During my most recent trip to Las Vegas I spread my wings a bit and stayed at a property I never visited before, the Westgate. Off the strip but close by, the historic hotel and casino has housed its share of legends, During my visit Barry Manilow was performing at the casino, for instance, and there was a lot of people there to see him.
As an older property I didn’t go in with expectations too high, and there were definitely pros and cons for me. Here’s what I encountered.
Casino Floor
The slot floor initially didn’t wow me – it felt small, and compared to some of the strip competition it certainly is. The casino floor is 55,000 square feet, and has about 550 slots and a decent table games area – probably not far off from the Virgin Las Vegas.
They have a lot of accessible bets though on the casino floor – lots of $1.50 Quick Hit like Quick Hit Riches, mechanical reel games with denominations starting at quarters, and so on. That made for a pretty well balanced floor as I got deeper into it.
And while I had my ups and downs, it definitely felt like the games were easier to bonus, perhaps a benefit of its age and location off strip. It led me to try some games I normally wouldn’t try and spread my wings – I had a great time.
Table games had some accessible bets – they had a $10 Blackjack table and $10 Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, for instance. They also had a 000 Roulette wheel with a lower minimum than the 00 one. Both weren’t always open, however.
The video poker was alright – nothing to write home about. At the $1 denomination level you can inch above 99% overall payback, but lower denominations didn’t have anything special.
Hotel Rooms
When I first walked the hallway to my room I was a bit nervous as the hallways seemed very dated, but my worries were for naught when I got into the room. The room was very modern and very clean, and quite spacious.
The lobby area was a bit bigger than average (meaning the bathroom area unfortunately forfeited part of the space) but ultimately it was a great room to stay and sleep in. I was definitely pleased with what I ended up with.
I was on the 23rd floor in the North Tower; at the end of the hallway was a scenic elevator that was slow but cool – I ended up using it a few times just for the heck of it. They certainly seemed to be short on elevators at times and had weird improvisational steps to deal with it when it got busy, but more on that in a moment.
World of Westgate Rewards Program
Westgate has its own rewards program, World of Westgate. The program says you get 1 tier credit and reward point for every $10 gambled, but I was earning comp points faster than tier credits and I’m pretty sure the comp points were earning at the published rate. So I’m not sure what happened there.
During the weekdays they had wheel spinning opportunities as you earned tier credits, and although the prizes were primarily in the $5 to $15 range, it was certainly frequent enough to be helpful over time.
The tier year is February 1-January 31. Tiering up gets you bigger discounts at shops and restaurants when paying cash, as well as show tickets, so if you’re a Westgate regular that can be helpful. You also qualify for point multiplier days at Gold and above, and daily point multiplier days on the top two tiers.
Other Observations
They have a shopping area, filled with boutique shops, many of which seem focused on specific targets like females or kids or other segments.
Similarly they had a restaurant row which featured a Benihana square with a few dining options, as well as Italian and a steakhouse. I ate at Fresco Italiano for dinner one evening, and had a delicious meal that was delivered quickly. I ate at the bar and had a very attentive bartender taking care of me.
They had two coffee shops, one (The Marketplace) which also made fresh crepes and other food items but closed at 2 pm each day. Two out of my three days there I missed the window, having lost track of time, by just a bit, but did get a crepe that was very good.
I had checked in on a Wednesday for three nights, and around mid-day Friday the property began to be overwhelmed by families with kids. That’s when I learned the property was hosting some sort of a wrestling event for the kids. Their infrastructure did not seem prepared for the avalanche of people.
They opened up staff elevators and took other steps to try to deal with the overflow, but it was a mess. The coffee shop lines Friday morning were massive, for instance. Saturday morning from the 23rd floor down, the elevator stopped at every single level, with people trying to get downstairs, but we were overfull by the 20th floor. That was the case mind you at 7:15 in the morning.
It’s great to see Vegas busy, and I’m sure the Westgate was excited to have a group that large, but it definitely put a strain on the property’s limits. Given the property’s proximity to the convention center, I’d keep that in mind during the biggest convention events as well.
Westgate is famous for having hosted Elvis as a performer for the later part of his career; there’s fun little moments around the property in relation to this that’s worth checking out.
Westgate Las Vegas Videos
Travel Ruby stayed there awhile back:
Ruby also checked out their buffet, and here was her review:
Coolist did a room tour of the Signature Room:
