It’s that time of year when the Bellagio changes the conservatory to celebrate Chinese New Year.

This year is The “Year of The Rat”. Last year was the year of the pig, and they had a giant animated pig on display. No such display this year. I guess gigantic rats are hard to come by nowadays … having been hired by Chuck E. Cheese franchises nationwide.

This year’s display was much more understated.

There are no water tunnels, pedestrian bridges, or animatronics. It’s a fairly basic display with an Asian theme, but very subtle as far as effects go.

They reuse some of the same “props” for the Chinese New Year display every year, like the giant Asian dude and his gold coins, the pagoda and crooked bridge, and the red lanterns.

It’s always nice to see the new displays, but they didn’t put as much effort into the rat as they did the pig.

Then again, did we really want to see a large, animated rat?

Probably not.

More photos are here:

http://www.vegasrex.com/photos/bellagio-conservatory/

This is a video of a pianist in the Bellagio lounge area (across from reservations):