Las Vegas & California Trip - Universal Studios Hollywood

Universal Studios Entrance

Since summer had already passed and now the park wouldn't be too crowded, Universal Studio hours were not that long.  The hours were from 10 am to 6 pm which is still sufficient to cover the entire park and plus it gave us good time in the morning to get ready instead of rushing to come to the park.  The Universal Studios was only supposed to be like 20-25 minutes from my aunt's place but we were warned that we should give double time in traffice if we want to get there before 10.  In fact, we wanted to get there much before 10 so that we can be ahead in the line.  Luckily, we got to the park in like 20-25 mins and there wasn't much crowd either around 9:25 am.  We headed straight to the line (since we already had passes) and they opened the gates 10 minutes before 10.  We were the first customer at the stroller/wheelchair rental, so we picked up the electric scooter for my dad (paperwork was quick too) and then headed straight to the Simpson's ride first!!  My brother and I went on this ride in Universal Studios Orlando and we loved it, so we wanted to take my parents on this ride as well.  This is a simulation ride and I think there is nothing to be scared about, so I think everyone will really enjoy it!! I still feel this is one of the best simulation rides Universal has created.

Set from War of the Worlds (On Studio Tour)

After Simpson's ride, we headed for the Studio tour.  Since my dad had the scooter, we had to wait in a separate line and they made us sit in the first compartment of the tram.  For those of you who haven't been on this tour, if you want to get good view of some of the sites, sit on the 3rd or 4th compartment.  Sometimes, I felt that the view wasn't that great in the first compartment.  This is the 3rd time I have visited Universal in LA, and what was different was the 3D King Kong adventure in the studio tour.  It was amazing!! You actually feel part of the King Kong movie!!  So don't miss the Studio tour if you want to experience this.

After the Studio tour, it was time for Special Effects Stages show.  Remember that this is a timed show and they have fixed timings throughout the day, so plan your day accordingly so you can cover all the shows.  This show was completely different from the last time when I visited in 2007.  Before they used to have entry every half an hour but now they have timings, and before the show used to take place in 3 different rooms where they show you how they build the sound, special effects, and something else...but it used to be in 3 different rooms.  Now, they have everything in one big auditorium like room so you don't have to go from room to room.  Anyways, even this was a lot of fun and very entertaining.  Note, if you want to participate and be part of the show, get in the line for the show much before the start time because they choose volunteers ahead of time to make them part of the show.

Set of Water World Show

After this, our next stop was the Water World show.  This is the best show at Universal Studios.  It has comedy and action combined.  Note that this show has very limited viewing in the day, maybe 2 or 3 shows only, so catch the first one if possible as it tends to get crowded towards the end of the day.  Also, arrive at least 20-25 minutes early to get a head start on the line because this show has packed crowd.  Even if you can't catch the first show, just make sure to catch at least one of the timings .....trust me...you don't want to miss seeing this one!!!  It has some great water stunts by the actors as well.  Ohh...and if you don't want to get wet....DO NOT sit in the splash zone, because the actors purposely throw buckets of water in the splash zone!!  I was not sitting in the splash zone but it was fun to see others getting wet :P.

Transformers 3D Ride - Amazing!!

It was about 1:30 pm by the time we got out and we were hungry, so we decided to take a break and have lunch.  We had a quick bite and then the next show we caught was Terminator 2 3D show.  Unfortunately we got there late for 2 pm show, so we had to wait until 2:20 to get in.  This show runs continuously every 25-30 minutes.  Please be aware that this is the loudest show ever!! But if you haven't seen it before, it's worth watching once (however I have seen it every time I have come to Universal :P....haha)!!  Next, we decided to go on the lower level and check out the new Transformers 3D Ride.  This was another new ride which we had not been on.  If you have been to Islands of Adventure in Orlando, then this ride comes in the same category as the Spiderman 3D ride, but I thought this was much better.  It's a 3D simulation ride which does not stay in one place like Simpson's ride...but the ride actually moves...which makes it a lot of fun.  My parents really liked it.  For those who have wheelchairs and scooters, in order to go to the lower level, we had to take a shuttle van since it's not possible to go on escalator with either of the vehicles.  This kind of took time for us to get to the ride because we had to wait for the van and then again coming back, same thing.

After coming back from the lower level, we went straight to the Shrek 4-D Show.  This is another one of my favorite show because it's 4-D and it's fun!! Instantly from the beginning of the show, you feel part of it when the chairs move you like if you are sitting in a horse carriage....you get water on you when the donkey sneezes and bunch of other effects!!  Don't miss it!  This show also runs continuously, so you can catch it anytime in between your other shows.  The last on the agenda for today was to cover the Universal's Animal Actors.  This show contains bunch of animal actors from famous movies and it's cute :).  Kids would love it and adults would enjoy it too.  With that, our day is wrapped up at Universal Studios Hollywood!! It was not tiring at all and we covered all the things we wanted to.  We did not go on the Jurassic park ride or the Return of the Mummy ride because my brother and I had been to both rides before and it wasn't something that our parents wanted to do...so we skipped it.  But ....if you haven't been on these rides and don't have fear of fast ride or deep falls, then don't miss them!!  Especially Jurassic Park ride has a 35 feet fall at the end but it's pretty smooth so you don't feel much....and you get wet!!  But don't worry about getting wet because it's so hot there that you will dry up by the time you come back to the upper lot.

Alright folks, next post will be on the day at DisneyLand.  Until then, have a great time!!

Las Vegas & California Trip - Part 5

.....Continuing from my previous post (Las Vegas & California Trip - Part 4)

Today was going to be a bit relaxing since we didn't have anything planned in the morning and we were leaving Vegas :(.  Morning was pretty relaxing with getting up and getting ready.  I returned the electric scooter while everyone else was getting ready.  It was quick...I just had to drop it off and one of the bellman took it from me.  We all went downstairs and I checked out which was also quick within 10 minutes.  We got our car from valet parking and then off to LA around 10 am.

The drive was not so bad from Vegas to LA, but it was getting hot in the afternoon with high temperatures.  We reached LA within 4 and half hours, so it didn't seem much of a long drive.  We went to my aunt's place and it was great to see her after 3 years.  She welcomed us all and we relaxed for a bit.  After freshening up, we sat down to have lunch because I was really hungry.  It was a good day not to do anything since we were all still tired from the vegas adventure.

Btw, this week of Sept. 23rd was the week of Ganesh Chaturthi festival and my aunt told us that LA's hindu temple celebrates it big time.  It's a 9 day long festival, I think, and the devotees do puja every day and they have dinner (prasad) afterwards.  So we decided to join the celebration that night and enjoy the festival with everyone.  It was indeed magnificent!! They had decorated Ganpati's murti(sculpture) so beautifully that you don't want to take your eyes off of it.  There was aarti followed by dinner and delicious sweets (my favorite - Jalebies!!!).  I think I filled my tummy by just eating Jalebis only!!  I love them...Jalebi is the best sweet ever...no doubt!!  I was so distracted by jalebis that I don't even remember what else was in the dinner :P...haha.  Anyways, after coming back from the temple, we made a quick stop at a gas station to fill up gas and then headed back to my aunt's place.

Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow was going to involve some good adventure as were were going to Universal Studios and DisneyLand.  Both the days will be fun!!

Note:  We did  not buy Universal tickets online, so we were planning to buy them at the gate anyways.  But my aunt told me that the local (California) costco have good deals sometimes for these kinds of tickets.  Upon inquiring, we found out that they were giving Universal tickets even cheaper than advertised online, so we got the annual passes of Universal Studios for $69/person instead of $80 (as advertised online).  So, if you know someone in LA who has the costco membership, plan to buy the passes from there to save some $$.

Anyways, stay tuned for the next post on Universal Studios Hollywood!!

Bally's Las Vegas Hotel

Accommodation was the first thing I started searching when I was looking into Las Vegas vacation.  It was hard to decide because there were so many options to start with and to decide which one would be good...it's not that easy.  For someone who has been to Vegas once has a pretty good idea on what to expect as opposed to someone who is going for the first time.  I had started looking into hotels from 2 and half months before since someone had told me that the prices go up from 2nd week of July, which was so true.  Couple of sites that I visited to check out the hotels and their prices was www.vegas.com and www.visitlasvegas.com.  Looking at overall hotels list, I shortlisted couple of hotels which were Flamingo, Imperial Palace, and Bally's.  After reading the reviews of all 3 of the hotels, I picked Bally's since that one had less negative reviews and plus the location of Bally's was excellent!!  Even though Bally's had negative reviews such as that their self-parking is too far, their check-in/check-out lines are too long and takes forever, their south tower rooms are horrible (from some ghost movies), etc. etc. I still went ahead and booked the hotel, because I had read some good reviews as well....and the bonus on top of that was that Bally's was right in front of the Bellagio!!

After I finalized I wanted to stay at Bally's, I went directly to Bally's hotel site www.ballyslasvegas.com to check out reservations and prices.  This was basically a Caesars site which contains about 6-7 hotels that don't charge any resort fee and are in the same network.  Anyways, I put in my dates and for 4 people in one room (2 queen beds), Bally's gave me price of $103/night which was not bad at all.  I immediately booked the hotel for 2 nights in the south tower classic room.  Once we got to the hotel, our stay was great and we had good time with no problems at all.  All the reviews about check-in/check-out time and room being terrible were not true at all.

Lobby, Check-in, & Check-out:
Once we got to the lobby, it was big and luckily not crowded at all.  We got to the hotel on Sunday evening at around 5:30 pm.  We got in the check-in line and there were probably 2 agents at the register.  As line started to grow, 3 more agents were added to help out.  We were probably done checking-in withing 15 minutes from the time we got in line to the time we were greeted.  Also the casino is on the same floor so you might feel little bit smoke in the atmosphere but that's because of the casino being right there.  Our check-out was pretty quick too maybe within 10 minutes.

Self/Valet Parking:
Bally's shares the parking with Paris hotel next door, and that is why self-parking is far and if you do end up with self parking, you would also have to walk much.  I was already warned by a lot of online reviews that there will be a lot of walking with self-park, so people suggested for Valet parking.   Valet Parking is free in Bally's (and as a matter of fact in a lot of hotels), so why not use it since it's available and quick.  We valet parked our car twice and both the times it was very convenient and fast.  Just remember to tip the driver who brings your car back.

Room:
I had booked a south tower classic room for 4 people (2 queens).  I knew that if I want a good view, south tower would be the best option even though there were a lot of reviews which said that the rooms are not that great, outdated, dirty, etc. etc.  First, when I checked in, I asked the receptionist if I could get a room facing Eiffel tower and bellagio fountains, and she said that's what we are getting.  And that's exactly what we got!!! The view was fabulous!!! I loved it!! Check it out!

Eiffel tower in day time from our room

View of Bellagio fountains in day time

Eiffel tower at night from our room

Bellagio Fountains view at night from our room

 Isn't it gorgeous!!! We got a room on 11th floor and our room was 6129 which was no where close to the elevators, but it was worth it for the view!!  If you are ever staying in Bally's south tower then ask for a view facing Paris since you will get better view than the other side which has flamingo road and Caesar's palace hotel view.  South tower elevators are kind of away and in corner too where you go through the casino all the way to the side and then take the elevators up to your room.

Once we got in the room, it was BIG.....I mean it was very spacious!!!  The room was clean, and no dirty carpets or anything (as I had read in some other reviews).  The bathroom was fine too except few glitches such as the wallpaper in one corner was bit out but that's just a minor glitch that we didn't care for and the bathroom fan made a lot of noise but that was temporary too.  The furniture was outdated as I had read on some of the other reviews and there was an old style box tv instead of a flat screen.  I would have liked the beds to be little softer but it wasn't too bad either.  Overall, very happy with the room and the view!! No complains there.

Maintenance/Housekeeping:
We had to call the housekeeping in the morning once since there were only 2 towels and we needed 2 more.  I called and nobody came for about 15 minutes so I had to call again to request more towels.  The 2nd call was responded quickly when the housekeeping came within 5 minutes with extra set of towels.  That was the only time we needed anything.  The only other thing I can think of is when they cleaned our room, when we came back to the room after lunch, the room smelled like some sort of cleaning solution that must have been used in the bathroom.  To avoid the smell, we just kept the bathroom door shut and then it was fine for the rest of the day.


I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone who is considering it.  I would stay here myself mainly because of my experience here, and the location of this hotel is great with Bellagio being right in front of it and Paris being right next to it!!  Hope this review helps you in making your decision for a hotel in Las Vegas!!

Las Vegas & California Trip - Part 4

........Continuing from my previous post (Las Vegas & California Trip - Part 3)

Day 2 continues....
After waking up everyone, we all got ready by 6 pm and then headed out again, this time south of bally’s on las vegas blvd.  We just walked on Las vegas blvd. from Bally’s down to Tropicana hotel checking out the hotels and other attractions in between.  Then we crossed the bridge over to Excalibur and went inside the hotel.  This hotel has quite few restaurants and also has a nice Pizza Hut Express place which is a quick grab and go bite kind of thing.  They have small portion size pizzas for $5 bucks (at least cheese pizza was $5) that can be good for one person.  I was kind of feeling hungry, so I grabbed one cheese pizza and it was delicious!!  Excalibur has a inside passage that takes you to the Luxor so you don’t have to go out, so we just followed that path.  We went to Luxor and went to the shopping floor where you can see the entire pyramid from inside.  This is one hotel which has a completely different architecture of how the rooms are situated.  Basically when you go inside, you see the room from anywhere ...it’s kind of hard to describe but it’s fun to see it yourself.  Anyways, from Luxor, we got out and headed back up north on Las vegas blvd.  On the way, we checked out Aria hotel which had a beautiful Chandelier hanging in one of the casinos.

Las Vegas Blvd.

Bellagio's Dancing Fountains!!

Remember that we had been on foot since 6 pm and by this time it was already 9 pm and wanted see the Volcano show by Mirage (which happens every hour on the hour) and Sirens of TI show by Treasure Island (which had fixed timings of 7, 8:30, 10, and 11:30 pm).  At this time, we knew we weren’t going to make it to either of the shows, and we had only reached to Bellagio.  So we just decided to stay at the fountains and enjoy the fountains show first and then head to TI to catch the 10 o’clock show.  Boy!! Am I glad that I stayed for the 9:15 pm fountains show!! It was magnificent!! No words to describe!! There is something in watching the bellagio fountains dance right in front of you :).  It was worth the wait!!  

Sirens of TI

After the show, my parents and I started heading to Treasure Island to catch the 10 o’clock show while my brother decided to just grab dinner and head back to the room.  We all were tired but we wanted to check out the show as well so my mom and I decided, what the hell, we might as well go and watch it.  My brother picked up dinner for all of us and took it to the room while we went for the show.  The sirens of TI is a musical pirate show which lasts for about 20 minutes or so and you want to get there at least half an hour early to get a good location to stand because otherwise it’s hard to see anything if you are in the middle.  That’s kind of what happened with us but we were still able to catch what was going on.  It’s a good one time watch show for those who haven’t seen it.

After the show ended around 10:20/25 pm, we started heading straight to the room.  Believe it or not, it took us over half an hour to get from TI to Bally’s.  It’s a long walk!! And we were already super tired from all the exploring during the day.  We got back to the room, put my dad’s scooter to charge up and eat some chipotle that my brother had gotten for us.  Meanwhile, my brother was sleeping (well, napping) to get some energy back to stay up for gambling, of course!!  While he got some sleep, we had our dinner and then when my parents went to bed, my brother and I went downstairs in Bally’s casino to try our luck :P....again....that too around 11:45 pm when the night was just beginning :).  I was tired but I wasn’t sleepy at all, so I decided to go to casino as well and I didn’t have to walk much either.  Obviously the first $10 I put in the roulette, I lose.  My brother does the same and we both decide to give Bally’s a break and head to Paris casino.  One thing I like about Bally’s is that there is an inside walkway straight to Paris, so you don’t have to go out of the hotel at all to go to Paris.  Anyways, we go to Paris and my luck completely changes.  For the first time in history, I actually win some money!!! Yay!! I was soooooo happy :).  My brother’s luck wasn’t working so much but still he got back everything that he had lost which is not bad either :).  

We were having so much fun on roulette that we didn’t realize what time it was.  Well, it was 3 am that we decided to call it a night and head back to our room.  After all the great adventure today and fun at the casinos, it was a good night sleep!!

Tomorrow we leave Vegas to head to LA to see my aunt and hop on some adventurous rides at Universal and DisneyLand.  But more on that later!!  Before that, I am going to give a brief review on Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel experience!! So stay tuned!!

Las Vegas & California Trip - Part 3

First day in Las Vegas was fun but I was looking forward to the 2nd day since we were going to explore the Las vegas blvd., and a lot of other hotels.

Day 2:
The morning started around 7:30 am and freshening up followed by breakfast in the room.  We all got ready by 9:30 am and headed to the bell desk.  My dad has knee pain so I had reserved an electric scooter for him through Bally's so he could come with us everywhere as well.  We got the electric scooter in 15 minutes and the guy showed how to operate it...piece of cake!  We went out the front door of the Bally's instead of taking the escalator/moving walkway route....the front door option was much better.  We got to the las vegas blvd., and then went over the bridge to bellagio and from there to the bridge over to the Caesars palace.

At the entrance of Forums shops (from the casinos side)

We followed the signs to the forums shop where the Fall of Atlantis show was going to be played.  The show happens every hour on the hour and we missed the 10 o'clock show so we had to wait until 11 am to see it.  It's a show based on roman mythology and involves water and fire effects.  It lasts about 15-20 minutes and it's good to see it once if you haven't seen it before.  Anyways, before the show, we had a lot of time on hand, so we decided to explore the forums shop and I love how they have built the interior of Caesars palace keeping Greek and Roman mythology and architecture in mind.  Here is a snippet of one of the sculptures at the entrance of the Forums shop.

Canal shops at the Venetian

After the show, we headed out of the forums shop to go to Venetian.  Mirage is right next door to Caesars Palace and Harrah's is right across from Caesars.  We went to the Venetian straight to the Canal shops.  After bellagio fountains, I got to say that Venetian's canal shops is my second favorite place!!!  Venetian is basically the mini-Venice and it's beautiful!!  Don't miss this place...it's just magnificent!!  You will feel that you are in Venice...for sure!

It was about 12:30 pm by this time and we were hungry so we decided to eat lunch at an Indian restaurant.  We started heading back to the hotel to get our car.  Believe it or not, it took us about 20 to 25 minutes to head back from Harrah's to Bally's.  Anyways, while my dad got the car from valet, I dropped off the electric scooter in the room to get it charged.  In fact, the scooter ran fine from 9:45 till 1 pm or so.  As for the lunch, we went to this Indian restaurant called Gandhi restaurant which was just a mile from Bally's.  They had very nice buffet with good variety of vegetarian food including naan, rice, aloo mutter, malai paneer, dal makhani, suji halwa, veg. pakoda, savaiya, idli & sambhar.....Yummy!!!  We headed back to hotel after lunch and quick stop at a gas station.  It was pretty heavy lunch and we all were terribly sleepy after getting back to hotel.  It was just matter of minutes before we fell asleep.  I woke up after an hour nap but everyone else had a nice 3 hours nap!! I had to wake them up so we could go out again in the evening.  Ohh...before I forget, let me tell you that the weather was perfect!! It was not hot at all and it was just pleasant to be walking around on the strip without sweating or anything....in fact there was nice cool breeze once in a while which was surprising!!

Anyways...there is a lot more to talk about when we went out in the evening and it'll be too long for this post...so you all will have to wait for the next post :)

Until then, enjoy!!

Las Vegas & California Trip - Part 2

.......Continuing from my previous post (Las Vegas & California Trip - Part 1)

We settled down in our room, freshened up by 6:30 pm and relaxed for a bit.  It was time for dinner and we were all hungry.  While my parents stayed back at the room to rest a little bit, my brother and I went to Chipotle (near Casino Royale hotel).  It shows half a mile on the map from bally's but it feels like a long walk, I don't know why but maybe because of the crowd you don't get to move faster than how you had expected.  We came back to the room, had dinner, and then went out to check out Bellagio which was right across the street.  Remember, that even though things seem close in Vegas, they are not!!! We had to get through 4 sets of walkways to get from Bally's front desk to the las vegas blvd.  First you take the escalator from front desk of bally's to the top, then there is a moving walkway that takes you over the valet parking area, then there is another escalator that brings you back down, and another moving walkway that finally gets you to the las vegas blvd. (this walkway was never working unfortunately).

Bellagio Conservatory

We went inside the bellagio to check out the conservatory which was beautiful and unique!!  It's an attraction which you should definitely check out if you are in Vegas.

We also saw the Bellagio fountains that night which was playing every 15 minutes.  I truly feel that bellagio fountains is the best attraction of Vegas and you have to see it up close to experience the feeling :).  It was great!!

Bellagio Fountains

We came back to the hotel hoping to go to Paris through Bally's since it has a inside passage to get to Paris, but of course before you get to the passage, you go through casino and then the rest is history because we never made it past the casino :)...we decided to sit and try our luck!!  Well, as luck had it otherwise, we didn't win and instead lost money which is supposed to be normal in Vegas...haha.  Anyways, we were tired and had a lot planned for the next day, I went to bed around 11:30 pm looking forward to check out Vegas a lot more the next day!!

Las Vegas & California Trip - Part 1

Hello Friends,

I am back with some more vacation updates and info!! I hope you enjoyed my earlier posts on New York and New Jersey vacation and hopefully you will enjoy my Las Vegas and California vacation posts as well.  Just to give you a quick run through of this vacation here is a snippet of what you can expect in the next upcoming posts.

This was again a family vacation and planned in the last week of September from Sept. 23 to 29.  We were going to Vegas by car so it was going to be an interesting drive since it was almost 12 hours drive!!  We stayed in Vegas for 2 nights and then headed to Los Angeles and spent 3 nights in LA and then headed back to Vegas for 1 day and finally headed back home the following day.  Confusing??  Don't worry, I will break it down for you in the next couple of posts.  These 7 days included so much fun and exploring and family time as well!!

Day 1:
So, we started our trip on Sept. 23 early morning.  You know how you plan to start your trip as early as possible (especially since if you are driving) but then it never works according to schedule :P...well, something like that happened.  We had planned to leave at 5 am but instead ended up leaving at 6 am!!! There, we were already hour delayed on our trip.  The drive was indeed beautiful with the passage through mountains and canyons and all but the driver would also have to be careful since there are a lot of turns and narrow paths so you have to watch your speed!  Unfortunately we had to make our first stop right after we drove 72 miles for a restroom stop at around 7:15 am, and then made the 2nd stop at around 9 am for breakfast and also to fill up gas in the car.  After about 30 minutes of stop we kept on going and the next stop was at around noon again for a restroom stop right before we hit the No Services Zone area.  We stopped at Green River at exit 164 which has a Phillips 66 gas station which is supposed to be the last exit where you can get gas/food before you can get it again after about 110 miles.  So all the people driving to Vegas, keep this exit in mind (or the Green River area) so you can get your car filled up and not worry about running out of it during one of those 110 miles!!  There were no services from Green River to Selina but the drive was gorgeous!!

These pictures don't really do justice to the view, but I was too lazy to get my camera out, so just took whatever pics I can with my phone.   Besides, I was too busy enjoying the view as well :).

IMP Note: One thing I would like to tell everyone who is planning to drive to Vegas is that make sure you don't drive behind a truck, and if you have to drive behind a truck stay very far from them.  We witnessed a lot of torn/burned tires on our way which clearly means that due to heat trucks (and maybe even cars) are having difficulty with tires and they are being torn while driving.  From my personal experience...we had a close call with one of the trucks that was in front of us.  My brother was driving behind a truck and he moved over to the next lane to over take the truck and the next thing we know is that one of the truck's tires blasted and flew right behind it!!! Thankfully we had shifted lanes by then but it was still scary and it could have caused an accident if we were right behind it.  So just be careful driving behind trucks.  If possible, stay away from them and overtake them when necessary.
 
We drove through the No Services Zone area and the first exit that came with gas station, we stopped there to have a nice lunch at around 1:30 pm.  After this stop there was one other stop but other than that, it was all the way to Vegas!!  We reached Vegas exactly as our GPS projected which was 5:30 pm PST (which means about 12 hours and 30 minutes drive).  I had booked Bally's hotel for our stay (much more on that later....) so we got off the Flamingo exit and then it was very close from there (maybe less than a mile) to get to the hotel.  Now, Bally's shares a parking lot with Paris hotel which is right next door, so the self parking was going to be really far.  Instead Bally's offers free valet parking, so that's what I had decided to use when we came to the hotel.  We drove up to their valet parking area, got a ticket from them, and that was it!! We got all of our luggage out of the car, handed the driver our car keys, and then headed inside for registration.  It was that quick!!

We went inside the hotel and the first person you get greeted by is the Timeshare agent who tries to get you free show tickets or gambling money in return to attend one of their new hotel presentations.  Well, we were there for only 2 days and didn't really have time for it, so we passed the offer.  It's funny that they have different agents during different hours of the day so every time you come to the hotel, the agent greets you and takes you to the same desk with offers even after you have denied initially :P.

View of Eiffel tower from our room in daytime

Anyways, moving on to the check-in, we got in line for the check-in and got our turn within 15 minutes.  We had booked a south tower classic room which is supposed to be an old tower with rooms not so renovated but the agent at the desk asked us if we would like to upgrade to newer rooms for $20/night.  I rejected!! Why?  Because I knew that if I want to get a nice view, it'll only be within south tower room...so that's why I passed on the upgraded room.

When she was entering our information, I requested if we could get a room with view facing Paris and of Eiffel tower and bellagio fountains, and she said that's what we're getting.   I was excited to see the room, so we got our keys and headed to the south tower.  Our room was on 11th floor (room 6129) which was not close to elevators at all, so we had to walk quite bit to get to the room at the end of the hallways.  When we got to the room at around 6 pm....wow!! What a surprise!! The room was spacious and we actually had really close view of Eiffel tower as well as partial view of the Bellagio fountains.  Take a look!

View of Bellagio fountains from our room at night

View of Eiffel tower at night from our room

Well, the room space and the view was amazing, but before we can settle down, we made a quick run through of everything to make sure it was all good and there were no surprises.  Luckily, there were no surprises and everything seemed fine.  I did read a lot of reviews of how the south tower rooms are old and outdated and all, and to some extent it is true because the furniture seemed old, the curtains weren't that impressive, and the room had an old style box tv instead of a flat screen, but we didn't really care for it.  But what it did have is 2 queen size beds, one dresser, mirror, tv, table, 2 chairs and one desk and lamp besides the beds.....just like any other room should have it.

I think this post is becoming long enough that I better start a new post before it becomes super long and people don't even read the rest of it :P...so see ya in the next post!!