The Vdara met all my expectations and even exceeded a few! I wanted to stay in a place without any smoking/gaming, so this seemed like a logical choice.  It was clean, modern, smelled great, had friendly staff, and good-sized room/bathroom.  We had a great view of the bellagio fountains & I loved that it was connected to the Bellagio when you did want to hit the casino.  It was conveniently across from Aria in city center which had a great restaurant & casino.  I only had two minor let downs.  The pool was pretty small for the size of the hotel and of course was packed because of that.  I wished it had more space so that even when I did find a chair I didn't feel like I was intimately involved with the person next to me.  Since I'm not much of a gambler, this was a let down when I wanted to spend some time at the pool during the day.  Secondly, on the first night there we called housekeeping for an extra set of sheets and they never showed.  When I called back to say I was too exhausted to wait any longer and could they just bring it tomorrow, they apologized and agreed, but I never got the sheets the second night, either.  However, the rest of my experience w/the staff was very positive so perhaps it was just an off wknd... would recommend this hotel to those who want to avoid smoke-filled lobbies and ventilation systems...