Bellagio

Efteling plans to unveil a $24-million nighttime spectacular this year that features water fountains, flame-throwers, synchronized spotlights and symphonic music set to fairy tale stories drawn from the Dutch theme park's signature attractions. Aquanura, which will be the third largest water show in the world, is scheduled to open on May 31 as part of the Netherlands theme park's 60th anniversary celebration. PHOTOS: Aquanura water show at the Netherlands' Efteling theme park The water show will be built by Los Angeles-based Water Entertainment Technologies (WET)

Amateur cooks are invited to don their chef's aprons and prepare three-course meals during a series of culinary classrooms throughout the year at Bellagio in Las Vegas . Executive chef Edmund Wong will conduct the lessons inside the resort's Tuscany Kitchen. Once a month, beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesdays, a maximum of 15 participants will gather at individual work stations prepped with the ingredients and tools needed to create an appetizer, entree and dessert. Members of Wong's team will circulate through the kitchen to provide hands-on assistance as he prepares the dishes.

MGM Resorts properties along the Las Vegas Strip are rolling out free  Wi-Fi service throughout the low-rise public spaces of the resorts, from casinos to pools to restaurants. Once the system is fully implemented, you will not need to get up from a slot machine or a blackjack table to check emails. The technology is being installed in stages. It's already up and running at Bellagio , MGM Grand , Mandalay Bay and the Mirage. Service will be available later this year at Excalibur , Luxor , Monte Carlo and New York-New York . The new service, catering to what's being called the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)

Just in time for the arrival of spring, the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens at Bellagio are trotting out enough flowers to bring warmth even to those for whom winter weather is still a reality. Through May 11, the conservatory will feature rotating displays, with nearly 8,300 plants in bloom at any one time. To add touches of whimsy, for which the gardens are famous, 17-foot-tall tulips and 22-foot-tall daffodils help herald the new season. Keeping in mind that spring's the time when butterflies emerge from their cocoons, more than 800 of the winged creatures will flutter inside a purpose-built greenhouse.

Ithappens. We have a blast spending money in the shops, restaurants and casinos (oh yes, the casinos) only to realize that our travel budget is shot. Sure, you can pull out the plastic, but in Vegas, you don't have to. In fact, Sin City is teeming with free stuff to do and see after you've played that last chip. FOUNTAINS OF THE BELLAGIO Grab a bench to view this stellar choreographed water show - consisting of more than 1,200 dancing fountains and a spectacular sound system - at the Bellagio.

Just in time for the arrival of spring, the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens at Bellagio are trotting out enough flowers to bring warmth even to those for whom winter weather is still a reality. Through May 11, the conservatory will feature rotating displays, with nearly 8,300 plants in bloom at any one time. To add touches of whimsy, for which the gardens are famous, 17-foot-tall tulips and 22-foot-tall daffodils help herald the new season. Keeping in mind that spring's the time when butterflies emerge from their cocoons, more than 800 of the winged creatures will flutter inside a purpose-built greenhouse.

After a nearly 40-year absence from restaurant wine lists, California's Inglenook label is poised for a comeback and plans to proclaim it at a wine-and-food pairing in Las Vegas . The Jan. 26  event, the first of Bellagio 's 2013 Epicurean Epicenter series , will be hosted by the celebrity team of Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten , whose worldwide holdings include steakhouses at Bellagio and Aria, and Hollywood director Francis Ford...

A visit to the Conservatory at Bellagio is a holiday tradition for many Vegas visitors. The centerpiece this year, on display through Jan. 5, is a 45-foot-tall Shasta fir, the largest holiday tree ever displayed at the resort. It's decorated with 2,500 ornaments and 7,000 twinkling lights. Four large toy soldiers are on sentry duty at the tree's base. Nearby, 11 faux penguins frolic in the snow and skate around a frozen pond. There's a colorful gazebo where, from 4 to 5 p.m. Dec. 17-25, carolers will help put guests in a festive mood.

Once a delicacy enjoyed only by royalty, caviar for the masses has arrived at the Buffet at Bellagio in Las Vegas . Like other food items, the costly fish eggs will be offered on an all-you-can-eat basis. On Friday and Saturday evenings, during what's billed as Gourmet Dinner Service, the buffet is upping the ante by adding Ikura and tobiko caviars to the menu. Ikura comes from the roe of salmon; tobiko is made from a flying fish of the same name. [For The Record, 8:20 p.m., Feb. 21: An earlier version of this post said the caviar buffet was offered Fridays and Sundays.

The man suspected of robbing the Bellagio casino of $1.5 million in gambling chips and later selling some to an undercover police officer will stand trial on multiple felony counts, a Las Vegas justice of the peace ruled Friday. Anthony Carleo, 29, is accused of being the helmet-wearing "Biker Bandit" who stormed into the casino in December, brandished a gun, demanded chips from a craps dealer and zoomed off on a black motorcycle. In the weeks that followed, authorities said, Carleo returned to the Bellagio and gambled away so much money that the casino, as it typically does with high-rollers, gave him a free hotel room.

For the first time in Cirque du Soleil history, all seven of its Las Vegas productions will be dark on March 22, as cast and crew members stage a benefit performance titled “One Night for One Drop.” The one-off production, to be staged in the “O” Theater at Bellagio , will feature more than 200 Cirque performers as well as special guests, including youthful singing sensation Jackie Evancho . The proceeds will benefit ...

LAS VEGAS -- Joyce Rhone didn't see the attack coming -- and certainly not at a blackjack table at the vaunted Bellagio Hotel and Casino, her attorney said. But in a scene that shocked onlookers, fellow Bellagio employee Brenda Stokes is accused of attempted murder in a box-cutter attack on Rhone. Stokes allegedly used two razors and repeatedly slashed the victim's face with cuts so deep to her cheek that they revealed Rhone's teeth. Now a lawyer representing Rhone in the December attack has filed a civil lawsuit against the Bellagio, claiming that the casino's security force failed to ensure "that its property was reasonably safe and to render aid to" Rhone.

Once a delicacy enjoyed only by royalty, caviar for the masses has arrived at the Buffet at Bellagio in Las Vegas . Like other food items, the costly fish eggs will be offered on an all-you-can-eat basis. On Friday and Saturday evenings, during what's billed as Gourmet Dinner Service, the buffet is upping the ante by adding Ikura and tobiko caviars to the menu. Ikura comes from the roe of salmon; tobiko is made from a flying fish of the same name. [For The Record, 8:20 p.m., Feb. 21: An earlier version of this post said the caviar buffet was offered Fridays and Sundays.

Word is out that financier Gary Winnick is quietly floating his storied estate in Bel-Air for sale at $225 million. Winnick, who founded and later sold Global Crossing, bought the Bellagio Road mansion in 2000 from Dole Food Co. owner David Murdock. The $94-million deal, which involved the telecom mogul ponying up a parcel of land, stood as the highest-priced home sale in California for years. Although a seller can ask any amount for a property, the 8.4-acre trophy home is for sale at the right price, said a person familiar with Winnick's real estate dealings who wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

SAN DIEGO - She married a fabulously wealthy man decades her elder, and became the first female mayor of San Diego. But when Maureen O'Connor left public life, she spent countless hours seated in front of video-poker machines. Over a nine-year period, she wagered an estimated $1 billion, including millions from a charity set up by her late husband, who founded Jack in the Box. That was the portrait that emerged in court Thursday as the frail former mayor tearfully acknowledged she skimmed more than $2 million from a charity founded by her late husband, Robert O. Peterson.

Las Vegas will celebrate the Chinese New Year next month, replete with dragon dances, firecrackers, fabulous food and stunning floral displays  along the Strip and in downtown Las Vegas. The fun gets underway at the Fremont Street Experience at 6 p.m. on Feb. 8. Dragon dancers will perform as virtual firecrackers explode on the Viva Vision canopy overhead. Through Feb. 10, the pedestrian mall will be alive with cultural performances and vendors selling Asian food. At 3:30 p.m. Feb. 9, a dragon dance will wind its way through the Venetian . The performers will eventually make their way to the resort's Waterfall Atrium, which is already bedecked in a colorful display featuring “Sophie Chow,” an animated, 98-foot-long blue snake that welcomes the arrival of the Year of the Snake.

Anthony Carleo needed to ditch some "cranberries. " Fast. And this week, authorities said, he found an eager buyer. The man agreed to meet Carleo at the lavish Bellagio casino, where in early December a gunman had swiped $1.5 million in casino chips, including $25,000 chips known as cranberries, and sped off on a motorcycle. Las Vegas police say Carleo sold the man a $25,000 Bellagio chip that Carleo said had been stolen. The next night, court papers said, Carleo sold the man four more.

In the wee hours Tuesday, a man on a motorcycle pulled up to the Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas, ambled over to a craps table, and just a few minutes later left with $1.5 million worth of chips. Luck had nothing to do with his windfall. But it was certainly a gamble, and Las Vegas police are now in pursuit of him for armed robbery. About 3:50 a.m., the man sped away from the casino on his motorcycle, toting chips ranging in denomination from $100 to $25,000. Police said he wore a motorcycle helmet and carried a handgun.

After a nearly 40-year absence from restaurant wine lists, California's Inglenook label is poised for a comeback and plans to proclaim it at a wine-and-food pairing in Las Vegas . The Jan. 26  event, the first of Bellagio 's 2013 Epicurean Epicenter series , will be hosted by the celebrity team of Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten , whose worldwide holdings include steakhouses at Bellagio and Aria, and Hollywood director Francis Ford...

MGM Resorts properties along the Las Vegas Strip are rolling out free  Wi-Fi service throughout the low-rise public spaces of the resorts, from casinos to pools to restaurants. Once the system is fully implemented, you will not need to get up from a slot machine or a blackjack table to check emails. The technology is being installed in stages. It's already up and running at Bellagio , MGM Grand , Mandalay Bay and the Mirage. Service will be available later this year at Excalibur , Luxor , Monte Carlo and New York-New York . The new service, catering to what's being called the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)