StantonHyde

Our family of mom, dad, and 2 teens (16 yo DS and 13 yo DD) made a quick trip to Vegas this weekend to complete our Global Entry interviews at the Vegas airport. We drove down from Salt Lake on Thursday night-ugh—and then had to be at the airport by 8:30 am. We stayed at the Residence Inn Las Vegas South, which is across the street from new Raiders stadium that is being built. The rooms were spacious and clean. The breakfast was very good and the coffee was fantastic. I usually have to skip hotel coffee and find a coffee shop. But this stuff was really good. It is about a 10 minute drive to the airport—traffic.

We were done with our “interviews” in 10 minutes total—it was supposed to take an hour. We hadn’t had time for much breakfast since we got in so late the night before and had to be at the airport so early. I looked on Yelp and found “Eggworks”. That was a great breakfast place for us! I got a fruit plate, DH got the chile rellenos omelette, DD got a burger and fries—she hates breakfast food (weird), and DS got chile and onion rings because he did eat breakfast at the hotel. Seriously, there is something for everybody at this place. And it was doing a brisk business. Service was friendly and food was good.

Then we went back to the hotel, left the car, and took the free shuttle to Mandalay Bay. From there we caught the free monorail to the Luxor. We bought the 3 attractions tickets and planned on seeing: the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor, the CSI experience at MGM, and the Fine Arts at the Bellagio. The Titanic exhibit was interesting and we all liked it. It took about an hour to see. Then we walked over to the MGM. I have to admit that I have never been on that end of the strip before—I have only been between the M&M store and the Wynn—and it isn’t the nicest walk but its ok.

Finding the CSI experience is a bit of walk—through smoky casinos etc—ugh. But the experience itself is fun. Nothing too gory—some adults in front of us were afraid of that, my kids were not! DH and I had fun with it too.

The M&M store and the Coca Cola store are basically in front of the MGM so we spent time there looking around. We liked the international taste tray of Coke products from around the world and it was nice to sit down. Then we walked up to the Bellagio. They were having a special exhibit which was ok, but we were looking for the usual paintings etc. So I would suggest looking it up first to see what is being exhibited when you go.

By that time it was 5:00 and we were all hangry. We decided to go for the Bellagio buffet. I have never eaten at a Vegas buffet but I figured the Bellagio would have a good one. We were not disappointed. There was something for everyone, even cocktails for the adults. And it was out of the smoke! Winning all around. We stopped by the Conservatory on the way out—fun fall decorations. We got a cab back to the Residence Inn and crashed. Nobody had any energy to go see a show etc.

The next morning, we all got breakfast at the hotel and then went to the Mob Museum. It is really very interesting and well done. We spent 2-3 hours there! By that time we had to go so we would still have energy for the drive home.

The kids were not big fans of the strip/the casinos. They hated the smoke and it is all a bit over stimulating with the slot machines, loud music, hoards of people, etc. The liked the Titanic, CSI, and Mob Museum. We didn’t plan on hiking in the nearby parks just because we were so tired from the long drive Thursday night and my kids hike in lots of red rock every year. At this point, they can say them have been to Vegas. I think they would have loved a Cirque show but we were just too exhausted. We drove by Fremont street and I thought that would be really cool at night.

All in all, a good short visit!

sf7307

And you got your Global Entry interviews done to boot! (worth the traffic, I think)

emalloy

That sounds like a good way to knock off GE and Vegas with kids.

Thanks for the report.