Las Vegas Day 2 - Factory Outlet Shopping at Las Vegas Premium Outlet North

What is a US Holiday without shopping at the factory outlets?

After a hearty breakfast at Peppermill, we drove less than 10 minutes to our destination of the day - Las Vegas Premium Outlets - North. I have to stress the word NORTH because there are 2 Premium Outlets in Las Vegas. One in the North and the other in the South. We visited the South Premium Outlet on Day 4 and trust me, if you have time for only one, you want to go to the one in the NORTH!

Las Vegas Premium Outlet North

For those who intend to go to the Premium Outlets but are not VIP members yet, get yourself registered (Click this link to register). Once you are a VIP member, do remember to print the VIP coupon and the specific store discount before your trip. Pending on when you are going, there may be special discounts available to VIP members. You can use the VIP coupon to exchange for the VIP coupon book. It usually offers additional discounts on top of existing store discounts. If you forget to print the coupon or if you are not a VIP member, the VIP coupon book is also available for purchase for $5. Still a deal if you purchase more than $100 in participating stores since you generally get an additional 10% discount. While we were there, there was also the MasterCard Promotion and the discounts are even better than those in the VIP coupon book.

Make it a point to visit the Customer Service Center before you start shopping and that short 5 mins trip may save you more than a cup of Starbucks coffee!

There are 150 outlet stores at the Las Vegas Premium Outlet North, so do give yourself plenty of time so that you don't have to rush through the stores. For ladies, I would recommend that you give yourself at least 3 hours. Even then, you will not have time to visit all the stores. I was there for 6 hours and I did not go to all the stores.

My favourite stores at the Las Vegas Premium Outlet North are as follows:

• A|X Armani Exchange - Not many outlets have Armanic Exchange but I heard that they have opened one at the Seattle Premium Outlet. Yeah!
• Addidas
• Asics
• Armani Outlet 
• Banana Republic
• Bare Minerals
• Burberry
• Calvin Klein
• Coach
• Guess
• Hugo Boss
• Lancome
• Polo Ralph Lauren
• Juicy Couture
• The Cosmetic Company
• Timberland
• Tumi
• True Religion
• Nike
• Nine West
• Disney Store
• Salvatore Ferragamo
• Sunglass Hut
• Swarovski
• Tag Heuer
• Tommy Hilfiger

I had the most interesting time shopping at the Armani Store. It was the first time that we saw the samples. Samples are one piece clothing that were manufactured and put on mannequins at Armani's corporate headquarter for major retailers to see and feel the product and put down their orders. They are available at 70-80% off their "retail" price. Limited quantities were available and usually one size only (the mannequin size). My husband was really lucky and he bought a leather jacket (incidentally that was also the best purchase for the day) for only US$110! What a steal! It was a pity that I could not find anything suitable for me on the ladies' sample rack. I noticed that most of the samples were made in Italy! Gee!

We (or rather I) shopped for 6 hours. Although we did not buy as much as we thought we would, it was a decent trip with some really good buys. I would definitely recommend the Premium Outlet North to all shoppers!  

Las Vegas Day 2: Breakfast @ The Peppermill Restaurant & Fireside Lounge

After an eventful first day in Las Vegas, we decided to check out the Peppermill Restaurant & Fireside Lounge since it had an average 4 star review by 800+ people on Yelp.

It was a building by itself with its own car park. Like all places in Las Vegas, they even had SLOT machines at the Restaurant! The interior decoration was very psychedelic and reminded me of Austin Powers.

Peppermill Restaurant & Fireside Lounge

Eggs Benedict - The harsh brown was excellent! Eggs slightly overcooked though

Can't remember the name. It was good but the portion was too big for me.

Even though the waitress was kind enough to share with us at the point of ordering that the portions were huge and that it was ok to share, we did not heed her advice. True enough, I could not finished my breakfast.

By the time, we left at around 12:30 pm, there was a huge crowd waiting to be seated. Prices were reasonable and food was relatively good. In fact, we went back again on our last day in Vegas and had our dinner there. My husband liked the harsh brown so much that he ordered the Eggs Benedict set again. This place is definitely worth checking out if you have a car.

New York Steak with Shrimps for dinner on our last day in Vegas

Las Vegas: Day 1 - Bellagio and its Water Fountain Show

The Bellagio is probably the fanciest 5-star hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Although I have not seen all the other 5-star hotels, the Bellagio just exude elegance and extravagance. The Venetian is very stylish in its own right but the luxury stores, fancy restaurants and well-heeled guests all made the Bellagio the place to be.

Some popular movies filmed at the Bellagio are

• Rush Hour 2
• Ocean Eleven
• Ocean Thirteen
• Hangover 3

We felt quite out-of-place dressed in t-shirts and shorts exploring the casino and lobby area as we tried to find our way out of the hotel to check out the famous Water Fountain Show after watching "O".

Slot Machines

Table Games

Bellagio Conservatory - Yes, those are FLOWERS the picture frame!

Chandelier - not even in the lobby area

Biggest Flower Arrangement I have ever seen @ the Lobby

The Bellagio Water Fountain Show

The Fountain show was impressive. It has a new show with different music every 15 mins from 8 pm to midnight. We caught the ending of one and a complete one for the next. The water and lights were impressive but the music was a little too soft from where we were standing so the show did not appear to be as in sync as it should be with the music. For a musical fountain, both my husband and I felt that the Sentosa Musical Fountain in Singapore was more impressive.

Las Vegas Day 1: "O" by Cirque du Soleil @ Bellagio

It was a Saturday night and our first night in Las Vegas. We were not very hopeful that we could get any tickets for "O" by Cirque de Soleil. It was highly recommended by my husband's colleague. We checked out the tickets before we flew into Las Vegas and it was the most expensive of all Cirque de Soleil's performances in Las Vegas. We had two nights to try and catch it as "O" was only available from Wednesdays to Sundays and we were flying home on Wednesday night.

As we walked from the Venetian to Bellagio, we dropped by at Tix4tonight to check if we were lucky enough to get any discounted tickets for "O". Unfortunately, Tix4tonight did not have any tickets for "O" that night.

By the time we walked to Bellagio, it was already 7:10 pm. We went straight to the Cirque du Soleil Box Office at Bellagio and tried our luck. There were tickets! We decided to get 2 tickets @ US$155 each + LET (15.50 tax) since they were pretty good seats for a good discount. Original price for the tickets section 103  (the yellow section) of the lower Orchestra was $180 before tax and usually sold together with the "O" Insider Access VIP experience @ US$260 each.

"O" tickets

No worries about getting tickets for "O" on a Saturday night. We were glad we did not book the tickets online with Vegas.com (it had the best deal for our flight and hotel combo). The site was selling tickets for section 204 tickets for US$181.45 each (listed price for the seat on Bellagio's site was $155) + a convenience fee of $21.05! It was better to get your tickets directly from Bellagio than 3rd party sites. Do check that out first before buying from other sources.

"O" Theatre Seating Plan

We were very happy with our purchase as the seats were very good. We had an excellent view of the stage.

View from our seat in section 103, aka Golden Circle

"O" was my first Cirque de Soleil experience while it was my husband's second. If you have not heard about "O", here is a link to the official trailer. According to the official description, "O" pays hommage to the magic of the theatre - from simple street performer to extravagant operas. International-level acrobats, synchronous swimmers, divers and enchanting characters demonstrate their aquatic prowess in, on and above the water resulting in an extraordinary experience.  It has been shown at the Bellagio since October 1988.

There were 13 acts during the 1.5 hour show (since no photos are allowed at the show, the following photos are taken with courtesy from Cirque du Soleil's website):

Aerial Hoop

Barge

Bateau

Cadre

Clowns

Contortion

Duo Trapeze

Fire

High Dive

Russian Swing - My personal favourite

Solo Trapeze

Synchronized Swimming

Trapeze Washington

The acts were all executed with perfection (with the exception of Fire - one of the performer dropped the fire stick twice). I was especially fascinated by the stage. It had a pool of water in the middle of the stage that could be adjusted to various depth of water or completely covered for different acts. Because of the pool, "O" was only performed at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

We had a fantastic time at "O". If you are thinking of a Cirque du Soleil show, I would highly recommend "O".

Las Vegas - Day 1 - the Grand Canal Shoppe

After a fulfilling dinner, we thought we would try our luck and see if we could get the 7:30 pm tickets for "O" by Cirque du Soleil @ Bellagio for the night.

We were somewhere in the middle of the Grand Canal Shoppe after our early dinner and it took quite a while to walk out to the strip. The discovery of the Grand Canal Shoppe was fascinating and definitely worth the time.

We went to Venice before and that made the Grand Canal Shoppe even more interesting as we compared the real Venice to the indoor Venice at the Grand Canal Shoppe. Below are the differences:

• Blue Skies with some fluffy white clouds with no worries of rain or sun. It was really quite pretty and comfortable
• The staff working on the Gondola sang better
• The water in the canal was much cleaner than the one in Venice. No smell or flooding. We were in Venice when it rained and some parts along the canal was flooded.

To be honest, we both liked the indoor Venice more than the real one. Ok, except for the real Italian food. Italian food was still better in Venice. You have to check out the Grand Canal Shoppe if you are in Las Vegas!

Can you tell that this is in a shopping mall? 

Gondolas @ the Grand Canal Shoppe

St Mark's Square @ the Grand Canal Shoppe

The "Statue" as part of the Carnevale Summer Festival @ the Venetian

Check out the Blue Sky and White Clouds!

Can you that the sky and building behind are just part of the decoration at the Grand Canal Shoppe?

Of course, they had to include the Venetian Mask to make it look more like Venice! 

Las Vegas Day 1: Italian Dinner @ Tratoria Reggiano - (Grand Canal Shoppe)

By the time, we took a short rest in the suite and changed from our jeans to shorts, we were starving and we were on the prowl for an early dinner (it was only 5 pm!).

We thought we would get something simple at the Grand Canal Shoppe, it was less than 5 mins into walking to the Grand Canal Shoppe when we saw a very quaint looking Italian Street side cafe - Tratoria Reggiano. It was FULL house at 5+! Hmmm... the food ought to be pretty good. I asked one of the ladies sitting at the table and she said the food was good so we decided to have our early dinner there.

Freshly baked bread: Aromatic, Crusty on the outside and soft of the inside! 

Meatball Spaghetti 

Aglio Olio with Shrimps - the shrimps were cooked perfectly!

The freshly made bread was the highlight of the meal. The pastas were al dente and pretty good in their own right. It was a pity that we were too full after just the bread and the pasta to enjoy any dessert. Prices were pretty reasonable too. I would definitely recommend  the Tratoria Reggiano!

Las Vegas - Day 1 Review of the Venetian's Deluxe King Suite and Check-in experience (Resort Fee)

Check-in was fast and smooth even though we prepaid the hotel through Vegas.com, the Venetian staff wanted to charge us an extra $25/day for what they called a resort fee. I was confused since I thought I already prepaid everything. The staff said that no third party would charge us the resort fee. I asked her what is meant by the resort fee. Then she explained that it included access to the hotel wifi and fitness centre. I could understand that payment may be required for wifi access but payment for fitness centre when it is a 5-star hotel? Since we had no plans to visit the fitness centre, we opted out. Contrary to belief, resort fee was NOT compulsory. And the best part is we had intermittent free wifi access from our room. Just picked the wifi for "Suite" instead of the one for "Setup".  :)

We booked a Deluxe King Suite with no view (of course, the Venetian asked if we wanted to upgrade to one with view - part of the up sell and cross sell anything you could training all customer service staff seemed to get when you worked in Las Vegas). Even though our suite had no view of the strip, we had a view of the Mirage. Not too bad. The suite was spacious and very well maintained. It even had an ipod docking station. No worries if you forgot to bring your iphone charger.

The King-size Bed

The Living Area

View of Suite from Windows

Bathroom with separate toilet (with door) on the right and shower on the left ( was not able to capture  with my iphone)

The room even had a remote control for the curtains (both the night curtain and the day venetian blinds!). Even though it was not a new hotel, everything was well maintained and clean. The only downside were the size of the TVs. There were three TVs in the room, one in the bathroom, one in front of the bed and one in the living area. The 32" LCD TVs were just too dated in a 5-star hotel these days.

On the whole, a fantastic and comfortable suite for the promotional price of US$149/night from Sunday to Wednesday! (Saturday night was US$229/night but still quite worth it!)

Las Vegas Day 1: Finally got the car and drove to Las Vegas Strip to the Venetian!

Despite landing at McCarran Airport at 12:30 pm, we only managed to drive out with our rental car at 2:30 pm. (Please read my previous blog for the confusion at the Thrifty car rental). The drive from the airport to our the Venetian was pretty smooth at 2:30 pm. It took less than 15 mins.

My last trip to Las Vegas was in 1997. The strip looks so different. I only remembered the Flamingo Hotel. The sun, crowd and energy just make us look forward to our 5-day trip!

M&M Store

Coke Store

Purple Classic Car

Driving to Venetian was easy.Once we got there, we had to decide between valet and self-parking for the hotel check-in. The hotel layout, especially how to get from the self-parking garage to the hotel lobby was pretty confusing to first time visitors. If you have many luggages, young children and/or elderly in the party, I would highly recommend the valet parking. At least for the check-in. It was just the two of us and we only had one bag, so we decided to do the self-park.

The self parking garage was HUGE. Oversized vehicle parking was on the ground floor while all others were from level 5 to 9. It was pretty crowded on a Saturday afternoon when we arrived but we still managed to get a spot on level 6. It took us quite a while to find the lobby from the garage.

First, we had to take the garage elevator to Casino level, walk past the first entrance to the 1st Canal Shoppe Entrance, take the elevator down to the Casino level, walk on the left side of the Casino past an eating area before we reached the lobby. It should take at least 10 minutes but we took 20 minutes since we got lost half way before we asked a hotel staff for directions. Save yourself the time and effort and ask if it is your first time there.