1. Welcome to VegasMessageBoard
    It appears you are visiting our community as a guest.
    In order to view full-size images, participate in discussions, vote in polls, etc, you will need to Log in or Register.

Sleeping at Golden Gate

Discussion in 'Downtown Hotels' started by Wedgefromhere, Nov 2, 2012.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Wedgefromhere

    Wedgefromhere Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2010
    Messages:
    147
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    25
    I just booked two nights Thanksgiving weekend at the Golden Gate based on a mailer I received. This will be my first time staying there and after reading some comments in other threads about the Fremont Street noise at night, I'm wondering if I made a mistake. Between being on ET and wanting to be up early for football on Saturday and Sunday, I won't be staying up late.

    Are all the rooms at the Golden Gate going to be loud or is it possible to ask for something on the quieter side? Does anyone know if earplugs work or have some other method to get a good not sleep with all the noise going on?

    Thanks!
     
  2. fremontflo

    fremontflo Tourist

    Joined:
    Mar 14, 2011
    Messages:
    49
    Location:
    Orlando, FL
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    23
    I stayed at the GG once and my room was in the back of the hotel so I didn't get the Fremont noise but I got an early wakeup 4 to 5 am because of the garbage truck, vendor trucks. I didn't have ear plugs with me then but I usually take some.
     
  3. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

    Joined:
    Mar 5, 2011
    Messages:
    4,201
    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    36
    I've stayed there a couple of times. You take the good with the bad.

    I've been lucky enough to get two of the best rooms (before the addition of suites in the last year)... Rooms 404 and 407 are both corner rooms and much larger than most other rooms on the property. However, both look out over Fremont Street and the rooms are ear-splitting loud until 2:00 AM.

    This past trip I was on the back of the property (Room 339, I believe) and it was smaller - still very nice looking, but small - and the noise was much less. Still a din as background noise, but very tolerable and I was able to fall asleep at midnight without much problem.
     
    USBC Nationals are back in Vegas
  4. Big Tip

    Big Tip VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Oct 22, 2008
    Messages:
    2,392
    Location:
    Austin
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    67
    Second floor gets casino music noise too.
    Just tell them your concerns when you check in.
    "View doesn't matter, just give me some quiet."
     
  5. Eldon

    Eldon Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2009
    Messages:
    175
    Location:
    Bellingham, WA
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    30
    Stayed 3 nights over a weekend. Asked for a quiet room.

    No noise.

    Room was very small and shower floor grout (no bathtub) was moldy.
    Wife said never again.
     
  6. WHITEJACKET73

    WHITEJACKET73 VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Dec 17, 2009
    Messages:
    1,336
    Location:
    Rochester,Mn
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    92
    The last light show is at midnight, so the noise from the "experience" should die down after that. Don't get a room on the east side of the hotel, that faces the alley. I got a 4 AM dumpter wake up call each morning when they came to empty the trash containers in the alley.
     
  7. Dewey089

    Dewey089 VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Aug 4, 2001
    Messages:
    4,786
    Location:
    averill park ny
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    26
    I stayed before the Golden Gate renovation in a room facing away from Fremont. The maids in the morning were very loud in the hallways talking to one another. The walls are thin. Then again I have not been there since this last renovation.

    Noise is more important to me than just about anything else. Even daytime noise can affect my stay, as I often nap long hours to play poker in the late night times.

    I do fairly well at the Four Queens getting rooms facing away from the Experience, usually in the South Tower, and once got a very quiet room in the North tower by asking for quiet, but there is the risk of noise there as well. I am comped there and I think they try harder to accomodate me. They usually let me check in at ten in the morning.
    Even when I was dissatisfied after an initial bedbug inspection and moved my room, they took care of the noise issue too in the move. In fact, they had the best response to bedbug questions and procedure for room changes that I have encountered anywhere.

    Main Street Station has the Freeway and the train noises. it is hard to escape noise there. Going up is helpful.
    I did well at El Cortez Cabana, but read about others facing loud music on weekends from some nearby tavern. The Pavilion are very loud. Whenever anyone walks the surrounding walkway you can hear them talk and the maids push loud carts at housekeeping time whose wheels along the cement walkway remind me of trains.
    The Vintage room I had on my only visit to those had the cacaphony of two competing televisions on different stations at two in the morning, one on each side of me coming through thin walls.
    Tower is the way to go for quiet at El cortez.

    I think that the most quiet, inexpensive rooms downtown are the Gold Spike, set well off Fremont. Even there I avoid the Oasis and ask for rooms facing away from the street in the main casino. One visit I switched rooms to avoid some street noise, after my buddy went home from a very quiet room across the hall from mine.

    I know some pack earplugs and get some benefit out of those.
    I have a sleep apnea machine and a side benefit is white noise.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 6, 2012
  8. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

    Joined:
    Mar 5, 2011
    Messages:
    4,201
    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    36
    I guess my question is... does noise have to be omnipresent for people to have a good time? Three stages on FSE, the hourly FSE show itself, ear-splitting volumes in the casinos of the Golden Gate and The D, club noises near El Cortez... I think downtown has gone too far.

    My opinion is that there is a chicken-or-the-egg scenario going on, and someone has it backwards. Downtown started a renaissance (I believe the Golden Gate was the first to have club-level noise downtown) and hotels started remodels (first El Cortez, then the Plaza, then concurrently Golden Gate and the D). Crowds got bigger, so the casino owners and FSE board decided they liked the club vibe and have hitched their horses to that wagon... almost forgetting that it is very possible that the crowds are being drawn to Fremont street by new affordable rooms, a good gamble (a bonus being the proximity of casinos for casino-hopping) and because it is not as pretentious as some Strip areas.

    So why did all of the owners assume that everyone is going downtown to have their eardrums blasted? I realize that Las Vegas is the ultimate in monkey-see-monkey-do, but this is ridiculous.

    When patrons are determining which hotel to stay at by trying to balance "common" noises like housekeeping, garbage pick-up and trains with "elective" noises like a hair band, club music on a casino floor, another hair band, more club music and another hair band...

    We might be at the absolute pinnacle of downtown right now. Our group may end up on the strip (or just off, like Rio or Terrible's) in an effort to avoid this.

    Which is too bad, as when we made our first group trip in 2009 (before everything got carried away) we felt as though we were the only ones to have discovered downtown. In four short years, we are being driven away.
     
    USBC Nationals are back in Vegas
  9. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

    Joined:
    Mar 5, 2011
    Messages:
    4,201
    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    36
    I tried that once. I am NOT a room sharer (my opinion is that I am a big boy with a good job, and though I am cost conscious enough to find a bargain hotel if not comped, I will never share a room with anyone but a [STRIKE]hooker[/STRIKE] a [STRIKE]random bar skank[/STRIKE] my wife).

    But I was invited last-minute style with some buddies to attend a Super Bowl party at the Stardust and they were completely booked, so I roomed with them and brought the earplugs.

    Every breath I took sounded like I was Darth Vader, and my own pulse echoed through me like the Tell Tale Heart. It was all too distracting and I don't believe I ever really fell asleep.
     
    USBC Nationals are back in Vegas
  10. VegasSteven

    VegasSteven Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Oct 13, 2012
    Messages:
    238
    Location:
    Colorado
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    40
    Stayed here twice, once facing right over Fremont. That room was loud just about all night because even when the music ended, the people like to shout until the wee hours of the morning. I finally gave up and went down at 3:00 am to play some VP until the sun came up. Then it was quiet enough that I could catch some rest.

    But like some have suggested, request a room away from the street and you'll be fine b/c the other time I stayed there I faced opposite Fremont. And after the music died, I heard nothing.
     
  11. Big Tip

    Big Tip VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Oct 22, 2008
    Messages:
    2,392
    Location:
    Austin
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    67
    Do ear plugs work?
    They do for me. I use them at home all the time.

    But it would not be a difficult or expensive experiment to find out if they will work for you.
    Buy some now. Try them at home. If they bother you, they will bother you in Las Vegas too.

    They do NOT block out all noise. They just help reduce it to, a hopefully, tolerable level.
     
  12. Dewey089

    Dewey089 VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Aug 4, 2001
    Messages:
    4,786
    Location:
    averill park ny
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    26
    More cumberson but more effective are the noise reduction earphones. They have a battery and send out some sort of noise reduction signal. I use them on the plane along with an eye blinder mask and it helps me get rested on the flight out to Vegas. Sometimes I sleep, but always I can totally relax and let my mind drift near a state of sleep and daydream the flight away. That is a daytime flight from Albany to Vegas, about 5 hours, but I want to be somewhat refreshed when I get there for my first day.
    The earphones do enough to cut the noise of the airplane engines and those chatterbox never-shut-up travelers who project their voices as if their stories and opinions are just so important that the entire airplane certainly needs to listen to them for the entire trip.
    It takes enough of the noise away that such intrusive noises can be ignored and precludes my spoiling the start of my trip with a senseless act of homocide in the air.

    I mentally relax one body part at a time using breathing techniques as well, for example, tensing my toes and then letting them relax and doing the same with each area of my body.
    I fly to Paris next week leaving at 8PM from Boston and arriving the next morning. I'll bring both these along with me. My brother-in-law did a lot of international travel for work and said that it was so helpful to just avoid food and drink on the plane and drift into sleep. He would do an overnight flight and have to be fresh for work presentations the next day.
    I can't wear the earphones in bed in Vegas often because they just seem a bit much with the sleep apnea mask and head gear; however, I actually did put mine on at the Rio to dull the repetitive base sounds of the drum cacophony coming up from the pool area.
     
  13. squidward

    squidward Probationary Member

    Joined:
    Sep 18, 2010
    Messages:
    334
    Location:
    Houston Texas
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    53
    I stayed there about three years ago. Had a room on the second floor in back facing Main Street right over the reception office for five nights.

    I was there on business, and I requested a quite room. It was very quiet all week, even with Disco Lady GoGo doing her thing all night on the Main Street stage.

    One of those nights I drank like seven too many Jager bombs while playing poker at Binion's.

    End result, puked my guts out big time? The front desk called to make sure I was OK.

    So? Wall's thin? Customer Service?

    I appreciated the effort. I have never drank a Jager anything since!

    Bottom line.... I was the cause of the noise?
     
  14. BarbaryCoast

    BarbaryCoast Tourist

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2009
    Messages:
    92
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    12
    I don't know my directions well enough, but watch out for the side of the hotel towards the Golden Nugget. The Fremont noise was one thing, but there's a dumpster over there and the disposal of beer bottles all night was much more disruptive. They were great about moving us though.
     
  15. abescan

    abescan Tourist

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2010
    Messages:
    88
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    30
    I get my free rooms at MSS,4Queens& The Golden Gate. My favorite is MSS as long as you don't get the Freeway side. I have never heard any noise from the Experience at MSS like Dewey mentioned.
    I was in a South tower room facing Fremont at the 4Queens in Sept. for two nights and the noise from the stage between The D and Queens was window-shaking until after midnight. I have stayed in back of the other tower and no problem. Dewey is right about the Gold Spike......my friends stayed there for four nights in their regular tower and they liked the place and everyone was very friendly.
     
  16. Dewey089

    Dewey089 VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Aug 4, 2001
    Messages:
    4,786
    Location:
    averill park ny
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    26
    Thanks for that correction. No Experience noises at MSS. Freeway and train horn noises is what I meant to say.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.