Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009

leew914

Can anyone help me with the cost of fuel in Vegas. I am about to book a car (convertable chrysler sebring/similar) and understand that you have to pay for a full tank upfront when you collect the car. The premium upgrade seems a bit of a waste because I wont have any extra drivers. So if I understand correctly the only extra charge when I collect the car is the fuel, but how much!!

Lee

wdyw

thesuperman wrote: »

Are The Bellagio Fountains really that much better than anything else?! It has destroyed its competition in the poll.

They are definitely worth watching a few times as the "show" changes but I can't remember the last time I bothered stopping to watch. The list of attractions is a list of freebie attractions and as freebies go its worth a few minutes of your time.

dsmann

leew914 wrote: »

Can anyone help me with the cost of fuel in Vegas. I am about to book a car (convertable chrysler sebring/similar) and understand that you have to pay for a full tank upfront when you collect the car. The premium upgrade seems a bit of a waste because I wont have any extra drivers. So if I understand correctly the only extra charge when I collect the car is the fuel, but how much!!

Lee

You can check the gas price on the this website

http://www.vegasgasprices.com/

but the price you pay to rental company might be different.. i dont think they would charge you the same as market rate.. they would more then likely charge you much higher price..

If i am not mistaken Chrysler Covertible roughly holds 19 Gal. of fuel.

Cheapest reported is 1.99$ so would be roughly 40$ for tank full.

It would also depend on how much would you use the car.. how many miles.. so if you going to use a tank of fuel premium upgrade would make sense.. as you can return it empty..

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

leew914 wrote: »

Can anyone help me with the cost of fuel in Vegas. I am about to book a car (convertable chrysler sebring/similar) and understand that you have to pay for a full tank upfront when you collect the car. The premium upgrade seems a bit of a waste because I wont have any extra drivers. So if I understand correctly the only extra charge when I collect the car is the fuel, but how much!!

Lee

I have never seen a case where you have to pay for a tank of fuel up front. Unless you have a premium package, you pick it up full, and you have to return it full. If you don't return it full they will charge you to fill the tank (they won't do it then and there, they will estimate what the tank needs) and the price you will pay will be about 3x what gas costs at local gas stations.

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

thesuperman wrote: »

Are The Bellagio Fountains really that much better than anything else?! It has destroyed its competition in the poll.

We think so - they are really stunning and very Vegasy for us...we like some of the songs a lot better than the others though - there are a few that are a bit 'meh' compared to the big ones where the cannons are working overtime. My in-laws got teary over Time to Say Goodbye (my favorite) and also the US national anthem (last show at midnight each night) - they thought it was so nice to see so many people showing national pride.

You can see the list of all the songs here, though some are seasonal and not all will be in rotation at any given time.

http://www.bellagio.com/amenities/fountains-of-bellagio.aspx

The first time we saw them we stayed for an hour to see 4 shows as we were so impressed...we still love them, but on a lot of trips will only see one or two shows even though we stay across the street.

Triker

The Bellagio Fountains

ferf1223 wrote: »

We think so - they are really stunning and very Vegasy for us...we like some of the songs a lot better than the others though - there are a few that are a bit 'meh' compared to the big ones where the cannons are working overtime. My in-laws got teary over Time to Say Goodbye (my favorite) and also the US national anthem (last show at midnight each night) - they thought it was so nice to see so many people showing national pride.
.

Ditto, we did Vegas for our honeymoon and on our last night this is what played....set me right off....just beautiful and a bit of a moment for myself and OH. Believe me we're not soppy types but there was something just magical about it.

stoneman

The Bellagio Fountains

ferf1223 wrote: »

We think so - they are really stunning and very Vegasy for us...we like some of the songs a lot better than the others though - there are a few that are a bit 'meh' compared to the big ones where the cannons are working overtime. My in-laws got teary over Time to Say Goodbye (my favorite) and also the US national anthem (last show at midnight each night) - they thought it was so nice to see so many people showing national pride.

You can see the list of all the songs here, though some are seasonal and not all will be in rotation at any given time.

http://www.bellagio.com/amenities/fountains-of-bellagio.aspx

The first time we saw them we stayed for an hour to see 4 shows as we were so impressed...we still love them, but on a lot of trips will only see one or two shows even though we stay across the street.

Time to Say Goodbye is my favorite as well (having it played at my funeral) followed by Hey Big Spender, and Viva Las Vegas.
Watch this and I dare you not to get shivers up your spine
"When I'm alone
I dream of the horizon
and words fail;
yes, I know there is no light
in a room where the sun is absent,
if you are not here with me."

Beautiful!!

Stew68

The Secret Garden

Hi all,

As promised a trip report following my recent trip out to Vegas.

You may remember that I was a bit apprehensive about travelling solo this time, I’ve travelled to the states numerous times by myself with no problem but thought I may not enjoy myself so much as it didn’t seem to be the sort of place suited to solo travelling, let me reassure people who may be thinking about doing a solo trip to Vegas, don’t worry about it, I only had the one problem which I’ll explain later.

Travelled on Friday 20th March with Virgin (Don’t want to start that argument again, I just prefer to get to my destination as soon as possible, I hate the travelling, just want to get there!!) I used twilight check in the afternoon before as I was at a training course in Reading on that day so just made it easier, was there about 5.00 pm, no queue at all and checked in quickly, did pay the extra to have an exit seat as I’m over 6 foot I consider it worth the money. I was caught out the next morning as I arrived at Gatwick early to allow time to get through all the checks etc, would you believe I was through in under ten minutes leaving me three hours before the flight was even starting boarding!! I did book one of the lounges with Servisair, I’d never used one before and was very pleased, a very civilized way to start the journey. (These can be booked with Holiday Extras using Quidco to get cash back). The flight left on time and it was okay, the flight crew were very helpful and yes we did run out of alcohol about half way over, a quick count before boarding gave me three stag do’s and one hen do on the plane.

Arrival at McCarran, I was first off the plane and straight through Immigration (compared to last year when I was at the back of the plane and spent an hour getting through!!). Quick tip for luggage collecting, for some reason they were using two belts for the luggage, they didn’t say that and I stood for twenty minutes waiting for my bag before realizing that it was on the other belt going round and round!! So watch out for that. The taxi line was handled very efficiently and I was soon on the way to my first stop The Monte Carlo, the strip was very busy, the taxi driver even apologized for the slow arrival of taxis at the airport due to the traffic, I asked for the quickest route and was taken through the tunnel, I didn’t mind as the driver was avoiding traffic that I could see on adjoining roads.

Check in at Monte Carlo was very efficient, I had a high room booked, non smoking and this is what I got, it was away from the construction but no view of the strip, I did have a problem with the safe as it wouldn’t lock, very quick and friendly service from security (a big Man U fan!!) and maintenance and it was fixed in 30 minutes. Quickly headed down to NYNY for something to drink (I don’t consider myself on holiday until I get my first beer!!) and eat and ended up at Gallaghers Steakhouse, ate at the bar and the bar staff were very good, looking after me better than times I’ve eaten at a table with waitress service, 3 pints of Fat Tire and large cowboy steak and chips later I staggered back to the Monte Carlo where I collapsed to sleep.

That was the end of my first day, I seemed to have gone on a bit with this so I’ll post this now and more later. Hope it isn’t too long for you.

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

stoneman wrote: »

Watch this and I dare you not to get shivers up your spine
"When I'm alone
I dream of the horizon
and words fail;
yes, I know there is no light
in a room where the sun is absent,
if you are not here with me."

Beautiful!!

Love him...going to see him in September at the O2...plan to bring tissues...LOTS AND LOTS of tissues.

I only recently learned he was the first to perform the song - always assumed it was much older.

Stew68

The Secret Garden

Trip Report Day 2

I was up early and headed out, I enjoy walking the strip first thing in the morning, you can get the photos you want without people getting in the way. Walked past the City Centre construction site, wow that place is massive, you can actually see into it now and it is certainly looking impressive, not sure how well they are going to do selling the apartments in this financial market but it certainly takes up a big space on the strip. Walked up to the Mirage and went to see the Secret Garden, I hadn’t been there before as it was under renovation last year, I was really impressed at how close you could get to the dolphins and they certainly seemed to like to show off to the visitors, they don’t do shows but they do interaction and feeds at different times during the day, they also have big cats there as well, beware the warning they give you about them marking their territory because they’re not joking, be prepared to move quick!! They have a new tiger cub there called Java who is really cute and was worth the entry fee alone. Went back to see about tickets for Love and Terry Fator but the queue was massive so decided to try again later. Headed up to the Venetian and visited the Grand Lux, a favourite of mine, I wasn’t prepared for the sight of the drink I ordered, the Island Cooler, it looked a bit like one of Del Boys drinks but was really refreshing, I can certainly recommend the Cajun Chicken Soup and the Sunday Night Pasta, very nice.

Headed down to Harrahs where I got a ticket to see Mac King, he does two shows in the afternoon and is certainly worth the money, the tickets are $25.00 but you can get deals if there are two of you. This guy was really funny and did some really cool magic, he got a kid up to help him and the poor boy nearly ended up falling off the stage at one point at the climax of the trick, mind you I jumped a mile as well. It was a nice way to get away from the madness of the strip in the afternoon and a good show at the same time.

In the evening I headed down to see Carrot Top at the Luxor, now he has some great reviews on Trip Advisor which is why I booked it, I’ve seen lots of comedians in the UK and didn’t think this guy was a patch on the ones I’ve seen before. There were some very funny moments but there were times when I didn’t understand what he was getting at, perhaps you had to be American to get some of the jokes, he certainly gave Kriss Angel a good ribbing. Would be interested to hear what others may have thought about Carrot Top.

Ate at America in NYNY afterwards, ate at the bar again and had some pretty awful service, the barman clearly didn’t want to be serving people with food at his bar and had a right strop when I asked him for a menu, people around me thought so too, so personally wouldn’t recommend this place again.

Day 3 follows soon and a move to The Signature….