Seeking Vegas Hotel Info

In My Humble Opinion
21

I totally agree that the Mirage is a good place to stay but the new buffet really isn’t that great. The room is pretty nice (for a buffet) and the food wasn’t bad but the place is just a logistical nightmare. There’s not a lot of room to move around when getting your food and dishes seemed to be randomly placed (example: breakfast meats and potatoes on one side of the room, scrambled eggs on the other side of the room).

To the original poster, of the places you listed, I’d pick the Flaming-o.
Location is everything and it’s just a lot closer to the places wifey and I like to go.
Plus they’ve got penguins.

You also might consider splitting your stay at a couple places.
Maybe the Flaming-o for two nights and then someplace at the south end of the strip for another two nights. Also, when pricing Vegas hotels, remember that Friday and Saturday nights cost a whole lot more than the rest of the week. So maybe stay at a nicer place for the first 3 nights and then move somewhere cheaper for your Friday night stay. I personally think it’s too much of a PITA to do but I know a lot of people who like to split their stays.

I personally wouldn’t stay at the Stratosphere or Sahara and I’m somewhat leery of the Excalibur. But then I’m kind of snooty that way. Wifey and I are staying at the Bellagio in a couple weeks. We got lake view room for $139/nt Sunday-Wednesday. Stayed at Treasure Island for $89/nt midweek a little while ago. I think you should be able to do better than $79 for the Flaming-o.

Whatever you do, make sure you pace yourself when you’re there. You will always end up walking way more than you expected. Don’t try to see and do everything. It’s just not worth it.

22

Those sound like great prices. We stayed at the Super 8 on hour honeymoon. It was pathetic, but it did it’s job. Next time, I’d like something a little more luxurious.

23

Hours? HOURS!? WhaddamI, drunk?!

24

We’re staying at the Orleans in September. Has anyone here had any experience with that place?

25

I’ve not been there myself, but in Casino Player Magazine’s “Best of Gaming 2004” issue (out right now), it did pretty well in the “local’s casino” section, placing in a bunch of the categeories: #2 for ‘best rooms’, #3 for best overall, #3 for best suites, #2 for best casino, a #1 in the all-important ‘best costumes’ category, and a bunch of other categories. Sounds like it should be fine. If I get a chance to get over there and check it out when I’m there next week, I’ll let you know!

26

Echoing what others have said “Location! Location! Location!”

Being your first time you’ll want to have access to where all the action is. If you get a map of the strip i’d definately stay somewhere between the Excaliber and Treasure Island. You can always take a cab or trolley to downtown, stratosphere, rio, or hard rock if your so inclined.

Don’t be swayed by those saying “but the Rio rooms are all suites!”
Yeah, but unless your going to spend the majority of your time there it just ain’t worth it to have to shuttle back and forth everytime you want to go to the strip. It’s better to just walk out your hotels front door.

27

Thanks everyone for the advice. I think my gf and I are leaning towards the Flamingo at the moment. The location and the pool seem to be the big factors so far - and the rooms seem pretty nice compared to the other ones listed.

Also, I found a good site for Vegas info and where people are listing specials for hotels, shows, and meals. If anyone is planning to go to Vegas soon, you may want to check out this site: http://p076.ezboard.com/blasvegastalk

www.cheapovegas.com was very helpful, too.

28

Being the Rennie geek that I am, I thought a stay at the Excalibur would have been fun.

I was so very, very wrong. :smack:

Rooms were OK, but the place was CRAWLING with kids. And the casino floor was D-E-A-D. If ya wanna go on the cheap, and dont plan on spending a TON of time in your hotel, go for it. But if you’re anything like me, and kind of LIKE meandering around your resort, skip it.

The Flamingo is my top choice on your list. Great hotel, great gaming, good food and still has that old “Rat Pack” vibe of the 50s and 60s. Plus, you can just scoot across the upper walkway and you’re at Caesar’s Palace.

29

Arrgh! I was set to book at the Flamingo and all of a sudden it said no vacancy those days. I emailed them and they said they don’t have any days available at those rates. They also said they could book me at $90/night, but I’ll be suprised if that includes the Friday night, too.

Might be at the tropicana after all.

30

When you get those deals, you have to jump!

My friends coming here on Labor Day missed a great deal ($460 round trip from Chicago, including 4 nights at Venetian) because they hesitated a day before booking.

You had better get on that proverbial stick, or you will be trying to sneak naps in the back booth in MacDonalds.

31

Don’t stay at the Flaming O. It is an evil, bad place. I know, I worked there until, oh, just before I would have been eligible for health insurance (an increasingly common practice.) Especially don’t avoid the place if you play craps. The dealers there have an attitude that service is a reward that the dealer gives to the customer for tipping.

Actually, I’d avoid the Strip altogether, unless you’re really into stuffed shirts running pits and bitching at you if you, oh, actually have fun on the game. Downtown is really a lot more fun, and a lot more laid back. Also, if you like good food, there is a buried treasure downtown in the form of Roberta’s Steak House, a very nice (if if a bit small and cramped) restaraunt tucked away inside the El Cortez, which is arguably the skankiest dive in all of Vegas.

I gamble very seldom, but on those rare occasions when I do, I tend to play at the Golden Gate, which is downtown, and the oldest hotel/casino in Vegas, so it has some historical value. It’s also probably one of the easiest places to get comped, since they don’t track your play on the computer to see if you deserve dinner. No, I’m serious, many (now approaching most) casinos track your play from when you buy in by amount played and time on the game. I worked with a dealer once who got promoted to floor, then stepped back down to dealer because she got tired of telling people, “No, I can’t comp you dinner at the pricey restaraunt because it only took you three and a half hours to lose five hundred dollars, and you need to play for four hours to qualify for the comp.”

Room rates downtown are a lot cheaper, as well. The rooms at the GG are small, but, hey, who comes to Vegas so they can hang out in a hotel room anyway? I personally recommend the Boyd Group hotels- the Fremont, Main Street Station (which has an awesome buffet- I put on fifteen pounds there eating breakfast when I was working graveyard downtown), the California Club and (if you must stay on the Strip) Wild Wild West.

32

Agreed. I found great deals for the Labor Day weekend at the Venetian, Barbary Coast, and Paris. I didn’t book any because I wasn’t sure where my husband would want to stay. A day later, after consulting him, they were gone.

Oh, and Anamorphic, thanks!

33

I doesn’t hurt to check out places like Expedia and Travelocity (or use Travelaxe) to see if rooms are available from those outfits. Even if the casino itself says it is sold out, these places may have something. One other place to check out is Southwest Airlines Vacations (you can find it at the SW website) where you can reserve a room without having to buy a flight.

34

I’ll be in Vegas in September as well Suse!
We decided to go with the best strip deal we could find, and the Sahara was the best deal (next to the stratosphere), 400 for 7 days and nights (3 people). We've never been there but I found a site with customer comments and ratings of all the strip hotels/casinos. [http://www.ratelasvegas.com/hotels/hrank-strip.html](http://www.ratelasvegas.com/hotels/hrank-strip.html) The Sahara does have some horror stories on this site, but I'm figuring it can't be all that bad ....hopefully we will be one of the satisfied rather than the disgruntled( A decent bed and air conditioning is all I really hope for.) I hear the casino action at the Sahara is loose and I believe they have 1 minimum blackjack…which is good for a budget traveler like myself.
If anyone is planning a trip there I suggest travelworm.com. They consistently undercut and offer better deals in Vegas than any other travel site like expedia or travelocity or even vegas.com. They are where we got the 400$ deal at the Sahara.

In the same vein, does anyone know how to get discount or comped show tickets? I’d love to check out Penn and Teller’s show.

35

Well, my gf and I just booked 4 nights at the Venetian for $129/night. On top of that, after our vouchers our round trip airfare from Chicago came out to $80/person. We got some great deals and I am really looking forward to this trip. Check out our room! Also, if anyone wants this Venetian deal you can get it here.

Thanks again everyone for your help. Now, if anyone wants to suggest what to see and what to do, I’m all ears!

36

If you join the slot club at the rio you can use this coupon to get $10 off for tickets to Penn & Teller. It’s only good Mon, Wed, and Thur. Hope it helps.

37

There is a place next to the huge Coke bottle (on The Strip near the MGM Grand) that sells tickets to Las Vegas shows for half price on the day of the show only…and I believe they only open at 2 or 3 pm. Of course, it is a bit risky as they only have tickets to shows that are not sold out - so if you really want to see a specific show, I would order in advance.

And cmason32 congrats on scoring those Venetian rooms! The good news is that you are going to love the place…the bad news is that you will then be spoiled for future trips and won’t want to lower your standards! As far as suggestions of what to do? Ha! Time is going to fly by so fast that you won’t know what hit ya. And as a Vegas “virgin”, well - my guess is you are only going to see that beautiful Venetian room for about ten minutes when you are not crashing from walking 60 miles a day. But be sure to see the Bellagio fountains…the rest of Vegas will just magically appear while you are here.

38

Gotta agree with that – my first few trips to Vegas were so head-spinning, I didn’t get dinner until 11:30pm at night, and didn’t go to bed until past three.

Of course, as a veteran now, I don’t have a problem keeping track of time… usually. :wink:

39

For those recommending against off-Strip hotels, as a seven year resident of Vegas and craps dealer for five, I must say that the Strip really isn’t where it’s at anymore. The Rio and the Palms (especially the Palms), as well as other off-Strip resorts have as much, if not more to offer in the way of entertainment possibilities.

And really, if I was a gambler, I’d go downtown to play. The atmosphere downtown is much friendlier than in any of the Strip properties.

Plus, downtown has Mermaids, and Mermaids has this totally cool hotdog stand where you can get not only really great dogs, but also such treats as the chocolate-dipped frozen banana and the fried Twinkie. Oh, yeah, and 99 cent daquiris. And then there’s the shrimp coctail at the Golden Gate. Actually there’s the deli at the Golden Gate, or, the Bay City Diner if you want waitress service.
Oh, and did I mention the buffet at Main Street Station?

Also, downtown has some pretty good shows. The theater at the Plaza is very run down, but they do feature some good talent, if you can ignore the dilapidated surroundings. And The Amazing Jonathan is currently playing the Golden Nugget.

[Homer Simpson]Mmmmm, fried Twinkie[/Homer Simpson]

40

Aw, come on…sure, if you live here, you know about Stations Casinos and when to play Wheel of Fortune, and where to get the best whatever…

But people don’t come here to save two bucks on a buffet. If you haven’t been to The Strip and done the grand tour of the grand resorts, it ain’t Las Vegas.

I go to The Strip only if I have out of town visitors, but every time I go I have a great time. Sure…I know where there are better places, and I know which machines to play and which to avoid…and I work three blocks from downtown. Give me a break…Fremont Street is bleak, despite the rather cool light show and Golden Nugget…nobody in their right mind would go there instead of The Strip, especially on their first vist.