Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2013

duchy

Shhhhhh......................

stevie11

StuieUK34 wrote: »

Anyone read that Cyber-Monday was gonna show a few Vegas hotels doing special deals ???

Well, done my searches, on the UK sites, as well as the US sites, along with the US sites who show Cyber deals, etc.....
Results, compared to my searches from 19th Sep and 20th Oct, and 20th Nov = the same..............
Must be Cyber Monday every day!!!!

Does make you think whether these are just marketing techniques and we all get taken in by the hype.

Two weeks ago using Total Rewards membership I booked 5 nights (inc a Sat night) at the Rio for late Jan. I paid $255 which includes $20 a night resort fee. They currently have cyber Monday deals totalling $100 more for same room and nights. Needless to say I am happy with the rate I paid.:)

jadamcp

Sat 23rd November

BA Flights – Glasgow 07.25 – Gatwick – Heathrow getting into McCarran at 13:30 Vegas time. Good flights, good service and food and decent films on IFE (watched Hangover 3 and The Internship) Flight looked almost full.

25 minutes at immigration and another 30 waiting on cases and we arrived at a rainy exit of the airport, took a bus instead of taxi (probably same cost so not sure why) arriving at Paris hotel for about 3pm. We were offered for a room immediately or an upgrade that we had to wait for but decided to take the first room, on the 4th floor overlooking the pool and Eiffel Tower but all partially blocked by trees, not really a problem as we knew we’d be spending very little time in the room. Wi Fi in Paris was very poor and the only reason we opted for the resort fee, still a great casino and hotel though!

Went a quick walk for some supplies to the stage door Then it was a quick shower and cab ($10) over to the Palms for the seafood buffet and the Ringo Starr All Starr Band.

Palms buffet was excellent and a groupon deal with unlimited drinks so we took our time and I managed 3 smallish courses and 4 large beers, then it was off to the box office for our tickets and into see Ringo at 8pm. Our seats were in the boxes section 311, very good seats.

Band Included Steve Lukather (Toto), Richard Page (Mr. Mister), Gregg Rolie (Santana), Todd Rundgren, Mark Rivera and Gregg Bissonette, several Beatles songs along with 2-3 of each of the bands encoring with a Little Help from my Friends.

As it was the equivalent of 4am when the concert started the beers helped bring me round, Mrs McP however did have a wee nap 1.5 hours and I’m sure I dropped off for 1 song too Overall we were glad to have a concert planned for the first night.

Taxi straight back to the Paris and straight to bed around 11:30pm.


Sunday 24th November
Up at 7 am - Shopping in the Ross next to MGM, some decent buys but still a bit tired so only spent a couple of hours here and $210

Stopped off at McDonalds for breakfast on way back to Paris.

Ellis Island for drinks and then dinner at 4:30 pm, we had the rib eye steaks at around $14 which included a small soup and a beer of which I drunk both. The steaks were bigger and better quality than the steak special - Used ACG voucher and got 1 entree free.

Back to Paris to get ready for the night out – Rod Stewart at Caesars.
Missed the first song as we were queuing for more beer (it was This Old Heart of Mine too) Seats were at the front centre of 2nd Mezzanine and it was a great view, I’d agree with Rod and say there isn’t a bad seat in the house especially as it a very large screen to compliment seats at the rear. Rod was absolutely fantastic and it was nice to know virtually every song - Recommended.


Monday 25th November
Checked out Paris at 11am and walked over to the Bellagio and got a room right away, we had prepaid for a fountain view room (LowCostusa) and our room was on the 19th floor with fantastic views, recently refurbished. We were very pleased with the room but more that we didn’t have to wait.:T

Shopping – Miracle Mile and Caesars shops but surprisingly never bought that much.

For Dinner we went to Paris Buffet arriving at what we thought was an early time at 18:15 and had to wait 1 hour 10 minutes, which was a sore one. Buffet however was worth the wait and included a bottle of wine and we somehow managed another bottle :beer:


Back to the Bellagio for 10pm and watched the fountains til 12 when they stop.


Tuesday 27th November
Up at around 7am Shopping – Premium outlets, purchased from Guess, Juicy and Van Heusen (for me).

Lunch was Golden nugget buffet – ACG voucher – I like the GN and their buffet so it hit the mark, good carvery and Chinese options.

On Tuesday night we visited FSM, bought a few bits n bobs, then visited the Palazzo which has wonderful Christmas decorations, then outside the Venetian which has a lovely Winter in Venice theme with ice skating and a stage that had a trio of blonde violin players (I’m sure they were backing Rod on Sunday night) Food was a foot long from Subway and 12 pack of biscuits


Wednesday 28th November
Up early again for more shopping – Ross at Riviera, this time we spent quite some time and Mrs McP tried at least 24 items on but bought most of them plus many other Christmas presents.

Paris Lunch Buffet at 14:00 and a wait of 35 minutes, virtually the same as evening buffet with wine, very good once again.

In the evening we went to see Alice Cooper at the Palms, what a show ! Mr McP was a fan back in her school days so I’m glad she suggested this. The band he had were superb and the stage show was very theatrical with the usual stage props. Again we had good seats in the top booths adjacent to the stage so being close adds to the atmosphere.


Thursday 29th November - Thanksgiving
Started the day with breakfast at Ellis Island, no waiting and an hour later we were shopping again, as it was a holiday a few places were still opened and we spent an hour or two in Miracle Mile shops.

Going out for dinner at 16:00 the Bellagio buffet was at least 2-3 hours wait based on queues previously, so it was back over to Ellis Island for either a Thanksgiving dinner but after a few beers/wines and Eggnogs, plus Mrs McP with four of a kind on Video poker – 4 times! we opted for ribs in their new restaurant, at the rear of the casino, the ribs were bigger if that’s possible and good as usual. Again there was no queue and only another 3 tables with people at them. Back to the hotel for 9:30 and more fountain watching.



Friday 30th November – Black Friday
Black Friday – Vegas is as busy as I have seen it when we first visited in September 2005.

Arrived at FSM for 9am when it opened at 5am, primarily to buy Ugg boots in Dillards which were full price as expected, leaving the store we could see what could only be a feeding frenzy with lots of women with at least 6 handbags over their arms queuing to buy, what could we do but sharpen up our elbows and get in there but Mrs McP only bought 3 and one was for a present and they were all very well priced.

Next down to Town Square and visit to Abercrombie and Hollister which both had 40% off the entire store and that was the shopping over for this year.

Food was another Groupon dinner at PH Spice Market with beers and wines included, very good value, which included lots of seafood, spicy food and more crème brulee. I ate probably the hottest spiciest prawns ever so beware!

Nightime was our 4th concert in 7 days
Justin Timberlake at MGM arena – scheduled to start at 8, he didn’t come on until 9:15, guess who was sleeping for 9:30 (not me but MrsMcP) After a pretty dull hour Justin had an interval of 20 minutes, no idea why – maybe to sell more beer. 2nd half was better but I did have a wee sleep and woke up as the encore started J Sexy back and Mirrors. Overall I was slightly disappointed, it was our first time at MGM arena which is huge compared to the other two venues at the Palms and Caesars, if only he used large screens more it may helped plus £90 a ticket didn’t help!

Back to Bellagio for 12:30 and straight to bed.

Saturday 1st December
A quick Ross fix at MGM and a 12:00 checkout – straight to airport in a cab this time.

Flight to Gatwick were on time, we were in row 33, plenty of spare seats so we had 3 seats between us which made the flight much more comfortable, back into Glasgow at 13:30 – sleeping for 8pm and back to work on Monday.

Summing up, another good week in Vegas, we really enjoyed both hotels having never stayed there previously. It was our first time at Thanksgiving and it added something to the trip, weather was in mid 60s most of the week and it was pleasant but we’d maybe have liked it in the 70s.

I’ve an ACG 2013 minus just the 2 coupons for Ellis Island entree and GN buffet, if anyone’s going in the next month let me know by PM and I’ll post the vouchers to you.

StuieUK34

Cyber deals and other BS are just gimmicks.... if they didnt do it, you would'nt book it!
Cos were not going until May, i got plenty time to reconise a Real Deal....
I had an awesome deal when i could get Paris for 3 nights for £119, but like a Div, i messed that one up and missed out (doh!)

However, like some, i keep a spreadsheet with ALL my info on, and through a few presets, i can pull up a search of hotel rates and type them in on said spreadsheet
So from sale websites to X, Y, and Z, i can see if prices change for any of the hotels on the strip (well in my case, it be Lux, MGM, M Bay, Sig, Aria, Paris, Flam & mirage).
I can see price flux, but thats based on $ to £....
I look at UK Broker sites (LowcostUsa, Quickrooms & Travelrepublic, although LowCostUsa is the winner for inc Resort Fees).
I look on Smartervegas and a few other US sites, but although all they do is take u direct to the hotel with a rate code, the UK brokers most of the time still beat those deals....
Marketing and understanding it is 1 of my strong points

Golden Nugget sent me a mail about 30% off cyber deal, so based on the dates i am going, i look on there website, and then compare with a UK broker.... yup you got it, the UK broker comes out cheaper as always.....
I guess though if booking direct with the hotel, u get a bit more lee-way with deals or upgrades, etc (maybe)...

I also do the same for hire cars (as were doing a V8 muscle car for 4 days and 1 week normal car)... Keeping track of costs on a weekly basis, and then comparing to the "deals" i get, price changes by about £1 to £2 (booking via UK sites, alamo, dollar and netflights)..

My aim for Vegas (for the last bit being 8 nights) is to get the Aria hotel for 8 nights (May 25th) for under £600 inc resort fee...
Can it be done ? probably not..
Can i pull it off ? keep watching !

StuieUK34

Jadam,
The booking at Bellagio via LowCostusa..... take it that included the resort fee ? did they mention the R fee to you at check-in ?

vanilla8

just seen that you can now get free roaming with Three

http://www.threemediacentre.co.uk/Press-Releases/Three-brings-Feel-At-Home-to-USA-34c.aspx

jadamcp

StuieUK34 wrote: »

Jadam,
The booking at Bellagio via LowCostusa..... take it that included the resort fee ? did they mention the R fee to you at check-in ?

Hi, the booking included the resort fee, at checkin they said all costs were covered and would I like to use my Credit Card for charging any mini bar, drinks or shows against - I declined their offer as i like to pay cash whenever possible. There was no charge on checkout

The Lowcost voucher for Bellagio stated that resort fee was included.

Ady87

Had an email off the Wynn/Encore with an invite to a slot torunament and a comped night but it was for Jan i think and i want to go in May.

I am surprised I haven't had anything off Cosmopolitan yet considering i stayed in a suite for 7 nights and racked up silly points on their Identity card!

mat5664

Ady87 wrote: »

Had an email off the Wynn/Encore with an invite to a slot torunament and a comped night but it was for Jan i think and i want to go in May.

I am surprised I haven't had anything off Cosmopolitan yet considering i stayed in a suite for 7 nights and racked up silly points on their Identity card!

I haven't had any Wynn offers recently whereas I used to get them regularly.

I have 3 nights comped over Xmas at Wynn, with $1000 freeplay and $200 a night dining credit - but went through a host for that. My mother has casino rate for her room ($144 a night + resort fee).

Was going to stay the other 3 nights at PH, but got an offer from Cosmo last week for 3 nights + $85 free play, so have taken that. Again my mother's room is on casino rate ($115 + resort fee per night).

ferf1223

we used to get Wynn/Encore offers quite regularly - or at least my hubby did...2-3 nights free and some freeplay, but they've stopped...we're not sure if we just didn't play enough to keep us on their list and they got tired of us or what.

Cosmo has been great though - we both regularly get 2 free night offers...we're hoping to bolt 2 such offers together for the last 4 nights of our April trip.

Ady87 - I'd give it some time, really...the last offers we had came on 15th November...before that 31st October, 10th October, 2nd August, 11th July, 9th May, 2nd April, 7th Feb...just checked hubby's emails and the same (at least those he hasn't deleted as he is more diligent tham me in cleaning up his inbox)...each had a specific period it was valid...though oddly, the periods are different...mine fmost recent one is good to 1st April...the one hubby received is only good until 19th February.