Well, I don't have those details yet, but I'm on a mission to find out!

Maybe some of you can help.

I have heard that Silk Road in the Vdara is no longer serving dinner and that there have been some complaints about the lighting on the casino floor in the Aria.

And here are my personal observations over numerous 'walk throughs' and a thee night stay in the Vdara ......

Crystals appears awfully empty .... but I may be visiting at the unbusy time between the hours of noon to 5 pm. And I have yet to see any activity in those fancy stores, but I may be looking during the quiet hours as mentioned above.

I'm not surprised that Silk Road stopped serving dinner(?) because I've never seen more than one person at the bar (just once, every other time it was empty) and no more than 6 - 8 people at the dining tables.

The Aria casino floor is dark and I am somewhat surprised that it was originally designed to be that way. Even though few of us realize that the lighting within a room SETS A MOOD, it does appear that the casino designers failed to use a "lighting designer" at the proper time.

I don't know who Mr Wynn uses, but his projects are always perfectly lit from the very beginning, but now the ARIA casino has to 're-thunk' to get the place 'relit'.

And once again just like that tram "along" the Strip.... you have to walk too far to find a City Center 'tram" terminal. Far enough that you just might want to save some steps and simply walk to where you wanna get to in the first place.

And ... I would think that they built the casino too far back ...... too far away from the foot traffic along the Strip. Even Caesars and the Mirage and Bally's provide 'moving sidewalks' to draw pedestrians inside. City Center should have done the same. Most tourists will not walk when it's too darn cold or too darn hot ... and that's the Las Vegas weather 80% of the time.

Table minimums are too high for the vast majority of the locals. Nuff said on that!

Never a Happy Hour on City Center property! That's dumb!

You must use valet parking while staying at the Vdara.

If you want a reasonably priced meal (fast food type) you gotta go off property to the Monte Carlo's food court. And it looks like 80% of the City Center visitors 'dine' there. The other 20% probably just don't know where it is just yet.

And last but not least ...... Except for about five minutes of Viva Elvis, I was completely bored, I'm surprised that they haven't closed it down yet! But I never was a big Elvis fan anyway.

OH YEA ... I have heard that some of the big named restaurants will be dark a couple of nights each week and even though Eva Longoria's restaurant has gtten some bad reviews. it still appears that it is dioing pretty good business .... even during lunch.

But still, I love CC because it is a different part of this crazy town I love too much.

But it is a fact that I have yet to spend a dime in there, except for my Vdara hotel room. Never drank there, never dined there, never gambled there, ever had a $10 ice cream cone there, or a $8 dough-nut there.

All in all ... I think that people are being ecouraged to say good things about City Center while the bad things are being fixed.

And that in itself, is a good thing. I think.

But I really think that 7/11 will be coming soon ..... but ........... only open until 9 PM.

I pretty much agree that crowds are low. I think the only pretty part of city center is the 3 story waterfall at the back entrance, and that looks like an airport terminal. A lot of CC looks like an airport, including the experience from driving into it.

I don't know if lights are the main problem with Aria. It's as good of a shot as any for a first step. I've dined at Aria 4 times in 4 different joints...all bad. There needs to be decent meals at decent prices, and a food court wouldn't hurt either. Having all high end dining options is not a good thing.

Considering Aria, Vdara, and MO were planned to be primary residences and mixed use rooms, I understand why it is failing so bad. Cosmo opens soon bringing tons and tons of vacant rooms to the strip. The Planet Hollywood timeshare doesn't help either.

I have my own ideas but I don't really have answers to all the problems. The problems are too numerous to list, and there's more on the back burner when the construction lawsuits start rolling in.

JMT, I know I must have seen that three story waterfall, but for some reason I don't recall seeing it or what it looks like, so I'll probably go back this week and refresh my memory.

We ate in the ARIA only once (Sage) and although the meal was OK, it was't a memorial experience and certainly lacked the ambiance we experienced wile 'fine' dining at Charlie Palmer's in the Four Season. A fine-dining friend says that those individuals who designed these Aria restaurants took the "warmth" out of each of them.

Which four did you dine in? And which was the best/worst of those four?

In my humble opinion, the City Center is not a place to spend money! There are just too many better options to chose from in this town

And that may be its downfall!

Have you seen the lower level drive-way of the Aria?.... a very impressive 'LIGHT WALL" for lack of a more appropriate name. I will return to see how it looks at nite. That entrance appears to be for convention buses or large group arrivals, but I'm not sure what it is as it was completely vacant when I stood there at mid-afternoon trying to figure it out.

As far as I'm concerned, they downright discourage foot traffic. I did a round-trip walk between the Flamingo and Excalibur, intending to walk both sides of the strip along the way. I started out, thinking I *might* stroll through City Center out of curiosity, but the construction and layout just totally turned me off, and I never did snoop through the place. Maybe CC assumes all foot traffic is thrifty like me (ie, no intention of gambling, eating or shopping), and they're trying to save wear & tear on their floors<g>?

Wow I did not know things have slowed down that much . Does this mean that the hotels in C.C.have reduced their rom and suite prices ?

thanks

vegas talker

Morning

JMT I read where you mentioned s three story waterfall but not where it is located in C.C. Is it in the Aria ?




vegas talker

The porte cochere of the Aria has two water features. The front walls of the building are made of rough laid bricks about 3 stories tall and water flows down them. It's a soothing and relaxing impact as opposed to a must see spectacle.

The other feature is best seen at night. It is a circular fountain in the middle of where the cars go around with a variety of sprays and lights.