Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2015

duchy

I'm so cross we went to Target on the drive from Salt Lake to Vegas and I completely forgot to pick up the flavoured CoffeeMate . I'll just have to go back and get some

allybee101

Hi all, heading to Vegas in a few weeks and we're staying at the MGM Grand (booked through convention we're attending so no choice on the hotel). We have one full day (up til 6pm) plus several other slots of 3-4 hours free to see some of the sights.
Would love to hear recommendations of must-see/go/do from you experts. May try a slot machine or 2 but I have no gambling experience at all (nor the funds for it!)
Grand Canyon tour already sorted for a day, the above time is for in-Vegas time. Fremont St is on the list (hopefully including the Zipline).
Thanks in advance.

Misty_Blue

Well, I used to read this thread daily but I've avoided it since last August when we came back from our first ever Vegas trip, as it depressed me too much!

Today I booked our outward flights for August 2016 (Upper Class - THANK YOU, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club! ). Meaning I can come back to the thread and read everyone's trip reports with excitement again.

Now to decide on hotel...we had a Cosmo One Bedroom Terrace Suite with fountain view last time. I would happily stay there again but at the same time I'd like to try somewhere different. I'm torn between the Wynn, Venetian, Mandarin Oriental or possibly Aria.

It's good to be back, and thank you to everyone who contributes to the thread.

duchy

From that list I'd probably go Venetian for an entirely different view of the Strip and style of hotel .......or not on the list Caesars Palace Octavius Tower

bubble113

baza52 wrote: »

has anyone done the scoot city tour to redrock? I'm planning to do this with my daughter next week.

Yes I've done it and really enjoyed it. My OH and son have done the Red Rock one and the strip one, they preferred the strip tour as they liked the stop off points, mob museum, pawn shop etc.

ferf1223

I find the Cosmo rooms with terraces hard to beat as having the terrace is so fantastic. Then again, as a smoker, I have another benefit from the terrace.

Misty - did you book in the reward seat sale? We looked for PE and nothing for our dates in March, we had been waiting for the reward sale to book...but the fares were reasonable so we went ahead and booked for March.

bobbyhibs

allybee101 wrote: »

Hi all, heading to Vegas in a few weeks and we're staying at the MGM Grand (booked through convention we're attending so no choice on the hotel). We have one full day (up til 6pm) plus several other slots of 3-4 hours free to see some of the sights.
Would love to hear recommendations of must-see/go/do from you experts. May try a slot machine or 2 but I have no gambling experience at all (nor the funds for it!)

Thanks in advance.

hi
stayed at the mgm twice and have booked up for next year,Have you checked the first page of the thread? there are a few ideas there what to do(some free ones too) free ones include

the vegas sign you can get a taxi to there in 5mins or ,(im told you can walk it but i have not)

the bellagio fountains, a wee while walk up the strip, , take a camera/ video phone/other devices that you can record, this is popular but again free and always inpresses me!

We also did the stratosphere, my brother likes to take photos, and it has good views, good at night, this one costs though, bout $25-$30 or something(though if i recall there is a sneaky way to go up for free if you go before 7 30pm, someone else could confirm this?)this is the other end of the strip from the mgm so its a looooong walk or a taxi !

on our last trip i went and saw david copperfield, and was inpressed!
i got the ticket from the tix4tonight stand, a few mintues walk from the mgm, there were loads of other shows tickets with dicounted prices as well, some may intrest you there

Something i was gonna do but we didn't get round to it was the mob museum,prehaps this may intrest you?this costs though and is up the other end of the strip though i think its pretty close to Fremont St if i recall

A bit of advice for playing slots(or the tables also), please be careful.It is very easy to get caught up in *the moment*, it is vegas after all.I do recommend to you (anyone else to) to set a limit, of what you CAN afford to lose.When i have been to vegas I do try to be careful with money(im told im a bit *tight* with money!:D) and therefore i set myself a limit per day and so would advice you to do the same.

Hope this helps a tad, and best of luck !:beer:

bobbyhibs

Misty_Blue wrote: »

Well, I used to read this thread daily but I've avoided it since last August when we came back from our first ever Vegas trip, as it depressed me too much!

Today I booked our outward flights for August 2016 (Upper Class - THANK YOU, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club! ). Meaning I can come back to the thread and read everyone's trip reports with excitement again.

Hi
and i soo much can relate to you when you say coming back home from vegas is a little depressing! though in the last 2 trips we have pretty much waited a few weeks, and were like wanna do vegas again?yep? ok lets book up!!

Im afraid i have zero experince with suites or staying at the hotels you have mentioned, I have been to vegas twice, with my brother and well give us 2 queen sized beds, a tv, and a shower,bathroom and a door what more could we ask for?:D

I hope you do not mind my asking/ but how long have you been with the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and how many points/airmiles did it take you to get upper class?
i asusme it was paid for by airmiles/points and all you may have paid were taxes?
I hope you dont mind my asking as i have been asking on here and getting some useful links and advice, so any from yuo would be most grateful and many thanks!!

Misty_Blue

duchy wrote: »

From that list I'd probably go Venetian for an entirely different view of the Strip and style of hotel .......or not on the list Caesars Palace Octavius Tower

Thanks Duchy, I'll have a look. We never really fancied Ceasers, but I understand there's a world of difference between some of the towers so I'll go and do a bit of research here.

ferf1223 wrote: »

Misty - did you book in the reward seat sale? We looked for PE and nothing for our dates in March, we had been waiting for the reward sale to book...but the fares were reasonable so we went ahead and booked for March.

I waited for the sale and tried to use the flying miles for upgrades, but we are tied to our dates because OH is a teacher and I work for a company where all of my team apart from me have young kids, so holidays in summer are at a premium! There was PE availability for our dates, but no UC at all. I spoke with the helpline and they suggested booking a flexible Economy ticket so I had the dates secured, and then waiting to see if the UC upgrades became available. But in the end I decided to just bite the bullet so I spent the miles to book UC outright rather than as an upgrade.

bobbyhibs wrote: »

I hope you do not mind my asking/ but how long have you been with the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and how many points/airmiles did it take you to get upper class?
i asusme it was paid for by airmiles/points and all you may have paid were taxes?
I hope you dont mind my asking as i have been asking on here and getting some useful links and advice, so any from yuo would be most grateful and many thanks!!

Hi Bobby. I don't mind at all!

I joined Flying Club in April 2013, when I knew I was going to book a surprise trip to Vegas for my boyfriend's 40th birthday.

I booked with Virgin Holidays to go to Vegas so I earned quite a few miles from that. I also used them for a trip to South Africa earlier this year. I flew Premium Economy on both holidays, which earns you more miles than if you flew Economy.

I have the Virgin Atlantic credit card but I'm afraid I don't use it very efficiently! The best thing would be to do as was mentioned a page or two back, and purchase everything on it and pay off in full each month. I never seem to manage to organise this, so I use the card for any “big” purchases and then pay make a payment to the credit card from my debit card. I also use it to book any travel and hotels I use for work (if you use Virgin trains, you get miles, and Virgin have quite a few partner hotels, as well as points for some of the booking sites like Lastminute.com).

I convert all my Tesco Clubcard points into airmiles, and whenever I buy something online I check to see if it can be done through Virgin Atlantic's “Shops Away” page, to earn me miles. Things as diverse as Boots, Currys, airport parking, home insurance, Harrods, Travelodge.... all of these will earn you xx number of miles per pound spent if you click through the Virgin Atlantic page. There's a lot of retailers on there so I always make sure to check.

It cost me 100,000 miles for the UC flights for next year, plus about £660 in taxes (for both tickets, not each).

duchy

I finally did the sign this trip ...........I'm certainly glad we didn't bother paying for a taxi to do so. Very crowded and a little pointless.

Bobby you talked about the options from MGM to the Strat as taxi or walk - Most people if they didn't have a hire car would get the Deuce bus.