Vegas Notes: Mirage Buffet Reopens; Concerts Set On Lake
Updated: 9:03 am EDT June 7, 2004
The revamped Mirage buffet is open for the business of hungry visitors again. The new place is called Cravings and attempts to take the buffet into the 21st century, with all-new food preparation centers where you can watch your meal being cooked by real, live chefs instead of sitting, warming under a heat lamp.A wide variety of domestic and international cuisines are being offered in the new, more upscale room. Of course, with upscale comes upscale prices of around $17 for lunch and $20 for dinner.
Speaking of the Mirage, the gossip columns in Vegas are rife with the news that the Beatles' theme Cirque du Soleil show is a done deal for a 2005 opening. It'll be based on the "Yellow Submarine" material and will probably be less Cirque avant garde and more traditional singing and dancing.
Lake Las Vegas is planning an innovative new show of its own, with the announcement of the first of a series of "Stars on the Lake" concerts with LeAnn Rimes.The concerts will take place on a floating stage in the lake, with the audience seated on the shore and on the open lawns surrounding the performance area. At 52-by-76 feet, the stage is said to be one of the largest floating stages in the world, and the only one in Nevada. Tickets for the Rimes concert on July 3 range from $40 for open lawn seating to $100 for VIP seats near the water's edge, and are available through Ticketmaster.Additional concerts will be announced soon.
A small fire broke out at the Plaza hotel in downtown Las Vegas last week, sending smoke through the second floor of the landmark building. Guests were not evacuated and, according to reports, the fire was extinguished even before firefighters arrived. The incident was blamed on an electrical short in a computer.Las Vegas was the scene of one of the worst hotel fires in history when a blaze broke out at the MGM Grand, now Bally's, in 1980, killing more than 80 people.
Looks like the Ferrari and Maserati dealership at the upcoming Wynn Las Vegas is going to have some competition.Caesars Palace will opening its own exotic-car showroom this fall, featuring rare and very, very expensive automobiles such as the Bentley Continental, the Porsche Carrera GT, and the Ferrari Enzo, which range in price from around $200,000 to more than $1.3 million.Man, how many hands of blackjack do you need to win to afford that?The new showroom will be open to the public for free so you can go in and admire the things you'll probably never be able to afford. If you can afford it, I have a birthday coming up in September.The showroom will be located in the Forum Shops mall near the Atlantis fountain show.
Meet Greg Raymer, a 39-year-old attorney from Connecticut and now the 2004 winner of the World Series of Poker. Raymer, who goes by the nickname Fossilman, won the annual event at Binion's Horseshoe in downtown Vegas last week, claiming a record $5 million jackpot.More than 2,500 people entered the tournament this year, another record. This will probably be the last time it is held in its entirety at the legendary Binion's. Harrah's purchased the Horseshoe name and the poker tournament when the hotel closed earlier this year and plans to move all or part of it to a Strip property by 2005.
I'm sure he meant every suite. I'm hoping he meant every suite.I'm talking about Robert Earl, the Planet Hollywood chief, who has plans to remake the Aladdin hotel as an entertainment-themed mecca. Earl was quoted in a British magazine as saying that every room would be themed with some sort of Hollywood excitement, including a Madonna room, an Austin Powers room and a Cher room, each complete with authentic memorabilia used by the stars.With more than 2,600 rooms, the hotel would need a lot of memorabilia if he wasn't talking about just the up-level suites. The Planet Hollywood debut is now being expected in mid-2005, a significant delay from the fall 2004 opening originally discussed. The hotel will continue on as the Aladdin for a few more months and remain open throughout reconstruction.
The small Alexis Park resort just off the Strip will be completely remade into an all-new luxury hotel with a casino and almost 1,000 rooms in a 15-story tower.The Alexis Park's rooms will remain, although they will be transformed into high-end villas and the apartment building next door will be demolished to make way for the rest of the new construction. Leading the $210 million effort to remake the hotel is a company that tried to buy the Aladdin out of bankruptcy but lost the bidding to Planet Hollywood.There is no exact timetable for the reconstruction but with the typical red tape involved (tearing down occupied apartments, getting a gaming license) it will probably be several years before the new hotel is ready.
Sunset Station is in the gutter these days ... the bowling lane gutter that is. The hotel is aiming for a strike with a $23 million bowling facility now under construction near the southern end of the property, near the parking garage.The hotel isn't going to spare any luxuries with the new center: 72-lanes, locker rooms, a bar, a pro shop and the latest state-of-the-art technology from Brunswick. Executives with the hotel are hoping to pin an exact opening date down soon, but expect an early 2005 bow.
Kudos to the folks at McCarran Airport, who apparently handled the massive Memorial Day crunch rather well. There were delays, of course, but nothing near the virtual gridlock the airport suffered earlier this year on busy convention and event weekends. Extra staff was hired and lots of overtime was approved to get the flying portion of the estimated 300,000 people who came to Vegas for the holiday in and out smoothly.
Speaking of the Mirage, the gossip columns in Vegas are rife with the news that the Beatles' theme Cirque du Soleil show is a done deal for a 2005 opening. It'll be based on the "Yellow Submarine" material and will probably be less Cirque avant garde and more traditional singing and dancing.
Lake Las Vegas is planning an innovative new show of its own, with the announcement of the first of a series of "Stars on the Lake" concerts with LeAnn Rimes.The concerts will take place on a floating stage in the lake, with the audience seated on the shore and on the open lawns surrounding the performance area. At 52-by-76 feet, the stage is said to be one of the largest floating stages in the world, and the only one in Nevada. Tickets for the Rimes concert on July 3 range from $40 for open lawn seating to $100 for VIP seats near the water's edge, and are available through Ticketmaster.Additional concerts will be announced soon.
A small fire broke out at the Plaza hotel in downtown Las Vegas last week, sending smoke through the second floor of the landmark building. Guests were not evacuated and, according to reports, the fire was extinguished even before firefighters arrived. The incident was blamed on an electrical short in a computer.Las Vegas was the scene of one of the worst hotel fires in history when a blaze broke out at the MGM Grand, now Bally's, in 1980, killing more than 80 people.
Looks like the Ferrari and Maserati dealership at the upcoming Wynn Las Vegas is going to have some competition.Caesars Palace will opening its own exotic-car showroom this fall, featuring rare and very, very expensive automobiles such as the Bentley Continental, the Porsche Carrera GT, and the Ferrari Enzo, which range in price from around $200,000 to more than $1.3 million.Man, how many hands of blackjack do you need to win to afford that?The new showroom will be open to the public for free so you can go in and admire the things you'll probably never be able to afford. If you can afford it, I have a birthday coming up in September.The showroom will be located in the Forum Shops mall near the Atlantis fountain show.
Meet Greg Raymer, a 39-year-old attorney from Connecticut and now the 2004 winner of the World Series of Poker. Raymer, who goes by the nickname Fossilman, won the annual event at Binion's Horseshoe in downtown Vegas last week, claiming a record $5 million jackpot.More than 2,500 people entered the tournament this year, another record. This will probably be the last time it is held in its entirety at the legendary Binion's. Harrah's purchased the Horseshoe name and the poker tournament when the hotel closed earlier this year and plans to move all or part of it to a Strip property by 2005.
I'm sure he meant every suite. I'm hoping he meant every suite.I'm talking about Robert Earl, the Planet Hollywood chief, who has plans to remake the Aladdin hotel as an entertainment-themed mecca. Earl was quoted in a British magazine as saying that every room would be themed with some sort of Hollywood excitement, including a Madonna room, an Austin Powers room and a Cher room, each complete with authentic memorabilia used by the stars.With more than 2,600 rooms, the hotel would need a lot of memorabilia if he wasn't talking about just the up-level suites. The Planet Hollywood debut is now being expected in mid-2005, a significant delay from the fall 2004 opening originally discussed. The hotel will continue on as the Aladdin for a few more months and remain open throughout reconstruction.
The small Alexis Park resort just off the Strip will be completely remade into an all-new luxury hotel with a casino and almost 1,000 rooms in a 15-story tower.The Alexis Park's rooms will remain, although they will be transformed into high-end villas and the apartment building next door will be demolished to make way for the rest of the new construction. Leading the $210 million effort to remake the hotel is a company that tried to buy the Aladdin out of bankruptcy but lost the bidding to Planet Hollywood.There is no exact timetable for the reconstruction but with the typical red tape involved (tearing down occupied apartments, getting a gaming license) it will probably be several years before the new hotel is ready.
Sunset Station is in the gutter these days ... the bowling lane gutter that is. The hotel is aiming for a strike with a $23 million bowling facility now under construction near the southern end of the property, near the parking garage.The hotel isn't going to spare any luxuries with the new center: 72-lanes, locker rooms, a bar, a pro shop and the latest state-of-the-art technology from Brunswick. Executives with the hotel are hoping to pin an exact opening date down soon, but expect an early 2005 bow.
Kudos to the folks at McCarran Airport, who apparently handled the massive Memorial Day crunch rather well. There were delays, of course, but nothing near the virtual gridlock the airport suffered earlier this year on busy convention and event weekends. Extra staff was hired and lots of overtime was approved to get the flying portion of the estimated 300,000 people who came to Vegas for the holiday in and out smoothly.
The Full Story
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Vegas Notes: Mirage Buffet Reopens; Concerts Set On Lake
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In Next Week's Column
Next week: The latest from Las Vegas.Plus, don't forget to send your questions about Las Vegas. I've got room for more, so send them in today!Click here to go to the main page of Vegas4Visitors.com and see all of the fantastic resources Vegas4Visitors has to offer you when planning your next trip to Las Vegas.Rick Garman is the head writer for Vegas4Visitors
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