Like: Being able to smoke ANYWHERE. Living in CA its a nice change to not have to go outside to light up.
Dislike: Everyone else being able to smoke anywhere. I always feel like hell after a visit to Vegas, the ever present smoke really gets to me.
That has changed. Now you can’t smoke anywhere food is served. (Yeah!)
RogueGF and I love Vegas. We’ve went once a year for the last three years. We have another trip booked for March. I went one other time with two guy friends. Even though RogueGF is pretty open minded, that was a much different experience in a good way.
All that said, there are a few things that I don’t really care for:
[ul][li]I’m not a smoker, so the smoke does get to me. [/li][li]I guess I just haven’t figured out where to get this “great” food that people talk about. I find “good” food to be common. I’ve found that you can pay a moderate amount for good food or a whole lot. The quality doesn’t seem to go up with the price. I’ve yet to find cheap good food. Probably the closest was some prime rib at the Stardust for about $9. It was only decent though, not good.[/li][li]The damned Jagger dispenser at Four Queens. A few of us tried to drink it dry doing Jagger Bombs. We failed, but not before drinking about a dozen each. I don’t even like Jagger… sigh![/li][li]Actually, I don’t really care for Downtown much. Yes, it’s cheaper than The Strip, but we ran out of things to see after a few hours. We then commenced to heavy drinking (and the previously mentioned Jagger Bombs). On The Strip it’s a bit of a walk between each casino, which helps spread the drinking out. Downtown allows for a steady supply of alcohol without much effort. [/li][li]I do realize these last two were really my own damned fault. [/li][/ul]
All of the folklore, advertising, and tales from friends who have been there have not been enough to lure me there. Here are some impressions I have.
You can see some wonderful entertainment there, and pay more to see it than anywhere else on the planet. When you’ve paid your big bucks to see something, a fellow will smile and say, “Come with me.” Halfway down the aisle, he’ll stop and hold his open hand out behind him. The money you put in his hand will determine how close to the stage you sit.
If you gamble, you can get comped room, drinks, food, and GOK. Doesn’t matter if you win or lose; they know they’ll rake it in eventually. If you don’t gamble, you don’t get squat. If you win big, they’ll treat you well; they know you will come back. If you lose every cent you own, they’ll pay your way home; they know you will come back, and they’ll give you a heckuva deal when you do.
There are fabulous restaurants there, and you can get a table there, if you make your reservations months ahead of time.
Las Vegas is great place to live. The real people there are good-hearted and friendly.
The artistry in lights, and especially neon, outdo anything else in the world. Og himself goes to Vegas for ideas.
…
There it is. As I said, I’ve never been there, and these are my impressions from a great distance. MarkD asked for opinions, pro and con. A friend of mine and I were talking vacation plans. He told me he thought going someplace to see museums and baseball games was his idea of a total waste of time. My idea of a total waste of time (and his idea of a great time) is travelling a great distance to fork over a bagful of money to big corporations for the privilege of forking over your money. Why not just mail them a check, and stay home?
Oops. That’s DMark, not MarkD.
I’m a resident (9 years), married to a native. I love that particular ad campaign. Shortly after I arrived here, Vegas tried to market itself as a “family” destination–possibly the worst idea in the history of resort marketing. The thought behind the “what happens in Vegas” ads appears to be trying to counteract that little disaster. One of the things that attracted me to this city is the adult atmosphere. The casinos and bars are open 24/7, as are most of the restaurants. As far as visitors are concerned, kids have no place in Vegas…as a previous poster said, take them to Disneyland! I, for one, am proud of our “adult playground” image!
That being said, I have found myself falling out of love with this place a little more every day. For one thing, the appeal of Vegas was that any working-class stiff could afford a vacation here. Hotels and food were cheap because the casino owners knew that the less you spent on those things, the more you had left over to drop at the tables and slots. When I first moved here, it was actually cheaper to eat out than to cook! Now, the classic Vegas is dying out, giving way to the mega-expensive mega-resorts with their $200-300 a night rooms, gourmet restaurants, $100-and-up show tickets, etc. We just lost the Stardust ; the Tropicana , Frontier and Riviera now appear to be not too far behind.
Growth-wise, we are on the threshold of becoming another Phoenix or even Los Angeles; traffic and air pollution are rapidly becoming the norm here. Las Vegas is losing its charm a little more every day.
That’s not to say there aren’t still good things about LV. The food bargains are still there; they’re just a little harder to find. There are also several locations where you can obtain same-day show tickets at half price–for just about any show–without sitting through a time-share spiel! And it’s still free to walk through the casinos and admire the decor; admittedly, some of the mega-resorts like the Wynn are actually quite beautiful. Not to mention people-watching–probably the most fun thing to do on The Strip! And 90% of the time, the weather cooperates.
One activity that hasn’t been discussed yet is bowling. If you like to bowl, Vegas has some of the largest, cleanest, and most modern bowling centers in the world. It’s a great way to kill a couple of hours and not spend a whole lot of money. In fact, several centers here have “graveyard” specials, like $1 per game and $1 for a beer after midnight.
A previous poster listed “anything off the Strip” as a dislike. Actually, some of the off-strip properties are as nice or nicer than Strip hotel/casinos. Red Rock is particularly breathtaking with food, bars and lounges rivalling anything on the Strip!
BTW, DMark , good to know there are other Las Vegas residents on the board. Perhaps sometime in the future, we should try to get some kind of DopeFest going some weekend!
Just a warning - The Atomic testing Museum is part of the Smithsonian, and as such runs by Government hours - i.e. They CLOSe at 5 PM.
Hate to hear about the Stardust. They used to have a sign on the door that said something to the effect of, “We are a traditional casino and we don’t allow anyone under 21 on the premises…period”. None of this “family destination” crap there.
Another couple of places off the beaten path:
The UNLV University bookstore. I like college bookstores.
Something else, but I am sick this evening and my mind is wandering like … hey look a poofy dog!
AskNot I’m not sure where your friends were going, but that doesn’t describe my visits to Vegas at all.
The shows available in Vegas are just fantastic, and while the headliners are certainly more expensive, there is plenty of entertainment at very reasonable prices. We usually hit one show a night, and never once were prompted for any type of gratuity to sit closer.
I agree with Cemetery Savior in that if you’re not used to big cities, or tourist trap type places, it’s far to easy to miss out on some of the easy deals to find. For example, we like to stay at the Riviera (shame it might close), they have a little game thing there called slot frenzy. $10 to play, person with the highest score at the end of the day wins…something. So after walking by a few times the guy offers us two free tickets to a hypnotist show just for playing…so right off we’re ahead. Then I happened to score high enough to win two tickets to their local cabaret show…each worth about $30. So for $10, I was able to see two shows…both actually pretty entertaining. My wife and I saw Vicky Lawrence for about $30 each…which isn’t bad at all in my opinion. The only show we paid a lot of money to see was Zumanity by Circ de Solie…and that was mostly because we wanted the little loveseats in the front row. (Great show by the way)
The food I’ve never really been impressed with. Those damn jumbo chili dogs made me sicker than all get out…shudder. We pretty much decided that from now on we’ll grab some pastries for breakfast, McD’s for lunch, then pick a nicer restaurant for dinner. Good food, but not orgasm-inducing good.
My only dislike is the constant bombardment of the porn flyers. Those are what make it totally impossible for me to ever consider going to Vegas with the family. There are a lot of things to see that aren’t adult in nature, but there is no way of avoiding those flyers…at all. And since that’s a conversation I so don’t want to have…no more Vegas for a while.
Heh, a buddy went with me his first time and was amazed at the flyers. He took a stack of the newspaper looking ones home to pass out as souvenirs of his trip (not a lot of escort services around here).
One more thing I dislike about Vegas (and believe it or not, I kinda liked Vegas).
The desert grit. My wife wears contact lenses, and hated Vegas for just that reason. When you’re not in the gritty wind-blown outside, you’re in the machine-scrubbbed, air-conditioned, dry interior air.
She spent a lot of time cleaning her contacts, and using eyedrops.
I don’t wear glasses or contacts, but my eyes were dry and irritated, too.
DMark…I can see it now…you can have a little webpage mascot…“Gritty the Sand Particle”! I won’t charge you for the idea. 
-Cem
I hate those damn flyers. I have been once and enjoyed my trip, but those flyers are insane and they are everywhere!
I pretty much like Vegas, I keep going back. Shows, food, people watching are all great. My wife loves the fashioon show mall on the day after Christmas, but I am not that brave.
My biggest peeve is that the casinos would rather have the dealers not deal $50 blackjack than deal $10 blackjack. I can’t count the number of idle dealers I saw at high limit tables while folks were scrambling for seats at the lower limit games.
Check out this thread, everybody!
Just went to Vegas last month.
Loved:
The shows (in general), even if they were expensive. We saw the Blue Man Group (for the second time) and absolutely loved it again. Saw Celine Dion for almost $200 a seat and were greatly disappointed. Also saw the topless review Crazy Girls (with my wife and her female friend) and were pleasantly surprised. Yeah, it was cheap, trashy, and low-brow but it was enjoyable.
Girl watching on the strip. Yowsa! … all I need to say.
Art gallery at the Bellagio, which was having an amazing Ansel Adams show when we were there.
The Secret Garden of Siegfried and Roy: small, but seriously cool! Where else can you be 10 feet away from a white tiger playing in a waterfall?
The monorail (liked), but how far you had to walk to get to/from it(disliked)
The twins at Hooters. 
Hated:
Actually hated, Hated HATED: getting asked 100 times a day “free show tickets?” from flacks hawking timeshares.
The porn-flyer-passer-outers didn’t really bother me much. You just ignore them.
That’s my 2 cents.
J.
What we like about Vegas:
-the food
-gambling
-the whole Strip atmosphere
-the shows
-free booze
-the fact that the hotel room is free, and they give us stuff on top of that!
Things we don’t like about Vegas:
-see the above referenced Pit thread
-the lines at all the decent places to eat (though I will admit we got into Olives, without reservations, in 45 seconds.)(At 7pm, no less!) 
What is the deal with that? I could understand if they wanted to keep one $100 table open but empty, just in case somebody comes along wanting to play. But why would they have 8 empty $50 or $100 tables when there are tons of people wanting to play at $10 or $15. Are there enough people around that will say “well, the $15 tables are all full, so I guess I’ll play some $50”?
Thanks for the heads up, lawoot!
Favorite parts of Las Vegas:
At the Bellagio:
The Chihuly ceiling
The Botanical garden
The small gift shop, where you could get beer or water for a reasonable price
The fountain music show
Elsewhere: The food, the atmosphere
Fremont Street:
All the cheap, warm draft beer you can drink
The free mardis gras beads
The Fremont Light Experience
Least favorite:
OMG the dry! I couldn’t drink enough water no matter what I did and I got laryngitis at the end. You could get all the drinks you wanted, but if you wanted water at a casino you got a tiny 4oz kiddie size bottle. Water was so expensive and ridiculous I hated that. Next time I’ll stop at a drug store and buy a few gallons to have in the hotel room.
The cab drivers- HOLY scary and expensive
The A/C. FREEZING cold inside, hot as hades outside.