5/17/2013

Topless Pools



Swim with a stripper. Party heartily with an A-list DJ. Crane your neck to see celebrity hijinks in a cabana roped off from crowds, where string bikini-clad servers pour $450 bottles of Grey Goose vodka.

Vegas adults-only pool parties, which started a trend a decade ago with the giant Sunday "Rehab" bash at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, still are making waves. Not to mention big bucks for casino resorts via what's dubbed "daylife." Some pools offer topless sunbathing, a rarity at U.S. resorts.

As this year's Vegas season for party pools launches, the count is climbing to nearly two dozen, as more venues take the plunge.

INSIDER GUIDE: Adult and topless pools, parties      
                                       
Rehab and other pool bashes have "grown into something completely beyond everyone's expectations," says Michael Goodwin, vice president of nightlife and daylife at the Vegas Hard Rock. It now hosts adult swim events Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays, too. "Nightclubs and the party-pool business have become a main source of revenue" in Vegas, he says, and draw visitors who come just for the chance to drink and dance like there's no tomorrow, day and night.

Among new entries: The Sapphire Pool & Dayclub, due to open April 18 adjoining the Sapphire Gentlemen's Club. Club dancers wearing pasties and bikini bottoms will provide "atmosphere," says Sapphire Managing Partner Peter Feinstein. Female visitors get free pasties to wear, too.

Also making its debut: DAYLIGHT Beach Club at the Mandalay Bay resort, with a planned Memorial Day Weekend grand opening. Aiming for what The Light Group CEO Andy Masi calls the look of a "five-star resort in Cabo," Mexico, with "Ibiza music and vibe," it's the first Vegas pool designed with the current DJ craze in mind, he says — including a state-of-the art sound system, 1,500-square-foot stage and 6 LED screens behind the spinners' booth.

Established pools such as WET REPUBLIC Ultra Lounge at the MGM Grand draw lines of wannabe revelers who may wait for more than an hour on weekends to get past the door staff and into the water or to watch antics such as Champagne-spraying and impromptu conga lines.

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