So we did a weekend in Vegas! Gee, I've never heard of anyone doing that from the southern California area. Have you?

Since this topic is done to death, I only wanted to give a few quick takes on our short birthday trip (celebrating my SigO's on Saturday and mine two weeks prior) to Sin City.

METHOD OF TRAVEL: Plane. JetBlue, LGB-LAS. Quick flights, new planes, friendly crew on the ground and in the air (at the security checkpoint a JetBlue employee wished us BOTH "Happy birthday!"). Security checkpoint time at LGB? One minute. Walk from cab to gate at LGB? Four minutes total. Plenty of time to answer e-mails on my Blackberry and make a job offer to a new prospective employee. Full flight. JetBlue is doing gangbusters at LGB, it turns out.

GROUND TRANSPORT: Cab. The cab stand at LAS is a model of cool efficiency as you leave Baggage Claim to step onto the surface of the sun-- aka Las Vegas in summer. Actually, we hit a cold spell as we struggled to hit 103F each day (it never dipped below 80F outside at night). It wasn't that bad, really. Drink water. By the way, the "stay off the highway" tip still holds, despite the idiotic road construction snarling up Flamingo.

HOTEL: The Mirage. It's still pretty classy after all these years. Not Bellagio swanky (or, apparently, Wynn-chic), but it still exudes quiet class. We had a Tower Deluxe room with an incredible Strip view and the nightly "volcano" show outside our window on the 24th floor (non-smoking, thank the gods). Not a huge room, but boy the bed was comfy after a night of gambling.

GAMBLING: Mirage and Bellagio. Tight slots in general. They hit you to join the Player's Club as soon as you sit down to play a machine. Well, I may have lost a bit of money, but the Player's Club ended up helping: They comped me two nights' stay and a plush stuffed white tiger for my cats to play with. We always ended up too drunk to play roulette.

SHOW: O at the Bellagio. Combined with a pre-show prix fixe dinner at Fix (more later). Breathtaking show. Cirque du Soleil works to engage the sense of awe and wonder at the world around us that we all have as children. The artistry, the athleticism, the music, the magic of the whole experience-- beyond words. My hands hurt from clapping and my throat was raw from cheering. If you haven't seen it-- go. Crawl, run, fly, whatever it takes.

GRUB: Mixed bag, mostly quite good (mostly at the Mirage).

-- Samba (Mirage). Brazilian-style churrascaria. We got the rodízio, which I called "The Parade of Meat". Salad, then Brazilian side dishes of feijão preto (black beans), farofa (glazed carrots-- sounds boring, but it's a very yummy dish), creamed spinach and fried plantains. Then, the meat. Chicken, sausage, turkey, flank steak, pork loin, prime rib, mahi-mahi.... Then we surrendured. Everything was delicious, but we eventually had to stop. They had caipirinhas in their drink menu, which is what really did me in. Brazilian cachaça (like rum, but stronger) always kicks my butt.

-- Caribe Café (Mirage). Coffee shop. Good grub at all hours. Nothing really to say other than that.

-- Cravings (Mirage). Buffet. All-you-can-eat mediocre food. The service was exemplary (we had the Sunday champagne brunch, and our glasses were always filled promptly and with a smile), but the food itself wasn't anything to write home about. Oh well....

-- Fix (Bellagio). New eatery between the Via Bellagio Shops and the O Theatre. It opens at 5 PM, and by 5:30 it was nearly full (a bunch of drunk bachelorettes kept the Shrieking Laughter quotient high). Beautiful, stylish room. GREAT FOOD. The prix fixe had a limited menu, but everything was wonderful, from the roasted tomato soup (superb) to the prime rib (big cut, perfectly prepared) to the desserts (Shake and Cake, banana donuts with chocolate and peanut butter dipping cauces). The service was incredible as well, and this place easily has the best-looking waitstaff and bartenders in Vegas (the head bartender must have been an ex-showgirl-- absolutely gorgeous). Fix was a HUGE hit with us.

OTHER STUFF: We hit the Secret Garden. As we walked in, some trashy jerk was remarking to his blowsy wife as they waddled out that "it sure wasn't worth fifteen bucks". I heartily disagree. It's always worth it to see live animals being carefully taken care of-- and your money goes not only to their upkeep but to animal preservation organizations. I say this being a bit ambivalent about trained animal acts in general; but it seems these animals were trained with general affection and love. One of the white tigers got a bit too frisky with a sleeping female and got a hard swat to the face; a trainer yelled "Vishnu, down!" and the male backed off immediately. The beauty and power of these creatures is awe-inspiring.

SUMMARY: Great flights, lovely room, wonderful entertainment. We're already talking about a stay at Bellagio after the New Year (just to have a change from Mirage).

Ignore the spelling and grammar-- I'm still going through travel withdrawal. AND second-hand nicotine withdrawal. Ahh, Vegas casinos *cough cough*....

Good times. Last month, we were tempted to get our Fix, but we found ourselves ricocheting through Vegas and never stopped there. Next trip.

Liked the Parade of Meat comments. There's a great restaurant named Espetus in SF where we gluttoned ourselves in a similar manner. Hmmm, it's lunch time in CA now, gotta go!

Thanks for the report -- headed to Vegas for Labor Day and staying at Bellagio this time...will check out Fix!

Have we met?

Glad you enjoyed Fix so much. Husband and I ate there last summer on a whim. Sat at the bar and had a great time. Did you see the appetizer of smoked salmon go by? All the forks standing up on the plate? It was very cute plus it was good. The service we received at Fix was exemplary as well. The bartender was very friendly turned me on to "Hangar One" vodka. He made a complimentary raspberry something or other with the Hangar One raspberry infused vodka ... oh boy, yum.

We are going to Las Vegas on Oct. 31 and hope to stay at The Bellagio (currently booked at Ballys at $136 a night). Hoping for an e-mail special from the Bellagio ... just really want to stay there one time.

A belated birthday rjw!
How great that you two got to celebrate in such a fun way- we have done my birthday and our anniversary a couple oftimes, it has always been fun.
Glad you will go to the Bellagio next..
I agree about the lions, if they cannot be safe in their natural habitat, at least we can enjoy them being safe in their new habitat.
Loved the Shrieking Laughter remark, I have been noticing that a lot lately ( a sign of age or maturity?)

Thank you, Scarlett! It was indeed a lot of fun-- especially since there was something special to celebrate. I just did a check of rates at Bellagio and almost fainted dead away at my desk-- I have to start squirreling away my pennies NOW to afford that dump this winter.

The banshee-like bachelorettes wouldn't have bothered me so much if I hadn't had my fill of half a plane full of already-tipsy Girls Gone Wild waiting at the gate at LGB and, of course, on the plane heading there. It must have been a busy weekend for those types of parties-- the servers at Fix were all rolling their eyes every time the car alarm-like peals of drunken laughter rose from that table.

Am I that close to being the town crank tottering out my front door to yell at the neighbor kids to "Get off my grass, you damn punks!!"?!?

Hey rjw!

Happy birthday(s)!

Glad you had a nice time in LV. It's one of my favorite U.S. destinations! I'm definitely NOT into the whole "outdoors" thing, unless it's sitting by the pool being served fine food & drinks(!), so LV definitely fits my bill!

PLEASE do me a favor -- tell the folks at JetBlue to consider IAD-ONT or, even better, BWI-ONT service! Last time I flew into ONT, I was wishing that they would have a beefier schedule from the D.C. area, as I watched one of their planes push back from the gate.

I must disagree with you about Cravings, though . . . I am not a fan of buffets in general, but I found Cravings (at least at breakfast) to be FANTASTIC -- tender smoked salmon, flaky, fresh-baked croissants, and wonderful little touches like President beurre. I ate so much that I was like a stuffed tick all day during the drive back to PSP! Simply put, the quality of the food was far superior to the usual dreck you find at buffets.

If you stay at the Bellagio, consider asking for a wheelchair-accessible room. I was given one (w/o asking), and the marble shower had a seat in it! Nice to just sit down & let the warm water spray you!

My sister who lives on a farm in OH LOVES to go out to LV & gamble. She's always told me that one of the best places to gamble is downtown . . . But, you obviously must have done well enough to get comped! I'm strictly a low $$ gambler! I'd rather blow my $$ in the shops!! And, I've always heard that roulette is basically a sucker bet, so you were probably better off for having missed it!

But, I've got a question for you -- why not try western PA next year?!?

LT: Would that I had pull at JetBlue-- I'd like to see service into the Chicago metro area myself from LGB. I finally flew out of ONT last Xmas (on American)-- nice little airport, but just not that convenient for me.

Cravings? I might have chosen some lackluster dishes, especially among the luncheon items. The breakfast stuff was pretty good, true. Still, I enjoyed my diner grub at the Caribe Café a bit more. And after Meat-apalooza at Samba and that stylish meal at Fix, a simple buffet wasn't going to thrill me. The bubbly was, to be honest, the important thing (Hair of the Dog and all that).

Hit the games in downtown LV? Maybe next time.

Western PA for a vacation? I'm not sure I need to relax and catch up on sleep THAT much...!!!

rjw:

Often, when you tell a FA, pilot, etc. a suggestion, they do pass it along! I'd love to experience JetBlue, but IAD is not that convenient for me, and it seems like LGB is the only west coast destination from there -- would be great for you, I'm sure, but I usually go to PSP, so ONT would be far better.

OK, it's Friday, I'm beat, and I guess I'm also having a blonde moment(!) . . . I thought Cravings was @ the Bellagio! It's admittedly been a while since I've been to LV (TOO long, IMHO!), & I really didn't pay attention to the name (if any) of the buffet @ the Bellagio! So, forgive me . . . don't know about Cravings, but everything I said about the buffet @ the Bellagio still stands! WELL worth the $$!

rjw_lgb_ca,
Those shrieking bachelorettes are becoming VERY common here...it used to be the place to come for bachelor parties...not any more, the women are coming in droves. My DH and I went out the other night to a nice Japanese restaurant, the hibachi table across the room was full of those shrieking ladies! Oh well, what are ya gonna do? As for those smoky casinos...you ain't seen nothing (actually that would be smelled nothing) until you have been to our local 7-11's!!! Because we have slots in our convenience stores, smoking is also allowed in them (I wish we had it outlawed like in CA, I'm all for no smoking inside). My DH likes to get his fix on a Big Gulp, so we often stop at a local 7-11, I wait in the truck while he runs in for about umm maybe 20 seconds, when he comes out my reply is always the same...so how was that pack that you just smoked! It's pretty bad. Glad to hear that you had a nice time, I have always liked the Mirage, it is "the" hotel that has kept that "classy" vegas clientele, and always seems to get great reviews. Did you or have you ever seen Danny Gans? If not, his show is a MUST see! I Love it, I have seen him about 5 times now and I have enjoyed it every time.
Cheers!

LT: Funny, I will be flying LGB-JFK next month, so maybe I'll drop the question with a gate agent or someone. The B6 experience is just relaxed and comfortable. And don't worry about the buffet confusion. ALL my moments tend to be blond moments, despite the shaved head...! I have heard that about Bellagio's buffet. This past Sunday we took another spin through, and the line for the buffet was a few hundred people long!! "Must be good" was all we could say.

vegas: Ain't it the truth? I've got all my shirts I wore hanging out to try to air out the smoke. It's worse than when I actually smoked. Still, free drinks and the lights and sounds...! I heard the "Wheel of Fortune" sounds for a full day and a half after our return.

I've seen Danny Gans-- I'm not a big fan of voice impersonators, although he's certainly good at it. This next trip, I think we might go see Gladys Knoght at the Flamingo, and maybe Penn and Teller. We'll see how much money we can spend!

We liked FIX too...at the Tom Jones show we went to at MGM there was a rowdy crowd of women over from Liverpool for the hen night!