Venetian Macau Opening
 

For those of you in HK around the end of August, the Venetian is opening on August 28 and have a very sweet opening deal which is bookable on their website.

$1008+tax/night for a weekday Bella Suite
$1288-1888+tax/night for a weekend Bella Suite

I believe that these rates are valid till the end of September.

Seems like the perfect incentive for a quick macau getaway!

Gosh, slickalick, I am planning to be in HK again in the near future and was planning to visit Macau. THanks for the info but I will likely miss-out on the opportunity since I will arrive in November.

Has anyone tried Starworld or the Crown? We'll be staying there in a few weeks; wondering if anybody had feedback/recommendations?

From my friends who were at the Crown opening and stayed the night, the hotel is not that great. Have been to the Starworld casino, which is right next door to the Wynn. It looks like a decent property, but haven't seen the rooms. Seems more catered to the Mainland crowd, however.

Hardly surprising since that's where 90+% of the money gambled in Macau comes from...

Yes, that's true :D. Probably a better way to say it would be more catered to traditional Mainland "tastes" a la the new Grand Lisboa, versus a more international flavor at the Wynn, Venetian, and even the Sands Casino. Definitely EVERYTHING in Macau is catered to Mainlanders in general...lol.

For a casino wanderer (but not gambler), it's very boring to go to all the new casinos. Since the mainlanders only play baccarat, 90% of the tables are just that. It's much more interesting in the old Lisboa, where locals and HKers go to play the more traditional Cantonese games.

The Lisboa is interesting, but more than just for traditional Cantonese games. Take a stroll in the mall downstairs and you'll see what I mean ;).

More American, to be precise. There is not much old European gambling (left?) in Macau; I am partial to the MO because it reminds me of some fading Passée-les-Bains.

We stayed at the Starworld and Crown last week, and I liked the latter very much. The view is spectacular, and the rooms are well furnished and generous in size. The entire place feels very stylish and luxurious. In my view, it currently is the best Macau property -- except for the location, of course.

The Starworld was fun, the rooms are also pretty nice, but I think we were the only Westerners there. Language skills are a bit lacking, which in our case resulted in somewhat lowered service levels. If you can excuse that, the Starworld is great value.

Finally we stayed what may well have been a last night at the MO. I still love the resort, and the rooms are OK, but the bathrooms are in desperate need of repairs. For those who aren't bothered by this, the MO (esp. at the club level) is still a nice place, but it certainly is not the best value in Macau. I was very sad to see the casino deserted, while other places were super busy.

For a player of "Western" games, of course, the new places are highly undesirable. (There is no difference for Baccarat players). While the Sands still offers a single-zero roulette wheel (albeit with numbers in a strange order) and dealer stands on all 17s Blackjack, the Wynn has started the trend toward 0/00 and dealers hitting on soft 17s. The best deals can be found at the old SGM casinos with their oddly slow and bureaucratic games (and an inordinate number of burned Blackjack cards); the MO features late surrender without the usual restrictions that come with this very player-friendly rule. When watching the Asian games, I am always stunned by some of the spectacularly poor odds associated with some bets. But Western sucker bets are now available as well, thanks to "Casino War."

Photo Report - Venetian Macau
 

Well, had a short break in Macau this weekend and had the opportunity to stay at the Venetian. I'll let the pics do the talking with some short commentary. Enjoy.

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Front Desk Area/Hotel Lobby
The hotel was booked solid from the day it opened right up until the 11th of September - that's all 3000 rooms!

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VIP Check In Desk
We checked in at the VIP Salon which is just off to the left of the main reception desk. Staff here were top notch and within two minutes we were checked in.

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VIP Check In Salon
There is a nice seating area with TV and reading materials.

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Small Buffet in the VIP Check In Salon
A small buffet including finger sandwiches, cookies, fruit, cheese, soft drinks, and fresh juices was on offer within the VIP Salon. Cookies were amazing! Yum..

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Sculpture in the Hotel Lobby
Lots of Gold - not OTT like the Burj al Arab but just right to play to the sensitivities of the mainland punters...

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Corridor towards the Casino and Hotel Wings
This is the first hotel in Macau where you had to walk through the casino to get to your hotel tower. It is quite confusing at first, but plenty of maps available.

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Suite King Size Bed
The standard suite is just shy of 800sq.ft. Housekeeping was probably the saddest part of the experience. It was obvious that we were the first ones to occupy that room. However, there were no amenities, bathrobe missing, and a very noticeable layer of dust on all the table tops. Not impressive.

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Suite Living Room


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Food Court at the Grand Canal
There were plenty of restaurants open (or soon to open) within the hotel. However, these are all concessions, with only a few being operated by the hotel itself. Amongst the bigger restaurants are Morton's and Cafe Deco. Surprisingly, Cafe Deco is supposed to be the biggest restaurant within the resort, however in the 3 days that we were there, we never came across it! We didn't eat at any of the restaurants here (we ate all our meals at the Wynn which was SUPERB!) except for the food court.

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Food Court Seating
The outlets within the food court are mainly geared towards the mainland cuisine with few exceptions at the moment. International options include Thai, Vietnamese, Pasta, Burgers and Pizza (coming soon). We did try some Thai for a snack, and it was possibly the most awful food court food ever! Three pieces of fatty chicken in a green curry sauce with stale rice for HK$60. One of the previous posters mentioned that the Venetian should have used their clout to attract some big name F&B operators to the venue, however, what we saw was pretty 3rd rate.

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Entertainers at St. Marks Square
You have musicians, and those human statues in 3 locations around the grand canal shoppes. But not nearly as much street entertainment as in LV.

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Gondola Rides
Gondola rides are available for HK$120/person or HK$480/private gondola. No one was seen taking the gondola ride during the 3 days we were there.

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Central Atrium


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One of the Bars within the Casino Area
Live entertainment within the casino was in the same variety as you will find in any Macau casino now. Sadly nothing special. Guess we have to wait for the Cirque du Soleil.

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Pool Area
The pool area was a hive of activity - sadly not with swimmers but rather construction workers. Watch out for the nails and other construction materials on the floor....

Other comments....

The shopping mall was huge, with plenty of shops that even HK doesn't even have. Yes, it would be great if you came here exclusively for shopping, but the average mainland punter would rather be spending his/her money in a casino. Again during the 3 days we were there, we observed plenty of window shoppers - but not one person carrying a bag from any of the stores. There are also some very very high end stores such as a diamond jewelry store whos shop window display didn't have anything under HK$1million displayed. I don't know how these shops will fare in the long run - apart from acting as a loss leader or to generate publicity.

Overall the stay was pleasant, but not great. I still think the Wynn is the benchmark in Macau in terms of service and product. The Venetian for one lacks staff who can communicate well in English. We found this to be a problem with almost everyone we encountered at the Venetian, or any other Macau hotel for that matter - with the exception of the Wynn. Service also was another issue.

Just an example, just before dinner we both developed severe headaches (from inhaling all those mainland cigarette fumes) and wanted some Panadol. We called the 'Priority Service Line' and was told that the hotel couldn't provide us any, but the Apothecary sold Panadol. So after a 15 min. walk from my room down to the shopping level to the Apothecary was told that they didn't sell any medicines and was given directions to go to 7-11 by taxi. I chose not to do this as we have dinner reservations at the Wynn. Got a cab to go over to the Wynn, asked reception to get us some Panadol and told them that we would be having dinner at Il Teatro (mini review after this rant). A minute after being seated at Il Teatro, a nurse came up to check if we were ok and after a few questions gave us some panadol. My wife was feeling cold and was offered a shawl whilst being seated - but as we were leaving the manager told her to keep the shawl as it was a little cold and raining outside - that's service.

Now Il Teatro at the Wynn is by far the best Italian dining experience in Macau now. Forget about Don Alfonso at the Grand Lisboa (too many reasons to list why). The steak was divine, the service was sublime, and i felt like giving a standing ovation every time the fountains danced for us. Enough said.

There was an article in the NY Times about the new Venetian Macau.

What stuck out at me was the average amount of time that a person spends visiting the territory: 1.26 days. The article even stated that the 1.26 day figure was skewed by HKSAR residents who work there during the week and return back to HK on the weekeneds.

Vegas was something like 3.5; also stated that people "pack lunches and rarely spend on anything but gambling."

I hope it works long term for those involved in the casino business there. I'm hoping to go check it out fairly soon.

slickalick, thanks for a great report and photos. From my visit there in June, there didn't seem to be any other projects close to completion besides the Venetian. Are there anything to do outside of the hotel grounds?

Nothing else is close to completion in the immediate vicinity of the Venetian. The FS and Shangri-La are supposed to open in 2008 (also on the "Cotai strip" area).

thanks for the pics slickarick. I'll be in Macau next year and since the rooms are no different from Vegas I'll give Wynn a try.