Vegas Trip 2026: Day 1 – Planet Hollywood
We were off to Vegas to watch the Backstreet Boys perform at The Sphere. For those who are not Millennials, Elder Millennials, or Zennials; they were the quintessential Boy Band of the 90’s. The New Kids on the Block brought the trend, they perfected it with boy band tropes, coordinated dance moves, and sultry smouldering eye contact.
This brings us to the concert in question. My friend Roanna of @foodiegramca fame wanted to go, but didn’t have anyone to go with. I grew up with the band, and did fandom for them, but that intensity has since waned. Although I did like the idea of having this memorable concert be my first ever experience at The Sphere.
So once we shook hands and dedicated ourselves to the endeavour, we purchased our “larger than life” package. This was much more than I planned on spending and included air fare, accommodations, concert tickets, and hidden resort fees for two, at $3,400.
Our flight was earlier in the morning on Tuesday February 10th, departing at 9:30am. However for international flights the advice is to still arrive three hours before. Although with online check-in and the need to upload photos of our passports, we bypassed the regular check-in line and went straight to the security scans followed by border officer clearance. Upon hearing where we were going and why, we were easily ushered through. It turns out many women, including ourselves, were on the same flight for the same reasons.
Our WestJet flight was 2.5 hours long with no time zone changes. There were no television screens on the back of seats, but we did get a complimentary beverage and either pretzels or cookies as a snack. I was clever enough to make and pack my own egg, spam, and cheese breakfast bagel for the flight there. Otherwise it was sleeping and writing this blog post.
Our first hotel of the trip was Planet Hollywood in the heart of the Vegas Strip. We had chose it for its proximity to The Sphere and the belief that we would be able to just walk to it from our hotel. We would later learn that that is not the case. Thankfully Uber and Lyft ride sharing isn’t too expensive, and necessary given the distance. Although still more than we bargained for with the exchange rate. It did save us $8 from airport to hotel even with the taxi’s flat rates.
We also looked into Zoox, Vegas’ free robotic ride share program, but being from out of the country, couldn’t download their app to hail one. The only work around was to visit their concierge desk located within Resorts World Casino. Here we would be able to take a ride with Zoox through their concierge service, without needing to download the mobile app. They hope to have the Zoox app available in non-US app stores soon.
Didn’t realize until our stay that Planet Hollywood is part of the Caesar’s Palace group, sharing wifi, room service concierge service; and branded bottles of complimentary shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in the walk-in shower. Our two queen bed room also came with a giant soaker tub, two vanities on opposite ends, and a private toilet with its own room within the washroom.
Our 7th floor suite was spacious for two, with plenty of surface area to place our objects on and seats to rest our feet on. There was a mini fridge, but no complimentary bottles of water, coffee machine to utilize, or snack bar purchase you can make in-room. You can call up for room service, but having the hotel surrounded by and being connected to a mall means there were plenty of food options to utilize.
Our view was of the hotel’s outdoor patio and pool. Thankfully it was closed during off season, otherwise this could have proved to be noisy for our adjacent room.
On our first day we were 3 hours too early for check in, so after leaving our bags with the bell hop we explored some of the neighbouring hotel properties. Our travel coincided with Lunar New Year so part of my itinerary included checking out some displays in celebration of my favourite holiday. Sadly there was little and underwhelming from what I had imagined.
The Bellagio was the most robust. Their entry way was lined with red and golden lanterns, giant pandas by literal golden money trees.
Past that the foyer and lobby is decorated with blossoms centred around a glittering horse, set under their ironic Chihuly glass ceiling.
However it is their botanical garden and conservatory that captures your attention with more giant pandas, gold dragons, Chinese characters, and a display of horses galloping before fireworks.
Here, I learned that koi fish eat grapefruit, as their pond had halves of the fruit bobbing in water.
Caesar’s Palace too had red and golden lanterns lining the exterior, but they leaned less into the theme in order to maintain the cohesion of their Grecian theme. Their Colosseum atrium did have a led lit red dragon though.
Here we paused for a snack. Roanna was excited to see Dominique Ansel’s Las Vegas location. This pastry chef is better known for his invention of the cronut and crossing muffins with a croissant. We passed on the above, but I did indulge in a cookie shot with milk made by a robot.
You order and pay via scanned code and a robotic arm grabs a shot glass made from chocolate chip cookie and fills it with a sweetened milk. This was fun to watch and a creative novelty and way to have cookies and milk.
We also popped into Paris, but there was nothing festive happening, not even for Valentine’s Day, so left shortly after.
We had dinner at the Cosmopolitan, which I remember fondly for having plenty of unique food offerings, including well decorated restaurants and a grab and go food court concept.
We ended up at China Poblano, which given the name, menu, and decor I figured was a Chinese-Mexican fusion restaurant. We sat down only to discover it was two stand alone concepts with their own kitchen on either ends of the restaurant. We both went for Chinese noodle, and both found things too salty, but that it is what it is so ate it up anyways.
Roanna got the Oxtail Noodle Soup, wanting something hot and comforting. This was slow braised oxtail, Chinese spices, thick wheat noodles, bok choy, and fried garlic.
I was intrigued by the write up for the Kao Lao Lao, its under $13 price point, and how it was boxed off on the menu. This was described as “classic oat noodles from the Shanxi region of China. Each noodle is hand rolled and delicately arranged in a honeycomb shape, then steamed and served with Tiger dipping sauce”. This comes with a bit of a show table-side as the noodles go from baby-sized steamer to plate, and are then poured over with their sauce. So salty that I thought of washing it in my glass of water. I at least squeezed them free of excess liquid, to eat one roll at a time. Not the least bit satisfying.
After our meal Roanna played a little slots at the Cosmopolitan’s casino. She bet $50 and went up and down a few times only to lose it in the long run. And thus ended Day 1 and we were back in our spacious hotel room for two.
Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort & Casino
3667 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, NV 89109, United States
+1 (866) 919-7472
caesars.com/planet-hollywood
