My day to day life is sort of boring these days. Work, work, work and that’s not very fun to talk about. Living with teenagers could be interesting but nothing lately of blog worthy material. Eventually I’ll blog about my incredible wife but saving that for another day. Sooooooooo, it’s another 24 hours in Las Vegas trip report!
So the purpose for the last trip was a double play: push my Southwest Airlines status to A-list with 25 one-way trips during the year AND another night at an M-Life property would push my Hyatt to another level of benefits because you get Hyatt points/benefits for your M-Life stays… although their computers do not communicate 100% of the time it seems to me. I love points games and this seemed like a good one to me!
However, I made a goof and “bought” my plane ticket with points and points purchases do not count toward status. Actually it was sort of funny when I called as the Southwest Airlines representative told me, “you only get credit for the flight when you pay or when you use points earned on your Southwest Airlines credit card.” I said, “well, actually I DID earn the points I used for the trip on my Southwest Airlines credit card…” but I subsequently cancelled said Southwest Airlines credit card. She told me that didn’t count so, in another words, she misspoke when she said you would get credit if the points came from a Southwest Airlines credit card and should have said you get credit if you still have the Southwest Airlines credit card. So, whatever… but I am still one flight short of A-list status so… back to LV I go!
So, first of all a trip to Vegas doesn’t seem right to me if you don’t have a Dos Equis on the plane. There isn’t really enough time for two but one beer tells my brain we are going to Vegas baby! Luckily it was not the 7:00 am flight so it didn’t seem too odd to order a drink… and I certainly wasn’t the only person on the 11:00 am flight having a drink. You know when you fly Southwest Airlines you get free drink coupons all the time and I don’t drink enough to use them all… so I have to use them when I can. Three out of four recent Southwest flights (each of about an hour) they didn’t serve drinks due to “too much turbulence.” Yaaaaa right! So at least this time we didn’t have bad turbulence so I got my beer! Actually it was funny as the stewardess, in sort of rude fashion, said, “please know your drink order when we come through because this is a short flight and there are only 3 of us and 136 of you….” What happens when she gets to the first row? The very first customer asks “what drink options do you have?” Then the stewardess goes to row 2 and the lady there orders “7-up” and the stewardess, sort of curtly says, “we have Sprite not 7-up.” I had my order and my drink ready to go as I didn’t want to get on this lady’s bad side!
So free beer done and it’s time to jump in a cab and head to Park MGM for my thirty dollar room. Yes, thirty bucks on a Tuesday night… but a $37 resort fee and the regular tax so I am sure it was eighty bucks, or more, for my $30 room but anyway it was a good deal! Now, last time I did the 24 in LV I got long-hauled by the cabbie so this time I told the driver I wanted to take surface streets. He said, “of course, I always take the street unless the customer wants me to take the freeway. From the airport to Park MGM would be ten dollars more if we took the freeway.” We arrived less than ten minutes later and the total was about $16.50 which was almost exactly $10 less than last month when I got long hauled. Soooooooooo, insider tip: make sure you tell your cabbie to take the surface streets!
The Park MGM is pretty nice in it’s “$500,000,000 rehab.” However, I don’t think they really spent five hundred mil but it’s nice. As I walked into the lobby at 12:58 the email arrived on my phone telling me my room was ready (as I had told them I would have arrive at 1:00 when I checked in early that morning online). The room was clean and nice but this was not a trip to hang in the room so off I went for one of the treats in Las Vegas that we don’t have back home in Nor Cal… tropical passion iced tea at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. As many of you know one of the best things about the Coffee Bean is they have the best crushed ice. I got an extra large so I would have lots of crushed ice to crunch on. Yes, I know it’s not good for my teeth… well, I could be doing crack but I am not so let me crunch on some crushed ice occasionally!
I went to the Coffee Bean inside the Planet Hollywood shops, aka: Miracle Mile Shops, which was busy on this cold Tuesday afternoon. I sat there and read the paper and enjoyed my tea… and amazing crushed ice. I should add that I think the Las Vegas Review Journal (aka: the RJ) is underappreciated. I say this for two reasons: 1) compared to my hometown paper, which is down to about 10 pages a day (literally), the RJ is still robust with articles and lots of local news and 2) I love the Las Vegas Sun insert. So I really enjoyed my time chilling there in the Miracle Mile Shops.
After enjoying my iced tea, crushed ice, and the Review Journal I headed back out to retrace my steps. So I had heard you could walk from the Park MGM to the Bellagio with barely taking any steps outside. This is basically true… but how!? From the Park MGM you walk toward the pool doors, do not go outside, and turn right, and then left, following the signs for the Aria, and all of this is inside. When you get to a point just before the Aria you can walk outside, and up some stairs, to get to a platform for the free monorail that goes to Bellagio. Or you can keep walking into Aria, through Aria, through the Crystal shops, outside to cross the street over to the Cosmo. You walk into the Cosmo, down the escalator, out the side door, and you are basically at the Bellagio.
Or you can backtrack it, and walk from Bellagio to the Park MGM, as I did after I enjoyed my iced tea… by walking into the Cosmo, up the escaltor, out the doors to cross the street, into the Crystal shops, through to the Aria lobby doors, through the Aria lobby and casino, then to the walkway that connects Aria to the Park MGM. I would say Park MGM to Bellagio is about a 15-20 minute walk as there are lots of twists and turns. Also, signage is not perfect so it helps if you know what to look for.
So after that I had some time to kill until I met my buddy at the Aria buffet for pre-game dinner. I am bummed but I forgot to take photos of the buffet extravaganza. I sat down at the quarter video poker at the Aria to get a “free beer.” I lost $20 before a cocktail waitress came by. Darn it! See I don’t gamble much so to me $20 is about all I want to lose in a day. However, I still had time to kill and I still wanted my beer but decided to just buy it as that would be cheaper than a “free” one while I gambled. So I stood at a bar in Aria. It was sort of a mini sports bar. It took, literally ten minutes, to order a beer. Finally I decided to sit down and play some VP and try to get a “free beer” while I waited for the bartender. Eventually a bartender took my order but he was sure to tell me the beer was free only if I gambled max bet. Honestly I wanted to just pay for the beer but decided to go for the “free beer.” That worked out as my $20 became $34 so I walked away with my profits and my free beer!
I forgot to take pictures at the Aria buffet so I can’t wow you with photos but it was good. It was not great but it was good. I’d give it 3.5 stars out of five. I had some very good brisket, some pretty good Indian food, decent Mexican and a crap ton of deserts! They had several flavors of ice cream and appropriate toppings. They also had a ton of cakes, cookies, custards, caramel corn, etc….. Needless to say they rolled me out of there feeling like a whale!
From there we walked through the Aria, across my walkway, into the Park MGM, out the valet doors of the Park MGM lobby, and across the cross walk to MECCA… T-Mobile Arena, AKA: The Fortress. Seriously, if you are a sports fan GO CHECK OUT A KNIGHT’S GAME IN LAS VEGAS! It’s not just a hockey game but more like a Vegas show collided with a hockey game, in the most beautiful and modern arena, with a nightclub DJ laying the beats. Seriously, it is AWESOME!
I am going to do a separate post about the game but here’s a quick shot. Notice the Vegas showgirls in the background. The music is LOUD in the Fortress before the game and during timeouts but it’s pretty darn fun!
I wanted to also tell you about my incredible breakfast at Sadelle’s at the Bellagio but this is already way too long so I gotta sign off for today. This is a 24 hours in Vegas trip report and I hope you enjoyed it. Happy to answer any questions you may have.
Until next time… viva Las Vegas!