Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2015

John259

BlueCow1975 wrote: »

We are also thinking about going on a day tour to LA... (4 plus hours?)

Google Maps says it's about four hours each way but that's non-stop at the speed limit, which is reasonably likely on I-15 but once you reach central Los Angeles you're liable to encounter a lot of congestion both on the freeways and the surface streets.

How about somewhere else? FWIW here's a list of some possibilities, with their one-way distances from Las Vegas:
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Nevada 23 miles/37 km
Hoover Dam, Arizona/Nevada 32 miles/52 km
Mount Charleston, Nevada 43 miles/69 km
Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada 56 miles/90 km
Zion National Park, Utah 164 miles/264 km
Big Bear Lake, California 210 miles/338 km

BlueCow1975

Thanks Ferf. We haven't fully made our minds up yet as the original plan was to see O. Tickets are coming in at around £124 ish from what I can see if we book before we go. With the 2 for 1 offer it would bring it down to £45 ish each for Zarkana. Boils down to should we just go with the original plan or have a meal out with the savings.

Have heard lots and lots of positive feedback about Love - the only thing that puts me off is the fact that I am not a huge beatles fan. I blame my music teacher in high school for making us sing and play recorders (badly) to most of their tracks for 2 solid years!!:rotfl:

moreofthegoodstuff

BlueCow1975 wrote: »

Just wanted to say this is a great thread and a huge thanks to everyone who contributes. All excited as heading over at the end of June for a 7 night stay in the Aria with my best friend to celebrate our 40th birthdays.

Have been on my vegas for a few days and hope to acrue enough loyalty points to get a couple of the smaller rewards before we go. Hoping to get the 2 for 1 tickets to zarkana but on the info it says details of how to redeem will be sent when you have placed your order. I assume I need to ring to book etc. Can anyone tell me if I will need to join mlife before we go to redeem the offer?

We originally wanted to see O at the Bellagio but its pretty pricey and can't figure out if the extra cost is worth it.

We are also thinking about going on a day tour to LA to do the touristy stuff like rodeo drive, walk of fame, hollywood sign etc. Has anyone done this? Any advice? I know its a crazy long day with a long drive each way (4 plus hours?) but we are a bit nutty & would like to do it as LA was going to be our original destination (until we sucumbed to the pull of vegas!). We have both been fortunate enough to visit the grand canyon previously so don't feel the need to go this trip.

Also liking the look of the mob museum and neon sign place as not been to those before.

Have absolutely loved reading everyones trip report too. Keep them coming!!

There are some discounted tickets on smartervegas, I have just got some tickets to see Love with 50% off thanks to someone on here they currently have 15% off O so may be worth shopping around.
http://www.smartervegas.com/shows/o_by_cirque_du_soleil/ticketsdiscounts.aspx

BlueCow1975

The national parks would be amazing to visit. My only thought was around temperatures end June / early July with the amount of outdoor time? We would love to have timed our trip at a slightly "cooler" time, but unfortunately were pretty set to dates due to combining leave from work and child care etc.

Thanks so much for the show ticket link. Will be totally on to that. Not quite sure how I managed to miss that. Seems daft to waste myvegas rewards judging by those prices.

Winter_Jasmine

BobbyHibbs...I've just checked my tax statement on Mlife from 2013 (the last time I was in Vegas). Overall, I won $22.12 over 12 days. DH lost something like $200 - 100% of our gambling was on slots. To put this in perspective, between us we took around $2,200 to spend and came home with $450 - so we're as far from high rollers as it gets! Typically, I've been offered 2 night comps at the lower end properties since then, he's been offered 1 night at best. For our Spring offers though, I was offered a bogo night and he was offered three free! No idea how this works apart from playthrough (as in, they look at how much you put through a machine). For this reason, NEVER put a redemption slip back into a slot machine as apparently this doesn't count as money in. Always use cash and always use your player's card

tarkytarks

Interesting about the redemption slip thing, I didn't realise that! Next time I'll be sending hubby over to the redemption machines then :-)

John259

BlueCow1975 wrote: »

The national parks would be amazing to visit. My only thought was around temperatures end June / early July with the amount of outdoor time?

Mount Charleston and Big Bear Lake (neither of which are national parks) are at higher altitudes and therefore very likely to be cooler than Las Vegas.

Zion and Bryce Canyon are likely to be hot but not unbearable.
Cedar Breaks National Monument (near Cedar City) is high up and likely to be cooler.

Death Valley (and Joshua Tree) will be unbearable for more than a few minutes outside of an air conditioned car or building.

It's a very dry heat in that area, which most people find more tolerable than the humid heat of Florida in summer.

Some photos...
Zion http://goo.gl/0iJvKz and http://goo.gl/AgBzob
Bryce Canyon http://goo.gl/zILtqP
Cedar Breaks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_Breaks_National_Monument#/media/File:Cedarbreaksnationalmonument.jpg
Big Bear Lake http://bigbear4vacations.com/images/big-bear-lake.jpg

vanilla8

We always cash out our winnings from a ticket and put that in a separate pocket, so we never gamble away what we won & always put cash back in a machine.

We have a gambling budget of $200 a day each and both trips come home/used for the later part of hols around $1000 in 'winnings' and most of what we have charged to room got comped.

We are staying in Monte Carlo comped next month for three nights with $50 freeplay & $25 F&B. Hope to upgrade the room going by recent comments.

pebblesmax

ferf1223 wrote: »

You do call to book the tickets and you do need an mlife number when you call to book.

We really disliked Zarkana, but part of that is because most of the acts were things we had seen before in other Cirque shows...I was so excited about it and so disappointed. O is my joint favourite with Love. I think it is beautiful.

You will be able to find someone who has exactly the opposite opinion as I do - loved Zarkana and didn't like O...it is such a relative thing.

I think part of the price of O tickets is because of the theatre itself and perhaps the number of people and divers needed to run the show.

I agree with you 100% on this. Zarkana was a big letdown. I went with a friend because Tony wasn't interested, and that friend fell asleep half way through.

ferf1223

BlueCow1975 wrote: »

Have heard lots and lots of positive feedback about Love - the only thing that puts me off is the fact that I am not a huge beatles fan.

I'm not a Beatles fan either and we have seen it 3 or 4 times and I really loved it. I go back and forth between Love and O being my favourite, and finally decided that they are too different to choose between.