September 1, 1999
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This Issue: Grand Opening of Paris Las Vegas
Curious about a restaurant, event, or other Las Vegas attraction that looks fun? Let us review it for you first! Suggestions are always welcome at: allvegastv@aol.com
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LAS VEGAS NEWS - of interest to tourists:
ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL? - Because of the wide-open sports betting, Monday Night Football is king in Las Vegas. From the major casinos to neighborhood bars, the push for the Monday night crowd is on. The Rio sets up it's showroom with the multiple huge screens, Miller girls, and weekly prizes for Walkman's, color TV's, race tickets, and more. Place a $20 wager on a Sunday-Monday Fever card and get a free collectors T-shirt. Downtown? Main St. Station is giving away a trip to Hawaii. Every single week.
NFL BARS - speaking of football, the RJ has just released it's list of the "home team" bars here in Las Vegas. They list very bar that considers itself a home for the supporters of a particular team and that show every single team game live. Plus, they must have food and drink specials. Full story at http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1999/Aug-29-Sun-1999/lifestyles/11846612.html
THE RAT PACK IS BACK - By now, you may have seen the controversy surrounding this David Cassidy produced show on many of the national tabloid news shows. It's been packing them in with it's solid impersonations and (more importantly) revival of the 60's Rat Pack vibe 5 nights a week at the Desert Inn. You can read the RJ's review at http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1999/Jul-30-Fri-1999/weekly/11634441.html. Don't forget to insure your seat ahead of time by booking the show online at http://www.showvegas.com/svpricing.cfm?cscheme=5&amid=143
RACING TRIPLE HEADER - Sept. 24-26 is another big auto racing weekend here in Las Vegas. Friday Sept. 24, the Orleans 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Race takes to the track. Saturday Sept. 25 is the Gold Coast 150 NASCAR Winston West Race, and the weekend tops off with the Vegas.com Pep Boys Indy Racing League (IRL) race. Tickets at (702) 644-4444. These weekends fill up in a hurry, so you may want to jump over to http://www.accessvegas.com now and grab a room and a rental car.
ELLIS ISLAND LABOR DAY PICNIC - "All you can eat and drink" for only $10 from 11 AM - 8 PM in their brewery and beer garden. Hot dogs, Hamburgers, Cheeseburgers, Beans, Corn on the Cob, Cole Slaw and much more food. Also includes all of their microbrews, soft drinks, and water. Ellis Island is located behind Bally's just off the corner of Flamingo and Koval. See contest section for Ellis Island coupons.
PRICELINE.COM - a local reporter was less than impressed with his experience with this internet ticket service. After the surcharges, he got a flight at a very inconvenient time and actually paid more than he would have purchasing it the regular way. Full story should be of interest to travelers: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1999/Aug-29-Sun-1999/business/11846738.html
PRIMER ON LIVING IN LAS VEGAS - Is it OK to call it "Vegas"? Who is the mayor of Summerlin? Is it really legal to drink on the street? This interesting and somewhere humorous article answers that and much more: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1999/Aug-15-Sun-1999/opinion/11746566.html
BUCKLE UP - The California and Nevada Highway Patrols are teaming up to get very strict on drivers along Interstate 15 (the main L.A - Las Vegas route) whom don't wear seat belts. Of the 38 people killed during 1998 on the stretch of road they are targeting, 30 were NOT wearing seat belts. Please buckle up and save the gambling for when you get here. Full story at http://prodigy-news.excite.com/news/bw/990827/ca-highway-patrol
WINNERS! - Jim Poston of Reno, NV was the winner of the Wet 'N Wild Coupons. David Dodd-Gilly of Anaheim, CA was our Willy & Jose's coupon winner. Dane De Voney of Schaumburg, IL won the Sahara Steak House coupon. Our craps winner never returned our notification, so we are now notifying the runner-up in that contest. Next week, we will announce August's $25 Green Chip winner.
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Quick Concert and Show Notes:
Want to see which shows are playing during your stay and book reservations EVEN if the tickets aren't on sale yet? BookVegas takes care of all your needs directly online! Search by dates at http://www.showvegas.com/svpricing.cfm?cscheme=5&amid=143
THE IRISH TENORS - and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra play the Thomas and Mack Center on Sept. 21. Tickets at 1-888-464-2468. THE HARD ROCK is within walking distance of Thomas and Mack (and also has a free shuttle to the Strip). Hard Rock discount rooms are available at http://www.accessvegas.com/rooms/las-vegas-hotel-reservations-strip-area.htm (Hard Rock link).
STAR SKATES SALUTES MANILOW - an ice skating tribute to the music of Barry Manilow starring Kristi Yamaguchi, Elvis Stojko, Caryn Kadavy, Philippe Candeloro and many more skating superstars plays Mandalay Bay October 9, 1999. Tickets at (702) 474-4000 and Mandalay Bay discount rooms are available at http://www.accessvegas.com/las-vegas-strip-hotels.htm (Mandalay Bay link). (Guys, if you always have to come up with a good reason to get the wife to go to Las Vegas, this is one of the best in a long time).
Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Scenic Southwest Tours - by plane, bus, or even helicopter! You've seen the glossy ads in the tourist brochures. You've thought about it. You come all the way to Las Vegas -- why not see one of the some of the most famous landmarks in the world! Don't by tricked by web sites & magazines that offer discount tours. Taxes, park fees, permits can almost double the price. Our prices are inclusive - no hidden charges! Best Las Vegas Tours
FEATURE STORY: Grand Opening of Paris Las Vegas
If you live in a major city, or watch cable TV, you have seen the ads for weeks: Paris is coming -- to Las Vegas. The Eiffel Tower in the desert. Paris arrived -- with a bang.
The festivities started around 8:00 PM as the black tie gathering (speeches, entertainers, etc.) from inside was broadcast live on the hotel's reader board. Have a big screen TV at home? Not even close. The quality of the picture was stunning considering the size. Around 8:30 PM, a rolling slide show featuring actual shots of Paris, France were displayed on the hotel. We mean the entire side of the hotel. This 5 minute montage was replayed a number of times over the next hour or so.
At around 9:00 PM, we adjourned to suite 28080 of the Bellagio where we were privileged to be the guests of Game Master Online (www.gamemasteronline.com) columnist "The Awesome 1". This is a very high floor wraparound suite that offers a panoramic view of not just the Strip, but all of Las Vegas. At 9:30 PM, we were treated to a eye-level view of the fireworks as the 1/2 size Eiffel Tower fronting Paris Las Vegas was lit up like a Roman candle. Truly spectacular, and we will have photos in a future edition.
Sounds good? Well, that's about where it ends. We'd love to tell you that this is the most spectacular of all Las Vegas casinos and that you should book your room (with us, of course) and get over here as soon as physically possible. But we can't. This is no Bellagio or Venetian.
We waited until 1:00 AM before trekking over to take a peek, wanting to avoid the frenzy and get a good look around. The place is cramped. Not with people. Just cramped. Walkways are small, the slot rows are placed close together. Very intimate -- like an older casino downtown. Now, we do confess to know absolutely nothing of France or the real Paris, so for all we know, they recreated the original in this respect. But if I want to try a tiny maze, I'll head to a carnival.
Paris is truly a tribute -- to every other casino in town. In fact, if someone had only 30 minutes in Las Vegas, this is where I'd take them. I'd show them the circular gold-guilded bar that looks like the one in the Venetian, the cashiers cage with the curved iron like the one at the Reserve, the blue sky like Boulder Station has, and the pit areas which resemble New York, New York (except that they lack the green trees and foliage that makes the pits at NY, NY such a pleasant area). In fact, the "blue sky with clouds" ceiling sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the same motif in the shopping area at Venetian, where it was so painstakingly done that you almost forget you aren't under natural sky.
The lobby is their tribute to the Bellagio lobby, done on a thrift store budget. It's like a movie set -- it looks so nice in pictures, but so cheap and tacky in real life. It has the "distressed look" ... but we don't think that decorative statement was intentional. The cheap gold paint used doesn't even match in many places. Once nice touch off of the lobby were European style phone booths -- oversized booths with a full sized door that shuts. A must for someone who wishes to carry on a private conversation.
Around the edges of the casino area are faux 2-3 story buildings, another motif borrowed from NY, NY (and one that has it's origins at Texas Station). Housed are the various shops and restaurants. Paris has adopted the now-popular concept of linking partner hotels together (Bally's in this case) with a shopping area, and a walk from Paris to Bally's (or to the convention area) forces you through the shops. Actually, though, this is the one area of the hotel which is well done and captivating -- for a minute you lose your senses in the surrounding, which is the goal of any casino.
Our only complaint is that if you use the parking garage, you must walk through the ENTIRE shopping area to get to the casino and back. Because they had such a small plot of land to build on for a megaresort (24 acres), the garage sits back even farther than your standard "5 minute walk" casino garage.
Word has it that Park Place Entertainment (the company that own Paris) had people from Disneyland over to help train employees. No surprise there. The uniforms of the staff (dealers excluded) looked like they belonged in Disneyland. The security uniforms (including hat) reminded us of a cross between Hogan's Hero's and a 1960's skycap. I would have paid to watch the poor guys dressed in these things attempt to expel an unruly patron. The drunk would probably be laughing so hard that he's leave on his own!
I feel just as bad for the cocktail waitresses. Imagine a traditional movie theatre concession stand uniform made into a short skirt and cut out to reveal some cleavage. With the hat. I didn't see one remotely happy expression on the face of a security guard or cocktail waitress the entire evening, and I doubt it had much to do with the stress of opening night. They just didn't look comfortable.
If you need to get away from it all, the sports book is a great place to go. It more resembles a movie theatre. Most casinos make their sports book visible from as much of the main casino as possible. Because of the Eiffel Tower legs which come through the casino, the sports book (while good sized) is hidden away and out of site. You could hide for weeks here and not be found.
The service workers have been trained to greet with French language phrases -- which we both didn't understand and didn't care for. And which they didn't seem all-too-thrilled about having to do. It's cute the first time around, and annoying after that.
Having said all this, we do want to emphasize that this resort has just opened. We have not yet dined at the restaurants nor taken a ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We have no room reports yet, but if they are half as nice as the photographs make them appear, they look good for the money. Paris has made it very clear that they are going after the mid-to-upper level guest, and I'd be shocked if they didn't succeed quite nicely.
With the great location (halfway between The Mirage and Mandalay, across from Bellagio with a view of the Bellagio fountains), you can enjoy the rooms and gamble elsewhere if you see fit. We didn't feel that Paris Las Vegas kept pace with The Bellagio or The Venetian, but it's sure not the Sahara (a decent mid-level hotel) or the Imperial Palace (great location for a generally budget hotel). So please do take into account that we have been "wowed" with a couple of pricey mega-resorts and are a bit jaded. Maybe Las Vegas is coming back down to earth. Just a little bit.
A side note to those interested in "casino politics": The executives of Paris have repeatedly mocked The Venetian by noting that their resort cost less, and came in on time and under budget. They even have 2 lifelike statues of workman "painting" a wall in the casino, which by all accounts seemed to be a snide mockery of the "soft" opening of Venetian. However, McDonalds brings their hamburgers in on time and under budget also. That does not make them the best. The intense detail that went into The Bellagio and The Venetian is not matched at Paris.
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Your input is welcome. Want to hear more about a subject? Don't agree with something we said? Write us a "letter to the editor" at allvegastv@aol.com Guest article submissions are also welcome with full credit to you, your website, etc. if accepted.
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FREE CONTESTS:
Note: You may enter every contest, but only one entry to each. Please note the expiration date and only enter if you will be in town and can use them. The 10'th entry to each contest will be the winner (unless otherwise noted). Just sent a blank email to the specified email address -- we'll get your mailing address from you only if you win (you have 72 hours to respond or we pick another winner).
FIESTA BUFFET - no need to enter here. Just show up at the Fiesta Hotel and Casino during Labor Day weekend, park in their new parking garage, and get a FREE buffet! If you are flying in this weekend, it's not too late to rent a car at http://www.travelnow.com/cars/search.jsp?cid=2005 The Fiesta is located about 10 minutes from downtown and 15 minutes from the Strip in the northwest part of town.
HOUSE OF BLUES - Coupon lets you buy one entree and get the second FREE! Good only at Las Vegas location (inside Mandalay Bay), expires November 1, 1999. Enter at (contest closed)
ELLIS ISLAND - coupons for 2 free handcrafted beers (microbrews) and a $25 for $20 match play coupon for blackjack. Expires Sept. 30, 1999. Enter at (contest closed)
WWF SMACKDOWN TICKETS - Win a pair of tickets to the WWF Smackdown event Tuesday, September 14, 1999 here in Las Vegas! 75 tickets are being given away, and the grand prize winner gets to meet wrestlers before the show. Enter at http://www.lasvegas.com/promotions/wwf/
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Have a request for a review? Boggled when you come to town and see the hundreds of dining, attraction, and show opportunities? Let us know what you'd like to hear about! Unlike the tourist magazines where all of the "articles" are really paid ads, we pull out our own wallet and give you the honest scoop. If you appreciate this service, please consider booking your rooms and rental cars for ALL destinations with us.
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All contents copyright 1999 Ted Newkirk
September 1, 1999
