Don’t get the Wednesday paper to verify but it was listed as an AP story on their site.
I heard about the construction a long time ago, but I didn’t know it had been finished. But I got that info online. Going to Vegas just isn’t something the majority of people around here do. I’m in the Bible-belt, after all. (Near the northwest corner. I don’t want to get more specific than that.)
I think I’ll vote option 2.
Not much news here in the Los Angeles region. To be fair, I haven’t been keeping up with the news as much as I usually would. I just checked latimes.com and from what I could find, they have some small blurbs on their travel section dedicated to Las Vegas. I just searched LA Weekly online however, and they had a huge write-up for it on Dec. 2.
Yeah, I was wondering how many identical casino/resorts the market can accomodate.
Here in Salt Lake (about a 6 hour drive from Vegas) they have mentioned it a couple of times.
That said, I am sure that the timing of opening this now is about as awful as possible (and I of course realise that it was started long before the economy went to shitaree) but hope for Las Vegas’ sake it helps your local economy out.
Well, in a week we will be there and we’ll bring back a report. I’m interested to see what the restaurants are like.
I was down for two nights before Christmas. (22nd, 23rd, left early 24th), but didn’t stay at the City Center.
I stayed at the Flamingo, since it’s my usual spot. I really enjoy the dealers, bosses, and people that are usually there. On Wed. the 23rd, I walked down to the City Center with some friends.
It is HUGE! Lots of buildings, lots of space, and a lot of cool architecture inside the buildings. Lots of neat artwork inside too.
Still quite a bit of construction going on in some of the mall area, and many shops haven’t gotten all the way in. All the big names are there (LV, Coach, Fendi, whatever the other fancy ones are that I don’t know). It’s laid out somewhat awkwardly, with some of the walkways just ending and then you have to walk all the way around to get to another floor. I’m not big into that stuff, so it was just okay.
After about 20-30 minutes of walking (while inside the City Center complex) we finally made it into the Aria. It took awhile to get there, which will probably limit the number of people who wander in off the strip to play, or just look around the casino.
It’s a very dark casino, but everything is of course brand new so it looks nice. The casino almost looked abandoned. This is generally one of the slowest weeks of the year in LV, but even so I was surprised how slow the Aria was. All tables had open seats, $10 BJ everywhere etc. There were two craps pits right next to each other that had 8 tables each. All tables were open and all were empty. The number of dealers standing around was mind boggling.
I lost some money, decided it was time to leave, and started looking for the cage to cash in.
UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE
I couldn’t find it. I walked front to back and then to the front. Couldn’t find it.
I asked a dealer… “All the way in the back on the right hand side”.
I’d been back there already, but took him at his word and walked back there. Hidden behind columns and walls was the cage.
Look, I understand the idea here. If I can’t find the cage, maybe I’ll just play my chips until they’re gone and then leave. This was absolutely ridiculous though. There were no signs for the cage, no indication of where it was, nothing.
For that reason alone, I will not be gaming there again.
That all being said. I saw very little of City Center. It probably isn’t really my cup of tea, but it does have some really beautiful stuff there.
My impression is that maybe it’s too big. The whole complex is so gigantic and I don’t know anyone who wants a condo or apartment on the strip.
I was looking for this post a couple weeks ago. There was an interview with someone at City Center on AP Radio News, rebroadcast over AFN Europe(Armed Forces radio/TV) which is then rebroadcast in the Afghanistan AOR where I heard it sitting in an office in Kyrgyzstan. I just heard the tail end of it where they thanked the guy from City Center, and mentioned the grand opening that night.
ETA: I already knew about it as I am from Henderson, and my dad even applied to work there.
-Otanx
I thought I’d heard they had 12,000 positions to fill and 120,000 applicants. Don’t know if it’s true or not.
Here is a photo slide show I made when walking through the City Center yesterday.
My first reaction is that this place is indeed huge - wear comfortable shoes as you will walk forever trying to get through this place. You should also take cell phones if you are going with anyone else, as it is really easy to lose someone here. Also, bring money; not only are the shops wildly expensive, the slot machines are mostly set to high dollar amounts, although a few cheaper-play machines can be found if you look hard enough.
Although we didn’t eat in the buffet, I did get approval to walk in and take a look. It seems good enough - nice selection, good presentation - but the prices were ridiculous ($39 for brunch that day) and the ambiance of the buffet is upscale Denny’s.
The photos of the grand hallways are of Crystals - the high end shopping mall. It is quite impressive in a massive way, and the shops are pretty but make 5th Avenue businesses in NYC seem like a bargain.
The other photos are in the casino area and I had to really fiddle in Photoshop with the photo of the slot machine area - in reality, the entire casino area is really, really dark. It seemed like it was midnight outside, and we were there at about 3:00 PM.
I didn’t get into any of the upscale restaurants, but at least from the outside, they looked very impressive and the prices were what you would expect at high-end restaurants.
There was some interesting artwork throughout the mall area and casino and from a design aspect, I think people will like City Center.
However, all-in-all I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. It was grand - it was huge - it was designed nicely with great pieces of art and nice outdoor areas; but it lacked a personality.
I am sure the rooms are excellent, and I can imagine huge conventions taking place there. Still, I would be very surprised if anyone ever considers City Center their favorite place to hang out. The Venetian has the great shopping area and over-the-top canals; Bellagio is elegant and has the great botanical garden and water show; Wynn is quite pretty with lots of waterfalls and great art; Paris Hotel/Casino has the feel of Paris - no matter how cheesy - and is easy to get around. The City Center is like walking through a huge mall and then stumbling into the casino area that is almost an afterthought…something they slapped in the middle of expensive restaurants and shops.
As a local, I can assure you that the next time I go there would only be with friends from out of town who want to see it. Otherwise, I will go to the new “M” resort or Green Valley Ranch or any of the other, more easily accessed and affordable, local casinos.
Still, I can imagine visitors on The Strip will have fun going through City Center - once. The question remains - will you walk all that way to go visit it twice?
I wasn’t impressed. We were there Monday to catch “Viva Elvis!” It reminded me of nothing more than a giant Indian casino. The layout is horrible, and just try to get a taxi when you leave. Adequate number of penny slots for the low rollers. But I’ll not be returning, except to see “Viva Elvis!” again after they get the kinks worked out.
I predict they dynamite the whole thing before 2025.
In San Juan it got mentioned but kind of perfunctorily, deep in the travel section in our main newspaper, for all I know they may have gotten a small blurb in the business section. And the main reason I noticed the one article was I was already keyed in on it, having been at LV a couple of days before Thanksgiving (side trip from being in LA on business; BTW got good info from DMark’s page). The feel I get is that of all the mega-projects under way when the crunch hit, this was the one that was seen as the one that HAD to be finished and opened (quite a few I am told were just stopped dead half-built as they were) just so it could be said they didn’t give up and die w/o a fight. Big gamble, though, creating something like this w/o a “branding” feature other than size, luxuriousness and some interesting architecture.
I haven’t heard much about it. But I will say the name “City Center” is about as bland as they come, and isn’t really going to attract the attention of anyone who doesn’t already know about it. It sounds like a municipal auditorium where they might hold wedding banquets and discount electronic fairs.
First of all, thanks for the compliment! Glad my site helped!
Well, as of news reports today, the Aria and the other hotel in the complex are both SOLD OUT this New Year’s! We’ll see what happens in the weeks/months to come, but it is a good sign for Las Vegas. Actually, Vegas is about 95% booked this New Year’s, although there are still rooms available at Circus Circus and Sahara for only $29.95 this weekend.
And yes, quite a few places have suddenly stopped construction and the Fountainbleau is in limbo, even though it is just steps from being finished.
One of the “odd” things about the economy and Vegas is that although gaming revenue is WAY down, room occupancy hasn’t been all that bad for the past year - we are still far above what other resort/tourist areas are doing. The problems for the casinos is that where people used to come and gamble, say $100 a day - they are now still coming but only gambling $30 a day.
In other words, people are still coming here, seeing the shows, eating the food and hitting the restaurants and buffets and drinking in the bars and clubs, they just aren’t dropping the coins they used to drop in the machines.