Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

For anyone looking for a way to recharge ipods, Creatives, Archos, etc. in flight this might be useful.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/367672/philips-sce4420-rechargeable-power-/

Stew68

The Secret Garden

NVH,

Fat Tire is just my favourite Vegas drink, love it.

The lounge is just more civilised, its nice and quiet with croissants and drinks available, it was fairly busy when I got there but soon emptied out and I got a seat next to the window. Booked through Holiday Extras and Quidco to get cashback.

Ferf,

Dirty Harry slots are to be found at both Encore and Wynn, if you know where the Top Gun slots were in Wynn then they are with them. The Palazzo also had Indiana Jones slots as well.

You won't believe it but last night I looked at flight prices for December, the week before Christmas, they look a bit expensive at the moment though.

Thanks for the compliments on the Trip Reports, just trying to give something back. I'll try and upload photos to an online album this week sometime, not done this before so if anybody has any reccomendations please let me have them. (I've got a video of the Signature suite as well)

Stew

trets77

The Bellagio Fountains

Fragments_Of_Sanity wrote: »

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?

The Stratosphere is where it can start to feel uneasy walking after dark.heading south towards the Sahara is okay , but from the Sahara south to the Wynn area is a bit of building site anyway , so no reason to walk it .

you certainly do not want to be walking north (towards downtown) from The Strat on your own at any time IMO . thats where it really starts to get tacky, so again there would be no reason to. The Strat is kind of like a island of sanctuary up there IMO.

The Strat is the far north of the strip , if you stay South - Mid strip ( Mandalay bay all the way to the Wynn ) you will have no fears of walking around your hotel vincinity on your own at any time. you can then catch The Deuce ( 24/7 bus service) to the Strat very cheaply ( i think it is now $6 for a unlimted 24 hour pass) or use the Monorail to the Sahara and walk to the Strat from the Sahara . personally i would opt for the Deuce unless there was a monorail station at my Hotel.

The Strat is the cheapest hotel on the strip for a reason , it's customer base is people who have lower incomes . Gambling wise you get some pretty good deals there and i enjoyed some of the Bars ect as well .

I defiantly give a big thumbs up to visiting the place , but i personally would not stay there . it is just to far removed .

It is Unlikely your Party will spending a lot of their time at the Strat at night ( it is not where the action is and does not have anything like enough to do to keep you there every night ,) , more likely they will be the ones travelling down to the heart of the strip where you could be and where it is very safe to walk around.

what sort of price are your able to get a flight for ?? if i'm reading you dates correctly you are leaving on Saturday which will add to the cost of the flight . it might save you to leave a day early and stay and extra night .

you should look at at flight ASAP as they will only get more expensive nearer the time as general rule.

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

trets77 wrote: »

It is Unlikely your Party will spending a lot of their time at the Strat at night ( it is not where the action is and does not have anything like enough to do to keep you there every night ,) , more likely they will be the ones travelling down to the heart of the strip where you could be and where it is very safe to walk around.

I totally agree with this...the only thing that might be worth considering really depends on how big a group it is and how many have been to Vegas before...my only reservation about staying at a different hotel is if it's a good size group, few or none have been to Vegas before - then meeting up may become a slight nightmare (if you have some Vegas veterans who know their way around, it will be less difficult as they will have good ideas of where to meet that's obvious and easy - saying 'let's meet at Caesars' just isn't going to cut it - you will need a very specific meeting point in a lot of cases)...at least if you're all at the same hotel it will be easier to meet to head out somewhere else. I suppose if mobiles are cheap enough to use to coordinate that might be an option too...I just know that I've lost my husband in casinos I've been to many times before even when we had a meeting place picked out in advance.

But other than that potential logistical issue, I totally agree with the others that a different hotel would be a better choice for any number of reasons...I suppose unless the bride will be upset and annoyed if you do so...suppose that should be considered too.

nvh

The Bellagio Fountains

nvh wrote: »

can't remember who off this messageboard is in Vegas at the moment... will be interesting to see Vegas with low / no lighting

this is happening tomorrow...
http://www.earthhourus.org/lasvegas/lasvegas.php

list of participants (MGM group / Wynn / Harrahs etc etc)
http://www.earthhourlv.org/Earth_Hour_Las_Vegas/Participants.html

wow, some really good stuff appearing on this... well, interesting anyways - time lapse video here:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/2009/mar/29/1902/

pictures:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/photos/galleries/2009/mar/28/earth-hour-las-vegas-strip/

article and more vids:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/mar/28/live-blog-las-vegas-gets-ready-go-unplugged-earth-/

looks like you'd expect a power cut to be to be honest!

tingtong

Stew68 wrote: »

Hope I’ve not been too long with this report, I love reading about other peoples trips, I have to say a huge thank you to all the contributors to this thread, I’ve learnt so much from you all. If I can answer other peoples questions in the future I’ll be sure to do so.

Excellent TR Stew, glad you had a good trip ! Only 3 weeks to go for us.

sew109

The Volcano @ Mirage

I am pleased to say that all my trips to Las Vegas this year (and probably for several more) have been cancelled. We have just found out that Mrs Sew is expecting our first baby, we had no idea and she is 13 weeks into the term, all the scans look good and we have even worked out that we think that the little mite was concivied most likely at Encore ;-) I never thought that I would be glad to have to cancel Vegas trips but you bet I am now ;-)

tingtong

trets77 wrote: »

we should have a sub poll and what is your favorite Bellagio fountain performance

OK, nothing original. Time to Say Goodbye. Although we have not actually heard that many different ones.

tingtong

sew109 wrote: »

I am pleased to say that all my trips to Las Vegas this year (and probably for several more) have been cancelled. We have just found out that Mrs Sew is expecting our first baby, we had no idea and she is 13 weeks into the term, all the scans look good and we have even worked out that we think that the little mite was concivied most likely at Encore ;-) I never thought that I would be glad to have to cancel Vegas trips but you bet I am now ;-)

Congratulations ! No more Vegas for a while then......

Fragments_Of_Sanity

This ongoing support is brilliant.

To address a few points;

Nobody in the group has been to Vegas before, so I should factor in what Ferf1223 said. I know the bride wouldn't be at all put out if I stayed somewhere else because she herself suggested it to me when we discovered the problem.

I could say to them at night to meet up with me at my hotel lobby at an arranged time but you can't factor in any unforeseen delays that way. Would need to find out about the cost of calls while away, and you need a triband phone too, I'm sure. If I flew myself that would definitely be a must, or else use the hotel phone (costly probably).

I'm not hugely bothered about the hotel being amazing, because I'm one of those people who's trying to make it manageable cost-wise. I am aiming to keep the cost of the trip to about £700 before spending money for the week. Flights seem to be in the mid 300 to 400 point just now (flying from Manchester that is. I actually live near Glasgow so could price those up). My ideal would be for Thomas Cook to allow me to keep just the flight part of the package and cancel the accom bit, to avoid the uncertainties of a novice flying alone, but I don't know how they woud view this. Will speak to them this week about it.

Do you think I should push it about her basically being dishonest about the underoccupancy fee?