First trip report that I have done. I enjoy reading about the experiences others have had on their Vegas vacations, so I thought I would share mine for those of you who might be interested.
Lodging: Bellagio
Stayed here for the 2nd time - As was the expected, the rooms were top-notch. Large enough to be more than comfortable for my party which included my wife and her sister. The beds at the Bellagio are incredible...almost as good as home. These are probably some of the best hotel beds/linens I have ever used. The bathroom is nice too - very spacious, with a stand alone shower and whirlpool. If you haven't stayed at the Bellagio before, think opulence. This place can get expensive quickly and I wouldn't recommend it unless you aren't afraid to shell out the cash. With that being said, the service and accomodations are second to none. Great place just to "ohh and ahh" or spend a romantic vacation, but not feasible for people looking to party on the cheap. For our purposes, it was basically perfect. I give it a 4.5 / 5 rating for living up to all the expectations we had come to have based on our first visit.
Dining: We ate at several different places for the first time. I will hit the high spots for the nice meals we had.
10/3 Nobhill Tavern @ MGM Grand
Ate here because I had heard of the highly recommended lobster pot pie. I thought my meal was superb, but the rest of my party was unimpressed. I had the pot pie - a little pricey @ 85$ - but IMO was worth it. My wife and her sister had some sort of chicken and were not very impressed. I warned them against it, but you know how women are. My friend got the braised short ribs - they were terrible. I am not sure how you could mess ribs up this badly, but they did. I would give this place a 3 out of 5 simply because I was the only one who enjoyed my meal. The atmosphere and service were spot on, I just think I was the only one who ordered something decent.
10/4 RM Seafood @ Mandalay Bay
Ate here after the Carrot Top show. It was late so we did not get too adventurous on the menu. I had the fish and chips - battered and fried halibut with garlic potato wedges. Very good and nicely priced to boot. They had what appeared to be a great selection of seafood and sushi, but at 11 pm I just was not in the mood. Our waiter was great - very knowledgable and prompt with his service. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who enjoys seafood - not many options for land lovers though. I gave this place a 4 out of 5.
10/5 Prime Steakhouse @ Bellagio
Best steak I have ever had. The trio of sauces was simply amazing. If you are going to Vegas and want to eat an absolutely premiere steak and spare no expense I would urge you to try this place. Everything from the bread, to the salad, to the wait staff was perfect. If we could have gotten a table outside by the fountain this would have probably been my favorite meal of all time. Be warned though...this place has an extensive wine list and can get pricey. Our tab alone was over $500. I would come here again in a heart beat. Absolutely incredible, cannot say anything else about it but wow. This place is a 5 out of 5.
10/6 Top of the World @ Stratosphere
My wife loves this place. The food was great; the view was incredible. I had a 5 course tasting menu, enjoyed all of it but the black cod. This was our second time at this restaurant, and it was better than the first. The only complaint we had was the time in which it took to get our checks separated and paid, but that was mostly our groups fault IMO. Food was delicious, but the steak couldnt touch the one from Prime. This place is a solid 4.5 out of 5. A great place to take a date or just hang out with friends.
Entertainment :
Carrot Top @ Luxor
Okay, so I know a lot of people do not like this guy - I admit I was one of them until I saw this show. This guy had us rolling in the floor. His show was fresh and genuinely funny. It was obvious he works hard to keep his material current, even his stand up when he was taking a break from his props was pretty good. For the price of admission this show cannot be beat. Definately a nice break from all the cirque shows that my wife always wants to see. 4.5 out of 5.
Peephow @ Planet Hollywood
Yay...Holly Madison's boobs! 2nd time to see this show and it put me to sleep. The first time was much better, but this is one of those shows that doesn't change at all! I would recommend this to anyone new to Vegas, but you have got to sit close. We sat towards the back this time and it was pretty bad. The whole thing just seemed like the actors just went through the motions. Holly doesn't look that great to me anyway - wayyy too fake for my tastes. I give it a 2.5 out of 5.
Mystere @ TI
Wife picked this out - it was our obligatory cirque show. This was our 5th cirque show and I thought it was fairly solid. Some of the acts were better than others, but that was too be expected. The trampoline artists were out of this world. If you have seen O and Ka, I would recommend this one. If not I would tell you to go see O, as in my opinion it is the best. I give this show a solid 3.5 out of 5.
Gambling :
Did almost all of my gambling exclusively at the Bellagio. The slots were incredibly tight - I only saw one jackpot all week and it was on a 25$ video poker machine. It seems like you cannot win any money at all with slots on the strip. I try to stay away for the most part, but I just find them entertaining and almost always set aside some money to play in them.
It is obvious to me that no one on the Strip understands how to play blackjack. Basically every table was converted to use an auto-shuffler - which I hate - or had at least a 6 deck shoe. I didn't see any 6-5 games, but there were plenty of sucker carnival blackjack variations. I witnessed every sort of bone head play imaginable. The worst of which was a player doubling down on a hard 5 and recieving a 6 - gotta be smart to pull that move. I know it supposedly doesn't affect your game when people pull stupid shit, but it bothers me, so I only play with people who at the very least possess a solid knowledge of basic strategy. Found myself at a table alone most of them time - had a couple of small runs that were solid, but for the most part couldn't get a lot started. I did witness an asian man playing 3 hands at approximately 20-30k a hand. A quick look at his chip stack and I guessed he must of had at least a million in chips. Funny thing is I saw him the night before I left playing quarters on a 25$ table. I hope for his sake he didn't lose it all, but the way he was betting he probably did.
All in all it was a good trip. Cashed a couple of good tickets on sports and did well enough at the tables to almost offset all my losses for the week. We got about half our food comped - all of which had been charged to the room. I was pretty happy about this because we had ran up quite the bill. I will be back hopefully sooner than later depending on the offers I get. If you guys have any questions feel free to ask, that was the extent of my trip.
Lodging: Bellagio
Stayed here for the 2nd time - As was the expected, the rooms were top-notch. Large enough to be more than comfortable for my party which included my wife and her sister. The beds at the Bellagio are incredible...almost as good as home. These are probably some of the best hotel beds/linens I have ever used. The bathroom is nice too - very spacious, with a stand alone shower and whirlpool. If you haven't stayed at the Bellagio before, think opulence. This place can get expensive quickly and I wouldn't recommend it unless you aren't afraid to shell out the cash. With that being said, the service and accomodations are second to none. Great place just to "ohh and ahh" or spend a romantic vacation, but not feasible for people looking to party on the cheap. For our purposes, it was basically perfect. I give it a 4.5 / 5 rating for living up to all the expectations we had come to have based on our first visit.
Dining: We ate at several different places for the first time. I will hit the high spots for the nice meals we had.
10/3 Nobhill Tavern @ MGM Grand
Ate here because I had heard of the highly recommended lobster pot pie. I thought my meal was superb, but the rest of my party was unimpressed. I had the pot pie - a little pricey @ 85$ - but IMO was worth it. My wife and her sister had some sort of chicken and were not very impressed. I warned them against it, but you know how women are. My friend got the braised short ribs - they were terrible. I am not sure how you could mess ribs up this badly, but they did. I would give this place a 3 out of 5 simply because I was the only one who enjoyed my meal. The atmosphere and service were spot on, I just think I was the only one who ordered something decent.
10/4 RM Seafood @ Mandalay Bay
Ate here after the Carrot Top show. It was late so we did not get too adventurous on the menu. I had the fish and chips - battered and fried halibut with garlic potato wedges. Very good and nicely priced to boot. They had what appeared to be a great selection of seafood and sushi, but at 11 pm I just was not in the mood. Our waiter was great - very knowledgable and prompt with his service. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who enjoys seafood - not many options for land lovers though. I gave this place a 4 out of 5.
10/5 Prime Steakhouse @ Bellagio
Best steak I have ever had. The trio of sauces was simply amazing. If you are going to Vegas and want to eat an absolutely premiere steak and spare no expense I would urge you to try this place. Everything from the bread, to the salad, to the wait staff was perfect. If we could have gotten a table outside by the fountain this would have probably been my favorite meal of all time. Be warned though...this place has an extensive wine list and can get pricey. Our tab alone was over $500. I would come here again in a heart beat. Absolutely incredible, cannot say anything else about it but wow. This place is a 5 out of 5.
10/6 Top of the World @ Stratosphere
My wife loves this place. The food was great; the view was incredible. I had a 5 course tasting menu, enjoyed all of it but the black cod. This was our second time at this restaurant, and it was better than the first. The only complaint we had was the time in which it took to get our checks separated and paid, but that was mostly our groups fault IMO. Food was delicious, but the steak couldnt touch the one from Prime. This place is a solid 4.5 out of 5. A great place to take a date or just hang out with friends.
Entertainment :
Carrot Top @ Luxor
Okay, so I know a lot of people do not like this guy - I admit I was one of them until I saw this show. This guy had us rolling in the floor. His show was fresh and genuinely funny. It was obvious he works hard to keep his material current, even his stand up when he was taking a break from his props was pretty good. For the price of admission this show cannot be beat. Definately a nice break from all the cirque shows that my wife always wants to see. 4.5 out of 5.
Peephow @ Planet Hollywood
Yay...Holly Madison's boobs! 2nd time to see this show and it put me to sleep. The first time was much better, but this is one of those shows that doesn't change at all! I would recommend this to anyone new to Vegas, but you have got to sit close. We sat towards the back this time and it was pretty bad. The whole thing just seemed like the actors just went through the motions. Holly doesn't look that great to me anyway - wayyy too fake for my tastes. I give it a 2.5 out of 5.
Mystere @ TI
Wife picked this out - it was our obligatory cirque show. This was our 5th cirque show and I thought it was fairly solid. Some of the acts were better than others, but that was too be expected. The trampoline artists were out of this world. If you have seen O and Ka, I would recommend this one. If not I would tell you to go see O, as in my opinion it is the best. I give this show a solid 3.5 out of 5.
Gambling :
Did almost all of my gambling exclusively at the Bellagio. The slots were incredibly tight - I only saw one jackpot all week and it was on a 25$ video poker machine. It seems like you cannot win any money at all with slots on the strip. I try to stay away for the most part, but I just find them entertaining and almost always set aside some money to play in them.
It is obvious to me that no one on the Strip understands how to play blackjack. Basically every table was converted to use an auto-shuffler - which I hate - or had at least a 6 deck shoe. I didn't see any 6-5 games, but there were plenty of sucker carnival blackjack variations. I witnessed every sort of bone head play imaginable. The worst of which was a player doubling down on a hard 5 and recieving a 6 - gotta be smart to pull that move. I know it supposedly doesn't affect your game when people pull stupid shit, but it bothers me, so I only play with people who at the very least possess a solid knowledge of basic strategy. Found myself at a table alone most of them time - had a couple of small runs that were solid, but for the most part couldn't get a lot started. I did witness an asian man playing 3 hands at approximately 20-30k a hand. A quick look at his chip stack and I guessed he must of had at least a million in chips. Funny thing is I saw him the night before I left playing quarters on a 25$ table. I hope for his sake he didn't lose it all, but the way he was betting he probably did.
All in all it was a good trip. Cashed a couple of good tickets on sports and did well enough at the tables to almost offset all my losses for the week. We got about half our food comped - all of which had been charged to the room. I was pretty happy about this because we had ran up quite the bill. I will be back hopefully sooner than later depending on the offers I get. If you guys have any questions feel free to ask, that was the extent of my trip.
