Have to hit up Beer Park & Harrah's Carnival Court! Frankie's Tiki Lounge is a must at some point, its off the strip but their atmosphere & skull rated drinks are great. Stadium Swim is a new one, haven't been there yet (going in June) but looks very nice.
*** OFFICIAL GUIDE TO VEGAS FOR UNLV 9/18 ***
- Thread starter ISUCyclones2015
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One other thing, I hate to say it but you want prices to go back up. Let's just say the lower class people bringing their clothes in garbage bags was not a great look for Vegas. And it was a little more dangerous on the strip.
- Mar 27, 2006
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Carnival court is a good time. Several years ago, was in Vegas for a convention, and carnival court was right on the way back to our hotel at the end of the day. We would stop for "a drink" every day and always ended up staying way, way longer than intended.
Very good time there! I would almost bet the same bartenders are still there from your time visiting. They make incredible $$. Bands aren't too bad either.
Stadium Swim at Circa is an absolute must see. Watched the bowl game there and working with them to get a cabana for an evening before the game. The thing to remember with Circa also is that it's an adult only resort with only 21 and under allowed in the steakhouse.
You cannot opt out of resort fees. (You can get them waived depending on your status with that resort.. but if you’re paying $135 a night - I assume you’ll have to pay the fee).
My husband called about a Cabana for June & for 5 hours for 8 ppl was $1200, then $200 each hour over that.
I actually probably could do one but then people would be like TL;DR
The TL;DR or Wilmington is to turn around and go back to Philly
Don't be looking at my Adults Only section before I get a chance to post it!
Don't be spooked by those examples. Here's an actual real life example of one time at the Bellagio in 2017 from my win/loss statement. This was a 3 day weekend where I hit up a few properties but this was a single day at the Bellagio.
You can see my "coin in" was $4572 and my coin out was $4413. I only lost $158 but I kept winning and losing and staying even so much that I "spent" $4572 in the eyes of the casino, when in reality it was probably two $100 bills and I cashed out before I went to $0.
So let's do the comp math on that, let's say the slots were crap and they have a 10% hold. I put through $4572 which would give a theoretical loss of $457 and comps worth probably right around $150. Which means I broke pretty much even and got some free drinks out of it! And I only used 2 $100 bills and got $40 of it back
So just to answer the other part of your question how much money to get any comps. I think you gotta shoot for $500 in ADT a day at a minimum. Now to get there it really depends on what you're playing and as you can see in my example post, I got nearly there with only $200 of "real" money, which is a bit abnormal but can definitely happen, especially with slots.
But let's say you were playing Blackjack instead of slots and you played 2 hours a day for your 4 days in Vegas betting the table minimum of $10 a hand. At roughly 60 hands an hour that is $1200 of coin in per day with a house advantage of roughly 1.5% giving you an ADT of $18 or about $6 in comps per day... or about $24 for the trip. It'd probably get you some offers in the future (50% off rooms or something like that) or maybe a free buffet.
I wouldn't come to Vegas for comp chasing unless you're budget is $500 a day at the absolute minimum. That's just not feasible for a lot of people and I understand that. So I would gamble a little, have fun and enjoy the free drinks and maybe get lucky and get a free buffet out of it.
Maybe I should expand the tipping section to who to tip when and how much... It's on the list now!
Also remember dealers pool tips and split them at the end of the night but cocktail waitresses do NOT pool tips typically.
1.) This is typically how I go for cocktail waitress:
$5 immediately so she knows I am willing to tip and I plan on being there a few hours at the table. If it's a short one, I don't do this.
$1 every time she brings me a bottled beer, water or soda
$2 every time she brings me a cocktail
$3-5 if it's something crazy like a smoothie or pina colada which is almost never for me
Also remember to keep a wad of $1 bills around or some $1 chips if you're playing the slots
2.) For dealers it's kinda dependent on the game but I try to shoot for $5/hr roughly. Maybe more if I am winning a lot. Poker I will tip $1-5 a winning hand. I will also tip a couple bucks immediately so they are friendlier to me.
Also for dealers, the much more common way instead of handing them a chip is to bet for them, that way they get the tip and winning if you win. In blackjack the common way is to put their tip above your cards on the edge of the circle/square like this picture:
Last time I was in Vegas I put $20 in a slot machine on the first night and ended up with like $40 and then didn't play again, so let me know if anyone needs any gambling advice.
I went to Penn & Tellers show back in 2016 and I thought it was a blast. But I've heard it can be god awful if you catch them on a bad night. And if you're a fan of their show Fool Us, you've probably seen a ton of their routine since they do them at the end of the TV show.
Other magic shows I liked:
Piff the Magic Dragon - Half british comedy so be warned
Mat Franco
Mac King is a cool cheap one in the afternoon and only like $20
There's no way to get out of the resort fee unfortunately unless it gets comped with your gambling. It's one of the biggest issues with Vegas (and frankly it's popping up every vacation spot around the world).
The $20 trick is to get you into a better room for the same price, not waive any fees unfortunately.
Yep, I think the Life is Beautiful paired with Cyclone fans will continue to drive that Friday/Saturday price even higher. The one thing that could change it is a lot of the Resorts don't have all the towers even open. They will hopefully open then, driving the cost down as supply is greatly increased.
