Hotel Review: New York New York - Las Vegas

Since this was our first trip to Vegas we let our friends make the decision where to stay.  I was given options but didn't feel like I knew enough to even offer my opinion, one of the people we went with visits Vegas about 3 times per year so we let him decide.  He is trying to stay at all the hotels so he choose New York New York this time.

Overall Impression
The outside of the building captures the skyline of New York including the Statue of Liberty and a roller coaster.  The lobby of the hotel has an art deco feel while the restaurant area is reminiscent of the street of New York with the deli's and restaurants.  While they did a nice job on the decor, the overall feel of the main floor (lobby, casino & restaurants) is very dark which I don't particularly care for.  There was also a resort fee of $15 + tax a day that a lot of the other hotels didn't have. 
Rooms
The rooms were pretty nice but not extravagant.  We paid for the Park Avenue Deluxe room with a view of the strip.  I thought the decor was nice, there was plenty of closet and drawer space and the bed was fairly comfortable but the pillows were awful.  The only other hotel that had pillows as bad as these was at a casino in the Michigan UP, maybe it's a casino thing.  The bathroom was nice but nothing special.  The shampoo, soap and hand lotion smelled good.

Restaurants
We ate at quite a few of the restaurants and overall I was pretty dissatisfied with the food.  Since we ate as so many of the restaurants I'll give you my impressions of each one.
         Il Fornaio - We ate breakfast the first morning at this restaurant and was very please with the quality of the food and the service we received.  I ordered the french toast and a hot tea while my husband ordered eggs and bacon with a Pepsi. When we checked in we were given a coupon book with a buy one get one free breakfast which we took advantage of.  Even getting one of the breakfasts for free our total bill (including tip) came to $31.  This was by far the best meal we had at the hotel and I would recommend breakfast here if you are staying at the New York New York
       America - We ate breakfast here twice.  The first time the food was not very good but the service was acceptable.  I ordered the french toast and hot tea, both of which tasted awful.  The water tasted like pool water which I think affected the taste of the tea. My husband ordered eggs and bacon which were OK.  The second time we ate there I ordered the mushroom, spinach and Swiss omelet which was pretty good.  However, I found the waiter to have a little bit of an attitude.  I felt like we were a little bit of an imposition.  We may have been staying at the New York New York but I didn't expect the New York attitude.  Both meals with tip were about $25.  I will say that there was a pretty cool map of the United States on the ceiling done by artists depicting the highlights of each state, I would definitely check that out if you are staying here.
       Greenbergs Deli - We ate lunch here once and I wasn't very satisfied with my meal but my husband felt that his was OK.  Mike ordered a Reuben while I ordered a beef and cheddar sandwich.  My sandwich was very dry and didn't have a lot of flavor.  With chips and two sodas (no tip) our bill came to $26 which I thought was a little expensive.
       New York Hot Dogs - We ordered hot dogs from here and they were just OK, I think my husband enjoyed his more than I enjoyed mine.

We also ate at Krispy Creme and Starbucks one morning, they were pretty consistent with what you would expect.

Pool
I found the pool to be pretty disappointing.  The pool was relatively small, very crowded and it was difficult to find chairs.  The music was quite loud and the roller coaster was very noisy making it difficult to relax.  There were three hot tubs, one of which (the one we grabbed) didn't have working jets.

Service
Besides the room service (biggest problem there was we were shorted our soap/shampoo one day) I only had a few instances where we needed to interact with hotel staff. 

          Concierge - I was responsible for scheduling the Hoover Dam tour which I didn't get done before we left.  In the past,  I've scheduled tours through the concierge desk with multiple options and suggestions offered to me.  I was given one choice of a tour at a high price than what I had seen advertised on the Internet.  We went ahead and looked up a tour on line using our phones and saved about $20 per person (note - the tour we bought didn't have an additional stop at a candy store that the hotel offered).


         Business Office - The woman we were traveling with had a problem with a lost licensed.  Fortunately they were able to call home and get a family member to get her passport and overnight it to the hotel.  Unfortunately when they tried delivering the package no one was available to sign for it.  Long story short, after some run around they delivery company did re-delivery the package so we didn't have a problem getting on the flight.

          Front Desk - We had no problems with check-in and they accommodated our request for adjoining rooms.  However, I had called down to the front desk the morning we were leaving and asked about a late check out.  I was told that we could stay until noon at no charge and that later check outs were available for a fee.  I wanted to check with our friends before committing so I told them I would call back later.  When I called back to get the 4pm check out (which I was prepared to pay $40 for) I was told that it wasn't available.  The real problem occurred due to the fact the hot water was out on our floor from about 9am until 11:20.  My husband showered at 9 with lukewarm water and when are friends tried showering at about 9:15 it was ice cold.  They ended up with about 40 minutes to shower and pack.  I guess that since we were checking out the hotel didn't need to worry about keeping us happy.  Our flight was at 6:30pm so we thought it would be nice to have a room to freshen up in prior to flying out.  Since we didn't have a room, we sat down by the pool for a little bit and then just decided to go to the airport and hang out there instead of spending more money in the casino.

          Bell Hop - we did utilize the bell desk to store our luggage for free after we checked out and had no issues with the service we received.

There were many more stores, bars and restaurants (including a night club & Coyote Ugly) that we didn't take advantage of so I can't comment on them. 

All four of us felt that this hotel would probably be better suited for a younger crowd.  Every where you went it was noisy, dark and crowded.  Some of the other hotels we were in looked to be a little more luxurious  and better suited for those not in their twenties or looking for party.  I would say that our stay was adequate but that I'm not planning on staying here when we come back again.