I normally post photos, but generx had a nice submission and appears to have stayed in the same room as us. The only photos I could really add are of the nice ladies sunbathing at the pool below our balcony. My submission will probably end up being too long anyway, but here it goes…

Our first impression was not that great. We took a taxi from the hotel to the Platinum and the valet area is very small and difficult for vehicles to navigate. We got there around midnight on Friday and surprisingly the whole valet was packed with cars and people. Since everyone was busy, we hauled our own luggage into the lobby. The adjacent bar was packed and since the music was loud, it was difficult to talk to the desk clerk. Although my group booked two princess suites at the same time, we were put on different floors. My room was fine. My friend’s room was not cleaned. When they complained, they were given a new room and comped for breakfast. (This comp was later changed by the daytime desk clerk to $50 off each of our rooms).

The room itself is as advertised in all of the previous submissions and photos. It was basically a condo. It was nice to have a full sized kitchen and refrigerator. There were a few glasses, plates and silverware to use if needed and having a fridge with an icemaker on the door saved us from having to run down the hallway to an icemaker numerous times. The living room was very large and the plasma TV was a nice change from the usual hotel sets. Our fireplace was not gas and did not have real flames. It simply had lights that appeared to be flames. We didn’t care because we never turned it on for anything other than to look at it. The king sized bed was very comfortable and it had some very heavy and thick sheets and covers. I was able to crank up the AC to 68 and it was nice being snug under the covers. The AC worked great – although it was unusually cool for Vegas that week and I wondered how the AC would fare in much hotter weather. The Jacuzzi tub, as stated before, was very large and easily fit two people. The drain stopper was a pain to use and it would come undone if touched slightly. Although the marble two sink countertop was large, my girlfriend found a way to completely fill it with her beauty products. I read that the shower was small in size but I found it to be more than large enough. The water temperature was just a bit too cool as I could never get it as hot as I would have liked. It was even cooler during the morning hours and I did not enjoy showering in lukewarm water. Perhaps it was because I had the room so cold? Housekeeping cleaned the room adequately, however they never replaced the shampoo and body wash the entire time we were there. Because we brought our own, this was not an issue. There were two full sized closets, one in the bathroom and one in the bedroom. While we did not use the clothes washer or dishwasher, there were packets of laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent and dryer sheets. The dryer came in handy to rid my clothes of the wrinkles sustained while packed in my suitcase. The iron was better than most others I’ve used in hotels.

The front desk clerk in the evening was completely lost. Aside from not being able to offer a solution to our in-room internet connection not working, his answer to my inquiry if the pizza delivery guy could come directly to my room was “I dunno”. I ended up meeting the delivery guy in the lobby, eating my pizza and going to bed.

We ordered breakfast the following morning. I ordered an omelet and my girlfriend ordered French toast. It was pretty good by hotel food standards and we were satisfied. The internet was still not working and after calling the 800 number provided for guidance, we discovered that someone jammed the Ethernet cable upside down into the outlet. Maintenance came up within 30 minutes and pulled it out of the wall, however we were now forced to use wireless internet and still charged the same $12.95 a day. It wasn’t so bad.

Since there is not a whole lot to do inside the hotel or directly around it, I cannot add any insight to the rest of the hotel’s services. We did not visit the pool, the restaurants or the spa. The walk to the strip was not the greatest since the cars travel pretty fast on that stretch. It takes about 15 minutes to get to Las Vegas Blvd. Most of the time, we took a taxi to various parts of town.

On our final morning, I called the front desk to see if we could have a late checkout. The clerk recognized that we had some issues upon check-in and allowed us to stay in the room until 1pm. As mentioned above, she also took off $50 per room. Although this hotel had a few setbacks, we would stay there again. It was a nice change from the usual casino atmosphere and it probably saved me a few hundred dollars as I usually gamble while my girlfriend takes two hours getting ready. Instead, I just grabbed a cold beer from the fridge, turned on the plasma and watched some TV. Want to save a lot of money and get a great breakfast? Walk around the corner to the Ellis Island Casino. It is this little dive of a place but the food was cheap ($13 for both of us) and very good. We went there twice and both times I walked out with more money than I spent inside. Their slot machines seem to pay well.