It’s the most wonderful time of the year. The Las Vegas Holiday Season is upon us. This week everyone will be eating turkey and in a couple of weeks we’ll all be breaking out our winter clothes and celebrating whatever holiday works for you.

This week marks the beginning of the seventh year that I’ve lived in Las Vegas. I’m proud to say that my blood hasn’t thinned and my winter coat is still a hoodie. Let’s talk turkey!

Thanksgiving in Las Vegas

One of the most popular questions I’ve had over the past few weeks is where to eat on Thanksgiving in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Review-Journal put together a big list of restaurants where you’ll find special meals for the holiday. I’m not very festive and always recommend picking your favorite restaurant to eat. If they make great food all year round, they should make a great meal for the holidays – turkey or otherwise.

The main recommendation I have for Thanksgiving is to make a reservation or arrive very early. Not only are there a lot of tourists visiting Las Vegas but the locals go out so they don’t have to do all the cooking and prep work that a full Thanksgiving meal requires.

If there is a restaurant you want to visit make sure you have a reservation. Most restaurants will be packed to capacity. If you’re going to a buffet, make sure you arrive very early. I’ve heard horror stories of people waiting for hours just to get a seat at buffets.

If you’re a football bettor, you might want to fund a mobile app for Thanksgiving. The casinos will be busy and plenty of people will be betting. The apps are a great way to avoid standing in line to place a wager. Here’s a list of the different sports betting apps for Nevada.

Looking ahead:

• The Cosmopolitan will once again have ice skating at the Boulevard Pool from November 20 through January 10. You don’t have to risk your life skating to enjoy the great views. The Cosmopolitan website has more information.
• the Fremont Street Experience just released information for their New Year’s Eve party. It’s one of the only times of the year you’ll pay to hang out in the chaos that is the Fremont Street Experience. VegasNews.com has more information.

Planet Hollywood Celebrating 10th Anniversary

Planet Hollywood officially opened in 2007. The casino was formerly known as the Aladdin. The top-down renovation of Monte Carlo to Park MGM isn’t such a new idea. This was my home casino when I first started visiting Las Vegas often. Before Caesars Entertainment took over operations this was a Starwood property with the best location on the Vegas Strip.

My first memories of Planet Hollywood was during the conversion from Aladdin to PLANET HOLLYWOOD Las Vegas Resort. The chips were full of actors and musicians and there were plenty of celebrities in the casino. In between epic blackjack sessions, I remember playing craps so I could win some DOPE Kelly Clarkson chips. I think we won more Colin Hay chips (bottom of page) but most of the memories are fuzzy.

Planet Hollywood remains one of my favorite Caesars casinos in Las Vegas. While the room renovations aren’t outstanding the casino is still as lively as ever. The dining options in the casino and the Miracle Mile Shops are some of the best values on the Vegas Strip. Hopefully the new version of Planet Dailies, Cafe Hollywood, still has the delicious overflowing bacon and cheese omelet.

The Caesars Blog has more information about what you’ll find at Planet Hollywood today.

Naked City Pizza Coming To El Cortez

View this post on Instagram

It is with great excitement that we announce that we will be opening a Naked City Pizza at the El Cortez! This is the realization of two dreams I’ve had for Naked City, since we left our spot outside of Dino’s. To bring Naked City into a Casino in Las Vegas and to bring Naked City full circle and open in downtown. We could not be more excited to be part of the downtown community and be inside the oldest continuously run casino in Las Vegas.

A post shared by Naked City Pizza (@nakedcitylv) on Nov 17, 2017 at 3:32pm PST

Downtown is becoming the place to be if you like pizza! Pizza Rock is great, Evel Pie has a delicious slice and Naked City Pizza will soon be opening at El Cortez. I think we might need to arrange some kind of pizza and beer shenanigans someday.

Quick Hits

I’m going to jam through some minor news. Links are included to other sources if any particular topic interests you.

The Oakland Raiders broke ground on their Las Vegas football stadium. You can see pictures here. Just a reminder that Resorts World Las Vegas broke ground on May 5, 2015, and still hasn’t started construction. You can read more here.

Mandalay Bay will begin checking keys before letting anyone into elevators that go to hotel rooms. Read more here.

Alize at Palms will be closing after New Year’s Eve. Many people love this restaurant and you’ll have about a month for one last visit. This isn’t a surprise. You might remember that Station Casinos is doing a massive upgrade to Palms. Read more here.

Boyd Gaming will enter your room every 48 hours even if you have a Do Not Disturb sign up. Read more here.

Las Vegas Sands finally filed plans with Clark County for the entertainment venue they’ve been planning for over a year behind The Venetian and The Palazzo. I’ll have more to say about when construction begins. You can read more here.

One of my favorite coffee shops in Las Vegas, Sambalatte, will be opening a second downtown location at the Smith Center. You can read more here.

Rio has free parking! Read more information about Legionnaires Disease here.

The barstools in the renderings for the new Italian restaurant at The Mirage look uncomfortable. Check them out here.

Last but not least, Billboard has some stats about Britney Spears’ ” Britney: Piece of Me ”  show at Planet Hollywood. You can read more about random Brit biz here.

 

REGISTER TODAY! ZorkFest – December 2017 in Atlantic City
ALL DISCOUNTS STILL VALID! ROOM RATE DISCOUNT EXTENDED TO NOVEMBER 24TH!

So Much Buzz!

Read more about the vision behind this passion project. Also, special thanks to 360Vegas (zork360) (Listen episode 245 – 28 minute mark), Faces and Aces Las Vegas (Listen HERE) (and please consider using Hard-8 promo-code vegasstrong ), Cousin Vito (zorkvito) (Listen episode 57), You Can Bet on That (Listen #139: The Summit 2017) for mentions on their podcasts. Be sure to also check out the kind words by Pizza in Motion about ZorkFest, and recent mentions by Miles to Memories (zorkmtm) and The Gate.(zorkgate)

Please be sure to check out two of the newest Vegas podcasts: Vegas Confessions Podcast and Vegas Bun Boy Show.

We expect there to be lots of good surprises at ZorkFest, including the latest news that Marc Meltzer will be a special guest at ZorkFest. Register Today!

Be sure to sign up with a Hard-8 promo code to save! Visit our supporters, share you thoughts, suggestions and best travel and casino tips!

Be sure to see Seth’s most recent article for more insight on some of the great learning sessions planned.

Among the sessions on the agenda:

• Crossover of Hotel & Casino Loyalty – Hotels want in on the casino world in a big way and the blend of loyalty programs delivers on that desire
• Sweet Spot Award Redemptions – Knowing which points to use when and where matters a ton when maximizing value
• Behind the Scenes of Casino Marketing – When you know how the system is built it is way easier to optimize and maximize behavior
• Booking Tools & Search Engines – A well-prepared consumer has a lot of resources in their toolbox; these are some of the best for award and revenue alike
• Loving the LCCs (Low Cost Carriers) – There is absolutely a place for the “low-end” products and the net result can be pretty spectacular
• Social Media FTW – When life hands you lemons, tweet up a storm; how to do it right to get things fixed

Want direct access to casino news, casino reviews, narratives, loyalty programs and video poker?
Visit our casino/Vegas section directly at CasinoZork.

Please join the thousands of people who read TravelZork every month! Sign up here for one email per week updates.
(Email is sent weekly on Monday afternoon Eastern Time, and includes our popular weekly Vegas news series) All verified subscribers are entered into a MONTHLY contest to win a $50 eGift card.
As long as you remain subscribed, contest is ongoing and you have a chance to win every month.