Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009

right here goes - basically, this is something the missus does, so all I do is !!!!!!!ise it and pretend that i've done it (by swapping our names around etc haha) - so she can take the credit for this... I've put a bit more detail in that i think people may want to know - ie. flights etc!

She has only done up to the Monday, so as there is a 25000 character limit per post (and it's just told me i've exceeded it), I will put up Monday / Tuesday / Weds / Thurs when she's woken up and written the latter of them (though to be honest, yesterday was just a plane journey!)

Will put some piccies up in a minute too... right then:



Tuesday 7th April

Got up at 3.30am – had stayed at the new Heathrow Central Travelodge which was just a 10minute(max) drive to Terminal 4 so perfect for £20 (+ £5 parking). Planes quietened down considerably @ about 10pm (unlike Vegas… more on that later). Had our tea and one drink in the Travelodge – bottle of Magners was £4 each so was just the one then off to bed – I wouldn’t say the food was as extortionate but the microwave had done it’s job well and my chilli was nice and hot!

Anyways, got ready and headed to the airport. Checked in with little hassle (NWA don’t appear to have a check-in desk – just ‘machines’ and a ‘bag-drop’) – no instructions on the machine but fairly self-explanatory and figured it out though it seemed to confuse a lot of people and I ended up showing a few of the older people checking-in how to use ‘modern technology’.

Used “Purple Parking” chauffeur collect service (£90) which was ideal for a 5:30am collection! They pick it up from you outside the terminal arrivals lane, then you ring them on return and they drive it back for you to collect from outside the terminal you are at.

After checking-in and getting through security, Wetherspoons was just opening (6:30am) and as we had time to kill and hadn’t travelled on NWA before, we went in for food just in case they didn’t feed us much! We had a full English breakfast (approx. £6) and an orange juice (approx. £2), despite the guy being desperate to sell me some beer! Boarded the flight and took off on time. Once up in the air we got a drink and pretzels. A little later we got breakfast again! Which was apple crepes, yoghurt and a pastry. Not long before we landed we got a cheese sandwich and chocolate ice cream.

Have to say on our previous two trips we have only used Virgin direct from Gatwick but like many others had got these flights cheap in the Expedia.com.au blunder for approx. £200 each. They certainly didn’t cater food and bevies as much as Virgin (nowhere near as many meals or drinkies going around!) but being a big lad (well, 6ft 2’ish) they did seem to have more leg room so I was happy! It was also nice to have a 2-4-2 seat config on this section of the journey! (A330-300)

Finally landed in Detroit where it was cold and snowing. Went and had some lunch in Slam Shotz whilst we waited for our connection. Missus had a chicken and bacon salad, and I had a Turkey Reuben sandwich with potato waffles and we also had a side of cajun beer battered gherkins --- these were proper tasty! After lunch we went and waited to board our flight to Vegas, boarded on time and finally got to Vegas 4 hours later! (Had left London @ 8:50am GMT and arrived there at 5pm Vegas-time) Felt like one hell of a journey in total! (this plane was 3 – 3 config but not bad at all really – Airbus A320)

Claimed our bags and got a taxi to Paris, the weather was lovely and sunny and hot! Managed to get an upgrade to a ‘Diamond’ floor, fountain facing room for $20 tip (said it was our anniversary and had they got any rooms with a nice view).

Went to a Mexican in Ballys and had a combo platter which had potato skins, quaesdillas and chicken wings, we also had tortilla chips and salsa, just what I needed! After we had eaten we headed back to the room and to bed @ 8pm’ish as a day of travel had killed us!

Wednesday 8th April 2009

Woke up at 4.40am but managed to get back to sleep and then got up around 8am. Headed up the strip to the Fashion Show Mall, the weather is lovely and sunny and warm again. Got to Fashion Show and went into Abercrombie, got a couple of bits – even with the ‘bad’(?) exchange rate, it’s still fantastic prices! Did the usual trawl round Macy’s buying everything they had…!

We then went for lunch in a place called Jonny Rockets which was a hamburger American Diner type place. Both had milkshakes, missus was chocolate peanut butter and mine was vanilla. She had a St Louis burger with chips and I had a chilli size burger with chips. The waitresses in there danced which was a bit weird but the place reminded us of somewhere we went in San Francisco for our Honeymoon so was quite cool even though I have no doubt this one is a chain!

After lunch, lots more shopping – we have 4 weddings in the next couple of months so she was after different outfits!

All shopped out, we headed back to Paris, stopping for a little gamble in TI on the way. Once back in the room we had a bit of a rest and had to soak our tired feet! We then headed down into the casino and gambled for the first time really on this trip… and the free drinkies started coming! Woohoo!

Walked over to Planet Hollywood – thought there was someone famous in there as loads of camera’s and film crew – went over to have a look and saw it was the current Miss America and a few of the finalists… it’s dominating the news over there despite being 10days away.

We did some more gambling and had some free drinks – I’d gone as I fancied a go on their free slot machine as I did really well last time (2 free torches haha), but thought it had gone! (noticed on our last day it’s just been moved… still on the ‘left-side’ of the casino but a lot deeper into it)

Went for a look through Miracle Mile as it’s a while since we’ve spent much time there – watched the hourly ‘free fountain’ show which is worth a minute or two if you’re passing (as we were) but definitely don’t go our of your way for it else you’ll think it’s crap!

We then decided to have something to eat and ended up in the Spice Market Buffet which was a bit disappointing! We started queuing @ 9pm, and only got in just before 9:30 (it closes @ 10pm). Had decided to go as we had the $5 off coupon and had heard good stuff about it, plus we were there, quite hungry and wanted to try somewhere other than Mandalay Bay buffet which is something we always have… also I fancied trying crabs legs to see what all the fuss was about (I always try new stuff at buffets as I can just leave it if I don’t like it!) --- must say, not bothered by crabs at all so at least I know not to bother queueuing for them again (there was a huge ‘mini-queue’ for the seafood section). The ‘fish’ part of their fish and chips was lovely though! (the chips were just crisps though which was a bit weird!) In my opinion, this buffet wasn’t a patch on the MandalayBay lunch buffet that we usually have…

Still tired so headed to bed after this…

Thursday 9th April

Got up to another nice day and headed to Miracle Mile shops in Planet Hollywood. The shops weren't open yet so had a little gamble and won a little bit! Once the shops opened we walked through, I bought a hoodie in H&M (of all places!) We were a bit peckish so we had a pretzel, missus had cinnamon sugar one and I took a fancy to a pepperoni one.

Carried on through the shops and then decided to have a drink from Tacone to complement our pretzel breakfast, missus had half a yard of strawberry daiquiri and I had half a yard of strawberry margarita. We finished looking round the shops and then headed back to the room to drop the shopping off, then we went down to the casino and spent a bit of time on ‘Hot Shot Progresive’ by the entrance. We finished our drinks so I took the ‘souvenir’ cups back to the room while missus carried on playing, as soon as I had gone the bonus's started coming in and the money started rolling in, she ended up quadrupling our money before I’d come back down – didn’t win ‘loads’ but enough to make us wish we were betting more!!

After we finished in the casino we headed up to the Venetian and got booked onto an outside gondola ride. While we waited for our time we went and had some lunch in the Grand Lux cafe, missus had vegetable pasta and a house salad and I had a buffalo chicken sandwich with fries – the portions were enormous – sorry – forgot to take photos (as we were in a bit of a rush)! After lunch we went back and waited for our gondola ride, it was lovely and sunny and nice to have an outside one. I have to say though that it seems a ridiculous system – we queued to book a ticket for the Gondola (‘time slot’), we then had to join another queue to get on the Gondola when our ‘time slot’ arrived… thing that was stupid is that the second-queue is ‘first come, first served’ and we saw people who were behind us in the queue, getting on gondola’s before us… didn’t really bother us but made the whole thing seem a bit daft!

After we had finished we headed back to our hotel, missus had a bad headache so had a sleep while I went down to the casino. A couple of hours later he came back – slightly drunk and only $25 down… not too bad! We got ready and then got a taxi up to TI, gambled for a bit and then headed to Kahunaville (one of our fave places). We had a big bubbling cocktail and a paradise sampler, the usual! We were both pretty tired and stuffed so we walked back up the strip to our hotel, we had a little gamble but then headed back to the room to bed.

Friday 10th April

Got up today and the weather was a little cloudy. We got ready and headed across to the Bellagio, we had a look in the conservatory which was in a Japanese garden theme this time. There was a greenhouse with butterflies in it which was good, and a there was a guy in there who was taking ‘new’ butterflies out of envelopes in a box and was letting them go into the conservatory! – video’d it as it was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen!

Went to Jean Phillipe's patisserie (where the massive chocolate fountain is) – noticed in the 10months since we were there, it’s now gained the ‘guiness world record’ for it’s size (or they are at least acknowledging it more) – from memory, it had a bit of ‘paper’ covering part of the plaque that mentions it’s record status… seemed a bit of a ‘cheap’ way to have a sign for the ‘Bellagio’!

Had some crepes. Missus had a ‘banana foster’ one and I had an ‘apple sensation’ one – was a bit sweet / sickly but nice as well! Had to queue for this and likewise, had to queue for a seat to eat it on (ended up with a seat by the window looking out at the pool).

We ended up with a Chrysler and not the Dodge Charger so I was a bit annoyed about this – I can drive a Chrysler 300 in this country if I want!!... plus the charger looks so cool!

We then headed to Wynn and Encore to have a look around and see what all the fuss was about as we’ve never really made it up to Wynn before (other than to collect our tickets / and to watch ‘La Reve’). We walked through Encore and signed up for the player card, because we gave them our e-mail address we got $10 free play each!

We decided to go and play it, missus went on Wizard of Oz and I went on Star Trek, we both ended up winning pretty big! – Star Trek is a fantastic game – you get to ‘save’ your progress, and unlock new bonus games etc etc. I could ‘continue’ the same game I went on in Wynn, when I was in Luxor for example (exception being ‘Paris’ who seemed to have their own system where your login is linked to the Total Rewards card instead of letting you create your own login))

Both games have what I would consider ‘gaming’ (ie. Console games) chairs you sit in, with Bose speakers, putting the sound behind your head, and also vibrating the chairs! Superb!

We decided to cash in and then went back to the car, we then made our first ever ‘non-TomTom’ adventure of the strip and headed to the Las Vegas Premium Outlets – hadn’t got directions and had never been before but knew roughly where it was (‘north of Stratosphere’) so no surprise I got lost for a few minutes! Found it though! Woohoo!

We had a walk around and got more clothes. Once we had finished walking round the shops we got the car and headed back to Paris which due to lack of lunch, we bought some snacks in the shops and went back to the room to get ready for the evening. We decided to go to Mon Ami Gabi for something to eat, I wasn't feeling very well though (stomach pains) so it wasn't as good as it could have been – it felt a bit like hunger pains though and we hadn’t eaten much that day so thought a good bit of food would do me proud.

We sat out on the patio which was really nice and meant we could watch the fountains of Bellagio. Missus had a bottle of rose to herself (we were supposed to share but I had one sip and went on the water), anyways, she didn't drink all of so got to take it with her! She had New York strip steak with thin frites (chips!) it was very tasty apparently! I had roast chicken and chips but hardly ate anything – only a few bites. She also had some pudding which was a lovely crème brule (again… apparently). After we had eaten we went back to the room early because I still wasn't feeling well. I went straight to sleep, feeling hot / cold.

Saturday 11th April

I was sick in the night – I have no idea why… was it the buffet from a day or two ago? Something from Kahunaville? Dodgy pretzel? Who know’s – it wasn’t proper food poisoning (not on the scale I’ve had before at least!) but was very random and I’m sure it was food related… part of me thinks it could be something from Spice Market buffet but I honestly will never know...?

Anyways, despite feeling a million times better having been sick, I wanted to stay in bed this morning. Wanted to eat though to get something inside me so ordered room service breakfast which was lovely! Had a continental which was pastries and coffee and juice and some toast and cereal between us. It was a nice sunny day so missus went down to the pool.

I managed to get up around lunch and, then we got a sandwich in the poolside caf! – no selection at the pool caf! at all so wouldn’t recommend it (it was just turkey or ham baguettes from a mini-fridge) – did the job for me though!

After we had had enough by the pool we went and had a little gamble on the machines and then had a go on roulette on the table, we both lost in the end (I lost quicker than the missus!!) We then went back to the room and packed as it was our last night at Paris, then we got ready and headed out for the evening. We went to Planet Hollywood as we had a ticket for the machine to use, first we got something to eat in an Italian called Zombardi's. Missus had a spinach gnocchi and I had a chicken and vegetable pizza, we also had a rosemary flat bread, it was all very nice. After eating we headed into the casino and played on the machines, missus lost but I won a little. We then headed back into Paris to use our tickets in there, we both ended up winning a little so cashed out and headed up to the room to bed.

Sunday 13th April

Got up to another lovely day and checked out of Paris. Went and got the car and headed in the direction of Lake Mead and Valley of Fire. We stopped at Walmart on the way and got some sandwiches for lunch and also some Lucky Charms – we must be the only people that come back from America with Cereal in their suitcases! She even bought some as presents for people so got two big boxes and one smaller boxes! Unbelievable! Hell of a lot cheaper than paying Selfridges prices though!

We carried on and got to Lake Mead, we drove through and stopped at a few scenic lookouts – I’ve decided I don’t rate Lake Mead’s “scenic” views at all, but I do like driving through the place.

Got to the Valley of Fire, drove through and stopped at the ‘Cabin’ bit where there was some sort of Mexican family re-union convention going on – music going , whole area packed and struggled to turn the car around, let alone park! So we went on to ‘Seven Sisters’ to eat our lunch, we saw some sort of small animal but couldn't work out what it was! It was small and darting behind bushes around 20m away so we didn’t get much of a glimpse… maybe a chipmunk.

We then carried along the route and got to a bit called Mouse's Tank – although visiting VoF park a few years ago (Dec 2006), we were in a rush and didn’t really get chance to get out of the car so wanted to make the most of this trip and do a few walks. It was a half a mile round walk which didn’t seem to bad but it was SO incredibly hot there!

Saw lots of big red ants and also quite a few lizards. When we had finished walking we continued to drive along the route and stopped at more of the view points until we had finished the route and seen everything.

We then headed out of the Valley of Fire and went back the way we came to see if we could hire a boat or something @ Lake Mead, we stopped at a place called Boulder Beach which wasn't much of a beach and had really vile toilets (apparently…)!

We carried on out of Lake Mead and decided to head down to the Hoover Dam just to see how the construction of the new bridge across was coming along. We drove across the dam and then turned round and headed back towards Vegas. We stopped in at Walmart again and bought a huge bottle of Jack Daniels – had been determined to get some of this on this journey as regretted not getting it from duty-free last time, and I had even planned our flights around this until Air France made us go via. Paris!) Got a huge bottle for $27… hope it survives the suitcase journey back!!! (3 connections!) also got some Smirnoff Vanilla ($12) vodka and some Spicy Dill Pickle (Gherkin) Pringles! Drove back into Vegas and arrived at Mandalay Bay, we checked in and came up to our room (750GR). We're only on the 8th floor but we can still see down the strip a little. Our room is lovely, though is worn – especially compared to the Paris room. Very big with a great jacuzzi in the bathroom! It was quite late so we just freshened up and took a walk down into the casino, had a little go on Wizard of Oz but we didn't win. We then walked through into the Luxor and got a supreme pizza and some crazy bread to take back to the room, we also got a couple of corona's! We came back to the room and pigged out on pizza and watched TV before we went to bed!

FluffyFiFi wrote: »

I think that's what I would do in future, we were away for a total of 3 weeks and I really missed not being able to cook and having a bit of space.

If you want to do your own cooking...MGM Signature rooms have a kitchen area with hob, fridge, microwave, toaster, coffee maker, blender/ice crusher, breakfast bar area and sink. Pots, pans, cutlery etc are also in there.

The one bedroom suites I have stayed in also have had a washing machine

less than 6 weeks now til i fly out and our trip has taken shape nicely.

Virgin Upper to LA £1500 for the pair of us + 120,000 miles

we have 5 nights at the luxor in a pyramid spa suit which came to a total of $495 after that we head over to thehotel at mandalay bay and have one of the suites for 6 nights. This cost $670 for 6 nights.

lots of talk lately about chargers v 300's. ive just done my booking with carhire3000 for what should be a charger or similar. to be honest im not fussed as ive not driven either before. we have the car for 1 day, from LA to Vegas, for £37, this includes additional driver plus tank of fuel. No one way fees too, that has been confirmed.

Never driven in the states before so that should be interesting. Just hacked my tomtom so I can have the US map so i know where im going and so it can remind me as to what side of the road i should be on.

The only negative so far is Hatton not having his fight on while im out there.

Nice one Fluffy yeah, Thursday was proper hot! I'd say Sunday and Monday were hot, and parts of Saturday... it really chilled down by Tuesday and was actually quite cool when we left on Wednesday - was supposed to heat up again over the past few days though (up to 86 i think they were predicting!)

Here's some piccies

Sign (on way in via. LAS domestic terminals)


Paris Red-Room (26th Floor?)


Paris Red-Room - different angle (massive HD tv!)


View from our room @ Paris (already posted but I like it!)


Planey Hollywood Fountain Show


Venetian Gondola


Man releasing 'new' butterflies (see discarded envelopes on left and box behind him) - one butterfly per envelope! Surreal!


Butterfly House @ Bellagio (hard to photo moving butterflies so they just look blurry i'm afraid!)


Didn't see much evidence of Easter, but there was this little lot @ Jean Philippes Patisserie (Bellagio)


The Star Trek game - loved this!!


Drawings and Symbols @ Valley of Fire (on way to Mouses Tank)


Lizzard... scampered off before I could get it properly!


Very little evidence of Easter in Vegas (as per the Christmas 'run-up' really - it just doesn't seem to stand out) - this is the closest we could find to a chocolate easter egg on the Sunday!!... unfortunately my fat fingers squashed it a bit! haha (if you can't tell, it's a Donut from Wallmart of course!) haha


Hoover Dam bridge coming along nicely


Mandalay Bay 750GR room... most disappointing thing of our trip
Few dislikes:
1) Maid service was awful (never replaced shower gel)
2) Noise from airport - non-stop, and seemed to vibrate the place - unlike Heathrow, planes didn't seem to quieten at night either - no-one else has mentioned this so i'm wondering if our position on the 3-pronged building was capturing sound more
3) Worn
4) Noisy idiot neighbours, not helped by the 'connecting door' system in the room through to theirs. We've had this problem before - connecting doors seem to let more noise through if you have inconsiderate neighbours unforutnately


Mandalay Bay room - different view


View from Mandalay Bay 750GR


Mandalay Bay Beach - like someone else says, absolutely packed!!! all the time!


Wanted to take another one to compare with the picture I took on page 1 of this thread (June 2008) to see how things have come along - wanted to take this at night but didn't get round to it not going picture editing facilities on this computer so can't crop it, but you can see the buildings that have appeared behind the monte carlo signs over the past 10 months


Pic from Page 1 for comparison:


Little progressive win - my first ever... recorded for prosperity


Not a big gambler so all wins are recorded for prosperity! - especially quick wins (like this one)


Went back to the identical machine next to the one I had won on above about an hour later, hit this after a couple of spins... this was on the last night @ Mandalay Bay... quirky little machine i'd not seen before! forget what it's called though it has sound that is akin to a 1980's arcade machine!!! Also had win's on this in the Luxor - definitely be looking for it again!


Part #1 of the hoard we brought back... featuring monster bottle of Jack and Gherkin pringles... winner!


Part #2 of the hoard we brought back... the boxes got battered unfortunately but I doubt she'll care! haha

Thanks for posting the pictures nvh:T I'm sorry you were disappointed with your room at MB. Looking at your pictures it seems totally different to the one we stayed in, bed was in a different position etc and seemed to be a larger room as well but its hard to tell from photos isn't it. I'm starting to question now if we even stayed in the 750GR room lol although thats what they told us when we got upgraded at checkin. Also everything was in good condition when we stayed, although that was back in Dec 07. We had no airport noise during our stay so i guess we got lucky with our room location.

Your room at Paris looks fantastic, and what a view:D I've never considered paris before but i'll definitely have a nosy at the rates now. Oh and thanks to your wife for writing a fantastic trip report so far:A