6 days at THEHotel

Figure I'd post a review of our trip this week to LV and THEhotel. Had a good time, but wasn't much impressed with the room...

Left from Buffalo NY on the 4th of September, stayed until yesterday, the 10th.

Both flights went fine (thank you, zanax). Arrived in Vegas at 9:30am and then back in buffalo at 5:30pm (just enough time to eat dinner and goto bed to goto work today)

Arrived in LV around 9:35am LV time. Picked up the car at National off to THEhotel we went.

Their basic room is a nice 600 sq ft + room. Separate sitting room, 2 bathrooms, king size bed. Nice.

TV console was covered in a light layer of dust, but the room was generally pretty clean. (mark #1)

Come to find the bath tub had someone else's hair in it (mark #2)

Their rooms have a button next to the main door to request house keeping or do not disturb. One of the days when we turned on the house keeping light, went to the pool (away for about 4 hours) returned and turned on the do not disturb, a house keeper barged in (mark #3). She apologized and I ignored it.

Friday, we returned from the pool to find a "gift" left in the toilet and a dirty rag left on the bathroom floor... Emergencies happen. We understand that. But if you must use the bathroom, please cleanup before you leave. (mark #4)

At this point, I made a list and before we went out for the night, stopped at the front desk to tell them. After some nice discussion, we received a $80 food credit (which we used the last night of our visit on room service). We were also told that someone would be up to clean the room with a manager. This never happened and we just ignored it. By that time, I didn't want house keeping touching the room anymore (we only had 2 days left anyways)

Room Service: was very good. To use the $80 credit, we ordered:
Turkey club sandwich (very good)
14 ounce New York Stripe (excellent)
Baked Potato to go with the steak - good but on the cold side and not very cooked through
Espresso Coffee Cake (good, but my wife bakes often, so nothing compares)
She had a 5 onion soup which she said was very good
and all the sides and fixings they could give.

The pools at Mandalay Bay were exactly what we expected; nothing short of awesome. We went to the pool every day first thing in the morning until about 12 ish. Water was clean, sitting area was clean, etc...

Show reviews:
Crazy Horse Paris at MGM Grand was very good. We wanted to see a traditional burlesque show and it was awesome. We read a review before we bought the tickets and just as the review said, the show could stand on its own without being topless (but that was a nice touch (tickets purchased at a discount ticket place on the strip for around $40 each)

Beatles Love at The Mirage: 2nd time we saw this show and were not disappointed. Even if you don't like the Beatles, I highly suggest seeing it. Just a very well put together show. (tickets bought before hand for around $70 / each online)

O at Bellagio: was good - last time we went to LV we saw Le Reve and we personally both agree Le Reve was better. Our seats were in the 300 (301 and 302) - not limited visibility but we were right near the front of the stage up against a railing. For $260 for the pair of tickets, We were expecting more. The theater was also ice cold. We're from NY and can tolerate being cold, but it was just ridiculous. Its one thing to do it for the actors but I'm sure the water is heated for them.

Da Vinci exhibit at The Venetian was very nice - just a touch small but enough to spend an hour at. Tickets also purchased at a discount shop around $30 each I think.

Food Reviews:

We had her 30th birthday dinner at Strip Steak at Mandalay Bay which was just was we remembered it for our wedding dinner; very good. I had a 10 ounce Filet and she had the Kansas City Rib Eye (I think). No appetizer as we both have fairly small appetites.

We had a lunch at Olives at Bellagio out on the patio. Lunch was very good (i had a hamburger and she has a panini) but we got there around 1pm and the fountains don't start until 3pm so kinda a moot point to goto a restaurant with a view of the fountains with no fountain action (our miss planing )

Most of the days we had lunch at the pool side bar and grill at Mandalay Bay which was always good and not terribly expensive (bill averaged around $40 - 50)

Bellagio Buffet on Saturday night was very good. Nice array of foods and service was quick. Because its on the weekend, its a bit more expensive but there are more meat selections.

Slice of Vegas Pizza in the Shoppes at Mandalay Bay was garbage - $22 for a 12 inch pepperoni and sausage. I can say this as we're from Buffalo and there are no less than 12 pizzerias around my house. The pizza was "ok" but nothing compared to home (but, we're biased)

The Porte Cochie for THEhotel is just an entrance in the garage - nothing grand like Bellagio or Mandalay - this was a bit off putting and kinda made us wish we stayed at Mandalay Bay.

THEhotel is just a hotel. In the lobby you'll find a bar, a restaurant only open until 2pm and a small gift / convenience shop. They rely on MB for everything and you'll find yourself going to MB for everything else.

The actual hotel is very nice; very dark / modern . I actually liked the look of the hotel, but, its just a hotel. In contrast, we walked through Cosmopolitan which is also just a hotel (not casino) and they had excessively more there (more restaurants, some shops, etc...) I'd consider THEhotel for people that want a quick, relaxing place to goto at the end of the night, with a short walk to everything else at Mandalay Bay.

Also, from TheH as we came to call it, its about a 5-7min walk to the pools, if you take the back way through the conference center. Not a bad walk, but Photoshop world was going on, so you'll get some looks carrying inner tubes for the lazy river.

Clubs:
We went to Mix at the top of TheH for happy hour one night. Nice, but nothing special. The view wasn't as good as the view Foundation but a nice bar / restaurant none the less. We only went for happy hour so I can't comment on how it was in club mode.

We went to Foundation again at the top of Mandalay Bay after returning from a show (think we went to Crazy House that night)

I've learned how to spot the guys who give out the cards for a free drink or whatever but they never gave me one. We got there around 9:51pm and it was free cover until 10pm. Only problem is, I was wearing sandals and thats against their dress code policy. So we literally ran back to TheH (a 10 min was normally), changed and got back down with minutes to spare.

As I've always understood about this city, its made of money and it wasn't until I flashed my Louis Vuitton wallet and new Gucci bracelet that I was approached by and given a card from the dude I passed 2 times to go change my shoes (which were a beautiful pair of Geox dress shoes, thank you.)

Foundation was as we remembered it; beautiful club with an amazing view of the strip. Drinks aren't any more expensive than they are elsewhere and the music is good. We stayed for about an hour as we were both exhausted from walking all day.

Missteps:
We both packed very inappropriately. I brought 5 dress shirts, 4 pants (3 of them linen), 5 polos, 4 shorts, 2 pairs of sandals and dress shoes. (mix of colors for all). It was way to hot for me for anything but linen or white. I ended up re wearing white shirts just to stay cool in the sun (almost every day was in excess of 100 degrees) and shorts everyday.

Having cell phone cameras and a backup camera was a very good idea as on the 2nd day, my wife put our Leica D-Lux 4 point and shoot in her purse with a bottle of water that apparently didn't close properly, so thats a $900 camera that needs to go out for repair now

This is now the 2nd time we've been to LV and this 2nd time, we frequent Bellagio the most. From Mandalay Bay, I'd drive to Bellagio; park in Valet and walk from there. We went to Bellagio almost everyday. Because of this, when we go next time, I think we'll stay at Bellagio.

From Bellagio you can take a tram to Cosmo and to Aria / City Center and Caesars / Mirage / Venetian are all within walking distance. To us, its the center of the strip.

Other than the few annoyances, it was an awesome trip, but was so happy to get home last night. Walking the strip for 6 hours at a time in 100 degree weather was very exhausting (and we're both pretty fit people)

Anyways. Hope this helps someone.

-Mario

 

thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks for the TR

You've mentionned that the Cosmo wasnt a casino( just an hotel) they have a pretty big casino maybe you meant vdara or mandarin ?

 

Nice report!

To be fair, I suspect they gave you a promo card the 2nd time because you weren't wearing sandals anymore which fits their dress code.

 

had to go look at their website quickly - it would appear Cosmo has a casino. Not entirely sure how we missed it - we must have spent an hour there walking / looking around.

 

you walked into the building itself and looked around for an hour but saw no casino? you must have found a secret hatch or something to get into the place LOL

 

"As I've always understood about this city, its made of money and it wasn't until I flashed my Louis Vuitton wallet and new Gucci bracelet that I was approached by and given a card from the dude I passed 2 times to go change my shoes (which were a beautiful pair of Geox dress shoes, thank you.)"

Lol flashed my Louis Vuitton wallet..... Nothing to do with a bracelet or wallet, the sandals you were wearing we're the problem. People who have money do not always look like they do so as nice as your wallet may have been this would not have been why you got the ticket.