Thats brilliant, thanks very much.

No probs.

On the subject of the Mirage....like a fool I selected the 30% discount code on Fat Wallet yesterday and ignored the 35% code, therefore my dates in August are now $58 a night and not $63. An absolute steal.

I really like the Mirage, the only 'downside' to it is the pool area because you are squashed in like sardines with literally half an inch between sunbeds. (At least it was about 3-4 years ago when we stayed there). We always eat at 'Cravings' which I think is one of the best buffets.

Lesley - Nope, haven't booked hotels as yet, still a bit undecided whether to try to do everything very cheap ie: stay at Orleans or the like, or wait to see what deals MGM are putting out nearer the time. To be honest I think we'll miss MGM if we don't stay there now!

TC

Update time. Booked the Mirage for 4 ( ) nights check in Sunday August 16th at the $58 rate on Fat Wallet. We will keep checking back to see if rates improve but I seriously doubt it, especially with the need (!) to stay in a new hotel.

TC, re: Cravings....do you recommend breakfast, lunch or dinner or all three????

Roll on August......got to save up now. Vegas here we come again!!!!!!!!!!!! So much for my comments last year.....

Ju

Hi - I notice a lot of people in this thread are going in August. I am thinking of going end of Aug/beginning of Sept. Does the heat cause anyone any problems at that time of year?

Nice one Ju! A great price for a new hotel to try.

A glitch in the Bellagio system means you can book Thurs, Fri and Sat for $119 a night! The weekend nights show up dearer on the calendar, but not if you select the 3 night. This works for 30 April to 2 May, but may work for other dates

https://reservations.mgmmirage.com/bookingengine.aspx?pid=190&host=promo&code=BSPR25

This is sooooooooooo tempting, but hubby will kill me if I say I've changed our plans yet again. He just doesn't get the booking and rebooking thing.

luci

Alison

The heat is supposed to be oppresive in Vegas in high summer resulting in less visitors and cheaper hotel rooms.

It was 98F when we arrived at the end of April last year and was 96F when we left around 6 May. This was hot enough for me and too hot for me to actually sit out in as I'm not a sun worshipper.

luci

Crumbs Luci. That is hot! According to my guidebook it says 78 in April and 88 in May. Now I was first of all planning on going in Oct (when it says it should be 81) but for reasons I won't bore you with, think last week of Aug and first of Sept will be more convenient. So it seems to me if it is possible for it to be practically 100 degrees in April, then I might just as well not worry because I could be caught out anytime. I'm not a huge sunworshipper, though I like a swim and a lounge for a couple of hours, then I get too hot/too bored. But given the extensive air conditioning everywhere I was wondering just how much a problem excessive heat would be.

It was almost record temperatures when we were in Vegas in April, but every time we've been it has been a good few degrees higher than the average.

From what I've read about people going in July and August, sensible people don't. Walking the strip is like walking into an oven and people either go through the casinos or get taxis even for short distances as it is very uncomfortable to walk in. This is only what I've read as I've never been at that time of year.

luci

We are coming up to our 6th visit, and this will be our 2nd time in August (we had 6 nights in Vegas August last year). For me, August is hotter but not considerably hotter than at other times we have been (June x 2, September and October) and although walking the strip is tough at times, with breaks for refreshments and shade it is still an option. My advice would be to split the strip into thirds (easily done, south, mid and north) and sightsee in each across a number of days. That's how we managed last year and although I stated on return we would not be heading to Vegas for a few years, the temptation has been too much and we are booked in again as mentioned above.

Best things about August....hotel and show deals. Worst thing....flight prices and crowded pool areas (who can blame them though).

It was going up to 104 degrees in May a couple of years back, July and August are too hot to be honest, well it certainly is if you wanna lay by the pool because you have to keep out of the sun!! As said before, just walking between hotels is ridiculous because you're covered in sweat after walking out of an air conditioned casino into the hot sun.
We always go in September now, temps are normally around the 95 degree mark during the day and drop to around 75-80 degrees at night - still a bit warm at night to be honest but I like a hot sun round the pool

ju
- Regarding Cravings buffet.....a little tip that we came across by accident.....we were staying at the Signature last year but wanted a late breakfast so walked across to Cravings at around 10:20-10:30am. By the time we got there and paid, it was a couple of mins to 11am.....that's when they start lunch! So basically we paid $14 or whatever it was for brekkie and got the full lunch buffet instead! The woman host said a lot of people do it deliberately to pay less for lunch, you just have to time it right!

Cheers

TC

Teecee,
That buffet tip is a good one, it happened by accident to us in the Luxor on our first ever trip to Vegas but I must admit I've never thought to do it since. In the MGM buffet last year we went down for breakfast quite late and a Dad/Daughter had obviously timed it so they could take advantage of the lunch offerings at the breakfast price. I don't know, but it was slightly off putting for me tucking into omlettes, eggs benedicts and the like to see this big American guy slurping his way around a rack of ribs at 11 o'clock in the morning!!!! What made it even funnier was his daughter was obviously on a huge health kick and was eating salad only.

On a different note, my Wife has been offered the opportunity to change her holiday dates to September from August. What this means is much cheaper flights, not a major amount of difference in Seattle and Portland hotel prices and possibly not so many good deals for Vegas hotels. Just a quick calculation last night confirmed that our preferred flights (Norwich-Amsterdam-Seattle & back from Vegas-Minneapolis-Amsterdam-Norwich) on Northwest/KLM are £470 in September, compared to £730 in August, a whopping saving of £260pp on flights alone. Another quick check on the Mirage deal confirmed that the $58 deal is still available for the midweek dates I chose randomly but the Sunday was $100. Still, if we are saving £520 on flights for the two of us another $42 on the Mirage booking isn't going to hurt is it????
Of course there is still the option to travel from London and overnight etc, but I have always wanted to fly to the USA from Norwich (sort of) and with the airport being just 5mins away, I think it would make it less stressful and possibly less expensive than flying from Heathrow.

Plenty still to weigh up yet it seems......

Oh, and one amazing thing about that Norwich-Amsterdam-Seattle flight is that although it's an early start in Norwich (6.20am flight) with a direct flight to Seattle from Amsterdam it means we would actually arrive in Seattle at 11.40am, therefore not losing a day of our holiday travelling.....although probably feeling rather tired at some point I would guess.

Anyway, I have strayed

A quick update. We have decided to cancel our August dates and go in September to the USA instead. Plan is as before, this now means we arrive in Vegas on either Monday 14th September or Tuesday 15th September for 4 nights. The reason for the two dates is that I'm sure my Wife isn't going to want to fly home on her birthday which is the 18th, so it will probably be arrive on the Tuesday and stay 4 nights one of which will be a Friday night (18th). I hope that makes sense???? Alternatively it could mean 5 nights in Vegas arrive on the Monday (14th).

Our great $58 Mirage booking is now cancelled and I am not getting anything like that for September at the same property. To be honest a lot of the good deals only go up to early September from what I can see, so it may be a case of waiting for a month or two before mid September deals start appearing. I have found a couple though, NYNY @ $69 for our dates (not the Friday night though) and Luxor @ $48 (again not for the Friday, which I think is $99). Not bad, but we have stayed at both hotels already and really want to stay somewhere different this time. There is a good T.I. deal at around $69 I think, but that is a non refundable deal and obviously not what we want to do...I'm also not sure on T.I. itself, although obviously the location is as good as the Mirage.

Interestingly (not) we will be in Vegas the same time as we were in 2007. I am struggling to remember just how cheap some of the deals were for mid September back then especially as I opted for a Spa Suite in the MGM as a treat for my Wife. That was $140 a night if I remember rightly, so compared to some of the Spa rates that were kicking around last year, it seems expensive. Maybe Mid September isn't going to be awash with mega deals, although obviously the economy is different from 07 and my guess is they are going to want to get people over there. Of course, with cheaper flights in September anyway, finding a great Vegas hotel deal isn't going to be the be all and end all, but it would still be nice.

Don't worry mate, there'll be good deals for Sept. I always go in Sept. now and normally find something worth looking at. If I remember rightly they had the spa suites for $89 in MGM last Sept........I think? I look at so many Vegas hotel deals sometimes it all just blends in!!
It will take another couple of months for the Sept. deals to start filtering through and the best ones won't come out until July time.

TC

Cheers Teecee.

I'm not busting a gut to book yet but it would be nice to get a deal under our belts to play against when the mid September deals start flooding through. My Wife was actually fairly impressed with the $48 Luxor deal which surprised me because I didn't expect her to want to return there (it was 2002 when we last stayed). I'm not totally convinced we will beat that as a price, but I'm sure for a bit more we can get a better hotel. The key thing for me is to book the flights, that will determine hotel budget for the whole trip but I have to hold off for a bit longer due to work issues.

I'm still in a state of shock my Wife actually came out and said she wanted to go to Vegas again this year. We were in a pub at the time so I expected some kind of retractment but it hasn't happened. She is actually as excited as me by the prospect. Roll on September!!!!

Ju

I have Paris booked through player rewards - you might want to take a look for your dates. We're booked for Orleans 6-11th as our package, then we have booked Paris 11-17th. We may still change though... We're getting $60 to $115 per night - 115 is at weekend.
http://www.playerrewardscard.com/

I also just saw TI, but with it being non-cancellable I think we'll wait. Again Luxor is cheap, but I just don't have any big draw to stay there. Anyone else got any thoughts on it. I did think maybe it would be cool for the first timers we're bringing with us on this next trip for them to stay in the Pyramid...but I'm not sure. Hubby hates the thought of how far down it is, however, I think it's not too bad since there's the connection to Excalibur so it's not technically worse than MGM...well hubby disagrees and says it's quite a walk through excal as the monorail drops you at the far end of it meaning you have to walk right across the casino. I don't remember it being that bad....

Do you folks think Paris is a good place to go after Orleans? We will have a car at Orleans and will drop it off after we move hotels on the 11th.

Lesley,
You probably already know this but anyway......the Monorail that connects Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay isn't really going to help you. If you were to stay in Luxor coming back from say NYNY for example, the monorail would bypass Luxor and head to Mandalay Bay (from the Excalibur stop). Only at Mandalay would you then get the train back to Luxor.
The walkway between Excalibur and Luxor is fairly long and does mean taking a path through the casino, up the stairs (or escalator) and joining up with Luxor from there. We've done it loads having stayed in both properties and it can be a drag, but then again, Vegas is all about walking and stamina if you ask me.
I don't think it's a major issue staying in any of the three properties linked by the monorail and there is little difference other than some additional walking compared to staying in the NYNY or MGM really. The $48 deal for Luxor in Mid Sept is tempting and it would be nice to stay in the Pyramid again (it's a Vegas must do in my opinion) but a new property has to be the way to go. I might book the Luxor for backup, just in case the deals aren't up to much in a few months time for Mid September.

My Wife has ruled out Paris. I don't know why? I think it's a French thing.... She is very keen on the Mirage but I think it will all come down to price again, and what's the betting the MGM beats allcomers again? I'm not sure she would go with that though. From a cost point of view it really does depend on how much we get stung for properties in Seattle and Portland, two cities where hotel prices are not cheap. It may well have to be the Hotwire route for both cities, leaving room for manouvre in Vegas.

Great fun though. I love it. I could book Vegas hotels all day!!!!!!

Ju, you will find something I'm sure. I think the deals could appear earlier than usual though as they struggle to fill the rooms from an early stage....

We got the $89 Celebrity Spa MGM deal last year. Fab. I really enjoyed Platinum, but no good deals generally.

Out of curiosity, did you stay at Luxor in a pyramid room previously? I'm curious if you'd recommend this for us (with 3 newbies and one second timer who stayed at Frontier before). I thought the Pyramid room might be a neat idea, but it's still the whole walking distance thing.... I'm not bothered about walking, but I think the others travelling with us will moan about sore feet! I think we only ever took the monorail to Luxor on the way back from M Bay.. I'm not sure. So do you have to go to M Bay and back up then?