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The Strip at daytime.Hi Friends and Family,
Good Morning All!
We woke up and it came to us that we were finally in Las Vegas. We were no longer in Utah but Nevada.
What a thrill!
Its funny to see that in the end, Vegas is just a block of sand and in the daytime, it just looked,
well,
sandy!
So, time for a little stroll and breakfast. I had done some research on buffet meals regarding the quality of said meals, location, crowd possibilities and cost. Bellagio came up trumps as the best place to be for brunch-lunch!
But first, do the walk.
There was still a bit of a nip in the air and so we took our scarves and jackets and walked along the Strip in albeit, a bit of sunshine.
The daylight showed us that Donnie & Marie Osmond were in town and the show-puller at this time of year was Cher who was performing at Caesars' Palace.
Caesars' Palace was a place of interest for me 'cos there had been a year-long documentary/reality-show shown on a German cable channel called "Bio".
In Germany, the show was called
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"The Small Young Gentleman" of course. "Das Caesars: Wilkommen in Vegas" and in America it was called "Caesars 24/7" showing behind the scenes at the hotel and the lives and tribulations of working at a top-notch casino. The jobs highlighted by the show ranged from security and concierge to well-known and famed "Shadow Dancers." It looked wild and glamourous to me so I wanted to see it for myself by "playing" there.
More on that later.
So, Bellagio.
Bellagio is a triple A (AAA) five diamond award-winning hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in the Paradise area of unincorporated Clark County in Nevada and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. It is owned by MGM Resorts International and was built on the site of the demolished "Dunes Hotel and Casino".
Inspired by the Lake Como resort of Bellagio in Italy, Bellagio is famed for its elegance and one of its most notable features is an 8-acre lake between the building and the Strip, which houses the Fountains of Bellagio, a large dancing water fountain synchronized to music which we saw a little of last night but which we will really get to see more of later
in the evening.
Bellagio was conceived by Steve Wynn and built by his company, Mirage Resorts, Inc. and in the last few years has been shown briefly in one scene of the movie "Rush Hour 2", the hotel and its fountains in the 2008 film "21", in the remake of "Ocean's Eleven", in the 2009 film "2012", and in the 2009 film "The Hangover".
We were going to Bellagio 'cos of the very fine reputation of "The Buffet" in which an exciting combination of taste and talent was put on display incorporating several live-action cooking stations and a whopping choice of Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and American cuisines AND including the very generous seafood platters. Most importantly, it was a non-smoking facility and the price of lunch at $19.95 each was pretty decent and came included with free drinks! The deal being that the tip you gave would cover the cost and as is well-known, American service-craft have to rely heavily on tips and we have tried to be generous when doing so.
In Europe, we tip at 10% and 15-20% is more than generous by our standards. Our only thoughts were well, if we could afford to
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Lunch at Bellagio fly out there and spend a couple of weeks in luxury environments, we could afford to spend a few dollars more but I stop at tipping the bell-boy 'cos he brought me an extra towel or paying a mind-boggling $33.00 for valet parking AND tipping.
We're not mad you know!
"The Small Young Gentleman" had made 3 very smart videos of the food centre but unfortunately, the MB's were a little too large. 'Will post some of the videos on Facebook at a later time LOL!
Really, looking back, it was worth every penny!
After a hefty lunch, we went back on "The Strip" in order to finish our strip walk by running in and out of various hotels and taking lots and lots of photos of them and at the same time going to our destination at the "Excalibar" hotel where we were later to see "The Tournaments of Kings".
Yep! More research had been done and since we were here as a family, I searched out relevant family-friendly activities and the Excalibur Hotel seemed to fit the bill.
More in the next blog.
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Moi with glossy lipstick! .
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