Checking-In: A Room Review of Planet Hollywood Ultra Resort Vista Suite

BigAZMarty ‘s Room Review of Planet Hollywood’s Ultra Resort Vista Room

Hey all, BigAZMarty here and now for our 2nd resort for our trip and to our surprise, we got a newly remodeled Ultra Resort Vista room at Planet Hollywood. So while I was not expecting it, I now have to review this new room as well.

This room was our original room for the trip we reserved and had done as a plain Vista Suite on Total Rewards site for a Tuesday – Saturday stay 100% Comp’d. Thank God for my wife’s Diamond Status….we arrive, Diamond is still free Valet, so we take advantage of that all week long. We hop over to Diamond Check-in and for kicks try the $20 sandwich…and it works!!! Score!!!! Not only do we get a newly remodeled room we also get the view of the fountains and up high enough to almost see all the Bellagio fountains. The Diamond clerk was super friendly and personable so kudos to that and opposed to the mindless robots at Delano was a really good sign of the rest of our stay.

We get our keys after a lively enjoyable conversation with the front desk clerk and head up to the 22nd floor just off the elevator bay (nice redo but covered previously). I love the Lucite sconces as does my wife (I have a feeling a bathroom remodel at the house is coming soon, so we’ll probably have to find those). We turn the corner and down the short tower hall to the end where our room is. We unlock and enter and holy cow they changed a ton in the room. Most of it good…and some opportunity for further improvement.

First off, it’s actually bright and light, more white/gray/tans, and browns with red accents. Very nice, and a much better redo than mods from THE Hotel to Delano. There are some subtractions…the long counter, mirror and 2nd sink are gone, replaced by a large picture and a table and art on the opposite wall. There is now a door to the bathroom, and it’s redone as well. Still no double sinks but plenty of counter space to put everything. New marble flooring (yup slick when wet) a new sink area and a lit mirror. The shower stall was re-tiled to match more with the white instead of the old yellowish marble used previously. The former excellent pressure shower head has been removed to a large rainfall type head, and there is a limiter on it, so it’s more like water streams, not full pressure jets. It still does the job however and no issues there at all. My wife remarked that the tub seems to have been sanded down and not resurfaced, so it’s still “sandy” feeling she said. The commode area has new wallpaper, but the bidet is gone now…so why did they leave the commode at that odd angle…they could have aligned it better for the walls. It’s a new commode as well. The 2nd big TV is now gone, replaced with paint in the bathroom, and that odd corner is still just an odd corner (could have put a makeup desk back there with a makeup mirror). But the lights in the mirror at the sink are excellent.

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Now back out to the main room, the dual closets are still there, and the doors have been replaced with more solid doors. However this is a nice surprise and different, the former desk area has been removed, and a counter put in its place with doors below and a glass shelf above. The coffee maker has been moved to the counter there, and it also holds the ice bucket and glasses. In the doors below the counter are a mini fridge (empty for use for anything!!!!) and three shelves. The closets have a safe, and iron and iron table and an extra blanket available. So, better already.

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Now for the main bedroom area. The bed is still comfy, and you have nightstands with two electrical outlets at the lamps. Not only that but on the window side of the bed there is a full two socket electrical outlet that is available. The old single chair for TV viewing has been replaced by a loveseat done in a tan leather (didn’t have that Naugahyde feel) with an array of throw pillows. They have added in a small table with two chairs to the window closest to the TV. My wife had to call down for a makeup mirror, and that table did double duty as her desk as well as her makeup desk for the stay. The TV hutch has been redone in a white gloss Formica type as well as the three drawers. The TV itself has been swapped from a Panasonic Plasma to an LG HDTV. No difference in the picture quality but probably less expensive to run. The artwork is now above the bed, and it’s racy females so don’t be offended. I’d say the photographer was inspired by old 1980’s Patrick Nagle art…just seems to come across that way to me. It’s nice, but after about an hour you just don’t notice it anymore.

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The HVAC had an issue the first night and was just recirculating room air while the bathroom was over-blowing cold air. Maintenance was up super quick (1/2 hour) and had them adjusted and working again correctly so no issues there. Room Service was still mostly the Planet Daily’s menu, and it was excellent.

To our surprise, Yolo’s Mexican Grill (downstairs) menu had changed slightly, and we tried Chips and Salsa with the Queso which we then ordered every time we went back (it’s good). The first visit we had the Three Cheese Enchiladas with just Spanish Rice (I don’t recommend the cilantro rice as it sits in some lime green colored liquid…ewww). If you want to be filled order this…it’s a cheese bomb and oh so good. Needless to say, we never made it out to La Salsa Cantina as Yolo’s now beats it hands down. On our first visit we didn’t get there in time for the lunch specials but the 2nd visit we were well within the timeframe. My wife had the lunch special burrito (machaca), and I had the street tacos (Chicken). If you like a light lunch try the chicken street tacos, there are 3 of them but they are on the small side but really, really good, and I had room for dessert this time (cheesecake chimi…YUM) and had two spoons so I could share with the missus.

Pools were open, and we hit them up two of the four days…we still like the Everyone Pool and were down as soon as the sun hit the pool deck. Planet Hollywood’s pools are on the 6th floor and out front, so the sun has to clear the towers..usually between 10 AM and 11 AM. The reason I’m mentioning pools is they have now put in (right in the middle of that useless sundeck) a row of table games running east-west from the place you get towels to the bar/snack building. Not only that but the bar/snack building has a ping pong table in it as well. So they are improving it quite a bit….I’d move more ping pong tables out to the sun deck floor as well. That’s just a fun summer activity. Watch the new Stephen Curry/Serena Williams commercial sometime to see what I mean.

All in all a good stay….I will report more in a full trip report later on as we had a busy time (two different resorts and two major shows) and it went way too fast. So much so that my wife has a Caesars Palace – Palace Tower Premium Room reserved for after the 4th of July through the following weekend (PH was booked full for some reason on Total Rewards for that period). So if you have a chance to get one of these redone Ultra Vista Suite rooms…take it!!!! We enjoyed it quite a bit. Oh and remember, this worked the whole time…call down to housekeeping to let them know your room is ready to be made up….you won’t regret it.

[Photos: BigAZMarty]

BigAzMarty

A computer professional who has worked at several types of positions with several different businesses and still learning and changing.
Introduced properly to Las Vegas and Laughlin by the spouse and have been going ever since 1990.
A frequent visitor from not to far away where it’s almost always 10 degrees warmer than Vegas.