Plaza 11/2 - 11/5

Just got back from three nights here. Nice room with a small bathroom. (Very small) On check in I asked for a room high enough to not be kept awake by the noise. We were on the 20th floor and could still hear it! Leads me to believe that the north tower is probably a good choice as long as your room is on the south side of it.
The south tower probably sucks though. I don't know, but since you have to drag your luggage through the casino to get to it I know I would hate it.

Du-Pars is right across the street for great 24 hour eats! The after hour choices in The Plaza are McDonalds and Subway. I don't eat there at home so I'm not going to eat there on vacation. Ate at Oscars Monday night and it was very good. Bone in Rib Eye was cooked perfectly. Shrimp Cocktail was very good as an appetizer. 4 Big ass shrimp with a cocktail sauce that was good.

I was very surprised by the low max bets allowed on all table games. And the lack of Blackjack! They had some Rewards 21 game that was always open. It paid even money on Blackjack though so I didn't look at it any further. But the max bets on all the games that I looked at was 100.00. 5 or 10 minimum bet but the max was always 100. The Pair Plus on 3 Card Poker was 25.00 I guess they sweat pretty bad. The Free Bet Blackjack table was always empty. I played it quite a bit. It was a 10 minimum. Won huge the first time I played it. Got my ass handed to me every time after that.

9/6 J.O.B. was easily found. Plenty of games at the bar and a few rows right next to the bar. I prefer away from the bar. I don't drink and don't want to be held to a certain bet to get "free" drinks. I played in the rows next to the bar, could still watch the game on the TV at the bar and the waitress came by regularly.

The high limit area was funny. A few 1.00 slot machines. Nothing higher than 1.00 and no more than 20 machines, if I remember correctly. The poker room was really just a corner. And it was all electronic. I've never played electronic poker before, except online. I didn't even try to play. There are still live poker rooms downtown so if I wanted to play I could still find a game elsewhere. I didn't.

My wife is a penny slot addict. I kept giving her money Sunday and Monday. Tuesday, she won it all back and then some. She would text me to come save her seat while she had to pee. I didn't mind because every time I had a slot ticket to cash out. 650, 450, 400, 250 were the ones I remember. And yesterday morning she had 170.00 in free play which she turned into 98.00. She did much better than I did.

That 100.00 loss rebate promotion they had going is gone. I already had a card but my wife didn't. I went with her to ask about it and they said the promo was over.

That's all I remember right now. If they send us comps for rooms in the future along with some free play we will probably stay there again. We both prefer downtown and usually stay at the Nugget. With my wife's health deteriorating we haven't been able to travel since 2011 so we couldn't get any offers from there this time around. It was a fun trip.

Oh, the highlight of the whole thing really has nothing to do with gambling in Vegas. We listed our house Saturday and had a showing at noon. They offered our asking price. We didn't immediately take it because somebody else had an appointment to see it on Sunday. And, as we hoped they got into a bidding war. We signed a contract electronically on Sunday night for 10% more than our asking price! We have a ton of equity in this house so should come out pretty good. The bad thing is that we have to look for something else now!

Housing in Austin is getting scarce. The couple who have the contract are from MS. Lots of people moving here. I'm a few years short of retirement and my wife is on disability. If I have to make a commute for a few years I can put up with it. I love living in central Austin but with her income gone now, we just can't really afford it anymore. All of our savings was depleted this last year with her two surgeries and being on leave without pay. We had a year "prudent reserve" set aside. Sadly, it's gone. But happily, it did serve it's purpose.

Does the Plaza casino still have that cheap perfumy smell? Every time I walked in there (I haven't been for a couple months), the place just STANK like someone dropped a gallon bottle of Walmart cheap perfume. It was so strong you could literally taste it. :(

I used to go in there weekly for pizza at Pop's pizza at the south end of the casino. Best pizza in Vegas IMO. But it got to the point, that I just couldn't stand that perfumy smell....gave me a headache.

Quote: kewlj

Does the Plaza casino still have that cheap perfumy smell? Every time I walked in there (I haven't been for a couple months), the place just STANK like someone dropped a gallon bottle of Walmart cheap perfume. It was so strong you could literally taste it. :(

I used to go in there weekly for pizza at Pop's pizza at the south end of the casino. Best pizza in Vegas IMO. But it got to the point, that I just couldn't stand that perfumy smell....gave me a headache.

I didn't notice a smell. And frankly, my wife is very sensitive and would have noticed had it still been present. She gets nauseous and we would have been playing elsewhere.

I stayed there last year for 4 days. The rooms
were nice, the table games sucked. They don't
even have electronic tote boards for roulette.
The build your own burrito Mexican place is
good, cheap too.

I stayed at the Plaza from Oct 27 to Nov 1, 2014

Likes

Loved having the food court available . Sometimes you just want something quick and having this right on the premises was very handy. I ended up using the Mexican place, the coffee place, Mc Donald's, Subway, and Pop up pizza.

Hash House a go go is another good addition to the food choices.

Loved the wifi.

Apparently there is a shuttle three times a day to the airport. Only ten dollars for hotel guests!

Loved the fact that the casino was cool and well ventilated. That is very important. Nothing will make me leave faster than a hot stuffy smokey casino.

Enjoyed the selection of slots and loved the 99% payback video poker machines by the bar.

You also get a fun book of hotel discounts on food etc at check in.

Hotel guests get free Louie Anderson tickets (fun book) but I didn't have time to use them.

The air conditioning in my room (1483) worked fabulously. Another very important thing. TV was modern and worked well also. Lots of great channels to choose from.

The room was spacious and I liked the furnishings. The bed was comfy. I adore the bedside lamps and the old Plaza picture on the wall.

Loved the modern safe that was large enough to hold my iPad and not on the floor. It was at eye level and easy to use.

All of the staff I encountered were pleasant and helpful. I especially enjoyed a certain cocktail waitress. She is of a certain age, but fast and efficient and funny.

Loved having the cab stand right outside the door. (Near Pop Up Pizza)

I was in the South Tower and it was very quiet. No noise from Fremont Street

There were lots of elevators for the south tower. They were fast and worked well.

At no time did I feel unsafe in the hotel. I was not pan handled once within the hotel either.

Dislikes

The scent in the casino. Still too strong. Needs to be cut way, way back!

Lose the time share people who attack you as soon as you come in the door. They are universally hated.

The bathtub toilet area. Omg, who designed this? I was staying alone so I left the door open all the time, but if you had a roommate , you almost have to step into the bathtub to close the door! I wish during the remodel that they had taken two feet off of the big room and added them to the bathroom.

Also the tub is terribly slippery when wet. There are signs on the mirror asking me to use the bath mats for safety, but there are no rubber mats given. Only the towel mats that you use to step out of the shower. There definitely should be some non slip material put in that tub.
Also there is nothing to hold onto. No towel bars or soap shelves either. No hook on the bathroom door.

You cannot control the bedside table lamps from the bed. You have to get up and walk across the room to turn them off and on. Strange.

Obviously there were way more likes than dislikes. I would definitely stay again, only next time I will ask for a handicapped room to see if I find the bathroom more user friendly...lol.

I will be back!

I may be wrong, but I think the lamps may be the "touch model." After I wrote this I decided to call them and find out. Blonde4ever is right, if you're reading in bed and you want to turn the light off you have to get out of bed and go turn the light off at the wall. Maybe it would be easier to just partially unscrew the bulb. (I think they got lamps cheaply from the Fountainbleau liquidation--lamps that for some reason didn't have built-in switches.)

Quote: Blonde4ever

Enjoyed the selection of slots and loved the 99% payback video poker machines by the bar.

Explain more please.

Yes...I tried groping the lamp all over because I was hoping it was touch activated...but no such luck.

Explain more?
....I liked the selection of slots because they had a few of my favorites such as Buffalo Deluxe and Crystal Bonus.

The Plaza has a host that stays in touch with people's concerns on VegasmessageBoard. People complained about their VP so they upgraded it. Also at one point it wasn't earning any points towards comps and they changed that too.

Quote: Blonde4ever

Yes...I tried groping the lamp all over because I was hoping it was touch activated...but no such luck.

Explain more?
....I liked the selection of slots because they had a few of my favorites such as Buffalo Deluxe and Crystal Bonus.

The Plaza has a host that stays in touch with people's concerns on VegasmessageBoard. People complained about their VP so they upgraded it. Also at one point it wasn't earning any points towards comps and they changed that too.

I'm pretty sure their best blackjack is $25, DD, NDAS. (They used to have $10, DD, DAS.) So I guess I won't be unscrewing their light bulbs any time soon.

Quote: Blonde4ever

Yes...I tried groping the lamp all over because I was hoping it was touch activated...but no such luck.

Explain more?
....I liked the selection of slots because they had a few of my favorites such as Buffalo Deluxe and Crystal Bonus.

The Plaza has a host that stays in touch with people's concerns on VegasmessageBoard. People complained about their VP so they upgraded it. Also at one point it wasn't earning any points towards comps and they changed that too.

I highly doubt that host had any impact.The real reason they changed everything is because a little over a year ago they revamped there entire slot club and gave you up to 2 x on any royal's, point multipliers, drawings, tier matching etc. . At the begging of the promotion they even had 9/6 job $5 denomination.

The slowly downgraded all the machines. When they ended the promotion they added back the good machines.

I don't know what did or didn't have an effect.

All I can tell you is that the host appeared at VMB months ago asking for opinions of the Plaza and what could they improve on.
The most frequent comment was "Why should we go play video poker there when there is better VP close by. (ie Main Street Station, Four Queens etc)
The sensible thing would be to match the other casinos around them. Shortly after that the VP improved.

Quote: Blonde4ever

I don't know what did or didn't have an effect.

All I can tell you is that the host appeared at VMB months ago asking for opinions of the Plaza and what could they improve on.
The most frequent comment was "Why should we go play video poker there when there is better VP close by. (ie Main Street Station, Four Queens etc)
The sensible thing would be to match the other casinos around them. Shortly after that the VP improved.

Tell him to double all handpays including slots ;).

The problem is everybody likes to play different things. There very few promotions that can cover all types of machines. They don't want to give out to much, but to little won't do.

Point multipliers fit everything, but that's boring and it's done to death. It doesn't engage players they dont get instant gratification.
Small frequent bonuses keep people playing. That's why the new video slots with bonus rounds are so popular(like crack).
I have yet so see a casino come up with a myriad of promotions and allow the player to chose their promotion for the day for whatever game you play. Keno, slots, VP, bingo. BJ, craps etc.

Better yet they should have a kiosk there that allows you to change promotions. This will encourage people to try all the different games. We all know once someone put in a few bucks just to try something they usually end up putting in more.

New systems have the ability to avoid the kiosks and just select a promotion right from the machine. I don't see anyone using this technology very well.

I know they cant really have skill gaming or social games here, but certainly the casinos can add it as part of there promotions.

Adapt that video slot crack like concept to promotions. They will have a winning promotion.

I don't understand why more bingo card type promotions aren't being used. They can cover every aspect of gaming.It can have both instant gadification and long term benefits. If you start a bingo card you're more likely to want to come back and finish it.

The trouble with the Plaza is the smell. The air scenting there smells like a restroom air freshener. It's so strong that it will make your eyes water.

Quote: Keyser

The trouble with the Plaza is the smell. The air scenting there smells like a restroom air freshener. It's so strong that it will make your eyes water.

I agree. I played there because I committed to playing there and I want future offers...but I really don't like the smell.

Strangely....you can find reviews on Trip Advisor talking about how lovely and FRESH it smells.