Best Way To Get Free Drinks In Vegas

When our friends go to Vegas one of the first questions they always ask us is do we have to gamble lots to get free drinks? Or where can we get free drinks? Which place gives out the most free drinks?
The answer to these questions is simple. No, Everywhere and All of them!

Do you have to gamble lots to get free drinks?

No. If you follow some simple guidelines getting free drinks is rather simple.

Where can we get free drinks?

You can get free drinks everywhere on the strip. Some people say that the 'fancy' hotels (Bellagio and Wynn) don't give out as many drinks. We've found this to be completely untrue.

Which places gives out the most free drinks?

We say all of them because if you follow the tips correctly they all give out free drinks quickly.

To get lots of free drinks simply walk into the casino and walk around as if you're looking for your 'lucky machine'. Meanwhile, you're figuring out the path that the waitress takes from the machines to the bar. You find a machine, preferable a 5 cent slot, near the path and place an amount of money in the machine.

Contrary to popular believe we've found that it doesn't matter the amount that you've placed into the machine you just need to look like you're playing ... or about to play. You then play at the machine, preferably talking to your friend the whole time, until your drink arrives. When it does give her a tip of some sort. I've found that if there is a group of you if you all give her a $1 then she knows that everytime she brings you a drink she'll make $5. Simple.

Note: If you plan to stick around at that area for a while give her a 'good' tip. Anything over $2 (again $5 is better) and say, "keep them coming" or something to that affect.

There you have it. It has worked at every casino in Las Vegas and we've never had to pay for a drink using this method. Do you have a different way of getting free drinks in Vegas?

Hotel Review Excalibur Las Vegas

As this is my first hotel review I thought I'd start the reviews in the order of the places I've stayed for each of my trips.

The Excalibur Hotel is one of the first 'resort type' hotels in Las Vegas. Although it is only a three star hotel it is one of the more prominent features on the strip as it is a BIG WHITE CASTLE!

Rooms

The hotel rooms are fairly sub-standard. They're dark because of the small windows in each room and fairly small. However, if you can get a view of the strip then your view is usually quite good as it'll be looking out at NewYork NewYork or MGM grand.

Theme

The theme of the Excalibur Hotel is the Medieval period meaning knights, castles, drawbridges, etc... The people who designed the Excalibur did are a very good job in keeping with the theme. It is portrayed throughout the entire hotel including the hotels featured show, The Knights of the Round Table.

Casino

The casino itself is what you'd kinda expect from Vegas if you went to Vegas only seeing movies from the 80 and 90's. ie: National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation (classic).

The poker room is a friendly, open concept poker room with some low limit Texas Hold'em action. The players are known as being fairly soft, therefore, the 'sharks' do visit the room. However, they usually stick to the no-limit or the 3/6 tables rather then the simply 2/4 tables. This is a great place for a beginner to cut their teeth as the dealers will be particularly helpful.

Overall

All in all the Excalibur is a slightly better then 3 star hotel. It definitely beats most three-star hotels in most cities around the US. However, in Vegas it's considered a lower-end hotel.

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Waterfalls at Parasol Up at Wynn Las Vegas is a Great Date

One of the times we went to Las Vegas we went and watched Avenue Q at the Wynn Las Vegas. (It was a really great show but is now discontinued. If you can find a place to watch the show we highly recommended it). Anyway, after the show we headed to the Wynn Las Vegas' restaurant / bar named Parasol Up.

Parasol Up is more of a bar then a restaurant wrapping around one of the curved escalators just outside the main casino area of the Wynn. I'd say it's a nice bar/lounge. Anyway, the view of the waterfalls outside is quite nice, especially in the evening. in the evening they have a light show, which is basically different colour lights that are beamed onto the waterfalls. It pails in comparison to the Bellagio fountain show, however, it is also much quieter and subtle.

To get a seat outside we simply walked up and asked to be seated outside. Our wait was about 15 minutes and were seated at the back of the patio... With obstructed views... So when people left we just moved forward. We were able to get a patio bench facing the waterfall. It's a really nice and romantic way to have a glass of wine.

Be warned though that you should dress a little nicer for Parasol Up and the Wynn in general. We found that your attire had a large effect on your service.

Anyway, once people left we just moved to their seats and

I Heart Las Vegas and The Superbowl!

As I'll be recapping some of my previous travels for the next month or so I thought i'd start with one of my favorite places to travel, Las Vegas.

Why do I love Las Vegas so much?

It's NOT because It's the city that never sleeps, although that is pretty cool. And NO it's NOT because I like to gamble. It's because it's a really cheap easy way to take a vacation.

Some of you are saying, "What? Vegas is NOT cheap!". Well, I beg to differ. If you can get a resonable flight to Vegas, get a great rate on a hotel room and not lose all your money gambling it can actually be a great price. I'm under the impression that I'd rather take 2 (or 3) mini-vacations rather then one 1-week vacation.

Anyway, I digress. I love Vegas because it's a great little 3-4 day vacation that can really clear your head. Vegas has been really good to me. Here's a great story from one of our trips to Vegas during the Superbowl....

Watching the Superbowl at the Mirage Sportsbook. We flew into Vegas on Superbowl Sunday and headed straight to Casino Royale for $1 Michelob then headed over to the Mirage Sportsbook. Found the lines on the game and decided to make a bet on the game and the spread. We walk up to the window and the guy in front had a bet of $800. The guy on our right had a WAD of $100's that he was counting out.

"Um, $5 on the SeaHawks and $5 on the over please"

We go find a spot to watch the game. While watching the game we start chatting to the people next to us.

"Who you cheering for?"

"Seahawks! you?"

"Steelers... I have $25K on them but don't tell my wife"

"Ummm, Go Steelers!"

WOW! ... needless to say we through our $5 away and started cheering for the Steelers.... who ended up winning. Phewwwf!

In the next few post I'll talk about places I've stayed (hotel reviews), things I've seen and shows I've been too.

Two Months Till Japan!

Welcome to OurTravels.org. What a great way to start this blog off by saying that we have exactly 2 months till we leave for Japan. Wow!

We just found out that we're going to Japan about a week ago. Lindsay's work is sending there to attend a conference (meet and greet, see how things are done, etc...). So I'm just going to tag along and see Japan while she works for the first 5 days. Then we'll travel around together seeing the land of the rising sun!

With 2 months left we have lots of planning to do. We've never been to Japan or know anything about the place. So where to start? WikiTravel.org of course! If you've never been to WikiTravel it's basically the travel version of wikipedia. It tells you places to see, things to do, information about the land, culture and safety issues. It's basically your online travel guide resource. So we're starting at WikiTravel Japan.

The details of our trip are as follows. We fly from Calgary to Vancouver and then Vancouver to Japan all on AirCanada. We fly-out Sept 27th and return October 15th. Our first 5 nights of hotel are all paid for because of the conference. This should give us a solid foundation to get our bodies adjusted to the time change and the culture.

More on our plans as they come along.