Quick Low-rolling Trip 9/26-9/29

I really appreciate all of the great information people pack into their trip reports. I don't think a blow-by-blow account of my trip will be all that interesting to folks but i think I might have something to contribute to the low rollers out there with some descriptions and thoughts.

I met my sister at the Las Vegas airport. She is my normal Las Vegas travel companion. We both had some myVegas points and I had an offer from Silver Sevens (apparently from a coupon run I had done a while back - don't think I had played there much) and another offer from Palace Station. In the end we decided to each have a room to ourselves; I stayed 3 nights at Silver Sevens and my sister stayed two nights at Palace Station and one night at Luxor.

Silver Sevens: can't recommend. I never felt unsafe and the room was actually fine. I'd rate the cleanliness of the room a B+, the bed a C+, the TV was large and modern and fixtures were fine and all worked. If this is your only option you'll be fine. The big knocks for me are that the public areas are worn and not all that pleasant and the casino kind of sucks. I play mostly slots and did worse there than any other place. Maybe I was just unlucky but it didn't feel that way. Also, the selection of machines is quite small as is the casino. I just feel that there are better low rolling options. Two pluses that could make a difference to certain people is that they have cheap table games and I could get from my room to my car in about 3 minutes flat. I appreciated the quick trip to the car quite a bit actually. I should have played the tables there more; when I did the dealers were friendly and efficient.

Palace Station: First time I had seen the hotel part. I was really impressed. My sister gave the bed very high marks and the room was much nicer than I expected. From what I saw visiting the room I would have compared it to a good business class hotel. It was a tower room. That whole part of it was a bit strange. When I booked my offer it showed a tower room. A bit later I got an email saying we could pay to upgrade to the tower. I went on the website to look at the reservation and it was now saying the room was in a courtyard room. When we checked in I asked about an upgrade and was told that we were already in a tower room. I'd be curious to see what a courtyard room is like - the tower room exceeded expectations by quite a bit. I really don't understand the sneer I got from some folks when I mentioned the Palace Station reservation. The room was great, the casino was very good, the food was fine.

I spend a lot of time at Station casinos and Palace certainly wasn't as nice as the suburban ones. The casino was smaller, the buffet was much smaller and it wasn't quite as fancy. Still, the Palace Station casino seemed significantly upgraded since the last time I had visited and my sister found plenty of fun machines to play late into the night. I can't comment on a courtyard room but I highly recommend Palace Station tower rooms as a low-roller option

Luxor: I don't understand the knocks I have heard about it. Again, I didn't stay there but I visited the room and was impressed. My sister said the bed was excellent. Everything was clean and to a reasonably high standard. The room was in the pyramid; no bathtub but a perfectly nice room, especially for the price. We got it "free" with myVegas but paid the $28 resort fee. Yes, there are better rooms on the Strip. However, I have paid $200 for equivalent rooms in similar condition in other cities. There were a few bad marks: some of the furniture was a bit worn, the "inclinators" sounded like they needed a tune-up and the lines at the check-in and M club were long, but I don't think the last point is unique to Luxor.

Gaming: Did acceptably well at Stations (Palace, Red Rock and Green Valley), Orleans and Gold Coast, semi-fair at Main Street Station, Aliante and Luxor and poor at SLS, the LINQ and Silver Sevens. Didn't play enough to really have meaningful data but take it for what it is worth.

SLS: Hadn't been since it was the Sahara. I am not their target market but I enjoyed walking around and playing a bit. I was very impressed with the transformation. My memories of the Sahara do not match up at all with SLS so they really did something pretty impressive there.

The LINQ: Similar story to SLS. I hadn't been there since the IP days and was quite amazed. The garage still kind of sucks but casino is so much nicer. Impressed.

Aliante: I hadn't been there so I wanted to take a look. I enjoyed the drive but wasn't too impressed with Aliante. The building is very nice but there wasn't much to draw me out there again. The buffet I thought was a solid notch below all of the Stations except for Palace. Disappointing, I wanted to like it.

Mob Museum: We spent over 4 hours here. One thing you should know if you haven't been is that this is a serious museum. I half expected it to be Las Vegas-y, more flash than substance. Instead, they have taken the subject very seriously and have really created a top notch museum. There a few gimmicks but nothing that distracts from the excellent displays. Highly recommended. The building alone is quite interesting and they have done an excellent job of blending the museum with the building.

Ka: A bit slow at times but it is a spectacle. I wouldn't pay full price but was very pleased to see it for free. Assuming the same deals are there I'll almost certainly use myVegas points for another show next trip.

Aria Buffet: A real highlight of the trip. We went after the 7pm showing of KA so we got there about 30 minutes before closing. All of the food looked and tasted freshly prepared, a real concern when getting to a buffet within an hour of closing. Most of the dishes were not as ambitious as Bellagio but I consider this a positive. Everything was really good although I was mildly disappointed with the Indian station. I've had better at $7.99 indian buffets local to me (but that may be a bigger indication of how good some of of the local Indian restaurants are). I really enjoyed the meats, the french fries were scary good and the desserts were heavenly. I'd personally rate the Aria buffet higher than Bellagio.

Alamo Car Rental: If you go with Alamo sign up for the ability to skip the line. Worked like a charm and saved me at least 30 minutes based on what I saw looking at the line. I have been getting really good deals from Costco Travel on cars in quite a few cities, beating all other coupons/offers I can find.

myVegas score card: Between my sister and me we earned 2 KA tickets, 1 night at Luxor, lunch buffet at Red Rock for two, lunch buffet at Green Valley for Two, $10 Luxor free play and Aria dinner buffet for two. Retail price for everything was probably north of $400.

It was a great trip. Thanks for reading.

 

Great break down on the TR. Thanks,

I was able to use myvegas for Carnegie Deli for the Cheesecake and BOGO on the sandwich. Both was good and very big. I was going to try either Aria or Bellagio buffet but did not. I'm surprised that you got freshly prepared food on the buffet so close to closing time.

I used myvegas points to get Ka seats last year and I enjoyed the show but agreed that I would not pay the full price to see the show.

Thanks for the breakdown it is very informative.

 

Nice report!

Will really need to try to make it to Palace Station next time!

Re Luxor pyramid rooms: They become less desirable when rains. Ours dripped from the ceiling. [emoji35]

 

I like palace station also. The rooms are clean and above average, in my opinion. The casino can get smoky tho, my only real complaint. Definately need to stay in the tower rooms as the courtyard rooms get really bad reviews!

 

Great Report, akicks. Thanks for sharing!

 

I always appreciate a low roller report. That's how my sisters and I travel. I agree w/you about the Aria buffet. It's a favorite - do they still have the crab legs out?

 

Great summary report!

 

Yes, they were there. I didn't try them - something I now regret. Next time!

 

Thanks for the TR, akicks!

How busy was it at SLS?

 

Great report... We like to go to Palace station too. Last year I won $7500 at Green Valley

 

Hard to quantify this real well. SLS certainly didn't feel empty. On a relative scale, it was less crowded than MGM and Luxor, about the same as the LINQ and more crowded than Aria. The crowd seemed largely young and wanna-be stylish to me. Again, I wasn't the target market but it seemed to have a good vibe going for the twenty- to thirty-somethings. Hard to believe I played my first blackjack there ($1 per hand) - didn't feel like it could possibly be the same place.

 

Nice report! I've been curious about Palace Station room quality, so great to know.