Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 57

Thread: Trip report (with no pics) - New Years in Vegas

  1. #1
    Coming into this year, I had spent 5 of the past 6 New Years in Vegas, with the only exception being New Orleans for 2014.

    However, this year I decided to try something a bit different and spend it downtown.

    All of my previous New Years since 2013 have been at Caesars, where we would get an Augustus Tower room with a strip view, and we'd watch the fireworks from there.

    On December 30, I drove to Vegas with my girlfriend and our son. We checked into the Golden Nugget, which is the nicest hotel downtown, but that's not saying a lot.

    The Nugget was selling parking spots for $50/each for people spending NYE on Fremont Street, but I'll give them credit in that they "sold out" long before the ran out of spots for guests. Parking was still easy to find.

    We got a room in the Gold Tower, which is kind of the mid-grade tower there. It's supposedly renovated, but unlike the recent renovations to Vegas Caesars properties (which all look pretty good), this "renovated" tower looks like it's already getting somewhat worn down.

    One amazing thing about the Golden Nugget is that they do not have a single queen bed on the property. Your choice is one king or two doubles. Two doubles? I haven't seen double beds in a US hotel in a long time. Embarrassing. For those of you wondering, a double is also known as a full, and it's only 53x75 inches. A queen is 60x80 inches, which is a huge difference. A king is 76x80.

    "Double" is a misnomer. Two adults cannot fit on one of those, unless they're skinny midgets. In fact, if you're tall like me (between 6'2" and 6'3"), then even ONE person can't fit on a double, as your feet will hang over. I had to sleep diagonally in the bed by myself.

    The rest of the room, while a bit worn, looked okay. Noise is a huge problem downtown, but fortunately I got assigned a room overlooking the closed pool, so it was actually quiet. We stayed there for 3 nights.

    The nickel and diming at Golden Nugget puts even Caesars to shame:

    $16/day for a Keurig coffee maker! They told me on the phone that "each room has a Keurig", and I was greeted with the obnoxious charge when I noticed the room didn't have one. I talked my way out of it, stating that I would have brought my own if they hadn't told me that they were already in the room.

    $34/day for a refrigerator! We also managed to get that waived.

    $40 for a 2pm checkout! We also got that waived, because of an LOL situation with the deadbolt.

    Basically the room's deadbolt didn't work. I called, and they sent maintenance, who arrived fairly quickly. At first the guy told me it worked, but I showed him that it didn't, and he quickly conceded that yes, it was broken. He then had another maintenance guy come up, and the two fiddled with it for like 45 minutes, at one point conceding that the lock was irreparably broken and would need a full replacement. Unfortunately they didn't have any equivalent rooms, which upset me. Somehow they managed to somewhat fix it by replacing the "face plate" of the door locking mechanism, but it still didn't work 100% correctly. I found that the only way to get the deadbolt to pop out was to close the door slowly, then wait a second, then push on it, and then you'll hear the deadbolt pop out.

    The entire desk area had one plug, and it was in a lamp. That didn't work. They told me they had no more lamps available. LOL again. Fortunately I brought a power strip and stretched it down behind the desk and was barely able to make it reach.

    There were some other minor maintenance issues which I won't bother describing. Suffice to say that the next person to get that room should thank me for getting so many things fixed.

    Continued....
    Check out my poker forum, and weekly internet radio show at http://pokerfraudalert.com

  2. #2
    On December 31, it's never a good idea to eat anywhere you can't walk to, due to the road closures and bad traffic.

    With that in mind, we made a reservation at the well-regarded Vic and Anthony's Steakhouse in the Nugget.

    This steakhouse has 4.5 stars on both Yelp and Tripadvisor, and has been long regarded as one of the best steakhouses in Vegas, despite its downtown locale.

    I had been there twice before, and found that it was good, but not memorably good.

    This meal, however, was disappointing.

    It seemed to start off well, as the appetizers were good, and my girlfriend enjoyed the wine she ordered.

    However, my son's $36 salmon dish tasted "fishy" (usually the sign of salmon which was frozen or old), and they miscooked my girlfriend's steak. She had a 12 ounce filet, medium-rare. She cut into the center, and it looked good. She then started eating, and enjoyed the first few bites. Then she got a little more toward the outside and it was medium. "Oh well," she thought, "Usually the steak is most rare in the middle, so I guess this is fine." She ate some of that and didn't enjoy it very much. Then she looked down and noticed the rest of the steak was well done. Not medium-rare. Not medium. Not medium-well. But well done. So this was very unevenly cooked, and that's even taking into account that steaks don't cook completely uniform.

    We figured that pointing this out would receive an apology and an offer to replace at least part of it, but instead they were very defensive and insisted that "the steak is seared, that's how it comes out", as if that's a valid answer. We weren't complaining about the outside being charred. We were complaining that a large portion of the "medium-rare" steak was well done!

    I asked for the manager, and was sure he would over-generously offer to replace the entire steak, even though some of it had been eaten, as is common at fine steakhouses. Instead, the guy came over instantly with an attitude, and started a whole debate with us about the matter. He kept trying to convince us that it's totally normal for a medium-rare steak to have a substantial well-done portion on it. Right. Then when he couldn't convince us of that, he tried to assert that "there's just 3 bites left", which was also a complete lie (the plate was gone by that point). A substantial portion remained.

    Finally he agreed to give about half off, which was only after a lot of tense arguing and debating. This despite the fact that they could see the freaking steak right in front of their faces, and see that it was miscooked. Plus, we complained about nothing else, not even the "fishy" salmon.

    Anyway, pretty disappointing.

    Also, we were in a quiet room on the side, but they packed 'em in like sardines in the main room, where there was barely enough space to walk between tables. Glad I wasn't placed there.

    I think the problem here is that Vic & Anthony's is located downtown, and therefore they probably feel there's a lower standard on how to treat its clientele than other prime steakhouses, which tend to serve the upper-middle and upper classes. I think Vic & Anthony's probably believes that they're the fanciest restaurant downtown, and therefore they're doing YOU a favor to eat there.

    In my decade of experience dining at prime steakhouses, the managers tend to be softspoken and overly generous with making mistakes right. Never once have I been stuck in a debate with a manager at a prime steakhouse regarding the definition of a medium-rare steak!

    BTW, I actually paid for most of this. I had like $30 in comps, but that was it. So it's not even like I was eating on a comp. Not that it should have mattered.

    Continued...
    Check out my poker forum, and weekly internet radio show at http://pokerfraudalert.com

  3. #3
    We actually had free tickets to the NYE party inside the Nugget (with dinner included), but we couldn't go because my son is only 8, and kids weren't allowed in there. We didn't want to ditch him with some babysitter, so we skipped the party and spent NYE together.

    The Fremont Street party actually cost $45/head, but we got free wristbands from the hotel. Again, under 21 wasn't allowed out there, so we didn't use them.

    Instead, we went up to the roof of the self parking lot (6 stories) to get the best view of the fireworks.

    The closest strip fireworks were at the Stratosphere, and honestly looked a lot smaller/farther than expected. We could also see the fireworks from another strip hotel further in the distance.

    However, we were surprised to also see a separate (albeit less impressive) fireworks show from The Plaza right next door. All of my research on the internet indicated that there was no fireworks display downtown, but I guess there was. We were really close to that one and got a great view. However, there's no question that the strip fireworks are far better.

    It was COLD during our stay in Vegas. It was about 32 degrees at midnight, with a 20mph wind, which made it feel a lot colder. The high never reached 50 on either the 31st or the 1st. It was 26 degrees downtown at about 3am on the morning of the 2nd.

    We had planned to go to Mt. Charleston for my son to play in the snow on one of those days, but it was bitter cold there, with highs around 16 degrees with winds 20-30mph. In fact, at 5am on January 1, Mt. Charleston reached 0 degrees, which is unusual.

    I also was having back problems from injuring it the day before the trip, so we skipped Mt. Charleston this time.

    I took my son to Circus Circus, which is pretty crowded and scummy nowadays, but I have nice memories going there as a kid in the '70s. My son really enjoyed the games there, and I knew which "impossible" ones to avoid. He won a few stuffed animals, the best of which I actually won for him.

    Continued...
    Check out my poker forum, and weekly internet radio show at http://pokerfraudalert.com

  4. #4
    I had $500 to burn of Seven Stars meal certificates.

    On January 1, we ate at Nobu, which is always really good. Expensive, but really good. We carefully ordered so the meal came out to $301 (you need to use the vouchers in multiples of $100).

    On January 2, we wanted to eat an early dinner before leaving town, but sadly we found almost nothing good at Caesars properties was open in the late afternoon.

    Finally we found that the only option for high/semi-high-end dining there was the relatively new Hell's Kitchen at Caesar's.

    We only managed to get in because someone cancelled at the last minute.

    Anyway, interesting setup there. The chefs all prepare food out in the open, in what appears to be a staging area. They're trying to make guests feel like they're on the set of the TV show, which doesn't really come off that way, but it is interesting to watch. They even have "meetings" where the head chef lectures/fires up the other chefs.



    Meal was pretty good. We ordered a number of appetizers, including the pumpkin soup. All but one appetizer (the Tuna Tartare) were good.

    Main course I ordered the Beef Wellington and girlfriend ordered Rack of Lamb. We both agreed our main courses were good but not great.

    Dessert we got the chocolate mousse cake, which was good, though my girlfriend didn't care for the unique ice cream which came with it (I liked it though).

    My son ordered a flatbread cheese pizza which he really liked.

    Bill was $204 and honestly we got a lot of food for it.

    So that was the end of my certificates!

    Drive back to LA was heavy but traffic was moving for the most part. Took longer than a non-holiday drive, but it wasn't terrible.

    I'm kinda sad that my Seven Stars status is ending, and I won't be getting those $500 certificates.

    One improvement they made in 2018 (which continues into 2019) is that you don't need to print paper certificates anymore. At the end of the meal, you just tell the server how many certificates you want to use. This is nice, as printing the certificates (and guessing how many you need) was a huge pain in the ass.

    Continued...
    Check out my poker forum, and weekly internet radio show at http://pokerfraudalert.com

  5. #5
    Oh, I forgot to mention that I ate at the Four Queens restaurant at 2am on the night of the 30th, because I was hungry and my gf/son were asleep.

    I had $16 in food comps there, so I used $15 of it on chicken parmesan and a cheesecake. Was actually better than I expected.

    Check out my poker forum, and weekly internet radio show at http://pokerfraudalert.com

  6. #6
    Overall, I am glad I tried a Downtown New Years, but it's not for me.

    Too many things there are 21-and-over only (bad when you have a kid with you), plus I really don't have an interest in watching bands on Fremont.

    The fireworks were inferior to the strip.

    The Golden Nugget is the best downtown hotel, but it would be considered crap by strip standards.

    There's clearly a lower standard on how the customer is treated downtown, as they feel it's aimed at more of a working class audience, and thus they feel it's less important to give courteous and high-end service.

    Interestingly, I've noticed this phenomenon in other industries, too.

    I once had to visit an AT&T store, and was in Oxnard (California) with some time to kill. Oxnard is not at all a wealthy area -- it's pretty much lower-middle class.

    I went into the store, and not only was it extremely crowded, but the employees were downright nasty to me and everyone else there.

    I walked out, and on the way back, I stopped in the next city over -- Camarillo, which is kind of a mixture of middle to upper-middle class.

    It was a tremendous difference. The employees were helpful and friendly.

    These were both corporate AT&T stores, just a few miles from each other. The only difference was the class of the neighborhood in which they were located.

    I've seen other examples of this countless times. It seems that the richer the average customer, the better and more courteous the service is for everyone. It saddens me to see this.

    Anyway, I did some gambling too, but nothing too exciting, so I won't bother describing.

    Not sure if I'll be in Vegas again for New Years 2020, but if I am, it won't be downtown.
    Check out my poker forum, and weekly internet radio show at http://pokerfraudalert.com

  7. #7
    Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Oh, I forgot to mention that I ate at the Four Queens restaurant at 2am on the night of the 30th, because I was hungry and my gf/son were asleep.

    I had $16 in food comps there, so I used $15 of it on chicken parmesan and a cheesecake. Was actually better than I expected.

    Wait a minute. That's YOU in the picture? Didn't you say you were 62 years old? You look more like 30-45.

  8. #8
    No, I'm not 62!

    I never said that. You must be thinking of someone else.

    Thank you for saying I look 30-45.

    I'm actually almost 47.
    Check out my poker forum, and weekly internet radio show at http://pokerfraudalert.com

  9. #9
    Dan I'm glad you enjoyed your time with your "family", but while I understand the dissatisfaction with those crazy charges in the room at the GN, why are you trying so hard to order food that just barely comes in under or over the coupon value? Can't you just enjoy the meal with the family regardless of what the small to medium overage is? And why do you seem to always have to have so much conflict like you did at the Steakhouse? You need stress-control classes.

    Why didn't you valet park at the GN. That's one of the easiest places downtown to do that.

    We also didn't see anything about your crackpot AP gambling.

  10. #10
    Dan do you ever have a good time when things go well? LOL

    And why didn't you stay at Caesars this year?

  11. #11
    Originally Posted by Rob.Singer View Post
    Dan I'm glad you enjoyed your time with your "family", but while I understand the dissatisfaction with those crazy charges in the room at the GN, why are you trying so hard to order food that just barely comes in under or over the coupon value? Can't you just enjoy the meal with the family regardless of what the small to medium overage is? And why do you seem to always have to have so much conflict like you did at the Steakhouse? You need stress-control classes.

    Why didn't you valet park at the GN. That's one of the easiest places downtown to do that.

    We also didn't see anything about your crackpot AP gambling.
    I can see where you are interested in crackpot gambling. It's your specialty.
    "More importantly, mickey thought 8-4 was two games over .500. Argued about it. C'mon, man. Nothing can top that for math expertise. If GWAE ever has you on again, you can be sure I'll be calling in with that gem.'Nuff said." REDIETZ

  12. #12
    Hi Dan:

    Thanks for the report. I used to stay at Golden Nugget but now I avoid it when I stay downtown. The place may be the "class" of downtown but the people who work there think it is a strip property (including strip bad video poker) when it isn't on the strip. I much prefer authentic downtown casino and hotels. I recall that Vic and Anthony's had a decent fix prix menu but you need to bring a printout to get the deal. I had once brought my kids years ago to spend NYE in downtown Nugget but as you mentioned, downtown is not a place for young children -- with the exception of the shark pool at the Nugget (which I assume was too cold to enjoy at NYE).

    I have never been to Hells Kitchen but based on your feedback, I might try it.

    The most fun I ever had on NYE with the kids was staying at the Flamingo where the windows of the room faced Ceasars Palace, the view of the fireworks was great.

    FAB

  13. #13
    Originally Posted by Rob.Singer View Post
    Dan I'm glad you enjoyed your time with your "family", but while I understand the dissatisfaction with those crazy charges in the room at the GN, why are you trying so hard to order food that just barely comes in under or over the coupon value? Can't you just enjoy the meal with the family regardless of what the small to medium overage is? And why do you seem to always have to have so much conflict like you did at the Steakhouse? You need stress-control classes.

    Why didn't you valet park at the GN. That's one of the easiest places downtown to do that.

    We also didn't see anything about your crackpot AP gambling.
    I don't like valet, especially during busy times such as New Years. It is torture standing there for eternity waiting for your car to be brought to you, nor do I want to tip some bloodsucker valet $20 to leave my car up front.

    Regarding the price of the meal, when we go to these comp meals, we usually use it as an opportunity to try/sample things we normally wouldn't. So we definitely get what we want and then get "extras" until it reaches the end of the comp, or in this case, the round number needed for these Caesars comps.

    Regarding the "conflict", explain how this was our fault? They miscooked the steak, and then turned the whole thing into a frustrating debate, rather than just graciously replacing it or offering to take a little off the bill.
    Check out my poker forum, and weekly internet radio show at http://pokerfraudalert.com

  14. #14
    I'm just not the type to argue with anything to do with meals. I simply adjust my tip or eliminate it. I do not trust lowly paid employees who spend a few moments with my or my family's food before it arrives. And if it's a last minute issue I let it go. People are generally assholes. You aren't dealing with creatures as loyal and trustworthy as dogs.

    Yes the GN valet can be a long wait at holiday time and it's RIGHT THERE outside the doors, but isn't that better than parking and walking--esp if you have no plans to drive until you leave?

    I understand about how you treat the free food vouchers and it now makes sense.

  15. #15
    Originally Posted by Rob.Singer View Post
    I'm just not the type to argue with anything to do with meals. I simply adjust my tip or eliminate it. I do not trust lowly paid employees who spend a few moments with my or my family's food before it arrives.
    Only argue with restaurant staff (especially waitstaff) if you don't mind eating their spit (or worse), it's really not worth the money.

    I thought everybody knew that...I'm guessing Dan never worked in a restaurant.

  16. #16
    The self park at the Golden Nugget isn't far. That's actually one of the easy ones to deal with. It's right outside the valet! Just a few more steps.

    I also don't like others driving my car (except my gf).

    I don't trust food service people either, but sometimes you have no choice. Usually I will wait until the end of the meal to make any complaints. By the time the manager came over to address it, we were done with the meal, and I just wanted something fair taken off for the steak that was miscooked.
    Check out my poker forum, and weekly internet radio show at http://pokerfraudalert.com

  17. #17
    I've never used the valet at Red Rock or Suncoast because self parking is just too convenient. Caesars is such a mess you must use the valet. I was in downtown once to meet friends for dinner and I used the GN self parking and it was very convenient.

  18. #18
    Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    I don't trust food service people either, but sometimes you have no choice. Usually I will wait until the end of the meal to make any complaints.
    Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    We figured that pointing this out would receive an apology and an offer to replace at least part of it
    Would you have accepted an offer to replace the steak?

  19. #19
    If you use a Caesars $100 coupon it makes no sense not to max it out even if you only eat two bites of a sushi roll at Nobu. There's no "change" given. Dan was absolutely right to spend $301. Jacquie and I used my last $100 certificate at Nobu last night.

  20. #20
    Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson View Post
    If you use a Caesars $100 coupon it makes no sense not to max it out even if you only eat two bites of a sushi roll at Nobu.
    But does it make sense to try to order only enough so that it's exactly covered by the coupon, like it's a game and you're a contestant on the Price is Right?

    Why not order whatever you want, use the coupon for full value, and a crowbar to open your wallet and cover the rest?

    The guy plays in $10K buy-in poker tournaments, and he's sweating an extra $100 on a holiday dinner with his family?

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 133
    Last Post: 04-02-2017, 08:15 AM
  2. Vegas Lover's March 2015 Trip Report
    By Vegas_lover in forum Las Vegas
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 04-05-2015, 03:57 PM
  3. Las Vegas signature event (partial) trip report
    By Dan Druff in forum Total Rewards and MLife
    Replies: 17
    Last Post: 10-26-2014, 10:36 PM
  4. Trip report: Caesars Las Vegas during July 4th
    By Alan Mendelson in forum Las Vegas
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 08-09-2014, 06:09 PM
  5. Vegas Trip Report Sat-Sun Apr 21-22
    By Alan Mendelson in forum Las Vegas
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 04-25-2012, 09:09 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •