The Bellagio

Every body should go to Las Vegas once in a lifetime.

Just to affirm that the world is insane. Except 'me.'

Unless you think Vegas is normal.

Then you need help.

I went there ten years ago with a friend who wore a kilt. We walked up and down the strip. It took about three hours as everyone wanted to take his photo. They kept calling him a paper.

(A piper we later worked out)

So we went again, for two days, staying at the Bellagio for a laugh. We did not gamble one single cent - the silliness of it all is enough. It is marvellous in its ridiculousness. With the odd bit of sheer class thrown in.

The Bellagio is owned by MGM Resorts International and was built on the site of the demolished Dunes hotel and casino. It was inspired by the town of the same name on the shore of Lake Como- hence the fountain/lake in front of it. And it is huge.

The corridor disappeared into infinity.
And beyond.

Think of the biggest hotel you've ever got lost in.
Then double it.

The main bit has 3,015 rooms, on 36 floors. The Spa Tower has 33 floors with 935 rooms.

The ceiling in the hall has over 2,000 hand-blown glass flowers, covers covering 2,000 sq ft . Must be a right awkward one to dust.
Some of the 8000 staff drive around in little cars is it is very long way to walk.

The rooms are beautiful but everything, (I mean everything, we had to get torque wrench to the duvet) is nailed down. There are no tea or coffee making facilities as they want you to go out and walk the 40 miles of corridors for coffee ( not cheap). Once you get there you buy a bottle of water and a sat nav to get back to your room.

The opening ceremony in 1998 cost 88 million dollars. Then it was the most expensive hotel ever built. It had a 100 million dollar upgrade in 2011. So what was the initial build?
1.8 billion, give or take a penny.

The view from the back of the Bellagio. It was an extra $50 per night for a lake view.
It was dark so you couldn't see it anyway. So why bother.

The fountains of Bellagio are a vast, choreographed water feature with performances set to light and music. "Time To Say Goodbye", "Proud to be an American", "Your Song", "Viva Las Vegas", "Luck Be a Lady", and "My Heart Will Go On".The latter was fabulous - until the music started.

We like the bit when you see and hear all the nozzles wind up to the surface and set themselves- a bit like underwater Tiller Girls having a scratch and fidget before the line up.

Then - a smoke machine type thing started to blow a white cloud across the water- a solid, crystal haar ( like they get in Aberdeen except this was pretty and no danger to shipping ). Then the jets of water started to do a wibbly wobbly watery wave thing. It was heart achingly beautiful.
Then Celine started in her Foghorn Leghorn voice and spoiled it all.
But by the big bit where she shouts loud enough to break up the iceberg by sound waves, the super duper nozzles start to give it malkie and the noise is like a thousand firecrackers. It totally drowns out Celine.
Thank goodness.

But to get to the fountains low down at the front, we had to walk the long road from our room at the back and high up.

past the crystal obelisk, parked under the great glass dome.

a bit of tree....

that was actually a scary face,

at the back of this was a young lady playing classical harp

Indeed, you can just see her here..

I think she was playing the Flower Duet.

All acorns and autumn flowers- for thanksgiving I presume.

The best bit was watching the gardeners redoing it all first thing in the morning, all dirty nails and hard work, scuttling around trying to be invisible.

these two wee guys moved back and forth

up to no good

Smile face and flower horsey

This wee guy was moving so fast after his nuts the camera couldn't keep up.

Ok, so the other half had to drag me away from that as 'This time we say Goodbye' was next up for the fountain treatment..

The fountains are set in a 8-acre man made lake which was originally used to water the golf course that stood on the site originally. The hotel is very keen to point of that the fountains use less water than irrigating the golf course ever did. But why would they as I presume the water that shoots out the fountain nozzles just goes back into the lake.
I read there was 1,200 nozzles, more than 4,500 lights and they cost $40 million to build.

There are four types of nozzles:

Oarsmen – jets with a full range of spherical motion (The waves do the tinkly bit at the start of the Titanic song...bet you that went down a storm)

Shooters – shoot water upwards ( the start of each chorus)

Super Shooters – send a water blast as high as 240 ft (73 m) in the air (Celine's shouty bits) .

Extreme Shooters – send a water blast as high as 460 ft (140 m) (added in 2005) (Celine's big finish)

Sing as you go through the next few photos.

It's be nothing like the real thing but you'll get a response from the cat.