Palms Review 5/7 - 5/12

I'll be writing a full trip report soon but in the meantime I thought I'd post this for anyone considering staying at the Palms.

I've stayed at the Palms previously but this was the first time since Station bought them. I had previously stayed at Rio a few times but soured on them a little bit so I moved across the street. When I last stayed there I was upgraded to a penthouse suite (no $20 trick, just a great front desk clerk). I had written a good review on Trip Advisor, the hotel manager thanked me and told me to let him know the next time we were staying there. So when I booked the trip in November I let him know. He told me he had booked us into a great corner room and there would be a special "amenity". That was great with me, I didn't expect the penthouse suite again. I spread my gambling around all over the place so no place considers me a high roller or even close to one.

Since we rent a car I like not having any parking hassles. They have 2 structures but we always found a spot in the surface lot, 30 second walk to the building, or less.

We got there late morning and our room wasn't ready. No big deal, my girlfriend went to get a mani/pedi and I went to the sportsbook. A couple hours later they called, our room was ready. I did not ask for an upgrade or offer $20. We got up to the room and it wasn't a corner room, there was no amenity. Just a standard room. The standard rooms at the Palms are nice so that was fine although I was disappointed that the manager didn't follow through with what he told me. But for all I know he isn't even there anymore. Not a minute into the room all hell broke loose on our floor. There were a bunch of guys staying in several rooms down the hall and they were going crazy, yelling, laughing, drinking. I swear it was a flashback to my college dorm days. We're in our late 40's but not "old fogies" in any way. I've been going to Vegas since my early 20's and did my share of crazy partying. But we figured since we were there Sun-Fri there would be empty rooms so we went down to the front desk to see what they could do. The clerk say it would be no problem to change rooms, then he noticed I was wearing a Packer shirt and being a fellow Packer fan he gave us a great deal on an Ivory suite. It's nice, one bedroom, 1,000 square feet. I've stayed in nicer suites but I do love having a bedroom so if one of us gets up early s/he can go in the other room and the other can keep sleeping. I also like having 2 bathrooms

Overall the place hasn't really changed. The café, Twenty Four 7 is being redone so it's closed. Hooters will be closing later this month and no one could/would tell me what will replace it. It's a large space (world's largest Hooter's they say).

I'm not a "spa guy" but I was convinced by my girlfriend to book a massage. I had never had a professional massage, had never been in a spa. I'm sure there are nicer, more luxurious spas in town but I had nothing to compare it to. It was nice. The massage was good. The Drift Spa is on Groupon so it was $85 instead of $135. Drift Spa is actually at Palms Place.

Speaking of Palms Place, I would stay in their standard room over the Palms standard room. PP is great. It is a bit of a walk (inside) to get to the Palms but there is a "skytube" (moving walkway) for most of it.

The casino at the Palms remains pretty dead. Personally I'm fine with that vs. the massive crowds other places. 90% of the time there was one craps table open and it was $5. When we first got there on Sunday it was $10 but by Sunday night it was $5 and stayed $5 until Friday afternoon ($10). Same with blackjack. The food court is unchanged, the movie theaters still there. The Italian place and steakhouse are unchanged. We had lunch one day at Café 6 at Palms Place. Decent food overlooking the PP pool.

Our first day there it was pretty cool. We went down to the pool to hang out for a bit with no intention of going in the water so we didn't wear swim suites, just shorts and tshirt for me. But we were turned away because we didn't have on "swim attire". There were very few people there but whatever. I've worn shorts/tshirt at other pools, no problem.

Service was good as it always is. Everyone is friendly.

Overall I'd still rate the Palms as a good place to stay, especially with the rates as they are. I would recommend checking rates at Palms Place too. I don't really know what Station plans to do with the place. They have increased the marketing, I get more emails and regular mailers from them since they took over. I rarely received anything previously. I like the location, good food and gambling at the Gold Coast. And I still like the Rio even though we don't stay there currently.


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Now that Stations owns the Palms I wonder if they will still offer deals through Travelzoo. There were some very good offers that I took advantage of a couple of times for not only the hotel but also for their specialty restaurants and spas services.
Interesting that you weren't allowed into the PP pool area without "swim attire"...I've never been refused entry wearing regular clothes when I wanted to sit, read and enjoy a cocktail by the hot tub/fire pit. Must be new regs. They only area I experienced any seriously draconian security was getting into the regular pool at the Palms...the rules were ridiculous due to their Friday pool party.
Thanks for posting your review!

 

The Drift Spa had the TravelZoo spa deal (I said Groupon above but it was TZ). but that's Palms Place not the Palms. The pool we weren't allowed access to was the Palms, not Palms place. I was surprised too. The lady said "if you're just here to look at the pool you have to stop right there" and then told us about the "swim attire". Yeah it was odd. It was Sunday afternoon and the temps were only in the high 60's. Very few at the pool.

 

In March a stylist at the Recharge Salon (in Palms, not Palms Place) told me they have plans to redo the pool area and spa on the hotel side. Odd they commented on attire; you could have had bathing suits on under your clothes.

I noticed many subtle changes in March, not for the better . I usually split my stays between Cosmo and Palms but decided to do the whole 5 nights at Cosmo in September unless I get a really great Palms offer with enough freeplay to make it worthwhile.

We enjoyed the Ivory Suite on our March trip....I really like having a second bathroom.

 

My girlfriend just told me that she was told they are combining the Salon and the Spa. She thinks they are moving the Salon over to Palms Place within the Spa and closing the salon but she's not certain that's what she was told.

 

Query, is the nightclub at the Palms still a popular joint?

 

I can't tell you, we didn't go. We were on the 51st floor and they have separate elevators that go from 50-55, the club is on 55. There were some people in the elevator going up there but we weren't there on a Friday or Saturday when it would have been the busiest. They have security checking your attire before you're allowed on the elevator, or in our case checking room key.

 

Okay, so now they're checking your attire before you're allowed on the elevator??? What's with all of the "checking of the attire"? lol

 

Saturday night, a week ago, there was a huge group waiting to go up to it. I didn't go in though.

 

The Palms used to be a great joint for eye-candy and pickups.