Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2013

stu1892 wrote: »

My trip report, not very MSE friendly and some of it became a bit of a blur!

15th May - Took off from Manchester through Thomas Cook. Decent flight, decent leg room (but i'm 5'5 ). IFE wasn't great and you couldn't control what you watched and had to wait for longest movie to finish before the others started again. I had my iPad though, watching Boardwalk Empire trying to hide the raunchy scenes from passers by.

Mandalay Bay check in was a little awkward due to the way Thomas Cook booked through wholesalers, and as it happened we didn't try $20 trick due to the confusion. It wasn't booked in my name and the person who it was under didn't know about it. 11th floor, mountain view sounded disappointing, but just glad to be there.

Room was great. Deluxe 550, so their most basic room, but it was very comfortable, very clean and the view still wasn't bad and when I think about it. I was only sleeping in there.

That night we decided to stop in our hotel bars, casino and restaurants. Making our way through a load of cocktail lists. My favourite being an Russian Apple Pie at Red Square! The sight of the barmaids in there might have made the drinks taste better, though.

Mixx at the top of THEHotel was great. The pictures of the view do not do it justice at all. Stunning.

I couldn't tear myself from the dance floor in EyeCandy to go for food that night, but some others went to Citizens.

16th - We went to the Luxor for a buffet breakfast. Mainly due to proximity and it was the first 'other' hotel we went to. $15, i think for Breakfast. Having been to Florida a couple of times, the buffet wasn't out of the ordinary. Not special at all. Some stuff was only luke warm too. There was an offer where you could pay $35 and have the breakfast, lunch and dinner buffet there and / or Excalibur. It certainly didn't convince me.

That night we headed to MGM, just to have a word with the staff at Hakkasan to make sure we didn't need our passports for the pre-sale tickets we had planned. Thankfully we didn't. So knowing we'd be there tomorrow, we headed to New York.
NY was brilliant. We gambled a little had a few drinks in one of the bars central to the casino. Didn't bother with Coyote Ugly because we had such an amazing night in the Irish bar with Duelling Pianos, we didn't leave until CU had closed. Probably the only place where everybody was hammered. All ages and nationalities on the tables, having a great time.

A couple of us ended up in Hooters after that, when walking home. That was weird. The bar seemed dark, quiet like it had closed and we were having a 'lock-in'.

17th - Bit of a late start as i don't think we got in until 9am. Tropicana for breakfast. It was a beach club cafe, which i can't remember the name of. Fairly priced and I had a chow mien dish which was fantastic, the others having steak and eggs. Walked that off (and then some) walking all the way to the Caesars Palace and back, popping in various places en route. Pretty tired and a bit irritable after that. It was blazing sunshine and i didn't have my hat. Thankfully i didn't get burnt.

After a disco nap, we were all still pretty tired. Decided to start at NY, have dinner there before heading to MGM. We ate at Il Fornaio. My dish wasn't bad. I had a fish dish with various shell fish, salmon and white fish. Others tried Veal for the first time and thought it was disgusting.

We started to perk up at a bar or two in NY, before heading over to MGM and seeing the huge lines for Hakkasan. Thankfully the pre-sale queue was the shortest, but still out of the door.

Probably the best night club i've been to. Brand new build, amazing lighting and sound systems. Extremely busy but not ridiculously cramped. $15 for Vodka and Orange, which i've paid a hell of a lot more for in Ibiza. Also, they gave you a choice of vodka for the same price! Ibiza would be cheapest of the cheap, whereas i was drinking Grey Goose for that $15.

Amazing night. Got out of there at about 8am (maybe) headed to Hooters on the way home. Continued drinking in there, having a blast and headed home.

18th - I still haven't been back to bed. We went straight to Mandalay beach. Had a great time with an American couple we befriended. Buying me shots for my birthday, tomorrow. Back to the room at about 3pm, worse for wear. Woke up at around midnight… Went back out, just to Mandalay Casino for some gambling. Did pretty well on roulette and ended the night at Citizens for a Steak at 4am! (Avoid smothered tots for a side. Deep fried potato tots on top of cheese, smothered in turkey gravy and more cheese. Far too much for me).

19th - My Birthday! Bayside buffet in Mandalay seemed convenient for everyone. Looked a hell of a lot better than Luxor. But i was feeling a little light headed after my 30hr boozing session and didn't have too much and ended up paying $30 for a bit of scrambled egg and some fruit.

Burger Bar in Mandalay Shoppes was very good. Went there a couple of times.

Spent the night gambling at Caesars Palace and hitting some bars in and around there. Back to Mandalay late on for a little more gambling with what we had left in our pockets and a birthday cigar (for some reason). Doing so-so on Roulette until i was starting to run low on my winnings (put original $25 chips into my pocket. Sensible ) and a friend said 11 just before No More Bets. So i put $5. It only dropped in along a couple of other bets! So that was a great way to end my birthday with some whooping and hollering!

20th - Everyone feeling hungry and fresh. We walked to Aria for The Buffet. Fantastic. It was 11am and we didn't take up the option of unlimited alcohol which would have only been $13 more. Fresh shell fish and a huge variety of cuisines and everything was good. So we all put ourselves into a bit of pain taking advantage of it. $30 well spent.

This was the last night of drinking we had planned as we didn't want to get on a ten hour flight with the slightest hint of a hangover even though, none of us ever felt bad all week!
We headed to the Venetian and Palazzo and had a good night in certain lounges and a bar inside Venetian. Sadly the clubs were shut and the Venetian wasn't 'wild'. Great place though. Ended up at a bar which was a bit wilder in there called Rockhouse. Pretty good. Decent music, 2 for 1 drinks and beer pong tables. Back to Mandalay with a bit of money left over and ended up doing ok on Roulette again.

21st - Last night. Everyone a little depressed about it being our last day but we planned to go to Mastro's Ocean Club at Aria. Pricey, but not as much as we thought. Worth it too. I had a Lobster sushi roll and a 22oz rib eye bone in. Others had a lobster cocktail starter, swordfish, fillet mignot and every dish was amazing. Shared sides of scalloped potatoes, asparagus, saut!ed mushrooms and some seasalt and vinegar fries (for the unadventurous). Can't recommend the place enough and we were seated in the 'treehouse' which was great.

Headed back to the hotel, absolutely stuffed and won pretty well on roulette and brought $300 back even after duty free.

Flight wasn't bad, but the take off sounded like someone twisting a coke can which was a bit eery.

Fantastic end to a fantastic holiday. Now we're looking to go back and the numbers don't add up, just now

NOTE: I've wrote this on the fly and had a terrible autocorrect!

stu1892 wrote: »

Just remembered. On the last night we went to see the Bellagio fountains. We had a fantastic view.

It wasn't that great. I don't think it was 5 minutes long and just some generic 'Disney' music.

I've been assured by others that have seen it, that it was longer and to some kind of popular song. 'Time to Say Goodbye' and even the 'Titanic' screeching by Celine Dion.