Got back from my trip a few days ago. Stayed at Paris Sunday and Monday Night (both comped) and then moved over to Bellagio for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (comped +$200 FP). Rather than break things down by day I will put things into categories.
Check-in / Room Quality
We arrived at Paris early (about noon) and thought there might be a problem with the room being available, but I was prepared. I had booked a premium room, which is just a standard room with a better view. When the clerk said my room was not ready yet and started trying to sell me an upgrade, I surprised her when I asked for a downgrade - same room, no extra cost, and the view turned out to be pretty decent anyway.
Overall I think that the Paris has been well maintained. The room size is about average, but it was clean and nicely decorated. they have converted the mini-bars to in-room fridges (well not really - they just took out all the snacks and left the unit plugged in). The refridgerator already being there worked out well since my girlfriend (Meaghan) is a type 1 diabetic and we would have needed one for her insulin anyway.
While the Paris is not the highest end hotel I have stayed at in Vegas, it is vertainly not the lowest and overall I think it may now be my favorite amongst the CET properties.
On Tuesday we checked in at Bellagio (early of course) and I was surprised to hear that they did not have a king bed smoking room ready for us. Our choices were to wait, take a 2 queen, or pay an extra $50/night for a lakeview. Remembering all the glowing reports I have read here about the lakeviews, I decided to splurge. It was well worth it and ended up being comped anyway.
Bellagio was awesome. I have no complaints about the place. The staff is top notch and it is just an excellent hotel.
The Food
Had 4 different breakfast buffets: Planet Hollywood, Paris, Mirage and Bellagio. Used M Life express comp at Bellagio and the LVA coupons at the other three. Spice market buffet was by far the best in my opinion with the best service and the best sausage gravy. Mirage and Bellagio are pretty tight at 2nd and 3rd with Mirage getting the edge with a larger (or at least easier to find) selection. The Paris buffet was disappointing. It was decent, but not like it used to be a few years ago.
Did the Wynn buffet comped for dinner with the new slot club member incentive program. Wow!!! Very impressive. Huge selection and all good. Possibly the prettiest buffet room I have seen. People were actually taking pictures of it. Myself included.
I've been meaning to try out Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar and Grill" for a while now and finally did it. If Mr. Keith had anything to do with picking out the waitress uniforms here, I would like to give him a medal, and my grattitude. Wow!! The food was good too. Tried the fried bologna sandwich - not bad at all.
House of blues had good food as usual, but the service was pretty lousy.
Did Gonzalez Y Gonzalez at NYNY. Service was decent. Food was decent. Nothing towrite home about.
The coffee shop (tableu) at the Wynn is excellent in both service and food quality. I mentioned above that we got a free buffet with the slot club promo. we were originally going to do it for lunch, but as we were walking to it Meaghan's sugar started crashing and we just couldn't wait. I saw that the coffee shop wasn't far away so we went there and I explained to the hostess what was going on. before we knew it we were seated and she had a glass of OJ and some sweet rolls in front of her. We had a light lunch (excellent) and I left a HUGE tip.
Except for our day at the Wynn, we really just grabbed sandwiches for lunch at the quickie places. One surprisingly good place was JJ's Boulangerie at Paris. It has awesome sandwiches. The pizza on the other hand... so so at best.
The Gambling
This may have been my heaviest gambling trip yet (it might have had something to do with my travel companion hehe). No big wins, but no super major loss either. Went from zero to halfway to platinum with CET and went from low pearl to gold with MGM. Can't wait to see the offers come in.
Speaking of offers, got an incredible one from the Wynn. Until the end of the year (most weekends included) we can stay in a King suite at Encore if available (otherwise a standard room at the Wynn) and get $500 in freeplay. We weren't planning on going back so soon, but this offer may make it too good to pass up.
We played mostly slots and VP. Meaghan wanted to try craps, but I have no understanding of the game at all so she decided against it and asked what I did know about. We played single deck BJ at the mirage for a couple of hours. She enjoyed it quite a bit and we broke even.
Other Activities
On wednesday we went on a helicopter tour out to the Skywalk in the Grand Canyon. It is pretty expensive (about $500/person) but well worth it. I had never been in a helicopter and neither of us had ever been to the Grand canyon. I was surprised at just how smooth a helicopter is to ride in. Much better than a Piper or Cessna fixed wing. Pilot was great, the view was awesome.
We went out to the Gold and Silver pawnshop (Pawn Stars). Meaghan had some gold she wanted to sell and last year when we went we sold our wedding rings (we are both divorced) and they actually offered a very fair price (about 75% spot). Not anymore, they tried to buy her gold for about 50% spot this year. Luckily I am better with numbers than most people (Pawn Stars included) and got them up to the 75% spot. Somehow over the last year they have changed from a solid business with a TV show on the side to a TV show with a sideline business.
Lots of shopping. I like to window shop the high end stores. Meaghan likes to buy from them! We visited the Forum shops, Miracle mile shops, and Crystals at City Center.
Random Stuff
I thought I saw an unusually large number of prostitutes roaming the casinos until it was pointed out to me that that is how twentysomething women dress for a night on the town these days... I am officially OLD.
The quality of service was for the most part better at the buffets than at the sit down places. I was even told that it wasn't very good at Toby Keith's. I guess I was distracted .
If you want to take the flyers pertaining to female companionship from the helpful gentlemen on the street, that's fine, but either keep them or put them into a garbage can. I just about broke my neck slipping on some loose ones in front of Casino Royale. Meaghan saw me and said all she could think about was how embarrassing it would be to explain to my family exactly how I ended up in a coma.
I love hearing stories from cab drivers. They are an endless fountain of knowledge.
Hope you enjoyed my lengthy trip report.
Check-in / Room Quality
We arrived at Paris early (about noon) and thought there might be a problem with the room being available, but I was prepared. I had booked a premium room, which is just a standard room with a better view. When the clerk said my room was not ready yet and started trying to sell me an upgrade, I surprised her when I asked for a downgrade - same room, no extra cost, and the view turned out to be pretty decent anyway.
Overall I think that the Paris has been well maintained. The room size is about average, but it was clean and nicely decorated. they have converted the mini-bars to in-room fridges (well not really - they just took out all the snacks and left the unit plugged in). The refridgerator already being there worked out well since my girlfriend (Meaghan) is a type 1 diabetic and we would have needed one for her insulin anyway.
While the Paris is not the highest end hotel I have stayed at in Vegas, it is vertainly not the lowest and overall I think it may now be my favorite amongst the CET properties.
On Tuesday we checked in at Bellagio (early of course) and I was surprised to hear that they did not have a king bed smoking room ready for us. Our choices were to wait, take a 2 queen, or pay an extra $50/night for a lakeview. Remembering all the glowing reports I have read here about the lakeviews, I decided to splurge. It was well worth it and ended up being comped anyway.
Bellagio was awesome. I have no complaints about the place. The staff is top notch and it is just an excellent hotel.
The Food
Had 4 different breakfast buffets: Planet Hollywood, Paris, Mirage and Bellagio. Used M Life express comp at Bellagio and the LVA coupons at the other three. Spice market buffet was by far the best in my opinion with the best service and the best sausage gravy. Mirage and Bellagio are pretty tight at 2nd and 3rd with Mirage getting the edge with a larger (or at least easier to find) selection. The Paris buffet was disappointing. It was decent, but not like it used to be a few years ago.
Did the Wynn buffet comped for dinner with the new slot club member incentive program. Wow!!! Very impressive. Huge selection and all good. Possibly the prettiest buffet room I have seen. People were actually taking pictures of it. Myself included.
I've been meaning to try out Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar and Grill" for a while now and finally did it. If Mr. Keith had anything to do with picking out the waitress uniforms here, I would like to give him a medal, and my grattitude. Wow!! The food was good too. Tried the fried bologna sandwich - not bad at all.
House of blues had good food as usual, but the service was pretty lousy.
Did Gonzalez Y Gonzalez at NYNY. Service was decent. Food was decent. Nothing towrite home about.
The coffee shop (tableu) at the Wynn is excellent in both service and food quality. I mentioned above that we got a free buffet with the slot club promo. we were originally going to do it for lunch, but as we were walking to it Meaghan's sugar started crashing and we just couldn't wait. I saw that the coffee shop wasn't far away so we went there and I explained to the hostess what was going on. before we knew it we were seated and she had a glass of OJ and some sweet rolls in front of her. We had a light lunch (excellent) and I left a HUGE tip.
Except for our day at the Wynn, we really just grabbed sandwiches for lunch at the quickie places. One surprisingly good place was JJ's Boulangerie at Paris. It has awesome sandwiches. The pizza on the other hand... so so at best.
The Gambling
This may have been my heaviest gambling trip yet (it might have had something to do with my travel companion hehe). No big wins, but no super major loss either. Went from zero to halfway to platinum with CET and went from low pearl to gold with MGM. Can't wait to see the offers come in.
Speaking of offers, got an incredible one from the Wynn. Until the end of the year (most weekends included) we can stay in a King suite at Encore if available (otherwise a standard room at the Wynn) and get $500 in freeplay. We weren't planning on going back so soon, but this offer may make it too good to pass up.
We played mostly slots and VP. Meaghan wanted to try craps, but I have no understanding of the game at all so she decided against it and asked what I did know about. We played single deck BJ at the mirage for a couple of hours. She enjoyed it quite a bit and we broke even.
Other Activities
On wednesday we went on a helicopter tour out to the Skywalk in the Grand Canyon. It is pretty expensive (about $500/person) but well worth it. I had never been in a helicopter and neither of us had ever been to the Grand canyon. I was surprised at just how smooth a helicopter is to ride in. Much better than a Piper or Cessna fixed wing. Pilot was great, the view was awesome.
We went out to the Gold and Silver pawnshop (Pawn Stars). Meaghan had some gold she wanted to sell and last year when we went we sold our wedding rings (we are both divorced) and they actually offered a very fair price (about 75% spot). Not anymore, they tried to buy her gold for about 50% spot this year. Luckily I am better with numbers than most people (Pawn Stars included) and got them up to the 75% spot. Somehow over the last year they have changed from a solid business with a TV show on the side to a TV show with a sideline business.
Lots of shopping. I like to window shop the high end stores. Meaghan likes to buy from them! We visited the Forum shops, Miracle mile shops, and Crystals at City Center.
Random Stuff
I thought I saw an unusually large number of prostitutes roaming the casinos until it was pointed out to me that that is how twentysomething women dress for a night on the town these days... I am officially OLD.
The quality of service was for the most part better at the buffets than at the sit down places. I was even told that it wasn't very good at Toby Keith's. I guess I was distracted .
If you want to take the flyers pertaining to female companionship from the helpful gentlemen on the street, that's fine, but either keep them or put them into a garbage can. I just about broke my neck slipping on some loose ones in front of Casino Royale. Meaghan saw me and said all she could think about was how embarrassing it would be to explain to my family exactly how I ended up in a coma.
I love hearing stories from cab drivers. They are an endless fountain of knowledge.
Hope you enjoyed my lengthy trip report.
