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

[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.