Bally’s July 16-18

Hello everyone. I booked a suite at the Flamingo and was looking forward to the Neapolitan suite. Never stayed at the Flamingo and wanted to try something new. Everyone at the Flamingo was super friendly and on the ball but the suite was gross. It reeked of marijuana and was filthy, just like the hallways to it.

The little lady freaked out so we (she) decided to move to our standby Bally’s. Kind of sucked since I had to tip the bellman and valet twice for stopping by. Also we couldn’t just cancel and move hotels because it required a call from the Flamingo. Fortunately Ronell at the Diamond check in called the computer geeks and was put on hold for 30 minutes. He finally got through and cancelled our reservation so we could book at Bally’s. We just jumped into a comped suite and it is pretty nice even though it is in the Resort Tower. The room is clean and in great condition. I had to call the front desk and had someone on the line in two minutes so the customer service here is pretty decent.

I just found out that there are no more Diamond show tickets at this time. The gentleman at the box office said that he is working on it but I suspect that you will be able to pick your tickets up at the Laurel Lounge. I’m betting that this Diamond benefit will be gone along with the lounge if you didn’t get my sarcasm. Right now you can buy the tickets we used to get for free.

By the way this place is packed. It is very busy for summer. Glad to see Vegas is back. Not liking the ElDorado thing.

I’m going to hit the lobby bar and see what’s up.

 

I just stayed at Bally's Resort Tower. Good if you're a pool person. Good if you want to spend most of your time at Ellis Island. Good when they had a functional spa. Personally, I'm going back to the Jubilee Tower but glad I tried the Resort Tower. Now I have an opinion on it.

 

"...so we (she) decided..."

Ha ha ha...yep, that's how it works. Good luck at the Lobby Bar!

 

I love Flamingo for the location, it's casino and the overall vibe and I would love to stay there again and regularly. But I'm not staying there for the same reason you describe. Even for a smoker like me, I can't stand the smoky hallways and I feel like I cannot even smoke in my room, cause there is no ventilation and all my clothes and everything will stink of smoke. If you could just open your window slightly, that would solve the problem for at least 50% I think.

Looking forward to the rest of the report!

 

Well we walked down to Harrah’s last night and hung out at the piano bar. Every seat was taken and the casino was packed. This morning I remembered about the drink vouchers which I forgot to use last night which would have saved me some money. It is remarkable how busy it is. I’ll post a photo of the mask signs at the casino. Most people are unmasked here.

Now time to hit Beijing Noodle number 9.

 

Well allegedly if vaccinated you aren’t required to mask. But the state or county just changed that I think
Here 10% are masked approximately but our vaccination rate is around 50%. The math is killing me.

 

Caesars is pretty busy right now.

 

Here is another ElDorado special. We found out that you can’t set the room thermostat below 68 degrees. Apparently this is a new change brought to you by guess who. Maintenance is not allowed override this for any reason.

 

This was posted a while back but never tried it or heard much about it since.

 

I will try that tomorrow if I need it at PH

 

I cut off the posters name but surely someone will recognize it.
What could go wrong?

 

Wow, things seem crazy busy. It's making me less excited for my trip next month. Think we will spend a lot of time off strip, especially on weekends.

 

In one room at the Flamingo recently the thermostat seemed off and I was so cold I actually wanted to put it a little above 80 but it wouldn't let me. I just turned the whole thermostat off, but then it got real hot real fast of course.

Luckily my recent room at the Rio did allow a setting below 68, because at night 66 was just right in that room.

 

I’m going to wrap up with a couple of observations.

It looks like the pent up demand for Vegas is not going to slow down. I will see what is is like when I go back at the end of the month.

Overall things are getting back to normal quickly. I did notice that I didn’t see a lot of the familiar faces I’m used to seeing so I think they must have moved a lot of the employees around. Mask use is around five percent and as of Sunday the employees at CET weren't required to mask up. Caesars buffet had the Seven Stars and Diamond lines back up and running this weekend. Bally’s valet is open but the Flamingo’s is still closed during the week.

I am bummed out that the Diamond benefits for the free show tickets are gone. I don’t understand how the tier requirements are back to normal but most of the benefits are gone. ElDorado really took advantage of the COVID situation.

Also I was never able to hack the thermostat in my room so they probably cracked down on that too.

I still had a good time and was glad I went. Vegas keeps getting better as we are getting this pandemic behind us.

 

Will you please let us know the outcome?

 

Good to hear, Frank. Thanks a lot for reporting!

 

Duped

 

PH room gets cold.
No motion detector thing on it

 

Doesn't affect me since I don't play enough for anything beyond minimum comps, but it seems the new CZRs is out to screw a lot of people. 40 years ago I was a Reno guy and normally stayed at the Eldorado. Rooms were nice and clean, they had good restaurants and service was good. To see this almost makes me feel betrayed!
Wringing out every last nickel may work in the short term, but it will affect you long term. They'll keep reeling people in, but loyalty segment will move on. They'll survive no doubt, but they'll lose the profit from that catagory.

 

How did you like Bally’s?