Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009 part 2

davidmcg2u

September

stoneman wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek:

Thanks Stoneman - have now edited - should have been $200.25 :rotfl:

stoneman

September

davidmcg2u wrote: »

Thanks Stoneman - have now edited - should have been $200.25 :rotfl:

My reaction would still be the same :rotfl:

davidmcg2u

September

stoneman wrote: »

My reaction would still be the same :rotfl:

Not 1 of your favourite shows then??

stoneman

September

None of those Cirque type shows are. To be honest, we don't do any shows now, find them all over priced and hyped up. We are going to see Terry Fator on our next trip though, he has really great reviews

trets77

stoneman wrote: »

None of those Cirque type shows are. To be honest, we don't do any shows now, find them all over priced and hyped up. We are going to see Terry Fator on our next trip though, he has really great reviews

i agree with you on Mystere . That was naff, with the big baby in the Golf Kart . But Le Reve is much more grown up and much more breath taking in regard to stunts ect .

also regarding paper driving license : getting a Photo license will also come in handy when ordering/ buying Alcohol . if you are under 50 expect to be asked !!!

ratkarth

karie wrote: »

hi guys
trying to buy a voucher on restaurant.com using lucis great code, but in order to register i seem to need to put in a US address. any help?

I HD THAT PROBLEM too, i put my home address first then
c/o mandalay bay las vegas then the zipp code (as staying in m bay)

pebblesmax

October , November

FYI regarding the VooDoo lounge. The Witch doctor cocktail is $28, and is quite lethal. Having said that, someone I know had three all to himself in May.

Beers were between $6 and $10 depending on the brand, and soft drinks were $4 each.

All these prices were in late May.

ratkarth

ok got vouchers for ben and jerrys, stripsteak, mix, tacone and stripburger
anymore i should get?>

David_F1

This forum is a great source of information so I thought I would add some details about my recent trip.

We decided to stay the night at Gatwick at the Hilton and do the twilight checking. We reconfirmed 24 hours beforehand on-line for the flights. We wanted the two seats at the back that were mentioned previously in this forum. We were advised that these were extra legroom seats 3in more for £30 each, we decided to go for them and they were well worth it.

On the way back we were on a different virgin plane and these were not extract leg room, however there we some extra leg room seats at row 50 so we went with those ($50 each) we ended up with the 3 seats behind the emergency door seats for the two of us. The seats themselves didn’t appear to be as wide or as comfortable as on the way out. However I found the flights went by reasonably quickly.

Immigration, as mentioned on here if you are at the back of the plane you will be last through immigration. We were in no particular hurry anyway.

Dollar Car. Had joined the Dollar express so did not have to query for the car. However there was not a compact car when I arrived but like others was told to take anything from one of the sections mainly Dodge Chargers. I wanted a smaller car as that is what I am used to driving in the UK. I did have to wait longer than I would have liked and ended up with a not so new looking Ford Focus in black. I think if I had said I wanted to convertible they would have let me have it. The car performed well but the air con wasn't so good.

I had read a lot of stories that it can be some distance between where you park your car and getting to where you want to go. I never found this to be problem. I parked in a number of the casino car parks a lot less tiring than walking up and the strip. It was never far until we were in the casino from the car.

After we had checked in we went for a wander down the strip. When we were in the Flamingo we were approached if we wanted to see some cheap shows. On further investigation this involved going to a timeshare presentation at the Hilton next to Circus Circus. Not having anything specifically planned for the next day and there was a light breakfast included. This resulted in getting to see Phantom the next night. When we were in Harrah’s again we were approached about timeshare we were in Las Vegas for 9 days on Honeymoon so a couple of mornings out getting to see things and views you would normally see sounded like fun. This time we went for free Nathan Burton tickets and $75 of dining credit valid at a lot of places in the Total Rewards Group.

We went along with an open mind on the timeshares but never had the intention to commit. Whilst they say 2 hours it ends up more like 3hours. Although they said no hard sell I think it was, so you have to be firm and stick to reasons why you think it is not for you.

We will do some more next time we go to Vegas as there are other developments to see and other freebies. At Planet Holiday we were offered SPA treatments at Mandalay Bay or $100 gambling credit.

Phantom Actors were a bit up themselves but the stage and scenery was interesting.

Nathan Burton good but to many box tricks plus I was not a fan of the layout with the booths in the Flamingo theatre.

Players Clubs
Monty Carlo $10 for signing up and with the wheel outside we got 2 for 1 buffet.

Club Grazie at the Venetian., through Virgin booking we had $25, which we got back

The Red Card at Wynn we got $10 for giving email, which we turning into $15
Tropicana got some free playing cards and a cheap margarita , hot dog and coke went down well, as we needed a light lunch.

Total Rewards number of casinos in this group offering $5, but at Ceasars Palace they were offering $20 food credit valid at two places in Ceasars. A little more expensive then we wanted but used this at the buffet with some of our timeshare free credit vouchers. But the food quality was definite better than some of the buffets we had tried to that point.


The tip on getting a kettle didn’t work for us. Wall Mart didn't have any. Finally got one after a few days but forgot to get mugs and didn’t want to spend £5 getting souvenir mugs. Eventually after about 3 days we got some polystyrene cups, which worked out, cheaper than the $1 mugs we found in the end plus no washing up.

I wasn't until later in the trip we found the Walgreens outside between Venetian and Palazzo we had always gone internally between the two casinos so had never seen it. You can get everything you need in there.

We used icebox in room to keep drinks cool and the milk.

Trips

Hover Dam saw this from the airplane when we initially were arriving in Las Vegas. Would have liked to go on the $30 tour but would have had to wait for one and half hours maybe worth getting there early to do this or booking if you can. Anyway went down to see the generators, which was interesting enough.

On way back whet to Lake Mead and went on the cruise. Tip is to pick up one of the 2 for 1 slips/vouchers from the tourist office near the convention centre.

Whet to Red Rock Canyon one morning good value $5 to take your car in and drive round the loop. Lots of hiking opportunities, but I don't suspect many reading this would be interested in that, however it was good to stop off and get out. We saw what looked like chipmunks dart around. Also note that a new visitor centre is being built so that should make a visit even more worthwhile. It was very warm when we were there so didn't venture to far.

In the afternoon we vent to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I'm a car nut. Took the tour of the circuit and grounds, which included driving at speed round a short oval and main track at speed. 95mph in a 14-seater tour van was fast enough. Our lady tour guide was crazy. $8 of excellent value. P.S. Venetian had speed channel so watched Monaco GP at 5am

Venetian check in

We were on Honeymoon and Virgin had said that they should give us the best available room. I had read about the $20 tricks but I thought we would be ok. The clerk couldn't guarantee a strip view which is what we wanted and if we did it would be an extra $45 a day. We were also offered a suite at $200 a night extra, which came down to $75 a night. We took what we had booked. The room was on the 5th floor. When we looked out the window we were greeted by no view and steal air condition ducting and this is not what I had envisaged when I booked the Venetian. Immediately when down to check and saw a different agent, passed over the room key with $20 knowing that this should do trick although I was going to be there for 9 night. Within seconds she had located a room on 27 floor with a strip view. When we got to the room it was good with a view over the pools and across to Mirage Treasure Island and Palazzo next door. This was all fine until one day and night and the small hours of the morning we could hear the constant drowning of music. This was a shame but we had 5 days in that room. I went to establish if we could get another room and were then given a 32 floor room with a view over to the airport the Venezia Tower and we could see a little of the volcano flames at Mirage. This was all fine until the toilet chain broke in the morning. I reported this. When we got back in the late afternoon it hadn’t been fixed. I phoned up and was offered another room. We wasted a few hours moving the previous day so was not ken but they then offered $75 food credit. This paid for a nice meal at Pinot Brasserie (very good service) and some breakfasts.

Throughout our stay 20th May through Memorial Weekend there was always a bevy of beauties in bikinis. Going to and from the pool and in general wandering all over the Venetian. (there was some comments about this being the LA set but to me it just added to the enjoyment) Also TAO attracted a very youthful crowd and it always appeared that the girls in various states of dress usually not leaving much to the imagination were outnumbering the guys.

Last evening we went to Mon Ami Gabi and waited amount 50mins for a Table overlooking the fountains. Our French Onion soup to start with was fantastic but the rest was just average. I was running low on cash and settled my bill on the debit card. Not knowing how a tip would be split on the bill. I directly tipped $10 to our waiter in cash. On returning home I was checking all the transactions and the Mon Ami Gabi didn’t reconcile. I phoned and established that a tip of $16 had been added to my bill even though I had scored a line though that area on the bill and had signed for the food only amount. Mon Ami Gabi advised me this tip would go to the server and that they would refund me and claim the money back from the server. I am not sure if this is common practice but I don’t know how they managed to process the payment when I already had a receipt for the lesser amount. I’ll call it that they made a mistake but I now know to be even more careful.

Hope some of this information may be useful to those going soon.

One question for the regulars and there has been at lot of comment on buffets recently. I see buffets mainly as a cafeteria. But some of the buffets we went to had a drinks server like Harrah’s but Sahara didn’t (incidentally $10 evenings was good value when you sign up for their players card) Do you think we should tip them and if so how much. We usually left a couple of dollars, but they didn’t do much for us

ratkarth

good trip report
very interesting about your tipping/MAG situation...very aware of that and who keeps tips

anyone have any recollection of where i can find a money off voucher for spice market buffet/? sure it was posted a few months back but cant find it