Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2012

Ady87

Just got back from Barcelona 30mins ago, want to look at booking Las Vegas for May.

Thinking of me and my girlfriend. 25 and 22 respectively. Any ideas where to go? I think we could probably save up £4k-£5k but that would include spends, between now and May.

photome

VALUE FOR MONEY

Ady87 wrote: »

Just got back from Barcelona 30mins ago, want to look at booking Las Vegas for May.

Thinking of me and my girlfriend. 25 and 22 respectively. Any ideas where to go? I think we could probably save up £4k-£5k but that would include spends, between now and May.

Read the first posts, lots of ideas.

"Any ideas" is a bit vague

gillyboss

WEATHER

cheers all for the heads up on group on...

now money...

best to take cards, cash, travellers cheques etc.. ?

what has everyoneelse done in experience?

credit_crunch

gillyboss wrote: »

cheers all for the heads up on group on...

now money...

best to take cards, cash, travellers cheques etc.. ?

what has everyoneelse done in experience?

we took half cash & half on prepaid travel card - sainsburys had the best rate at the time & discount for nectar card holders (and nectar points i think)
next time, i would probably take less cash & put more on the pre paid card

credit_crunch

Ady87 wrote: »

Just got back from Barcelona 30mins ago, want to look at booking Las Vegas for May.

Thinking of me and my girlfriend. 25 and 22 respectively. Any ideas where to go? I think we could probably save up £4k-£5k but that would include spends, between now and May.

we are 25 & 29 & have been twice.
stayed in mgm, new york new york, encore & cosmo.
Would stay in them all again - but ny ny was prob best value for us & we didnt mind the extra 10/20 minute walk to the likes of Planet Hollywood etc.
Any questions, feel free to pm me :-)

rorylando45

CASINOS

gillyboss wrote: »

cheers all for the heads up on group on...

now money...

best to take cards, cash, travellers cheques etc.. ?

what has everyoneelse done in experience?

First time I went, I was living in America so I just had loads of US dollars already. I think I also used my Nationwide debit card back when it was still free to withdraw cash abroad.

Second time I went, I had a Halifax Clarity Card but it didn't work :eek: - so I had to use my backup card (the Nationwide debit card) and over the week paid fees of about £17. When I got home I complained to Halifax about my Clarity Card not working and I asked for them to reimburse my £17 fees I'd had to pay, and they gave me £25 credit on my account!

Third time I went I made sure I informed Halifax before going, and my Clarity Card worked fine. I still have about $350 cash from my last trip (played some good poker on the last night!) so will take that with me when I next go.

Triker

VALUE FOR MONEY

For money I used to use my FairFX card preloaded with dollars, however some kind poster on here gave a tip and said that they change their pounds straight over at the casino cage which is now what I do. Last time I changed it at Wynn casino cage and got a $1.60 to the £1.00 rate.

pebblesmax

VALUE FOR MONEY

We always exchange cash at the cage now. Cosmo, Wynn and IP usually give the best rates.

scottishnellie

Breakfast at wicked spoon - much quieter now the weekenders have left thankfully. Meant to say that yesterday's breakfast was entertaining due to the table next to us consisting of an old man and his young prostitute openly chatting about the $1000 he had spent for 'some time' with her (how long that buys I have no idea!). Breakfast a much quieter affair today!

10:30am and started to walk south today for the first time. Did NYNY including the rollercoaster on which I screamed my head off. Rides aren't my thing but I had promised I would do that one with hubby. What an old bone rattler that was! Through to the Excalibur, through
The Luxor and into the Mandalay bay. Went as close as we could get to see the beach / pool area but couldn't really get to see much. Had a wander round each of the hotels on the way down then stopped in Mandalay bay for frozen yogurt below the minus 5 bar. Back through the Luxor and played $25 dollars in the wizard of oz machine. It lasted quite a while as we kept winning it back mostly. Had 2 free piña coladas and beers from the waitress while playing. Moved back through Excalibur and across to MGM. Wandered around there and walked all the back to the lifts to the rooms. I can see why people say to leave 15mins to get from your room to the strip from this hotel. That walk every day would annoy me so I'm glad we ruled this one out when we chose. Mind you, they are doing a lot of work inside and there were lots of areas cordoned off and detours to walk round so maybe it's not so bad normally. Back up the strip, stopped at walgreens to restock the fridge of water, beer and piña colada. Back to the room, hubby had a bath while I had a nap - done lots of walking today!

Ready for dinner and this was something I'd been looking forward to all week. For tonight we would be going to Mon Ami Gabi - and let me tell you I was not disappointed.

Having read the tips on this board we arrived at 6:15pm and asked to wait for a patio table. She said it would be 15-30 mins and gave us a little buzzy pager thing, explaining how far into the casino we could walk without deactivating it. We played a coupl of shots on Aladdin, long enough to have a free piña colada and beer and the buzzy thing went off after 25 mins. Shown out to our table right at the edge of the patio just on the curve leading into the Paris - perfect view of the Bellagio and fountains.

The food was incredible. For starters hubby had the olive jar and I had warm Brie with a honey glaze, carmelised shallots and roasted hazelnuts with croutons - divine! For mains I had the fillet steak with a merlot butter and pommes puree, while hubby had steak with a blues cheese sauce and the frites (so thin and crispy they were more like hot crisps - hubby loved these but I could see why folk have said you either love them or hate them). Again both meals were delicious and I ate way more than usual as I just couldn't stop. Hubby never eats desert but I had the sorbet de jour which was banana and chocolate. Yum. We had 2 Paris romance cocktails, 1 beer and 1 glass of red and the total bill was $136 for which we left $160 as tip not already added.

I LOVED this meal. The setting was very romantic. An excellent view of the fountains which were playing sinatras 'fly me to the moon' and 'luck be a lady' most times - just fabulous. This was one of my 'must do's' and I was worried I expected too much but not at all. Wonderful night. In all we spent over 2 hrs there, very relaxed and comfortable. I'm so glad we went early as advised as the queue was huge when we were leaving and the atmosphere quite heated with people moaning about the wait times by then (9pm).

Afterwards we rode up the Eiffel tower which we almost didn't do but I'm so glad we did. Incredible views of the strip in both directions and got some amazing photos. Came back down and decided to head back to the room. Stayed up long enough to FaceTime the kids before school. Really missing them now. When I get home I will be cuddling them until they beg for mercy.

And so ended one of my favourite Vegas days

scottishnellie

Also meant to say - wa asked at Gordon Ramsey about a reservation for the following night (tues) but they said they were sold out until late thursday night so that's out.

Looking for somewhere nice for our last meal tonight as not decided on anything - any suggestions welcome! I still have a $50 restaurant.com for Mix at Mandalay bay - wonder if we should go there? Decisions decisions......