Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009 part 2

c_l_a_i_r_e

July

ENCORE – JULY 18th (DAY FIVE)

We were up at 8am and headed straight down to the pool to check it out. To avoid going through the casino you take the elevator to the spa level, follow the signs through the spa to the elevator that takes you directly to the pool. We saw so many people during our stay though walking directly from the pool through the casino to the guest elevators - each to their own but you’d never catch me walking through a casino in a bathrobe with wet hair:eek:

Now I knew from my research that the Encore pool wasn’t anything special, but I was still really disappointed with it when I saw it in real life. It’s quite small and unimaginative, and has no atmosphere at all to it imo. This is a real shame as I love the pool area over at Wynn, and while I knew we could access it I honestly couldn’t be bothered walking over every morning. The pool was reasonably quiet, so I was able to swim some laps before relaxing on the comfy loungers with my book and some water. It wasn’t a pool that made me want to spend a lot of time at it though(unlike Wynn) so I was happy enough to leave every morning after I’d had my swim and dried off. Just a word of warning if you don’t like feeling on show while you’re at the pool – there are massive glass windows facing reception and at the end of the esplanade which look directly out onto the pool. You don’t notice it so much when you’re at the pool but its strange walking past inside and being able to see everyone lounging away at the pool.

We headed back to the room to change, and took the car over to Caesars Palace where we valet parked at the Forum Shoppes entrance. We had a quick browse round the shops before going into the casino and heading for lunch at Mesa Grill. I had read lots of positive things about this place and was eager to try out the food so was a bit disappointed when we got there and realized because it was Saturday brunch was being offered rather than the usual lunch menu. Bang goes what I had planned to order, but we were hungry and the menu still looked nice so we decided to just eat there. Our server here was lovely, really attentive but not intrusive and knew the menu inside out. I ordered the Mesa Burger (because everything else seemed to involve eggs which I wasn’t in the mood for) and it was cooked to perfection, and came with delicious cajun seasoned fries (beware though the horseradish mustard while yummy is very very hot). J had the spiced pork tenderloin sandwich which he was very impressed with, and although we were stuffed we got tempted by a strawberry shortcake desert which was to die for. J just had coke but on the servers recommendation I ordered a cactus pear margarita, which has now become my signature drink. It was the nicest margarita I have ever had, and I’ve tasted quite a few in my time. Is it wrong to consider CP for a future stay to be close to a drink :rotfl: Bill was around $70 incl tip and we’ll definitely be back here, probably for dinner, as we really enjoyed the food and atmosphere of the place.

We were stuffed after lunch although we manage to walk some of that food of as it took us ages to find our way back to the valet pick up point. I find the casino at CP to be just too big to enjoy IYSWIM, not sure if I’d stay here though if the right deal came along I’d probably be tempted. We weren’t sure what to do with our afternoon so we decided to drive down to the outlets in Primm. Its nice to get away from the strip sometimes and I always enjoy the drive down there. It takes about 40 mins, and on the way there we drove through lightning and torrential rain which was pretty cool. I’ve never experienced rain in Vegas before so of course I did the tacky touristy thing and took a picture of it:rotfl: By the time we reached Primm it had cleared, not sure if it rained on the strip that day or not. The sky had looked overcast a few times since we arrived so I wouldn’t be surprised if it did. We spent about 90mins in Primm and got lots of bargains (though no more handbags:(). It has a good selection of stores and we’ve always got great bargains here so it always seems worth visiting to us given the length of time we're usually in Vegas for. We always say we’ll look in on the casinos down at Primm and then never do- ah well, there’s always next time:D

When we left Primm we drove to downtown to check out the Fremont Street Experience. We parked at the Golden Nugget (note that parking is something like $2 an hour here for non guests, although its free if you get your ticket validated in the casino). We walked through the Golden Nugget, which was crammed with people, and out onto Fremont Street. There were a few live bands playing here and we walked up and down looking at the various hotels waiting for the light show to start. The reason we ventured down was because I had read that that weekend the light show was a 40th anniversary tribute to the moon landing, and as i'm a bit of a space nerd it was the push i needed to finally go downtown. The light show was really fun, very enjoyable and i'm glad we went down to see it. In total we probably spent only an 90 mins or so there and for me it was enough. I'm glad i went down and experienced it, but its not for me tbh As the GN casino was packed we didn't bother queing to get our parking ticket validated, and just paid the $4 fee to get out of the parking garage. We drove back to Encore around 8.30, freshened up and headed down to the casino about 9.00. We decided to play some slots before dinner. I did quite well on a goldfish machine, managing to make my $10 last an hour before losing it while J won about $50 on reel ‘em in. We settled on Society Cafe again for a late dinner around 10.00. I had the trenne pasta, which was one of the nicest pasta dishes I’ve ever eaten, while J went for the burger with blue cheese. We were seated at the same table as lunch yesterday so got to people watch again, and couldn’t believe the amount of people heading past to go to XS. We just had water with dinner and were planning to order a desert when the waitress brought us the bill- hmmm not the greatest service in here but the food is nice so it hasn’t put us off going back. Total was about $55 including tip.

We wandered around the casino afterwards and checked out the menus for Switch and Botero, before deciding on Switch for my birthday dinner. We hit the slots and enjoyed a few hours playing, and again had great cocktail service. While we didn’t have any big wins we didn’t lose much either and got to play a good few bonus rounds on various machines which was good craic. It was a fun evening, not very exciting but we were just enjoying being in Vegas and soaking up the atmosphere.

c_l_a_i_r_e

July

ENCORE – JULY 19th (DAY SIX)

Once again we were at the pool for 8am and we swam and lounged about until around 11am. After my earlier moan about people leaving the pool through the casino we did just that via exit near reception (in my defence I was wearing a nice coverup and had brushed my hair lol) and stopped off at the Lobby Bar beside the guest elevators. This is a raised seating area with tables which serves food and drink all day(though no under 21's after noon i think). We ordered coffee and croissants (filled for J, plain for me) which set us back nearly $25:eek: but I was hungry and couldn’t wait to get changed and go somewhere else.

J needed to check in with work so after returning to the room and getting changed we grabbed the laptop and headed over to Sugar and Ice in the Wynn Esplanade. I love this place, it’s a coffee shop type place that serves food, drink, ice cream etc and has an outside patio overlooking the waterfall. It also has free wireless internet access:D I got my usual of coffee and peanut butter cup icecream, and grabbed us a table on the patio outside which had an umbrella and a lovely cool mister which kept hitting the back of my neck. After spending an hour or so checking in with work we decided to go play in the Wynn casino. I tried the Steve Wynn megabucks machine which was crap :rolleyes:(that guy is seriously nuts!) and which promptly ate my money, before settling in at an Indianna Jones slot. I love this machine. I put in $10 and an hour and several baileys coffees later I was up to $40 (we’re penny slot players who play for fun, so no big wins for us). This machine had cool bonus rounds and J did well on this machine as well. We moved on after a while and I donated money to various other machines while J did well again on reel ‘em in.

We went back to the room and changed and headed down around 6pm to have dinner in Wazuzu. Again this Asian restraunt is just off the casino floor and has a lovely d!cor and atmosphere. J ordered the wazuzu hot wings starter which we shared, and I wished I had ordered my own as they were really tasty. I could feel a headache coming on and was in the mood for something plain so ordered the Teriyaki chicken bowl which was lovely. J had the Cantonese assorted barbecue plate, and the duck in particular was outstanding. Again I wish I had ordered what he did:rolleyes:. It was a lovely meal, and I’d like to return although maybe I’ll go for lunch as I didn’t realize they were open for lunch until our last day. Bill was around $70 including tip.

After dinner we walked through Wynn, Palazzo and Venetian on our way to Mirage. The walk was fine and we walked it a few times, and i now have no concerns at all about Encore's location. Mirage is as far down the strip as we normally like to go (except when we venture out elsewhere for a show or dinner) so the location was perfect for us, but I appreciate its not for everyone. We stopped and played a few slots in Palazzo as we hadn’t ventured in this trip. As much as I love Palazzo (or probably because of) I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Venetian as I’d never had an inclination to stay there before this trip. Whilst Palazzo is newer and overall the “nicer” property I feel that Venetian just has more atmosphere. Palazzo, while beautiful has always felt a bit soulless to me, and visiting it again after staying in Venetian only reinforces that. J and I agree that we’ll chose Palazzo again over Venetian if it’s the same price just because its newer, but Wynn/Encore would be our preference before those two.

We arrived at Mirage around 9 and after going to the restrooms and grabbing a margarita from the bar inside the theatre we went to find our seats for Love. We were in section 305 Row AA seats 1-2 and they were fantastic seats, although to be honest I don’t think there is a bad seat in this theatre. We had bought tickets before we went using a 40% off promo on smartervegas, so they cost us $140 all in. The show was great, it’s the funnest of the Cirque shows I have seen (O and Mystere) really upbeat in parts and even if you’re not a Beatles fan you’ll find it hard not to enjoy the show and sing along. There is so much going on in this show, even for Cirque, so don’t even try to take it all in – just go with the flow and enjoy. After the show I stopped in the gift shop and bought the soundtrack – it cost me $30:eek: but I just had to have it. We headed back to Encore and decided to stop at the new Walgreens outside Palazzo for a nosy. I really didn’t like it in here (but then I do prefer cvs in general), and the queues at checkout were massive. We grabbed some water, painkillers and a new Reese’s chocolate bar I discovered:D and walked through Palazzo before reaching Wynn. When we got to Wynn I suggested we head out and walk the last bit outside, but I soon changed my mind when I realized it was raining outside. Twice in one week is just weird, I never expected it to rain in July at all.

Once back at Encore I settled in at a Star Trek machine while J opted for his trusted reel ‘em in slot. Neither of us did very well but a few coronas/margaritas helped soften the blow:D We headed up the room about 1ish by which time it was officially my birthday:j

ferf1223

October , November

JailhouseBabe wrote: »

1. We love live music - is there a website where we can see if any bands are playing during our stay? (rock/indie/punk/pop)

I like this one - seems to be pretty comprehensive though does include events in Primm which is 30-40 minutes away by car.

http://www.lvol.com/events/vegas_concerts.html

Like stoneman said Carnaval Court has live music as do many casino lounges.

ferf1223

October , November

Looking forward to the rest of the TR, Claire! And I did not know there was an Origins at Town Square...must plan to check that out next trip (and my husband will love you for it, I'm sure )

c_l_a_i_r_e

July

ferf1223 wrote: »

Looking forward to the rest of the TR, Claire! And I did not know there was an Origins at Town Square...must plan to check that out next trip (and my husband will love you for it, I'm sure )

Its a lovely store, slightly bigger than the one in Miracle Mile and they give out free samples too:D

I'm nearly finished this TR as i'm sure you'll all be glad to hear- i'm so emabrassed by how long it is considering it was a pretty laid back trip for us. This is why i don't usually write TR's - i am incapable of writing anything up concisely:o :rotfl:

c_l_a_i_r_e

July

ENCORE – JULY 2OTH (DAY SEVEN)

Woke up bright and early on my birthday and felt very nonplussed about the whole thing. But that’s a good thing, better that than feeling sad about getting old;) Headed to the pool first thing as usual and was back, changed and ready to go out by 11am. We decided to head over to Fashion Show Mall so I could treat myself to a few more Philosophy goodies and J wanted to treat me to something as well. Handbags are my weakness and since I’d already got three:o I told him there was nothing else I really wanted but who am I to say no to a shopping trip. I got a nice top from Neiman Marcus and some philosophy bits from Nordstrom. While J was paying for my things in Nordstrom a lady trying shoes on asked if I’d seen the new Ugg boots that were on sale. Well, suffice to say I am now the proud owner of a brand new pair of Uggs:rotfl: I felt really guilty as I didn’t really need them but they were on an introductory offer for $119 and I got an email this week advertising them here for £180 so I feel much better about the whole thing now and am chuffed at my bargain:D After all the alcohol last night I was in need of some food, and as I was craving carbs we decided to just grab a bite to eat at California Pizza Kitchen in the mall as we were passing it. We got seated in a booth and shared a Pear and Gorgonazol pizza, and a pesto chicken pizze. Both were lovely, especially the pear one but it was too much food and we should have just ordered one to avoid the waste. We both had lemonade with our pizza and total with tip was $40.

We walked back over to Encore, and hit the slots again. I lost $20 straight away on some slot involving penguins so moved to a Davinci Diamonds machine where I quickly lost another $30:eek: Decided as it was my birthday, and I was enjoying the game, to put a final $10 in and an hour later I had won my $50 back and enjoyed several baileys coffees:D I decided to quit while I was ahead and head back to the room to chill out and pamper myself, ahead of our 6.30pm reservation at Switch.

I was torn between here and Daniel Boulud at Wynn, and plumped for Switch in the end as I preferred the look of the menu (I still think DB has the better setting on the Lake of Dreams so will definitely be eating there next time). We were seated promptly near the front of the restaurant and our waiter was lovely, really attentive without being over the top intrusive which we hate. We both ordered different types of margarita which were ridiculously strong (but nice) and it took me the entire meal to be able to drink it. I wasn’t hungry enough for a starter so we decided to just go with entrees which was lucky as the portions were very generous. I had the Chilean sea bass which was melt in your mouth delicious, and had a side of Vermont aged cheddar mac n cheese which would be the ultimate comfort food, it was just yummy. J ordered the rack of lamb and whipped potatoes, both of which he thought to be which the best he had ever had. While we were pretty full we couldn’t resist coffee and desert after we spotted a key lime cheesecake on the menu and it didn’t disappoint. This was one of, if not the, nicest meal we have ever had. We thought the food was cooked to perfection and can’t wait to go back. I really hope its just as good the second time round. J kept thanking me for deciding on Switch over my other choices, he really liked the place that much. We were there for nearly 2 hours and didn’t once feel rushed – we got to see all the ceiling/wall changes and thought it was pretty cool, definitely not gimmicky which had been one of my worries. Our total bill was $200 including tip and well worth every penny.

After dinner we waddled over to Wynn where we had bought tickets for the 9.30pm showing of Le Reve. I forgot to mention in yesterdays part that we had bought them from the box office on our way over to Sugar and Ice. We had checked the discount ticket booth twice with no sign of tickets so decided to go ahead and get them anyway. Before we left for vegas I received an email from Encore offering a complimentary seat upgrade for hotel guests when you quote “roomup” at the box office - the offer basically allows you to get the $125 dollar seats for $99 plus tax. We had seats in the middle of the theatre about half way up and they were fantastic. Le Reve was an amazing show, possibly the best I’ve ever seen in Vegas, alongside Jersey Boys. It lives up to its name as it does feel very dreamlike, in part due to the music which was wonderful. I was actually sad when the show ended because I was enjoying it so much. We had toyed with the idea of getting champagne circle seats, but J didn’t like the idea of the screens as he thought it would ruin the effect seeing what happened underwater, so I decided in the end not to go for them. If I see it again I’ll probably go with cc seats, although as all the seats looked good my sensible side might just win out.

After the show we walked back to Encore, past the XS crowd again:rolleyes:, and played some slots for an hour before reluctantly calling it a night as tiredness set in. All in all it was a great day, and i'm so grateful that i got to spend my 30th birthday here. Last day coming up next.....:(

Stew68

c_l_a_i_r_e wrote: »

Its a lovely store, slightly bigger than the one in Miracle Mile and they give out free samples too:D

I'm nearly finished this TR as i'm sure you'll all be glad to hear- i'm so emabrassed by how long it is considering it was a pretty laid back trip for us. This is why i don't usually write TR's - i am incapable of writing anything up concisely:o :rotfl:

Claire,

Don't be embarrassed about your trip report, i'm loving it and all the details, it reminds me of all the reasons I need to go back:rotfl:

Stew

c_l_a_i_r_e

July

ENCORE – JULY 21st (DAY EIGHT)

We were up again at 8 and I headed down alone for a swim as J was too tired(hungover) to face the pool. When I got back to the room we were both hungry and decided to head across to Wynn and have breakfast at Tableau. I ordered the Tableau breakfast with coffee and watermelon juice, whilst J had the Kobe short ribs with orange juice. Both breakfasts were absolutely wonderful though be warned the ribs were probably enough for 2 people, there was so much meat on the plate. J loved his so much he struggled on to finish it, said it was too nice to leave any on the plate:rotfl:. A lovely bread basket with scones and fruit bread is served when you are seated so you will never go hungry at breakfast here- remember that when ordering breakfast here. Total bill was $60 including tip and we agree that this will become a regular breakfast spot for us from now on. It was just as nice as Verandah, which up until then had been our favourite breakfast spot. We had sat outside overlooking the pool and had a lovely morning, soaking up the atmosphere and planning the rest of our day.

We were debating seeing another show, but as we had seen 2 great ones the last 2 nights we didn’t wan’t to run the risk of being disappointed so we made plans to go to dinner at Stratta instead. It had been a while since we had visited the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at Mirage, and I really wanted to see the new baby leopard and dolphin so we walked over to Mirage after breakfast. I can’t remember how much the tickets cost but the experience is more than worth it imo We got to see Bella the baby dolphin, who was swimming around the pool with her mother and grandmother, it was so cute to watch. The trainers were in the pool for most of the time we were there feeding or medicating the dolphins so it was great to see them interacting and coming out of the water. After watching the dolphins we headed over to the Secret Garden where we spent most of our time watching Java, the 8 month old baby leopard. The trainer changed just after we arrived and the new one was fantastic. He had 30 years experience working with them, had worked with Siegfried and Roy and happily answered loads of questions and provided loads of information. It was amazing to see how he played and interacted with Java, the time really flew when we were there and I was sad to leave but the heat was starting to get too much – it actually felt really humid and I’m not used to sweating in Vegas. We spent around 2.5 hours there and had a fantastic time. It always feel so relaxed in there, it's strange to look up sometimes, see the Mirage and realise you're actually on the strip.

After we grabbed some goodies in the gift shop we cooled off in the air conditioning inside - I browsed some shops while J made a phone call home to work. We walked back to Encore, picked up the car and made a quick trip back up to the outlets to grab a holdall to put all the shopping in:o Once we got back to the hotel we showered and changed and headed over to Wynn for our dinner at Stratta. We got there about half 6 and while we hadn’t made reservations we were seated right away and served some bread and pesto while we read over the menu. I decided to order from the prix fixe menu which was $39 for 3 courses. I chose the caesar salad, bucatini pasta and tiramisu (which I shared)) while J ordered an antipasti starter (which was massive) and veal parmigiana from the regular menu as well as a few cocktails. The food was lovely, really impressive, the only thing thing that slightly disappointed was my pasta dish which while tasty wasn’t as nice as the pasta I had got in Society Cafe a few days before. Again the service was great here and we had a fun couple of hours eating good food and chilling out. Total bill was $170 including tip but we had more food than we could eat so you do it a lot cheaper.

On the way back to Encore I headed in to the Wynn gift shop and got a signature top for $15 reduced from $54 (yeah right steve, who pays that lol) I also got some casual tees for $6 each perfect for lounging around at home. I picked up a Le Reve pen as well, and have no idea why I didn’t pick up the CD as I was obviously over near the show merchandise. Ah well, I was happy with my lot and we headed back to Encore where I settled in at a Bruce Lee slot machine. This game was great, you play and play and win nothing but once you hit a bonus round you win all your money back and then some. Its only a penny slot and I had quite a few bonus rounds pay out around the $50 mark. Great fun and I think I came out up on this machine which given my luck for the trip was a minor miracle. Decided to end on a high and head back to the room, it was about 10.30pm now and we had to pack so I grabbed a coffee from the lobby bar and we headed back to the room. We managed to fit all the shopping in (thanks to the bag we bought earlier from the outlet) and hit the sack around midnight to try and get a few hours sleep before our early start home in the morning.

JULY 22nd – JOURNEY HOME

We woke up at 5 am, and were out of the room by 5.45. The system was down at checkout so our bill was just to be emailed to us. We loaded up the car and headed to rental car centre to drop it off. We arrived at the airport around 6.30am and checked all our bags through to Belfast. The check in guy tried to charge us $25 for the third bag despite the fact we were allowed 2 bags each. He said he had to charge us because that was what was coming up on his screen so I told him no, to get his supervisor if he couldn’t work it out. He called someone over who confirmed we were right and after typing away for a while said everything was ok now and we didn’t have to pay anymore. Errrr I was never going to pay, but I wonder how many people actually do? This was the only hiccup we had with Continental and I have to say we found them to be a better service than Virgin, and will have no hesitation in flying with them in the future.

We cleared security and were at our boarding gate for around 7.15am so grabbed a starbucks breakfast and chilled out before boarding our flight which left on time at 8.20am. We had an uneventful flight to Newark, and after arriving made our way to our boarding gate for our next flight to Heathrow. I really don’t like Newark airport, I don’t like any of the food places so I just starved while J had Chinese food (again!) I stocked up on some nibbles in the shop before boarding our flight though. We had a row of 2 to ourselves at the back of the plane which was great and I was able to stretch up. There was some problem with the fuel and our takeoff was delayed for almost an hour. I have no idea what the problem was though as the pilot wan’t very talkative and wasn't really forthcoming with any information- good job i'm not a worrier when it comes to flying. I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic and New in Town on the flight, both of which were very funny and helped pass the time. The meal was as yuk coming back as it was going out, but I had plenty of coffee and water wich is all I really want on a plane anyway tbh. I meant to say earlier that i found it weird being given proper cutlery on a flight, I’m a bit OCD and would rather have disposable plastic anyway so I for one didn’t appreciate it :rotfl: I thought we were definitely going to miss our Belfast connection but the pilot made up time on the flight back and we actually arrived at our original landing time. We cleared passport control and took the shuttle bus to terminal 1 where we picked up boarding passes from the bmi desk and headed to our gate. It was all pretty straightforward but lots of walking was involved, which was actually welcomed after nearly a full day sat on the plane. We made our connection to Belfast and arrived home safe and sound on time at 10am.

Just a few final thoughts that i forgot to add in elsewhere:

*Vegas wasn't as crowded as i was expecting it to be, nor did I encounter as many children as i thought i would having read some TR's before leaving.

*I much preferred flying Continental to Vegas, via Newark. Not only did I think it was a better service that that offered by Virgin we found it much easier to adjust to local time once we arrived presumably because of the flight times.

* I enjoyed my stay at Venetian much more than i thought I would. The rooms are just as nice as the Palazzo rooms, yet the casino has a better atmosphere imo. However, given the fact Palazzo is newer and more polished overall we will chose it over Venetian in the future if they are the same price.

*Encore was a great hotel, it has much more of a boutique feel to it than Wynn does. All things considered though I still prefer Wynn as a property overall, the major drawbacks for me with Encore are the pool and the crowd that XS draws on the weekends.

THE END:D

c_l_a_i_r_e

July

Stew68 wrote: »

Claire,

Don't be embarrassed about your trip report, i'm loving it and all the details, it reminds me of all the reasons I need to go back:rotfl:

Stew

Thanks Stew:D I am the same typing it, i keep thinking oh we sould have gone to X while we down that way, must pencil that in for next time:rotfl:

ratkarth

c_l_a_i_r_e wrote: »

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.

i remember the days of taking an empty suitcase to the states..guess its not as good as that anymore