Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Thanks to reader Aaron_B for this well written trip report from Bellagio. This is his first contribution so let's give him a warm welcome.

Also, if there's anyone else out there that would like to share a report, please feel free to send them to editor@ratevegas.com. I cannot guarantee that it will be published but I will guarantee to read it and get back to you. I'm especially interested in reports from hotels that we don't cover as often (i.e. not Wynn Las Vegas, The Mirage, Bellagio, etc...) but that doesn't mean you cannot submit one from the above.

Some photos are also posted:
http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/most_recent

The report continues after the jump. Enjoy!

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This year for the Christmas holidays I decided to take my parents to Vegas and treat them six nights at Bellagio. I figured what better way to spend the holidays than showing off Vegas to two “Vegas virgins.”

We arrived on the 21st around 11:30am. Check in at Bellagio was a breeze. There was hardly any line and they had a Bellagio Suite in the main tower ready.

Upon entering our suite in the west wing on the 33rd floor I was initially a bit disappointed to discover that the 33rd floor has the balustrades outside the windows which does somewhat detract from the views if you are sitting away from the window in the suite. Beware if you are staying in a suite at Bellagio all of the suites on floors 29 and 33 have the balustrades and some of the suites have the balustrades on 35. Interestingly the balustrades are apparently made of some sort of stucco covered foam ala the Venetian which are now starting to show their age with cracks, some of which you could see clear through. Hopefully repairing or replacing the main tower balustrades is on MGM’s maintenance to do list. Otherwise the views from our suite were pretty spectacular with a view of the south strip, the Project City Center construction, the pool area, spa tower and the mountains. The suite itself had been very well maintained and was in excellent condition despite being one of the original suites which has yet to be renovated. My parents were quite impressed by the fact that the suite had two and a half baths. After enjoying the steam shower in the suite I’d now love to have one installed in my own house. The quality of the marble tile work and wood molding in the Bellagio suites always impresses me.

A bellman brought up our bags within five minutes and the rollaway bed I had requested appeared in ten minutes which I thought was pretty quick service.

Throughout our stay at Bellagio I was very impressed with the quality of service which we received. Everyone at Bellagio did their best to provide personalized service and though I have always been impressed by the service at Bellagio I felt that they have brought their service up to a higher level compared to my previous visits. I guess the strong competition from Wynn has helped make Bellagio step things up.

One night we could hear loud thumping bass from a neighboring suite at about 1:15am. I called security and they took care of the noise problem within ten minutes. We did not hear any more noise from the other suites through the rest of our stay.

As Hunter mentioned in his recent Podcast the Bellagio Casino renovations are pretty much complete. All of the awnings in the casino have been replaced as well as the supporting structures. Almost all of the chairs at the table games and slot machines have been recovered and have a new teal colored striped backing. I think I spotted only a couple rows of chairs with the old backing in front of the Buffet. Most of the table games have had their green felt replaced with tan felt. All of the carpet throughout the casino is new. I think all of the casino renovations are a nice improvement.

As others have already mentioned on the blog the VIP check in area has been renovated and the vip elevator lobby & elevators have been totally renovated with dark wood and more contemporary furnishings. I was pleasantly surprised that the renovated vip elevator lobby looked better in person than it did in pictures. As has been mentioned the elevators now are identical the suites elevators in the Spa Tower. I have to say that though I really liked those elevators before I think with the updates they now look much more contemporary. The doors from the vip check in to the elevator lobby and casino have an unusual type of glass with varying shades of teal and white strips of glass melded together. During our second day someone cracked the glass in one of the new doors between the vip check in and the elevator lobby. The cracked glass was not replaced during our stay. I would guess that the unusual glass in the doors is Chihuly glass & probably will take them some time to get a replacement made.

As always at Bellagio there were constantly employees cleaning the public areas keeping the place looking great. One location which surprisingly fell through the cracks of the cleaning crews was the center elevator in the bank of 3 elevators off the vip check in lobby. There was a half eaten strawberry sitting on the floor of this elevator throughout the entire day on Christmas day and into the next morning. I was surprised they did not have anyone check these elevators for such a long time, though it was Christmas day and possibly they were being more lax then usual. Other than the strawberry they were doing a good job keeping things looking nice.

The Christmas display in the Conservatory was beautiful as were the decorations in the lobby area and the small courtyard behind the front desk.

The only on property dining I did at Bellagio on this trip were three meals at the Café which were all very good in quality of food and service. I was surprised how busy they were on Christmas Eve and Christmas day & I never would have gotten into the Café without a line pass as the line stretched all the way through the conservatory into the lobby. I did not eat at the Buffet on this trip but the line for the buffet stretched all the way to the main guest elevators.

We went to see “O” on Christmas Eve. I had seen “O” once before two years ago but it was just as impressive the second time. I believe they have made some changes to the show since the last time I had seen it and because there is so much going on in the show you could see it numerous times and still pick out different things you had missed before.

We ended up visiting nearly all the properties on the strip during our stay. I think the recent changes at the Mirage are all very nice. MGM seems to have done a good job keeping the Mirage up to date. I have never been a huge fan of the TI & can’t say MGM has done so well keeping TI up to date. The Venetian seemed pretty much unchanged from my previous visits. The main doors off the lobby at the Venetian were absolutely filthy & looking pretty shabby. You would think with all the money the V takes in they could keep the place a little cleaner. The fire damage on the tower outside is still visible. I guess LVS is putting every penny into building Palazzo. Wynn was looking great as always. I enjoyed getting to spend more time at Wynn on this trip than I was able to on my last trip. We enjoyed a good informal meal at Zoocrackers at Wynn. It was funny to hear my folks who had never before been to Vegas & are not really into casinos at all comment; “It’s amazing how much nicer Wynn and Bellagio are than the other hotels.” Wynn was very busy while I was there. Security at Wynn was buzzing around some apparent vandalism which occurred to some of the seasonal decorations just inside the main entrance off the port cochere. It looked like someone had stomped through some decorations and kicked them out into the marble floor. Security was taking pictures and housekeeping was cleaning the mess up.

On our last night we saw Jerry Seinfeld’s act at Caesars which was great. I believe Jerry was only doing two shows & I was lucky enough to get tickets.

Project City Center seems to be coming along. Other than on Christmas Eve and Christmas day construction was going 24/7. Construction noise could become an issue for Bellagio guests in the southern end of the Spa Tower. If I stood right at the window I could faintly hear some construction noise from our suite in the main Bellagio Tower. I got a few pictures of the City Center site from our 33rd floor window at Bellagio. I also got a picture of the sign being installed on the City Center sales office in front of Monte Carlo. Unfortunately I forgot to take the camera down to the City Center sales office off the Bellagio lobby to get pictures of the models.

Spending Christmas in Vegas was absolutely great! Our stay at Bellagio was nearly perfect. I think Bellagio has even managed to improve on their level of service in the last year. I think Bellagio is doing a great job & definitely look forward to staying there again in the future.

Sorry this was so long. I hope everyone has a great new year!

Aaron_B