Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2014

Triker

The glitch is posted on hotukdeals, details here

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/glitch-flights-new-york-return-prices-from-236-with-virgin-atlantic-edreams-1993796?page=11#post22740394

photome

Triker wrote: »

The glitch is posted on hotukdeals, details here

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/glitch-flights-new-york-return-prices-from-236-with-virgin-atlantic-edreams-1993796?page=11#post22740394

very tempted to book...i can get £346 direct with Virgin and add on oslo a day later

Triker

photome wrote: »

very tempted to book...i can get £346 direct with Virgin and add on oslo a day later

Me too, just looking at dates.

Appears to work with Dublin too instead of oslo.

photome

i will ask again, if I dont take the oslo leg what will happen.

If i cancel it i assume there would be fees, so not turning up seems the best option, assuming bags are not checked through

Froggitt

As its into LHR and out of LGW, they wont be checked thru. Just don't turn up.

photome

Froggitt wrote: »

As its into LHR and out of LGW, they wont be checked thru. Just don't turn up.

the ones i am looking at are the other way round but i take your point, I assume they cant check bags through different airports

photome

I have the flights in my bag but am wavering as it seems that many people do this and some have been banned by the airline as it is away around avoiding tax by transiting through the UK rather than stopping.

if you add on the return from oslo it goes from £349 to £1500 pp

Vegasbound

photome wrote: »

I have the flights in my bag but am wavering as it seems that many people do this and some have been banned by the airline as it is away around avoiding tax by transiting through the UK rather than stopping.

if you add on the return from oslo it goes from £349 to £1500 pp

Have a look at making two bookings. The first Lon - Las - Lon - Oslo. Once you have booked that, then book a single flight from Oslo to London, it should be a lot cheaper

photome

Vegasbound wrote: »

Have a look at making two bookings. The first Lon - Las - Lon - Oslo. Once you have booked that, then book a single flight from Oslo to London, it should be a lot cheaper

I dont want to go to olso though, was just checking to see how much it added on to confirm if it was the missing tax making the price so much different

but yes it does only cost £142 so would be £491 altogether if I really wanted to go to Oslo

becksta

Hi everyone

I returned yesterday from a 10 day holiday to Vegas and thought I would offer up my own trip report. Hope you don't mind and that something helps anyone due to visit soon

Background - This is my 2nd trip to Vegas with my best friend. First visited in 2008 staying 4 nts at Stratosphere and 6 nts at Bills Gamblin Hall. On this trip we went on Tuesday 26th August for 9 nights staying at Monte Carlo for 5 nts and Venetian for 4 nights.

Day 1 - Direct flight with Virgin from Gatwick. Loved the IFE and drinks/food offered regularly. Plane not full so we had a spare seat in the section of 3 we were sat in. Had Chris Eubank and his boxer son, Chris Eubank Jr sat adjacent to us. Waited approx. 45 minutes at immigration. Got to Monte Carlo and no queue for check-in. Had a deluxe room which overlooked the rear of NY NY and had views of Excaliber, Luxor & Mandalay Bay. Quite tired so just had a quick walkaround and grabbed a burger at FatBurger.

Day 2 - Collected a few of our buffet rewards from the various Mlife hotels. Had Earl of Sandwich for breakfast (paid for with social rewards credit) and Monte Carlo buffet (MyVegas) for dinner. Have to say I was disappointed with MC buffet and glad we didn't actually pay for it. Went to see Michael Jackson One at Mandalay bay and thoroughly enjoyed it. Well worth visiting.

Day 3 - Had lovely breakfast buffet at Aria (Myvegas) and would happily recommend this. Visited Bodies exhibition at Luxor after getting discounted tickets at Tix4Tonite. Not really my cup of tea but my friend enjoyed it. There are lots of money off coupons around for this so don't pay full price for it. Had Happy Hour appetisers from The Pub at Monte Carlo. Paid $10 for flatbread chicken pizza and fries and they were amazing. Easily enough for 2 people and went well with their $4 draft beers & $5 wines. Watched Love at Mirage this evening. Got a deal to buy Love and One as a package before we left for approx $159 - well worth it and great seats at both.

Day 4 - Organised trip through vegas.com to Valley of Fire State Park. Lucked out as we were the only people booked onto it which meant we had a personal tour guide for the day. Having been to Grand Canyon on our last trip we wanted to explore other areas. VOF did not disappoint and was stunning. Its about 1 hour from Vegas and well worth the trip.

Dinner was at MGM Grand Buffet (myvegas) - good selection and food very tasty. Used myvegas reward for $50 bar credit at Times Square Duelling Pianos at NYNY. Was slightly disappointed by this. You have to stand unless you want to pay $25 admission charge to be seated at a table. The venue is very small and I didn't think the pianists were great singers but as the evening developed the atmosphere improved and people seemed to be loving it.

Day 5 - Trip to the South Outlet Mall by SDX. Bought a few bargains between us as a lot of shops had special labor day offers on. Dinner was a fantastic steak at The Pub in Monte Carlo (used $75 F&B credit) - would thoroughly recommend this place and we visited every day that we stayed there for drinks.

Had some luck on the Willy Wonka machine so used the winning to pay for entry into MC's Minus 5 Ice bar. We had vouchers for a free shot each so just purchased the 'experience' at $17 each. It is pricey but a good experience. Bear in mind that you can't buy drinks once inside so book the right package at the entrance.

Headed to Rio for Penn & Teller's show in the evening. Took a taxi from MC and it cost about $10. Really enjoyed their show and again I'd recommend it for a good nights entertainment. The taxo back to the strip was a nightmare though. The taxi queue was huge so we decided to stay on and have a drink. We checked again at approx 11am and the queue looked smaller until we realised it snaked all around the corner. We ended up getting our taxi at 12:15am. Not sure how else we could have got back though?

Day 6 - Checked out of MC (no queue) and took taxi to Venetian (about $11). Checked in without a queue. Booked a Bella Suite with 2 queens in the Venezia Tower. Wow! What a hotel. Loved our room. View was of the mountains, the Wynn golf course and a side view of the High Roller. Spent the day walking round our new surroundings and had a late lunch in Ballys Sidewalk Cafe (paid for by social rewards credit). Decent food in a slightly outdated decor but we enjoyed it.

Day 7 - Took the Deuce down to see new SLS hotel (seems quite nice, casino not huge though) and then onto Freemont Street. Slotzilla seemed popular & was fun to see people flying past you as you stop for a drink. Got Deuce back to Fashion Show Mall to visit StripBurger. Oh my days - this was probably the best burger i have ever had. So tasty! I would never had known about this place without the recommendations from this forum so thank you! :beer:

Evening helicopter ride up & down the strip. Booked through Papillon via Travelzoo Las Vegas deals in the UK. Really great to see the strip from the air. Trip cost approx $79 and included Limo transfers and champagne at the terminal. Would recommend for sure.

Day 8 - Hoover Dam Express trip via Papillon this morning. Great trip purchased in UK through Travelzoo Las Vegas deals. Had Mirage Lunch buffet (myvegas) - really good selection and they have all inclusive beer & wine too. Spent the day walking round Mirage & Treasure Island.

Visited Toby Keith's I Love This Bar in Harrah's in the evening and really liked it. Loved drinking out of pickle jars and listening to the live country band. Great to see the customers line dance and the place had great atmosphere.

Day 9 - Breakfast buffet at Mirage (myvegas) was disappointing. Selection was quite poor. We arrived around 10am so shouldn't have been too late for breakfast selections?

Had a groupon for the High Roller so visited around midday. Really quiet so no queues and only 2 other people in our pod. Fantastic views to be had and well worth doing. Look for a groupon as we had a flex ticket allowing us to just turn up whether it be day or night. Tickets are collected from the Linq concierge and included 2 for 1 drinks & photos.

Ate in Serendipity 3 at Caesars Palace using remaining SR credit. Really nice food but alcohol prices were crazy. Friend ordered 2 glasses of white wine which worked out to be $14 each :eek: They don't display alcohol prices on their menus so she ordered blindly - a mistake she won't make again

Used a 2 for 1 voucher for Eiffel Tower Experience (pre-printed before we left UK) during the evening and again went straight up without queuing. Great views and with the voucher only worked out at $21 for us both (using TR card).

Day 10 - checked out of Venetian. No queue. Got hotel shuttle to airport at cost of $7.50 per person. Direct to airport and we were the only people onboard so as good as a taxi for nearly half the price :j

Flew back to Heathrow with Delta via Detroit. Change at Detroit was a breeze. We only had to walk 4 gates up from the one we flew into! Cases were routed straight through to London so had a leisurely drink at a bar before boarding the overnight flight. Would happily change at Detroit again - so much easier than Atlanta!

Details

Freebies - We claimed 5 buffets & $50 bar credit from MyVegas and had $150 in Total Rewards credits through Social Rewards program. Would thoroughly recommend doing both as it meant that we didn't often spend money on food (admittedly we only usually ate 1 meal per day). It is so easy to redeem the awards although not all locations would allow you to redeem unless you were taking the reward that day. NYNY and Mirage both had to be redeemed on the day. Also had $75 food & beverage credit through our rate with Monte Carlo.

Flights were £600 per person for direct on the way out with Virgin and indirect on the way back through Delta. They also left from Gatwick and into Heathrow. Not a problem for us and justified a big saving in the fare.

Hotels - Really liked Monte Carlo. Good location for South Strip. Great pool and a chilled vibe. Not too big so easy to navigate. Blue Man Group do a parade through the casino and lobby at 6.15pm each evening and is well worth catching. Great to have the tram to City Center and Bellagio too - this made getting to centre strip dead easy. 5 nights cost appox $474 inc resort fee. This included Fri & Sat night of Labor weekend.

The Venetian is stunning. Loved everything about it, The pool at the Venezia Tower was lovely and fairly quiet. Being able to take a dip until 10pm was also lovely and quite peaceful. It is a huge hotel though and took us a couple of days to find the quickest routes from room to casino and room to outside. Got a good deal through priceline at £267 for 4 nights. Well worth it in my opinion but i hope that it hasn't spoilt us too much in the future....

Sorry that this has been quite long and rambling Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread for the numerous invaluable tips and recommendations.

Hoping to visit again next year as part of a multi city trip to LA & San Francisco so will continue to follow this thread with interest.

Thanks for reading