratosphere so we had dinner at the Italian restaurant there (Fellini’s, I think) and I’d say that while it wasn’t terrible, it was probably the only poor meal we had on this trip.
One of our best meals, however, was lunch at a Mexican restaurant, Casa Don Juan, in the arts district. We just stepped in without knowing anything about it but it was quite lively and the food was good. The waiter said they’d been in business there for 22 years.
After the Cher show at the Park MGM we wanted just a light bite of late dinner so we stepped into Eataly for pizza slices and dessert. I’ve never been to Eataly in NY and there’s one opening here in Toronto later this year so I wanted to give it a try. I have to say it’s not the kind of restaurant I love. I’ve been to those ‘food station’ type of restaurants before and I find that it’s hard to get what I want, especially when we’re with other people. Everybody is always going somewhere to get something and you don’t get much time to sit down together for a proper meal. That said, it’s fine for grabbing a quick bite, especially if there’s just the two of you.
What we missed
My SO decided not to play golf after all because there was so much other stuff to do. We really did most of what we wanted to do but if I had to do it over again I’d leave one night unplanned so we could see the Fremont Street Experience and the Bellagio fountains. I know they run during the day but we never happened to be in the right place at the right time. I’d also like to see the “Brilliant” show at the neon boneyard but we were there during the day. We didn’t have time to visit the Mob Museum and I’d definitely like to see that. We didn’t take either the Deuce or the monorail but we did opt for the hop-on hop-off bus on our last day because it was chilly and a little drizzly (other days were beautiful – sunny and mid-70s!) and we were walked out. We hopped on and hopped off a couple of times.
Someone here said that four nights was too many nights in Las Vegas but I don’t agree. I could easily have amused myself for five or six nights. Of course, cost is an issue – there are hundreds of shows to see, if you have the bucks!
So it's a short, quick trip report but if anyone needs more info, just ask. Many thanks again to everyone who was so generous with their advice!
Mar 29th, 2019, 12:37 PM
#9
You better hurry up. She's 72! I've seen her probably 15 times since the late 80s. Unbelievably she is touring again and I will see her in Buffalo on April 26. That being said, if you get a chance to see her at the Park Theatre in Las Vegas by all means do so. It's so much better than seeing her at a big concert stadium (although that's good too).
Mar 29th, 2019, 07:12 PM
#10
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I got the only tickets available and they were pretty far back in the big theatre but I remembered to bring my little opera glasses and also there were lots of big screens as part of the stage set so it wasn't too bad. I would have loved to be sitting up front though, if only to see the costumes in detail!
Apr 10th, 2019, 10:22 PM
#11
We will be in Las Vegas two nights at the end of May. However one night we will have flown from NZ to Las Vegas, will get in about 8pm, so think we will just be sleeping that night. I was going to book a show for the next night but think we will just wander around outside, take in the fountains, lights etc. Thanks for the restaurant tips goddesstogo, I will have to check out the hotel also. I have booked and cancelled about three hotels so far!!!
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