Have a great time Lesley!

Re the 24/7, even though you can get them in taxis, I always order one 2-3 weeks before I go as it comes with the Vegas Values coupon book. It gives hubby time to read it before we go as we never find the time once we're there.

luci

Glad you're ok Lesley, have a fantastic time!

and yes, am very excited now Just over a week for us to wait now. Gonna book Fab Four tickets today as they are only £20 each online at the moment (through Travelzoo).

TC

Can't remember if I told you all I'm going to Vegas tomorrow?

this is me tomorrown night.......

this is me on monday morning.......

Weather looking good. Went and bought a new case today, decided to get a new one. Still a bit stressed about my car, still no word if it will be fixed or scrapped, so had to ask someone to call the garage and text me while I'm away. Never mind, nothing I can do about it now, except go and have fun!

TeeCee and Luci and anyone else who is going shortly have a great time!!! Ju, we will have time to report back to you before your Vegas trip. Enjoy your Portugal trip meanwhile though!

Mega jealous of all you guys jetting off soon ... nine mome months for me!

Go have fun, and be sure to return back with lots of tips & winnings

Ex

Hope people are having muchas fun, none too jetlagged and full of booze.

Have booked Leonard Cohen at Caesers and am struggling to decide who else to see,
Manilow, Bette and Cher all have shows on my dates - its a curse being there for changeover at Caesers but I dont want to spend the $$$ to see all but cant decide on 1.
Oh well still 9 weeks to go

Excalibur is booked for first half(weekend cant be beat) and a Go room at flamingo the other but this may well change if a decent PH or Paris offer comes up, or I win the lottery

Hello All

Havent been here for sometime, however now planning my Holiday Next Year, part of which includes Vegas
Stopping in Vegas for 4 Nights and has an inkling for the Mirage
Can get it online atm for about £75 a night ... Is this good, should I snap it up or should I wait
Is it work the extra for a Strip View ??

Any opinions would be gratefully appreciated
Loads more questions about where to go and best places to eat, gamble etc but will leave them for now

Many Thanks

Alan

Hi Alan,

Sounds expensive to me, but if it's booking direct with the hotel then you should be able to cancel it up to 48 hours before you travel if you see a better deal(double check before booking though).

We'll need to know more about when you're wanting to go and what you want to see to give you better ideas.....
You should be able to get a decent hotel in goosd position for around £50 a night. I've got the Monte Carlo booked for a week and it cost me under £300.

Cheers,

TC

Hi and welcome to HT!

Who is that booking with? I'm guessing a 3rd party such as Expedia if the price is in sterling.

That comes out at $122/night. You should be able to do better than that bookind direct unless it includes a Friday and Saturday night when rates are at least double the mid-week rates.

Have you check the hotel's own website, http://www.mirage.com ?

Have a search on here using Vegas and Topic Titles as there are far too many topics to link to. There is one called Vegas Hotels which has some good information on looking for the best deals with suggestions of using http://www.smartervegas.com and Fat Wallet.

luci

Many Thanks for the updates

Holiday plans so far are Fly 24 Jun Glasgow to San Fransisco - Stay 4 Nights in SF before travelling by Car to LA and spending 1 night on the Queen Mary. Drive to las Vegas on the Tues 29th June and stay until Sat 3rd July when we fly to Orlando for 2 weeks

Will be a busy 23 days and my wife has set her heart on The Mirage / Bellagio / Wynn in hthe centre of the strip. I think I may have caught it lucky with the cheapest of the 3 !!

I have looked at booking with Expedia, Opodo, Cityandshow etc and have even looked at the Mirage site too
They all work out kinda the same and the US ones are very much dependant on exchange rates

I am content to get the hotel booked and then start to look around for show tickets etc. Want to do the Hoover dam and the Grand Canyon but apart from afew dollars nightly at the casions I have no other firm plans

Searching for ideas.
Never been to SF, LA or LV before and looking to optomise the shortime we are there

Alan

Well you're extra lucky because Wynn is not centre strip, it's up the north end!
Bellagio usually do deals around the $159 mark so that's going to work out to around £100 a night at the current exchange rate.
June's not a bad time to go as far as prices go as it's damned hot so it's not a favourite month as such
Do you want to drive to Vegas from LA? If it's not something you really want to do, then fly, you can get a one way ticket for about £30-40 and it's a 45 minute flight, will give you an extra bit of time in Vegas
San Fran is a great city. If you want to go to Alacatraz I would advise booking boat tickets before you go, there are big queues out there. Have a look at the 'Blue and Gold line' website (if I remember rightly).

Most Vegas vets on here will tell you that the best deals are to be booked independently. Expedia do good deals in their January sale but they are fairly expensive the rest of the time in my opinion.

Fat Wallet is my favourite along with Travelzoo.com. If you want peace of mind, book through the MGM Mirage website for your dates and then keep searching for deals all the way up to a couple of weeks before you go, knowing you can cancel the deal with the Mirage with no penalty but at least you know it's booked, to keep the missus happy!

TC

Yep, the rates you are seeing now for the Mirage direct as probably as high as they are ever going to be. The offer rates don't come out until about 10-12 weeks before arrival.

If they are all roughly the same I would strongly suggest booking direct with the Mirage. You will only have to pay one night's deposit which is fully refundable as long as you cancel 48-72 hours before arrival. If you find a cheaper rate after booking, just call them and they will adjust the rate.

Once you are locked into Expedia, etc you're stuck with it regardless of how low a rate you eventually find.

luci

Note that the Mirage has recently introduced a $15/day resort fee which includes:

* Complimentary admission for two to the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat per stay (passes given at check-in)

* Daily newspaper available for pick-up at the Impulse Store and the Bell Desk

* Daily bottled water delivery (two bottles per day)

* Daily admission to the cardio room (does not include spa or fitness center)

* Two robes provided during stay

* Complimentary printing of boarding passes at the business center or concierge

I'm not sure if the resort fee would be included in the rates quoted by Expedia, etc.

luci
* Complimentary notary services at business center

* Unlimited local and toll-free calls

That sounds a bit rubbish for the money, if you're there for more than a couple of nights. For me would be an expensive newspaper and bottle of water, once the cost of the secret garden passes is covered. Somewhere the standard of the mirage should supply robes.

The excalibur is $7:50+tax and annoyingly is 2 drinks per stay not per day, and includes the fitness centre but not the shower after thats an extra $5 so be aware the lifts may be full of smelly people.

I've just checked our Excalibur booking and it says that it is $5.60 including tax for the resort fee.

When did they change it?

My booking with the Excalibur had the same fee as you pebbles, but I cancelled it. I'm not sure if I will have to pay a resort fee on a comped room.

It must have gone up fairly recently. There is a list of who does and doesn't charge a resort fee HERE

luci

Luci, I notice on that list that there is a $5 fee at IP too. I wonder if we'll have to pay that, since most of our nights are comped.

I'm going to have to look into this a bit more.

Yep, I noticed that when I looked earlier. These flaming resort fees make comparing rates so much harder.

The IP used to charge $1/day to cover phone calls, but this was dropped when Harrah's bought them. I see this one has sneaked back in as I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere.

I think resort fees are normally included in comped rooms, but it won't do any harm to call them and make sure.

luci

I've looked at the IP website and there is no mention of a resort fee anywhere. I think I'll give them a ring later and find out.

Try making a dummy booking as the resort fee sometimes doesn't show until you actually come to book.

luci