Las Vegas

Yeah, someone should have mentioned (I bet it actually has been mentioned somewhere in this thread) that there are only 2 views in Vegas. Strip views = Strip views and mountain views = everything else. Even if you actually get a view of the mountains it's not like they're pretty to look at or anything.

Mandalay bay isn't exactly in the best location either. All it has for a view is the west side(nothing) and the airport on the east side. It's too far south on the strip imo.

Alasliasolonik_sl said:

We didn't want to see the strip at all and sure as shit didn't sign up to look at the fucking airport when I had a smoke and looked out the window. Ended up being 24% strip and 75% airport, thus began the bitching.

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So you wanted to look at desert then? The strip view is usually what everyone wants, there's not much else to look at in that area

Should we start an SOE Live thread?

Went to Vegas for my honeymoon this spring...found this thread really helpful before going so I figured I'd contribute a bit back.

Hotel: Venetian - A+, would stay again no question. Had a view of the mountains and part of the northern end of the strip, which includes TAO Beach and their loud ass music during the day. Tried to take a midday nap on the 31st floor and could make out the lyrics on the shit ass songs they were playing at the pool deck level. The one and only complaint I can remember. Oh yeah, and there will never be enough chaise lounges or whatever at the pools, so either get there early or give up.

Buffets: Wynn for Breakfast and Wicked Spoon (at the Cosmopolitan) for dinner. It's hard to say if you could ever truly eat enough to get your money's worth at these things, but nothing but good on the food quality. Wynn had a pretty crazy line to get in.

Casino Free Drinks: Very hit or miss. Looking back I think you need to avoid the penny slots, video poker/blackjack, etc. and do the table games (in which the minimum is definitely not 40 cents or whatever) to get consistent drinks. No way we could have gotten drunk for free on these, which is cool, went in thinking it was probably going to be an unreasonable expectation.

Shows: O (Cirque du Soleil) at the Bellagio and Absinthe outside of Caesars. Highly recommend both.

Good restaurants: Lavo (Venetian/Palazzo shops area), Serendipity 3 (Caesars), Tableau (Wynn, and therefore expensive)

Felt totally safe on the strip, although at night we never went any further north than the Wynn. There is a litter problem because of the porn slapper people, but otherwise it seemed clean enough too. Slightly too many timeshare touts and random people with clipboards selling who knows what during the day, but most of them don't actually try and obstruct your path or anything.

We also took a day and did Hoover Dam/Grand Canyon West with a tour company. Went in a van with 3 other couples and the guide. Without the tour package I think the Skywalk would have been horribly overpriced and not worth it.

Totally going back, can see us doing Vegas every third year or something. Really good time.

Vegas is getting worse and worse about free drinks while you play, but there are a few things you can do:

If you want to play video poker, play it at a bar. Simple enough...just as long as you put $10 (sometimes $20, depending on the casino) in the machine, the bartender will get you whatever you want. Don't be a douche, tip for each drink and talk to the bartender and you can play as slowly as you want and drink all night. If I'm in Vegas and there's a game/fight I want to see, this is usually what I end up doing.

If you're out on the casino floor you just have to keep an eye out for the cocktail waitresses and get their attention. Yes, they'll be more frequent in the higher limit areas, but you shouldn't have to wait more than 5 minutes in any area to get your drink order in. If you're at a table and a waitress hasn't come by in awhile all you have to do is mention it to your dealer who can usually get it resolved quickly. Waiting for them to come to you could take forever, so you need to be assertive about it.

Adam12_sl said:

If you want to play video poker, play it at a bar. Simple enough...just as long as you put $10 (sometimes $20, depending on the casino) in the machine, the bartender will get you whatever you want. Don't be a douche, tip for each drink and talk to the bartender and you can play as slowly as you want and drink all night. If I'm in Vegas and there's a game/fight I want to see, this is usually what I end up doing.

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So much this. I usually go to Vegas for sporting weekends/weeks - March Madness, first two weekends of NFL playoffs, etc. A couple years ago, all of us snagged bar seats at the Venetian sports book for NFL Wild Card weekend and the drinks were never-ending. Tip for every drink and the bartender will take care of you.

Best place to get free drinks at slots now is Rio. They have people with ipads go around and get drink orders then the waitresses come out with the drinks, it's a lot faster.

I like Casino Royale for free/cheap drinks. They have $1 Michelobs plus low limit tables. Just load up on some $1 beer (probably the same amount you'd be tipping per drink for the free ones anyways) then hit a low limit table and enjoy the free drinks from there. If the waitress is being a little slow getting back to you with freebies, just send someone for another handful of $1 beers.

Alex_sl said:

So much this. I usually go to Vegas for sporting weekends/weeks - March Madness, first two weekends of NFL playoffs, etc. A couple years ago, all of us snagged bar seats at the Venetian sports book for NFL Wild Card weekend and the drinks were never-ending. Tip for every drink and the bartender will take care of you.

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I didn't have any luck drinking at sports books when I was in Vegas for a college football weekend. We ended up at the Caesar's sports book, I threw down $250 on my team right before their game started, and got a voucher for 1 free drink. That was it. When a waitress came by our only option for free drinks was water/pop, any alcohol was pay as you go.

Maybe I went about it wrong, maybe I should have put like $20 on 10 different games in order to get 10 free drink vouchers? No clue how that system works.

There are usually video poker stations at the bar. Put money in that thing and you're considered "gambling".

My brother-in-law, his wife, and daughter (7 years old) will be coming to visit my wife and I in December (last 2 weeks). It sounds like they'll be flying into Las Vegas, and we'll drive to meet them (we're about 3.5 hours away). I've only ever been to Vegas for the airport, so I need some advice.

For my wife and I, we don't gamble nor drink much, so we're mostly just interested in shows and food (that's more me, she doesn't care about food).

• What are the must see shows? It sounds like Ka is pretty high on the list.
• What hotels meet our needs? I don't have exact dates yet, but the MGM looks like it'd be cheap ($70-100 a night) in December. Is the location passable? Ka is there, so that's a plus. I'm not sure travelling for shows is a huge concern though. Is it close to restaurants? Are there other hotels we should look into?
• What restaurants/buffets do we absolutely have to go to? Depending on how long we're there, I wouldn't mind hitting a buffet. My wife and I are pretty cheap though, so the likelihood that we'll drop $100+ for the two of us on food is quite low.

Fow now, I'll assume we'll be there 2-3 days. We're close enough that any advice could possibly extend to other trips though.