Las Vegas Tips, Entertainment and News

Everyone who has ever gambled in a Las Vegas hotel knows about the cocktail waitresses that come around, enticing you to keep gambling by offering free drinks.  What’s the price of a gin and tonic to them when you sit at the blackjack table for another half hour enjoying a drink (or worse, gamble irresponsibly from inebriation)?  What’s it matter to you though?  You came to Vegas to have a great time.  Free drinks?  A win-win situation.

To be more succinct, while the drinks are free, the service is not.  Cocktail waitresses/waiters (don’t worry Rio, I didn’t forget about your male servers), work hard and expect a tip.  Now, I’ll be the first to say that tips should not be something seen as a guarantee.  To Insure Prompt Service, right?  Given that, though, I would be hard pressed to find an instance when a cocktail waitress didn’t deserve a tip.  These people work long, hard hours on their feet (often in high heels)!  The question that comes then, is how much are we supposed to tip these waitresses?  Well, if you want the facts straight from the horse’s mouth, just listen to Dollie, a cocktail waitress gone webmaster over at Cocktaildoll.com.

While her site doesn’t look too fancy, Dollie has pages and pages on everything you could possibly want to know about the job of a cocktail waitress.  Many pages of the site are pretty useful, giving you tips on how to tip the waitresses, what they expect from you, and what you should expect from them.  Other pages such as “who orders what?” and her frequently asked questions have a lighter, sometimes comical tone.  Check out her site, and enjoy the free drinks!

With that, have you ever been at a casino just waiting and waiting for that cocktail waitress to come?  Well, if you plan on staying for awhile, and you’re sitting at a machine (I’m not sure how well this would work at a table, as their rounds seem to be better defined), give the cocktail waitress a large tip when she brings you your first drink.  More often than not, they’ll be back around before you can finish your first drink.  For additional drinks, just go back down to something more normal (say, $1).  It’s really amazing what a nice gesture on the first drink can do!

VegasRy is a Las Vegas blog we’ve been following since its inception just about a year ago.  It’s run by Ryan Morris (who happens to be a fellow Chicagoan *Go Bears*), and Ryan Johnson.  Together the Ry’s (ahhh, now it makes sense) make pretty frequent trips to Las Vegas, and blog about pretty much anything that comes to mind.  When they first started out, they posted on everything and anything in Las Vegas.  Their March 2007 archive alone shows 146 posts!  Sheesh.  Everything seemed a bit overwhelming, and our interest was subdued.

Over the last year, however, VegasRy has really found its focus.  Blog post counts are down, and each post is uniquely interesting.  Beyond that, what makes it a real fun blog is all of the multi-media they incorporate.  Specifically, we enjoy their somewhat frequent podcasts, or “Gin and Tonic Hours” (more affectionately, “G & T Hours”).  Recently, they’ve also added a little visual presentation to their podcasts, which definitely give them a nice touch.   

If you’re counting the days until you next lay eyes on The Strip, get your Las Vegas withdrawal fix at VegasRy.com.   

Louis Theroux is an amazing documentarist (easily my favorite) who usually dabbles in more taboo subjects.  A while ago, he did a documentary about Las Vegas for the BBC.  In it, Louis follows around several high rollers.  Their personalities and backgrounds are diverse, ranging from a “whale” brought in by a personal host, to a local woman who lost $4,000,000 (yes, 6 zeros) over the course of seven years. 

If you have seen any of Theroux’s work before, you’re familiar with his quaint “likable” attitude while balancing severe undertones of sarcasm and even condescension.  It makes for a perfect mix, as he really brings into question some of the potential pitfalls of Las Vegas.  From asking how much fun a gambler his having when down $250,000 to questioning a woman’s son on how he feels about his lost inheritance, Louis is a master at pushing the envelope without coming off too hard.

In the end, Louis really brings to light some important aspects and questions with the Las Vegas culture.  I think the main take-away here is simply: Have fun in Las Vegas.  Set a budget, stick to it, and never let Sin City get the best of you.

If you have a little time to kill, enjoy a 20 minute clip of Theroux’s work, Gambling In Las Vegas.

As requested, we’ve updated our Special Promotions page. It lists the free included extras that come along with many of the deals that we post here at Vegas Hotel Hunt. Although it may clutter the page a little, we feel that these extras are important to be listed along with each deal. After all, when you add in their value when calculating a promotion, it makes your stay that much cheaper!

Our All-In-One search continues to be a popular destination on our site, and we’re glad you like it! We know our search takes away a lot of the effort required in manually browsing the Las Vegas promotions, and we’re glad to save you a little time and money!

Greetings to all! We’ve been completely thrilled with the feedback we’ve received over the first operational month of our site! The promotions have been updated, and many of the Spring 2008 deals are here. One that looks particularly interesting is Mandalay Bay’s Gold Key promotion. For those looking to really turn up the luxury in Vegas, this is the way to do it! There are sorts of amazing VIP extras that can be tacked onto this deal for a really great rate! Also, the All-In-One Search is growing, as we’re adding more sites to its online hotel rate search.

One thing that we wanted to ask you all is whether or not we should list the “extras” or “includes” that come along with many of the promotions listed on our Special Promotions page. To get an example of what this may look like, check out our older site, Vegas-Promotions. Would this sort of a layout be helpful, or just clutter up the important details? Please let us know. Enjoy your mid-winter Vegas get-aways and, as always, we hope our site will bring you one step closer toward beating the house!