Cromwell, PH, and Being Homeless on the Strip (Trip Review)

I tend to not write trip reviews anymore, but this one was a little more exciting than usual so I'll give it a go.

Plan was to spend one night at the Cromwell, then move to a friend's timeshare just off strip. However, Saturday morning (after night at Cromwell) my friend receives a call during breakfast and finds out we don't have a room. Now, I wasn't entirely homeless, but we would have ended up like 5 to a room at NYNY. I look at TR.com to find I could book a last minute room at the Cromwell for two nights. Awesome. Or not. It won't let me make a reservation because I'm technically still checked in to my comped room. We finish eating around 11:30 and I look again... it won't let me book a room online. I go to the front desk and ask if they can just extend my reservation for two nights and get quoted a market rate. How about no.

Long story short, after checking out of Cromwell, I take a taxi to PH (TR.com had a free room anywhere other than Nobu) and just walk in and get a fully comped room. On Super Bowl weekend. Through Chinese new year, too. Caesar's/PH earned MAJOR brownie points, I'm worth much less than $500 per comped night and got treated extremely well here. Host got back to me within a half an hour too (I was already at PH).

Gambling: I had to develop a strategy to play craps at the $25 level because this weekend was absolutely insane. I started at $25 on the pass, double odds, buy the 4 & 10, then press my odds to max with buy wins. Press 4 & 10 sparingly. PH was entirely $25 on Saturday, even Bally's and Flamingo opened more than one $25 table through most of the weekend. On Saturday night, it took about an hour to find three open positions at any craps table on the strip at CET properties. Friend went on a $5000 roll (twice his bankroll), I ended up with $500 on the 4 and 10 each.. I think PH has the best dealers, I have never had a negative experience with any craps or PGP dealer there. I was positive on the high limit slots this trip (about 10% of my overall exposure).

Oh, I didn't hit the 4 or 10 at $500, :(

Opinions:

Cromwell.
Casino: A-, Arguably best CET property, it's obvious some bad-attitude dealers had connections though
Hotel: B+, Best room I have stayed at in Vegas. Fully stocked mini bar ($10 cookies were delicious), overhead shower, vanity mirror, 60" TV
The bad: Ice machines are locked up, so you need to call service for ice. The entire casino lacks any form of special amenities for Diamond. No special checkin desk, no special chip cashing, no special TR line. Worst thing? Huge push back to talk to a host at all. I was forced to check in like normal people. Basically, everyone is special, so nobody is special.

Burgr, Gordon Ramsey's place at PH.
Quality: A
Value: C
One of the best burgers of my life... at $35 for a burger, fries, and a non-alcoholic drink. Been there twice, everything's amazing, one of those things I wouldn't do outside of Vegas, but when in Rome...

Center Cut, Flamingo steak house.
Quality: B+
Value: B
Price is good for the strip and their rib roast is great. Servers were disappointing. Been there twice. Caesar salad has the best dressing in existence.

Oysters Bar & Grill, Harrah's.
Quality: A+, B- not considering cioppino
Value: B
Prices are heavily inflated, I think they're charging $29 for a dozen oysters now. However, they have the best cioppino of my life at $34ish. I'm pretty sure it has half a week's worth of salt though.

Great report, ahiromu! Glad you were able to make arrangements on the fly and not have your trip spoiled. I do like that Oyster Bar. Really appreciate hearing about Cromwell amenities; they brag on it, but I never seem to stay there. Might try it this time.

Thanks for reading. There's a strong push for personal service, too. Dealers, front desk, even cashiers would introduce themselves by name then ask for mine (sometimes dealers would find out via each other). None of the dealers wore name tags. It really doesn't feel like any other TR casino I've ever been to. The casino would be A or A+ if they got rid of the handful of surly dealers, I have an issue with maybe 1/5th or 1/6th of their floor personnel. The others are top notch.

Also, you gotta go next door to Flamingo's food court for a cheap meal.

I played a bit at Cromwell a few weeks ago and had the same experience. Most dealers were very friendly, but one surly one. They have one bank of 4 VP machines in the front with decent pay tables too (at $50 in to get one credit.)

I think $29 is fair, given the logistics of getting oysters to that property. Here on the gulf coast, if it's not happy hour, I can expect to pay $20 per dozen.

Thanks for the trip review! I love reading stuff like that.

Quote: ukaserex

I think $29 is fair, given the logistics of getting oysters to that property. Here on the gulf coast, if it's not happy hour, I can expect to pay $20 per dozen.

Thanks for the trip review! I love reading stuff like that.

not a plug for Harrah's Cherokee or anything, but they usually have oysters on the buffet. Eat 3 dozen or so and the buffet feels like free!

Thanks for the report Ahiromu! If it wasn't Super Bowl / CNY, do you think you would have been able to get your back-to-back Cromwell online reservation in, or is it something that they don't allow at any time?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Thanks for the report Ahiromu! If it wasn't Super Bowl / CNY, do you think you would have been able to get your back-to-back Cromwell online reservation in, or is it something that they don't allow at any time?

It was hard coded, on TR.com, such that I could not book an online reservation while I already had one, even though I was originally scheduled to check out the day I was looking (I was looking at 10:30 AM, planned to check out at noon). Some time around 11AM PST I got locked out of being able to book same-day, which is weird because I could book a room at all properties in Vegas for today (2/9) and it is 1:39PM PST. My opinion is that I could have gotten a same day room at Cromwell, I can't say if they would have let me stay in the same room though. They may need an official check out, but again, I'm not too sure about this, and was just interested in having my own bed to sleep in at the time.

When I was a "walk in" at PH, there was absolutely no mention about my Cromwell stay disallowing anything. I used no offers.

Quote: ukaserex

I think $29 is fair, given the logistics of getting oysters to that property. Here on the gulf coast, if it's not happy hour, I can expect to pay $20 per dozen.

Thanks for the trip review! I love reading stuff like that.

I'm not a big oyster guy, it just seems too steep for me. Glad to hear that I shouldn't feel too bad if I get them next time.

Room 810:


Another thing, I was on the top floor and could barely hear the club up above. They did an excellent job at buffering the sound, excellent. I would recommend ear plugs though (I'm a super light sleeper), frankly all you can hear without is a little bit of a thump, thump.