Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2013

Off on Monday, I've been in a good mood all week outlining my activities, I usually have a theme in mind, this trip will be to eat at all the places shown on Diners, Drive ins and Dives, hopefully that nob Fierri don't show up!

Other than that it's shopping and poker.

Monday 21st

Mad dash to the airport (Gatwick) through the snow and numerous train delays. Eventually give up on trains and take a cab from Balham. We made our gate with 12 minutes to spare before it shut so it really was a stressful morning travelling!
Our flight was with British Airways on the 11am service direct to Las Vegas. It was mostly empty which was how I bagged the cot seats in the World Traveller cabin. These give you more legroom and you can pop stuff on the cot shelf so you can spread your stuff out. I would imagine this often happens as I cannot imagine too many babies being taken on the route so keep an eye out for this.
Flight arrival time was perfect – no other flight landed around ours so our queue at immigration was only 20 minutes. Our bags were waiting and we headed off to hotel number 1 – Tropicana.
Tropicana is really good now. It’s not too big but the renovations are great and the feel of the hotel is fun. Clean rooms and nice d!cor. Cocktail waitress service is really prompt and regular.
In the evening we headed out for a walk and got a bottle of wine in Aria for $40. Ate something cheap and fast somewhere before realising jet lag had finished out night at 10.30pm so went to bed.

TIP – It was at this point I noticed that everywhere had free wireless to patch onto. The only place I couldn’t find it was in Caesars Palace which charged for it. I had my mobile on me the whole time and didn’t spend a penny on the internet because of this – a great help. Take your ipad as well as it’ll really help when planning things for the days ahead.

Tuesday 22nd

Breakfast was at MGM Grand in the Rainforest Caf! - $11.99 for sausage, egg, toast, breakfast potatoes and unlimited coffee. You can get cheaper in Dennys but we went here first as it was over the road the place is kind of cool with “thunderstorms” howling overhead as you are, after all, in a rainforest…
I have to say eating breakfast and skipping lunch or combining the two was the way forward – portions are big so it’s tough to keep proper meal times.
During the day we headed out gambling and the wife did really well on roulette off $30 and turned it into $500 so we put that away for later in the week (very important here. Set your betting fund, bank the profits and once your original stake is gone walk away. Don’t be tempted to give it up – it always comes in handy as a bonus at the end of the holiday).
We decided to use some of the winnings to see a show in the evening – went to see “Peepshow” @ Planet Hollywood – Coco Austin was a pointless addition but the other girls were good and some clever set pieces were played out. We bought tickets from Tix4Tonite at the bottom of the Fashion Show Mall for about $50 each. We also got a discount voucher to use at Bacio Italian restaurant in Tropicana. I think we paid $3 per meal ticket to get our main course at 50% off so we saved something like $12 on each meal – get the seafood mains for the biggest savings.

TIP – They also sell 3-day passes for the Monorail here at half price for $14 a pass. It costs $12 for a normal 24hr pass so you can see the saving here!

In the afternoon I booked up our helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon with Papillon. I booked it on my iPad in the hotel as I wanted to make sure I got their discounted rate with no one taking their commission anywhere – you then have to phone Papillon to confirm your booking so I used the hotel phone (it was free calls as part of the resort fee) to phone them up – they gave me a confirmation number and that was all I needed. We booked the standard flight (no landing) which lasts about 60-70mins going over the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and the Canyon. It cost us $239 each but you can get it as cheap as $209 each by going at a time in the morning if you don’t mind that – it’ll cost you $50 per person to take a front seat if you want it. I’ll talk more on the actual trip in the next day diary.

Wednesday 23rd

We had a quick breakfast in the Starbucks in our hotel (pricey for what it was but expected – I don’t rate them in the UK either!) before being picked up by Papillon tours. They were bang on time and we were the last pick up which was cool. You drive to Boulder City for about 30mins to Papillon’s own airport terminal where you go through check-in before waiting about 30mins for your flight. They have a gift shop, sell food and you can watch all the other helicopters and small planes come and go which is cool. We got lucky here! An announcement said to come to the front desk and they informed us unfortunately we’d have to wait an extra 15mins but they’d give us a voucher for a free souvenir photo which sells for $20 so that was a great result as $20 is steep despite the photo looking really cool.
The flight was great fun – there were 4 other people in our helicopter and you can all talk to each other and the pilot on the headsets they give you – they play music as well so we took off to the Top Gun theme tune – cheesy but funny. Trip was amazing – clear sunny skies and you can easily film everything on a camera phone through the windows – it really is a breath-taking site when you go over the canyon rim.
You then get a return transfer to your hotel and the whole thing took us about 3hrs in total. I have to say at $209 per person that is outstanding value and even at the $239 we paid it was more than worth it.
I then went and found a Tix4Tonite for tickets to Penn and Teller at the Rio that night. Got them for $52 each and also 50% off the buffet price at the Rio. Didn’t rate the buffet here but I was still stuffed!
Penn and Teller was amazing – our seats were on the lower level so you will be in with a shout of being in the actual show in this area.. Massive audience participation and you had live jazz for an hour before the show – look closely and you’ll see its Penn actually on the double bass. You get to go on stage during this hour and look at some of the props on stage as they’ll come in useful later on – I won’t spoil it here.
Only drank water here - $5 a bottle which seemed to be a fairly standard price for water wherever I went in Vegas.
After the show you can meet Penn and Teller in the theatre lobby and get signed stuff and get pictures with them – very humble of them I thought as they do that show night after night…a real classy touch I have to say.
Got back to the hotel at a reasonable time for some gambling and a chilled end as we had to checkout in the morning.

Thursday 24th

We delayed breakfast as we had to checkout today by 11am. All sorted very quickly and jumped in a taxi to The Palazzo…
…in a word…WOW. Everyone and everything is 5-star. You are treated like royalty. Luggage attendants take your bags and give you a ticket for you to claim later when it’s delivered to your room. Check in was a breeze, staff were wonderful and had no problem us checking in at 11.15am when it wasn’t meant to start until 3pm. This place does have thousands of rooms so I did expect there to be no problem. We were asked if we’d like a high of low suite – I said high and we got put on the 46th floor…we got to our room and the desk phone was ringing – I answered and was told that the luggage was on its way if I was happy with that. I just stood staring out of the window…so peaceful and so high up it was beautiful.
Breakfast/Lunch was at Grimaldis in the Shoppes at the Palazzo. Pizza was roughly $25 for a good size and 3 toppings of your choice.
We spent Thursday exploring the Palazzo and Venetian and all the shopping they had to offer stopping for a coffee or a pastry here or there.
In the evening we went to the Thomas and Mack Centre (part of Las Vegas university) to watch the Las Vegas Runnin’ Rebels v Wyoming Cowboys (Basketball match). $25 a ticket booked online back in England – was a great night out. Hot dogs, beer, all the pomp of the USA national anthem, cheerleaders, halftime entertainment and great basketball. I have to recommend you do this – it’s cheap and a truly American thing to experience.
We went to Senor Frogs in Treasure Island when we got back – free entry and a jumping bar. Good fun.

Friday 25th

Weekend starts here which means all the Americans descend! Busy place and a real buzz in the air.
Dennys for breakfast for the all-American diner experience. $8 for a big breakfast with pancakes and $2 for unlimited coffees. That’s a cheap meal and a lot of food!
Today was spent exploring the northern end of the strip just walking from hotel to hotel taking in the sights. We’d already decided we’d do the Las Vegas clubbing thing today and settled on Pure @ Caesars Palace. Knowing how Vegas works I wandered over to the place during the afternoon to see if I could spot the guys giving our free entry. Success. I got free entry for the wife and I had to pay $20. She also got a wristband that meant she could drink for free until midnight which was also lucky – she doesn’t drink too much which just meant I was drinking for free as well haha until midnight. Beers were $10 a pop here I think. Great night had and the place was rocking full.

Saturday 26th

Breakfast/lunch combo (had to sleep in from last night!) at an Italian in the Canals Shoppes in the Venetian. Big pasta to get the energy levels back up. Two mains, drinks and espressos for $60. Pricey but necessary.
This was our last full day and we did some gift shopping and some more sightseeing. We’d planned on going to Coyote Ugly at New York New York in the evening.
We also went to Mandalay Bay shark reef today - $18 a ticket and over 2000 fish in 14 exhibits. It’s quite a walk through the hotel to get there but you see some amazing sights. Some of the weirdest sharks I’ve ever laid eyes on here…! Worth the money. We headed back and I won $100 on wheel of fortune slot machine off a $5 bill. Nice way to head back!
Dinner was at Casanova in the Venetian Canal Shoppes again. Nice meal. Swordfish Carpaccio to start and a nice pizza for main. About $100 spent here…it was out last dinner. The owner is a funny guy actually from Venice and owns the famous mask shop in the Venetian as well – have a chat with him – he gave us free food as well.
Coyote Ugly was a let-down. Far too letchy with girls looking very desperate. $5 entry and a couple of drinks and we left. My wife went gambling and turned her final day $50 budget into $200 on roulette.
We headed back for our final night in the luxury of the Palazzo and that awesome view off the 46th floor.

Sunday 27th

Checked out and stored our bags before heading for breakfast. Nice fry up again – this time a bit more expensive due to the surroundings of the canal in the Venetian.
We then headed to the Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas. Incredible experience. $20 a ticket and 3 floors of artefacts, experiences and the amazing story of how Las Vegas was built on organised crime money. This was a great time here – I would really recommend it. It’s about 5mins walk from Fremont Street. Google it and definitely pay it a visit!
I picked up an iPad in the Apple Store for £60 cheaper than it is in England for my dad with our left over money and headed to the airport. Again British Airways was a breeze; again I got the cot seats. This was the 747 service to Heathrow T5 and we arrived early, no queues anywhere and I was home in 75mins from the point of landing.

GAMBLING TIP – Roulette minimums vary but the cheapest I found was $3 in Caesars Palace at the video roulette table. It’s a real roulette table with a real croupier but you place bets on a video screen. Your money goes very far here and you can bag those drinks from the cocktail waitresses.

That’s my trip report – hope you find something useful in there!

great report marsman!
Mob museum added to my to do list....
Gonna try same as u for 'Pure', be handy if the wife gets a free pass!

When you say at the start of the hol, meaning the airport, u got to the gate with 12 mins to spare, does that mean you checked in/bags with about 40 mins before flight time ? (not the usual 2hours before kinda thing!)

cheers for the info, added to my notes !
Seen Casino quite a few times, that and Goodfella's = Top movies!

Asked about check-in stuff, as i booked a flight(s) which have created a bit of panic for myself after i booked!
IE: We fly from Bristol with KLM to Amsterdam, lands on average between 8:30 to 8:45.
Then have another flight booked with US Airways to Vegas at 10:50...
So from landing, waiting for bus to terminal, then through customs/immigration or whatever it is, then collect bags, then queue to drop bags off with US Airways, just makes me think if i get to bag drop with 1hr to go, we should be ok i hope!

Ive only been in Nov and Dec. However May or Sept will prob avoid both the rain and the heat.