Celebration Trip Planning

if you want to stay at MGM, just save up for a nice room. gambling tens of thousands of dollars to get status is kinda counterproductive. MGM doesn't care about small-time gamblers. Gold status takes like 75000 tier credits
that being said, do get the MGM credit card which gives you Pearl

75k tier credits OR 150 combined hours a calendar year at any MGM poker room. For a degenaret grinder like me 150 hours is like 2 weeks play at Aria.

I cant edit my post anymore but just to clarify: Reaching Gold status via poker does NOT give you comps or anything like that, but at least you will pay 0 resort fees.

One thing I've never been sure about - does it have to be 150 hours at the same poker room or can you do say 30hrs at Bellagio, 40hrs at Aria, 40hrs at Mandalay Bay and 40hrs at MGM Grand?

It’s combined, any MGM Vegas poker room.

That is very handy to know.

I sense a cash poker trip in January 2026 as I already have CET Diamond until Jan 2027!

Casino resort websites will tell you every restaurant they have. find one that looks good and it probably is.

otherwise there is Google and tripadvisor which will show you highly rated places to eat

if that's not good enough, LVL has Fine Dining and Casual Dining threads with restaurant reviews

how can you track your progress? other than manually by you, is there a place MGM can tell you where you are at

You simply give your card to the floor at the poker room, they swipe it and can check your progress across all rooms.

Minus WSOP, you spend a lot more time in Vegas poker rooms than I do and I live only an 8 hour drive away. I don't play anywhere near 150 hours in a full year.

So much to do in Vegas it's hard to go wrong. If most of the group hasn't been before, just walking the strip and seeing the casinos is amazing. Of course, you must go to Bellagio and see the Chihuly and the conservatory. Venetian is a must for first-timers, too. Definitely take a trip to Freemont Street -- I'd plan to spend an afternoon/evening or a whole night. Cheap gambling abounds and there is some great NLHE at Golden Nugget -- at least I hope it's still great.

With 10-12 people, it's going to be a little more difficult if you guys plan to hang/eat together. Definitely get reservations ASAP. Are you trying to eat on strip or Uber off strip? Expensive or not? For breakfast/lunch and cheap gambling, I recommend the walk to Ellis Island one day. It's kind of interesting seeing "off" strip and how different it is just a couple of blocks away.

I like Korean BBQ and that might work for a big group one night. Visit the casual dining thread for options.

+1 Korean BBQ in Vegas is the nuts, off strip in Chinatown, 10$ uber ride.
amazing food, at 1/3 of what you'd pay on the strip.

as mentioned before, casual dining thread is great, i can recommend 888 and chubby cattle personally, been in both multiple times, amazing.

if you wanna do real high end, go to Zuma in Cosmo, expensive but worth it, prob the best food i've ever had in my life overall (but you need a host to hook you up, difficult to get a reservation by yourself)

What's that?

Chihuly is a world-famous (mostly, at least) artist who specializes in colored glass sculptures and other pieces. I assume he has an exhibit space at Bellagio, although I've never seen it. I'll have to swing by on my next trip.

It is the glass that overhangs the ceilings at the front desk of the Bellagio - guaranteed we have all seen it that have went to the B