BFF and I just returned after four night charter trip to Harrah's Laughlin. Focus on Covid prevention.
Flights: Sun Country, new plane. 78 total passengers. Could hold 100 more if full. Bottom line there was plenty of room. Leg room unbelievable in our row, like sitting in exit row on big airline. I do not know if the number of passengers was intentionally limited. Masks, distancing, and disinfection done constantly. Temperatures taken upon boarding for the outgoing flight; not for the homegoing flight, but it would be the same passengers, so perhaps they just wanted to get us home! Everyone cooperated with masks and distancing without issue. Bottled water and an actually fairly good snack pack including mini M&Ms (soul food).
Hotel: No daily routine housekeeping, but guests could call and anything needed (extra towels, coffee, water, soap, etc.) was brought quickly. I found I actually liked not having to sweat the housekeeper coming in. (Will it be sooner or later? Will I be 'indisposed'? LOL) I always clean the room/bathroom myself in the mornings anyway. Saves tips. Might be a new trend.
Food: No in-room dining. Buffet closed. Laurel (formerly Diamond) Lounge closed. VIP closed. Beach Cafe open, very good breakfast. The Range was open, we ate there one night. Just OK IMO. Guy Fierro's (?) open, ate one dinner there. Very good guacomole; "Shared Nachos" would have been better with traditional chips. Don't care for what they call chips. Their super special (expensive) Margarita was not as good as the (free) ones on the casino floor. JMHO. This hotel/casino is a Pepsi place, no Coke on the premises. But our Hosts got each of us a six pack of Cokes. Score! Oh, another thing...no limes!!!!! WTF? My first G&T comes...no lime. Uh, miss, no lime? She says no, because of "Covid." Hmm. Really? Major bummer. So, White Zin and Margaritas as needed during casino play. LOL.
Casino: They were manic about mask enforcement. Seemed like everybody complied well without being told, though staff weren't shy about reminding someone if their mask didn't fully cover mouth and nose, etc. People were good about distancing as well. Some machines turned off for distancing. Some others had plexiglas in between. Non-smoking section open for slots but not tables. Tables open in the main area. No plexiglass between dealer and players. Three players to a table. When a player left they blocked the space until someone from the pit disinfected that area and chair, immediately attended to, no waiting. They start closing the tables at 1 am, at which time all chips are rounded up and put in a washing machine of some sort! Spanking clean chips to start every morning. What time do they open? Don't know, but by 6 am this morning not open. I asked a dealer if he knew of any employees affected by Covid, or could he say so if he knew. He said none there at Harrah's (do we believe that?) but a lot at "the indian casino up the road." I can't recall the name of that casino.
Overall the place wasn't hurting for players, but everyone was considerate and I never felt crowded upon. Pool open, children there for the pool but not a general disturbance.
My favorite table game, High Card Flush was open. I was always, I mean always, at the wrong spot. Winning hands coming to the other players, not to me. How can that happen session after session? One 3/5 VP machine was very good to me for a long time, Bonus one evening, DDB the next day, and actually gave me a Royal Flush. I was overdue. Helped the cause a lot. Came home $700 ahead...huge for me. Should have been more, but you know how it goes. Stay anywhere long enough and, as they say in the movie, "In the end we get it all."
Thanks for reading, since it wasn't Las Vegas. That trip will be...November? Maybe. But I know there is interest in how the casinos are handling the virus stuff. Harrah's Laughlin was doing great.
