mVegas Baby! Day 3: The Mirage

We Love myVegas!

Tuesday morning we pack up and checkout from Mandalay Bay. Unfortunately, a 10:00 AM checkout followed by a 3:00 PM check in time at The Mirage means we have some time to waste. But this is Las Vegas so there's plenty to do.

The first step is to head north and drop the car in the Mirage parking lot. Then breakfast. The Mirage is more or less across the street from the Venetian and in the Venetian is one of the best French restaurants in Las Vegas: Bouchon.

Bouchon is rather well known for their breakfast offerings so we head across the street and make our way to the restaurant which is located in a sort of out of the way corner of the hotel. We're seated immediately (it's about 9:30 - way early by Las Vegas standards).

Jambon et Oeufs

Beth had the ham and eggs. A thick slice of grilled ham, poached eggs,  pommes lyonaise and toast.

Bouchon French Toast

And that's my french toast - brioche layered with caramelized apples with some lightly sauteed apple slices on top. I had some breakfast sausage as well. After plenty of coffee we're ready to hit the casino.

But wait! What's this?

Cool! They're making some sort of advertisement. We watch various makeup and hair engineers poke at the actress but we can't quite make out what it's actually for. So off to the casino to lose some more money. We play for a couple hours, snag a few "free" Bellinis and actually manage to come out about even. That would soon change - this is destined to be our worst day of the trip.

Eventually 2:00 rolls around and we decide to see if our room is ready. So off it's back to the Mirage. No line thank goodness! But our luck doesn't hold. Not only is our room not ready, but the Tower Suite we'd reserved is not going to happen. Bummer. But heck, it's free and we combine the two reservations so we don't have to move again. I give the clerk my cell number, she gives me the key cards to the as yet unready room and we wander off.

We've got dinner at the Tender Steakhouse in Luxor tonight so a big lunch is out. Not wanting to go far we head over to BLT, the fancy burger place in The Mirage, for an appetizer and a couple adult milk shakes.  Finally about 4:30 I get the text hat our room is ready and up we go. We're both tired and a little cranky from the long wait so we just crash in the room until it's time to head down to Luxor for our myVegas Tender Dinner for Two.

Tender Steakhouse

Tender is a much nicer steakhouse than The Steakhouse at Camelot. hat fact is born out not just in ambiance but also in the more sophisticated menu, better executed sides, and a very, very nice wine list.


Tonight we skip the cocktails in favor of soup to start. Beth has the wild mushroom (right) and I go for the lobster bisque (left). Both are darn good but the lobster get the edge.

Once again we go for two sides this time creamed spinach and "Lyonaise" potatoes. The spinach is excellent, though topping it with cheese doesn't really add anything to the dish. I'm accustomed to a more traditional style of Pommes Lyonaise, but the cheesy gratin is tasty, if a bit heavy.

Instead of another prime rib I chose the more reasonably sized filet. As at Excalibur, the meat is perfectly cooked.

Beth, on the other hand decides to go wild and try the game sampler. It is by far the winner of the four steakhouse entrees we've had: "Nilgai antelope osso buco, axis venison medallion & wild boar loin with farro, fig chutney & huckleberry venison reduction." All are products of Broken Arrow Ranch. Of the three items, the antelope osso bucco was, we felt, the best.

Once again, we retired, overfed by a large margin, to our Tower King at the Mirage.

Day 1
Day 2
Days 4 & 5

MyVegas Baby! Part 1

It's gonna be free baby! (almost)

So late last year we took a short vacation in Las Vegas and got some free food courtesy a Facebook game called myVegas. We got more free stuff this time... a lot more. Here's how it went down:

November 2012

We get back from our vacation and Beth signs up for Facebook and starts playing myVegas. We both become daily players to maximize the number of "loyalty points" (the myVegas equivalent of cash) we'd be able to accumulate.

December 2012

Over the holiday break (I had to use up a week of vacation time) I get bored and buy some chips with real money. $39 worth. You can play for free - there's no requirement to spend money. This would have an interesting side effect a soon.

January 2013

By the 15th (remember the date) I've accumulated enough loyalty points to purchase three nights in a Mirage Tower Suite. I "purchase" them (in the form of two rewards: a 2 night and a 1 night stay) using up almost all my accumulated loyalty points and we begin to plan our vacation. Our usual trip runs five nights, so we want two more nights.

February 2013

I finally accumulate enough points to purchase two nights in a Mandalay Bay Spa Suite and do so. Meanwhile MGM Resorts International has realized people have become myVegas maniacs and they begin to make it more difficult to accumulate chips to play the games.

March 2013

Bad News: myVegas makes it even harder to accumulate chips to play the games and announces that for all reward purchases made after January 15 players will only be able to redeem three in any 30 day period. Good News: I can purchase 2 more since I bought my first 2 before the the deadline.

By now Beth has a ton of loyalty points saved up and we decide she'll purchase food. We buy $150 steak house meals at Tender in the Luxor and The Steakhouse at Camelot in Excalibur. I use some of my accumulated points to buy two passes to the Bellagio lunch buffet.

Then:

myVegas introduces another new twist on the game. If you've purchased chips, you can redeem not three but as many as ten rewards in any 30 day period. Now I have two more rewards instead of one and we buy Beth $5 worth of chips so she can purchase two more rewards.

I use my accumulated loyalty points to buy 2 $170.50 tickets to the Cirque du Soleil show Love. I still have one more reward to purchase and Beth has two. I book our hotel reservations by the old fashioned telephone method.

April 2013

We wrap up our reward purchases. Beth buys a $50 dining credit at Nine Fine Irishmen in New York New York and we each buy High Tea (technically afternoon tea, but they didn't ask me when they named it) at the Petrossian Bar in Bellagio. I make restaurant reservations and we're all set.

At this point we've purchased:

3 nights at Mirage	$945
2 nights at Mandalay Bay	$366
2 Steakhouse Dinners	$300
Bellagio High Tea (2)	$70
Dinner at Nine Fine Irishmen	$50
Bellagio Lunch Buffet for 2	$43
2 Tickets to Love	$341
Total	$2115

All for a grand total of $45 in actual money ($39 and $5 chip purchases) and maybe an hour total each day playing the myVegas game.

Coming Soon:

We go to Las Vegas! Cheap Flights! Gambling!  Food! Shows! (and a small bummer)

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Days 4 & 5