Okay, I feel bad that I am sooo late with this! Back in December, Sam realized he was 5 nights away from getting Hyatt status for 2016. We threw out some ideas on trips we could take, did some research, and found that all of the M Life hotels in Vegas have a partnership with the Hyatt… and that was by far the cheapest way to get status! So we planned a trip down and stayed at the Excalibur. I actually have memories of staying at the Excalibur as a child and loving it because we were in a castle, haha! Vegas is definitely an interesting place. We flew down Friday night and left Sunday afternoon… and it was definitely enough. I was most excited about the food there, honestly! So here’s a quick rundown of what we did and where we ate, along with my thoughts.

Food

1. Bouchon – This was BY FAR our favorite place we ate. We went there pretty much straight from the airport, so it was right around brunch time. We shared an apple croissant and chicken and waffles. The apple croissant was absolutely delicious. The pastry was sooo flaky and the apple on top was the perfect, decadent touch. The real star though, which is saying a lot, was the chicken and waffles! The chicken was brined overnight, roasted, and served over delicious waffles. I’m a snob about both chicken /and/ waffles, and was very impressed. The chicken was so yummy and moist and the waffles were the perfect accompaniment. Chicken and waffles typically features fried chicken, but we were glad that the chicken was roasted because fried chicken would have been too heavy for us at the time. It was also our most affordable meal in Vegas, so bonus points! 5/5
2. Bellagio Buffet – All of my memories of Vegas involve buffets featuring endless prime rib, and Bellagio is one of the best. There may not be as many options as at other buffets, but the quality is always excellent. We enjoyed the beef wellington (though you definitely had to make sure you got a piece that was medium rare) and the prime rib. I was expecting chocolate strawberries for dessert, but they didn’t have any… I was slightly disappointed, haha! 4/5
3. Wicked Spoon Buffet – We read lots of rave reviews for Wicked Spoon Buffet, so we went there for brunch on our last day. Our favorite thing there was their ice cream, haha! There were a lot of different options for gelato/ice cream and their dessert in general was quite good. Everything else was fine, but nothing amazing. 3.5/5
4. Bacchanal Buffet – So the Bacchanal is supposed to be one of the top buffets at Vegas. It was also the priciest out of all three and had the longest line. To be completely honest, it was overrated for us. The food was good, but not amazing. The prime rib wasn’t quite as tender as the Bellagio’s and the seafood didn’t seem super fresh. The macarons were really good though, and we ate more than a dozen of them, haha! I was excited about the fish and chips (from Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant) but they were only okay.. 3.5/5

Shows

1. Blue Man’s Group – This was my very first time seeing a Blue Man’s Group show and it was AMAZING! There were so many special effects and they were very funny. I was incredibly impressed and entertained the entire time. I would definitely go back! 5/5
2. Mac King Magic Show – This was at 1PM at Harrah’s. It was definitely a smaller production than the Blue Man’s Group, but it was a lot of fun! Mac King is quite funny and all of his magic tricks are pretty standard, but still very entertaining. We were laughing the whole time. I’d definitely recommend it! 4/5
3. Mystere with Cirque du Soliel – Okay, this was the biggest let down, by far. It was expensive and just not that impressive. It was my first Cirque du Soliel and I literally fell asleep. Sam said that he kept on thinking he’d wake me up when something exciting happened… and it just never did. There were some impressive acrobatics, of course, but nothing that made my jaw drop. Sam said it was definitely the most disappointing Cirque he has ever been to as well. 3/5.

Quick shoutout to the Concierge Desk at Excalibur… everyone we talked to there was extremely helpful and patient in helping us sort out a ticket error which would have had us seeing both Blue Man’s Group and Cirque on the same night. The concierge stayed on the phone with Ticketmaster for almost an hour and managed to get our tickets changed! They were amazing.