Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2012

luci

Have a look at Page 1 where you will find all the information you need.

am05

HOTELS

Hi Guys,

Finally back on this thread trying to plan our 5th trip in October! We are looking at staying in the bellagio - looking at booking a penthouse suite? - Is it worth it? Anyone stayed in one? Also is it best to book a standard room an try and upgrade when you get there?

Thanks for all your help

Am

baza52

CASINOS

A penthouse will be around $4000-$4500 per week. (mid Oct)
If you book a standard room for around $1800 you will be allowed to upgrade at checkin if you are prepared to pay the difference.
You could try the $20 trick lol.

vegasvisitor

VALUE FOR MONEY

Dov wrote: »

Hi everyone i was hoping to get some help on when's best and where's best to book the best deal for a Vegas trip for June 2013? I was there on business in Feb and would love to return again with my wife. I will be lookin to fly from Glasgow to Gatwick then direct to Vegas. I think we will go for 7 days, and I will be looking to stay at somewhere like Planet Hollywood, Mgm Grand, Ceasars palace etc depending on costs. Ive had a look around and it seems to be around £2200 for flights and hotel for both. Any tips or advice on getting costs down would be helpful.

Thanks in advance
Dov

Flights will only just be coming out, so be careful as all airlines may not have released their prices. Are you determined to go via gatwick? Just that you're limiting your options if you do. We fly from Glasgow and normally go via Philadelphia with US airways. We're doing BA via Heathrow to LA this year though because it was so much cheaper, so we're also visiting LA this trip.

Don't be too hasty about including your hotel either, there are generally some good deals on the hotels you are looking at.

stoneman

CASINOS

baza52 wrote: »

A penthouse will be around $4000-$4500 per week. (mid Oct)
If you book a standard room for around $1800 you will be allowed to upgrade at checkin if you are prepared to pay the difference.
You could try the $20 trick lol.

Yeah, they might let you look inside one for the 20;)

ferf1223

VALUE FOR MONEY

am05 wrote: »

Finally back on this thread trying to plan our 5th trip in October! We are looking at staying in the bellagio - looking at booking a penthouse suite? - Is it worth it? Anyone stayed in one? Also is it best to book a standard room an try and upgrade when you get there?

The penthouse suite appears to be a 5 step upgrade from a standard room....which would be exceptionally unlikely for no additional charge.

I thought Bellagio was overrated, but some people love it...but I never got near a penthouse suite (did have a fountain view room)...I'm not sure that any hotel room would be worth $4k+ for a week to us, tbh...unless that room came with complimentary Mulberry bags or something.

credit_crunch

Dov wrote: »

Hi everyone i was hoping to get some help on when's best and where's best to book the best deal for a Vegas trip for June 2013? I was there on business in Feb and would love to return again with my wife. I will be lookin to fly from Glasgow to Gatwick then direct to Vegas. I think we will go for 7 days, and I will be looking to stay at somewhere like Planet Hollywood, Mgm Grand, Ceasars palace etc depending on costs. Ive had a look around and it seems to be around £2200 for flights and hotel for both. Any tips or advice on getting costs down would be helpful.

Thanks in advance
Dov

Hi I booked my flights through Expedia, flying from Dublin to Heathrow, then direct to Vegas, for just over £500 per person, travelling in September. I booked my hotels through Lowcostusa.co.uk
Have you got a reason for travelling in June? Maybe it would be cheaper to look at May or even September? Just to compare prices. Our trip for 10 nights is costing under £2000 or the 2 of us, and I say we will be going n September.
Hope this helps.
I'm by no means an expert as this is only my 2nd trip.

baza52

CASINOS

credit_crunch wrote: »

Hi I booked my flights through Expedia, flying from Dublin to Heathrow, then direct to Vegas, for just over £500 per person, travelling in September. I booked my hotels through Lowcostusa.co.uk
Have you got a reason for travelling in June? Maybe it would be cheaper to look at May or even September? Just to compare prices. Our trip for 10 nights is costing under £2000 or the 2 of us, and I say we will be going n September.
Hope this helps.
I'm by no means an expert as this is only my 2nd trip.

We have paid about £1850 for 2 of us in Oct.
Direct flights with virgin from Gatwick, 3 nights at Flamingo then 7 at Mgm Signature. that includes all taxes and the resort fee at Mgm.
I did get the rooms at Flamingo comped but also used Lowcostusa for the Sig.

MaggieBaking

Hi, I'm slowly making my way through this thread and picking up some good tips, although I've not got to the end yet... But I thought I'd skip ahead and ask a few starter questions!!

1- we're hoping to book through Virgin for the Cosmopolitan Terrace Studio Fountain View. I AM SO EXCITED!!!

It's our 10 year anniversary/2 year wedding anniversary in November, I understand this is low season and that it'll be a bit cold. I guess during this time the best shows might not be on. But other than that - what will the weather be like? Will I still enjoy a terrace or will it be too windy/rainy?

I also realised the period we want to go has the US Thanksgiving in the middle of it. I'm quite happy but will this give us any problems with it being a holiday? Will things be too busy, or closed? Or expensive?

Virgin Holidays has a free hire car with the trip which is wow! But now I wonder what extra costs might be involved with a hire car?? Will we have to pay parking everywhere? Will we want to drive to the Grand Canyon? Will it be too much to get off our flight and drive to the hotel? I have already seen advice on buying a US satnav off ebay which I think's a great idea We don't need the car so I'm just wondering whether we should not opt for one.

Grand Canyon - how much of a day does a trip take? What's the cost of a simple coach excursion and how would we book it? Is a helicopter excursion worth it? PLEASE SAY YES! And tell my husband to book it for a surprise

Tipping - can someone point to a good resource for tipping in Vegas? I keep reading little snippets about tipping which are alien to me and I just wonder if there's a list aside from the standard taxi/waitress etc?

I keep reading so much to do!! And now I think if I keep adding on to my "Must" list I'll need to go for 2 months not 1 week!!

ferf1223

VALUE FOR MONEY

MaggieBaking wrote: »

Virgin Holidays has a free hire car with the trip which is wow! But now I wonder what extra costs might be involved with a hire car?? Will we have to pay parking everywhere? Will we want to drive to the Grand Canyon? Will it be too much to get off our flight and drive to the hotel? I have already seen advice on buying a US satnav off ebay which I think's a great idea We don't need the car so I'm just wondering whether we should not opt for one.

Not sure how 'wow' that free hire car will be - you'll need to check that it includes all insurance waivers, etc that you would want (have read a lot of stories of free hire cars not including any insurance waivers, etc)...otherwise, it may be cheaper for you to just hire a car separately. Parking is free almlost everywhere. Whether you will want to drive the GC is a personal decision really - it is 5+ hours to the south rim, shorter to the west but very long (11, 14 miles? of unpaved roads at the end)...we normally collect the car after the flight and drive to the hotel - it is not far at all to drive - but last trip we picked it up from a hotel on our first day and think we preferred that...saved the faff when we arrived (and we only drove to the hotel and park the car with valet the first day anyway, so it just sleeps the rest of that day).

Oh and Thanksgiving - we went one year, slightly busy but nothing awful but dinner Thanksgiving night will be VERY busy...so either plan to go early or book (early) somewhere that takes reservations.

And you'll be there for the Black Friday sales, I assume...which can be fantastic, though absolute lunacy some places to actually shop with so many people.