Riviera - tell me the good and the bad

Have Thursday and Friday still to book for my week-long trip. Staying at Hard Rock both at the beginning and the end. Trying to find someplace I won't be disappointed in for the middle segment.

Or will no 3-star place be good enough after staying at HR? Not looking for luxury, just someplace well located and not overly priced. NFR is in town that weekend and Friday is rather expensive

The crowd at the Riviera is very different from the Hard Rock. The Riviera is very old school. The casino tends to be quiet and laid back. Its perfectly nice but basic. If you are planning on partying and hootin and hollerin, you will need to go somewhere else.

I have never stayed at the Riviera, but this month's Las Vegas Advisor indicates that they have great bar value at the their main bar.

We had the lowest tier room when we stayed there and it was fine. It was on par with Bally's as far as size and appearance.
The thing I like the best about the Riv is the shortcuts. We had dinner in the cafe and instead of walking all the way around through the casino to get to our room they let you go out the door by the pool, from there we got straight in to the tower we were staying in. To get to the parking garage we went down to the first floor and down the hall and boom, garage!

It's the little things for me.

Love the Riv casino (haven't stayed there), but like pjstroh said it is old school, Good location for a mix of everything: Wynn/Encore for some glitz, Circus Circus and Slots a Fun across the street for some diving, with the Riv in the middle of the pack.

The good: easy access from Paradise if you rent a car. Easy walk to Wynn, etc. if you don't. huge inventory of rooms = cheap rates & easy comps (usually.) Food court is convenient & cheap. Banana Leaf has yummy spring rolls. Rooms in the Monte Carlo tower are huge and have fridges...
The bad: VP inventory has been gutted of anything approaching full pay, many of the shows are weak (they are sort of a let's thorw everything at the wall and see what sticks place, putting quantity over quality,) and that quiet casino can sometime be totally dead. Also of course: older property; no california-beautiful-people to people watch (ok this may be a "good" lol and at an older, under-construction, less-than-lively part of the Strip...