East Coast Gambler

As I mentioned yesterday my stay at Planet Hollywood was a tale of two rooms.  After walking around and taking pictures of dirty room 1, I went back downstairs to check in to inform them about the room.  Without question and before I could list off all of the dirty items I had a new room.  I think the old man in the scooter yelling about his stay helped me get a nice room.

I’m pretty sure I was upgraded to a resort room, which I’ll call “Room 2.”  This room was MUCH larger and thankfully cleaner.  There was ample room and options for me to charge my iPhone.  I chose the work area as my charging station.

You can see how big the room is by turning around from the work area.  The TV and wall unit was on the opposite wall with the bed set to the right.  This was a slightly awkward angle to watch TV, but it wasn’t too bad.

There were two big comfy chairs and a table to the left side of the room.  I spent most of my time in the room in one of the chairs.

I may have passed out in the chair after my 3rd tall Grey Goose and Soda, which was proceeded by two drinks in the Diamond Lounge.

Pictures and more after the jump

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In addition to my stay at Palazzo, I took a night to explore Planet Hollywood.  I love the casino, but haven’t stayed there in a few years.  I had similar offers to stay at each casino but after your votes I decided to make my home at Palazzo.

My stay at Planet Hollywood was a tale of two rooms.  Check in was packed.  It’s a small area, but there seemed to be hundreds of people.  Luckily for me there was a fast quiet room for diamond total rewards members to check in.

In minutes I received my keys to my first room.  I’m going to guess I had a basic “Hollywood Hip” room, but I’m not sure so I’ll just call it “Room 1.”

Room one wasn’t cleaned from the previous guests and the TV didn’t work.  Additionally, the room was one of the smallest I’ve seen in Vegas.  I can’t imagine how two queen beds could fit in this space and I don’t know that I want to find out.  Of course, I love the casino so I’ll fight with myself about this in the future.

My trusty iPhone charger was the only item that made the trip down the strip with me.  I figured that I’d wake up and head right over to Palazzo whenever I woke up the next day.

Unfortunately, the way the room was laid out there was no obvious place to set my phone for a charge outside of the bathroom.  The work space was a little tight and just about up against the bed.  It’s not easy to see, but there’s a half finished iced coffee by the lamp.

One nice feature is that each room had a newspaper delivered each morning.  The night/morning I stayed at Planet Hollywood I ran into delivery.

The bed itself looked nice.  The bed had cream coverings with dark trim.  I didn’t bother trying out the mattress or coverings, but at least it looked good.

I was standing next to an awkwardly placed chair when I took the picture above.  This was pretty much the only place there was room for a sitting area in the room.  This was the only place someone could sit and watch TV if the TV worked.  The TV didn’t work.  Leftover item #2, a Mountain Dew bottle, is to the left of the TV.

Looking the other direction from the chair was the view outside.  The room had a nice view of the pool.  The pool area isn’t very big, but it looks nice.

More pictures and room information after the jump

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I thought I would be a able to write up my trip to Las Vegas a little more this week, but that was interrupted with a last minute trip to Atlantic City.  That took two nights of writing away.  I had a blast, but the losing streak continued.  Off to a rough start to the year gambling.  Maybe I should stick with sports betting.  I have a bit more control there and I have been winning at a nice clip.

More on Las Vegas coming this week.  Take a look back at last week on ECG.

• Shane Mosely vs Floyd Mayweather
• Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown Odds
• Planet Hollywood Diamond Lounge
• Strat – Hell No
• Harrahs Resort Renovates a Bit
• Complimentary Doesn’t Mean Free at Palazzo
• Wynn Moving To Macau?

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Planet Hollywood became part of Harrah’s and Total Rewards on April 1st.  I’ve been a Diamond level player for the past couple of years and one of my favorite benefits of being Diamond is the access to the Diamond Lounge (DL) at Harrah’s properties.

The lounges are a place to sit and have a drink or two and a snack away from the rest of the casino.  It’s a nice getaway without leaving the casino.

I was looking forward to exploring what Planet Hollywood had to offer.  First I had to find the Diamond Lounge.  That was pretty easy.  After listening to Five Hundy By Midnight before my trip I knew that the DL was located in the Mezz.

The Diamond Lounge at Planet Hollywood is large.  There are 3 rooms full of tables and chairs.  The first room is where the snacks are located, but I decided to explore made my way to the farthest and largest room.

After I grabbed a spot in the nearly empty room a waiter came up to me and asked if I would like a drink.  Of course I would!  I asked for a Grey Goose and Soda and was informed that there was no Grey Goose.  After catching my breath I asked what kind of vodka they had.  I was told Level, Absolut and Skyy.  I tried Level on his recommendation.  Take a look at how pretty my drink was in the nice Planet Hollywood glass…

Level was ok.  Certainly it was better than the other options.  While sipping on my drinks I was watching golf on the largest TV I’ve seen outside of a sportsbook.

If my iPhone had a flash you’d be able to get a good idea about how large this thing is.  It has to be 100″ of High Def love.  Needless to say – I want it.

There was nothing too flashy or lounge-y about the Planet Hollywood Diamond Lounge.  It’s laid out more like a cafeteria than a lounge.  I prefer lounge chairs and couches to dining tables, but some of the Diamond Lounges are like this.  The other thing missing was a bar.  That’s always a nice option too.

While I was unimpressed with the seating options, I enjoyed the service and selection of TV’s and excellent service and drinks.  Like I said in the beginning, the Diamond Lounges are a nice place to get away from the casino and grab a drink and a snack.  This did the trick…even if I wasn’t tempted to pass out from comfort.

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I always went by the assumption that a comp room meant that the room was free.  After all, one of the definitions for “complimentary” is free.  Maybe there would be taxes, but that isn’t always the case.  On my last trip to Las Vegas I found that comps aren’t treated the same at all casinos.

PALAZZO – MANDATORY RESORT FEE

I had 3 complimentary nights at Palazzo and one that I would pay for.  While checking in the prices were $0/$0/$0/$149.  I forgot about those damn mandatory resort fees.  Palazzo has a $15 resort fee per day which is taxed for a total of $16.80.  I didn’t expect that comp rooms would have this tacked on to the bill so I was a surprised when I checked out.

Here’s what I go for my $16.80:

• In-room internet access
• unlimited local calls
• domestic long distance and 800 calls
• fitness center access for two
• daily local newspaper (I didn’t even see a newspaper)

Here’s what I used:

• In-room internet access

I didn’t like the fact that the resort fee was never mentioned at check in.  Thinking back, it was never mentioned when I stayed at Palazzo in December.  There’s enough free wi-fi in the hotel that I would not have chosen to pay for the service. Over the stay these fees were almost $80.

A cynic might also think that the reason there was such poor cell phone service in the rooms is so that it would force guests to use the house phones for calls and wi-fi for mobile data service so they think that they’re getting something from the resort fees.

PLANET HOLLYWOOD – NO RESORT FEES

I also had a comp night at Planet Hollywood.  Harrah’s properties are proud not to have resort fees.  I was happy not to pay a resort fee nor tax for my complimentary night at Planet Hollywood.  Total bill from Planet Hollywood = $0.

BOTTOM LINE

I had 3 comp nights at Palazzo, a hotel I really like, so I’m not sweating it.  At the same time, I feel my opinion is changing from moderately not liking resort fees to strongly not liking resort fees.  Additionally, there should be full disclosure of these fees at check in.

Check Vegas Chatter for a constantly updated list of Las Vegas hotel resort fees.

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Lots of news this week mainly consisting of news from the east.  My trip to Las Vegas was thisclose to falling through, but it seems as though I’ll make it!  I got a little assistance choosing which hotel I should stay at: Palazzo or Planet Hollywood.  Thank you!

This trip will be a little different than recent trips to Vegas since I won’t be planning any dinners or events.  I’ll just be flying by the seat of my pants since I’m traveling alone.

Here’s the week that was and a bonus link.

• Move Over Trump, Icahn In Tha House
• The People Have Spoken…Palazzo Wins!
• Floyd and Sugar Shane
• Mohegan Sun PA Revenue Up 19%
• Baseball Futures
• Harrah’s Discounts
• Riviera!
• Planet Hollywood is Officially a Total Rewards Property
• How Much Is Borgata Worth?
• Boardwalk Empire
• Tropicana Las Vegas Renovations
• Station Selling Off Casinos

Looking back right now, this was one of the busiest weeks on ECG!

The bonus link is to a story about Morgan Stanley pulling the plug on their investment in Revel in Atlantic City.  They’ve lost a bunch of money and I’m not sure exactly what this means, but it can’t be good.

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