Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009

Cand

The Bellagio Fountains

Thanks a lot ferf, so you think am prob best hanging on for a bit yet? I thought I might be but wanted to check with you guys. I signed up to the Cirque website a while back but when ever I get any emails they are always for the UK even though I have put LV as one of my prefrences is there a section on the website I am missing? I should be good at this sort of stuff working in IT!!!!! :-)

Thanks for the speedy reply much appreciated!

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

Cand wrote: »

Thanks a lot ferf, so you think am prob best hanging on for a bit yet? I thought I might be but wanted to check with you guys. I signed up to the Cirque website a while back but when ever I get any emails they are always for the UK even though I have put LV as one of my prefrences is there a section on the website I am missing? I should be good at this sort of stuff working in IT!!!!! :-)

Thanks for the speedy reply much appreciated!

They do send some emails but so far I've only had emails for London - but if you go to their website and log on, then click on exclusive offers there are normally some there...somtimes they are different than the ones on their promotions page, sometimes the same.

ratkarth

The Bellagio Fountains

ferf1223 wrote: »

Can't remember when you are going - but there have been a lot of Phantom discounts about recently...this one goes until end of August.

http://shows.travelzoo.com/las-vegas-shows/584077?ptl=done&rating=&tppct=

thnx
going 31st of aug until 11th sept though so prob just mised
but can u holla if u see more
thansks

Cand

The Bellagio Fountains

ferf1223 wrote: »

They do send some emails but so far I've only had emails for London - but if you go to their website and log on, then click on exclusive offers there are normally some there...somtimes they are different than the ones on their promotions page, sometimes the same.

Arh that explains it then thought it might be me being a numpty and I was right! Thanks again.

ratkarth

The Bellagio Fountains

speaking of show tickets
do they get a lot of rat pack tickets reduced in tix4tonight?
when i was there 7 years ago thats all there ever was on offer!!
was looking foreward to doing this first night of stay so thought would get tickets when we land if this is stil the case

stoneman

The Bellagio Fountains

ratkarth wrote: »

my oh loves roller coasters, she's trying to drag me to 6 flags when we go in sept as a weekend trip...oh dear...
so ny ny is good ?is it good for babies like me who hate roller coasters too?

We have done that twice. About a 5 hour drive to Valencia, all day at six flags, stay the night at one of the local hotels, then drive back to Vegas early in the morning. My advice is to go n six flags site and find out if any of the rides are shut for maintenance when you go. One of the trips we took there were 4 big rides out of action, if I had known, we wouldn't have bothered.

funkyfin2000

The Bellagio Fountains

Wahoooooooo we are all back and almost on UK time!

Got back on Friday night and we still have today off before back to work tomorrow!

Are you ready for the 12 page trip report????????????????????????

It is the whole holiday!!!!!

What a fantastic holiday it was!!!!

Rich

stoneman

The Bellagio Fountains

Kathy220559 wrote: »

Hi

I have been to Vegas many times love it but this time we would like to do the Golden Triangle.

Is that some sort of metaphor??;)

funkyfin2000

The Bellagio Fountains

USA Trip Report
Day 1 – Travel to Manchester airport with our mate Ryan who was our taxi, get breakfast at Manchester airport, use their free wifi. Get the internal plane to Heathrow. Get T5 out from Heathrow to San Francisco. 11hr flight was long and very boring. Get to San Francisco and pick up Dodge Charger which is huge. Meet Pat and Alan our family who live in Pleasenton, weather really sunny and nice. Drive to their house and relax. Have steak, corn, potatoes and salad for tea. Head to bed at about 8pm as totally exhausted.

Day2 – Get up and have poached egg, hollandaise sauce, ham and sausage for breakfast. Check out map etc and Alan gives us a road map of California. Drive out to Yosemite, stopping along the way and on the roads. Taking pictures. Weather fantastic again. Get to Yosemite Village and check out the store and have a deli sandwich. Really warm. Go to B+B (Blue Butterfly Inn). Miss it on the road but find it eventually. B+B amazing. Ron and Liz amazing hosts. Sit us down and give us old English tea in antique tea pot and fine china. Sit and talk to them and met a couple living in their basement for a while, Christina and Joel. Very nice, Joel is a photographer and climber, Christina works in the motel in the parking lot on reception. We also meet another English couple staying and chat for about 3 hours. Go for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Wasn’t great, Claire had veggie lasagne and I had Chicken Masala. Cost about £40. Go back to B+B and meet the other couple staying from England as well.

Day 3 – Get up early, update pics and facebook etc. Talk to Liz whilst she makes breakfast. Breakfast is served which was like a potato with creamy sauce, cheese and mushroom flan, sausages to die for and also homemade blackcurrant pie!! All homemade and amazing. Sat talking to all the couples over breakfast about what they were doing. We made our plans. Claire then drove for the first time and we stopped along the way in to the park. Taking pictures etc. Waterfalls were in full flow. Weather was duller and cooler. Got to Yosemite village and walked round the 20min lower Yosemite Water Fall. Amazing site! Got very wet with the mist! Then made our way to the Village Store and grabbed a large cookie, crisps and water. We also grabbed some souvenirs here. We then drove to Curry Village where we parked and it started to pour with rain. Walked thru the trees and started a hike up Vernal falls and then on to Nevada falls at approx 6000ft. The hike started very very steep and we made it to a small bridge where you could see Vernal fall. We then carried on climbing higher and higher on the mist trail. We soon found out why it was called the mist trail! The water and mist off the waterfall was amazing. We climbed 600 granite steps teetering on the edge of the rock face right up to the top of Vernal falls at 5000ft. The top was amazing, spotting wildlife along way, squirrels, blue tailed birds. The very hard work to get to the top was so worth it! This place is amazing! We grabbed our cookie (700calories but SOOOO nice!) and crisps. We then did the next ascent up to Nevada Falls. This was even harder work. The trail switch backed all over the place zig zagging up the mountain side. You could also tell we were climbing an altitude due to the dizziness you sometimes got! At last we got to the top! The site before us was truly something else. Unexplainable and amazing! The amount of water going over the edge was truly amazing. We stayed up for a while and then made our descent downwards. The rain had cleared on the way up but it started to rain heavier on the way down. The hiking trails were slippy and the mist on the mist trail was just like standing in a shower! We reached the bottom in half the time it took to get up and headed to the car aching like mad! The rain crashing down! Glad to get to the car and head back to our B+B where a shower was welcome, and also a cup of English tea brewing ready for us in the same fine bone china and antique tea pot! Liz at the B+B dried all our clothes etc and we sat and talked with Liz and Joel and Christina for another few hours updating Facebook as we talked! 2 Couples checked out in the morning and another couple were due in, they were Japanese. About 8pm we decided we would try the pizza place out next to the B+B. The rain at this time was still crashing down and I went and ordered a large pizza, half and half, with the house special one side and mushroom on the other for Claire. The pizza was MASSIVE!!!! Cost £15 and it was huge! Liz invited us to bring it back and eat it at the B+B and that I did! We didn’t finish it and it is currently wrapped up in the fridge for us to take with us when we leave! After the pizza the Japanese couple turned up, the man was called Kai and he was an architect in Tokyo. He wrote all of our names down and lots of things, very friendly and very interested in the English. We sat and talked, the last English couple then got back from their day trip and the English tea came out again! We retired to bed as we had had a busy day as the rain continued to hammer down. The B+B has been five star luxury, the owners Liz and Ron are so friendly, with so many stories and you can just treat the place as your own! The whole outfit is bespokely designed and it is full of English antiques!

funkyfin2000

The Bellagio Fountains

Day 4 – Woke up early to more rain and the Merced River crashing down the mountain it is very full! Getting ready for a great breakfast before sadly having to leave Yosemite and this amazing B+B! Had breakfast which was fresh fruit, melon, cooked warm ham, cheese and tomato flan and fresh brown and currant muffins just cooked that morning. To die for! Then we packed up after talking to the Japanese and other English couple for an hour. We then purchased a photograph by Joel of Yosemite Vernal falls that we climbed the day before. $50 we gave him. We left after all our good byes and headed out in to the rain towards Mariposa Grove and out the park. The river Merced was a complete torrent, the amount of water in it. We headed out on roads teetering on the edge and after about 1hr came out the park, through Oak Hurst and picked up some fuel. Credit card didn’t work in the pump so cashier helped us and we put $30 in the car. Carried on through to Fresno and the country became much flatter! We stopped at a Burger King for the drive thru and grabbed a Steakhouse burger and fries. Claire just ate the fries. We then carried on to our destination which is McNally’s Lodge near Kernville (Lake Isabella). Passed through Kernville which was really old style American town, Mc Nally’s Lodge wasn’t in the town so had to carry on through. Couldn’t find it so stopped and asked the sheriff. 12 miles later along a windy road by the river we found Mc Nally’s lodge. It was really typically American and you could tell that it was a holiday spot for American tourists. We went into the bar and met Tony (the owner). We paid our balance and were handed our room key. We parked up on front of the motel room; they looked like they had just come out of the movies. The door has a metal mesh screen on the outside, once we opened the door we were greeted with an interesting aroma of room freshener and damp. The room was simple but clean, however the walls are rather thin, you could hear the person next door breathe! We decided to go for a wonder and investigate the place a bit more. We walked over to the camp site alongside the river; Richard decided to go for a paddle in the river in his shoes. We went over to the bar for dinner; Richard couldn’t wait to sample their famous steaks! We booked a table for 2 and then sat at the bar for a few drinks. We sat beside a man called Gary; he was a real American through and through!! I think he had a few drinks already when we sat down but he didn’t stop drinking the rest of the night! Richard ordered a white Russian and Jen (the barmaid) recommended an appletini for me. She brought them over and both were quite potent! Meanwhile we were making friends with Gary, as he kept telling us he was in nam and he has ‘the eagle’ tattooed on his arm and on his back. He was a real American as in he loves USA and ‘**** everyone else’ (his words not ours!) the conversation got a bit political now and we didn’t really get to say much as he done most of the talking. He said ‘turn all of Iraq into a parking lot!’ We bought him a bud and Richard had another white Russian. The lady sitting to the left of us had deep fried zucchini she gave us a bit to try, tasty but not too healthy!! We carried on talking to Gary (well he continued to talk to us!!), he kept saying that he has a gun and isn’t afraid to kill with it. Gary bought us a drink and somehow rich ended up with two white Russians, Claire had a shot of southern comfort with Terry and Gary. We asked him where he was from and he said Bakersfield. He lives in a RV/trailer as he doesn’t want to buy a house so the government can just take it off him again. Our table was ready we went through and got our menus. Table next to us had come all the way from San Diego, the man got a 24oz fillet steak and it was huge!! Richard ordered the surf and turf 8oz fillet and shrimp they made me veggie lasagne. We got some salad before the dinner and then dinner came. It was huge with a jacket potato each. After dinner we went out for more drinks then made our excuses to go. Off to bed as got a long drive tomorrow.

Day 5 – Wasn’t the best night’s sleep so we got up quite early. Packed up the car and headed to Kernville. We parked up and went to Blue Bear cafe for some breakfast. We had a pastry each and tea/coffee sat by the window and watched the world go by. Wasn’t very busy though as was a Sunday. Not many shops open so went into the couple that were, got some magnets in one and went to the supermarket for some water in preparation for the drive to death valley. We then drove on to Death Valley, the day was very warm, and the roads very straight. We eventually hit one of the very very long wide highways which had a large army base located to the left of us (in an area of 50miles square but was visible!) and we could see a massive plane just going round the area flying low obviously doing some military work. We then drove for about 50 miles straight, no corners, so the cruise control came on! We were then due to take a right turn towards Death Valley but instead carried on the road up to a town called Lone Pine. Not much at this place but we grabbed some petrol which we got ripped off for $40 since the pump wouldn’t read my card again! We then stopped in to the town and had a wander round, this was Sunday still and it was quiet. We then got back in the car and went to the turn off for Death Valley where there was a visitor centre. Popped in and got some info on what to see on the way in to Death Valley. They were very helpful. We once again took to the road and headed in to Death Valley. Current temp about 75oF. The roads again were straight but when going over mountains were extremely windy. The place quickly became crazy, vast mountain ranges and then when we dropped in to valley floors words cannot describe how baron, vast and huge the sites before us were! As we dropped in to a very small village called Pananmint Springs, located on the side of the Pananmint Mountains we got hungry and stopped at a very small cafe/pub where we took some sodas (Mountain Dew!) and I had a BBQ and Bacon Burger and Claire had a Veggie burger! We sat out on the deck looking out over the desert and wrote most of our postcards here! We then moved on further in to the desert, getting hotter and hotter, hitting 83oF. We stopped at the Sand Dunes on the way through to the Ranch we were staying at. An area in the Valley where the wind and movement of sand creates perfectly formed Sand Dunes. We also stopped at a Borax example where a long time ago they mined gold etc. The temp was now hitting 95oF and getting very hot. We had by this stage completed about 130miles from when we started in Kernville that morning. We then did the last few miles to the Furnace Creek Ranch where we were staying. This place sits on the valley floor (one of the hottest places on earth) and this was now 100oF! Very Hot! But not as hot as it can get, the record being 150oF! We got registered at the motel and found our room. Room 601 in a block near the back of the complex. It was almost like a resort with 2-3 restaurants on the site, tennis courts, swimming pool etc but everyone stays there as there is nowhere else to stay or eat etc so prices are very high for everything! We got settled in our room which was pretty, a little dated but clean and tidy. We then went swimming in the spring natural fed pool! (Bizarre in the desert!) and sun bathed a while. We then went back to our hotel room and got changed before heading out for sun down at Zabriskie Point! This was something I really wanted to do after hearing about it on the internet. We drove 5 miles up to Zabriskie Point which was a small walk from the park which had a magnicificant view across the valley floor and the golden canyon. The sun was starting to come down; the silence was eerie and amazing. Loads of people sat with cameras etc and the sun started to sink below the mountains at the back of the valley floor. Literally the colours of the rock faces around us changed from grey, to purple to orange it really was an amazing experience and something I would like to do again at Sun rise! I got loads of pictures here as it was such a wonderful experience! We then headed back to the Furnace Creek ranch and stopped off at 1 of the restaurants at the front of the ranch. Here we both had a roasted vegetable wrap and mozzarella sticks which were nice but Claire couldn’t eat all hers as it was so big. It was a very pricey meal at about $60. We then headed back to our room as it was still so hot (even at 9:30pm at night!) and then grabbed some sleep ready for our next trip on to Las Vegas the next morning!

Day 6 – Started early again this morning, walked from our room out to the front of the ranch again and grabbed breakfast in the same place we got our lunch the night before. Richard had 2 eggs sunny side up, coffee, sausage, hash browns and toast and Claire had poached eggs and toast. Once eaten we headed to the post office, posted our postcards and checked out. Richard then wanted to make sure he saw the last few sightseeing items in Death Valley as we were in no rush to get over to Las Vegas. We drove from the ranch to a place called Badwater. Badwater is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere. Being that it is approx 292ft below Sea Level. It was a bizarre experience again, vast area, white salty crusty floor with some water again which has a snail in it that is not found anywhere else in the world. We then moved on from Badwater to a place called Natural Bridge. Again it was 100oF this was on a dirt track off the normal road which was a little hairy in our on 4 wheel drive Dodge Charger!! It was about 1.5mile of dirt track. We parked up and then it was another 1 mile walk to the natural bridge. This was a killer, it was literally boiling and we both drank a bottle of water getting to the natural bridge! Once we got there it was again amazing and worth it. Natural Bridge is a rock formation which is just like a bridge formed over millions of years! Once we left Natural Bridge we headed on to a very famous drive that is one way and off the main road in Death Valley called Artists Drive. This is a very picturesque one way drive that leads you through small canyons and rocks that are all different colours, from yellow, to orange to blue to green. We also stopped at Artists Palette along the way. Once we rejoined the main road, we headed back on to Las Vegas. Once last stop to do, called Dante’s peak. This was a 13 mile drive up to the top of a 6000ft mountain which looked out across the whole of Death Valley. Once we got there it truly was another amazing view that was so worth the drive again! We took many pictures, the temperature wasn’t too bad as, as you get higher the temperature drops, so it was only about 70oF at the top.
We left Dante’s peak and headed to Las Vegas. This was another good drive, but once out of Death Valley it was fairly easy to drive. Heading pretty much on straight roads, but the temperature was again very hot with the air con on the road on full! We went through Death Valley Junction and in to a place called Pahrump! We started getting near Vegas once you hit Nevada State all the Casinos start popping up in towns and villages! As we dropped over another mountain range in to Las Vegas we stopped off for fuel and bought some snacks. Another $30 of fuel went in and that filled us up for when we leave Las Vegas in 4 days time. As we headed in to a very busy downtown Las Vegas we took a few wrong roads and the Sat Nav did help directing us in. We went straight in to the MGM front entrance and Valet parked, something we have never done before! Pretty cool, just left the keys and the car at the front of the hotel, a bell boy picked up our bags and disappeared with them! We went straight in to the Casino and registered for the Players Club. This is the club for the MGM hotel and whenever you gamble or shop you gain points which can be used later on. We needed this card due to the deal we booked with the hotel as it was a “players club” room deal. Got the players club card and went and booked in at hotel registration. Got offered an upgrade to a strip view but had 2 x Queen beds. We kept with our King bed and non smoking room. Went to the room, rang the Bell Boy for our luggage which came promptly, tipped the guy and settled in to our room. Nice big king bed, shower wet room etc, not massive but modern and stylish.
We then headed downstairs and actually tried to understand the slot machines and lost about $100 in them!! Whoops, rapidly realised we couldn’t be bothered playing them at all. We then took a wander down the strip to Planet Hollywood and just had a brief look round the Miracle Mile shops. We then headed for Caesars Palace Forum Shops and booked in to the Cheesecake factory for dinner. This consisted of Claire having pasta with roasted veg and Richard had the fillet Mignon. We also ordered a Strawberry Cheesecake to go and took that with us. Total bill approx $55. We then headed back to our hotel room again and scoffed cheesecake and headed to bed, tired from driving!

Day 7 – Richard woke up early again approx 8am and logged on to PC talking to my mum and gaz on MSN messenger. Claire slept on. Woke her up about 9:30am and decided we wanted breakfast. Knew about a decent breakfast buffet at Planet Hollywood called Spice Island. Headed out the MGM towards the monorail that runs between about 9 casinos. Bought a 3 day ticket for $60 for both of us. Headed to Spice Island and had breakfast buffet for $32 for both of us. This was something else. Every different thing for breakfast you could have and have as much as you liked. Italian, European, American, English truly glutinous!!! Finished off here and was totally full! Claire bought some dresses in Urban Outfitters in the Miracle Mile shops and we then headed towards Fashion Show Mall near the Wynn hotel. This is a shopping centre full of millions of upmarket shops. Registered for our 11% off Macy’s card to get discount, Claire bought some more clothes and Richard bought a set of sunglasses and some clothes. By this time it was early afternoon and very very hot again so we headed on the monorail back to MGM and got back to our room, changed to go to the pool. Went down to the pool and choose the producers pool (out of about 9 there!) and sat down and sunbathed for a while. Claire wrote up a day trip report on our laptop and also got a vodka and peach drink. We then realised we were sunbathing next to Ricky Hatton (big British boxer) who was fighting at the MGM just before we arrived! He lost his match big time though. People were getting him to autograph things and all sorts while he say there drinking and sunbathing! Richard went in the pool and then we moved to another swimming pool where the lazy river went round. Claire went in the lazy river which is a big long river of water that moves and goes through different water things. After a while we then headed back to our room to get ready to go out for the Murder Mystery we had booked for that night. We headed out on the monorail again towards a casino called the Sahara. Once there we were to be picked up by the Murder Mystery Company but we couldn’t find them. After moving between different casino exits etc we found the guy and we took a trip with him down to the office. The murder mystery was very well done. There were 7 of us on it and we got set a challenge to find 18 heart stones and someone had also been murdered. We were taken in a van around various locations where there were clues and scenes etc. It was very well one and we found all 18 hearthstones and found the murderer! We all won a prize of a DVD and we were then dropped back off at the Sahara casino, the whole thing took about 3 hours. We then walked from Sahara to the Venetian hoping to go to the Grand Luxe cafe for dinner (now approx 11:30pm) but sadly they only had a limited menu on so we then to the monorail from Ballys Casino back to MGM Grand and grabbed a McDonalds Burger, fries, apple pies etc etc and took it back to our room and ate it before retiring to bed about 1am.

Day 8 – Got up late at about 10:30am full from the night before burgers and fries! Decided we didn’t need breakfast and would explore a few free things in the casinos and have a look down the south area of the strip as we hadn’t explored this before. We headed first to the lion habitat in the MGM. One of the lions was in and the handlers were playing with them in the glass enclosure. We took photos and videos as it was pretty amazing. We then headed to New York New York casino and had a look round. By this time we were starting to get hungry so grabbed a sandwich in the deli. Richard had an Italian Stalllion and Claire a bagel and cream cheese. The Italian sandwich was massive, Ham, Prosciutto, Salami, Rocket packed full! About $15 all in. Reminded us of New York of course since it was a copy of their Deli’s. We then looked round the amusements and bought tickets for the New York New York rollercoaster. This rollercoaster go round the outside of the hotel and out in to the heat before descending through the casino back to base! Took a ride on that which was good fun but quick! We then headed on to the next casino which was Excalibur which was done out like a castle! Not much to see here so just wandered through then grabbed the free monorail to Mandalay Bay. Again not a huge amount to see here but wandered through to the Shark Aquarium but didn’t go in as too expensive. We also visited some of the shops etc and Claire bought some more clothes. We then headed straight in to the Luxor which is in the shape of a Pyramid. Very crazy and weird inside and again just looked around at the shops before heading back to towards the strip and walked along to the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood again. We did some quick shopping again before going to Bills Gamblin Hall where we were set up to meet 3 other couples from the Internet Forum Money Saving Expert that had been organised! Met 1 couple in there at the bar and then other 2 came along and we chatted and got to know them. Bills is famous for its 0.99c Marguerites so Claire had one of these but they were hellishly sweet and Richard just had a few beers. We then sat down to watch a free show in the Casino. This was called Big Elvis and it was a guy who is about 27 stone singing Elvis!! We were right at the front and the show went on for about an hour! It was actually really good fun with a bit of audience participation! Big Elvis also told us he had lost 510 pounds in the last 3 years!!! But he was still enormous!!! We left the forum meet people after this and headed back to MGM to get changed and showered for our evening meal. At this point we also booked to see the Jubilee 10:30pm show on Thursday night at Bally’s Casino! This is a traditional showgirl show for Vegas (one of the longest running) so we shall see how that is tomorrow night!! Once back at MGM via monorail again we got ready and then headed out to the Venetian on the monorail to go to the Grand Luxe Cafe for dinner. Here Claire had a mushroom burger and Rose wine and Richard had a Shrimp and chicken combo which was all really tasty and very reasonable at $53. We were both full and tired after this so headed straight back to MGM to write up the trip report and also write some more postcards before heading to sleep!