For about the last 8 years, my wife and I have taken our end of summer vacation in the Vegas region. On average we spend about 10 to 14 days here.

When we 1st started coming here, we didn't have any offers from the hotels, just had to go with the best deal or what ever was best from a travel agent. You can get some good deals from a travel agent, but as always, shop around before buying.

Some of the other hotels we stayed in include, The Rio, Excaliber, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Monte Carlo. I will write reviews on all of these soon.

The theme here at this hotel is of course the city of New York. We have never visited this city yet, so I am in no way an expert on how well they did.

What catches your eye as you drive up to the place is how the hotel looks just like the buildings in the city. Then there is a wonderful rendition of the Statue of Liberty out front. You can even walk across the Brooklyn Bridge that runs parallel with the strip. One thing that you will notice is a roller coaster that runs around the building. Not sure why this is there or if it a common thing to see in New York, but I guess this a magnet for the kids or the young at heart.

The check in area is a little confusing. It seems to be too close to the casino floor making the area very congested. Checking in at any hotel can be a little hectic but to add the amount of people gambling in the same area just increases confusion and doesn't really make sense to me why they did this.

As for checking in however, I can't say enough about these people. The most professional and willing to help serve your needs was what we got every time. We have stayed here 3 years now and am always impressed with the people here. I have read other reviews with very negative results here, but never has that happened to us. It's a casino and a place to gamble, maybe we just get lucky every time.

There is a place in the building that they have made to look like you were actually in the downtown section of the city. Here you can walk down the streets, paved with bricks, steam coming out of the man holes and numerous shops to eat, bars, gifts, pizza, sit down restaurant, etc.
Our favorite place to eat was the All American Restaurant, which was open 24 hours, good food and reasonable.

Learning your way around will take sometime. Depending on where you room is will depend on what elevator you will take. But I have found out, no matter what elevator you take, you can get to your room. I like to walk around a lot and check things out. That's how I found out about the elevators. You will always need your room key to activate the elevator operation.

I probably do things a bit different than most. Our procedure for a hotel is to pull the car up front, check in (get the room), park the car, then get everything from the car to the room. I just don't like other people touching my stuff or my bags being out of my sight and we are both able to move our stuff ourselves. However, when you go from the parking garage to your room, you must get on an escalator and this is sometimes hard with large suitcases.

The location of the hotel is good. You can easily walk to the excaliber, catch a tram (no charge) and travel to other casinos. You can also walk across the bridge to the MGM and catch another tram and travel to other casinos in the other direction. Or you can be like me, just go for the ride to check everything out and see the sights. This hotel has a very good central location for all the super casinos. But they are all very large, so expect to do a lot of walking.

As for the gambling, if you do decide to try your luck, please get a players card and always insert it into the machine or give it to the dealer to record your play. We play the machines. What I like about this casino are their comps. When we are done with our stay and go to check out, we call a casino host and ask to see what they can do for us. They again are the most professional people we have ever dealt with and we never have to pay for anything. We charge everything to the room. Our stay, our food is always free. And they have a cash back program also. When you are totally finished with your play and you are ready to leave, go to the promotions desk, have them check your card and they will give you cash back. Plus they always throw in a couple of t-shirts.

Now you may think we are high rollers or something, but we are always on a budget, we each take $100 with us and that is our budget for the day. When it's gone, back to the room to call it a night, but sometimes it does last all night and guess what......sometimes you do win.

The rooms we had have always been nice. Once during a slow period, they gave us a suite at no extra charge. The next year after they had given us a suite, we were given a regular room. A very nice room, but small when compared to our memory of the suite. We called down to a host, asked to see if there was anyway to upgrade us, they did and we got a deluxe room which we liked more that the suite (because of the view).

The roller coaster can be heard in your room, but it's not that bad. Remember tho, this is Las Vegas, not a retirement community, expect some crowds, excitement and noise. The coaster does stop at 11:00.



Recommended: Yes