Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2012

StuieUK34

cheers for the reply peeps, appreciate it!

Hooters is in all fairness very cheap, did consider Orleans but thats still pricey!
I ideally wanted to aim for a £620 1 week trip to Vegas with a strip hotel (exclu resort fee).....
Then pushed it to 10 or 9 nights....

If i look for flight/hotel using Opodo, flying out on the 22nd or 23rd May to 1st June, 10 nights at the Luxor would cost around £788, or 10nights at the Excal will cost £727....
Hotel we wanted was Monte Carlo, but thats coming back at £848....

However, 9 nights staying at Hooters come back with £626 !!! (booking direct costs £115 each for 9 nights at Hooters based on 2..)

Figured we would spend say £750 each for the trip, so plan was/is to:
Fly direct to LAX, drive to 'Big Bear Lake', stay for the night, then drive upto Vegas following day, spending 9 nights or 8 nights in Vegas....
Then driving back to LAX to fly home...
Can do that for £750 each based on staying at the Excalibur, but that does exlcude resort fee.....

Another option i thought of, was to still do the above, except maybe spend 3 nights in Hooters (Thurs to Sun), then the remaining 6 nights in the Excal....
That brings the cost down to £710...
I guess i could say 'whats £40 in it', but a saving is a saving considering i'll be out spending my £££ !!!

Going back to Hooters talk though, not found a cheaper hotel, apart from the motel 10 miles out!

stoneman

CASINOS

bubble113 wrote: »

Work on the water park is underway and is scheduled to open May 2013, it was Splash Canyon but is now Wet n Wild, as it was called when it was on the Strip.

Really hope it gets completed as was looking forward to it this summer....its another reason to go back next summer!

www.wetnwildlasvegas.com

Yeah it would be nice to have. This thing got burned last year, they were even selling season passes for it and it never opened.
Pity that the one on the strip got tore down. I made it to it once a long time ago, now it's just an empty lot.(I think they were going to build the Silver State arena on the spot) Hmmm, where have I heard that before:o

nvh

some scran photos... apologies, i'd normally have them enlarged on here but i'm running short of time in my old age, so you'll have to click on the thumbnail to see the larger picture

We decided this trip (7th to USA, and 6th to Vegas (I think) that we would eat in places we had never been before... the only time we broke that rule was:
- on the plane
- Wendy's (though it was a different chain )
- Mon Ami Gabi (I technically only ate a couple of chips last time I went as I was ill)

plane food - pasta and spinach... usual fare - edible!


Plane pizza!! - just before landing in Chicago, they brought these round - made a nice change



Lite bite before bed time after landing @ SFO - a chicken burger thing and a wrap thing


Pacific Blus Cafe, Yountville (Napa) - Steak Salad, and a Chicken Caesar Salad - both were lovely


Downtown Joes (Napa) - Bison Burger and a Tillamook Burger


Bounty Hunter (Napa) - BBQ Selection plate - ribs, pulled pork etc etc


Stax Wine Bar (Morro Bay) - just nibbles!


Rusty's Surf Shack (Santa Monica Pier) - Southwestern Chicken Salad and a BBQ Chicken Sandwich - good value in an expensive location


In'n'Out (San Bernardino) - our first ever - by the time we returned from the 5-10 minute journey, it had gone stone cold though


** PENNYS DINER ** (forgot to take a photo but was a lovely breakfast and the wait staff here were superb!!)


** MON AMI GABI ** (forgot to take a photo here as well, but missus proclaimed the Fillet Mignon was the best steak she had ever had)

Milos (Cosmopolitan) - $20 menu, 1st course - Greek Meze & Scallops


Milos (Cosmopolitan) - $20 menu, 2nd course - Chicken Skewer and Salmon Dish (though I ordered Sea Bass!)


Milos (Cosmopolitan) - $20 menu, dessert course - Walnut Cake and a Berry and Yoghurt margarita... we went for the wine pairing which bumps the price up, but this was an amazing meal - thought it was really good value and everthing tasted so good


D.O.C.G (Cosmopolitan) - Pizza and some pasta dish... can't remember what


Senor Frogs (T.I.) - Chicken Taco salad, and a Philly Cheese Steak... needless to say the salad didn't get finished


** STRIP STEAK ** (forgot to take a photo here as well - meal was nice but only worth it with the restaurant.com voucher... though stupidly neither of us actually had steak. Missus' chicken was tasty though and so was my Wagyu burger - was just expensive)

Strip Burger (FSM) - trio of mini sliders (hickory smoked, blue cheese and normal), and mexican burger, showstring fries, fried pickles and onion rings


Magianno's (FSM) - lasagne and meatball


Magiannos (FSM) - dessert selection


First Food Bar (Palazzo) - steak salad and cubano sandwich - both were ok but this place is a rip off even with restaurant.com voucher (in my opinion), and the staff werent that great either... also the website says they're open at lunch on weekdays and they aren't!!! this was our second attempt to get here... wont go back


Holsteins (Cosmopolitan) - Longhorn burger and Nom Nom burger - both were tasty... also had a Black Cow Cola shake and a Campfire Smores shake


Hussongs Cantina (Mandalay Bay Shoppes) - best mexican meal i've had! - I wasn't expecting much but was really surprised, had groupon for here for shared starter, mains and margaritas. Shared Steak Quesadilla


Hussongs Cantina (Mandalay Bay Shoppes) - Carna Asada and Carnitas Platter


** SLICE OF VEGAS (MANADALAY BAY SHOPPES) ** - photo didn't upload, but we had pizza

Public House (Luxor) - Mac'n'cheese bites


Mac'n'Cheese Bites


Public House (Luxor) - Turkey and Brie, and Pulled Pork sandwiches... this meal was comped so it was really good value haha

stoneman

CASINOS

The Mac and cheese bites look fab. Who would buy an in and out burger and wait 10 minutes to eat it??!!

nvh

Apologies, doing all this a bit !!!! about face

Bit of an outline... our trip this time was a flight into San Francisco, up to Napa Valley for a few days, then down the pacific highway, and over to Vegas

The whole trip was an highlight if i'm honest - did lots of different things where we could.

Some comments, observations and highlights:
American Airlines - they now do free booze on (selected) flights, so had a few bottles of champagne on the LAX - LHR journey

Exit Row seats - (with a row in front of you too, so no-one comes and stands in your way) on international flights... oh my days - it made me so happy - still look back and smile (free too!, as we booked them originall for £15 each, then they changed planes a few months before, and they retained them for us and refunded us after the trip automatically because it "wasn't what we were expecting!")

Napa - lovely town and place - a good 'chilling' start to our holiday. Visited a petrified forest and went to see a Geyser (Calisto) which were both cool things we'd never seen before. The geyser has local ridicule as there are others in America a lot better, but we thought it was cool for our first one! Mcclelland & Priest B&B was absolutely superb!

Trip to Morro Bay (one of our stays) - awesome, loved the Pacific Highway, interesting sights on the way too (we had to double-take, then stop and take pictures of Zebras!) Elephant Seals were an interesting discovery as well, and saw loads of Dolphins on the drive down. Our hotel @ Morro Bay was absolutely outstanding as well (Estero Inn)

Santa Monica - I really like it around here. Just sat on the end of the pier for a bit listening to some girl warble on her kareoke machine, and watching people fishing

Penny's Diner, nr. Barstow - someone on here mentioned it as an alternative to Peggy Sues', so thought we'd give it a go - good atmosphere and great breakfast (cheaper than Peggy Sues too )

Roos'n'more - cheers ferf - we didn't stay around there too long (only an hour or so to go around as its a small place), but we both got to hold a little 'joey' which was cool, and great seeing all the animals just running around the place!

Lions Share @ MGM - didn't win millions, but got great drinks service and built up a shed load of points (and came out even)... plus I got a hand pay (*cough* everything is handpay on that machine )

Cosmopolitan - this is my new 'fave' strip hotel - even though the accomm is expensive, its in a great position, has some great restaurants and staff. Loved the pool (has the sun all day), no end of tasty free drinks from the casino

Platinum - my favourite 'off strip' hotel - think the rooms are looking slightly more worn since we first went, but we'll be back - for $89 a night (incl. weekends), for a strip view room & balcony, you really cannot fault the place. As usual, just saw a few people down the pool each day too so nice and private. We save a fortune from staying here too - stayed 5 days and spent $120 @ Walmart on food / snacks / drinks etc... nice little rest / respite tho we did walk down to the strip a couple of times

Luxor - they goosed us - we booked a Pyramid Spa Suite, as its years since we've stayed in the Luxor, but I'd managed to bag 3 nights in one of these rooms for just $60 per night + resort... bargain. Anyways, turned up and their jacuzzi's were decommissioned in February (electrical issue), and although the website had been updated to reflect this, we had booked before Feb. To apologise, we got put in a suite on the very top floor of the pyramid (30) - so high up you couldn't even see down the central bit. Our room was split up into around 4 or 5 rooms. Had kitchen area, 2 toilets, shower room, bedroom, living room etc and had a view going right up the strip. I also got them to knock off the 'resort fee'. Room was still worn but I thought it was a great price for what we eventually got.

Free drinks - thought we'd go for it this time and try a load of new ones. Managed to tick off:
-Peach Bellini
-Bellagio Cocktail
-Miami Vice
-Chocolate Martini
-Pear Martini *ugh* (was a little strong)
-Pineapple Mojito
-Hurricane
-Amaretto Sour
-Brandy Alexander

My free drink of choice though was (when we found out you easily get it), Bud Light Lime - missus was fizzy wine all the way.

Comps - ok, i've never done this before but made it to the last day and had $20 freeplay, so thought we had best get shot of it. Couldn't remember my pin number tho. So went to desk and asked her to reset it. When we then went to ask if we could use any of it in the restaurants, she offered to give us $60 to spend in Public House (As well as what was on the card)... jumped at it... i'll be doing that more often I think!

Sunshine - after seeing quite a lot of grey cloud last year (August / Sept), it was so nice to have the sun beating down on us none-stop (apart from foggy San Fran) this year

Think that's it... anyways, here's our trip in photos...


Dolphin Habitat - got free tickets for here through 'MyVegas' thingy - worth it to kill a couple of hours



Some wins we had... as usual, they all pretty much saved themselves for the last night!!!



Old Faithful Geyser (Callisto - Napa)



Foggy San Fran


View down from 27th floor in Luxor - this is heighest floor where you can actually see over the edge (we were on floor 30 so couldn't see down from there)



Napa grapes!



Pacific Highway... got stopped on a bridge as the road went down to one lane just after it (due to a landslide that had occurred and taken half of the road away!)



Elephant Seals on a beach on the drive down



Zebras in a field... part of Hearst Castle I believe



Morro Bay - where we stopped for the night... lovely little town



Santa Monica Pier



Hollywood sign - regret not seeing this when we went in 2008... regret it even more having spent 90minutes in traffic to get there, and then discovering the hotel we stayed in in 2008 was just around the corner!!!! *argh*


As usual, a 'bladerunner'-type photo from the Balcony @ Platinum


As usual, a view of the strip from Mix @ Mandalay Bay


View from our Balcony @ Cosmopolitan


Holding a baby Joey @ Roos'n'more


I've never seen so many security cameras in one place!!!... making sure no-one throws anything off the balconys @ Cosmo



It isn't a road trip without seeing a weird road-sign

nvh

stoneman wrote: »

Who would buy an in and out burger and wait 10 minutes to eat it??!!

haha, we went for the drive thru and realised after, there was no-where to park!!... Saturday night in San Bernadino was 'boy-racer' central and the car park was heaving with jazzed up 'old' cars! Decided to go back to the hotel with it instead... doh!

we both thought the Mac'n'Cheese bites were the future!!

nvh

moving on to next year, we were thinking of spending a few days in Chicago on our way over there (break up the journey a bit)

anyone ever been Chicago? opinions welcome

987654

I've just had a few days in Chicago - went to the last day of the Ryder Cup :j then flew onto Vegas.

Brilliant city, loved it! Lots to see - boat/river tours, museum, aquarium, ganster tour, Segway tours, skyscrapers, hop on/off bus.

We stayed at Hotel 71 which was a great location & walking distance to alot of city centre stuff.

Flew Spirit airlines from Chicago to Vegas. Booked their 'big seats' which are premium economy type seats. 4 hour flight.

ferf1223

VALUE FOR MONEY

Hi from Vegas! Having a fab time but strugglkng to search the thread for the Cosmo wifi password a few have posted. Would be grateful if anyone can repost it?

Nvh thanks for the TR and photos. Glad you liked Roos n more!

nvh

I think the password was mgold or mplatinum when we were there