Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2011

totallybored

November / December

nvh wrote: »

forgot to mention, we had some fun on the Ghostbusters slot machine which we only found / saw in Bellagio (difficult to get on as was always busy)
http://protoncharging.com/gb/2011/09/12/igt-gets-set-to-roll-out-ghostbusters-slot-machine-video-demo/

not sure how long its been there and no doubt it will pop up elsewhere - 50c a spin (which seems to be coming the norm with a lot of the new 'fancy' machines - Sex in the City, Alice In Wonderland, Hangover all at similar prices though they were also variable from place to place)

bonus is that it's positioning in the Bellagio seemed to be a good place to get frequent drinks

The Ghostbusters machines arrived last week! There is also a bank of 4 in the Mirage (towards the back near the buffet) that I did ok on. There was a big group of middle aged men hovering around the one in the Bellagio when I was there so didn't get a go on that one.

However, the best new machine is the Cash Wizard! Incredibly addictive once you get the bonus spins with the Oh Ho Ho It's Magic theme tune. It also pays out quite well and I got the minor Wand bonus on every machine I played on. Have a look on you tube for it, it is fun.

totallybored

November / December

Moufflon5 wrote: »

Glad you had a good time, looking forward to TR. Did you pay for corner suite? That's what I am hoping to get us in using $20 (maybe $50?) trick!

I paid for the corner suite on a promo code that was upgrade from a normal room to suite for an additional $50 a night and included resort credit and spa credit so got a good rate on it (the guy at check in commented on how it was a good rate too). I think if they aren't full they might offer you this at check in too for $50 a night so worth asking for. We were on the 20th floor with a view of Planet Hollywood and the Cosmo from the bedroom and bathroom and then a view of the mountains and Vdara from the living room. I have pics so I'll try uploading them for anyone interested.

Triker

March

Premier Inn sale on now if you need to book a cheap night before the flight...http://www.premierinn.com/en/home.action

I just got a £19 room at Manchester Airport the night before we go.

Don't forget Quidco or Topcashback.

stoneman

October

Triker wrote: »

Premier Inn sale on now if you need to book a cheap night before the flight...http://www.premierinn.com/en/home.action

I just got a £19 room at Manchester Airport the night before we go.

Don't forget Quidco or Topcashback.

Don't forget at the moment you can get a free Taste Card, that gets you 241 at the Escape Lounge in T2. Well worth it, comes to £10 if there are 2 of you. Lots of boozy drinks, snacks, pastries

totallybored

November / December

Got back Thursday after a 10 day trip with hubby and my dad. I'll break it into sections rather than a day by day list of everything we did.

Photots can be found here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/58047665@N07/sets/72157627566430487/

Flights
Flew AA out of Heathrow and via Chicago on the way and via Dallas on the way back. I like the early flight from Heathrow just before 8am with either AA or United as it gets you to Vegas by 3 (or it should if you do not have a delay!). Flight to Chicago was excellent, I had 4 seats to myself in the middle section so I could lie down and sleep and dad had 2 to himself on the row behind. Huge queue at immigration but it only took about 50 minutes which was ok considering queues that long have taken much longer else where. Unfortunately, the next flight got delayed as the plane was too heavy for the runway! This meant waiting around for an hour on the plane until it could then go to the other runway.

Got to Vegas before 4 and took a cab to Encore (told the driver no tunnel and he then tried to say that we needed to go via the strip which I told him we didn't as I had been before and knew there was no need) fare was about $20 plus tip.

Hotels
We stayed the first 4 nights at Encore and then the next 5 ar Aria.

I've stayed at Encore twice before and I like the room size and also the pool here. I also like how it's a bit quieter. We had rooms on the 59th and 53rd floors with a view of the strip. However, the noise from the club on Monday night / Tuesday morning was ridiculous. It went on until after 5am and was so loud you could hear what the songs were. If it was like this on the 59th floor I wouldn't have liked to be on a lower floor. Also, no slippers or turn down service which we had last time.

We spent a few hours each day at the European pool which I prefer as here are no kids. However, there are many middle aged women who are topless which isnt always an attractive sight! All of the beds in the pool were empty all of the time too, I don't know why they don't make them cheaper during the week or just let people sit on them.

Aria
We switched hotels on Friday. As I had a hire car I drove down around 8am not expecting the rooms to be ready. I asked for a high floor and a room close to the lifts for my dad and was told that it was too early for this but he'd be allocated one on the 39th floor and they would call when it was ready. Said this was fine. They had a corner suite on the 20th floor ready though and I wasn't bothered about a high room for myself so we took this. We went up to our suite before heading back to Encore for our stuff and wow, the room was amazing. It's not huge but is well laid out. There is a separate toilet as you go off the lobby and then the living room. The living room has windows on 2 sides (which over looked the Cosmo pool and Vdara pool as well as the mountains) and has a sofa, chair, desk and bar area which includes a fridge for personal use (this was very handy). The is a door through to the bedroom and this had a view of Planet Hollywood, the Harmon and the Cosmo. Another large tv in this room too. The main bathroom is off the bedroom and this is amazing. The bath is in the corner and both sides of the rooms are all windows. There is a large walk in shower and a toilet cubicle. The toilet is a super toilet however. The seat is heated and there is a control panel for cleaning and drying! (the separate toilet in the hall way is just a regular toilet). You do need to remember to shut the curtains at night though as people can see in. There is a turn down service with chocolates (I left a nite and a tip asking for more one night and they left 14 boxes!) and also slippers here.

I absolutely loved Aria and will definitely stay here again. I preferred the corner suite to the rooms at Encore and the Palazzo and I prefer the location here. I didn't find the walk to the strip too long (apart from at night coming back into Aria when you have to walk the long way through Crystals and not down the escalator and then back up). It would be good if Crystals had some shops in that you might shop at too, I like handbags and jewellery but a Harry Winston diamond is hardly an impulse buy on your way back to your room.

A tip if you have a car, use the north Valet rather than the main entrance off the strip. This is much closer to the guest lifts. If you're staying there you can also get a taxi from here too (and the taxi can drop you off here depending where you're coming from).

Pools at Aria are also very nice, there are 3 different ones and we never had a problem finding seats.

Food
We didn't manage to eat everywhere I planned but did have some excellent meals. I also found the most amazing sandwich ever this trip, the French Dip!!!!!

In N Out
We did go 3 times for lunch different days. I love In N Out, my favourite junk food in the world. We went to the big one behind NYNY and all three visits it wasn't anywhere near as busy as previous trips.

Maggianos
I'm not a huge fan but dad wanted to eat here. My bowl of pasta would have fed an entire family though. We went at lunch when it's cheaper.

Sugar Factory at Paris
This wasn't open last time we visited and we only made it once but next time I will try desert. We went around midnight (it is open all night) and I discovered the French dip sandwich here. It was amazing! We also got a club sandwich which I've had better and dad got a burger with all sorts of stuff in it and said was good. I don't think it was too expensive.

Comme Ca at the Cosmopolitan
I had a Travelzoo voucher for here, 3 courses for 2 and a bottle of wine for $79. This was excellent and I would definitely pay full price next time. I had salad and hubby had an amazing onion soup which was a meal itself. We then had beef bourginon and roast chicken, both of which were excellent and desert was profiteroles with ice cream and creme caramel. The restaurant overlooks the strip and I believe has an outside seating area.

Jaleo at the Cosmopolitan
Really good (but pricey, I think we spent around $150) tapas restaurant. I think we shared around 8 things and had 2 beers each. The tapas is better at Julian Serano at Aria but this place has more atmosphere and seems a bit livelier. Chicken croquetas are served in a shoe which was a bit bizarre and the potatas bravas are like crisps.

Secret Pizza at the Cosmpolitan
We went here twice late at night (I think it's open until 4am). It's hidden down a corridor to the left of Jaleo and serves slices of pizza or whole pizza if you're that hungry. Excellent pizza and we would have got a whole one had it been closer to walk to our room (it's a take away with only a couple of seats).

Morels at the Palazzo
OMG, the best sandwiches ever. Went for lunch when they serve these and we shared a Fench Dip and a Croque Madame. Both excellent but the French Dip was amazing. Lunch menu is reasonably priced too and we only spent around $50.

Pizza Place at the Wynn
Ate there the first night as we were tired and had a resort credit. Was ok and three of us had food for under $50.

Carnegie Deli at Mirage
We took sandwiches back to Encore late on night from here. Really good for a late night snack.

Max Brenner at Forum shops
Only got a slice of take away chocolate pizza but OMG, this is excellent. Definitely try it if you are in Caesars.

Buffets
I'm not a huge buffet fan but we did manage 3! We went to the Wynn buffet for breakfast one morning to use a resort credit (and as a pastry and drink cost over $10 to take away a $20 buffet seemed better value). It was ok but I couldn't find any toast apart from French toast.

Cosmpolitan buffet for both lunch and dinner. The lunch buffet still has breakfast items and the carving station only had ham and pork belly the day we went. Lots of macaroons though! There was lamb when we went for dinner and potato gratin though and also individual chicken tikkas. The pizza is also very good. I prefer the buffet here as it doesn't seem as greedy and people can't (although some still try) to pile as much food as possible on their plate.

Gambling
I mainly play slots and had a great time this visit once I had found all the new machines. I have to say that I found the slots in Wynn and Encore to be rubbish, they all seem dated now and there was nothing I wanted to play. I don't know why they don't seem to have added any of the new, more fun machines that we found elsewhere. I feel like I wasted time in here.

My love for the Star Wars machine disappeared as soon as I found the Cash Wizard. This is amazing and you have to play it if you're going soon. It has a cute wizard that pops onto the screen and gives bonus spins of the wheel on top of the machine (where you win one of the bonuses, extra credits or extra spins). The wizard pops up randomly but you will normally seem him every $5 or so you put in. I got the wand bonus on every machine which is around $26 and the additional spin section is the most fun. You get 15 spins but often it lands on another 15 during the bonus and it plays the magic songand you can see my video of the bonus spins here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/58047665@N07/6155738495/in/set-72157627566430487 I first found this in NYNY when I was being lazy and it had a double seat but I then stayed the for several hours. I also found it in Aria (where it hadn't been the night before as the goldfish were in it's location), Bellagio, Mirage, Tropicana, Cosmo and the M resort. There were probably more but I only found it on Sunday.

I played a few Hangover slots but these eat money. The one in MGM Grand next to the lions was only 30c a spin though and I won a bonus. They don't seem to pay put much at all.

Dirty Dancing slots are also money eaters and rubbish.

Rockin Olives are good fun. Found these in Bellagio, Monte Carlo, Cosmo and somewhere else. The bonus round is fun and they make a lot of noise!

Railroad train thing. I only found two of these in the Cosmo and I'm not sure what the exact name is but I liked these. They are a 3 reel slot and the reels flash and light up and then turn around where there are bonus wheels on the end. The are located in the front of the Cosmo next to the tables in the curtains. On the other side of these machines are 2 machines that are the same but involve opening a safe. Fed this lots of money too.

Ghostbusters are fun. We only found the ones in Mirage and Bellagio but I'm sure more will appear soon.

We did the $100 Cosmo promo each. Me and hubby lost our $100 in about an hour one morning but had fun. Got the $100 credited back to save for another night. You can't play the credit on progressive machines so no Cash Wizard for me so we played $1 slots and made about $170 backing total so only a $30 loss for quite a few hours gambling not bad. We all played the $100 on my dads card in order to lose it. However, we had to go to the players desk several times as they claimed we had only lost $10 when I knew we had lost much more. It seemed the machines at the front of the casino weren't recording the losses. It was quite annoying as it took 3 trips to sort this out but we got the $100 credit in the end which we only managed to turn into $40 winning. Although that meant we only lost $60 between 3 of us over about 5 hours of playing and drinking.

We also tried to do the Tropicana promo but when we went to sign up she told us not to bother as you have to lose the money by 11.59pm and get back to the players desk to have your credit added. We went in at 10pm so we played a bit of Cash Wizard and then left.

My favourite casinos this trip were the Cosmo, Aria, NYNY and Monte Carlo (I normally hate this but it has some new machines). I also really liked the M resort as it had new machines too. We did stop at South Point for an hour on the way back from M resort but I didn't like it in here. We also spent an evening down town which I'm not too keen on but I quite like the Freemont (I think that's the one) with the $2 Coronas!

Shopping
Probably by favourite thing to do and we managed to fill an empty suitcase full of new things although I didn't feel I did too well. I managed 8 pairs of shoes and some clothes and hubby got quite a few clothes. I don't think we got any amazing bargains though and have been when the are better sales. We did all 3 outlets as well as the usual malls on the strip and town square. Hubby got an iPad as I have one and he felt left out. The apple stores had all models and colours in stock and will activate it for you. They're not massively cheaper than here but if you want one it's worth buying there to save some money.

Overall, we had an excellent visit but the weather was disappointing. I went in November one year and had better weather than the last few days of our trip. I would definitely stay at Aria again and love the corner suites. I don't think I'll stay at Encore again, the location is just too far from anything (even with a car) and the club is far too loud. Not sure when well be back in Vegas, I do say this every time but I'm determined to see a bit more of the world next year.

DeeLasVegas

ferf1223 wrote: »

UK - but I'm American so I like my American food-stuffs!

I have never found anything that's right...but I am more than open to suggestions!

When I was home I got some Lorne Sausage in Farm Foods. I think it's a type of scottish breakfast sausage. I crumbled this up and it wasn't too bad. It's a square flat burger looking thing. Give that a try.

DeeLasVegas

stoneman wrote: »

I am from Philly and have never had a decent one outside the city of brotherly love. Places seem to put too much on them, look it's simple, minute steak, provolone cheese, fried onions, on a large roll, done! Pop's on S. Decatur comes pretty close though.

When I was home I found some sandwich steaks in Asda. These are the same steaks we use over here. It was a box of 10 sandwich steaks in the freezer section for £1. Bargain. Unfortunately couldn't find any hoagie style rolls anywhere so made do with hot-dog style rolls.

DeeLasVegas

Been a busy week here. Don't know if anyone managed to get to the San Gennaro Feast at The Rio. If you like Italian then this is the place. Tomorrow is the last day. So if you can get there give it a try....more of a 'real' life Vegas thing even if it is near the Strip...with kids being welcome (free entry for them if under 54 inches). Great fun!!

Off to MGM tonight for the fight, it's already getting heated up lol. Hope anyone else going has a good time. Even get to stay in a Mansion Villa there this weekend What can I say - Perks of the jobs!!!

And even better no more aqua-planeing to work this week!!!!

vegasvisitor

September

Never went to San Gennaro even though we were at the Rio the last 4 nights - we could see it from our room and walked along the side of it and it looked like a fairground you would see at home. Even saw some people at the Rio with goldfishes, and someone with a huge cuddly toy pig. I mean huge.

Now delayed at Philadelphia, should only be an hour though so no big deal. It is freezing in the airport though. Quite tired, hard to sleep when you know you're up at 5am.

Good atmosphere in Vegas these last few nights with the Mexican independance celebrations. Lots of Mariachi bands.

Gollom

My fiancee and I are off 2nd October. 2nd time for me but 1st for her and she is soooooo excited!

See quite bit of reference to routes from airport - we are staying at Tahiti All-Suites on West Tropicana. What should we expect the approximate taxi cost to be? And should we tell the driver to avoid the tunnel?

BTW - not seen any comments about the Tahiti All-Suites. Anybody else ever stayed there?

Finally, the shuttle buses between hotels - do they check you are actually staying there?

Many thanks