Las Vegas podcast #288 includes:
- Knight Rider opener
- Venetian and Palazzo eliminates comps, customers
- Wynn fans, blame Marilyn
- Flamingo builds Margaritaville casino
- Blue Man Group announces move
- Vdara closes Silk Road
- Pete Rose leaves Caesars
- Listener calls about Gilley’s, downtown bingo, pools (Dave’s call video), Bellagio, Cosmopolitan, Bill’s retheming, Garth tickets, Riviera, M Resort, the Neon Boneyard and more
- Call us at (702) 866-9494
Five Hundy By Midnight 1/30/11 (77:01 min, 70.7 MB)
If a hotel cancelled my room on me on such a short notice, I would never stay with them again, or any of the properties they own. I doubt I’d gamble there ever again, and it would be highly likely that I’d be mad enough to not eat at their restaurants and drink at their bars for awhile.
And as soon as you said truffles, I was going to say Cosmopolitan has a few food items with truffles. D.O.C.G has a pizza with truffles and sea salt.
Hey FHBM Listeners,
Tim and Michelle have done a fantastic job promoting Vegas Mate for me. I’m very thankful.
If you have any questions about Vegas Mate or need any support, please do one or both of the following:
1. Visit the support page @ http://www.vegasmate.com/support as many common questions are answered.
2. Email me at support@vegasmate.com and I’ll do what I can to help out.
Thanks!
We have created, along with everyone else who has been screwed by the Plazzo, quite a storm of protest around the country.
Thank you for your comments.
The Palazzo better get some good business from its new realtionship as it is losing a large anount of clietele with their new policy.
Thought you’d appreciate the Sam’s Twon reference. Maureen won’t let me go there either.
You forgot your Celene time line. It’s 30 days.
Dan
I gave the Celine countdown 30 seconds before the end of the show.
Howdy’ies needing some advice/help I have a four night lay over between two separate business conferences at the end of the month. Any advice on how to book/save money on a hotel? My company will only reimburse me the cost of the airfare if I didn’t stay (like $240) any good websites deals codes etc to save on four nights….It’s looking like Imperial Place is the place for me at that small sum….
Here’s my recent experience with Palazzo. I was offered a 3 day package, 3 compled nights, for this upcoming weekend. I called to add an extra day, and did so at a rate of $229, which I was fine with because its a holiday, and I was giving them such short notice.
The next morning I saw that my card had been authorized for 4 nights at $229, thinking it was a mistake I called the MegaCenter back and was told since “You added a night, you efffectively cancelled your 3 day package.” Of course I tried to cancel the extra night and re-book “the package” but “the package” was now “sold out”. I’m not going to accuse the Sands of anything more than bad customer service here, but I won’t be gaming at any of their properties ever again.
I rebooked my trip with another property. Unfortunately I have reservations at Carnevino, and if I cancelled I’d inconvenience the others in my party. But I promise not to gamble while I’m up in the MC.
Pfft!
The Palazzo was my favorite destination and the freebies were great through the years. Although I lost more gambling there than the freebies and comps, I still enjoyed the joint.
But, since the comps have dried up, I will not be staying there anymore.
Here’s a news flash for the Palazzo/Venetian: the other 5 star resorts are picking up your business. I just received comp stay/play offers from both the Wynn and Cosmo — unsolicited offers from places I have never stayed or gambled at.
I think the other 5 star resorts are dancing around in glee to get the customers that the Venetian/Palazzo are trashing.
Re: Marilyn Winn’s influence at Wynn, I, for one, am looking forward to finally (finally!) getting my prom picture laser-etched in a block of lucite and, really, would 4 or 5 Aqua-Massage beds really look that bad square in the middle of the Wynn lobby? Of course not!
The pools in December.
I like going to Vegas in december, the deals are great. The X-mass decorations are sweet and you can get into most resturants at a time that works for you. We have stayed at the bellagio the last two times and loved the Hot tubs that are open. I wish they would have them open later. 5:00 closing stinks. I would love to sit in the hot tub after walking all day on the strip, but most times we never get back intime to make it worth wile. But at the Wynn, the only bad thing about our trip, they only have two hot tubs at Wyncore, both were closed. How about a few more hot tubs during the winter.
Can someone please explain the logic behind what has to be one of the worst promotional rates/offers ever offered by Mandalay Bay……
For an additional $30.00 + tax per night guarantee your deluxe room will have 1 king bed or 2 queen beds.
If I don’t pay the extra do I get a chance I will have to sleep on a futon?
Linky:
http://www.mandalaybay.com/accommodations/promotions.aspx
I wanted to comment specifically on Blue Man Group. We first saw them locally and had a blast. It seemed like most everyone who attended came with the purpose of participating in the concert and understood some of the nuance of their concerts. When we saw them in Vegas, it was a totally different atmosphere. Had it not been a whole new show, we probably would have left and gotten our money back. It seemed like it was more of a “thing to do” in Vegas or it was a cool, dark room to get off your feet, rather than a destination like when they go on tour. We don’t plan on seeing them in Vegas again.
I think I found Tim’s ultimate nightmare package deal….(cost is $249 a night)(would anyone ever stay more than one night with this offer?)
ll Inclusive Package
The Vegas Experience Only at Luxor! Offer includes:
• All You Can Eat, All Day, Every Day at MORE, the Buffet*
(Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Sunday Champagne Brunch included)
• Two tickets to CRISS ANGEL Believe™ (Tuesday through Saturday evenings-balcony level seats)*
• Two tickets to Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition*
• Two tickets to Bodies…The Exhibition*
• Two Nurture Spa Day Passes*
• Two VIP admissions to CatHouse (Club closed on Tuesday evenings)*
• Room check-in at VIP Lounge
Everything Tim hates…Sleeping at the Luxor, eating there, going to a night club, Time at the Spa, Bodies….and Criss why he still is performing…Angel
Meredith, blue man group Vegas hasn’t updated their show in 10 years. I think Tim hit it on the drum with pvc pipe when he surmised that their act is a little dated. It is. It was very good, and I think younger kids 11-14 might still get something out of it. I was comped by Venetian (remember those days?) and last saw it May 2010. I wish I was saying I last saw it in 2000.
Josh– http://www.cheapovegas.com/vegas_casino_chart.php?sort=name
By the way, time for a banner change!!!!!!
Funny. Michele mentioned that I need to change the banner too. I’ll take care of that soon.
Word of caution I made reservations online with Flamingo, because I could rest assured that my rate came with a “Best-Rate-Guarantee”
Five hours later I noticed the price dropped and I went to figure out how to save me the monies…Only the fine print includes rate guarantee only good for Four Hours….WTF…I can cancel my reservation penalty free and rebook but what good is an only four hour lock…plus you have to fill out forms etc…why bother
eh, if some other site lowers their rate they have no choice under the “Best-Rate-Guarantee” or “Hot-Deals” program but to lower their rate, they can’t control what others do. Overall it’s a pretty good program especially for last minute reservations.
Great show as usual…
another good groupon across the inbox today. Sorry to be the groupon guy but its a god deal…
$15 for $30 worth of chow…sort of goes with the news in todays show
http://tinyurl.com/4cwz4a8
Ok, trip update so far.
Staying at the Tropicana – really good rate on their website at the moment of $90 for three nights in Feb so we snapped their hands off for that.
Love the room – lots of footage, hd tv, light & fresh. We are on the 17th floor overlooking the MGM & City Centre in the distance. Which leads to the only downside of the room. The shutters. With all that light and neon streaming directly through the window the shutters have no chance. So if you like your room really dark when sleeping you may need to invest in a sleeping mask.
Seems like there is not a water shortage here but a towel shortage. On first day houskeeping cleared out all our old towels and did not replace them ( or indeed any shower gel ). First person we contacted was not very helpfull but later in the day managed to spot a houskeepers kart out in the hallways and managed to blag what we needed.
Nice touch that a temporary kiosk selling Starbuck’s coffee is located right by the ground floor lifts ( especially as it is a 5 min walk to anything else ). Only open in the morning, but does the trick.
First night here we fancied a small snack so headed down to Cafe Nikki. First thing we discovered is they do an evening buffet, which was not aware of – might try later in trip. What we did have though were two lip smacking sandwiches. I had a Miami Cuban ( pork loin, ham, onions, cheese, pickle , mustard ) which was amazing. Nice waffle fries as well. We ate there at approx 6pm – at which time there was a nice chilled back atmosphere. Service was a little slow though.
Celebrity spot – will.i.am at Mandalay Bay. Was not sure at first, but then later found out another black eye pea guest at Jabawockeez so the spot is not without foundation.
Changing to Paris latter in the trip – where amazingly we got five of the seven nights comped for on the total rewards site – without much play at Harrah’s properties. Also got some shows lined up, so will check back later in week.
Celine Countdown is hilarious.
I love when Kelly the P calls & talks for 10 minutes straight without taking a breath.
Hey, Thanks for the podcastl….new to listening, but love it!
The Venetian is doing stupid things,but, question: The restaurants in the hotels:
Are you sure they are owned by Adelson and the Hotel? Some of them Might be renting from the hotel? It’s maybe not there decision, if there not owned by them!
I’ve often said that MEGACENTER is like Wynncore, if it were furnished by Target.
another good groupon across the inbox today. Sorry to be the groupon guy but its a god deal…
$15 for $30 worth of chow…sort of goes with the news in todays show
Sold out of 2,000 units in 20 while I was driving to work.
Dan
Minutes
I’m always surprised when companies seem to go out of their way to hurt customer relationships. The smart thing for Palazoo to do would have been to reduce their comps over time and not really make it public. Then, as they reduced them, they could see if they were actually making more money or not, and then adjust accordingly. By cutting them off cold turkey (actually worse, retroactively) they are pissing people off would may never have noticed, and taking a bigger business risk.
But, what do I know…I don’t own a casino, I only spend my money at them.
Is it wrong to have a countdown going at 88 days and counting?
It’s never wrong to have a countdown going.
76.
Darran, thank you for the tip on the cuban sandwich at Nikki Cafe.
My countdown is at 17 days.
Just wanted to chime in and say that as a new user of Vegas Mate I had a support question and Hunter responded to my email within a couple of hours. Now that’s customer service!
Sadly I can’t find a way to make the app play the Vegas Mate theme song… but that’s the only shortcoming I’ve found so far.
Noting says old-school FHBM like a comment from BC.
my countdown is 233 and I have been counting for awhile now
Thanks, Dave. For me nothing say old school FHBM like:
1) a live chat (but Tim missed that opportunity on *both* of his six-year anniversary episodes)
2) the Vegas ghost
3) references to episode 14
I guess Adelson needs more money as he personally has pumped $7 million over the past five years into Gingrich’s main political advocacy organization.