Fairfield Inn Las Vegas Review!

 

I always like sharing family friendly places that are affordable to stay when we travel, because if you are like us you want to get the most out of your trip budget. When looking for a hotel to stay at while traveling, I like to look for hotels with decent reviews that are clean, include breakfast and have other amenities like a pool or convenient parking along with being semi-close to what we are doing in that specific city. We recently took a family vacation to Las Vegas, Nevada and the hotel I ended up finding and booking for our stay was the Fairfield Inn at their south airport location. It wasn't too far away from most of the activities we wanted to visit, it included breakfast, had plenty of on property parking and looked like a nice hotel. There is more than one Fairfield Inn's in Las Vegas, we stayed at the "Airport South" location which is located at 355 E. Warm Springs Rd Las Vegas, NV 89119. 

I was happy with the choice of staying here, the location was convenient & quiet. After spending time on the strip or on Freemont Street you will probably want to get a quiet and good night's sleep, so this is just the spot away from the hustle & bustle of the busy part of Vegas while still being a short drive away from all of the fun. This hotel offered a small convenient store inside with items like frozen pizzas, ice cream and snacks if you didn't want to leave the hotel for something to snack on. There was also a bar, a gym, a pool area with grills you could use and a nice working front area where you could set up your laptop to work if you didn't want to be in your room. It is right next door to a gas station which only takes about two minutes to walk to if you want something the hotel does not offer or want something slightly cheaper than what they have in their little convenient store. 

Our hotel room was quite comfortable & offered the four of us plenty of space in our room. My mom & stepdad enjoyed their room as well which was directly across the hall from our room. Our room had a large bathroom, mini fridge, microwave, coffee pot plus a nice seating area along with the two queen sized beds. The A/C unit worked well and helped keep the room nice and chilly to escape the heat outside. Everything inside of the room was clean & felt welcoming. We didn't run into any issues with our stay & would stay here again. 

For breakfast they had a continental breakfast which included a nice assortment of options from fresh fruit to make your own waffles. They even had an oatmeal option with a bar set up with an assortment of toppings, you could also use the toppings on your waffles. They had a good amount of seating & you were able to take your food back to your room if you wished. Inside of the seating area was a small walk up stand that offered coffee along with hot water so you could use one of their tea packets or hot chocolate packets to make a drink. This small stand was available all day long & staff would periodically come out to swap out empty dispensers and bring out fresh coffee. If you are a family traveling together being able to book a hotel that includes breakfast can be a huge way to save money and cut back on your travel budget. If you are a family of four like us, even stopping at a fast-food place can be a little pricey depending on what you order it can be anywhere from $20-$40+ for breakfast so if we can find a hotel that is comparable in price to another that doesn't include free breakfast then why not book it? 

What kind of hotels do you like looking for when traveling?

🎲 I will be sharing some other family friendly spots around Las Vegas including other FREE things to do, so if you want to check them out keep an eye out for more posts or type in "Things to do in Las Vegas" in the search bar of my blog. I also have posts on some great places to check out in California & Arizona. 

Tom Devlin Monster Museum Review!

 

I am a big fan of horror movies, so when I found out we would be driving past where the Tom Devlin Monster Museum is in Boulder City, Nevada I knew I had to add it to our itinerary. When we were on our way back home from Las Vegas, we stopped into the monster museum to check it out. We were lucky when we arrived because we were able to be the only group visiting, it wasn't until the end of our stop that more people started to come into the museum. As soon as you arrive, you'll find a decorated hearse, the mystery machine & the Ecomobile along with spooky decor. 

Upon enter into the museum you will be in the gift shop which features a lot of awesome goodies to purchase including autographs from various celebrities & there is also a small arcade with horror themed games. Entrance into the museum is $20 per person & $10 per child. There are a lot of cool & awesome photo opportunities throughout the museum with a wide variety of your favorite horror characters. 

The museum is packed with a wide range of horror themed figures, props and more. Some of the work is by Tom Devlin himself & the rest is all from various special effects artists and movies. For the size of the building, I was actually surprised how much was packed into the self-guided tour. If you take your time to look at everything, read the information plaques and snap photos you'll be in the museum for an hour maybe a little longer. The lighting makes it a little dark & spooky which fits in with the atmosphere of the museum itself, I feel like regular lighting would ruin the whole thing. 

At the end of the museum is a theatre that will be showing different documentaries, or short films. When we were there, they were showing a video on two chairs that they built. One was for Alice Cooper & one was for Corey Taylor/Slipknot which we enjoyed watching because we are a fan of both. The seats were pretty comfortable, and it was a nice spot to escape the heat outside. They did a great job with the various displayed and even themed rooms, for example one of the rooms had a ton of different Jason figures and a spooky haunted woods feel. 

They had a lot of our favorite horror movie characters & it was fun learning about some new movies we've never seen as well. For us this was a fantastic spot to stop, we loved everything they had to offer. The gift shop has a lot of cool collectables as well from figures, to pins and even clothing. The bathroom was kind of neat too, the door is built to look like a coffin lid & the inside of the bathroom has a Shining theme. There are no jump scares in the museum & none of the figures move around so if you aren't a fan of being scared, no need to worry. 

🎲 I will be sharing some other family friendly spots around Las Vegas including other FREE things to do, so if you want to check them out keep an eye out for more posts or type in "Things to do in Las Vegas" in the search bar of my blog. I also have posts on some great places to check out in California & Arizona. 

**This post was not sponsored. We visited this location on our own.**

Kyoto Sweetsbox - A Japanese snack subscription box review!

 

Being able to try new snacks & sweets from other countries can be a lot of fun, especially when it arrives in the form of a subscription box. You never know what you might end up with! I recently received a box of snacks from a company called Kyoto Sweetsbox. Originally the review was just a collaboration to be posted on my Instagram, but I felt like posting about it here as well because we enjoyed the box quite a bit! So, I am going to give you a quick rundown on what we received in the box. You can purchase a single box for just under $37 a month, or you can purchase a longer subscription which will give you a discount on each month's box. 

Each box not only comes with snacks & sweets, but it also comes with one Japanese inspired gift plus a booklet that talks about each item in the box, along with providing some information on Japanese traditions and more. Our box included fourteen different food items and two non-food gifts. 

Here is a breakdown of the snacks we received: 

⭐️ A beautiful fox mask
⭐️ Wet Wipes
⭐️ Chocolate Cake - This was a favorite; it was soft and delicate. It was chocolatey but not overly sweet.
⭐️ French Fries Snack - A type of crunchy potato chip.
⭐️ Handball Candy - Tasty with an almost buttery flavor, they are delicious. 
⭐️ Hi-Chews - I love these & this was a softer version than the kind we have in stores near us.
⭐️ Sweet Yuzu-flavored Mochi - This was fun to eat & I liked the powdered sugar flavor.
⭐️ Supamucho Ume Flavor - Interesting taste, slightly spicy but sweet.
⭐️ Wasabi Flavored seaweed snacks - Not too spicy, actually pretty good.
⭐️ Apple Manjuu - A mini bunny shaped cake that is fluffy & not too sweet.
⭐️ Matcha Cappuccino + Uji Matcha Green Tea - I haven't tried this yet but will get to them soon.
⭐️ Koba Cheese Tart - This along with the chocolate cake were my favorites! I'd love more of this.
⭐️ Soba Manjuu Matcha Flavor - This had a bold unique flavor.
⭐️ Fava Bean Snacks - Crunchy, salty & a fun snack to eat.
⭐️ White peach jelly - a sweet & strong peach flavor.
⭐️ Happy Turn - A tasty rice dough based snack.
⭐️ Mochi sprinkled with soy flour - This was another fun treat to eat, they have a great consistency.

All of the snacks & treats included were full sized, I think this subscription is worth the cost. I like being able to try new things that aren't available near me or that I have never heard of before. 

Disclaimer-  Kyoto Sweetsbox  provided this experience to us for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

October Beauty & The Book Giveaway!

 

How in the world is it October already? The last half of the year always seems to go by in such a flash. I have been loving picking up some new spooky things for my house and I am patiently waiting for the weather to drop down to a nicer temperature outside. Sadly, we are still dealing with triple digit heat here in parts of Arizona, so I am hoping it cools down soon. A new month also means a new Beauty & The Book Giveaway bundle of course! Being the spooky lover that I am this month's theme is Halloween. I always have a lot of fun putting these giveaways together, so I hope you all enjoy them just as much as I do.  

Headed your way soon are some more fun reviews & spots to visit in both Arizona + Las Vegas along with a giveaway for a box full of books. I already have a theme planned for next month's Beauty & The Book bundle as well, it is going to be "Magical". I will let you guess what the main theme for the products might be, so keep an eye out for that the first week of November. 

❤ Included In This Month's Bundle: ❤

🎃 Hardcover copy of "Dark Storm" 
🎃 Morphe Midnight Dune Eyeshadow Palette
🎃 Makeup Revolution Poison Ivy lipstick set
🎃 Makeup Revolution Beetlejuice Green mascara
🎃 Halloween Hello Kitty makeup brush set
🎃 Lip Gloss with bat shaped confetti 
🎃 Purple false eyelashes
🎃 Patchology under eye patches
🎃 Three eyeliner pencils (Green, Brown + Black) 
🎃 Spiderweb shaped cake try
🎃 Glass potion bottle that says "Toxic Brain Juice"
🎃 A cute witch keychain
🎃 Pumpkin lanyard
🎃 "Rise & Grind" reusable coffee cups
🎃 Elvira acrylic ornament 
🎃 Black cat straw topper
🎃 Halloween card/scrapbooking assortment 
🎃 "Bat shit crazy" sticky notes

This is open Worldwide! Please remember if you DO NOT leave a comment on this blog post as your mandatory entry into the giveaway then all of your entries will be void. Doing the Daily entries will increase your chance of winning. Winners have 72 hours to respond to the winner notification! This giveaway is hosted by ME.

This giveaway ends on 11/10/2024

Giveaway entry question: Leave a comment answering at least one of these questions.

Which item in this bundle are you most excited about?

If you celebrate Halloween what will you be dressing as this year?

Tell me about something exiting you have coming up or something good that happened to you lately.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It is easiest if you log onto Rafflecopter using the Name/Email Address option. 

You can complete as many entries as you want, there are several one-time activities and daily activities that can earn you more entries into the giveaway. Be sure to keep an eye on my site & social media pages for more giveaways headed your way. 

M&M Store Las Vegas!

 

If you've ever wanted to be surrounded by millions of M&M's then the M&M Store in Las Vegas is the place to go! There isn't just one floor of M&M chocolates and merchandise, but four including a level that has an M&M themed race car you can take photos with. It is free to enter and take photos with some of their displays, but the cost of all the merchandise and candies will vary & can be a bit expensive. Yikes! I couldn't believe the amount we had spent on a bag of mix your own M&Ms, but we were on vacation and it was a lot of fun putting the mix together. 

They have a giant wall of M&M's all separated by different colors or different flavors, you can find bright pink M&Ms or even black M&M's along with regular chocolate filled, peanut filled or coffee flavor. There is really an endless amount of different mixes you can create using the tubes on their M&M's wall. It is just under $10 for a half pound, depending on which mixture you go with the weights will vary for example the peanut filled M&M's are pretty heavy. They also have a station where you can personalize your M&M's with a name or even a photo printed on each M&M. 

Aside from a wide range of candy treats to eat, you'll also find assorted merchandise like clothing, pillows, keychains and more. There is also a small area on the fourth floor that features chocolates from another chocolate company based in Nevada. The fourth floor also offers some great views of the surrounding hotels & casinos like New York New York which is located right across the street. All of the staff members we encountered at this spot were all friendly and very helpful. It was a fun mini stop on our vacation and neat to check out. 

🎲 I will be sharing some other family friendly spots around Las Vegas including other FREE things to do, so if you want to check them out keep an eye out for more posts or type in "Things to do in Las Vegas" in the search bar of my blog. I also have posts on some great places to check out in California & Arizona. 

Take a look at the One Piece Cafe in Las Vegas!

 

We love watching the anime One Piece together as a family, I even did a cosplay of Chopper for a anime convention/Halloween last year, so of course the One Piece Cafe in Las Vegas was on our list of places we wanted to stop while we were in town for vacation. They are located at 5600 Spring Mountain Rd Suite A Las Vegas, Nevada 89146. The whole cafe is decorated with the show in mind and the menu is created with different characters in mind. Our visit was alright, we wanted to visit to see all of the decorations along with trying the food. The food was delicious and made it worth the visit, but it was a bit crowded and some things slightly overpriced which I will go over below. When we arrived the entire place was packed & we unfortunately didn't end up with a table as someone who came in after us had snatched a table opening up before we even had a chance, so we just ate in the car.  

The vibe of the cafe is a lot of fun, they decorated it to make you feel as if you were on a ship. You'll also find a wall which shows all of their wanted bounty posters, a wall that has giant cut outs of the characters and more that you can snap a photo with as long as no one is in the way. Along with their food menu they have a bunch of merchandise for sale from clothing to purses and collectable pins. The drinks come in sturdy plastic cups that were able to be saved & reused so you can take them home as a cheap souvenir from your visit here.

Menu wise they had a decent selection for small bites to eat to fully loaded entries like the Mighty Meats Pirate Platter that was absolutely loaded with food to eat. Most of the prices aren't too bad, for example the Zorro Onigiri was $8 and came with two good sized onigiri and the meats platter was $30 but had enough meats in it for two people to be able to eat plus rice. Other prices weren't so great, mainly the desserts which I believe is mainly due just to the looks. Both the Chopper hat cake & the Gum Gum devil fruit desserts were $25 each! Yikes! The Chopper cake was about the size of a slightly large cupcake. My mom knew everyone kind of wanted to try them, so she bought one of each for everyone in the group to try despite the semi high price. The inside of the Gum Gum Devil Fruit has a vanilla sponge cake and bites of assorted fruit, and the inside of the Chopper hat had sponge cake as well both the insides were alright nothing overly fancy. The menu states the shells of both are made from chocolate, but they were kind of hard and semi flavorless it tasted more like a hunk of fondant so they aren't something we would buy again. 

Food wise the onigiri was something to write home about! It was so good; I was very happy it was what I had selected for lunch, and I wish we had a replica of this cafe near us because I'd stop by more often just for the onigiri. My daughter has ordered it as well & was quite happy with it. The beef skewers were also a favorite of our party, two different people had ordered them and enjoyed them. The meat platter was a bit hit! My stepdad had ordered it and was a big fan of it but was quite full after several pieces of the meat, so he shared part of the meal with my husband because as I mentioned there is enough in this meal for two people to enjoy it. My mom had ordered the Franky Burger & Fries and was quite pleased with that as well.

For Drinks I had ordered an All Blue Mocktail & my husband ordered the Dragonfruit strawberry punch. Both were delicious. The blue mocktail featured blue pea flower tea which gave the drink a pretty ocean color & it came with a small container of lime flavoring that could be mixed in that also changed the color to more of a purple hue. For just my husband, two kids & myself we had ordered four food items, a mochi cookie and two drinks which came out to about $60. Merchandise wise, we skipped out on snagging anything as I wasn't wanting to spend $75 for a crewneck shirt or $10-$12 for a sticker, we usually find our One Piece merch as conventions from local sellers. A good thing to know before heading to this location is they take debit or credit card only, no cash will be accepted. 

🎲 I will be sharing some other family friendly spots around Las Vegas including other FREE things to do, so if you want to check them out keep an eye out for more posts or type in "Things to do in Las Vegas" in the search bar of my blog. I also have posts on some great places to check out in California & Arizona. 

Stranger Things Store experience in Las Vegas!

 

If you are a big fan of the show Stranger Things, then the Stranger Things store in Las Vegas is a must see stop. This spot isn't just a store where you can stop and buy merchandise from the show, it is more of a mini experience filled with photo opportunities for fans of the show. The photo opportunities alone will make this spot worth the stop, but the best part is that this is FREE to enter. Unless you plan on buying some merchandise you won't need to pay anything to enjoy this pop-up event. This store is located at 3785 S Las Vegas Blvd Suite #102 Las Vegas, Nevada 89109 & is near several other fun stores and activities to check out. We stopped by on our recent trip to Las Vegas & We had a great time. My daughter is the biggest fan of Stranger Things in our household so when we were planning out our Vegas trip, you can bet this was one of the top spots on her list to want to see. We arrived at almost the perfect time, there were maybe four or five other people in the store when we first arrived, so we had the place mostly to ourselves, then when we were ready to head out is when it started to get crowded. 

We had a lot of fun exploring all of the different areas they had set up to reflect real scenes and characters from the show. They had the living room from the Byers home when Joyce sets up the holiday lights & alphabet to communicate with Will, A 80's themed arcade area with a few real arcade machines that were free to play, a giant Vecna suspended in the air of the attic of his home and even giant funko pops of Eleven & Eddy to snap photos with, among other fun areas. 

Mixed in along the way you will of course be able to find a large assortment of merchandise everything from Hawkins school gear to mini & even full-sized replicas of Eddy's guitar plus other cute merchandise you might not have even known you wanted until you spotted it, like an adorable baby onesie from the ice cream shop Steve & Robin work at. My daughter had been saving up some of her chore money for this trip & ended up buying several different things from this spot. 

Since Stranger Things is a Netflix show, they had a spot or two that had some merch from other Netflix exclusive shows like a "Lost & Found" section in the Hawkins Highschool area that had stuff from shows such as The Witcher. Even if you aren't the biggest fan of the show, this is still a fun spot to stop with your friends or family who do enjoy the show. Everyone in our family enjoys watching the show together so we had a great time exploring this Stranger Things pop up store. This is a pop-up store so it won't be at this location forever, we were told by one of the employees that some of the merchandise has already been removed in preparation for it closing down, I had asked when it was closing & if they knew where it might pop up next. They believe it is due to close in December & that Netflix has plans to open up another "Netflix House" which is shopping center with mini shops dedicated to different Netflix exclusive stores. So check out this store at this location while you can! 

🎲 I will be sharing some other family friendly spots around Las Vegas including other FREE things to do, so if you want to check them out keep an eye out for more posts or type in "Things to do in Las Vegas" in the search bar of my blog. I also have posts on some great places to check out in California & Arizona. 

**This post was not sponsored. We visited this location on our own.**