Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2011

duchy

May

Loved the trippie Ferf -thanks for taking the time to write it

Froggitt

Excellent trip report ferf. Pleased you glossed over Stonemans's foam incident....not sure I could have taken it again.

Angelite

Awesome report Ferf - thanks for sharing!

39 days to go for me :j

luci

May

Shania Slated for Caesars: As reported by the LV Sun, fellow Canadian chanteuse Shania Twain is in ongoing talks with Caesars about headlining at the Colosseum when Celine Dion is on break.

MariaC

October

Great trip report Ferf!

Still 214 days, 11 hrs, 6 mins to go for us...... but at least we have the MSE Vegas forum trip reports to keep me and H2B going

StuieUK34

June

nice report, super good read! All the food ones noted!!!! hehe

adamg

August

great trip report ferf!
saw you went into excalibur what did you think, as I am staying there in august,

secretmachines

July

great read ferf! definitely recommend it to anyone that's going for a first time (or any time for that matter!)

off with the OH in July for our second trip... we didn't touch the casinos last time, but want to give them a whirl this time round (neither of us a casino gamblers)...

so does anyone have any tips for first timers on the slots (might give roulette/blackjack tables a go... but being a novice, don't want annoy the croupiers with our inexperience!).

the fruit machine in the local chinese takeaway confuses me just looking at it!

Spursman180

March

Hmm

I very much doubt I could top ferf's top travel blog, obviously did a deeper explore of the strip than we did this time. Instead my highs and lows of Vegas for my 4 nights there before moving on to Laughlin.

Highs

Stayed in the SouthPoint, well appointed rooms, decent priced buffet full of various college cheerleaders for March madness $61 a night.

Aria had a few hours in there, very very nice, has what I might describe as a modern Vegas design, plush, elegant and not OTT. The cake shop was amazing.

Red Rock Casino, a bit out of town in Summerlin but again a very nice location and very comfortable feel to it.

The Riviera, has an English pub where they show all the Brit football including the Champions League, watched the Spurs qualify for the 1/4's with a full English with fried bread and HP sauce. They also showed the 6 nations and world cup cricket. I understand they will also be showing the grand prix's as well.

Laughlin stayed at Harrahs in the mid 80'sf on the Colorado river, it was very pleasant, slightly older crowd not so many whoopers.

Lows

Downtown, a fan but somewhat disappointed this trip, with the exception of the Nugget we were hassled in each of the casinos and the flashing light on the machine in Binions for a hand pay was like a beacon to the panhandlers. The Plaza was shut for the refurb.

Odds, as a VP player the odds all over town were down most bonus poker machines were paying 6:5 instead of 8:5 with the usually full paying machines 7:5 at best at 25c, even 50c & $1 machines were not full pay on any of the VP games. Southoint did have some 8:5 but at 50c & higher. As a usually high coin in VP player some locations were just unplayable. Only hit one Royal (at SP). Even out at Primm and Laughlin it was the same.

Primm, stayed at Buffalo Bills and picked the wrong weekend I think, some sort of big Latino concert as the whole place was like Mexico in Nevada. Nothing that made you feel unwelcome but a bit overwhelming all the same.

Terribles, experienced what I can only describe as a low standard of service in a number of properties up and down the state, with a particularly bad experience in one of their gas stations in Bullhead Az. My Terribles card is already in the bin.

Chocolate covered Jelly Belly's and pretzel M&M's, one step beyond for me.

Mixed

Sat Nav, the first time I've used one out there, it was great except, adverts, everytime I fired it up or made a route change I kept getting ads popping up, I couldn't change it in the settings. Very useful for making sure your cruise control is set at the right speed, must have seen 20+ cars pulled over by the police, they do like an ambush.

The other whilst not in Vegas was Cyclists, LA is bad enough coping with the mentally deranged on the freeways, but they must have a Boris clone for mayor as there are cycle lanes on a lot of main roads. Not a problem as the roads are big enough BUT they ride both ways on them, somewhat disconcerting seeing a cyclist riding the wrong way towards you and you already driving on the 'other side', saw quite a few police on bikes but cycleways not a problem for them as they ride on the pavement (like in Vegas).

Peggy Sue's was cool, not as pristine and slick as I expected but all together better for that, I can recommend the pastrami burger, big greasy, oozing and totally delicious if not artery hardening washed down with a significant chocolate malt and followed by strawberry and rhubarb pie. A good gift shop with a mix of good and the absolutely essential trash. I got a dashboard hula hula girl, it's very tacky but cool.

entreprenureship, I was at the Orleans when Gonzaga won their division college basketball championships and made it into the big draw, within 1/2 hour of the game finishing there was a masive queue across the casino to buy all the winners/ 2011 champions shirts and caps etc, very quick off the mark and I assume it was the same across all the championship games in Vegas. They were very noisy to say the least.

nvh

good stuff Spursman and ferf!

So Spursman, did you have a successful trip - am I right in recalling it was a bit of a gambling tour you did? I know you said odd's were poor but would you do it all again?

What did Terribles do to anger you?

What was your total journey? Start SF and finish LA?