Planning my trip--Advice needed

It's time to plan my July trip and I need some advice regarding hotels. The first five nights I am for sure staying at Planet Hollywood because we are going for a dance competition and it will be much easier to stay on the property. The competition ends on a Saturday night but return airfare is more expensive if we leave on Sunday. I'm thinking about checking out of PH on Saturday (if a Saturday departure is allowed) and then getting a cheap place for two nights. We'd save enough to make it worth the trouble because Saturday nights at PH are quite a bit more expensive. My first instinct is to stay at the Orleans since its decent, cheap, and there should be enough for my daughter to do ( yeah, I know kids in Vegas suck but she's the one dancing). But, my daughter really wants to stay at the Golden Nugget so she can do the water slide through the shark tank. Is the shark tank as awesome as she seems to think it is? Are there other things a teenager would like downtown (we plan to do Freemont street with her friends earlier in the week)I'd much rather stay off strip than downtown. The difference in price between the two places is not big so I guess what I'm looking for are the pros and cons. Anyone?

GN and The new 'Plaza' should have decent rates. Lots to do downtown, no car needed.
Plus for Orleans is movie theater and bowling.
Shark tank is awesome.

Double check and make sure the shark tank pool is open in the winter months.

July trip it will be open. There's the zipline downtown to.

Downtown is a quick bus ride to Cashman Field, if the 51s are in town during those days.

The shark tank is abominable.

The reader should imagine for a moment that he is a shark. He's swimming along, minding his own business. He's not particularly ecstatic that he's in a "pool" and has to swim in a circle 'cause he's not free, . . . even if he is in Las Vegas. In fact, all this circular swimming has affected his musculature such that he's musclebound on his outside-flank and in perpetual discomfort. And he longs for the day he can swim in the vast Pacific Ocean chasing lady-sharks and ingesting other free-living inhabitants of his realm as is his wont. And he wouldn't have to worry about a water filter failure resulting in the water becoming fouled by his own excrement and that of his fellow sea dwellers, because it descends to the bottom of the ocean, as Nature intended. And, . . . but DonDiego digresses . . .

And then miraculously suddenly a plump, succulent child appears right there in his pool, . . . right THERE in front of him! And he lunges, . . . and smacks his sensitive nose on the plastic tube encasing what he'd hoped was gonna be a tasty tid-bit. This is the height, . . . or perhaps more accurately the depth, . . . of animal cruelty.

Teasing sharks. Abominable !

Thanks Don Diego. There's no way I could let her go down that slide now. Plus, I think if I can get a reservation agent to help me use a combination of the group rate and AAA discounts it won't be too expensive to stay in one place.

Now I'm hearing horror stories from other dance moms about the last trip where they never left the hotel until the very last day of the trip. I'm going to tell my daughter to dance crappy. That way, they'll never make it to finals and we can have more fun.

I also recommend the zipline...it's fun! If you're planning on doing any shopping, Planet Hollywood has a pretty great mall and I also recommend Caesars Forum Shops as well.

How old is your daughter? Has she mentioned anything she would like to do?

She's 13. The one thing she mentioned that she wanted to do was some trampoline place. But, that has to wait until after all the dancing is over. I really hope she isn't stuck inside the convention center all day every day. But, I do have those two extra days at the end of the trip. I think she would really enjoy the zip line. She's pretty adventurous.


Now I have to decide if I want to rent a car so I can go everywhere that I want to go and risk having it sit in the parking garage the whole time or just try to get by on public transportation and taxis.