City of Flashing Lights

When I stayed at the MGM, it was considered the largest hotel in the world because it had over 5,000 rooms. Today it currently does not hold that record, but it is still quite grand.

The hotel offers nice dining, shopping, gambling, concert and event stadiums, and luxurious rooms. My favorite part about this hotel was the dining and free monorail. Currently you have to pay to go on this monorail because it is now connected to other destinations other than just Bally's.

As far as lodging, we stayed in the Grand tower, and at the time it wasn’t as "grand" as I thought it should have been. I’m not sure if they have done any room remodeling in the last few years, but this tower needed it. The bathrooms were extremely dark, and I was surprised one morning to find a spider in the bathtub (I know that can happen anywhere). The window in our room had a view of the rooftop, where the maintenance department had access. The room wasn’t spectacular, but the rest of the hotel is pretty nice.

The MGM Hotel has five pools, two whirlpools, and a relaxing tube ride. (Make sure to get to the pool early in the day, because they kick you out of their pool area around 5pm to seemingly increase their gambling profits). The MGM has a wedding chapel, spas, and salons at their facility, but they no longer have the theme park. The hotel decided they wanted to get away from the family scenario because if families came together, then there would be less time spent gambling. Needless to say, they got rid of the theme park when they saw their gambling profits going down.

Altogether the MGM had lots of amenities to offer, they were at a nice location on the strip, and their dining was great, but the rooms needed a remodel and the pool hours were frustrating. I did, overall, enjoy staying at this hotel and would go back, but it wasn’t my favorite hotel in Vegas.

From the moment that you see Gallagher’s in the New York, New York Hotel you know it’s all about the beef. Outside of the restaurant they have mouth watering pieces of meat enticing people to come and eat them. The meat is actually behind a glass window and there is a sign that boasts that they use only USDA prime, dry-aged beef.

We were definitely enticed and we made reservations one night and tried Gallagher’s. The meat was undeniably as good as it looked. Our server had such an enthusiasm for the food that this restaurant served and she was very informative on how everything was made in the kitchen, which made our dining experience more enjoyable. I decided on the Prime Rib, and my boyfriend got the porterhouse--both were fabulous.

By the time we left the restaurant we were stuffed. We had shared a salad and an appetizer and we had an entrée each. There definitely was no more room for dessert because we had to walk back to our hotel, The Bellagio. Other than the obnoxiously loud man that sat behind us, this would have been a perfect dinner.

Talk about real looking. My first trip into this museum, I honestly thought one of these wax figures were going to move or pop out at me. I thought that somewhere in this museum they were going to pull a trick on the customers. Luckily, they didn't for my sake.

These "wax people" are made to the same height as the real celebrities. These figures had so many intricate details on them, they are really quite astonishing. The museum showed some of the behind-the-scenes work that went into making these celebrities and the items they used in order to make them look so lifelike. The neatest part about this museum is that you can touch these wax celebrities and get your picture taken with them. In Vegas not many places that you pay to get into will let you take pictures, so this option was nice. I brought back vacation pictures with Brad Pitt and me standing next to each other, and I was surprised at how many people in my office were fooled.

I would definitely go back again, as they switch out the people out quite often and put different wax figures in. You can also visit their website to find out what the celebrity lineup is. See http://www.venetian.com/attractions/madame_tussauds.cfm.

The Forum Shops, located inside of Caesars Palace, is more like a shopping mall than just a group of shops. These shops range from extremely expensive down to places like the Gap and Victoria's Secret. This mall isn’t your regular mall with a cheesy food court. The 13 restaurants in the Forum Shops are scattered among the 160 shops and vary in price ranges, just like the shopping. Recently, Caesar’s opened an additional 175,000 S/F for shopping and restaurants and added some additional levels. The new addition has spiraling escalators, gorgeous painted ceilings, and neat statues. The Forum Shops takes shopping to a whole new level.

You have to see the Fremont Street Experience at least once in your life. It may not be my favorite part of town but it’s definitely worth experiencing. It looks like a canopy that is covered in 12.5 million lights, 90 feet above the ground and it stretches 1,400 feet on Fremont Street, located in downtown Vegas. The shows are short and are usually done to all of the best songs. The lights overhead illuminate the sky, with all the different colors. The show runs every hour from 7 to midnight. The streets fill up quickly with people when each show starts so find a good spot early. The best spots are at the outdoor bars and restaurants that have second story decks. Although you can’t help but get a great view from the ground either with the canopy being so immense.

The atmosphere downtown is a little different than on the strip next to the nice hotels. This is one place in Vegas where you can in fact find a cheap meal still. Most of the hotels in this area aren’t very glamorous except the Golden Nugget, which has a four-star rating. The shopping in this area isn’t the usual Versace or Prada that you may be used to on the nicer part of the Strip; downtown offers lots of discount stores, which are usually crowded.

If you decide to go downtown, it’s always smart to have someone with you, especially if you are a woman. Downtown is dirtier than most of the Strip, garbage litters the streets, and there seems to be beggars on almost every corner.