Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Vegas Rex's take on Vdara was a good read. And his great photos make me even more excited about City Center. I wonder what the Vdara condos are selling for.

One of the comments I read recently stated that City Center is like walking into a Modern Art Museum instead of a Las Vegas casino - a whole new direction. That sounds fabulous to me.

Posted by mike_ch

As a professed Smoke Nazi, I'm glad to see a toe in the water for a non-smoking Vegas. Hopefully Vdara will hold a pretty good occupancy rate and make MGM more daring. This doesn't seem to be something made very clear up front, so I'm sure a few rooms will have to be de-smoked pretty early in the beginning. I'm sure those who are kind enough to obey the rules may get transferred for their complaining, as soon as there's an Aria to transfer them to.

I await to see the play in room rates between Bellagio, Vdara, and Aria. I have a feeling that one of the first two is going to become a pretty good value as time goes on.

Big R-J article on CC today with interior pics:

http://www.lvrj.com/news/citycenter-wow-inspiring-78301617.html

It will be interesting to see how Vdara plays out. I like the interior shots, but it definetely has a subdued, low key look that you'd expect from a condo residence, not a glitzy vegas hotel. Considering that, and the location/access it was very clearly meant to be condo development more than a hotel, and I'm not sure if they will easily be able to overcome that. I think they will have to market it a certain way to get people to pay attention; think CityCenter's version of Palms/Hard Rock or something like that. The kitchen intrigues me, but I'm curious if they will impose fees for even touching it, once room service has to deal with cleaning up messes in the oven and such. The refrigerator will no doubt be seen as a threat to food and beverage sales after they notice people sneaking duffel bags of booze up. I wouldn't be surprised to see the appliances gone in a year or two.

Am I looking at this pic correctly?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lasvegas/4152293546/in/set-72157622917578266/

Does a parking garage look down onto the pool area?

Hail2skins, what great photos in your link. I'm very enthused after seeing the casino and high limit photos. And, I'm beginning to see the logic in having many of the same restaurateurs at both Aria and Bellagio. The photo of Julian Serrano's place shows how different it is from Picasso at Bellagio. Totally different experiences, but I'm sure with the same quality. We'll likely see the same with Maccione's restaurant and the others. The RJ article says it's less than 300 steps from Aria to Vdara, so it can't be much farther to Bellagio. Lots of synergy between Aria, Vdara and Bellagio.

There's some few pics of the casino is this set..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28955329@N06/sets/72157606361313727/

Posted by Hunter

Yes, indeed it down look down on the pool - sorta. That's the Bellagio employee garage and it's not quite next to Vdara but almost.

Posted by Hunter

Anthony - thanks for posting that. I'm adding some info in the comments on those Flickr photos.

Here I go, waffling again. Aria's casino in this photo looks positively lifeless (and I don't mean the absence of people).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28955329@N06/4150182925/in/set-72157606361313727/

Posted by Hunter

That picture is what most of the casino looks like.

I can't wait for your report on Vdara, Hunter. I want to know how the service is, the in-room dining, and if you use it, the spa.

I will be trying Silk Road tomorrow afternoon.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/kats-report/2009/dec/02/two-landmarks----binions-and-citycenter----reflect/

Everything has a life expectancy, Baldwin says. Some things are built to last 20 years, 40 years, 50 years, but not City Center. “It’s built to last forever,” he says. “I think it’s going to outlast us and our children, and their children.”

It's not really a suprise, but the Aria photos remind me alot of the decor at M Resort (which I happen to like) and the newer casino areas at MGM Grand (near Ka and Centrifuge).

Just received a casino offer for $109 midwk and $159 wknd at Aria through April. This is lower than my current Bellagio offers! (Of course, Steve went a step further with the Encore opening offer which sold out two months in two days. He publicly stated that he regretted sending out that offer)

It sounds like Vdara is in a similar situation as Signature. Does anyone know if Signature also provides grocery delivery to the room and do the rooms have dishes, glassware, cutlery, pots, etc.. I also assume there are no mini-bars?

Parchedearth, I haven't seen anything recently about kitchen and dining things in the Signature at MGM suites, but when I went through the model mock-ups, pre-construction, in MGM's Studio Walk, they did point out the dishes, pots and pans, etc.
I don't think there is anything more than a snack store/deli in one of the four towers, but I did see an ad recently which was posted by one of the owners, trying to rent his unit. He offered to stock the kitchen at the renter's request with groceries from any local supermarket chain. The price was the actual cost plus a $30 service charge. The owner was asking as low as $99 a night for the unit. Boy, I'm glad I didn't fall for the sales pitch.