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Las Vegas News - (11/12/09) While I had heard that the observation balloon had opened in Vegas, I had not been given details about it until now. They are calling it the Cloud 9 Balloon and you can read up on all the details, ticket prices and hours at the official site. The balloon looks just like the one opened in Orlando earlier this year, but the Vegas one is allowed to fly up to 500 feet in the air.
    (10/14/09) Check out this video showing off the massive “Rock Wall” at the new flagship Hard Rock Café in Las Vegas. This incredible interactive display uses Microsoft’s Surface technology. Now just imagine this kind of thing put to use in a theme park queue.

    (10/6/09) Many Vegas casinos say that one the current batch of huge expansion projects in the works is finished, it could be a decade or more before major new expansions or resorts could be built. The old business model in Vegas has been thrown out the window and the companies are now looking to pay down debts and deal with what they have. You can read more here.
    (9/11/09) The new mega Hard Rock Café has opened this week in Las Vegas on the Strip this time, as an anchor position in the Showcase Mall. This is no regular Hard Rock Café however, this one is considered to be a “flagship” location as it boasts a huge 42,000 square-foot café, a 950 seat restaurant, live concert venue, special limited edition merchandise you wont find anywhere else and more. Meanwhile the original Vegas location on Paradise Rd (outside the Hard Rock Casino) will still remain open as well. The location is loaded with new high tech innovations, such as the huge interactive Rock Wall display and puts Microsoft’s Surface technology to use as well.
    (9/9/09) A new interesting venue has opened in the Monte Carlo casino in the renovated Dragon Noodle Co. & Sushi Bar… some kind of Cosplay Lounge where the servers will be dressed as various popular Japanese Anime characters. Anyone have photos?

Circus Circus Adventuredome - (5/11/09) The local news has posted a reports on the history of the Circus Circus Adventuredome, but at the very end it mentioned that they are looking into adding a new coaster where “the rider’s legs dangle”. Adding an inverted coaster into the dome would be very interesting… but I think we’ll have to wait until the economy improves a bit before we see this move forward.
    (3/20/09) I’ve heard from a source that the plans to install a Gerstlauer Spinning Coaster into the Circus Circus Adventuredome may have been put on hold indefinitely. Apparently the park is making plans to keep the Rim Runner for now, but as always, this is Vegas and things can change very quickly.
    (4/24/08) If our sources are right, a deal has been signed with Gerstlauer to install a custom spinning coaster inside the dome instead that will open by Summer 2009.

City Center - (11/10/09) A reader has sent us a few updates about the scheduled openings for many of City Center’s new hotels. The tell us that while Vdara is taking reservations for as early as December 1st, the nearby upscale shopping mall, Crystals, isn’t set to open until Dec. 3rd. The Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas is also currently taking reservations starting December 5th, meanwhile Aria is currently set to open on Dec. 16th.  City Center’s fourth hotel, The Harmon, wont open until late 2010.
    (11/9/09) Cirque du Soleil has put out a little bit of information about Viva ELVIS, the new show to open in City Center at the ARIA Resort & Casino next year. Check out the official website here.
    (4/15/09) While we all have been just referring to City Center as one giant massive project, the truth is that the complex will be made up from many different buildings and businesses, each who will have their own unique traits to offer. Case in point, lets talk a bit about Aria, which is expected to be one of the first hotels opens in City Center, and is already accepting advanced reservations at their official website, shooting for a grand opening in December 2009. Aria will offer 4004 rooms w/ 568 suites, a large 150,000 sq-ft casino, three pools, 16 restaurants, countless bars and a special nightclub. Aria will also be the location for the next Cirque Du Soleil show which will be themed to the king of rock ‘n roll... Elvis. You can also find out more about the entire City Center project at their own official website.
    (4/10/09) VegasTodayAndTomorrow takes a long look at City Center and all the buildings that will make up this massive project.

Cosmopolitan - ON HOLD - (4/10/09) VegasTodaAndTomorrow has posted a new photo update on the Cosmo.
    (1/17/08) The big news from Las Vegas today is that the massive $3 billion Cosmopolitan Resort project may be in trouble. Seems their lender just filed paperwork to foreclose on the property as their $760 million loan just matured. The project is currently under construction with a 2009 opening date, placed between the Bellagio and City Center. The owners are currently working to find new investors to fund the project.
    (12/8/04) A new $1.5 billion casino project has been announced near Bellagio on the Strip & Harmon. This 4 million square-foot project will feature twin 53 story glass towers housing 2400 time-shares, hotel and condo rooms. It will have a 70,000 sqft casino, 1,900 seat performance theater, plus 150,000 sqft of meeting/convention space in addition to an extra five story stucture to house an additional 300,000 sqft of retail space. The project is expected to open in 2008.

CSI The Experience -     (9/17/09) One of our readers took the time to drop into the new CSI Experience at the MGM Grand yesterday and send in a brief review. Upon arrival you have the option of selecting to experience ONE of THREE different Crime Scenes only: #1 – A House Collided, #2 – Who Got Served? and #3 – No Bones About It.   The problem right away is what has caused the downfall of nearly every other Vegas attraction in the last decade or more… an absurdly high ticket price. A ticket to experience just one of the Crime Scenes will set you back $30. Upon leaving they are handing out a coupon good for the same day only, where you can try out one more at the discounted rate of $24. Our reader said that based on the experience, $15 for one and $30 for all three would have been a more reasonable price.
    As for the experience… after a trip through the Briefing Room where they explain to you how everything will work you are taken to the crime scene to search for clues, make your notes on a clipboard and try to figure out just what happened based on the evidence. Next up is a trip to the Lab where you go over what you and others have determined from the scene, as well as video playbacks from other investigators, some from the show itself. You’ll gather from test results here and move on to visit the Medical Examiner next who gives you the test results and evidence noted from the body, done by projecting video upon a plain white mannequin. After this you present your case to Grissom on a computer monitor to wrap things up. As for how it stack up in the end, “As a science museum exhibit (which this was), it's a really cool experience that gives you the feel of the show while creating an engaging, educational experience.  However, the way-too-high price for what you get keeps me from ultimately recommending CSI: THE EXPERIENCE.”
 

Echelon Place - ON HOLD - (1/13/09) I’ve added a current photo showing off Echelon… where there really isn’t much to see at all and wont be until the project gets moving again.
    (12/2/08) The Las Vegas Sun has confirmed that the construction holding pattern on the massive Echelon project will stay in place most likely through to the end of 2009. Over the next few months they will go over alternative plans like scaling the project back or opening it in phases.
    (8/5/08) According to the latest headlines in Vegas, the struggling economy is now started to affect some of the new construction projects on The Strip. Boyd Gaming has reported that they have put an 8-month hold on construction for the $4 billion Echelon Place project being built on the former site of the Stardust. Construction will not start again until Spring 2009 at the earliest which will delay it’s scheduled 2010 opening by at least a year.  According to the latest construction photos posted to Vegas Today & Tomorrow, the project was still at a fairly early phase of construction with only about 10 floors built up at the tallest point.
    (1/6/06) Boyd Gaming has announced a $4 billion plan to demolish the old Stardust and replace it with a 63 acre hotel/casino complex called Echelon Place to open in 2010. It will include four different hotels, 5,300 rooms in total, a 140,000 square-foot casino, theaters, shopping areas, convention space and more. Anchoring the project will be Echelon Resorts, two hotels (3,300 rooms) that will contain the casino and 24 different restaurants and bars. The other two hotels will be the Delano Hotel Las Vegas and Mondrian Hotel Las Vegas. The Stardust will continue to operate through the 2006 season and no date to close it has been given.

Fontainebleau - (11/1/09) According to the WSJ, the Fontainebleau project filed bankrupcty back in June after pouring over $2 billion into the unfinished project. They say that it will take another $1.2 billion to finish it, making the project very unattractive to anyone looking to rescue it, though there are those looking to take it over, with a possible late 2010 date to open it.
    (4/10/09) A new construction update has been posted to VegasTodayAndTomorrow. Construction has slowed due to the economy, though the structure is near completion. No word on when it might open.
    (4/20/07) The $2.8 billion Fontainebleau casino project across the street from Circus Circus has sold 20% ownership in the project to Australia’s largest gaming company. This puts the 63 story, 3,889 room casino much closer to becoming a reality.

Harrah’s Giant Wheel - (7/23/09) Harrah’s has also come up with a new development, a sort of retail walkway that would take over a space between their Flamingo and O’Sheas casinos. Named “Project Link”, perhaps the biggest thing planned for it is the building of a massive 600 foot tall Giant Wheel at the back end of the project. Yes… the back. I’m not sure what kind of view you will have of items on the backside, but at 600 feet tall you’re sure to have a good look around when your on the top half.

Las Vegas Monorail - (6/25/09) Check out this interesting article about the Las Vegas Monorail, where they mention that while the system makes enough money to cover it’s operational costs, they are not making enough to pay back the large debt from the system’s creation. Could a government bailout for the Las Vegas Monorail be on the horizon?
    (11/7/08) According to a posting from over the summer at the Monorail Society, the expansion plans for the Las Vegas Monorail are being shorted by one mile and taking a much more direct route straight to the airport from the MGM Grand down Tropicana. The revised plan would also remove three of the previously proposed stations that would service the Hard Rock, UNLV and the Thomas & Mack Center, but by cutting a mile of rail from the the budget, the savings should be enormous.
    (1/5/07) Clark County has approved the first leg of the 3.5 mile extension of the Las Vegas Monorail to McCarran Airport that will be funded entirely by private investors. The new line will include stops at Terminal 1 and 3 as well as a detour over to stop at the Hard Rock and Thomas & Mack arena. Construction will begin in 2008 and completed by 2011, granting many guests to Las Vegas with a direct door to door route from the airport to their casino destination without the hassle of taxis or rental cars.
    (2/9/06) The city has now put it’s support behind a huge expansion of the Las Vegas Monorail line that will favor building the expansion to McCarran International Airport first along with a new western route around the strip that will run close to I-15 from the Excalibur / Luxor area all the way past the Fashion Show Mall and then over to link up with the existing line near the convention center. All said and done the expansion may triple the overall length of the system and cost $1.3 billion ($500 million for airport run, $800 million for the western line expansion). If everything is approved and goes well, construction could start as early as 2007 and could open by 2010, just in time to serve the new Project: City Center and Echelon Place developments. You can see what the first draft of the proposed route looks like at Vegas Today & Tomororw.

Las Vegas Wet - ON HOLD - (7/6/09) There has been a small update over at the Las Vegas Wet website. The old website has been completely removed, along with all the old concept artwork, and now the only thing they are showing is a new home page with a 2012 opening date. Is this a sign of new activity on the project once again, or a sign that the project is going to be scaled back or altered in such a way that the old artwork and promotional material had to be removed? More when we find out.

Star Trek: The Experience - (10/7/09) According to this article, the plans to rebuild a new version of Star Trek: The Experience at Neonopolis are still alive and well. Things are still moving along, but it seems they have no set timeline as to when we may see anything open just yet.
    (7/23/09) Sure to please Trek fans with Blu-Ray players, the upcoming Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection mentions that there is a 7th bonus disc called Star Trek: Evolutions. This disc will include 7 special features, three of which are all about Star Trek: The Experience. They include “Farewell to Star Trek: The Experience”, Klingon Encounter and Borg Invasion 4D.
    (5/6/09) According to Gizmondo, the new version of Star Trek: The Experience attraction going into Neonopolis isn’t expected to feature any kind of attraction until at least 2010 at this point. However to this news post at LasVegasVegas what little bit of the attraction that they had hoped to open this week will now have to be delayed a bit, though no specific date has been given, so it could be a week, a month or even next year.
    (11/10/08) Good news for Las Vegas fans as it has now been confirmed that Star Trek: The Experience will reopen in a new home over at Neonopolis in the downtown area. While no big details were given, they did state that both the Simulator ride, the 4D theater, museum of the future, shops and restaurant / bar would make the move. It was also hinted at that we could see some changes as well as “significant upgrades.” More on this as we find out.

Viva - (8/5/08) Station Casinos has announced their own huge multi-casino mega-resort called Viva which will redevelop the site of the Wild Wild West Motel & Casino property off I-15 and Tropicana. The 110 acre site, when completed over a multi-phase construction period, will feature at least three casinos, 3 hotels, starting with about 5,200 rooms at a cost of over $10 billion, making bigger and most costly than the $8 Billion CityCenter.