The Las Vegas Thread and MSE guide

stoneman

May

Trowel wrote: »

Cheers to you both - I've been checking out the Virgin card offers which, as you say, seem to be the best loophole. They have a short-term balance transfer offer which would be useful at the moment for me, plus of course I can book the flights on the card and get even more miles (for future trips of course).

The 6000 miles bonus on the black card would be nice, however not so keen on the sound of a £115 annual charge - anything to stop me just buying a Mars bar then cancelling?! Wrong thread methinks!

You can not cancel after you have paid the £115. Also be aware that they make your card good for 2 years, and in the T&c it says that they will automatically renew you after the first year and deduct another £115 from your account. We got knobled on that one. As we didn't want to renew our cards we decided to cancel but on t next statement saw a £115 debit for renewal, played my face with them as it was 1 month earlier than the anniversary date of my card.
P.S. Also if you do not pay off your card in full one month,they charge you interest on the next month after you have paid it off as well, as a tip to themselves I guess. As you can imagine the customer service agent had to hold the phone away from her ear when I phoned up about this scam, and I got my money refunded

wdyw

Steff wrote: »

Hello all,

I’m looking for a bit of advice if anyone could help?

There are two deals on at the moment (via fatwallet) for MGM Grand & NYNY for the dates I am wanting. It brings both hotels out at roughly the same price.

SO – my question is – would you stay at NY NY in a Skyline Room (Standard) OR the MGM in a Grand Tower room (again, standard)??

Wouldn't dream of ever stopping in NYNY unless I was really desperate. Buffet is decent at MGM but the other main dining options such as Fiamma and Wolfgang Puck's are far superior.

IIRC the last time we were at the MGM the freebie drinks credit were for only good at a particular bar that far too prententious for us -

stoneman

May

How about a new poll on your favorite Vegas hotel toiletries!!
My vote goes for THEHotel Bathe range.
BTW how many of you got sitting up in your bathroom as displays, we have 7 different hotel ranges all nicely arranged on 2 glass shelves in ours. I know, sad isn't it:o

Leigh-Anne_60

Thanks for your input guys on virgin seating - I was under the impression virgin were a good airline to fly with

Cancellation is a no no unfortunately - booked with my tesco vouchers so was limited to Virgin. For £2 for a holiday to LV at the Wynn ill just grin and bear the lousy flight

stoneman

May

Leigh-Anne_60 wrote: »

Thanks for your input guys on virgin seating - I was under the impression virgin were a good airline to fly with

Cancellation is a no no unfortunately - booked with my tesco vouchers so was limited to Virgin. For £2 for a holiday to LV at the Wynn ill just grin and bear the lousy flight

That's the trouble, VS have perpetuated this myth by having flash adverts showing happy faces and opulent offerings. The truth is that if you fly from Gatwick or Manchester and not Heathrow you are on a B&S (bucket and spade) route and they don't give a flying fig about you as you are not a potential regular (IE dozens of flights a year) customer. The aircraft are old and tired looking on the inside, the IFE half of the time does not work (on our last trip with them in Y the whole of the aircraft except for U did not have any screens working, and the overhead lights were off as well, and that was a night flight) and lets be honest, they are not cheap.
You are just as well going with Thomson or BMI except for the fact that they only run once or twice a week, as the product with them is just as good, and I have found BMI seating far superior to that of VS. Our next flight in 2 weeks is with AA so I will report back on the experience.
Now MAXjet, there was an airline:(

trets77

April

Steff wrote: »

Hello all,

I’m looking for a bit of advice if anyone could help?

There are two deals on at the moment (via fatwallet) for MGM Grand & NYNY for the dates I am wanting. It brings both hotels out at roughly the same price.

SO – my question is – would you stay at NY NY in a Skyline Room (Standard) OR the MGM in a Grand Tower room (again, standard)??

Please cast your vote!!!! I haven’t stayed at either before and I have never even visited NY, NY. I have, however visited MGM twice and am thoroughly aware of how BIG it is. That does put me off slightly, but if the room is nice, then Im sure I can live with those long walks burning off the excess calories consumed!

Any advice welcome.
Thanks.
Steff;)

well we really liked New York New York and would stay there again if the price was right. The thing about the MGM Grand and there is no getting away from this .....IT'S BLOODY HUGE like you said. so i vote New York New York

Thanks for your input guys on virgin seating - I was under the impression virgin were a good airline to fly with

Cancellation is a no no unfortunately - booked with my tesco vouchers so was limited to Virgin. For £2 for a holiday to LV at the Wynn ill just grin and bear the lousy flight :pToday 8:17 PM

it's not Ryan Air bad . but they defiantly know how to pack that 747 to maximise profit.just be prepared for the small seat pitch and if you can bag thoose 2 seats on their own or the exit seats do it. good points are the in flight entertainment ( but i cannot stress enough to bring your own headphones with your own £2.95 adaptor from Maplins ) free booze . you get still in cinema movies in your seat back telly , only trouble is you won't hear them without some good in ear phones .

i will be having to make to with 2 of 4 seats in the middle in 4 weeks , but it will be worth the small amount of uncomfyness for the price paid .

Hi Guys

I have only just found this thread (i normally hang out on the comps forum!)

We are off to Vegas on Tuesday 8th April and i was just looking for a few tips - i dont think i will beable to make my way through all 48 pages on here!!

Firstly, we want to do the Grand Canyon helicopter tour, any recommendations as to best operators and cheapest prices?

Secondly we would really like to see a couple of shows, one of the Cirque Du Soleil and maybe Penn and Teller, any advice on who to book these through would be welcome!

Any other tips/advice you have for a couple of Vegas newbies more than welcome :beer:Today 1:11 AM

try any of the operators out of McCarren. you can find plenty of adverts for them in the free magazines you will find in hotel lobbies and taxis ect. they will all be reputable.

the Cirque and Penn and teller shows don't ofetn appear at the half price outlets. though it's always worth checking to see. if not call them up when you get there , you find the phone numbers in the same free magazines

my top tip for Las Vegas ( not in the guide on page 1) is take some comfy shoes , you will be walking a fair bit what ever you do

stoneman wrote: »

How about a new poll on your favorite Vegas hotel toiletries!!
My vote goes for THEHotel Bathe range.
BTW how many of you got sitting up in your bathroom as displays, we have 7 different hotel ranges all nicely arranged on 2 glass shelves in ours. I know, sad isn't it:o

i'll 2nd the BATHE range by Gilcrest & Soames from THE HOTEL, easily the nicest Hair products i have ever used , plus everything in the range smells expensive and divine. well you need great products when you have bathrooms like THE HOTEL don't you ? we have a bodyshop bag filled to brim with bathroom freebies from all over the USA, i haven't purchased any hair products since Oct , i don't think i will need buy soap till next year ( and thats if i don't stock up in California and Caesars )

Mardrew

Hi

Just a quick post to let you know that we moved from The Signature to The Palazzo today. I can't begin to tell you how good our room is - and that is the most basic one! When I first walked in I couldn't stop saying 'OMG, OMG, look at this, look at this' with a huge smile on my face. (Whilst waiting for our luggage to be brought up - we slipped up doing that as we didn't think a room would be ready - I had a good play with the remote controlled blinds and curtains and the different settings on the illuminated make-up mirror in the bathroom but I didn't spoil my holiday by standing on the weighing scales in the bathroom!)

Trets, I did listen to you this time and got my camera out straight away to take some photos of the room. My teenage sons are going to be so unimpressed when I start showing them all the photos of our hotel rooms! (They already think we are sad when I told them we went to see Big Elvis yesterday!)

Going to see Tom Jones now and tomorrow to the Grand Canyon. We are looking forward to getting off Strip tomorrow as we are starting to feel hotelled out from walking around all the different hotels and still a fair few left to do!

Mardrew

PS Totally agree with the comfy shoes - I was actually sensible this time and brought my trainers.

PPS We got the Palazzo through Priceline - the auction side. We have paid £360 including tax and the Priceline service fee for 4 nights which covers the weekend. Excellent value I think.

stoneman

May

Mardrew,
Are you saying that Palazzo is better then the Signature? that would be something, as I have always rated the Sig. the best hotel in Vegas, I think trip adviser put it as the best as well, and in the top 5 in the U.S. Is the pool up and running yet, or do you have to use the Venetian? we really liked the casino there, we went in a couple of days after it opened. One funny thing, there is a bar in the centre if the casino where you can eat as well. the bar has VP machines, we sat on the chairs and no kidding my wifes chin just about came up to the bartop, it was so funny. The bartender said everyone was complaining about it, so have a look and see if you can read the VP screen while you are sitting down

ferf1223

March

Missyy wrote: »

Secondly we would really like to see a couple of shows, one of the Cirque Du Soleil and maybe Penn and Teller, any advice on who to book these through would be welcome!

They regularly have a 25% off coupon on Harrah's site for P&T. The current one does expire on 31st March 2008 but worth checking back before you go and see if they have updated it.

http://www.harrahs.com/EventsDetail.do?locationCode=RLV&detailName=penn-and-teller-b-detail&eventTitle=Penn%20&%20Teller

You have to print the voucher and bring it to the box office with a Total Rewards card (it's free to join) to use it...if it were me, I would go the first day of the trip to book for a night later in the stay, just to be sure.

Also keep an eye on www.goldstar.com. Sign up for free, use zipcode 89109 and check every day. They do have P&T for some dates for $52.80 plus service fee...and they regularly have Mystere, just a matter of getting them before they sell out.

ferf1223

March

Leigh-Anne_60 wrote: »

Thanks for your input guys on virgin seating - I was under the impression virgin were a good airline to fly with

Cancellation is a no no unfortunately - booked with my tesco vouchers so was limited to Virgin. For £2 for a holiday to LV at the Wynn ill just grin and bear the lousy flight

We're in the category of those who covet those pairs of seats at the back of the plane. It's worth the delay at immigration to us...and they go really quickly - so I would take them now (and you can change them later if you decide to). We've found that of the pairs, the further back ones are a bit more comfortable.

The planes they use are old, yes...they aren't the best, but if you're flying from London, Virgin is the only direct option and for those of us who prefer to fly direct, it's worth it. We just got back from Vegas and flew PE for the first time on that route (were originally flying MaxJet but had to rebook due to their bankruptcy). Not sure I think that PE is worth the 2x price myself. More legroom, yes. Better service. Off the plane earlier (major advantage on arriving at McCarran)...but not sure if that's worth 2x the price of economy. 50% extra I could agree with, but double seems a bit more than worth it...will see how we feel about it when we're next getting ready to book Vegas flights. We flew to Australia PE with Virgin last year on an Airbus A340 and it was BRILLIANT...but the old 747s, not so much.

We did have a 3 1/2 hour delay on departure yesterday (or Thursday as I suppose it was) but luckily went to check the bags about 11:30 and found out then...so still had the rental car and headed back to the strip (which we would have done anyway, but now knew we had 3 1/2 extra hours to play with)...ended up winning about $700 between then and take-off, so thanks Virgin.