Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2013

vegasvisitor

nvh wrote: »

Thanks for the reminder - I've not really been in Casino Royale - is this from any bar in there or is it a dedicated one (like it seemed to be in Bills)

There is only one bar in Casino Royale as far as I'm aware. It is L shaped. You need to go to the front part, nearest the doors, there's a sign above that section saying $1 Margaritas etc on it so you know where to stand. You will see the frozen margaritas whirring round in their machines. It's also beside the bit where the waitresses stand.

Wendell_Pierce

If of any interest.
World's Busiest Hotel C5 8.00pm Fri 02/08.....The Venetian.

and...
Sky 534 / Virgin 243 PBS America 7.50pm Fri 02/08.....Death Valley.

nvh

Thanks luci and lesley... my wife is excited again now!

Just hoping she heals in time for us to go

ferf1223

21yrold wrote: »

Thanks for the advice guys, I GF said she would prefer to get a copter

Maybe i can persuade her otherwise but as we are only there 6 days she wants to fit in as much as possible!

for a first trip, I think I would agree...unless someone is absolutely dying to go to the south rim...I would personally not devote 1 day of a 6-day trip for the GC...others would, it's all personal preference - but there's so much to do in the immediate area to give up a whole day seems a lot...it took us many, many, many trips to finally get to the GC (I think trip 13-15 was when we finally took the trip and if that wasn't the trip we took the in-laws I am not sure we would have gotten aroudn to it yet).

Georgiegirl256

ferf1223 wrote: »

for a first trip, I think I would agree...unless someone is absolutely dying to go to the south rim...I would personally not devote 1 day of a 6-day trip for the GC...others would, it's all personal preference - but there's so much to do in the immediate area to give up a whole day seems a lot...it took us many, many, many trips to finally get to the GC (I think trip 13-15 was when we finally took the trip and if that wasn't the trip we took the in-laws I am not sure we would have gotten aroudn to it yet).

I would tend to agree with this. We did go on our first trip, but only because it was an organised trip as part of the tour that we went on, if it hadn't have been for that, I doubt we would have gone there. I mean don't get me wrong, it's impressive and all that, but it isn't something that I would rush to do again in a hurry.

I think for someone who has never drove in America before (21yrold), I'd be inclined to go for the helicopter ride too, and also, it wouldn't take up the whole day either.

pebblesmax

We had been to Vegas eight times before we bothered with the Grand Canyon. Yes, it is spectacular if you see it at the right place and the right time of day. We drove there, saw the sunset (awesome) the stars, (awesome if you live somewhere that doesn't really get dark, ie a city or large town.) For me, the sunrise was the best part. The colours changed as the sun came up and every picture was very different. I preferred this to the sunset, but that could have been because I was so knackered after driving there, I didn't get the full benefit of the sunset.

martmonk

Plenty of talk here on GC and what type of trip to it is best.

As with most things (and I think already stated) personal preference is the single biggest deciding factor. I also think your age plays a part as evidenced by what I'm about to write on my experiences;

1st sighting of GC was at South Rim during a road trip from Phoenix to LA. I was 19, visiting my best mate (who had moved to Phoenix) and we were with his parents and younger siblings who were also out there for a holiday.

In truth it was impressive to look at but we didn't stay long and I wasn't too bothered.

At 21 I made the same visit to Phoenix and we drove to LV for a couple of days, going over the hoover dam in the process - many will tell you that's not really seeing the GC and I'd probably agree, but the drive itself was great.

My next trip was at the age of 26. I was forunate enough to be one of the winners of a workplace incentive competition with Compaq (I used to work for IT Reseller). The prize was 3 nights in Vegas. I wasn't sober for very much of the trip, including limo (hummer) pick up from hotel, helicopter trip into GC, champagne picnic, helicopter back via strip at sundown.
This was excellent (although my memory is sketchy!) however my favourite part was the strip at sundown return to the airport and not the GC itself.

Finally, at age 32 I did the plane ride. This involved hotel pick up, drive to airport, flight for maybe 45 mins (again my memory might be failing me) before touching down and being driven back. This was I thought excellent and was so much cheaper than the helicopter that it would be my recommendation from an MSE perspective. From an experience perspective then probably heli, picnic etc would be the one to go for but I dread to think what the cost would be.

Mich81

I've been to the South Rim and camped in the National Park on a seperate trip, and to be honest I was pretty underwhelmed - I much preferred Yosemite NP.

And looking at the pictures online, if I had to choose again I'd go for the helicopter ride from LV and spend less time on it - the most fun part of my day and a half at the Grand Canyon was the helicopter ride we did

Mich81

I know its like a ‘how long is a piece of string?’ question, but how much spending money do you all take to Vegas with you?

We’re going for a week, and I’m looking at taking £1500 for the both of us. This won’t include any shows that we might prebook, its purely to cover food, drinks, gambling, shopping etc.

Now bearing in mind my mum doesn’t drink, and I rarely drink but will have the odd cocktail, and any gambling we do will be less than $50 a day, how does this sound?

If the rate stays similar to how it is now, then we’d get $330 a day in this budget – not looking at constantly having big meals at fancy places, I imagine a lot of breakfasts will be at Starbucks or the likes, and given the huge portion sizes I can’t imagine we’ll eat both lunch and dinner. Might get some buffet passes from MyVegas too.

I’ll have an emergency credit card of course, but I’m working out my budget now so that I can plan how much I need to save over the next year

duchy

Depends where you are staying but I'd do very nicely on that kind of budget.