5 weeks to Vegas :D

[action man]

grand canyon is a huge waste of a vegas day, i wouldnt open my curtains if it was in my back garden. do not bother

[blueace]

I have a $500 a day budget. (Ive got £1.5k of English i still need to exchange if anyone has got dollars at spot?)

Airport

Tips about taxis to our hotel(harrahs) please. What do you ask for so they don't take the piss and roughly how much is it? (You gotta watch those taxi drivers  )
Shouldnt be too paranoid about drivers; unless they dont run the meter you should be fine, its 10min to strip depending on traffic
Hotel

Its my mothers 60th whilst there so any tips on blagging an upgrade to our rooms?
Dont thing anyones mentioned, but surely the answer is in the question? You have arrived with your Mum celebrating her 60th, put that into the conversation when booking in and it would take a hard nosed individual NOT to upgrade you.
Shows

What shows to see? So far I've been told about the Legends show which is in our hotel. Any other must See's?
No idea

Grand Canyon. Worth the hit to do it via a chopper? Wheres best to book?
Only if you and your Mum want to see it.
Food

Nice not too expensive restaurant's to take my mum on her birthday. Nothing fancy just a good steak place or something along those lines.
Cheesecake factory mentioned already, aria or mgm for buffet.

Poker

Wheres best to play? Decent deepstack tourneys around the $100 mark. Cheap cash games.
Check the schedule, they will all cover this level. dont think there are any festivals early Jan, For torns Caesers good, for loose cash games flamingos and Ballys.

Any other tips?
Tip

[LeKnave]

Lakeside grill at the Wynn is really nice and not absurdly pricey.  Should do the job for her birthday!

Have a good trip girdles.

[smashedagain]

I take Triggs point about the Grand Canyon and my wife did question if it really was one of the 7 wonders of the world, mind you she probably has Harvey Nicks in Leeds on her list. Me and her son went on the skywalk above the Grand Canyon and I thought that was worth the trip alone.

[action man]

oh, for breakfast, mon ami gabi in the paris is really nice

[Simon Galloway]

If my kidz take me to a freakin buffet on my 60th they are getting cut out the will.

And as for the room upgrade, I think airport check-in staff have 300 honeymoons/anniversaries/birthdays per flight.  Hotel check-in staff in Vegas have 3000 rooms and it's everyone's special occasion.  Asking nicely never hurts, but the cold reality is for the most part, Vegas just doesn't work that way.  Money talks in Vegas more so than any other city.  For the typical check-in clerk, with 'discretion' to upgrade 5 customers that day, can choose to upgrade the 5 heart-sob stories that day or the 5 people that are clearly intent on leaving $20 for the trouble.  Hard nosed or not, it aint even close.  

Which leads on to tipping.  It comes in 2 parts.  First part is where the custom/culture is to tip.  Such as 20% on a nice meal, $1/drink at the bar or from the server, etc.  F&B is cheaper than it otherwise would be because of their style of min-paying staff, reducing the cost to the customer and allowing the customer to make up the difference on receipt of satisfactory service.  The system has some opposition from some people that want the house to pay the staff better so they don't need as big a tip, without seeming to grasp that doing so would probably add the approx value of your tip to the list price, making little difference.  I quite like the idea of being in control of the server's incremental pay, I find generally the service is a LOT better as a result, as staff know you have a decent % of their wages at your command.  Regardless of whether you like or dislike the argument, THAT'S HOW IT IS and that's pretty much that.  You can choose not to tip "hey I never tip at home" or lowball people, just don't eat anything if you go back the next day....

The 2nd part of the tipping culture is the one to absorb imo.  This is out and out GREASE.  (old-school grease, not the fire variety of today..)  The way to approach this is to think about what difference tipping or not tipping will make to your experience.  The doorman who opens the door for you, well, that doesn't make any diffference to me, so I generally wouldn't tip him.  If he wasn't there, I'd happily open the door for myself.  The taxi-line co-ordinator that whistles up a car for me, well if he wasn't there, the line would be more chaotic and the wait would be twice as long, so I generally tip him for reducing my wait time.

Going back to old-school Vegas, my first trip was mid nineties and Mirage in it's pomp.  I arrived after a bad layover on a 24 hour journey and was met by a complete vinegar tits on check-in that told me there wasn't a single room available.  I hardly knew about the internet back then, never mind teh $20 trick, but I instinctively said "I've been on a 24 hour journey, I'm abs knackered, here's $50, please could you take another look in your system for me."  Next thing you know, vinegar-tits sprang to life and I was walking off towards a private bank of elevators, possibly having overpaid, but getting a very early and cheap lesson on how Vegas operates.  I could have chosen not to tip, but that would have resulted in me lying on top of 2 suitcases in the lobby for another hour or so.  The tip made a big difference to my holiday, therefore it was in my interest to tip.  Perhaps a rather selfish way of looking at it, but there you go.  Likewise the next night with the old-style theatres, tickets to see Siegfried&Roy (and it was getting old even back then..)  Tickets got you seats at a banquet style table of about 15 people, with 2 free drinks.  On being led to our seats, the view was pretty bad, which I duly mentioned to the Maitre d'.  His face said it all.... "get there quicker son!"  The lightbulb went on and I pulled out $20 for me, $20 for the wife, and pressed it into his hand.  "ooops, sorry sir, I have taken you to the wrong seat.. follow me please...."

One more example closer to the poker world and I think you will get the idea.  In a well known casino, I wanted to get a buffet comp (the $15 value is something, but avoiding the hour wait, which the comp confers upon you, was worth a lot more) I approached the shift manager.  About 4 steps away, someone else cuts in in front of me.. "hey you got buffet comps there man"  "sorry no, ran out"  The other customer slunk away and teh manager turned to me, "yes?"  I realised this wasn't going to be a positive conversation as was, so I waved a $5 chip and said "I was hoping to pick up a buffet comp please"  "certainly, here ya go!"  Now some people might say "hey that's dispicable!"  Well to those, I would say, I salute your principles, but I am still going to wave to you at the back of the Q while I walk in the VIP entrance.

Ok OK I think you get the idea.  Every time you find yourself in a discretionary situation, ask your self if a $20 tip would make a $100 difference to your day.  If it would, strongly consider doing it.  If it wouldn't... don't bother.

 

[millidonk]

Love tipping the taxi rank guy. It's the only time I ever really get to do the discrete palm and shake tip. Always makes feel like an abs boss or as if I am doing an open air drug deal. Apart from the time I gave a x2 $10 instead of x2 $1, that was a bit of a sigh.

[tonytats]

Good points Simon
Taxi drivers get 1/2$ ,never had the same taxi driver
I always leave 5/10 $ a day in room for house keeping ,then ask for extra body lotions/ whatever they provide that I like ,with a note saying thanks they are then happy to change the sheets every day or 2  on request
1$ a drink is normal ,if you want better service I tip 5$ now n then and say keep em coming ,they normally do
1$ to the doorman/ taxi guy
5$ to the waitress at start of meal ,bit more at end depending on service
It can make a difference to the level of service you receive ,in the nugget on a busy night at the bar ,a beer always appeared in front of me soon as I sat down ,even when leaning on the bar in a break having a smoke a beer would appear ,they do remember who tips and look after you

[tonytats]

Love tipping the taxi rank guy. It's the only time I ever really get to do the discrete palm and shake tip. Always makes feel like an abs boss or as if I am doing an open air drug deal. Apart from the time I gave a x2 $10 instead of x2 $1, that was a bit of a sigh.

100% agree I gave out 100$ like this once by mistake ! $$ are kept in order 100s at the back 1s at the front

[millidonk]

Love tipping the taxi rank guy. It's the only time I ever really get to do the discrete palm and shake tip. Always makes feel like an abs boss or as if I am doing an open air drug deal. Apart from the time I gave a x2 $10 instead of x2 $1, that was a bit of a sigh.

100% agree I gave out 100$ like this once by mistake ! $$ are kept in order 100s at the back 1s at the front

Hundos and fiddys in the wallet, everything else in the pocket.


Oh and I have always tipped taxi drivers 20% of fare. is this far too much?

[tonytats]

Yup I'm not a fan of taxi drivers occasionally u get a good one ,they don't think no more of u ,n the journeys over then

[tonytats]

We left the Venetian ,walked to outback steak house ,after crossed over to get a cab from mirage ,huge q ,spied a guy with a black hummer ," how much to the aria ?" 60$ sir , we all jumped in I gave him 100$ said turn the stereo up he did great journey

[smashedagain]

So everyone tipping $20 for a room upgrade looks a winner but what if you slipped  $100. Are there limits to how much of an upgrade they can give you or would you probably end up with the same upgrade you'd get slipping the $20

[Simon Galloway]

Without turning this into a tipping thread, a couple more examples of good tips  investments:

1.  Room maid.  Depends what sort of room/suite/facilities you have in the room and how clean and tidy you are.  Have a chat with her at the start of the stay, tell her if you want extra towels, more lotion, extra choccy, a razor, cutlery, want her to do the washing up, NEVER knock before midday, whatever it is you want.  Either give her a good % of the tip for the stay up front (check she is the regular maid and not the relief maid covering a day off..) or feed her a $10 every couple of days and see the difference it makes.  Obv as above, if you don't care for any of that, just leave her an appreciation as you see fit at the end of your stay and experience a regular set-up in the room.  I've had fruit appear in the room, am still using shave gel from 2006!! (left $20 and asked for razors, shave gel and some extra choc, couldn't open the fridge door for choc and still have enough shave gel to last another couple of years..)  Obviously that iosn't the culture over here, tip the room maid in a Premier Inn £10 and it will make absolutely no difference to the service you get...

2.  The valet.  In Bellagio, you probably aren't going to get much traction, but tipping a few bucks to have them park the car is one of the best deals in town.  It wouldn't ordinarily make the list as that tip is expected, but you can get additional services...  In quieter hotels, I have had valets do all sorts, fetch me books from the book store, change a battery in the remote key fob, buy a case of soft drinks, continually have the car parked right next to the valet station and somehow the car be ready ahead of the long line...  And obviously I didn't get that by asking nicely....  Also, a long time ago, I pulled up late for a tournament in the valet Q.. the "Valet FULL" sign was up and a valet snarled at the guy in front of me and pointed him towards self park.  Again, this didn't look to be a good situation as the valet approached me, so I jumped out, gave him $10 and said "think you can find room?"  "Absolutely, do you need directions inside?"

3. Reducing wait times in restaurants.  This one is a bit grey-er because I realise that probably someone else got shafted in the process.  Given a buzzer in a popular restaurant, told to wait at the bar for 75-90 mins for a table, I turned round and saw a bar 4-deep and an awful lot of buzzers....  So I turned to the greeter, "Hey, I'm gonna bet you $20 that you can't get me one of the booths inside 20 minutes."(nice leather seashell booth round the outside rather than tables jam-packed on top of each other in the middle of the floor)  "You have yourself a bet sir."  No more than 5 minutes later the buzzer goes off and I am being led to a booth.  My dining companion commented on what a shit bet that was.... then about 40 minutes later, the penny dropped and "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh.... ICWUDT..."

[smashedagain]

I like this streetwise bossing it confidence. And I still think that is the best steak I've ever seen