Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

ran across this trip report with pictures of recent Tix4Tonight offerings (pictures are of the screens at Tix4Tonight so show the show, regular price and discounted price - and coupon here for $2 off the service charge
http://www.tix4tonight.com/coupon.html)

always handy...some of the photos are a bit blurred but since they're alphabetical you can probably work them out. Nice that they've now made it really clear which ones you can buy for that day and in advance.

http://www.whatbrianthinksaboutlasvegas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14016

stoneman

The Bellagio Fountains

ferf1223 wrote: »

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.

If you go for the rim fire shoot, you use 22 calibre bullets and they don't kick as hard as the bigger guns. There are hand guns, bolt action, revolvers, automatics, rifles, all sorts. You get 500 rounds between the 2 of you, and he also lets you have a go at whatever he happens to have in his truck. If you look at the picture of Tracy firing the colt 45, that was some mean kick back, and he loads them with black powder so the recoil smoke you get off is awesome.
He also let us shoot a sniper rifle same as the one that killed Kennedy. He filled a plastic jug full of blue water, placed it 200 yards away and I blew it to smithereens. The funny thing was that the remnants of the jug landed towards me. He used this to prove that Kennedy never got shot from behind because his head slumped forward, with the impact of the high velocity bullet his head would have recoiled backwards, very interesting.
He is an ex copper from Washington state and has some great tales to tell of clearing up after suicides and stuff, right up our street. One great story is that he worked in Seattle, and it has the highest suicide rate in the country, supposedly because the weather is so bad most of the time, but most of the suicides are during good weather because when it is nice out and the people are still depressed they realise it's not because of the rain and stuff so they get more depressed and shoot themselves.

trets77

The Bellagio Fountains

Froggitt wrote: »

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.

all the new Restaurant threads are listed in post number 4 , so they are all together .

early days yet, let see how it pans out this way for while

stoneman

The Bellagio Fountains

Here we go, last part. I must go back a bit and mention the numbers of people in Vegas this trip. On the weekends it still seems as busy as ever, but come weeknights and it's dead, well the high end places are dead anyway. We went over to Wynn and Encore on Thursday night and you could hear a pin drop. Serves them right. None of the bars in either of these places comps drinks if you play the bartop V/P, and there is a distinct lack of CW's. PlanetHo is the same, it must be the quietest strip casino, what with crap drinks service and $15 minimum B/J, recipe for disaster but what do I know. Only Bellagio seemed to be fairing well. See they have introduced more $5 and $10 black jack, they still have 2 bars with 25 cent bartop V/P and more cocktail waitresses than any other casino. Compare these high ends with Ballys, Bills, Flamingo and to a degree Paris. Offer cheap games, let the free drinks flow, and you will pack them in. Was talking to a bartender at Ballys and he says they are doing MORE business now, seems as though people are turning their backs on the money grabbing big boys and voting with their feet. They will certainly get my business from now on.
Anyway, we arrive back at LHR and my golf bag is missing!!
Find out it never left Vegas so will be at Heathrow by the next morning and with me by the afternoon. Get a phone call on Friday saying that it's arrived but won't be with me till Saturday!! We have a club golf tournament on Saturday morning so try and get them to deliver the same day but they won't budge, so we miss the competition. Bag arrives on Saturday and a pair of Tracy's boots is missing. Lock has been broken off but no note inside that TSA have had a look in, so seems someone helped themselves to them. I don't like mentioning how much these boots are worth because of sounding like a big headed prat but it is relevant to how we go about claiming. They are only 4 months old and she paid £900 for them. Going through Deltas website it seems their liability to international travelers is limited to a maximum of $640, while domestic passengers it is $3,300, what?? There is also some international protocol they adhear to but can't make heads or tails out of it. "International Liability Limit (governed by the Montreal Convention): 1000 SDR (Special Drawing Rights) per ticketed passenger " So I have sent off the claim and see how it goes, don't really want to claim off of my home insurance as there is a £100 excess. Might try and argue that the loss occurred on the domestic leg but will wait and see. Just so everyone knows, reading through the liability they will not pay out for cameras, laptops, jewlery, or most electrical equipment, they say you should carry all that stuff with you, rubbish IMHO.

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

Ugh...what a way to end your trip, Andy...hopefully compensation will be sorted out one way or the other, but it sucks that it happened in the first place..is Tracy devestated? And I agree that some of the limitations on liability are crap. We had an issue once on Continental where they initially denied responsibility as we hadn't made a claim within 4 hours of landing...we hadn't gotten HOME within 4 hours of landing so hadn't opened our bags until after the prescribed window had closed.

trets77

The Bellagio Fountains

won't your travel insurance cover it ??

stoneman

The Bellagio Fountains

trets77 wrote: »

won't your travel insurance cover it ??

We don't take the luggage option with travel insurance as our home contents insurance covers items temporarily away from the home. But there is a £100 excess on that.

ajmoney

We have now booked our flights in Vegas, on the way back we have an 8 hour stop in Salt Lake City and 13 hours in New York.
1st question, can we leave the airports?
If we can leave them
2nd question, is there anything at Salt Lake City to keep us interested, we are there in the evening?
3rd question, how long will we need for getting back into the airports?

duchy

Yes you can.

SLC isn't far from the airport and there are free tours of Temple Square in the early evening and plenty of places to eat. Much nicer than kicking your heels at the airport. Only 15-20 mins in a cab. SLC is a lovely city as wherever you are you can see the mountains.

New York...do you mean JFK ? If so jump on the airtrain and change at Jamaica to go into Manhattan. We had a 5 hour layover and had time for lunch and a good wander before heading back. Buy a PAYG Metrocard -you can (legally) use the same card for two of you

funkyfin2000

The Bellagio Fountains

Hi All,

Quick hello from Death Valley Ranch!!! Having a cracking holiday!

I bloody love this place!!!!

On to Las Vegas tomorrow for 4 days and the forum meet! Can't wait!

Yosemite was something else...

Death Valley is something else, watching the sun go down in the silence at Zebreskie Point is mind numbing!!!!!

Speak soon and will have a big trip report to get up!

Rich xxx