VegasChatter

Check in:

We got in late – about 11.30pm on Thursday night (the Thursday before Memorial Day – yup, we don’t like to do things by halves). Because of this, the check-in queue was long. Luckily, within 20 minutes we were at the desk.

We didn’t ask for an upgrade, because we’ve always wanted to stay in the Pyramid. But as sod’s law would have it, we were upgraded anyway – apparently because we’d arrived after 11pm, and we were only staying one night.

So instead of a crummy Pyramid room (sob) we were handed the key to room 9322 in the East Tower. We almost asked to be downgraded to the Pyramid, but since she said it was a suite, we thought we’d roll with it.

Room Reaction:

First reaction: whoop! It was a proper suite – a big living room (complete with a table that we can only assume was for playing cards?) with a kitchen-y bit in it, a fair-sized bedroom and a bathroom leading off it with a separate shower and Jacuzzi bath. Yeah, the decor was a little old, but for $56 (which is what it came to, including taxes and resort fee) on a Thursday night – awesome!

Then we caught our breath, came down to reality, and noticed the following:
* The whole place smelt a bit musty, like it hadn’t been aired in a couple of months.
* The air con was loud as f&*k and set to Arctic temps. It was also old and fiddly, so after a struggle we just turned it off - not that we’d want to be doing that in a few weeks.
* The windows were filthy.
* The comforter was not only a horrific color and fabric, but it was also worn thin from a million dirty bodies squashing down on it.
* The bed was like a plank of wood.
* The clothes cupboard was in the bathroom, which we hate.
* The towels seemed new – one of them still had its paper sticker on the label – and had that slightly unpleasant slick feeling of new, unwashed towels.
* The whole place just seemed grubby. The chairs had stains on, the coffee table had greasemarks, there was a price label on the floor of the bathroom that hadn’t been swept up, and a hair in the shower tray (which we only noticed in the morning).

Most unpleasant were the red smears on the wall by the toilet that we hope was a child playing with a crayon. And while we’re on the toilet (so to speak), FYI Luxor, you appear to have mistaken sandpaper for bathroom tissue.

On the plus side, the do not disturb sign was funny, and we found Carrot Top on the inhouse TV station unexpectedly enchanting.

Amenity Madness:

A couple of bars of Nurture (Luxor spa brand) soap and shower gel, shampoo, conditioner and body lotion. Two notepads (nice soft paper). Nothing else. The minibar was empty.

Internet Connect:

Wired access is included in the $12.95 resort fee but there is no wireless. For WiFi, you can pick up a signal at the Trop (but it’s $12.99 for 24 hours) or, for free, at the ESPN Zone at NYNY – which they keep switched on even when it’s closed (just do as we did and crouch in the sportsbook).

What We Liked:

OK so it was never going to be the most modern room unless they renovated it, but the size of this could have made it pretty nice - if only it had been properly cleaned. So we’ll give it brownie points for the size and the layout, as well as the insulation – we were at the end of the corridor but we didn’t hear a squeak from the other side, or above and below. Oh and we liked the Wolfgang Puck coffee provided. Posh!

What We Didn’t Like:

The fact that we felt obliged to walk around in our shoes, perch on the edge of the furniture, and wished we’d brought some disinfecting wipes for the surfaces in our case. It’s not hard to wipe down a table, is it? But the fact that they hadn’t bothered to do that made us queasy about what had gone down in the bathroom.

Bottom Line:

For what we paid, this was tolerable. And if it had only been cleaned properly (not just our room – at checkin, there was a lady complaining that she’d just been given the keys to a standard Pyramid room that turned out to be uncleaned and bed unmade), we would have thought it was very good value.

For what that room can go for - $225 next weekend, for example – it is neither tolerable, nor good value. In short, our Egyptian fantasy turned out grubby (in a bad way). Shame.

PS: if this hasn’t put you off, they’re just finishing off another $36 sale. It ends tonight, book here.