Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2012

photome wrote: »

We had a different experience at Envy, We didnt get charged extra for an extra sauce. they didnt charge for the 4 slices of fancy bread or the extra special 3 different colour salt.

Most of all though we asked for a bottle of sparkling water and this fancy bottle appeared, and we thought "wonder how much that will be ?", when the check appeared there was no charge for that either we were well impressed.

I think it was me who you are disagreeing with about Stripburger, thats not a problem most people on here disagree with me about stripburger;). As you mention, Stripburger is at least double the price maybe 3 times for a burger, but IMO isnt worth the extra cost

I'd still definitely recommend Envy - the service and food was fantastic. But we spent a bit more than anticipated and the little things added up and irked us slightly. I guess it's down to the individual server, what you get charged for (we didn't get charged for the nice bread or salt either). Still, it was a blow-out and the slot win the next day more than made up for it!

I get what you're saying about In N Out v Stripburger - if I had to live on In N Out food every day, I'd be very happy (and a tad heavier ).

Just got back this morning from a 6 night stay at Vdara. Here is a brief report:

Flew on Thursday 5th April from Gatwick to Vegas via Atlanta with Delta/KLM. Both flights were fine, slightly delayed but nothing too bad. IFE was crap on both but maybe that says more about my taste of films than their range of films! So I just messed about with my iPad and read a book for the whole way. Got a nice hot dog and withdrew some cash at Atlanta.

Got a cab from the airport to Vdara, cost $19 incl. tip which wasn’t too bad I thought. Check-in was a breeze and the room was fantastic. There were three of us staying in the room, two on the double bed and one on the foldout sofa bed. Both were comfy. The bathtub was fantastic, really good shape and very comfortable also. The pool at Vdara is nice, quite restricted opening hours though. 10am-5pm if I remember correctly. The lifeguards are fantastic, we had a really good time with them and they seemed genuinely happy to mess around with us for a few hours. The pool is nice and warm, and there’s a hot tub too which is good but imo it was too hot, almost felt like I was walking into a kettle.

Gambling wise I did most of mine playing the 50c/$1 NL Hold’em cash game at Bill’s. I really like it there, the rake is pretty high but it’s low stakes (min $20 buy-in), the cocktail service is good, comp dollars for every hour you play, aces cracked bonus, and just generally a good friendly atmosphere at the tables. One thing that I was soooo annoyed about though: they have an aces cracked bonus of $100 from 11am-2pm, I get aces at 2.10pm, only to get them cracked by sixes just after the cutoff point. Gah! I think I was up a little bit on poker by the end of the trip but I !!!!ed away all of my winnings on blackjack and roulette. Remind me never to play those stupid games next time!

Food-wise: we only made it to three restaurants while we were there. Harley Davidson caf! was good, had an r.com voucher. Service was fast, I just had a chicken Caesar salad which was brilliant. Hussong’s Cantina in Mandalay Bay, I cannot recommend this highly enough. Probably the second best Mexican food I’ve ever had after a little place in Ely NV. Had an r.com voucher for there, it’s just absolutely incredible, sensational, mouth-wateringly good. And finally we went to El Segundo Sol at the Fashion Mall which was also really good but not as good as Hussong’s. I recommend the chips and salsa as a starter, sensational value at $2.95 and enough to feed an army.

Bought way too many clothes at the Las Vegas South Outlet Mall, but all at a good price. I think I got 5 t-shirts, jeans, shorts, shoes and flip-flops for about $150! Also got a really good hydrotherapy massage there for only $12.50.

One thing about the Vdara, which was quite alarming; when we got back from the Outlet Mall, we had our shopping bags strewn all over the room. In our Levi’s bag we had three pairs of jeans. The housekeeping dude then came to do our room, so we decided to go to the pool cos it’s always a bit awkward when you’re just milling around in the room while the housekeeper is in there. Anyway about an hour later we returned to the room and there was only two pairs of jeans in the Levi’s bag…so that’s weird. We didn’t know for sure that the housekeeper guy took them, but we searched the entire room top to bottom and they weren’t anywhere. At first we thought, why would he steal those when there was way more valuable stuff (iPad, laptop etc.) lying around? But then I guess it kinda makes sense cos he would think that we would think that, and so he’s less likely to be suspected if he steals something innocuous like a pair of jeans. The guy was about two foot taller than my friend who bought the jeans so they would never have fit him, but I guess they have resale value. Another explanation is that someone lifted the jeans from the bag on our way back from the mall but who the hell pickpockets jeans?! And also we’re like 99% sure that there were 3 pairs in when we got back to the room. Anyway we decided to think about it for a few hours before acting, in case we could think of another reasonable explanation (bird flying through window and stealing them was seriously suggested at one point). But in the end my friend didn’t wanna tell reception cos he didn’t think anything would come of it apart from an awkward situation.
Oh also I got a super huge massive burger at Fatburger, you get a certificate and your photo taken and put on the wall if you finish it. I got reeeally close, like probably ate about 80% of it but then I just couldn’t go any further without vomiting all over the floor. So I had to give up. Really tasty burger though.

Also found a cool place just down the road from Bill’s where you can get a hot dog and beer for $2.50. I can’t remember the name of the place but just walk east for like one block at the street where Bill’s is perpendicular to the strip and you’ll see it advertised on the left after a few mins.

Woke up at 6.30am on Weds 11th Apr, checked out and got a taxi to the airport. Came to $15 incl. tip. Check-in was a breeze which surprised me as often security etc is a nightmare at Mccarran. Flew back via Detroit with KLM/Delta. Didn’t get any food on the domestic flight which was crap, as I was starving. So I got some nice food at Detroit airport, from a place called (I think) new York Coney Island Express or something. Then I slept pretty much the entire transatlantic flight, got into Heathrow at 7.50am this morning then headed straight into the office…I am here now on my lunchbreak. I gotta conserve my holiday days, only had to take 3 for this Vegas trip! And hopefully getting straight back to work from the airport will eliminate the possibility of any jetlag.

Overall great trip, I’m just mad I squandered my poker winnings on BJ and roulette! Overall very good value holiday though, I roughly worked out that I spent about £1066 total (flights, Vdara, food, alcohol, gambling and shopping) – not bad eh!

Thanks for the trip report rorylando45. Definately going to try that Mexican :-) Thats our favourite food.

We are going Manchester to Vegas via Atlanta with Delta/Klm. Whats Atlanta like? Much to do? and how long is it to get between the terminals?

Thanks for the reply