What's New in Vegas

[fauxklore]

Aside from the bad hotel experience, I did enjoy the trip to Vegas. I did the North Strip volksmarch event again, and, while there is still a lot of construction leading to bleak emptiness, there is some new stuff of interest.

The most obvious is the High Roller, allegedly the world's tallest observation wheel. I would like to ride it someday, but heard it is best at sunset, which comes too early this time of year. It is associated with The Linq, which seems to have replaced the Imperial Palace and incorporated O'Shea's.

The two new casino hotels I noted are The Cromwell, which is claimed to be a boutique hotel, and the SLS. The latter looked very nice, too, with interesting restaurants. I would try staying there, though the location is kind of out of the way (the north end of the monorail.)

Ah, Vegas. Always changing.

Comments

[susandennis]

Hilariously, I went to check out both the hotels. The SLS looks interesting but too far out, I think, maybe for me. But, when I looked up The Cromwell, I clicked on 'map and directions' and the page loaded up with a google map of Cromwell, New Zealand which is a tiny town on the South Island. It cracked me up. I have a good friend who actually lives in said tiny town. I sent him the link, he will think it's hilarious. So thank you!

[fauxklore]

Google maps does do things like that.

The Cromwell is, by the way, very central for the strip. Right next to the Flamingo, across Flamingo Rd from Bally's and across the Strip from Caesar's Palace.

[susandennis]

Turns out from friends from Cromwell, NZ were in Las Vegas for the first time ever last Summer and remember seeing The Cromwell.

[ron_newman]

Is an 'observation wheel' something different from a Ferris wheel?

[fauxklore]

I think of a Ferris wheel as open air and an observation wheel as closed glass compartments. To be fair, the only other things I see described as observation wheel's are the London Eye and the Singapore Flyer. I have done the latter and thought it worth it.

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

None of the three hotels you mention are really new. The Linq, formerly the Quad, is a reworked and remodeled Imperial Palace -- in fact, just last month they removed the blue tiles. The Cromwell is the Barbary Coast, formerly Bills, stripped to the bare steel and remodeled. The SLS, of course, is the Sahara stripped down and rebuilt, and incorporating a few artifacts from the Sahara. Not mentioned, but also disappearing, is the Harmon, the big blue oval tower that is slowing being taken apart after being constructed badly and never opened.

Remember: When the Sahara opened, that end of the strip was the happening end -- it is where the El Rancho Vegas was, it is where the Last Frontier was, it is where the Riviera was, it was where the Thunderbird was, it was where the Stardust was. The Flamingo was far at the other end, and the Hacienda (where Mandalay Bay is) was far far away. If you're trying to place other things, the DI is where the Wynn is now, and the Sands is where the Venetian is. The Dunes was where the Bellagio is.

[fauxklore]

The Linq is the least rebuilt of these. I count completely new interiors as new. The SLS certainly bears pretty much no resemblance to the Sahara.

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

I believe the SLS kept much of the casino building's bones and the two newer room tower bones, and likely kept the pool area, but (as with the cromwell) brought everything down to the structural members and rebuilt (which included removing all gingerbread "sahara-ness" from the towers). There is supposedly a chandelier made from the Sahara's door "S"s, and tributes to the Sahara in the carpeting.