Because *I* have gone insane? Caesars Palace / Bellagio 7/2 - 7/7 2020

I had heard reports the first few weeks that they were not stocking them and trying to lock them pretty much everywhere to prevent multiple people touching the contents with the virus. I was told at Caesars checkin that the minibar should be empty and locked, and that if it wasnt locked, dont put anything in it because the locks are electronic and it would probably lock overnight. It was locked when I got in the room there. I figured when I saw mine at Bellagio mostly empty that it wasnt meant to be unlocked, but like I said, when I told the agent "my minibar is unlocked and over half empty" she immediately said "I apologize for that. I'll send someone to clean and restock it right away." They likely thought yours was locked out at the time and didnt worry about it. Plus the sensors are on each individual item so they should have known regardless whether or not the contents changed during your stay or not.

 

That happened to me during our stay at Caesars. We were not told about this. When we arrived to the room it was unlocked and empty. So we put some of our water bottles in it. It then locked over night and we couldn't open it. We called the front desk and they were able to unlock it remotely. But they told us not to put anything else in there again.

 

Yah, so speaking of that, no coffee makers in room at either property. Also, no pen and or notepad at either property. But I did swipe this from diamond checkin!

 

Wrote a note with one of those today. LOL.

 

We noticed there was no pen and paper at Wynn, Bellagio, or Cosmo as well. There was a key rig in the Bellagio PH suite though. Lucky for us there was a personal use fridge in each room type we booked this trip, although the one at Bellagio did have a bowl of moldy fruit left in it.

 

Where’s my $2.

 

Wow. Just wow. Ok, gotta call out Bellagio for this one. Just going through finances and noticed Bellagio made 3 charges to my card totalling $1,092.91 for my 2 nights in the cypress suite. My reservation total was about $789 and I charged about $30 at Public House back to the room, and that's it. Who wants to guess why they charged me almost $1,100?

That's just piss poor man. First they didnt clean the room well, left us broken wine glass, no robes listed as included (though I assumed that's a covid thing and intentional, but I did see at least 2 guests wearing Bellagio robes while I was there?), then they charged me for their f*k up. Hell to the naw!

What's even worse is they at no time sent me an invoice with these added charges until after I just got off the phone with them disputing it, and they claim to have refunded it. I'm sure that will take another couple or few days for me to have my money back. They sent me a folio showing my room and public house charges after checkout then 2 days later dinged my account for another $273.11 What a bag of #&#^

 

Did you pat down LOTD before you left?

 

D

damn that sucks man. Probably won’t get the money back until next week at least too. Also about the Bellagio robes, that’s not a Covid thing because our suite had robes in it.

 

My guess is that you got the suite very shortly after other guests made thorough use of it. The hotel may have put a freshness seal on the door, but that means they only did the bare minimum to attempt to uphold the enhanced cleaning protocol -- which might not specifically include refreshing the amenities in the room. I would think that part of the reduced hotel occupancy would mean having only a certain percentage of rooms available at any given time, but to have all available inventory in rotation to allow for more time to clean and refresh. The higher-ticket rooms are in way shorter supply and way higher demand, so there is no luxury of extra time for proper turn-over. The restocking and reset of the mini bar properly happened after you checked out, but it did not properly happen after the previous guest(s) checked out.

 

We did this at the Cosmo and it worked. I'm not sure about MLife tho

 

Agree with all of this, but just to clarify, the seal was already off it, folded up, and stuck to the door. It appears they did nothing at all with that piece of furniture, which is the same piece of furniture containing the broken wine glass. And to add support to your theory, my TV had "skip the line" checkout screen on the TV the first time I turned it on instead of my name and welcome screen that appeared about half an hour later.

Pictured is the condition and position in which we found the safety / sanitation seal when we walked in the room. Never touched it.

 

Yes.

 

Went back a bit in the TR, and then remembered the early check-in. Hoping that your next time in that suite -- or in an even better one -- is a far more amazing experience.

 

We checked into our Suite there early as well and the sanitatized sticker wasn’t there, although we saw other rooms that had them. My guess is there’s a supervisor that goes around and checks and puts the sticker on the door after inspecting housekeeping’s work. We didn’t care because the virus doesn’t scare us and we were just happy to get our smoking room and get it early and the rest of the room appeared pretty clean. It does suck for you that the room had those issues. I would suggest to other visitors that if that sticker isn’t sealed over the door to go back to the front desk and let them know before going in the roo. If you are worried about the virus and/or in the high risk groups. Even if you aren’t, it might help you avoid unfortunate events like happened to @MCann .

 

Pics from the Wynn buffet. Not sure how much of this made it in Luck's TR, and I took a lot of pictures. I meant to post a review after we ate but then we went off and did our huge $40 minimum bet group slot pull at Wynn and I'd forgotten by the time we got home. Go figure.

So here's my review: it was freakin awesome, and if they stay this way, I'll want to go back every trip. Stuff was actually fresh for the most part (I think the Flinstones rib and to a lesser extent my lamb chop, were the only things that werent poppin fresh), and plated like the pictures in the menu. I enjoyed it more than I used to enjoy Bacchanal back in the before times, and about the same price. The food service was real fast, too, almost every time. Too bad they dont take Caesars reward credits and diamond dinners like Bacchanal lol.

So this was left on the table to scan menus on your phone. They had paper ones available if you needed them. If you're fancy enough, you can probably open it from my picture here.



They placed two of these mask holder mats down on the table for us when we were seated. I like how the little details matter at Wynncore.



We started with charcuterie plate and lobster bisque with puff pastry. We agreed that the bisque wasnt the style we both prefer, but it was very well done, and the puff pastry was amazing.





I think from there we moved on to the sushi rolls. This was a California roll, and it was not bad, but we also had spicy salmon roe roll and it was top shelf. You could taste the fish but not the fishy, and it was the right amount of spicy for an American (I like it a little more spicy but it was well balanced and you definitely knew it was spicy roll)



And of COURSE we just had to try the mac n cheese. It was really good too!



Hrmm... and I know I missed some stuff but I got the chili something-rather lamb chop, and Luck got the rib from the Flintstones. The couple at the next table were brought a lamb chop 5 or 10 minutes later they didnt remember ordering, and waiter asked if it was for us. I said no, just ate mine. Dude at the next table said "well was it good?" And I said "well it was good enough I picked it up and ripped the last of the meat off the bone with my fingers" so with that endorsement, he accepted it and also liked it lol.
This is the lamb chop


And the famous giant beef rib (they had pork baby back but were out and Luck got this as a consolation rib)


Now, because I could, I had to eat a half pound of Opilio crab, even though I was starting to get a little full and knew I needed room for dessert. I asked if I could have a small portion, server said "they're half pound portions" ... ok, so I had a half a pound of opilio. I was pleasantly surprised when it was delivered cut. I love when they do this. Most of the buffets where I've had split crab legs, they're cold and gross. I hate cold crab legs. So mine came too cool for my liking, but still warm, and they were delicious. If they had been hotter, I might have made it a full pound.



At some point in the mix, Luck got these pot stickers which looked great but they came and went while I was digging in to my little sea spiders, so I didnt try one.



I know we had another couple or few items I missed and no longer remember, but that's all the pics I have until dessert...

Top left, a lemon tart with raspberry compote and it was da bommmmb!! Below that, an oreo cream something rather, and below that, a chocolate lava cake. Luck stabbed the lava cake repeatedly making pew pew noises until it bled chocolate. It was rich and tasty. Top right was key lime pie. Very good. Then below that, some sort of death by mango thing (just remembered - it was mango tapioca with some kind of creamy middle layer and diced mango on top). It was too soupy for me but Luck enjoyed the mix of textures. Bottom right was a bread pudding with creme fraiche that we both agreed was way too soupy and wet. Too much creme and it made it seem raw, which was hard to get over subconsciously. The flavor was a little muted by the creme fraiche as well, but the flavor was pretty good.


And that leaves us..... here. I said it while we were there and I said it again at the end of the trip; I thought this was our best value per buck of the trip. The quality of the food was high enough that it was like going to a sorta fancy restaurant and having a tasting menu you make up as you go along. Look forward to having it again if they keep this format and will gladly pay that price for it again in the future. Reservations required.

Oh and just to explain a bit how it worked and why the service was so good. We had a waiter who took care of drinks. He carried a small wireless tablet and punched in everything we ordered. Those items, I assume, were sent wirelessly to the 'kitchen,' and they had employees assigned to specific foods who would bring them out to order. So one person brought anything from the carving section to one section of the dining room, another person brought anything asian, another person brought desserts, and so on. It was very efficient and works amazingly well. Other resorts could copy this, and hopefully they will.

 

man that looks awesome. Thanks for the pics and review. Makes me wish we had indulged in the Wynn buffet while we were staying there!

 

Thanks so much for this detailed review of the buffet. I'm looking forward to trying it, hopefully in about 5 weeks, and if not, in 11 weeks.

 

Wynn buffet was so worth it! 10/10 would do it again! It was cool experiencing the difference between that and Wicked Spoon the following morning.

 

I was able to pull up the menu from the QR code just fine. I showed it to my husband, and he said it would be hard not to just order one of everything!