Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009 part 2

ferf1223

October , November

oh - just one thing that's not Vegas specific, but was interesting.

I rented our car through CH3000 since the price with full coverage was not much more than the price to book direct with dollar.com without any coverage, picked up at O'Hare from Dollar today. as pebbles has said at least in Vegas the people at the Express booth were happy to help even though the booking came through a 3rd party without reference to an Expess number, I thought maybe they would do the same in Chicago and I could save a little bit of time.

They did better - got on the shuttle, the driver asked if there were any Express members...I said I was, but had booked 3rd party...he said well let me check anyway, you never know...and somehow (I assume name + address or something?) they had me down as Express.

Bonus was that while the voucher said I had to buy a tank of gas, I was given the option to buy a tank or return full. Not sure if this was an Express thing or not.

So it does pay to be an Express member, even when renting through 3rd parties.

luci

September

Just a heads up ferf, the temperatures are set to drop dramatically at the end of the week. They are now forecasting 73 & 75 for Wednesday and Thursday.

davidmcg2u

September

Hi folks,

We've just arrived home and we are knacked. Flights from Vegas to Philly and Philly to Glasgow were rough IMO although the transer at Philly went nice & smooth - thanks Luci.

I will do TR at 1st opportunity - I did the early part of the trip by bullet point whilst i Vegas & the remainder will be by memory which is not the best.

Cand

September

luci wrote: »

Thanks for the report. You certainly did a lot of walking and well done on the shopping.

Am just a bit of a shopaholic! I love the fact that I can go on hoilday and come back the same weight as I went with all the walking its great. Enjoy the rest of your holiday.

Ferf - Dont be put of by the City Centre stuff its ok just a bit of a mare but not enough to worry about it certainly wouldnt stop us thinking about/going again.

Cade_Foster

September

luci wrote: »

Just a heads up ferf, the temperatures are set to drop dramatically at the end of the week. They are now forecasting 73 & 75 for Wednesday and Thursday.

Ive been in october when its been about that and its still shorts all day and a lot warmer than the UK. the best thing to rember about temps is they are taken in the shade so it is usually warmer than they say.

duchy

August

75 sounds lovely was 106 at the beginning of this month which got a bit wearing after a bit

ferf1223

October , November

75 does sound lovely, though I packed no long sleeved anything or trousers based on the averages...so hopefully will be ok in the evenings!

davidmcg2u

September

Day 1 (Wed 16th) – arrived at Glasgow a little earlier to try for exit seats. Got row 8 which is behind main exit seats so had 1 extra legroom seats which was a good but obviously a little colder as so near to the exit door. The plane was a 757 and the configuration was 3-3.

This was our 1st experience of a non UK airline. After my initial nerves, where I almost returned home before boarding the flight, I settled down and felt ok. Overall the service on the plane was good. The main meal was served just after an hour – chicken/mash – quite nice although seemed strange to get it so early into the flight. Free soft drinks & water were always available as were tea & coffee at certain times too. A small pack of prezzles were handed out followed by a nice ciabatta about an hour before we arrived at Philly.

The flight was pleasant enough until last hour as it was a little bumpy going into Philly. A short video was show before our arrival into Philly which showed arrival process etc. which was helpful. Immigration was painless except the issue with Liz’s passport & prints not matching hasn’t been resolved yet – this only cost us an extra 15 mins though. We found Philly airport well organised and easy to navigate.

Philly – LV was bumpy most of the way and neither of us could relax. Seats were spacious had plenty of legroom. Think this was an Airbus 321 and again was a 3-3 config.

Phew – we’re on the ground let’s outta here!! Through McCarran quickly and no queue for the taxis. Taxi to Venetian cost around $18.

Venetian check in was reasonably easy but I decided to ask for a nice which I wouldn’t do again as I have received strip view rooms previously without asking. I think a little light went on in her head & said we’re going to a mountain view unless I wanted to pay to upgrade - $35 per night for view. She seemed to spend ages doing nothing – so I asked for my passport back and went into my wallet and the before I even took any money out she said “I may have found something for you”.

Anyway we were to floor 24 room 209. I’m not always specific but this is reminder for myself as I can’t remember our previous floors never mind room numbers. The view was great - we overlooked the pools, looked into the right hand side of The Mirage and right onto Treasure Island - the Fashion Show Mall was to our right too. We probably got into our room around 7.30pm and I can't even remember where we snacked but went to bed early as sual as we were knackered.

luci

September

Just arrived at the Excalibur for our overnight stay. Got one night comped on my MGM account a few months ago so decided to tie it in with seeing the Lion King at MB to save us fighting with strip traffic.

We are in a widescreen room. Not that impressed, but I may be comparing it to our lovely room at Paris.

OH made me walk all the way from Paris as we waited 10 mins for a Deuce and he wasn't prepared to wait any longer.

It's 100F today and the strip is busy. The casinos were very busy last night and it was quite hard to get a machine. However we walked straight into the Spice Market buffet this morning at 9.15 which is normally a busy time.

Not sure where we are going to eat tonight. The Italian Regale has a 3 course meal for $20 or the Steakhouse is $25 for a 3 course meal. The buffet is 2 for 1 between 2 and 6pm. Think we'll have to eat before the show as it doesn't finish until 10.30pm. The only option then would be the Sherwood Forest Cafe which is 24 hour.

davidmcg2u

September

Day 2 – We were both up and about by 8am and went for breakie inside Venetian food court. We then wandered around the Venetian pool areas before hitting the strip. My intention was to pick up all our show tickets (Ka, The Killers and Le Reve) hoping it would save us time later in the week.

We headed to the MGM and on the way we popped into MAG as I had seen all the glowing reports from you guys. They explained about the 1st come 1st served for patio area and said 6.30pm was a good time as wait shouldn’t be too long. So that was the plan.

We collected the Ka tix from the MGM and then headed over to Mandalay Bay for our Killers tix. The box office could really help us as they were told fan club tickets wouldn’t be available until the night of the show. I expected this but tried anyway.

On the way back to the Venetian we popped back into MAG and reserved an inside table for 7.30pm as it was so hot. We then popped over to the Wynn for Le Reve tickets. We waited 30mins to be told that Ticketmaster bookings couldn’t be picked up until the day of the show – to say I was raging was an understatement. I advised them to put a sign up so folk wouldn’t waste time in future. We headed back to our room to chill and get ready for dinner.

Went to MAG and the table we got inside was right at opening to the patio area so we had the best of both worlds – view and air con J We shared a half portion of Mussels, I had Steak B!arnaise Liz opting for the Pork tenderloins. We stuck to water as we were heading to the show and were a little tired. The bill was approx. $60 before tax & tip – great value.

Ka was great but I was very tired and irritable and couldn’t really sit at peace. I was glad when it finished but only because I was so tired – we’d never book a show for our 1st full night again. Also, we walked so far on our 1st day too – Venetian to MB back down Wynn then MGM for show. No wonder it took us so long to walk back down after the show.