Review of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas - pervs and mouldy blueberries!
When The Hangover released in 2009, I said to myself that one day I'll be in Vegas and I'll stay at The Caesars Palace. I made that dream come true in my recent visit to Vegas, albeit just for one night!
I was on a girls' holiday and as we were on a bit of a budget, we decided to stay The Excalibur for the first few nights. Then end the trip with a night at The Caesars Palace. So for the whole trip, we'd all been looking forward to our luxurious last night, before we headed back to London. And so we should've been, after all, the website does say "Caesars Palace is a world-class resort with a proud tradition of taking excellent care of our guests."
Sadly, there was disappointment after disappointment during our less than 24 hour stay at the Caesars Palace.
1. Check-in at 4pm - seriously? Talk about rob people of their stay. Considering check-out is at 11am, Caesars Palace really are being stingy with their time. You can check in earlier for US$30. You can also check out later for another US$30 when offered, or US$60 if you decide afterwards. Ok, you're allowed to leave your luggage at the bell desk and use all the hotel facilities. Oh but wait, ANYONE can do that! Since you don't have a room number yet, and they don't check that you're actually staying there. Rather than waste time queuing up, we thought we'd make use of the self-service machines to check-in. At this point, it was about 4:30pm so we were expecting our room to be ready. Nope! The machine said the room wasn't ready, only after the concierge staff make a few calls did we get our room.
2. Poolside security - none existent. So me and my girls are just chilling by the pool, getting our tan on. It'd been a long week and we just wanted a bit of time to relax. The pool was amazing and very impressing with three different sections. But the chairs were pretty tacky and quite dirty. If there weren't the free towels, we would've had to fork out some cash to sit in the fancy lounge chairs in the paid area instead. After a few hours of just chilling about in the sun, we realised the bloke sitting behind had his phone weirdly pointing towards us. This could only mean one thing - he was taking pictures of us! There was no security or poolside management close by for us to seek help, so we had to confront the man ourselves. He of course denied everything and left. To add salt to the wound, when we tried to raise this incident with the staff, they just kept directing us onto the security desk - which was nowhere to be found. I ended up just raising a complaint and was invited to speak with the manager. I thought we were finally going to get a decent response - I thought wrong. The manager tried to show empathy but it just didn't work - he ended up explaining that the pool isn't managed by the hotel. Well no wonder why nobody cared at the poolside! The manager kept saying that he'd raise it with the pool manager, but there's really nothing he could do about it. How about show some sincerity and actually do something about it to make your customers feel safe using your hotel's facilities?
3. Cleanliness of room - overall, the room was pretty clean. Unfortunately, we found hairs on the table and on the towels! There was even a cigarette butt on the carpet - even though we were on a no-smoking floor. The toilet door was also rotting / rusty at the bottom. Not exactly a sight you'd want to see at one of the best hotels on the Vegas strip.
4. In-room dining, breakfast - only order this if you have an hour to wait. Yes, that's how long we had to wait for our breakfast to be brought up to us. Which by then it wasn't hot anymore - should've just gone down to have the buffet instead! Adding to this the fact that I ordered blueberry pancakes and it was served without the blueberries! They offered to cook me a new one, but that would've taken too long, so I just asked for the serving of fresh blueberries instead. When they did arrive, some 30 minutes later, not only were they not fresh, they even tasted mouldy. Urgh! Considering this breakfast cost us US$139.49, we really were disappointed.
Ok so now I've got that stuff off my chest, here's to the positives...
I can't fault how grand The Caesars Palace actually is. The roman theme is spread out across the whole hotel - everywhere you turn there is a statute of some sort for you to strike a pose next to! I was particularly fond of the mini fountain in the concierge area. There's loads of shops inside and you're bound to get lost like me. But be tactful of where you're going, and you'll find the magical route that leads you to The Venetian (you'll know when you hit the magical blue skied ceiling!)
The room itself wasn't too bad either. Although our view wasn't of the strip, we could see The Mirage and a glimpse of The Venetian, even the twist and turns of the highway leaving the strip towards the mountains in the far distance. The beds were comfy with fluffy pillows and a nice knitted bed throw over the duvet. There was a small wardrobe with plenty of hangers, equipped with an iron and ironing board, a safe and also a few shelves for shoes.
The fridge was well stocked with a variety of drinks and there was a coffee machine (but no kettle). There was also a wide range of snacks laid out too. Be warned, there's some sort of sensor in the room so they'll automatically charge you if something is "out of place" even if you didn't actually eat or drink it. That's what the bell boy told us anyway.
The bathroom was also super impressive and spacious. There was a stand-up shower in one corner. The toilet itself had a door, which meant the bathroom could be used by someone else at the same time. There were two sinks, so again the bathroom could be in shared use. But the best bit was the hot tub!! It was really simple to use, fill up the tub to the specified point and press the button. Then you can sit back and relax with the warm water bubbling away around you. But I think there's a timer on it as it stopped after about 10 minutes, and I was only able to get it to run for 20 minutes. Maybe it can run for longer, but I didn't have the time to check with the hotel - you might want to check if you stay at The Caesars Palace and let me know what you find out!
So overall, would I recommend you to stay at The Caesars Palace in Vegas? Maybe. If you want to just see what it's like and you don't mind minimal interaction with the staff members.
Website: https://www.caesars.com/caesars-palace
Address: 3570 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, NV 89109
Telephone: (866) 227-5938