Shodan: Sneaky in Las Vegas

[EvilTOJ]

I was there three years ago so I don’t know how common this is now, but it bears repeating.

Something else to watch out for when walking the strip, when you hear/see migrant workers wandering around snapping a bunch of business cards together completely ignore them. Otherwise they will shove porn and calling cards for lady companions into your hands. Sometimes they’ll try to anyway even when they’re being ignored.

Also be prepared for hotel employees (or what look like employees) out on the street trying to get you to sign up for timeshares. Just look for the clean cut polo shirt wearin yuppies saying “Excuse me sir?” all the time, probably hanging out near a booth of some kind.

Those people get real annoying after awhile. After the 10th time of being harassed I used my best Eddie Izzard voice to say “no, fuck off!”

[silenus]

The time-share trolls seem to be most heavily concentrated in the bight at Harrah’s. But the come-on’s the same everywhere: “Where are you staying? Would you like free show tickets? All you have to do is sit through a 4.7 hour Powerpoint presentation on timeshares.”

Luckily they drop away quickly if you don’t make eye contact and refuse to talk to them in any way.

[Driver8]

@Mosier

ETA: Do not try to drive anywhere. I’m serious, here. Book a tour of the dam if you want to go. Don’t drive on the strip! You’ll ruin half your vacation if you do. Parking is awful anywhere on the strip. You will spend 20 minutes getting your car parked, and another 10 minutes getting inside. Multiply that by however many places you want to go, and you’ll spend literally half your free time in a parking garage. A cab will drop you off at the front door, and often costs less than 10 bucks for a ride. Don’t drive in Vegas!

I don’t think it is that bad, although for a trip like Shodan’s I think driving would be a waste of time.

On my trip a road trip far away from Vegas was the primary goal, so I had a rented car. For the day or two I was in Vegas driving was fine. Most casinos had giant and free parking lots round back where you could just leave you car while you took in the strip. And it was fun driving down the strip in a Ford Mustang convertible.

I certainly wouldn’t recommend driving to every single destination if you had a car - just leave it in a garage somewhere and walk - but having a car in Vegas didn’t seem to be the giant inconvenience people are making it out to be.

[silenus]

It is if you don’t know what you’re doing. There are all sorts of back roads and ways around the traffic, but Shodan doesn’t know them. This is supposed to be a fun trip. Use cabs and save all the stress.

[Cyberhwk]

@DMark

Every single person who has come to visit me here for the first time comes armed with a list…and every single person has gone home with a good part of that list unfinished and put on the “next time” list.
Just warning you…once you get here, time flies and the next thing you know, you are home.

This is the absolute truth. A first time visitor could easily kill 2-3 days without seeing a single show or playing a single hand. I personally tell friends who have never been there to plan to spend at least a day just looking around. Each casino/hotel is monstrous and is a destination in and of itself.

I love gambling. But there’s so much else to do in Vegas it always falls by the wayside whenever I get there. Fourth trip starts on the 29th.

[Shodan]

@DMark

Every single person who has come to visit me here for the first time comes armed with a list…and every single person has gone home with a good part of that list unfinished and put on the “next time” list.
Just warning you…once you get here, time flies and the next thing you know, you are home.

Thanks for the heads-up. I have been subject to over-scheduling in the past, and as mentioned, I have never been to Vegas.

Based on this, the revised schedule is
[ul][li]Fly out Friday afternoon, cab to the hotel, champagne and presents in the hotel[/li][li]Dinner someplace we can walk to[/li][li]Walk around the Strip, see something free, gamble up to $100[/li][li]Saturday - breakfast[/li][li]Hoover Dam[/li][li]Lunch[/li][li]something else free or low cost[/li][li]Dinner - a little swankier[/li][li]A show - magic or comedy[/li][li]Another $100 gambling if we are up to it[/li][li]Sunday - breakfast[/li][li]Church[/li][li]Shopping[/li][li]Lunch[/li][li]Another $100 gambling spree[/li][li]Maybe a workout if there is a gym in the hotel or nearby[/li][li]Dinner[/li][li]Another show[/li][li]Monday - lose the rest of the gambling money[/li][li]Fly home[/ul][/li]
I need to find 4-5 free things to do, but that is the basic. I am also plotting how to hide the credit card charges from TLaTMS, which won’t be easy. I was going to put it on my credit card from work, but my boss said No, booking flights to Las Vegas would trigger some kind of audit report and all the questions would not be worth it. So I will have to come up with something else.

I better never try to have an affair - I wouldn’t get away with it for twenty minutes.

Thanks to you all for the suggestions -keep them coming!

Regards,
Shodan

[fisha]

MGM Signature-When I bring my company, we always stay there, very nice rooms for about $100 a night.

Try a helicopter tour, they are always awesome.

Top of the World- on top of the Stratosphere, lousy icky hotel and gambling, excellent restaurant with amazing view. Very romantic. Semi expensive, but excellent food and service.

[silenus]

The top breakfast places in town areMargaritaville (next to the Flamingo), Hash House A Go Go (in the Imperial Palace) and Peppermill (between Wynn and the Riviera). I recommend Stratta (Wynn), Mesa Grill (Caesars), and Olives (Bellagio) for dinner. (These are the places we keep going back to). For a romantic classic, try Hugo’s Cellar downtown (Four Queens).

[ctywkr]

Oh my Og! A pinball museum?

I’m going to Vegas week after next. Looks like one day will be the pinball museum, the Gun Store. and the atomic history museum. Things are looking up!

[Kimstu]

@Shodan

I am also plotting how to hide the credit card charges from TLaTMS, which won’t be easy.

Can you secretly get a whole new credit card for this trip, and then just cancel the damn thing when you’ve paid it all off right away? Or are there stupid credit-card fees and charges that you wouldn’t be able to avoid?

Or can you swear a close friend or relative to secrecy and write them a check for the amount you want covered, and then put the charges on their credit card? (Hmmm, probably a dumb idea if you won’t have that card with you while you’re traveling.)

[JRDelirious]

@Kimstu

Can you secretly get a whole new credit card for this trip, and then just cancel the damn thing when you’ve paid it all off right away? Or are there stupid credit-card fees and charges that you wouldn’t be able to avoid?

Except that probably would not be good for his credit score.

His own bank may offer a temporary “for travel only” add-on to his existing account but that would still show up as a second part of the statement and be easily detected.

Many VISA/MC issuers, though, DO offer a prepaid version of the “temporary travel” card that you can cash-load upfront. Google “prepaid travel credit card” and two of the first 4 hits must be VISA’s and MC’s pages about that. Then he’d have to make sure the means to load it up with value would NOT show up on anything Madame du Shodan could detect too easily.

Still, all that may be moot if he has not the time to arrange the whole megillah. He may have to recur to a mysterious accident involving the credit card statement and a carelessly abandoned magnifying glass in the sun

[Shodan]

@Kimstu

Can you secretly get a whole new credit card for this trip, and then just cancel the damn thing when you’ve paid it all off right away? Or are there stupid credit-card fees and charges that you wouldn’t be able to avoid?

Or can you swear a close friend or relative to secrecy and write them a check for the amount you want covered, and then put the charges on their credit card? (Hmmm, probably a dumb idea if you won’t have that card with you while you’re traveling.)

Both these ideas occurred ot me. My dear son, however, has listened a bit too closely to my repeated rants against debt, and has no credit cards whatever - none. Likewise my daughter.

My current scheme is to put the trip on another credit card that we rarely use, intercept the statement when it comes, and pay it out of my investment account, on which I can write checks and with which she never deals. Failing that, I think the “open a new card, use it, and then pay it off and cancel” idea is my next best bet. Or enlist the aid of a friend with reputable debt.

@JRDelirious

Except that probably would not be good for his credit score.

This is probably not an issue - I have no debt whatever besides my mortgage, and don’t anticipate any in the near future.

This sneaky stuff is hard - I keep having to bite my tongue ever time she mentions vacation this summer, or how much fun it would be to take a weekend off.

Regards,
Shodan

[DMark]

Just wondering, but do they actually charge you on your card in advance for a hotel room before you arrive? I thought that was just a “hold” they would use in case you didn’t show up, and only then would be charged.
I know they will not complete the transaction until you sign out, in case you use the mini-bar, or put other things on your room bill (buffets, restaurant, drinks, cable movies, show tickets, etc.) so not sure if anything room related will even show up on your credit card until after the trip.

Depending on how you book the flight (online or through a travel agent?) you might get away with using a check, or a direct deposit from your checking account using your routing number and checking account.

Just wondering…otherwise, your idea of getting a new credit card just for this trip isn’t a bad idea. Keeps everything nice and neat (and sneaky). Especially if you are buying a flight/hotel package and do indeed have to pay up front, with those additional charges (if any) at the end.

[hamwater]

Could you buy one of those pre-paid American Express or Visa debit cards for $500.00 or $1000.00 and put everything that you have to prepay for? Do those work for hotel reservations, etc. or does it have to be a credit card?

You can buy those things everywhere and they just load the amount you want at the register.

Of course, then you’d have to explain the missing thousand dollars…

[JRDelirious]

@Shodan

My dear son, however, has listened a bit too closely to my repeated rants against debt, and has no credit cards whatever - none. Likewise my daughter.

@DMark

Just wondering, but do they actually charge you on your card in advance for a hotel room before you arrive? I thought that was just a “hold” they would use in case you didn’t show up, and only then would be charged.

Depends on how you book. When you do it direct to the hotel (or chain) or through a conventional travel agent you normally just get the “hold”, save for some special package discounts. When you use Orbitz, vegas.com or hotels.com or similar discount-middlemen you will very often (though not always) be charged upfront for the “low price” offer, then if you cancel they dock you the hotel’s cancellation penalty PLUS their own, if any.

[Shodan]

Hope it’s not too late to bump this.

Got back last night. Great weekend! And thanks to you all for your advice.

Regards,
Shodan

[Snickers]

You know we need more details than that. Give.

[Shodan]

Well, OK.
[ul][li]I am not a gambler. The nice friendly dealer even told me what the book said I should do, and I still lost. Then I played a penny slot machine, and won! How exciting - a thousand times my original stake! [/li]
$10.

The Lovely and Talented Mrs. Shodan played the poker slot machine for almost two hours on one dollar. And she kept doing it wrong! And winning.
[li]After I lost my first night’s worth of gambling budget, I found it is just as much fun, and much cheaper, to watch other people lose money. It was great, as long as I stayed away from the $50 minimum tables - those people get surly if they think you are a jinx. The $15 minimum bet table had a very nice lady who thought I brought good luck, so I stood there and we sort of bantered back and forth for quite a while. Then I left before I got blamed for her losses. [/li][li]I think my wife suspected something. She was not quite as surprised as I would have thought. Nonetheless, she really enjoyed herself, as did I. It was great to get away for a long weekend. We are preparing, tLaTMS and I, to be empty-nesters. Our youngest graduated high school a week or so back (have I mentioned she got straight A’s on the last report card of her high school career?) And we sort of reassured ourselves that we can still have fun together without talking to or about the kids for several days at a time. My daughter was a little concerned because we didn’t call or text her enough. [/li][li]We stayed at the Paris Las Vegas, which was nice enough. We wandered over to see the Bellagio, which is quite pretty, and Caesar’s Palace, which is a monument to kitschy excess. [/li][li]The free stuff was great - the water show at the Bellagio, the statues at Caesar’s. We wanted to do Circus Circus, but we never made it. Upthread I was warned not to over-schedule - true words, that. [/li][li]We did Hoover Dam, which is - big. Very big . We heard how it has enough concrete to make a sidewalk around the equator, and lots of stuff like that. It is quite an impressive feat of engineering, and the tour guide was very entertaining and not at all like he was bored with saying the same things over and over. Boy, he knew a lot of languages - Armenian, Spanish, French, and some German.[/li][li]We saw a variety show, which was great, and Nathan Burton’s Comedy Magic, which was meh. Nathan Burton had a juggler act which was very funny, but Burton himself only did five or six variations on the Transmutation illusion that Houdini popularized. And he didn’t set the illusions up very well. [/li][li]It is a dry heat. It was around 100[sup]o[/sup] all the time, and I don’t recall being uncomfortable at all. Everything is air-conditioned, of course, but we had lunch outside on Monday and it was fine. We had dinner at the Yellowtail Restaurant on Sunday night, and I had some of the best fish I ever ate. Grilled walu - just fantastic! And some spicy shrimp that was also really good. [/ul][/li]
So that was our weekend. My wife was really pleased, which was mostly the point, and she has been quite chipper the whole of this morning, even with all the laundry and such that is piled up.

Thanks again to you all for your advice. We did Vegas. No idea if we ever will again, but it was an experience.

Regards,
Shodan

[Raza]

I want to thank Shodan and all the posters providing advice. Mrs. Raza and I were 95% sure we were going to take a Caribbean cruise in July, but…we’ve already done that 5 times. Neither of us have been to Vegas, and it’s on our to-do list, so this thread/revival is very timely for us.

[Rocketeer]

@ArchiveGuy

…Even if you plan on walking, give yourself a break because everything is much farther apart than it appears, either by map or the eye. It can be really deceptive, so don’t be afraid to cab one way and then walk back (or vice versa) just to give yourself a break.

I second this. We were in Vegas for my sister-in-law’s wedding, and tried to walk the length of the strip. Mrs. R damned near got heatstroke; I had to pull her into a little shop, buy water, and insist she drink it. After that, we took cabs.