Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category

People who want to scuba dive and swim with ocean creatures on their vacation probably don’t put the desert city of Las Vegas high on their list of places to visit, but they should.

 Several attractions in Vegas are letting you get in the water and get up close and personal with dolphins, sharks and even aquatic entertainers.

 The Dive with Sharks program for hotel guests of Mandalay Bay and THEhotel allows people to dive in the hotel’s 1.3-million-gallon Shark Reef aquarium (with a guide) amongst more than 30 sharks.

 Certified divers 18 and older can participate in the four-hour experience, learning about shark health and behavior as well as Shark Reef Aquarium research projects. To ensure that the experience is truly special, the program is limited to two participants and one dive per day. 

 Hotel guests can book the tour for $650 for a single diver or $1,000 for two divers booked together.

 The program includes a guided tour of Shark Reef Aquarium, the supervised 45-minute dive and a post-dive snack.

 Don’t worry about lugging all of your dive equipment to Las Vegas – the Shark Reef provides a wetsuit, protective stainless steel chain maille as well as a mask, fins, tank, buoyancy-control device, regulator, weights and booties. 

 To commemorate the experience, divers get a certificate and a video of their dive. If you’re traveling with friends who don’t dive, you can let up to four observers view your experience from outside the exhibit and they get to join the behind-the-scenes tour. Dive with Sharks is available Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call (702) 632-4555.

Scuba enthusiasts have another unique opportunity to use their skills with Wynn Las Vegas’ Diver’s Dream Package.

With the package, participants can dive during a live performance of the hotel’s water-based show “Le Rêve,” which takes place in, around and above a round, 1.1- million-gallon tank of water that serves as the stage. Below the surface of the water are platforms that rise and descend for the various scenes.

Divers will get to see the amazing things that go on behind the scenes at “Le Rêve.” Sixteen scuba divers are required for each performance, using 32 air tanks and 3,500 cubic feet of compressed air. The performers are well taken care of by a system of divers, cameras, breathing systems and lights that ensure their safety. Each member of the cast is scuba certified and now you can watch all of the action that goes on underwater during the show if you’re dive certified.

The Diver’s Dream Package includes a two-night stay in a Resort Room at Wynn or Encore, VIP Indulgence tickets to “Le Rêve,” a private backstage tour, SDI Certified SCUBA training session with the “Le Rêve” diving team and the opportunity to dive during the live show. Packages are priced from $2,000 for one diver and from $3,000 for two divers. For more information call 702-770-SWIM (7946).

If you’re not a diver but still want to get a first-hand look at marine life, try Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat dolphin trainer for a day program.

Guests 13 years and older can swim with dolphins and experience in-water play and training sessions with the animals.

 From 9:45 a.m. – 3:15 p.m. participants will play with and feed the dolphins while accompanied by habitat staff. Photos will be taken at various locations in the habitat and put on a CD for you to take home as a souvenir.

 Fees are $550 per person with a four person maximum. The price for an observer is $150. Call (702) 792-7889 for more information or to make reservations.

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While Vegas may be known as the entertainment capital of the world, it is also working on another title: Fantasy football capital of the world.

Even if you don’t understand how a bunch of grown men can shell out big change to draft a make believe team and put more work into their team than they do into their marriages, you have to respect the fact more than 2,700 people are expected to descend on Vegas this weekend (Aug. 26-28) for Fantasy Football Superdraft.

The event, which is held at the Palms, is in its second year and has attracted big-name entertainers to both host and perform for these football-crazed fans. This year’s festivities include Ashton Kutcher as host, Stacy Keibler as the designated hottie and Snoop Dogg, who is a huge football fan himself, will make a special performance at a tailgate concert.

Essentially, these guys (and a few gals) are dropping $125 per person just for the right to draft their fantasy football team inside the Superdraft Draft Room, but according to the amount of people who have flocked to the Palms last year the price tag is worth it.

The fee, though, does give several other perks. It includes the tailgate concert Friday with Snoop, a VIP party Friday night at Rain Nightclub hosted by Keibler, another VIP party Saturday night and an “Overtime” pool party Sunday at the Palms Pool and Bungalows for draftees staying at the Palms.

For women who aren’t looking to draft a fantasy team there is also a model search happening where 15 lucky ladies will be rewarded with a contract to be featured in the national marketing campaign and media appearances for the 2010-11 season. The men in attendance will get a chance to check out the hopefuls in a bikini contest during the tailgate party.

Superdraft has garnered the attention of major sports media outlets like ESPN. The company’s senior fantasy sports expert, Matthew Berry aka The Talented Mr. Roto, said, “Why not make the best weekend of the year even better. Host your draft at Superdraft.”

There is talk that Superdraft will expand into other sports like baseball, hockey and basketball, but any fantasy sports fan will tell you that fantasy football is the best of all. And considering how many people will be at the Palms this week in search of the next Sidney Rice (one of last year’s top fantasy sleeper picks) the drafts will continue rolling on at the Palms for years to come.

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Not only does he “write the songs that make the whole world sing,” but he’s giving them instruments too. Legendary singer/songwriter Barry Manilow is putting instruments in the hands of students in the Clark County School District with his non-profit organization, the Manilow Music Project (MMP). Through the MMP guests who bring a new or gently used musical instrument to the Paris Theater will receive a voucher to see Manilow’s new show at Paris Las Vegas for the performance date of their choice. Donations are being accepted now through October when Manilow will present the school district with the donated instruments.

The MMP is part of The Manilow Fund for Health and Hope and was formed in response to the needs of public schools and their depleted music programs. MMP aids music programs around the country by donating instruments and materials to facilitate music education.

VEGAS.com had a chance to sit down with the music superstar to talk about his new show and why music is such an important part of the everyday curriculum for students.

“Music classes are not just play time,” says Manilow. “Music classes make these kids, from what I heard, their grades go up, they become better people, they know how to interact with other children and most important, what I was told is that if you don’t have music classes, they won’t come back to school. They’ll drop out, and that’s what really got me,” said Manilow.

Before opening his show at Paris in March 2010, Manilow wowed audiences as a headliner at the Las Vegas Hilton for five years. In his new show, Manilow performs with a live band and four back-up singers and dancers in an intimate 1,500-seat theater.

“At the Hilton we did a little production, but at the Paris we really blew it up. I hired a guy named Jeffery Hornaday, a brilliant, brilliant director and the two of us created a real production, and that’s what’s here at Paris Las Vegas,” said Manilow.

With more than 80 million records sold worldwide and a career spanning more than 35 years, Manilow is a music icon, but he just considers himself another guy in the band.

“I am just a lucky musician. I am one of the guys that just got lucky,” said Manilow.

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Most people only think about ghosts, gore and ghouls around Halloween, but not Jason Egan. As the creator of Fright Dome, thinking of ways to scare people is always a top priority. Since he started the haunted theme park at Circus Circus in 2003, his business Egan Productions has blossomed into an all-encompassing scare factory where he and a team of other designers, artists and engineers create countless props and special effects for Fright Dome and other haunted houses around the world.

His 7,000-square-foot shop located in Las Vegas operates year round. Egan and his team start moving pieces to Circus Circus and setting up Fright Dome at the beginning of August. Before everything was moved from the warehouse I got a chance to talk to Egan and take a behind-the-scenes look at some of his creepy creations.

“Everyone’s shocked to be going right back to work in November,” said Egan while giving me a tour of his shop. “Back eight, ten years ago we’d start planning in July to be set up in October. Now it’s immediate. We have to get going very quickly.”

At the shop he has about six permanent employees who work on creating countless haunted props from scratch. Some of these are for Fright Dome, while others are sold to outside clients including David Copperfield, Sea World Parks and Entertainment and countless other haunted attractions. Once it gets closer to October 1 when Fright Dome opens, Egan employs around 200 additional people to help operate the five-acre haunted theme park featuring five haunted houses, multiple scare zones and amusement rides that operate regularly during the rest of the year in Adventuredome. Fright Dome operates 7 p.m. – midnight Thu. – Sun. through October 31.

Fright Dome also includes live entertainment from some of the world’s most notorious and macabre illusionists in the all-new “Show of Magic & Horror.” The show features a combination of shocking illusions and unsettling conjuring by three magicians – Dixie Dooley, Kevin James and Dan Sperry, who recently performed on “America’s Got Talent.”

For the second year Fright Dome is partnering with Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures to create two new horror-movie-themed haunted houses.

“The movie themes are great because people love to feel like they are in the movies,” says Egan.

After the success of the “SAW” themed houses last year Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures offered “My Bloody Valentine” as a new theme for this year.

“I was stoked when I had big Lionsgate executives coming through my attraction (last year). You know these people are used to $30-million movie sets, and when they were absolutely impressed with what we did and how much scarier it was than other attractions they had visited, that’s a great compliment,” says Egan.

He explained that the “My Bloody Valentine” theme was an especially good fit for Fright Dome because there is an area in the park with a rocky façade that looks just like a mine shaft.

“This one’s actually going to have an elevator ride at the beginning, which will simulate descending into an underground mine. Then you have to dodge Harry Warden while you’re down there,” says Egan.

Along with this, Fright Dome will also have a new “SAW” themed house. In the “SAW” house last year people just got to see replicas of the “games” from the legendary movie, but this year they get to experience them with an all-new interactive haunted house. 

“The customers are actually going to sit on this prop, and to make it to the next room everyone has to push the button at the same time,” says Egan while pointing out one of the new props for this year’s “SAW” house. 

Creepy Creations

Creating every new prop is a multi-step process, but Egan likes to keep as much as he can in-house to ensure that everything people see at Fright Dome is unique.

“We try to make sure everything’s original to us. That’s a big thing. We don’t want our haunted houses to have the same things as everyone else. They come to us expecting to see the best haunted house, and we’re going to make sure we give it to them,” says Egan.

Many of the props start as illustrations. He works with various artists who sketch out new ideas for scary creatures. Once he approves them, the sketches become clay sculptures that are used to create plaster molds. The molds are then filled with liquid latex, which dries and is painted to look like a freakish ghoul, rotting corpse or another frightening creature.

With the movie-themed houses Egan gets images, renderings and models from the production companies that are used as guides to create life-size props and costumes.

Other props might start as something Egan and his team purchase at a thrift store and modify. Egan showed me a second-hand dresser that they purchased and outfitted with springs to make the drawers mysteriously pop open. The dresser will also be aged and modified so that it looks like something from a Stephen King novel.

“When we need something we just build it up real quick, we’ll age it and we’ll blood it up. We use our secret blood formula,” said Egan. The secret blood formula is a two-part recipe that Egan got from a friend who owns a special effects company.

This modification process doesn’t stop with furniture. Egan’s team also works on cars, and this year they even built a 37-foot-long replica of a Huey helicopter.

“It doesn’t fly, but it’s a static military helicopter. We just keep taking on these projects, and we’re successful with all of them,” said Egan.

The helicopter is going to be used in the all-new Zombie Apocalypse scare zone this year at Fright Dome. For those of you who have never ventured into the haunted theme park, the scare zones are areas in the park outside of the haunted houses where frightening scenes are set up with roaming scare actors ready to terrify anyone who walks by. Zombie Apocalypse will also include a 1969 Jeep Willy that Egan and his team outfitted with an animated zombie gun man.

“We can’t fit that type of stuff in the haunted houses, but we have the advantage of being a theme park so we can fit it in our scare zones,” says Egan.

For the new Clown Evil Alley scare zone, Egan and his team transformed a 1965 Chevy Shorty into a scary clown ice cream truck. Evil clowns are already creepy enough on their own, and now they have an ice cream truck as a tool for terrorizing people.  

“Everything we fabricate from scratch, it was just an idea at one time and my guys are constantly bringing me ideas,” says Egan.

Haunted 13th Floor Tour

Aside from Fright Dome this year, Egan is also putting on the Haunted 13th Floor Tour located in the hotel room tower at Circus Circus.

“The tower actually has a thirteenth floor, which is really rare, and you know some people say the thirteenth floor is a portal to the other side,” says Egan.

This tour will be available every day from 2  – 10 p.m. October 1 – 31. It features 13 rooms with frightening scenes including a seance room, a bellman-gone-bad room and a crazy catering room. The tour is $13. Egan pitched the concept to Circus Circus when he first started doing Fright Dome, but it wasn’t until this year that the hotel took him up on the idea.

“There’s all kinds of fun new stuff going on, if there were only more hours in the day,” says Egan.

Frightening Success

Since the park opened, Fright Dome has attracted more than 60,000 customers each year. It’s recognized as one of the nation’s top haunted attractions and one of the scariest Halloween attractions in Vegas.

Creating new haunted props for more than 30,000 square feet of haunted houses and another 20,000 square feet of scare zones each year means that Egan has a constantly growing collection.  He’s already talking about needing to move his shop again into a bigger location.

Along with the overwhelming response to Fright Dome each year Egan is getting more recognition as a master in everything macabre. He was recently featured in one of the man-on-the-street segments on Joan Rivers’ “How’d You Get So Rich?” After October, he and his team are going to start work on filming a television pilot for a new show that he described as a cross between “Punk’d” and “Ghost Hunters.”

His ultimate goal is to direct and produce horror movies. Breaking into the movie business is something Egan is confident his company can do, but he’s waiting for the right time.

“Just like anything else, I want to make sure that I have the perfect script, the perfect product. The last thing that I ever want to do, I swear I have nightmares about it, is creating a bad product. I swear the nightmares that I have are not normal. They’re about having a bad haunted house or not finishing my haunted house,” says Egan.

Take a behind-the-scenes look at some of Egan’s creepy collection of haunted props.

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“I love chocolate like every other person…it’s one of the legal drugs of the world,” says Max Brenner when asked why he’s obsessed with chocolate.

I sat down recently with Brenner (the bald man, himself) at his new restaurant, Max Brenner: Chocolate by a Bald Man, inside the Forum Shops at Caesars to taste some of his creations and chat about, well, chocolate.

Max Brenner

Brenner isn’t your average chocolatier that magically knew from birth that his destiny was to fulfill the world’s chocolate needs. In fact, it’s something he more or less fell into.

“Working with chocolate was a complete coincidence,” said Brenner. He explained his original passion was to be a writer and he would work with European chocolate makers to get by as a struggling writer.

Since that time, Brenner has opened chocolate restaurants and retail locations in Singapore, the Philippines, Australia and his native Israel. He currently has restaurants in New York, Philadelphia and now Las Vegas.

I toured the two-story restaurant, (formerly Chinois and Poetry) which was lavishly decorated in deep shades of, well, chocolate and buttercream. Chocolate displays were throughout the restaurant, private rooms were available for private chocolaty affairs and the place seemed to have a chocolate factory vibe.

I knew I was going to a restaurant filled with chocolate, but I was hardly prepared for the onslaught of chocolate that came: Chocolate pizzas, chocolate waffles, mugs filled with chocolate, ice cream bars with chocolate dipping sauces, chocolate crème—and there was more.

One of my favorite things in Brenner’s chocolate shop is the chocolate syringe. For those of us who are choco-holics, consider this your IV injection of pure chocolaty goodness.

I couldn’t seem to put the chocolate pizza down, even though it came after five preceding courses of chocolate. It was made from traditional pizza dough, chocolate crème and toasted marshmallows, served hot and was absolutely delicious.

The “hug mug,” named for the way you hold the specially-shaped mug, is filled with rich, velvety, thick hot chocolate. After hugging my mug for a little longer than the rest of my party felt comfortable with, Brenner broke the silence.

“There is a similarity between me and chocolate because I think chocolate is very diverse and I think it has completely different personalities. It can be very wild, addictive, crazy, and on the other hand it can be luxurious, soft,” said Brenner. He admits he can have the same traits.

“It is easy for me to tell my life story through chocolate, and that’s what I’m actually doing,” says Brenner.

While there is no doubt Brenner brings his own unique brand to Vegas, I wondered what he wanted to bring to Vegas-goers. His answer, though unsurprising, seemed to be the perfect fit for everything I had experienced in my visit.

“The ultimate chocolate experience,” said Brenner.

Mission accomplished, Mr. Brenner.

Want to see more of my heavenly chocolate tasting at Max Brenner: Chocolate by a Bald Man? Click through the photo gallery below.

Hint: Click the “i” on the top right for descriptions!

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If you’ve tried walking down the Strip, even a relatively short distance, like say from the Mirage to TI, you know the Vegas heat can be unrelenting. We have all longed for the day that the city decides to install misters along Las Vegas Boulevard.

But, we’re still waiting for that one.

Even when you do get a break from the sun, it is usually in a place where the combined body heat of a few thousand people makes the room feel like the sun itself. The good news, though, is that you don’t have to swear of Vegas between May and September.

For those of you that have had the chance to experience Minus5 at Mandalay Bay, you know that there is no other way to escape from the heat but with a good hour inside of an iced-out room while sipping on vodka out of an ice glass. Well, starting at the end of August you will have one more Strip destination where you can regain your normal body temperature. Minus5 will open a second Vegas location with this one going to the Monte Carlo and just steps off the busiest part of the Strip.

“To have an ice bar in the middle of the Mohave Desert is an amazing thing, especially when it is 115 degrees outside,” said Noel Bowman, Minus5 director of operations. “People come in from the pools, people come in from the Strip and they’re completely worn out. Most people stay in about 45 minutes to an hour – and you can stay longer. A lot of the comments that we hear on the way out is, ‘Completely refreshed. I feel so much better, we’re ready to go again.’”

The newest location isn’t quite done yet, but we got a sneak peek of the work they’ve put in so far. What we got out of it was that this location is slightly bigger (it holds about 120 versus 90 at Mandalay) and there is an outstanding ice sculpture of Mt. Rushmore.

The bricks of ice that are imported from Canada (apparently they have better ice, eh?) weigh about 1,000 pounds each and when they are done there will be about 30 tons of ice in Minus5. And although the room wasn’t completely filled with ice when we walked through, it surprisingly wasn’t all that cold yet.

But trust us, by the time the room is filled with ice and you’re sipping some ice-cold vodka you’ll never be more thankful for wearing a coat in Vegas, even if it is 115 degrees outside.

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The usual solution for a Las Vegas hotel that is past its prime is to implode it, start over from scratch and create a bigger and better property to take its place.

When the Tropicana hotel was taken over by the Onex Corporation (led by former MGM Mirage executive Alex Yemenidjian) in 2009, the company decided to go against the norm and preserve one of the few 1950s Las Vegas Strip hotels still standing by choosing to remodel instead of demolish the property.

“The Tropicana has a pretty storied history and there’s a lot to that in terms of recognition and we knew we wanted to keep a touch of the past in terms of the brand name,” said Arik Knowles, vice president of hotel operations for the Tropicana.

“Also the timing was interesting because you had CityCenter coming to an end, you had Fontainebleau and the Echelon projects come to a halt and a lot of other projects were coming to completion or ending, and so for us, we found it was an opportune time to do a remodel because there was a lot of availability for contractors, subcontractors, designers – the whole development world. We call it smart development – it made sense for timing and it made sense for an ROI (return on investment),” said Knowles.

The Tropicana Hotel has been a fixture on the Strip since it opened on April 4, 1957.  It was a first-class property with 300 rooms, an Olympic-size pool, lush landscaping and nicknamed the “Tiffany of the Strip” by the Saturday Evening Post in reference to the property’s elegance.

The hotel was revamped several times over the years. In 1959, an additional 150-room wing was added. In 1962, a 116-room wing was added and in 1978 the 600-room Tiffany (now Paradise) Tower opened. Ramada Inns, Inc. acquired the property in 1979 and in 1985, the resort converted to “The Island of Las Vegas” theme, adding the 22-story Island Tower. The hotel’s rooms were freshened up in 1998-1999, but the property hasn’t been updated since then.

It was definitely time for a makeover and Knowles said the goal of the renovation project is not to completely do away with the Tropicana’s image, but to improve upon the existing product and create “best in class” rooms.

“We’re not trying to compete in the luxury market. We’re not trying to be Wynn, we’re not trying to be the Bellagio. The Tropicana for a long time competed in what I call the ‘C’ level category of hotels. We originally thought we’d be at the top of the ‘C’ level when the renovation was complete, but we’re seeing very quickly – because a lot of these ‘B’ level hotels haven’t been remodeled in a long time – that we can compete with the ‘B’ level. That middle market is a very big market here in Las Vegas and we think that we can compete with the top of the ‘B’ market and so that, combined with a Four Diamond rating from AAA are our main goals.”

The slogan you’ll see posted everywhere around the Tropicana these days is “We’re changing everything” and it’s not an exaggeration. Areas that have already been remodeled or are scheduled for updating include the guest rooms, pool, sports book, spa, convention center, casino and restaurants. The property is converting to a South Beach style with décor that features white marble, shutters and lots of plants and palms.

The remodeled Paradise room at the Tropicana

Knowles said the big change Tropicana guests will enjoy is the new rooms. “Our room product is the newest room product in that ‘B’ category and competes with the best of them. Our beds are brand new – pretty much every single thing in the rooms is brand new. We say all the time we have good bones. The hotel had good bones, it just needed a facelift and that’s what we’re doing in the rooms.”

The hotel’s new Paradise Tower rooms, which opened in April, feature 42-inch flat panel TVs luxury bedding, iPod docks and plantation shutters on the windows.

Construction is continuing on the Island Tower rooms (scheduled for completion in September), which are much like the Paradise Tower rooms, but are geared toward convention goers who visit the resort’s revamped 110,000-square-foot convention space.

“The Island Tower sits on top of the convention center so it’s geared more toward a conference center/convention client because of ease of access and location, so we made one design change in there where we put a desk unit that comes out from the TV dresser area and adds more space for a convention person to spread out and have more workspace,” said Knowles.

Swim-up blackjack at the Tropicana pool

Next to the guest rooms, Knowles said the resort’s new pool area is the highlight of the refurbishing project.

“It’s not a concrete hole in the ground like most of our competitors, it’s very lush, very resort feeling. A lot of our customers now that come here and see the renovation are saying that it feels more like coming to a resort destination rather than to Las Vegas,” said Knowles.

The first phase of the pool project was unveiled in May and features an expansive pool deck with lush landscaping, waterfalls, swim-up blackjack tables and cabanas.

Phase two of the pool development will be the addition of the Nikki Beach complex slated for spring 2011.

The new Las Vegas location will be the largest Nikki Beach property in the world. The opulent beach club will feature loungers, opium beds and cabanas, complete with bottle service and hors d’oeuvres. Nikki Beach will include a restaurant, outdoor cafe and bar and a private island in the center of the tropical pool.

Along with Nikki Beach will come a new nightlife offering at the Tropicana — Club Nikki, a 15,000-square-foot nightclub decorated in an elegant all-white color scheme. Club Nikki will feature interactive entertainment such as “champagne muses” and world-renowned DJs dueling on each side of the dance floor.

While the Nikki Beach complex won’t be ready until 2011, there are many more changes scheduled for completion by the end of this year. The Tropicana will open a new poker room and a new race and sports book operated by Cantor Gaming, which will include mobile gaming and skyboxes.

Also by the end of the year, a new restaurant and updated bars will open at the hotel. One of the highlights will be Ambhar, located in the main casino area, which will feature cocktails crafted with Ambahr Platinum tequila.

The Tropicana was home to the storied “Folies Bergere” production show for many years and Knowles said the hotel is looking at new options for entertainment with the goal of renovating the theater and having a show in by early next year. For now, guests can enjoy a new comedy club from actor and comedian Brad Garrett.

Brad Garrett has opened a comedy club at the Tropicana

“Tropicana was the perfect home for me because we’re trying to build what Vegas used to be, make it all about the customer,” Garrett said. “I think the older Vegas, it was really all about the customer and the clientele and making them feel that the hotel will go the extra mile for you.”

The hotel is also opening the Mob Experience exhibit in December, a large collection of authentic artifacts, memorabilia, photos and videos about organized crime.

Although most of the changes are on the interior, customers will also notice an overhaul on the outside of the Tropicana. The porte cochere, valet and check-in have all been redone.

“The entrance is new with white marble steps and the ceiling is very, very Miami, it’s very, very South Beach in that sort of art deco look and feel — basically it’s all white and very cleaned up,” said Knowles.

He said in addition to the aesthetic improvements at the property, a focus on customer service is a priority at the new Tropicana.

“The fixing of the neglect of the building, the physical part of it, to us is actually the easiest part — you design it, you pay someone to come in and create it for you. The service culture is actually our biggest focus. We actually have a service culture team that we’ve put into place that has been working with the team members to change the idea of what a visit in Las Vegas is,” he said. “So, we jokingly — but not really jokingly — say that we’re a boutique, because when all is said and done, we have 1,658 rooms on the Strip. All of our competitors have more and we’re able to engage the customers in ways that they wish they could.”

Knowles said the biggest hurdle the hotel has faced with its facelift is that some people didn’t want the hotel to change. “There are a few people who liked the Tropicana how it was and when those people come to see it, we change their minds,” he said.

“There was one customer we were talking to in the valet — we happened to catch her and she’d been coming to the Tropicana for 15 years and she was sort of unimpressed with what she saw so far because we were under construction. So we walked with her into the front door — and it was a week after we got the new pit carpet, the new tables in and the walkway was complete — and she just kind of stood there for awhile looking at it and I wasn’t sure what she was going to say but she goes, ‘okay, I get it now.’”

Knowles said the idea of what the Tropicana is in people’s minds and actually seeing it are two completely different things.

“Our goal is to get people to come see what it looks like so they can change their mind about what they feel when they hear the name Tropicana.”

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When you were a kid, your summers probably consisted of day camp, family vacations and trips to your local ice cream shop. You would crawl up on the stool and announce to the lady behind the counter: “One chocolate milkshake, please!”

There’s something nostalgic and cheery about a thick, gloppy milkshake.

“Milkshakes put you in a good mood and they are something you would always share,” explains Daniel Lydia, general manager of Lagasse’s Stadium in Palazzo Las Vegas.

Although you might not want to share these milkshakes, indulging in them will make you feel like a kid again, even though you’re all grown up now. Additionally, July is National Ice Cream Month and there’s no better way to celebrate than to channel your inner youth and go for a cool, frosty treat.

Here are some of Vegas’ most decadent milkshakes and we promise, you won’t need any fries with these shakes.

Campfire Marshmallow at BLT Burger

Campfire marshmallow

Available at: BLT Burger in the Mirage
Why we love it: It’s not every day you get to sit around a campfire, working on your marshmallow roasting techniques, so it’s understandable if you’re a little rusty. Luckily, BLT Burger creates perfectly charred on the outside, soft and gooey on the inside marshmallows. Marshmallows of this caliber would certainly be a treat on their own, but add them to vanilla ice cream for the ultimate Campfire Marshmallow shake and now you’ve got something.
Price: $7

Cap’n Crunch

Available at: KGB in Harrah’s Las Vegas
Why we love it: Your favorite breakfast cereal with ice cold milk is tempting enough, but your favorite breakfast cereal and ice cream? Well, that’s just mind-blowing. The shake is made from a specially formulated ice cream made with Crunch milk (Cap’n Crunch and milk) and topped with whipped cream and Cap’n Crunch marshmallow treats. Add in one of rock ’n’ roll Chef Kerry Simon’s gourmet burgers and you’ve got the ultimate Vegas meal.
Price: $5

Mr. Lucky's chocolate shake

Old-fashioned chocolate

Available at: Mr. Lucky’s in Hard Rock Hotel
Why we love it: It’s rich, chocolatey and comes with plenty of whipped cream. Need we say more? The chocolate shake at Mr. Lucky’s isn’t anything out of the ordinary – it’s extraordinary.
Price: $4.50

BB Twinkie

Available at: Burger Bar in Mandalay Bay
Why we love it: The merging of a certain favorite packaged snack cake and vanilla ice cream is the perfect way to complete your meal at Burger Bar. We assume you’re going with the burger (of some sort) and choosing onion rings, sweet potato fries or french fries – each go great when dunked in this Twinkie blended milkshake. Don’t worry, we’ve tested them all several times.
Price: $8.75

Cake & Shake

Shake & Cookies at Lagasse's Stadium

Available at: Max Brenner in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace
Why we love it: From master chocolatier, Max Brenner, this tasty shake will be all the rage when Max Brenner, Chocolate by a Bald Man opens August 5. With vanilla crêpe flakes ice cream, rich chocolate cream and chocolate frappé, this shake is just the beginning. Just in case you don’t have enough chocolate, the shake comes with a shaker of extra chocolate sauce and a fluffy chocolate cake. Though it’s hard to overdose on chocolate, this one might put you over the edge.
Price: $13

Shake and cookies

Available at: Lagasse’s Stadium in Palazzo Las Vegas
Why we love it: Kudos to Chef Emeril Lagasse for getting this one right. Two fresh baked, warm chocolate chip cookies. Check. One, creamy coffee milkshake. Check. Dunk cookie in milkshake. Double check. This perfect summertime combination is great while watching the big game on one of the Stadium’s big screen TV’s.
Price: $7

Captain Crunch milkshake

Frrrozen Hot Chocolate

Available at: Serendipity 3 in Caesars Palace
Why we love it: The frrrozen hot chocolate is iconic in New York City’s Serendipity, but here in Las Vegas – these drinks fly off the restaurant menu and at the grab-n-go window. The frrrozen hot chocolate is made with a rich chocolate base and blended with crushed ice.
Price: $8 (for one person)

Bailey’s ice cream float

Available at: Society Cafe Encore in Encore Las Vegas
Why we love it: A Bailey’s float includes cream soda, coffee ice cream and Bailey’s Irish Cream. Though this grown-up milkshake is technically a float, the consistency is thick and creamy.
Price: $9

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Jumping off buildings. Coming face-to-face with sharks. Racing at high speeds through desert terrain.

Who said adventure in Vegas had to strictly be about all-night partying? (Although you may be tempted to have a drink or two before facing some of the extreme adventures Vegas offers.) On your next trip, why not try one (or all) of the daring attractions Vegas has to offer? This way, you’ll have something else to tell your friends besides the same old, crazy stories about your night on the Strip.

Dive with the sharks

It’s not every day you get to see sharks, so diving into their territory and swimming with them takes it to a whole new level.

Dive-certified hotel guests staying at Mandalay Bay can experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by participating in the hotel’s Dive with the Sharks program at the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef.

“Extreme activities have grown quite a bit in Vegas,” Jack Jewel, curator at Shark Reef and facilitator for the Dive with the Sharks program said. “This is an incredible opportunity, not only because you get to dive with sharks up close and personal, but also you get to dive in a stainless steel mesh suit.”

This suit is not something the average diver gets a chance to experience. Divers must wear this type of protective gear when diving up close with sharks.

“It’s outside of the range of cost,” Jewel explained, “but it is a great opportunity to engage diving with that unique equipment plus getting in the water up close and personal with the sharks.”

The Dive with the Sharks program includes a guided tour of the aquarium and the exciting, supervised, 45-minute dive.

For those who think diving in the wild is more adventurous, think again. “Typically you’re going to be in a cage and you may or may not see animals,” Jewel said. “There are no guarantees in the wild. Maybe you’ll see one, maybe two if you’re having a great day. Your interaction with them is very minimal. They’re dashing around [and] your vision of them is not necessarily the best.”

At the Shark Reef, the animals are behaving as if they were in their natural environment: “You’re just there, in their space,” he said.

“It’s exciting, especially when the first shark comes up and lays itself by your feet or your knees.”

You’ll see everything from sand tiger sharks to grey reef sharks, Galapagos sharks, white tip reef sharks, a couple different species of rays, barracudas and thousands of tinier fish.

Be on the lookout for the potato grouper, who likes to get really close to divers. “When you get in the water, he’ll come over and park himself above your head because he likes to get the air bubbles from your exhaust going into his gills,” Jewel explained.

Surprisingly, the real ones to watch out for are the sea turtles. Weighing more than 325 pounds, these sea turtles may be vegetarian, but have major grazing tendencies.

“Those guys like to come right up, take a look at you [to] see what’s going on!” Jewel said. “They’re the ones more likely to reach out and grab ahold of something and see what it is.

“It’s almost impossible to have the same experience in the wild,” he continued. “You just don’t find these kinds of animals and the numbers collected in a given space and condition. The ocean’s the ocean – you can’t always count on it for visibility and calm conditions.”

The program provides a wetsuit, protective stainless steel chainmail as well as a mask, fins, tank, buoyancy-control device, regulator, weights and booties. Guests also receive a certificate, a video of their dive and even souvenir teeth that they collect during the dive.

Whether you try this dive once or decide to come back, Jewel said it will be something new.

“One of the things I really love about this dive is that it’s completely unique every single time,” he said. “The crazy part of it is, I’ve dived about 500 times and every single time you go in, it’s different.”

Diving with the sharks costs $630 for one person or $1,000 for two.

SkyJump for joy

From the water to the sky, Las Vegas thinks outside the box with its extreme adventure locations. After your diving excursion, go high in the sky and visit SkyJump Las Vegas at the Stratosphere.

Standing more than 1,000 feet tall, just looking at the Stratosphere counts as intimidating. And knowing that it’s the tallest building on the Strip, it may be hard to imagine jumping from it, but it’s worth your leap of faith.

Brave souls dive 855 feet from the 108th floor of the tower, soaring at 40 miles per hour.

After getting fitted in your jumpsuit, you’ll take an elevator up to the ride’s platform and be connected to a “descender machine.”

Since you’re attached to a vertical zip-line, the experience is more like a controlled freefall rather than just jumping off the building. This way, the ride goes more smoothly.

Also, you won’t get that queasy feeling in your stomach that you experience from a standard freefall ride or a steep rollercoaster drop.

The scariest part may be scooting your toes over the edge to prepare for your jump, or counting down to your leap.

Right before reaching the ground, the machine slows down, giving you more than enough time to land smoothly. You’re not jerked around, nor do you swing all over the place. Once you land, you’ll feel such a rush you’ll want to run up and do it all over again. Currently, SkyJump Las Vegas is the only SkyJump in North America, as well as the highest one in the world. A jump costs $99.99.

Bootleg Canyon Flightlines

Many people have had dreams of flying. You can make your dreams a reality by visiting Bootleg Canyon and soaring through mountains just like a bird.

You can always have a plane or helicopter experience, but you won’t feel the freedom you do during this tour. Bootleg Canyon Flightlines’ zip-line tour in Boulder City gives you the chance to “fly” and experience the beauty of the Southwest desert mountains.

You’ll sit in your own paragliding harness that’s suspended from cable wires. Travel from one point to another by flying over the desert ecosystem from the top of Red Mountain. Some riders have reached speeds of 50 miles per hour.
No matter your speed, you’ll be coasting more than 1,000 feet above the ground.

After a brief safety orientation, your guides take you on a quick drive up to the canyon. From here, you’ll take a half-hour hike uphill. The ride includes four runs, each providing a different kind of experience. Be ready, because the final run is the fastest. Flights cost $149.

Landsailing away

So far we covered water and sky. Get your checklist ready because we’re about to share with you Vegas’ land experiences.

The only thing sailing on the water and landsailing have in common is the breeze you feel during the ride – the similarities stop here. While the name sounds like it could be relaxing and peaceful, landsailing definitely counts as an extreme activity.

“Landsailing is wind-powered go-carting and unlike water sailing, you can double and triple the speed of the wind,” explained Pete Lyons, owner of Go Landsailing. “So it’s a lot more speed, more fun and easier to learn. It’s a lot less technical than it is on the water. Any average person will be able to pick it up real quick.”

You’ll fulfill your need for speed in this exhilarating ride located in Primm on the lake beds right next to the outlet mall.

“You got to do this once in your lifetime because it’s a very rare, unique, unusual activity,” Lyons said. “You need to have a location like we have in Las Vegas with the dry lakes to be able to do it. Most parts in the country don’t have that. For most people, it’s a chance of a lifetime for people to have access to try it.”

On windier days, you even may find yourself catching air and having a hard time slowing down. Anyone with a sense of adventure can enjoy this, no matter what your age.

“It was fun,” Jacob Dieck, an 11-year-old rider said. “Sometimes it gets sort of scary when you’re going really fast.”

His sister, Sarah, also experienced a similar sail. “It was very windy, so it was going really fast,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to tip over!”

Their mother, Nancy, got a chance to race against her husband’s boat. “It’s something we can’t do anywhere else,” she said. “It’s quiet [and] you’re in the desert…it’s just a unique
experience.”

The best times to try it is March through the end of June and September through the end of November, when it’s not too hot.

Landsailing is priced at $155 for adults and $77.50 for kids ages 6 – 12.

Daring dune buggies

If you’re itching to venture through rugged terrain, catch some air and get blasted in the face with plenty of dust, then you’d love the mini Baja dune buggy ride at the Nellis Dunes.

These dune buggies travel through rugged terrain, sand dunes and gravel on 15,000 acres of play space for 90 minutes.

“This is something really unique,” Scott Bradford, operations manager for Sun Buggy Rentals said. “The terrain that we have here is unlike any other place in the world.”

After you get picked up from your hotel, you’ll be taken to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway where you’ll be fitted for your helmet and goggles. You’ll also get a behind-the-scenes tour and see dune buggies being welded and built right on the spot.

Once you climb into your buggy, the adventure begins. You’ll travel through aggressive and challenging terrain. While most drive these vehicles between 25 to 35 miles per hour, these bad boys can actually go as fast as 50.

Even if you’re just riding as a passenger, it is equally terrifying since you are not controlling the vehicle. Just when you think you’re getting used to the ride, the unpredictable desert grounds take you for another spin.

“It’s a pretty wide demographic,” Bradford said of the tour customers. “Predominantly men, we’ll do 10 to 12 bachelor parties a week. This is the ultimate wild [daytime] activity for bachelor parties in Vegas.”

It is such a wild ride that people have told him that they thought they were going to die a hundred times. “A lady came in and said she prayed more in the last hour and a half than she did in her whole life,” he said.

Despite the thrills of this ride, you can customize it to where you’re comfortable. “This is not like a rollercoaster where you strap in and hang on,” said Bradford. “You’re in control. You go as fast as you want to go. The guides aren’t going to leave you in the dust – they’re waiting on you.

“Every tour is different,” he continued. It’s as extreme as you want it to be. But if you really want to push the edge, this is the place to do it.”

Tours are $307.97.

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A thrilling driving game at Gameworks

When you think of the arcades of yesteryear, what comes to mind?

Is it “Pinball Wizard?” How about “Pac-Mania?” Or maybe “Finish Him?”

Whether you grew up in the era of “Asteroids,” “Street Fighter,”  or none of the above, this town has some fun diversions for gamers of all eras and preferences.

With the Evo Championship Series, a world-famous video game tournament, coming to Caesars Palace on July 9, we thought we’d celebrate their fun and competitive spirit by assembling Las Vegas’ top video-gaming destinations.

Whether you’re looking for under-21 entertainment or you’re just a gamer at heart, these are the spots you’ll certainly want to give a look:

Circus Circus: This casino urges you to “act your age somewhere else,” a proposition which their midway arcade makes incredibly easy to live up to. The midway has a surprisingly good selection of games – about 200 of the most popular arcade games of all time. While no arcade has a perfect collection, this one is still likely to have at least one version of the game you’re looking for, or at least something similar.

Along with the games, one main attraction of Circus Circus’ midway here is the old-time carnival attractions and midway entertainment while you play: there are many redemption games and games of skill along with the video games, and guests are treated to free daily performances throughout the day, ensuring that you’ll have something to look forward to long after you run out of quarters.

And of course, you’ll be right next to the Adventuredome amusement park, so the possibilities for fun are endless here.

Gameworks: This two-story arcade/restaurant/bar is Las Vegas’ video game mecca. If you’re going for sheer variety, this place will not disappoint: here, you can play the latest arcade games along with some pinball and retro classics of every genre from the 70s, 80s and 90s

You’ll also find an abundance of sit-down cabinet games: you can climb into everything from supercharged race cars to jet fighters, or try to fight your way out of dinosaur safaris, zombie invasions and more. Some of Gameworks’ shooting games come with experience-enhancing extra-large cabinets and screens that you won’t see anywhere else.

Gameworks also has a decent selection of ticket-redemption games, the ones where you test your skills and earn tickets, which you can exchange for prizes. Of course, these prizes may or may not be worth as much as you spent in the first place, but it’s nice to be able to take home a plush bear and a few bags of Pop Rocks as a reminder of your stay in Vegas.

New York-New York: Just across the Strip from Gameworks, the New York-New York serves up around 200 games in a boardwalk-inspired, Coney Island-themed arcade. There’s a great variety of genres, but you won’t find the same amount of awe-inspiring sit-in cabinets that you find at a place like Gameworks.

To compensate, this venue is a little more focused on the extra activities they have going throughout the day; you can start up a round of laser tag, hop into a bumper car or, if you’re daring, try out the rollercoaster.

The Pinball Hall of Fame: This off-strip attraction is like something like the Smithsonian of interactive entertainment. You can find the world’s largest pinball collection on display, but that’s not all – you can play every single machine they have and relive a bygone era. This one is a must-visit for nostalgics.

You may even be surprised to find that they do still make new pinball games: you’ll find machines based on “CSI,” “The Dark Knight” and many more recent movies and TV shows.

Of course, you’ll also find many classics: standouts include “Addams Family,” “Superman,”  “Terminator 2,” and the various “Star Trek” tables that have come out over the years, which are joined by novelty machines with gimmicks like “enhanced” gravity and a vertically-standing play field that resembles a circus – the latter is one of three machines of its kind in the world. In addition to its pinball offerings, PHoF has a meager selection of arcade games.

Now, go out there and get your game on. Remember, in this town: it’s on like Donkey Kong.

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