(Start with Part 1 and Part 2.)
Mirage
The Mirage is the resort that kicked off the current era of the Strip, what I’ll call the “How can we go bigger and more garish than the last one?” era. (I tease because I love, though.)
It is home to the second-best Cirque du Soleil show on the Strip — Love, based on the music of The Beatles. It’s also the home of Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. And, of course, the original free outdoor attraction, their volcano, which erupts hourly at night. All of these are recommended.
Venetian
The first thing you are likely to notice outside the Venetian are the people getting gondola rides through the canals that snake through the inside and outside of the building. Sometimes the gondola drivers sing. I guess this is recommended for people who really want a gondola ride, and/or want to appear in random stranger’s vacation videos.
Venetian is home to the Blue Man Group, which we saw on our last visit. It was good, but I’d recommend hitting at least Love and the soon-to-be-discussed Mystere, at a minimum, before you consider spending money on this one. (On a side-note, during each performance they create a Jackson Pollock-style painting, and the one from the show we saw now resides in my office.)
Venetian is also home to a Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum which is highly recommended as a fun diversion. Especially the horror exhibit, which is done as a bit of a show with a human actor.
The Grand Canal Shoppes are worth a walk-through if you aren’t shopped out yet.
The Venetian rivals Caesars Palace in terms of finding (or rather, not finding) your way around. It does not have a buffet. And I do not recommend staying here, because….
Palazzo
On our last trip we stayed at Venetian’s new sister hotel/casino, The Palazzo, and it instantly became our favorite place on the Strip. Clearly, Las Vegas Sands took what they learned from Venetian and built on that.
We played plenty of slots and Blackjack here. The dealers were friendly and efficient, and we even found some $5 games.
Everything is as opulent as Venetian, but here you can actually find your way around. It has its own set of high-end shops, and a great show in Jersey Boys, which we did not see as we’ve seen the touring production back home.
If you want to go the luxury route, the suites here are amazing. Nothing like heading back to your room, taking the few steps down from your bed area to the living room area, grabbing the remote control to raise or lower your blinds, and relaxing on your giant wrap-around couch. About our only complaint was that at night our fabulous view was taken up by the worst free show on the strip, Sirens Of TI (more on that in a little bit).
No buffet here, either, but it’s a short walk to the Wynn Las Vegas, so that’s okay.
Treasure Island
About to pass hands over to its third owner, TI (as it’s mostly known) represents the best and the worst of the Strip.
The worst: their free night-time outdoor show, Sirens Of TI. It involves a group of Pirates being lured in by a group of Sirens. About the time the Sirens start disco dancing, unless you’re a teenage boy, you’ll wish they’d just given you some of whatever they were smoking when they designed the show, instead.
The best: Mystere, the best Cirque du Soileil show on the strip, hands down. Maybe the best anywhere. You want crazy acrobatic feats? You want to fear for the safety of the performers? This is your show.
Wynn Las Vegas / Wynn Encore
Wynn Las Vegas and its new sister hotel, the Encore, set new standards for over the top opulence on the Strip. Owned and created by Steve Wynn, who designed Bellagio, you can see he’s trying to out-do that casino and everything else in Vegas by a large margin.
The buffet at Wynn Las Vegas, at least the brunch I was at, is amazing. If you want it, they probably have it, and none of it came out of a box or a microwave.
For some reason, I have good luck with the penny Megabucks slot machines at the Wynn — well, not “won the $15M jackpot” good luck, but put in a $20 and walked away with more than $100, anyhow.
Wynn’s house show is Le Reve, a Cirque-like show designed by “Drago,” who designed many shows for Cirque du Soleil. It was fairly critically savaged in its early months. I presume they’ve improved it but I have not seen it myself.
Encore’s house show was Danny Gans, who unfortunately passed away suddenly this month.
And on that down note, that’s all for this installment. The next and last installment will cover the north end of the Strip, and some notable off-strip properties.
Happy gambling.
[Update: Part 4 is now available.]
Matt Riffle