Vernon Downs via Cooperstown

We left Albany and headed east to Vernon Downs. Now anyone who knows New York State knows that getting to Vernon Downs in Vernon, NY from Albany via Cooperstown, NY is taking the long way, but let me explain. We had been in Albany on Saturday with our next stop being Vernon Downs on Sunday, we took a detour to Cooperstown on the way. We took Route 20 West out of Albany to get to Cooperstown, our real destination being Fly Creek. We had lunch in Cooperstown at a great little place called The Doubleday Cafe. We had visited this restaurant about 6 years ago and it is still just as good. It is small and it gets very busy during peak meal times, but it is a good lunch at reasonable prices for Cooperstown. The menu consist mostly of burgers, sandwiches, and salads with a specials board. Cooperstown is a quaint little town where baseball is king, but there are other things to do in the area. One of those "other things" is a place north of town, just off Route 28, called Fly Creek Cider Mill, www.flycreekcidermill.com. This is an actual working cider mill, pressing in the Fall, with a great store with a variety of sauces, dip mixes, New York State maple syrup, cheese, apples, candy and lots more. There is a duck pond in the back of the mill with a variety of ducks. There are feed machines where you can get corn to feed the ducks, a play area for kids, and a food stand with good menu for lunch. There is always sampling and events on the weekends. A great little afternoon trip to take a break from the baseball.

Next stop was Vernon Downs in Vernon, NY. Vernon Downs, www.vernondowns.com, is a racino, a harness racetrack with a slots only casino. We have stayed at the hotel several times and in the past have given it positive reviews. This time, we had some disappointment. We had decided to splurge and get the King Jacuzzi Suite.

One little side -- all the rooms are what they call "suites"; they are not two room rooms. The rooms have a small wet bar area with a small dorm room refrigerator, microwave, sink, and counter with small coffee maker, a sitting area with a pullout sofa, coffee table, two person table and chairs; there is a very short divider wall to separate this sitting area from the bed and dresser area.

Back the the King Jacuzzi Suite. This room is the second highest rate room and from the pictures we saw online, which are no longer online (maybe others had the same issue), it appeared to be a two room room with a good sized jacuzzi. This room was just a larger version of the regular rooms basically. The jacuzzi tub was in the sitting area and it was just a regular tub with some jets. The room was so big we could have had a party of 20 people and still had plenty of room. It was alot of empty space, not other furniture, no second tv. It was not worth the extra money. Definitely a lesson learned.

Overall, our view of this hotel is going downhill; it is in the little things. I will say the rooms have always been clean. What I am finding is that there is just a sharpness to the entire location that is lacking. The uniforms of the front desk staff seemed a little dingy, and check in was not rude in anyway, but there was just a lack of friendliness and true attentiveness in the whole thing. I called down to the front desk after we got to the room to request toilet paper, there was less than 1/2 roll, and extra pillows, the response I received was "I'll try." There are tiny areas where maintenance is lacking, for example some peeling wallpaper in the bathroom, the refrigerator in our room was not on when we arrived, the hallways seemed very warm and humid.

We understand that this is not the Vegas style hotel or casino, but as they increase rates on rooms the customer service level needs to improve but it is not, it is going backwards and even the small issues in rooms need to be fixed and maintained.

There is a continental breakfast that is available free Monday to Friday. It is a basic continental breakfast with juice, milk, coffee, a variety of breads for toasting, fruit, yogurt and some cereals. We have only eaten breakfast once, it was not the greatest, but if you just want something to get you started you can manage to find something. The pool and jacuzzi are nice amenities to this hotel, but it can get crowded on weekends particularly when there are alot of families.

Would we stay again at this hotel? We will, but not anytime soon and defiantly not in anything but a regular room at some kind of specials rate. Take care to look at the website and take advantages of special rates that may be available.

happy travelling.