Please ADD your own Las Vegas Trip Report. Date of Trip: May 15, 2005 to November 30, 1999 Hotel Stayed At: WYNN---ACM AWARDS PT II Report by: KTINCA <> From: CALIFORNIA

TR—Part 2 Move to Wynn


Wednesday 18th
Today is moving day, we are switching from Monte Carlo to Wynn. This was a first for us, we had never switched hotels mid-trip before, unless we were going to Laughlin.

So we decided no pool this morning, we would have a leisurely breakfast and take our time. Went to the MC breakfast buffet. $10.50 per person and exactly what you expect from a medium priced buffet. Good selection, fresh food but nothing fancy or exotic.
I strongly believe, that with very few exceptions, you get exactly what you pay for at LV buffets. The $8.99 buffet is better than the $6.99 choices, the $10.99 version is better still, and the top priced buffets (Paris, Bellagio, etc) are definitely at a higher level.

I decided not to ask for late checkout and to try and make the hotel change around 10:30. While it was a busy week, I figured Wednesday was a good day to make a move and we might be able to get a room at Wynn right away. I was also counting on the fact that despite all the hype Wynn might not actually be completely selling out, and was hoping that they would make a real effort to be accommodating.
Checked out using TV and requested email copy of bill.

MAJOR VEGAS TIP: Called the bell desk to ask for help with our bags. A few minutes later a bellman came up and loaded our bags on his cart.
“Will you be checking out sir?”
“Yes, we have checked out.”
“Will you be needing a taxi, or going to valet parking?”
“We will be needing a cab.”
“I will take care of these for you, please take the elevator and wait for me next to the taxi line and I will meet you there.”
THIS MEANS NO WAITING IN TAXI LINE.

We go down and stand next to the people standing in line, are joined by the bellman who us hails a cab, avoiding the wait, and well worth the $5 tip.

In all honesty, at 10:30am the taxi line at MC was only 3 or 4 people, but it mattered a lot when we left Wynn at 6pm.

Short cab ride to Wynn, hand off our baggage to bellman and proceed to registration. Plenty of clerks were working, even before 11:00, handling both guests checking out and arriving.

Because everyone is there for the 1st time, check-in takes a while as the clerks go over hotel services with each guest, but it moves along well, and you don’t feel rushed.
Didn’t have any idea about what kind of location to ask for. We had a resort room reserved, as I saw no reason to pay an extra $50 a night for a panoramic room (same room with bigger windows and better view.)
Handed the clerk my credit card, along with a $20 tip and asked for a quiet room. She offered us a resort room with a strip view or a panoramic room with a golf course view. We chose the golf course view and were given room 5054.

ONLY MAJOR GLITCH AT WYNN: Read some complaints of glitches due mostly to the fact that everything is new and all the procedures aren’t perfected yet, this is the only one we encountered.

The clerk noticed that we require a fridge, she told us to call the bell desk, remind them and it would be brought up with our bags.
Most hotels have this brought up separately by housekeeping or maintenance (note the clerk at Monte Carlo called and arranged this for us).
Upon arriving at our room, we called the bell desk and the clerk was not aware of our fridge request, said she would have to check with a supervisor and would call us back. 15 minutes later no call, so we call back and speak to a supervisor. She said, this was not handled by thier department, but she would check into it for us.
A few minutes later the bags arrived. The supervisor called to make sure we got our bags and said the fridge would be coming shortly, and to give her a call if it wasn’t there soon. 10 minutes later we did get our fridge, and 5 minutes later the bell desk supervisor did call to make sure everything was all right.
Everyone was very nice, but it was one of those situations where nobody knew whose job it was.

View: Room 5054 is a panoramic room with a view of the entire golf course (directly over 18th hole and waterfall) and west to mountains, the convention center & Hilton, and the North strip hotels (Stardust, CC, Riviera, Sahara & Strat).
I strongly recommend the golf course view, unless you are a newbie. But I would not pay the extra $50 a night for a panoramic room.

The move, along with the wait, took us a couple of hours, and cost cab fare and $40 in tips ($5 to MC bellman, $10 to 2 bellman at Wynn, $5 to guy who brought fridge, and $20 to desk clerk).

Naturally, the 1st thing we did was go down and check out the property. Walked around and checked all the shops & restaurants.
My wife very much liked the race book (told her we could spend some time there the next day).

Went to check out the pool, which can be accessed by an elevator from the casino floor. There is a guard in a booth as you enter the pool area. You have to flash your key, but they do not check to see if it is current (this will probably change later).

As previously noted, one of the main attractions for us in LV is the pool area. We walked around the entire area, and to be perfectly honest were not impressed. Very sparse amount of greenery (although a fair amount of Astroturf) and practically NO SHADE. The bar with gaming tables is nice, but that is not why we go to a pool.
The one nice thing was that there were practically no kids.

There is an adult pool (ever notice how ADULT really means 20- somethings not 50-somethings) which was a little nicer than the main pool.

The pool area was ok, but not exciting. We have a pool at home; when we go to LV we want either landscaping like the Mirage or Flamingo, or a river or beach like Monte Carlo or Mandalay Bay.
Wynn just did not do it for us.

One of the very best things about the Mandalay Bay pool is that you can take an elevator directly from your room to the pool. This was a major departure for LV hotels, who believed it was better business to force you to walk through the casino to get anywhere.
Wynn did this in a half-assed way. Guests can take the elevator from their room to the spa level, then walk to a separate elevator that takes them to the pool. This allows you to avoid the casino, but you have to take 2 elevators and walk by the salons.

After our tour of the hotel, my wife decided to take a nap, and it was my job to scope out the casino. I walk around checking table limits & locations and looking to find slots my wife likes. I also check all the VP tables to find any machines we can play.

Casino design: With the exception of a section of the center aisle in the middle of the casino, all of the table games are on the outside aisles. This basically forms a border, with the entire center of the casino floor devoted to slots and VP (think they don’t know where the real money is generated?).
This is in direct contrast to the older casinos where the machines were all pushed to the outside or against the wall, and many of the newer resorts where machines are interspersed everywhere.
This accomplishes 2 things, it insulates the table players from the noise of the machines, and it makes it easier for slot players to move around and find their favorite machines.

My wife really only likes 2 slot machines, the quarter single reel 2 coin double diamond (Wynn didn’t have any) and the nickel video WOF (Wynn has a bank of 8).
As noted by others, they have $1 9/6 JOB in a couple of areas and a few 3/5 hand quarter 9/5 JOB. So my wife had options and could move around for variety.

The table games didn’t interest her as she mostly plays pai gow poker. They had 2 pai gow tables ($25 minimum) and 4 pai gow poker tables starting at $15 minimum (during the day).

I found one of the $1 VP machines and ordered a drink and settled in. Played for an hour or so, getting 3 4OK and a number of full houses turning my $100 into $479 (most significant win of trip).

Our evening was to be spent once again at Mandalay Bay. So we decided that instead of eating at Wynn, we would have another light dinner at The Noodle Shop.

That evening we had tickets to the ACM tribute show. This was the taping of a special, which will be broadcast in December. The ACM paid tribute to some older performers, so current singers performed songs of the honorees.

Reba sang a Barbara Mandrell song, then Barbara came up and accepted and made a short speech. Alan Jackson sang Alabama, Kenny Chesney sang George Strait, etc.

The show was interesting and different, and the 2 hour special took around 2 ½ hours to tape.

After the show there was no reason to stick around MB, as most of the celebrities had already left, so it was back to Wynn for VP and sleep.

This was the last time we would leave Wynn.

KTINCA <> - CALIFORNIA    3757

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