Let's learn more about Biff's, the official home of STBE 2012

Some of you (Kim) might be thinking, "What? The Plaza changed its name to Biff's? How is that classier?"

The true name of the hotel is The Plaza, but sharp-eyed Back to the Future II fans know that it stood in for Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise in alternate 1985. We stayed at Biff's for STBE one year, and managed to get "upgraded" to the nicer rooms. While large and more or less clean, it was pretty gross overall. We vowed to never go back again, but were won over by the recent renovations involving the interior furniture and decor from the never-finished Fontainebleau.

The Plaza now bills itself as "the best hotel & casino in Downtown Las Vegas," and we will be the judges of that!!! The rooms look just as big as before, but much, much fancier.

The carpet used to be super-gross.

They've also changed up the restaurants, including a klassie steakhouse owned by former Vegas mayor, Oscar Goodman. Naturally, he named it Oscar's. Part of the experience is that a "broad" will come talk to you about politics at your table. WTD? I might have to save up to experience true klass. The nasty buffet that got us all sick is now Hash House A-Go-Go. Some things remain the same, such as the Subway and McDonald's on the first floor. Yay, Dollar Menu!!!

Beef, booze, and broads. Sounds klassie.

They claim the rooftop pool is "iconic," and again, we will be the judges of that. The rooftop pool at Binion's was truly a rooftop pool - it was on the top of the tower. There are apparently two pools here, one on the 7th floor, and one on the 5th floor depending on which tower you find yourself in. Also, it's a drop-in pool, and we enjoyed getting our entire group to jump in at the same time to see if we could get it to crash down into the rooms below it (we couldn't). Also, if I recall correctly, the pool area was lined with very tired astroturf that had seen much better days, and the cabanas weren't all that (not that we checked them out or anything). But, the drinks were cheap!

Now, let's go to the reviews (I'll try to find pictures of the pool, too):

TripAdvisor users gave it an average of 3.5 stars (or dots, it looks like), with mixed reviews - some people raved, some people thought it was a dump. Not much is quotable here other than "best non-Nugget choice on Fremont." I never go in expecting much (mostly because I always try to stay wherever I can get the best deal - see: Binions; once you've stayed there, everything else is a luxury).

Yelpers only give it 2.5 stars. My favorite quote, mostly because the grammar is so bad: "Fremont Street restores its old casinos, not destroys them." Points for knowing the difference between its and it's, but it loses points for bad subject-verb agreement. The reviews are also much more helpful than the TripAdvisor ones: "The Swingers Bar has $.50 draft beers." Thank you!!! Also helpful: "The North tower is not as nice as the South tower.  It was doable, but trust me, you want to be in the South tower." I always look down on Yelpers, but they have the answers to the questions I ask: where is the cheap beer and where are the least shitty rooms?

Most of the post-renovation reviews are positive, save for some complaints that seem to have more to do with the class of the reviewer than the hotel itself:

We got a smoking room. One of the people who stayed in the room didn't want us smoking in there so we smoked near the ice machine. Security kicked us out of there too. First of all, if you come to Vegas(especially Fremont) then you shouldn't have to deal with this.

I don't consider it to be a problem with the hotel that they don't want people smoking near the ice machine (the entire review revolves around security being assholes to people who were probably acting like assholes themselves).

Interestingly, Hotels.com users gave it a 3.9 rating, but the first few reviews are pretty bad. There were complaints about a lack of air-conditioning. I'm sure that can be fixed with a quick room change.

I've wasted too much time on amateur reviews, so here's a link to CheapoVegas's overview of the new Plaza. Here's the highlight we've all been waiting for:

How's the Pool?

The Plaza Hotel Las Vegas pool is old and ratty, but decent for downtown. Why couldn't they have put some of that renovation money towards this? It's nowhere near as nice as a place like the Mandalay Bay, but the big rectangular pool serves its purpose, getting you wet!  There are also some dilapidated tennis courts up there that hint at how grand the hotel once was. Ah, the glory days.

 Sounds about right. I'm sure we can hoof it over to the Nugget and hang for a while.

That's about how I remember it.