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Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2013
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I have never heard of anyone getting a Go room using the $20 bribe, well doneGilly_flower wrote: »Morning all! (am in California now where it's 6.15am)
We've had a lovely start to our hols in Vegas thanks to all the advice on this thread.
We stayed at Flamingo, and I did the $20 trick and we got upgraded from a standard room to a Go! Deluxe, 25th floor with an amazing view of the Bellagio fountains. The wildlife area and pools out the back are lovely. However, the refurb work at Bill's Gambling Hall next door means that there is now construction noise on that side of the hotel too, starting at 6am, and it was enough to wake me even on the 25th floor!
For myvegas players - we've had no probs redeeming credits so far, we've had the champagne brunch at mgm and have picked up Ka! Tickets.The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.0 -
Got back last week but sleep only just returning to normal patterns! This is pretty long and not really chronological:
Flew with BA (economy) for the first time ever and it was pretty much comparable to Virgin for the space and comfort. The food, service and IFE was marginally better though. Particularly liked being able to choose my own film though from several choices, and being able to pause/start, although the screen and headphones were crap. I did like the flight time too, which meant sleeping at home instead of a hotel and not getting up ridiculously early.
When we landed, took the shuttle to the car rental location. Used Holiday Autos to book and picked up from National. Had same guy who was on Alamo desk last year and he again tried to get us to upgrade - giving us the old 'if you're going up to the mountains, you need a more powerful car..etc.' spiel, despite the fact that this time we booked an intermediate and last year had a compact! When we went to pick up, we got a standard anyway! A lovely Ford Fusion, which we all enjoyed, except for the stoopid indicators that I hated!
Had 13 nights at the Orleans, which we love. It's comfortable, friendly and affordable - much more so than the Strip hotels we feel.
Some things we did:
Lots of shopping - at LV Premium Outlets North and South, A&C at Town Square, Ross and Marshalls. Great bargains.
Scoot City Red Rock tour using Groupon voucher - great fun. I did this with a mate as the missus wasn't bothered. We were a bit worried aboout looking like a couple
but it was such a laugh and Red Rock Canyon is very nice. Beware that despite tours saying they start at 1pm, they actually pick you up from 30 mins before. I managed to miss this in the email and hence held everyone up. Oops.
Battlefield Vegas - while we're not gun nuts, we thought we'd give this a try using a Groupon. It was fun and interesting and the people there were friendly and professional. You can hire individual hand guns for $30-$40. The magnum shot by my friend was loud!
Ghostbar/Moon club at the Palms - my friend and I thought it was time we did a club in Vegas; I never have in several visits. Booked tickets online - just the regular tickets for Ghostbar (about $36 each) and a VIP hosted bar one for Moon ($119 each). While the view from Ghostbar was amazing, it was really quiet and very expensive for drinks ($16 for a vodka and red bull and $9 for a bottle of beer). It only really got going a few mins before we left. Moon was good - it would've been expensive too but we had a hosted bar between 11pm-2am, and it was well used! The lift stops at the lounge, 1 floor below the club and no-one tells you! The music was OK but a little bit too much R&B for me. I found out after I got home that Groupon do VIP passes that include Moon (doh).
Hoover Dam - just went so my friend could see it (4th time for my OH and me). Walked halfway across the O'Callaghan-Tillman Memorial Bridge too for the awesome view. Only spent a couple of hours there - no-one wanted to do the tours.
Death Valley - we did a day trip to the National Park. It is possible but without stopping for lunch/dinner around the park, you only get about half a day at the park; enough to see only a small portion of it. A word of warning - we aimed to take the scenic route via the Tecopa Road/Old Spanish Trail but missed the turning as despite travelling at 70(-odd) mph, you only get about 100yds of warning that the turn is coming up! It's a very interesting place but not as spectacular as the Grand Canyon and S Utah NPs. However, the view from Dante's View is probably worth the trip alone. And it's hot in the valley!!
Ice Hockey at the Orleans Arena (LV Wranglers) - really enjoyed this. So much razzmatazz even at that level (might annoy some) but it was fun and the crowd are engaged all the time. We got better seats in the middle on halfway for $22 each. LV won too on a shootout. Only one fight though, disappointingly...
Cinema twice - saw Jack the Giant Slayer (pretty good) and Olmpus Has Fallen (very entertaining but laugh-out-loud cheesy! Think Die Hard meets Independence Day at the White House, but with extra cheddar).
Places we ate:
In-N-Out - 3 times! Fantastic burgers and terrific value. Apparently, there are now 12 locations around Vegas. Joy! Also saw Grant from Ghosthunters at the Dean Martin Dr location, which made my week! It was absolutely rammed when we first went, but they serve incredibly quick there. Don't be put off if it looks busy!
Orleans Buffet - had breakfast and dinner here. Both were reasonable and good value (especially with the Bconnected card). The Prime Rib dinner buffet was good, but the prime rib was a little rare. I had to console myself with three other types of rib.
Courtyard Cafe at the Orleans - pretty good food at reasonable prices. Open 24hrs, which was useful for the time we got to eat on the first night.
TGIs at the Orleans - consistently good food. Steaks, ribs and chicken fingers are very good and the vanilla bean cheesecake is to die for!
El Segundo Sol - using a R.com voucher. I had fajitas, which were OK but the food is pretty pricy for what it is. My girlfriend will testify that the sangria is pretty strong though! I asked if you could order off the Stripburger menu and happily received a 'yes' reply.
Gold Coast Buffet - had lunch here. A bargain $7.99 with a Bconnected card. There's a fairly wide choice and the food is pretty good.
Harley Davidson Cafe - used a $50 R.com voucher. Had chili to start and then ribs and chicken, which was very nice. Be careful when ordering a large beer off the menu - we ended up with souvenir glasses, which we didn't want. I thought $13.50 was expensive for a beer!
Peppermill - love their omelettes. Had a Maserati (omelette not car), which was lovely. Thought it might be odd with bolognese sauce but it was very tasty. Ate just after lunch and didn't eat again till the next day. Love their coffee too.
Memphis BBQ - tried this as I liked the look of it. While the ribs (yes, again) were meaty and tasty, we weren't convinced by the BBQ sauces - they seemed overly complex. Using vinegar in the sauce doesn't seem right to me.
Texas De Brazil - lovely. Not cheap, but the salad is awesome (so much so that my mate shied away from more meat for another plateful - sacrilege!) and the meat high quality and extremely tasty.
Weera Thai - thanks for the recommendation Ferf and others! We ate here for dinner. Lovely food and generous portions. Beware that medium spicy in the chicken in the Pepper Garlic Sauce is actually pretty damn spicy!! Very tasty though. My friend said the Teriyaki Chicken was the best he'd ever eaten.
Firefly tapas - very busy (and dark!) but the food was very nice. My only gripe was that they put cheese on everything! A seemingly common trait in the US. The one we went to is on Sahara but a long way away from the Strip.
Stripburger - The food was nice as usual but took at least 45mins to arrive. Way too long for burgers. And I have now promoted In-N-Out burgers above them for taste!
Gambling was pretty good for myself and my friend, though not so good for my OH. I won a fair bit on blackjack, some on slots and unbelievably won a few hundred on Keno in 3 decent wins!! (Never won more than $10 before.)
Highlight of the trip - seeing Huggy Bear in the Orleans Keno area! Awesome.0 -
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Wendell_Pierce wrote: »Whats up with the indicators ? :cool:
The arms don't move when you press them so you're never sure you've pressed them right, and they have a habit of switching off mid turn/lane change! I think they might stay on longer if you press them harder. Other people might get used to them but I didn't in 13 days! I still liked the car, however.
Edit: I should clarify that the arms do move (doh) but they don't change position like they do on normal cars. They just bounce back to the starting position. Weird.0 -
The arms don't move when you press them so you're never sure you've pressed them right, and they have a habit of switching off mid turn/lane change! I think they might stay on longer if you press them harder. Other people might get used to them but I didn't in 13 days! I still liked the car, however.
Oh right...thanks.
Just had a 2013 Lincoln MK X, didn't like the indicators either.
Had to move the arm to indicate, then it wouldn't self cancel, you had to move the arm back.
It was tricky, a lot of the time I moved the arm too far so it must have looked like I was turning left, then turning right, then turning left again.
By the end I almost had the hang of them.
Great trippie by the way.
0 -
Hi All, first time poster on the part of MSE. I am slowly making my way through the previous posts and currently am up to page 50. Although am struggling with some acronyms, language used.
We are two families, 4 adults and 2 children (13 & 12) who are off to Vegas and California in August. I am after any hints or tips on what you would all recommend we do, eat, see etc.
HEre is out plan so far
Fly Manchester to Vegas on 11th August
3 nights at New York New York
the Pick up hire car Full size SUV booked with Alamo
Drive to grand canyon, taking in the hoover dam
2 nights booked in Grand Canyon Inn, Williams
Drive to Los Angeles (Anaheim)
5 nights staying in Holiday Home in Anaheim
2 nights in Monterey (hotel)
3 nights in San Francisco(hotel)
2 nights in holiday home in Yosemite District park
Back to vegas for final night
Fly home to Manchester
Any hints, tips, advices gratefully received
Louise0 -
The arms don't move when you press them so you're never sure you've pressed them right, and they have a habit of switching off mid turn/lane change! I think they might stay on longer if you press them harder. Other people might get used to them but I didn't in 13 days! I still liked the car, however.
Edit: I should clarify that the arms do move (doh) but they don't change position like they do on normal cars. They just bounce back to the starting position. Weird.
I have had a car with indicators like that over here, cant remember if it was a Focus or an Astra, think it was the Astra (shape before current shape), drove me mad as like you say you never know if indicators are off or on0 -
Hi All, first time poster on the part of MSE. I am slowly making my way through the previous posts and currently am up to page 50. Although am struggling with some acronyms, language used.
We are two families, 4 adults and 2 children (13 & 12) who are off to Vegas and California in August. I am after any hints or tips on what you would all recommend we do, eat, see etc.
HEre is out plan so far
Fly Manchester to Vegas on 11th August
3 nights at New York New York
the Pick up hire car Full size SUV booked with Alamo
Drive to grand canyon, taking in the hoover dam
2 nights booked in Grand Canyon Inn, Williams
Drive to Los Angeles (Anaheim)
5 nights staying in Holiday Home in Anaheim
2 nights in Monterey (hotel)
3 nights in San Francisco(hotel)
2 nights in holiday home in Yosemite District park
Back to vegas for final night
Fly home to Manchester
Any hints, tips, advices gratefully received
Louise
No hints/tips but looks a fantastic road trip.
I have been to all except Monterey, you will have a great time0 -
Got back last week but sleep only just returning to normal patterns! This is pretty long and not really chronological:
Flew with BA (economy) for the first time ever and it was pretty much comparable to Virgin for the space and comfort. The food, service and IFE was marginally better though. Particularly liked being able to choose my own film though from several choices, and being able to pause/start, although the screen and headphones were crap. I did like the flight time too, which meant sleeping at home instead of a hotel and not getting up ridiculously early.
When we landed, took the shuttle to the car rental location. Used Holiday Autos to book and picked up from National. Had same guy who was on Alamo desk last year and he again tried to get us to upgrade - giving us the old 'if you're going up to the mountains, you need a more powerful car..etc.' spiel, despite the fact that this time we booked an intermediate and last year had a compact! When we went to pick up, we got a standard anyway! A lovely Ford Fusion, which we all enjoyed, except for the stoopid indicators that I hated!
Had 13 nights at the Orleans, which we love. It's comfortable, friendly and affordable - much more so than the Strip hotels we feel.
Some things we did:
Lots of shopping - at LV Premium Outlets North and South, A&C at Town Square, Ross and Marshalls. Great bargains.
Scoot City Red Rock tour using Groupon voucher - great fun. I did this with a mate as the missus wasn't bothered. We were a bit worried aboout looking like a couple but it was such a laugh and Red Rock Canyon is very nice. Beware that despite tours saying they start at 1pm, they actually pick you up from 30 mins before. I managed to miss this in the email and hence held everyone up. Oops.
Battlefield Vegas - while we're not gun nuts, we thought we'd give this a try using a Groupon. It was fun and interesting and the people there were friendly and professional. You can hire individual hand guns for $30-$40. The magnum shot by my friend was loud!
Ghostbar/Moon club at the Palms - my friend and I thought it was time we did a club in Vegas; I never have in several visits. Booked tickets online - just the regular tickets for Ghostbar (about $36 each) and a VIP hosted bar one for Moon ($119 each). While the view from Ghostbar was amazing, it was really quiet and very expensive for drinks ($16 for a vodka and red bull and $9 for a bottle of beer). It only really got going a few mins before we left. Moon was good - it would've been expensive too but we had a hosted bar between 11pm-2am, and it was well used! The lift stops at the lounge, 1 floor below the club and no-one tells you! The music was OK but a little bit too much R&B for me. I found out after I got home that Groupon do VIP passes that include Moon (doh).
Hoover Dam - just went so my friend could see it (4th time for my OH and me). Walked halfway across the O'Callaghan-Tillman Memorial Bridge too for the awesome view. Only spent a couple of hours there - no-one wanted to do the tours.
Death Valley - we did a day trip to the National Park. It is possible but without stopping for lunch/dinner around the park, you only get about half a day at the park; enough to see only a small portion of it. A word of warning - we aimed to take the scenic route via the Tecopa Road/Old Spanish Trail but missed the turning as despite travelling at 70(-odd) mph, you only get about 100yds of warning that the turn is coming up! It's a very interesting place but not as spectacular as the Grand Canyon and S Utah NPs. However, the view from Dante's View is probably worth the trip alone. And it's hot in the valley!!
Ice Hockey at the Orleans Arena (LV Wranglers) - really enjoyed this. So much razzmatazz even at that level (might annoy some) but it was fun and the crowd are engaged all the time. We got better seats in the middle on halfway for $22 each. LV won too on a shootout. Only one fight though, disappointingly...
Cinema twice - saw Jack the Giant Slayer (pretty good) and Olmpus Has Fallen (very entertaining but laugh-out-loud cheesy! Think Die Hard meets Independence Day at the White House, but with extra cheddar).
Places we ate:
In-N-Out - 3 times! Fantastic burgers and terrific value. Apparently, there are now 12 locations around Vegas. Joy! Also saw Grant from Ghosthunters at the Dean Martin Dr location, which made my week! It was absolutely rammed when we first went, but they serve incredibly quick there. Don't be put off if it looks busy!
Orleans Buffet - had breakfast and dinner here. Both were reasonable and good value (especially with the Bconnected card). The Prime Rib dinner buffet was good, but the prime rib was a little rare. I had to console myself with three other types of rib.
Courtyard Cafe at the Orleans - pretty good food at reasonable prices. Open 24hrs, which was useful for the time we got to eat on the first night.
TGIs at the Orleans - consistently good food. Steaks, ribs and chicken fingers are very good and the vanilla bean cheesecake is to die for!
El Segundo Sol - using a R.com voucher. I had fajitas, which were OK but the food is pretty pricy for what it is. My girlfriend will testify that the sangria is pretty strong though! I asked if you could order off the Stripburger menu and happily received a 'yes' reply.
Gold Coast Buffet - had lunch here. A bargain $7.99 with a Bconnected card. There's a fairly wide choice and the food is pretty good.
Harley Davidson Cafe - used a $50 R.com voucher. Had chili to start and then ribs and chicken, which was very nice. Be careful when ordering a large beer off the menu - we ended up with souvenir glasses, which we didn't want. I thought $13.50 was expensive for a beer!
Peppermill - love their omelettes. Had a Maserati (omelette not car), which was lovely. Thought it might be odd with bolognese sauce but it was very tasty. Ate just after lunch and didn't eat again till the next day. Love their coffee too.
Memphis BBQ - tried this as I liked the look of it. While the ribs (yes, again) were meaty and tasty, we weren't convinced by the BBQ sauces - they seemed overly complex. Using vinegar in the sauce doesn't seem right to me.
Texas De Brazil - lovely. Not cheap, but the salad is awesome (so much so that my mate shied away from more meat for another plateful - sacrilege!) and the meat high quality and extremely tasty.
Weera Thai - thanks for the recommendation Ferf and others! We ate here for dinner. Lovely food and generous portions. Beware that medium spicy in the chicken in the Pepper Garlic Sauce is actually pretty damn spicy!! Very tasty though. My friend said the Teriyaki Chicken was the best he'd ever eaten.
Firefly tapas - very busy (and dark!) but the food was very nice. My only gripe was that they put cheese on everything! A seemingly common trait in the US. The one we went to is on Sahara but a long way away from the Strip.
Stripburger - The food was nice as usual but took at least 45mins to arrive. Way too long for burgers. And I have now promoted In-N-Out burgers above them for taste!
Gambling was pretty good for myself and my friend, though not so good for my OH. I won a fair bit on blackjack, some on slots and unbelievably won a few hundred on Keno in 3 decent wins!! (Never won more than $10 before.)
Highlight of the trip - seeing Huggy Bear in the Orleans Keno area! Awesome.
Thanks for posting-really enjoyed it :A Your Always in my heart, you never ever will be forgotten-9/9/14:heart2:0 -
Hi All, first time poster on the part of MSE. I am slowly making my way through the previous posts and currently am up to page 50. Although am struggling with some acronyms, language used.
We are two families, 4 adults and 2 children (13 & 12) who are off to Vegas and California in August. I am after any hints or tips on what you would all recommend we do, eat, see etc.
HEre is out plan so far
Fly Manchester to Vegas on 11th August
3 nights at New York New York
the Pick up hire car Full size SUV booked with Alamo
Drive to grand canyon, taking in the hoover dam
2 nights booked in Grand Canyon Inn, Williams
Drive to Los Angeles (Anaheim)
5 nights staying in Holiday Home in Anaheim
2 nights in Monterey (hotel)
3 nights in San Francisco(hotel)
2 nights in holiday home in Yosemite District park
Back to vegas for final night
Fly home to Manchester
Any hints, tips, advices gratefully received
Louise
Hi Louise,
Trip sounds great, we did a similar(ish) trip in 2010 and stayed in Monterey. We stayed in the Intercontinental The Clement and it was awesome. I highly recommend the Aquarium (especially if you have little ones) and a restaurant on Cannery Row called The Fish Hopper (superb).
In SF we stayed in Fisherman's Wharf - if you want to go to Alcatraz (was great) I'd recommend buying tickets online ahead of arrival as queues were long and sold out all morning. Also we did one of the open top bus tour thingy's (not usually our cup of tea but were at a loose end and got a great deal off a guy on the street). It took us all around and you could hop on/off where you liked. It took us over the GG Bridge, into a gorgeous huge park with a museum, Haight St, downtown, all over really. Deffo be great with kids too. Ohhhh, also Ghiradelhi Choc Factory is worth a stop, if only for free choc samples and is within walking distance of the Wharf.
All I would say is that the drive out from SF to Yosemite is quite taxing but as you will have been driving around for a few days ahead of arriving there you should be fine.
Have a great time!PM me if you need more info on LA/Monterey/Yosemite/SF or Vegas of course!:staradmin There is no normal, only typical :staradmin0
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