minhaoxue

No. I was traveling with a couple who were visiting Vegas for the first time. They really wanted to try out a Buffet and I was told the Wynn was the only one available. Granted, It has been five plus years since I was lat in Vegas and I really did not know what to expect during this Covid period. I was a little disappointed with what they served and they did warn us the portions with be smaller than usual. There was a ~2 hour table limit.

minhaoxue

The Wicked Spoon is only open for Brunch. We were doing a dinner.

SinglePapa2

So last 24 hours for my young family in Vegas, before flying back to NY Sat 4pm. A few quick questions:
1. Just installed UBER APP for the first time ever, and successfully loaded $100 Uber Cash into wallet (from UBER giftcards). Also successfully added uber.com official promo to receive $5 off each of my first three rides. UBER rates (from Mirage area to LAS) may only be like $10 to begin with, making this ride a no-brainer. Alas, UBER APP is proving impossible to deal with. When I tried to confirm my trip in NY to airport, it was reverting with all kinds of prohibiting messages, incl. to UPLOAD OTHER METHOD OF PAYMENT. Then it wouldn't approve upload of any of my credit, debit or prepaid cards. And I can't find any tel# for UBER troubleshoot; it appears, riders are not offered tel#. Are riders offered CHAT? (I can't find that either). So it could happen tomorrow that I won't be able to order UBER afterall (?), although it could be practically free for me if worked.
2. So I'm seeing $35 car rentals (from LAS to LAS) giving me 24hrs of car use. Considering renting in next 2hrs, so will have to return car by 11am Sat. If so, then:
- I like driving. What trips should I consider, besides aimlessly navigating Strip and Downtown?
3. So I may end up at LAS as early as 11am Sat. My flight is after 4pm. Centurion Lounge likely didn't re-open yet, but AMEX sent me PRIORITY PASS Select member#, which is accepted at LAS Club, facing the Centurion Lounge. Is there time limit (inside LAS Lounge, which likely closes 3pm)? How is it?

roadtriper

Red Rock Canyon is worth the price of the rental car! Good Family destination, 13 mile Scenic drive and only about a half hour drive as I recall. I believe the Visitor Center and Store are still closed. but the Park should be open. great picnic areas if that's your sort of thing, hiking trails etc. a nice deviation from the Glitz of Vegas You'll be glad you went! RT

gengar

Uber can be pretty finicky with adding cards. There is support via the app messaging under the "Help" section (if you can't find a relevant topic, just pick anything that will connect you to support).

RustyC

Buffet@Asia at Eastern & Flamingo or on Rainbow is probably what you're looking for, though I wasn't blown away even though they have tons of stuff. Google has listed them as open though I dunno what they're doing post-pandemic.

Too bad Todai isn't still around, though that was more Japanese-y (and cost a bit more).

roadtriper

SO... Did Ya do something Interesting with the Family your last day? or did you continue your search for those .99 Drafts??? RT

SinglePapa2

So the background is that we vacation from NY to FL 3-4x annually (seasonal holidays/schoolbreaks), but this was our first Vegas. It came about as a combination of two deals:
1. Frontier had $11 non-stop dates from EWR
2. Venetian offered $0.00 nite to essentials

Later, a friend gave me his expiring RCI points - and the best Strip timeshare had an exchange sale. So our total with their resort fees came to less than 1k for two weeks Fri-Fri, and then came the Venetian nite.

Big bonus: timeshare put us up sub-Penthouse, and Venetian put us up on Palazzo's 44th floor looking South over the Venetian roof. Palazzo was immaculate, but the luxury 2 queen Suite was only about one-third the size of the timeshare/zero kitchen, so it frankly paled by comparison. But free is free (And LAS Club 3 hours prior to departure fed us well, plus drinks galore)

Now: because I don't gamble, and kids are mostly comfort/virtual creatures - we spent most of 15 days with a million-dollar view, and basically "working from home" + pool visits. We did make a point of an hour leisurely walks with backpacks for groceries every 4-days: just past Maryland Ave, there is "99 only" on E.Flamingo and Von's on E.Tropicana. We walked at 92 degrees on 8am open, or 100 degrees near 8pm close - and found the weather to be fantastic. Even 110-114 midday was very pleasant in pool area

As to Strip: who doesn't love the architecture and window-shopping of designer stores? But only Fri-Sat was there any crowd to speak of. Sun-Thu literally a dozen evening tourists on Strip. I predict domino of bankruptcies

redtop43

I used to go to Vegas every month and stay at Orleans. Since COVID I planned one trip, for late July, but cancelled. I was hoping things would get better than they actually did. I don't really plan to go, but I thought I'd look at rates for the third week of October. I was pretty shocked, they are actually a tad MORE expensive than the usual weekday rate. Weekends are a bit lower. It might be that I can get a slightly better deal if I call - the website hinted at that. (I'm at a low but not the bottom level of their loyalty program.) Not that the price is a deterrent - if I don't consider it safe, it could be free and I wouldn't go. Mainly I won't go if I have to wear a mask to play blackjack, and of course that would be an absolute.

radiolarian

Wow! Everyone is in town this weekend!

Left the fully packed Wynn garage and a line of cars were waiting to come in. Unless you were staying at the hotel, cars were being diverted to Encore and Palazzo/Venetian.

Went to the Venetian and the Grand Canal was fully packed. Didn’t check out the gaming area but assume it was packed.

Later on went to Cosmo. The casino was packed like it was opening day. There was open space at the tables and it was easy to find open slot machines. It seems like plenty of people were walking through the casino and hanging out.

Silver Fox

Isn't that usual for a Labor Day weekend?

sbrower

And therin lies one of the many big problems for Vegas. You say "like it was opening day" but also "open space at the tables and it was easy to find open slot machines." If you want to know what "like it was opening day" means in a town dependent on gambling, find the articles about opening day in Macao and the crowds fighting each other for room to place bets, etc.

flyertalker28120

Yeah. But this time there were warnings from health experts. There was a huge surge of covid-19 cases following the Memorial Day and 4th of July weekends.

And some (including Fauci) say that an untick now would be worse. Think how the weather is likely going to be after a cycle or two of transmissions.

More here (link to a NYT article which may be behind a paywall).

gengar

Think OP's point was that the place was packed with people who weren't actually gambling.

sbrower

I don't think so, because he said that he assumed the tables were "packed" at a casino he didn't even visit. And saying it was "busy like opening day" implies that there was a lot of business. But maybe I just didn't understand him.

I guess what I am trying to say is that one Labor Days Weekend, with a bunch of people in LA wanting to go "somewhere" is barely relevant to whether Las Vegas will ever return to 2019 levels (which requires hundreds of in-person conventions - something that won't exist for at least a year from now even IF the pandemic ended this month).