Several sources are saying that the long time free parking at Miracle Mile shops will soon be charged. The garage behind the Miracle Mile Shops provided free parking for the shops as well as at Planet Hollywood and Elara. Word is the complex is in the midst of installing gates.
Also the Las Vegas Advisor is reporting that Elara timeshare owners are being told July 1st will see new parking fees kick off. Supposedly timeshare owners would pay $15 for overnight parking. No other word on other charges.
This follows the imposition of parking fees at Caesars (Caesars Palace, Harrahs, Ballys, Flamingo, Paris, etc) and MGM properties (MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, NYNY, Park MGM, Bellagio, Mirage), as well as places like Cosmopolitan. However to this point parking is still free at Venetian/Palazzo, Wynn/Encore and Treasure Island.
The Las Vegas Monorail is now running under new management. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitor’s Authority saved the troubled people mover out of near collapse. The fact that the monorail is a key transportation option to moving thousands of people quickly to their Convention Center.
Details for the Las Vegas Monorail service are announced at Mondays 7 a.m. to midnight, Tuesdays through Thursdays, 7-2 a.m., and Fridays through Sundays 7-3 a.m. Fees are $5 for a one-way ride, $13 for a one-day pass, $23 for a two-day pass, and $29 for a three-day pass.
A representative of the Las Vegas Monorail did verify for me that they will be continuing the old locals deal that was so great. If you can show a valid government ID showing you live in the Las Vegas area tickets for you are $1 per trip.
The evil parking charges in Las Vegas continue to return. In this case the Cosmopolitan joins MGM and Caesar Entertainment in grabbing money off those parking spaces. The good news is just like MGM and Caesars, there are lots of exceptions, so you may not actually have to pay anything.
The charges exclude hotel guests, players club members of a certain tier, locals for the first three hours, motorcycles and everyone for the first hour. Otherwise, to self-park, it’s $10 for up to four hours and $15 from four to 24 hours. Valet parking is free for hotel guests, $15 for up to four hours, and $20 for four to 24 hours for everyone else.
To my thinking the parking charges by the Cosmopolitan make lots of sense. Unlike the MGM and Caesars properties the Cosmo was never designed to be a casino/resort. It was actually supposed to be a condo complex before bankruptcy during the 2008 financial crisis lead to a rethink. It makes Cosmo a beautiful and unique property, from her great balconies to funky public features. However its parking garage was designed for a condo complex, not a popular resort with restaurants, casino, shows and clubs. In short, parking at the Cosmo is always a negative. Charging for non-guests will help protect the parking spaces for guests and players club members.
A book I co-wrote about Las Vegas in 2008 is selling on Amazon for over $900 a copy – USED! I feel a bit cheated. But it was a great time and a wonderful story.
Back in 2007 I was doing a lot of travel writing. One of my best customers was Foulsham Press, an old time British travel publisher which was branching out into online ventures. I was contracted to write general travel features about cities like Barcelona and Milan. After I completed several of these projects the editor was so impressed he referred me to the paper publishing branch. They needed someone to write a travel guide to Las Vegas.
Yes!
This was actually part of a series of books – A Brit’s Guide to Los Angeles, A Brit’s Guide to Bermuda, and of course, A Brit’s Guide to Las Vegas. The writer who had been doing the series, Karen Marchbank, had been updating her books every two years. it was time for the next update but she had grown tired of the project and wanted to concentrate on other projects. Enter center stage me.
I got a 10-day expense covered sojourn in Vegas, staying free at a number of resorts while getting some cool behind-the-scenes tours of places like the Venetian, Planet Hollywood and the El Cortez. Even better I and my assistant (who just happened to be my wife Lisa) enjoyed a continuous stream of free shows and dazzling dinners. Our favorite time was an intensive “Chef’s Choice” 12- course dinner at the old Social House, overlooking Pirate’s Cove and watching the Siren’s show from the balcony in front of Treasure Island. Sushi and Saki, oh my.
I worked hard rewriting about 70% of the previous edition. For my troubles I received a flat fee – no royalties or anything. Just a magnificent time in Vegas and surroundings tied to a lot of fantastic memories. The fact it gave me a decent writing credit helped out too.
This morning I was checking some of my writing credit details for an updated C.V. and ran across my old book – selling for a dazzling $994.83.
That was the only update I did for the series. By that time Lisa and I had moved to Ecuador so my projects changed to South America. But it was nice to have such wonderful, pre-CoVid Vegas.
The Las Vegas Monorail has announced it will resume service at 7 a.m. on Thursday May 27.
Yes, its true. After being closed for 14-plus months due to CoVid-19, and being taken over by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor’s Authority, there is life. It is kicking off a bit early as it gets ready to service the 10,000 or so people expected to attend the World of Concrete trade show at the Las Vegas Convention Center starting on June 8.
Reports are the Monorail will operate on its pre-COVID (and pre-sale to the LVCVA) schedule: Monday 7 a.m. to midnight, Tuesday to Thursday 7 a.m. to 2 a.m., and Friday to Sunday, 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. The same prices will also be charged: single ride $5, day pass $13, multi-day passes $23-$56. Masks will be required.
One question is for locals. Pre-CoVid locals could buy tickets at $1 each by showing local ID., but no word if the same plan will be available.
MGM has announced that they will be bringing back charging for self-parking. The fees will be reintroduced in phases, starting with events this month, then expanding to all casinos by June 1. Valet parking will start up again on May 25. Valet and event parking will be cashless.
According to MGM, the first hour of self-parking is free for everyone; three hours of self-parking will be free for locals; self-parking will also be free for active and veteran military, Pearl or higher status for M life members, and holders of the M life Mastercard.
Caesars reinstituted paid parking last October, though locals, hotel guests, and Caesars Rewards Platinum and above members park for free.
When two tour guides behave badly over the Hand of Faith Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, it ruins the moment for everyone.
My background – I am a US Army Veteran, retired history teacher and semi-retired tour guide. That is semi-retired as in “I don’t work for any company but I do lead some private tours and help some tour companies when they need an extra guide.” The fact is, if there is a tour in the greater Southwestern USA, I have probably done it at some point.
How about Las Vegas? San Francisco? Hoover Dam? Red Rock Canyon? Monument Valley? Valley of Fire? Bryce Canyon? Tombstone?
Check, check, check, check, check and more.
But as a proper tour guide I also love to travel, and hike, and otherwise enjoy the wonders, both natural and man-made, of this beautiful planet.
Erupting volcanoes? Andes mountain villages? South Korean mountain-top temples? San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Chinese New Year? Eighteen-course sushi/saki meals at a Michelin starred restaurant?
Check, check, check and more.
It is a wonder, and a curse. A wonder because as a tour guide I do get to see so much. A wonder that my experience in the travel industry lets me find great places for travel and vacation that are often off the typical tourist path.
The curse is I can be too clinical in my travels. The tour guide is new and doesn’t know her stuff as she should. The hotel isn’t as clean or as well maintained as it could be. The restaurant server is too worried about himself and not the guests at the table and service sucks.
Yet while I can be incredibly critical I can also be quite forgiving. I KNOW how it is to be leading a tour with a person with a bad attitude because he doesn’t want to be there. I KNOW what it is like when luggage gets lost or that trail ride is cancelled because of a washout. Yeah – the travel industry can be tough.
I also take tours around my home base of Las Vegas, just to see what other people do, including tours of my “competitors.” Some may call this spying but I’m really not, just seeing what others do, learning, picking up greater insight and trying to become a better tour guide. I was taking a Las Vegas walking tour that includes a walk-through of the Golden Nugget with a stop at the display of the Hand of Faith Golden Nugget – billed as the largest golden nugget found by metal detector and the largest on permanent display in the world.
My guide is just dressed in non-uniform casual. He gives a short talk about the nugget, allows those in our group a chance to take some photos. While this is going on a larger tour group fills in behind us. As our group moves away the second tour guide – an older guy wearing a cliche bush hat and uniformed shirt and shorts proclaims loudly, “Now let a REAL tour guide tell you the REAL story about the Golden Nugget!”
My tour guide grimaced and quickly moved away. The second tour guide began to rattle off his canned schtick. I held back to listen to it. Fact is he was no more correct about the Hand of Faith Golden Nugget than the first tour guide.
Understand that I am a history guy, and the Hand of Faith is something that I have done a close study on. It is a fun story. Maybe if there is enough interest I might right a blog post on it. And before you click to Wikipedia’s listing for the Hand of Faith, be warned it is shot full of inaccuracies. Be careful where you do your own research.
Here is the thing about going on tours. There are stories where ever you go. In fact every place you will ever go has a depth of history and geography and social importance that can never be properly summed up with a 2 minute story. But as tour guides that is what we have to do. Effective tour guides pick and choose the types of stories and details that will appeal to the group. Hopefully I have enough story telling skills to make it entertaining for the members of my group.
Tours can be exactly the same. For example the site tour guides at Hoover Dam have a specific script they follow. Few deviate from the script more than a word or two. It is canned because they are moving hundreds, even thousands of tourists through every hour. But then I don’t go to tours like that for the tour guide, I go on them to see and get a picture of the massive generators and to feel the dam around me as I walk through the bare rock tunnels.
Life can be tough and there rarely is easy opportunities for easy travel. Adult responsibilities get in the way. The kids are in school. I can’t get away from work. My spouse is finishing that big project and I need to help. No it is not easy.
Even if you have a job that makes you travel, travel all the time, easy travel simply for enjoyment is a problem. You travel to business meetings and conventions and training to in wonderful locations but you never get a chance to just experience the wonders of where you have gone. Business travel for most is a soul-sapping airport-plane-hotel room-meetings-hotel rooms- plane – airport merry-go-round.
I’ve been there, travelling for business, for training. But now I am 59 years old and with me into the last half of my life I want to travel. But not with stress. I want my travel to be easy and fun and relaxing. Give me time to uncover the real people and the real culture.
The Vagabond Horizon 