Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

Here's the latest Strip Walk, this time hitting Wynn Las Vegas, Trump Las Vegas, New Frontier, Palazzo, Treasure Island, New York New York, Excalibur, Luxor and more...

As always, the photos are here: http://www.ratevegas.com/photo/gallery/stripwalk

Commentary after the jump... Take it away Mike!

With a big UNLV game and the MTV VMAs happening all on Sunday, the Strip was a busy place when I visited. Construction wise, not much has been happening, with most the work happening behind CityCenter by the freeway. However, I avoided the whole Flamingo area on foot because egads, the number of people in town was pretty high. Guys in outfits screaming �indie rock band� loading guitars and amps into the backs of their vans and taking off were a common site at hotels like Mirage and Wynn.

Wynn: Not much to say here. Blush is up and running, and seemed a little undercrowded for noonish on MTV day. Not at all dead, just not as busy as you�d expect given the circumstances.

[HH: What is Blush like? I've only seen one tiny photo.]

Trump: Exterior work is going up on the parking garage levels above the southernmost entryway. More gold glass! More white trim!

Frontier: This place is waiting around to be torn down. Some work is taking place in the back, although from the Strip the only sign things aren�t quite right is that some hotel windows in the shorter tower have been removed.

Palazzo: The strip-facing side of the building has only one floor left to be filled in with glass. The sides and the back have about three or four. More of the facade is going up along the lower north wall, it�s fairly nice looking and I�ll get some pictures of it as soon as the whole area by the Sands Ave bridge isn�t covered in scaffolding and other distractions.

Treasure Island: Those turncoats at Treasure Island made themselves the party HQ for fans of UNLV�s opposition this week, with rallies and parties and stuff going on through the weekend. Glad I wasn�t there to see any of it, it could just as likely draw a hostile crowd as not with as seriously as some people take college sports in this town. Anyway, a construction wall has been set up next to the high limit room in the middle of the casino out towards the direction of the room elevators.

NY-NY: The walls around the upper level have been painted. The former empty space just next to the escalators will be a bar called Pour24. A peek inside the cracks of the walls shows that they�ve stripped the carpet away and not much else. Also, an enormous black wall has now covered the entire Cabaret Theatre where Rita Rudner used to do her act, stretching all the way up to the ceiling.

Excalibur: For the love of pete, somebody go to Dick�s and satisfy someone�s desire to make a buck with this joint as there�s even more signs pitching the place on the castle. Now there�s one on the entryway roof from the Las Vegas Blvd sidewalk. Hey guys, while you�re down there, how about a fresh coat of paint? Those red and blue roofs, while always gaudy, are downright bad when they�re fading out to the extent that they are.

Luxor: A lot of construction walls have moved further back. Half of the pool area is now named Restore and features cabanas and stuff, but signs on the doors and almost everywhere still say Oasis. They�ve finished walling up the upper-casino dining level and taken away the curtains allowing the table players some room to breathe again. Renovations near the temple-like thing around the buffet escalators are finished but the temple-like thing and the themed columns nearby are still around. The themed ceiling decorations over the casino appears to have it's days numbered.