As you fly into Las Vegas the first thing that strikes you is the lush green golf course in the middle of the desert. Once you get over this the next thing that will draw your eyes and make your gasp in awe are the enormous hotels that line the strip. You can name the most famous from the air "MGM Grand, Luxor, New York New York, Caesar's Palace and the Bellagio" but for me I couldn't for the life of me point out where we would be staying.
The "New" Aladdin is located opposite the Bellagio Hotel half way down the famous strip, and stretches over 34 acres of Nevada Desert. Based upon an Arabian theme, the Aladdin boasts:
· 2,600 oversized rooms and suites. · A casino that spans over 100,000 square feet. · A theatre that can seat 7,000 and provides three shows nightly. · A shopping mall spanning 500,000 square feet. · A nightclub with a 3,500 capacity. · 6 restaurants within the casino itself. · 2 Outdoor pools · The Elemis Spa and Health Resort. · A Wedding Chapel · 2 Convention Rooms, suitable for up to 2,000 delegates.
Taking the above into account, this is no Holiday Inn and everything about the hotel has the ability to make your jaw drop. The drive into the main reception area itself is simply stunning and sets your heart racing as it finally dawns on you that you are about to experience something like never before.
This is truly hit home as you walk into the reception area to check in. Cases in hand you seem to glide across the marble floors into a huge dome. A bank of receptionists and clerks (15 were on duty when we arrived) wait patiently to take your details and process you as guests mill out around you. Nothing is cramped and a huge amount space is provided to what is normally an arduous task at best. After giving our names and I.D to the receptionist we were allocated to our rooms and away we went, but not before we could appreciate the genuine warmth that came across from the lady who had dealt with us. She smiled, was polite and made conversation as to the reason of our visit to Las Vegas.
The Aladdin has four types of room depending upon the price you wish to pay. The basic room is called the Deluxe and started at £59 per person per night. After weighing up the pro's and con's of staying in such a room (we thought at £59 per night it would resemble a Travelodge) we decided upon the Fountain Room at £79 per person per night. The main reasoning was that all Fountain rooms have a view of the 30-acre Bellagio fountains, which after seeing Oceans Eleven, I wanted to see more than anything else in Vegas.
Although we had taken a virtual tour of the room online, nothing could have prepared us for the actual room itself. It was much better than I had expected and I was taken aback. The room was decorated with an Eastern theme, sandstone in colour with dark wooden furniture.
Our air conditioned room contained a Queen sized bed which was big enough for 5 judging by the amount of space we had, a chair, a cabinet/wardrobe that held the 21" television, ironing board, safe and numerous draws and a desk complete with PC. None of the furnishings were small in nature and even though we had dumped lots of luggage around the room it still didn't seem cramped at all.
As we were on the 34th floor, we couldn't open our window, but a vent had been installed to allow fresh air into the room. Even though we stayed at Christmas, we found that during the day we needed to keep the air conditioning unit pumping out cold air to combat the oppressive heat. The room added to the Vegas vibe, and the only thing that didn't impress me was that the windows didn't allow much natural light into the room.
The bathroom had to be seen! Entering via a set of double doors, marble was everywhere. A mirror stretched from one end of the room to another making it look even bigger than it actually was. The main room comprised of a sunken bath, a shower cubicle and the basin. Off the main room was the separate toilet. The bath was fantastic, when sat in it, the water came up to my shoulders and I'm not the shortest person on Earth!! The only fault I could find with the bathroom was the marble floors. These became a skating rink once any moisture hit them and I regularly found myself hanging onto things to keep my balance after getting out of the shower.
Due to the dry nature of the air conditioning and heat outside, bottles of water are left in the room and refreshed each day. Although each litre bottle cost $5, we found that reception did not bill us for these when we left.
Each day the maid would arrive first thing in the morning but usually after we had left for breakfast). She would leave 5 large towels; refresh the complimentary soaps and shampoo before making the bed. Something I found strange was that the maid also picked my clothes up off the floor and folded them neatly!
Everything about the room was fantastic apart from when we needed to use the PC to access the Internet. Internet access cost $9.95 for 24 hours of use and was automatically billed to the room. We needed to use this facility to look up the address of the wedding chapel we were due to get married in on Christmas Day. Our PC wouldn't work. We telephoned reception who passed on the number of the service engineers. We called this number and a very helpful man talked me though plugging in the hub and checking the wires. It still didn't work!! After all this, he said he would get an engineer to come to the room, 2 days later! This was no good, as we needed the information there and then,
Thankfully, the hotel had a business centre and we were able to locate the chapel!
This was the only problem over our time at the Aladdin. The staff could not apologise enough for this as much as I protested that it wasn't an issue! Although we had no problems, our guests did have a minor hiccup. Their toilet blocked and proceeded to flood their bathroom. Not a pleasant experience but the hotel maintenance team swung into action on two occasions and had the fault fixed, the room cleaned and the bathroom disinfected within 30 minutes.
Overall, nothing can stop my praise for the people at the Aladdin hotel. The rooms are fantastic, spacious and extremely good value for money. The staff were nothing but helpful, polite and very charming making the actual hotel stay the most pleasant experience I have ever had in a hotel, but I wasn't in Vegas just to sit in a hotel room, I was there to get married and gamble!
The actual Aladdin casino spans over 100,000 square feet and contains the most slot machines in Las Vegas at 2,800! Everywhere you look is a slot machine, a light flashing the sound of credits being paid out! I was in heaven!
The actual machines range from plain old slot machines where you either win or don't, machines with jackpots of $10,000 and can be played for as little as a cent a go, up to the machines with the million dollar + jackpots that are far more involved, such as the Jeannie machine Rachel became addicted to! Personally I loved the Wheel of Fortune machines, using the thinking that if I was going to lose an obscene amount of money gambling, I would rather do it with a chance of winning $3.2 million!!
Most casino's (the Aladdin included) have cars on top of a few machines and allow the winner to either collect the car or fixed cash prize of usually $30,000. The cars ranged from a Crossfire, a Mazda RX-8's, a Mercedes SLK, a Porsche Boxster and even an enormous Humvee!
In addition to the slots, the Aladdin casino also houses 79 gaming tables with games such as Baccarat, Craps, Roulette, Blackjack, Roulette, Keno, and Poker. The minimum bet at each card table was $25 and had maximums of $20,000. Although I did try my hand at Blackjack, I found that I was rather poor and decided after $400 to hit by bed. I did however find a touch of beginners luck when I turned to the Roulette wheel winning $2000 (as we were leaving to go home!).
It is worth noting that when you are feeding the machines or gambling at a table, the waitresses that circle the casino floor will provide any drink of your choosing free of charge, I found that by tipping a healthy amount, they returned within minutes and this was much cheaper than actually purchasing drinks from the bar. I will allow Andy. Mack to provide details of the waitress rating system!
Eating in Las Vegas is something of a religion! Whilst staying at the Aladdin we didn't use any of the restaurants located in the casino itself, we preferred to move into the shopping mall that contained everything from a Hawaiian Burger Bar to a Mexican Cantina. One thing that is noticeable is that prices in every bar are harmonised, and this meant that each place had a steady trade. One place wouldn't be packed because it was cheaper than the rest!
In addition to this, all of the places to eat in the shopping mall overlook a square where a performance is staged every 30 minutes. This included acrobats, a contortionist and a man and his birds! Entertained while you eat!
Personally my favourite was Cheeseburger at the Oasis, the Hawaiian themed restaurant. Greeted by an Anthony Kiedis look-alike in a grass skirt, they were attentive, polite and always on hand to make the whole eating experience out of this world. The food was mainly burger based and there were huge. At least 21/2 times the size of a Whopper here in the UK!! Not only was the food tasty, it was cheap. A meal for four, including cocktails equated to around £12.50 per head and we had to leave the side orders as we were stuffed!
The Mexican Cantina was a mistake! The food was rather bland, and the service was shocking. As a saving grace they did serve wonderful cocktails!
Each morning we would meet in the Zanzibar café for breakfast and this was the meal for the day. Nobody could manage another bite for hours after! They offered a full breakfast menu that included T-bone steaks (that were fab) to the Lil' Joe which comprises bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, asparagus and pancakes! Each dish cost less than $10, freshly squeezed orange juice cost $3 and the best coffee I have ever tasted was $2.75 for as much as you could drink! Every morning the staff would be bright, bubbly and cheerful and this was infectious. Their bright and breezy attitude did rub off on us and this only added to the wonderful time we had.
So, what do you do if you don't eat, don't fancy looking at huge hotels and don't gamble? YOU SHOP!!
The Desert Passage is the dedicated shopping mall that spans over 500,000 square feet. Cycle rickshaws are available for hire to drive you around, in addition and one thing I found surprising was that you could smoke as you walked around!
Taking into account that probably 20% of the shops sold tack that only tourists buy, I loved the fact that hidden away we would periodically find a quaint shop selling quality clothing or accessories. I purchased a Tumi travel bag (to carry our purchases home) for $195, the recommend price being well over $500. Although most of the shops weren't well known to me, the Desert Passage did have Gap, French Connection, Clinique and Eddie Bauer stores!
My favourite shop was the memorabilia store. Most of the items in stock were out of my price range. It stocked guitars signed by U2, original scripts of the Godfather signed by Marlon Brando along with a Chopper motorcycle. This was a very expensive store but worth walking round just to see what was available, what it was worth and what I would have loved to purchase.
The shops were set in Arabian surroundings and it felt as though you were actually walking through a bazaar at times. A lovely artificial blue sky looked down upon rows of shops making this a wonderful experience. Every 30 minutes, the sky would cloud over, thunder would start and an indoor rainstorm would commence. This was very well done and the rain only actually fell into a pool in the middle of the walkways meaning that unless you stuck your arm into the rainfall you didn't get wet at all. A fantastic addition to a shopping mall that was superior to the Trafford Centre or Brent Cross in the UK.
The 7,000-seater theatre hosted three shows whilst we were staying at the Aladdin:
· The Fab Four - A Beatles tribute band. This show is still currently showing at the time of writing (February 2005).
· Steve Wyrick - A magician. Again, this show is still ongoing.
· X - An erotic show for those over 18.
Although we didn't actually go and see any shows at the Aladdin, a friend did go and see Steve Wyrick and he could not recommend it enough. The show was spectacular by all accounts and included numerous acts and illusions. The smile on our friends face was obviously worth the $30 he paid for his ticket.
Again, we didn't visit the nightclub Curve. Open every Friday and Saturday evening this is the place within the resort to dance and strut your stuff. We did see large groups of people dressed to the nines waiting to enter and it was obviously not the place you go on a limited budget. Entrance is $20 and the cheapest bottled beer at the bar will set you back $10!
A free show is performed each evening within Sinbad's Lounge. Again, we didn't purposely go and see this, but from the casino you could hear the poor lady singing (or trying to sing) and to add insult to her obvious injury (vocal) she was projected onto a screen on the casino floor. It wasn't a surprise that this performance was free!!
All the major hotels in Las Vegas have their own wedding chapels, and the Aladdin is no different. Located on the first floor it gives off a very classical European feel as you walk past. It gives off a vibe of something special and discreet. Elvis got married in the "Old" Aladdin and I had wanted to get married here too. Unfortunately, Christmas Day is the only day they don't conduct services.
Overall this resort is fantastic and I cannot praise the facilities and staff enough. The rooms were out of this world and I found myself constantly wondering whether I was dreaming or not. The Aladdin has everything under one roof, nothing is done in halves and staying here only added to what was the most enjoyable five days of my life.
After visiting a number of other hotels on our vacation, the Aladdin in my view could only be bettered by the style and sophistication of the Venetian, the most expensive hotel in Las Vegas. It should be noted however that the Aladdin will sadly not be around forever as the owners have plans afoot to convert the resort into a huge Planet Hollywood in 2006.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Aladdin Resort & Casino 3667 Las Vegas Blvd. South Las Vegas, NV 89109
Telephone: 702.785.5555 Fax: 702.785.5511
www.aladdincasino.com
Thanks for taking the time to read and rate.
Steve :o)
More details
Quality of Food & Drink
Excellent
Cleanliness
Excellent
Family Friendly
Average
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