TR SNIPPET - COMPARING SOME HOTELS

PS:  since this posting both the D and the Golden Gate have added a $20 resort fee per night.
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I started my trip this time in a free room at the El Cortez won in one of the contests offered by the American Casino Guide.  I was offered Cabana or Tower room and chose Cabana.  There are three levels of Cabana rooms, basically differing in size.  They put me in the second sized room.  A Cabana room is a great way to start a Vegas trip because it is a bold colorful celebration of décor, all green and furnished with delightful bits.   The beds are comfortable and fun.

 

The D

 

I wake up at the El Cortez rested but disoriented.  I am certain that the room clock was wrong and my watch is right.  I called my buddy Wild Bill, and he does not hint that it is only 7 AM.

I think it is 10 AM.

I continue to think it as I check out and roll my bags over to The D.  The clerk there does not bat an eye.  He gives me a room and I do the bed bug inspection and begin to unpack my bags, but the clock there is wrong too. 

I’m confused.

I call the front desk.

“Could you tell me the correct time?”

“Certainly Sir, it is 9:22 AM.

I’ve checked out and checked in three hours earlier than I thought. 

To put this in perspective, Wild Bill’s wife had arrived a few days earlier at her huge suite at the Rio after a 5 and a half hour flight and shuttle ride.  It was noon.  They charged her an early check in fee of $20 or she would have to wait until 4PM.

Here I was in my room at the D at 9AM and the clerk did not even mention I was early.  And I was paying $17 a night hotel rate.

In fact, in all my 25 nights in Vegas I only had to wait until 4 PM once to get in the room and there were no added fees.  That was at the Four Queens on a Friday that started a very busy weekend.  They just did not have a room and the one preassigned to me was not yet vacated. I stay there every trip and that is my first wait.

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THE D REVIEWED

 

While the strip is rushing to see how many places can match the ever more popular and customer convenient $28 resort fee, The D offered weekday rates of $29 a night.  I gamble VP there a bit, so I managed two for one for four nights in April and then four more in May

Instead of a resort fee the D gave me a $5 matchplays and $15 in food coupons each four day stay.   I could eat a bite of breakfast for a dollar in 
the Grill which is so much different than the old eatery.  Decorated with black and white cutouts of knife, fork and spook, the whole ambiance is just what I want in a café.

With the $5 coupons I got eggs and a bowl of very good fruit by adding a dollar. 

Other coupons included a savings from the gift shop, a free Keno bet with any $5 cash bet and $5 off any show.  The Scintas were there, but I could not squeeze them in to my schedule. 

 

I also liked that I could call Housekeeping and cancel service for that day and they took care to pay attention to that detail, wrote it down, did not knock even if my Do Not Disturb sign became dislodged.  I dislike hotels that have no convenient way to cancel housekeeping.

The maid was thrilled on my first visit.  She told me that for some reason I was the only room on this floor to which she was assigned and that saved her an entire trip.

Now, it is too bad that they charge $2.50  for each cup of Kerurig coffee and $4.50 for Fuji water, but the ice machine was just down the hall at the elevator, the local Walgreen’s sold me a dollar bottle of orange juice to dribble in my tap water and I bring my own coffee maker, this time with Godiva chocolate truffle coffee.  Before my next trip I'll identify which of the flavors I like and bring a dozen with me.  They cost about fifty cents in the grocery or Walmarts where there were generic equivalents of Keurig.

Because I had the chocolate truffle, I did not need the Keurig. 

I loved the dancing girls above the black jack pit.  This go-go like entertainment is both very sexy and reminds me of my youth when such dancers were in cages around discos.  There is less body paint these days, but otherwise it is good.

I think in general the noise volume is lower downstairs than it was when they first opened.  Perhaps it is just my tolerance has eased for noise.  I got a bit of Fremont noise on the 30^th floor, but it did not seem to bother me at all, and did not seem to last too long.  

 

I see the attraction of the Long Bar.  It is just not to my taste.  For me it is simply….  well….a bar that is long and the ambiance does not match sitting across from the brass pig at the Boars Head at MSS. 

I like the look of the D from outside.  I like too that the name at least reflects something of meaning and is not just a cold collection of letters.  I do think Detroit when I see it.  Of course there is a rumored theory that the D does not stand for Detroit at all, but is in memory of the name of the famous admiral who sunk the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay and became quite an American war hero back in the day.  That could be why I am warming to this lettered casino.

I like that I can visit the vintage section on level 2 directly from my room elevator or directly on an escalator from the street.  I don’t need to see the sexy dancing girls or hear the first floor noise if I don’t want to.  And in the early morning from my hotel I can stop at floor2 and have the breakfast Grill or the good machines right there.

I watched but did not play the Sigma Derby.  It is great that they have one.  The horse sounds can be a bit unnerving from the full pay nickel Deuces, but not from the bar.

The old hard and thin mattresses are gone and I found the rooms as comfortable as any inexpensive Vegas rooms.  I’ll stay there again, especially if I can do it back to back with Four Queens bookings.  It is a very short walk and it is not much trouble to make a few trips if I check into one hotel early while I can still leave some luggage in the other hotel.

Compared to the El Cortez, The D offered easier electronic hookups for my computer and sleep apnea machine.  The television was smaller but adequate.  I had a nicer place for the computer and the chair had better back support.  I don’t get wifi, but perhaps there is free wifi now.  I usually just use my word processor to write.  Both El Cortez Cabana and The D room had a safe.
However, it probably is not fair to compare Cabana to a standard D room, as the Cabana is much more fun and plush and upscale.  On the other hand, the El Cortez does not really have a room that is like the average Vegas room.  Pavillion does not do it.  Vintage is its own unique frugal experience.

The D pool is a disappointment.  It is just too cold even when the temperature has been in three digits.  It stays cold at least in the morning when I swim.  The Jacuzzi is fine.  The music is very faint and I like that as it does not bash into my brain as I swim.
The wake up system at the D is automated and drove me a little nuts.  I would not use it again.  My first wake up call never happened.  It was one of those calls for just a few hours of nap time before a show was scheduled.  It came on the next afternoon when I did not want to be wakened and it took a while for me to figure out how to get it off.
I never did get the blinking light to stop.  I even asked the desk clerk.  In the end I put a piece of black electrical tape over the blinking red light because it was driving me nuts  if I had trouble sleeping in the night.  That worked.
Most other casinos have wake up systems that include real people and work much better.
I have to remember that my phone will give an alarm if I set it.  And now my buddy Wild Bill won a gift of an alarm clock shaped like a roulette wheel from the Orleans senior day.  He gave it to me.  I'll take it along when I travel.

The Orleans and gold Coast have heated pools and the Orleans Jacuzzi is pretty ornate, a circular stream of water around rocks.

THE ORLEANS

The Orleans rooms are probably the nicest in their price range in Vegas.  They are also consistently clean and nice and similar.  I like them the best of the places I stayed this trip, but the casino itself is located a bit out of the way.  I got there on the WAX from downtown going to Tropicana and then taking the 201.  If I do that again, I’ll ride the whole way to the airport and get dropped off at the 201 stop in front of NYNY on my way back.  The job of rolling suitcases from along side the Tropicana over all the walkways is a bit of a hassle.  And this trip it was worth because the MGM confused me by closing off the street level sidewalk due to construction.

I like the Orleans wifi in the Java coffee place, but next trip I am bringing noise reduction earphones.  This time I loaded up Jazz Decades on WGBH and that helped but it still was jazz in the midst of cacophony of casino noise and other coffee drinkers shouting over it.

There is only one play for me at the Orleans, a 9/7 nickel triple play Double Bonus with three progressive royals.  I like it and it gets me the minimum offers, but since they changed the rules on senior day and dropped multipliers, I am not as attracted to running much through those machines.  I might better just go for the drawing and the cheap buffet and movie and not worry about having a room.

One stay this time I had a pool view from a low floor.  That was really fine.  I could see when it was open and there were a few bikinis to go with my morning coffee.

GOLD COAST

 

I don’t ask for much in the way of rooms in Vegas because I am always checking in early and glad to have anything that is open.

At the desk this time I heard others checked in but told to come back in an hour and a half.  I did not want to leave my bag with the bellman and add $2 to that day’s bill.  I took out my Saphire player’s card and passed it in with my license and credit card.  Perhaps that made a difference.  Or perhaps these other folks wanted a particular room or a smoking room.  Anyway, she had a room for me and gave me one on the first floor.  It was a long walk to the elevator, but I could not expect to  get everything.  Besides, that usually makes it quieter as they book these long walks last on the floor. 

I thought I was getting no view and when I stood,  I did see an ugly  lumber storage bin, and huge ugly flood lights mounted right outside the window, but when I sat down to type on the computer and gazed out the window,  I saw bushes of white flowers and a pleasant little apartment complex beyond them of stucco and red tile roofs.  One balcony has some delightful wind chimes.  It felt a bit like I was in Europe.

It helped that when I drew back the curtains there was a mourning dove perched on my window sill.  No, it wasn’t a pigeon. It was a dove.  Not that there is anything wrong with pigeons.  I raised them when I was young and like seeing them as well.  A pigeon might have stayed around.  The dove was frightened away and left in a flutter of wings.

Unlike the D they were very generous with the coffee here.  I asked for some and they gave me three more packets.

I like the pool and workout room.  I did not workout, but I did get cups of wonderfully cold water in that room.  I like the semi shaded lounge chairs for just relaxing with a magazine.

I met interesting folks too in this pool.  One knew a good deal about old music and we had a long talk about early jazz and DooWhoop and Motown, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. 

I like the Gold Coast for location.  I can travel on the shuttle or the 202 RTC bus, and so I’m linked to casinos as far away as Eastside Cannery.  I went there.