I happened to be over at the Bellagio yesterday & noticed they have reopened the Fontana Lounge. It had been closed for quite a while and wasbeing used as the baccarat room. I had heard rumors about it reopening and I’m happy to report the rumors are true! I’m not sure of the exact day it reopened but it’s back now!
Unfortunately they’re not gonna have the great Jimmy Hopper band back but will have a series of rotating acts, all I’m sure will be excellent.
If you’ve ever seen any of the World Poker Tour events filmed at the Bellagio they have the final table in the lounge. It’s also a great place to see the fountain show from inside.
With all the things changing and closing here it’s nice to see something come back.
The Monte Carlo opened up yesterday after being closed for 3 weeks after the fire on Jan. 25. The burned parts of the roof were patched up and the hotel was deemed safe to resume operations.
MGM Grand officials estimate they lost $100 million during the 3 week closure. About 1/3 of the rooms were open today with another 1/3 to open in a few days. The top floors will re-open at a later date. The casino is fully operational as are most of the restaurants & also the Lance Burton show is back open.
I stopped by late last night and checked it out first hand. There was a decent amount of people there, but not the usual weekend crowd. I think the smaller crowd was due to the lack of promotion about the reopening. Things will pick up over time.
The brewpub was closed though, I’m sure it’ll re-open in a couple of days.
The fire could have long-reaching effects though for other strip properties. Several other hotels built around the same time frame have the same fake concrete-foam facade the MC does. Regulators might make them either alter or re-design their buildings so they are more safe.
Newer construction had different safety codes than the MC was built under when it opened in 1996.
All in all it could have been much worse and we’re all thankful no lives were lost and there was no serious injuries.
I got to go see the The Beatles: Love show last week. Out of all the Cirque de Soliel shows here in town (with the exception of “O”) it’s the one I really wanted to see.
It’s located over at the Mirage, in the old Sigfried and Roy theater. The theater has been totally redone to be a theater in the round to fit the design of the Love show.
As a huge Beatles fan I had high hopes for the show. I was not dissapointed! It was 10 times better than I could have imagined! It was amazing to see the Beatles music come to life. The visuals really fit the music well.
The whole show is based on the music of the Beatles. Their producer George Martin and his son Giles were given carte blanche in making the soundtrack for the show. They took all the original Beatles master tapes and made some new remixes and used some different versions of some songs for the soundtrack. On some of the songs they took bits and pieces from one song and put them into other songs, giving them a new twist.
In some aspects it’s a typical Cirque show with the acrobatics and the movable stage. One cool part of the show is they drop opaque curtains as various points in the show and have projected images of the Beatles in silhouette either joking around or playing their instruments.
One thing that really made the show unique is the sound system. In addition to the regular speakers hanging above the stage they also have speakers in the seats! The audio is also mixed in a really cool surround sound setup where the speakers in the seats play sounds and parts of the songs that aren’t in the main speakers. It’s a great effect and really adds to the experience.
I just had an amazing time and honestly the show is worth every penny, especially if you’re a Beatles fan. It’s one of the best shows I’ve ever seen and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
The report came out yesterday that the Monte Carlo fire was definitely caused by workers on the roof as was first speculated. There’s also some talk that they didn’t have the proper permits to be doing the work & the whole event could have been prevented by taking other safety precautions.
The initial reports was that some welders were working on the roof at the time of the fire & that turned out to be true.
They’ve been working around the clock to get the hotel back open. They’re fixing and replacing the foam facade up on the top and repairing the damage in some of the rooms from fighting the fire.
As of today the hotel is still closed & they missed Super Bowl weekend. It’s gonna probably be at least another week or so before they’re cleared to open back up.
I’m sure there’s gonna be a lengthy investigation into the whole episode and the conclusion will have far-reaching effects for the future construction on the Strip, much as the 1980 MGM Grand fire did.
I’ll keep you guys up to date with any news & when they hope to re-open.
One of the best known sites along the strip is closed for renovation and upgrading.
The famous volcano in front of the Mirage hotel is shut down and will be out of commision for the next few months.
Since it’s opening in 1989 it’s become an icon of the Strip and a must-see attraction. It had an upgrage in 1996 but has remained basically unchanged since.
The company in charge of the renovation is Wet Design, who also designed another Strip icon, the Bellagio fountains. After seeing what they did with the fountains, I’m sure the new volcano will be awesome!
Plans are for the work to be finished by the end of the year, so if you’re coming out in the near future unfortunately you’ll miss one of the most well-known attractions on the Strip.
But that’s part of Vegas, always changing and re-inventing itself.