Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Very, very cool. I think they're shooting themselves in the foot by underestimating the need for self-parking. Wynn's current garage might be sufficient, but what about on a holiday weekend? Even the most affluent travelers self-park occasionally for the convenience of having your car immediately available.

Posted by mike_ch

What!? Apple is paying this site off, too?

:D Really, though, I love Apple but loathe The Carrier Formerly Known As Cingular (as a customer of The Carrier Formerly Known As AT&T that was acquired by The Carrier Formerly Known As Cingular.) They charge an arm and a leg for data bandwith compared to everyone else in the industry, which is why I wince at the thought of something as connected as an iPhone. Let me know how Vegas reception goes.

Anyway, thanks for this news, I can now mostly skip talking about Encore in the immienently due construction update. That's nice, because I'd hate to have to write something like "uh, it's goin' up and stuff. If only you could hear the construction noise."

Hehehe... Well, I've been a Singlebar (Cingular) customer since Cingular was ATTWS - I currently have a BlackBerry. The data plans for Cingular have sometimes been not so good but my BB plan is $50/all you can eat. Now, that's more than Sprint's plan was for my Treo but I've seen worse. Anyway, the iPhone will have its own set of Cingular plans and since it is a consumer device, they can't bank on corp. expense accounts like with the Berry so I'm assuming they'll have at least one plan geared towards consumers. I'm a big data user so I'll have to go for the biggest one, no doubt... Even if the thing does have 802.11b for data where available... I digress.

I'm still excited about Encore. Maybe we'll try to do a RateVegas meetup for the opening, since I know we'll have some Fay-age, Mike E-age and hopefully Detroit-age. Of course locals like Mike_ch-age are welcome, as well as LStern-age - I'll pop for a good bottle of red for the occasion.

Posted by mike_ch

You made me laugh with the Singlebar bit. That was a huge reason why I left, both here and at my old address we couldn't get a decent signal. It wasn't very good during the AT&T era, but later on it got worse as it seems Cingular started choking bandwith for ATTWS folks to make them upgrade and sign a new contract with a new plan.

My other gripe was this old blocky Sony-Ericsson sure didn't stay current for 2 years, as RAZRs went from exotic unusual things to what everyone was talking on and I was stuck on this old AT&T branded thing that was full of "waterfall" (my Mom's word for the static.) I think I'll stick with my PEBL for now since it does what I want it to do, and wait for the iPod that integrates some of those iPhone interface features. By then, plenty of touchscreen protectors will be out.

Mike, the Self-Park will become an issue. Even at it's current level of use, the garage is tight. With Encore Steve is definitely going to have some issues with it. However, if worse came to worse, I'm sure a section of that massive valet garage could be cordoned off to create a small guest parking facility. However, Steve would lose that sort of easy in/easy out parking plan he's had since Bellagio. Honeslty, nothing is as nice as traveling up/down a straight ramp when entering/exiting a parking garage. It's much nicer than turning blind corners and hoping to God that no one hits you as you park in spaces that have been purposefully reduced in size and overall number of spaces...ahem...Venetian...cough.

Thanks for the update! In terms of parking, that useless-shaped piece of land just south of WLV (where LVS owns the middle chunk) might be good for valet parking. Imagine if they extended their employee parking structure all the way around Sheldon Anderson's piece of land!

Speaking of LVS, I'm assuming this first picture was taken in front of WLV. I've never noticed the patchwork tiling at this part of the hotel, but did notice most of the Palazzo's entrance uses similar tiling. Would've imagined that as rivals, Sheldon Anderson would've steered away from doing something so similarly to Steve Wynn's design.

http://media.ratevegas.com/4718-493146441_dae11b85dd.jpg

http://media.ratevegas.com/4721-493127778_d3512d0736.jpg

John, very true. I suppose they could easily mark only the first few levels or so as valet to make some spaces for self-park up top.

Hunter, funny you should mention. Mark my words, the first night that Encore opens, I will have the keys to the top reservable suite (assuming they don't give everything under the sun away to high rollers first).

Posted by mike_ch

Hunter, I tried to send you an email but I don't know if it got through becauuse I experienced server problems at the time. Mail lists it as Sent but I'm not sure I believe that.

If you don't get it, let me know. If you did, I'll just wait until you post the attachment.

Posted by detroit1051

Mike E and John, I haven't been paying attention. You mean there won't be an additional self-park garage? That's a huge mistake. In all of my visits to Bellagio and Wynn, I don't remember ever using Valet; it's too slow, and I like the convenience of getting in my car at a moment's notice. And, John, thanks for getting me all riled up again; Venetian's garage has to be the worst anywhere west of the Mississippi.

Posted by Mark D

I'm afraid to imagine what the parking will be like under the Palazzo.

Posted by DavidF

I was with the old AT&T for 8 years and had no problem, But I did hear about the issues Mike_ch mentioned when they Merged with Cingular. I went to Verizon as I could get a Corp Discount, but more by luck than judgment my contract is up on June 27th. Providing the ATTWS/Cingular/New AT&T plans aren't too horrific, I will be in line, actually I am even thinking of standing in Line at Midnight even though I will be in NJ on business (Sad Huh?)

Oh Yeah the topic! My handy hint on Wynn Valet is to always use the South Valet (Ghetto Side). I have never had to wait long there, I have even been able to call down and have my car waiting for me, not that that�s much use for Encore. IIRC wasn't Wynn's stance on no self-parking for Encore that the clientele for the hotel would not be the type of people who would self park. Surely they have the Numbers that would Back this up? I agree with the comments on Bellagio, it has the best self parking on the Strip, since they shut the North Valet its about the best way to park. And the less said about Venetians parking, the better, actually someone remind me, isn�t Palazzo going to be something similar, I am trying to remember what the self parking plans are there.

It's more or less going to be about as bad, from what I've been told, as Venetian's, but underground. Please god, don't tell me they skimped on ventalation systems and the whole structure is going to be filled with smog (I wouldn't put it past Sheldy when it comes to parking). The other garage I've been worried about is CityCenter's. Not only will it service the majority of the development, excluding Mandarin Oriental, and Monte Carlo. Even at twelve stories, it's going to be nearly impossible to get a parking spot. I can honestly see it as being as busy as MGM's, Mandalay's, or any other number of incredibly crowded structures.

Also, David, you're correct, Hunter posted that Encore's plans basically said the people who stay at Encore won't park their own cars. However, I think if you read some of the posts on this very topic, you'll see a lot of people who'll be staying at Encore quite often, Mike E., Detroit, and myself, will be parking their own cars in a very crowded structure that I, personally, haven't had the best experience with.

Posted by detroit1051

I don't like the sound of this. Wynn is slowing down the opening of the Macau expansion:
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070607/20070607005525.html?.v=1

Yeah, but their also buying back about 12% of the company basically. This is good for Wynn Resorts, and shareholders. This will easly give Wynn and Okada well over 50% of the company,they were at like 49% already. I just think they are being careful in Macau, as I think they should. I think this is why they are moving slow on their Cotai plans.

Hey Brian: You a are being way overly optimistic. A $1.2B "buyback" by WYNN, as approved by its board, at THIS particular juncture, indicates that that [they] do NOT expect its future share price to increase by a large margin + that it has already reached its 'peak', considering that WYNN is already overvalued. On the contrary, this buyback of stock + notes is a clear indicator of a lack of confidence in WYNN's continued escalating share price. If Wynn Macau is experiencing "pressure" now from competition well before their expansion opens, imagine what Encore will be facing with 20,000 new luxury high end rooms coming on line on the Strip, all opening up before 2010.

Posted by detroit1051

"Gaming analysts thought Wynn's wait-and-see approach to Macau was wise. While Macau's 2006 gaming revenues of $6.95 billion surpassed those from the Strip, the large expansion plan may tax the Chinese enclave.
"The Macau update exhibits a prudent approach to a rapidly growing market," Bear Stearns gaming analyst Joe Greff said in a note to investors. "The approach signals Wynn's conservative and restrained stance given Macau development and new supply. Beneficially, we think it also exhibits nimbleness and financial flexibility in adapting to changes in Macau."
http://www.lvrj.com/business/7900547.html

Wynn Las Vegas was hyped to be the most extraordinary and revolutionary casino on earth. And after several stays, I truly believe it is. But for most people with only one stay or one visit, it was hard to understand the resort's intentions. We've gone through this on the blog again and again so I won't delve deeper.

But I was looking forward to Encore's gardens. I was hoping it would offer that initial "wow" factor for first-timers along with the "discovery" of Wynn Las Vegas. I hope they're still able to achieve this after axing the gardens.

That's a real shame about the gardens. Mike, I was really hoping the gardens would do much the same thing that you mentioned. That's really pretty sad. Hopefully, Encore will still have a "WOW" factor other than the gardens. I remeber Hunter mentioned a small space of the resort that had the word "feature" in the plans, but I don't think there have been any real details about what that feature will be. Maybe it's something along the line of what will eventually open at the Macau property. We'll just have to wait and see.

It's really sad, though, that Encore has sort of had it's role diminished. At first we were going to have a resort that would disregard gaming in favor of gardens. We were going to have a resort that would set the bar, in terms of luxury, in Las Vegas. We had a resort that would act much the same way The Hotel did for Mandalay Bay. Now, it feels like the resort is just going to be the oddly placed, small expansion tower at Wynn Las Vegas. It's sort of sad. Hopefully the golf course development will be spectacular, even though I know one person here will say it won't.

Also, on the self parking. If part of that new garage is going to be a self park area, then I guess we've lost the parking simplicity that Steve brought the city with Bellagio and Wynn. Eh...oh well, I guess you can't always build a garage of that nature for a resort.

Uhh ehh did i miss something?? What happened to the gardens??

Marlon, check out Hunter's update on the bottom of the entry.

Mike E, THANKS!