I ended up staying at the Riviera for one night only Friday 8/13, then drove home the following afternoon. Got two rooms, one at the regular $79 weekend rate, one at a AARP-discounted rate (my mother-in-law was with us) of $57. (I would have considered the $76 Orbitz rate but I was actually holding out until the bitter end for a good rate at another hotel and so by booking through the Riviera it offered me slightly lesser-hassle cancellable privileges). Not bad, two rooms on a weekend night in LV for an average of $68 (before taxes of course). The Riviera offered a 2 bedroom Penthouse Suite to me for $139 but since there were 7 of us (2 families plus mom-in-law) and there was only one bed in each room, that wasn't too practical. They would have charged us more for the rooms had we said that there were more than 2 persons for each room, (yes, even children), so a few of the family members stayed in the car while we checked in. There was computerized check-in, but since we wanted adjoining rooms, we decided to wait in the short line to check in with a human. Lowdown on Riviera - older hotel, rooms were actually a bit nicer than I would have thought. Bathrooms were pretty nice and the beds weren't bad. Decent-sized rooms, no carpet problems. Got rooms in the San Remo Tower, so that was a bit closer to the casino and the strip than the other towers. Unfortunately the rooms were smoking rooms, the smell wasn't bad but required that the A/C be on all night to keep the smell to a minimum. Also, the first hotel that I have stayed at in a long time without a blow dryer. Phone call charges are crazy - $3.00 for 3 minutes, then 10 cents a minute after - and that's for local calls. No dialing up on my laptop Friday evening that's for sure. Didn't even dream that there would be a high-speed connection available. Also the rooms were next to each other but not connecting, no big deal but a bit irksome, since I had to watch two kids while the others were gambling late at night, and as such I had to put the two kids with me for half the night. The ratings say 3 star, I'd say that it's no more than a 2 1/2 star hotel. Especially considering that we also stayed at the Hyatt Disneyland and the Del Mar Hilton (both gotten cheaply off of Priceline) and both were far superior hotels yet both are marked as 3-star. I did check out Tuscany Suites when I was in LV (couldn't get in at the $73 rate, all sold out when I checked 7 days prior to arrival). That is not a short walk to the Strip. I would say that it is a good 20 minute walk to Bally's on the corner of Flamingo and Las Vegas Blvd. I'm glad that I didn't get into the Tuscany in this regard. Riviera turned out to be great actually, I was able to entertain the kids by walking across the street to Circus Circus, and the gamblers in the family were sufficiently entertained by all of the Riv's happenings to not have to hop around from casino to casino.
