Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2014

For My Vegas players, 1000 free LPs:

https://apps.facebook.com/playmyvegas/Coupon/mgm/C2QCPZ

March 28 - April 2

Travel - We travelled from LGW with Virgin. Booked the Premier Inn eat, sleep, fly package which included valet parking. Nice quiet hotel room, decent breakfast and the valet parking was excellent. So nice not to have to faff around getting buses to and from car parks.
The flight with Virgin had a lot of stag parties on, the bar was dry within 4 hours and they ran out of coke etc not long after as people are drinking their own booze and using the virgin drinks for mixers. On all accounts this is not allowed. This resulted in a passenger being moved (to rapturous applause from that section of the plane) and escorted off by the police on landing. Between that and Virgin boarding the plane more than an hour early we were on the plane for a very long time.

Hotel - 5 nights at the Vdara in a deluxe suite which is the base level room. I had emailed in advance to let them know it was an anniversary/birthday trip. We got a great room on the 30th floor with a view of the bellagio fountains and there was some chocolates and a nice card for our occasions. We found the room to be excellent. Small kitchenette, separate living area, large bathroom and a super king bed. No complaints at all! The parking is valet only and we used this on the last day for checkout. The rest the time we parked in the aria self park and got the tram over. We were back in the room in under ten minutes most times. Simple to get from the room to the strip and only took a short amount of time. Really enjoyed being mid strip as last time we stayed at NYNY.

Activities - The neon museum was excellent and for $18 you get an in depth tour and can take as many photos as you want. The only way to do it is on a tour and you are escorted at all time.
We also saw Penn and Teller at the Rio, I had bought tickets before we went on a travelzoo offer. We got excellent seats right at the front of the mezzanine in the centre. We took the opportunity to meet both of the guys after the show and got an excellent selfie with Teller who was taking all of his own photos. Both of them were very good at managing the crowd as there was no real system.
Otherwise it was some shopping and low level gambling on the slot machines, biggest win was $30, so we're not high rollers by any stretch.
I had a great run on a giants gold machine but it made a very loud and repetitive noise that by the end I was praying that I wouldn't get any more free spins!

In the months before we went I did social rewards on mine and OHs twitter and Facebook accounts and managed to get $140 dollars in total. We spent this on two breakfasts, drinks at P&T and food and drinks at margaritaville. We had a few dollars left which we used up on a Las Vegas christmas decoration as we collect one everywhere we go. We got this in the shop at Ballys.

Food - we had two (free) breakfasts at the spice market buffet as it was nearby. All of the standard American fare plus a crepe and egg station. Perfectly pleasant but not gourmet by any stretch.
Outback - well we had to go and try the blooming onion especially after all the talk on here. It was not but pretty greasy and I'm not too bothered about having one again. The steak was excellent for the price. We went to the coke bottle location and the service was fine but a little over the top.
Triple 7 brewpub (Main Street station) we had been here on our last visit and my OH loved the craft beer. We had a few beers with some wings, sliders and mozzarella sticks whilst enjoying some sport on the TVs. Would recommend if you're into beer/sport/bar food.
In and out - I'm a big fan and we went for the double double animal style with animal style fries. Excellent as always. We sat outside and enjoyed our lunch in the sunshine. Perfect.
Cheesecake Factory - it was really noisy in here and there were lots of small children despite it being 9.30 when we arrived. Enjoyed the meal and cocktails but were too full for cheesecake so got that to go.
Ihop - I have a special fondness for ihop so we go every trip. This time we used the location on South Maryland by the boulevard mall. Yummy food and good service as always.
Wicked spoon buffet - We went here last visit and loved it so it was a toss up between here and the buffet at caesars. The queue at caesars everything we walked past put us right off so we want back to the wicked spoon. It was just as good as we remembered and they have improved the dessert selection since last time. Excellent gelato. It was $38+ tax for dinner which I felt was reasonable. There was no queue or scrum at the food stations although there were quite a lot of people inside. During the week the cocktails are $5 instead of $15 between 5-7 so we had one or two. Rude not too at that price.
Rollin smoke BBQ - Best meal of the holiday. We went around 1pm and found it easily enough on a small strip mall not far off the strip. Dont let the humble surroundings put you off. Between two of us we had the four meat/three side platter for $20. We had brisket, pulled pork, hot links and spare ribs with waffle fries, onion strings and beans. The brisket and spare ribs were the stand out items. It deserves it's accolade of being best BBQ in Vegas and top 20 in the ecountry.
Margaritaville - popped in for cocktails and nachos as we weren't hungry enough for dinner and had some credits to use. Well the nachos were massive and very tasty. It was really loud in here and the music got a little irritating after a while.
Carlos bake shop - we went the day after it opened at around 9pm. There was a small queue and they were still settling in to the system. You take a ticket, order when your number is called (it can be difficult to see the counters) then someone makes up your order and your number is called again when it's ready so you can pay. It wasn't cheap ($8 for a cannoli and a brownie) but I'm a fan of the show so wanted to try it. The cannoli was yummy but my OH said the brownie was just ok. They also sell merchandise and I got a mug to bring home.

Well I think that's everything, we had a great holiday and can't wait to go back.

Hope that helps someone.

ferf1223 wrote: »

I read this out to hubby and he's now bouncing around like a toddler saying 'can we go? can we go?'

We may go.

Thank you for that and the rest of your TR. As for your experience on Giant's Gold I had to laugh as I have never had the feature and know all about the noises it makes when the eggs land (for me never enough for what I need).

It was epic and the red onion strings were fantastic. My OH has not shut up about it since we left. He wishes we had gone on day 1 so we could have gone back.

I was down to my last dollar on giants gold when I hit the free spins and then got two extra lots of free spins during it. Reckon I had 50+ in the end. I could hear fee fi fo fum ringing in my ears for days after. Think I cashed out at around $20.

We also did kiss mini golf which was a cheap and entertaining way to spend an hour or so. It's close to the hard rock hotel.

gracie10 wrote: »

Can someone remind me which tower/rooms are best at Caesars? A friends been asking me and I know some rooms are dodgy lol

In order of least to most dodgy

Octavius
Augustus
Palace
Forum
Roman

There may be an argument on Palace/Forum...the former are bigger and pretty nice, the latter are more recently refurbished but smaller...the former are very close to the pool (come out of lift, walk forward, at pool), the latter is more convenient for access out of the property and the self-park. We're booked in Forum and are currently trying to decide if we are offered Palace will we take it? It seems like it takes forever to get out of Caesars from Palace tower.

Octavius/Augustus have the best placement in terms of access and are the nicest (Octavius is the newest tower)...you don't have to walk through the casino to get out of the property either.