Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009 part 2

totallybored

Now our main reasons for visiting Vegas again were to do lots of shopping and eating out. We must have walked many miles around shops in the week we were there.
Shopping
We went to all 3 outlet malls. I know a lot of people don’t like it but my favourite is still the one at Primm. As we had hired a car it only took around 40 minutes to get there. It does have some shops that aren’t at the outlet mall near downtown such as Hollister, Old Navy, Nieman Marcus and I think that the branch of Banana Republic is much better here than the other outlet. If you go, go to the customer services desk and buy the coupon booklet. It costs $5 but has savings of 10% at some shops so we saved quite a bit of money. At the Premium outlets downtown, go to the website first and register so you can print coupons, some are 10 – 15% off at certain shops. I’d never been to the outlet near the airport but a taxi driver recommended we try it. However, I wasn’t keen as most of the shops didn’t really interest me and I found it to be quite a depressing shopping mall. I’ll give it a miss next time.
Town Square
I love this! We were in Vegas when it opened a couple of years ago but never went until this summer. It feels really quaint and I like how you can park outside of shops (remember to put quarters in the parking meters if you do this, they are actually real!). We went on Christmas Eve and it wasn’t crowded. There is also a cinema here although we never went.
Fashion Show Mall, Forum Shops etc
Several visits to all of the malls on the strip, having a car is very useful. Remember to go to customer services in Macys for the 10% off visitors card and Planet Hollywood and the Forum shops also have a coupon booklet that you need to go to the information desk for. Lots of shops already had sales before xmas and then some of the discounts after xmas were really good (Saks and Banana Republic for example had 50% off things before xmas and then after 50% off all sales items that were already reduced!) We bought lots of stuff and brought an additional large suitcase full of new things home with us.

totallybored

Restaurants and food
I like to go to a couple of nice places each time we visit and also have some junk food! Last trip we went to Mix and Nobhill which I both liked so we thought we’d go somewhere else this time.
L’atlelier de Joel Robouchon - MGM Grand
Dinner here on Xmas Eve as a treat to ourselves. This was fantastic but a bit pricey. Paid almost $400 inc tip and only 1 bottle of wine but definitely worth it. Veal ravioli starter and raspberry dessert were outstanding. They do a cheaper set menu and a wine pairing most of the year which can make it a bit more reasonable.
Julian Serrano – Aria
There was no menu on the website and no reviews to be found but this was excellent. It is a Spanish restaurant that serves tapas and paella. We shared a few tapas and had a really good paella and then shared an amazing crème catalan. Bill including 1 bottle of wine and tip was only $140 and everything we had was excellent. I’d definitely recommend trying this for dinner.
Morels – Palazzo
Went here for lunch (lunch menu is cheaper than dinner and includes some sandwiches and burgers). We had cheese and salami from the charcuterie menu and then sandwiches and fries each. I had possibly the best croque monsier I’ve ever had here. There were only a few other tables of people here but the staff were attentive and the bill was around $60 (no wine).
Bouchon - Venetian
Tried this for breakfast one morning. Food was good, we both had bacon and eggs and each plate had lots of food. Including tip it cost around $50 so not the cheapest breakfast but it is worth trying.
PF Changs – Planet Hollywood
We just wanted something cheap and tasty for dinner one night so we decided on this. Ordered 2 mains and a noodle dish between us and it was far too much food! All really good though and very good value for money
Grand Lux – Palazzo
We ate here our first night as we were too tired to go too far. I’m not sure why everyone always loves this place. We were hungry and the food was ok but there are much better places to eat.
First Food & Bar – Palazzo
Try the BLT here, its excellent! This place is cheap, does good drinks, donuts and there is a decent selection of food.
BLT Burger – Mirage
Really good burgers and not expensive. We had lunch here Xmas day (we were going to Mesa Grill as they do an excellent burger on their lunch menu but they were only serving the dinner menu all day!)
Cafe Vetro – Aria
This is open 24 hours and has a standard sandwich / burger type menu. Ate here at about 2 in the morning when we were really hungry but the food seemed good.
The cake shop – Aria
Can’t remember what it is called (Jean something or other). It is located on the casino floor and has amazing cakes. I had a really good lemon pie (much better than from Paul if you’ve ever been to one in London). Once you see the cakes you won’t be able to resist.
Lemongrass – Aria
The worst restaurant experience I have had. It is a Thai restaurant (although you wouldn’t know as they don’t display a menu outside!). Went on Saturday night, the girl at the desk didn’t know if she could get us a table despite a half empty restaurant and didn’t seem to know what she was doing. We should have known there would be problems when we ordered, told no chicken satay (but I could have chicken curry, pre-made satay in that case if they can’t put a bit of chicken on a stick!). The table next to us then got the manager to complain about something. Waiter brought a glass of wine rather than a bottle after waiting 15 minutes, when he finally brought the bottle he struggled to open it (it was rather embarrassing and it was as though he had never done it before), I was tempted to take the corkscrew off him and do it myself! We waited almost one hour and still hadn’t got our starters (had drank most of the wine by that point) so got the manager and complained. Told him we’d pay for the wine and leave as the service was shocking but he said we didn’t need to pay and we left. I was a bit annoyed as it was then too late to find somewhere else to have dinner (somewhere we could take a couple of hours having food and wine rather than a quick meal). We did have cake instead though.
In N Out
This is my favourite junk food in the world. If you hire a car go there. We tried to go to the one on Industrial / Tropicana at 11.50 am Saturday but we drove in the car park and back out as it was busier than I have ever seen! We went to the one on Maryland Parkway instead and we were the first guest in line!

totallybored

A few other useful things
We hired a car through Netflights which we normally use for US car hire as it includes all taxes and insurances (or so we thought!) and a full tank of fuel and extra driver with the platinum package. We have used them at least 4 times in the past and picked the car up at the Mirage without any problem. Picked it up at Treasure Island though this time and it took almost an hour despite having pre-paid everything. The dimbo at the desk was hopeless. We ended up in paying at extra $9 of tax so we could get away from her as she couldn’t work out how to remove it from her system. She tried to charge us for a driver under 25 as she used the expiry date on my driving licence as my date of birth and couldn’t work out that it meant I wasn’t born yet!! Then the car wasn’t in the space and the delivery guy had to drive me all round the car park to pressing the remote to find it!
Wifi
I took my netbook with me and although we didn’t pay the resort fee that included free wifi there were plenty of places in the Palazzo where it was free. The cafe outside the elevators in the shops has wifi and this works if you sit on the seats outside of Victoria’s Secret and at the bar at Sushisamba too. First Food also has free wifi (they don’t advertise it but there were a couple of free networks in there). We went across to the Wynn one morning for breakfast and the Pizza Place next to the entrance also has it (used to be the ice cream shop). I never took it with me anywhere else. The safe is big enough to put a lap top in and had a power outlet so you can charge it while the safe is locked.
Not sure when we’ll be going back as I fancy going somewhere new this year. We say that every time though and still end up going back and then going somewhere else too!

Cand

September

Yeah those baths are bad but sooooo worth it when your in there! Glad you guys had a nice time

TangoBunny

April

Hiya all
Hope you all had a good Christmas

Well it's that time of year again and I'm busy keeping my eye out for a good flight deal to Vegas...will probably opt for Virgin again as we would prefer a direct flight but I'm open to ideas if anyone has a suggestion....As we live in Wales we are of course limited with airport choice...last 2 times we flew from Gatwick but whichever airport we choose we will have to travel the day before by train and stay overnight

We are looking to go at any time during Sept or early Oct and staying probably for 10 days....so if any one has any suggestions please feel free..
Who else is going around that time....Lucy? Elaine? Rich?

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year and don't get to drunk

mookybargirl

March

Wish I hadn't counted but as I have just more than 12 weeks now, thought I'd start scouting hotel deals. Noticed that the fine print now seems to have this standard line

"This promotion is non-transferable, subject to availability and restrictions may apply ......."

Am I safe to assume this isn't their new fancy way of saying non-refundable and if I book a hotel with this text, I can cancel it if I find something better?

Trets - Hoping that you're able to put a 2010 thread together.. looking forward to it already!

pennylane99

December ( including Xmas and New Year )

theres a new Max Brenner chocolate restaurant opening soon in Caesars Forum Shops

http://www.maxbrenner.com/home.aspx

nvh

mookybargirl wrote: »

"This promotion is non-transferable, subject to availability and restrictions may apply ......."

Am I safe to assume this isn't their new fancy way of saying non-refundable and if I book a hotel with this text, I can cancel it if I find something better?

you are correct - quick explanation of "non-transferable" would be (and this is a bad example!), but think of me owning "NVH Travel Agents"... i buy 300 rooms at one of the 'offer' rates, and want to sell them on (via. ebay and also to my shop customers). To do this, i'd have to transfer the booking to the person that purchases it from me (aside from the fact they would have to show my ID + credit card when they turned up, they may also charge the mini-bar and all sorts to me!) The bonus of being able to get a refund if i cancel more than 48hrs before would make this kind of thing easy money! (especially if you booked rooms throughout the year, just gambling to see if a fight landed on the dates you'd booked)!

If you want to ensure the offer you're looking is refundable, then it should mention something along the lines of a cancellation policy of xx hours (48 normally) (on MGM sites this is sometimes on the page where you enter your name / addy / CC details)


as a side note - MASSIVE thanks Luci for that MGM link - we already had the cheapest celeb spa suite booked that we could find, and this was $759... we're now booked for a total of $488! ($85 per night apart from the last night which is a weekend!) - superb stuff... plus the free wifi etc!

ferf1223

October , November

we've never really had any interest in staying at MGM but the Celebrity Spa Suite is interesting to me. We're currently booked our first 5 nights in April at Paris comped - were hoping a Wynn/Encore offer would crop up for the last 3 nights...or might stay at Paris for $180 for the last 3 nights total.

But could swap it around and stay at MGM for the first 3 nights for $290, and last 5 at Paris....problems are that a) I always lose at MGM and b) we'd be going from a big room to a potentially small room.

Unfortunately, the rates for the last 3 nights at MGM are a lot higher than the first 3 even though the first three are Thurs/Fri/Sat...or I'd say we'd go for the last 3 in the suite.

Decisions, decisions. Maybe I'll book it and then have a think...

luci

September

You're welcome nvh. Glad someone else found it useful.

I was just happy to see weekend nights at less tham $100 as I have been watching Harrha's Bally's and Paris and they are well over that.

Looking forward to trying the CSS as we have only been in the Grand Tower rooms previously. The free internet is a major bonus as I always pay for it daily anyway.