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Live Trip Report |
May 17, 2012 11:37 am |
It's time for another trip and another "live" trip report. This trip will be 4 nights, at 3 different hotels, starting with 2 nights in a Sky Suite at Mandalay Bay then over to a "Classic" room at Caesars Palace then wrapping it up with a night in the Paradise Tower at Hard Rock Hotel. Check back in over the next few days for frequent reviews and commentary. You can also "Follow Us on Twitter" for an even more real-time blow-by-blow of the trip. Sunday 10:00AM - On the road towards Vegas. Let's hope for minimal Mother's Day traffic through the Inland Empire and zero truck traffic up I-15. 4:00 PM - Pulled into the valet at Mandalay Bay at 2:45 and was up to the room in less than 15 minutes. On the 60th floor looking west towards Orleans. The room is very big but oddly, doesn't have a work desk. Not crazy about that... 7:00 PM - Went down and checked out the cabanas at the pool then played a little while in the casino. We got good drink service for once! Now it's off to the San Gennaro Festival at Rio for some good Italian eats. 9:30 PM - TRIED to go to the San Gennaro Fest but gave up after trying to park for 20 minutes. Epic failure on the parking situation at the Rio. Ended up having a quick dinner on the patio at Pink's Hot Dogs at Planet Hollywood. Monday 12:00 AM - Back in the room after a little play in the casino. Not much luck but not a terrible run. 8:45 AM - Got an early start with some morning coffee and gambling then went and got a cabana. Prices are up 300% over last year. The same one we got last year for $275 is now $650. Its a complete joke when 75% of them will be empty all day. Ended up with a "gazebo" which is a smaller cabana. 2:00 PM - Back in the room for a little break from the sun. I was a bit disappointed originally at the location of the gazebo but its worked out well. 5:45 PM - Ended up totally enjoying the Gazebo and definitely the way to go over a cabana that was $400 more. The evening's entertainment... 2 seats on the glass for Game 1 of the ECHL Championship Series at the Orleans Arena. Go LV Wranglers! 11:00 PM - It was a great game! The Wranglers won it 2-1 and there was a nice brawl right in front of us at the end of the 2nd period. Definitely a better time than some Cirque Du Soleil show and cheaper! Tuesday 8:30 AM - Started the day with another ass-whipping downstairs. Not even the illusion of giving me some play. Those are the worse kind of sessions. 12:00 PM - Checked out of Mandalay Bay, went over to Luxor for lunch at Nathan's before heading over to Caesars. 2:00 PM - Used "Text Check-In" at Caesars Palace and it couldn't have faster. I walked up to an empty bell desk, give my ID and was handed my keys. The only problem... I reserved a smoking room and was given a non-smoking one. Schlep the 1/4 mile back to the front desk for a new room in the same tower. I've already got my exercise for the day. 2:30 PM -I was supposed to be in an original room and I was put up in the newer Forum Tower. Its a decent room; a bit tired but I'm sure better than an original room. One cool thing, the TV in the bathroom is embedded in the mirror! 6:15 PM - Dropped the wife off at McCarran to head home and its time for the solo portion of the trip. Off to the Palms to put a few points on the cards to keep it active. Wednesday 12:00 AM - I hate the Palms! There is something about that place that keeps my ass glued to my chair for hours no matter the results. I will say that I did receive the best drink service I EVER had there. They are notoriously bad and have been since Day 1 but it was great last night. 10:30 AM - Went down for coffee and to give Caesars some obligatory play for my comp. Nothing terrible but still without an up session for the trip. 12:00 PM - Took pictures of the Caesars Pool, which is much nicer than I remember it. Time to pack up the room and head out. 2:00 PM - Went downtown to the Gambler General Store for some poker cards then hit LVH Hotel for a property map. Saw something rather interesting... A wine vending machine! Afterwards, I swung by Capriotti's for a "Bobbie" which is turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and mayo on a sandwich roll. Pretty damn tasty! 2:30 PM - Checked into Hard Rock Hotel. I am in a "Corner Room" on the 14th floor of the Paradise Tower which has possibly the best view I ever had in a room in Vegas. With windows on 2 sides, I have an 180 degree view of the entire Strip, downtown and out to Boulder Station. Very nice. 6:00 PM - Did a little bit of work and caught an hour of sleep. Ready to head downstairs. 8:15 PM - Back in the room trying to decide where to use my $25 dining credit. Woo Hoo! 11:30 PM - Ended up eating at Mr. Lucky's 24/7, HRH's coffee shop. Decent BBQ burger, nothing to wrote home about and certainly not in the same league as Burger Bar. Decided to play my first 5 play video poker of the trip and ended up with my first winning session of the trip. Dealt quads twice and a couple other good hits helped! Thursday 12:30 AM - Heading over to Bally's to meet up with Mark and his wife from 360Vegas who just got into town. 5:00 AM - Had a fucking blast hanging out with Mark! 4 good hours of good Vegas bullshit, bartop VP and more Coronas than I remember! 8:00 AM - Wide awake with a NASTY headache. 2 Excedrins later, it now a headache AND nausea. 10:30 AM - Managed to get back to sleep for an hour and the Excedrin finally did its job. Thank god for late check-out! 11:30 AM - Packing up and heading out. Trip number 90 comes to an end and the planning for #91 starts during the drive home. My name is Rob and I am a Vegas degenerate! |
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Venetian Luxury Suite Review and Pictures |
May 2, 2012 5:51 am |
I arrived at the Venetian valet at 3PM on a Sunday and the line was about 10 minutes at the Front Desk. Once getting up there, I was told that a smoking room wasn't ready but they were being cleaned and it would "20 minutes tops." She offers me a room in the Venezia Tower. 2 elevator rides and a 1/4 mile walk every time I leave my room? No thanks. She offers a room at Palazzo. Not a bad choice normally but me, my luggage and my car are at the Venetian. She then offered to call my cell phone once the room was ready. No problem, I can wait 20 minutes. After eating a quick lunch and wandering around the lobby for 45 minutes, I go back to the front to inquire about the room and am told it still isn't ready and once again given the Venezia/Palazzo options. Apparently annoyed that I didn't like those options, she snips "Then we will call you when its ready!" Another half hour passes and I go back and unfortunately I end up with the same person. She immediately asks "Did we call?!?!" No, you did not and it's now an hour and 15 minutes to clean a room. She starts clicking and says "Oh it's ready. Are you sure you didn't miss the call?" Nope, I had my phone in my hand the whole time Tweeting about my experience! An hour and a half later, I am finally in my room - a "Luxury Suite" on the 29th floor overlooking the Venezia Tower and south Strip. All of the standard rooms at the Venetian are mini-suites with a bedroom and seperate sunken living area, which is definitely the best part of the room. The bedroom space is a bit cramped with a king bed, 2 night stands and a armoire squeezed in but it's hardly noticeable with the large sitting area by the window. There is a big sectional couch that can easily seat 4 or 5 and a coffee table. Also a work desk and small dining table with 3 chairs centered around a TV Stand/mini-bar/safe. This is clearly where you will spend the majority of your time while in your room. The bathroom was the prototype for every other hotel bathroom built in Vegas over the past 10 years. Dual-sink vanity, seperate shower and tub, a toilet room plus enough open space that 4 of your drunken friends could sleep in it. The amenities and details are what you would expect from a luxury hotel - DVD player in the living area, seperate make-up vanity with mirror, the snazzy assortment of bath products, comfortable mattress and it was all nice enough. Barely. The room was just on the cusp of officially hitting the "tired" state. Nothing most people would even care about, just some little things that added up. The couch was a bit saggy, the wooden furniture was a little roughed up and the bathroom fixtures were screaming old. However, by far the worst part of the room was the lack and difficulty of getting to a power outlet, especially at the desk. With the amount of devices people now travel with, they need to do something about it. Traveling solo, I have at least 4 devices to charge. How many does a family of 4 have? The new rooms at MGM, they got it right with an outlet in every lamp. Outside of the room, The Venetian/Palazzo complex probably has the best collection of restaurants and shopping in Vegas. There are well over 30 places to eat between the two places with everything from fast food to top-notch gourmet in just about every cuisine. For the non-gourmets amongst us, I highly recommend the coffee shop - the Grand Lux Cafe. I had one of the best burgers ever on this trip but I have never been disappointed with anything on the giant menu. Run by the Cheesecake Factory people, this might be my favorite coffee shop in Vegas. In the casino, I actually ended up playing a lot more than I planned. When you put in cash and don't lose it, it makes it hard to walk away. I gave them easily 6 or 7 hours of play and walked basically even. As for the service, I can only assume that the new standard for drink service on the Strip is outright crappy. This has been a consistant trend in every place I have placed over the past year or so from Bellagio to Riviera to Venetian. Did the Food & Beverage guy at the Palms send out a memo or something? After getting off to a rough start at check-in, the stay at the Venetian overall, was pretty good. You can beat the size of the standard room with the seperate living area. Having a couch is such a bonus over a normal room if you plan on hanging out in it even the shortest amount of time. Aside from the huge room, the list of amenities downstairs is almost reason alone to stay there. The seemingly endless amount of restaurants, top night clubs, the Canyon Ranch Spa and huge pool deck plus a decent location make it an ideal choice for just about any Las Vegas visitor. However, if pure luxury is what you are looking for then you may be somewhat disappointed. Between the state of the room and the pure massiveness of place, it just doesn't exude that 5-star feeling. It certainly won't be mistaken for the Wynn next door, where it's ass-kissing and pretentiousness from the valet to the toilet. If that's not you want from your hotel but still want everything else a luxury hotel offers, the Venetian is a good pick. You can even get an almost identical experience in a fresher room at Palazzo and it's usually at the same price. While definitely not my favorite hotel in Las Vegas, there is a lot to like about the Venetian and I am sure I will be back in the future. Venetian Luxury Suite Pictures
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MGM Grand Remodeled Room Review and Pictures |
April 17, 2012 5:57 am |
MGM Grand is in the midst of a long overdue renovation and the first batch of newly remodeled rooms can now be booked. Since I am actually a fan of MGM, I had to give the new digs a try. The remodel is being widely promoted with press releases and big ads on the side of the building. There is even a mock-up of a new room in the lobby which is pretty interesting. With such hype, I was eager to see the improvements they made over the original room which are well past tired. I arrived to a near empty lobby at 4PM and was quickly helped at the Front Desk. It took a little while to hunt down a smoking room for me but they ended up coming through and in just a few minutes I was in my room on the 14th floor overlooking the valet, Hooters and the airport. The first impression of the room was that it vaguely reminded me of the rooms at Aria with a lot of brown with a decent amount of chrome thrown in. There is also one wall that is about 50% mirror and 2 large, colorful (some would say ugly) pictures on the other walls. There is an armiore/TV stand that also contains a mini-bar with a decent sized flat screen atop of it. Also built-in is a media connection panel with virtually every kind of port you could ever need. The desk is on the slightly small side but adaquate enough for working and the desk chair was the most comfortable in the room. A couple of cool features... When the motorized blinds are fully retracted, there is no visible drapes at all, just window. Also, each light fixture had a power receptacle in the base, making it easy to keep multiple devices charged - a huge bonus for any road warrior. Being quite happy with what I saw in the bedroom, I moved on to the bathroom to see the changes in there and in a continuation a recent trend, the bathroom was left largely untouched. This is the 3rd "remodeled" room I have had in the past few months and all 3 failed to redo the bathroom. The only changes from the original MGM rooms are new faucets and showerhead and a half remodeled room is a disappointment no matter how nice the other half is. Downstairs, renovations are taking place as well. The casino, like the old rooms, was pretty tired. It is now filled with a new look and all of the latest and greatest games, even video Greyhound Racing! I found a few machines to my liking and had a pretty good run that night and the following morning. The drink service was horrendous, however. I am still waiting for a bottle of water. The restaurant roster has been pretty stable over the past few years with something from virtually every cuisine and budget. I didn't indulge much, only having a late night pastrami sandwich at the Stage Deli. It was merely mediocre with a much better sandwich at either Canter's at TI or Carnegie at Mirage. As disappointed as I was seeing that the bathroom was untouched, I really do like what they did with the bedroom. The space is well-thought out, nicely decorated and comfortable to hang out in. It is definitely a huge upgrade from the original room but they could have knocked it out of the park if they did the bath as well. With that said; with the great line up of restaurants, one of the best pools in town, giant casino and good location - MGM is still one of my favorite Strip casinos. MGM Grand Remodeled Room Pictures
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