Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Mike_ch is back with the latest Strip Walk. This time we have a look at Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, Caesars Palace, New York New York and Luxor.

Notes after the jump, photos here:
http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/gallery/stripwalk

Short update, not much has changed and I spent more time checking out resorts that hadn't opened yet than running around and checking up on things that already opened.

Encore: What look like valet entrances are being set up on the north side (near Desert Inn underpass) and out front near the Strip. At the parking lot, what's really changed is the addition of some skylights. I'm not sure what all this means, because I don't really study the plans/discussions about Encore that much. It's not so much for disinterest as much as a willingness to wait and be surprised at opening. Anyone? The area is becoming so crowded with stuff that the parking lot isn't the elevated view it used to be. If anybody is staying at Wynn really soon, a north tower two-bed room is the best view for shots now.

Caesars: The new tower has been under construction for about a month now. It's on the other side of the pool facilities and it'll be amusing to see, once again, how you're supposed to access this tower from inside Caesars since IIRC the only thing that is that far back there is meeting facilities. The Palace Tower was attacked as being far out of the way to get to (which is funny if you consider that it's practically in the middle of the property) thanks to the stairs and shops and long hallways that keep it away from the casinos, but this seems like it could be another one of those being waaaay back there. They did at least partially raze a building by the freeway (and I just don't know Caesars well enough to always know what it is) to build thing, for a while there were doorways to dead air and escalators seemingly hanging out in the thin air for a few weeks. Those have been removed and that whole wall of the building tarped.

NYNY: A few months ago I mentioned that a Häagen-Dazs opened upstairs near the Schrafft's, and I didn't know why you'd open two ice cream parlours close to each other. And that if given the choice, I'd sooner have a Schrafft's since, even though it is merely a name as the company went out of business some time ago (does the casino license it, who knows?), it is one of the stronger elements of NY-NY's fun theme.

So, it goes to figure that I should tell you that the Schrafft's has been replaced with a Swensen's. "Big deal, where's the CityCenter stuff?" you say. Yes, it might SEEM unimportant but all the decorations from the old name (including the huge statue of the dude holding the ice cream cones that has the name written into the wall) are all still there. In fact, the interior was virtually unchanged. So it looks like a Swensen's only by the sign out front. I suppose, in a way, having a chain store themed as a bygone store 'works', but I still prefer the old store. And I still don't know why there's two ice cream stands next to each other.

In other NYNY news, the bar and high limit areas are totally walled up to the ceiling and a small area of slots near the tables is temp-walled.

Luxor: They closed their steakhouse and La Salsa for redesign, rename, etc. That empty space between LAX and the cage became another "Fashion101" store selling too-tight clothing for the nightclub set. I meant to go downstairs to see what happened to the buffet construction walls out front but forgot. From what wandering I did, I don't know where they're going to put this new high limit area. Any ideas? This isn't about the high limit area by the high bar, this is being advertised on the site as an area with it's own design, restrooms, and a cage. There's lots of little unused, ignored, and just plain hard to reach corners and crannies of the Luxor (my favourite is the huge, completely empty area behind the cafe and Starbucks) that you could put this thing, but that would bring new meaning to "secluded high limit room." However, unless they want to go through the hassle of installing a new restroom, there's only a few likely candidates.

Cranes 'n' Things: There's not a lot to actually describe in detail this time, so a good chunk of the article is in here. Fontainebleau has been coming along for a while, and the photo gallery has pictures. Some big ugly square concrete columns are being built along the sidewalk. Planet Hollywood Towers has really been going up fast and pictures from the monorail are in the album as well. Echelon remains mostly unchanged, but a building is being built way out there by Industrial Rd. Maybe it's the limited view, but it seems that Echelon is, as far as footprints, more sprawling than CityCenter. Or it might just be that CityCenter is really big. New pictures focusing on the hotel building are there, too.