"2"^^ . . "1"^^ . . "Well, one of my best friends and I decided to tag along with my parents to Las Vegas. It was the first time for both of us, and my parents, having booked their nice room a few blocks off the strip in a chain hotel for a good rate, said, \"We'll take you into town, buy you a nice meal or two, but you're on your own.\"\n\nFair enough.\n\nSo, said friend and I decided that since we were only just slightly above poor college kids status, we'd find one of the least expensive hotels on the Strip and spend our money in other ways, like shows or shopping since neither of us had any real inclination to gamble or stumble around drunk. Imagine our delight when we found a room at the Imperial Palace for something like $89 a night!\n\nAnd imagine our surprise when we set foot in that lobby! GAH! If Vegas wasn't such a new novelty to the two of us, we'd probably have seriously considered walking right back out because it was dark, dingy, and reeked strongly of smoke--even for a Las Vegas casino. I've been spoiled out here in California where we don't have this indoor smoking thing anymore.\n\nBut anyway, I could have even put up with that if the following things weren't so sub par:\n\n_Food. One morning for breakfast, instead of opting to hit a buffet, we decided to go to the sit-down plated place, tantamount to a Denny's. Except a lot more expensive and with worse food. (For the record, I don't mind Denny's food at all, but this wasn't even up to that level.) I don't even really remember what I had, except that I found myself dumping a lot of salt on it and trying to pick out the good stuff and leave the rest. I'm not a picky eater either.\n\n_Room service. Yes, room service is expensive no matter where you go because of the inflated price and extra charges, but I spent my last $13 or $14 in cash on what was basically a microwave mini pizza. It was advertised in the damn book as a Pizzeria Uno pizza, which I normally love, and this was NOT it. It had that sh*tty cheese that tastes like plastic and everything. I was so livid when I opened my box, but I was hungry and they already had my money.\n\n_Spa guest service. I didn't even get any services done there, but on our last day my friend and I decided to try and see if we could just get a quick pedicure done. We walked up to the desk and asked if they had any openings for that, and the lady said, \"No.\" Not, \"No, I'm sorry, we're booked for pedicures today. Is there something else you'd like to have done?\" So my friend and I walked off a couple feet to decide on another service. We walked back up to the counter and asked after the next one and the girl said, \"No. Everything's booked for the day....sorry.\" And she said it in that tone of voice that REALLY says, \"I'm not sorry one bit, and I'd sooner you drop dead than I accomodate you in any way.\"\n\nThe ONLY good marks I will give this casino are the following three things:\n\n_The Auto Collection. I'm not even a car buff and I really enjoyed looking at the old cars they had there. I'm also glad I didn't pay for it, though. We used coupons.\n\n_The Dealertainers. Most of them were pretty bad, but a few were spot on and it was cheesy good fun to watch them in the pit.\n\n_The location. Harrahs and the Flamingo on either side and Caesar's across the street made for a decent location.\n\nBut if I can help it, I will NOT be booking a room at the Imperial Palace again."^^ . . "1"^^ . "2"^^ . "2008-04-17T00:00:00"^^ .