Vegas
 

So I'm probably 60% sure I want to go to Vegas at the end of May. Not sure how a thread like this will turn out, since it's Vegas... but are there any nice hotels that people can speak highly of? Maybe ones that aren't the 5-star varieties? Any shows that are must-see, do I need to buy tickets in advance...? Restaurants, buffets...?

Basically, never been there but I know there has to be a lot to do. I'll probably gamble a very small amount every day, and then see how much money I have left for the last day. I've played blackjack quite a bit, but am still iffy on all the rules of when you're supposed to hit, split, double, etc. So a link to basics like that would help. :)

Yes this thread is for real. I think the only thing I know I want to do is see a Cirque De Soleil, not sure which, or where to buy tickets. Speaking of tickets, I was just going to go to somewhere like expedia.ca or travelocity.com... Is there any great places to buy from, get extra stuff thrown in, etc.?

THere are half price ticket booths where you can get same day shows but I doubt Cirque de soleil would be available.

There are a ton of places to stay cheap. If you want to be on the strip Luxor is usualy pretty cheap. You could also check out the Mirage, it's more central. Planet hollywood also usualy has some decent deals.

I saw blue man group at venetian and really enjoyed them. There is a dueling piano bar in New York New York that was alot of fun.

Planet Hollywood, Luxor and MGM are all pretty good bang for your buck. My personal favorite is Planet Hollywood out of those, due to its central location on the Strip with walking access to many good hotels/casinos. It also has some good deals on the various travel websites that you already have mentioned.

Best buffet is also at Planet Hollywood with a nod given to the Wynn as a great one, albeit a bit more expensive. No reservations for any of the buffets needed, but best to go during an off hour to avoid a long wait.

Cheap gaming can be had during the day if you want to gamble at your own casino. Much cheaper gambling is availale downtown if you want to take a cab down to that location. Stratosphere has some cheap gambling as well. Cheapovegas.com is a good place to hunt down that information.

Blue Man Group is a must see if you haven't been before. Seats in the first three rows are 25% off and the view is great. Mystere at Treasure Island and Love at the Mirage are the two Cirque shows I would highly recommend. Buy the Cirque tickets now. If you have time, go see the Shadows bar in Caesar's Palace. You'll know why once you get there..........

Thanks for the quick answers so far. Just wanted to add that I'd want to go for a week, stay on the strip I think, and I am single and going with a single friend, so shenanigans can be had.

If you are looking for a good, inexpensive clean place to sleep, I always have liked the Imperial Palace. Right in the middle of the Strip across from the MGM at a fraction of the price.

If someone tells you to go to the Green Door...think twice.

I can quickly throw in an opinion on two things:

First, check out wizardofodds.com if you're going to do any gambling. The site is very easy to navigate, and you can get basic strategies for pretty much every casino game you'll encounter.

Second, as far as Cirque du Soleil goes, my personal recommendation is Ka. I know a lot of people are fascinated by O, but O didn't do as much for me. O was a very impressive show to watch, but I thought Ka was truly amazing. I sat in the second row at Ka, and it was incredible. You don't need to sit that close, but I'd imagine that it's even better that way, particularly with the way the performers interact with the audience. The story for Ka is also much easier to follow than O's. I'm not even sure if O has much of a story. I just didn't get it, and it didn't "wow" me like Ka did. This is just one man's opinion, though!

I disagree...it's all right if you really want a cheap place, but the one time I went it had shower issues with hot water. I got the feeling that Harrah's bought it to tear it down and they are just waiting for the right time--this was about two years ago. Maybe I just had a bad experience, though.

Also, it's across from the Mirage, not MGM.

Vegas seems to be rolling out big deals to bring people in now.

Pumpy just triggered another thought for me. "Love" is exceptional for this reason. Even in the cheap seats, you get up close and interactive with the performers. The performers aren't restricted to the stage. I'll leave it at that to avoid ruining it for anyone.

I actually booked a trip for that reason. Got a room in April for Thurs-Fri-Sat night stay. 3 nights for 4 people at Planet Hollywood for ~$550 total. Great deal for a nice strip room.

I just booked a trip yesterday that had flights from Syracuse and four nights at the Wynn for $1200. Since the flights alone would have been $700, thats about $500 for 4 nights at the Wynn, and unbelievable deal. Hotels are really, really cheap there right now. Flights, I did not notice any real decline in price. The lowest prices seem to be available longer, but unlike the hotels, don't seem any lower than they have been in recent years.

If you are looking for cheap hotels on the strip, imperial palace is the cheapest one that the major travel sites will list, but that's kind of a dive. While we were searching, we noticed that really good prices were at TI, the Monte Carlo, Luxor.

You guys are slippin'. Everything you need to know about blackjack can be found here http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...ad.php?t=51843. One of the classic threads in FOFC history.

Bunny Ranch?

:+1:

Stayed there a ton of times. FTR, never had shower issues there. Great price and a fantastic location, right smack in the middle of everything.

As for buffets, I haven't been to the ones mentioned (I don't think), but I have been to the Rio's a bunch of times, and it's terrific.

Yeah, a lot of that depends on which weekend you go out there. It's always good to have some flexibility if you can in shopping for a weekend to go out there. Rates for the weekend can vary $200-400/weekend depending on which one you go. Things like fights, conventions, events, etc. can affect the pricing pretty drastically. If you can look around at a segment of weekends rather than a specific one, you can really save some bucks.

+2 on the IP

However I will add that I have been to Vegas 7 times (stayed at IP 5 of them) so the hotel is irrelavant to me. You may want to throw a couple more bucks down and stay at a little nicer one if it is your first trip. The shower issue sounds like something that could happen to anyone at any hotel. I have never had it in any of the trips I have taken there.

(When I took my first non-guy trip and stayed at Treasure Island I can't say I was that much more impressed than I was when I stayed at IP)

Typically, room prices jump on the weekend. If there is any way you can make your trip cover just the mid-week, you'll have the option of getting a very reasonable price at some of the nicest resorts or a bargain basement price everywhere else.

Another thing you can do is stay at a cheaper hotel on the weekend and move somewhere nicer during the week for a cheaper price

Yeah, okay, so maybe I overreacted on the shower issue. The location is fantastic as everyone else says. I think it was right when Harrah's bought it when I stayed there and it just seemed like maybe they didn't give a shit about what happened to it. Plus, Ithe two buddies I went with got food poisoning due to eating the same type of meal at Outback (yeah, Outback...it was a losing trip so we had to cut back somewhere) so everything seemed worse.

Would you guys rent a car beforehand? Or at all?

I wouldn't rent a car unless you really want to see something like the Hoover Dam or go outside the strip. Vegas is a cab town.

yeah, no need to rent a car. If you wanna do hoover dam just rent a car for the day. YOu can cab/ walk petty much anywhere and you will probably drink alot. Having a car there is totaly unneccesary.

+1. Just cab everywhere together. Pretty cheap when you do it that way.

dola- I would steer clear of staying at the Rio or Palms. IMO they are in a goofy location where it is hard to get to other palces.

We did not shop for weekends - this year it may be unnecesary.

I always go for a long weekend, and found Fri-Tues was much cheaper than Wed-Sun. That was probably mostly the flight cost though, as everyone seems to leave town on Sunday, no matter when they got there.

The Rio does have a shuttle that runs between it and Bally's/Paris on the strip, but yeah, there Palms is kind of out by itself, without any free rides back to the strip, from what I remember.

I'm getting my mid-June trip together for the HP convention at Mandalay Bay, and I can't wait.

Yup

Oh, and if you plan to go to a place with, um, shenanigans, you can ask a limo driver (or cabbie) in front of your hotel if he'll take you there for free. They get kickbacks from the shenanigan places.

If you like Irish music and that atmosphere, try Nine Fine Irishmen in New York New York. Awesome.

If you like Thai food, by all means go to Lotus of Siam. It's in a crappy strip mall off the strip, but worth it worth it worth it. Trust me, don't let the exterior fool you.

I went to Lotus with a couple professional poker players. They love going there and their recommendation was spot-on. Great food and obviously much better value than the strip.

I agree with a lot of what's already been said. For the Cirque shows I enjoyed Mystere more than Ka, but they were both excellent. The only buffet I've had there is the Bellagio's and it was good, but expensive. I had one of the best dinners of my life at Alize, but again it was pricey.

What's this about Alizee?

http://www.andrelv.com/alize/

I did not, unfortunately, eat dinner with her there though...

I was just went to Las Vegas and returned yesterday. My two cents on things:

* I stayed at the Imperial Palace. Cheap prices (mine was free ;)), basic accommodations, great location. I had no major issues with it, other than the sucky gambling there and most hotels around it.
* If you intend to stay on the Strip and only go to places on the Strip (or downtown), you don't need a car. It would just get in the way. Otherwise it can be helpful.

IP is good, but I personally have always liked staying at the Trop. If you happen to smoke it's nice because they have rooms with balconies too

I stayed at the IP for a night on my last visit and I guess valuewise it was good but I just did not like it much. The whole place seemed dirty to me and even the casino area was just too congested and gave me the wrong vibe.

I really enjoyed my stay at Planet Hollywood and Luxor though.

While gkb is hanging out with Alizee or Mike Comrie (they look the same, so I can't tell who's in that tiny picture), I'll be chillin' with Mrs. gkb. Yes indeed.

Dammit Pumpy. I'm tired of coming home from work at night and hearing this, "Did Pumpy post any new pics of himself today?" Or this, "What do you think Pumpy's doing?"

Thanks guys. I'm thinking we'll be doing May 21-25 (coming back that morning) and staying at Planet Hollywood. Just need one friend to get the days off.

shenanigans? really? are we 12?

if you're going out to see titties and kitties...

I think PH is a good location. You can walk to most casinos. MGM, Luxor, MAndalay BAy and Hooters are in one direction, Belligiao, Mirage, Vebetian, Treasuer Island are in another.

THere is also a Fat Tuesdays in the Miracle Mile shops, awesome huge frozen drinks, and you can add an extra shot of 151 for $1.00

If you or your friends play poker they also have a nicely structured tournament there they run 4 times a day.

Plus, I believe there is a Trader Vics in the PH. I love that place (never been to the one in Vegas though).

I was reading Time's article on Wynn's new resort: Encore. I am really behind the times because I had no idea that he was built another resort next to Wynn's, let alone having being opened already. In the article, it said this

]

What would that half-built resort be? If I recall, Wynn's is north of Venetian.

Also, how is the mega MGM resort/residence coming along further south?

Yeah, I'm not sure what they are referring to, because the Venetian and the sister Palazzo are immediately south of the Wynn. Across the street is the Trump International, and I think they have finished two towers there, and abandoned plans for the third. Not sure what they've done with the old Stardust site, which is to the north of the Trump complex.

As for CityCenter, I think they are still on track to have the first building open this fall.

Thanks. Where are the two towers of Trump located? TI is across the street from Palazzo and just north of it was the big mall. Unless it's still north of all that?

The Trump place is immediately north of Fashion Show Mall, about half a block off of the Strip.

Vegas in the summer. Oh yeah baby. Maybe I can get married and divorced in the same week.

When are you going? I'll be there from June 12th to the 20th.

:(

I just got back from Vegas where I stayed at the Mirage.

I think what this guy must be talking about is the MGM project and it was being worked on while I was out there, so it's not dead - but I overheard people talking about how there are a lot of financial issues with it.

When you going?