Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2017

StaffieTerrier

Lee399 wrote: »

Finally how was Penn and Teller. My OH would love to see them so I am keeping my eyes out for tickets going on sale, any tips on seating / getting to the Rio?

We bought our tickets from the US Travelzoo website. They worked out at about $47 each. We sat on the mezzanine, which had good views. People sat below were in a better position to get involved, so it depends whether you just want to watch or to be able to participate. As mentioned before, they do a meet and greet immediately after the show, so it's worth hanging around.

There's a free shuttle bus that runs from Bally's, on the Strip, to the Rio. It's every 30 minutes and it does get busy, so if you are planning on using it make sure you get there early

StaffieTerrier

Stew68 wrote: »

Hi Smurfette,

When you've recovered from the jetlag could you tell me who you used for the hoover dam trip? I'm looking to have a tour there too when i'm out there.

Congratulations on your wedding too.

Thanks

We booked a flight with Papillon too which had the Hoover Dam trip added to it. Grayline Tours were the operator. The driver had picked up the other visitors from their hotels then came to the Papillon airport to collect us after our trip. It was a fantastic experience. We had two hours to complete the power plant trip and wander around the visitors centre and the top of the dam. We were then dropped back at our hotel. The Hoover Dam was my highlight of our trip

Paulaviki

Glad to hear people's reviews of the Luxor. I'm staying there for 3 nights leaving on 1st May. Less than 4 weeks to go!

secretmachines

Re: lyft and uber

FEELING22 gives you $22 off you first uber ride.
STARTWITH50 gives you 10 x $5 discounts.

Had issues with signal when we landed at IAD, couldn't get on a network at all, so had to suck it up and get a regular cab

Have now used Lyft a couple of times with the above code which has worked brilliantly and is so quick and easy.

Planning to save my $22 uber discount for McCarran to Palazzo. Will then invite Mrs SM to join uber, she'll get her/our first ride free and i get about $7-8 credit

photome

Lee399 wrote: »

Congratulations sounds like you had an amazing time. We are going in September to also get married at the Little Vegas Chappel, is that the same one you had your cermony at?

We are currently booked into the Excalibur but keep toying with idea of moving the to Luxor instead, would you recommend it and would you say there was enouhg there to keep my 19yr daughter happy?

Finally how was Penn and Teller. My OH would love to see them so I am keeping my eyes out for tickets going on sale, any tips on seating / getting to the Rio?

very little difference between Excalibur and Luxor unless you want to stay in a Pyramid , they are next door to each other.

re Penn and Teller someone mentioned travelzoo , I also bought from there it is a good option.

when you say is there enough there to keep a 19 year old happy, did you mean in the hotel or in Vegas?

IMO it will be hard for a 19 year old especially if she is used to going out and having a few drinks as she will not be allowed anywhere where they sell alchohol, ie bars and clubs.

neither will she be allowed anywhere near slot machines or gaming tables, and will get ID,d everywhere.

we took our son to Vegas every year from when he was 4 to about 16, and he loved the sights and sounds but he then got fed up and didnt come again till he was 21 and loved it.

If you take the drinking and gambling out of the equation then there is still plenty of eating, shopping,sightseeing and lazing by the pool to do

smurfette31

Lee399 wrote: »

Congratulations sounds like you had an amazing time. We are going in September to also get married at the Little Vegas Chappel, is that the same one you had your cermony at?

We are currently booked into the Excalibur but keep toying with idea of moving the to Luxor instead, would you recommend it and would you say there was enouhg there to keep my 19yr daughter happy?

Finally how was Penn and Teller. My OH would love to see them so I am keeping my eyes out for tickets going on sale, any tips on seating / getting to the Rio?

We got married at Vegas weddings (https://www.702wedding.com) would highly recommend.

The Excalibur and Luxor are right next to each other, so if you do stay in the excalibur you could always spend a few hours next door. We stayed in the tower block so we didnt have the problem of banging our heads on the pyramid windows.
I think it will be difficult for a 19 year old in the hotels as they cant drink or gamble. I'm 28 and one night forgot my ID and they refused to serve me and my husband, even though he had his ID and was drinking. I didnt even ask for alcohol but i was sat at the roulette wheel.

Penn and Teller - We booked with Viator before we went, had to take the printed email to the box office so we had no idea where we was to be seated before hand, we had awesome seats in the first row of the first level. I stupidly thought the Rio was on the strip, how wrong was I!! We planned to get there early to grab some food in the Rio Buffet. caught the deuce...the traffic was horrendous took us 35-45 mins to get from the luxor, had to then get off at caesars (the rio looks like its in walking distance, next to caesars but its not) catch the 202 that stops at the Rio. So glad we did not walk! I think everyone had the same idea as us to get there early for food as we couldnt get in anywhere! We ended up eating overpriced stodge in the sports deli. The actual show was good, however not as long as we expected, i think it was 1 hour 20 mins. He did my favourite trick (the fish bowl), we then met them afterwards as they wait in the lobby. We had to wait ages for the free shuttle bus back to Ballys, as some people don't understand how to queue and just push in front, but we couldn't complain as it was free.

Lee399

photome wrote: »

when you say is there enough there to keep a 19 year old happy, did you mean in the hotel or in Vegas?

IMO it will be hard for a 19 year old especially if she is used to going out and having a few drinks as she will not be allowed anywhere where they sell alchohol, ie bars and clubs.

Yes I was thinking non drinking/gambling activities. She coming with us for 5 days upto the wedding so we do need to keep her amussed but she knows myself an my partner will be out some evenings at bars she can't visit. We partly chose the Excalibur as there does some to be some stuff for the younger ones to do and as we are having two rooms it kept in budget. She flys back to the uk the day after the wedding and we are moving to the Cosmopolitan for our final 4 nights.

ferf1223

bubble113 wrote: »

I got sucked into 88 fortunes last time, had some good hits. I like stacks of gold and dreamtime for oldies but you don't see them much.

That lock it link looks similar to lightning links. I've had a brief go at those but didn't seem to do much on them.

How was your room at PH? So many happy memories of that place when we first started going. They used to have some really good slot promotions.

We stayed in a renovated resort room and it was soooo much nicer than it used to be, including the hallways. They used to be so dark and now they are much brighter. The TV is also no longer in a stupid position where you have to turn sideways in the bed to see it.

Lightning links is our new crack town...it's so hard to leave them, so easy to chase the feature. We have had some decent wins on them and on Lock It Link - but both can be very, very hungry.

I am not 100% sure if it's the $1.50 quick hits that are now $6 or if they are the ones that were $3. I was just alarmed to see loads of $6 minimum machines. There are still some $1.50 and $3 out there. I had a run of wins on one at Cosmo, closest to the strip entrance, the 'blue' machine with your back to the front of the casino. I think it's a $3 machine. It was one of those where I kept increasing my cashout point each time I had a win sort of situations, and one of those 'do I leave now, or will it keep increasing?' situations. One quite good win of about $200, and lots of smaller wins that kept things ticking upwards...I was sensible...in the end cashed out about $400 from an initial $20 and decided that I wouldn't know if it would continue.

I do know I am sick to death of the super-stacks sort of machines...the ones where you may get a full screen of something and it's worth $5...and the ones where you know you've got nothing by reel 2 as reel 1 is a stack of X and no Xs on reel 2...they irk me to no end.

Oh the newish Big Bang with progressives is fun - it's a really tall machine...can't remember how long it's been around, but think we first saw it in November last year. The ones at Cosmo seemed to be pretty nice. Not tons of wins, necessarily, but kept playing for a long time.

I also had a moment where my little heart was on overdrive - Britney at PH, had a few wacky spins at max bet ($2.50) and triggered the bonus and then 'crazy prize'...it was a bit tense, but ended on the lowest ($50).

ferf1223

secretmachines wrote: »

hmm, I downloaded the app and registered fine while in the UK with a UK number.

did you try to put in a UK number while in the US? maybe that's an issue?

my number shows in the format +44 7123 456789

hmm...no, I tried to register in the UK with a UK number and it wouldn't let me - seemed to only be allowing (XXX) XXX-XXXX format. I will try again before our next trip to the US. I was going through a link that a friend sent me, though...maybe that's part of the issue?

Edited to add I see that several have not had this issue, so I am clearly just being dumb...will try again.

We were with a friend who had a Lyft account for when we needed it. Our first Lyft/Uber experience. It was so great. I didn't realise that no money changes hands...that's excellent. We had a couple of great characters for drivers - really interesting guys.

Misty_Blue

Are there shops in the Westin or Hard Rock? I found a new brand I want to try on our next trip, and when I search their websites for stockists in LV, these come up.