What happens in Vegas.... A review of The Luxor & others (Hotels in Las Vegas in general)

Member Name: sdean

Product:	Hotels in Las Vegas in general
Date:	11/02/09 (114 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lots to do in hotels, do not have to leave if you don't want to

Disadvantages: Expensive drinks in the hotels, staff take you for granted.

I recently travelled to the good ol' US of A - to Las Vegas for my best friends wedding. Myself and the other half went as we are all long time friends. Firstly my other half hates tall buildings and is not that keen on flying, as they are our best friends, he put his worries aside had a couple of beers and got on with it. If you know anything about Vegas you will know that unlike other places in the world (there are exceptions I'm sure) Vegas Hotels are a tourist attraction. You are encouraged to go into them and spend your money at their gaming tables, their shops or at their attractions.

The Luxor

This is where we stayed. The pyramid shaped building with the Sphinx out the front. Looked like it was going to be amazing. We got out of the taxi at the hotel a bit bemused at the sheer size of the hotel and proceeded to try to find the check in desk. As we walked through we were jumped on by people who wanted to give us 'offers'. These people unfortunately are synonymous with the 'get your prizes' people in holiday resorts such as Malaga. A little bit too pushy. I'd been flying for hours, I was hungry, dirty and trying to check in and these people pounced. Obviously realising we had just got off the plane as we were dragging cases!

We got to the check in section and the queue was massive. Us not realising the sheer size of the hotel it was probably a quiet day! But luckily there was a bar near by where we had a sit down and our first beer on US soil.
The room was big a pyramid room - 2 queen sized beds, decent sized bathroom. TV with aerial problems. But it came complete with iron and board and in the bathroom, lovely soap , shower gel and shampoo which was lovely.

My friends (who were getting married) had all sorts of trouble. Hookers next door, noise, and room with no windows - and eventually got moved and highly upgraded after shouting at the hotel manager at some ungodly hour in the reception area. Our experience was better unfortunately my boyfriend is very nosey, he does like to look in drawers to see if people have left anything, behind the TV and wardrobe unit he found...... 6" of dust. Yuck. He also found a playing card and an old Luxor room service menu - I say old as the ones we had in our room looked nothing like it.
This hotel likes to think it is high class and while the gaming staff were nice. The concierge were useless. Reception was rude and dismissive; the hotel restaurant staff were less than welcoming. I'd say that overall, although it didn't ruin my holiday, I thought they could do with a customer service class. A lot of there staff were foreign and some had little grasp of English which didn't help. There was an amazing McDonalds up the escalator which I visited a couple of times (why do they taste better in the US!!)

A brief of the other hotels:-

If you have never been to Las Vegas, you will never have seen anything like it and probably will never seen anything like it again. I think because American's (statistically) rarely travel outside their country they have decided to put some of the world's delights in Vegas.
So from memory and whether I visited them from the airport end of the strip up. I will give you my impressions of the hotels. This is not to say I went in any other hotels bedrooms or used the reception staff- just impressions! A lot of the hotels had shopping centres attached to them

Mandalay Bay
Or as the other half called it Mandela House, beautiful hotel, lovely shops inside. Mandalay Bay, The Luxor and Excalibur are linked by monorail or you can walk through to either a lovely walk through. Mandalay Bay has conferencing facilities and often holds big Boxing matches there as well as some big stars in concert. I visited the gaming area which they are all very alike at the end of your stay in Vegas and the bar which was quiet, pretty expensive (a round for 2 would frequently come to $14 - just like being at home- this was in all the hotels). We watched the football - with some American's who loved it.

Excalibur

A horrific looking hotel very tacky etc, but best minimum bets on the gaming tables as it is cheap and tacky, the bars that are by the gaming are tacky and like something from Magaluf, but you take it in your stride. The staff there are a lot nicer and more chilled out as a result. They also have a Krispy Kreme kiosk on the way back to the Luxor - mmmmmmmm!! Freshly baked! Along the same way they have rubbish carnival games and a basement area with carnival games for little kids - which quite frankly have seen better days and were tatty and needed re paining. But it was a half hour of fun for a few bucks. In the adults gaming area is where I passed out. On my first proper day I had been over exited, jet lagged and forgot that we are in the desert. As we had spent a lot of the day indoors (you can't help it) and forgot to keep my drink levels up.

Thankfully I had sat at the bar with friends, the barman must have seen it all before a as I nearly fell off my stool and called for the casino manager and paramedic who apparently arrived within seconds. After 2 glasses of water I was fine and back to normal, but very apologetic and embarrassed. Luckily the American's don't treat ill people as if they are drunk, which is what I was embarrassed about. This gave an excellent feeling to the hotel and they would look after you in any eventuality, even if you weren't staying there.

New York New York

To get to this hotel you will have to go outside - or get a taxi. This hotel has the usual gaming tables, the bars inside (Times Square/Irish Bar) There is a rollercoaster which runs on the outside of the hotel, I'm a bit scared of them but heard it's good fun! They also have typical New York things inside like giant pretzels and the Coyote Ugly bar - where even 70 year old women were having to show ID (what is the world coming to!).

MGM
Linked to NYNY by a bridge over the road (well 12 lanes of traffic is a bit much) MGM is massive, green and has a gold lion standing guard (not real just massive) inside is the usual, nothing that amazed me except a pair of Lions on show in the gaming area, which was a bit sad!

Bellagio

The amazing fountains which would have me sat there for hours, in front of - one of the most expensive hotels in Vegas- is a lake, in the evening they run shows which are the fountains 'dancing' to music. Amazing and touching - even though it is only water!
Inside the hotel just gets better it is very stunning, clean, beautiful and the buffet- is AMAZING./ Every kind of food you could want. Sushi, meats, fish, veg amazing. The only trouble is they will let anyone in and at £20 is it a bargain ! So you may find yourself pushing people out of the way as they forget to say thank you to the people that have just cut the meat for them! DUH!

MonteCarlo

Another amazing hotel. We didn't spend very long in here but understand the rooms to be amazing.

Planet Hollywood was not yet finished when I visited, however the shopping centre was done, and this was brilliant, high hopes for the hotel !

Paris Las Vegas

Couldn't believe how big the Eiffel Tower was - and realised the real one was double the size. Amazing. Didn't visit the hotel I don't think - well France is only an hour away !!

Venetian

The Venetian (not the hotel rooms) was amazing, there is a lifesized replica of a bridge that is in Venice call the Bridge of Sighs. My best friend has a picture of the one in Venice and the one in Vegas - Identical!!
Inside a shopping centre there is a river with Gondola's that you can pay to get in and get rowed around. It is very expensive but a joy to look around.

Caesars Palace
Has wonderful replica's from Rome including fountains inside and outside the shopping centres high ceilings and quite expensive shops for the centre. Beautiful hotel. Far too big to be normal!!

Mirage
I only visited this hotel to see Siegfried & Roy's animals. And what a treat - I know the pair are known for keeping animals in not ideal conditions. However the dolphin pool was massive and in it was a mother and baby dolphin , and another pool with 2 more dolphins. There was also a tiger enclosure, which did look a bit small for the size of the animals in there, no running space. But we also say 8 newborn tigers. Which was amazing and I was glad we went in the end. The volcano - amazing eruptions - was under construction the whole time we were there !

I think I have pretty much covered my favourites in Vegas and would go back in a heartbeat, although my favourite holidays are relaxing, this was too good to miss!!

And although people tell you it is amazing and you won't believe it, you actually won't until you get there. You can spend money in taxi's or do some good walking, but remember to drink plenty - Dehydration just knocks you out !! And if you are lucky enough to go - enjoy every moment !!

Summary: What happens in Vegas shoudl stay in Vegas !!