Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009 part 2

adrienne1945

October , November

If anyone fancies staying at Wynn or Encore before 30 November put GCFRND in promo code box on their site for $109 rooms. Unfortunately no good for me as I'm not going until December

Angelite

Trust wrote: »

something new for you thrill seekers, cloud 9 by mand bay is open,

It seems like a good idea after a couple of drinks but it is cold up there

here for a couple more days so may try again day time

When we stayed at MB a couple of weeks ago, we saw them landscaping the area below the balloon from our room and wondered what on earth it was. Now we know!

Obviously, the balloon wasn't there at the time. That would have given it away.

pennylane99

December ( including Xmas and New Year )

adrienne1945 wrote: »

If anyone fancies staying at Wynn or Encore before 30 November put GCFRND in promo code box on their site for $109 rooms. Unfortunately no good for me as I'm not going until December

I used that promo for my stay at Encore last week, worked fine...no problems

Froggitt

December ( including Xmas and New Year )

Im staying in rubbish hotel near Brighton tomorrow.......cost is about the same as that Wynn deal

pennylane99

December ( including Xmas and New Year )

Theres also a message on Encore facebook page that they will be sending out a promo today sometime

We will be sending a special FAN-ONLY PROMOTION via private message to all our Facebook fans on Monday! Make sure you suggest our page to ALL your friends so they receive the promo too

http://www.facebook.com/Encore

Trust_2

October , November

Apologies,

Thanks Luci for clearing up with the balloon

Yes it is a large helium balloon which goes up on a line from just across from Mand Bay,honestly speaking for view of the strip the top of Paris is probably better,

Weather is changing quickly wind is picking up this someone mentioned the words rain earlier, but it is only short term, don't think we will see any more 90's this year.

Triker

October , November

Hi all, well we're here :j.

Flight dealable with, immigration, long and tedious, weather lovely, warm and dry, MGM mahoosive :eek:, jetlag, yup woke at 3.30am here, just having coffee then we'll go find some breakfast.

I intend to write a trip report, however I have intended to do them many times before and it all goes to pot after a few beverages. But this trip I'm not drinking so it may just happen.

One plus I've already noticed the !!!!!! slappers leave me alone, think its the walking stick, so there are some positives to having it.:D

Honestly....it really hasn't sunk in that we're here, it's surreal, I think it'll hit me at a really inopportune moment and I'll probably start screaming 'OMFG WE'RE IN VEGASSSSSSSSSS'.:rotfl:

Toodles for now, Triker xx

Zazie

April

Have a great time, Triker, and don;t fall asleep over dinner tonight!!

There's a new code for 70% off at www.restaurant.com until 25th Oct: it's PUMPKIN.

(Americans do love Hallowe'en, don't they.)

Scazza_2

First time poster here! Would just like to say what an excellent thread, it's helped me alot when booking my trip to Vegas! Just want to post a breif overview of preparations I have made so far and if I should consider anything else!

Me & a friend are off to Vegas on Nov 7th for 5 nights! We are massive poker players, we play alot so are looking forward to playing in Vegas and watching the November 9 of the World Series of Poker in the Rio!

I booked our package through Expedia.co.uk, we fly from Gatwick (11.35am) with US Airlines, we change in Charlotte. We arrive in Vegas at 6pm (Las Vegas Time). We have 5 nights stay in the Bellagio and we piad £550 each. Which I thought was pretty reasonable!

I am definatelty going to be trying the $20 bill trick, hopefully it will work, the Bellagio seems to have a high success rate. but with the World Series of Poker Final Table taking place when we are staying it may not be as successfull as I'm sure there will be plenty of people about!

I am going to opening a Nationwide Basic Bank Account for Cash Withdrawals whilst over there (as I see that this account is not charged the 1%, only the FlexAccount is charged) using any Cirrus Cash Machine, which according to MasterCard/Cirrus website there are plenty about on the Bellagio's doorstep! I am hoping that this is the case! As I have looked at exchnage rates, at the moment it's 1.6573, but the best currency exchange rate I can get is with Online FX at 1.6018. I know for a fact that you get a better rate from banks if using a cash card.

I have taken out an Abbey Zero Credit Card for Purchases out there as they are 0%.

Has anyone on the forum here been to Vegas to just play Poker?! If so it would be great if you could give me some tips/hints of where the best Cash Games/Tournaments are!

Not long now, I'm like a kid at christmas I am that excited!

roots_controller

Seems a bit quiet on here, so I thought I'd post my TR.

Sunday 4th October.
Flew out to LA with Virgin, must agree with other comments, these planes are alot better than the 747's they use for the direct flights. The 2-4-2 seating is also better when there are just the two travelling (myself and wife)
Flight was on time, food was ok and IFE had plenty of choice - though after two films I listened to music, the guy in front reclined his seat so I was about six inches away from the screen.
Got through immigration and customs fairly quick and made our way to SouthWest Airlines. Booked with them as price was reasonable but also we could check-in two pieces of luggage each FOC, not sure how many other airlines allow this.
Flight crew on this short journey were great, one of the stewards looked like Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees which I found very amusing (don't know why)
We had reserved rooms at the Excalibur - I know it's not the best hotel on the strip, but it does have opening windows, can't get on with too much air-conditioning. I know the Mirage does as well but last time I stayed there they'd messed up my reservation so vowed not to stay there again.
Was tempted to try the $20 trick as I'd made two reservations, one for two nights the other for four.
As it happened we were given an upgrade to a tower 2 room without asking, different decor, flat screen TV is the main difference.
Think we fell asleep almost straight away.

Monday 5th October.
Usual thing, woke at 3AM, read for a while then went downstairs to play some slots (my only type of gambling) machine seemed to swallow up all my money immediately, so not too impressed. Walked up to CVS for some water.
Got back to hotel room to find Wife still asleep.
We had a 24hour buffet pass to use at the Round Table Buffet today, to cut a long story short by mid-afternoon we both felt ill. Don't know if it was the food or the after effects of the previous days travelling. Spent most of the day by the pool as too weary to do anything else.

Tuesday 6th October
Woke up early again, but felt much better. Went up to food court area to make use of the free wi-fi at Krispy Kreme, during my stay I was asked at least ten times if the internet was free by other guests, should have referred them to the MSE site!
Managed to check-in and out at the same time, so we kept our upgraded room!
I'd ordered some restaurant.com vouchers for Strip Burger with 80% discount, so we aimed to get there for lunch. We started walking up the strip, stopping off at Bill's for a couple of Margaritas, and Bally's for a bit of slot play (lost again).
Got to FSM at about 11:00. My Wife can shop for England, so I sat in the sun and just watched people passing by. Had a bit of trouble finding Strip Burger, as I thought it was inside the mall, didn't realise it was on the strip (name should have given it away). Had a $25 dollar voucher off a $35 dollar spend, bit of a mistake really, in order to spend the full amount we both had a burger, side dish of fries - I went for the chili ones, almost a meal in itself - and a cake for dessert as well as soft drinks. Could hardly move afterwards.
A leisurely walk back to Excalibur, and then off to MB to see Lion King. Good but not brilliant.

Wednesday 7th October
Up a bit later today, slowly getting use to the time difference.
Breakfast at McDonalds (dollar menu) and quick surfing session on internet.
Lost on the slots again.
We then purchased 24hour deuce pass, as we were going to both shopping outlets. Can never remember which is which, but have decided the one further north is better, I think it's Las Vegas Premium Outlets. Once again I was abandoned whilst my good lady attempted to single-handedly bring USA out of recession.
Found the food court, so had a quick chinese when she wasn't looking.
Made further use of the bus pass by then going up to Freemont St. First time I'd been there, to be honest didn't do much for me, but it was still daylight and might have changed my mind if we'd stayed to watch the lights.
Dinner at Spice Market. Very good. Even produced a candy floss machine at one point!

Thurday 8th October
Stayed by the pool till mid afternoon (can't remember what we had to eat) and then made our way up to Palazzo to see Jersey Boys, deuce was too busy, so ended up walking the whole way, stopped off at Ben + Jerry's in MM - another restaurant.com voucher - and Bills for some refreshments and cabaret courtesy of Big Elvis.
Arrived at the Palazzo with half hour to spare.
The next four hours were probably the best time of the holiday. Jersey Boys was superb, I'd recommend it to everybody, then dinner at Cheesecake Factory. I know you guys have been saying how good this place is for a long time, but it exceeded my expectations. I had white chicken chili and my wife had shepherds pie, both were excellent (had to finish the shepherd's pie off) and we could only manage one piece of cheesecake between us.
In addition to the quality and quantity of the food the staff were top rate as well.

Friday 9th October
Another pool day.
Used the last of my restaurant.com vouchers at Tanone bar and grill in MM, ok but nothing special.
Once again we ended up at the north end of the strip in the evening so watched the Mirage volcano and Sirens at TI, by now the place was starting to get busy. I get the impression that alot of sub 21 year olds turn up with their fake id, not causing trouble but just loud. Certainly alot different from what you'd get in a British town on a Friday night.

Saturday 10th October
Check out to catch flight to SNA airport for a few days at Anaheim.
Last bit of sun bathing by the pool, when I remembered that England were playing football, went to see if it was on at the sportsbook, couldn't see it, so thought I'd have one last go at the slots. Pleased to say I won enough to cover my losses during the week so actually made a small profit on my gambling.
Probably went into most of the hotels during our stay, walked for miles, ate alot and came back with a sun tan.
Can't wait to go back.