I stayed two nights in Encore and three nights in Mirage. Previously I have stayed in The Hotel and Bellagio. Out of these four Mirage is obviously targeted more to “the masses” and bearing this is mind the “factory” works surprisingly smoothly. As long as you do not have any requests – however small. It is then that the machine starts to cough.

Here are some “highlights”:

- on the day of arrival at 12:30 pm

Check in was fast. I made a kind request to have a room facing the pool area. “Certainly sir” was to friendly response from the girl at check-in.

Long walk through the casino floor to elevators. And I mean long and through the extremely crowded casino floor.

Two out of the six elevators serving the lowest floors were out of order. Long walk from the elevator to the room.

The room was surprisingly nice except for the few “issues” that I will come back later on.

When I opened the curtains the reality struck right on my face. The room was facing the casino roof with some howling air-conditioning equipment right in front of the windows.

I went down to the reception to ask if it anyway was possible change the room – even for money. The response was automatic “I’m so sorry but we are fully booked”. Later this proved to be a lie. I asked if there was anything they or I could do. I was directed to talk to “the manager”. He eventually was as if it were the most difficult job on this planet to find another room. But the room would only become available after 3 pm. I asked if I could possibly get a pool facing room. “Certainly sir” was the friendly response again.

When I came back at 4.30 pm I was given a room on the 22nd floor. And again, facing the casino roof, the highway and more importantly the railway tracks. I did not bother to continue the struggle.

- at night somewhere between midnight and 4 am, each and every night

A long train rattles by whistling. Then a second one and a third… the noise from the highway and railway can be clearly heard even on the 22nd floor. I can barely imagine what it would be like on lower floors.

- At pool

The pool is nice with two waterfalls. It’s however shallow and far too small for a hotel of this size. On busy days you’d need to arrive early to find a spot. And by saying early I mean before 8 am (in summer it opens at 8am). At 8.40 am it was already so full that it was difficult to find deck chairs that were not reserved. People get down the pool at 8 to reserve chairs and then leave. After having observed for an hour some “reserved” chairs I had the towels removed. At the entrance it clearly says no reservations.

The highly advertised Bare pool lounge: music played very loud, nearly empty maybe because of the high cost. A few adolescent peeping toms.

- At parking garage on the second night @9pm

I arrived back to the hotel. Found a free parking place surprisingly easy. As I opened the car door and was getting out of car I saw someone approaching shouting that I have stolen his parking space. I did not see him even having a car. As I turned around the person tried to kick me – missing me just by an inch and hitting the side of the car. I went quickly back into the car. The car received second and a third kick. I drove quickly away and called 911 since this guy started following me - first by running and then with his friends’ car which was parked somewhere further away from the elevators. Police arrived. Couldn’t do a thing. End of story.

- And finally some words about the room

When they remodeled the rooms they could have gotten rid of the odd headboard. It shouts 70’s and not in positive way.

Bed is excellent – even better than that in Encore where I stayed for two nights during this trip to Vegas. Bathroom is very small. No TV to toilet like in Encore (if anyone needs a TV in there). However they could have changed the fittings with the renovation.

Walls appear to be paper thin as you can hear everything from the corridor and the floor above you.

You are possibly not here to watch TV but the choice of channels is limited and bit odd. Some news channels, the Weather channel and many advertisement channels featuring Mirage and other MGM Mirage properties.

- And finally

As the City Center has risen to its hights all else on Las Vegas Strip seems to have dwarfed. The once massive Bellagio sign looks miniscule with the City Center in the background. Eiffel tower at Paris and Bellagio appear to be “normal” sized. And not to mention the lion in front of MGM – it merely a kitten.