Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2014

I always go to Sainsburys now for both dollars and euros.

Here's our trip report of sorts...trying not to cover all the 'usual' stuff again and mainly cover the new/highlights for us. It will probably be really rambling as always.

Flights

Flew Virgin via Chicago and onward with AA after visiting with family for a few days. Virgin outbound in PE to ORD (the non-on-demand IFE was a bit startling, how barbaric), AA in economy (paid for extra legroom seats and thought it was worth it), home we had upgraded to upper at the time of booking...the upgrade price seemed too good to pass up (about £325 which I acknowledge is not an insignificant amount of money but at the time we thought we would never get the chance again - that was before we were unexpectedly upgraded on the way home earlier in the year). Nothing remarkable to note on any flights but it was nice to try the lounge at LAS. We knew it wasn't a particularly exciting lounge but it was nice enough.

For the return leg, we did do our normal head to check-in when it opened (at this point it was 12:40) to get rid of the cases and get that all done and then headed back to the strip for a quick lunch before dropping off the car. It was a lot nicer when check-in opened at 11 as we had much more time to spend between checking in and dropping the car off but I still like avoiding the faff of dragging cases on and off the shuttle and standing in a long queue and all that.

Car hire

After the good reviews here and as we were picking up at the airport for the first time in ages we did try Alamo via the Alamo Brits link photome posted. We would go this route in the future on those trips we pick up straight after arrival as it was a good experience all around. Other than a short (10 mins) delay due to lack of cars in the class we reserved we ended up with an upgrade and a car with about 500 miles on it. Being able to check in online and go straight to the lot was a big plus too.

Hotels

Caesars - 6 nights

When we were looking to book we noticed an oddity via Total Rewards...at Caesars we could get a Roman or Forum Tower room comped and, for no good reason, an Octavius Tower 2 queen room comped...not Palace Tower, not Augustus Tower and not Octavius king...but Octavius 2 queen. Took about 3 seconds for us to go for it and until we were in the room I was convinced we would be advised of a !!!! up on their booking system.

The room was lovely but other than it being new it didn't seem significantly different to the Augustus Tower other than being a bit further from reception and valet - but it was a really, really nice room. I am quite cross we did not take a video of it as we will likely never see this room again.

We have stayed in the Augustus Tower a couple of times but this was the first time the valet told us to call down and let them know we were on our way and they would get our car organized for us.

Parking is the only thing that annoys me in these towers as self-park is not realistic as it is soooo far from the room and we do sometimes like to nip out quickly and at short notice...but we just planned around it and the tip about calling down to valet meant we only waited a very short time.

Cosmo - 4 nights

We each had 2 nights comped in a Terrace Studio...previously we have always upgraded to a Terrace One Bedroom and it wasn't offered and we didn't ask. I was nervous we would get to the room and be disappointed but to the contrary - we loved the room. First time we have had a City Center view so that was nice - though fountain view would normally be our preference this was nice because it was different. LOVE the parking here...super easy particularly if you go down to B4...we parked just by the lift every day and the lifts from the garage to the lobby are steps from the lifts to the rooms.

I do find it annoying when the entire fridge is taken up by minibar stuff but we coped and did use the freezer as usual (Jimmy Dean's breakfast biscuits thanks to the microwave as well).

Really do love the rooms here, even if we're not really the casino's target demographic. Great location, too.

Mirage

Hubby had 2-nights comped here and we used them to assist with the MV rewards that require a hotel stay. We did take the opportunity to check out the pool and it's just lovely...we haven't been to many Vegas pools but it's our favourite now - just a really nice layout with the waterfalls, etc...wish we had spent more time here.

Drinks

I had one drink from a cocktail waitress and it was a Miami Vice at Bellagio...after years of meaning to try one after stoneman making me aware I finally did. It was lovely and I will have one again sometime. I also bought a couple of overpriced drinks at the Caesars pool, the bar out front of Binion's (Love You Long Time it was called and it was like drinking cherry juice...dangerous), etc...I just don't like to wait for a drink at the slots, I'm a grazer on the machines, I want to get up and go when I'm ready. And I'm not that fussed about drinking in general so I just don't order when I am asked. Hubby found the best cocktail service at Cosmo near the front, near the bar with the music and girls dancing on the bar (I am not sure if the cocktail service is what kept him here or something else). ...other than that we picked up a couple of 6-packs of Angry Orchard at Walmart and usually left the room for the night with one in hand.

Shows

Shania Twain - I had wanted to see her for ages and with her run coming to the end this was the last chance. I enjoyed the show but had thought I would know more of her songs - I guess she continued on significantly after I stopped listening to country music. It was worth seeing, I thought, and I'm glad to have ticked it off the list.

Since Raiding the Rock Vault closed and since we never got ourselves in gear to arrange anything else, that was it.

Other than the Bellagio fountains where we watched a few shows...one night we went and it was something boring and I said to hubby 'If there was a schedule and I knew that Time to Say Goodbye was next I would stay but knowing my luck it would be The Pink Panther (again)'...he suggested we go in and have a look at the chocolatier as I wanted to do and then come back out in time for the next show, up on the hotel side beyond valet...which we did...and it was Time to Say Goodbye. And there were tears and tissues involved.

Food

Aria buffet - we have really loved this before and I would not normally mention it, but we had a 2-dinner buffets via MV (again, we have both had the reward before but it let us get it again). It was still good-ish...but seems to us to have gone downhill from previous trips...certain things were still there but the quality seemed to have slipped (the beloved dim sum, for example)...which was a bit of a shame as we were really looking forward to it.

Haute Doggery at The Linq - I do like a good hot dog. This was quick and OK (Pink's is better)...the fries and onion rings were excellent and I noticed that they have poutine on the menu which I have wanted to try for years but it didn't really go with the bacon/jalepeno dog I ordered so I left it for another time. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it overall particularly for the price and other options available but it served a purpose and was good enough at the time...hubby was not very hungry so this actually worked out well as it was so quick.

Diablo's - we had the $50 MV dining credit for MC and after some discussion decided to try Diablo's as we had not been before...really quite enjoyed it, we don't really eat much Mexican food and so it was something a bit different to normal. Would I crawl over broken glass to go back? Unlikely, but for free it was a great choice for us.

Gordon Ramsay Burgr - this was on the must do list and we did. Glad we did, wouldn't rush back. The food was good as was the service (except for the iPad drink ordering thing which was annoying when the waiter seemed to think we were just stupid when it kept reverting to a previous order no matter what we did to clear it and start over). I liked my Hell's Kitchen burger well enough but there are other (cheaper) burgers I prefer so unlikely we'll be back.

R Steakhouse at Riviera - via Groupon. A good friend raved about the crab cakes when we met up with her in Vegas last trip so when photome mentioned the Groupon I figured we had to try it. Really enjoyed our meal and would go back. The $5 cocktails were really, really strong too - so much so that my hubby and a lady on another table had to send them back to be watered down a bit as they were undrinkable. Unlike many Vegas steakhouses the steaks come with a side salad or soup and a baked potato or mash. We forgot to order other sides but it was just as well as we had more than enough food. We both had the filet and it was great and the crab cakes were excellent too.

Casinos

Only new casino for us was SLS and we had planned a MV BOGOF monorail day but one night we made a spontaneous decision to go downtown on the SDX...realised that it stops at SLS so made our way up there the next day to get more use out of our bus pass. It was OK. I won $5 and hubby won $9 freeplay. As a new casino all the machines are new and they had a lot of new slots as well. Not sure I could see any reason to make a special trip back there but it was nice enough and very easy on the SDX, there and back.

Gambling

We make no excuses - we do like to gamble and do spend a fair amount of time playing slots. It's the thing we splurge on. We don't like table games even though the logical part of our brains tell us we should play them instead. We spent the better part of the first 2.5 days gambling and it didn't go all that well but things turned around a bit.

TONS of new machines from our trip earlier this year - some good, some not so good. I have decided I am tired of new machines with stacked symbols where you get a load of 5-of-a-kinds and win $0.60. They annoy me. I am also tired of new machines where you trigger the bonus and then have to spin a wheel to see if you will actually get to play a bonus or just get a lame credit value (later I came to accept these machines as maybe OK, maybe). Annoying.

We LOVED Jurassic Park - played absolutely for ages and ages at Bellagio and had loads of bonus rounds and walked away significantly up.

Walking away from Jurassic Park we tried Beetlejuice and hubby had a really really good win there too (on the Lydia feature which was appropriate given he has a thing for Winona Ryder)...I loved watching him play Beetlejuice but throughout the trip it never gave me a feature, ever.

Avatar we avoided (neither of us really liked the movie that much) until our last 30 mins before heading to the airport but both had a lot of fun at Luxor and between us we ended the session up.

We had a lot of ups and downs but the rest of the trip was a lot more even than the first few days which were dire. I think after those days we both finished with plenty of our daily budget in our pockets, usually because one or the other had decent win or two to top both of us up.

And this is trip 20 something for us...and hubby had both of these within 3 days of each other...

Second biggest win ever.

Mad Men, Aria...I wanted to play it - I love the show. He HATES the show but was willing to try a new machine...we both played $20 at $1 a spin and declared it rubbish. Hubby had had a good day and decided to play 10 more spins at $2/spin and this happens...he triggered the bonus...the dreaded wheel spun to determine if he would get to play a bonus or win some crappy credits and instead of ticking over to 2x as we expected it stopped on the Don Draper progressive! $1,036!



It was very exciting...there was hooting and hollering, I realised before him - he thought he was just getting a chance to PLAY FOR the Don Draper progressive (like on Sex and the City) not that he had WON it...there was no fanfare from the machine, just what you can see in the picture, bonus win value stated, that's it. I was slightly miffed it was him and not me (no fair!) but he gave me 1/2 of it so that made up for it.

And then the last night at Cosmo, I had gone up to the room earlier and he comes out on the balcony and shows me this video which we reckon is our 4th highest win ever.

http://youtu.be/QY29jInUaCU

So gambling-wise, it was not the car crash it started out as!

And we did have a nice lunch at GVR (MV again) with pebbles and Tony - always nice to see those two and looking forward to seeing them in March when we are bringing my in-laws again.

Thanks for reading and any questions I'll do my best to answer...and thanks to everyone here (and particularly trets - he'll come back one day I just know it, photome, and secretmachines for keeping the thread alive) for all of the great info you guys share here that makes our trips that much better.

Hi Hovis - we booked the extra legroom seats at the time we booked our internal flight from ORD to LAS...looking back it looks like it was about £30 each but that also included one checked piece of luggage each...you may be able to check what it would cost to upgrade to the main cabin extra seats only?

https://www.aa.com/i18n/urls/mainCabinExtra.jsp?anchorLocation=DirectURL&title=maincabinextra


I think TI rooms have mini fridges, at least those we have stayed in have done.

Hope you have a great trip and that the gambling gods are kind to you.

Well booked vegas again :j. Off for a week too see how crazy it is over new years.

Slightly annoyed TI who normally give me good comps would only do 1 night! MGM where i stayed and dropped aload though in the summer nothing was coming up on mlife.

But even though i didnt gamble loads with caesars group hotels managed to bag 5 nights comp in a Flamingo Go room :money:

Hoping to repeat my £3k win Jericho Missile feature on IronMan

Just checked our booking and we are in main cabin extra on the Chicago-LV and LV -Chicago flights.We are going to check in early at the airport and see what's available on the day for the other longer flights.