Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2013

stu1892

Finally caught up with the thread after WEEKS of reading.

Great stuff.

I've been looking up various things on $20 trick etc, but i don't think there'll be much money saving this time.

Heading out for my first visit to Vegas on 15th May for a week at Mandalay Bay. Can't wait. There's just so much that i want to do, i just don't know where to start.

I've already been stung too. I bought tickets for Calvin Harris at Hakkasan for $85 (direct) and a week later they were offered for $50 through a different supplier.

Cheers
Stu

photome

hi all from the Orleans. We met up with pebbles last night , had a great time ,.chatting about money saving along with many other topics over a few drinks. Get to pick up our car today from TI.

pebblesmax

It was very nice to meet you and your lovely wife. We had a great time too.

nvh

nvh wrote: »

http://www.groupon.com/deals/spice-market-buffet

I'm not up to date with buffet prices etc, so this may or may be a better offer for some than the Groupon....
http://www.vegas4locals.com/couponnathanburton_buffet.html

It's $19.99 + $5 service charge

I'm not sure how that would compare with the $5 discount you can get via. Foursquare checkin (via. Earl of Sandwich perhaps?)

vanilla8

Don't think this has been posted, in my travelzoo email today:

http://www.travelzoo.com/local-deals/Las-Vegas/Restaurant/49684

fabwitch_2

I am going LA for a week then driving down to Las Vegas on 6th July for five nights, will be staying at Excalibur Hotel, previously stayed a Harrahs and Mandalay Bay and I was lucky enough to win both those holidays so this is my first time having to pay but I love Las Vegas so much xxx

ferf1223

stu1892 wrote: »

There's just so much that i want to do, i just don't know where to start.

You will almost certainly not do a lot of things you planned to...it's just the way of the place..we've been 20+ times and there are still a few things from the list for the first few trips we haven't done...we only made it to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign on trip 20 .

One thing that may help is to group things you want to do by area to try to make the most of your trip...I know I've said this before but our first few trips we would be out and about, head back to the hotel, look at our list of to-dos and realise we were across the street from one of them and hadn't even processed and now no point in schlepping all the way back where we were...so one trip we actually wrote out all the things we were interested in onto different coloured index cards based on location.

That probably sounds kind of sad, but we could flip through the stuff in one area and pick out what interested us for that day. I know nowdays there are much more advanced methods of organizing yourself...

I think most here would suggest not over-planning as you'll either end up feeling rushed or like you're always behind schedule...may be better to leave plenty of free time to see where the day takes you. We do a planner but it has whole days that are wide open...but has a few things locked in so we can work around them.

have a great trip and I really hope you will come and tell us what you thought - it's great reading trip reports and sometimes those of first timer's are particularly interesting to read.

ferf1223

we just booked 2 nights comped at Orleans for October - I'm really excited about it - we'll likely be double booked somewhere else and probably only actually stay at Orleans one night...but I am really looking forward to finally trying it out. We are still not sure if it would be right for us for a longer period (I get why it is for some, just not sure for us) but for a night or two it will be fun to see what it's all about. Especially excited about the laundry facilities*.



*please note that there are not any actual laundry facilities at Orleans.

Winter_Jasmine

fabwitch wrote: »

I am going LA for a week then driving down to Las Vegas on 6th July for five nights, will be staying at Excalibur Hotel, previously stayed a Harrahs and Mandalay Bay and I was lucky enough to win both those holidays so this is my first time having to pay but I love Las Vegas so much xxx

Heehee....that's similar to me! I won the first two of our three trips to Orlando I'd never particularly fancied visiting the USA before I won the first one in 2001 (I was young and clearly very, very stupid!). Have always had to pay for Vegas though!

secretmachines

ferf1223 wrote: »

I think most here would suggest not over-planning as you'll either end up feeling rushed or like you're always behind schedule...may be better to leave plenty of free time to see where the day takes you. We do a planner but it has whole days that are wide open...but has a few things locked in so we can work around them.

here here especially when you consider you can easily lose a morning/afternoon in just one hotel/resort by wandering round, grabbing a drink somewhere, watching some entertainment you didn't know was there, exploring random turns, playing a couple of slots, etc.!

it's good to have a vague plan so that you don't waste time completely, but even just deciding to walk to the Forum shops can be a day's event by the time you've stopped off at places along the way, let alone wandered round the shops