Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2017

nvh

I also used Cityzen last year - pretty sure I wrote about it on the old thread, but basically it's a free drink from each location every 24 hours - clock resets at midnight and they take the last digits of your phone number to authenticate you (which nearly screwed me as I just put a load of fake details in when I signed up to it haha)

secretmachines - some detail here re: superodds chips. When I did it a few weeks ago, I did used them on Three Card Poker but this states your red / black won't work: https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/index.php?threads/how-to-play-non-neg-super-odds-chips-for-the-hippodrome-casino.129176/

StaffieTerrier

We're just back from a week stay at the MGM Grand in Vegas, to celebrate my birthday. It was my first time there and I had a wonderful time. Thank you to everyone who contributes to this thread. I found it a valuable source of information when planning our trip.

A few things we picked up on (and apologies if these have been posted here before):

• We booked tickets to see Penn and Teller via Travelzoo before we left. They were the cheapest we could find, including when we arrived. As the Rio is a little way off the strip we used the free shuttle bus that runs between Bally's and the Rio to get there. It's every 30 minutes and very popular, so it's worth getting there in advance.
  
• While we were there we decided we wanted to see Ka by Cirque Du Soleil. We'd seen a video on YouTube before we went saying that the best deals for shows can often be booked directly with the venues. We also overheard a conversation at the Luxor where a couple were trying to book the best seats in the house in Excalibur, but couldn't as the hotels often reserve seats for guests booking direct with them. The couple were told they'd have to book direct with Excalibur if they really wanted those seats. So we ended up booking direct with the Ka box office, taking advantage of the Mlife rewards card offers, and managed to get the best seats in the house for $25 per ticket less that the cheapest tickets at the Tix4tonite booth outside. It's worth checking with the venue before using a discount vendor.
  
• We made full use of the Deuce bus while we were there. My other half wanted to use visit the Pinball Hall of Fame and we were able to use our 3 day passes on the residential routes as well as the strip.
  
• Our flight over the Grand Canyon with Papillon tours was spectacular and we also booked a coach trip to the Hoover Dam (travelling with Grayline) with them at the same time. It really was a day to remember and we can highly recommend them as a tour company.

I'm not sure if/when we'll go back to Vegas but we had enormous fun and I can see why people go back time and time again :j

photome

secretmachines wrote: »

My Vegas rewards... 37,500 LPs for £50 of super odds chips at Hippodrome Casino London seems very generous?

Is there a catch? So if you were lucky and put your chips on winning red on roulette, you could go and cash out your £100 on chips for cash?

No I dont think so, from memory the super odds chips have a nominal value of 50p so you could cash in £50.50, of course makes more sense to keep playing with the super odds chips and keep hold of your profit until they have all gone

smurfette31

StaffieTerrier wrote: »

• We booked tickets to see Penn and Teller via Travelzoo before we left. They were the cheapest we could find, including when we arrived. As the Rio is a little way off the strip we used the free shuttle bus that runs between Bally's and the Rio to get there. It's every 30 minutes and very popular, so it's worth getting there in advance.
  
• We made full use of the Deuce bus while we were there. My other half wanted to use visit the Pinball Hall of Fame and we were able to use our 3 day passes on the residential routes as well as the strip.
  
• Our flight over the Grand Canyon with Papillon tours was spectacular and we also booked a coach trip to the Hoover Dam (travelling with Grayline) with them at the same time. It really was a day to remember and we can highly recommend them as a tour company.

I'm not sure if/when we'll go back to Vegas but we had enormous fun and I can see why people go back time and time again :j

Thanks for letting me know about the shuttle bus to Rio, we have booked to see penn and teller too. Did you enjoy it? What time did you arrive at the Rio?

We have also booked our grand canyon tour with Papillion, we have booked the package with the champagne picnic when landing.

If you can think of any more information that could be useful, its our first time going to vegas too so I'm trying to learn as much as i can before going....only 39 days to go! :j

nvh

photome wrote: »

No I dont think so, from memory the super odds chips have a nominal value of 50p so you could cash in £50.50, of course makes more sense to keep playing with the super odds chips and keep hold of your profit until they have all gone

To clarify, the superodds chips are £5 chips if you gamble with them, but without gambling they hold just a value of 5p, so a £50 (10 x £5) chunk of chips would be worth just 50p if you cashed them in without play... you could always go and treat yourself to a couple of bags of space raiders with that tho

(and to re-confirm, there is a catch - you can't use them on any even odds bets)

hope that helps

StaffieTerrier

smurfette31 wrote: »

Thanks for letting me know about the shuttle bus to Rio, we have booked to see penn and teller too. Did you enjoy it? What time did you arrive at the Rio?

We have also booked our grand canyon tour with Papillion, we have booked the package with the champagne picnic when landing.

If you can think of any more information that could be useful, its our first time going to vegas too so I'm trying to learn as much as i can before going....only 39 days to go! :j

Penn and Teller were great. My other half is a huge fan and was worried that he'd seen everything before but in the end he'd only seen one of the tricks previously. They wait in the foyer after the show so you can get your photo taken with them. In fact, we saw them run off stage to make sure they were there to meet and greet everyone. We got to the Rio about 8pm and spent some time wandering around and playing the slots. The shuttle leaves from the side of Bally's and is signposted as the shuttle to the Rio.

Papillon were great. We booked the light aircraft trip and we were lucky that there was only 6 of us on our plane, so we all got a window seat and a great view.

There's lots of people handing out discount vouchers on the strip but for Mlife properties we often found the reward card offered the same deals or better. It's free to sign up. We didn't have a Totalrewards card, but I'm assuming that it's a similar deal?

We did try to get a complimentary upgrade when we checked in but it didn't work. We did pay to upgrade to a much better room, with a strip view, for a reasonable amount and $25 credit to buy cake to celebrate my birthday.

Hope you have a wonderful time on your trip.

smurfette31

StaffieTerrier wrote: »

Penn and Teller were great. My other half is a huge fan and was worried that he'd seen everything before but in the end he'd only seen one of the tricks previously. They wait in the foyer after the show so you can get your photo taken with them. In fact, we saw them run off stage to make sure they were there to meet and greet everyone. We got to the Rio about 8pm and spent some time wandering around and playing the slots. The shuttle leaves from the side of Bally's and is signposted as the shuttle to the Rio.

Papillon were great. We booked the light aircraft trip and we were lucky that there was only 6 of us on our plane, so we all got a window seat and a great view.

There's lots of people handing out discount vouchers on the strip but for Mlife properties we often found the reward card offered the same deals or better. It's free to sign up. We didn't have a Totalrewards card, but I'm assuming that it's a similar deal?

We did try to get a complimentary upgrade when we checked in but it didn't work. We did pay to upgrade to a much better room, with a strip view, for a reasonable amount and $25 credit to buy cake to celebrate my birthday.

Hope you have a wonderful time on your trip.

Great thanks! im so excited to see penn and teller, we're both huge fans, we're seeing them the evening before we get married. I think we're gonna get to the rio early and have some food around that area so that we are in the correct location and wont have to rush.

What is Mlife?

Stew68

Well as there seems to be talk about Penn & Teller at the moment I booked my ticket to see them when i'm there in May. Not quite the front row but not far from the front, looking forward to seeing them too.

I was going to get there early and have a wander around as i've never been to the Rio before, was thinking of eating at the Royal India Bistro before hand as I enjoy my curries! Was it the Rio that used to have the Carnival in the Sky? I'm guessing that's long gone now as there is no mention made of it on their website.

Jealous of all of you going soon, still got 87 days before I go away yet....

StaffieTerrier

smurfette31 wrote: »

Great thanks! im so excited to see penn and teller, we're both huge fans, we're seeing them the evening before we get married. I think we're gonna get to the rio early and have some food around that area so that we are in the correct location and wont have to rush.

What is Mlife?

Mlife is the reward card for MGM properties. A number of properties on the far end of the strip, i.e. MGM Grand, Luxor, New York New York, the Bellagio, etc, are part of the MGM portfolio. Mlife rewards you for spending and gambling on their properties. The card can also offer some good deals (such as our cheap Ka tickets, which saved us around $100) even if you're not particularly collecting the points. The different levels unlock better deals. It's free to sign up to. I signed up online before we left then collected my card from the Mlife desk in the hotel

https://www.mlife.com/en.html

There's other rewards schemes for different properties.

photome

nvh wrote: »

To clarify, the superodds chips are £5 chips if you gamble with them, but without gambling they hold just a value of 5p, so a £50 (10 x £5) chunk of chips would be worth just 50p if you cashed them in without play... you could always go and treat yourself to a couple of bags of space raiders with that tho

(and to re-confirm, there is a catch - you can't use them on any even odds bets)

hope that helps

I got 50 x £1 chips , that's where I got the 1p per chip from.

I used them on a £1 minimum spin roulette table betting roughly 5 or 6 of them a spin, didn't realise you couldn't use them on an even money bet, I was using them on inside bets