Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009

ratkarth

The Bellagio Fountains

the reason ive booked so early was that i was able to prepay when it was 1.68 $=£ (with no cancellation charge) so that if (and in my opinion) when sterling plummets further I won't loose out (and if it picks up i can cancel booking and rebook nearer time!)
havent seen mandalay bay etc on hotel.com
will have a hunt

luci

The Bellagio Fountains

pebblesmax wrote: »

1 - Excalibur $388. (inc gym pass + 2 drinks) Widescreen Tower room.
2 - MGM $429 (inc nothing except familiarity.) Grand Tower room.

Neither offer has food credit, but the Excalibur gives us two free drinks. Because of the free gym passes for Tony, I'm leaning towards the Excalibur. (That and the fact we can tick one more property off our to do list)

Opinions please. BTW we arrive May 4th. in case that makes a difference.

How many nights is that for? My first thought was, if it was just for a couple of nights, to go with the Excalibur. Reasons being Tony will use the gym and the experience of a new hotel.

However I really liked the MGM Grand Tower room and the pool is great, not that I used it as I'm not a pool person.

luci

The Bellagio Fountains

jackieblack wrote: »

That's good to hear!

We're starting our trip in April with a few days in Las Vegas :j , staying at the Excalibur (our daughter's choice).
Can anyone please advise whether there is anything particular we should ask for when we check in, eg is one tower better/more recently refurbished than the other? Is it better to be on a higher floor than lower down? Does one tower have better views? etc
(If it makes any difference, we need a room with two double beds to sleep self, DH and DD.)

Willing to try the $20 tip thing, if anyone thinks it's likely to benefit us...

Any advice gratefully received.

We've never stayed there, but from what I've read you ask for a widescreen room.

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

jackieblack wrote: »

That's good to hear!

We're starting our trip in April with a few days in Las Vegas :j , staying at the Excalibur (our daughter's choice).
Can anyone please advise whether there is anything particular we should ask for when we check in, eg is one tower better/more recently refurbished than the other? Is it better to be on a higher floor than lower down? Does one tower have better views? etc
(If it makes any difference, we need a room with two double beds to sleep self, DH and DD.)

Willing to try the $20 tip thing, if anyone thinks it's likely to benefit us...

Any advice gratefully received.

We've only ever stayed in Tower II and have always had good views from there (I think that Tower I probably doesn't have great views except possibly of the airport/Luxor/Mandalay Bay) based on its orientation...we haven't been since they upgraded some of the rooms but from what I understand Luci is correct - a widescreen tower room will be nicer than a standard room - but not all have views (only the widescreen view rooms will have nice views) so it really depends on what your preference is - obviously if you can get a widescreen view room then that will be your best case scenario.

Your bed requirement may mean that you have a better or worse chance of an upgrade - I'm not really sure how it will play out...whether you want a smoking or non-smoking room may also impact what they would have for you.

You can get an idea of what people have been successful with upgrading to here:

http://www.frontdesktip.com/fhotel.php?id=6

photome

The Bellagio Fountains

ratkarth wrote: »

the reason ive booked so early was that i was able to prepay when it was 1.68 $=£ (with no cancellation charge) so that if (and in my opinion) when sterling plummets further I won't loose out (and if it picks up i can cancel booking and rebook nearer time!)
havent seen mandalay bay etc on hotel.com
will have a hunt

Sorry didnt realise you had booked through a 3rd party.
General consensus is to book direct with hotels in Vegas as there are so many deals available, then if you gamble the room could be comped.
I can understand with the exchange rate fluctuation why it could make sense to book and pay up front though, except that if you cancel dont you lose the booking and reservation fees with hotels.com (I dont know, thats just my assumption)

beckah

Has anyone spotted any Mirage deals for April 2009? The best i found was 30% off so far.
Or I was thinking of staying at the MGM grand because they have good offers on at the moment but i seem to only be able to book for 5 days is that the most i can book for on that offer?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

wdyw

Its very rare for the MGM to have more than a couple of their pools open at any one time, and the lazy river doesn't open until mid morning (10 or 11??)by which time the one or two open pools are getting very busy.

Don't forget to add in anything up to $16 a day for a ring for the lazy river, though if you pop down in the afternoon you can quite often get hold of a couple of abandoned rings.

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

beckah wrote: »

Or I was thinking of staying at the MGM grand because they have good offers on at the moment but i seem to only be able to book for 5 days is that the most i can book for on that offer?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

If there's 2 or more of you travelling you may be able to get around the 5 day maximum (some offers do have a max number of days - it usually says in the T&Cs) by making one reservation for 5 nights and another for the remaining nights...if you do so it's better to make the 2 bookings in 2 different names...they may let you keep the same room for the duration or they may make you check out and check back in.

sew109

The Volcano @ Mirage

the $20 trick works at Exclibur. The view is not important to me in Las Vegas i have been too manytimes however at Excalibur a view room is imperative more than a widscreen room if you do not get a view room you will end up looking accross the hotel at another tower.

stoneman

The Bellagio Fountains

ratkarth wrote: »

going in sept 09
have booked for flamingo go room
but been looking around and seen the mgm grand pool
wondering if its worth spending the extra on the hotel room to have a nicer pool area (given that will prob spend around 40-50% of time lazing by the poolside)
thoughts?

First off, the Go room is better than any room you can get at MGM except for the suites (and I think it's better than the Hollywood), it is in a better location as well.
As for the pools, Flamingo has a far better pool area than MGM, more of a vibe to it, they may not have a lazy river, but they have a flume!! Also, if you fancy a bit of luxury you can go into the Go pool, guys pay $10 but girls are free. No under 18's allowed (worth a tenner just for that) you can go topless, it is quite small so no overcrowding (except for Saturday after 1pm) all of the beds have matresses and there are misters everywhere.