Help BS Plan for Kids in Vegas? - Thanksgiving 2020

Some of the things we do:

We prefer Delano for place to stay but daughter likes Cosmo and bellagio.

We don’t usually go out after dinner as it can be really crowded at night and stuff I don’t think she should see. During the day it’s dead everywhere.

Daughter (8yrs) fav things :

All buffets
Bellagio conservatory
M&m store
Hot tub in November
Shopping at outlet mall
Mini golf / games in basement of ballys
Orleans. Movie theatre , arcade , bowling
Excalibur games area in basement.
Circus circus adventure dome.
Early morning Fremont for souvenir shopping / donut bar / container park
Madam Tussaud
All trams / monorail
Flamingo habitat
Mirage habitat
Mandalay bay aquarium
- not including shows as I think they na


Food

She really likes buffets, buddy v restaurant at Venetian, Holsteins, milk , shake shack. JP at Bellagio for treats.

We bring Ipad if we go to a nice meal as she gets bored.

 

Winning cars?

 

What age range are they? That will help with ideas, although @chico7800 had some great ones!

 

Very creative!

The Hershey’s store at NYNY has fun food, including the s’mores oven outside by the 2nd floor bridge to MGM.

NYNY also has an arcade by the roller coaster. If the Beerhaus is open in the NYNY Park promenade area, they have outdoor games set up, such as big Jenga and corn hole.

 

My sister and young nephew met me in Vegas once while I was out there. He loved the games, acts, and rides at Circus Circus, but I have no idea what is open there since the sale and in the current environment. He also got a huge kick out of going up the Strat Tower.

Pinball HOF is hit or miss. There are usually kids there whenever I visit, but the owners are not kid friendly and will gladly sneer at or upbraid your kids if they perceive them to be annoying.

Love the idea of getting out of vegas for part of a day, but I wouldn't recommend Zion unless your family is very outdoorsy. The best parts of Zion require some serious hiking. Plus, I am pretty certain most of the services are closed in November (no tram, no ranger station, and no museum). Red Rock is, of course, a good alternative. So is Spring Mountain Ranch or Lone Mountain if you all want some easy to moderate hiking with a view that is close to Vegas. If your kids are animal lovers, you may also want to consider the Clark County Wetlands park (seen many rabbits, roadrunners, and other critters scampering around there) or drive out to the Ash Meadows and see the pupfish (an endangered species). You could even add the east side of Death Valley to that trip. It an easy day trip loop.

Have fun

 

Agreed with most of the earlier comments for kids that age - mine are about the same (9 & 11). Obviously depends a lot on their personalities too - my own seem to have opposite interests which makes picking activities fun.

Pinball HOF is probably more appreciated by adults, but the 10yr old might also dig it; the younger ones might be bored and probably won't be made to feel welcome (you can't just let them roam around). I wouldn't bring anyone under 8 or 9 there. YMMV. If you go, it'll be 1.5-2 hours before things get boring.

Mirage habitat and Flamingo habitat will be safe bets for sure. Try to catch a dolphin show at Mirage - if you do then between it and hanging out with the tigers it'll be nearly two hours before it's time to move on. Flamingo's habitat won't take as much time - 30 minutes tops. The aquarium down at Mandalay as well - a good hour there. Can't go wrong with critters usually.

Mini golf in the basement of Bally's as well as bowling at the Linq promenade would be on our list for sure. Both would be about an hour.

M & M store and the Coke store are worth a visit. Be sure to do the 4D show at the M & M Store. Another hour combined.

Hershey store is less of a must-do but still is worth going through if in the area (ie if you're on the way to the trashy castle, in which they'll definitely find lots of things to do for hours). If it's tram vs monorail, I'd take the tram at the trashy castle - the monorail would be fun but it's a hike to get to it and doesn't really go anywhere the kids will want to go to (the monorail itself is basically the destination).

TBH I think you're actually safer bringing the kids to Fremont in the early evening at that age than in 3-5 years; chances are they won't know / understand some of the more questionable things they're likely to see. And a good FSE show would be pretty cool for the kids. Unless they're somehow Vegas history buffs, hey'd be bored with the neon museum boneyard tour, however, they would enjoy the Brilliant experience there. Container park has a massive kids play area which looked like fun. If it were me, I'd plan late afternoon to the container park, dinner downtown, early evening FSE show, then brilliant experience at sundown.

My wife is from Sandusky, OH; home of Cedar Point, and we have been to CP dozens of times to ride the roller coasters. She's been on the NYNY coaster herself and has zero desire to do it again (I've never been on it) as she's stated it's and extremely bumpy ride. So your younger kids may not like it that much.

In addition to the Bellagio fountains, don't forget about the fountain show at Wynn (outside) or the lake show at Wynn (inside).

There's definitely more on the list of things to do than can be accomplished in 3 days - you definitely won't be challenged in finding enough things to do.

 

The biggest thing is that it's very up-in-the-air in terms of what'll be open and to what extent. You just need to make sure you have backup plans. I don't think anyone can say for sure how things will be next week, let alone in November.

I think most of those are great ideas, but I would not plan on it being pool weather -- it's been all over the place the last couple years. You might get lucky, and you might get unlucky (which, of course, is not limited to the pools and the weather). Similarly, all the trams and the monorail are currently closed. Hopefully things will be better by Thanksgiving, but no guarantees.

Otherwise, all these are great suggestions and I'm not sure there's anything I'd add besides the Wynn atrium/conservatory, the outdoor area in front of TI (apologies if that was mentioned already, but "TI" is a difficult search term to deploy), and the Ethel M factory and garden tours.

 

One thing I forgot to add that I haven’t tried but it’s on my list is the lion habitat outside Vegas. They have various up close interactions you can purchase.

 

It was cheesy but I was 12 at the time, I enjoyed Tournament of Kings as a kid. If it were summer I’d say a good pool is a must.

 

The Ethel M candy factory has a cactus garden that they decorate for Christmas. Not sure when that debuts, but I think it is a good alternative thing to do.

 

We took the kiddos to the Coca-Cola store a few years ago and did the tasting tray of Coke drinks from around the world. We also did the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop (Pawn Stars), and the Mandalay Bay aquarium to see the sharks.

 

A couple of years ago we did the rides on the top of the Stratosphere. Your kids (if they are big enough, which they probably aren’t) might love them, but I was the one that was white knuckling and didn’t really enjoy them when we went.

 

Clearly you're not respecting the awesome power of the Beverly, lol

 

Or Beverly, lol.

I once ordered an entire cup of Beverly there and the employee looked at me like I was crazy

 

I appreciate the suggestions.We are taking our 13 year old in November and we are staying at the Wynn (during the weekday). We are forunate that our daughter has an adventerous palate so we are very flexible when it comes to our dining options. We just have to be careful if we take her to place that has a nice selection of seafood; she has expensive tastes. With the exception of going to Pizza Rock, we are not planning to go downtown. Because she did not get to go to camp this year, we are giving her $500 to spend in Vegas. This is a fraction of what it would have cost us for her to go to camp.