July 6, 1996: A Tour of Hoover Dam
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On the morning of our last day here in Las Vegas, five of us decided to go out for a late morning walk to visit some of the hotel properties that we hadn't had occasion to see yet. We did all have breakfast together, but Lowery and Ron decided to relax at the hotel and do their packing at leisure.

Before we go off to look at the Luxor Hotel, I want to tell you a bit about the intersection just west of our hotel- the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard (north-south) and Tropicana Boulevard (east-west). In the 1960s and 1970s, the Strip did not extend this far south; all of the big-name hotels were just south of downtown. But in the 1980s, as hotels became larger and larger, there was not sufficient space for them, and so casino owners had to move further south where they could by larger tracts for their mega-hotels. One by one the huge hotels marched south, but they leapfrogged to this intersection because of its ease of access. Now this corner is unique in Las Vegas- there is a mega-hotel on each corner.

The northwest corner is New York, New York (under construction), the northeast corner is the MGM Grand (opened 1992), the southeast corner is the new Tropicana (the first hotel on this corner, it opened in 1957) and the southwest corner is the Excalibur (opened 1990). These four hotels brought so much foot traffic with them (between them, these for hotels have close to 25,000 hotel rooms), that the crowds crossing the for corners on traffic light changes were causing mammoth delays. It was also hard for folks to go from one hotel to another (three of them are owned by the same corporation). So the hotels chipped in to build pedestrian bridges connecting all four corners.

From these elevated platforms, guests can enter the four hotels on the corners (although they can, of course, do this at street level, too). Escalators at each corner allow access to the street. It is a fabulous corner with the four huge different-themed hotels, the many permanent shows, buffets and restaurants, gaming floors and other attractions contained within them.

So five of us headed south on Las Vegas Boulevard towards the Luxor. In the picture at left, Chris, myself, Ron Mathis and Mike Racke are just north of the Luxor, and the view looks back north where you can see the new hotel "New York, New York" in the background. (The buildings that you see are merely facades, hiding the actual hotel that is inside them.) It promises to be a spectacular attraction, but we’ll have to leave it for another trip. You can also see one of the pedestrian bridges that connect the four corners of the intersection of Tropicana and The Strip.

We walked another block south to get close to the relatively new Luxor Hotel. Luxor Las Vegas is a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip, actually located in Paradise, Nevada (Nevada is one of those states where a city can't simply annex an adjoining city). The 30-story hotel, owned and operated by MGM Resorts International, has a 120,000-square-foot casino.

At the time we visited, the Luxor was owned by the same enterprise that owned Circus Circus, another hotel/casino that we'd visited on this trip. Ground was broken for the Luxor in April 1991 and the resort officially opened eighteen months later. One might think that the grand opening of such a complex might occur at a time when all the dignitaries and others that want to be at such events would be out and about. And perhaps it was; the complex opened at 4 AM on October 15, 1993, to a crowd of 10,000 people. (And they say that New York is the "city that never sleeps"!)

When it opened, the pyramid, which cost $375 million to build, was the tallest building on the strip and contained 2,526 rooms and a 100,000 sq. ft. casino. The resort was financed by “petty cash” earned from other Circus Circus Enterprises properties and did not include any outside financial investors. The hotel's pyramid is similar in size to the Red Pyramid and Bent Pyramid of Egypt.

As is obvious, the Luxor is built in the shape of a gigantic pyramid, with an artificial Sphinx out front, and enough tall palms to give a decidedly Egyptian flavor to the grounds. Fred and I had already been in this Hotel on an earlier trip through the Southwest. The hotel actually looks much larger than it is, because the lens for the laser light that is in the apex of the pyramid gives the impression of a snow-covered mountaintop.

The picture at left is a good view of the area in front of the Hotel. I think they did a really good job on all the artificial statues and carvings and paintings. One certainly gets the impression of being in Egypt somewhere. The Sphinx is actually the porte d’cochere for the hotel. If you look carefully under the rear of the Sphinx, you can see the “hole” through which the cars arrive at the hotel. The actual driveway is hidden behind the carvings, statues and plantings.

The walkway at the right leads around to the area where the cars are, or you can go up some stairs that are inside the front part of the Sphinx. Fred liked the small statues a lot; I think he’d like to have two buffalo of the same size flanking his own driveway.

The very top of the pyramid houses the Luxor Sky Beam. At 42.3 billion candela, it is the strongest beam of light in the world. Using computer designed, curved mirrors collect the light from 39 xenon lamps and focus all of it into one intense, narrow beam; on a clear night, the Sky Beam is visible up to 275 miles away by aircraft at cruising altitude, such as over Los Angeles. Each of the 39 lamps is 7,000 watts and costs about $1,200. When at full power, the system costs $51 an hour to operate, with $20 per hour of that just for its 315,000 watts of electricity. The beam has operated reliably since first enabled on October 15, 1993, and is an FAA designated navigational landmark for aviators. Incidentally, the laser light at the top of the Sphinx is supposedly one of only two man-made structures/features that can be seen from space (the other being the Great Wall of China).

Mike, Chris, Ron, Fred and I spent some time inside the Luxor, and a couple of the guys took the virtual reality ride that they have in the lobby. Then we all walked back to the hotel to have breakfast with Ron and Lowery, and then Fred and I lit out on our own.

New York, New York Hotel and Casino

(Picture at left) The day was getting really warm, but there were a couple of other hotels we wanted to see. From an elevated platform at the front of our hotel, Fred got a nice picture of me with “New York, New York” under construction in the background. is going to have a roller coaster along the outside of the building, which I understand will go “through” the buildings as well. I look forward to returning to Las Vegas to ride it sometime. The buildings, of course, are designed and decorated to look much taller than they actually are.       (Picture at right) We have walked down to the overpasses at the corner of the Strip and Tropicana Boulevard in Las Vegas. We are at the Southwest corner, and you can see the MGM Grand behind him on the Northeast corner.

MGM Grand Hotel and Casino

The other new hotel that we wanted to see was the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino- another megaresort hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip, a block north of New York, New York. The hotel, with a height of 360 ft., has 32 floors, and another 100,000 sq.ft. casino floor (about average for the Strip). The 3,000-room hotel is also owned and operated by MGM Resorts International and was named and designed to evoke the Place du Casino in Monte Carlo, and so features chandelier domes, marble floors, neoclassical arches, ornate fountains, and gas-lit promenades.

Ground was broken for the Monte Carlo just last year; it was originally to be known as the "Grand Victoria". The palatial style was a reminiscent of the Belle Epoque, which is how the French refer to the architecture of the Victorian era in England. After much criticism by MGM Grand officials (this is yet another property that is owned by MGM Resorts International), it was first shortened to "Victoria" and then changed entirely to "Monte Carlo".

Monte Carlo was built as a joint venture between Mirage Resorts and Circus Circus Enterprises, and cost $344 million to build- pm the 44-acre site of the original Dunes Hotel until its demolition in October 1993. (Circus Circus Enterprises was acquired by MGM Resorts Internation, now by far the largest hotel/casino operator in Las Vegas.) The Monte Carlo opened to the public only three weeks ago, at a huge event and fireworks show at 12:01 a.m. on June 21.

The fact that the Monte Carlo was so new was one of the reasons why we wanted to see it today. Incidentally, in the pictures you will see of the hotel, it will appear as if there are very few people out and about this morning. While it is true that this time of day is the low point for tourist traffic in Las Vegas, it is so hot here that 99% of tourists won't leave their air-conditioned hotels or casinos unless they have to. When we went inside the Monte Carlo, the gaming floor was a riot of activity.

We took a number of pictures outside the Monte Carlo. The first is this view of the outer area of the Monte Carlo. It was taken at the position marked "2" on the aerial view at right of the southeast entrance to the casino. The direction of the yellow arrow indicates the direction I was facing when I took the picture. We thought this was one of the nicer hotels, at least from the outside. It did not give an overly commercial appearance, nor was it themed on some topic that would lead to a surfeit of chintzy decorating. It was relatively plain and very classic. Very nicely done.

We took another picture at the yellow arrow marked "1" on the aerial view. The Monte Carlo has that decidedly French Mediterranean flavor, and is bright and sunny- just like its namesake. When I took this picture of Fred at the Monte Carlo, I wanted to get the MGM Grand in the background as seen through some of the ornamental construction in front of this hotel.

I might point out that the Monte Carlo was one of the first on the Strip to open an internal, ultra-luxury, boutique hotel; these are now usually located on the top floor of the property's tower building. The Monte Carlo's "Hotel32" opened in 2009, and offers 50 lofts ranging in size from 850 to 2,000 sq.ft., accessed by a set of private elevators. All the lofts offer personal butler and concierge services, and always the latest in high-tech touches. The price for this luxury? Currently (in 2015) one night in the largest suite will set you back a surprisingly reasonable $600.

The last picture I took here at the Monte Carlo I took at the arrow position marked "3" on the aerial view above. This is the southeast entry to the casino gaming floor (there is another, duplicate entrance at the northeast end of the building- which is actually in front of the hotel tower at the back of the property).

With the statuary, the neoclassical architecture, the coloring and the fountains and plaza, I thought that the Monte Carlo presented the best image of all the major, new hotels, perhaps because it was so comparatively understated, compared to the other “theme” properties. It was simple and elegant.

When we were done here at the Monte Carlo, Fred and I walked back to our hotel, going through the MGM Grand's gaming floor on the way.

The view at right looks towards the corner of Tropicana Boulevard and Las Vegas Boulevard as seen from Mike's room at the San Remo. Mike was staying on a day in Las Vegas, so we were able to use his room to store our stuff while we were out walking around.

When we got back from the Monte Carlo, we met up with Lowery, Chris and the two other "Rons" (Drew and Mathis) and the six of us got ready to head over to the airport for our flight home.

In this picture, you can the far end of our hotel tower at the extreme left. Then you can see the Excalibur Hotel (with the turrets), the tall Tropicana Hotel to its right, this side of Las Vegas Boulevard, the new “New York, New York” Hotel on the far corner, the tower building of the Monte Carlo to its right in the background, and finally, the gaming floor of the MGM Grand at the right.

With all that we did, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on this July 4th trip, and it would be nice to repeat it sometime. (If you are going sequentially through my album, you will discover that we did, indeed, make another trip here, but only one of the folks you've seen on this trip was with us on the subsequent one.)

(From 2015, I want to add a note to this page. While we did repeat this trip a decade and more hence, the cast of characters was much different. Lowery passed away in 2000, and we lost Mike a year after that. Ron Drew did come with us, but he was with his new partner Jay. Ron's Mathis' partner, Chris, passed away about ten years after this trip, and so Ron did not make the trip with us. We completed a group of six with two new friends, but you can read all about that trip on its own album page.)

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	July 6, 1996: A Tour of Hoover Dam
	Return to the Index for Our Las Vegas Trip