Last week we attended the ribbon-cutting and grand opening festivities at The Water Club, a Signature Hotel by Borgata and, if you thought the Borgata was nice, you haven’t seen anything yet.
The Water Club is an 800-room non-casino hotel & spa, meaning you need to walk about 300 feet from the lobby through a retail corridor until you finally can see or hear a slot machine.
The Water Club is away from the hustle and bustle of Atlantic City, yet close enough that if you're feeling lucky like JLo's mom, the penny slots, blackjack tables and roulette tables are never too far off.
We tripped down to the Ontario-area over the weekend to spend the night at the first ever Aloft in the U.S. We couldn't wait to finally see the inside of a real Aloft (not a Second Life one).
As we turned off the 10 freeway and started making our way to Fourth Street, we saw the Aloft building in the distance. It looked just like the renderings we have been posting for the past couple of years which was a strangely eerie feeling.
We snapped out of our haze and pulled into the parking lot, parked our car next to the Aloft van, grabbed our bag and headed in.
We were very excited to stay in a grand dame hotel like The Westin St Francis on the south edge of Union Square. We don't always go for landmark hotels like this, but the occasion called for it and we went in with eager eyes. The other organ that immediately kicked into high gear were our stomachs. The St Francis is home to famous chef Michael Mina, yum!
Walking into the lobby struck another one of our senses and not in a good way. The place smelled old. As if we were stepping into a museum replete with that stale library scent. Sure, the lobby is impressionable--there's echoey marble everywhere--but this is not a strikingly modern, architecturally progressive hotel lobby like THOR.
Then again, we were thankful it wasn't a W Hotel lobby...er "living room". Blech!
The pools at the Palazzo Las Vegas have just opened in time for the warm weather and we've got the scoop on what's involved.
The pool area is anchored by a giant Olympic-sized plus swimming pool which has wading lounge chairs at each end. This is probably one of our favorite things about the Venetian pool area and we were happy to see the Palazzo put even more of these chairs in here.
There's two quieter pool areas on each side of the main pool and the entire area is surrounded by VIP cabanas. We even heard that there is a set of rooms being built above the pool area for major VIPs, thus giving them direct access to the pool area.
A Wolfgang Puck poolside restaurant is expected soon and the Canyon Ranch spa will be offering massages and other treatments in cabanas as well.
And good news for guests of the Venetian, you can use these pools. Palazzo guests can also head over to the Venetian's pool area, although we would prefer to just hunker our butt down in a wading chair here with a good book.
As promised, here is the second installment of our lengthy, multi-dimensional review of the Palazzo Las Vegas.
This time it's all about the hot tables that got us so giddy as the Palazzo was in the midst of hotel opening hype. So did they live up to our expectations? For the most part yes. Although there were a few disappointing dishes here and there.
Since we were set up with fixed menus at each of the restaurants we tasted, it was really hard to get the full experience, but we have summed up all that we sampled over at Jaunted under the site's ever-popular Table Crashing series.
Here's a preview:
CUT: The Vegas interpretation of Wolfgang Puck's popular Beverly Hills steakhouse remains true to form. The decor is different as Richard Meier did not design the space. But we think Las Vegas-based design firm ABA did a good job. The place actually looks less intimidating.
As we told you yesterday, we were fortunate enough to spend 48 hours inside the Palazzo Las Vegas checking out the offerings from top to bottom, far and wide.
To simplify the review, we're only going to tell you today about what was in the actual rooms at the Palazzo. In the following days, we'll have separate reports on other elements of the hotel like the restaurants, the shops, the entertainment and the spa and pool.
Over the Easter weekend we took a mini-trip to London with a friend and stayed at the Baglioni Hotel overlooking Hyde Park in Kensington. In fact, we took this deal that we found on Tablet Hotels: three nights for the price of two at 230 pounds a night which included daily breakfast and a chocolate Easter Egg.
And we're going to tell you upfront that we liked this hotel a lot. Location, rooms, price, and free internet--this place had it all.
Our video tour is a little dark but don't worry, there are plenty of pictures after the jump.
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by AndrewC
