Harrah’s Reno, a little Orient in the desert
Written: Nov 18 '04 (Updated Nov 18 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Clean room, very comfortable beds
Cons: Restaurants close early, no sandwich shop style eatery. Tight slots.
The Bottom Line: I would recommend this hotel, but personally (being a burger and fries gal) I would probably not stay here again.
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| SurgRN911's Full Review: Harrah's - Casino |
Having comp points, which we didn’t use by the way, from Harrah’s Cherokee, North Carolina, we decided the best place to stay and utilize those points in Reno would be Harrah’s. Might as well get something for all those comp points.
First it must be said that we booked our trip through Travelocity, and we probably won’t use them again for anything, but that’s another story. By booking through this online service, we were unable to tell Harrah’s the type of room we were interested in, leaving that decision until we were actually checking in.
Checking In
Arriving at 11:30 a.m. Reno time, we waited what seemed like forever for the shuttle bus from Harrah’s to show up at the airport. Actually, one runs every half hour, we must have just missed the bus, so we had to wait that half hour for the next one.
Hey, thought the durn desert was supposed to be hot???
There were 4 check-in attendants available so it took only about 10 minutes to secure our room. I left Susi in the check-in queue while I went to check out the nearby slots. (By the way, slots in the airport? That’s a little pretentious isn’t it?) Anyway, it was only a few minutes before she came by the slot I was dumping money into to let me know we had our room.
There really isn’t anything to the lobby of this hotel, just the check-in desk and the bell desk, then right to the casino down one aisle and the escalator to the other casino on the other aisle. Our room was in the East Tower, 23rd floor, and the hotel lobby is in the East Tower, so this was convenient. Still, we had to schleep our luggage through the casino to get to the elevator bank and then our room. It was quite a haul but since we weren’t the only ones doing it, it wasn’t that bad.
Although the online booking agent had secured a standard room, non-smoking for us, the hotel was happy to change that to a room with two large beds and smoking privileges. No problems, no additional fee, no arguments.
Check-in gets a 10 on the scale.
The Room
Being on the 23rd floor, we had an outstanding view of the Reno skyline from our large window. The two beds were standard size, not quite queen but not regular double bed size either, and comfortable. Very comfortable. Two large decent pillows and plenty of warm blankets made it a perfect set up.
On checking in I thought it was pretty cold in the room and attempted to adjust the heat. While I sat shivering, Susi was burning up, but we called maintenance anyway. They were prompt to come to the room but assured us that there was no problem with the heating system, maybe I was coming down with a cold or something. I stayed cold for the remainder of the trip so it obviously was just me.
A nice wardrobe had ample hanging area, drawers, and a 27” television on a slide out shelf. It had to be on a slide out shelf because the doors did not open flat and the view of the television would be blocked if it remained inside the cabinet. After checking the channels, it really didn’t matter if the television was blocked anyway. There was little to offer on this set, mostly hotel related channels.
Two large upholstered chairs with a table balanced out the room. Susi was a little ticked because she had brought along a 700 page book and her cross-stitch to work on while she took a break from the casino. The major problem, at least the first night, was the lighting. There was one table lamp, between the beds, that must have had a 20 watt bulb in it. She couldn’t have seen a durn thing even if she sat the unwieldy lamp on her lap. Oddly enough, the second day a floor lamp showed up in the room. Don’t know exactly where it had been, but suddenly it was there. However, by then she had discovered a slot machine at the Silver Legacy Casino and the cross-stitch and book were forgotten.
The bathroom was large, a single sink in marble counter top, with the appropriate toiletries provided - soap, shampoo and such. The sink water was very hot, extremely hot, but a great disappointment in the shower area. Two major points of contention with Susi are the showerhead and the toilet paper. I am happy to report that the toilet paper was double ply, not the best but adequate. The showerhead was a different story altogether. The water was regulated so that you could not really get a hot shower. A tepid one at best. Guess they didn’t want to get sued for someone getting scalded in the shower. The other point was the water-saver showerhead.
While we both understand the premise of a water saving feature there is also a down side to this. Certainly it doesn’t supply a full stream of water and, I assume, hotels think they are saving money with this feature. However, because the water supply is so paltry you have to spend twice the amount of time you normally would trying to get a decent shower, wasting more water than you would have with a normal showerhead. But we realize these things won’t change - sigh.
Towels, an overabundance of them, were supplied every day and they were large and soft. You know how hotel towels are generally a tad bit rough? These were soft to the feel, almost like they had softener in them although I am sure they did not. It was nice though.
Room gets a 8-1/2 on the scale, mainly because of that water pressure thing.
Dining
Whoa boy, now this is the bummer. Certainly they offer room service and the menu seemed extensive. I don’t know exactly where they were obtaining this food from, couldn’t have been from the hotel eateries. There were several eating places available. Over the course of 3 days we tried to sample several of them, mainly to no avail.
Thursday evening we did try the Fresh Market Buffet. At a price of $12.99 a head, it is well worth the trip if you are a glutton and you enjoy a wide variety of food. For smaller eaters and plain folks like we are, they probably made money off us. They did have a fresh pasta bar, everything prepared to order, or so the sign said. However it wasn’t available either night we attended the buffet. Thursday night I had the prepared to order Chinese dinner of chicken and rice. The menu was extensive in the Chinese area, each meal cooked while you watched. And way too much food, more than a normal human could eat.
Susi wandered through the balance of the buffet bar picking up mashed potatoes, chicken, meatballs, vegetables and who knows what else, filling her plate full. There was also pulled pork barb-e-que, sliced turkey, ham & prime rib, salads, fish dishes, and oh yeah, desserts.
We tried the buffet Friday night, at 8:45 p.m. but discovered, after being charged $19.95 a head, that not only was it seafood night but also that they were pulling all the food from the buffet since they closed at 9:00 p.m. On a Friday, can you imagine? We got a refund and began our endless quest of trying to find food in a city that never closes.
Our next stop was Andreotti’s Italian Restaurant, beside the buffet. Boasting the best Italian food in Reno, we were interested in giving it a try. The prices on the menu posted outside the restaurant ran the normal range, $15-$20 for a dinner, however THEY closed at 9 p.m. as well.
Adjacent to the buffet and Andreotti’s was Club Cappuccino, but as the name suggests, they offer coffee type treats, pastries, and for some reason, pizza by the slice. Since none of these interested us, we didn’t even check their prices but at least they were open after 9 p.m.
Stopping a passing guard, we asked if anything in the hotel was still open and we were assured that Cafe Napa remained open 24 hours a day. It was just a few yards from Andreotti’s so we walked over to check their menu. Not only did the pricing seem a bit high but everything was served with either a wine sauce or other type of sauce based covering.
Frankly we were just looking for a burger and fries.
Other facilities for eating at Harrah’s include Lucky Noodle Bar, which was located adjacent to the elevators to our rooms. However we never saw it open, must have had really limited hours. It appeared to be a quick bite type place that offered everything from Tom Yum Koong to Spaghetti Marinara. At least that is what their sign said as we peered through the rope draped over the entryway.
The North Beach Deli boasts the authentic taste of San Francisco and is located in the Center Street Casino, near the Racebook. Never saw that one open either. The Sapphire Lounge offered appetizers and all the booze you can imagine but the sounds coming out of there made us realize just how old we were getting.
Apparently Harrah’s is noted for their steak house, voted one of the top ten in American, but we never located it. Probably could have asked for directions, but by then we were getting pretty ticked about the eating thing anyway so we headed across the street to the Cal-Neva figuring we could pick up one of their famous dogs and beers. Uh huh. Their snack bar is open 23 hours a day. We picked the time when they close down for their twice a day 1/2 hour grill cleaning.
Finally by 11:30 p.m. we were eating a half way decent meal in a place called Molly’s Garden, located in Flanigan’s Casino, down the street. Don’t ask. Also don’t ask about their lounge acts, we thought it was karoke it was that bad, and their slots were all nickel slots, progressive.
But back to Harrah’s.
Food service at Harrah’s rates a 3, and I am being generous.
Amenities
Swimming pool - outdoor and obviously not open in November. We didn’t even bother trying to find it.
Arcade - video and pinball for all ages, in the West Tower. Open 24 hours, children under 12 must be attended.
Child Care - they say to look up child care or babysitters in the phonebook. As if!
Gift Shop - all the little souvenir goodies you want but get there before 8 p.m. because that is when they close.
Hair Salon - located in West Tower. Open from 9-5 daily. Full service.
Health Club - located in West Tower. Coed with Nautilus equipment, cycles, rowing machines & free weights. Also has steam room, sauna, whirlpool, tanning beds and massage services. Open 6 a.m. - 8 p.m. daily.
Laundry - no guest laundry service but they will do your duds for you for a nominal fee I assume.
Shows
While we stayed there Sammy’s Showroom (named for Sammy Davis, Jr.) featured Wonderland, a magic extravaganza and Showgirls, which was billed as adult entertainment. We looked at the pricing for Showgirls, it was $39.95 each but they offered guests a $10 discount. There was also a dinner/show package for $80. We didn’t do either. From the outside the theater appeared small but since we never stepped through the doors, can’t really say.
Casino
Can’t say we were exactly thrilled with the casino action at Harrah’s. In fact, we don’t like the casino at Harrah’s Cherokee, North Carolina, either. There were a wide variety of slots available ranging from 1¢ to $5.00. Some machines actually cashed the money out, others printed a ticket to be used in other machines or redeemed at the cashier window.
There were plenty of table games and a large poker area. But since we found the slots unproductive, we spent most of our time at the Silver Legacy, 3 blocks away. We also visited the Elderado and Circus-Circus which we found smelled of wild life.
Casino at Harrah’s gets a 2 on the scale
Check Out
Gotta admit we were a little ticked about this check-out thing. For one thing, our plane left at 6:36 a.m. and with the new regulations requiring you to be at the airport early, we would have to take a cab. They had told us that the free shuttle ran from 6 a.m. until 1 a.m. After the painless 2 second check-out, we asked them to order us a cab for the trip to the airport.
Just as we loaded into the cab, we asked two young men who were waiting there if they needed a ride to the airport but they said they were waiting for the shuttle which started in 10 minutes @ 5 a.m. It would have been nice of the staff to inform us of this, especially after we asked if they knew what the fee would be for a cab trip to the airport.
Staff courtesy gets a 2, check-out gets a 6 on the scale.
Cleanliness and appearance
Overall the hotel and casino were neat and well maintained. There was little trash tossed about around the slot machines, you know how grubby those places can get. One reason could be the lack of people actually playing in the casino, for a weekend it seemed fairly empty. The only casino that seemed to be full and rocking all the time was the Silver Legacy.
There was an overall Asian flair to the entire hotel, including music that was piped over the loud speakers, food service, and landscaping. It was attractive, but not our style.
Our room was kept neat and tidy. Public restrooms were constantly maintained and cleaned. Furniture and carpeting seemed fresh and clean.
Cleanliness and appearance gets a 10 on the scale
To return or not to return, that is the question
Probably not. We like to stay where we play and Harrah’s offered little in the slot machine play time for us. We like the convenience of going to our room to get away from the hustle for a while or even take a nap. Since we weren’t playing at Harrah’s, it was quite a walk to go back to our room for a break.
Since we purchased this as a package, I’m not exactly sure what the pricing for the room was but I think it ran about $250 for 3 nights. In the meantime, we’ve earned enough comps at Silver Legacy for 5 free nights - grin - and we like the slots there.
Certainly there is nothing to say about the hotel that would deter someone else from enjoying all it had to offer as long as you learn their limited feeding schedule and your prefer seafood and Asian fare. Bon appetite.
Recommended:
Yes
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SurgRN911
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