Las Vegas
 

We just arrived in Vegas. Below is a view from the hotel room. Our first experience in the city was getting ripped off by two taxi drivers.

We had to take two taxis from the airport because we had too many people and luggage. I figured they would keep each other honest. I even let the cabbie know I knew his cab number.

They both took the scenic route, so a $10 cab ride from the airport was $25 each.

Panorama of Venetian Hotel
 

This is what you get when you take a panorama shot on the fly without a tripod. Not too bad, but there are a few M.C. Escher sections.

And, no, we did not board that bus to the Liberace Museum. :headshake

Paris in Las Vegas
 

Eiffel tower in front of Paris casino.

Street Scene Paris Casino - Las Vegas
 

Street Scene Paris Casino - Las Vegas

Platters, Drifters, and Coasters and the Sahara
 

Platters, Drifters, and Coasters and the Sahara.

It was a great concert. We saw this show and the Fab Four Beatles impersonators.

My son's friends went to see Bite (NSFW) , a topless vampire show. My son said 'whatever' when I ordered the half price tickets and asked him if he wanted to go, so I didn't get him one.

The maitre'D gave them front row seats two feet from the edge of the stage. I thought Marci and I were going to be seeing something else that night so I did not join them.

Later on, Marci said "You know you could have gone to that show". :smack:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Vegas! Just looking at these pictures gets my blood pumping for some craps! I'm going to the senior citizen/white trash equivalent of Vegas this weekend. Yes, Laughlin. The casinos are no where near as spectacular as the ones in Vegas, but they have lower limit tables which insure more gambling time... and it makes me feel like a big spender when I use $5 chips. Plus you have the advantage of being on the Colorado River with all of its activities. Fun!

Thanks for sharing your pics, rl.

The next time you go to Vegas, I HIGHLY reccommend catching the free show in the lounge at the cheesy, rundown Boardwalk Casino. Purple Reign They're awesome!

the laughlin table limits are the same that you will find at The Sahara, Palace Station, etc.

It is only on the main strip that LV has high minimums. The worst are the Bellagio and Wynn!. i thought Wynn was absolutely overrated and gaudy. and $20 minimums on roullette at 11AM on friday? please.

i spend most of my time at the Aladdin. i like that place a lot.

i wish i had known you were going to be in LV rich, i might have been able to run up that way and grab a beverage. it would be nice to meet a cellarite.

Yeah, I thought The Wynn was ridiculous. We walked around for about 5 mins on opening weekend and that was plenty. It’s pretty on the inside, but nothing spectacular. And I agree about the Aladdin. They have an awesome buffet, too. :yum:

Best casino buffet in town is the Rio. Period.
Best all around buffet is at Yolie's, down by the HardRock.

The Sahara has $1 and $2 blackjack tables open on weekday (Sun-Thurs) nights and a little po-dunk hotel/casino in Henderson called The El Dorado has $.25 roulette ($2 inside minimum) and free drinks too. Blackjack tables are usually $5 min tho.

I've never been to "The Wynn", must have opened after I left. Steve Wynn is such a pompous ass. As if 14 billion dollar casinos weren't enough, he has to open another one named after himself. Turd.

My favorite themed casino is the Luxor, and their buffet ain't bad, but it's nothing to write home about, either.

Also, Rich, most of the casinos run complimentary shuttles to and from the airport, so if you're staying at a "big name" joint, ask the desk if they do, and save that $50 on the way back to McCarren.

And for god's sake, eat at Yolie's before you go. $25 a person + drinks, but it's worth every penny. And go hungry.

edit: Oh yeah! and if you like outdoorsy stuff, go to Mt. Charleston, the horseback riding should be up and running by now, and hit red rock canyon. Beautiful!!!

i've even played the Sahara's $1 minimum tables at 1 am on a saturday.

Wynn's just opened in the last month or so - the week before i went last time, whenever that was. he has already announced his next project - a new hotel casino with the sole purpose of making The Bellagio look like a slothouse.

yikes. i personally think the flower theme in the Wynn is over the top, the Bellagio is too stuffy, so i don't have any interest in the next big thing.

Who in the HELL is that in the lower right hand corner mooning the stage?!! S*c? Tha's just nasty..:vomit:

>>>>:)<<<<< Obligatory smilie. just kidding, right?

We made the Rio seafood buffet. All-you-can eat split lobster tails and shrimp for about $35, with desserts that you would be willing to buy from a bakery.

We didn't gamble much, but we went to shows and restaurants at many of the hotels and walked through the casinos.

The Sahara definitely had the most reasonable tables. The Aladdin had a great shopping area in a ring around the casino. Lots of interesting vendors.

I didn't get to Yolies. We limited ourselves to the strip mostly because of our first bad experience with the taxi. The $5 all day bus pass took us all up and down the strip. It was all working well until the Friday we were going to leave just before Memorial Day weekend. There was complete gridlock in front of the MGM Grand so we paid the extra money and took the monorail back. We might spring for the $10 monorail day pass next time.

We are considering a timeshare in Vegas. The $13k timeshare we were shown sells on the resale market for $5-6K. We walked out of the timeshare presentation after 3+ hours. We came close to buying but they said 'We don't negotiate prices'. That made saying no very easy. We went to a different timeshare presentation where they wanted $27,000 for a slightly remodeled 1980's hotel which looked like a Best Western (no offense intended). They were going to build a huge new unit behind it but were only selling timeshares in the existing building. I checked at the front desk and they were renting these $27k rooms for $69 a night, $110 on the weekends.
We got some dinner vouchers for attending the presentation and were able to purchase discount vouchers for the Platters-Drifters-Coasters show, so that one wasn't a total loss.

Counting the two timeshare presentations we went to in Florida about 9 and 15 years ago, this makes a total of 4 presentations. We have decided to do it, but on our terms.

I won't go into details until after the deal is completed, but I think shopping around and using the Internet for research really helped a lot. I wouldn't have had access to this much information 9 years ago.

If we close the deal, we'll be back in Vegas next fall. See ya then Lookout.

for timeshares i highly recommend Sedona Pines in AZ. very reasonably priced. uses the RCI points system, no home resort network, no weeks, just raw points, and Sedona is a GOLD CROWN (top priority destination) so when you want to use your points anywhere else in the world, you are bumped to the head of the line.

any vacation, any resort booked less than 45 days out is a MAXIMUM of 9,000 points. prices are negotiable and very reasonable. very low annual fee - $350. that is where i bought after much research. I haven't regretted it for one minute - i absolutely love it and recommend it to anyone considering.

prices change and fluctuate - but i bought mine ( a low level plan) 2 years ago for $7,000. that gave me 54,000 points every other year (effectively 27,000 points/year) and i have never used more than 9,000 on trip. more importantly, i've never been told that there wasn't room for me at my desired resort. the book of member resorts is a couple hundred pages thick. ROCK ON!

I like having a deed, so I went with a major hotel chain. I like the fact that if they screw me and a few thousand others over they will take a hit to their brand reputation.

I have transfer privileges to RCI if I want to go there.

In a strange moment of synchronicity, at one time I worked for RCI's magazine, Endless Vacation.

I think I still have some of their coffee mugs and an umbrella around here somewhere.

YESSSS!!!

April 17-20 (Sun-Thurs) hubby and I are finally going to Vegas. We are staying at NY NY. Friend just dropped off his Fodoros book on Vegas, can't wait to read it tonight. Let the advice commence.

WooHoo!!

See at least two shows, one of which is a Cirque show, not including the sex one.

And the other show should be one of the following:

Penn & Teller
Lance Burton
Blue Man Group

Dollar craps and 2-3$ blackjack at the little casinos around the Imperial Palace, and downtown.

Every resort has a coffee shop-type hotel restaurant where a quick, and generally good, meal can be had for cheap without waiting through a buffet line or making a big production. The best such place is Luxor's.

We stayed at the Stratosphere last time we were down there (I think it was in November or December). The rooms were ok - nothing exciting. We stayed at the Luxor, and their standard rooms are not so great. They upgraded us to a suite, and it was ok. The rooms at Paris are beautiful & pricey, but our very favorite place so far was The Venetian. Huge rooms that are very clean & well appointed, and the staff was very friendly.
We've stayed at a few others, but I'm drawing a blank.
You definitely should go check out Fremont Street to see "old" Vegas. It's about the only place in Vegas now that you can actually still use coins in the slot machines.
Oh, and you can stick around for the cheeeeesy light show at night.

Relax and enjoy. If you work too hard at having a good time it won't happen or at least won't be worth it. :D

Just booked the airfare and car for our fall trip to Vegas. I used my Hilton points to stay at the airport one day in order to get a reasonable price on a flight.

We'll see who from the Cellar can get there for a BBQ or night out.

We leave Sun night for Sin City. WOO HOO!!!!

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures...

Hugs and kisses to most, see you in a week...

Cool. Here is a link to the concierge service for Hilton Clubs. While you can't use the service, there is a lot of info on events and tours.

Here is a coupon for Tix4Tonight which might save you waiting in line for 1/2 price tickets.

Here are the rest of the coupons. Have fun.

We stayed at the MGM Grand this time. (3/30 - 4/01/06). It was ok. The room we had was really small, but very new & Ikea-ish contemporary. The bathroom setup was kinda strange, but overall it wasn't a bad deal for the money.

Oh My Goodness, did we have a good time!!! We were ready to leave on Thurs. But after being home for a night ready to go back on Friday :). I have a lot to catch up at work this week, and we have a visiting scientist here too, so I won't be able to post too much till later, but WOW. I didn't get your post before leaving rich, but will check out the links when I have a chance. Thanks! Zumanity was AWESOME, totally funny! New York New York is where we will stay again. After visiting most other places, we liked it the best, for a variety of reasons. looking forward to comparing notes with you seakdivers, when I have a chance.

Later!

LabRat - we haven't stayed at NYNY yet! Give up the details!!!

New trip planned
 

We'll be out in Vegas again in September. Originally, we were giving our week to our son for his 21st birthday, but he couldn't find any friends who would commit to a free one bedroom suite in Vegas (what are college kids coming to). So we borrowed some points and are renting two suites for 7 days. The other suite is for our friends and their son.


While running through available coupons, I found one for this company offering cruises on Lake Mead. Has anyone done this?

OOOH! Found out this week that my parents are going to Las Vegas for their wedding anniversary next year! It's their 40th (Ruby) so a special occasion.

If anyone can advise or (even better) send spare coupons for 17 Feb 2008 I will love you forever. I'll probably write them something as my way of marking it, but if I could also give them something that would make their money go further I'd love to do it.

Sorry Rich - didn't mean to hijack your request - I'll post again nearer the time.

No problem SG, I have included both generic and specific coupon and travel sites. I found the Lake Mead cruises for %25 off on Valpak.

While in Vegas, you can get same day %50 off tickets at Tix4Tonight. The catch is that they do not take phone or Interent orders, only walkins to one of their 4 locations. The Las Vegas Coupons site has a $1 off coupon for the service charge and a VIP pass which might help if there is a long line.

A lot of shows already give 2-for-1 discounts, although I'm not sure your dad can convince your mom to go see Bite, the topless vampire show at the Stratosphere (I haven't seen it but I've heard good things).

The Las Vegas Tourism site allows you to build a 'shopping cart' of events to create an intinerary. You can create a logon to save this info.

Coupons


Coupon Savings From H.O.T! Coupons
myClipper.com - Money Saving Local and National Coupons
http://www.valpak.com/
Printable Restaurant Coupons Printable coupons
Online Coupons, Coupon Codes, Free Stuff, Baby Coupons, diaper coupons Online Coupons, Free stuff, Baby coupons, Diaper Coupons, Coupon Codes

Travel


Cheap flights and more with the Booking Buddy airfare comparison tool
Las Vegas - Official Las Vegas Tourism Web Site
Las Vegas Concierge
Las Vegas Coupons - Totally FREE! - Totally FREE! Totally Free! PRINT THEM YOURSELF! Las Vegas Discount Coupons. Restaurants, attractions, shows, casinos and more. Print them out on your own printer. Redeem them for valuable money saving discounts. No strings, no registration, no intrusive downloads or installs, just FREE! Only From Las Vegas Leisure Guide!
Las Vegas Monorail - Home
Nevada Commission on Tourism The official site of the Nevada Commission on Tourism, featuring a comprehensive collection of information on travel and vacations in the Silver State: what to do, where to go, and where to stay 12 months of the year. Order free information packets by mail or download online. The site is updated weekly and available in multiple languages. PHL - Philadelphia International Airport
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I haven't been on the Lake Mead cruises, but I have rented a ski boat for the day and cruised the lake. It was a $200 deposit + about $150 for the rental and gas. They give you a brief overview of the boat and a map of the lake. It was AWESOME. You get to go explore the lake, stop off at some of the smaller islands and eat a picnic lunch, ski, see the lake side of Hoover Dam, whatever.

Also, when in Vegas, you MUST eat at Yolie's. It's on Paradise, near the Hard Rock Hotel. It's Brazilian BBQ, but all that means is all you can freakin eat. 6 different kinds of meat, rice, carrots, fried bananas, potatoes, bread, and it all keeps coming until you explode. Expect $25 per person + drinks. The ONLY thing I miss about Vegas.

I remember your recommending that last time. The only Brazilian BBQ we were able to get to was the one in the Aladdin and it was so close to closing that the experience wasn't $100.

BTW, the price is closer to $35 for the rodizio according to this.

For the same price I can hit the Rio's Village Seafood Buffet and get all the lobster tails I want (small Danish variety).

I personally like rodizio, but my wife has taken a 'been there, done that' attitude.

New Vegas Links
 

I ran across these while fact checking my last post.

Destination 360
Reviews of Las Vegas attractions with 360 degree panoramas!

Virtual Tourist
Same as above. Different information format, with user reviews and photos.

BTW, check out the Flamingo pool. My timeshare has pool privileges here.

BTW, you can purchase gift certificates for Las Vegas at Restaurant.com. If you wait until they have their sale, you can buy $25 gift certificates for $5 (normally $10).

Thanks Rich
My globetrotting bro is setting the itinerary so I'll liaise with him and see if I can use these to help in any way

I will probably be back for more advice - bro's been there twice but local knowledge is worth rubies.... if you can excuse a dreadful pun

I'm glad that I could help but 'local' is relative, since I am on the East coast. This will be my 5th or 6th trip to Vegas in 20 years.

Lookout and Onyx are the real locals here. I'm just an expert on being cheap.:D

Of course, we could all have a Cellar GTG in Vegas. We can book it as a convention, with lectures by TW, UG,...... or maybe not:thepain3:.

Soon, very soon..
 

Vacation time is almost here. We're making preparations. I've already bought combination water bottles and misters to spray ice water on ourselves.

The 10 day forecast has temps from 96-108. Ouch:flamer:

We just passed through a week or so ago. It was very hot, but not unbearable because it was dry. Well, apart from the rain. :lol:

And I could actually walk in the heat a few years back because all of my sweat evaporated as soon as it hit the skin.

You just have to be careful and hydrate to make up for the sweat which you are losing but don't even notice.

The worst part is the feet. Whatever the temperature is, it's hotter when you are standing/walking on blacktop. I swear I can feel the heat through the soles of my shoes.

Of course, that's why there are pools, air conditioning, and margaritas;). Or in my case, ice water and lemonade.

You need shoes with cleats, like snow tires, to minimize ground contact. Works on cold surfaces too.

yes, drink lots of water. hadn't thought about cleats, but we all had shoes with sports soles, so I guess that's why we didn't notice that aspect so much.

have fun :)

Well, today's our last full day. It's been a great trip so far.

So far, I've seen four shows, The Producers, Mamma Mia, Spamalot, and Bite.

I used Restaurant.com and got a $75 discounted gift certificate to Sapporo, which I think was the best meal I've ever had in Vegas. It's 5 miles west of the strip on Flamingo, so we needed the car that we rented for the first 3 days. We had Kobe beef shooters, which looked like White Castle burgers, but the meat was great! Next time, I'm going to get the $100 gift certificate and go back for Kobe steaks.

We also went for a Lake Meade cruise. I took some nice landscape photos, including the back of Hoover Dam at night.

Today we're going to Fremont Street.

BTW, Bite was fantastic! Topless chorus girls, acrobats, and classic rock music. We all got pictures with some of the girls after the show. Unfortunately, we were all a little tired at midnight when the show got out and couldn't go the after party (public invited) at one of the bars in the casino.

I had some trouble with Linux and my USB ports are not working for storage devices, so I will load photos after I get back.

So far it's been both relaxing and exhilarating.

BTW, we just upgraded the timeshare to a two bedroom suite every year. So it's next year in Miami or Vegas.

Red and I booked another trip to Vegas for the 20-25th of April. Staying one more day than last time so that we can relax a bit more. This trip's goal is to explore stuff off the strip. We'll call NYNY home base again though, becasue we had such a great time there. Going to see CdC's O, and likely one other less pricey show to be determined.

Ordered a 2008 Fodors book off amazon this time. Will be willing to sell it after the 26th of April :).

Sounds great Rich. Can't wait to see your pics. Be sure to put them on a web host site so we can see them all.

Do the Lake Meade cruise at least once. It's a little cheesy, but worth it. They have a coupon somewhere.

I can send you the next restaurant.com discount code if you want to buy gift certificates at %50 or more off. Sapporo is no longer on the list, but there's a very nice looking steak place where you can buy $10-100 gift certificates. Of course, you have to spend twice the value of the gift certificate, but it's not hard to spend $100 for two people at a nice steak place. The $50 gift certificate is only $10 with a %50 off code.

Make sure you use suntan lotion. We wouldn't want you to sunburn your assets.;)

If you post your Vegas pictures, I'll post my Vegas pictures. If you post a Vegas picture of yourself in a thong, I promise not to post a Vegas picture of me in a thong.:eek:

Have fun. I hope you leave enough of Vegas standing for me to enjoy in May.

I saw CduS's "Love" at the Mirage in January when I was there. It was awesome. I'd love to have been able to see "O" as well.

I enjoyed Fremont street much more than the Strip, FWIW. More...um...real.

I would love to see Spamalot. I am a huge MP fan from way back. That and the erotic circus ole version show. I saw a special on HBO on it, looks very good.

:lol:

Took me forever to figure out you meant "Cirque du Soleil." I'm going to call it Circus Ole' from now on.

I saw Spamalot and was mildly disappointed. Part of this might be because I saw the show while very tired from lack of sleep. The other part was that a lot of the shows we saw were using understudies. The lead was supposed to be John O'Hurley (Mr. Peterman from Seinfeld) but was an understudy.

It's not so bad with a show like Mama Mia with an ensemble cast, but some shows need a good lead.

For example, we saw the Producers, but Max Bialystock was played by Tony Danza. It was supposed to be David Hasselhoff, who IMO would have been at least somewhat better.

Personally, my casting of good 'C' grade celebrities for the part would have included Jason Alexander, or pretty much anyone who has ever been onstage at a Friar's Club roast.

Of the two topless shows I have seen in the past few years, I think Bite was the best. You can't beat acrobatic topless vampire babes and rock music.

Yea, I like to bastardize stuff like that, totally pisses off my wife. :D

Before my family and I went to see Delirium, I overheard my then boyfriend say I was going to "Surf du souffle or something." He wasn't trying to be funny.

But delirium was pretty bad. My ma has seen other cirques and really liked them, but we found this one to be lame. For example, there is one guy whose job is apparently to walk around the stage really slowly while looking around as if he's expecting bird droppings to fall on him, while the show goes on around him. All it was missing was a couple of bears riding tricycles. The acrobatics were minimal; the rest was pretentious tripe. Eh, some of the smelly people around us loved it.

Well, we are back. Had quite the time, and managed to take some pictures when I was sober enough to remember the camera. Yes, I'll get 'em posted. Both trips worth, heh.

Saw C du C's "O"; wasted a morning visiting the not-timeshare, vacation-ownership opportunity of Tahiti Villiage*** for $140 credit at one of our fav restaurants and 2 show tickets to "V The Variety Show"; finally got to see the Sirens of TI outside Treasure Island (4th time apperantly is the charm); witnessed a whole herd of real life honest to goodness he-shes out on the town; smoked hookah for the first, and last, time; ate some of the best pulled pork and blackberry gelato I've ever had (not at the same time); saw a woman so drunk she literally was bouncing off the walls in the bathroom, then managed to piss herself once she made it out to the casino floor. . . There's more, but that's a little taste.

Was a very interesting trip to say the least.


***If you are curious, total buy in ~$47,000, financed at 16.9%, for total payments of $850/mo for ~12 years. I'm telling YOU this, because they refused to tell US until we went through their whole schpeil, and it pissed me off.

So it's $122,400, with no money down... how could you resist?

I've been kicking myself for being easy fodder for a car salesman with a pen and contract the last couple years but now after reading that slaughter I think I'm not SO pathetic after all.

:lol2: