Las Vegas Convention Entertaining

I went to a nice restaraunt, various drinking places, shopping areas, and casinos.

Quick Tips:

Become a member of the hotel's frequent traveler program before you get there, and preferably before you make your reservation. It will get you into faster registration lines, special consideration at check-in, and maybe an upgrade.

Best Way To Get Around:

I used the monorail and taxis.

I stayed in the north tower and am a member of the Hilton Honors club. It got me in the express check-in line and maybe a better view, but I’m not sure what else. I could not smell a hint of smoke in my nonsmoking room. The elevators were fast, and I could not hear a sound out of the other rooms. The curtains were thick, and my room was dark until I opened the drapes. The bathroom was bright and the tub was big, but the shower head was low for a moderately tall person. The carpet and furnishings were comfortable and modern. They even turned down my sheets and gave me a chocolate at night. I wish they had given me real hangers, as I hate the ones that are connected to the bar. The convention I was at was right downstairs, which was also very convenient.

This hotel is on a monorail stop, which is nice. It’s not like some of the monorail stops that make you walk through a rat maze to get to the monorail. It’s fairly convenient to the casino and the hotel elevators.

This restaurant is supposed to be one of the nicest in Las Vegas. The staff was more than accommodating to our every need and really did make sure that they were not hovering over us. I had a steak and my guests had the sea bass, a shrimp dish, and other specials. Side dishes are big enough to pass around. Guests enjoyed the creamed corn. I liked the spinach. We did not have wine. The relish tray they brought before the main course was huge.

I think the bill for six of us eating and having mixed drinks and dessert came to about $900 with tip. I can't think of one negative thing to say. It was all good.

I had dinner with four other people who all had been this restaurant before. The original is in Miami, and there is another one in Chicago.

They have a special type of crab claw here that is served cold. You order them in medium and large orders. I went along with the group, and they brought out the crab claws pre-cracked on one big tray. After you get the hang of it, they are pretty easy to eat - and good. We ordered some desserts and passed them around. They were excellent also.

We took a taxi to the Premium Outlet Mall, and it’s about $10 to get there from the Hilton. There are about 150 shops, and it was a nice day, so we walked around in the outdoor mall area and looked around. There were some regional items that I would not see in our local outlet mall, as I was just at one in Chicago with the Nike outlet and they had different stuff.

There were a bunch of taxis waiting to take us back, as a concern was, if we got there, how would we get back.

We did the whole thing in about 2 hours, but I think a professional shopper could spend 5 or more hours there.

There are a couple of hundred high-end shops with trendy clothes and knick-knacks. The clothes, purses, jewelry, etc., are about double what I normally consider, leading me to believe the people buying here just hit a jackpot.

It was nice to see the fancy stuff, but you can only gawk for so long before you need a drink. This is a good thing, as there are a couple of bars and restaurants mixed in with the high-end shops.

The monorail in Las Vegas goes between hotels on one side of the Strip (the MGM side). Don’t confuse this with the smaller and shorter free trams that go between some of the related hotels. This train costs about $3 per ride, and you can buy a $20 ten-ride ticket or an unlimited daily pass. There are no transfers.

I was out late and coming from the Bellagio to the Hilton, and to get to the tram, I had to walk to the stop at the Bally/Paris hotel. I did this a couple of times on my trip, and realized that if I went on the street, I saved about 10 minutes of walking through the maze they set up for you to look at all the hotel/casino sites. I’ve stayed at Paris before and am not impressed with the Bally casino, so the street was preferred, and I used the entrance to the monorail off the side of bally in the back. Beware that the monorail stops at 2am, so if you are going somewhere, you have to take this into account.

There are a lot of helpers and security on the entrances and train platforms. The monorail goes from MGM to Aladdin, and if you were to take a taxi, one person would cost about $12. It is less of a deal the more people you have going. If you are leaving the convention center at high time, it’s the only way to go, as the taxi line can take 1 hour.