August 7-11 @ NYNY

My girlfriend and I left about noon from So Cal and arrived about 3pm. The drive was great, no traffic at all and no road construction either.

Check in #1

Our first 2 nights were Wagerworks comps. I also had a jacuzzi suite booked for the 3rd and 4th nights. I tried to get the clerk to put us in the suite all 4 nights, but he wouldn't do it.

I didn't bother asking for a view or a high floor. They claimed to have no non-smoking/king bed rooms available -- no big deal, we took a 2 queen/non-smoking room on the 12th floor facing the Orleans.

Room #1

The extra bed actually came in handy to put all the random papers, clothes, coupons, and stuff on. And we were only about 4 rooms from the elevator (which is a big plus at NYNY). I threw the Guinness, Bass, Newcastle, and Smirnoff Ice (for her) in the bathtub and then mixed in a couple of trashcans full of ice.

One wall of our room was shaking that night, at first I thought it was an earthquake, but quickly realized it was the people in the next room having sex as I could hear the girl screaming. How many people have been in a hotel and hearing something like that in the next room? It lasted for about 5 minutes and then it sounded like someone left their room -- I bet she was a hooker.

Food

We used the buy-one-get-one-free hot dog and free fries coupons for Nathan's a couple times. The hot dogs are better than Wienerschnitzel but don't come close to Pink's in LA. I also bought 1 drink and saved the cup to use any time I wanted a soda.

Gonzalez Y Gonzalez is one of the worst Mexican restaurants I've ever been to. If I wanted gringo food, I'd go to Taco Bell and save a ton of money. We should have gone to Tacos Mexico (open 24 hours) on the north strip.

Fatburger and In-N-Out were magnificent as always.

Treasure Island, Mirage, and MGM Grand buffets were all pretty awful. I think I enjoyed the Bellagio buffet a lot more this time (3rd time) because I realized it was my last time eating there (no more wagerworks). But there would be no other choice if I were ever forced to eat a non-breakfast buffet again.

We brought enough Japanese rice cracker mix and Jalapeno Cheez-Its for midday snacking.

Downtown

I took the advice of everyone and got one of those ridiculous drinks at La Bayou, I was surprised that there was actually an alcoholic taste to it. I'm not a fan of frozen, fruity drinks (even if it was mudslide flavor) so my girlfriend polished it off. But I got a cool three-foot straw.

We actually spent a lot of time downtown for once. I was amazed at the number of amputees I saw there -- I wonder if there was some kind of convention going on.

I couldn't believe it when some lady actually paid $25 for one of those stupid spray paint art things that the guy makes in about 4 minutes. I felt like whitetrash just being in the crowd that was watching the guy paint until I heard some old lady with a non-filter Camel hanging out of her mouth tell her granddaughter "Don't breathe in those fumes!". It was at that point when we decided to go back to the strip.

Check in #2

If anyone remembers, I got a $40/night rate for a jacuzzi suite due to an error on the NYNY's website. I called down to the front desk and tried to get a room around 11am; they had none available that early.

Later, I waited in line at the front desk around 3:30pm and when checking in the clerk wrote "3315" on the room key holder. I figured we were set with a high floor jacuzzi suite. After the clerk was typing on the computer for a long time he then went into the back room to talk to someone. He came out and said that there was a computer error on their part and I had to pay $109/night (which is pretty reasonable for a jacuzzi suite on a weekend). I told him there was no way I was paying that especially when it was their mistake. Luckily, I predicted something like this was going to happen so I brought printouts of the NYNY reservation and confirmation website screens along with a printout of my credit card statement. After some polite arguing back and forth, the idiot brought over his manager. The manager took one look at my printouts and said, "You, my friend, just got the deal of the century.". And then told me some BS about how the room is usually $260/night. The only catch was that, all of a sudden, they had no clean jacuzzi suites and told me to come back in 15-30 minutes. I pretty much knew they were looking for a way to screw me, and they were.

Since I only paid $80 for 4 nights, I really couldn't complain.

While wating for a room, we put $20 each in some VP machines and didn't win a thing and I took my cup to Nathan's and filled it up again and again. About 45 minutes later we went back to the front desk and the clerk started to write 30... on the key holder -- I figured that floor 30 is not a big difference from floor 33 so that was cool. But the next number she wrote was 5, so our room was 305.

Room #2

I really didn't feel like complaining and getting a high-floor room because I paid less for a suite than what the people in standard rooms are paying. Floor 3 sucked. First off, it was a smoking floor, but there wasn't a noticeable smoke smell so it didn't bother us -- it actually smelled like bacon. Secondly, it was the same floor as the Spa/Beauty Salon so there was more foot and elevator traffic. And lastly our view was of a cement wall and exhaust vents. I didn't hear any sex sounds coming from the next room -- I'm not sure if that was a good or bad thing, though.

The jacuzzi was garbage. I have a pool and jacuzzi in my backyard so a bathtub that shoots out bubbles from the bottom is no big deal. We put the jacuzzi to good use and then stewed in our own filth for a while, but never used the tub again. I didn't even want to ice down my beer in that thing.

Gambling

Since my woman is only 19, I didn't get a chance to play the tables. We only played video poker and sparingly played some slots. Believe it or not, there are actually Full Pay JOB $.25 machines at NYNY -- I think I saw some at Mandalay Bay as well. If anyone is going soon, the FP-JOB machines are on the strip side of the casino between the Cabaret Theatre and the piano bar; they're kinda near the Elvis slots.

She hit 4 4-of-a-kinds in 4 days and was up like $150 for the trip. Conversely, I lost nearly $200 and never hit anything besides a handful of full houses, even though I was dealt 4-to-a-royal what seemed like 10 times.

We really didn't play much on Friday or Saturday because of the crowds. I think the average age in the NYNY casino was about 20. I even saw 3 kids with braces and peach fuzz playing slot machines. On the other hand, I saw some old guy getting CPR in the casino.

Shows

We saw EFX and got high-fives from Rick. The next night we used the 2-for-1 + 2 Roller coaster tickets coupon from the NYNY fun book and saw "BOO!" at the NYNY Cabaret theatre. They promote the show as a cross between Whose Line Is It Anyway and Friday the 13th. It's basically a community theatre version of Whose Line -- only about 3 of the 9 or 10 skits were actually improvised. The show was enjoyable but only worth it with the 2-for-1 coupon instead of $30 per ticket.

Most of our time was spent walking around in the heat. The Vegas weatherman was saying how it was below average temp, but it was still 105. I even got in some 7am jogging down a deserted strip.

How often does the thunderstorm happen at the Aladdin shops? We waited around for 30 minutes but nothing happened. For some reason I keep wanting to see that thing because I'm a huge fan of the pseudo sky ceilings, ala Forum Shops, Paris.

All in all, I probably won't be staying at NYNY ever again; I'm definitely not gambling there again. My next trip was supposed to be with my bro next Sunday and Monday, but it looks like that will be cancelled. So my next trip is August 23-27 at the Flamingo and possibly Lady Luck for a bachelor party. I also have another trip tentatively scheduled for the 1st week of April to celebrate my college graduation.

 

read your report and I was like wow. I would honestly suggest writing a letter (or e-mail) to NYNY, and I bet within 3 months (thats how long it took them to get to me) you will be comped a stay in a Jucuzzi suite (ours was awsome). You said something about the sounds of sex, I just had to laugh. I use to work for a hotel, and 1 weekend we had a church group (125 ladies about 40yrs old average) and a wedding (200 people about 21average age) and I kid you not, I went 3 hallways (8-10 rooms each) hearing a scream. I got to a point where it was loudest and knocked on the door, they were slow to answer and when they did, she was hardly able to stand. LOL, I had to poilitly ask them to keep it down (it was just as embarssing for them as it was me). The church group complained the next day that they would not be back if the had weddings the same time they were coming. Sorry, off topic, but one of my funny stories.

 

Sounds like you had a great trip, besides the incidents at NYNY.

I've tried gambling there twice and I've determined NYNY is evil, along with Caesars...I've never lost so much money in so little time. Didn't even get a drink from either place.

 

Don't get me started about the craps idiot at the NYNY... I'm glad he was "removed" from his position after my little incident with him...

Had a friend recently who came back from there and won a TON of money from one of those "Reel 'em in" slots. Almost 8,000 bucks to be exact. Something about catching a fish in a derby or something? I don't know, but yet sooo JEALOUS!!!

 

I agree, NYNY is really tight on the games, not much payout. I do however like the service I have had from them (once my problems were taken care of).

 

I'm confused. Your girlfriend is underage, but gambled anyway? No one ever carded her? What would you all have done if she had won a bigass jackpot or something and had to fill out the IRS paperwork and show underage ID? Doesn't seem worth it to me--I'm very glad y'all didn't get caught and kicked out of NYNY...

 

Some casinos are a bit laxed on the whole ID thing I think. My wife was with me quite a bit while I was gambling and she is only 20.

 

She only plays video poker and really doesn't have the strategy down, so the odds of her getting a Royal are even worse than they already are.

On Friday and Saturday night at NYNY the average age of people gambling was about 20. If they would have carded everyone, half the people would have been kicked out of their casino.