Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2013

vanilla8

Wizbit82 wrote: »

To be honest that has been my original plan from the off HOWEVER have been reading TR's and reviews every day from various sites for past couple of months for the Cosmo and am pretty concerned about staying there, never mind being granted an upgrade. I am a bit of a clean freak and am pretty worried about the cleanliness of the place tbh (nightmare tales of rooms with used condoms in :eek:, piles on vomit:eek:, suspicious stains on bedding and curtains:eek: gross gross gross)- hoping someone who has stayed recently can ease my concerns. We got a relatively cheap deal for 4 nights so can't complain too much and of course we'll be in Vegas so could be worse, but still when you work so hard to save for holidays you want as nice as possible right?:cool:

We stayed at the Cosmo earlier this week. Definitely no problems with cleanliness for us. Our room was spotless and the staff could not do more to help you. The hotel does obviously attract the more youthful partying type but plenty of older people too. We went to the bamboo pool each day, very mellow and space available at 10-11am.

Our room was in the west tower 3121, overlooking the fountains with a balcony and Japanese soaking tub which also overlooked the fountains.

On the subject of upgrades we never tried the $20 as we had heard they rarely take them and just offer to upgrade for the cash price.
The $90 we spent upgrading was ok as I had secured the room with a marriot price match against a net flights quote.

Oh and the $100 free play for signing up to the identity card was not on when we were there.

duchy

downhillfast wrote: »

We're doing our first trip to Vegas this year with US Airways and a connection in Philly - is this gonna be a nightmare??? I'm worried now... we have a couple of hours connection time I think off the top of my head. Our entire multiple-centre trip was booked with them as the carrier so we figured the connections would work ok if they offered the fare? Should I be worrying?

)

You'll be fine
I usually fly indirect -and I'm absolutely fine with it-it's only because my diverse have a day in Dublin route means we can fly non stop which my OH is convinced will be better-for the same money as an indirect flight.
Couple of hours is fine -even if the worst happened and your flight from the UK was late and you missed your flight US Airways would just put you on the next flight-They have loads of flights as Philadelphia is one of their hubs (operations centres)

secretmachines

thought this might be good for a bit of weekend fun
a question posed at vegaschatter...
What Do You Do When You First Arrive in Vegas?

we usually get to the hotel mid-afternoon, unpack then head walgreens/cvs to stock up the room with some drinks, snacks and only-in-america goodies

then straight over to Miracle Mile and grab some food at Cheeseburger, probably a burger and definitely coconut shrimp and sweet potato fries

maybe a bit of slots if we're still feeling awake, before crashing out ready for the first full day in town!

gracie10

Cosmopolitan is one of the nicest hotel rooms I've ever stayed in, I wouldn't be worried!

ratkarth

secretmachines wrote: »

thought this might be good for a bit of weekend fun
a question posed at vegaschatter...
What Do You Do When You First Arrive in Vegas?

we usually get to the hotel mid-afternoon, unpack then head walgreens/cvs to stock up the room with some drinks, snacks and only-in-america goodies

then straight over to Miracle Mile and grab some food at Cheeseburger, probably a burger and definitely coconut shrimp and sweet potato fries

maybe a bit of slots if we're still feeling awake, before crashing out ready for the first full day in town!

Get out of the airport smell the desert air then get tunneled!

newuser86

Anyone have experience with the $20 trick at Cosmo? I booked a room through hotwire Mon-thurs next week... Hoping for an upgrade

daisiegg

duchy wrote: »

That is even more mental than my planned route along the same lines

Fly Gatwick to Dublin Ryanair 09.30
Day in Dublin -Lunch at Bewleys
Fly Dublin Gatwick 21.30
Collect Vegas luggage from LeftLuggage at Gatwick where we dropped it off that morning
Check into Yotel right by Luggage Place and Virgin check in
Up bright and early to check in then leisurely brekkie and off we fly.

My only concern with your routing would be if the ferry was late getting in -as the ferryport and airport aren't that close. I'd have probably taken the day train and booked a cheap hotel in Dublin. How are you getting to the airport from the ferry ? Make sure you have Euros !

Cost for mine in August
Ryanair £25
Virgin (booked through Orbitz as they are the only one that allows you to route evening flight from Dublin to the Virgin flight the next morning) £530
Yotel £50 (could have done it cheaper staying at an off airport hotel but I love the convenience of no sodding about with shuttles)
Left luggage £6

OH has never flown long haul and didn't fancy changing planes on the east coast so we're treating Dublin as a "day out" before we go on holiday. He's insisting of valet car parking at Gatwick though -we tried it at Stansted last year and it was so easy and so nice to walk outside and the car is waiting when you get back instead of waiting for a shuttle bus.

Probably could have done it a few quid cheaper with one of the US carriers but I want to get OH hooked on Vegas before exposing him him to the horrors of multiple US security gates

Ok....soooooo confused by this.....am I missing something? Why flying to Dublin, then back to London, then out of London the following day? Or are the two things unrelated? So confused!

Winter_Jasmine

daisiegg wrote: »

Ok....soooooo confused by this.....am I missing something? Why flying to Dublin, then back to London, then out of London the following day? Or are the two things unrelated? So confused!

I think it's to do with the taxes being much lower if your flight doesn't start in the UK. Although it's an indirect flight, requiring a change at Gatwick, it still originates in Ireland so passengers flying from there will pay a lot less than those who join the flight at Gatwick

daisiegg

saffstar wrote: »

I think it's to do with the taxes being much lower if your flight doesn't start in the UK. Although it's an indirect flight, requiring a change at Gatwick, it still originates in Ireland so passengers flying from there will pay a lot less than those who join the flight at Gatwick

Oh right! Just seemed strange with the Dublin flight being on one day and then the flight out of Gatwick not being until the following morning. I got confused! Still, sounds very MSE!

duchy

Exactly
If you fly Gatwick Las Vegas direct at the end of August the fare booking today is £803

Using the same flight but booking from Dublin so Dublin Gatwick with Aer Lingus then connect to Virgin is £560 -plus £25 with Ryan air for a Gatwick Dublin "placement flight" to get you to the "starting point".

We "could" have flown out to Dublin the day before and stayed at an airport hotel at Dublin but it would have meant a crack of dawn start so I prefer to do the not so early start the day before - have a day in Dublin (it's one of my favourite cities).

The reason for the left luggage charge is we don't need the bags for the Dublin hop so why pay Aer Lingus to fly them to Dublin and back as they charge for baggage.

I regard it as a day trip to Dublin -and an easy start to the travelling to Vegas - as I get up in the morning -walk a few yards to the Virgin check in desk - get rid of the bags and return to Yotel for coffee before going through security.

My flights look like this

Monday Gatwick 9.40 Dublin 11.00 (seperate ticket)

Monday Dublin 20.50 Gatwick 22.05 (start of the transatlantic ticket)
Tuesday Gatwick 11.25 Vegas 14.10

Coming back
Vegas Gatwick direct

There are other combinations - like using twilight check in before flying the Monday evening to Dublin -stay in a Dublin hotel and fly to Gatwick and on the next morning but you'd probably have to get a flight about 6am which isn't my idea of a great holiday start.