Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009

stoneman

The Bellagio Fountains

trets77 wrote: »

i have been thinking about the new poll , and think Airlines should be the next vote .

i will definatly list these

Virgin Direct to Vegas
My Travel direct
Virgin Indirect ( airbus planes )



please let me know Airlines that you feel must also be included in the poll

I don't think we need a poll again really. They stay on so long that it seems to clutter up the board. Airlines isn't a good one, too many options. Restaurants, you would struggle to get more than 3 that most people would know of. Buffets, there are only about 5-6 of any worth.

Froggitt

The Fremont street experience

stoneman wrote: »

So who apart from a bartender, valet and bellhops who is there then. Do you tip the check in clerk?

I think you'll find $20 to be sufficient ;);)

987654

does anyone know if any airline goes direct from Manchester to San Fransisco or Vegas?

Thanks

luci

The Bellagio Fountains

987654 wrote: »

does anyone know if any airline goes direct from Manchester to San Fransisco or Vegas?

Thanks

Thomas Cook to Vegas from MAN

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

trets77 wrote: »

i have been thinking about the new poll , and think Airlines should be the next vote .

i will definatly list these

Virgin Direct to Vegas
My Travel direct
Virgin Indirect ( airbus planes )



please let me know Airlines that you feel must also be included in the poll

what about best resident headliner/production show? Of course there's the chance that something will close, but might be an interesting one, maybe? And only so many options..

bounty99

The Lion Habitat

day 3

we ended up sleeping throughout the whole night and didnt wake up till 6am! Grand Canyon must've tired us out more than we thought.
we started off today with breakfast at Augustus Cafe in Caesars and bal opted for eggs benedict and so did i, it was very nicely done and did the job of filling us up. with coffee and orange juice the bill came to $48, as we had the $20 off voucher we used that towards the bill.
after breakfast we walked across to Paris and played on the slots for a bit, then decided to walk around the casino, took pictures and was accosted by this friendly lady who was very keen to know if me and bal were a couple, 'yes we are' bal replied. her next question being 'are you married?', 'no, we're not' said bal, 'are you living together' she said, 'only at caesars' i said, she laughed and me and bal both got the picture that this was some saleswoman/timeshare kinda person. she asked us no more questions and wished us a good day. and for the first time me and bal were glad we weren't married! for the first couple of days we had people coming up to us asking us the same questions, in the hotels and outside, it got to the point where we could spot them a mile away. so me and bal would walk separately whenever passing them, and it worked cos when we did this they didnt even come up to us!
after the lady wished us a good day at Paris we walked along the route we were going and realised we were entering Ballys, hmmm, handy and interesting. we stepped in and were immediately in the casino, we found a 3 card poker table and were happy to see the minimum bet was $5. i put my TR card and cash on the table and was ready to play, we both played for an hour or so, we were both up from what we initially put in, i was up by about $150 and decided to cash out when i got down to $100. the CW was regular and frequent, as soon as we sat down at the table she was there. before leaving Ballys i also got a $1 chip as a souvenir. this was the beginning of our Poker Chip Quest...
we decided to go back to Paris and play some blackjack, the table was lively, i only hit 21 once and for the half hour we were at the table, the dealer busted twice. me and bal didnt do good or bad and just cashed out at pretty much what we went in with, also not forgetting to get a Paris $1 chip.
after Paris we walked over to Bills Gambling Saloon and played more 3 card poker, i put down $50 and in around 20 minutes or less that $50 had turned into absolutely nothing, Bills took it all!
bal was still playing, he won a few hands and pushed some chips my way and said 'come on lets win!' nice one bal! so i started playing and once again im hitting nothing! im down to my last 3 $5 chips and decide to put them all on pair plus, i convince myself that im definitley due a pair by now, but nope i got nothing again! oh well, you win some you lose some! we both stepped out of Bills with only a $1 chip for my collection - 3 chips so far, from Ballys, Paris and Bills, this poker chip quest is gonna be easy!
we next decided to try Flamingo, i convinced bal that we should play 3 card poker here, he wasnt feeling it but decided to play anyway, dammit i shouldve listened to him! Flamingo took our money too! bal asked the dealer for a $1 chip and we skedaddled outta there and into O'Sheas. O'Sheas was a lively joint but i decided not to play anything, bal decided to play and i decided to watch and be his lucky charm. the cards were dealt and he was hitting nothing so i thought i might aswell play on the slot machines and hopefully bal would get better hands if im not there! i went looking for a machine that gave me good vibes and found one, i dont understand how these work, so i press any buttons and i can see my credits going up and up and up! i put in a dollar and i had made it into 6 bucks and some cents, i could get used to these! after a while i was down to $1.25 and decided to cash out and try out another machine, but before i did, i thought id better go see how bal is doing at 3 card, it wasn't good, although i could see he already got me a $1 chip from dealer, i showed him my voucher to gee him up as i made a 25c profit, a guy sitting next to bal who saw my voucher said 'any wins a good win' too right mister! bal had enough chips left for one hand and played, he won! looks like this voucher is his lucky charm! he decided to cash out and join me on the slots. we spent an hour on the slots and loved it whenever we heard the ringing noise of our credits going up, we'd nudge each other and say to the other 'look, look, look!'
we decided to call it a day at O'Sheas and were heading out to leave when we saw a message board regarding NL poker tourneys at various times with a $45 buy-in, this peaked our interest. we asked the guy more about it and the next tournament was at 1pm, and decided to go for it, we registered got a card which stated our table and seat number and with that we were off to Imperial Palace.
we both decided not to play here, so we went to a dealer and asked for a $1 chip, i think he knew i wanted it as a souvenir as he was looking for the cleanest one! he found one and we were on our way to the auto collections classic car showroom. we passed the dealertainers and in my opinion they looked nothing like the celebrity they were meant to be. we went upstairs via the elevator, has anyone else been in this? because it creaks and goes really slow, we couldnt help but think that it was gonna break down with us in there!
but it got us to the floor we needed to go to, as soon as we got off the elevator we were pretty much just a few feet away from the cars. i handed the cashier the 2 free ticket vouchers i had and went in. this was great, all the classic cars you can think of were there, they had a car there called the Delahaye which was the only one in the whole world, it looked like a tractor and it was worth 2 million dollars! my fave of all cars and one i have wanted for years the '65 Mustang convertible was there also, black with red interior, absolutely beautiful. also the car that starsky and hutch drove was there and the pick-up truck that Mike used to drive in Desperate Housewives! why would that be there?!
bit out of place but they had the Zoltar fortune teller machine there and bal couldnt help but recreate the tom hanks scene in Big! i took photos of him on his knees as a shorty then another one of him all tall - thanks zoltar!
we were in the showroom for an hour and a half and realised we only had 30 mins left before the tournament began, so we decided to go but not before i went to say bye to my Mustang and to take more pictures of it.
we took the elevator down and this guy with a bottle of bud in his hand looking all scruffy was in there and asked us what floor we wanted, that was nice of him, he made small talk with bal till we got out on the casino floor and other people went in the elevator, then we heard him ask them what floor they wanted! wait a minute, did that just happen?! did he work there?! has anyone else come across him?! we were laughing our heads off and decided thats the best job in the world! a bottle of bud in one hand, pressing buttons with the other and a bit of customer interaction! ha ha brilliant!
when we stepped out of IP we realised we had 20 mins left, could we make it to our room and back to O'Sheas? Yes, i convinced bal.
as Caesars was right opposite and we saw the Forum shops entrance we decided to jaywalk, there was no point in crossing from the lights cos those were so far away! but we had to run fast when crossing! we entered the Forum shops and proceeded to make our way to the Forum tower, the spiral escalator was funky and the whole interior was very beautifully done, i was taking pictures whilst walking really fast! we went up the escalators and couldnt find a way towards the Forum casino, we were going up and down, we were both getting frustrated till we finally realised which way to go!whew! we got to the room, quickly freshened up and got changed in record time and were on our way out the room again. bal said that we should go throught the Forum shops again to get to O'Sheas as it would be quicker, i looked at him to see if he was joking but he was deadly serious, 'really?' was my response. but he convinced me as he said he knew which way it was, so we went through the Forum shops walking really fast, and it happened again, we got lost! now instead of trying to get away from the spirally escalators we were trying to get to them but couldnt find them for love nor money! i told bal to go on without me, that i'l find a way out and that one of us should get to O'Sheas and as he was faster it should be him, i was slowing him down big time! but he was having none of it, he said he wasn't gonna leave me on my own! so sweet!
we finally found the spirally escalators and knew where the exit was from here so i once again told bal to run to O'Sheas and i will definitley find the way out to meet him there but he was still having none of it!
once outside we ran across the road again and ran the short distance to O'Sheas, in the heat it was like running a marathon!
we got to the tournament 10 minutes late, showed our seat cards and sat down, we were at different tables and i hadnt been blinded out. the cards i was getting were mediocre, nothing to raise with or anything, i was folding mostly and i wasnt really that confident to bluff, i was on that table for around a half hour and only won one pot with ace high.
we were asked to move to another table, it was the one where bal was on. he was doing good by the look of his chips. i was still getting rubbishy hands and folding mostly, wish i had the guts to bluff, but i dont know what was wrong with me today! finally i get dealt a good hand A,J off-suit, everyone calls the blind, flop comes out and there's an A, iv got a pair. one by one everyone seems to be checking; hmmm, interesting. it comes to me and i raise, guy next to me folds and so does the other one, next guy is bal and he calls and another guy also calls, everyone else folds. card gets flipped on the turn and i know no ones got anything so i raise again and bal calls me, the other guy is thinking hard and looking at me, if i ever need a poker face its right now! normally if i see someone looking at me like that i crack up laughing and boy did i want to but i couldnt give into it, i looked over at bal to get some of his courage and whew laughter avoided! the guy folds! result! so now its between me and the guy who taught me poker in the first place, bal. i cant help smiling but quickly harden my face as i realise bal always figures out what cards iv got just by looking at my face! as i think iv got better than him i decide to go all-in, its on him now and without thinking he calls! all im thinking is what has he got! we both turn our cards over and he shows A,9 off-suit, its all on the river, im so confident iv got him beat with J high but a Q comes on the river! NO!!!! SPLIT POT!!! I HATE SPLIT POTS!!! i had him beat before the Q came up...oh well if i was to split a pot who better than with my OH!
this was pretty much my best hand throughout the whole tournament! bal got moved to another table and around 10 mins later it was a 5 min break, me and bal went to the slots to sit down and went through the cards we had been dealt and he gave me some last minute tips on do's and dont's, after that we headed back to the room and the tourney had started again! we weren't out there for more than 5 mins, and not only that, i was blinded out! what!
i sat down and looked at my cards, more rubbish. so i decided to forget all the advice i received less than 10 mins ago by bal and on next hand im gonna go all in, the blinds were making my stack dwindle and i might aswell go out with a bang, next hand came, and it was no good but i went all in and as expected i didnt win that hand.
got up and walked over to where bal was sitting and told him i'l be on 3 card poker table while i wait for him.
i was liking this table, the dealer was chatty, i was hitting pairs, straights and flushes. and all of a sudden i see bal sitting down next to me. he got to the last table in tournament. he played a bit of 3 card too and after half hour or so we decided to go back to Caesars to put our feet up for an hour or so.
we got to Caesars and decided to have a cheeky hit and run on 3 card before we went upstairs, we did good, we were both hitting good hands and decided to stay on table for a bit longer. the dealer was nice and chatty and now my favourite because she thought i was an actress! heee heee heee love it! we decided to stop playing after we were up by $125 and use this money for when we played tomorrow but for now we just wanted to go up and rest for a bit.
after our much needed rest we made our way to Mirage, got a $1 chip from cashier and made our way to the tiger and dolphin habitat, we saw four dolphins swimming away for 10 mins then went to the tiger habitat and saw the white tigers. i wasn't too keen on getting too close as it has been known for them to mark their territory on people! i backed away really fast everytime i saw their tails go up! we spent 20 minutes or so here and were really hungry so we decided to go eat at BLT Burger which is in Mirage. bal ordered lamb tandoori burger and nut job milkshake and i ordered a turkey burger with fries and berry me milkshake...yep, we were happy with this meal too and made a definite pledge to return here again.
after our meal we headed back to Caesars to chill for a bit before we got ready to go to Rain at Palms. once we were ready we made our way across to Ballys to catch the monorail to Palms, but it didnt go there and traffic was pretty much at a standstill for us to even contemplate catching a cab. i knew that Palms was kinda opposite Rio and we could see Rio from where we were standing, so i made a suggestion that maybe we should walk to Rio and then catch a cab from Rio to Palms - great idea!
so off we walk towards Rio, Bal was up for going to Pure in Caesars but i convinced him that Rain is really good too. whilst walking the strangest thing kept happening, Rio seemed to be getting further and further away from us, how was this happening?! we could see the Luxor and that seemed closer than Rio! why cant i learn to accept that bal always speaks sense and therefore is always right! why!!! while walking along we decide to go to Voodoo Lounge instead of Rain, my feet are killing me in my high heels, we're walking along a really really busy road and it takes forever to cross the road and a lifetime to get to Rio! but we finally get there after 35-45 minutes, we were so relieved and just wanted to sit down but we thought we might aswell find out where Voodoo is first. we asked at the security desk and he gave us the directions and also gave us 2 free passes to get in! result! we found where we needed to go and joined the queue, from here we could see the casino downstairs and also saw the masquerade show whilst waiting.
after 20mins in the queue we made our way to the elevator and looked out at the view whilst going up. once we got to the lounge we went straight to the bar, bal got a double grey goose and i settled with water. the double shot of goose looked more like 10 shots, bartender was pouring freestyle. we went out to the terrace and could see all of Vegas lit up, it was drop dead gorgeous, i took photos from every angle that i could. we went back inside and found a place to sit, still being able to see the view outside and just soaked up the Vegas atmosphere. there was one guy dancing away on his own, it was so funny watching him, his dancing consisted of clumsy martial arts moves and just wriggling around, he either must've been very drunk or he lost a bet! but fair play to him for being so gutsy!
after an hour or so the dancefloor was getting packed and the DJ was spinning some great tunes, i was dancing whilst sitting down, waiting for bal to finish his drink and get his groove on! bals not a fan of dancing, i always have to force him on the dancefloor! looks like its gotta be done tonight too! finally bal's finished his drink and i get up, we make our way to the other side and we start dancing to Jump Around, yeah bal, jump around!
halfway through the next song bal wants to get another drink, 'no way dude, after the next 10 songs we'l get a drink' i say. yeah i knew it wouldnt work cos he just looks at me and says he's going to the bar. great, and i hate it when you stop dancing and DJ plays even better songs! thanks bal! as i had water before i felt like downing something alcoholly so we opted for a double of Patron each. wow! so in Vegas terms a double is a quadruple?! we like!!! i had a couple of sips first cos i knew there was no way i would be able to down that in one, when it got to the level where i knew i could i stopped and waited for bal to down his first then i downed mine, boy was that stingeeeee! right, time to go back on the dancefloor! from here on in we danced the night away, and heard our favourite song ever which we never knew existed till that moment, 'I'M IN LAS VEGAS BI**H'! brilliant!
we left Voodoo Lounge at around 3am ish and went downstairs to the casino area to sit at the slots for a bit as my feet were killing me! half hour later we made our way out but not before bal got me a Rio $1 chip, i forgot all about that and he remembered even though he was tipsy! sweet! we caught a cab outside and off home to Caesars we went.

pebblesmax

The Bellagio Fountains

Thanks for the TR's Tangobunny and Bounty. I'm still here, soldiering on in 90+ temperatures. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

nvh

The Bellagio Fountains

just had this email off NYNY -- it's not exactly marvellous but it's the first email i've ever had off them despite signing up to PlayersClub over 3 years ago






worth keeping an eye on your emails anyways - the above is the base (worst) offer, as I accidently found a few of the other offers and they don't look too bad

anyone fancy this one for example?:


Unfortunately offers are only available to the recipiant of the email... if you want to be curious and look at the others, just change the number at the end of this link:
http://www.nynyhotelcasino.com/offers/2009/05_summer_bonus/images/s_offer_b1.jpg

watpoae

wdyw wrote: »

As Stoneman has already said Slugger Stadium is the easiest option. you can choose from low speed 30mph up to 80mph pitches ...and the hardest ball of all to hit is the slow pitch softball! Bats and helmets you get there, but if you are intending to put any effort at all into your swing get a pair of batting gloves!

Off to Vegas in June and being big Baseball fans me and my mate are thinking of going down to Slugger Stadium. Is it worth it then? Are you just in batting cages or is it similar to a driving range where you're in a confined space but you can smash the balls into a big area?

Also is it easy to get to from the strip? Thanks all

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

keep the TR coming, bounty - really enjoying it.

Congrats on the offer, nvh...it's really nice to get them and yeah, I'd be OK with $5000 freeplay!