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By MikeE on Wednesday, 21st October 2009 4:31am
  » filed under Las Vegas  comments: 3

    Follow @vegastripping

The Palooza weekend would have me switch my usual allegiance from Wynn properties - in this case, an Encore Resort room booked at a remarkable $189 Saturday and $119 Sunday - to Caesars Palace on a comp with food and spa credits.

I pondered long and hard on the decision, but figuring that I hadn't stayed at Caesars in six years and the reported success of the $20 trick was sure to get me the hell out of the Roman tower, I thought now was as good of time as any to spend a couple nights.

To keep it short and dirty, I should have kept my Encore reservations. Hell, I would have been happier at Mirage with the casino rate they were offering me. If you want the details, read on...

Service was quite good throughout. Very fast and friendly valet. The front desk clerk, Joanie, made sure to call my cell phone personally and follow up at check-in - that was something I'd yet to experience in all my trips. In fact, everyone I came into contact with, from waiters to housekeeping to security, was friendly and genuinely interested in making me feel welcome.

My accommodations, a 725 square foot Palace Tower Premium room (which I upgraded to at a cost of $50 per night), featured two bathrooms sharing a fantastic, dual head shower and taint-charring bidet.

Amenities at Caesars are competitive with any other resort on the strip. Qua Baths is definitely one of the top spas in town, the pools are plentiful if a little stark, the restaurant line-up strong, and the entertainment and shopping second to none.

So why such harsh remarks early on? One word: design. While it's no secret that Caesars is a downright clusterfuck, staying there proved to be a lesson in patience. If your plans don't include pool or convention time, a room at Bellagio might actually be more convenient to anything at Caesars than its own Palace Tower. No bullshit. Getting ready for a night out on the town only to have broken a sweat by the time you reach the cab line or trekking through the casino with a party of eight friends only to find three of them missing by the time you've reached the porte cochere is simply frustrating. And all this while traipsing through one of the most overly crowded floors of tourists who share the same sentiments you do.

To add insult to injury, there isn't a single table game there worth playing. Expect $25 craps minimums and even $25 6:5 blackjack. It's as though Caesars never got the memo that they were dethroned from the top spot some 20 years ago.

Unless you're a Diamond level or higher player where you can expect to skip lines, AND you're in the Augustus Tower, AND you only play slots, AND you're able-bodied, avoid Caesars completely. It's a resort where the total experience falls far, far short than the sum of its otherwise great parts.

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Comments & Discussion:

 eastcoastgambler posted on Wednesday, 21st October 2009 - 5:01 am

Your thoughts mirror mine from my May trip. I hated the layout. I made my way around town after I was sufficiently caffeinated. I almost didn't bother with tables besides craps. I did more table gaming elsewhere every day of my trip. That said, I had a junior suite in the Palace Tower which was very nice. CP was an ok experience, since it was comp, but I'll pay to experiment elsewhere next time.

 RockChickX51 posted on Wednesday, 21st October 2009 - 5:17 am

Thanks for that short review. We're staying there for a week in December but we've got an Augustus Room booked. I paid the extra for this room for the sole fact that it was the closest to the front door (and the rooms were the exact same price as a regular Palace Tower room).
We did the same thing you did though, first we booked Palms Place, then axed that, then we booked Encore and decided it was to far north on the Strip. Then Venetian sent an awesome offer, which turned out to be way to much in the end (after you pay tax and resort fee it was way over $2K for a week) so we settled at Caesars. Perfect location and across from the Flamingo where my family will be staying.
I'll definitely report my findings as well once we get back.

 krazyk posted on Wednesday, 21st October 2009 - 5:27 pm

Oh no, I'm staying there this weekend. Room is comped so I figure I should try out CP at least once. After reading this article I think I will double book at a MGM-Mirage property nearby.

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