Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2017

stoneman

Pedrobandito wrote: »

Should have asked this question when I posted earlier, sorry.


Not sure if this is the right place to post this but I am thinking of playing golf when I go to Vegas in October does anyone have any recommendations of courses to play? Have been looking online and some look good but also expensive (Shadow Creek looks amazing), I want a good course for no more than $200 - $250 which would hopefully include club hire.

OH and I used to play every trip but now work has got in our way and sadly not up to scratch so we don't bother now.

It depends what you want, most courses are a shadow of their former glory because to conserve water they now have to leave the rough as well, desert. If you hit a ball anywhere else but the fairway you will never see it again, it'll hit rock and jettison away.

So saying that, we used to play at Angle Park, nice enough course, also The Legacy. We used to take a couple of short sets with us so we could play with our own clubs.
You should get a round including clubs for less than $100, and that will include a buggy.

Also look at the municipal course on Washington, rounds there start at about $45 as I remember including a breakfast roll and buggy.

dontone

Winter_Jasmine wrote: »

Willy Wonka hates me!

I used to love Goldfish but we fell out last year. My favourites are Buffalo, Black Widow, Invaders from the Planet Moolah and an incredibly cutesy one that's full of baby bears (probably not your style Stuie haha). Great that you're so well up, hope it stays that way!

Two weeks and one day and we'll be just getting to the airport - eek!

Wonka hated me last year as well. Told him when to stick his Golden Tickets :rotfl:
I did well on Buffalo, Gremlins (full screen of wilds on a 50 cent bet = $100), the WMS games, and DH did really well on minimum bet on a aristocat slot that was a Dracula one. He did so well - over $200 on a bonus, that one of the casino chaps threatened to turn the thing off :rotfl:
BTW, I've been watching some of the new slots on Youtube, and there is one that looks totally bonkers called 'Lucky Pony'. It's way over the top cute in both graphics & music. I need to save up and go back just so I can play it :rotfl: (DH is not impressed) :rotfl:

jonesMUFCforever

Pedrobandito wrote: »

Should have asked this question when I posted earlier, sorry.


Not sure if this is the right place to post this but I am thinking of playing golf when I go to Vegas in October does anyone have any recommendations of courses to play? Have been looking online and some look good but also expensive (Shadow Creek looks amazing), I want a good course for no more than $200 - $250 which would hopefully include club hire.

When we went on the Linq big wheel you could see the golf course which is part of the Wynn hotel - no idea of the cost though.

ferf1223

mickthetrick wrote: »

unfortunately we had to pay the tax. i was there on both occasions and our passports were given to the attendant who come back with their boss to pay up. one time in Harrahs and one time in the Linq. ive the white papers here with the info of win and details etc. we were told we had to pay and claim it back.
it seems very daunting to me as im no good at thing like this but im chosen as the best of the bunch to get things going.:(

it's weird as my hubby had his first W2G win at Paris - part of the same group - and they did the paperwork to get him an ITIN and paid the full value. Maybe they have changed their policy now - the casinos do not have to do the additional paperwork, and I know some of the smaller casinos don't, but I just assumed all of the main strip casinos would.

Hovis91

I love the original Willie Wonka slots and have had some really good wins on them but finding them now Is like a treasure hunt!! They had a row of them in Harrahs at the very bottom of the casino and one in Cosmo but not seen them anywhere else.I hate the newer ones and they hate me too !!!

Stew68

So as promised earlier in the week a report on my trip last week now that the jetlag has disappeared.

This isn’t a trip report as such, more of a series of notes of things I did and noticed when I was in Vegas, I hope that other people can pick up something from these as I did from those of you who have previously been and helped out with answering other visitors questions. This was a solo trip but found that at the slots and bars there was nearly always somebody happy to chat with and keep you company, I made a lot of slot friends when I was there!

Travel
I flew using Virgin Atlantic, flying first to Seattle where I spent a very enjoyable week, I’ve found that flying just to Las Vegas means I’m jet lagged for the whole trip which can spoil it, visiting elsewhere first meant I was wide awake and ready to go when I arrived in Vegas. If anybody is thinking of a two centre holiday then I can heartily recommend Seattle as a place to visit, plenty to do but the weather is very much like back here in the UK! Anyway, back to Virgin Atlantic, I flew with them as I had a large amount of air miles saved up from my years of not being able to travel and use of one of their reward credit cards. I can’t fault their service, food and drink service was plentiful and I was well and truly looked after, of course I was more than grateful to be travelling with them when it was time to return home with the problems that British Airways debacle.

Accommodation
I stayed at The Signature, booked through AirBnB, I stayed there before on my last trip and loved the place then, still do now. I was in a deluxe balcony suite that was in Tower 2 on the 30th floor, really good views too. I have always stayed at this end of the strip, maybe next time I’ll look for a room at the other end of the strip as I always seem to hang out closer to where I’m staying. With Airbnb the choices are fairly limited, it’s mostly the jockey club or The Signature. It was my first time using Airbnb and in both Seattle and Vegas there were no issues whatsoever, would certainly use them again.

Entertainment.
I saw a few shows while I was in Vegas, I was very keen to see Penn & Teller as really enjoy magic shows, in my keenness to see them I booked through the Rio website but you can pick up tickets elsewhere including the tix4tonight booths on the strip. If you’re shy then don’t sit on the end of a row three rows from the front otherwise you’re likely to end up on stage like I did! The show was very enjoyable and the tricks they did were amazing, they still do a meet and greet after the show too. Would certainly recommend the show if you enjoy magic.
I also went to see ‘The Rat Pack is Back’ at the Tuscany, enjoyed this show very much too, they were very much like the original members and also waited outside to meet you as you left the show, bought these tickets at one of the tix4tonight booths.
Went to see Terry Fator on the Thursday evening, I saw him last time I was there and he was very good, not sure if he has stood the test of time though, the theatre was only half full and I didn’t think he was as funny as before. Again ticket was purchased at the tix4tonight booths.
Sometimes I just did something if I was in the area, I visited the Titanic exhibition in The Luxor which I enjoyed, did walk down to the Shark Reef in Mandalay Bay afterwards but the queue was rather long so decided not to bother. I also went to The Mob Museum downtown and found that very interesting too.

Food.
I enjoy my food, particularly my steak when I’m in the states. I ate steak at both Gallaghers (NYNY) and Craftsteak (MGM), both very enjoyable and tasty. I eat when I’m hungry so again it depended on where I was at the time, I ate at The Grand Lux in the Venetian, their hot fried chicken was very enjoyable, I ate once at the Cheesecake Factory just to get my hands on some cheesecake which I took to go. If you like barbecue then I suggest Virgils at The Linq, I visited there before going on The High Roller. If you’re looking for a quick meal then I also stopped off at Nacho Daddy at the Miracle Mile Shops (though on the outside if you’re trying to find it!), very much enjoyed their filet mignon nachos (I was on holiday after all). Travelling on my own I was asked if I wanted to sit at the bar at just about every place I visited, most of the times I did but if I asked to sit at a table there was never any issue. I found that sitting at the bar meant that my glass of beer was never empty until I asked them to stop! Service as always was excellent wherever I went.

Getting Around
I used Uber the whole time I was in Vegas and never had an issue, I can be a skinflint when it comes to my phone and pretty much refused to pay the extortionate rates for data that O2 charge. I nearly always found that the wifi in the casinos extended to the taxi & ride share areas where I could use the phone to call a Uber. They were all very friendly and happy to chat, a lot cheaper than taxis and saved my sore feet too!

Gambling
I’m not a huge gambler and I don’t play the table games but do spend a lot of time playing the slot machines always looking for "fun" ones with bonuses, I don’t play minimum bets but I also don’t play maximum bets, I’d get very depressed and poor if I didn’t pick up wins quickly enough to counteract the money I’d put in. I started off very well at The Rio, after that I was up and down every day ending up a little bit down on the week which I was pleased about, I’m sure somebody else posted here that they treat gambling money as entertainment and I agree with that, ending up just a little but down at the end of the week having spent plenty of time sat at the slots and mostly enjoying myself (more when I was winning obviously!) I count as good use of my entertainment money. Wherever I was sat playing the slots I was offered drinks, not very often was I not approached, pleased to see that most of them carried bottles of water as I found that the casinos sucked any moisture from my mouth.

General
I did a Hoover Dam trip when I was out there which was fantastic, I booked the Ultimate Hoover Dam Tour through Viator which I think is the same as the Comedy on Deck tour, the guide we had was Jason who was very funny and interacted very well with the group I was with, we had a fully guided tour on the dam first before being taken down into the depths of the dam to see the generators within the dam. The trip ended with lunch before heading back to the strip and your choice of three drop off points.
It has been a long time since my last trip to Vegas which I used to love visiting, I was concerned that I may have grown out of the place and wouldn’t enjoy it as much but I was so wrong, I still love the place and already wondering when I can fit my next trip in as there is still plenty of stuff I’d like to do, a revisit to the Grand Canyon for one.

I hope that you might have found some information useful in the above, my thanks once again to all the contributors here who offer so much advice, hope I am now in a position to give something back. If you have any questions about the above please ask and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Winter_Jasmine

dontone wrote: »

Wonka hated me last year as well. Told him when to stick his Golden Tickets :rotfl:
I did well on Buffalo, Gremlins (full screen of wilds on a 50 cent bet = $100), the WMS games, and DH did really well on minimum bet on a aristocat slot that was a Dracula one. He did so well - over $200 on a bonus, that one of the casino chaps threatened to turn the thing off :rotfl:
BTW, I've been watching some of the new slots on Youtube, and there is one that looks totally bonkers called 'Lucky Pony'. It's way over the top cute in both graphics & music. I need to save up and go back just so I can play it :rotfl: (DH is not impressed) :rotfl:

Ooh will look out for Lucky Pony, sounds right up my street The biggest disappointment for me was A Christmas Story - was so excited to find one in Cosmo and felt sure I'd win - put $20 in and got absolutely nada, not even a couple of cents, probably the first (and hopefully only) time I've experienced a full series of pure losses

vegasvisitor

I've seen a decent deal for car hire (at Dollar, TI where I usually collect), on ebookers. It's about £30 cheaper for the week than Rentalcars.com.

Does anyone know if there are any reasons not to book with ebookers? I'm surprised by the price, and worried that something may not be included. It does say it includes CDW though.

stoneman

lesley74 wrote: »

I've seen a decent deal for car hire (at Dollar, TI where I usually collect), on ebookers. It's about £30 cheaper for the week than Rentalcars.com.

Does anyone know if there are any reasons not to book with ebookers? I'm surprised by the price, and worried that something may not be included. It does say it includes CDW though.

I always check for fuel return full to full and zero excess on damage.
ebookers is well established.
Just had a look and they offer both, also 6% cashback if you go through TCB or Quidco

John259

lesley74 wrote: »

I've seen a decent deal for car hire

Have you checked whether sales tax has to paid locally?