I recently spent two weeks in Las Vegas during Coronavirus. I am working on a full trip report, but wanted to get a Covid-specific post up as I’ve been asked a bunch of questions.
To give you some background, I have barely left my apartment since March 13. I get groceries delivered. My laundromat was closed for three months so I stopped going and began washing stuff in the sink. There were weeks where the I would only go outside to throw out garbage. The longest stretch of time I have been outside of my home since March 13 was about 4 hours when I got my roots straightened. The second longest time was about an hour for a doctor’s appointment.
Being outside my apartment was weird.
Airports
JFK Airport: I had zero interest in getting on the subway, so I took an Uber. The airport was a lot emptier than normal. There was one person in front of me on the baggage check line. Most stores in the airport were closed, but this did not seem odd to me as I usually take red eyes home and most things are closed when I arrive. At the gate, there was one woman with her mask on her chin. Everyone else was complying with masks being mandatory.
LAS Airport: I normally travel after work and I am used to the airport being empty, so it didn’t feel weird to me. Starbucks in the baggage area was not open. I honestly didn’t know there was ever a Starbucks there because I normally don’t check luggage. I only did so because I had a first class ticket so it was free. There were definitely people trying to skirt the mask requirement. I am not sure what’s the appeal of traveling to a mask mandatory city when you do not want to wear a mask.
Flights
JFK – LAS: I flew Delta in a first class seat. Delta were capping first class at 50%. And since a first class ticket was only $298, this was a no brainer. As there were two parties traveling together who booked seats next to each other, my entire row on both sides of the aisle was empty except for me.
Being in first class means bigger seats = you don’t really see the tops of people’s heads. It felt like I was really isolated and I felt completely safe. I had a regular disposable mask and a gaiter. The gaiter was great when the flight got too cold and I did not have my hoodie with me.
We were given a plastic bag with a bottle of water with some snacks, and also a snack box. The flight attendant was very apologetic that they only had water, but I only wanted water so it was not a big deal.
LAS to JFK: Unfortunately, I did not fly first class on the way home. Delta is blocking off middle seats. I was lucky to also have the aisle seat empty. But there were people who did have two people in their row. I was aware of other people on this flight, but I felt very safe. I am not sure how I would have felt if this had been my flight to Las Vegas, where just being outside of my apartment felt weird. Let alone seeing other human beings. On this flight, our drink choices were water, beer or wine. I stuck to water.
Transportation
Not Running: The Monorail, the trams between Excalibur and Mandalay Bay, and also between Bellagio and Aria. The WAX bus is not running, the SDX is not running.
Deuce Bus: Yikes. I took this twice. The first time, I had to wait forever. I don’t know if this is a Covid thing since I feel like I have waited forever a million times in the past. My notebooks are filled with me asking why the fuck does Las Vegas not install some sort of shelter for people waiting for the bus in triple digit weather. The bus came, it was not overly packed. But it was hot, the air conditioning was not functioning properly. Some seats had signs to not sit for social distancing, but people sat in them anyway. Lots of people not wearing masks, or wearing them on their chin. Like more than half the people did not have a mask on. It was bizarre though, that when we would stop at bus stops, people would put their mask on to exit the bus.
Thinking that maybe I just had bad luck with a burning hot bus, I took it back. Same situation. I never took it again for the rest of the trip.
Uber/Lyft: A lot of people hypothesized that the lack of Uber and Lyft was because of the extra $600 unemployment payout. I don’t know anything for fact, but I will say the $600 ran out during my time there and it was easier to get cars after. I had never seen this before in my life.
I had to wait 17 minutes for a car when I arrived. There were a lot of taxis, but I was not going to pay for one. The WAX bus is not running. The 108 and 109 are. But I was at Golden Gate and didn’t want to deal with walking a few blocks when it was 113 degrees outside.
Hotels
As always, I moved around a lot. Zero hotels had housekeeping. All of them told me I could call down for anything and it would be brought to me. I saw quite a few rooms with plastic bags hanging on the door knobs with fresh towels in them. The longest check in line I encountered was when there were four people in front of me during my second stay at Fremont. That was really bizarre since I have never seen that many people on the line in front of me at Fremont.
Golden Gate: First hotel of the trip. This was my first time walking into any hotel since the pandemic started. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. You got a temperature check to enter the hotel. The woman who checked me in took my credit card and ID. I wasn’t sure how that would be handled. I had to sign the credit card machine thingy, using a pen every other person has touched.
Flamingo: No temperature or mask check when you enter via the taxi drop off. There was also no temperature check or mask check if you entered via the Linq Promenade. You get your temperature taken when going to check in. I checked in via a kiosk. I had to touch the screen, but had no human contact other than the temperature taker barking at me.
Fremont: I stayed here twice during the trip. You get your temperature taken when you enter from all entrances. Noticeably gone is the cantaloupe scented cleaner. Whatever they are using instead, smells like Raid. The counter people touch your credit card and ID. I was advised during both check ins that they are still doing the security check if you do not let housekeeping in for longer than 72 hours, even though they are not providing housekeeping. I don’t know if anyone entered my room during either stay.
El Cortez: No temperature check when entering. The person behind the check in counter sprays and cleans the counter between customers. You are asked questions about if you have symptoms, and they take your temperature here. You are given a wristband to wear to show you answered the questions. They do touch your ID and credit card. There is a person manning the elevators. He or she will enter before you to spray and wipe down the buttons for you. I had one guy tell me that most people don’t like being assigned to this, but he loved it because it was the easiest job he ever had.
Luxor: I did mobile check in and got my key on my phone. I did not have to talk to anyone, no one touched my credit card or ID. I decided I wanted an actual key, but had I not, I never would have needed to speak to a person. I do not recall having my temperature checked when I entered. Also to be fair, I also could not remember where I entered from when it came time to leave.
Luxor was the only hotel that gave me a Covid amenity kit! Those metal rings are supposed to be used to push elevator buttons. I think it is more of a peace of mind type thing because what do you do with it after? Put it in your bag or pocket and then end up touching it when you go to grab it again?
Paris: No temperature checks when entering. They did have kiosks but I was directed to a Diamond line so I went there instead. They wipe down the counter and have individual packets of sanitizer available for you. They have you place your credit card and ID in a bin and they read it inside the bin. You do have to swipe your card and sign though, so you are touching a pen other people have touched. They also had the bins at the player’s clubs at both Flamingo and Paris so those people are not touching your card or ID.
Elevators
There are photos floating around the internet of endless elevator lines. I didn’t encounter this. Luxor had the longest elevator lines, but never more than about ten people. There was no one manning them. I had a situation at Luxor where every time an elevator would come, people would pile in and I would wait for the next one. But people would join the line and all pile in the next one. At some point an elevator came and there was a guy in there, with a wheelchair full of stuff, watching something on his cell phone. I asked him “Are you getting out?” and he said no. I don’t know what the fuck the deal was with this guy, he looked homeless with his life’s belongings with him, watching television on his phone while riding the elevator. I got in with him because fuck it, only one person versus 823748734. No one else wanted to get in that elevator with him.
Restaurants
A lot are operating on reduced schedules, with limited menu options. Some have confusing hours. The Market Street Cafe at California does not open until 4:00 PM. I had to wait to be seated only one time, for Pyramid Cafe at Luxor.
Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks are not 24 hours. I worked for three days from Vegas and I was late to work all three days because Starbucks opens at Flamingo at 6:00 am, which is when I am supposed to be at work. You no longer put your milk / sugar in your coffee yourself.
Most restaurants had disposable menus. I don’t know if they are actually being disposed of after each use. The Henry at Cosmopolitan lets you scan their QC code to get the menu. For some reason, the Pyramid Cafe at Luxor gave me a real menu but they also had QC code scanners for menus so WHY.
Bars
I don’t drink in Vegas. But a whole lot of people did not seem to comprehend that bars being closed = BARS ARE CLOSED. At Fremont, most of my favorite machines are near a bar that is closed. I saw so many people trying to order a drink. They were directed to sit at a slot machine and be served by a server. Cocktail servers are not serving people who do not play. A lot of people misunderstood that you could buy a drink at a slot machine. You cannot. You would have entire groups take seats filling an entire aisle, expecting to buy drinks from the cocktail server. One guy had security called on him because he refused to understand this. As a bonus, security came and leaned on the machine I was playing while talking to him.
Masks
Masks are mandatory. Most people were compliant. I would say maybe around 5% of all people tried “I am smoking/drinking” to get out of it, but they were all told to pull them back up. Outside on Fremont Street, mask usage was about 50%. Security were not enforcing mask wearing on Fremont Street. The only time I saw anyone mention a mask outside was at the Uber pick up at Luxor. A security guard approached a maskless dude to ask him if he had one. He said yes. Security told him he had to put it on if he were going inside.
I smoke so I got used to pulling it down, taking a drag, exhaling and immediately pulling the mask back up. I can now do this all with my left hand, allowing me to keep gambling with my right hand.
I had a jerk who shoved his hand in the elevator door as it was closing at Fremont, with his other hand over his mouth, apologizing to me that he had to go downstairs to get a mask. Dude, why not just wait for the next elevator and go down solo. This is Fremont, the hotel is tiny and there are five elevators. You never have to wait longer than 30 seconds for one.
For the most part, wearing a mask did not bother me. Yes, there were some times where I wanted to rip it off. But there were others when I would go to light a cigarette in my room and realize I had forgotten I still had the mask on. I found the disposable ones to be my favorite. I did buy a mask extender “just in case” and I am glad I did. My ears did start to hurt after a bit, even though this had not happened at home before I left. These are the exact ones I bought:
Change Shortage
Yes, this is a thing. A few casinos (Cosmopolitan and MLife properties specifically) are not giving you coins when you cash out at a machine. You can choose to donate the change, or else the machine will spit out your cash and a tito for just the change, which you have to redeem at the cashier.
If you have been reading along with my past trip reports, you may recall I always find pennies on heads and put them in my bra for good luck. Those were extremely hard to come by on this trip. But you for sure had your take of abandoned titos all over the place.
Overall Experience
I started out a lot more concerned than I was by the time the trip ended. I loved being outside of my apartment. I loved seeing views other than my living room or the house across the street from me. It felt kind of normal by the end of the trip. There were a lot of kids for some reason and when I would see families of multiple kids with strollers, I would wonder why they would bring their kids to Vegas during a pandemic. Then I would also remember I was in Vegas during a pandemic. Which is a really weird concept.
There are noticeably less people in Vegas. Casinos are handling social distancing in various ways. The most popular way I noticed was removing half the chairs. Did not stop some guy from pulling up a chair to sit right next to me at The D. Some casinos have every other machine turned off. El Cortez has plexiglass between machines. There are a lot more machines in circular clusters rather than traditional banks. MLife properties have installed hand washing stations in the casinos.
Being away from home did wonders for my mental health. When I got back, one of my employees told me she could see it on my face, that I looked like I was back to normal. I am still not going to say it was the smartest thing I have done though.
Coming home, Nevada is on a long list of states that you have to quarantine when returning to New York from. I had to fill out a form with my contact information. No one has contacted me and it is day 7 since I returned. The only time I have been outside since returning home was to do a combo of throwing out garbage and bringing my delivered pizza inside.
If you have any questions you can leave them below and I will answer them. Spoiler alert: I will not approve any comments debating mask wearing or whether or not the virus is real.
