First, Vdara. On opening week there was a coffee kiosk sorta in the lobby. If you were walking from the elevator to Silk Road, just before you get to Silk, the bar entrance is on the right. The coffee kiosk I saw would have been on the left, just before the long hallway to Bellagio.

OTOH, there are great options nearby. The guy that has that neat chocolate fountain at Bellagio has that huge pastry shop in Aria. But there is a really neat pastry shop if you walk out of Mandarin and turn right. The main entrance to the place is on LV Blvd, but there is back entrance facing Mandarin. This place has fancy chocolates and ice cream too.

One question about Vdara, did you get the feeling that your room was designed as a studio apartment? (because it was)

I'm not surprised that Viva Elvis didn't impress you all that much. I am glad that you recognized the talent of the dancers and musicians.

The jailhouse rock stage set is supposed to have almost the whole cast in black and white stripes swinging on bars, sliding on rails, and there are rollers and special effects tricks built into it. I wonder if someone got injured and they had to stop using it. That was a pretty solid act and I hope that isn't a Cirque change to not have it like it was.

When his brother died, I thought about it several times and wondered if Elvis fell back to earth and the angel went up, or exactly which way it was "supposed" to mean.

Burning lassos? The took a bad act and added fire?

Thanks for the report, and the picture.

Will - thanks for the review of Vdara and Viva Elvis. How nice that you got a room on the 45th floor - the view must have been spectacular!

I have a friend who saw Viva Elvis and I specfically remember him mentioning being impressed with the Jailhouse Rock number. He said there were 2 or 3 levels of jail cells with people dancing all around it, some of them even hanging upside down. He said the number was a lot of fun. Maybe they were having technical difficulties at the performance you caught?

Maybe it's in another post that I haven't gotten to yet but I'm curious as to where you dined and how you liked it.

Thanks, Mike! Yes, I figured that that well known 3 level jail set was having tech difficulties and also felt that the performer with the flashlight must have felt pretty embarrassed running around that unlit stage. I think they they even sent out a couple of the jailed dancers to help him out but it simply looked like an unplanned, unrehearsed fiasco.

We had dinner immediately following the show at SAGE which was good but quite expensive. I We started with individual Baby Leaf Salads at $11 each on a very small salad plate with some non-descriptive dressing. Sue had 6 scallops arranged in a circle and placed over some gravy (she loved it) and I had a boneless spare rib bowl with two tiny white potatoes with a small hile in the center filled with butter or cheese, with some tastey spinach under the meat.

I don't recall the prices but each was about $36 - $42 a plate.

Wine by the glass was $11 - $14 at our table and desert ($12?) was a very small slice of carrot cake with a teaspoon sized drollop of ice cream and some sort of chocolate cream on the side.

It all tasted good but the portions were small and expensive.

I forget the chef's name but in my humble opinion - all chef's are extremely over-rated.

The service was exceptionally good and one guest asked me why they liked us so much. The chef kept sending us small samples of the other stuff he was preparing in the kitchen. That was a nice touch.


Sage is located in the Aria towards the rear of the check in area.

The room at 9:00 pm was approximately 1/2 full which was a big surprise as all the restaurants I saw over that three day stay were 98% empty. And that includes the buffet.

Mike, I did post a photo of the view from the 45th floor. Will post more soon.

Thanks, JMT! No coffee kiosk in the lobby this past week. I have a feeling that the hotel just might have agreed to let Silk Road provide all food and beverages within the hotel on an exclusive basis and SR objected about that lobby coffee service,

In fact, even if you wanted a soft drink you'd have to buy it at the bar or Silk Road or from the refrigerated drinks in the room.

The entire time we were at the Vadara, we never saw more than three people in Silk Road and most of that time it was completely empty. And no one was ever seen in the SR bar at all.

Ditto for the Vdara lobby bar except that that bar had about ten customers one evening as part of some small convention group.

YES! The Vdara room was definitely a studio apartment, but they sort of divided it into two area by separating the bed area from the couch area with a big brown partition separating both areas.

That partition had a decent sized flat screen TV on both sides - one facing a couch and the other faceing the bed.

Upon entering the hotel room you find yourself in a small kitchen with a sink, a two space built in hot plate, a tiny refrigerator (double six pack size) and a small table for three.

I would guess a total of 550 square feet. Not bad for a hotel room though but not large enough to live and die there

I didn't have a $6.50 cupcake at the fancy choclate place in the Aria but I almost ordered the fancy $11 desert crape. And we did walk past the shop on LV Blvd below the Mandarin but never did stop to take a look.

I have heard from reliable sources that there are going to be some major changes to Elvis. I bet that they even reconsider their Elvis impersonator stance,

Without some sort of real live "Elvis" it will remain a flop in my humble opinion.

And come to think of it - Elvis never was a circus act.

I think they will re-think the entire production.

But if they continue with what they got, it'll only prove that Elvis was the biggest entertainment draw of all time. Even when he's bad - it's good!

What's next?? Michael Jackson!!!!?

JMT - Elvis moved to the top part of that huge guitar and stood tall. It was his twin brother who fell into the cloud/smoke below.