NFR...Busy time?

Was just trying to find some info on this earlier today... But some sites said one thing and some said other things so I don't know what to believe.

Does the NFR attract so much people that we'll really notice it, or will it just be..normal-ish? And what are the chances it'll make it harder to get a comp room upgrade?

 

I've gone the last 2 years during this time. You'll see more cowboy hats, but overall it is a very slow time of the year. It's so slow some shows and restaurants are dark. Flights and room rates should be some of lowest for the year, so comps shouldn't be difficult. I think it's a great time to go.

 

My first solo trip to LV was to attend a conference at the LVCC during the rodeo finals. I didn't know what to expect. I was staying at the Riviera.

Several casinos had country music on the sound systems. There were cowboy hats EVERYWHERE! Most of the guys were perfect gentlemen, who would hold the door for you and such. There was the occasional "YEE-HAW" coming from the craps table.

Other than that it was very normal-ish.

 

Sounds good Cowboys are cool, so that won't be a problem

 

I should have added - I think downtown hotels are usually expensive during this time compared to the strip. A lot of the cowboys stay at the off-strip southpoint hotel, so that will be more expensive as well.

However, if you plan to stay on the strip the rates should be some of the lowest of the year.

 

Even if theres NFR, its still Dec, not summer. So the rates are cheaper and isnt as packed. It wont be totally dead, but it wont be crazy packed all over.

 

I go each year, not for the rodeo, but simply because its first weekend coincides with a football weekend I like to bet (college conference championship weekend).

Downtown fills up quickly, so get a room early if you plan to stay there. Once you are there, however, everything is sort of slow like a normal winter weekend. The cowboys are more interested in the rodeo than Vegas, by and large, so they'll be over there while most of what the rest of us do in Vegas is relatively open. The table game minimums and waits for restaurants and other things are like they would be any other weekend.

As others noted, you'll see lots of cowboy hats and many casinos switch to country music for the week. Fremont will probably have country acts on its outdoor stages.

As long as you book the room early, you should be fine. (I don't know about the Strip for this weekend.)

 

In recent years we've been to Las Vegas four times when some or all of the rodeo was on - not for the rodeo, but just happens if we can't go to Las Vegas in September or October for our second trip of the year then we end up going in early December.

My observations:

Las Vegas is busier. During the day the rodeo has lots of stuff for people to see and do, so during the daytime the whole of The Strip and all the casinos will actually be pretty quiet... but at night it will get busy in the casino (actually outside on The Strip not so much). They actually do get upwards of 140,000-160,000 people coming for the rodeo each year.

As people have said: there is country music all the time everywhere.

Downtown gets particularly busy, so much so that the casinos can be almost impossible to navigate in the evenings. Fremont Street will have some free live shows with actual name acts and The Golden Nugget will have a concert series with some big names in country music.

Everything is cowboyed up. The waitresses and staff in the casinos will be wearing western gear, almost everybody will have a cowboy hat, and you'll be able to buy cowboy hats everywhere - even the cigar and cigarette girls who go around the casinos will be selling cowboy hats. One downside of all this is: in most casinos even the pleasure pit dancers will be dressed country western, so if you have a favorite place to play because you like how the women in their pleasure pit wore some sexy lingerie or little outfits that showed more than they covered... in mist cases the dancers will be wearing cutoffs and a flannel shirt.

The southern part of The Strip always seemed to be busier than the more central part during the rodeo. Places like MGM Grand, NYNY, Excalibur, Luxor and Tropicana all seemed to get very busy.

As far as overall gambling experiences go, the biggest impact seemed to be how busy the table games got... to where you might actually have to wait a little while for a spot to open at some of the lower limit tables.


Overall I would say its busier, but I would have no problem going back (obviously not, I suppose, if we've been there four times during that time of year). And though country music is everywhere they do play a lot of the songs that are right on the middle between pop and country but are considered country because thats what the singer is more known as.

 

Thanks to everyone for letting me know which time of the year to avoid going to Vegas...