Tuesday, April 23, 2013

11 Years of Life Together..Vegas? Heck Yea!


It had been almost 3 years since Eric and I took a Las Vegas trip. Our 11th Anniversary was a great reason to cross the desert. We ventured into the sandy, dirt filled Mojave Desert and headed to the oasis in Nevada. If I can make a "no-brainer" suggestion to you all out there, take off to Vegas on a Sunday. Traffic was non-existant and we were lucky to have some clear weather for safe visibility.

An open road!


We were on our way to Planet Hollywood Casino and Hotel. It's an ideal choice because the location is near some amazing, neighboring sights. If you get lucky, as we did, your view will be of either the Bellagio or City Center/Aria Hotel. As with most updated and newly built Vegas hotels, the rooms have a modern look. Over the last decade the hotels veered away from themed rooms. Although Planet Hollywood is themed to films, it isn't screaming at you constantly. When this hotel was The Aladdin, a strong Arabic influence was seen everywhere. The casino floor at Planet Hollywood is pretty easy to navigate and it's not huge, as you might find at The MGM Grand. Those huge layouts get annoying when you need to run back to your room for an item or change clothes.

Planet Hollywood Casino floor


Eric and I were relieved to finally get into our room and find that it was clean, spacious, and included a "soaker" tub. Our room was themed to the film Flashdance. That discovery caused quite the laugh from us because it's a 1980s film that is fun to reference. I can't say that I have seen the whole film, but there is an iconic song. It was complete with a Jessica Beals snapshot from the movie. As shown in the photo of the bed, there was a suit from some unknown character displayed, so random.


In keeping with tradition of our relationship, we of course had a Cirque du Soleil show to see. We had tickets to see Zarkana, playing at the Aria Hotel (just across the bridge from Planet Hollywood). Eric had seen a promo video of the show, but I didn't really know too much about it. This show had just completed a tour that went from NYC to Asia. Zarkana took residence at the hotel theater this past November. I must add that promos for tickets can always be found at www.cirquedusoleil.com under the "Las Vegas" tab. I tell everyone that we never pay full price and it's the truth! We saw at least four different shows last year thanks to our price comparing.

Ready to hit the town!

A little more silliness.
If you haven't been to the Aria you must be informed that it's a sight to behold. It has the perfect mix of elegance with a slight edge. It's as though Bellagio and Planet Hollywood had a baby. I can't say anything about the rooms. I am referring to what we saw as a non-hotel guest, the casino floor. Eric and I have a great time checking out the details of flooring, wall coverings, tile, glass, and shapes that were chosen. As you'll see with the Cosmopolitan, in a future update, the attention to detail is just as present as in the Aria.



Aria's poker room

There is a lot to cover on this trip so I'll let everyone breath and we'll continue the story this week. Still yet to be covered for this first day is the Cirque show Zarkana, and then a venture to a Gay club at The Mirage hotel. For those interested I'll be posting mine and Eric's thoughts on the show and our backstage experience. See you all soon. For now, here is a shot from our room toward the south end of The Vegas Strip.

Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, & New York-New York

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