Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2018

terryrees

Hi!

I haven't been here for a while, but I thought I'd drop in for a catch up as I have a trip coming up at the end of October.

Groupon have a (limited to 1 deal per customer) 50% off offer today (only) Use the code FIFTYOFF

I just bagged myself a 4 hour open bar at Rocking Reilly's for $17.50 - BARGAIN!!!

slliw

Can anyone provide any tips with who to go with for car insurance while in Vegas? We have cover with Rentalcover but theirs looks flaky and looking to cancel and go with someone else as it does not cover SLI 3rd party cover. We will have the car for 7 days. Thanks in advance

stevie11

silliw, I have previously purchased from Questor but now just purchase an all inc rental that has all the necessary insurances. Although I do have an annual excess policy with insurance4carhire.

I always book through a UK rental agent.

slliw

Thanks, I see that Questor only offers CDW but insurance4carhire does include SLI. I also managed to find Bettersafe and carhireexcess.com that offer full SLI at daily rates

photome

slliw wrote: »

Thanks, I see that Questor only offers CDW but insurance4carhire does include SLI. I also managed to find Bettersafe and carhireexcess.com that offer full SLI at daily rates

If you book through a UK broker I believe you get all the insurance cover that you need

slliw

I went through rentalcars.com they only do CDW and LDW

StuieUK34

use holidayautos, or netflights, or autoeurope, or usrentacar....
Simple car hire with the cover u need, so u can smash it, and hand it back without paying a penny.

StuieUK34

Last time I flew Virgin to Vegas was in 2016, so my memory is a bit hazy.....
Question:

Does CattleClass have USB sockets for charging Phones/tablets ? Or do they have power outlets even (for laptops ??)
Also, any of u used the wifi on-board if they do it ?

I ask, as I got the option to earn some overtime by working for a few hours...... (We fly this Friday! woohoooooooo!)


**ignore that, am reading on VA website now about it **

Brats64

We are on day 9 of our Vegas trip, and the gambling has been brutal.

We are not massive gamblers, but played more and more over the last few trips.Enough to have had rooms comped at both MGM and Boyd properties for part of the trip.Anyway, we have always managed to just about break even over the course of our holidays in the past, Bar one visit.But after 9 day’s we are starting to wonder when we are going to even get a play for our money.Got to admit not liking the feeling of just shovelling $20 after $20 with little play.:(

Two days left to try and get a little back before we head home.:o

vegasvisitor

Well, we got back on Saturday night from our 20th trip to Vegas.

This year the temperatures were blazing hot, and it was sunny with barely a cloud the whole time.

Firstly, we spent 5 nights at Tuscany, over the Labor Day weekend. We got a car after 3 days, and kept this for a week. Tuscany was fine, although we did have a room charge in error at the end of our stay, and saw this on the sheet they put under the door. It took quite a bit of effort to sort, including me looking out receipts from the outlets for the time the drink was purchased! I took them down to reception but by then they simply said they'd found the error. Odd, but slightly annoying.

Next, we headed out to Red Rock Resort for 2 nights. Got checked in early which was good as our car did not have a large enough boot for more than one case! We booked a VW Jetta or equivalent from Dollar at Ti, and got a Kia Soul. Not great. Comfortable drive, but useless for luggage and in my opinion not a very nice looking car. It was almost new, and did the job though other than the luggage. I may have to think about the convenience of TI vs the rubbish cars they seem to give out these last few (several) years. So Red Rock was lovely. The pool was fab, and it was great to have Downtown Summerlin there for a wander. We went to the shops, and one night we had the Red Rock Buffet, and the other night we used a MyVegas at Wolfgang Puck. We did the scenic drive, which we hadn't done for many years.

Next, onto Planet Hollywood for the middle weekend. We thankfully chose to enjoy the Red Rock pool before departure, using the Bell Desk to store our luggage since it didn't really fit in the car out of view! I'm never sure about having it in the car anyway. I did put one case in, then moved to a different floor of the car park. Planet Hollywood, we just asked for a high floor strip view, which we got. Different room type from what we always had when we stayed before, either as PH or Aladdin. We used to get a fountain view in the part that juts out to the front. This time we were in the South elevator section but facing the South Strip. Room was great for the price of $32 at weekend. We did, however, try to use the pool on the Saturday and it was horrendous. We had to take loungers in the big mid section nowhere near the pool, as both pool areas were absolute carnage. I've stayed there before as PH, and many times when it was Aladdin, and the pool is now ruined. They have removed most of the normal loungers from the actual pool area, replacing them with daybeds that you have to pay for.

Then, onto Platinum and check in went smoothly. The guy kindly let us leave the car out front while we went inside to try to check in. We got in ok, 16th floor, and then let them valet the car. This has been problematic in the past with them being valet only, but they were flexible that day with us and made it relaxing. Platinum was generally good again, but with the usual housekeeping issues. We generally didn't bother to take the do not disturb off, as there has always been an uncertainty as to whether they will make the room up anyway. On the one day we decided we needed towels (and loo roll) to see us through, I tried to call front desk, only to discover the phone didn't work. So I went down and asked for towels and TP. 2 1/2 hours later, still no sign of them so asked again. Eventually they brought it. Not great though, and got the thinnest towels I've ever seen in my life, so I guess they were either short of normal towels or were irritated by the request. The trip was sadly a bit marred by a rather horrible experience with one of the valets in the evening as we were leaving. I'm still trying to get some clarity on why this happened, so meanwhile suffice to say it was not very nice at all, and that I don't think I'll be returning to this hotel after what happened. It's a shame because we've stayed there on at least half of our 20 trips to Vegas!

So, all in all a good trip. Discovered some different happy hours this year. Canaletto do a very nice pizza happy hour every evening including weekends. We also had happy hour at Buddy V's, and Lombardi's in Miracle Mile have a happy hour from around 3pm till close at the bar. Good value, and again good food. We did Grand Lux, but they got rid of my favourite cocktail, although the blood orange martini I had was nice. We went to Maggiano's at Summerlin, but not on the strip. Their happy hour has changed, and I'm not sure if they do the flatbreads any more.

We used various MyVegas redemptions - Mirage buffet (it's never great, but it's a free meal and it suited our plans when we dropped the car at TI). Mandalay buffet, again not the best range but I think the quality is a bit better and this was ok. We used our third redemption for Ka at MGM, which I had terrible bother booking and ended up booking on the phone which took a half hour call late one evening. We also used the $25 off at WP Cucina and WP Summerlin. Both good.

Groupons - we had AmeriCAN wristband, Rockhouse wristband. To be honest, we shouldn't have bothered with these as we really can't manage enough drinks to make these worthwhile and there are so many other options there's not much point. I do quite like sitting outside AmeriCAN people watching though. We also had an India Palace groupon and had trouble redeeming this. The first time was going into Labor Day weekend, and the rules said not on Labor Day (Monday) but they wouldn't allow coupons all weekend. We had walked from Tuscany thinking it would be ok, so this was a bit annoying. We returned another day and they said we couldn't use it as they had a buffet on and were not doing a la carte meals during the buffet. Again not mentioned. We tried a third time, and thankfully got to use it. The food was ok, but I have to say I wouldn't bother with this one again. The other one we had was Hexx, and I got this with a $10 off thing, so it was $50 credit for $20 really, which was a good deal. We had pizza to share, some fries, and a glass of wine each. Expensive if paying full price, but for a few dollars over the groupon price plus a tip this was a good deal. The veg pizza was absolutely delicious too!

So, that's us for another year. Managed all of 2 hours sleep on Sunday night, and have managed 6 hours last night (had to go to bed at 7pm though, so technically up half the night again tonight!). I'm sure I'll feel better by the weekend!