Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2015

ferf1223

jeepers...how do they make their money?!

pennylane99

ferf1223 wrote: »

jeepers...how do they make their money?!

High cost presumably to deter people using them and therefore spend in the hotel shops.

Froggitt

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Haier-1.7-cu-ft-Refrigerator-Black/42490114

ferf1223

pennylane99 wrote: »

High cost presumably to deter people using them and therefore spend in the hotel shops.

and the casino on their way to the shop to buy what they need.

I'm just a bit startled by just how much they are. We would just use our tried and tested cool bag full of ice in the tub, refreshed twice a day thing. but having a fridge is quite handy when we do luck into one.

gamboller

Thanks for info on the fridge. Has anyone got a link to the list of places that accept TR credits as payment?

vegasvisitor

gamboller wrote: »

Thanks for info on the fridge. Has anyone got a link to the list of places that accept TR credits as payment?

https://www.totalrewards.com/content/cet-tr/en/earn-and-redeem/on-location.html

stoneman

ferf1223 wrote: »

and the casino on their way to the shop to buy what they need.

I'm just a bit startled by just how much they are. We would just use our tried and tested cool bag full of ice in the tub, refreshed twice a day thing. but having a fridge is quite handy when we do luck into one.

We have used the waste bin filled with ice before:D

vegasvisitor

I see Vegas is very hot just now, hopefully it cools down a bit for our trip next week - 10 days now till we go :j

Fingers crossed we don't get the rain this year...we seem to have been plagued with it on recent visits. Hard to believe we've seen so much rain in the desert!!

ajdj

Trip Report (Thurs 6th Aug - Sat 8th Aug).

Part of our honeymoon trip, broader itinerary was San Francisco (4 nights), Santa Barbara (2 nights), LA (2 nights), Vegas (2 nights), NYC (7 nights). First Timers to Vegas.

(Can comfirm that a PAYG Sim Card from 3 pre loaded with the £15 bundle gives you 30 days unlimited data, 300 mins to UK numbers and unlimited texts to UK numbers using their Feel At Home deal. This combined with the free Waze sat nav app was perfect for driving around California).

Thursday 6th August- Had breakfast in our Airbnb Apartment in West Hollywood, packed up the car and was on the road for 10am. Seemed to be a good strategy as missed the LA rush hour. A small section of roadworks on the I-15 saw us slow down for around 3 miles about an hour in, otherwise a very easy drive. Stopped to eat our packed lunch (Trader Joe's salads are highly recommended!) under the thermometer at Baker. Was just over 100F.
Arrived in the self parking at Aria at 4pm, picked up my MLife card, checked in (about 10min queue) and was in our room by 5pm.

Aria- the deal I'd booked was via Smarter Vegas. King Deluxe with a guaranteed upgrade and $100 resort credit. $130/night. Due to the guaranteed upgrade I expected to receive a corner suite and that's exactly what we got Room was on the 3rd floor, which despite being the lowest floor had a fantastic view and the room was incredibly impressive! The Aria corner suites have been mentioned numerous times, so I won't go over old ground: separate living room (with a fridge for guest use), guest wc, large bedroom, huge bathroom, hers and hers sinks, whirlpool tub with a view and fully automated curtains etc etc. Pure luxury and my wife was suitably impressed with my choice!

Quick shower and change and had a walk around the hotel. As first timers to Vegas the sheer size of everything was slightly overwhelming at first. Had a BOGOF Aria dinner buffet loaded to my MLife card courtesy of MyVegas. Added 2 unlimited drinks deals at $12.99 each and charged those and the other buffet to the room (total $68) to use up some of our resort credit. There was no queue at 7.15pm and we enjoyed a leisurely dinner leaving just after 9pm. The food was very good quality with plenty of choice and the crab claws went down a treat! The drinks service felt however felt slow and we had to keep an eye out for the drinks waitress all the time to prompt her for more drinks. We had 4 glasses of Prosecco each and left feeling a little tipsy. In hindsight the glasses were probably quite large measures so felt we had good value out of the drinks package.

Walked to Crystals to get on the tram to Monte Carlo (later realised it would have been quicker to walk, haha!). Table limits were lower than Aria and had some time on the roulette table. Left at around midnight, $14 up overall. Not exactly a fortune but a win is a win.

Friday 7th August-
My wife is a keen runner so took advantage of the gym which she was very impressed with. I got ready and had a walk to the CVS by Monte Carlo to stock up on drinks for the fridge. We had planned on having a couple of hours by the pool but changed our minds and decided to head out instead. Drove to the South Outlet Mall, picked up the discount book which I'd signed up to via email beforehand (not really worth doing unless you plan some large purchases). Got there for about 11am and spent a couple of hours walking around before having lunch in their food court (good choice and we thought reasonably priced too). I go to a couple of Nike outlets here frequently and was disappointed to see that Vegas couldn't beat them on prices. My wife bought a pair of shoes and a couple of items of clothing after lunch, I came away empty handed. Got back for about 3pm to shower and change, picked up a Starbucks from the hotel on the way to the room (charged to the room).

Walked from Aria to New York, New York along the strip. Visited the MLife desk to load my card with the $50 bar credit for Time Square. Got there for about 5.30pm, a good time to go as happy hour until 7pm and no cover charge. Got a great table to watch David 'The Sax Man' Brown. He was incredibly entertaining, had us both up dancing with him at one point! Highly recommended if you haven't seen him. Cocktails were $11 and once we had ordered 4 the waitress brought the bill over. With tax it came to $51, I hadn't expected tax to be included in the MyVegas credit but the waitress said it was, gave her a decent tip to make up for the freebie drinks and great entertainment!

Left just after 7pm to make our way to The Mirage. Walked back to Crystals and got the free tram to Bellagio. Walked through the hotel having a good look as we went. Decided to get a taxi from here to the Mirage as realised it was probably going to be a good 30min walk and we were hungry! Stopped at MLife desk when we got there to load a BOGOF dinner buffet.

Surprised to see no queue for the buffet despite being around 8pm by this point. The nice bonus of the Mirage buffet is that alcohol was included in the price. Even better when we saw it was self serve after the slow service of the previous evening. Your just take your glass up to the bar when you need a top up. We felt the food was of a similar quality to Aria, marginally less choice but the overall experience was excellent and very good value considering the drinks were included. If we were going for a longer stay I could see a need to mix it up and do a restaurant or 2 but for shorter stays buffets seem to be the way to go, especially if you make use of MyVegas.

Stayed at The Mirage after dinner and played a small amount on the slots (didn't win, didn't lose) before my wife declared them boring so we moved onto roulette. Lower table minimums here (started at $10, pit boss quietly increased to $15 at around 10.30pm but I got away with several more spins at $10 and she didn't say anything). Got to about 12.30am and my wife wanted to head back, around $50 down at this point I was keen to carry on but agreed it would be nice to walk back rather than taxi it, so enjoyed a nice stroll down the strip and collapsed into bed at about 1.30am. Slept very well after the combination of food, alcohol and walking!

Saturday 8th August-
Awake at 7am, I listened to a bit of the football on the radio before getting ready. Packed up the bags and headed down to the casino floor. Ordered coffee and wife had some breakfast from one of the kiosk type places (charged to room to use up the remainder of our $100 resort credit). Still mindful of my loss of the previous night jumped on one of the slot machines and it quickly ate up another $30. Decided to call it quits at this point and we went up to collect the bags before checking out. There was a huge queue to check out so we did it via email and dropped the key in the box by concierge. Only had to pay resort fee and $1.something after $100 resort credit had come off.
Dropped the car off at the airport before getting a Delta flight to New York.

Total freebies- 1 Aria dinner buffet, 1 Mirage dinner buffet, $50 NYNY bar credit, $100 resort credit.
Hotel cost- $260 + resort fee

Thoroughly enjoyed Vegas, knew I would but we weren't sure whether my wife would. Outcome was that she was thoroughly impressed with the hotel and would definitely do another visit as part of another trip to the west coast (probably San Diego next time). At the moment she says 3 nights would be her maximum but there's plenty of time to work on that!

Got back home on Sunday and won £100 on a scratch card too so my luck did change! Thanks to all on the thread for the advice and contributions. Our trip was very short by most standards but we really enjoyed it!

bobbyhibs

thanks for the detailed trip report ajdj, alwyas love reaidng them so thanks very much!

How was your new york experince? where did you stay?
my brother and I had done new york(3 nights) and vegas (10nights) in june and we have booked up for next year though vegas first before new york!