Macau's Finest: Hotels and Casinos

     After exploring the "outdoors" of Macau, it's now time to explore its "indoors". And what we mean about "indoors" is experiencing Macau's finest hotels and casinos.

     Macau is known for its casinos -- 33 in all, and rakes in hog-rollers! As what was previously mentioned in our blog, we had our first casino experience in Macau and if not for the Oceanus' promo, we may not have experienced it at all.. Haha! :) 'Twas a lot of fun winning some HKD's hihi! Beginners' luck maybe? =p

City of Dreams -- Let's get lucky! :)

     
     After our trip to Ruins of St. Paul, we boarded a free shuttle service to the City of Dreams. It is divided into four towers: namely the Hard Rock Hotel, Crown Towers Hotel, and the Grand Hyatt Macau (2 towers).

 At the Hard Rock Hotel ^_^

     This casino is equipped with 550 gaming tables and 1500 machines occupying a 420,000 square feet of game space. That was huge! We saw this projection panel called the Vquarium which showed larger-than-life mermaids swimming on screen.

 Marlie with Dream girls :)

     Our main goal here is to witness the Bubble Show, one of City of Dream's signature attractions. Entrance for this attraction is free and combines a 360 degree 3D audio, theatrical lighting both in the venue and in the screen, show action scenic components, a state of the art water curtain, special effects, and CG animated media.

 Art water curtain

     We were taken into a  journey of a supernatural realm of the four Dragon Kings with each dragon enjoying a moment of boundless power with the Jade Emperor's mighty Pearl of Wisdom. We were amazed as we saw the whole show on a 360 degree dome screen.

One of the four dragon kings

     After the show, Ate Lyn told us about The House of Dancing Waters, tagged as Macau's most expensive show. We would love to see this show, but time did not permit us since the show lasted for about an hour and a half. It would have been great to see a show which will incorporate various design elements such as fire, water, and atmospheric effects. Maybe on our  next Macau trip! :)

 By the water globe

     We enjoyed the free Bubble show and hoped that we could someday watch the HK$2 Billion production: The Dancing Water!

     Just across the City of Dreams is the Venetian Macao, the largest single structure hotel building in Asia and the fifth-largest building in the world by area. As compared to City of Dreams, Venetian Macao houses 3400 slot machines and 800 gambling tables.

 The Venetian's facade

     
     At the entrance of the Venetian Macao, we were greeted by gold sculptures, hallways and columns! What a grand sight! :)

Kingdom of Gold :)

     Then we passed through a tunnel-like passage. Voila! We were transported to Venice!

Venetian bridge

Venetian architecture

     And now, its time for the highlight of our Macau trip, the Gondola Ride. We bought our tickets for 108 MOP each. Worth it for this one-of-a-kind ride/ experience! :)

 Gondola rules

 Waiting for our gondolier

     The gondola ride was dreamy! Camilla, our kababayan gondolier, had such a sweet voice and serenaded us with an Italian song called Santa Lucia.

 Ciao! =)

 With Camilla

     

Then she sang a nice version of "Ikaw" for us.

Ikaw ang bigay ng Maykapal
Tugon sa aking dasal
Upang sa lahat ng panahon
Bawat pagkakataon
Ang ibigin ko'y ikaw

Being serenaded c:

Sweeeet ride!

     While riding the gondola, many were watching. We felt like artists. Hehe! After the gondola ride, we still had time so we walked around some more. We met some entertainers who just performed and took pictures with them.

     Our Venetian experience was awesome! Just wished we had more time and not have to rush. We'd surely love to go back! It's the closest we could get to the romantic city of Venice at this time. Hehe! =p

Ciao Venice!

     Next hotel: Wynn Macau. We rode a free shuttle to Wynn that took about 10 minutes. According to Ate Lyn, Wynn's signature attractions include The Golden Tree of Prosperity and the Dancing Fountain. Their casino had 212 table games and 375 slot machines. 

Welcome to Wynn!

     Golden Tree of Prosperity first. Waited to start. It did but sadly, it bogged down. :(

Golden ceiling of zodiacs

    The show should have started when a 20-meter wide ceiling iris, with the Chinese horoscope sculpted on it, opens to reveal an LED display of abstract video. It then shifts to the ground floor where a copper dome, with the Western horoscope sculpted on it, opens and a 20-meter tall golden tree rises from a vault below the floor. The magical tree rotates to the music until the show ends and all the mechanical elements return to their home positions.

 By the Dancing Fountain

     We were a bit disappointed that we were not able to witness the show.  But at least we have something to look forward to next time. We then decided to go outside to watch the fountain show that  features a beautiful combination of sound, lights, bursts of fire and water pyrotechnics. The show is roughly 10-15 minutes long.

 Dancing water

 Booom!

     It was so cold when we were watching the dancing fountain -- 'twas windy and drizzling! We had great fun though and thought that the show was spectacular! :) 

     Just across Wynn is the Grand Lisboa, the last attraction in our Macau itinerary. Awww! :( The casino offers 268 mass gaming tables and 786 slot machines. It's the first casino in Macau to offer Texas hold' em poker ring games.

Lights of Grand Lisboa

     
     The Star of Stanley Ho is on permanent display at the Casino Grand Lisboa. According to the Gemological Institute of America, the 218.08 carats (43.62 g) diamond is the largest cushion shaped internally flawless D-color diamond in the world. 

     Since it was getting late, we weren't able to look around much. We had to get back to the ferry terminal by 9pm. But we were able to register and become members. =D

Bye Macau! Till we meet again =p

     We then headed to the Information desk, asked for shuttle tickets and boarded their bus going to the ferry  terminal.

     One day is not enough for Macau! But it was  great trip nonetheless, especially for our 47th monthsary! We couldn't have asked for more! We were able to do the things we planned to do and more thanks to Ate Lyn and Ate Jo. It was surely an unforgettable monthsary date! We feel so blessed to have experienced all these! <3