Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009 part 2

Froggitt

December ( including Xmas and New Year )

JailhouseBabe wrote: »

My concern here is that, from the hotels we've looked at so far, it only appears to be the cheaper rooms that have 2 queen beds? We don't really want to have to share a king-size bed! If anyone can help and recommend an appreopriate hotel that would be great.

I am certain that standard rooms at Mirage can come with two queens or a king. Also Venetian has a suite with two queens. Im sure most decent hotels have that option.

Rather than CC, think about a $49 (almost half the cost of the cityandshow offer) or so deal at somewhere like MGM, Monte Carlo, NYNY, Luxor......at those prices you can forget about the two queens and go for two rooms instead!!!

c_l_a_i_r_e

July

My Las Vegas Birthday Trip Report
July 14th - July 22nd
Venetian & Encore

As a bit of background this trip was our 7th one to Vegas, and although we’ve been in July once before the reason we went again at this time of year was so I could celebrate my 30th birthday there:eek: Before we left the only thing we had pre-booked were tickets to Love so the plan was to go with the flow and just enjoy ourselves which we certainly did. This won’t be a hectic touristy TR as we’ve done most of that already so I apologise in advance if it’s a bit sedate for some of you:D I’ve highlighted all the places we went to in bold to make it easier for those who just want to skim read.


FLIGHTS

We (myself and my boyfriend J) flew from Belfast via Newark with Continental, and booked the flights through Netflights. The cost was £615 each:eek:, way more than we usually pay for flights, but as we weren’t flexible with the dates and this was the cheapest fare I could find I just had to grin and bear it. The airport is just a 5 minute drive from our home so it was a nice leisurely start to our trip as we usually do a morning connection to Gatwick for the Virgin flight. I had checked in online but was unable to print boarding passes, but these (and those for NY-LV) were quickly collected at the airport.

We were seated at the very back of the plane, but had a row of 3 seats to ourselves which was great as from the looks of things the flight was otherwise full. Flight was uneventful, food was yuk (even J didn’t touch the chicken and that’s saying something_pale_) but the FA’s came round regularly offering soft drinks etc and there was a good selection of movies and programmes to watch on the IFE. I passed the time reading and watching Return to Space Mountain which was cheesy and just the thing to get me in the mood for Vegas.

We arrived in Newark on time around 1.50pm, and managed to clear immigration, pick up and drop the bags again and clear security all within an hour. We proceeded to the boarding gate where J had some Chinese food while I had about my 100th coffee fix of the day. I hadn’t eaten all day as I was feeling slightly ill and this was to prove a disaster later on. Our flight to Las Vegas departed on time at 3.30pm and J was very pleased when the FA’s came round and served cheeseburgers as the evening meal. We were seated in the bulkhead seats in the first row on economy so had plenty of legroom and room to spread out. Service was again attentive and so far we were pretty impressed with the whole Continental experience. Direct TV was available on the flight for $6 but J went to sleep and I just finished reading my book so I’ve no idea what the selection was like. Flight arrived in Vegas on time at 6.05pm and we picked up baggage and were in the car rental centre for about 6.45pm. We’d hired a 2 door full size with platinum upgrade through carhire3000 for £181 (8 nights) and ended up with a 4 door silver Charger from Dollar. Headed out of the car rental centre, got our bearings and headed off to our hotel for the first 3 nights, the Venetian.

VENETIAN- JULY 14th (DAY ONE)

We arrived at the Venetian at around 7.30pm after driving up the strip, parked the car and made our way to check-in. There were a few people checking in at that time but several desks were open and within about 10minutes we had our keys and were on the way to the room. We had booked 3 nights here at $109pn with $25 free slot play and we had a lovely room on the 16th floor with a great view of the strip. Room was very similar to the Palazzo rooms and I can’t really fault it, great value for money and I’d definitely stay here again at the right price. After dumping our luggage in the room and having a quick change we headed down to the casino and decided to grab a bit to eat at Grand Luxe Cafe. We’d previously only eaten at the one in Palazzo and while I didn’t like the d!cor of this one as much we sat outside overlooking the casino floor ,which had a great atmosphere. Even though I hadn’t eaten all day I wasn’t very hungry but I ordered the fish and chips while OH had a pork dish. I forgot how big the portions here were and seriously about 4/5 of my plate was left uneaten. Food was nice but not great, although OH thought his pork was lovely. We also had 2 coronas and some water so total with tip was about $70. We charged this to the room but when I checked the bill after J checked us out it didn’t show so it turned out to be a freebie.

After eating we decided to activate the free slot play and play some slots for a while. I can’t remember what I played that night but I didn’t have much luck, although J was doing quite well on a Star Trek machine. The cocktail service was great, I only had one or two margaritas though and kept having to refuse drinks lol which is so not like me. We decided to call it a night at around midnight, when the tiredness was really starting to kick in. I headed straight to bed but woke up around 2 am feeling really sick and with my left eye throbbing. A damn migraine had struck and the lights from the strip were driving me crazy. I couldn’t work out how to close the blinds so grabbed my pillow and headed to the darkest place I could find – the bathroom. After lying in agony for ages I was finally sick and the migraine started to lift. I must have fallen asleep eventually because the next thing I knew J was wakening me up and it was about 9am. I just remember feeling out of sorts and finding it really funny that I paid $109 for the pleasure of sleeping on the bathroom floor :rotfl:

c_l_a_i_r_e

July

VENETIAN – JULY 15th (DAY TWO)

I was still feeling pretty bad after my migraine but was determined to hit the pool. We headed down to the pool around 9.30 and it was pretty empty, I guess I expected more people to be around the pool by then but hey I wasn’t complaining. Got some towels and a glass of water and swam some laps before relaxing with my book for a while. I was very happy to see that Venetian, unlike the Palazzo, have padded sun loungers. They were very comfy and I enjoyed chilling out by the pool. I was pretty hungry by that stage so we decided to have a casual breakfast poolside at Wolfgang Puck’s Riva. This is a nice spot, we both had the American breakfast and while the food was really lovely it was a bit overpriced imo and total with tip was around $50. We headed up to the room afterwards to shower and change before heading down to check out in the car to Town Square. On the way to the self park garage I grabbed some coffee from the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I love this place and always stop by one when I’m in Vegas, so to have the luxury of walking past and getting coffee every day was a real treat for me(i'm a coffee junkie in case you didn't know:D).

We had decided to head to Town Square as I wanted to check it out, and we figured we could grab some supplies at Wholefoods whilst we were there. I picked up some skincare goodies at Sephora and Origins, and got my dog a lovely collar and bowl set in the Juicy Couture store there (can you tell I felt guilty about leaving him:o) and J got some things from Hollister. I always enjoy visiting Wholefoods (I love the one in NY too) as I’m a bit of a foodie, and if I was ever to stay in a condo type place in Vegas this is where I would stock up. J got some beer, wine and nibbers for the room and we picked up a massive 24 pack of water for $5.49. While we were down this way we drove further on to the outlets where I wanted to browse the Off Saks store. This store can be very hit and miss and whilst I didn’t get anything this time I have had some great bargains from here in the past and always make a point to stop in now.

I made the dreaded newbie mistake of wearing brand new sandals today, which after only a few hours were killing my feet. I knew when i bought them that they wouldn't be comfortable but they were really pretty and matched my outfit so of course i bought them:rolleyes: We stopped off at CVS on the strip (the one near Monte Carlo that you can park at) and stocked up on some plasters and Tylenol because i knew it would get worse before it got better. As I was still not feeling myself after my migraine we decided to head back to the hotel and check out the casino again. I had fun on an Indianna Jones slot whilst J discovered Star Wars. I probably broke even after an hour or 2 and J was up about $50 so it was a productive afternoon all round. Cocktail service was great here, although I only had one baileys coffee and drank water the rest of the time.

We were getting hungry but couldn’t decide on where to eat so we went back to the room and changed, and decided to head to the Grand Canal Shoppes to see what took our fancy. We settled on Taqueria Canonita as we fancied mexican (and had gone to Dos Caminos last time), and after a frozen margarita at the bar our table outside was ready. I love sitting out here overlooking the canal, its great to watch people on the gondola rides, some just look so embarrassed and uncomfortable you wonder why they bother going on one in the first place:rotfl:. We had chips and guacamole to start with, I then had chicken tacos while J had the Vaquera beef rib. As usual the food was really good, and even though I was full we ordered a desert to share. J also had his usual cocktail here, I can’t remember the name but it's served in a halved coconut shell and is absolutely delicious. Total bill was about $90 incl tip and we were there a good 2 hours and really enjoyed ourselves.

After dinner we walked around the shops and decided to head over to Mirage to pick up our Love tickets, and walk off our food at the same time. When we got over there we realized the box office had just closed (doh! why didn't i check the times) so we wandered around the casino and headed back over to Venetian to play some more slots before calling it a night.

pebblesmax

October , November

I'm copying this so that I can read it all at once. It certainly puts my effort to shame.
Thanks Claire.

c_l_a_i_r_e

July

VENETIAN JULY 16th – (DAY THREE)

We were up early around 8am and headed down to the pool. On the way we stopped at the Bouchon Bakery, at the entrance to the elevators on the casino floor, and grabbed a light breakfast to take down with us. J got a filled croissant and some signature lemonade (which was gorgeous) and I got some coffee and granola with mango yoghurt. Total was around $20, but worth every penny as it was so yummy. If you keep your receipt from here and produce it at Bouchon (the restaurant itself over in the Venezia tower) you can get 15% off your total bill. We had planned to go there for breakfast the next morning anyway so happily tucked the receipt away in the pool bag.

I had a nice swim down at the pool which again wasn’t very busy, and enjoyed relaxing in the sun with my book. J wanted to go to the Premium Outlets to get a new shirt, so after showering and changing we headed out in the car. We stopped off at the discount ticket booth beside the Peppermill and had a look, mainly for Le Reve tickets which unfortunately weren’t showing. We decided to get some tickets for the Titanic Exhibition down at Luxor. We bought advance ones (for the next day) and as they were half price it worked out as $35 for the two of us. There was only one other couple there so we had no wait, unlike the one at Fashion Show Mall where we’ve always had to queue.

We parked at the outlets and went across the walkway in the baking sun. We headed to Oakley where J got a really nice shirt, and to Quiksilver where he picked up some shorts and a t–shirt. I planned on being really sensible this trip and was very pleased when I came out of the Coach store empty handed after seeing nothing that I really liked. But then I spotted the Kate Spade store across the way, and decided to take a look. I love KS bags, but only certain styles and its hard to find a bag I like in the regular stores nevermind an outlet. However, birthday luck must have been rubbing off on me because I found two such bags, both heavily reduced and then a further 40% was taken off at the till. I was so happy I can’t even describe it:D. $850 worth of bags for $175 – so of course given my savings I just had to go back and get the matching purse I saw on the way out of the store:rotfl: Being very happy with my purchases I declared to J that I was done with shopping, but then I turned the corner and saw a Juicy Couture store:eek: It would have been rude not to look and I found a cute little leather bag that was a smaller version of the one I had bought last year so I just had to have it. It was reduced though, from £300 to $129, and the store had a promotion on whereby if you spent $125 you got $25 off so it was an absolute bargain if I say so myself. I decided to call it a day then, mostly because I had too many bags and they were heavy, and it was hot so we headed back to the car trying to decide what to have for dinner.

As we’d only had a light breakfast we were pretty hungry and J decided he was in the mood for pizza. It was about 5pm by now, so we decided to drive to Mirage and have dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, and hopefully pick up our Love tickets at the same time. We self parked and walked down to the casino where we picked up our tickets at the box office. There was a queue for CPK and I toyed with the idea of going to BLT Burger instead but for some reason I didn’t like the look of it, so we decided to just wait in line. I played a nearby slot while J queued but in the end it only took about 5 minutes before we were seated in a booth. Knowing the portion sizes we passed on starters, but an English family nearby all ordered starters and were groaning when they saw the size of them:rotfl: J ordered a thin crust Santa Fe and I had a pepperoni on honey wheat dough as my tummy was still feeling unsettled and I was craving something plain. J’s pizza came with a guacamole dip on the side, which was so tasty I pretty much ate it all myself We had a soft drink each and total with tip was $40. I always enjoy the food here, its fresh, tasty, very cheap and the service is always really good and friendly. This is also my favourite CPK location, its on the casino floor right beside the sportsbook and always has a great atmosphere. The one in the FSM is ok, preferably if you get a booth and I haven’t tried the one in Town Square although it looks way bigger than the other two. As were were stuffed we walked around the casino a bit before I lost $10 playing a Texas Tina machine. As much as we like Mirage we’re not big fans of the casino so headed back over to Venetian where I lost lots of money on Wizard of Oz:mad: while J did reasonably well on a Goldfish machine. This was the theme of our trip, I lost loads and J did well enough to bring us back to being about even. I guess my birthday luck just never made it as far as the casinos:rotfl: Great cocktail service again, and the margaritas here were yummy, nice and strong with plenty of salt just how I like them. We dragged ourselves to bed around 1 am as we had to pack the next morning for our move to Encore.

c_l_a_i_r_e

July

ENCORE – JULY 17th (DAY FOUR)

This was our last morning at Venetian so I was down at the pool by 8am to enjoy what was left of my time there. J had rang down and requested a late check-out but it was a no-go, and given it was Friday we weren’t that surprised. Pool was quiet when we got there, but by the time we were leaving around 10am it was busier than I had seen it. I guessed that the weekend crowd had started to arrive, and this was confirmed when a group of really loud American men acting like teenagers jumped in the pool as we were leaving :rolleyes: I'm not a spoilsport really, but why do people have to be loud and inconsiderate. I grabbed a coffee from Bouchon Bakery on the way up to the room and packed our things before getting ready. J had went down and checked us out while I finished getting ready, so by 11am we were out of the room and on our way to Encore. Because we stayed down at the pool longer than planned this morning we missed breakfast at Bouchon, so its one of our top things to do next time we’re in Vegas.

We arrived over at Encore about 15 minutes later (here and Wynn are the easiest casinos to self-park in) and after standing in line for about 5 minutes were able to check in. There were no rooms available and we heard lots of complaining going on about this, the guy offered us a $20pn upgrade to a panoramic view room (just the top 10 floors) and we accepted as we wanted to get settled into the room and were more than happy with the rate we had got anyway ($109/$159 with $50 resort credit). We were on the 56th floor and had a view of the mountains/downtown direction/partial golf course. I was more than happy as I requested anything other than a view of TI which I seemed to have got in my last few hotel stays and was sick of the sight of it tbh:rotfl:. The room was very nice, it’s a very masculine colour scheme imo so I guess that explains why J liked it a lot more than I did. I'm not sure if i prefer it to the room at Wynn, and judging on rooms alone I probably prefer the V/P rooms (but only just). Having said that the decor here feels a lot more modern and stylish and I loved the bathroom more that the others. J says its his favourite room in Vegas hands down - we never agree on anything:rolleyes::rotfl:

Feeling very happy with our room we headed down to the casino to grab a bite to eat. We decided on Society Cafe, which is just off the casino floor near the Esplanade entrance. This place has a really nice decor (I love the black, pinks and greens) and we were seated at a table at the front overlooking the casino. I really enjoyed the food here – I went for the tuna tartare sliders (very tasty -like sushi in a bun) while J had the sloppy joe sliders. We had a soft drink each and total with tip was $60. The resort credit came off this at check out so it really only cost us the tip. They serve a yummy pretzel bread with mustard butter here after you are seated, so no point in ordering an appetizer unless you really fancy something off the menu.

After lunch we wandered round the casino to get our bearings and agreed it was beautiful, even nicer that the Wynn casino imo although the selection of machines is much poorer than at Wynn. It was odd getting used to the natural light in the casino, it’s a nice touch but a bit disconcerting when you’re not used to it.

As we bought tickets to the Titanic Exhibition yesterday we drove down and parked in Luxor. I used to really like Luxor, it was the first hotel in Vegas that we stayed in, but its showing its age now and there were too many kids floating around this end of this strip (FYI minimal kids in the north strip area, I didn’t notice many so either they weren’t there or they were very well behaved, either way I don’t care lol.) We exchanged our voucher for tickets at the box office on the atrium level facing the exhibition and headed straight in. I really enjoyed the exhibition, and we spent about 90 minutes in there. I thought it was very well done and it was great to be able to wander around at my own pace and see and read everything. The card I was given on entering said I was a 21 year old 2nd class passenger on my way to NY to be married. J was a 3rd class single guy on his way out there to seek work. We both survived.

After the exhibition we walked over to Mandalay Bay and browsed the shops before heading to the casino. We noticed a few empty retail units here, so business is clearly suffering. I love the MB casino, its always a good atmosphere and has a great selection of machines. J did really well on a John Wayne slot while I had rotten luck on Super Jackpot Party:mad:. After playing for about an hour we were hungry and decided to head to Burger Bar. On the way we passed the Reading Room and realized they were closing down and had a 75% off everything sale. We both love this store, it has such an eclectic mixture of books so we headed in and came out half an hour later with a bag of books for only $25. When we got to BB we were told the wait would be 45 minutes and as I just wasn’t in the mood for waiting tonight we decided to head elsewhere. I had the idea of heading downtown so we went back and grabbed the car and despite the fact it was now almost 7pm J decided to drive up the strip:eek:. After 20 mins sat in traffic I had gone off the idea of downtown and now wanted to go to Mon Ami Gabi. 15 minutes later we parked at Paris and headed down to MAG, where we were given a buzzer and told it would be a 15 min wait for a table – not too bad for a Friday night. We headed over into the casino and played a few slots to kill time – I really don’t like this casino it feels very drab to me and is part of the reason I won’t even consider staying there. I much prefer the casino at Bally’s next door, I don’t know why but I feel it has a much nicer and livelier atmosphere. Anyway our buzzer goes off on time and we’re seated at the end of the patio, right in time for the fountains to start playing All that Jazz. I enjoy the view here, its great to people watch and the fountains in the background are a bonus. I ordered a raspberry mojitio while J stuck to coke, and it was gorgeous, one of my favourite drinks to date. We skipped appetisers and indulged, as always, in the lovely French bread starter here. I ordered the blue cheese burger while J had the Steak Dijon. Both were absolutely delicious, and we split a chocolate mousse desert which wasn’t anything special tbh but as I was full by this stage I didn’t really mind. Total was about $80 with tip.

We normally go to MAG lunch, this was our first dinner visit, and because of that we cancelled our plans to go to Olives a few days later. In hindsight I really wish we hadn’t done that as while the food was lovely as usual at MAG the fountain view doesn’t even come close to being as good as that from Olives. Plus, Olives' patio always feels very intimate and romantic (probably because its much smaller) without being too quiet IYSWIM and I really missed it. Lesson learned that we shouldn’t see MAG as a substitute for Olives, and should just enjoy it for what it is.

By now it was about 9.30pm so we headed to the car and drove back to Encore. As an aside I love the fact the each parking level at Encore has an electronic screen telling you how many spaces are available on each floor. Saves you time driving round when you’ve no chance of getting a space. We played in the casino for a bit but avoided the part near the esplanade as there was a steady stream of people through there heading to XS and it got annoying after a while, although given it was a Friday night that was to be expected. (The entrance to XS is in the Esplanade between Encore and Wynn so the part of the casino nearest that entrance is always packed with clubbers). I had no luck at all on the slots and was feeding them money constantly for an hour before I gave up and headed back to the room. Cocktail service was good again, especially for a Friday night and i indulged in a couple of margaritas before bedtime:D

ratkarth

clare
where is TS ??? what does that stand for sorry
sounds like this trip is going to bankrupt me next month!!

c_l_a_i_r_e

July

ratkarth wrote: »

clare
where is TS ??? what does that stand for sorry
sounds like this trip is going to bankrupt me next month!!

TS is Town Square, its an outdoor shopping area south of MB. It was nice and worth a visit because we had the time to spare, not certain if i'd go back though.:
http://www.townsquarelasvegas.com/

Thats why we only go for a week at a time ratkarth, any longer and we would be bankrupt:rotfl:

ratkarth

so much has changed since i was there last 10yrs ago...
where do people reccomend now for shoping bargains? (best mall)

c_l_a_i_r_e

July

ratkarth wrote: »

so much has changed since i was there last 10yrs ago...
where do people reccomend now for shoping bargains? (best mall)

For regular malls I love the Fashion Show Mall (beside TI, facing Wynn). It has the big department stores such as Macys, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue etc as well as loads of other stores such as abercrombie and sketchers. It also has quite a few nice dining options so you can make a day of it if you want:
http://www.thefashionshow.com/html/index15.asp

I also like the Miracle Mile shops at Planet Hollywood:
http://www.miraclemileshopslv.com/home.php

For outlet shopping the best ones imo are the Premium Outlets, near downtown:
http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=58

In theory the outlets should be cheaper but the stock can be very hit and miss so don't go expecting to get something specific. The regular malls often have sales and offers on, but even without them and the not so good exchange rate a lot of things are still good value compared to here at home.