Casino Reviews

There is a tram that runs from the Montecarlo casino to the city center Aria casino and then on to the Bellagio casino. This Tram from Montecarlo shown in the pictures is fully automated , very clean and safe and is air conditioned. It can be a bit of a walk to get to the stations, but it is much faster and comfortable than walking along the strip! In most cases you need to walk through the casino to the back of the hotel to catch the tram. We snapped these pictures while waiting at the Bellagio hotel station. In nice weather, walking the strip is fine. However when it gets really hot in Vegas during the summer, take the tram!

Regardless of were you are staying in Vegas, you are going to be doing a lot of walking. The Tram from Montecarlo and the Bellagio is a good way to get from one place to another. However you still have a long walk from the Vegas strip to the tram loading station. We have always wondered why they make you walk a lot like this. We think there are really two reasons. One is that the casinos are really large, much larger than what many people expect and you just have to walk a long way to get through them.

The other reason is that they want you to walk through the casino on your way to your room. The restaurants, the shows and of course the Tram are on the way. There is a good chance that you might drop a $20 in a slot machine or even more. The casinos will use everything they can to get people to do a little gambling. Once you start, it is difficult to stop and that is what they are counting on.

The Bellagio casino and hotel always have some of the best flower arrangements and designs in the world. Visitors can spend hours admiring the Bellagio garden and still not take it all in. This is also a great place to have your picture taken with your friends and loved ones.  The Bellagio garden is located just off the main lobby of the hotel. It is a very popular place for many people to enjoy. There is always the latest scenery that has been created by the artists. Many hours are spent building these beautiful arrangements and maintaining these beautiful flowers. As the flowers fade, more are brought in to replace them.

Bellagio Garden – Las Vegas

The garden is constantly updated to reflect the season or the celebration of the year. At thanksgiving for example there will be a horn of plenty, while at Easter there will be a theme that is interesting to this religious time of the year. All of the flowers are real and in pots. They are kept fresh daily and watered to maintain their optimum beauty and freshness. There is a team of people who are constantly trimming flowers, updating and replacing the flowers to keep everything at maximum beauty.

Sometimes this area is so busy it can actually be difficult to get the picture that you want. We find the best time is early afternoon, and early morning as well before the crowds start. Most people stroll through admiring the flowers and the overall design and then head on to their rooms or to the casino. This is one of the free things you can do in Las Vegas and it is one of the must-see things to do while you are staying in Las Vegas!

While you are in the Bellagio, take a minute to stroll across the valet parking to the fountain on the other side. Here you will have a birds-eye view of Bellagio lake and the fountains that operate. They are choreographed with music and play every 20 minutes or so.

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This picture is not the greatest, since it was taken from the 17th floor of the Aquarius Casino Laughlin in Laughlin, Nevada. The reflection through the window is a bit bothersome. But you can see the Colorado River and Bullhead, Arizona on the other side.

Bullhead is actually is in a different timezone from Nevada, mountain time! If you are visiting or living on the other side of the river, one must keep track of what time it is and take note of the one hour time difference across the river.

We have been to the Aquarius many times and always have fun and great food. The Aquarius is starting to spend some money on updates to its casino, and hotel. These updates are needed since the hotel was in danger of becoming tired looking. For example the old Starbucks is now closed. The area has been reopened as a coffee shop under the Aquarius name. Note, you can still obtain free WiFi at the coffee shop. This makes it a very popular spot for many people who wish to check their email or check on air schedules at the airport.

Aquarius Casino Laughlin – First Time

If you are visiting the Aquarius for the first time, take advantage of the boardwalk along the river. Meander along the river from casino to casino. This is a nice way to spend an hour or so taking in the river and the fresh clean air. You can go into any of the casinos. However in our opinion the Aquarius is the best of them all in terms of cleanliness and fresh air. Many of them have low ceilings and not enough air movement to get rid of the cigarette smoke that seems to hang around.

The buffet at the Aquarius is also something to visit and enjoy. You get the standard buffet for the price that you pay plus wine or beer with your meal. On the weekends, they have a seafood buffet. They have the best crab legs we have seen at many other locations. Try to get a seat down by the window where you can look out on to the boardwalk and also observe people as they walk past. They can see you as well, so if you wish a little more privacy while you enjoy your meal, you may not want to sit right beside the window.

We ate at the Outback restaurant at Aquarius casino hotel in Laughlin Nevada tonight and enjoyed the meal very much. We sat in the bar area at a booth rather than wait in line for a table.  It measured up to other Outback restaurants we have been to in Canada and other parts of the US. The Aquarius Casino and hotel are in Laughlin Nevada. It is situated along the Colorado River along with about 8 or 9 other hotels in the area.

The restaurant is inside the hotel and does not have outdoor access. We found it to be quite dark and not endearing to us. The service was ok, although one of the servers lost a plate and it went screaming to the floor with a lot of food etc spattered all over the place. this was a bit of excitement we could have done without. These things happen, however, it was just one more thing that we think will persuade us to not go back to this particular restaurant.

Outback Restaurant at Aquarius Casino vs. Texas Roadhouse

However, when we compare it to a Texas Roadhouse or Logan’s roadhouse, we found it somewhat lacking. We have been to these restaurants as well in many places and have come to enjoy them very much for their atmosphere, their food, and of course their happy hour drinks and specials. A Texas Roadhouse is at the top of our list in terms of places to go for pubs and eateries of this particular class.

We found that portion size, tenderness of the meat, size of the baked potato, no salad all for a price that is more expensive than either of the other places mentioned just did not cut it for us. Of course, we are in a Casino, so the prices tend to be a bit higher, however, most casinos go out of their way to make sure that the portion size of the meal is way beyond what you really need to have. These portion sizes were actually quite small and not really appetizing at all. The baked potato was suitable for one person for example and not really shareable. A baked potato at a Texas Roadhouse for example would be twice the size and very sharable.

We probably will not go back to this particular restaurant chain, preferring to go to other places that provide better value. We will definitely not be going back to the Outback Steakhouse at the Aquarius and instead will go to some of the other restaurants at this hotel and other casinos along the Colorado River in Laughlin.

Starbucks at the Aquarius hotel and casino in Laughlin is now closed as of March 2013. It was replaced with a new coffee shop run by the hotel which will be opened in a few months.

They still have Subway and now also a McDonald’s restaurant. McDonald’s does not have wi-fi. However, the hotel has replaced the Starbucks wi-fi with a guest wi-fi service for people to use. The McDonald’s is pretty nice as these restaurants go and are a great place to meet. They offer the traditional free refills of coffee, which we enjoy a lot. They have a limit of two refills per customer.

Aquarius WiFi

I am using free WiFi now to prepare this post. During construction it has been intermittent, however, once the construction is finished, hopefully, it will be better. The new restaurant or coffee shop will be ready in a few months.

There is no guarantee that they will keep the free WiFi going, however many clients of the hotel have come to depend on it and use it to stay in touch with their friends and families, make reservations and update blogs as I am doing. Since we wrote this post, they opened the new Duet coffee shop, and the WiFi is operating as it was when Starbucks was in operation.

The Aquarius appears to be on a general upgrade program that is slowly improving their property. They have been changing a few machines and expanding the nonsmoking areas, which is a huge improvement as far as we are concerned.They still have the great buffet as well as the ala carte restaurant, however in our opining this could use some improvement. It is a little depressing to eat in this particular restaurant.

I cannot wait to see what they do next.