Prudent and Practical

During my shuttle from the airport to the Las Vegas Hilton, the driver explained how to get cheap tickets if you hadn’t purchased any yet.  I already had two Cirque Mystere tickets, but there were three of us that wanted to go so I checked out Tix 4 Tonight.  Tix 4 Tonight sells discount vouchers usually the day of the show.  The available showings post at 9:30 AM and the store opens at 10:00 AM.  They also offer discounts for local exhibits (Bodies Exhibit at Luxor and Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum at The Venetian to name a couple) and discount vouchers for the local restaurants and buffets.

My Experience:

I used (or was with someone who used) the service three times.  The first location I visited was at Hawaiian Marketplace.  After standing in line for 15 minutes, Mom and I made it to a sales rep.  The rep was friendly, helpful, and fast, explaining different exhibits we might be interested in.  We purchased tickets for the Bodies Exhibit and Madame Tussaud’s and the tickets had to be used that evening.  If we didn’t have enough time, we could bring the tickets back and trade them for tomorrow.  We stopped at the Bodies Exhibit first and learned a lesson.  The tickets that you purchase at Tix4Tonight have to be traded in for actual tickets at the event or exhibit.  This meant standing in line another 10 minutes to trade the slips for actual tickets.  Mom was only there for 2-1/2 days – all the waiting was annoying.

Since Darren and I had tickets to Mystere, after lunch the following day we stopped at the Bills Casino location across from our hotel, Bally’s to get a ticket for my mom. (I switched hotels when the rest of the family arrived in town.)  Lesson #2 learned - when you purchase a voucher for a show, you’ve simply bought a seat for that show.  So, you must haul your tush across town and trade that voucher in for a ticket as fast as your legs will carry you – the sooner you do the trade, the better seat you’ll get.  You don’t get an assigned seat until you have an actual ticket from the show’s venue.

For buffets and restaurants, you pay a $2 or $3 service fee per person and they give you a discount pass.  The average buffet we went to was over $18, so a 25% discount per person definitely helps.

There are now 7 locations along the strip:

1. Fashion Show Mall (strip entrance in front of Neiman Marcus)
2. Hawaiian Marketplace (along strip in front of Polo Towers)
3. North Strip (south of Riviera Hotel)
4. Showcase Mall (south strip near the giant Coke bottle)
5. Downtown (4 Queens Hotel at the Fremont Street Experience)
6. Bills Casino (on the corner between Bally’s and the Flamingo)
7. Casino Royale (across from the Mirage and next to Denny’s)

What I Liked:

• Discounted tickets – the shows out here are expensive!
• The employees were efficient
• You get a $2 fee discount and entrance to the short (VIP) line if you bring your used ticket stubs back the next day
• Online coupon for a fee discount
• Many locations

What I Didn’t Like:

• The long waits in line
• Running around trading vouchers for tickets

If you’re not pressed for time and don’t mind waiting in lines or taking chances on ticket availability, Tix 4 Tonight may be for you.  If you are staying at a casino-hotel that is the home venue for a show, you may be able to get discounted tickets there.  For example, the Price is Right tickets are $50, but because I was staying at Bally’s (where the show is) I was able to snag tickets for $37.

There are also the freebie attractions at the casino-hotels.

• Show in the Sky at the Rio
• The Fountains at the Bellagio
• The Conservatory and Glass Ceiling at the Bellagio
• Richard MacDonald Art Gallery at the Bellagio
• The Sirens of TI at Treasure Island
• The Erupting Volcano at the Mirage
• Madame Tussaud’s – meet Whoopie, Justin Timberlake, and The Rock before you have to show a ticket
• Pole dancers at Planet Hollywood’s casino in the table games area – no link, just something we observed
• Fremont Street Experience – stage show and video shows
• The Lion Exhibit at MGM Grand

There are a few other attractions that I didn’t list because I didn’t visit them.  You can see them at About.com’s Vegas page.

Have you used Tix 4 Tonight?  What did you think and did you save a lot?  As far as the freebies go I really enjoyed the Bellagio attractions, how about you?