LOVE and Las Vegas

A couple weeks ago over our 3-day weekend in January Tom and I had a very long-anticipated, special date in Las Vegas.  It had been planned months in advance and was my Christmas present and my first time in Las Vegas.  As many of you know, when you are in love, you do strange things, things you wouldn't ordinarily do.  And that is how my husband ended up in Vegas taking me to see the amazing, one-of-a-kind Celine Dion.

While Celine was the reason for our trip, we certainly made the most of the time leading up to and following the concert.  We explored 13 hotels and their casinos, did a little gambling, walked A LOT and of course ate.  We even took a company up on their offer of free show tickets to go hear their two-hour pitch on a time share in Vegas.  This ended up working out because we had tickets to see Celine on Sunday night but didn't have any plans for Saturday night.  The painless sales pitch, by a very professional bunch, landed us two free tickets to see Cirque Du Soleil's The Beatles LOVE at The Mirage.  Plus two buffet dinners at The Mirage for a greatly reduced price, and a two-for-one coupon for breakfast at a restaurant in New York, New York.

So after an early Saturday morning arrival in Vegas (less than one hour flight), we were able to get checked in early to our hotel room at the MGM Grand.

View of New York, New York from our hotel room

We started off exploring the strip heading up towards the Bellagio, walking through New York, New York, Monte Carlo, Aria, Vdara, Bellagio and Harrah's.  On our way back we stopped for lunch in the Irish Pub in New York, New York.  It wouldn't be a Dalrymple trip blog without a couple food pictures.

Tom and his Guinness

Some good looking, and pretty tasty, fish and chips

My part of the 2-for-1 breakfast the next day

I was really interested in seeing a Cirque Du Soleil show while in Vegas so it was an added bonus getting free show tickets.  I'm not exactly a huge Beatles fan so I'm sure the show would have a lot more meaning if I were (there's a lot of symbolism in the show) but the music was great, the performers were excellent, and there was always something happening on the stage.  It was theater-in-the-round, performers were dropping from the ceiling, coming up from the floor, entering from the wings.  It was very good.  We didn't take any pictures at the venue but I did find some show photos online so I thought I'd share them just to give you an idea of what the show was like.

There were these huge screens where they projected real Beatles footage.

The show is one big party.

Sunday morning, after getting some breakfast, we walked through the casinos in the opposite direction - Excalibur, Tropicana, Luxor, Mandalay Bay.

As part of our travel package (hotel, airplane tickets) we got a $75 gift card for Crystals, an upscale mall in the center of the Strip.  Seventy-five dollars probably wasn't going to buy much there so we decided to use the gift card for dinner.  We made reservations at the Japanese restaurant.  After dinner we stopped in the Bellagio so Tom could play Blackjack.  From there it was next door to Caesars Palace to see Celine.

Sorry for the photo quality - casinos aren't known for their great lighting!

Our view of the stage...I was really happy with our seats.

Waiting for showtime

The Colosseum

The show was absolutely amazing!  It lasted about an hour and 45 minutes.  Celine sang about 20 songs with a 30+ piece orchestra.  I tried to write down all the songs she sang when I got back to our room but I couldn't even remember them all.

I actually started crying at the start of the show.  It was just incredible and a bit overwhelming to be sitting there when the curtain went up.  To hear her singing live and to be SO close.  It was amazing and I felt so grateful and blessed.  I personally believe she is one of the great voices of our time and she did not disappoint.  She's as great live as you'd imagine she is.  Hearing her sing so many of her greatest hits back-to-back, you realize what a strong theme Love is in all her songs.  Love the most powerful of all emotions.     

We respected the request not to take video or photos during the show.  So, we don't have any photos of the show.  I did find a few online so I thought I'd post them just to give you an idea of how it looked.

Simple staging, few theatrics...just Celine and her band.  Awesome!

This is her outfit during the James Bond tribute  - she sang Goldfinger

And, of course, the show ends with My Heart Will Go On (Titanic)

I really hope they release a DVD of the show like they did for her earlier show in Vegas.  I'd really enjoy having a copy so that I could relive the experience.  I would definitely go see her again.   

After the show we stopped at the Bellagio to catch the fountain show.

Tom thought it was funny that his phone GPS tagged Caesar's Palace as 'Paradise'

Monday morning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet at the MGM Grand, got checked out of our room, did some more gambling and then caught our flight home.  I think three days is probably the perfect amount of time to spend in Vegas.  It was a great trip.

Thank you Tommy for my wonderful Christmas present!  Memories and experiences are more valuable than anything you could have bought, wrapped and put under the tree.  I love you!