Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2012

photome

VALUE FOR MONEY

amrad wrote: »

What are views on luxor vs excalibur vs ballys? And how much better than these is monte carlo?

I havent stayed at any
FWIW

Ballys would be my first choice because of location and room size (large)

Luxor second choice just to say I have stayed in a pyramid (even though the tower rooms are newer/better) and ride in an inclanator (if thats what they are called)

Monte Carlo third choice as they have a nice pool area

Excalibur would be last

BUT as I havent stayed at any I would put lots of hotels in front of all of them although there are some great room rates for all of the above

photome

VALUE FOR MONEY

credit_crunch wrote: »

hi can i just ask your opinions on travel insurance?
we will be 25 (f) & 29 (m) at the time of travel.
should i get insurance now that we have our flights booked? does this normally provide protection if a flight is cancelled or anything?
on travelsupermarket website it is coming in around £35 to £50 for the 2 of us. Does this sound about right for a young couple with no medical conditions etc?
Thanks

reiterate what others have said, get your insurance today unless you can afford to lose everything you have already paid.

we normally pay about £45 for a family yearly policy inc USA

Porthorg

+1 for LowCostUSA...used them last year no problem at the Cosmo...I'm pretty sure I didn't use a voucher.....but could be wrong.

Also booked with them this year although not using a CC so am now slightly concerened

ferf1223

VALUE FOR MONEY

amrad wrote: »

What are views on luxor vs excalibur vs ballys? And how much better than these is monte carlo?

Have stayed at all except MC...Bally's is our go-to hotel, the standard rooms are quite big, and we've never had trouble getting an upgrade to the North Tower (South Tower rooms are, for the most part, pretty old and a bit shabby...not dirty, but not that nice - but better views)...we didn't love the pyramid room we had at Luxor, but it was cool staying in a pyramid room once - if we stayed there again we would go for a tower room, I think...haven't stayed at Excalibur for years but never minded it when we did...we prefer mid-strip though.

Have never considered MC really.

For location and room size I think Bally's is great - we prefer mid-strip...though the casino is a bit boring, some will say...it's not a very vibey place...and the restaurants aren't great...but Paris is through the walkway and loads on your 'doorstep'.

wynnvegas

WEATHER

amrad wrote: »

What are views on luxor vs excalibur vs ballys? And how much better than these is monte carlo?

Hi,

We've stayed at all of these hotels and I would have Monte Carlo as the best overall with Bally's a close second based purely on location. Luxor is decent enough (the inclinator is nothing special) and the only things wrong with Excalibur was that they don't have a bath in the majority of their rooms and their pools are a bit rubbish in comparison to some. None of the pool areas are fantastic with any of these four if that makes a difference to you although MC is probably just a bit above the others.

Cheers,

Billy

Brats64

HOTELS

amrad wrote: »

What are views on luxor vs excalibur vs ballys? And how much better than these is monte carlo?

Would also go for Ballys out of those hotel choices.....in fact,will probably
Stay a few nights there this next trip.We have stayed at both Luxor and Ballys,and while the Luxor has more of a over the top Vegas style hotel to it,the rooms are very average.The location is also not as good as Ballys.
All the hotels you mentioned are south strip,to an extent,where as Ballys is ideally situated in the middle.Nothing fancy in Ballys,you st there for location,and the fact you can walk to the strip from your room in a couple of minutes,not 10-15 minutes like some strip hotels.Join total rewards online,and you will see better prices for a stay there.

zaffi

CASINOS

mccann83 wrote: »

In terms of booking.com, how have they been for you? Any problems?

Have just booked with them myself.

never had any issues, used them for the majority of our hotel bookings wherever we've went

luci

Re the Monte Carlo pool, be aware that it is in shade for much of the day since City Center was constructed around it

honeypop

BUFFETS

Just back from our Vegas trip, wanted to do a little trip review, photo will follow at some point...

Wed 4th Jan - Flew Virgin from Gatwick, flight was delayed a few hours but not a problem, we did lots of browsing in the shops and wrote a 'wish list' for what we would buy with our winnings in Vegas. Flight was absolutely fine, had heard a few negative things about the Virgin flight compared to BA but we found no problems, and I was really pleased with the amount of food offered on the outward flight!
Taxi from McCarran Airport to Ballys on the strip was $20 inc tip.

Didn't attempt to upgrade the room at Ballys, although we had only booked a classic room in the South Tower. Had booked through the Cyber Monday deal on their website and paid $20 per night, which I was very happy with! Was expecting quite a basic and dated room, and boy were we blown away when we entered the room. It was so much bigger than expected, with a table and chairs on one side of the room, and a couple of comfy chairs on the other side. And the view - looking straight at the Eiffel Tower all lit up, and across to the Bellagio fountains, beautiful. Room was very clean and modern, and for what we paid we were over the moon!

We stayed in the casino of Ballys the first night, as we only arrived at 6pm and were already tired, so early-ish night for us.

Very happy with the hotel, it's location was ideal for sightseeing as it's pretty central on the strip. Has everything you need including a monorail station.

Thur 5th Jan - Up at 3am as couldn't sleep, so at 5am headed across the road to Bills and their 3-egg breakfast for $4.99 to kill some time. Wandered around for a bit afterwards, looking at some of the hotels, and later in the morning went round Miracle Mile shops at Planet Hollywood and wandered down the strip looking at the hotels to MGM to see the lions. Was expecting something a bit different to a simple glass cage from what I had read beforehand, but it was ok and a tick off my list. Got the monorail back to Ballys as had very sore feet by then.

Later on, we headed to Kahunaville bar in TI. We got the Travelzoo offer for 6 cocktails for $25 (it was actually $25 off of 6 cocktails, that would never have covered it!), and on the way into the hotel was handed a 2 for 1 voucher for dinner. There was a great atmosphere in the bar, the bar staff were having a flare-off where they all demonstrated their skills at flaring (the throwing the bottles around and fancy cocktail making stuff). With the vouchers, dinner for 2 and 6 cocktails came to $30. Beware the drinks menu doesn't show the cost of the cocktails, and some are VERY expensive.

We then went to see the Crazy Girls show at Riviera, booked before we left through Vegas.com at quite a low price. I just knew when we arrived that the show was not going to be great, the Riviera is very dated, and the casino is quite 'icky', we didn't stop to play on any machines. OH had wanted to see a burlesque show, and I had chosen this one based on price. I shouldn't have, we got what we paid for! It was quite 80's style, and even OH said there's only so much repeated booby shaking and opening/closing of legs a man can take. Most dances were very similar and repetitive. Due to the jetlag, I fell asleep about 20 times, and woke up when my head nodded too far forward. Having seen trailers for the other burlesque shows, I so wish I had chosen any other one but this, they all seem so much more choreographed and 'Vegas style'.

Fri 6th Jan - This was the first day we were not affected by jetlag, and so could really relax and enjoy ourselves.Went for the 'Buffet of Buffets' offer, where for $45 you get 24hrs access to various buffets in the Caeser group hotels. Had breakfast in the Flamingo, and this was the most amazing breakfast buffet I have seen! After having a variety of breakfasts, followed by muffins and pastries, I was disappointed to find that round the corner was their 'dessert' section and I was already full! We needed to walk this off, so headed down the strip again (trying ever so hard to avoid the MANY timeshare people and those people handing out the call girl cards). At MGM we caught a cab to the Gun Store ($15), I did the lady-package of shooting a handgun and AK47 for $50 including a souvenir t-shirt and OH shot a Desert Eagle and a machine gun. The wait was around 45mins, which they said was a short wait. Having been a gunner in the Forces, OH was extremely impressed with my first ever shooting, and so was I, it was so worth the wait to try something like this.

Lunch was the buffet at Planet Hollywood, very nice. In the afternoon we used the spa at Ballys. They are seperate for men and women, and clothing optional. It was actually quite basic as spas go, although the service in there was great. Then we did evening sightseeing of the Volcano at the Mirage, Sirens of TI, Bellagio fountains, Dealertainers in Imperial Palace, and some gambling here and there. Dinner at the buffet at the Flamingo as it was the only one open at 9.30pm apart from PH, which we didn't want to do as went there for lunch.

Sat 7th Jan - As our 24hr buffet pass was still valid until 8.30am, we got up early and fitted in another breakfast buffet at Planet Hollywood. We really got the most out of this deal! Here we were sat next to a large table of ridiculously goodlooking girls, all with just a piece of fruit on their pates (what a waste, with this huge buffet!) who we saw again later.
We headed to the Fashion Show Mall, and even OH who hates shopping with a passion, was enticed by some good prices and offers in the sales and we both ended up with many bags of clothes and shoes. As the name suggests, there are fashion shows held in the mall, and today they starred the current Miss America candidates, which turned out to be the girls from breakfast. And very nice they looked too.

In the evening, we saw the Mentalist show at Planet Hollywood. He was amazing, one of the highlights of the whole trip. Again we had booked this through vegas.com, and was cheaper than any of the ticket booths were offering while we were there. OH loves this sort of thing, and we chatted to the guy after the show and he was brilliant, happy to chat and have photos etc.

Following this, we went back to Kahunaville at TI as we had further BOGOF cocktail vouchers, and OH managed to order one that cost $25. The plan was to get extremely drunk and end up with a series of photos similar to that in the Hangover, however by 1am OH was feeling the stresses of tiredness, alcohol and excessive portions of food and we had to head back to our room. Unfortunately we had to skip the other bar in the TI where there is a mechanical bull to ride, as he had been looking forward to that.

Sun 8th Jan - Finally managed to sleep to a reasonable time of 10am! Quickly packed up and checked out at 11am, and put our luggage in with the bellhop until we left. Using a 20% off voucher we had a final buffet at Flamingo, then watched street performers until getting a cab back to the airport. Flight home all ok, though very turbulent. I slept with the help of 'sleep aids' bought from a pharmacy over there for $2, and I was very happy as I hadn't slept a wink on the outward flight.

The weather was fantastic, almost 70 degrees every day.

There was a lot to see and do for very little or no money and I found planning before we went helped a lot. We wished we could have seen more shows, but our budget didn't stretch that far, the only thing we didn't do that was in our plan was go up the Eiffel Tower and see the view from the top.

I signed up for all offers I could find, and printed all vouchers I could and saved a lot that way. There are vouchers for pretty much everything, and you get them all over the place there too.

I didn't realise that you would be hassled so much on the streets by people trying to get you to do the timeshare presentations in return for free show tickets/casino vouchers/free meals/free rooms on your next visit etc, and by the people thrusting the callgirl cards into your hands, and people offering all sorts of other things. The timeshare people were even in your hotels and casinos trying to get you there, and a lot we encountered were not deterred by a polite no thank you, we had to be quite insistant, they even walked with us while we walked away!

We had to carry passports everywhere as driving licence was refused at most places. Only time driving licence was accepted was as ID for paying with my credit card.

Also, we had been advised about the tipping out there and did our best to tip appropriately. We didn't bank on people wanting a tip just for answering a question on where to find the restrooms or a particular bar or restaurant within a hotel. And one of our cabs refused to give change of $20 on a $11 fare, as 'that's what people normally pay'. We had told him to only give $5 change in the first place! Are we particularly cheap??

Overall we had a nice time, although it was on a tight budget so wished we could have done more than we did, but the alternative was not to go at all, or wait another year. Personally I wouldn't go back, but am so in the minority and I can really see why it appeals to people to go again and again.

stoneman

CASINOS

NEWS FLASH!!!
New contact at the Platinum.
After sending emails to various previous contacts that have all since left, I have secured the email and same willingness to give good rates with the new Director of Rooms. Just booked for March. Email is derekmorrison at lvplatinum dot com