Vegas, Venetian Style

We decided to stay at the Venetian on this trip because we had tickets for The Phantom show. This was my first time staying at the Venetian and I’ve always heard that it’s a great hotel to stay at. Our room was located in the Venetian Suites Tower. It had a sunken living room with a couch and a small table, and the bathroom had marble floors with a soaking tub and a shower. It overlooked the Wynn’s Golf Course and the mountains in the distance. It room was very nice but not as elegantly decorated like some of the other hotels on the strip. There also wasn’t any turn down service in this tower but the newer suites at this hotel had this feature.

The Venetian Hotel is a very nice place to visit when you’re in Vegas. The architecture is very reminiscent of Venice. The ceilings at the entry by the Grand Canal Shops are painted with elegant pictures resembling the originals from Italy. The long hallway next to the hotel check-in is quite sophisticated with its majestic painted ceiling and the three colored marble flooring with its complicated design.

The shopping area at the Grand Canal Shops is a beautiful place to visit for the amazement of the indoor canals that the Hotel created for Gondola rides. Everything that you would want or need is at this Hotel. The Venetian offers superb dining, magnificent shows, beautiful pools and stylish shops and museums to visit.

If you enjoy staying at nice hotels then you will love the Venetian for their rooms, friendly staff and the ambiance of this beautiful Venetian styled hotel.

On our last evening in Vegas, we ate at the Grand Lux Café. It’s inside the Venetian Hotel and is managed by the same company that owns the Cheesecake Factory. The inside of the restaurant followed the same architecture feel of the hotel replicating Venetian décor. The inside of the restaurant was very impressive, with beautiful tiled floors and ornate moldings. I really wasn’t expecting much out of this reasonably priced café in Vegas, so finally seeing the inside of this restaurant took my breathe away.

Luckily, their food was just as delicious as the architecture was appealing. I had a Seafood Dinner Salad loaded with mounds of shrimp, crab, green beans, corn, and blue cheese. This was one of the best salads that I’ve ever had. I could have easily shared this salad with one other person and been plenty full. The waitress warned us that all of their meal portions were big, and she definitely didn’t exaggerate. My boyfriend had a burger, which he wasn’t able to finish, either. Both of our meals were absolutely wonderful.

The Grand Lux offers a variety of food I really wished I could have tried while I was there, but vacations are too short. Their menu offers breakfast, pastas, pizza, seafood, steaks, burgers, chicken items, entrée salads, and, of course, wonderful mouthwatering desserts. They even offer a pretty extensive wine list. This restaurant is definitely worth checking out if you want a nice, but not terribly expensive meal.

Normally when you visit a nice restaurant you are inspired by the decor of the inside of the building. The inside of Delmonico Steakhouse is very plain. The doorways and rooms had lots of arches and columns which I considered the most interesting part of the interiors design but there wasn’t anything on the walls: very little color and no pictures. The carpeting added the most color to the room yet the rest of their decor was very plain and simple. I would still consider this to be an elegant restaurant but not considered grand.

The food on the other hand was very elaborate. Both entrées that my boyfriend and I tried were exquisite. I tried one of their dinner specials because it came with vegetables and it was very delicious. My boyfriend had their rib eye which was a remarkable dinner. Only their specials came with sides otherwise everything else on their menu is à la carte. Everything that we tried was wonderful but a little pricey for being à la carte.

The service at Delmonico was fantastic. We had several people waiting on us and they were very prompt about refilling our water and bringing us items. It was nice that they worked as a team and were very personable, too. The service itself made this restaurant feel more sophisticated than it really was.

If you enjoy great service, delectable first-class steaks and minimal decor, this is definitely the place to eat while you are in Vegas.

This was a remarkable production to see. Upon entering the theatre, I was emerged into an atmosphere with very little color. The theatre was draped in dark sheets and the chandelier looked as if it were broken. Our seats were only 10 rows from the front stage. We were sitting directly underneath the chandelier; everyone sitting around us was muttering in concern about it falling. The chandelier itself weighs 1 ton and is made up of thousands of hand-strung crystals. The chandelier plays a major visual part in the play when the story of the Opera House is retold. When the play first starts, the chandelier is in three parts. Needless to say, the visual effects were astonishing and the three chandeliers move around the theatre and finally become one very large chandelier.

This show has an orchestra of 19 that sits in front of the stage in a pit, and they did a beautiful job with the music from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production of the Phantom of the Opera. The stage scenery was well transitioned from scene to scene, there was enough variety to keep the play interesting, and the scenes changes didn’t seem to distract the audience, either. The actors who performed in this were truly magnificent. Between the singing, dancing, and acting, I thought certainly somebody would either fall or be off queue, but I was wrong luckily and everything was perfect. I guess when the Venetian decided to build a 40 million dollar theatre for this play, they wouldn’t expect anything less than spectacular, and that's exactly how I felt about my evening at The Phantom.

The Grand Canal Shops are located inside of the Venetian Hotel. They are the main shopping destination within this hotel and one of the larger shopping centers on the Vegas Strip. This is a must see destination on any Vegas Vacation. The floor is a stamped concrete made to look like cobblestone pathways like those in Venice. The ceiling is painted to give the impression that it’s the sky and there are Canals that run through the middle of this elaborate shopping center. There are authentic gondola’s that you can take a relaxing ride in for an admission fee. The storefronts are designed to look like buildings in Venice and the Saint Marks Lion is displayed in several areas throughout the mall.

Within this mall you will find; designer shops, singing gondoliers, talented actors and singers who perform daily within the Grand Canal shops and elegant restaurants that have patio seating that allow you to feel as if you were sitting in the middle of Saint Marks Square.

There are so many incredible shops to see within this mall. It’s amazing to think that the Venetian is in the process of expanding this mall since it is of significant size already. My favorite part of visiting the Grand Canal Shops is standing up on one of the many quaint bridges and watching the gondola’s glide by in the blue watered canals. It is amazing how everything is organized so well within this Venetian themed community.

The Grand Canal Shops are a great place to go if you are looking for an inspiring setting to take pictures at or just need an elegant setting to relax in while taking in a meal. Even if you don’t like shopping while you’re on vacation, I would recommend visiting the Grand Canal Shops because they are truly a work of art.