Peppermill Sign Going To The Neon Museum
The Peppermill is removing their neon signage from the sign/marquee on the Vegas Strip. The rooftop sign will remain intact. It’s nice to see the restaurant preserving the signs before it closes. You’ll be able to see some of the neon from the most iconic restaurant in Nevada when it shares space with icons of Las Vegas past. The Peppermill is removing the sign on the Vegas Strip (above) and donating it to the Neon Museum. You can read their full statement on Facebook.
$20 Concert and Show Tickets
Live Nation has announced that “National Concert Week” will take place April 30 (tomorrow) through May 8. The promotion offers $20 all-in ticket offer for numerous big name shows. While this is a nationwide promotion, Las Vegas is a special market because it includes national tours AND residencies.
The list of Las Vegas shows includes concerts as far away as October – but the tickets must be purchased by May 8th. Ticket availability won’t be the same for every show, so you might want to move quickly if something looks like a deal. You can find more information here.
May 19 – Juanes (Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort)
May 23, 26, 27 & 30; June 2 & 3 – Ricky Martin “ALL IN” (Park Theater at Monte Carlo)
May 26 – Todd Rundgren’s Utopia (The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas)
June 9 – Kesha and Macklemore (Mandalay Bay Events Center)
July 3 – Primus / Mastodon (Downtown Las Vegas Events Center)
July 6 – Kevin Hart (MGM Grand Garden Arena)
July 25 – Adam Ant (Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort)
July 25, 27 & 28; Aug. 1, 3, 4, 8, 10 & 11; Oct. 24, 26, 27 & 31; Nov. 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 14, 16 & 17 – “Backstreet Boys: Larger Than Life” (Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino)
Aug. 4 – Chris Brown (T-Mobile Arena)
Aug. 10 – Alice Cooper (Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort)
Aug. 15, 17, 18, 21, 24, 25 & 28; Oct. 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13, 17, 19 & 20 – “Lionel Richie – All the Hits” (Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino)
Aug. 17 – Avenged Sevenfold (T-Mobile Arena)
Aug. 25 – Rob Zombie / Marilyn Manson (MGM Grand Garden Arena)
Sept. 2 – Smashing Pumpkins (T-Mobile Arena)
Sept. 28 – Fall Out Boy (MGM Grand Garden Arena)
Sept. 29 – Culture Club / B52s (Downtown Las Vegas Events Center)
Oct. 13 – Ozzy Osbourne (MGM Grand Garden Arena)
MGM Resorts Earnings Redux
I visited The Park yesterday and saw that the Monte Carlo sign above the porte-cochère entrance now reads Park MGM. There is still a lot of construction going on at this entrance and the entrance to the Vegas Strip. It’s amazing to think that millionaire executives didn’t think that impeding both entrances would slow traffic and anger guests.
Anyway…MGM Resorts reported earnings this week and it wasn’t pretty. I’m not going to rehash the report but there’s a lot of useful information about Monte Carlo, Park MGM, Mandalay Bay, Luxor and more.
Somewhat related to earnings is that MGM Resorts has sold Mandarin Oriental. The buyer hasn’t been announced yet so expect to see fun rumors floating around. You can read the press release here.
Wynn Resorts Earnings
Wynn Resorts reported earnings this week and it was monumental. This was the company’s first earnings call without Steve Wynn. The new CEO, Matt Maddox, started the call by saying it’s been difficult to “reduce the noise” caused by Mr. Wynn and they’re focused on moving forward. Here are a few high and low lights from the earnings call.
Wynn Paradise Park Is Alive But Not Bananas
I have good news and bad news to report from this earnings call regarding Paradise Park. The good news is that construction will continue moving forward on the lagoon and convention center. The bad news is that Paradise Park will no longer be bananas. The lagoon, restaurants, and amenities will be built and available to guests.
The mass-appeal theme park ideas are no longer part of the plans as they focus on their existing high-end customers.
Hotel Rooms At Wynn and Encore Averaged $340 Per Night
The ADR (Average daily room rate) per night for the first quarter was $340 per night. That’s a 7.6% increase from $316 for the first quarter of 2017. It seems like focusing on the high-end customer might be the smart thing to do for this casino property. You can see more financials in their earnings report press release here.
Hotel Expansions On Hold
Maddox said that they’re re-evaluating all budgets. Wynn West and the hotel once planned for Paradise Park are both on hold. At least one of those hotels will not be built and there’s a possibility both hotels won’t be built. The $3 billion budget Steve Wynn had for Paradise Park alone just isn’t a reality for the current regime.
The hold on hotel construction for Wynn makes a little more sense after an analyst asked Maddox how he saw construction in the area (The Drew and Resorts World). I’ll paraphrase his answer as “I really can’t say but they don’t look ramped up to 100% when I drive by on my into work but I can’t say for sure.” He made a passing comment that one of the projects (Resorts World) has cranes up but thought better of continuing his thoughts. I chuckled.
Occupancy decreased to 83.9% for the first quarter of 2018. It was 85.5% for the same period of 2017. It probably makes sense to keep their hotel expansion on hold until there’s more to attract new customers to the area.
Wynn Resorts And Wynn Everett Not Sold
During the earnings call, Maddox said that they still like the greater Boston area. He said that Wynn Boston Harbor has not been sold but didn’t close the door on the idea. This project is just one part of a larger company and they’ll do anything to protect shareholders of Wynn Resorts. The would sell the one piece of the company if that meant saving the rest.
After the earnings call, Wynn Resorts proposed to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission that they would change the name of the casino-resort to Encore Boston Harbor. Bottom line here is that Wynn would like to keep the Boston Harbor property but is willing to sell it if they have to. Expect to hear more about this soon.
El Cortez Brings In Continuous Shuffle Machines
I saw a tweet during the week asking if there were big changes coming to the excellent blackjack games at the El Cortez. I looked into it and was told there are changes. However, the new blackjack changes aren’t drastic.
El Cortez has converted 2 of its 16 blackjack tables to 6-deck games with continuous shuffle machines (CSM). The other 14 blackjack games are still single and double deck. For all of their games blackjack still pays 3/2. The CSM games should be a $5 minimum bet.
A rep for El Cortez told me that they have no plans to eliminate single or double deck blackjack and have no plans to add additional 6-deck games. I hate playing with a CSM and will continue to play the single or double deck games. That’s why I play blackjack at the El Cortez.
Quick Hits
Everything that happens in Las Vegas is interesting to somebody. Here are some bits of news that might be useful or interesting to you.
- The eSports Arena at Luxor got off to a banging start with a huge Fortnite event. One thing this venue could do is attract younger guests to Las Vegas. The other is that this could provide a new advertising platform. A record-breaking number of people watched this event on Twitch. Many of those viewers wouldn’t see an ad in any traditional media so this could be the only way they hear about Luxor and MGM Resorts. Read more about the event here.
- The D is hosting a watch party for the Vegas Golden Knights at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center on Monday. This could be a fun place to watch the game if you like being with a lot of people. Read more here.
- Barry Manilow is back! He signed a deal with the Westgate. Read more here.
- Another week, another Caesars Entertainment hotel. This time they’re opening a non-gaming property in Mexico. Read the press release here.
- Life Is Beautiful announced the lineup for this year’s festival in September. You can see it here.
- Apex Social Club And Camden Cocktail Lounge at Palms are opening on Memorial Day weekend. Read more here.
- Vegas on TV! Vegas Restaurant Rehab is coming to the Food Channel. Expect to find new places to eat off the Vegas Strip. Read more here.
Podcasters After Dark – May 26th 10PM
Seats assigned by purchase date, ORDER EARLY for the best seats! 🎙Podcasters After Dark!🎙 Saturday, May 26th in 🎰VEGAS🎰 at Treasure Island Hotel & Casino. (Book your hotel room at TI before May 4th!) Sponsored by The Bettor Life Podcast by Timothy Lawson. The evening features podcasters from Vital Vegas, You Can Bet on That and Travel Fanboy with your host Mr. Rosenthal and a special intro by our good friends at Vegas Confessions Podcast. Plus Moe (DJ) Cosagio (Vegas Untz) DJ’ing for the night!
ZorkFest – Memorial Day Weekend
Featuring Anthony Curtis of Las Vegas Advisor talking about “The LVA Way.” Also, Gilbert Ott of God Save the Points, Richard Kerr of Award Travel 101 and much much more. You do not want to miss this! Be sure to check out the BIOs of all the great ZorkFest speakers and our detailed schedule page. Travel Smarter!
[Great Opportunity] May 27th – Award Travel 101 Bootcamp
Sunday, May 27th – 10am
Award Travel 101 Bootcamp — 3 hour intensive boot camp taught by Richard Kerr and Howie for anyone who wants to learn the basics of award travel and set themselves up for their first award trip. Our teaching will start with all attendees selecting a travel goal to attain with points and miles and working them from the ground up to achieve that goal. Throughout the course we give practical examples/applications of the methods using attendees goals.
Three modules:
• The FICO score and the right ways to obtain/utilize credit cards while protecting credit score
• Transferable versus fixed redemption currencies and how to use them
• Hotel and Airline Loyalty Program basics
$99 per attendee. Each attendee gets 1 year of AwardWallet Plus ($30 value).
SIGN UP TODAY!
Need a Room? Memorial Day Weekend
May 24th to May 28th 2018
The special TravelZork ZorkFest Treasure Island booking link is open to ALL TravelZork readers.
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