Las VegasThanksgiving and Grazie Holiday Gift Show Trip or How My Son Lost His Wallet And Returned Home Without ID!

My Southwest late afternoon flight was on time out of San Jose airport and I had the pleasure of Roz and Jeff's (Lowrance) company at the airport before we both boarded the same flight to our favorite city Las Vegas!

An uneventful flight to Las Vegas and a short wait for luggage I was off with my Driver Janet from Presidential Limo to Bellagio. I had scheduled a airport pick up the next morning for Mom with Presidential so I asked Janet if she thought the driver would pick up Mom, then pick me up at Bellagio before taking us both to Cosmopolitan to check in and she said she would make sure of it by being the driver. Next thing I knew Janet was on the phone with Presidential making arrangements for her morning pickup to be handled by a different driver and she would be the one to take care of Mom! I'll be using Janet as my driver in the future when I book Presidential. For anyone interested in her contact number it's 808-280-3600.

Check in at 5:30pm at Bellagio was very quick, no lines tonight on Saturday the 22nd. I was out of the room at 6pm and had a chance to lose some money at the slots before meeting Terri for dinner at 7pm.

 We had planned on eating at Noodles but that restaurant doesn't take reservations and there was a long line when we got there. I was starving so we ended up eating at the Bellagio Buffet.  Their upgraded gourmet weekend version of the buffet is very nice especially the desserts.

After dinner it was time to get the slotting on with Terri. We had a lot of fun, and I think Terri left a winner by the time she had to head home. I wouldn't see Terri again this trip but we'll be staying at Aria for NYE with friends the end of December.

Here are the best of my wins at Bellagio that evening which aren't very good so you know at the end of the evening I wasn't leaving Bellagio with more money then I arrived with!

I had some decent wins playing Clue 2 this trip. I still prefer the original Clue slot but it's no longer on the Vegas Strip.

I'm still loving the Walking Dead Slot. Out of two hand pays this year (yes I know it's been a sad year for me for big wins) Walking Dead was one of them and I've had several friends now who have received hand pays and big wins on this slot!

I'm sure most people have seen photos of a regular room at Bellagio prior to this but just in case you want to see more, here's the room I stayed in that night. It had a view of the pools.

I was dressed, packed and down in the casino early next morning as my Mom's flight arrived early and I was checking out of Bellagio and staying at Cosmopolitan with her for two nights.

Since it was early morning around 9am I was able to get some photos of the Bellagio Fall Conservatory before the crowds descended on it.

Janet the nice driver I had yesterday picked Mom up at the airport and was soon at Bellagio to pick me up and take us both to Cosmopolitan. Besides the comp I had at Cosmopolitan with free play,  I was using my Gold Membership with Identity for the companion comp benefit that also gave my Mom her own room at Cosmo for two nights and is not suppose to count against my gambling average. Check in was easy enough but we were told our rooms on the same floor next to each other wouldn't be ready for a while so we checked our luggage. Imagine our surprise when 5 minutes later the rooms were ready! Fortunately it didn't take long to get our luggage delivered to our rooms which had a view of Aria. I had requested the view of Aria on purpose in the hopes of avoiding nightclub noise from Chateau and Drais and our rooms were very quiet.

Bellagio Room Service Menu (update on 11/22/2014)

Time to update the Bellagio Room Service Menu. These photos were taken on 11/22/2014! Please click on photos to enlarge.

Summer of Birthdays-Gwen's Birthday!

This is the last Las Vegas birthday in my trilogy of trip reports,  a Summer of Birthdays! If you haven't read the first two you might want to read them first. They are at the following links:

June: Liz's Birthday Trip report at:

http://www.lasvegasdaze.com/2014/08/summer-of-vegas-birthdays-trip-report.html

My July Birthday Trip Report at:
http://www.lasvegasdaze.com/2014/08/summer-of-birthdays-part-two-my.html
Photo of Delano from their Facebook webpage.

It was August 22nd and time to to celebrate Gwen's birthday with her! Flight out of San Jose was uneventful and on time. My limo was at the airport waiting for me, i.e. chauffeur Laura and her husband Yon in their rental car. Thanks Laura and Yon for chauffeuring me around the strip several times! For the first three nights of this six night trip I would be staying at THEHotel at Mandalay Bay for the last time, as the following week it would officially turn into Delano. My husband and I have always loved THEHotel at MB but the rooms were long overdue for renovation so I was eager to see what Delano had done with them as the branding of the property was now complete, though there was still some construction going on to finish up the lobby in time in time for the Grand Opening.

Check in was efficient so we were able to take my luggage to my suite before the three of us went to lunch.

The lay out of the suite is the same as it was when it was THEHotel,  however the furnishings and style is completely different.

The color scheme is neutrals and whites and time will tell if this was a mistake for a color scheme in Las Vegas. However, the furniture seems cheap enough so perhaps they just plan on replacing it frequently.

THEHotel sofa used to be fairly comfortable, all three of us thought the new sofa was very uncomfortable. The room was clean, but sterile, sort of like a upscale hospital room and channeling some Ikea style furnishings.

Below is the art hanging over the sofa.

The half bath guest room has new wall paper, the sink has not been changed.

The bedroom furniture is new but as previously when it was THEHotel it has two small but new closets/wardrobes on either side of the drawers and the TV. However while there was plenty of room in the closets previously for a Vegas stay some genius has put the clothes hanging bar in from front to back instead of side to side making not only less room for clothes but making it harder to reach the ones you do have room to hang up. What's up with that?

I'm happy to report the bed is very comfortable but be warned the pillows are rock hard. I had read about this months earlier when people started to stay in the renovated rooms and I was really surprised this hadn't been corrected yet. Latest reports say they are replacing the pillows but how many months does that take? I know, first world problems, right? But for some of us a decent pillow is the difference between getting some sleep or not.

I neglected to take photos of the master bath but it's the same as it was, and still with the dark color scheme that matched THEHotel but doesn't match the Delano style. The bathroom toiletries are Malin+Goetz which I liked.

After touring the room the three of us had lunch at Mandalay Bay's Raffles Cafe.

Yon enjoyed his Raffles Omelet with hash browns.

Laura had the yummy Belgium waffles with Sausage.

I liked my Apple Salad with Shrimp added to it.

 After lunch Laura and Yon headed out to check in to their hotel and I went to the player's club to have my free play put on my card. The regular line at the M-Life player's club didn't have a wait but there was a separate line with about 10 or so people for MyVegas rewards.

I gambled a bit with my free play but wasn't winning anything.  My friend Sdguy had just arrived in Vegas and while he was staying at Bellagio he came to Mandalay Bay to meet me. We decided on making our way to Bellagio to check him in by walking and playing slots together along the way.

I forgot to take photos of us this trip but there's plenty from NYE's if you are curious about Sdguy. On our way to the Mandalay Bay Tram we saw Jurassic Park and had a lot of fun playing it for about 20 minutes. Well, I had a lot of fun because I was getting frequent bonuses, Sdguy not so much!