ryodejaneiro
Rock Star
Silver Level
This review is in response to a few comments I got from people in another thread (Treasure Island & Planet Hollywood Poker Room Review thread) who expressed interest in getting thoughts/impressions on certain hotels/casinos that I stayed during my recent visit. My friends and I stayed at 3 hotels during our trip and this thread is for Caesar’s Palace. When I have more time, I will do the same for the other two casinos (Bellagio & Mandalay Bay). I’ll note that we didn’t exclusively play at the casino we were staying at. We roamed around quite a bit during the day visiting other casinos near and far - I’m leaving that portion out and talking about the hotel that we stayed at to keep things on topic.
I’m not a frequent visitor to Vegas and I certainly don’t profess to know a lot about the city, but these are just experiences that I wanted to share with you all. The idea of this thread is so we can share our experiences and ask questions, etc. This can inform people who may be visiting Vegas in the near future and trying to decide which hotel to book/visit.
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Location: Caesar’s Palace
Number of nights stayed: 1
Type of room: regular room, facing the Rio
Upgraded: No
Check-in: Caesar’s was the first casino hotel that my friends and I stayed during our 3 night/4 day trip. We arrived in Vegas in the morning but we were able to successfully check in (around 11:45am). The front desk line was relatively short so we didn’t wait too long (10 minutes maybe?). The front desk clerk that we had was a bit tempered and brash, which is not how we wanted to start off the trip. Some of you may be aware that you can get room upgrades if you ask nicely or tip the front desk clerks, but this woman we checked in with pretty much brushed aside any notion of upgrading. She had this uptight attitude even before I asked about the upgrade; I could only give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she was having a bad day; anyway, no harm, no foul.
Room: The room we got was okay – even though we didn’t get a strip view, I didn’t mind since we had a decent view of the Rio (BTW, the “ryo” in ryodejaneiro is pronounced rio & that’s my name in case you’re wondering). The room wasn’t particularly large and in fact, it seemed smaller than some of the other two bed hotel rooms I’ve stayed at. The room had two queen beds and a mounted plasma TV (poor reception, however). I believe that the room also had an alarm clock where you can plug in your ipod/iphone. The rooms at Caesar’s boast that they have in-bathroom TV that’s embedded in the mirror, but ours appeared to be broken. We didn’t spend much time in the room, so not much else to report about the hotel room itself. The room seemed to have been taken care of fairly well – not dusty or dirty and the bedding looked to be in good shape as well.
Sportsbook: The first thing we did was go to the sportsbook at Caesar’s because Champions League was starting at 12:45 (we got our room shortly past 12pm). The sportsbook is pretty good IMO and the people at the desk were friendly and answered our questions promptly. You can’t use your cell phone at the sportsbook desk, but can use it in the lounge area. A total of 4 big screens (2 on left & 2 on right IIRC) and then smaller screens next to them. They have individual desks with small TVs as well as lounge chairs and tables that have a small TV attached. I thought Caesar’s could do a better job with the upkeep of the sportsbook – the lounge chairs were often ripped/had holes. Any drinks you order here comes from the bar so keep that in mind – it’ll cost you $5+ for the drink and tip depending on what you get.
Casino Floor: Next to the sportsbook was the entrance to the Poker Room. My friends have played there before, but I never have and we didn’t get a chance to look (I know, what a shame! :banghead
so I can’t comment on it much. They do have listings of tourneys on a board before you enter the poker room and the IIRC, the buy-in for the cheapest tourney was about $65 with a maximum of 50 entries and they had it at 9am, 3pm, and 12am. Other than the sportsbook, we didn’t do too much at Caesar’s other than walk around the casino floor a bit. They have the basic tables like craps, blackjack, roulette, pai gow poker, and baccarat; they have slots scattered throughout the casino floor as well. We merely passed these tables and slots by so unfortunately, I can’t recall the minimum cost to play. The minimum for the tables changes through the course of the day anyhow (cheaper in the morning, more expensive as the day goes on), but if I had to guess, you probably could find $10 tables.
Other Notable Things: Apart from the basic casino stuff, Caesar’s is home to the Pure nightclub, which is pretty much next to the poker room. They also have the Pussycat Dolls Lounge next to Pure and a small pit with tables in the casino area with the theme of the lounge. Caesar’s also has the Forum Shops, where they have quite a few stores lined up - an interesting area to roam around and get away from the gambling. We didn’t see the pools because they were closed for renovation. We didn’t go to any restaurants at Caesar’s either.
I know that it looks like my friends and I didn’t do too much at Caesar’s but remember that’s mainly because we were casino hopping during the day (and also due to spending some time watching Champions League football!). Overall, it was a pretty good stay at Caesar’s. I wouldn’t mind staying here again although I would be tempted to stay at some other hotels/resorts that I haven’t been to before returning here.
I’m not a frequent visitor to Vegas and I certainly don’t profess to know a lot about the city, but these are just experiences that I wanted to share with you all. The idea of this thread is so we can share our experiences and ask questions, etc. This can inform people who may be visiting Vegas in the near future and trying to decide which hotel to book/visit.
-----------------------
Location: Caesar’s Palace
Number of nights stayed: 1
Type of room: regular room, facing the Rio
Upgraded: No
Check-in: Caesar’s was the first casino hotel that my friends and I stayed during our 3 night/4 day trip. We arrived in Vegas in the morning but we were able to successfully check in (around 11:45am). The front desk line was relatively short so we didn’t wait too long (10 minutes maybe?). The front desk clerk that we had was a bit tempered and brash, which is not how we wanted to start off the trip. Some of you may be aware that you can get room upgrades if you ask nicely or tip the front desk clerks, but this woman we checked in with pretty much brushed aside any notion of upgrading. She had this uptight attitude even before I asked about the upgrade; I could only give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she was having a bad day; anyway, no harm, no foul.
Room: The room we got was okay – even though we didn’t get a strip view, I didn’t mind since we had a decent view of the Rio (BTW, the “ryo” in ryodejaneiro is pronounced rio & that’s my name in case you’re wondering). The room wasn’t particularly large and in fact, it seemed smaller than some of the other two bed hotel rooms I’ve stayed at. The room had two queen beds and a mounted plasma TV (poor reception, however). I believe that the room also had an alarm clock where you can plug in your ipod/iphone. The rooms at Caesar’s boast that they have in-bathroom TV that’s embedded in the mirror, but ours appeared to be broken. We didn’t spend much time in the room, so not much else to report about the hotel room itself. The room seemed to have been taken care of fairly well – not dusty or dirty and the bedding looked to be in good shape as well.
Sportsbook: The first thing we did was go to the sportsbook at Caesar’s because Champions League was starting at 12:45 (we got our room shortly past 12pm). The sportsbook is pretty good IMO and the people at the desk were friendly and answered our questions promptly. You can’t use your cell phone at the sportsbook desk, but can use it in the lounge area. A total of 4 big screens (2 on left & 2 on right IIRC) and then smaller screens next to them. They have individual desks with small TVs as well as lounge chairs and tables that have a small TV attached. I thought Caesar’s could do a better job with the upkeep of the sportsbook – the lounge chairs were often ripped/had holes. Any drinks you order here comes from the bar so keep that in mind – it’ll cost you $5+ for the drink and tip depending on what you get.
Casino Floor: Next to the sportsbook was the entrance to the Poker Room. My friends have played there before, but I never have and we didn’t get a chance to look (I know, what a shame! :banghead
so I can’t comment on it much. They do have listings of tourneys on a board before you enter the poker room and the IIRC, the buy-in for the cheapest tourney was about $65 with a maximum of 50 entries and they had it at 9am, 3pm, and 12am. Other than the sportsbook, we didn’t do too much at Caesar’s other than walk around the casino floor a bit. They have the basic tables like craps, blackjack, roulette, pai gow poker, and baccarat; they have slots scattered throughout the casino floor as well. We merely passed these tables and slots by so unfortunately, I can’t recall the minimum cost to play. The minimum for the tables changes through the course of the day anyhow (cheaper in the morning, more expensive as the day goes on), but if I had to guess, you probably could find $10 tables.Other Notable Things: Apart from the basic casino stuff, Caesar’s is home to the Pure nightclub, which is pretty much next to the poker room. They also have the Pussycat Dolls Lounge next to Pure and a small pit with tables in the casino area with the theme of the lounge. Caesar’s also has the Forum Shops, where they have quite a few stores lined up - an interesting area to roam around and get away from the gambling. We didn’t see the pools because they were closed for renovation. We didn’t go to any restaurants at Caesar’s either.
I know that it looks like my friends and I didn’t do too much at Caesar’s but remember that’s mainly because we were casino hopping during the day (and also due to spending some time watching Champions League football!). Overall, it was a pretty good stay at Caesar’s. I wouldn’t mind staying here again although I would be tempted to stay at some other hotels/resorts that I haven’t been to before returning here.
