Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2014

Hi Pebblemax
A few people did get up for more food as far as I remember, we had enough so did not bother trying again. (the bacon was incredible)
It was loudish but not blaring if you know what I mean, the singers were great and we were right at the front.
We did not book actual tables just arrived and got in line, we were with a couple of people from the LV4E board who we met there and we just told them 4 at the door and they took us to seats. The main floor is long tables.
We are there on Sunday 21st (taking my daughter this time as well)
We have the VIP HOB card via MyVegas which also gets us up to the foundation room for drinks - from what I have heard food will be to expensive but we just want to see the view so will probably only have a couple of drinks. We are looking to do that on our first full day (Mon 15th early evening to see it change from light to dark)

Update, just starting our 5th day.its muscle car challenge day and I succumbed and shelled out 300 to go see MJ one tonight.

Have eaten at Tommy Bahamas at town sq was OK but not great

Silver ton buffet last night was very good and only cost 10 dollars for the 2 of us on senior day.

Gambling still not great although have had a few 60 and 80 dollar wins on penny machines,

Wife has bought some cowboy boots as she has always wanted some, don't know when she will wear tho as she usually wears heels.

At flamingo nw on 18th floor overlooking Cromwell...no nightclub noise. In a go room its very nice. A tip to check in.....we had an email yesterday morning about checking in online, I did it and asked for room to b available at 1330. It was ready without any early check in charge and we walked past the very long check in line and picked up keys in a matter of seconds

pebblesmax wrote: »

We saw them last year. (I think.) we both really enjoyed the show.

That's good that you enjoyed them, I bought a greatest hits CD on the strength of buying tickets and know at least half of the songs on it which surprised me.


Not much else that I fancy seeing over Thanksgiving, Alice Cooper and Justin Timberlake are both on, but we seen them last year. We might do Penn & Teller or Terry Fator but will probably wait until we are there.

I've been home for a week now so I thought I'd do a bit of a trip report. I went for 12 days this time and it was me, hubby and my dad. I've not been to Vegas for a few years so it was good to be back.

Flights
Flew Virgin premium economy as I wasn't impressed with BAs PE when I went to Asia last year. However, not overly impressed with Virgins either. Return flight was awful. Stuck on the plane for over an hour before the return without the cooling system working so it was like an oven. No pre-dinner drinks and one small soft drink with dinner. All soft drinks had run out half way through the flight (God knows how, they certainly hadn't been serving any) and only a small glass of warm orange squash offered. Think I'll stick to a US carrier and a connection in future.

Hotels
4 nights at Encore. My dad (who has spent a maximum of $10 gambling at the Wynn in the past) was emailed a decent rate of $120 a night so we booked this. Rooms on the 60th floor facing north so no noise from the club. Pool was quiet each morning and very relaxing.

3 nights at Caesars in the Octavius tower. Very nice rooms, we had one pool view and one partial fountain view. I took the pool view which I preferred. It's not too far to walk to the strip as I found the side entrance quicker when walking over to the Bellagio. Pools again were quiet on a morning and no problems finding seats before 10am even on a weekend.

4 nights at Aria, corner suite for me and a regular room for dad. I loved the corner suite, it had a slightly different layout to the one I had last time. The bedroom was the corner room and the living room had a better layout. Last time the bathroom was the corner and the living room seemed more of a square pokey shape. I like the pools here, you can get a normal seat next to the water unlike the Encore and Caesars where you have to pay for the big bed things.

Car hire
I booked and pre-paid fuel for a dollar car at TI as I don't like driving straight from a long haul flight. I used whatever car hire 3000 became.

Shopping
My hobby and the main reason for flying PE was for the luggage allowance I could bring back. I don't think I was as successful as previous trips though as I only bought 7 pairs of shoes and half the stock of a Bath and Body. I did find the south outlets much better this time as I never used to like it much. They've added better shops since I was last there. I didn't enjoy the north outlets as much as I used to, maybe because it was so hot during the day and it was far too crowded. I went out to Primm as I needed to go to the Hollister outlet for presents but there wasn't much else here worth buying which was a shame as I used to find loads of stuff there. I think the problem I'm finding with outlets now is everything is made for outlet stock so not great quality, a few years ago it seemed easier to find bargains from the real shops in the outlets. I also went to Town Square a couple of times, Victorias Secret and Abercrombie had better bargains than the Fashion Show Mall.

Food
We tried not to have too much but it's hard in the US!

Wazuzu at Encore
This was a fantastic meal. It serves all sorts of Asian food but we had an excellent Malyasian curry and spicy noodles here. Not too expensive either.

Estiatorio Milos at the Cosmopolitan.
Went for the $22 set lunch which was fantastic value. We had salmon, Greek salad and humus starters, sea bass and chicken skewer mains and greek yoghurt with strawberry dessert. I highly recommend this and was probably my favourite meal.

Morels at the Palazzo
Lunch again. We had a fondue and charcuterie plate for starters followed by beef dip and croque Monsieur mains. Far too much food as we were stuffed after the starter and we'd only ordered fondue for 2 and 3 meats between the 3 of us. Service was very attentive and I'd definately go back.

DB Brasserie at the Venetian
I wanted to go here as I love the Piggie burger at the Bar Boulud in London. Had it here and it was excellent. They have the best mini madeleines I've ever tasted for dessert too. Just 2 of us for this meal but we had 3 courses and champagne cocktails and I think the bill was still only about $100 so good value.

The Henry at the Cosmopolitan
Went in for dinner late one night. Excellent beef dip sandwiches, best ones I've had in Vegas so far.

Central in Caesars
Another late night snack / dinner where I discovered chilli cheese fries. They must have had about 5000 calories but they were good.

Jaleo at Aria
Had dinner here. Shared 6 tapas and then a paella (for 2) and one churro so for dessert between the three of us. Excellent meal and more than enough food (there was a table of 5 Americans next to us who shared what seemed like 5 tapas dishes between them and looked incredibly miserable, I don't think they realised tapas is a small dish!).

Aria Cafe
Really good sandwiches for lunch. Around $20 each but we had $50 resort credit per room each day.

In N Out
Went a couple of times, needs no explanation :rotfl:

Buffets
Wynn breakfast buffet. We had free buffets for each room so went for breakfast. Good selection and I love pizza and corned beef hash with a potsticker for breakfast!

Cosmopolitan lunch buffet
Disappointing. No turkey and no mash! It's my favourite thing at a buffet. I couldn't find a single potato product (I know I shouldn't go to high end buffets and fill up in carbs but that's what I like). Asian selection wasn't great, no Mexican and no macaroons for dessert. The quality seemed bad compared to a few years ago.

Aria dinner buffet
I wanted my turkey and mash and I got it here! I was pleasantly surprised by the dinner buffet. Good selection of food with some Indian food and a good salad bar.

Caesars lunch buffet
By far the best and worth doing over any others. No queue when we went and an excellent choice of food for none seafood eaters like me. Asian selection was excellent with many noodles, curries and other things, fresh taco making, fried chicken, mini sliders, POTATOES in many varieties, good pizza. I didn't eat for another 24 hours after this so it was good!

Secret Pizza at Cosmo
I think it was good, it was very late!

The pizza place in Aria
Good pizza slice, I used some myvegas points for it and a beer.

Grimaldis at Palazzo
Good pizza, salad starter was more than big enough for 3 of us with a large pizza.

Other stuff we did

I think it was Stoneman's TR who recommended the Pro gun club at Boulder City. This was fantastic. We all had a hand gun and a semi automatic each and only cost $300 in total. Went for 8 am and had a fab time. Then went to Boulder City which was very pretty and I really liked it. I also found an amazing branch of the 99cent store where I stocked up on goodies for the room and stuff to take home for my classroom!

The Pawn Store. My dad watches the programme and wanted to go. I wasn't keen but I went in and managed to buy some jewellery! There is also a great antique store opposite where I bought some old number plates.

Fremont Street
Didn't stay long as I didn't like not being able to take my drink to the next casino without putting it in plastic.

The Cromwell
I really liked this. I liked the drink ordering system and had lots of drink here.

The Quad
I liked the outside area, seemed really nice. A good branch of Kitson too!

My dad and hubby went to see Love using myvegas points. Not my sort of thing so I went to Sephora but they enjoyed it.

Afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental
This was very good. You need to book but it's really reasonably priced. We had the champagne option for $58 each but the regular one is $38 which is cheap compared to London prices.

Overall we had a great time. Not sure when I'll be back but I'm considering a Seattle to San Fran road trip next year and then flying to Vegas at the end for 5 days.

photome wrote: »

Update, just starting our 5th day.its muscle car challenge day and I succumbed and shelled out 300 to go see MJ one tonight.

I can't wait to hear what you think - I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

I am not good with change but I am going to check out Alamo Brits now...first time ages we're picking up from the airport and while I'm Express and it's normally fine I like the sound of your experience...did you get to choose your car from the lot or was one assigned to you? And how far before you were due to pick up could you check in online?