Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009

Froggitt

The Fremont street experience

Bette Midler plays the Colleseum at Caesars......their website will tell you if she's there that week or whether its Chers or Eltons week.

Out of interest, why Excalibur?

PAUL_C

I am not realy sure why price I guess based on discounted rates we found in a link posted on here earlier

Froggitt

The Fremont street experience

However much theyre charging, you can get better value elsewhere....eg fatwallet currently has some great price deals at great hotels.....leave it a month and there will be loads more April deals out.

eg
1) MGM Grand
2) Keep The Party Going!
3) INB249
4) Valid - January 6-August 31, 2009
5) Expires - January 27, 2009
6) Rate available for all.
7) Link to offer or call 800-929-1111.
8) Promo details - Rates from $55.


1) Mandalay Bay
2) e-list Exclusives
3) pguest
4) December 25, 2008 - April 30, 2009
5) April 30, 2009
6) for all
7) Text
8) rates start at $79 per night

davidmcg2u

The Secret Garden

PAUL_C wrote: »

Hi we are staying in vegas on the 30th april for the 4 nights a group of 2 couples.We have decided to stay at the Excalibur not sure what rooms we are going to book as yet but I am realy looking forward to trying the $20 trick. My partner and I are getting married in vegas too so I will play on that while checking in also.On the saturday most of the day will be taken up by the lads going to the AMA Supercross so I want to find a treat for the ladys.Maybe a spa makeover and on to a show perhaps so some ideas on this would be great.My partner has been told Bette Midler is in concert while we are there but I cant find anything to confirm this any ideas? Also we are looking at booking the Chaple of flowers for our wedding we only want a small ceromony with our 2 freinds but want it videoed and put online live for family has anyone experiance of this chapel ? I have been reading these vegas threads for somtime and I know you guys will help me out so thanx in advance Paul

This will tell you who's on and when at Caesars when you're there.

http://www.ticketmaster.com/search?tm_link=tm_homeA_header_search&q=caesars+palace+

sew109

The Volcano @ Mirage

Can I suggest that you do not play on the wedding thing discussions that I have had with check in clerks have shown that they are far more likley to upgarde you for cash and get annoyed by people thinking that they should get somthing for getting married when every 3rd guest is getting married or goingto a wedding. I did not mention my wedding and my tips/bribes did the job ;-) http://vegasuncovered.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/20-upgrade-trick-an-update-las-vegas/

sew109

The Volcano @ Mirage

Froggitt wrote: »

However much theyre charging, you can get better value elsewhere....eg fatwallet currently has some great price deals at great hotels.....leave it a month and there will be loads more April deals out.

eg
1) MGM Grand
2) Keep The Party Going!
3) INB249
4) Valid - January 6-August 31, 2009
5) Expires - January 27, 2009
6) Rate available for all.
7) Link to offer or call 800-929-1111.
8) Promo details - Rates from $55.


1) Mandalay Bay
2) e-list Exclusives
3) pguest
4) December 25, 2008 - April 30, 2009
5) April 30, 2009
6) for all
7) Text
8) rates start at $79 per night

Caution needs to be taken with some of the offers on Fat Wallet this second offer for instance is an email invited only rate which means that if you have not recieved the email then you are not entiteld to it which means that Mandalay can cancel your room. There was a similar link posted there (and by Dan on this site) that was an email only for MGM Grand $69 per night incl weekends thousands took up on this offer and then MGM cancelled it if yuo use sites like Fate wallet you can save money but you need to make sure that you are entiteled to that rate.

http://thestrippodcast.blogspot.com/2008/07/mgmgrandcom-not-hacked-but.html

MrsPitcher2b

Hello everyone

Its my dads 50th in August and he LOVES vegas so me and H2B were planning on going with him (and then me my sister and Brother splitting my dads price between us)

The cheapest price i have found is through expedia (£2600) except you have to pay straight away and we only have £1900 (enough to cover ours and our share of dads but not all the holiday) i no my brother and sister havent got their part to pay me.

We have seen it on virgin but its a lil more expensive so wasnt really wanting to go down that route - although if it comes to it we will.

Does anyone no any places which are going good deals - i have checked first choice and thomas cook and they dont even seem to be going to Vegas from what i could see?! It always brought up florida!!

Froggitt

The Fremont street experience

Mrs P - book your flights direct now eg Virgin/BMI, and hotels a month or two before you go.

mookybargirl

The Bellagio Fountains

I've done it. I've finally finished my trip report. Woop woop. Hope you enjoy it.
http://mookybargirlpage.googlepages.com/vegas-november2008

Tyler_Du

The Stratosphere

Well, we're (the wife and I) getting over our jetlag now (back to work for me tomorrow )

We got to the MGM late on Friday night, we were initially checked into a room with 2 beds on the 15th floor with a view of the service area (rear of hotel) and the airport, I tried the $20 trick, the clerk typed away for a while and then went into a back room for a while, she came back and told us we could have a room on the 25th floor with a strip view the following day. We changed room the following day to a room with a view of New York, New York / Excaliber, we were happy with the 'upgrade'.

Stuff we saw / did :-

The Secret Garden
The Bellagio Fountains - Very cool
The MGM Lion Habitat - The wife loved this
The Fremont Street experience - Liked this a lot, more laid back, less hetic than the Strip
The Stratosphere - did all the rides (twice), worth checking out, the area was a bit seedy / run down
The Volcano @ Mirage
Bellagio Conservatory had a Christmas theme when we saw it, the wife loved it

Cirque du Soleil Mystère - Great show have seen them 3/4 times in the UK and they never fail to entertain / amaze

Blue Man Group - Best show I've ever seen by a long mile, got to meet the band and Blue men after the show, got some great photos with them as well

Penn & Teller - Pretty good show (wasn't as good as I thought it would be though), they did a meet and greet after the show, so got autographs and photos

Edit - Each of these shows have custom built theatres and I wouldn't say they have any 'bad' seats, for Mystère we sat right at the back facing the stage and the view was great, I would say its not really worth paying the extra for seats near the front

Dirk Arthurs Xtreme Magic show - Really entertaining (for the wrong reasons) really funny show, the tigers & lions are cool as well

I got tickets from Tix 4 Tonight for these shows, worth going early to get the tickets, they had a problem accepting my Nationwide CC (was fine everywhere else I used it)

We used the monorail for getting about most of the time (was handy having a stop at the MGM), we used the Deuce to get to The Fremont street experience, its better value than the Monorail but slower and I guess it gets really packed when Vegas is busy.

We mostly ate at the Buffets, had the champagne Buffet at Le Village Buffet at Paris which was very good. We got there towards the end of the service and they stopped serving the champagne after 15:30, a quick word with the server got us another glass each.
The Excaliber does a 2-4-1 buffet for $18, it was ok for a budget choice, the food wasn't as great as the others, but not too bad either.
One thing we did at the buffets was to take some fruit / cookies whatever with us when we left, this then did us for breakfast the following day.

Also had a burger from Fatburger which was pretty good.

We did the 'trip' to the Fashion Outlet and to be honest didn't think it was that great, as we'd stayed at the MGM we didn't have to pay the $15 (each) for the coach journey. Had we paid to go we'd have been a little pee'd off

I'm a self confessed gadget freak and was overjoyed to hear that CES was on while we were in Vegas, I took the Monorail to the Convention Centre and tried my best (read pleaded and begged on my knees) to get in, but to no avail they wouldn't give me a guest pass, it was good walking around the public areas though

One thing we enjoyed was going to the Casinos either before / after, a show / having dinner and playing the 1 cent slots, we could make a dollar last 30 - 60 mins easily, during which time we'd get a couple of beers each, great !!!!

Disappointments

I'd really wanted to see Cirque du Soleil KA, when we checked into the MGM I asked the clerk if they were on all week, she told us they were, when we came to get tickets we discovered they were dark for the week we were there

I'd wanted to go on the roller coaster at New York, New York, this was running when we got to Vegas, when we went to go on it it was closed for maintenance (until after we'd left)

It was nice and sunny most days on our stay and I walked up and down the Strip (a lot), it was pretty bad walking around the mid Strip at night, the guys pushing strip clubs (and worse) are pretty disgusting, I know Vegas is mosty for adults but this was sickening

By the end of our week we were both pretty much "Vegas'd out", we thoughly enjoyed our holiday but probably wouldn't go again. We didn't do a Grand Canyon trip as it was to expensive

I found this site good for info - www.lasvegas4newbies.com
I also got a guide book from our local library and would recommend it to anyone going to Vegas - Frommers Las-Vegas 2009