Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009

luci

The Bellagio Fountains

Will bear that in mind about the bar. Sounds good.

Lookig forward to Terry Fator. We have seats in row LL and I have reseravations at Kokomo's afterwards.

trets77

The Bellagio Fountains

Fragments_Of_Sanity wrote: »

I'm looking for a bit of help and advice, any given will be much appreciated.

I'm (supposed to be) going to Las Vegas this October to attend a wedding. As such, the dates of travel aren't flexible. My friend who is getting married was offered a deal from Thomas Cook for the trip (11th - 18th October flying from Manchester to L.V and staying in The Stratosphere) for £680 (inc insurance), which she said would be the cost for me too. I gave her my card details and she paid the deposit (about £70).

Later I find out that the cost for me is considerably more - the travel agent advises due to a single occupancy charge on the room. It's either close to or over £100 more than the original amount I thought I would be paying. Another friend of mine was insistent that American hotels don't have a single occupancy policy and that this seems very strange.

I have been able to source a room from hotels.com for £200 for the dates required and there doesn't seem to be any levvy. The travel agent said that this would be either an unseen charge tacked on without my knowing once I put my card details in or on arrival, or that the room would be poor quality and that I should stay with the Thomas Cook booking because there will be a rep/person who can sort out any potential problems with the trip. She also states the price is a package price, although my friend contradicted this because she said the invoice sent to her is for a virgin flight, and a room booking through the statosphere themselves.

I have never travelled abroad alone (or at all since I was a baby) and because this is a longhaul flight I ideally want to be with the others in case there are any problems. I have looked at flight prices and pairing them up with the hotel cost would allow me to stay within or below my original budget.

Since there are connecting flights though, I am nervous about flying alone because if one flight is delayed, and you miss the connecting flight, I would assume you're on your own and I'd be pretty uneasy alone, maybe miss the wedding and depending on the cost, not be able to afford to get out of the situation. Is that basically what happens in such an eventuality if you book independently?

Since I've paid a deposit (don't know if she's taken that for part of the cost of the flight or for the insurance) I assume it's non refundable so I might be better off pushing for her to just cancel the hotel part and let me pay the flight element. I got the impression she was trying to block me from doing this/implying that it couldn't be done. If I lost the cost of the deposit I suppose it'd cancel out the benefit of saving money doing it myself.

As I said I'd really appreciate any advice.

okay £780 for a week in the Stratosphere ( with flights ) of all places is a bloody rip off.(£200 for a week there is not a rip off but i would be surprised if you cannot do better for you money ) and Thomas Cook are spinning you a pile of crap , in the hope that you will spend your money with them . Rep to sort your problems out .....do me a favour the best way to sort out the unlikely chance of problems is yourself with the hotel. and to say you will be given a poor room because you are not booking through Thomas cook is scandalous . if you get a room you don't like simply go back to check in and get one you do like. Vegas is a service destination .....they know how to keep customers happy and i have never had anything but brilliant customer service as regard to Vegas hotels.

like we always say "sort the flight and the hard part is done ...the hotel booking is the easy ( and fun ) bit "

all offers on the Fatwallet thread are prices per room not per person. Single occupancy in Vegas is VERY common ( most convention goers are probably staying in a room on their own) and i have never heard of a hotel charging extra ( direct booking at least ) because you are staying in the room by yourself. someone may know different but try any dates on any direct hotel booking / offer on the Fatwallet Thread and the price for 1 or 2 people comes out the same . if you want 3 people in a room then hotel will charge you a suppliment .

as for Hotels.com i have used them and doing a few price ups the £200 seems okay for the Strat at least . i think you might need to pay resort fee at the strat when you arrive ( $5 a day from what it says on there web site) so factor that in . if you do use Hotels.com make sure you take the Quidco cash ,,,

http://www.quidco.com/hotels-com/

8% is pretty good .. from my experiance they track quick but pay slow .... but they pay out ..i have had 2 bookings with them via Quidco and they have both tracked and paid no problem .


Vegas does not run out of rooms !!!! , and you should have no problem finding a great room at a great price nearer the time. you just need to not worry about having something booked far in advance . offers generally start appearing 12 weeks out . simply keep tabs on offer websites listed in post 1 . you can always book a fall back that you can cancel when a good offer comes along . simply go to Harrahs / MGMs website book a room on the main site . then simpy cancel or get them to match better price when a deal comes along. if your not comfy doing this on the internet ...call them up ( 1p a min if you use a service like ratebuster) and book over the phone . do not feel uneasy because you are in UK and they are in USA ,... i have called the booking line many times and always had what i called them for sorted without problem by friendly staff.

Since there are connecting flights though, I am nervous about flying alone because if one flight is delayed, and you miss the connecting flight, I would assume you're on your own and I'd be pretty uneasy alone, maybe miss the wedding and depending on the cost, not be able to afford to get out of the situation. Is that basically what happens in such an eventuality if you book independently?

If you book a indirect flight with a carrier they are obliged to get you to your destination . they do not just leave you to fend for yourself at the connection airport . we missed our plane from Philly to Boston because our first flight was delayed ... they simply booked the next connection before we even left the UK. most Hubs . main carriers will have a flight going to Vegas about every hour so there is little chance you will be stuck overnight at a connection airport .if you were they would have to put you up in a hotel. even if you missed you connection because your 1st flight arrived on time but you were delayed at immigration , they are still obliged to get you to your destination .

the only execption is if you book your connection separate to your 1st leg ( e.g you book two flights with 2 different companys ). but for normal connecting flights you are under one ticket and the Airline is responsible for getting you to your final destination. The Main USA / Trans Atlantic carriers are not Ryanair .

let us know who you are planning to fly with and what the cost is .

as for hotels . be wary of the following strip hotels

The Stratosphere , Tropicanna , Rivera , Circus Circus , The Sahara , Hooters and The Imperial Palace . all are okay if you know what to expect but may not be suitable for all. any other Strip Hotel you need not worry about . obviously do some fine tuning by doing a bit of research ( ask us here for advice ) but the quality of Hotels in Vegas is generally far superior to UK .

The strat tends to be rock bottom price already so you might not find a offer as such .

aspinallkate

The Secret Garden

I need some help, we are having a vegas themed party and I don't know what to go as!

any ideas?

Stew68

The Secret Garden

aspinallkate wrote: »

I need some help, we are having a vegas themed party and I don't know what to go as!

any ideas?

Well I'll get the obvious one out of the way, Elvis. In my case it would have to be Fat Elvis:rotfl: .

You could always try the Statue of Liberty as on the corner of NYNY.

I'm sure others will have better (and funnier) ideas than me.

Stew

aspinallkate

The Secret Garden

Stew68 wrote: »

Well I'll get the obvious one out of the way, Elvis. In my case it would have to be Fat Elvis:rotfl: .

You could always try the Statue of Liberty as on the corner of NYNY.

I'm sure others will have better (and funnier) ideas than me.

Stew

I think Elvis will be the obvious choice for most of the people atending the party, so thats already a no lol

I want something different and funny:j

The Statue of Liberty is a good idea.

Stew68

The Secret Garden

Well of course there is always the Rat Pack, Frank Sinatra et al. Pack of cards or even a slot machine. I'm trying to think how you would do the Bellagio Fountains but perhaps I should stop there......

Fragments_Of_Sanity

Thanks Trets77, I really did think nearly £800 for a week was excessive, but I don't know anything about holidays.

Thanks so much for your advice. I'm going to ask her to give me the details broken down, she was very sketchy because it was near the end of the day and the store was nearly closing (my mistake, I thought they'd be open late for Thursday night shopping, but they weren't).

I'm quite angry that she's totally obviously lied about single occupancy supplements, that is ridiculous. Makes me all the more likely to not use her or the company.

Hopefully the flight price alone is reasonable so the deposit will go towards something and not be lost.

P.S I'm really interested that you seem iffy about the Stratosphere, what kind of problems are associated with there, and are they very common?

Stew68

The Secret Garden

Fragments_Of_Sanity wrote: »

P.S I'm really interested that you seem iffy about the Stratosphere, what kind of problems are associated with there, and are they very common?

Have a look at a map of the strip, you'll see that the Stratosphere is pretty much out on its own, its not really near any of the other hotels where all the action is. If you're booking accomodation yourself you can probably find prices nearly as good further down, there seems to be a few deals kicking around for the MGM Grand for example.

Fragments_Of_Sanity

Thanks Stew68.

It was my friend who's wedding I'm going to that picked the hotel. I went with her choice as she was told she'd get a cheaper deal with more people booking (another T.Cook lie, probably).

I suppose it wouldn't really matter if I was staying in a different hotel to them, ALTHOUGH I would have to go back at night myself as I'm the only single person on the trip. Don't know about safety, cost of transport in evenings?

galtraveller66

This is my first post so bear with me!

I've been looking for a nice hotel in Las Vegas for my parents 25th anniversary and I've read great things about the Signature. I found a great deal on bluechipvegas. Their jr. suite rates start at $105 and also offer the larger one and two bedroom suites. They also offer guaranteed balcony and penthouse suites (a little more money). I booked a jr. suite penthouse.

The extra bonus is that they have give you their bluechipvegas card. This gives you discounts to various restaurants and lounges on the strip. It doesn't say how you get the card on their site but I emailed them and they told me it would be in the room upon arrival. They also offer a 30% discount to Blue Man Group (not for my parents :rotfl:VIP seating for Cirque shows and VIP guest list for some of the nightclubs for $10.

I hope this helps any Vegas fans.