Elizabeth's Mirage Vegas Vacation March 2005

The Mirage was beautiful. The rooms were just as nice as Bellagio with two exceptions. The bathroom was small in comparison and had only the tub/shower instead of the separate shower stall. The toiletries were just as nice, if not nicer and were by Gilcrest and Soames. The other exception is that while very comfortable, the bed wasn't quite as cushy as the one at Bellagio. There was no turn down service (no big deal), but the linens were quite nice. While I still loved seeing the fountains of Bellagio from my room, I can't quite justify the difference in price particularly when the tradeshow I attended was at the Sands Convention Center behind The Venetian, across the street from The Mirage. The pool at the Mirage was beautiful . . . as lovely as Bellagio . . .just themed differently . . . more tropical.

Saw George Wallace, the comedian. Grade C. Content was relatively family suitable, but not that funny. Wouldn't recommend.

Saw "O." Grade A. The show was wonderful and the theater is something to see in itself. Loved the way the water levels changed creating amazing illusions etc. However, there are only so many ways you can dive in the water or do aerial acrobatics . . . and they found all of them I think. Don't get me wrong. It was super and something I'm truly glad to have experienced. However, I just saw La Nouba in Orlando in early March and I liked it better overall because of the variety of acts. Both are very odd shows and not for everyone. I can imagine if I'd taken my friend the birthday girl. She would have left the theater talking about how weird it was. Next time, however, we will go to Mystere, which I've heard from a number of others, is the best?!

Saw Blue Man Group. Grade A-. Now, this one is weird. It was entertaining and another "experience" to have. However, I think that show is based more on oddity than true talent. In the case of Blue Men, the show's the thing and not the talent. I gave it an A- because hubby really liked it and it was a fun experience, but as far as true talent, I'd really have given it a B.

Saw Elton John and the Red Piano. Grade C. What an amazing disappointment. Scott thought it was pathetic. I just kept asking myself, "Why is he doing this." His voice is in great shape and the theater looks fantastic. You think you're off for a rollicking good time hearing his old songs. The next thing you know if that you're bombarded with breasts. That's right. Breasts. Now, I'm not a prude . . . I'm really not, but his show was filled with gratuitous sexual innuendo that had no relationship to the songs he was singing. Not only that, there were tons of blow up objects that required, well, blowing up. Hence there was a crew of people in white painter's suits constantly going on and off stage to blow them up and deflate at different times . . . very distracting. I didn't count, but I think he did about 10 songs, but I'm not sure because I was distracted by watching things being inflated . . . like the biggest set of breasts I've ever seen. They stuck out from one side of the stage. We were also treated to watching Pamela Anderson do a pole dance to one of his songs on the huge Trinitron screen. It was a video . . . not live performance. There was another video during a song where there was a couple dancing and it was as if they were having a lover's quarrel with violence suggested. I found it disturbing to watch particularly when at the end, they walked off the screen arm in arm as if nothing had happened. It was awful, but so large on the Trinitron that you couldn't avoid watching it. It doesn't help that there was a 15 year old with her 10 year old sister sitting next to me on one side. I kept thinking how inappropriate it was for them and what a horrible message it was sending about relationships between men and women. One highlight, however, was toward the end of the performance when a few dozen people from the front rows were invited to come up on the stage and dance to his playing for a song. From what we heard, others were equally disappointed in the general show, however. He would do much better to just perform his old songs with more of him on the Trinitron and to joke with the audience. He made a joke about his being in the "Home of Celine," but not tonight! Then he called her the singing Q-Tip and joked about that if she'd been sitting behind the piano for 38 years like he has, she'd be "Mamma Cass watch your ass." That was pretty funny. Overall, I wouldn't see it again and Scott's not sure he ever wants to see him again, period. We both felt that he did this because he felt he had to because it's Vegas. BIG MISTAKE!!!!

Dining. Discovered the Roasted Bean at the Mirage at the end of our trip for great pastry and coffee/tea for breakfast. Lunch we never got around to. Too busy. Dinner . . . now that was another thing. Prices were OUTRAGEOUS as you know. However, we had some good food. Treasure Island Steakhouse was very good. Had a mediocre server which was a bummer, but the atmosphere and food were quite good. Did the Bellagio Buffet. Server was great and food was as usual . . . quite varied and very good for a buffet. Ate at FIX at the Bellagio before "O". We didn't have a lot of time, but they sat us in the bar area with an excellent server who got us in and out. Had the Kobe Beef sliders . . . white castle sized burgers with some sort of great seasoned french fries. Hubby had roasted chicken which was delicious. That food was some of the best we had. Finally, our favorite meal was at Joe's at Caesar's. It's a Stone Crab and steakhouse. It was wonderful. Helene was our server and was very friendly and knowledgeable. The steak was wonderful as were Scott's stone crabs (I don't like seafood). Baked potato was wet . . . not the best. Dessert was FANTASTIC. Had key lime pie and Scott had Coconut creme pie. Both were wonderful. Between the atmosphere (30's 40's decor), our server and the great food, would highly recommend this place. Not cheap though. I had the cheapest steak and it was $28.00.

America West is hard to beat. I really liked that airline. They seemed so together and the planes seemed clean and nicer. Delta was okay, but it seemed like the seats were more cramped. Also, when we flew back into Cincinnati, our flight to State College was cancelled. They sent us on a plane to Detroit and then on another one (Northwest - nice plane) to State College. Then our luggage didn't make it home until Sunday afternoon. It was a minor inconvenience, however, staff attitude made it worse. We went to a counter to find out what was going on and how we were going to get home. We nicely told the person that it looked like our flight was cancelled and asked what we should do. She told us to come back in a few minutes. We waited about 15 min . . . she could see where we were . . .and she never called us. So, we went back and she told us that we had to fly through Detroit. We asked if we had any other options and she said she was busy and we should ask anybody else. By the time we figured out that Detroit was it, we had no time to grab anything to eat. Again, no biggie, but if she'd have explained in the beginning that she was busy and asked us to go to another counter, we could have taken care of things easier and not have bothered her. We didn't know what she was doing.

Oh, yes, I highly recommend Gray Line tours out there. I called the night before we left to see if we could take a Hoover Dam tour Tuesday afternoon. They told us to take the shuttle to the Gray Line office . . . luggage and all. They kept it there while we went on the Mini Tour and then took us to the Mirage when we got back to their office. It was a nice tour too. We had a great guide.

That should cover it. It really was a great trip! Thanks Tim and Anne for setting this trip up. You know we'll be in touch for others.

 

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