Suggestions for Vegas

[quote]So after watching the YouTube video below, my curiosity was perked

My curiosity was PIQUED

I like the awful old Vegas — cheap lounge acts, Elvis impersonators, etc. The best of what's left is Big Elvis (free afternoon shows at Harrahs). If you want kitsch this is pretty much it.

Lotus of Siam has some of the best Northern Thai food I've ever eaten.

There are two fun tiki bars — the Golden Tiki in Chinatown (great drinks and decor) and Frankie's Tiki Room (a throwback to pitch-dark dive tiki bars filled with cigarette smoke).

The gay scene is indeed dire.

My suggestion is: DON'T GO.

Vegas sucks. It's a filthy, sleazy, germ-infested, rotten-pooled, cesspool of humanity. It cheaply imitates great art and architecture of the world. Go somewhere else, real, for less.

If you do go, DON'T GO IN A POOL.

I'm 48, slightly overweight, and a redhead R3.

I will not be hitting the pool.

- Resort fee on your hotel room - $ 45+

- Cirque Du Soleil show from 10 years ago - $100+

- Celebrity Chef Restaurant - $ 150+

- Cocktail - $ 30+

- Shopping - LOOK, BUT DON'T BUY

- All-You-Can-Eat Buffets - BAD/MEDIOCRE $ 40+

- Thunder Down Under, etc. - TERRIBLE

- Liberace Museum - GONE

- Debbie Reynolds Hotel - GONE

- Jubilee, best old-fashioned Las Vegas show - GONE

- Fremont Street - TIRED and full of SMOKE-FILLED CASINOS

- Orleans Cinema - TIRED but a good, cheap way to catch up on the Oscar-nominated films

- Bellagio Dancing Fountains - WORTH IT

- Outside Table at Mon Ami Gabi to view the Fountains - WORTH IT

- Chihuly glass & gardens at Bellagio - WORTH IT

- 10,000+ steps navigating Las Vegas Boulevard - WORTH IT

- Neon Museum - WORTH IT

- Red Rock Canyon - WORTH IT

- Feeling once you're headed home - PRICELESS

commercial iv health spas for morning vitamin boost.

Sex and getting wasted are classic Vegas pastimes.

I like this guy's Vegas channel, "Vegas Must Try". He showcases a lot of the hotels, restaurants, buffets and activities, both the tourist-y stuff on the strip and downtown as well as more off-the-beaten-path places that cater to actual Vegas residents.

He recently posted this video of "15 Free Things To Do In Las Vegas", some of which you may find of interest.

Just came back and R5 did nail some thing (but not others). I just post for future searches.

Overall had a good time. I rarely gambled. I actually like playing blackjack, but the minimum on the strip seems to be $10 per hand these days, and you can absolutely lose 10 of 20 hands in a row in 20 minutes. Just isn't "fun" to me. If it was $5 a hand ...

Saw:

Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur. I loved it, but I am into this kind of nerdy D&D shit. The dinner (Cornish hen) was fairly good.

Drag Brunch at Senor Frogs at Treasure Island. The food was genuinely bad. I was surprised given the price. You would get better at Golden Corral. The show however was great, so I let it go.

Potted Potter at the Horseshoe. This is a parody of the HP novels (all 7 books in 70 minutes). It is a comedy show. It is somewhat amusing. Comedy is a blend of stuff for kids (which the audience is about 1/3), and jokes that would go over their heads. I liked it (didn't love it), but see above, I'm a nerd for these kinds of things.

Absinthe at Caesar's Palace. This was an amazing show and had shirtless built men throughout, and they were incredibly hot and performed some amazing acrobatics/routines. I really enjoyed this show. There were hot women too, but oddly far outnumbered by the men (at my show at least). Pretty bawdy.

I stayed at both the Excalibur (because I am a nerd) and the MGM Grand (because I wanted to stay at a "nice" hotel". Excalibur was fine (and cheap) and the MGM Grand was nice, but they are at the far south end of the strip. I ended up walking A FUCKING TON (11 miles one day), and it wasn't worth it. I talked to an Uber driver and he suggested the Flamingo in the future if I want cheaper but centrally located.

The Ferris Wheel pod thing at the Linq - I got the pod with the open bar and everyone did shots. Probably depends on your fellow passengers, but I had fun. Pricey for 30 minutes.

The Ice Bar at the Linq - Gimmicky but I did it anyway. WAY overpriced for what it is. Might have been better if it was actually hot outside.

The aquarium at Mandalay Bay - this was cool but I would recommend going on a weekday. I went on a Sunday and there were a TON of kids (like 12 and younger) and they plastered themselves against the glass (and sometimes were tapping it to get the fishes attention). I get that kids will be kids, but they were just in the way. I had a hard time seeing a damn thing.

The Eiffel Tower at Paris. I immediately went week in the knees when I stepped off the elevator. You are enclosed so you are fine, but I still freaked out a little.

Few observatoions -

Quite a few people bring their kids (like young kids). I could see bringing a teenager and dropping them off at the 3D/VR arcade, but these were young kids you would have to keep with you at all times. I don't get it. There is very little for them to do. Even at a place like Circus Circus.

See above but with rat dogs. At some point, people are leaving these poor animals alone in a hotel room and they should be slapped.

Lines, lines, and more lines everywhere.

A lot of escalators were oddly out of order.

I walked a ton and not by choice. Cabs are a rip off and hotels have Uber/Lyft pickups in really inconvenient locations (because of the cab union per by Uber driver). I would still take Uber over cabs, but you will have to work for it.

Nothing is cheap. Not the food and not the alcohol. You can still get free drinks if you gamble, but the Horseshoe (for example) had a minimum bet of $1 per hand at video poker to get it. $0.25 is not getting you free drinks.

Multiple hotels I went to still had buffets for breakfast and lunch (the Cosmopolitan's Wicked Spoon was fucking amazing). The buffet's death has been greatly exaggerated.

I will go back. I never got to downtown. I wanted to ride roller coasters but the weather was lousy. I wanted to do the biplane but again weather issues.

Las Vegas is an assault on my sense of taste.

[quote]I wanted to do the biplane but again weather issues.

ZIPLINE. I wanted to do the ZIPLINE.

Oh and to add -

Bazzarr Meats at the Sarah - $200 but worth it

Hell's Kitchen at Caeasr's - I can't believe the amount of people who appear to have drank Ramsey's Kool-Aid. It wasn't bad by any means (and the staff was great), but it wasn't special by any means. Skip it.

Just think of all the str8 unwiped fat sloppy fly over hairy holes who have been in the pool before you.

The Venetian/Plazzo has very nice rooms. Very large for a non-suite hotel room with a separate seating area. I would highly recommend splurging on a room there.

Don't bother with those alcoholic slushy drinks you see people carry around. They are about $30 each and made with bottom shelf booze.

Something to keep in mind: you need money to have fun in Vegas. It's not the type of place where you can amuse yourself by just being there. There no culture to enjoy and nothing to sightsee. Don't bother going there if you're cost conscious. It's like a giant mall.

You'll have lots of fun - sounds like you already have the proper mindset for Vegas. My company's conference is there every other year and we have a lot of fun doing shows (some great, some so bad/campy that they are still fun). I usually stay a few days after and hit up, of course, the fruit loop area, maybe a bathhouse. There really are some fun hikes nearby if you're into that!

Cirque du Soleil’s “KA” was one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen. Don’t be fooled by the advertisements that make it look amazing; it was really horrendous.

“O” on the other hand, was phenomenal!

Op, save yourself a lot of walking and get a monorail pass which will take you the length of the strip. It's very inexpensive.

[quote]A single-ride ticket on the Las Vegas Monorail costs $5. You can also purchase a 24-hour ride pass for $13. If you will be in Las Vegas for several days, you can buy multi-day monorail passes for different time periods between 2 days ($23) all the way up to 7 days for $56.

[quote]Cirque du Soleil’s “KA” was one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen. Don’t be fooled by the advertisements that make it look amazing; it was really horrendous.

Sorry, KA is a brilliant piece of theater. Perhaps, since this is the only Cirque show with an actual plotline, it was too difficult for you to follow,

Has anyone done the drag brunch at The Garden? I’m going next week with a group of friends and we were deciding between that and Señor Frogs, although since the review saying the food isn’t very good….

Has anyone done Penn&Teller recently? I used to go every few years to see whatever new stuff they put in the act but I haven't been there in a long while.