| SumAznGuy | 03-07-2008 09:38 PM |
I'm typing this from the McCarran Airport on my way to Ft. Lauderdale.
For those that have never been to Vegas, there is a lot of walking involved. For those that say take a cab, Vegas is very bad when it comes to cabbies trying to rip off the tourist. Cab fare should only be $10-15 from the airport to your hotel, depending on traffic. Funny story, my wife's family missed their flight back to Vancouver and had to cab back to the hotel. Being an asian family, the cabbie told them it was $20 but he is discounting it to $18 for them. The meter read $13.90, which is high already. When they confronted the driver and pointed out the meter read $18.90, the driver said "not around here it isn't." They have a Nevada Taxi Authority that you can file a complaint to, in this case I will.
Throughout the entire stay, we took quite a few cabs, some drivers were really friendly, some were not good/not bad, and some were just plain rude. The nice ones knew how to converse with us, pointed things out, were quite pleaseant, and we were willing to give more of a tip. What a concept right?
Some of the cabs were brand spanking new, some were newer but heavily smoked in, and some just shouldn't be on the road. We had one van with a check engine light on and a very bad shake from the front wheels. Low speeds the car would shake and on the highway the car was a vibrating. Another cab we took had the check engine light on, very bad brakes that were grinding at low speeds, weird vibration from the motor at low speeds, and a manual locking trunk. (bungee cord to keep the trunk closed)
Hotels, definately try to stay close to the strip. We stayed at the MGM Signature, which is only about 2 years old. The units are very nice. Ours had a bed room with master bathroom and a jacuzzi tub. Shower, small panel tv, and a seperate room with a toilet. There is a Desk with a pop up HD LG tv in the bedroom with the king sized bed.
The living room had a couch/bed that folded out, and another LG HD tv. There is a smaller bathroom for the person sleeping in the living room.
The Signature offers free internet. = )
I loved the Signature and would definately book again. Everything was clean and service was pretty good.
My buddies stayed at the MGM Grand and those rooms are definately showing their age. Wall paper was peeling all over the place. Smoky smell in the hall ways and rooms.
Typical MGM Grand rates, which means hella expensive.
My wife's family booked 1 night at the Monte Carlo since they missed their flight and right off the bat I was not impressed. Low ceiling in the halls and rooms. Felt very closterphobic, which I normally am not. Rooms and hallways stunk, and the bathroom was gross. Not chinese restaurant gross, but not that clean. No free internet. $11.99 for 24 hours of high speed internet. Ewwwww...
We ate at the MGM food court at Nathan's Famous hotdog and there was a dead deep fried fly at the bottom of our fries. Ewww.
Todai, all you can eat restaurant in the Planet Hollywood mall. It was good. Not as much selection as the one we went to in NY, but for Vegas food it was good. Cost was around $28 a person and jumps up to $30+ a person on weekends but there are lots of coupons for discounted rates for this restaurant.
Best part was the king crab legs. A little salty, but we feasted like kings that night.
Il Fornaio, located inside New York New York. Food was good, my wife and I shared the 22 oz steak. The bad, our steak was supposed to be med-rare and they brought us a med-well done steak. The wife's maid of honour ordered the seafood linguini and it was super spicy. They also screwed up the order for the wife's mom and dad. They ordered a med-rare 8 oz steak each and they brought out 1 med 22 oz steak and 1 med-rare 22 oz steak. The waitress swears up and down that we were wrong but when we ordered, she even double checked our orders with us verbally.
P. F. Changs in the Ballagio. Cheap wanna be chinese food that is mediocore at best. Wife's family thought the food was decent but I hated it. They managed to screw up sweet and sour pork.
Spice Market Buffet in the Planet Hollywood casino. Food was decent. They had different areas with different ethnic food. Italian, asian, Mexican, seafood, salad bar, and a desert bar. Wasn't bed, but not gourmet by any standards. Not sure how they were voted number 1 buffet place in Vegas for 2007.
Las Vegas was supposed to be smoke free, but I see a lot of people smoking in the casino's. Lots of regular cigarettes and some cigars. Ewwww.
One thing you will notice is there was a lot of people handing out passes to night clubs or gurly gurly places. I didn't take any but lots of the locals told us not to waste your time with those places. Also, there were lots of moving billboards advertising gurly gurly places.
Woohoo, only 15 more minutes till we board our flight for Ft. Lauderdale. | 