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Traveling to Vegas - roaming and InternetI'll be traveling to Vegas for the first time in a few weeks and I'll be staying at the Quad, which charges 10$ a day for wi-fi. Surely there are other options for wi-fi that are cheaper or free on the strip?
I'll only be there for five days, what is the norm nowadays for roaming and data usage in the US? My cellphone plan is with Bell, which is the last service I have with them. I would like to have my phone with me to use google maps and other useful smartapp tools.
Any other traveling tip? I'm looking to do a helicopter tour of the grand canyon, we'll visit red canyon and fire valley on food.There are many operators. Anyone in CanChat ever tried one?
I find myself needing a new laptop, too. For the plane (movie matching) and photo editing (on location or at hotel). I'm wondering if the Surface 2.0 is improved from the first? A colleague has the Pro 1.0 and the battery lasts an hour!!!!!! I couldn't believe it, but he demonstrated it to me. |
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Suggestion:
Leave the phone and notebook at home and ENJOY your vacation.
Most Vegas hotels have free w-fi in the room and/oror lobby. Also Bell has USA roaming packages that are very reasonable these days. Data, voice and text.
Enjoy. |
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 Robert4
Premium Member
join:2002-03-11
St John'S, NL |
to TigerLord
Roam is also another option if your phone is unlocked. I use it and love it. Even got a Chicago phone number!
Free calls to Canada and SMS sealed the deal. |
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LOL looking at the Quad las Vegas, I see why the charge $10/day for internet, too cheap. Bad bad ratings for this hotel.
Good Luck with your stay there. |
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peterboro (banned)Avatars are for posers
join:2006-11-03
Peterborough, ON |
to TigerLord
“What a dump” from today's review.  Good luck those are abysmal ratings on Tripadvisor. » www.tripadvisor.ca/Hotel ··· ada.html |
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to TigerLord
Id change Hotels, Feb is shoulder season and you can easily get a last minute rate at PH, Aria, Cosmo, or others. |
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peterboro (banned)Avatars are for posers
join:2006-11-03
Peterborough, ON |
peterboro (banned)
Member
2014-Feb-14 6:04 pm
shoulder season? |
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I'm going for work and will squeeze in some fun hours in there, but thanks for bursting my bubble  |
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peterboro (banned)Avatars are for posers
join:2006-11-03
Peterborough, ON |
peterboro (banned)
Member
2014-Feb-14 6:32 pm
What happens in Vegas... |
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to peterboro
Peak prices are typically: March, April, May, Sept, Nov
Low is: July, Aug, Dec,
Shoulder is: January, Feb, June
Should mention that Holiday weekend spike prices, as does NYE and 07/04. Huge trade shows as well cause spikes. |
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peterboro (banned)Avatars are for posers
join:2006-11-03
Peterborough, ON |
peterboro (banned)
Member
2014-Feb-14 6:42 pm
I realize the season pricing but where does this "shoulder" label come from. I have read thousands of reviews and never heard it. |
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 Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON |
to TigerLord
Unlock your phone and use a T-Mobile SIM. The entire area is covered with 1900MHz 3G so you don't even need a phone with AWS. It's by far the cheapest option and Google Voice will give you free calling and texting to Canada.
As for the hotel, if they charge for Internet that's BS. A lot of the hotels down there, particularly the older ones, have only a wired net connection in each room. If you bring your own router you can do your own free wifi. |
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MaynardKrebsWe did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17 |
to TigerLord
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Interesting. Bell wants 50$ for 500MB in the US, and an additional 30$ for minutes and texts. 80$ as it were. |
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to I_H8_Spam
What about October? |
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| hosedagain3 |
to I_H8_Spam
said by I_H8_Spam:Peak prices are typically: March, April, May, Sept, Nov
Low is: July, Aug, Dec,
Shoulder is: January, Feb, June
Should mention that Holiday weekend spike prices, as does NYE and 07/04. Huge trade shows as well cause spikes. What about October? |
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to Gone
said by Gone:Unlock your phone and use a T-Mobile SIM. The entire area is covered with 1900MHz 3G so you don't even need a phone with AWS. It's by far the cheapest option and Google Voice will give you free calling and texting to Canada.
As for the hotel, if they charge for Internet that's BS. A lot of the hotels down there, particularly the older ones, have only a wired net connection in each room. If you bring your own router you can do your own free wifi. One more vote for t-mobile. $3 per day for unlimited voice/text/data. Good for short visits. |
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said by loosedobbs:One more vote for t-mobile. $3 per day for unlimited voice/text/data. Good for short visits. Ditto - Or one of the TMobile resellers - simple mobile come to mind... » www.simplemobile.com/Or Roam Mobility that is a Canadian dealer of US TMobile Pre-paids » www.roammobility.com/Or GoSmart Mobile - I've heard decent things about them as well: » gosmartmobile.com/They all have storefront shops around - easy to pick up a SIM from - makes the trip a lot easier... you can easily save the $30-$40 just by not paying for wifi at a hotel and using tethering with your phone. |
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to peterboro
They truly are, and lots of very credible ones because for many of them the same person has posted reviews of multiple hotels, not just this one. On Tripadvisor, I don't even bother looking at the very positive reviews, they're like saying "puppies are cute". The very negative reviews are where you learn stuff. |
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MaynardKrebsWe did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17 |
to hosedagain3
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 KardinalDei Gratina Regina
Mod
join:2001-02-04
N of 49th |
to loosedobbs
said by loosedobbs:said by Gone:Unlock your phone and use a T-Mobile SIM. One more vote for t-mobile. $3 per day for unlimited voice/text/data. Good for short visits. Another vote, same reasons. |
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quadhotel to TigerLord
Anon
2014-Feb-14 10:36 pm
to TigerLord
I stayed at the Quad (formerly Imperial Palace) in June of 12. Lots of renovations going on at the time. Yes the rooms are simple and dated but it's Vegas for crying out loud. You'll be in your room a maximum of 4-5 hours a night anyhow sleeping. Just be sure to request a room opposite of Carnival Court or else you'll have loud music blasting in your eardrums until 5am. Otherwise you can't complain about the location. Right in the middle of the strip.
Since you'll be in the modern area of Vegas I'd definitely would check out downtown Vegas (Golden Nugget casino) at night. Fremont Street experience is pretty awesome.
The buffets are WAY overrrated (eg Bellagio). Mandarin wipes the floor with any of them any day of the week.
Other than that there are a million things to do. Good luck and enjoy your trip. |
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Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON |
Gone
Premium Member
2014-Feb-14 10:38 pm
Freemont is pretty cool and an entirely different experience. When I was down there last year no more than ten minutes after we arrived some random mentally unstable woman shouted 'I hate you' and wound up and punched my father-in-law in the shoulder. Was good for a laugh. |
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decx
Premium Member
join:2002-06-07
Vancouver, BC |
to PX Eliezer1
said by PX Eliezer1:They truly are, and lots of very credible ones because for many of them the same person has posted reviews of multiple hotels, not just this one.
On Tripadvisor, I don't even bother looking at the very positive reviews, they're like saying "puppies are cute".
The very negative reviews are where you learn stuff. Same here. I'd immediately take a look at the worst reviews first. However, if you're a bit in a rush, the rankings for hotels in a city is quite accurate and very useful in quickly IDing hotels I would have generally overlooked otherwise. Specifically Las Vegas, the Wynn and Encore are excellent. |
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Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON |
Gone
Premium Member
2014-Feb-15 7:37 am
The thing about Las Vegas is that you can get a $50 hotel room, or a $500 hotel room, but every single person who ever puts up a review on one of these websites expects a $500 room for $50. For that reason I've never put much weight in them as people will bitch about the silliest stupid shit imaginable. |
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peterboro (banned)Avatars are for posers
join:2006-11-03
Peterborough, ON |
peterboro (banned)
Member
2014-Feb-15 8:13 am
Granted a small portion of the criticism is nitpicking, and you can spot these right away, but if you take the time to read as many reviews as I do you can see there are people who are very balanced and reasonable in their assessments. In the alternative what to you propose people do to get an accurate idea of accommodations short of going there themselves? |
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 LazMan
Premium Member
join:2003-03-26
Beverly Hills, CA
1 edit |
to decx
Yes, but Wynn and Encore are $$$
Last time down, I stayed at the Signature at MGM... Very nice room, reasonable rate. Location wasn't great; being right at the end of the strip; but it was still on the strip...
Only thing going for the IP was the car collection.
As for what to do? I love to people watch, and Vegas is the show of shows for that...
Watch out for the discount tour or show tickets... They come with a free 2 hour timeshare presentation.
There are a ton of shows worth seeing - Cirque, Penn and Teller, & Terry Fator are all worth it IMO, as is Freemont St. |
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1 edit |
to peterboro
said by peterboro:I realize the season pricing but where does this "shoulder" label come from. I have read thousands of reviews and never heard it. » www.canadianliving.com/b ··· e-money/» www.travelandleisure.com ··· -secrets» www.thestar.com/life/tra ··· ies.htmlOn the topics of buffets, there is some that are dreadful and others that are amazing. Highly recommend the Buffet on the 2nd level of the Cosmo called Wicked Spoon, the easiest way to the Cosmo is take the bridge from PH and walk thru the huge chandelier room. The other is at the Rio, called Carnival World. Ate there once and stuck to ethnic choices that weren't overly north americanized. I got it free for playing a poker tournament. |
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Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON
1 edit |
to peterboro
said by peterboro:Granted a small portion of the criticism is nitpicking, and you can spot these right away, but if you take the time to read as many reviews as I do you can see there are people who are very balanced and reasonable in their assessments. In the alternative what to you propose people do to get an accurate idea of accommodations short of going there themselves? It's a tough, because regardless of one's experience people are always going to expect more in Las Vegas than what they'd ever be willing to pay for. The Wynn and Encore are perfect examples of how people through around "great" hotels with no idea of how much money they need to spend to get that experience. |
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to TigerLord
said by peterboro: Good luck those are abysmal ratings on Tripadvisor. It's a cheap hotel so it's probably a cheap hotel experience. In my travelling experiences, ' on the beaten path' tripadvisor reviews are often written by rich white people that rarely leave their domestic bubble. said by TigerLord:Interesting. Bell wants 50$ for 500MB in the US, and an additional 30$ for minutes and texts. 80$ as it were. Get a SIM card there or a burner there and use that while you're away. That's always cheaper for me than any sort of deal with my provider since every country has cheaper services than Canada. Back in the day, when I lived closer to the border (in Canada), I had a US phone that was cheaper to use than a Canadian plan to talk to my Canadian friends. |
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