Bally's: Nothing Spectacular, Just A Good Location
Written: Apr 06 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Prime location
Cons: Old rooms, bad restaurants, bad service, weird water smell
The Bottom Line: Low amenities, bad server, and terrible restaurants. The only good thing is the location which lets you walk quickly to better casinos.
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| mookiekong's Full Review: Ballys Las Vegas |
I recently went out to Las Vegas for a convention -- to do some booth-bunnying. My company put us all up in Bally's. This is my fourth time out in Vegas and I have stayed in four different hotels. Bally's ranks third for places to stay, this hotel/casino has only one good thing going for it -- location.
The Location
Located right in the middle of "The Strip", Bally's is a perfect place to stay if you don't want to rent a car, take taxis, or ride the bus up and down the strip. Bally's sits right by Flamingo, across the street from Bellagio and Caesar's Palace. It neighbours with its sister casino Paris. To walk to any casino from Bally's is still a walk, but because of the central location, it is not quite as far to walk when compared to a stay at Luxor or Mandalay Bay. When I stayed at Bally's, late March 2004, the new monorail was still not completed. I saw them test running the new monorail, but it was not open to the public.
The Check-In and Check-Out Process
When checking into the hotel, I had to wait in a long line -- a bit too long for my taste. When I did get to the counter the lady who helped me was friendly and courteous. She got me my room quickly and directed me in the right direction. The line for checking out was, again long. It took a while to get checked out of the hotel, there were just not enough people working to make it quick.
The Rooms
Compared to the rooms at Luxor, Bally's is not quite up to par. My room had some serious damage that was done to the wall and it looked like they did not do too much to patch it up -- the wallpaper was haphazardly reapplied to my wall. The amenities in the room are sparse and the rooms themselves are plain, boring and old. I was disappointed by the TV channel selection -- yes, I do watch some TV late at night on business trips when I have to take care of my email. There was only a sparse selection of very basic cable channels. Everything else was relegated to pay-per-view. Quite disappointing for the amount that was paid for the room. One oddity that I did find in my room was the shower. The room was a non-smoking room and did not have any smoke smell at all. But, when I started to take a shower, the water that came out stank of smoke. I don't know why, but I found this rather odd.
The Casino
There is no theme to the casino that I could distinguish, but it is still quite lavish downstairs. The casino itself was rather generic with all the requisite games. I played craps, blackjack, and mini-Baccarat. The staff that worked the tables was a mix. The first blackjack dealer I got, Bob, was having a bad day or something. He was completely stoic and unfriendly. All he did was deal cards like a robot -- and what fun is that? I had another blackjack dealer who was a little more friendly, but not by much. And one, named Zena, was pretty fun to have at the table -- she promised only one thing to us, "I'll pay you if you win." The craps tables were generally good, the dealers there had some personality and kept the game fun. I learned mini-Baccarat from a marvelously friendly dealer who took the time to teach my co-worker and myself how to play the game -- though I don't quite understand the whole "fun" part of mini-Baccarat since it is just like flipping a coin. Overall, there are better places on the strip to gamble.
The Restaurants
What really stank, other than the smoky water in the shower, at Bally's was the restaurants -- Sidewalk Cafe in particular. The service at Sidewalk Cafe was terrible. Not only was the service slow, but the person who brings out water cannot serve any other drink, one has to wait for the waiter to come to order a drink. And that wait is tremendously slow. I ate there three times, once for lunch and twice for breakfast. Every time we had to wait for a while before the waiter came. That was very disappointing. When the order was put in, the food took so long to cook. When I went for lunch it took almost forty minutes from the time I sat down to time that I got my food to eat. That was a little too long for me. The Big Kitchen Buffet at Bally's is also disappointing -- if you want a good buffet, go to The Mirage. The food was a mess, the servers (especially for the prime rib) were mean and they all looked like they had a bad day. Not only was the food a mess, but it did not taste that great -- it was quite bland. The soft drinks that were served were also severely watered down.
Conclusion
When compared to Luxor, or even Tropicana, Bally's only saving grace is its location. Luxor is a magnificent place to stay with all kinds of amenities. Its casino is well done and memorable. Tropicana is cheaper than Bally's and has just as much to offer. If it were not for the prime location that Bally's has, I would find it hard to recommend even staying there. As it is, if you want a place to stay for which you can walk to other casinos easily, Bally's is a decent choice. And thank goodness you can get to the other casinos since they have so much more to offer!
Recommended:
No
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mookiekong
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Location: San Jose, CA, USA
Reviews written: 68
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Current Mookie Obsession: Apple iPhone 8GB and Fedora 8.
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