Soldato
- Joined
- 10 Sep 2008
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- Bangor, Northern Ireland
Las Vegas (September)
- Thread starter kai
- Start date
it's good but was loads better with original cast, only an issue if you've seen it previously though
It's not even in the national park hence being allowed to land, it is in the Native American Reserve where despite there preaching of the sacred ground of our ancestors stuff any old cash cow like the hideous sky walk goes. Any Helicopter tour that fly's from Vegas will be going to the 'west rim' the only option for the real national park are either bus/car drive and pick up a helicopter there or fly by plane then pick up the helicopter. In the national park no helicopter is allowed to fly below the rim of the canyon.
Back on topic for vegas I found it amusing for a couple of days but was soon bored of it. Food is great and the shows fantastic but everything has a fake veneer.
When I went to Vegas a few years ago with my work colleague. We stayed in the Aria, and really enjoyed the rooms. The restaurants in the Aria are okay, but I think that there is better eats elsewhere in Vegas.
We saw the Cirque du Soleil show, Ka, in the MGM Grand. It was a fantastic show, with awesome displays of acrobatics and feats of skill. My second choice of show would have been to see O in the Bellagio, as it's totally different due to being mostly in water.
Freemont Street is definitely a unique place. You can zip-line from one end to the other, which looked like a lot of fun.
We saw the Cirque du Soleil show, Ka, in the MGM Grand. It was a fantastic show, with awesome displays of acrobatics and feats of skill. My second choice of show would have been to see O in the Bellagio, as it's totally different due to being mostly in water.
Freemont Street is definitely a unique place. You can zip-line from one end to the other, which looked like a lot of fun.
Fair enough, that would have been fantastic to see if that is the case as it was still brilliant to see, I especially liked it because of the intimacy of being so close. Of some of the other shows I had seen you are just too far away to really respect the talent.
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- Joined
- 15 Jul 2005
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- 1,231
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- UK
i stayed in the Aria a couple of weeks ago, restaurants are very average for the price there, buffet is nice but not a lot of choice, i struggled to eat more than one and a half small plates, think it cost $32 if i remember
We saw Cirque du soleil the beatles as well, which was one of the best things i have ever seen.
Also.. freemount street is really good, great atomsphere and much more gritty and real compared to the main strip, decent food there as well
Love Vegas been quite a few times. We have stayed at the Bellagio, Flamingo and NYNY and each time I do the itinery is pretty similar. Last time was October last year in NYNY with the lads, all the times before it has been with the wife.
Holsteins Shakes and Buns in Cosmopolitan, Maggianos in Fashion Show, Cheesecake Factory in Ceasers, Benehana, Hooters, Secret Pizza for a slice in Cosmopolitan, New York Pizzeria for a slice and garlic knot in NYNY, Bellagio dinner buffet, NYNY breakfast buffet are just a few where we like to eat but I prefer the American chain style food over fancy.
I prefer the gun ranges at Machine Gun Vegas over The Gun Store, good packages and they will pick you up. Most Cirque shows are great, avoid Blue Man in my opinion, me and the wife only stayed the duration because the tickets cost a fortune (we just didn't get it). We saw Penn and Teller at the Rio last time and it was amazing. Grab your tickets from the Tix for Tonight (I think thats what they are called) booths on the strip.
Arcade in NYNY and Excaliber are fun. We also visit all main hotels on the strip just to walk around, grab a chip for the collection and see the free attractions etc.
I prefer Gambling at NYNY or Excaliber, I don't know why just like the atmosphere I guess and sticking to one chain with a players card gets you something back if you spend a bit. I was just up a little on the last trip but the in/out was stupid high and got comped a few nights taxes etc friend was down a bit and got comped all nights taxes and some decent figured breakie vouchers which got us all a good breakfast so at least get something back for losing your cash.
Shopping at the premium outlet, can't remember which I prefer North or South.
Trip up to Fremont to wonder around, gamble on the cheap, drink for cheaper and see a more grittier, seedy vegas. Also a great micro brewery restaurant somewhere there but for the life of me I cannot remember the name just remember me and the wife having a brilliant meal with some lovely beers with sports on the tv.
Go up the Stratosphere just before dusk for views in day light and night time and whilst down there pop into Circus Circus for the small amusement park which can be fun.
Never managed it in Vegas but if there is a live sport on try and see it. Have seen NHL in San Fran and NBA in LA and Washington DC and whilst the sports don't tickle me the atmosphere is fantastic.
Finally we have done the heli trip and landing in the grand canyon, well not really the grand canyon but close enough for me, for lunch with Maverick and it was brilliant, we took a fuel stop in the desert on the way back with loads of Joshua trees which was neat, both me and the wife were up front on the way out which was superb.
Holsteins Shakes and Buns in Cosmopolitan, Maggianos in Fashion Show, Cheesecake Factory in Ceasers, Benehana, Hooters, Secret Pizza for a slice in Cosmopolitan, New York Pizzeria for a slice and garlic knot in NYNY, Bellagio dinner buffet, NYNY breakfast buffet are just a few where we like to eat but I prefer the American chain style food over fancy.
I prefer the gun ranges at Machine Gun Vegas over The Gun Store, good packages and they will pick you up. Most Cirque shows are great, avoid Blue Man in my opinion, me and the wife only stayed the duration because the tickets cost a fortune (we just didn't get it). We saw Penn and Teller at the Rio last time and it was amazing. Grab your tickets from the Tix for Tonight (I think thats what they are called) booths on the strip.
Arcade in NYNY and Excaliber are fun. We also visit all main hotels on the strip just to walk around, grab a chip for the collection and see the free attractions etc.
I prefer Gambling at NYNY or Excaliber, I don't know why just like the atmosphere I guess and sticking to one chain with a players card gets you something back if you spend a bit. I was just up a little on the last trip but the in/out was stupid high and got comped a few nights taxes etc friend was down a bit and got comped all nights taxes and some decent figured breakie vouchers which got us all a good breakfast so at least get something back for losing your cash.
Shopping at the premium outlet, can't remember which I prefer North or South.
Trip up to Fremont to wonder around, gamble on the cheap, drink for cheaper and see a more grittier, seedy vegas. Also a great micro brewery restaurant somewhere there but for the life of me I cannot remember the name just remember me and the wife having a brilliant meal with some lovely beers with sports on the tv.
Go up the Stratosphere just before dusk for views in day light and night time and whilst down there pop into Circus Circus for the small amusement park which can be fun.
Never managed it in Vegas but if there is a live sport on try and see it. Have seen NHL in San Fran and NBA in LA and Washington DC and whilst the sports don't tickle me the atmosphere is fantastic.
Finally we have done the heli trip and landing in the grand canyon, well not really the grand canyon but close enough for me, for lunch with Maverick and it was brilliant, we took a fuel stop in the desert on the way back with loads of Joshua trees which was neat, both me and the wife were up front on the way out which was superb.
You sure it wasn't NFL...? Or did you go over the bay to San Jose and see the Sharks ?
Wh
Whooops it was ECHL at Cows Stadium
So I just got back from here and thought I'd give a summary of my trip and my experiences of some of the places recommended in this thread. This will go all over the place I'm sure but hopefully it might help others. In short, I enjoyed it more than I expected - what an epic 30th birthday treat 
Holy wall of text alert batman!
Holy wall of text alert batman!
We went as a couple which is going to be a completely different trip than one 'on the lash' with friends. We stayed for 5 nights which was pretty much bang on, although going for 4 nights would be good too. Any longer would be too long IMO - we did omit to visit Red Rock national park but you could squeeze that in. If it were a 'lash' trip, I'd say go for 3 nights max (my body couldn't handle any longer). Not being on the lash meant relatively early mornings and modest evenings. There was generally a much better atmosphere in the evenings and you also avoided the sun, so I wouldn't be too concerned about making the most of a big lie in and staying up later (the downtown area only really perked up later at night). On the flip side, there was much less hustle in the day.
Arriving from the airport at night made for a fantastic taxi journey - seeing all the hotels lit up from a distance was a treat in itself
We stayed at the Venetian which was easily my favourite of all the hotels we walked through. It was nice to have an entrance lobby that was slightly tucked away from the casino (which you learn to appreciate after walking into many hotels to be greeted by the same slot machines). The room was the best room I have ever stayed in and I gather it was just their standard room. Absolutely enormous! I think we fluked out with the location of our room too - on the 30th floor (I see what you did there) with a view of Caesers, which was really close to the lobby / casino rather than a trek. I could not get my head around just how massive they were. Holy crap! Caesars Palace and the MGM Grand went on forever. I wouldn't want to stay any further away than the Venetian though, as you want to be able to make a quick 15 minute walk to the Bellagio fountains area. The Cosmopolitan was the second nicest of those we visited (although I didn't go to the Aria) and the Bellagio had the best location - the fountain show was well worth seeing both at day and at night. The hotels I'd suggest avoiding were New York New York and Paris, which were both a bit trashy in comparison (the latter even being slightly smutty). The big apple coaster in New York New York was horribly bumpy and unless you're in the front seats you can't see where you were going, so I'd say give it a skip unless you're hardcore for it. Rio (aside from the fun Kiss mini-golf which was a fun time filler) and Circus Circus were also shockingly naff - avoid!
The whole 'smoke in the casinos' thing never really bothered us and only in a couple of very specific places within the whole floor of the casinos did we move on because of smoke. It's not as bad as I imagined it would be. That said, the constant air conditioning gave us gross crusty / bloody noses and a google reveals this is quite common! Maybe take a nasal spray.
For a day or two, I couldn't make my mind up of what I thought of the casinos and their endless slot machines but I gave up on being prude and they soon grew on me - we had a lot of fun losing our money. Some of the slot machines were an absolute joy to play, my favourites probably being the Adam West Batman machines (@Dianbobo - you're right, it was hilarious), the Sharknado machines and the Game of Thrones one. All larger than life and ridiculous with movie clips and silly sounds. They was even a Downton Abbey one (??!) which I won a (small) jackpot on. My luck was generally horrendous... particularly with blackjack. I did find that the Cromwell casino on the strip was the only place that paid 3/2 for getting a blackjack, whilst the rest gave 6/5. To compensate for this the dealer told me I'd only get one card if I split my aces... not sure if they were confused with the double down rules but perhaps it was a house rule... not sure, worth looking into if you're a serious gambler.
I also threw my hat into some poker games, which was actually a really scary thing to do but OK once you are sat down. It'll be obvious to everyone there you're new to casino poker so don't even try to hide it. The nicest place to start is definitely in the Flamingo poker room as they have 2/4 dollar limit games (so no chance of someone raising you by a thousand dollars - much less stressful). I won a fair bit here but later in the week I sat in a no limit game at Caesers... holy poop that was frightening. Plenty of raises in the realms of hundreds of dollars! I ended up losing two big hands: got a straight on the flop only to be beaten by a flush on the river, and got a set of aces on the flop only to be beaten by a straight on the river.... hurrrrrgnnnn so annoying! That's what you get for trying to raise like a bawler on the turn with what other big fish players consider pocket money... so they called. I did feel I got my own back on the last day by betting our last dollars on a $15 dollar minimum bet roulette table (which attracts wealthier gamblers than the $5/$10 tables), putting it all on red and excitedly winning (to much self-cheering) 4 times in a row whilst they all lost hundreds and hundreds
We did a helicopter tour with Sundance helicopters to go and see the west rim of the Grand Canyon and it was brilliant, probably the trip highlight. Would absolutely recommend. We stayed at the Canyon for about 30 minutes which was fine. We'll have to go and see the 'real' part of the Grand Canyon another day - sure we didn't see the best bit but since you also get to see the strip from the air, the hoover damn, save about 7/8 hours travelling and get to fly around in a frickin' choppa, it's really quite a good compromise.
The only very slight 'mire' was that after being dropped off post-choppa in a 'complimentary' car, in our excitement we omitted to trip the driver who grumpily reminded us that he worked off tips - which I apologised for and obliged. I suppose it's a completely different culture to the UK but to my mind asking for a tip is a bit weird... particularly after spending hundreds on a trip with his employer. Otherwise, we didn't encounter this sort of behaviour having given a dollar or two to all other drivers. Probably best to make sure you have some one dollar bills handy.
Battlefield Vegas was as ridiculous as everyone here has said already, but also quite pricey (as you may have guessed this turned out to be a very expensive trip!). We both shot a glock, an MP5, a remmington rifle and shotgun (Mrs. Nitefly being the better shot). I also had a go on an Uzi, a Steyr Aug and a Deagle. It was all over very quickly and cost about £400 but what an experience!
We saw three shows in total. Ka was a Cirque Du Soleil production and boggled my tiny mind as the stage itself levitated, moved around and even went vertical. Would recommend everyone saw this - how they even designed it / came up with the visuals and stunts perplexed me. They did some stunts with an apparatus called a 'wheel of death' which apparently actually made me loudly gasp 'noooo!' with shock
Absinthe was a more typical and intimate circus affair. It was very impressive and absolutely hilarious but even I was shocked at how far they went - basically the ringmaster found a random Asian lady from the audience and proceeded to go "ching chong ching choing ching - do you likey the shooowwww?" before getting her up on the stage and asking her to paint his nails before being asked to judge which of two audience members' dancing (a black guy and a white guy who got equal abuse) most moistened her sashimi Though it was an absolute car crash everyone got attacked: black, gay, white, men, women. Yeah... I can see it upsetting some people though, so be warned!
We also saw Britney and we had a great time at this - she blatantly wasn't singing but there was enough dancing and fun pop tunes going on to get us and the crowd pumped up. Some of it unintentionally hilarious (like when she started flying about in a big angel suit) and some intentionally hilarious (when an audience member was made to walk about on all fours as Britney's slave)
Other things - the pinball museum was amazing, would deffo go to this. The stratosphere tower was rather underwhelming and I'd suggest skipping especially if you go into a helicopter anyway (which provides better views). Mob museum was OK to pass the time although I didn't feel like a really learned anything other than 'mob guys were BAD'. Freemont street / downtown is definitely a night-time thing as it was rather quiet in the day and nowhere near as appealing.
Food - I agree that it was generally cheap and average or very, very expensive. On the first night we had a snack portion of Sushi and two beers which came to £70! We went to Vic and Anthony's on @Techno_Viking 's recommendation and it really was very good (thanks!) but again quite pricey. Six (small) oysters, two steaks with peppercorn sauce, two sides and two glasses of wine came to £180. The best value we got was from the rolling BBQ smokehouse... that was unbelievable, such great food
Ok - that'll do
Arriving from the airport at night made for a fantastic taxi journey - seeing all the hotels lit up from a distance was a treat in itself
We stayed at the Venetian which was easily my favourite of all the hotels we walked through. It was nice to have an entrance lobby that was slightly tucked away from the casino (which you learn to appreciate after walking into many hotels to be greeted by the same slot machines). The room was the best room I have ever stayed in and I gather it was just their standard room. Absolutely enormous! I think we fluked out with the location of our room too - on the 30th floor (I see what you did there) with a view of Caesers, which was really close to the lobby / casino rather than a trek. I could not get my head around just how massive they were. Holy crap! Caesars Palace and the MGM Grand went on forever. I wouldn't want to stay any further away than the Venetian though, as you want to be able to make a quick 15 minute walk to the Bellagio fountains area. The Cosmopolitan was the second nicest of those we visited (although I didn't go to the Aria) and the Bellagio had the best location - the fountain show was well worth seeing both at day and at night. The hotels I'd suggest avoiding were New York New York and Paris, which were both a bit trashy in comparison (the latter even being slightly smutty). The big apple coaster in New York New York was horribly bumpy and unless you're in the front seats you can't see where you were going, so I'd say give it a skip unless you're hardcore for it. Rio (aside from the fun Kiss mini-golf which was a fun time filler) and Circus Circus were also shockingly naff - avoid!
The whole 'smoke in the casinos' thing never really bothered us and only in a couple of very specific places within the whole floor of the casinos did we move on because of smoke. It's not as bad as I imagined it would be. That said, the constant air conditioning gave us gross crusty / bloody noses and a google reveals this is quite common! Maybe take a nasal spray.
For a day or two, I couldn't make my mind up of what I thought of the casinos and their endless slot machines but I gave up on being prude and they soon grew on me - we had a lot of fun losing our money. Some of the slot machines were an absolute joy to play, my favourites probably being the Adam West Batman machines (@Dianbobo - you're right, it was hilarious
), the Sharknado machines and the Game of Thrones one. All larger than life and ridiculous with movie clips and silly sounds. They was even a Downton Abbey one (??!) which I won a (small) jackpot on. My luck was generally horrendous... particularly with blackjack. I did find that the Cromwell casino on the strip was the only place that paid 3/2 for getting a blackjack, whilst the rest gave 6/5. To compensate for this the dealer told me I'd only get one card if I split my aces... not sure if they were confused with the double down rules but perhaps it was a house rule... not sure, worth looking into if you're a serious gambler.I also threw my hat into some poker games, which was actually a really scary thing to do but OK once you are sat down. It'll be obvious to everyone there you're new to casino poker so don't even try to hide it. The nicest place to start is definitely in the Flamingo poker room as they have 2/4 dollar limit games (so no chance of someone raising you by a thousand dollars - much less stressful). I won a fair bit here but later in the week I sat in a no limit game at Caesers... holy poop that was frightening. Plenty of raises in the realms of hundreds of dollars! I ended up losing two big hands: got a straight on the flop only to be beaten by a flush on the river, and got a set of aces on the flop only to be beaten by a straight on the river.... hurrrrrgnnnn so annoying! That's what you get for trying to raise like a bawler on the turn with what other big fish players consider pocket money... so they called. I did feel I got my own back on the last day by betting our last dollars on a $15 dollar minimum bet roulette table (which attracts wealthier gamblers than the $5/$10 tables), putting it all on red and excitedly winning (to much self-cheering) 4 times in a row whilst they all lost hundreds and hundreds
We did a helicopter tour with Sundance helicopters to go and see the west rim of the Grand Canyon and it was brilliant, probably the trip highlight. Would absolutely recommend. We stayed at the Canyon for about 30 minutes which was fine. We'll have to go and see the 'real' part of the Grand Canyon another day - sure we didn't see the best bit but since you also get to see the strip from the air, the hoover damn, save about 7/8 hours travelling and get to fly around in a frickin' choppa, it's really quite a good compromise.
The only very slight 'mire' was that after being dropped off post-choppa in a 'complimentary' car, in our excitement we omitted to trip the driver who grumpily reminded us that he worked off tips - which I apologised for and obliged. I suppose it's a completely different culture to the UK but to my mind asking for a tip is a bit weird... particularly after spending hundreds on a trip with his employer. Otherwise, we didn't encounter this sort of behaviour having given a dollar or two to all other drivers. Probably best to make sure you have some one dollar bills handy.
Battlefield Vegas was as ridiculous as everyone here has said already, but also quite pricey (as you may have guessed this turned out to be a very expensive trip!). We both shot a glock, an MP5, a remmington rifle and shotgun (Mrs. Nitefly being the better shot). I also had a go on an Uzi, a Steyr Aug and a Deagle. It was all over very quickly and cost about £400 but what an experience!
We saw three shows in total. Ka was a Cirque Du Soleil production and boggled my tiny mind as the stage itself levitated, moved around and even went vertical. Would recommend everyone saw this - how they even designed it / came up with the visuals and stunts perplexed me. They did some stunts with an apparatus called a 'wheel of death' which apparently actually made me loudly gasp 'noooo!' with shock
Absinthe was a more typical and intimate circus affair. It was very impressive and absolutely hilarious but even I was shocked at how far they went - basically the ringmaster found a random Asian lady from the audience and proceeded to go "ching chong ching choing ching - do you likey the shooowwww?" before getting her up on the stage and asking her to paint his nails
before being asked to judge which of two audience members' dancing (a black guy and a white guy who got equal abuse) most moistened her sashimi Though it was an absolute car crash everyone got attacked: black, gay, white, men, women. Yeah... I can see it upsetting some people though, so be warned!We also saw Britney and we had a great time at this - she blatantly wasn't singing but there was enough dancing and fun pop tunes going on to get us and the crowd pumped up. Some of it unintentionally hilarious (like when she started flying about in a big angel suit) and some intentionally hilarious (when an audience member was made to walk about on all fours as Britney's slave)
Other things - the pinball museum was amazing, would deffo go to this. The stratosphere tower was rather underwhelming and I'd suggest skipping especially if you go into a helicopter anyway (which provides better views). Mob museum was OK to pass the time although I didn't feel like a really learned anything other than 'mob guys were BAD'. Freemont street / downtown is definitely a night-time thing as it was rather quiet in the day and nowhere near as appealing.
Food - I agree that it was generally cheap and average or very, very expensive. On the first night we had a snack portion of Sushi and two beers which came to £70! We went to Vic and Anthony's on @Techno_Viking 's recommendation and it really was very good (thanks!) but again quite pricey. Six (small) oysters, two steaks with peppercorn sauce, two sides and two glasses of wine came to £180. The best value we got was from the rolling BBQ smokehouse... that was unbelievable, such great food
Ok - that'll do
Last edited:
- Joined
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Sapphires
That is all
That is all
Shouldn't have googled that at work
I'm yet to discover the gems of Vegasyou should have known what it was anyway