If anything, Bellagio has managed to psychologically shrink their room even more than in years past. It is almost impossible to navigate between tables. One poor lady in a compact wheelchair had a horrible time getting through - it's an ADA lawsuit in the making. Half the chairs in the room were surplus conference chairs from other areas of the hotel, giving the room a Discount City look and feel. One dealer told me they had replacement chairs on order...for weeks. Shame on Bellagio for not planning ahead. You don't see crap like this at Wynn.
Plenty of locals during the Saturday afternoon I was there - tight but predictable.
I think the dealer quality has deteriorated in lockstep with the look and feel of the room. My first dealer was as slow as I've ever seen at Bellagio - we were lucky to get 10 hands in a half hour. Replacements were only marginally faster.
You know, we really expect very little from servers. I know some only care about looks, but I want at least a smidgen of friendliness and interest in the position these people have decided to work. Instead, Bellagio servers are constantly throwing off messages through their body language and tone of voice that they are hassled, harried, don't really want to actually ask if anyone wants a drink at the tables, and would really like all of us to just go away. It's appalling.
For the first time in a long time, I actually got eye contact and a friendly greeting when approaching the podium, and I was seated quickly. And then I had to get my own chips from the cashier because "I'm the only one here." Sigh.
Bellagio now has a swipe-in system on the tables, but dealers were annoyingly coy about exactly what the comp rate was. "I think it's a dollar an hour...maybe 97 cents..." I couldn't get a straight answer out of anyone.
