Parts of Las Vegas have always seemed so outrageous, you sometimes feel you’re in a theme park. Excalibur, for example, with its giant King Arthur’s castle, sandwiched between a giant black pyramid and New York New York with a rollercoaster.
Now, though, that theme-park feeling has been brought vividly to life, courtesy of Lego. At their Californian LegoLand themepark, they’ve built a gigantic replica of the entire Vegas strip out of 2 million Lego bricks. It took their designers over 3 years to make, and features a 20 foot tall replica of The Stratosphere, working rollercoasters, and Lego showgirls.
Posted on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 10:14 pm by Mike Evans
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MGM Mirage’s shiny new Project CityCenter resort that’s currently being built in Vegas sits neatly next to the Monte Carlo hotel, which also happens to be owned by the company. So, a nice contiguous block of land, with two first class properties standing proudly side by side then?
Not quite. Sandwiched in the middle is a tiny WalGreens drug store (or what we in the UK called Chemist!). Apparently, WalGreens refused to sell their plot of land, and are quite happy running their little store as the western hemisphere’s most expensive privately financed project is built around them.
Posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 at 11:14 pm by Mike Evans
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A picture paints 1,000 words, as they say, and now Google proves it. Not content with just providing its users with streetmaps of various cities around the world, it’s now added the ability to see fullly interactive panoramic photos of some of those cities as well. And yes, Las Vegas is naturally one of the first cities to be included.
As you can see from the screen shot, the pics are a bit on the blurry side, but it really gives you a sense of being in Vegas, as you can pan left and right, and even more forward and backwards, with newer images morphing over the existing one to provide a sense of movement.
This really is impressive technology, and is a great way of checking out an area before you decide to book a hotel. Go have a play with it now at Google Maps. Just type in the name of a hotel, followed by “Las Vegas” (e.g. “Circus Circus, Las Vegas”), and then click on Street View. You’ll be amazed!
Posted on Friday, June 1st, 2007 at 11:31 pm by Mike Evans
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Harrah’s Casinos will be among the first companies in the world to use a brand new table-top computer from Microsoft.
The new computer, called the Microsoft Surface, is straight out of the film Minority Report. You can see images, files and documents on the table-top screen, and then drag them around with your hands, just by touching them.
You can then move them around the screen, resize them, or manipulate them any way you want, exactly as you would if they were real life objects.
Better still, the Surface will recognize objects placed on it, such as digital cameras or mobile phones, and will let you move files into and out of those objects. Harrah’s envisages using the technology to load free slot-play to your account when you place your Total Rewards card on it.
The New Frontier hotel and casino has been sold by Phil Ruffin to Elad Properties who intend to implode the Frontier and replace it with a $5 billion hotel based on New York’s Plaza Hotel. Ruffin had plans to implode the Frontier later this year and develop a $2.6 billion Swiss-themed resort called the Montreux, which I wrote about only two days ago!
Now though, he’s decided that the better option is to sell to Elad Properties for $1.2 billion, and let them take the risk of competing with the Frontier’s huge new neighbours that are currently being built.
Posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 10:37 pm by Mike Evans
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Heather from About Las Vegas has listed her top 5 reasons to be in Las Vegas right now (yep, she’s also contributing to ProBlogger’s top contest). Her list includes:
1). It’s hot…literally (115 degrees F at the moment, or 46 degrees C. Seriously?! That’s super-hot, even for an envious sun-worshipping Brit like me who’s struggling with 16 degrees C at home!)
2). Burgers (yeh, they have great burgers in Vegas!)
3). Er, it’s hump day…think this is an American thing!
4). Deserts, mountains and a lake (yes, real ones!)
5). The hotels and casinos…of course!
No mention of Quark’s Bar at the Vegas Hilton…funny that!
[Source: AboutLasVegas]
Posted on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 11:32 pm by Mike Evans
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Our new Las Vegas photo gallery is now up and running. We’ve got loads of photos of all the main Las Vegas hotels and casinos up and down the strip, each much bigger and better than the pics you see in the main blog posts.
More will be added over the coming weeks as we sort through our collection, so keep coming back to check for the new additions.
