My husband and I were in Vegas in 2013 for a Helicopter convention (he's a heli pilot). We had an amazing experience at the Flamingo and they were my 500th review. I had hoped review #1,000 would be for our most recent stay at the Excalibur in Jan 2014. Bleh! What a nightmare. I have a pretty awesome memory, and there were so many horrible things about this experience that I actually had to start writing them down so that I wouldn't forget!
We booked this trip just for fun and because Southwest Airlines had a good deal. It was less than $200 each for four days, our flights, and a rental car, plus $20 hotel food/drink credit. Which honestly is about what you can find anytime for mid-week, off-season in Vegas. The trip was supposed to include all taxes/fees but a mandatory resort fee for use of the fitness center and such was imposed upon arrival. Whatever, it was only $50 more.
The robot of a woman who checked us in told us there was wifi in the rooms. I asked if it was free wifi and she said yes. While the casino floor has wifi, there is none in the rooms. So her misinformation was a little annoying. But worse than that was that around every corner of the hotel, someone is waiting to ask if you want free show tickets, free dinner, free this, free that. All you have to do is listen to them offer you a deal where you pay up front to come back to Vegas in the next year... blah blah scam. We also had papers shoved under the door in our room with the same "please come hear our non-time-share presentation" bull sh*t written all over them. (As well as different pizza delivery places shoving their ads under our room door.) So much for respecting our vacation privacy. The last thing you want to hear while you're getting it on in your Vegas hotel room is some stranger at your door giving you unwanted advertisements. F*ck you, Excalibur.
The $20 food/drink credit isn't valid at the Hotel Buffet which makes absolutely no sense, so we used it at the Steakhouse which was a joke as well. Gross service; average food. Everything about this hotel is below what anyone would consider an acceptable standard. I imagine they once had their glory days... but even the carpet in Tower 2's elevators (EVERY elevator) was worn down with holes, exposing the glue. Which was sort of funny since a flooring convention was taking place while we were there. The five minutes of work it would take to lay new carpet is probably something they could've secured a good deal on last week.
We enjoyed the pool, but the fitness center that our resort fees were paying for was rather small. I still enjoyed it every morning. The adjacent locker rooms are an additional fee with locker rental for $25! Other spa prices were absurd as well. Every morning around 7:30 a.m. we received a new phone message telling us to check out their spa services. Every morning! An overpriced massage from this hotel? No thanks!
Of all the hotels we gambled at (at least 10 or more), Excalibur had the worst drink service. It was non-existent. You'd think you'd get a drink if you sit at a machine long enough? Yes, we did. We got one drink the first night we were there. (It happened to be the best hot chocolate we'd ever tasted in our lives) but in the days that followed we never had the opportunity to get another drink. Walk over to Luxor and gamble there, or head elsewhere on the strip. This place sucks.
The queen beds in our room on the 20th floor were horrible (room 20228). We slept in one the first night, (or rather, barely slept), and went to switch to the other the second night, in hopes it was better, but there were old blood stains on the sheets so we went back to the first bed. We switched to a king room on the 23rd floor (room 23269) the last night ($5 fee but they waived it for us). The bed was a lot better. Not like a Marriott mattress, but we finally got some good rest. Or perhaps we were just exhausted by then. The pillows were the best thing about the rooms. Soft, plush, large and wonderful.
The "contemporary" rooms had bathrooms from the 80s with little showers spraying water with poor pressure. No bath tubs. At least they appeared clean and the towels were soft. Aside from check-in, the staff we interacted with were nice. Room service people we said hi to in the hallways were friendly and smiling. An awesome bartender brightened up one of our miserable days here as well.
My husband and I had an awesome trip. We had so much fun - outside of the Excalibur at other hotels. We would never stay here again though, no matter what sort of outrageous deal we were offered.
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