Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Mike_ch is back with another Stripwalk. This time he visits Encore, City Center, TI, Palazzo, Luxor and more. Check it out after the jump plus don't forget to check out the new photos:

Photos: http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/gallery/stripwalk

Encore: Construction guys are all over the place, and the building next to the hotel tower has turned from a steel frame to steel covered in concrete with more steel outside of it. A new circulation system has been added in the back by the new garage, there's more construction under that, and just about everywhere you look on the ground there's people and concrete and vehicles moving around. The area back by the new garage, and Le Reve theater is a mess. The roofline continues to develop upwards.

Wynn: Somebody opened the door to the Alexander McQueen construction zone while I walked past. The whole place has been stripped bare to concrete and construction lighting, so don't camp out for opening day just yet.

Treasure Island: The Sirens show is under refurbishment. I decided to investigate the construction wall of the high-limit slot area that's been discussed earlier to help give people an idea of where it is. It's part of that center island that includes the cashier cage and the players club desk and a high limit card room. The wall starts from the card room, all the way around past the buffet, past the elevators, past the breeze bar, and all the way to the players club desk. Hopefully this will give some insight as to the size/location of this new room.

Palazzo: When I was walking past, they were running the night lighting along the sidewalk. The bigscreen on the northern corner is up and running the same video as the Venetian's marquee monitor. The entrance arch is being decorated. About a week ago, the whole tower was lit up at night, and then two nights ago I went out to Springs Preserve and the whole tower was dark except for the blinkin' red lights at the top.

Bellagio: The holiday displays are up. The conservatory is the same as last year's. A large hole has been cut in an outside wall in the building that houses Light. You can see it from Flamingo when traveling eastward off the highway. It's actually been there about a month and a half now and I've not remembered to mention it. Anyway, signs and ads for The Bank (replacing Light) are going up around the property, and now Shintaro has been walled up as we knew would eventually happen.

P-Ho: They've put up some new, better looking signs in the mall pointing the way to the casino. They've also put up some touchscreen signs advertising the restaurants and such at the casino entrances. Other hotels (Mandalay Bay) have done the same thing, but what they've done here is add a slot machine finder to the touchscreen system. Think of Harrah's web site slot finder, but at the casino entrances. A circular bar is being built outside the Performing Arts showroom, which I think is a little excessive, but we'll see. Also in the mall, the Hawaiian Tropic Zone restaurant opened in about the space where Commander's Palace was occupying.

Luxor: The walls around Cathouse are now curtains, and you can see the doorways and, in the window of the upper level, some of the dining room. The decor is of, er, questionable taste. Large red doors with black "silhouette woman" shaped doorhandles dominates a few windows with red and white borders. It's bright and hard to ignore, and IMO the first questionable looking development in the "new" Luxor. This project has curtained up a whole chunk of the casino, cutting off a whole bunch of walkway and even a whole bunch of slots around the Pyramid Cafe. Guests who use the northwest inclinator have a walk to get to their core now. Also, the Playbar by the sports book has been renovated and no longer looks as cheesy, and the sports book itself has been renovated slightly to be more airy and less dark, and the poker room has been moved nearby. The Players club booth has been moved yet again, this time from the old Keno area to the tickets/will-call booth right near the theater entrance, hidden behind the (closed) theater store. This new location is so out of the way that they've had to wrap columns with advertising pointing out directions to the players club.

Company opened at the end of November. I got to take a look around and see the facility in action during a preview/opening party. They weren't quite fully in normal operation, but had a sushi/oyster/pasta buffet going, which is just a little too far out of comfort foods for my taste and perhaps a little distant from an "American bistro," but I heard nobody complaining. The room is well decorated and maybe a little dark (but at this event people were standing and walking all around the room instead of all seated at booths like a "normal" evening) and the service was much friendlier, and more attentive than I've become accustomed to with Luxor establishments. If the regular menu were in effect, I'd happily order up a steak, and I kind of want to go back and try it, perhaps on a special occasion. If somebody beats me to it, let us know what it's like.

Finally, buffet renovation continues here and gone are my favorite buffet plates, with the little cartoon pyramids and sphinxes on them. Too bad. Doubly too bad is that while they replaced all their plates they didn't bother to replace their tiny glasses. And last of all, a Fat Tuesdays has opened here. It's right past the doorway to the Mandalay mall (in fact, it technically IS in the mall, but if Luxor's considers Georgio to be one of their restaurants, and it's next door, then I'll do the same here.) This is in a space that had just been a wall advertising future events for months and months and months.

Mandalay Bay: The buffet was closed for a week. This is a short renovation, but it must be something fairly substantial because they bothered to wall it up and even decorate the wall with buffet logos. A TV screen advertising events was put in front of a directional sign on the pathway to the event and convention facilities. I'm not sure why.

Cranes 'n' Things: A new IMAX theater (Vegas' third) opens up this week at Red Rock. Rumors of the death of pop music on the Bellagio muzak system are (so far, anyway) highly exaggerated. The facade of the Frontier continues to be stripped away.

And that's probably the last update for the year, barring any crazyness with the Palazzo opening. I'm still not sure if I'll steer clear or check it out. As always, feel free to ask away in the comments.