Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2010

bazard

December ( including Xmas and New Year )

jadamcp wrote: »

Some additions, some removals (Rio - 2 for 1 buffet):mad:

Still worth getting though........

Just wanted to ask, this is a great list but how does it work do you need to purchase a coupon book to get these, just printing these out and having a long list, surely doesn't work? Am going in December with the wife & 2 kids this would be useful in saving some cash. Thanks

photome

bazard wrote: »

Just wanted to ask, this is a great list but how does it work do you need to purchase a coupon book to get these, just printing these out and having a long list, surely doesn't work? Am going in December with the wife & 2 kids this would be useful in saving some cash. Thanks

All details are on page 1, but yes you have to buy either the Americancasinoguide

or

Las vegas advisor (online membership)

I buy both everytime I go and Never pay full price for any buffet

liamleon

October , November

Not exactly moneysaving but I just got back from Vegas and stayed in the Wynn.

Highley reccomended, best hotel Ive ever stayed in!

dan28

Luxor from $37.60
Promotion Details:
Name: Wonder Fall Sale
Description: Double Rooms from $37.60/ night
Valid: October 18, 2010 – February 28, 2011
Expires: October 20, 2010
http://www.vegas-hotels-online.com/2010/10/18/luxor-wonder-fall-sale/

Vdara from $119
Promotion Details:
Name: Book Today
Description: Suites from $119/ night – Book 2 Nights and Receive the 3rd Night Compliments of Vdara (Lowest nightly rate will be complimentary based on a minimum three-night consecutive stay)
Valid: October 24, 2010 – January 31, 2011
Expires: October 20, 2010
http://www.vegas-hotels-online.com/2010/10/18/vdara-book-today/

Mirage from $63
Promotion Details:
Name: 3 Day Sale
Description: Double Rooms from $63/ night
Valid: October 18, 2010 – August 31, 2011
Expires: October 21, 2010
http://www.vegas-hotels-online.com/2010/10/18/the-mirage-3-day-sale/

ferf1223

April

bazard wrote: »

Just wanted to ask, this is a great list but how does it work do you need to purchase a coupon book to get these, just printing these out and having a long list, surely doesn't work? Am going in December with the wife & 2 kids this would be useful in saving some cash. Thanks

when in December are you going?

I only ask because the 2011 American Casino Guide is published early/mid-November and while it's available to purchase on amazon.co.uk there have been years it has been delayed by a few weeks. You could order a 2010 edition but they are probably becoming scarce this close to the publication of the new one...and...

I cannot remember about the ACG, but the Las Vegas Advisor Member Reward book has limitations on some of the coupons - where they expire 23rd December or so.

ferf1223

April

Lorraine - I'm working my way through your trip report and really enjoying it. Thanks very much for taking the time to post!

Also, anyone who still has the Cupcake Lane Bakery groupon - we made our second attempt to use it today (first was in April I believe)...and again, the location (this time the new location) is closed...some ladies were sat outside the restaurant next door and said that the landlord changed the locks...so doesn't bode well at all.

fluff73

January , February

hello hope someone can help

Thinking of doing first trip to vegas early next year - however realy fancy the idea of flying to LA - stopping one night there and then driving the following day (its something we have always wanted to do for some reason).

Looks like I can get Miles + tickets with virgin to LA for about £950 return (for the 2 of us) a car (with cross state insurance) for about £120 and accommodation for $300 (the Monte Carlo for 4 nights)

Looking to leave on Sat 19th Feb 2010 (and will need one nights accom in LA) and return on Thursday 24th Feb 2010 (night flight home)

any advice woudl be appreciated..

bazard

December ( including Xmas and New Year )

ferf1223 wrote: »

when in December are you going?

I only ask because the 2011 American Casino Guide is published early/mid-November and while it's available to purchase on amazon.co.uk there have been years it has been delayed by a few weeks. You could order a 2010 edition but they are probably becoming scarce this close to the publication of the new one...and...

I cannot remember about the ACG, but the Las Vegas Advisor Member Reward book has limitations on some of the coupons - where they expire 23rd December or so.

Hi Going on the 16th for 5 days, worth waiting do you think?

Thanks for your response by the way

Regards

Buzz78

As you’ll see I don’t contribute much to this forum, but it’s provided me with a host of useful information over the past year or so, so I thought it was time I gave something back.

I’ve been compiling a diary summary of our latest 10 night Vegas trip over the past 10 days since we got back. It was certainly a hectic trip as I got engaged to my girlfriend Jacki, and my best friend Rob got married to his girlfriend Abi in a true last minute Vegas marriage.

Anyway, I hope the following is an interesting read to at least a few people, and maybe has a few useful tips thrown in for good measure. I relise I've written a lot, but I wanted to write an account that I could look back on in the future with fond memories of all the things we did.

Thanks again to all the regular posters who provide all the useful offers and tips.

David

---

General Summary
MGM Grand – the second time I’d stayed and I like it here. I know it’s not ‘the best’ hotel in Vegas but I like the general atmosphere of the place and whilst the rooms are probably due a re-furb, the only real tell-tale sign of their age is that they don’t have a LCD TVs. The range of pools and the general pool complex is really good. The location can be a bit awkward if you’ll be venturing up the strip every day.
Mirage – great location and very busy as we stayed over the weekend. The recently refurbished rooms were nice, although the lack of sun loungers by the pool was frustrating. If it was down to a choice between the MGM Grand and Mirage in the future, the location of the Mirage would probably be the deciding factor.
Encore – fantastic room and can’t fault the complex overall. However, there wasn’t the same fun atmosphere as you find everywhere else and the casino was very quiet. I guess this is due to the class of hotel and it probably appeals more to slightly older visitors and business guests.

In hindsight, whilst it was nice staying in 3 different hotels, if we were to stay 10 nights again we’d probably stay in just two different places. The changeover days raised a few obvious logistical problems (packing/unpacking, making sure we checked-out on time, leaving bags due to later check in times, taxis etc) which meant making any plans for two days was a bit awkward. Plus, we’d probably have been able to pick up some of the better ‘stay 4 nights, get the 5th night free’ offers if we’d stayed at just two hotels.

American Airlines – can’t fault their service on the Manchester-Chicago-Vegas route we took, with the exception that in-seat entertainment would have been nice. Still, when we booked the flights in April during an AA sale for £415 return, it was too good an offer to turn down.
Total cost of flights and hotels (3 nights Mon-Thur at MGM Grand, 3 nights Thur-Sun at the Mirage, 4 nights Sun-Thur at Encore) = £830, which I think we’d struggle to beat now.

Buzz78

Monday 27th September
Flight: Manchester-Chicago-Vegas. We wanted to fly from Manchester (we live in Leeds) to avoid the cost and hassle of getting to and from London.
I’m so glad we booked the flights early before the ash cloud fiasco and the cost of flights went up. Despite there being no in-seat entertainment, I was fine watching the films I’d uploaded onto my iPhone and the battery lasted a surprisingly long time once 3G and roaming were switched off. Just as well as we’d booked seats which had power ports (according to Seat Guru), but it turns out there weren’t any, and even if there were, we’d already been told that the power had been disabled due to wiring problems.
Flights and connections all went to plan and arrived in Vegas approx 4pm.
Checked in for MGM Grand at the airport. Very convenient whilst waiting for our luggage to appear on the carousel, but didn’t bother with the $20 trick as I’d read on here that it doesn’t work at the MGM.
Got a taxi to the hotel, unpacked in our room standard Grand Tower room (17th floor facing the Tropicana and Excalibur) and grabbed a quick bite at the food court in the MGM. Had a quick drink and then called it an early night as we’d been up for about 24 hours at this point.
Tip – make sure you have plenty of $1 bills ready on your arrival as you’ll soon need them for tips etc.

Tuesday 28th
Woke up at 6:45 am. Body clock all over the place and couldn’t get back to sleep, so we decided to get up and go down for breakfast. We ate at the MGM Grand Buffet which we thought was nice. I’ve got no other Vegas hotel breakfast buffet to compare against as I’m rarely up in time, but it seemed like good value when you factor in the refills of orange juice and coffee.
Tip – if you’re a big coffee/tea drinker you can save a lot of money which would otherwise be spent at Starbucks by brining your own tea/coffee and a travel kettle.
Headed down to the MGM pool - extremely hot (104 degrees)! I love the pool layout at MGM and the choice of pools available. Ate at the pool side bar where we shared a huge salad and some fries. Ended up getting the meal on the house as a result of an incident which, to summarise, involved a bird, a collision with an overhead fan, a delay in clearing up the resulting incident and an unsympathetic waiter.
Back to the room for a nap.
Ate at Diego – Mexican restaurant in MGM where we shared a warm salad and tacos. I didn’t have much of an appetite, but the food was very nice.
Tip – We would definitely recommend the Diego restaurant at the MGM Grand for cheap Mexican food, and the waiter was the best we had all holiday. The bill was around $50 for the food and alcoholic drinks, plus they throw in plenty of complimentary tortilla chips and delicious fresh salsa when you’re first seated.
Played on the slot machines and at 11pm wondered where on earth Rob and Abi were and why they hadn’t arrived yet. We knew already that they’d missed their connection at Newark, but they were meant to arrive by 10pm. [Update – turns out they’d gone straight to bed as following the long wait at Newark Rob had had one too many drinks and ended up being sick on himself on the next flight. I got the impression they’d subsequently had a bit of a falling out and weren’t in the mood to socialise!]

Wednesday 29th
Whilst getting dressed, Jacki somehow managed to hit herself in the face with a belt whilst attempting to stretch it out (it wasn’t me honestly!) and as a result managed to leave a nice red mark on her face. Consequently any plans we had (not sure now what they were!) changed and we took the Monorail to IP/Harrah’s and went to Saphora to buy emergency makeup.
Had lunch at Johnny Rocket’s in the food court at the Venetian where I had a nice burger and Jacki had a huge salad.
Took the monorail back from IP/Harrah’s to MGM before taking yet another siesta.
Met Rob and Abi for the first time (which felt a bit surreal) and went for Dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s in the MGM. It’s the second time I’ve eaten here and whilst the pasta I had was nice, I again left wondering what all the fuss is about regarding Wolfgang Puck, and more specifically his restaurant chains. To me it was just very standard Italian food (no better or worse than a nice Italian at home), but you pay a slight premium just for the name.
Went to watch KA after our meal. Even though I’m not a theatre/artsy type person even I was blow away. We’d watched ‘O’ the year before, but I thought that KA was even grander and more extravagant. I’d even have happily just sat there for an hour and a half watching the stage and hardware movements, yet alone seeing the performers. I won’t even attempt to explain the amazing stage or performance here, but if you’re not entertained or amazed by this spectacle you must certainly be in the very small minority.
Tip – we went to the 9:30pm showing of KA (the second of the evening) and there were plenty of empty seats. Therefore, if you’re tentatively planning to go to the show, and you can spare the time, I’d highly recommend trying to get discounted tickets from the box office on the day of the show. Or if you sign up at the MGM for a player’s card, I seem to recall you get a buy one, get one free offer.
Met up with Rob and Abi, had a drink, discussed their travel woes and went to bed around 1am.

Thursday 30th
Again woke up early and left Jacki in bed. There was some confusion as apparently I was meant to get a drink for Jacki at Starbucks and take it back to the room. However, I thought she wanted to sleep some more so I Instead went to Rob and Abi’s room and then went for a walk downstairs to the casino with Rob where he casually dropped it into conversation that they were planning on getting married!
Went back to the room intending to tell Jacki of the plans, but due to the communication breakdown she had headed out, so I began to pack my case ready for the change over. Anyway, Jacki returned and I told her of the wedding plans (which soon got me out of the bad books). We then checked out of the hotel at midday.
Tip – from my experience, hotels will happily give you an extra hour to check out after the allocated time. Just ring the front desk to check first.
We left our cases in Rob and Abi’s room and again went for lunch at the outside caf! by the pool at MGM with Rob and Abi. No dead bird incident this time, so no free lunch. We tried to advise Rob and Abi that they should share a single choice from the menu, but as they wanted different things they ordered separately – queue lots of leftover food!
The 4 of us got taxi up the strip. We were dropped off at the Mirage, they continued on downtown in order to book the wedding and sort out the licence.
Checked in at Mirage and used the $20 trick and got upgraded to a good strip view room on 15th floor facing the Venetian. The room was very nice, although the bathroom was small. I also got the feeling that they’d cut corners as part of the refurb, e.g. old desk chair whilst in working order had wear on the corners of the leather and the draws obviously hadn’t been replaced. However, these are minor points and I’d happily go back to the Mirage again.
Unpacked and got the tram to Treasure Island. Had a brief look TI for I think the first time, and thankfully thought it ‘felt’ ok as we’d recommended this to Rob and Abi and they were due to check-in in two days (they got a great deal at the MGM and TI averaging around £40 a night over 10 nights, including a Saturday and Sunday). We tried to arrange a room upgrade for Rob and Abi for when they changed hotel (as all being well they would then be on their honeymoon) before heading to Fashion Show Mall. [Update – they played the $20 / ‘We’ve just got married’ card when they subsequently checked in, and got an upgrade to a corner strip view room on 35th floor with windows facing both up and down the strip – and they even had the $20 returned back to them!]
Tip – Don’t be afraid to ask for room upgrades at check-in, especially when using the $20 trick. If you don’t ask, you don’t get!
Met Rob and Abi at Starbucks outside Fashion Show Mall, they confirmed everything was booked for the wedding. Jacki then went off with Abi to look for a dress. I went with Rob to look for shoes as he’d forgotten to bring his– couldn’t find a ‘smart’ pair of shoes anywhere for a decent price. All seemed to have weird trainer type soles, unless you wanted to spend over $200.
Headed back with Rob to the Mirage. Sat down and played on the slots whilst having a couple of drinks. Jacki and Abi met us by the slots and Jacki started to play for a bit, and continued her mini winning streak (although she’s more a fan of the flashing lights and the noises than the possibility of actually winning any small amounts of cash).
Said goodbye to Rob and Abi about 9:30pm and went over to the food court at the Venetian as tired and not very hungry. Grabbed a bite of Chinese food at Panda Express – my first visit to Panda Express, but I thought it was quite tasty (and very cheap).
Had a silly tiff with Jacki back in room for no reason other than we were tired (it all stemmed from a Sky+ incident on the recorder at home and how my brother had to cancel the final of Britain’s Next Top Model in order to set the Ryder Cup highlights to record for me – wars have started over less!).
We cooled off and went to sit outside on the strip by the Mirage and Forum shops and we were friends again. We sat for a while just people watching. Headed back to the room and watched the start of the Ryder Cup on TV, which maybe wasn’t the best of ideas given the preceding argument!

Friday 1st October
We headed straight out and onto the strip intending to get the deuce to go down to the MGM to meet Rob & Abi to see if they needed help with any pre-wedding stuff. Instead, ended up walking all the way down the strip to MGM (via the food hall by M&M World) – extremely hot, again around 104 I think but felt even hotter! Met Rob and Abi, went to the food hall at MGM where we had an ice cream at Hagen Das (where a kind Aussie guy gave us a free voucher) before the girls arranged with the concierge for some orchids to be delivered for Abi’s hair. Unfortunately, yet expectedly, these weren’t cheap.
We got the deuce back to Mirage in order to get a quick pre-wedding nap and then got ready for the wedding.
Observation – I am convinced that the service on the Deuce is getting slower year on year since I first rode it in 2008. On a couple of occasions this year it took 10-15 minutes wait at a stop due to the sheer numbers trying to get on and off. If your stops permit you to do so, try and take the Gold line bus, or the monorail if you’re near a station and need a direct route to either end of the strip.
We took the monorail back down to MGM. By now Rob and Abi had been upgraded to a Premier Suite which, to be honest, was very similar to a Grand Tower room, but a lot bigger and it had a Jacuzzi bath. Jacki sorted out Abi’s hair, then we got a limo straight to the Stratosphere. Unfortunately the plan was to ride up the strip in style and make use of the 1 hour rental (not sure how much they paid for it). However, before we knew it we were on the highway. Still, I’m sure the bride and groom were happy just to get there in the quickest possible time.
The wedding took place inside due to an electrical storm. Despite this technically being an upgrade, Abi had her heart set on the ceremony taking place outside looking out to the strip. Thankfully once the initial shock and disappointment had worn off, all was well. I acted as ‘official’ video recorder and Jacki did the photography duties. The registrar (an old guy called Rich) was also really nice and was extremely helpful in sorting out the problems when we were told we couldn’t go outside.
Once the ceremony had finished and we’d had a drink we got a taxi to the Venetian and ate at Canonita Mexican restaurant. Jacki and I had eaten here last year and chose to take Rob and Abi here as they hadn’t been into the Venetian yet, and we thought we’d be able to get a table by the canal, plus we thought the food was nice (I had a lovely tuna steak). However, the waiter was less than perfect - he didn’t even acknowledge, let alone act on our non too subtle ‘they’ve just got married’ remarks and proceeded to leave a sour taste in our mouths by suggesting we should tip 18-20% in future when I asked for the $8 change due for the bill. It wasn’t so much what he said, but more the way he said it as I think he got the impression that “that tight English guy wouldn’t even leave me an $8 tip, let alone the going rate.”
Ironically, I’d asked for the $8 change to ensure that I could use it to round his tip up to 20% as I only had a limited number of bills in my wallet and didn’t want to ask Rob and Abi for change as the meal was on us. Consequently, instead of leaving him the initially intended 20%, I approached him with a reduced tip and informed him that as a paying customer it was my decision as to what level of ‘tip’ I would leave, and as a result of his snide comment he’d just cost himself 10%.
I can’t tell you how much it wound me up, especially the tone it was said in. I know people in the service industry rely on tips and I’m happy to tip 20% in America for good, pleasant service which makes a meal all the more enjoyable, but not when someone does the bare minimum and then tries to demand how much they should be paid. [Note, it also really winds me up when you’re obliged to tip barmen for simply turning around to pick up a bottle of beer, open it and hand it to you!].
Anyway, rant over. After the meal we headed off for a couple of drinks at one of the (expensive) bars in the Venetian, but it was nice for the girls to have a couple of cocktails to celebrate the wedding. We then went our separate ways and we went back to the Mirage.