My wonderful husband & I were able to go to Las Vegas Monday-Thursday, for a little celebrating of his graduation from grad school and kind of a "baby-moon" as it'll be the last vacation until after baby boy is here! At least, last BIG vacation! I get asked the question a lot, "how did you do that for free/cheap?!" So I figured I'd give a little run down, a few tips and pointers and gush about our trip!
As most of you know, we went to Las Vegas in Dec. 2011 for our 1 year wedding anniversary. We booked our vacation then through
www.LasVegas.com and it was a package deal. Flight+ 4 nights + airport shuttle to/from Mirage (on the strip) for about $1200 (it's been a few years so I am not 100% sure of the exact amount). While we were there then we saw Mystere, a Cirque Du Soleil show, ate at a couple of buffets (during breakfast & lunch since they were much cheaper) and did all of the "tourist" things. Freemont Street, visited each hotel Lobby, Fountains at Bellagio, Volcano at Mirage, the huge margaritas, Blue Man Group, Terry Fator ventriloquist, NY NY roller coaster, Minus 0 ice bars, you name it! We were exhausted! So needless to say, we knew what we did/didn't want to do this time. Plus my oldest brother & sister in law go to Vegas frequently, and they gave us plenty of pointers before our first trip, especially when it comes to the reward card at your casino/hotel and linking mine & Travis' together!
So in January I got an offer (when we signed up for the mLife card (the Mirage, Bellagio, and quite a few other hotels are linked to mLife and when you gamble/spend money on things there, you get points and earn comps!)) The offers will come monthly/weekly/or hardly at all! So the offer we received was for 3 free nights, and then attached to that offer was a survey, took the short survey for $200 in comps at Mirage to use while we were there for our 3 free nights!
Then we found the game on facebook (it's a slot machine game, absolutely free, if you have an mLife card you can link it to the game already, or sign up for one if you're planning on visiting Vegas soon) and you earn points, those points can be redeemed for free items! And we were both skeptical of the "freebies", but we are here to tell you ....that's exactly what they were! FREE! :)
On the myVegas game we earned enough points for the Cirque Du Soleil show "KA", (not a bad seat in the house, but we honestly had one of the best seats...they came up and actually did skits right in front of us!!!) Ticket value ($49.50 PLUS tax) We paid...FREE! We also earned tickets to the Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden & Dolphin Exhibit there at Mirage. Since we were guests there at Mirage to pay to go in would have been $16.99. Non hotel guests $19.99. With our myVegas rewards...FREE!
We also purchased tickets to "O" by Cirque Du Soleil, and we received a 15% discount due to being mLife members.
With our $200 in free comps we ate at: Cravings Buffet for dinner our first day, it's around $30 a person and there is a HUGE selection. I'm not so sure that buffet's are worth the price...but considering you're in Vegas, and food is outrageous, if you have a big appetite or just want to eat 1 meal a day, it's worth it. Just pace yourself! LOTS to pick from for the dinner buffet, and the desserts are gorgeous, but few are very tasty.
The next morning we ate breakfast at the Hash House A Go Go, it's across the street from the Mirage in what used to be "Imperial Palace" but has changed to the "Quad". That place is non-traditional breakfast food that we had last time. The portion sizes are HUGE and the price is decent. Travis had the chicken & waffles, I had the biscuits and gravy...honestly, either plate could have been shared by 2-3 people! This meal we paid for since it wasn't at an mLife hotel. .
For late lunch/early supper Tuesday we had BLT burgers there in Mirage. We ate there last time, and it was definitely worth a re-visit! Their burgers are delicious, waffle fries and a shake are a MUST! We had this meal for free (about $45 for both of us dinner & a shared shake)
We saw KA on Tuesday after we ate, also visited the M&M world (we had toured it last time so we just selected our personal M&M's and went about our way :) )
Wednesday morning we ate downstairs at the Cravings buffet for breakfast at Mirage. They will make a personal omelet for you and there is a vast variety of all kinds of breakfast foods! Definitely worth it! Average is $16 per person for breakfast.
We then visited the pool, and it was a pretty pool but go early (like we did, at about 9am) because it gets very crowded. The pool is a relaxation pool, the max depth is 3 1/2 feet but it's a huge pool. And cold!
For dinner Wednesday we ate at the California Pizza Kitchen at Mirage. Avg pizza is about 11" (I'd say the size of a Domino's medium (if not a little smaller) and is about $15 a pizza for your more basic pizza's. Travis insisted he was too hungry to share...so we got 2 and took the left overs up to our room which he ate as a midnight (more like 1am) snack. We then saw "O", and of the 3 Cirque Du Soleil shows we've seen..."O" is by far the best in our opinion!
We got some snacks in the gift shop one evening as well, so in a re-cap we had Dinner, Breakfast, Lunch, Lunch, and snacks...all for free :)
So some pointers on visiting Vegas. We have now been in Winter (Christmas time) and Summer. Honestly, when we go again one day, it'll be around Christmas time. The hotels were way more decorated, it was actually far less crowded and the temperatures were much more bearable.
Don't forget the free shows. Mirage has an awesome Volcano that goes off every 15-30 minutes nightly until midnight-ish, Bellagio has the dancing fountains, and the one show we didn't see the first time (since it's seasonal) was the Sirens of TI. That show....eh. Not my favorite. Too many people in a small area, and the show is short and just not very good for the amount of time you spend waiting on it/fighting the crowds. Once you've seen a Cirque show, that kind of ruins the Sirens show too I think!
So something of importance...our flight! Flights have gone up in price. If you fly southwest they still have the free checked bag, but if you fly any other airline there are fees. And I'm cheap. So since it was just a few nights for us, we just did the small carry on and went with it! Much easier than fighting baggage claim and the worry of your baggage getting lost. We booked our flight through hotwire.com in January. When booking a flight with them, you know all of the details, and can even pay later to change it (unlike their hotels where you can't cancel unless you buy the insurance and even then it has to be something serious for them to refund you). So we paid $550 for roundtrip airfare for both of us total. Compared to the same travel days on Southwest, going directly through United which the 2 of them would have been over $1000 for both of us. We had a "long" ish day of travel, but so worth it.
We left San Antonio at 930am on Monday. We parked in the Airport Security Parking (they have coupons for 4 days (they do days, not nights) and so our thinking "Oh, we're only there 3 nights, the coupon won't do us any good" well, it would have! haha. Oh well. But the process of arriving/departing was SMOOTH!
We flew San Antonio to Houston, had a 2 hr layover so we had some lunch (not too bad of a lay over really) and then landed in Vegas at 2:30pm Vegas time! Coming home we left our hotel at 6:55am Vegas time on the little shuttle (it's $13 a person round trip...which, is SUPER cheaper than a Taxi & you get a "tour" of the diff. hotels if you happen to be one of the last drop offs, so that is pretty neat!)
We left Vegas at 9:30am (and my ONLY complaint...and this is a United/any airplane that has 3 seats per aisle each side...) the lady sitting against the window was rather big. And I understand, being a size 14 pre-baby, I'm not a small girl either...but I fit comfortably between the two arm rest when they are fully down. She was on my seat by a good 2", the arm rest was down about half way, and half way through the flight when I was trying to change the channel on the t.v. I realized the arm rest thing (since the one between me & Trav was lower). Then I would try to shift away from her, and she'd just take more space from me. By the end of the flight, the arm rest was unusable, and she was practically on top of me. VERY hot and uncomfortable. She never apologized or said anything for that matter. I understand buying 2 seats is expensive, and so is first class. But they really should make some restrictions, and if I weren't able to fit comfortably into my seat I would feel awful for taking away someone else's space. They won't let you take a bag that is 2" too wide, so they really need some restrictions on seating.
That being said. The flight was much smoother with the t.v. we both purchased. A little steep in price, but if you don't have a window seat and no one has their windows open around you, it's worth it!
We got to San Antonio around 2:45pm, and our plan didn't leave until almost 6pm. So we ate some lunch, and then we realized there was a plane leaving about an hour before our plane was. And good thing, they had seats! So we were able to switch for free, and ended up on an aisle of our own this time! YEAH! Too bad the flight itself was only 30 mins! So anyways, all in all, a great trip.
Of course, while we were there our precious baby boy turned 20 weeks! We are HALF WAY THERE! YEAH!!! And guess what!? This Momma is now experiencing swollen feet. Bad. It was SO painful the first day in Vegas, we took it easier Tues & Wed. but by the time we got home last night, Shesh! They hurt so bad I could hardly walk. I just hope it was increased swelling due to traveling.
Today they didn't need me at work, and Travis can't start his job until Monday so we are going to tackle the re-arranging process of our bedroom. Gizmo (the guinea pig, who has a huge cage on a 6' table) is moving to the den area of my parents house and we're moving furniture around to make space for the baby things! Then my nephew Timothy graduates HS this afternoon, and we have an early morning tomorrow for a fishing tournament in Port O Conner! :)
20 weeks pregnant!
