I was around the strip this afternoon and made some observations.

One of the reasons for this trip was to photograph the construction on the Mirage volcano. For those who have not seen it in this stage, they dammed up a small area on the north end. I suppose the reason was to keep the ducks from going away, although I don't know for sure. Most of the rest of the main lake is dry and cleaned up and some of it has a new concrete bottom. The volcano mountain is undergoing a major change. There are lots of gas lines running all over the place. This new volcano will have a lot of fire. A whole lot.

A few years ago I complained to The Mirage that people were going into the lake during late night hours and taking coins out of the lake. The south end of the main lake has been drained, but no construction has taken place at this time. It appears that nobody has taken the time to take out the coins from the lake. There's lots of money in there. In these financial times, I would have guessed that someone would have taken these coins.

Remember the short moving sidewalk at The Mirage between where the old white tiger display was and the strip? It may have been one of the first moving sidewalks in town. Well, it's gone. It's a paved walkway now.

Remember where the old white tiger display was and it closed down to become a burger joint? The place was closed, but they were trainng and practicing and getting ready for their grand opening on Tuesday at 11:00am. Their hours will be 11am to 4am. BLT Burger will feature some 20 draft beers by the pint or pitcher, as well as bottled and canned beer. They will also feature regular milk shakes and milk shakes spiked with various adult ingredients. They have various shakes with Makers Mark, Khalua, Rum, Peach schnapps, etc. And they will have burgers too. Their burgers feature special cuts of black angus beef in the $9-12 range. They have an american wagyu kobe burger for $17. They will have skinny fries, fat fries, and waffle fries. Let the burger wars continue!!!

I went over to the half price ticket place in the Fashion Show Mall. They are still doing great business in this poor financial economy. I notieced that they have KA tickets at a discount, but not half price. I asked one of the workers about Mystere and she said they were dark today but usually have their tickets for sale.

While walking around I noticed a large amount of emergency sirens to the north. It seems a car load of teenage girls drove off the 4th floor of the Stratosphere parking garage and landed on it's roof. Nobody was seriously injured.

I saw 3 girls in skimppy outfits with inline skates skating along the sidewalk with one guy skating and carrying a flag. The flag was for the ICE show. The girls were giving out 50% off discounts. They went by so fast that I didn't get a chance to notice if they were actual performers in the show.

It was a great day for a walk along the strip. Clear, light breeze, temps around 102.

<<<It was a great day for a walk along the strip. Clear, light breeze, temps around 102.>>>


LMAO 102, nice day for a walk! I think the heat might have gotten to ya Joe!

Any idea of when the volcano will be completed Joe?

I was just thinking that maybe you will be doing a field report of the Imperial Palace..... naw, that would be pushing it

There has only been about ten 100 degree days this year. In this latest streak, most have been hampered by smoke from California. There was still a light haze although it was much easier to breathe than most of the days and all of the nights that I have been out.

ru, the signs said late 2008 for the volcano. It appears there is a lot of work to do. I actually do have a to-do list for the IP, and with the uncertainty of Harrah's plans for the place, I should move that up on my list. Is there anythng in particular you wanted to have investigated there?

The girl that drove off the Stratosphere garage was under age and shouldn't have been there. She had a permit to drive with an adult but not with other minors. And I think it was technically the second floor although it seemed higher. The mighty PT Cruiser held up well and would make an excellent chop top project car.

I am booked there October 10-17 but do not have anything specific. I am wondering about your comment on Harrahs plans for the place though. I know it isn't the best property on the strip but will it go even further downhill because they don't want to throw any money at it? I hope they don't shut it done anytime soon and I am left scrambling for last minute accomodations.

I'm sure you will be just fine.

It is pretty much in the middle of the new Caesars Empire. It is one of the most worn and torn of their properties. When Harrah's first acquired the IP, there were hot rumors of what might happen to it. Since then, the rumors have gone cold. The hottest construction projects of the empire are focused on the Flamingo remodeling and the area around Koval and Flamingo where they might put an arena. In my opinion, it would take months to reopen the IP case, make a decision, and go through the logistics to close it down. So don't worry. Just keep planning your other activities for a fantastic vacation.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. When I was at the IP in May, there was alot of refurbishing going on. They were repainting hallways and elevator bay areas, and recarpeting some of the hotel public areas.

JMT I hope you do a field trip to the IP - but don't miss the 5th floor restaurants. They are a bit tricky to find.

Have you been to the auto collection? I keep meaning to go, but keep forgetting.

JMT said:
"A few years ago I complained to The Mirage that people were going into the lake during late night hours and taking coins out of the lake."

This line made me crack up. Not long ago we saw an episode of Cops where a guy got busted for doing exactly that in Bellagio's lake.

Has The Mirage done anything to improve the building's outside appearance? It's been almost a year since I last went out there, but when I was there I was stunned by how dingy the white exterior of The Mirage looked. I guess the hotel is almost 20 years old now, anyway...

Cheers,

Tim the Dealer

I did a report on that incident here on TalkVegas. It might take me a while to dig it up. The lady I wrote to and talked to didn't seem to care about protecting the brand name. She did offer me tickets to Love which was far from opening date. I never collected on that. There must be thousands of dollars in that dry part of the lake.

The Mirage is far from pristine. With TI, Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn, Encore being in brown tones, and Casino Royale is multicolored, and the Forum shops entrance on that side is brown, the dullness of The Mirage doesn't stand out. I think the LOVE advertisements on the upper windows take away it's glamor.

There are changes at The Mirage. Little stuff disappearing and new stuff appearing. Near the entrance, there was always a brass mermaid with huge assets that people would rub for good luck. Those assets were always shinny from the rubbing and the rest of the statue tarnished. It's gone. There are no sharks in the tank behind the check in area. I previously mentioned the moving sidewalk being solid.

As Roger Miller sang, "Everything changes a little and it should. Good aint forever and bad aint for good."

I was just reading your update and didn't know about a discount tix place in the Fashion Show Mall. Maybe I could get my Mystere tix there. Is it like Times Square where you get them the day of the show at a certain time?

I don't know about Times Square. It is day of show (except in very rare occasions), you buy a voucher, and must take that voucher to the ticket office where it is exchanged for a real ticket(s). The big deal is that you don't get to select your ticket. The best way to take advantage of that deal is to buy the voucher early in the day and take it to the showroom box office as soon as possible. This gives the box office a better selection to pick from, although it's up to the box office agent make that selection. With the Fashion Show mall next door to TI, it would be easy to swap out that voucher right away. The Mystere ticket office seems to be open during the day, even on dark days.

I also can't promise how much the tickets would be. Most of their tickets are 50% off. Big name shows are just discounted partially. For instance, Phantom was about 25% off, KA was 10-20% off. Blue Man Group was not 50%. Since I haven't priced Mystere there and it was dark on my last visit, I don't know the pricing.

The ticket place in question is called Tix4Tonight. They are located in the Fashion Show Mall, facing the strip, kinda near Neiman Marcus. You can go inside the mall to see the listings of the shows. The entrance to purchase the vouchers is from the outside of the mall. They acutally have 5 locations around town.

The other outlet that MIGHT have Mystere is called Tickets2Nite. They actually have a phone number listed where you can call and order your tickets on the phone. You still have to go pick up the voucher and go to the box office. They are located in the Coke bottle/M&M world thingy...which I find inconvienient to get to because of less than stellar parking options. Their phone number will also give you a listing of shows they have that day. I've called it before and only got a partial listing.

Both of these ticket outlets have websites that you can easily find by the names I gave you.

Gail, another difference between the Vegas half price outlets and the Times Square one in NYC, is that the Vegas outlet will take a credit card - and the lines are much shorter!

(at least, the last time I did the Times Square thing I had to get money from an expensive ATM to buy my ticket)

As JMT said, get your voucher as early as possible then make a trip to the show's box office to get your seat reservation.

And JMT - I think I read recently that both of those places are now owned by the same company, i think Tix4Tonight bought Tickets2Nite.

Oh - and thanks for the field trip report, Joe!

I took pictures of all those coins stuck in the mud in the dried out Mirage pond. When I look at the pictures, it seems that most of the coins are pennies.

But there are a heck of a lot of them. I think it would require scooping and sifting to get them out.

If insurance permits, it would make a great PR stunt for the Mirage - let a nonprofit come in and "mine" for the money!