Bachelorette Party -- Never been to Vegas

I%26#39;m planning a Bachelorette Party for 18 in Vegas %26amp; am struggling a bit as I haven%26#39;t been to Vegas before!

We are looking at staying at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay. Some of the girls are concerned b/c of its location on the Strip. I%26#39;m afraid I%26#39;m not getting a good sense for how far apart things on the Strip really are. Is it really that inconvenient to be at one end? What%26#39;s the deal on taxis -- too hard/expensive to use to get around?

I would also appreciate info on how bottle service works in terms of the number of people you can get into the VIP area? Obviously, the table you get has a limited number of chairs -- is there a problem if we have more girls than chairs? I think that some people will want to be up dancing, while others sit, and we would want to rotate through. Can we have some people standing around the table, as long as it isn%26#39;t hordes?

Would also appreciate recommends for some bars to go to -- its easy to see the listings for the bars that are %26#39;too cool for school.'; I was hoping to find someplace that was more warm and friendly. For those that have been there, I%26#39;m looking for something along the lines of the vibe at the Hacker-Pschor tent at Oktoberfest in Munich. Any suggestions for places that would be good for a range of ages (from 21-37 -- most in late 20s) would also be great. Bride%26#39;s younger sister is hung up on going to Body English one night -- is it as cheesy at the name sounds?

Thanks in advance!

Bachelorette Party -- Never been to Vegas

i am way out of your age, and dont go to clubs .

from whats posted body english is hot spot, its maybe if you can all get in.

taxi easy to get

you can not keep 18 ppl happy.

f.w.i.w. best to have a few meet times every day like lunch at paris , the main night at chippendales and flirt lounge,

let em pick there own hotels and run on there own most of time

Bachelorette Party -- Never been to Vegas

Mandalay Bay is very nice but it is way %26#39;down there%26#39; on the strip. Since you%26#39;ve not been to Vegas before and if some of the others haven%26#39;t either, plus for convenience sake, it might be better if you stayed someplace mid strip, that way you would be right in the middle of the strip.

Fashion Show Mall, Forum Shops at Caesar%26#39;s plus a good many of the favorite restaurants are mid stip, plus bars and clubs. If you all stay in the same hotel, you can each walk to the places you want to go to and its then easy to meet with the group later, no need for cabs, you can walk! It%26#39;s also loads of fun to go check out the various hotels/casino%26#39;s. Many can be seen by staying mid strip and you won%26#39;t need to take cabs to do it.

Your group might like TI, Mirage or Caesar%26#39;s, also maybe Paris. I%26#39;m trying to keep in mind hotel price when I say these places. All are nice, Caesars is the most expensive of the lot but its location is awesome!

Hi Buttercup -- I am in the final stages of planning a bachelorette party for a high school chum. Get ready for drama, it was extremely stressful to plan something like this for a large group of people when it involves a lot of money. Unless all of your attendees are very well off, though this weekend sounds awesome and tons of people will say they are going, ';No matter what, wouldn%26#39;t miss it'; when they see how much it costs and it comes time to fork out the money, they change their minds. I started in January and it%26#39;s only 3 weeks away... finally!! There were a lot, A LOT, of ups and downs. Here%26#39;s some of my tips that I%26#39;ve learned along the way.

Most importantly, make sure you lay down the law very clearly about how much things are going to cost, what is included and what is NOT included, get initial deposits so you can finalize reservations (make it more than you need for just the deposits, you%26#39;ll be glad you did) and have people pay in full at the earliest date, making sure you state that if they back out they may loose your $$. Sounds harsh but we started with 17 people, went down to 14 then down to 12 then devistatingly went down to a mere 6 three weeks ago, up to 10 two weeks ago and last week two more dropped out and now only have 8 people who actually paid in full in the end. Do you get my point? And it was the rule about ,';you may loose your money'; that saved me from having to go to everyone else and say, ';sorry but you know what, cuz so and so dropped out I need $50 each for the same amount of activities';. That would not only have been really bad but embarrassing.

At one point when the numbers dropped we were very short of funds and couldn%26#39;t even get cheaper rooms as the cheapest room rates were more than the rate I got. (tip: make a reservation soon, lock in a rate, if the rates drop, at least Ceasars said they would adjust the rate if I called when they were lower, however they only went up up up as the weeks went by. Payment for the first night for all rooms was required at the time I made the reservation.) When that happened I dreaded not collecting money earlier and my decision to just trusting people to pay if they said they would go. No way did that happen. Checks bounced, money promised was never paid, people backed out all over the place. It%26#39;s a lot of work and responsibility if you are planning this for everyone. I know. It was fun and we are going to have a blast but the road was not paved with rose petals.

I have the entire weekend planned. I just asked the bride what she wanted to do and then figured out how much is was going to be, approximately, the let everyone else know. This takes some serious investigation on your part, put don%26#39;t get hooked on one itinerary until you tell people how much, when, for what and then see who still planning on going? Or you an just book rooms and plan events letting everyone know that they can come as they wish and a responsible for the cost.

I%26#39;ve been to Vegas several times for all kinds of reasons and with different people. For the most part I think Mandalay Bay is too far away from the action, if you want action. That%26#39;s just my personal opinion. If you want to be were they%26#39;re is alot of action and a lot of options for eating and sightseeing without alot of travel, by taxi, bus or on foot, then opt for something closer to Ceasar%26#39;s. I picked this hotel cuz of the pools, location, and when it came down to it, it was only $40 more per person than say the Luxor. We have two nights in a premier palace tower rooms at Ceasars, a private cabana at the pool all day on Saturday, a limo, tix for the chippendales, and vip hosted entrance into a night club plus two small meals and all appropriate tips. No booze included!! I managed to get it all for a little over $300 per person. Kevin at the final fling was awesome. You can find him at thefinalfling.com. Tell him the gal from the bachelorette party on June 24th sent you.

As for a reserved table, I hope you have lots of money. All the places I checked with required you to buy at least 2 bottles of liqour at $400-600 a bottle, plus tip. That was too steep for most of my people even when it was divided by 17, which at that number I think required you to pre-purchase even more bottles.

I hope this helps. I%26#39;m pretty tired so I also hope it makes sense. Am offering more advice if you want it. Just let me know. Have fun!!

I am in a similar situation, but for a bachelor party. Mandalay Bay was on the top of my list, but we ended up going with The Mirage. All the younger hotels (Hard Rock, Palms and Rio) are off the strip. Most of my group has never been to Vegas, so I opted not to stay at Mandalay, due to being so far south on the strip. I finally narrowed it down to Mirage, TI, and Caesars, but got a great deal at Mirage for the weekend of June 23rd. The Mirage pool is great, and they have some great restaurants. There is a mix of age groups, but it%26#39;s a nice hotel and casino.

If you stay at Mandalay, it%26#39;s a good 15 minute walk to the center strip. To the Venetian area, it%26#39;s a hike. In my opinion, if you want stay at Mandalay, there are lots of bars, a great pool, and lots of food choices. But, if you have a lot of people that want to casino hop and see everything, the location my pose a problem.

As for clubs, I%26#39;m looking at Body English, Tao, Tryst, Jet, Pure or Rain. We are there 3 nights, so we%26#39;ll club it 1 or 2 nights, and then hit a more low key place like Carnival Court one night. The ';warm and friendly'; atmosphere will not be at the clubs. You might try NYNY for a good relaxed bar (Irish bar), or Voodoo Lounge at Rio. It has a great view of Vegas, and it%26#39;s pretty relaxed.

Good luck.

I%26#39;m 28 - my husband and I always stay at NYNY. Prices are reasonable and its a ';younger'; crowd. Good luck

i agree with coronamama...the more you can get done upfront the better. we are going the same weekend (8 girls) june 23-27 and staying at caesars. we picked caesars b/c of location and the pool. mandalay bay is an awesome hotel but 3 years ago we had 12 girls and getting a cab everytime you want to leave the hotel is annoying and inconvienent. that is my personal opionion. we had to take 3 different cabs everywhere and it was pricey. we stayed at nyny last time and it was a good choice. we just walked across the street to mgm and excalibur. this year we wanted to upgrade so that%26#39;s why we picked caesars...plus we found a great deal. everyone has already paid for flight, hotel room and thunder from down under. the only thing we haven%26#39;t worked out yet is the club scene. i%26#39;m clueless on the bottle service as well. i%26#39;m definitely going to check out the finalfling.com. thanks for the suggestion! we are so excited and we cant wait!!!!!

Hi!

Popular place for stagette eh! I too am planning my sisters stagette however its in Oct 1-5 Were staying at the stratoshere.....$502 per person including everything. I figured that was pretty darn good considering were flying out of Edmonton, Ab. I realize it is the northern part of strip but hey were just sleeping in the room!

There%26#39;s only 6 of us girls going but I have checked out different sites for stagettes and have found this one to be pretty good

jack@lastcallenterprises.com

also we are looking at booking an ATV tour as something different to do from the gambling/show scene and a good way to see the country!

Someone from here also told me to google %26#39;free tours in Vegas%26#39; and there%26#39;s lots that pop up and worth checking into!

Good Luck!

My 2 cents....I%26#39;m a big fan of THEhotel. It has everything you need for a bachelorette party - great pool, nightlife, restaurants and just a cool overall young scene including Luxor next door having male dancers. HOWEVER, if your group of 18 are not dedicated to spending most of their time and money in Mandalay Bay then it is not a good idea because getting 18 people around can be a job within itself.

I suggest center strip area so girls can easily walk around in small groups or all stay together. My suggestions would be Treasure Island, Caesars Palace, Paris and Alladin (under construction) if complete. I wouldn%26#39;t suggest Bellagio, WYNN or Venetian because you would probably out price some of the girls.

As for bottle service, I can only get away with 4 people per bottle but all girls could probably get 6 per bottle. So with 18, you are looking at somewhere between 3 and 5 bottles. ';Bride%26#39;s younger sister'; says it all about Body English. If the late 20s girls are experienced partiers than Body English will be okay and not great.

18 ELIGIBLE girls would be much more happy and satisfied at the HARD ROCK Casino. Lots of Meat walking around.

Excellent pool area.

I attended a bachelorette party last summer in Las Vegas last summer with 20 of my craziest dramatic sorority sisters. Two things kept us organized: a detailed schedule given to us before the trip and when we got to vegas AND traveling by party bus so that we didn%26#39;t get separated (and its more fun)

The girl who planned it collected money from all of us in advance and here%26#39;s the rundown of what we did. Keep in mind most of the girls stayed at the boardwalk (its closed now) because it was very inexpensive. Some of us stayed at other hotels nearby.

Friday (we all arrived throughout the day)

We got on the list at OPM in the Forum Shops so we didn%26#39;t pay any cover. Keep in mind that if you are traveling in a big bachelorette party group...you can get into to any club you%26#39;d like. (Go to the front of the line and talk to the doorman, or call the clubs you are interested in in advance...bachelorette parties are always good for business)

Saturday

Lingerie party in the bachelorette%26#39;s suite

Dinner with open bar included at the Planet Hollywood at the Forum Shops (You should definitely look into this)

1 hour to change into our little black dresses (the uniform that night was black dresses and blue boas)

Chippendales show at the Rio

Went to club Rio

Sunday

Went to Buffet (at out own cost)

Good luck and have a good time.