An Unconventional Vegas Vacation
If you know anything about me....I do not usually do a conventional vacation! It is our "style" to use one city as a "hub" and then travel from there to places that are nearby so that we can experience an entire area. When we were looking at some National Parks that we wanted to visit this year, we realized that they were clumping nicely around Las Vegas. Las Vegas had an airport and decent airfare so this was how we chose our hub! In this case it was a benefit that the hub itself had lots to see and do!
When devising our itinerary for this trip, we realized that it was probably pretty ambitious and would involve quite a bit of driving so we built in a few days of rest and relaxation along the way. Our first two days were Vegas days and after looking at several of the large resorts, we chose the Venetian as our "place" for this short Vegas stay.
Vegas and The Venetian
Our flight was a later flight into Las Vegas from Cleveland. It was worth taking the later flight because it was a non-stop. Any time I can get a non-stop flight I try to take advantage of that luxury and work my vacation around it! So by the time we landed at McCarran International, made our way to the rental car facility and finally to the Venetian it was about 9:30 PM local time. We pulled into the valet area and were quickly greeted and given our valet ticket and a bellman was right there to take our bags. We headed on into the hotel to check in. What a beautiful sight greeted us as we walked into the lobby. Yes...we definitely felt like we were in Vegas! 
There wasn't much of a line at this time of night, so we were quickly greeted and given the keys for our room and directions (along with a map) on how to locate the room! Believe me....we needed the map! This is a huge resort and finding your room can be a bit of an adventure so make sure that you pay attention to the directionsthat the front desk provides!
Once we got into our room, we took a look around and within a few minutes the phone rang. It was the front desk telling us that our luggage was on it's way. Nice touch! In the time between the phone call and the baggage arriving, I decided to check out the mini bar. They had these really cute bottles of Diet Coke in the front and of course I just had to pick it up and show my husband. I immediately put it back and shut the door of the mini bar. It was at this moment that I noticed the sign on the mini bar that said that it charged automatically once the item was removed. Luckily the bellman showed up...he asked if the front desk had told us about the mini bar (obviously I am not the only person who does this!). I said no and explained that I had just taken a bottle of Diet Coke out and returned it. He said that there is a 15 second delay before the charges kick in so I was good. (There was no charge on our final bill so it all turned out well.) I would just offer as a tip: Don't pull anything out of the mini bar that you don't want to buy!
After our initial tour of the room, we realized it was only 10:00 PM. It's Vegas...it is still early. So we freshened up a bit and headed on down to the casino to try our luck. We didn't last long since it had been a long travel day but at least we got to check the place out out and made a plan for the next day!
Breakfast at the Grand Lux Cafe
The next morning we got up and headed out to explore the resort a little more. This place is huge! It is really like a city all by itself. We started out having breakfast at the Grand Lux Cafe which was located just off the casino floor. This was a bit of an odd experience. We walked in and the hostess seated us promptly and then we sat.....and sat.....and sat.....no server. Servers were walking all around us but obviously no one was assigned to our table. Finally the hostess came by again after several minutes and we asked if she would be able to check on our server. We did finally get a server and she was pretty attentive once she arrived. We had decided by the time she came that we were going with the buffet since we weren't sure how long it would take to get served. We placed our order and headed across the room to the buffet. Half the chaffing dishes were empty, the omelet chef had a bad attitude, the breakfast breads were stale. We went back to our seats and another group was just finally receiving their food. They had been waiting for at least half an hour by this time for pancakes! The restaurant wasn't busy. Vegas really isn't a morning type of town so the amount of people at breakfast isn't really overwhelming. The buffet was average at best. Personally I wouldn't recommend this restaurant...there are many, many others in the resort so I am sure there are many other better options. Not really a good start to our stay but hey....it was just breakfast so we let it go pretty quickly. There were so many other things to see and do!
Apres Breakfast
After breakfast we decided to play a little in the casino and then head up to the shops. I had heard so many wonderful things about the shops at the Venetian and this area of the hotel certainly did not disappoint! It is truly an amazing place to see. Even if you don't stay here or even use their casino, if you are in Vegas you have to stop in and just check out the shopping area. It is a very high end shopping area so be prepared to see some high end merchandisers. It was fun just to walk around. If you want to take a ride in the gondola, make sure you purchase a ticket first. There is a fee for a ride. We didn't ride but it was fun just to watch and listen to the gondoliers. You are truly transported to Venice!Time to get a real look at the Room
The Bathroom had a beautiful granite double vanity,
a soaking tub,
a walk in shower, separate room for the toilet (complete with phone)
and even a makeup table!
Our"Luck" Kicks in
If there is one thing about me, it is to expect the unexpected. If there is something strange that can happen it will!As we took a look around the room and checked out all the amenities it had to offer, my husband walked near the window and stepped on a piece of glass that was left on the floor of the suite from a prior guest. So now his foot is bleeding....It is a small piece of glass luckily but it sure made a mess. As he is hopping around the room, we are looking for the bandaids that we packed. There's a tip....always pack bandaids! We finally located the bandaid, removed the piece of glass from his foot and bandaged him up. Things happen.....housekeeping cannot alway be perfect. We simply went on with the day. No time to stop for a cut lol!
Evening at Ruth's Chris
Our ritual vacation dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse was at the Ruth's Chris Las Vegas which is located in Harrah's. Harrah's wasn't far from the Venetian so we decided to walk. One thing you should know about Vegas is that because everything is HUGE, it looks very close. Once you start walking you realize it is not quite so close. Luckily, Harrah's really wasn't that far away and we had a nice leisurely walk to and from dinner. The meal was delicious. Service was good. Views were nice. The restaurant is located on the level above the Casino...just take the elevator from the casino level and you are there. Back to the Venetian
After dinner we headed back to the Venetian and spent the evening in the casino, just having some fun. No we didn't win anything LOL! I did however come in second in that days' slot tournament so I won $75.00 of free slot play!
Exploring the Gardens of the Venetian
The next morning we decided to explore the beautiful garden area of the Venetian. This is where the pool is. There was a wedding about to start (I know...a shock that there was a wedding in Vegas!) so we ran in and grabbed a few pictures while we could.
A Very Disappointing Ending
Right after we left the gardens, we headed back to our room to check out. It is very easy to use the on screen check out to avoid the lines that were forming in the lobby. I would recommend if your bill is in order and you are using the credit card that you provided to the hotel upon check-in, use the express check out.
We grabbed our bags and headed down to the lobby to get our car and head off on the next part of our adventure. We had the valet ticket in hand and presented it to the Valet stand. And then we waited and we waited and we waited for our car to be brought around. Finally it shows up and this is what we see:
My husband informed the valet that this could not be our vehicle because there was no damage on it when we checked into the hotel. Well....um.....well.....customer service was called over and well...um...yes something happened to our vehicle while it was parked with the Venetian Valet. They assured us that it was not their fault that this happened (OK....well it wasn't ours...we hadn't seen the vehicle for 2 days!), They had gotten the person's name who struck the vehicle. The story changed a couple of times.....once it was that it was struck as it was parked under the canopy just after we checked in. The other was that it happened in the valet parking garage. They did get the name and information of the person who damaged the vehicle and they did give us that. We asked if there was a report done by security.....um....no because it wasn't their fault. We pressed and they did offer to have security come and do a report. We then waited 20 minutes for the security person to show up on a bike and tell us over and over that it wasn't the Venetian's fault. We said we understood this but there should have been a security report completed on the incident so that we could provide this to the rental car company. Finally after much protest he agreed to take my husband's statement....not really very helpful at all. The customer service representative was very nice and tried to be helpful but it seemed that his hands were tied. He offered to see if they could comp us for the delay and inconvenience caused by this. We did not ask for any compensation nor did we expect any. Good thing because he came back and said, the hotel couldn't do anything for us because it wasn't their fault. Ok....this is becoming a theme!
Finally, the security person took the other party's information and said he would complete a report that the rental car company could request. 45 minutes after we tried to collect our vehicle, we were sent on our way with no real resolution.
I kept trying to tell the employees that the reason that I was annoyed by this wasn't so much that the vehicle was damaged while in their control but that they didn't notify us (we were guests at the hotel....the front desk called to tell us our bags were coming.....they could have easily notified us!) of the damage to vehicle until we were ready to depart. They didn't provide an incident report and then argued with us that they didn't have to do one. They delayed us 45 minutes because they didn't handle this proactively by contacting us sooner in our stay. No one really seems to understand the real issue here is lack of good customer service. This is not what I would expect from any hotel let alone a 5 star resort that touts it's amazing service to customers.
Unfortunately the disappointing ending really negated the positives of this resort for us and we will not be returning to the Venetian again. It is however, a very beautiful hotel and I am sure that this doesn't happen to the majority of their guests. We did enjoy our stay but last impressions are sometimes the most important.
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