Full Tilt at Delano- September 16-21

This is my first trip report. I hope I don't skip over much but it was another memorable Vegas trip....for all the wrong reasons.

Hotel
Stayed at Delano in a "panoramic suite." Comped for 3 nights, with an extra night booked over the phone for $125 (taxes and resort fee in).

Never been this disappointed in a hotel room, until now. The only panoramic view, was that of a roof and a dirty view of Luxor. They even put us on the 9th floor. What a view!!!!

They had their "Grand Opening" party while we were there. It wasn't really a party for hotel guests as it was a media party. Hotel guests were free to join in after 11 pm. I didn't realize that the media were the ones that booked the rooms.

The room was decent. The beds were comfortable. It is much brighter in the hotel since the renovations. The pillows were brutal. It was like sleeping on bags of cement. Luckily they changed the pillows on the 17th.


Food
We like to eat well while on vacation. This included $600 resort credit, $100 myvegas credit and 3 buffets.

Mandalay Bay buffet. I have been to all of the main MGM buffets. This is the best of the bunch for us. After flying in, our taste buds are usually out of sync. MB has great variety. The wife gets her choice. I get mine. It works out well. The food was very fresh. There was a large convention going on, so it was quite busy. This is the best time for any buffet. They constantly have to replenish the dishes. I had a salad and some snow crab. The salad was fresh. The crab was fresh.

MB breakfast buffet. Once again, everything was fresh due to the large convention. Great start to the day.

IL Fornaio at NYNY, for dinner. After dining disasters on our previous trip. It was time for a new list of restaurants. I scoured menu after menu (online). This menu was appealing. It offered a wide array of options at a reasonable price. We love good food. If you are looking for a nice place to eat. This is it. I had the seafood linguine. The pasta was fresh. The seafood was fresh. The sauce was just right. It is a decent size portion. My wife's meal was just as good. She had a chicken course that was very tasty. We ordered the bruschetta as an appetizer. For $80 plus tip, you can't go wrong.

MB breakfast buffet. Again. It's breakfast. How do you screw up breakfast.

Andres at Monte Carlo. The only reason that I would step foot at MC, is the food. Andres was a last second replacement for Double Barrel. What a great substitution. My wife had the lobster bisque as a starter and a steak entree that she devoured. I had a salad starter and the lobster entree. It was a meal that sent us into a "food coma." After eating such a great meal, we didn't feel like walking for an hour. The bill came out to $180 plus tip. Once again, worth every penny. This place is great for an escape from all the hustle and bustle in Vegas.

We skipped breakfast on Friday. This night was reserved for Craftsteak at MGM. After many recommendations from the board, this was the last dinner on the trip. For starters, we ordered scallops and a salad. For the main course, the wife had the short ribs and I ordered the ribeye. As sides we ordered the risotto and eggplant. Another great Vegas meal. The damage this time was around $200 plus tip.

Dellas at Delano for breakfast. With a large credit still available. We decided to waste a portion here. We both had the steak and eggs for breakfast with a couple of orange juices. The meal was average at best. Our bill was almost $85 plus tip. The meal was the least desirable of all the meals that we had during our trip. Don't get me wrong but it isn't worth $85. It's breakfast!!!!

As a side note. All of the meals were very good. We don't drink alcohol, our bill totals can be a little distorted relative to most visitors. Of all the restaurants, IL Fornaio was the most pleasantly surprising. We will definitely go back there.


Gambling
This was the weirdest gambling trip that I have ever experienced. I think it's what most people on the board call a "TILT."

We brought $3k with us in cash. Our intention was to ease into gambling. Boy did that go wrong.

Within 3 hours of gambling, we were down almost $2k. I am primarily a craps player. The wife likes her penny slots. Neither one could make the money last.

I left the craps table to play slots. I hate slots. I had $300 left and went to a penny slot. I put in $100. I was down to the last $8 bucks and I had a spin. It landed on 200k pennies. I had no idea what happened. At first I thought it was $200 bucks but it said to see attendant. Then it dawned on me...$2k. We were back in business. After getting back $1400. We were only a few hundred from where we started.

We lost another $1500 before we called it a night. We started chasing....

I played more slots than I had ever played before. Withdrawal after withdrawal. I chased the whole trip. By the time the trip was done. The damage was over $8k.

The part that gets me, is that I only went up 80k tier points. The least amount of tier credits that we have ever had during one trip.


General notes
Upon checkout, I asked if they would comp the resort fees for the room. The clerk called up the office and they said that there were no comps available. Only my express comps. We used those comps to pay for the room. I was under the assumption that resort fees are waived for platinum and above. The clerk said no.

As said in other posts, once you reach platinum. There aren't any other benefits at MLife. Next time, we will play out the rest at Cosmo and see what we can do there.

We won't be back at Delano. It's refreshed but the view left us with a bad taste. The fact that they weren't accommodating enough to offer us something better, left a bitter taste.


I hope you enjoyed our report.

 

Craps is 99% of the time a terrible moneysucker...at $10-$25 tables, you better be packing money, or else your bankroll can take a serious hit!

 

Sorry they gave you such a crappy room. Views are much better up high. last two times at MB I tipped 20 for a high floor strip view.

 

Ughhhh, sorry the luck was so bad.....we've all had those trips and they suck the life out of you. You definitely should have headed to Cosmo!

 

Sorry Delano was such a disappointment. I'm booked there in a few weeks. I'll definitely skip Dellas. Sorry your gambling was unsuccessful.

 

8k actual loss and they couldn't knock off resort fees, unbelievable!!!

 

I never really understood the whole comp thing. The calculations of tier credits, express comps, hgs points etc.

The whole MLife moment, left a bitter taste in my mouth. Especially with the resort credit.

We do 99.999% of our gambling at MB resort. I know I have been shorted before...this might be the last time.

 

Agreed, that's pretty damn bad. And only 80k Tier? That has to be a bad run unless they were playing their BS "specialty slots" the whole time. They probably had the front desk staff we had...:evillaugh

Hope you do better next trip, press!

 

Did they charge you resort fees on your comp nights?

 

There were no resort fees on the comp nights. I was only asking for the night, that wasn't comped.

 

Geez, that is even more ridiculous after your big loss there!

 

Agreed. I'd strongly consider not gambling there ever again.

 

I think, that is what will happen from now on.

I will use up any and all offers that they send but play elsewhere.

 

Sorry you didn't like the Delano. I stayed there a few weeks ago and loved it. I agree with you about the pillows. Our first night there went to bed about 2:00 am and immediately called for soft pillows which were sent up to my room in about 5 minutes which I thought was pretty good service at that time of the morning. I wasn't charged a resort fee there since my room was comped. It never even was brought up and everything was taken off my bill except tips. If you ever decide to go back try Charlie Palmers in the Four Seasons for dinner. Their cut of the week with unlimited wine pairings is delicious and one of the best food bargains in Vegas IMO. They also have a Michael Jackson prix fix menu.

 

Wow.. Just wow... An 8k loss and not even a $20 bone thrown your way... I would never step foot in there ever again.

 

Sorry about your loss, and unfortunately I know all too well the feeling of going "Tilt"...

Did you have a casino host?

With your level of play, you probably would benefit from having a host,
who you could then negotiate with to get expenses comped, based on your play for the trip.

 

From the time that we started going, we never felt like we were "host" worthy. We didn't want to feel obligated to play (even though we always do).

When we gathered all the information from the board and felt like we were being adequately comped (somewhere in the 30 percent range).

This time we got caught chasing. It was just one of those trips where nothing went right (except for one pull). Typical gamblers..LOL.

I figured at checkout, we could see if we were entitled to a little extra (given that we played many more hours and money). The only thing that we were actually looking for, was the resort fee for one night.

That's the thorn in my side, right now.


I don't know, if getting a host will get us to gamble there again!!!