Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Posted by mike_ch

How many of us are going to be at Encore? I expect to drop by on the afternoon of the 23rd at least, and it seems like with all the interest it's generating among the out-of-towners here we might as well sound off.

So far I know of Hunter, Chuck, Mike E, Brian, and myself. Any others?

I don't know if I will be there at the midnight opening on the 22nd, but I will be staying at the resort for two nights immediately after it opens.

Thanks for doing this for us who can't be there. Lucky dogs!!

If my flight from the east coast arrives on time I will be by Encore on the 23rd to check it out. I’ll be in town for the week through the holidays staying at Bellagio.

Yes, I'll be there. I'm comped at MGM on the 21st and then moving to Encore from 22-24. Would love to share a drink with anyone interested.

Big thanks to Hunter and Chuck for doing this. Even though I'll be there in person, it'll be great to refresh my memory once I get home.

I'll certainly have a report to share as well. Since I don't foresee another trip until the summer, I plan on hitting every Encore restaurant in this one trip schedule permitting.

First time contributor, long time reader.

I do not remember any other opening getting this much play from you guys. The Palazzo opening was a non-event compared to this, granted that LVS properties seem like a tourist trap with a hotel attached, while Wynn is genuinely first class. Now, I personally have never stayed in a hotel/casino in Vegas because I stay at a friend’s house on the golf course in Southern Highlands, so I can’t attest for the rooms and service, but I have visited the big players many times. I do have an affinity for Mandalay Bay, due to a particularly nice experience on the balcony of the Foundation Room. The vibe of Wynn when you walk is just different than all the others. LVS may try to compare themselves to Wynn, but you can’t compare a property that is exclusive, like Wynn’s, while LVS markets itself to everybody.

Posted by Hunter

No doubt this is getting more play...

In my mind, at least two reasons. One is that technology is sufficiently advanced that we can do all this cool live stuff, easier than ever before.

Second is just that I'm more personally interested in Encore than I was in The Palazzo, by a wide wide margin.

I'd love to do something like this again for City Center when it opens.

I kind of have to blame on this blog for making me spend 5 hours on a plane from NYC to Las Vegas just to see the Encore opening...hehehe. Well, I am a big fan of Las Vegas (not a gambler though). But I enjoy the vibe, the restaurants, the spas, and the nice resorts. I have two nights (12/21 and 12/22) at the Wynn and two more nights (12/23 and 12/24) at the Encore. On Xmas day I'm flying back to NYC. I don't post/comment too much here, but I check this blog at least three times a week. I would be more than happy to meet you guys to have a drink and get a few tips on what to do/see at the Encore.

Posted by Hunter

There's going to be quite a few of us there it seems so hopefully we can find a time when it would work to get together. Would be fun.

There's another reason Palazzo didn't quite get this level of attention: it's hard to nail down an opening date for it.

If you reviewed Palazzo the moment the doors opened, it would have stumbled badly. That's what most reviewers simply did. If you waited until "opening day," you'd still have a lot of issues but at least the hotel and theatre was up and running. Not that LVS cared too much about the criticism, if they did then they wouldn't have opened that way.

Though I'll agree this blog is a bit tilted to Wynn fans, from the general press Wynn Resorts stands to lose a lot here since they're opening Encore in the same sort of style that Sheldon opened Palazzo.

It would have been interesting if this group had met earlier in time and we could all chat about the old resorts as they open up. Would Wynn be quite this popular when his places had theme and tourist appeal, instead of vibe and an appeal to the Wall Street Journal crowd that includes a sort of passive tourist exclusion complex?

I will be there in early January staying at the Wynn, looking forward to checking out Encore.

Be interesting to see how Steve has improved on Wynn Las Vegas!

Posted by Mark D

I've been to most of the resort openings since I moved here in '93, and will be at this one. Won't be staying in a room though.

I just got off reservations and here's the low-down on opening time confusion...

The hotel will open at 12pm on the 22nd to guests with reservations only. How awesome is that? She said we'll be able to valet, check in, eat at the restaurants, etc., however, the casino itself and the doors to the general public won't open until 8pm. I don't know how the hell they're pulling that one off but I'd assume they can't just open a few tables to guests because of the state law that prevents segregating gamblers.

She said she expects it to be crazy busy and pretty much had a "please bare with us" tone to her voice. She said to be absolutely certain that you print out your confirmations.

I also asked for a property map to see if there's a central bar so all us aficionados can meet up since the talk on the blog is very positive. She didn't have one to send me but highly recommended... drumroll please... Parasol Up at Wynn.

That's the latest, though I'll check once more as the date gets closer to see if there'll be any changes to opening procedures.

See you all very soon!

Mike, the reservations lady had a "please BARE with us" tone to her voice?

Wow, maybe the Encore opening is going to me more interesting than we thought :)

Posted by mike_ch

Mike E, your efforts are appreciated.

I like to know what's going on because I sure can't be there at 8PM or worse on a Monday night, the daily grind won't allow it.

Sounds like I'm going to have to bring my own suitcase to the hotel and ask anyone arriving if they'd roll me in as luggage.

LOL, perhaps I should reread what I type. She did sound pretty cute over the phone, though. Must have been a Freudian slip.

A nice lady at Encore's 888 phone number had the following additional details:

--Opening is at noon on Monday, Dec. 22. (You guys knew that; I just wanted to clarify it wasn't midnight.)
--Tourists as well as guests may explore the property during this time
--Gaming does not begin until 8pm, to let the throngs of tourists settle down

I hope someone here can verify whether this info is correct. Wouldn't be the first time a little misinformation has been inadvertently passed along.

She also had this to say about the property:

--The theme at Switch is "French-inspired seafood and post-modern steakhouse" (???)
--The transition of the room during dinner is graceful and classy, not gimmicky as I had feared

--There are indeed double (Queen) suites, not just single King suites
--The Queen suites do have queen beds, whereas the doubles at WLV are double beds, not queens as often assumed.
--Queens are even-numbered rooms and face south, toward the Strip, and are slightly larger
--Singles (Kings) are odd-numbered rooms and face north, and are slightly smaller (due to curvature of the building)

....again, this begs verification. She also mentioned pool views but I neglected to ask if you have to request this specifically.

The mail brought a large, very expensive envelope from Encore. The off-white outer envelope folds open to display Encore's red butterfly motif. Inside, there is another envelope with a butterfly cut-out in it. Finally, inside it, is a six panel butterfly-adorned invitation. I'm sure Wynn varies the invitation based on a customer's perceived worth. If it weren't for the slowdown, I probably wouldn't have gotten anything after my two year absence. It's not specific, but it says, "As a loyal guest of Wynn Las Vegas, we invite you to be among the first to experience Encore. Please call Marketing to plan your exclusive Encore experience. Available on select dates through April 30, 2009."
It doesn't say I'll be comped, but when it talks about select dates through April, I assume they'll offer me comped rooms on weekdays. I just called Marketing and was told I'd have to talk with my Host later this week to see what, if anything, is offered.

MotoMan - I've been told by Encore people, and others i'm attending the opening with, that the hotel opens at noon to hotel guest only. Then at 8PM the hotel opens up the casino, and to the general public. Who is right, I cannot say. I will say, I hope I'm not having to fight thousands of people at noon who are just visiting, while I am a paying customer trying to get checked in. But it is what it is. Like I say, I've been to many openings of Wynn hotels in the past, and they opened up at midnight so 12:01 of the opening day, then later that day, hotel guest could check in for the first stay being the following night.

A classy, non-gimmicky way of moving walls around? Really? What does that even MEAN?

No matter how you slice it, the hook of Switch always makes me think of the Carousel of Progress, but without the rotation.

I hate to double post, but Brian, it's always possible they'll use multiple entrances. WLV has something like four entrances with the main one, the one near the jewelry stores, the mall one, and the Tower Suites/Convention Shuttle one.

If you wanted to open a place like Wynn immediately to everyone, you could have guests lined up at the front entrance (regular) and Tower Suites entrances while visitors come in through the mall. It would take the mall people a little while to get to the other entrances, long enough that you could rope off an area for a queue to form to registration and establish the line.

Since Encore has two driveways, one up front and one along Desert Inn, this could be possible.

Posted by Hunter

Just like when you stay at Wynn Las Vegas, at Encore your confirmation letter instructs you to proceed to either the LVB driveway (resort guests) or the Wynn Drive entrance (Encore Tower Suites).

Posted by mike_ch

They don't say anything about the self-park garage?

Because that's one thing I was thinking of, that they might let guests use the entrances off the street but have the visitors come in through the Wynn connections. When you think about it, it makes sense. The showroom hallway area can hold a queue of people and in the meantime you've attracted a bunch of lookey-loos to come and go through the Wynn casino and drop some change.

However, there's a new entrance on the top floor of the self-park garage now that I assume is the entrance into Encore, though I don't know where it enters the property.

They actually tell guests to drive up to the porch? See, I can't imagine that, but we have a rule that we absolutely refuse to turn our cars over to any valet. I know we can't be the only ones.

Posted by Hunter

Well, think about it - many guests are coming in via the airport so they are coming via cab. They need to be directed to the correct entrance based on which part of the hotel they are staying in. Those that are driving, they're assuming many will valet which I would suspect is more true for higher end hotels but that's just a guess.

Of course there are a ton of self-park signs when you get there if you are so inclined.

I'm almost scared to ask but why are you anti-valet, BTW? Bad experience of some kind?

Posted by mike_ch

When you live here and see how people treat their cars, you don't want to hand yours to them. :D We like to park as far away from the casino entrance as possible, because this town is full of people rolling down the aisles and idling to get a spot next to the door, or stalking you at 2MPH down the aisle to take your spot after you pull out. When they do that last one, I like to cut through to another aisle just to lose them.

Tourists aren't the best drivers usually; but unlike the locals they seem sane, sober, less distracted(!), and they're probably insured.

Then there's the whole thing about electronics (GPS/Radio/Etc), and the seat being "wrong" afterward. It just seems like you're paying to do something you could very well do by yourself.

Last thought: Keep in mind we're originally from San Francisco/Marin area, where space is often at a premium due to cities being built on hillsides or in small peninsulas. Anyone who has looked inside a valet garage in San Francisco and seen how tightly they've packed all the cars in there will never want to use a valet again. One by the opera house would have stacked cars on top of cars if they could get away with it.

I couldn't agree more with you, Mike. My biggest pet peeve has to be the electronics/seat position argument. I don't know how many times I've had the car valeted or even washed and the seat has been inexplicably placed into a position that no person could possibly fit into comfortably... About the garages, though, I prefer them for the simply convenience, especially Wynn and Bellagio. The speed ramps make it extremely easy to get out of the hotel and onto the Strip of freeway.

That's actually one of the things about Encore that intrigues me. The parking structure was built, obviously, to house a much greater number of cars than its sister garage at Wynn--which should make finding available parking much easier. However, that is tempered for me by the sheer size of the structure. There is no way that that thing can be as easy to navigate, and I hope and pray, even though there is probably only a small chance that it could occur, that it isn't as draconian and difficult as the garage at, oh I don't know, the Venetian...Anyways, to get back to my main point, I really probably would have preferred a speed-ramp design, like Wynn and Bellagio, but this should be pretty nice. The monster that they're building at City Center, though, is going to be a different story...

Posted by Hunter

To each his own I guess. It's just not something that bothers me and thankfully I've never had my car damaged. I have had the seats re-arranged but fortunately I can push a button and get my settings back in short order.

That's not to say I valet all the time. I do both because sometimes it's just easier, as you're saying. In that respect, not all garages are created equal.

John, I like the Bellagio garage but getting to it is a pain because you either turn left on the Strip (eeeeek!) or you drive past the fountains and any mess they might be making, then have to dodge jaywalkers to get in.

If I go to Bellagio, I park at the shared Paris/Bally's garage. Drive east from the freeway across the Strip, then just after the Strip there's a right turn into Bally's where you meander around their front yard then turn left and go up a ramp into the garage.

It's all about not driving on the Strip itself, just passing it on connecting roads.

Also, I thought the new garage constructed east of Encore's tower was more employee parking or something? I've asked about self park numerous times during construction here and the answer, IIRC, is that the self-park garage at WLV will also handle Encore and will not be expanded.

WLV is the one case where driving on the Strip isn't a problem, I figured we'd start parking at Palazzo from now on when we go to Wynn, but so far that hasn't been the case.

The Bellagio issue is one that I've heard quite a few times. In fact, every time I have to take a cab to the hotel, disregarding the parking structure entirely, my cabbies have always complained about what a nightmare it is to get in and out of the main porte-cochere. I know there is the North Valet, which is a tad bit easier, but most of the cabbies I have had either don't wish to use that because it is (1) still fairly difficult to get in and out of or (2) they just want to make me sit in traffic and rack up God knows how many extra dollars in cab fare.

That entrance/exit issue, though, is one that I hear repeated at almost every Steve Wynn property, except for Treasure Island--where you can escape out to Spring Mountain. I don't know quite what it is--perhaps designing the porte-cochere and driveways more as entrances, rather than entrances and exits?--but almost each and every Wynn hotel, at least for the main porte-cocheres, cannot be used without being thrown onto the Strip...

Posted by Hunter

Nope, the new garage at Encore is for self-parking guests. Valet is under the new casino. Employees are still stuck over behind Palazzo.

The complex is gonna have a ton of parking spaces. Perhaps that lends more credence to the rumors about an events center.

Love to see discussion about parking garages. I hope Encore's will be as good as Wynn's. The following is a link to a column I wrote about three years ago on Las Vegas casino parking. I picked Bellagio and WLV as my favorite garages.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2006/jan/22/columnist-jeff-simpson-on-why-in-las-vegas-parking/

The new Encore parking structure houses self-park and employee parking, eliminating a 10+ minute trek from the Koval employee parking structure.

Posted by Hunter

That sounds authoritative... Do you know how employees know where they can park? First come first serve or is the new garage just for Encore employees?

Wynn employees will continue park at the Koval structure, the employee portion of the Encore garage are solely for Encore employees. New passes are being issued to control access to each garage. Employees that work on both properties are issued a parking pass for only 1 of the garages, not certain how this is determined yet.

Hunter,
The confirmation letter I received does not have any instruction as to where to enter Encore. We are checking into the Encore Tower Suites on 12/23. Do I tell the cab driver to use the Wynn Drive entrance? What are the chances he or she is going to know what I am talking about? Thanks for the info. Don.

I'm with Mike_ch. Even though I drive rental cars in Las Vegas, I don't want to use Valet. I'd much rather self-park, and one of my quirks is to park on the top level even if it is in the sun.
Favorites: Wynn, Bellagio, The Mirage, Golden Nugget.

Worst: MGM Grand---too far from casino building, narrow spaces, poorly designed.
Harrah's: Narrow spaces, poor housekeeping in the form of beer bottles and food wrappers. I hate to think how much worse it has become considering cost cutting measures.
Venetian: Narrow spaces, and hard to understand the layout.
Caesars Palace: I never can remember how to get there, but I drive around until I can get to the roof level and take the elevator down to the old casino.
Mandalay Bay: Also lacking in housekeeping.

Favorite non-garage parking: LV Hilton self park lot on Joe W. Brown, either walking into sports book or the North Hotel Tower.
I'm dating myself, but it was always easy parking in the east lot next to the motel type buildings at the Tropicana, walk through the motel building into the casino.
Note: I just read Jeff Simpson's comment after I posted mine. You mean there's another eccentric who always parks on the roof?

Detroit, as a fellow rooftop parker, are you annoyed about the trend of garages closing off their top level(s) for employee parking? (Orleans, Paris, new garage at Green Valley Ranch, I'm talking about you.)

Rooftop parking and views are great at Mirage, Bellagio, Wynn and Rio.

Another peeve: Crappy (Binion's -- sardine can) or not enough (Mandalay Bay) parking garage elevators. At MB I usually park in the middle of the garage and take those elevators rather than wade into the disaster zone near the front elevators.

MEGAREPLY(tm)

John: The only Wynn garage we have trouble accessing is Bellagio's. Wynn's requires some strip driving, but it's fine. WLV's positioning of it by the poker room is pretty bad, but the garage itself is fine. TI's is fine. Mirage's is accessed by turning into Treasure Island and then meandering on private roads to Mirage.

detroit: I like MGM's garage, actually. It has more than one point of entry and a nice exit that takes you by the arena and throws you onto Koval. The positioning by the casino doesn't make much sense, but it's close enough to the elevators and the nearby Monorail station selling $1 locals passes makes it a good place for locals to drop off their cars and go write a column. Not that I know anything about that.

Mandalay Bay's garage has improved in the past year with what felt like a year of construction walls all over having resulted in a series of escalators progressing from just outside the door on the first floor upwards and forwards. No longer does the whole facility rely on, say, three escalators.

Harrah's is bad, and Imperial's is the worst layout. When I stayed at Imperial we simply parked at Harrah's and walked across the Monorail courtyard to IP.

Palazzo's underground garage is okay but don't park on the first level you have the options to, because it shares a level with many facilities and the parking spaces are odd angular shapes that can be hard to get in and out of, especially with someone else doing the same. Go further down and it becomes an underground warehouse.

What's nice about Palazzo's underground parking is all over there's escalator and elevator cores that pop up up in one of several places around the casino.

All guests who are staying at the hotel should enter from Wynn Blvd and not the LV Blvd entrance no matter what side of the hotel you are staying in. In addition, the Encore garage has a tunnel exit that takes you to Desert Inn. This is a remnant of the Desert Inn parking garage that was kept through construction. Very handy if you are driving to the Convention Center or need to get to Paradise. Also, a fast exit when they close the strip for events like New Year's.

Posted by Hunter

That's interesting. Mine says:

"Please arrive at the Encore Tower Suites entrance located off of Wynn Blvd. and proceed to
the Registration."

Either way, Macau Photo's suggestion is what I would defer to.

Hunter,

What I said is what you said. Both the tower suties entrance and resort entrance are off of Wynn Blvd. The entrance has a similar feel to the Wynn entrace off of Spring Mountain. A litte niche for tower suites and bigger entrance for the main hotel.

My confirmation was sent as a part of the master confirmation for our one night at Wynn Las Vegas, so the directions for Encore were not included. However, as can be seen from our discussion, I plan on parking in the self-park, which really negates the necessity for an arrival gate...

In terms of garages, I have to agree that Palazzo does make getting to the casino quite easy. However, it gets very confusing when you think you are taking the elevator directly to the lobby, but you end up in the back of the casino. It's disconcerting..

The one garage that really has been ignored has been Aladdin's/Planet Hollywood's, while not a nightmare to traverse, the thing couldn't have been placed in a more awkward location. Yes, I realize that they, for some reason unknown to me, wanted to say the Performing Arts Center--is it even being used now?--but why did they have to put that damn structure at the farthest corner of that damn property?

Here are two videos of me walking around Encore.

So, the guy at the end of the second video told me he needed directions to the nearest charity to deposit a large stack of bills that he was giving in honor of his dead brother from Africa that died in a plane crash... only someone had given him the wrong directions to the Boys and Girls Club. He showed me his large stack of bills and I told him I thought they were a worthwhile organization but didn't know where to send him. Odd...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2x1sGEqlkM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG7tcpsKffI

Hunter, when you started the story about the guy with the stack of bills, I thought, Uh Oh, here comes a scam like they usually pull on older people, a pigeon drop. You're right, it was odd.

Posted by Hunter

It was totally weird. I was expecting some kind of scam punchline but it sounded like he actually just was looking for someone to give money to. Maybe he thought I would try to get him to give it to me and the scam would go from there? I dunno.

At 1:40, you can see a construction worker who's definitely not camera shy.

WTF??? Look, i've seen some wierd shit in my life, but that money thing, and you even have it on video, tops the list. I can't say what, but something was not right with that story!

Received an email for weekday rates in January.. $129 Wynn resort room, $159 Encore resort room. This recession is saving me money !!

CHECK OUT ENCORES WEBSITE NEW PHOTOS OF ROOMS AND STUFF!!! WOW!!!! AMAZING! CHECK OUT THE RESORT SECTION!

Sweet. I guess Encore is just going to add a new page every day or so, as they get to it. Those new room shots are great!

The shot of the living area and window view is great, the bed isn't. Eyes immediately draw to the bedstand with the brown drawers in a white frame (eew) and the light on the ceiling which looks like it was taken from one of the nicer rooms of the 70s/80s hotels and restored.

The light is forgivable, the bedstand a bit less so. It kind of reflects what I call the gingerbread house or birthday cake design philosophy going on at the Wynn hotels. You know how birthday cakes have that layer of frosting along the edge of the cake? Wynn's people seem to want to do that with everything. Maybe this is what Steve means when he goes on about things being delicious. :b

The curtains around the bed and the lighting above them remind me of Mirage in a good way. Tiny curtains around the bed that only serve to decorate is one of those things I expect in a Steve Wynn hotel since all the Mirage Resorts places did it on opening, and I was surprised when WLV didn't have them.

I just hope that eventually the drops the modern motif that has been imitated by Station Casinos and MGM-Mirage's renovation team. I miss the ornate European thing he had quietly started with at Treasure Island and then made huge at Bellagio. If we're going to be hoity-toity and pretentious, I prefer frilly tea-time settings to the odd "New York meets Asia" setting that is popular now.

Mike, I have to agree with you on the photos. The living area is a welcome improvement over the overt reds that pervade WLV's salon suites. The new brown tones refine the space a bit more. I have to agree with you on the bed space. Although, I don't mind the bedside tables as much as I dislike the ashen-brown color. A brighter, taupe would have been a little bit better, in my opinion.

Looking at the picture, though, I have to say how happy I am that Steve has moved away from the more modern/po-mo room art--Picasso in Tower Suites and Warhol in the resort--that we got at WLV. The more classical/impressionist art--Vermeer, Manet--is a much welcome improvement. It takes the room to another level of refinement and luxury.

I am really pleased with the new "Resort Suite" picture. I like the new color scheme much better than what the Resort Suite pictures we have seen before have. The blacks and creams look much better than the reds, lighter creams, and that greyish blue couch. Hopefully these new pictures aren't Tower Suite pictures because the Resort Suite is expensive enough on its own. But the detail in the ceiling, the black windows and air conditioner (And the dark doors that we have seen in earlier pictures) make the suite look more elegant than Wynn's room, yet still modern in my opinion.
I wish they had a room floor plan of a Resort or Tower Suite with 2 beds, as according to travel websites, they will be 45 square feet bigger. What will be different between the Resort King and the Resort 2 Doubles?

Posted by Mark D

According to this article in the Sun they are taking down the Frontier marquee at the request of Wynn and Wynn is paying for it.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/dec/12/crews-remove-new-frontier-marquee-encore-opening/

Steve should've just moved the Frontier sign across the street and used it at the new place. He could've used most of the existing lettering (and had an additional 'e' and 'c' made) to spell out the new property's name, and who wouldn't have dug Encore being the home of "Cold Beer and Dirty Girls?"

New photos and a video section added to the Encore Website. One of the photos is a resort interior photo, although I'm not quite sure what it is.

Posted by Hunter

That last new shot with the couches and tree inlay thing look a lot like the hallways in the Encore convention area. Could be that.

Posted by Mark D

They finally put the last part of the Encore marquee together. It's a large oval shape on top with the word Encore and two video screens below. Doesn't look like any thing moves like on the Wynn marquee.

I know what they are trying to accomplish with mirrors but I just hate big huge mirrors all over the place...creeps me out

I'd be almost certain that one photo is the end of the convention hall, but the artwork is different.

The lighting fixtures are tower suites-y but the colours and wallpaper print are very old Bellagio. I told it to Hunter in a private message before, but this convention stuff looks a lot like what I imagined WLV would look like in my head when it was under construction.

Mm, getting my hopes up again.

I also like the foyer with the carpet in the middle and the marble around at the edges. While putting marble in 2,000 hotel rooms is nice and all, it can be overdone. The foyer of WLV is less than comfortable to walk on in your bare feet on a night trip to the john, with all that unforgiving hard surface.

Encore now has pictures of the suites on the reservations page as well.

At WLV, several of us that had stayed in both parlor and salon suites came to prefer the parlors because of their comfortable size for one or two travelers.

At Encore though, it looks like the parlor is more of an expanded resort/tower suite while the salon really shines on its own. I love the mirrored ceiling framed by the circular molding.

YES! No more blueish gray couch. I think that the housekeeping in Encore is gonna have a lot of fun cleaning all of those mirrors in the rooms. Just think what would happen if a couple decides to bring their two year olds to Vegas. Finger prints galore! I bet you anything that the finger prints on the mirrors will be the number one complaint when one stays at Encore.

Steve Wynn wants to singlehandedly beautify the Strip around Encore. From Norm in LV Review Journal:

NORM: Wynn gets rid of sign eyesore
One down, one to go for Steve Wynn.

The Frontier sign has quietly come down at the implosion site.

Getting rid of it was on Wynn's to-do list to before the Dec. 22 unveiling of his latest multibillion-dollar hotel, Encore.

Wynn told me recently he was planning to offer to pay half the cost -- about $150,000 out of his pocket -- to have the sign taken down. Apparently that was music to the ears of the Israeli-owned company that wants to build a $5 billion copy of New York's Plaza hotel.

Also on Wynn's list of eyesores was the Echelon, Boyd Gaming's $4 billion resort that was being constructed on the Stardust site before the project was halted last summer.

Wynn said he wanted to pick up the tab for having part of the skeletal works wrapped with an art theme to spruce up the neighborhood.

If he had his way, the Fashion Show mall's "cloud" would be gone too, he said. He's never been a fan. "That's why I built the 'mountain,'" he said, referring to the tree-lined, waterfall feature that fronts the Strip.
Find this article at:
http://www.lvrj.com/news/36126869.html

Posted by Jason Robar

Detroit, I saw that too. I guess mike_ch was half right about why Steve put up the mountain.

By looking at the floor plan of the Salon Suite, and pictures of it that include the view of Trump, I think that it is pretty safe to say that the Salon Suites are at the end of the halls in Encore inside those curved areas. Is that why we have been seeing lights on in those curves at night? Also, the Salon Suites have a double-door entry, which is common for rooms at the end of the hallway. Sorry if I'm repeating anything, it just suddenly hit me. Along with the possibility of not having to walk through the Casino to get from the lobby to the elevators as the hotel tower is right beside both the Tower and Resort entrances (assuming that the lobby is close to the entrances). Maybe Steve decided he could give all guests (Tower Suites or not) their own "area" to check in and walk to their elevators without having to endure a long walk through a smoky casino.

JK, while that is a reasonable assumption, I don't think the salon suites are at the end of the hallways. From night shots I've seen scattered around the web and information Hunter revealed a couple years ago, the rooms at the end of the hallway on the top 20 floors appear to be duplex suites and/or part of the top floor casino. If salons were indeed at the end of the hallways, then there'd be room for only about 25 to 30 of them. In comparison to WLV's 147 salon suites, that seems unreasonably low. Plus, considering the amount of photoshopping done, I just don't trust the views out the windows in these PR shots. The double doors are a curious addition, though.

I would venture to guess that the second picture after clicking on "The Resort" is a lower level suite at the end of the hallway. Exact same furnishing as the salon but probably a much larger floorplan not unlike Bellagio's original penthouses in comparison to their grand lakeview suites.

It seems the blue sofa will go the way of WLV's apricot orange wall paper--part of a color scheme that people in the know are going to try to avoid.

Got a deal through and now staying at Encore for $149 plus tax a night at Encore in early January. Really looking forward to my my trip now and the suites look huge. What a great deal!!

Mike E.,
You mentioned a "top floor casino" in your post. What is that? Is there one at WLV?

Posted by mike_ch

Don: There's supposed to be a top floor "sky casino" in Encore for big dogs. Wynn doesn't have one.

Don, though there hasn't been any talk about it for the last several months, Encore is supposed to have private gaming tables at the top floor of its hotel tower overlooking the strip. WLV does not feature this, but Wynn Macau does.

Either they've since scrapped this idea or they're remaining hush to keep the riff raff out.

Encore *does* have a sky casino up on the top of the tower.