Vegas- Casear's pool-fun-b-lette party
 

I have heard that Casear's was renovated recently- is that true? We are looking for hotel with a great pool area and good shopping, and up to date- so not shoddy? Does this sound like a good pick- Mandalay too pricey, Venetian not great pool, Bellagio bit pricey, etc. Thanks

FYI - Useful link to a site on the pools at various Las Vegas hotels:

http://www.vegas.com/resorts/pools/

Mirage pool was very nice. Chose it because there was lots of shade around it (not true at a lot of the other hotels) - something to consider.

Regarding shopping - you might want to check out the shops at Aladdin. The hotel/shopping complex there is apparently not doing too well. The shops seemed almost deserted when were there last week and as a result there was a lot of items significantly marked down.

Ken

I last stayed at Caesars last July, will be there again this July. Caesars is under massive rennovations but it's more toward the front right corner will the Forum Shops will meet the strip. It's really not that big a deal. The rooms in the Palace Tower are great, the Forum and Centurion tower are a bit dated. The shopping there is awesome, on par with Venetian and Aladdin. The pool area is good but Mandalay blows it away. Mirage and Flamingo are probably a bit better too. I'm surprised that Mandalay and Bellagio are substantially cheaper. Whenever I'm there,Caesars is more expensive - just my luck. I just got an offer for Bellagio lakeview at $139/nt Sun-Thu, not sure what the weekends are fetching.

There is nothing shoddy about Caesars, the older rooms are a bit 80's (lots of black, lots of mirrors). Palace Tower rooms are nice and all have whirpool tubs, they fetch $50/nt more than the ROH Caesars rate.

Also, check THE Hotel @ Mandalay Bay, brand new, sometimes reasonable $.

Caesar's is still in the process of renovating and parts of the property are under heavy construction. They are adding to the Forum shops and it looks like they are adding another wing to the hotel or a new building with some other purpose.

That said, the construction didn't seem to impact the pool area.

Another option, though less so for on-site shopping, is the Mirage.

Agree w/Ryan on Mirage, and it actually is great for shopping because if you take the moving sidewalk exit to the strip and walk about 50 yards to the right you will come to the entrance of the Forum shops. Very convenient. It's also directly across the street from the Venetian and their great shops. The Mirage pool is fantastic- the hotel is a little older but the rooms have been updated and are still pretty swanky. If you've got a big group and can split the rates you may want to look into the suites- if you get them on special and split the cost you could end up near the same cost as reg. rooms in some of the newer hotels. If you don't want to go to a suite, consider the tower deluxe rooms which are all on the 24-25th floors and have their own private elevators and a larger bathroom with a separate tub/shower. We stayed in one of these last October and it was great. They usually run specials on the rooms starting about 2-3 months out from the dates- go to the website and sign the guestbook and you'll get offers all the time.

The pools at Caesar's Palace are my favoritein Vegas - I have stayed at Mandalay Bay, Mirage, Venetian, Rio, Monte Carlo, and Flamingo. I haven't stayed at Bellagio so can't compare to its pool. I know many people rave about Mandalay Bay's pool area and I agree that it is pretty elaborate but I definitely prefer the atmosphere at Caesar's over Mandalay Bay, which I found to be crawling with kids.

The pool at Caesar's is NOT part of the current renovation project which is taking place at the front of the property.
The pool at Caesar's is as "up-to-date" as anything else you'll find in Vegas that compares, i.e., pools that do not have dolphins or wave motions.