This weekend’s much needed visit to The Golden Nugget Casino in Lake Charles was highly anticipated. It was a girl’s weekend getaway to escape the recent news of police brutality and to decompress from fighting for the Black Lives Matter movement. After an hour conversation with my therapist, she assured me that a day at the pool with a few friends was indeed just what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately, upon our arrival to the hotel we quickly discovered that our highly anticipated trip could potentially be highly contagious as well.
If you view the company’s website you’ll quickly discover this message on their home page:
NOW OPEN
Golden Nugget Lake Charles is proud to announce its hotel, pool, restaurants, golf, salon and casino floor are open. Book your reservation today!
The health and well-being of our guests and employees is our top priority. Management is in contact with the CDC and other federal agencies to ensure the actions we are taking are comprehensive and appropriate.
As an invited guest of the hotel, I expected to wear a mask and to have my own hand sanitizer on deck. I did not expect that social distancing would not be followed and that the pool would be standing room only. The hotel also did not encourage mask or gloves.
I ordered a really cute, fashionable clear visor to debut at the pool in lieu of my face mask as a courtesy if I dipped into the water while others were around. But upon check in we were able to clearly see that the pool had no safety guidelines for guest to follow. So we checked into our room and then waited for the traffic to slow down around the pool. We could not find a seat at the outdoor beach restaurant because of overcrowding. The hotel was also operating at full capacity, while Texas is still practicing guidelines at less than 50% occupancy so this was not the arrival we expected.
It was our decision to practice social distancing so we only visited the pool very early in the morning or late in the evening to avoid other hotel guest. Yet, that meant wading in the water full of bugs, empty water bottles, bird feathers and other miscellaneous debris because the pool was not cleaned.
Over all our trip was safe because we practiced COVID19 guidelines, like staying six feet apart during check in, using our own sanitizer (since no one offered it anywhere) and wearing our face mask when we visited restaurants and played inside the gaming stations. Other than checking our temperature prior to entering the casino, The Golden Nugget offered absolutely no safety procedures to protect it’s guest.
This blog post is important because I shared to my social media profiles modeling fun pictures and good times, however I do not want to hide behind the mask that things were safe. Indeed, they were not. I would not encourage anyone to visit the Golden Nugget at this time. I apologize if my social media models the opposite message.
The hotel has reopened a few short weeks ago and my advice would be to visit your community pool instead, if at all possible. More exposure to the Corona virus could be a very realistic circumstance if visiting The Golden Nugget.
I want to thank the hotel for their VIP invitation and complimentary rooms, however, I would prefer to return to the casino when greater safety measures are taken. I might visit here next time, they appear to be safer.
If you like my swimsuit, visor, Versace sunglasses or Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, you should shop my closet. Or hire me to style you for your next pool party. I’ll make sure you are cute AND safe.
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