Planet Hollywood Strip View Suite,

Room Review: Planet Hollywood Strip View Suite


BigAzMarty Checks-In to a Planet Hollywood Strip View Suite.

Hey, all! BigAZMarty here with a recent room review; the Planet Hollywood Strip View Suite!

This is a room for someone that loves to look out from the bathroom and enjoy a giant panorama view. Of course, my wife saw the Oyster pictures, and it was comp’d for us, so she said yes let’s stay there while waiting for The Park Theater to open (Stevie Nicks and The Pretenders). Just before a big storm arrived, we got to the hotel and valet parked (still free this year) which is the preferred arrival as the self-park is a 1/2 mile walk through the Miracle Mile shops. We get to the Diamond Check-In, and we’re a little early, but the very friendly clerk says I have something already available and no early check-in fee charged.

The room is up on floor 21 so seven floors up from the Resort Vista suite we had back earlier in the year. This sounds promising, so we get to the room, and it’s pretty much in the middle of the main tower. Open the door and go hmmm, an interesting place to put a giant column. We walk in and notice that this room is rather interesting. To the left are the two upholstered chairs in front of a large entertainment center with a large 55-58″ Panasonic Plasma HDTV. The entertainment center backs to the wall that separates the room from the hallway. The chairs back to the wall that separates from the bathroom. In front of us is the giant column and the Jacket from Good Will Hunting hanging on the wall to our right. So we walk around the column, and it gets nicer, much nicer. Just past the column is a very large glass desk with a chrome and leather office chair (remember this because it’s useful later). The coffee maker, wired internet connection, and a phone is here as well as an office light.

Further back in the room almost to the single window is the main bed area, standard PH bed fare with two circular tables and lamps on each side of the bed, one table has another phone on it, the other has the alarm clock. The table closest to the windows has an electrical socket in the wall. On the left wall at the foot of the bed is another Panasonic Plasma, a little smaller say 50″ or maybe 42″ on an entertainment center that houses the safe.

Planet Hollywood Strip View Suite Planet Hollywood Strip View Suite

Now for the biggie, on the left is the room to the bathroom. It is HUGE, immediately to the left is a full shower (no seating, so it’s really big feeling). To the right of the entrance are the his-and-hers sinks with Oval Mirrors set between the ceiling and counter. In between the two areas is a full area for a sit-down makeup area for the ladies (but odd no chair/stool…remember that office chair…it’s wheeled in and used almost immediately). In the middle of the room is a round, almost Hot Tub sized, tub. It is huge! My wife used it twice and sounded like she was swimming as she moved about. She really liked it but it a lot shallower than the full soaking tubs in the other rooms (makes up for it in hugeness though). Now on the far side of this huge tub is another walkway that leads to the water closet/toilet. This is large and spacious but it’s a little odd in its setup as there really is an issue of “centering” yourself while sitting down. Now the windows….we were in the odd applique area where they do the building decals for Britney and such so your view is sort of like looking through a thick screen door. Phone cameras love to focus on the decal rather than the further out objects so that’s fun as well.

 

We got to see the storm come in as we were unloading stuff trying to figure out where the drawers were (up front in the living room entertainment center). And, the closet (saw an odd door in the wall over near the living room chairs where it’s sort of circular and yup that’s the closet, just one) which had the robes and iron in it as well. We watched as the rain and 56 MPH gusts landed on the strip that day and it was wild to see the strip almost empty of people walking and no one at the Cosmo Ice Rink. They even closed Eiffel Tower and High Roller at The Linq due to the winds.

So far so good right? Then my wife notices and this is just odd timing but PH is working on their water systems and they actually turn off the water on the floors between 10:30 AM and 3 PM during the week and sure enough no water. This becomes a little bit of an issue as once they get it back on….it’s, simply put, a trickle. You know those electronic sinks that dribble out water in low volume streams…all the water in the room is like that for the whole trip. Tub took like 20 mins to fill….shower had to be turned on full blast to get any hot water and sinks were a joke. Hopefully, this will be remedied as their water pressure early in the year was fantastic and I hope they don’t do the cheapo route and kill one of the nicer things about staying there. But we so enjoy (not) waiting 5 minutes to flush because it’s not filled yet and taking 10 minutes to brush because there isn’t enough pressure to rinse off the toothbrushes. Lucky we were only there for 2 nights for that. I’ll let you know if it is remedied in our New Years report as we will be in a PH Resort Vista room for part of that…hopefully with a view of Aria and Ceasar’s Palace for the fireworks.

I can say this: we did enjoy the room other than that and if given the option would reserve that again. The big living room TV was great while my wife was getting ready and the views out of the bathroom are fantastic. One other odd issue is the bathroom opening from the bedroom has no door so expect that light in the morning as there is no blackout capability in the bathroom windows. So, giant panorama view in the bathroom, and the rest of the room shares just one little window. Opposite of the Resort Vista room.

So, all in all, we loved the room especially the two TV’s that you could watch from the bed/desk and the other in the living area. Surprisingly both really didn’t compete as much as you would think. All in all a good stay, bed was very comfy and housekeeping was great and wife made her diamond level for the year…without wasting too much cash.

I was trying something I’d seen heavy players do, after a decent win cash out the ticket and pocket it and run another $20 through. I did this on one machine for multiple 4OAKS and then played on 100 play penny and 10 play nickel machines with pretty good luck. Oh yeah Top Dollar…put in $40 and got down to like 2-3 bucks and it hit the 50, 25 and I think a 5 and a 1 so $81 on 3rd option..nice there. Wife hit a 4OAK Aces and kicker so half a royal on quarters so that helped as well. Next day no dice on anything at PH but it was middle of the weekend during the day…but MGM properties saved our butt that day while heading to the Park Theater and coming back. Thank you, Aria and Monte Carlo slots and our first big 4OAKS there!!! For you people that remember the SoCal TV channel 9 and the weekend Elvira show, Aria has a full screen curved slot themed for Elvira and boy is it themed correctly.

I hit close to $100 on it and it’s hilarious. Women folk may not think so, but remember, it’s Elvira at her best. And thanks PH for the nice room and housekeeping service we will be back for sure and for the VP play the first day…it made the start to the weekend much much nicer.

Oh and shout out to La Salsa Cantina (Miracle Mile Shops) and Spice Market Buffet and Planet Dailies that are still great places to eat for standard no fu-fu fare as we are but simple folk. Next time if it’s warm enough we’ll get down to Virgil’s BBQ to check out the Brisket! So, all in all, a great trip, some issues that I guess you have to live through and they did tell us via the paper notice (in fairness that notice also said if it was an issue they were to try to find better floors to be on). I would for sure do it again if available…wife feels the same way so we’ll probably be flipping between Strip View Suite and Resort Vista Suites a bit until we figure out which we like better at PH.

[Photos: BigAzMarty]

8 thoughts on “Room Review: Planet Hollywood Strip View Suite

  1. I’ve always dug PHo. The vibe is cool and the rooms I’ve had were very nice.

    I don’t stay there in the summer though, because the pool setup is so horrid.

    1. The pools themselves are fine, it’s the deck layout that bites. And that comes from the old Alladin setup…PH never changed it although the new wave rider at least gives you something to look at if you are in the big middle deck area.

  2. Personally I found the Strip Suites to be a left over from the bad design mistakes of the New Aladdin (for you young kids that was the bankrupted hotel that became PHo). The bath while having great views is the biggest waste of hotel room space on the Planet (pun intended). The counter and the goofy pull down screens obstruct what could be magnificent real estate for a hotel room. Imagine if a Ginormus soaking or whirlpool tube was placed next to those windows like the Resort Vista rooms have? Better yet carving out the bath to that awkward corner and using that great window space for a couch with a recliner. Like Mrs. F said when we stayed in this room. Who wants to wash their face and put on makeup looking out at the strip? I hope CET guts and does a do over on these poor attempts at a low roller suite. They should take a page from MGM design school on how to use window space in hotel rooms.

    1. My wife didn’t mind the windows (she opened up the blinds and enjoyed the view everyday as she was getting ready). I even wheeled in the office chair for her when she wasn’t using it at the desk. And she enjoyed having two TV’s in there as I was watching football and she was watching news while I was waiting for her to finish up her maintenance for the day. It is an odd layout but there was some good aspects to it. That column however is just odd. Remember this hotel was built before City Center and Cosmo were there so the mountain views must have been nice at that time.

  3. I’m staying there for the first time in a couple of days, in large part, thanks to your review of the Resort Vista room. Can’t wait!

  4. The problem with this room the counter obstructs the view in the bath. I don’t get the placement of the bed especially with the smaller windows like Hollywood Hip room. Having the TV space in the back is a plus, but it’s a real stretch to call this a “suite”. Yes they are an upgrade to the Hip rooms, but would I choose this room over a Resort Vista or plain old resort room with a view. Not a chance. Unless sitting at a bathroom vanity counter watching the fountains or high roller is your thing, then this room is your dream stay.

  5. I heard the ph upgraded their rooms apparently this one wasn’t upgraded. Its a nice room but the floor layout is a bit dated. Rooms with the tub in the middle of the bedroom reminds me of the Pocanos mountain motel/hotel rooms, i.e. Luv tubs, etc. I wonder why they did not have a notice in the rooms or inform u at checking about the water situation?

    1. I believe that the upgraded rooms are the ones listed as Ultra Hip rooms, those are updated from the old Hollywood Hip rooms. Maybe the Panorama Suites as well. I think that it was commented in my Resort Vista review a couple of months back that said they are working top down on the renovations. So I think 36 – high 20’s may be done but they are still working on the lower ones. We heard work being done above us when it was totally quiet in the room so they might be down to 23 by now (usually they close 3 floors at a time and work on the middle one to lessen the noise to guests), As for the water pressure, it was a paper notice in the room. Front Desk did not mention it but the paper notice said if it was an issue come back down and they would try to accommodate a room move, we were there only 2 nights so we said nah…didn’t want to have to pack up and move again and we can live with low water pressure being desert dwellers ourselves.

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