WELCOME TO FABULOUS LAS VEGAS!
The City That Never Sleeps: a nickname shared by the namesake of our very hotel – New York New York.
I’m not sure how we decided how long we’d need (or even want) in Las Vegas, but we landed on 5 nights, which given our flight times would effectively give us an evening to settle in and 5 full days to soak up whatever Vegas has to offer.
We were told, by a number of people, including friends and our travel agent, not to hide the fact that it’s our honeymoon. Not that we ever intended to do that but to actively tell people because, quote-unquote, “you’ll get loads of freebies and upgrades”. Hmm.
We checked in at Heathrow and struck up a great little rapport with the lady at the desk, only to then be told “it’s a full flight so I can’t upgrade you I’m afraid”. Ok, no problem, if all the seats are taken then there’s nothing to do and all the food and drink on a BA flight is complimentary anyway. So we headed off to the departure lounge and awaited our flight.
7.30 on Tuesday evening we touched down and within an hour we were in a cab heading from the airport to the hotel and the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip!
The tone was set early on as our cab driver spent most of the journey excitedly checking his phone as the Las Vegas Golden Knights had just won the Stanley Cup – the world series of ice hockey (world series involving just the US and Canada – hardly the World Cup). Their hockey arena was just a couple of minutes away from our hotel so it seemed NYNY was the destination of choice for after parties, or perhaps just the first one they came to.
At check-in we thought we’d try our luck with the ol’ honeymoon trick, only to be told the hotel was full and they couldn’t offer any upgrades. So much for US hotels giving things away to honeymooners! Where the BA lady was chatty and friendly and borderline apologetic about not upgrading us, the NYNY lady was not in the mood for any of our jolly romanticism, hopeful for freebies!
No matter – we headed off to our room before heading for the casino floor and to get our bearings.
NYNY is as you might expect – outside there are mock-ups of the Statue of Liberty, the Chrysler and Empire State buildings, and even a rollercoaster (why not? It’s Vegas, after all). Inside the casino floor is set out with slot machines, virtual gaming tables for roulette, blackjack and craps, with a handful of actual gaming tables if you’ve got a bit more cash to lose. The rest of the ground floor is full of NY-style bars and eateries.
One thing I knew would be a “thing” in Vegas, and something I wanted to get to grips with quickly, was tipping. Personally, if I eat good food and get good service, congratulations, you’re getting a tip! If I’m only stopping for a drink then why would I reward that? But then again, we are British. When you’re in the US you need to leave that attitude at the airport, pick it up again when you fly home.
Our first stop was a little bar with “sidewalk” seating at the bar – Gonzalez Y Gonzalez. We ordered two beers (Pacifico this time but Miller Lite became our go-to beer), and weren’t charged but the bar tender printed a receipt and put it in a glass. I saw someone else come and buy a couple of beers, and paid careful attention, without making it obvious, how he did it. Some friends of ours spent half their US trip tipping twice, before a very kind bar tender explained where they were going wrong.
There are some exceptions, like in Denny’s, but when you ask for your bill you hand over your bank card at the same time. You’re then brought your card, a pen and your receipt which breaks down the total between the cost, the tax (not included in any price tag – on a menu or in a shop), the tip and the total. You write your tip and then total everything up for them. That is what is then charged to your card. Or you can just leave the cash on the table.
Some places were helpful and printed tipping options on the receipt (usually 18%, 20% or 22%) but I tended to roughly work out 20% then round the total down to the nearest dollar. However we did it, the dinner bills seemed to escalate pretty quickly!
Feeling a bit tired from the journey (we’d left the house at 9am and our bodies thought it was approaching 5am!) we decided to get some snacks head back to the room. Over the road was an ABC Stores shop – a general convenience store, so we got some crisps and beers and headed back to the room to chill, before tackling the Las Vegas Strip on Day Two.
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