On safari at the Lion Habitat MGM Grand (plus some misgivings)

The whitest of knuckles on the Stratosphere rides, Las Vegas

I’ve always thought of myself as being pretty brave on rides. I’ll give anything a go and am rarely genuinely scared. Having seen The Big Shot featured on a TV programme about the most thrilling rides in the world, on my first visit to Vegas I was determined to try it…

Walking up the strip to the Stratosphere hotel I was thinking to myself that the tower looked pretty high. The shapes at the top of the tower were just pinpricks and the faint sound of screams in the air could have been bird calls or similar.

Maybe…

Bellagio Review: 10 things you have to see at the Bellagio Las Vegas

The Bellagio is one of the most famous hotels on the Las Vegas strip (if not the world), and for good reason. As one of the most lavish, luxurious hotels in the world, you could easily spend a full day in the hotel and still feel like you haven’t seen everything it offers.

The Bellagio is more than just its famous fountains – much more. Whether you’re staying in one of the 4,000 rooms or just visiting the hotel to see its grand opulence, here are ten things you have to see.

Photos of the Las Vegas Aladdin Hotel now online

The Las Vegas Aladdin was one of the old hotels of Vegas, and had been around on the strip in one form or another since 1966. If anything represents the excesses and the high stakes of Vegas, its the Aladdin: continued expansion leading to a huge sprawling hotel that covered 36 acres; mob involvement; implosion in 1998; $1.4 billion rebuild in 2000, closely followed by bankruptcy when the new look Aladdin, complete with 2,600 rooms and an entire mile of shopping within its walls, was simply ignored by the passing public!

The Aladdin was rescued and so continued trading, but since 2007, it’s been turned into Planet Hollywood. It’s still the same building underneath, but it looks completely different from the outside.

So if you go to Vegas now, you’ll see barely a trace of the Arab-themed splendour that was the Aladdin, which was possibly the Strip’s biggest white elephant. To give you a taste of what it was like, I’ve added a few new photos of the Aladdin as it was to the Gallery, courtesy of Susan Jancso, a prolific writer, photographer and lover of Las Vegas. Susan will shortly be publishing a book on Las Vegas, and can be reached at mailto://amhirlap@sbcglobal.net if you want to find out more.

The pictures of The Aladdin can be found under a new section of the gallery called Old Vegas, which I’ll be adding to over the coming weeks.

I also have tonnes of new reviews to add, as I’ve just returned from yet another Vegas visit, so stay tuned!

Exclusive video of man being rescued from Bellagio fountains

A man has been rescued from the lake at The Bellagio after climbing a tree to get a better look of the fountains and falling in. Unfortunately, rather than just falling directly into the lake, the branch he was on that gave way was above the concrete wall, which he hit as he fell.

When it became clear he wasn’t surfacing, several passers by dove in to rescue him. Minutes later the police arrived and helped drag him to safety, though it was clear from his screams that he was in some pain.

Bizarrely, I just happened to be there at the scene when it all took place. These pics and vids are from my trusty camera, which annoyingly ran out of memory towards the end. The whole thing was very surreal, particularly when the fountains suddenly burst into life. It was a beautiful night, gloriously warm, and the fountain display was particularly dramatic, but it was a discordant backdrop to the drama unfolding directly beneath me, especially when the man started screaming. Oddly, the crowd around me cheered as the fountains came to their stunning climax, with the rescue effort still in full swing.

As the man was stretchered off into a waiting ambulance, an old man in a wheelchair on the side of the street suddenly launched into a full-on religious sermon, telling us all to repent our sins or else.

He never quite said “or else the fountains of Hell will strike you down, too”, but he might as well have!

It’s my first day in Vegas, and if this is a sign of things to come, it’s going to be a pretty eventful week! Hats off to the guys who jumped in and rescued in him, though. They undoubtedly saved his life, as he was knocked out cold by the fall, and was laying there unconscious on the bottom of the lake.

You can see the videos of the rescue after the jump.

Fire at The Monte Carlo Hotel

The Monte Carlo Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip has been hit by fire, with the roof and top floor of the 32 storey building being engulfed in flames. Fortunately, everyone was evacuated without injury, and the fire was put out an hour after it was started, but it caused major grid lock up and down the Strip.

Looking at the video of the fire, it had the potential of being a catastrophe, as it really seemed to take hold of the roof. This must have been a nightmare for the Monte Carlo’s owners, MGM Mirage, not only in terms of bad publicity, but also because it was their MGM Grand hotel that caught fire back in 1980. That time, the fire killed 80 people and injured over 700 – this time, however, nobody was even injured.

The automatic sprinklers did their job, confining the fire to the outside of the building and preventing it from taking hold. This, combined with the smooth evacuation of the building (which is no mean feat, given it has over 3,000 rooms, most of which were occupied), helped ensure there were no injuries, and MGM Mirage deserve recognition for their fire policies, which clearly work.

Las Vegas Palazzo only weeks away from opening

The Las Vegas Palazzo hotel is just weeks away from opening. Quite when it will open is anyone’s guess, though, as there are contradictory reports of its opening day. The Las Vegas Sands Corp, the Palazzo’s owners, are claiming that it’ll open on December 20th, but the Palazzo web site will only let you book from December 28th.

Even more confusingly, Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese said the company was planning a “soft opening” of the Palazzo “sometime at the end of December,” but that “…we are focused on a grand opening celebration on January 18.”

Er, right. So presumably the Palazzo will be open for business fully from January 18th, but the foyer will be open on December 20th so the company can claim it met its 2007 opening deadline.

Whatever, the fact that they managed to get the Palazzo open in such a short time is impressive enough, as is the building itself. There will be a grand opening celebration on the nights of January 17th and 18th 2008 as well, which should be spectacular.

[Source: LVBusinessPress]

Treasure Island’s Tangerine club to close

Well here’s news that’s not exactly welcome. Tangerine, the great club at Vegas’s Treasure Island, is due to close – and it’s only three years old! I spent a glorious evening there earlier in the year, and thought the place was great. Sure, the music in the main dance area sucked, but get a different DJ, don’t knock the place down!

Fortunately TI aren’t giving up on the idea of nightclubs altogether. Instead, they’ll be replacing Tangerine with another nightclub that will open on New Year’s Eve. Apparently the reason behind Tangerine’s imminent demise is too much competition from the likes of Tao, Pure, Moon and Jet.

There’s a simple answer to that – get a better DJ! Meh!

[Source: LATimes]

Crown Las Vegas gets closer to construction

The impossible looking Crown Las Vegas hotel is inching towards becoming an actual real-life project, rather than just an architect’s outlandish dream. Now outlandish in Las Vegas terms is pretty normal, of course – in fact, you can’t build a hotel on the strip unless it’s more outlandish than its neighbours.

But the Crown Las Vegas really does intend to be the most outlandish of all, as it’s set to rise some 1,888 feet tall – that’s 700 feet higher than the Stratosphere!

The people behind the Crown Las Vegas, PBL, have just filed papers recently with the Clark County planning commission outlining their plans for the super-huge hotel. These plans include a 142 floor monstrosity that would dwarf everything all around it.

More details after the jump.

The Palazzo confirms opening date

The Palazzo, one of the new Las Vegas hotels currently reaching skywards, has confirmed its set to open on December 20th 2007. Some people are surprised by this given its current state of construction (see pic above, taken on 7th July 2007 and courtesy of Mark Adams), but the Las Vegas Sands Corp., owners of the Palazzo, are confident they can make this date.

When it’s complete, the Palazzo, when combined with its sister hotel the Venetian, will be “the largest integrated destination resort in the world” with 7,128 hotel rooms and 2.3 million square feet of meeting space on the Las Vegas Strip.

It should also be a good little earner, given that the Venetian has just posted revenue of $235.5 million for the quarter for the Venetian.

[Source: Forbes, LasVegasTodayAndTomorrow]