Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2013

iltisman

I got stuck with a Nissan Cube too, not surprisingly with that shape the fuel consumption was awful.

iltisman

ferf1223 wrote: »

Our American food case is ALWAYS the one that has the TSA we opened this bag notice in it when we get home. Always. we assumed it is the suspicious rattling of the mac & cheese but could be high PB concentrations.

I put a couple of tins of Turkey Spam (don't ask) in my hand luggage and the XRay sceener thew a fit and I was taken to one side while a supervisor gingerly opened the bag ,then much laughter when they found the spam.

secretmachines

Sorry for being lazy and not Googling first but what are the restrictions on bringing back food/drink ( not alcohol).

Have just paid for an extra piece of luggage on the return journey so looking forward to stocking it up with shopping and goodies

ictquizzer

Not long home after a 20 hour journey, dreading work tomorrow! Thankfully I work flexi time so will just see how it goes - might be a 4 hour day!


Flew via Amsterdam with Delta, must say that I was very pleasantly surprised by the flight, certainly no worse that my last flight out with Virgin. Went to the two Delta lounges in Minneapolis and had a very pleasant 3 or 4 hours there, and immigration was a joy compared to getting off the back of a Virgin flight at Las Vegas last time! May as well briefly cover flights home while on the subject - flew to Atlanta with Delta (internal not as good as international) and then Atlanta to Amsterdam with KLM in what seemed to be a much newer plane. Had the 2 seats by the window for both transatlantic flights, have to say the legroom on the KLM flight was restricted on the aisle seats due to the frame of the seat in front (seemed to be the same on all rows).

Had an awful taxi driver from the airport to Luxor. As soon as we mentioned not to take tunnel he had a tantrum and was pretty much refusing. We should have turned round at that point and left him. Anyway, after much arguing, and him insisting it would be cheaper than surface roads, we continued to refuse so what did he do - took us a huge detour via T3. I challenged him as we got closer to hotel and when I got out I told him he could have $20 as he had taken the p1ss and no more. He tried to grab our case and was shouting and swearing at us in the car park. Horrible little man.

Got to check in, I was shaking with annoyance/tiredness at this point and ranted to the guy at check in. Chatted away about it and slipped in a request for an upgrade at this point (had a tower room booked). He could only offer the upgrade to tower suite for $35 a night (def not complimentary, which I had chanced my luck with) but in the end he gave us the best room available, the Tower Premier Suite, for the same price. I'd paid very little for the original room so was happy to pay this and it was certainly worth it.

Up early the next morning and got the bus to Walmart, with breakfast at the nearby Dennys. Can't quite remember exactly where else we ate while staying at the Luxor (4 nights) but had an Ellis Island breakfast and also took advantage of happy hour in The Public House at Luxor. Oh and we went to Carrot Top, which I'd thoroughly recommend!

Moved to the brand new Downtown Grand next. Very nice, but got a bit of settling in to do. Unfortunately it took 3 rooms until we got one where we had any chance of getting any sleep due to the noise (elevator noise, and outside noise from the pub across the road affiliated to the hotel - thankfully we moved from that room before the bikers night outside the pub when they were revving engines as we walked past well after midnight!). I fear all the outside/inside dining will backfire on the hotel side of the business when it's fully open. On the plus side, cocktail waitresses were easy to come by!

Went to Main Street Station for their champagne brunch (fantastic value) and also to the Triple 7 grill there several times, love that place. On the other hand, I didn't think much of Du-Par's, overpriced and poor service.

Back tomorrow with the second part of our trip, I don't trust myself to remember much more tonight so will call it a day for now...

luci

ictquizzer wrote: »

Up early the next morning and got the bus to Walmart, with breakfast at the nearby Dennys.

Sorry to hear about the taxi driver. We've also encountered a couple of nasty ones and they do leave you feeling rattled. I have the number of the LV Taxi Authority in my phone.

Do you remember the number of the bus you took to Walmart and where you caught it?

The last time we went was to the one on Spring Mountain I think it was, but that was years ago.

Hope the jet lag isn't too evil.

ictquizzer

Bus is the 201, runs along Tropicana - you can catch it just outside the Tropicana hotel (towards Hooters). We tend to get 3 day passes and use it to go to Walmart for day 1 supplies of juice and alcohol, and also use it on same route to go the pinball hall of fame, as well as for the strip.

As for the taxi driver - I took it as karma, reckon we got the upgrade that we did thanks to our story about him, and he was quite an amusing site raging at the drop off point as we refused to go along with his ploy. Couldn't see his badge number to report him, had told him as we got close that I would check with valet guys about his route; his reaction sealed it for me. I've got to say though, the other 3 drivers we got (between downtown and the strip, then strip back to airport) were faultless, don't want to tar everyone with same brush.

morrow56

Anyone advise if New York, New York would a good choice for 5 guys in their early fifties

Thanks

ferf1223

secretmachines wrote: »

Sorry for being lazy and not Googling first but what are the restrictions on bringing back food/drink ( not alcohol).

Have just paid for an extra piece of luggage on the return journey so looking forward to stocking it up with shopping and goodies

Other than meat and dairy products I'm not aware of any really...I'm not sure how SPAM is categorized - but that story did make me laugh.

On a happy note I did actually bring back butterscotch chips after years of meaning to and forgetting...hopefully I won't find out that oatmeal butterscotch cookies are not nearly so good as I remember.

visidigi

ferf1223 wrote: »

oh. peanut butter oreos...I am normally right on the case with stuff like this but missed these...must keep an eye out next trip though because...well, peanut butter oreos.

Our American food case is ALWAYS the one that has the TSA we opened this bag notice in it when we get home. Always. we assumed it is the suspicious rattling of the mac & cheese but could be high PB concentrations.

Thanks for the trip report - really enjoyed reading it and yes, those cars are really, really ugly - never have been stuck with one but I'm sure one day.

You'll find it's more to do with the rampant use of food packaging to ship drugs...

Ady87

Day 2

Woke up at 4am. Body clock was a mess so rolled around for a bit before giving in and watching the sun rise on the balcony. Decided to make use of the gym and headed down about 6.45am for a run on the treadmill. The gym view looks down towards Ceasers and Venetian so decided we would head that way for breakfast.

Mon Ami Gabi was chocka even at 8.30am so we headed further down and ended up in the Venetian. It was Sunday so not many places open yet and we head back to some place called Rock House that tried to pull us in earlier. I didn't set my expectations very high but breakfast was amazing. Scrambled Eggs with cheese, breakfast potatoes and a bowl of bacon crumb. I think something got lost in translation as I didn't ask for that last bit but it was perfect! The place was very busy by 10am as they had something like 80HD screens with the NFL on so we watch it and surprisingly enjoy it as we eat. This was the first of many occasions where the waitress greets us and asks if we want a Bloody Mary or Mimosa, is Vegas famous for these?

We headed over to the forum shops at Ceasers and had a look around, picking up a few bits from FCUK and A&Fitch although a t shirt from the latter doesn't actually fit, it is my motivation for when I get back..ha

We found a couple of nice high end memorabilia stores including one Mike Tyson will be at on Friday and spotted The Cheesecake Factory, yet to get there this week though!

We spent most of the afternoon on the slots with some great success on Family Guy and Willy Wonka and at this point we have $200 more than we had planned.

We grab a slice of pizza from the hidden pizza place at Cosmo which was nice but the best part about it all was the guy serving. He was brilliant in every way. He saw me struggling to grasp the concept of the place and handed me a menu and gave me some pointers. Every question or request was answered with "you're the boss" or "any way you like you just tell me". He gives us some Parmesan and a couple of beers and we eat it on the balcony before hitting bed and hoping for a better nights sleep.

Day 3 up soon.