Vegas, Baby!

[WayAbvPar]

Woohoo! Just booked a trip to Sin City for my wife and I- September 16-20th at the Bellagio. What I want from you folks- suggestions for favorite casinos, restaurants, shows, etc. Also- please warn me off any places that are NOT worth visiting  :-D

Any of you plan to be in town during the same time (or live there), might be fun to  hook up for a cocktail or 30. Holla!

[Yegolev]

If you didn't get your Danny Gans tickets six months ago, don't decide to go see that French fucker at the Venetian.  Put that Frankin into video poker instead.  He blows.

[Bunk]

Bellagio, nice choice. Try the dinner buffet there, its pricy, but outstanding selection if you like seafood.

Personal favorites: Luxor for Poker, its easy to get a seat, and they use the same 2/4 4/8 formats that I'm used to in my local casino. Avoid Excalibur - its pretty much white-trash family hell. Mandalay Bay and the walk between Mandalay and Luxor are very nice.

Shows: well, if you want a good example of weird Vegas, there's always Stagliano's Fashionistas http://www.fashionistastheshow.com/
 - No nudity, but amazing dancing and some really fucked up shit. Great music too.
It plays at the Krave, just outside the Aladin. Then, when its over, you find yourself in a Vegas "alternative" club. What more could you want?  

[schild]

Shows: well, if you want a good example of weird Vegas, there's always Stagliano's Fashionistas http://www.fashionistastheshow.com/

The safety word is banana.

[Mr_PeaCH]

Avoid Excalibur - its pretty much white-trash family hell

He kind of buried that in with the rest and if you don't remember anything else you need to remember this.  Have fun!

And how can you say 'banana' with a ball-gag... no, I don't want to know. thx

[Bunk]

I will say, the above picture is a very limited portion of that show.

And yes, I should have expounded upon the horrors of the Excalibur a little more. Stayed there for a week on business this Winter. The rolls of pasty white flesh bouncing between the aisles of slots still haunt me.

[schild]

Those are the action figures you can buy after the show. The chick's outfit is inspired by The Lady of Pain from Planescape.

WAP, the Bellagio is great, and honestly, the only other place I'd spend time in is The Luxor as Bunk mentioned for Poker. Also, I've been interested in seeing Fashionistas also, so go and tell us how it is. K? Gud.

The MGM Grand is white trash heaven as well.

[Rasix]

Woohoo! Just booked a trip to Sin City for my wife and I- September 16-20th at the Bellagio. What I want from you folks- suggestions for favorite casinos, restaurants, shows, etc. Also- please warn me off any places that are NOT worth visiting  :-D

Restaurants: Mesa Grille (common, it's Bobby fucking Flay), Aladdin's Buffet is pretty good too (nice for breakfast), Postrio (at the Venetian) is also really good and a great dining experience (went to the one in San Francisco). You can get good Crepes in  the Paris hotel. The Aladdin has a decent gellato shop. I like Vegas for the food, quite honestly the rest of the experience is meh.  4 days in Vegas is for me 3 days too long. 

Poker: The Aladdin had a pretty OK poker room.  A lot of assholes, drunk bastards and dip shits playing fast and loose with their money.  I got killed, but I managed to stick around pretty long getting absolutely cold decked.  Some stupid dick was actually playing without looking at his cards and just throwing out big bets on everything because he'd always just buy back in if he busted.  I'm sure more experienced players would just clean up there.  I think I liked internet poker better, easier to ignore some stupid assholes typing than their behavior and body odor.  You'll tire of Texans really fast.  I hear Mandalay Bay has some nice poker rooms, the atmosphere might be a bit better there too.

Aside: You never quite know what horror is until you've see an Orca-fat drunk guy(that's been downing a shot of Jaeger and vodka tonic every half hour) get his thong snapped by some overweight hussy that's been trying to get him to fuck her for the past hour and a half.  It's hard to play when you're hearing stories of probably ugly as sin chicks having a three way upstairs and that they're running low on coke.

Bellagio is pretty nice for blackjack but I liked the atmosphere of Caesars probably the best. 

Any of you plan to be in town during the same time (or live there), might be fun to  hook up for a cocktail or 30. Holla!

Would love to, but I'll be in France! (neener neener neener or something)

[Hoax]

Just make sure you pop inside Wynn's new casino and let us know how it is.

[Paelos]

See a Cirque D' Sole show if you can. I prefer "O". Also, stay out of the Bellagio at night unless you like high min table games. They cater to a $25 minimum bet crowd, and the $10 tables are near impossible to find. I suggest the Sahara if you like low limit craps, and the Bellagio if you like a great sports book.

[schild]

"O" is fantastic. Though, we booked our tickets like 6 months in advance when we went. 2nd Row seats, even that far away from the date were still ridiculously expensive. Worth. Every. Penny.

[El Gallo]

I have always been satisfied with the poker room at the Bellagio and pretty much live there when in LV (nice hotel, and I would second the dinner buffet if you feel like gorging yourself vegas style once during your trip, the food is actually good).  The Mirage is close, has a poker room, and feels more "old school."  Of course, you might want to make a trek down to old vegas to play at the Horseshoe if you are a poker nerd.  You will find that the players are much, much worse than they are online.  Really.

I must admit that I miss out on most of the Vegas experience because I am a pretty compulsive gambler when I am actually at a casino.  I will catass a good 12+ hours a day every day I'm there (la gallina does not like Vegas so she isn't there; it might not work for you unless Mrs Par is a poker freak as well).  I have a good friend who recently moved out there, I'll ask him if he can suggest any must see shows or must eat restaurants.  I usually go to Mortons for good eats unless I am sucking, but you can go there in any city.  I'm just a steak whore.


   

[Llava]

My personal favorite casino/hotel is the Luxor, just for the decor, good rooms, and it's easy to get a seat at the games.  Plus there are a few rides up on the entertainment level.

Despite the warnings about Excalibur, there's a pretty damn good fancy-ish Italian restaurant there with pretty good prices.  I definitely wouldn't recommend the joust dinner, though.  Very pricey, not worth it.

If you're into live animals, visit the MGM Grand and look for the lion exhibit.

Really I recommend you spend a day just walking up the Strip and going through all the places you can- the imaginitive decorations are my favorite thing about Vegas.  That and the fact that the streets are literally littered with pr0n.

[UD_Delt]

Find Battista's Hole in the Wall. It's near the main strip but on one of the side streets, can't remember which one exactly. It's decent Italian, fairly priced, free house wine (red or white), and a great roaming accordian player.

[Rasix]

That and the fact that the streets are literally littered with pr0n.

That's probably the only thing I miss about Vegas.  Mexicans standing on street corners slapping their wrists with stacks of stripper flyers.  Is that slapping motion supposed to get me to pick one up?  I never quite got that.

[Yegolev]

I have been trying to remember stuff from my trip.  Not because I was loaded, just because my brain doesn't work properly and it was April 2001.  I'm glad I went on the Dam Tour before the closed the Dam Thing.  I toured on April 1st and it was mildly amusing.  Didn't get any Dam Bait, though.  I did walk around embarassing my wife by saying "Dee moneyyyyyy!  I got dee moneyyy!!!" over and over.  That was fun.

I think my favorite part was exploring Valley of Fire State Park, but then I am way too Scottish to appreciate gambling with money.  As I mentioned, we didn't plan ahead and therefore were not able to see any good shows.  Well, other than the general spectacle of Vegas and if you like watching people as much as I do, that alone is a lot of fun.

Mexicans standing on street corners slapping their wrists with stacks of stripper flyers. Is that slapping motion supposed to get me to pick one up? I never quite got that.

I would have taken one from one of the girls on the flyer, but a sweaty Mexican man?  Negative.

[Abagadro]

I'll leave most of the poker room stuff to the B&M board over at 2+2 as it has more complete info in there than I could ever post, except to say I like playing at the Mandalay (good room, good comp beer and stacked waitress/whores in thongs) and Monte Carlo rooms when I am serious and the Luxor when I want to drink it up. Haven't played in the new Bellagio room. MGM supposedly has a very nice, very new room.


All this stuff is relatively close to Bellagio:

Shows: 

If you want goofy, decently entertaining magic show that isn't ungodly expensive, Lance Burton at the Monte Carlo is pretty decent. It is a kid oriented, throwback-type magic show, but I liked it for some strange reason.

Blue Man Group is a must-see IMO. I totally dug that show. Loved it.

If your wife is anything like mine, Mama Mia at the Mandalay is a good bet.  It is actually a pretty good show and if you like ABBA at all (hey, I'll admit it, they have great hooks) it is a no-brainer.

Never went to any of the Cirque shows, too expensive.

Heard mixed reviews of Penn & Teller's Rio show.

Bars:

Don't hit these much in Vegas, but there is a pretty fun Irish Pub over in New York, New York that has dancers and pipers, etc.

The piano bar in the Bellagio (its just by the lobby as you are walking into the casino) is pretty good. Good cheese plate and caviar if you are into that sort of thing.

The Brew Pub at Monte Carlo is pretty decent.

Stay away from the hip clubs at the top of most of the casions (Foundation Room, Sky Room, etc. etc.) They are pretentious, expensive as hell and you aren't their target customer so they will give you a hard time.

Restaurants:

First, skip all buffets.

On site at Bellagio, for casual type eating both Noodles and Olives are good.  There is a good coffee/pastry/Starbucks type place just up the hall from the elevators towards the convention areas that is good for mornings.

For spendy, Picasso's is tremendous, but very spendy.  Aqua is unbelievable, but again very spendy.

Breakfast, the "coffee shop" over by the flowers has real good food. I particularly like their crab eggs benedict.

Off site:  Andre's at the Monte Carlo is really good french food, but spendy.  Red Square at the Mandalay is one of my and my wife's favorite places. Huge vodka/martini selection, bar-top made of ice and good food. Spendy but not in the league of many places down there. There is a good Italian place in the mall at Caesar's that is escaping me at the moment.  I've heard good things about the steakhouse at Circus Circus of all places and I liked Blackstone's Steakhouse over at the Monte Carlo.

I'll try to think of some others.

EDIT: Oh, and "stuff to do" near there. (for me these generally fall into "stuff my wife drags me to when she pries me from the poker room") Avoid the M&M place. Looks fun from the outside, is tremendously tedious on the inside.  There is a cool new mall that spans between the Mandalay Bay and Luxor.  It has a store for men's shaving items which is neat, a cool toy store, a store completely for tea and a killer wine store called 55 Degrees.  There are a couple of cool shops in the Ceasars Mall (The Forum?).  Don't like rides so haven't been on any of the roller costers.

[Paelos]

I've had dinner twice at the restaurant inside the Mirage, which I think is called Kokomo's. Fabulous steak and ambiance. The entire place is set up like you are eating in the islands indoors.

[Samwise]

If you like Irish music at all, go to Nine Fine Irishmen (it's in New York New York) some night.  The band that plays there is awesome.

(edit) Oh, and if you like vodka, go to Red Square in Mandelay Bay.  It's a bit pricy but DAMN is it good.

[tazelbain]

Besure to checkout those guys that hand out the cards with the phone numbers of call girls with stars placed over the naughty bits, they're great!

[Abagadro]

Irish music at all, go to Nine Fine Irishmen

Aha! Yes, that is the place I was referring to above and I concur.

[Bunk]

I'll agree with the Caveman on Red Square. Cool little vodka bar at Mandalay. Went there after our last convention to celebrate. Got a funny story from the host as to why the statue of Lenin outside the bar has no head. Apparently a few people recognized him when the place opened up and went:

OMG!!1! COMMIE PINKOS!!111!1

They wanted the bar to tear it down, so they just removed the head instead. This way, your average American tourist has no idea who it is, and feels perfectly safe in their freedom loving, democratic vodka bar. (That happens to be called Red Square, and is decorated wall to wall with Communist Russia motifs)

snarf

[Merusk]

I was just there back in December for an Autocad convention.  I had a good time even though Vegas isn't really my thing and being there alone was a 'meh' experience.  Stayed in the MGM Grand and that place is HUGE.. go and take a look around while you're on the strip.  The Rainforest Cafe was a pretty good deal on food, but I'm not one to enjoy $75 meals for some reason so my taste is on the low end.

The company's VP of Architecture took us to Smith & Wollensky one night.  Was a great meal, so long as I wasn't paying.  Could just be that I was hungover, but I've had better steak at far cheaper places. (Dinner is listed as $21-80 per person at Trip Advisor and that seems to be about what I remember through my haze.

I'll definatly agree on the Excalibur, though.  I walked in just to take a look around and it felt like one huge Everquest convention.  I lasted about 5 mins before I left. 

See a Cirque D' Sole show if you can. I prefer "O".

MGM had one that looked good, called Ka. Japanese-themed but I didn't get to see it because they weren't in town until Friday, which was the day my plane left.  I was going to suggest it or "O"

On the 'risque' side of things, I'd say pick-up a show at Bally's 'Jubilee' show just for the traditional Vegas showgirls.  MGM had a new one called "La Femme: The Art of the Female Nude" that looked pretty good as well.


Oh, and the guys flipping the cards? It's just to get the uninitiated or uninformed to look at them so they can shove the flyers in your face of course.  It worked on enough folks that I saw, so nobody must have warned them in advance.  (or, like me they were looking for 'souviners' to bring home to the wife.)

[WayAbvPar]

Quick bump to gather some more advice. Also, I found a pretty decent comprehensive Vegas review site here.

Sounds like we are going to see 'O'. Other activities planned include becoming sloppy drunk, watching and betting football in a Sports Book, and recovering near a pool.

Oh yeah, and gambling. Lots of gambling. From the sounds of it, I won't be playing much in Bellagio- I can't stand betting $10+ per hand of blackjack, at least until I get a decent card count going. I also wanna play craps, but it goes too damned fast at $10+ a roll. Think we will head to some off-Strip joints to do that kind of gambling.

Anyone join any/all of the player's clubs? I am wondering which ones cough up the best mailing offers for future trips. Never hurts to have a cheap/free room!

[Paelos]

On the strip casino's if you aren't averaging $25 bets, players clubs are useless. Off strip I can't say much about. Typically, players clubs benefit the slots players and the medium level table players. The slot players get rewards because they know they have you by the balls. My advice is, if you're a table min player, don't bother unless you can get an assurance from the pit boss that your min is being tracked.

Also, the Sahara is a great place for low limit craps. It's a great place to find $5 tables, and even $3 tables in some places.

[Abagadro]

Anyone join any/all of the player's clubs? I am wondering which ones cough up the best mailing offers for future trips. Never hurts to have a cheap/free room!

My soon-to-be-brother in law had one big night on the craps table at the Rio and they comped him a shitload for two years.  I think the limits over there aren't quite as high as the prime strip places but are likely higher than the crap-hole downtown places.

[Madman]

Shows: well, if you want a good example of weird Vegas, there's always Stagliano's Fashionistas http://www.fashionistastheshow.com/
 - No nudity, but amazing dancing and some really fucked up shit. Great music too.
It plays at the Krave, just outside the Aladin. Then, when its over, you find yourself in a Vegas "alternative" club. What more could you want? 

You do realize that this was originally a hard core porn movie right?

This a like to a NOT WORK SAFE review of the movie: http://www.adultvideonews.com/editch/edch0103_02.html

[Bunk]

Yea I know that. It just added to what made the show interesting. The show itself is most deffinately not porn, as its not in a casino - so that can't even have nudity. Thats not to say it isn't erotic of course. 

Just all in all, it was a really interesting show. Not for everyone's taste, but I thouroughly enjoyed it.

[Viin]

I'm in Vegas for the next two weeks if anyone happens to be in town. We could hookup and lose some money playing craps together...

[Fabricated]

My brother is in Las Vegas right now actually. He's really into poker, so I expect him to be poor when he gets back.

[Soukyan]

I'll agree with the Caveman on Red Square. Cool little vodka bar at Mandalay. Went there after our last convention to celebrate. Got a funny story from the host as to why the statue of Lenin outside the bar has no head. Apparently a few people recognized him when the place opened up and went:

OMG!!1! COMMIE PINKOS!!111!1

They wanted the bar to tear it down, so they just removed the head instead. This way, your average American tourist has no idea who it is, and feels perfectly safe in their freedom loving, democratic vodka bar. (That happens to be called Red Square, and is decorated wall to wall with Communist Russia motifs)

snarf

Also at Mandalay is a great restaurant called Rum Jungle. As the name implies, they have a huge selection of rums from around the world. That wasn't the selling point for me. They have an open fire pit where they prepare multiple types of meat and poultry dishes. Along with a rice dish, a salad, a couple potato dishes and vegetables, they serve you several of the meats and poultry. And then they keep bringing it until you tell them to stop. Now, the "all you can eat" angle of it is nice, but I was stuffed in short order. The food was excellent and quite delicious. That particular entree will run you about $40 per person, but is the best deal in the house. Appetizers run around $16 and up. Drinks range from $8 and up. A bit pricey, but great food and a very neat atmosphere.

[Abagadro]

Forgot one thing if you go to Red Square. Get the olives stuffed with blue cheese instead of pamentos for your straight up vodka (assuming you are a man and drink it that way). Mmmmmmm.

[WayAbvPar]

Less than a month away. Woohoo!!

[Viin]

Seeing as we are a bunch of Air Force folks, can anyone recommend a strip club or two for this weekend's festivites? A friend of mine suggested Spearmint Rhino (or something like that), but have no idea if it's a good one or just the first (and only) one he went to.

[Abagadro]

I've found casino doormen to be the best source of info on such things (altough they may be getting payola for sending you there). If you can get a "top 3" recommendation from them earlier in the day shift (as opposed to on the way there when the night guys are looking to push people to a particular club) you will probably get a more unbiased report.