Vegas Trip Diary May /June 2022

After a very long two and a half year absence, we were back in Las Vegas! And boy, were we excited!

Our last trip was in December 2019, which I didn’t post about. And we all know what happened in 2020. We did plan a trip for December 2021, but we ended up canceling for various reasons.

Fast forward to 2022 . . . cases came down and we felt comfortable with travel again. Instead of our usual Vacations Hawaii, we opted to book everything separately.

We flew on Hawaiian Airlines and stayed three nights at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas before moving over to The California, also in Downtown Las Vegas, for another three nights.

Here’s how our trip unfolded:

Fremont Street Experience at 8 a.m. It was PACKED at night.

Opened in 2021, Circa is a 21+ property. You need to show ID to go in. It's gorgeous inside. A nice addition to Fremont Street.

Vegas Vicky used to be mounted outside on one of the buildings that was demolished to make way for Circa. She now takes up residence inside Circa. That was cool that they were able to keep her.

Circa has these air conditioning vents on the floor throughout the casino. It was interesting to walk over them and feel gushes of air coming from them. 😂

This was my chosen slot machine of this trip. Super fun!

Many of the new slots have a USB port you can use to charge your devices. This one offered wireless charging.

The biggest win of the trip. Not even mine. 😀 It went right back in. 🤣

The Tank, Golden Nugget's pool complex, was pretty awesome. I could spend hours just watching the marine life swim. Read my review of the Golden Nugget here. 

World's largest keno board outside of The D.

On our way to Fremont Street East.

We did Slotzilla! It was so much FUN! We did the standard option, where you are sitting and you go half way though Fremont Street Experience. Next time I'll do the Superman, where you are lying down and you go all the way to the end of Fremont Street Experience.

RIP, Tony. You had so much vision and helped to grow Downtown Las Vegas. 

I forgot there's a light show at the Eiffel Tower. Will need to check it out next time.

On our way back to Downtown.

At Luxor.

Bellagio Conservatory. Click here for full post on this season's theme.

The Bellagio fountain show never disappoints.

Love the Venetian and the Grand Canal Shops.

If you get there early enough, there is no one at the Love installation!

We did a Far Cry virtual reality game at Zero Latency located at MGM Grand. It was super fun. Not surprisingly, the teens got the highest scores with Mom (me) coming in dead last. 

Walking over from MGM to NYNY.

The entrance at Aria.

Aria lobby. So cute!

The Chandelier Bar at Cosmopolitan.

Circa does change the skyline in DTLV!

The Hubz likes to play video poker, and he hit a four of a kind several times. Just posting a couple of his wins. 

We would rub his belly for good luck every time we passed by!

Did you know that the men's bathroom at Main Street Station has a portion of the Berlin wall installed behind the urinals?

Women can see it; they just need to ask security to escort them. 

And that's it for this trip! It was great to visit Vegas again, and it looks like visitors are definitely back! The Strip was plenty crowded and Fremont Street Experience was packed with people. Let's hope it won't be another two and a half years before I visit again! 

More posts from this trip:

• My Honest Review of the Golden Nugget
• My Biased Review of The California Hotel
• Bellagio Conservatory
• What I Ate in Vegas

Vegas Trip Diary January 2019

We started 2019 with a trip to Vegas! We left on January 1, 2019, and spent five nights at The Cal in Downtown Las Vegas. Temperatures were so, so cold — in the 30’s for most days. Here’s what we did . . .

The Bellagio really out-did themselves with their Christmas display this year. In addition to the soaring Christmas tree and frolicking polar bears, it included majestic horses pulling a carriage you could walk through and a beautiful snow queen. The pictures don't do it justice.

The renovations to The Cal are complete. All rooms, casino and amenity areas are fully renovated. The exception is Market Street Cafe.

If you care, Vacations Hawaii even updated their Aloha coupon books. It used to be green and had a more floral design.

They added two additional banquet rooms to the second floor where slots machines, a bar and the orignal sports book used to be. The area seemed a bit cramped to me, but it had a nice contemporary design. Above are two of the ballrooms.

See the couple to the right side of the picture? The third ballroom is to the right.

They switched the directions of the escalators. The man pictured going down used to be the "up" escalator.  I heard the escalators have been out of order for a while, but they were working fine when we where there.

New York New York skyline from the NYNY-MGM bridge.

Statue of Liberty wears a Las Vegas Knights jersey.

Dancing Bliss lit up at night. Love The Park. Nice place to hang out.

Water feature at The Park. The light changes colors; it was really pretty.

We walked though the new Park MGM (formerly Monte Carlo). The casino was nothing to write home about (don't get me wrong, it was very nice); however, the newly added Eataly is pretty cool. It's billed as an Italian Marketplace with authentic Italian eateries and products. I didn't take any pictures, and we only did a quick walk through, but I'll definitely spend more time here during our next visit.

At Cosmopolitan.

Again, at Cosmopolitan.

On the Strip, early in the morning.

I found a Mariah Carey slot machine at Bally. I'm not sure why they didn't have this at other casinos, especially at Caesar's where she performs. Note slot machine creators: looping an artist's music is a great way to distract players from focusing on how much they are playing/losing. LOL. Needless to say, I didn't do well, but was signing along to Mariah's songs.

Linq Promenade. I really love what they did with this area. They recently added a zip line.

I'm so glad there is an In-N-Out at Linq Promenade. More convenient than driving to the W. Tropicana Avenue location.

It was mostly sunny (albeit cold) during our trip with the exception of this day.

Praying Mantis at Container Park in Downtown Las Vegas.

Back of mama Mantis.

Peeking through the letters of the Container Park sign. Hubby is a bit afraid of heights.

Best tree house ever! If you have kids, a visit to Container Park is a must. It's a great place for young ones to burn off some energy.

Breakfast from Egg Slut, at Cosmopolitan. We ate a Fairfax Sandwich and a Sausage, Egg and Cheese Sandwich. It was delicious! It's best to go early or be prepared to wait in line.

Sprinkles cupcakes! Chocolate (left) and peanut butter.

Both cupcakes were really moist. The peanut butter one had bits of chocolate chips in it. 

First time at Luke's Lobsters. We got the trio, which consisted of one lobster roll, one crab roll and one shrimp roll. I really enjoyed the lobster and shrimp rolls. Surprisingly, I thought the crab was just okay. The clam chowder was really, really good.

Interrupting the food shots with a picture of me standing in front of a giant heart, right outside of Luke's Lobsters.

Back to food. I tried tocino for the first time at The Cal. It's a breakfast dish that's commonly found in the Philippines, among other places. Basically, it's marinated pork belly that is then fried or boiled. We saw another table order it one morning, and we asked the waitress what it was. It looked a bit like char siu, which I like. I ordered it the next morning and it was really good! 

It's always a pleasure to stay and play in Downtown Las Vegas, especially at these two properties.

That's all for now! Until the next trip, Live and Breathe Aloha!