Las Vegas for my 23rd Birthday….

by Kayla · Published July 23, 2019 · Updated June 7, 2023

Please feel free to click on the photos to see them better, but you will need to use your back button to return to page. 🙂 All photos are taken with cell phone..

Las Vegas, Nevada….

So for my 23^rd Birthday this year mom decided to take me to Las Vegas to see the Bellagio Fountains especially since our plan of stopping to see them on our way home last time we came through Las Vegas didn’t work out – thank goodness.

The morning of my birthday was kind of rough, but once we got on the road it got better.

We didn’t run into too much traffic which was nice and we finally arrived at our hotel; Signature MGM around 3pm. I was so ready to get out of the car and my wheelchair. We got to our room and I was able to chill out on the bed until our luggage arrived and mom got us settled.

The only option for parking is valet and in order to use the luggage carts you have to hire a bellman. Pros and cons to both, but it is what it is.

Then it was time to head on out and find something to eat. We headed out and ended up at the Rainforest Café. It was non smoking – yay and getting to it was easy from our hotel via strolling and encountered very little smoke fumes. It was really warm at 108 degrees and quite breezy but since it’s a dry heat and not a humid heat it was very doable.

So mom knew I wanted something to eat with her so she ordered me a small bowl of marinara sauce which was really good and some Lemonade because water is boring. Mom got some shrimp spicy curry dish which was good but I couldn’t have any of it because it was too spicy for me. I ate so much of the marinara sauce and had a decent amount of Lemonade too. It was so good that I totally forgot they were going to do this, but they brought me a birthday cupcake and sung happy birthday to me. That was neat, but I was so full that I could hardly eat the cupcake. I had a couple of small bites of the frosting and mom had one bite but that was it. The restaurant was pretty cool – it was in a rainforest setting with lots of animals including Gorillas which we saw near. There was a sky with lots of stars. At times it would get dark with neat lights that would come on and noises as if you were in the rainforest.

Afterward, we went back to the hotel which I got to check out the pool area. I got so excited as we approached the gate as if I knew where we were going mom felt bad she wasn’t taking me swimming then. We then walked around some more and went back to our room to chill out until we headed out for the fountains.

Just before dark we headed out for the Bellagio Fountains. Lots of people out but not bad. For mom to say that that means it wasn’t all that bad. Some smoke fumes but again, not bad, not as bad as mom was expecting from what she heard.

We got there and mom was disappointed in the railing height because it was at my eye level and hard for me to see over. But mom tried to position me the best she could to give me the best chance to see them. We were not at a great spot for the first show so after it we moved further down for a better spot for the fountains to see, however, still not great for me. Then we moved even further down for the third show as we realized it was even better (fountains) further down, but in-between shows we did a little more sightseeing from that area like the Paris Eiffel Tower. It was dark by then and the lights were on everywhere. The Eiffel Tower at one point was red, white and blue. It was pretty cool. Mom was hoping it would do it again but we never did see it again. The fountain show was pretty cool according to mom and mom hopes I saw at least some of it, but the music was nice.

Here is a short video clip of the Bellagio Fountains.. I tried to upload a full clip that is a really cool show of the fountains with the music from Celine Dion from Titanic. It’s beautiful, but my blog won’t accept it. I will try to upload it elsewhere and put a link to it, but here is a shorter clip of one of the ones we watched.

After that we headed back to our hotel as I was pretty tired. Mom too. We had a long stroll back so we got to see more and lots of lights. Still lots of people and more smoke fumes a tad worse but still not as bad as we expected. Yes, a big concern was the smoke fumes which is why we choose the Signature MGM as it’s a non smoking property and has a quieter pool area than the other resorts.

The next morning was pool day.. We got dressed to head out for a stroll to do some site seeing, but first checked in to the pool area to get our lounge chairs that we wanted before the crowds came (or at least that is what mom was told). So we did. Such nice people.

We headed out towards NYNY via MGM Grand.

While walking through the MGM Grand you have to go through the casino and mom realized that there were very little smoke fumes so she decided to let me play the penny slot machines in the “cleaner air” areas. We ran into a lady, the only lady working the floor there who was so nice. She kept trying to get us to go to this one slot machine but it was next to a smoker so we didn’t. I have a feeling it was a winning machine but guess what, the one machine mom found me I won on too. I walked away with $11.00. It really was a great machine and I loved playing! The lady gave me a pin to wear for my birthday.

You will see how I keep winning in this video.. 🙂

After that excitement, we continued on our way to NYNY. We decided to just cross the bridge and turn around to head back to the Signature MGM to go swimming. We took a few pics (well mom did of me) from the bridge area and enjoyed our stroll back.

We changed and got ready to go to the pool – YAY, finally time to go to the pool.

I went swimming so many times while we were at the pool and I laid out around the pool with Cubby in her own lounge chair next to me. I loved it! I took little naps in-between my swims and a long one afterward back up in our room. I also practiced head control in the pool and I can still hold my head up very well like I always have.

I was so tired but after my nap, I was wide awake and full of energy ready to hit the strip for a short stroll. We took the monorail from MGM to Flamingo hotel, got off to go sightseeing.

Mom really wanted to see Ceasars Palace. Saw some of the outside areas and only went into the lobby because you could really smell the smoke so we didn’t go any further and headed back out.

We strolled all the way to Treasure Island / The Venetian hotel before making our way back to the monorail. It would have been cool to be there after dark when the Volcano erupts at the Mirage but I wasn’t going to last that long.

On our way back to our room we stopped at the Yogurt place in MGM Grand for some desert. I loved it. It was a little difficult for me to handle, but I tried and enjoyed what I could.

Our hotel room didn’t have the channels I like (just what are they thinking) but guess what???? America’s Got Talent Show was on and I love that show. I missed the first few minutes but I really enjoyed watching it before going to bed. Mom even let me stay up late to watch all of it. It was actually a really cool episode because it was a recap of the best talents they had seen. I loved it!

The next morning I was eager to get up. It was our last morning / day there so. We got dressed and headed out but this time to the Mandalay Bay Resort to see Sharks Reef. We got to catch a monorail from Excalibur Hotel to Mandalay Bay which was really cool.

The Excalibur is right next to NYNY so this morning I got to walk through some of NYNY to get to the bridge that goes over to Excalibur.

And guess what??? Mom let me play the slot machines again in Mandalay Bay Resort because again it was not fumy in some areas and I won even more money. I won $19. I think I need to go on my birthday for now on. I really enjoy playing them – so engaged!

The Mandalay Bay Resort was nice but kind of a strange hotel. In some walking areas there was like really strong wind like fans on that wasn’t very good for me. It was strange how strong they were. We finally arrived at the Shark Reefs and went through it.

I wasn’t all that thrilled about it and once we were done going through it I perked up and was ready for something more exciting! On our way back through Mandalay Bay resort mom let me play the slot machine for a few minutes and I won some more..So FUN!

We caught the monorail again from Mandalay Resort back to Excalibur and strolled back through NYNY to take the bridge back over to MGM Grand to get back to our hotel so we could start our journey back home.