Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009

luci

The Bellagio Fountains

Day 9 HERE

Oh my poor feet. I had hardly walked any distance at all this morning when they gave up on me and started to throb. Saw stuff advertised on the TV as pain relieving cream for feet so will try that tomorrow if it happens again.

stoneman

The Bellagio Fountains

pcg2001 wrote: »

Hi Stoneman, How did you get this £195 rate, if I may ask? Was it the australian expedia mistake/ loophole/ whatever? I know they are honouring this since I keep reading about MSEs who flew with it. I hope you have found another way to get cheap rates... TIA.

Yeah, this one coming up is the Jetabroad Australia mistake. We just got back from the Expedia Australia one and when that closed down we saw that Jetabroad still had it so we jumped on that. The only trouble is that we only get 50% points on our Flying Blue cards, lucky to get any really I guess.

stoneman

The Bellagio Fountains

OK, short version of our trip staying in the Paris between the 21st. and the 29th. of April.
Arrived at LHR for our morning flight on NWA to LAS via DTW. Met at the airport by Sunny, who we found via www.parkatmyhouse.com £45 nine days parking including meet and greet, here is his profile I read the millage when we left the car and it was spot on when we arrived back. I am going to use him again this month, trustworthy as they come IMHO.
NWA flight on Airbus 330 where we managed to secure the whole centre 4 seats, pretty empty flight. They are changing this flight to a Boeing 767 shortly so will not be as roomy in future. Flights uneventful and arrived in Vegas at about 4pm. Collected car from Thrifty, can't remember who mentioned it but we signed up for the Blue Chip membership and it worked a dream. we went straight to the garage instead of having to join the long queue, picked out a Charger, which only just got the luggage in because the seats don't come down, and out in 5 minutes flat!!
Arrived at Paris and worked the $40 trick. See my previous post as to how it backfired on us a bit, but still happy enough. I would stay there again but wouldn't try for a Red room, I would ask for a "P" room, much bigger, Red rooms are tiny.
Went over to PlanetHo and played some craps, lost $150 and Tracy played her penny slots.
Next day headed over to IHOP near Las Vegas Outlet Mall for breakfast. Photo below shows what we had, all for $14.00 including drinks

Next we went out to see the M resort, nice place but too far out to go of an evening, the buffet prices we really good (lunch $7.99 with a players card) and I have read nice reports about it so we plan to try it out on another day. Over to Walmart for goodies to take home and pick up a couple of Net10 prepay phones for $32 inc tax. They come with $10 included that is good for 60 days, so they will do us for our next trip as well. Go to Bank of America to put in some cheques and draw out the spending money for the trip, head back and catch some rays by the pool. Dinner at P.F. Changs, I have double pan fried noodles, and sweet and sour chicken, tracy has Lemon chicken, $45 including drinks, can't be bad.
Next couple of days consisted of golf, spa treatments fo Tracy, shopping at Fashion Show and Forum shops, and pool time. Nights were just hitting different casinos and playing craps and blackjack. Had a nice B/J session (ohh err missus) over at Bellagio, played for a good 1/2 hour and only lost 2 hands, so well up there.
Now the really fun day, thanks to tingtong for suggesting this. Outdoor shooting, you will need a car to get to this place but why not hire one for the day, it's about 30 to 45 minutes out towards Boulder city. http://www.shootingsafaris.com/ Tom is a really nice guy, we shot for a good 2 1/2 to 3 hours for $85. It was us who called it a day, he was happy to stay there all day. Picture below is Tracy with a colt 45 I think.

And me just blasting away at some targets. We had to use this pit as they were filming CSI on the range, there were 2 helicopters hovering over us most of the time, really cool. Just look at the arey of guns you get to play with. We already have him booked for early June when we are going on the range and I am doing some trap shooting, the most fun thing we ever did in Vegas for sure

More nights of PlanetHo, Paris, Bellagio, and Ballys. I had a decent win at Paris craps one night but must say PH was skinning me, I won't play there again for a while, not feeling the love but Tracy likes the penny slots, they seem to have more than most places. I don't know what it is with PH but they seem to be trying to drive people away, most of the ime it's really quiet in there anyway. The waitress service is rubbish, they only have $15 minimum B/J (even Bellagio has $10 tables), and they pull the CW's from the floor completely after 11 pm on a Friday and Saturday. I was told that's because Prive nightclub gets rammed with people hanging around waiting to get in so they just sit around pretending to play and getting free drinks.
So, for our special meal this trip it's off to my favorite in the whole world Mon Ami Gabi at Paris.
I had the fillet Mignon and Tracy had thyne roasted salmon, it's the sides that are so good here. We had the creamed cauliflower and macaroni cheese, absolutely wonderful. With a bottle of red wine and tip came to $150. Not a bad price to pay to sit outside the most perfect location on the strip for 2 hours. Photo below is me and Tracy while "Time to say goodbye" plays in the background over at Bellagio.

stoneman

The Bellagio Fountains

Next day we do some more sunbathing and decide to head out to M to catch late lunch. This place seems to get further away every time I drive out there!! Any way we get in just in time before the dinner price goes up at 4pm, I hand over our players cards and she wants $30!! Hang on, it's $7.99 each with the cards, "sorry, prices went up yesterday, it's now $15" You are having a laugh, I really don't see where these places are coming from. we are in a recession and they hike the price up by $7 for lunch!! Well, I throw my toys out of the pram, declare never to go back there again, flip our players cards into a bin and storm off with Tracy racing up behind just shaking her head at me. So, we decide to head over to Ellis Island for BBQ, bloody prices have gone up there as well. Anyway, it is shortly after 4 and we get our number as all of the tables are full, we are first up. But I look round at all of the full tables and notice that not one of them has any food in front of them. I remember this from last time. It will be a good hour before we get seated, it's always best to leave going there till at least 6-6:30 to let it all settle down. By this time I am so hungry that I consider chewing my own arm, so we hop in the car, and go over to Forum shops to the Cheesecake factory. Now this is more like it, I have the dinner portion of meatloaf, Tracy has the Key Lime Pie cheesecake

Total bill, $32. now how much was that buffet, oh, that's right, $30. So after stitching my nose back on after cutting it off despite my face we have finally eaten, just wish it wasn't so cold in the CF.
Most of the things we plan to do in Vegas never materialise, we get there and just seem to run out of time. This holiday we swore to take it easy but we just seem to be on the go all the time. We only had one day that we sat around the pool, mostly it was catching 2 hours hear and there. We never got out to Valley of Fire, never got to see Carrot Top, loads of things on our list never even got discussed.
Anyway, our last night we ate at P.F. Changs again, beef and black bean sauce, low mein combo, lemon chicken. $40. Then it was over to Ballys where I had my big win. For those of you that didn't rad about it before I will paste it here again.
I bet $10 on the fire bet at the craps table, the shooter hit 5 points, and I scooped up $2,500!! I had already won over $800 on the shooter as well. I love Ballys!!
Cautious of not having to declare the winnings, Tracy and I divvied up the chips and cashed in some each.
I must add a proviso that this is the worst bet on the craps table, but the shooter was on fire. He had previously hit 3 points and rolled for 1/2 hour, so when he sevened out everyone just passed on the dice so they went back to him. I think the casino must have paid out more than $10,000 on fire bets, everyone was on it.
Last morning we trundle over to Bouchon for breakfast, we have the pastry basket, I have the parfait and we have coffees. with tip, $40, I feel like I have been mugged.
Flights home. We are on the Vegas to Atlanta flight, on gets a woman and a 2 year old and sits on the isle seat opposite to Tracy and me, you know where this is going don't you. For the next 3 hours this kid screams and screams, everyone's looking daggers at her, we just thank god the Bose noise reducing headphones were invented. When we land, it stops!! Everyone laughs at what a strong pair of lungs she has, these were the same people that looked like they would do time for strangling it an hour earlier, we just kiss our headphones. Flight from Atlanta was on a 767, boy are these cramped , no seatback videos, just the ones hanging down from the ceiling, luckily I had my netbook and I managed to acquire series 5 of Las Vegas, so we settled down to enjoy, Sam, Danny and the new owner Tom Selleck. More later.

c_l_a_i_r_e

The Bellagio Fountains

sew109 wrote: »

With Breakfast costing $14, Lunch $15.50 and Dinner $25/28 and thsi offer for 2 people eah day and rooms from aound $50 per night a continous pass is too good to be true, in fact 2 free a days is probably too good to be true but you never know.

Personally I would be amazed if this is even a free buffet, my feelings are that this will be a line pass only and that you will have to pay for the buffet, if you get one free a day you have done amazingly well, it is a very good buffet.

Most offers are per stay and the fact that this is per day screams to me it will only be a line pass.
.

From reading threads on other sites from people who have already stayed using the offer its definitely not just a line pass. MGM is currently doing a $29.99 all day buffet pass anyway and there have been reports posted of people being told to purchase this, charge it to the room and then it gets deducted from your bill when you check out.

To the OP you'd be better contacting the hotel and asking them to clarify for you in advance if you really need to know.

trets77

The Bellagio Fountains

Great trip report Stoneman . What where the the Guns you fire at the Shooting Safari ?? any M16's, MP5's , AK47's or World War 2 guns ?


Today being Sunday I am going to start a new restaurant thread . this is working out well once a week and i think i will start to do show threads as well . But for this week another restaurant !!

please post your reviews and thoughts on

The Grand Lux Cafe @ The Venetian .

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=21224951#post21224951



i have not been to this one so i won't be the first to get a review in this time

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

stoneman wrote: »

http://www.shootingsafaris.com/ We already have him booked for early June when we are going on the range and I am doing some trap shooting, the most fun thing we ever did in Vegas for sure

This intrigues me after you and tingtong's review...for me it's the Police Patrol one that looks most interesting (I'm very fond of cop movies and cop shows you see) - may have to check it out.

But I've never fired a gun before - I've held them, but never fired...I think I'm slightly nervous that I will hate it after the first shot (or be really, REALLY bad at it).

In any event, it sounds sooo much of a better deal than The Gun Store.

Froggitt

The Fremont street experience

Trets - so they dont get lost over time, why not create a "Eating in Vegas" thread and combine the new review threads into it. Just a thought. And get it stickied.

ratkarth

The Bellagio Fountains

this is a very silly question, and one that i normally shoot people down for but here goes
am trying to budget for my trip later this year, but haven't been there for 7 years and when i went I lived out there so did a lot of cooking at home, so i am guessing the prices have all changed since then anywayt. How much should i be budgeting a day for food per person ($)
1, assuming that we eat breakfast and dinner in buffet's eg flamingo, SPice buffet etc.
2, grab a burger or salad for lunch
3, having 3-4 drinks in an evening?

trying to coordinate with 4 people to work out how much each person needs to bring!!

also how much is the touristy things at the moment such as shark reef, circus circus rides, strat roller coaster etc...?

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

ratkarth wrote: »

this is a very silly question, and one that i normally shoot people down for but here goes
am trying to budget for my trip later this year, but haven't been there for 7 years and when i went I lived out there so did a lot of cooking at home, so i am guessing the prices have all changed since then anywayt. How much should i be budgeting a day for food per person ($)
1, assuming that we eat breakfast and dinner in buffet's eg flamingo, SPice buffet etc.
2, grab a burger or salad for lunch
3, having 3-4 drinks in an evening?

trying to coordinate with 4 people to work out how much each person needs to bring!!

also how much is the touristy things at the moment such as shark reef, circus circus rides, strat roller coaster etc...?

1. This site lists all buffets and prices (some differ on different days of the week) so you can see for yourself...there are other sites that do the same but this is the one I normally use.

http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/buffets.cfm

2. Depends on the restaurant really...probably average $10-$15 for mid-range (cafe/coffee shop) burger/salad, excluding drinks...again, plenty of cheaper options out there...not sure if you mean sit-down restaurant or fast food...fast food obviously cheaper.

I sincerely doubt you'll eat 3 meals a day any given day - especially if a buffet figures into things.

3. If you gamble they're free from the cocktail waitress (well, except for a tip - usually $1/drink is acceptable)...if not, a beer at most casino bars will be $6-$12 depending on the casino and the particular beer...mixed drinks will probably be $8-$15 again depending...cheaper options available, certainly. Casino Royale has $1 Michelobs which we enjoyed. Ellis Island has great prices on their microbrews...etc.

4. Prices for the touristy things are available on the individual hotel/casino's webpage or places like:

http://www.vegas.com/attractions/

Oh, and the Strat roller coaster has been closed for several years though there are 3 rides up there.