Check List

Quite a few emails with advice and things to remember have been flying about, so I thought I would compile a list here for everybody (and add to it as we go along).

Things to do before we go:

• Apply for the ESTA (to allow entry into the USA): http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/esta-usa-visa
• Get some cash out. Best advice is to use a Tesco credit card at a Tesco foreign exchange booth (0% charge + you get the Tesco Clubcard points.) Rate as of time of writing this blog was $1.56 to £1.
• Tell your bank that you are going to Vegas. Otherwise, they can stop your card working abroad which becomes a pain having to phone them up to reinstate it. 
• Sort out your phone. I intend to get a 30 day data boost (Orange is £15 [for the 30 days] for 10Mb per MONTH.). Otherwise they charge £8 per 1Mb! I feel than even if I don't use it much, this protects me from a surprise bill if I use it on the odd occasion (when drunk!).
• Consider getting Skype set up so you can speak to your family for free. (We need to maximise the free WiFi usage after the resort tax sting!) 
• Travel Insurance. 

Things to remember to take (other than obvious stuff like passport & money):

• Enough shirts for each day. As they bars are still smokey over there, you won't be able to wear the same shirt more than once.
• For same reason take more than one pair of "night-time" jeans. Have a pair for the day to keep non-smokey.
• Photo ID (Driving Licence). They ask for this everywhere and you don't want to be carrying your passport around.
• US plug adaptor.
• Swimming attire. The pools may just be open, its a gamble whether it will be warm enough though.
• Comp resort card (if you have been to Vegas previously and have credit on it)

Keffufle Aria

After booking and cancelling two deals of increasing value we have committed ourselves on our third attempt to 3 rooms with a pair of Queen beds in Aria from the 3rd to the 6th April.

This particular offer includes a 'city view', (which means you overlook the taxi rank with the MGM in the distance) and breakfast buffet. All for £73 per room per night - bargain!

Paid up front so no complicated resort credits to manage between the three rooms.

Only the matter of the resort tax we need to pay/discuss nicely when we get there.

As this is such a good deal and given the cost of the Venetian we are giving serious consideration to staying there Friday and Saturday as well.

Resort Fees! (school boy error)

Whilst booking the hotels, we have come across this recent (last couple of years) concept of "Resort Fees". This is a compulsory daily rate on every room of approx $20 which supposedly covers use of the free WiFi, the gym (handy, when on holiday I know!), towels etc.

More accurately:
"A daily resort fee of $22.40 (includes applicable tax) is added to all room reservations upon check-in and includes the following hotel services: In-room Internet, Campus-wide wireless Internet, In-room local and toll-free calls, Fitness Center access, daily newspaper, two welcome cocktails per stay and airline boarding pass printing."

None of the booking websites charge this up front or include it in the price, you simply pay this on check in!

See one of many articles on it: http://lasvegasresortfees.com/complete-las-vegas-resort-fees-list/

This will affect where we pick for our Friday and Saturday nights now as we have gone slightly over budget with the other bookings. (plus the Venetian is more expensive than estimated with taxes thrown on top).

Pip will update the details of our 2nd booking @ Aria (City Centre complex).

Accommodation Secured!… I hope.

We have managed to secure our first two nights accommodation!

- MGM Grand 30th March - check out 1st April. We have x3 rooms, in the North Tower with x2 Queen beds per room.

Details:
Based on an exchange rate of 1.54 to the pound, this came out at £27 per person per night across the three rooms.

In addition we get:
We get a $15 resort credit - so basically the first $15 charged to the room is knocked off the bill
x2 free buffet passes per room

I might add, this is what I booked. However the email conf doesn't mention any of this, only that we have a booking on the 30th of March. I''m sure it will be ok.........

We used the promo code 3DAY216

Saturday Night

Phil avoided the Saturday night premium rate at the Venetian.

Tag-snoozing

We are currently debating whether we all need a room for every night of the holiday. Below the debate is explained.

Glossary to help explain this post:

"Power-Snooze": Essential daily undertaking for a Vegas lads trip. Involves a 1-3 hour sleep prior to going out for the evening. Enables the body to recoup from the free afternoon drinks and mitigates grumpiness at the later stages of the night.

"Tag-Snooze": When short of beds, the sport of tag-snoozing is an option. One person gets their power-snooze whilst the other continues on the afternoon session/activities. When the power-snooze completes, they 'tag' or swap positions.

Sunday Morning

We will be checking out of a hotel on Sunday morning to move to another location on the strip. As we check out at about 10/11am after returning from the night out at maybe 6/7am we are debating whether we need a room AT ALL on Saturday night (the most expensive night by far) - just for 3 hours sleep. In the past the bed has been left not slept in.

However, it isn't just 3 hours sleep in the morning, somewhere is required for the essential power-snooze & shower on Saturday evening. One option is to get 1 room (for the 5 of us) and take part in a tag-snoozing scheme. Or even 2  rooms but then the cost savings are not as great (but tag-snoozing becomes easier).

The decision on hotels should be up next...

Sausages

I think some of the boys are buying into this blog idea and the email banter kicked off today. 


We have been discussing what challenges we can set for the trip. Suggestions have been mainly poker and gambling related such as "biggest pot won" or "highest tournament finisher" but the less keen poker players (G) suggested something he might be good at. Namely: "Most full plates of food eaten in one free breakfast buffet sitting". 


Some of these challenges I will be opening a book on, G is odds on favourite for this challenge.


We then linked this up with a strategy to win in Vegas. The most sensible solution so far was from Paul:


"So if, for every one dollar I lose at the tables, I eat an extra sausage at breakfast, I will leave Vegas breaking even?"


Quite possibly but the scene on the way home may be something like this (Credit to Paul for searching long and hard for this photo)

Gareth's book title has already been patented: 
"Bringing the house down, buffet style – how to win really big in Vegas"
- by Inee Dan Extraseat

Countdown to Vegas

It's less than 2 months before we head to Vegas on my unofficial stag do.

This blog has been set up with the intention of tracking what we get up to during the lead up and whilst we are there.

So many things happened during the last two times that I can hardly remember any of it now. Therefore, the main reason for this is to serve as my digital memory and I think everyone who is going might also appreciate it when they want to look back on what happened. (Plus, this is what geeks do, get over it!)

I am planning to do regular(ish) updates from my phone, however, typing on my phone will be slow (probably from a poker table!), so the detail may be kept to a minimum and contain the occasional uploaded photo. If I get the general gist of what happened whilst we are there I could then try and fill in the gaps when I get home.

With the intention of this being family friendly, my initial thought is that the blog will be kept clean (and denominations of $ lost will be censored!). Wives/ families can then see how we are progressing (if you want them to).

Catch Up..

The story so far is that there are 5 of us that fly out on 30th March and return (land in UK) on 7th April.

Hotels are yet to be booked, we are still looking for a late bargain but the intention is to stay in two or three hotels to give everyone a flavour of different parts of the strip (and to change our base poker room from time to time). We did this last time and it worked really well.

Not the best of starts..

The plane tickets were touted as "Direct Flights". A week after purchase, I received a letter (why wasn’t it an email?!) saying that it will go via Glasgow which added on a couple of hours to the flight time each way. The letter said that we wouldn’t have to disembark.

I then received a second letter saying that due to new government regulations, we do have to disembark and our baggage also to be rescreened. After a couple of waste of time phone calls with FlyThomasCook.com, I found out that the flights are still classed as "direct" simply because they have the same flight number! Therefore, no leverage for a refund/discount.

Next up..

The hunt for hotel combinations & bargains, check out poker tournament schedules and ultra-lounge/club timetables. Also, we are still working on getting a sixth member to join us.