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Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?


Spring or March marks the beginning of pool party season. It's a good time to visit especially if you want to dip in the water but I'd suggest booking sooner than later. A lot of the weed shops are kind of ripoffs and that whole landscape is changing with Medmen declaring bankruptcy.

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Reztes
Jun 20, 2003

CapnAndy posted:


Also, with regard to Omega Mart and Area15 in general -- so an Omega Mart ticket gets me in, and then what? Can I stay for as long as I want? And how much more of Area15 is worth doing; in other words, what level of Area15 ticket should I get and how much of a day should I be planning to spend there?

Once you're inside, yeah, you can wander around and check out the other stuff. I did Museum Fiasco with a group of friends, it was neat and trippy. Several VR experiences if you're into those, an arcade, some bars and shops. Mostly you should be able to just walk up and buy tickets to the other things if they look neat to you. When I've been, Omega Mart seemed to be the only thing that definitely needed purchasing in advance (Lost Spirits, too probably, but that's kinda it's own thing (I really liked Lost Spirits though!)) Outside of that I don't think I've spent more than 2-3 hours there.

BizarroAzrael
Apr 6, 2006

"That must weigh heavily on your soul. Let me purge it for you."

CapnAndy posted:

I am due for a vacation and I've always wanted to go to Las Vegas, so I'm thinking I'll do that. I know I want to do three things -- I want to see Penn and Teller and the Cirque du Soleil Beatles show, and I want to go to Omega Mart. Otherwise, I don't know poo poo.

I am eager for suggestions on good places to stay, places I should eat, and a good time to go -- is early April too short notice? I'd like to get there before summer comes to the desert. And very eager for anything else I should do while I'm there, based on the three things I know I want to do. For the record, I am not a gambler, though I figure I'll do a bit of gambling just because I'm in Las Vegas. But it's not a major draw for me.

Also, with regard to Omega Mart and Area15 in general -- so an Omega Mart ticket gets me in, and then what? Can I stay for as long as I want? And how much more of Area15 is worth doing; in other words, what level of Area15 ticket should I get and how much of a day should I be planning to spend there?

Mob Museum, Pinball Hall of Fame and the Neon Museum are all great, be sure to book ahead for a tour with the latter. If you stay on the strip you might be able to do them on the same day and visit downtown/ Fremont Street. Getting between the two isn't difficult but depending on your tolerance for buses you might want to be efficient there. You probably already mean to just walk the Strip (comfortable shoes and don't underestimate how long it is) but you have to see the Bellagio Fountain and Mirage/Hard Rock volcano if it's still going.

On that topic, conventional wisdom is stay on the Strip for your first time, where will depend on your budget but I can vouch for Treasure Island for a good central-ish location and good prices. A lot of folks swear by Planet Hollywood which I mean to be my next stay. I see Strat promoted as a budget friendly option but it's to the extreme north of the Strip and not a great immediate area. If you love saving money and buses you could stay downtown, I liked Downtown Grand but plenty of other options if you want to be in an old Vegas icon or the Back To The Future II casino.

Food comes with a pretty overwhelming amount of choice, I would recommend punching "Las Vegas" and "pizza", "Mexican", "buffet" and whatever else interests you and go down the Vegas YouTuber rabbit hole. Although for Pizza I say Pizza Rock off Fremont, tacos at Al Pastor or El Gordo, Wynn for buffet although again that is a matter for budget as well.

I had a great time at Penn and Teller and sounds like things are improving at Rio, definitely go for that.

Kaddish
Feb 7, 2002
We did both Wynn and Bacchanal. Wynn does some things better but overall we both preferred Bacchanal. For what it’s worth.

STING 64
Oct 20, 2006

mirage volcano is kaput i believe.

BizarroAzrael
Apr 6, 2006

"That must weigh heavily on your soul. Let me purge it for you."

STING 64 posted:

mirage volcano is kaput i believe.

There's news stories from about 10 days ago of it coming online again, they covered it with some fake Superb Owl's mountain or something and I don't think it was ever made clear it would come back at that time, same as after it was covered with grandstands for F1. I'm not sure it's known when it will be gone for good, possibly it's not decided, there's rumours that the Hard Rock's consortium might bid for TI as well, and if they got that it could affect their plans and even save the volcano depending on what they did with the combined space. At the same time if they take it offline for some event or something again we might not be able to take for granted it will come back after.

Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?


As far as food goes, is there a good place on the strip or downtown that has a solid Rice-Pork-Bowl? Or do I have to go all the way to Chinatown?

BizarroAzrael
Apr 6, 2006

"That must weigh heavily on your soul. Let me purge it for you."

Gucci Loafers posted:

As far as food goes, is there a good place on the strip or downtown that has a solid Rice-Pork-Bowl? Or do I have to go all the way to Chinatown?

Not the most detailed answer and things have been changing in there but I think the food hall in Resorts World might be worth a look.

DeadFatDuckFat
Oct 29, 2012

This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.


BizarroAzrael posted:

Mob Museum, Pinball Hall of Fame

Pinball Hall of Fame was a fun time and it was a fairly cheap activity to do. I feel like the mob museum is for a certain demographic. Its definitely a very "Vegas" type of museum. Not sure how to really describe it but I wasn't really a huge fan.

CapnAndy posted:

For the record, I am not a gambler, though I figure I'll do a bit of gambling just because I'm in Las Vegas. But it's not a major draw for me.

Do you follow sports at all? Sports betting is a pretty good way to kill some time if you are. Just plop down like 20 bucks on whatever line appeals to you and watch the game at a comfortable sportsbook. Also, if you get sick of smelling cigarettes, the Park MGM is a no smoking hotel/casino. I don't know if there currently are others on the strip. We walked through it to get gelato at the Eataly there and it seemed nice.

CapnAndy
Feb 27, 2004

Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

DeadFatDuckFat posted:

Do you follow sports at all? Sports betting is a pretty good way to kill some time if you are. Just plop down like 20 bucks on whatever line appeals to you and watch the game at a comfortable sportsbook. Also, if you get sick of smelling cigarettes, the Park MGM is a no smoking hotel/casino. I don't know if there currently are others on the strip. We walked through it to get gelato at the Eataly there and it seemed nice.
I do, yes, but I can watch sports at home. Shouldn't I have something better to do with my time? Also, shocking that there's still smoking in the Vegas casinos. I work for a casino and our customer satisfaction went up when we finally went no-smoking (because it was impossible to enforce a mask mandate otherwise); turns out nobody likes being in a place that stinks.

I realize this is a vague question, but how many days are "enough"? If I fly in on a Thursday, spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday there, and fly home on Monday, will I be kicking myself for not spending an extra day or two? I've got vacation to spare.

G-Mawwwwwww
Jan 31, 2003

My LPth are Hot Garbage
Biscuit Hider

Gucci Loafers posted:

As far as food goes, is there a good place on the strip or downtown that has a solid Rice-Pork-Bowl? Or do I have to go all the way to Chinatown?

There's two places downtown I can recommend for asian food: 8 East and Le Thai. 8 East is good. I get big mad if I can't go to Le Thai when I'm in vegas. It's really, really loving good for staples. The brisket fried rice and pad see ew are fantastic.

Vegas is one of the best cities for thai food in the country.

coronaball
Feb 6, 2005

You're finished, pork-o-nazi!

CapnAndy posted:

I do, yes, but I can watch sports at home. Shouldn't I have something better to do with my time? Also, shocking that there's still smoking in the Vegas casinos. I work for a casino and our customer satisfaction went up when we finally went no-smoking (because it was impossible to enforce a mask mandate otherwise); turns out nobody likes being in a place that stinks.

I realize this is a vague question, but how many days are "enough"? If I fly in on a Thursday, spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday there, and fly home on Monday, will I be kicking myself for not spending an extra day or two? I've got vacation to spare.

The first weekend of April is the Final Four, which would definitely be worth watching at a sports book or sports bar. Is sitting in a sports book and watching early regular season baseball a good use of your time? Probably not.

3 nights is my sweet spot. 4 nights is perfectly fine too. Longer than that and you start getting burned out, at least I do.

The smoking is definitely obnoxious, we spent a lot of time at Park MGM simply because it's smoke free even though it's far from the most exciting place. Paris seemed fairly non-smoky, I think because of the higher ceilings.

STING 64
Oct 20, 2006

I belive the fontainebleu is also non smoking

CapnAndy
Feb 27, 2004

Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

coronaball posted:

The first weekend of April is the Final Four, which would definitely be worth watching at a sports book or sports bar.
Does that mean it’s gonna be really crowded?

STING 64
Oct 20, 2006

CapnAndy posted:

Does that mean it’s gonna be really crowded?

most sportsbooks will be pretty packed come gametime, yeah. if you're looking for a fun packed place to watch the games and do a little gambling/drinking, the Circa sportsbook downtown is pretty hard to beat. The entire hotel is 21+ too so no kids running amok.

Kaddish
Feb 7, 2002
Wish we knew about MGM being non-smoking, it was by far our biggest complaint. Some were better than others. Our hotel, Horseshoe, was among the worst.

Excellent location and rooms for the price though.

CapnAndy
Feb 27, 2004

Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

STING 64 posted:

most sportsbooks will be pretty packed come gametime, yeah. if you're looking for a fun packed place to watch the games and do a little gambling/drinking, the Circa sportsbook downtown is pretty hard to beat. The entire hotel is 21+ too so no kids running amok.
I mean, like, everything else. Like, will there be more people in the city than usual and more crowds for all the other stuff?

STING 64
Oct 20, 2006

CapnAndy posted:

I mean, like, everything else. Like, will there be more people in the city than usual and more crowds for all the other stuff?

Its the start of summer out here and some schools are on spring break so it it'll be packed for sure but outside of the winter vegas is always packed

Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?


Is there a way to tell when the city is extra busy? I don't know what the hell was going on two-three weeks ago but traffic was way more ridiculous than usual on the strip.

jabro
Mar 25, 2003

July Mock Draft 2014

1st PLACE
RUNNER-UP
got the knowshon


Gucci Loafers posted:

Is there a way to tell when the city is extra busy? I don't know what the hell was going on two-three weeks ago but traffic was way more ridiculous than usual on the strip.

It was just a lot is stuff happening at the same time. Bad Bunny concerts, trade shows, and some rock n roll thing.

WhiteHowler
Apr 3, 2001

I'M HUGE!

Gucci Loafers posted:

Is there a way to tell when the city is extra busy? I don't know what the hell was going on two-three weeks ago but traffic was way more ridiculous than usual on the strip.
I'm sure there are more, but these are the big event weeks/weekends for 2024 I found when researching this exact thing:

Consumer Electronics Show (early January)
National Finals Rodeo (mid-to-late March; now I think?)
Electric Daisy Carnival (mid-May)
DEFCON* (early August)
Las Vegas Grand Prix (late November)

It's worth looking to see if there are any larger-than-normal trade shows or sporting events going on the week you want to visit. Salesforce has done events there that booked up much of the city. Obviously the Superbowl was a whole thing, and the Vegas Golden Knights still have a shot at making the Stanley Cup playoffs, which could bring thousands of extra visitors.

* There are definitely larger trade shows and conferences that come to Vegas. Speaking as someone who has been to DEFCON, if you're not in town for the event, I recommend staying away from Vegas -- or at least the Strip -- that weekend. It sounds like Caesar's canceled their 2024 contract last-minute, so it's moving to the convention center, which may affect attendance.

coronaball
Feb 6, 2005

You're finished, pork-o-nazi!

Kaddish posted:

Wish we knew about MGM being non-smoking, it was by far our biggest complaint. Some were better than others. Our hotel, Horseshoe, was among the worst.

Excellent location and rooms for the price though.

We stayed at Horseshoe in October and I think we spent a grand total of like 15-20 minutes gambling there. It's so stuffy and smoky due to it being an old building with a low ceiling. We spent more time in Paris instead. But as you said, the hotel is good value and the location is prime.

Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?


WhiteHowler posted:

I'm sure there are more, but these are the big event weeks/weekends for 2024 I found when researching this exact thing:

Consumer Electronics Show (early January)
National Finals Rodeo (mid-to-late March; now I think?)
Electric Daisy Carnival (mid-May)
DEFCON* (early August)
Las Vegas Grand Prix (late November)

It's worth looking to see if there are any larger-than-normal trade shows or sporting events going on the week you want to visit. Salesforce has done events there that booked up much of the city. Obviously the Superbowl was a whole thing, and the Vegas Golden Knights still have a shot at making the Stanley Cup playoffs, which could bring thousands of extra visitors.

* There are definitely larger trade shows and conferences that come to Vegas. Speaking as someone who has been to DEFCON, if you're not in town for the event, I recommend staying away from Vegas -- or at least the Strip -- that weekend. It sounds like Caesar's canceled their 2024 contract last-minute, so it's moving to the convention center, which may affect attendance.

Is the Rodeo downtown? EDC should be interesting but anyway I am a new local that does venture to the strip time to time but I'm definitely noticing some weekends are much, much busier than others.

Gucci Loafers fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Mar 15, 2024

BabyJebus
Jan 19, 2006

Gucci Loafers posted:

Is the Rodeo downtown? EDC should be interesting but anyway I am a new local that does venture to the strip time to time but I'm definitely noticing some weekends are much, much busier than others.

All/most of the NFR events are at thomas and mack but it’s a big enough event that the whole city is full of cowboys while it’s going on. Afaik it’s still in early December.

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



WhiteHowler posted:

Speaking as someone who has been to DEFCON, if you're not in town for the event, I recommend staying away from Vegas -- or at least the Strip -- that weekend. It sounds like Caesar's canceled their 2024 contract last-minute, so it's moving to the convention center, which may affect attendance.

lmao at this entire thing

STING 64
Oct 20, 2006

BabyJebus posted:

All/most of the NFR events are at thomas and mack but it’s a big enough event that the whole city is full of cowboys while it’s going on. Afaik it’s still in early December.

definitely visit the south point during NFR

luminalflux
May 27, 2005



NFR coincided with AWS reinvent a few years back and man was it a fun combo of cultures at bars.

BizarroAzrael
Apr 6, 2006

"That must weigh heavily on your soul. Let me purge it for you."

WhiteHowler posted:

I'm sure there are more, but these are the big event weeks/weekends for 2024 I found when researching this exact thing:

Consumer Electronics Show (early January)
National Finals Rodeo (mid-to-late March; now I think?)
Electric Daisy Carnival (mid-May)
DEFCON* (early August)
Las Vegas Grand Prix (late November)

It's worth looking to see if there are any larger-than-normal trade shows or sporting events going on the week you want to visit. Salesforce has done events there that booked up much of the city. Obviously the Superbowl was a whole thing, and the Vegas Golden Knights still have a shot at making the Stanley Cup playoffs, which could bring thousands of extra visitors.

* There are definitely larger trade shows and conferences that come to Vegas. Speaking as someone who has been to DEFCON, if you're not in town for the event, I recommend staying away from Vegas -- or at least the Strip -- that weekend. It sounds like Caesar's canceled their 2024 contract last-minute, so it's moving to the convention center, which may affect attendance.

Besides EDC there's a bunch of other music festivals like Sick New World and When We Were Young, although besides clogging things up in that part of the Strip (north of Circus Circus and South of Strat) I'm not sure these create a noticeable impact elsewhere besides on room prices and traffic between the Strip and Downtown.

Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?


https://x.com/reviewjournal/status/1769710355197124652?s=20

People really need to travel more... but I'm happy they enjoy visiting! The actual report is here link.

Gucci Loafers fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Mar 22, 2024

CapnAndy
Feb 27, 2004

Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.
Have any of you been to House of Shattered Prisms at the Luxor? They've got two options, one where you watch live performers and are guided around and one where you just wander the place and there are no live performers, and you'd think "so what is each one of those like and which one should I pick" would be a question someone online has answered, but all I can find is endlessly copy/pasted advertising copy.

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



Absent additional information I'd do the live performance and if afterwards you felt like you needed to go back and check parts out in more detail do the self guided version the next day.

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DeadFatDuckFat
Oct 29, 2012

This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.


CapnAndy posted:

Have any of you been to House of Shattered Prisms at the Luxor? They've got two options, one where you watch live performers and are guided around and one where you just wander the place and there are no live performers, and you'd think "so what is each one of those like and which one should I pick" would be a question someone online has answered, but all I can find is endlessly copy/pasted advertising copy.

It looks like its not open until April 20 (lol) unless I'm misreading something

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