FHBM #932: Speaking of Disasters

Today is Sunday, September 1st, 2024, and this...

You going to Vegas?

If you're going to Vegas, man, I would be up for it, because I love that town.

I'm a party guy, I love that town.

...is 500 by Midnight, the original Las Vegas podcast, show number 932.

Let's see you guys get up!

I'm just thinking of all the amazing times that we've had here in Las Vegas.

I hope that you're having an enjoyable stay here in Las Vegas, and also hope that you have been fortunate.

I do wish that for you.

We're going to give Daddy the Rain Man suite, do you dig that? We're going to Vegas, Mike.

Vegas!

You think we'll get there by Midnight?

Honey, we're going to be up 500 by Midnight!

Vegas!

Vegas, baby! Vegas!

Vegas!

Hello, everybody, this is Tim.

And this is Michelle.

Welcome to 500 by Midnight. How are you this morning?

I'm good, how are you?

Fantastic, thanks for asking. Nice holiday weekend, beautiful weather.

Yep.

Vegas in my heart. What more could you ask for?

We got a lot of stuff to talk about today. It's going to be an action-packed show. Are you ready?

Hello to the Michelle.

Ah, shit, too early for the phone calls.

Way to go.

We're going to have some phone calls later, that was a sneak preview.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, before we get to the phone calls, we have some news to talk about, and I'd like to remind everyone,

this podcast is listener-supported by our patrons. They're fantastic. They're awesome.

Thank you for supporting us, despite our lack of professionalism.

We appreciate that. I think that's part of our charm.

Is it?

I think so.

Okay.

Yeah, I'd like to name a few of them now.

All right.

These are people who have recently commented on some of the various things that I've posted on Patreon.

Oh.

So they are what you'd call engaged.

Yeah, engaged patrons.

Sounds like I just took a class or something. I did not.

You want to engage with your listeners as a content provider.

Uh-huh.

Are you an influencer?

No, I'm a content, I don't know what I am.

Just a dickhead in the Midwest doing a podcast, that's all.

Just like everybody else, except for I've been doing it longer.

All right, let's recognize a few of our engaged patrons.

John B., Mara Fitter.

Kevin Nagel and Chris Froge.

I probably got it wrong again, didn't I?

Oh, and he loves it when you do.

I know.

I thought I had it, like I had it dialed in and then as I'm saying it, I'm like, I think I'm getting it wrong.

I think I'm getting it wrong.

That's the voice in my head.

D.H., John and Margaret Santa Rosa, Jeff Coyle, and Brain Bats.

Thank you to these and all of our patrons.

Whether you are an active participant or a silent lurker, we appreciate your support.

You can visit patreon.com slash fivehundy for all the details.

We throw some bonus content your way as our way of saying,

thank you, and we really appreciate all of our supporters.

I'm usually a silent lurker online.

I don't engage a lot.

I came, you don't even have access to the Patreon stuff.

I know.

If I could, I don't know that there's a-

That's okay.

Yeah.

You could just show me highlights occasionally if you want.

Okay, okay.

I named the newsletter.

Yes.

Yeah, it's called Double Down now.

Oh, cool.

Yeah, sent out the second one yesterday.

Nice.

Yeah, that's available to anybody.

You don't even have to be a patron.

You could just be a silent subscriber.

What if I were a silent lurker on the show?

That would be awkward.

Mm-hmm.

That's a very key component of this podcast, and I appreciate your active engagement.

Okay.

All right, let's jump into a bunch of Vegas-y news this week, starting with some information

everybody's been waiting for.

When is the shell of the Tropicana Hotel going to be imploded?

Because everybody loves a good implosion.

I like a good implosion.

Mm-hmm.

It's fun to watch stuff.

In your pants?

No.

How would that even work?

I don't know.

Bally's having a good time.

Bally's has announced details about the implosion.

It is going to be.

Better than an explosion, I guess.

Explosion, yeah, I've experienced that.

That's no fun.

October 9th, 2.30 a.m.

You're going to want to stay up late if you're in Las Vegas.

I know that some of our listeners on the Facebook group have said that they're going to be there

or they've booked flights just to be there for this because they want to see it come

tumbling down.

There's going to be fireworks.

There are going to be drones, some sort of drone show.

It's going to be.

It's going to be a big fun time.

So I look forward to seeing the video of that.

Yes.

Hooray for implosions.

And then the land will sit empty for a long time once they get rid of all the rubble.

So that's what's happening with TROP if you've been waiting for those details.

Speaking of disasters, that's not a disaster.

I don't even know why.

As of what today is the first, as of Tuesday, we are entering Formula One disruption season.

Ugh.

I know.

It seems like we just wrapped up the last one.

So preparation for this year's Las Vegas Grand Prix is going to be happening.

Now, I will say.

It's better than last year because last year they had to do a bunch of paving and they

like spent the whole summer fucking shit up.

That's true.

So they're, I'm really interested to see because they've been really stressing this is not

going to be as bad.

However.

I have doubts.

The calendar is up.

They put, they're doing a better job of communicating.

What's going on because they have a 17 week calendar.

Yes.

You heard me right.

17 weeks, uh, one third of the year to prepare for a, to prepare and remove things for a

single weekend event still seems a lot to me.

Um, but they do have a calendar online and I'll post a link.

It's a like, couldn't they just come up with a fucking normal URL instead?

It's like got several dashes and dots and it would be impossible for me to just say

LVGP hyphen transportation hyphen info.

It's not.

No, I'll put it.

I'll put a, uh, link in the show notes, 500 by midnight.com.

So you can see week by week where they will be working.

If you are in the Las Vegas area, you can take a look at that and figure out whether

or not it's going to be disruptive.

They're saying most of the work's going to occur overnight.

We'll see.

Like I said, one third of the year, 17 weeks from the beginning of putting stuff up to

tearing it down at the end of the year.

Um, yeah, we'll see.

Maybe it won't be as invasive.

As I imagine it will be time will tell it'll either be, so I'm hoping it goes one of two

ways, minor inconvenience, not that big of a deal this year.

Yep.

That would be fantastic or complete cluster fuck.

Like last year that raises enough, um, pissed off citizens and visitors and whatnot.

And businesses.

Yeah.

That the County finally says, fuck this.

We're we're done, but I don't think that's going to happen.

We shall see.

All right.

Speaking of, speaking of disasters, that's going to be my segue for every single thing.

Speaking of disasters, uh, what I've, I've mentioned that the formula one race seems

to be kind of the baby of the Las Vegas convention and visitors bureau head, Steve Hill, who

I've decided he's going to take all my scorn, whether he's responsible or not.

Another of his pet projects is the Tesla tunnel.

The right now it operates the convention center in Los Angeles.

Okay.

And over to resorts world, uh, that has fallen so far behind what they had, uh, initially

said was going to happen as far as the timeline.

And every so often there'll be like, Hey, we've completed, we've completed tunneling

to Westgate and then like, it still hasn't opened that it was months ago and they'd

still don't have a station there.

So, um, this is typical of any Elon magic, Elon Musk project over-promise under deliver

kind of his thing.

Um, so in case you're not familiar with this boring company, cleverly named, uh, Elon Musk

company, they've, they've been given approval to drill all these tunnels underneath Las

Vegas and Clark County and the surrounding area for, uh, what's supposed to be a big,

you know, it's going to be a big transportation system.

It's really just like putting taxis, but they're not taxis.

They're Teslas, but same concept underground.

It's going to have a minimal impact on traffic.

It's.

It's going to have a minimal impact on traffic.

Anyway, in an interview with the Review Journal, Steve Hill from the Las Vegas Convention and

Visitors Bureau is still touting that there will be, um, self-driving cars.

That was one of the early promises that has not happened.

Are we being invaded?

There's like helicopters above our house.

Fun.

Um, no timeline on that.

I repeat no timeline on that.

And the reason I repeat that is to emphasize because you're about to hear more, uh, other

updates from Steve Hill at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Uh, you're about to hear more updates from Steve Hill at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors

Authority regarding the tunnel Westgate, the Westgate station.

I just mentioned, uh, he said it should be open shortly.

No timeline, the Encore tunnel and station.

He thinks it'll be open over the next, over the next number of months.

I'm not quite sure, but quote, probably relatively soon.

Are there enough qualifiers there?

Probably relatively soon.

And also can we not use number of months, number of days, number of anything?

It means a lot.

It means nothing.

It doesn't mean a lot.

It means a number.

It's anything.

You fucking idiots.

I hate, I hate when people use a number of.

Okay.

Like be more specific, you dicks.

This is me in editor mode.

This is me when I'm editing for my clients.

I know it's horrible.

I don't call them dicks because I love them all because they pay me.

But, um.

And they give you work.

Yeah.

Especially if it's written by an attorney.

And it's like a number of.

Anyway.

Um, and then as far as the whole system is concerned.

No, to self-save.

Number of a next podcast.

He's still, he's still, uh, okay.

For the full build out of the system, which is at this point up to a planned 93 stations

around the Las Vegas area.

No timeline again.

At least he's backing off because they're already so far behind that, you know, he's

like, oh, we'll just see what happens and we don't want to make any promises.

No timeline for the full build out.

But yeah, eventually.

Here's what they said.

Here's what one of the boring company executives said in.

2022, as far as how quickly this was supposed to be built.

Five to 10 stations will come online within the first six months of construction.

Uh-huh.

Not anywhere near that.

We've got what are the two or three at the convention center and one at resorts world.

And it's been under construction for a couple of years, uh, with 15 to 20 more

stations slated to be added each year.

Yeah.

Okay.

This, this thing is going to be, you know, 2065.

It'll be completed.

And by then nobody will care.

It's not really disrupting anything, which is good.

No, it's just annoying because it's such a big fucking scam.

Yes, it is.

Yeah.

Annoying.

All right.

Moving along.

Speaking of disasters, Fontainebleau.

Hey, it kind of works.

Um, one of the aspects that we haven't talked about at Fontainebleau is that they have pool

side gambling, which is a thing at a few properties.

Um.

They've had four blackjack tables there for a while, but now they are adding a craps table,

which is somewhat novel.

That's according to the review journal.

But the thing that was noteworthy about this that I thought I'd mention, um, not so much

that they're adding a craps table, but some specifics on when or how this is open to the

public.

That's always a big thing because, you know, people want to check out the pool maybe that

aren't staying there.

Yep.

Um, there's a myth surrounding that, that I'll address in a minute.

But, um, so here's the deal.

If you are not staying at Fontainebleau, but still want to gamble poolside, you can poolside

gaming is open to the public Fridays through Sundays from 11 AM to 6 PM, according to a

Fontainebleau official.

So whenever this topic comes up, someone will chime in and say, well, because they offer

gambling there, it has to be open to the public.

That is not true.

It is semi true, but there are exceptions to that.

Um, there are.

Um.

Things that have, there are places that don't have to, um, let everybody in.

Doesn't mean you can waltz in with your cargo shorts any goddamn time you want.

I think they would probably allow cargo shorts to the Fontainebleau pool.

Oh, I think so too, but I just.

But no, if there are like, there are private gambling places now and, um, you can, I'm

not going to go through the whole thing again.

Listen to podcast 834.

We go through a couple of Las Vegas myths and this is one of them.

Um, they don't have to let you in just because there's gambling.

That's almost a hundred shows ago.

How am I supposed to remember that?

I know.

At Fontainebleau they are though for, for their poolside gambling.

So there you go.

That's what's happening.

Speaking of disasters, there's a new, uh, restaurant coming to the Caesars Palace Food

Hall.

We mentioned it before.

We mentioned it on podcast 925 in June because I had been doing some sleuthing and came upon

this.

It has now been officially announced that Mock Bar, a Korean restaurant, is being added

to the food hall.

Caesars Forum, uh, food.

Court slash hall is definitely in transition and is skewing more food hall than food court

these days.

So I approve of this cause I, I like something a little different than your typical subway

and, you know, Sbarro and all that shit.

So this place will feature Korean ramen, rice bowls, a bunch of other options.

The menu looks great.

Um, yeah, coming this fall.

So check that out if you're at Caesars looking for something quick and delicious.

Speaking of disasters, here's something I found when I was sleuthing this week that I

thought was kind of interesting.

How often do you sleuth?

Every day?

Uh, almost every day.

Okay.

I would say six days a week I do some aspect of sleuthing.

It's part of my routine now.

It's part of who I am.

It's, it's me.

It's who I am.

Like you don't know cause you don't hear me go, hmm, this is interesting.

And then, or I'll be muttering like, oh, this is nothing.

And then sometimes I share it with you and you're like, mm-hmm, that's great.

I was, I was wondering if, uh, if the casino cage at Orleans was moving.

Mm-hmm that kept you up at night.

Yeah.

Okay.

So anyway, uh, as you know, if you've been listening to the show, Venetian and

Palazzo are undergoing a ton of renovations right now.

I've been seeing so many permits come through for that because they're pumping

a bunch of money into that property.

They're renovating the casino and the hotel rooms and some of the restaurant

spaces, one of them caught my eye this week and it is, um, a long dormant space.

I can't believe this has been sitting empty for 10 years

because it's right along the strip.

Yeah.

There was a restaurant called Dal Toro.

It was a combination restaurant and car museum.

I think they had like Italian race cars or something.

Um, that closed 10 years ago and it has sat empty since then.

There were some plans that I came across for renovating that space and it's

going to be a restaurant again.

And there it's very generic, like they're calling it just like project P4 or

something, you know, not saying what it is, but I looked closely to see what

kind of places it looks like.

And I think I know what's going to go in there.

Okay.

Again, I wouldn't even.

Do we need to do rumor watch?

It's not even a rumor.

It's idle speculation based on some things I'm seeing that lead me to believe

what this is going to be.

So looking at the plans, the first thing I noticed is, um, the bar is labeled,

although, although everything is very generic, um, the label is on the bar is

bar central.

We mentioned a couple of weeks ago when talking about Jose Andres.

This new restaurant at, um, at, uh, what's the fucking mall crystals crystals.

Thank you.

That bar central is a common part of his restaurants.

And so bar central, I saw that.

I'm like, Hmm, Jose Andres, interesting.

He has the trademark on that.

So it's his, um, that's labeled as bar central.

And then I was looking at some other stuff and it appears like it's going to

be a very meat centric location there.

Um, like display cases for meats.

There are a couple of dry agers, um, labeled on there.

And then the logo on the signs.

Now they just have generic wording in there.

It's just like Las Vegas venue, text here, stuff like that.

However, somewhat noteworthy, they're using the exact same typeface that bizarre

meat by Jose Andres at Sahara uses.

Huh?

So.

Again.

Just speculation, not even an official rumor.

Although if you want to elevate it to rumor status, be my guest.

Um, yeah, it's looking to me like we're going to get a Jose Andres restaurant,

probably a move by bizarre meat into that location sometime soon.

That is my speculation based on my sleuthing.

Do you like my investigative skills?

I do.

I'm not going to rate them on a star scale, but yes, I like them.

I won't bring that back.

I forgot that we did that.

It was fun.

Well, it lasted.

It was not.

It wasn't fun while it lasted.

Anyway, this is the kind of thing that gets my blood pumping when I'm looking at sleuthing.

I'm like, Hmm, suddenly I'm fucking Columbo.

Hey, one more thing.

Look at that font.

All right.

Neonopolis, speaking of disasters, is getting a new sandwich shop called Fat Sal's at a

small chain out of California.

We mentioned, I don't know if we mentioned, but they're going to be opening one in Miracle

Mile shops as part of their new food hall as well.

We may have mentioned that previously.

They're opening a downtown location on the first level of Neonopolis.

Neonopolis, right on Fremont Street, and that will be opening on September 6th.

So if you want a big ass sandwich, their shtick is that most of their sandwiches are called

like Fat Something.

Okay.

And I think they're huge and they have like all kinds of different, they have some salads

and other stuff too, but mainly sandwiches.

So according to the Review Journal this week, that will be an addition to Fremont Street

if you're looking for a sandwich place.

Speaking of disasters, New York, New York may have a new bar coming according to a trademark

filing that I came across.

This week as part of my routine sleuthing, Midtown Bar is the name of it.

Fits in well with the New York theme, which I'm happy to see.

I'm guessing this is going, now sometimes trademarks don't become anything, but this

coincides with New York, New York doing some renovations.

They just opened a new registration area.

It used to be in like the Essentials sundry shop.

Now that's their registration space and the old registration space is going to become

a bar.

I'm guessing.

I'm guessing it will be this bar.

The timing seems to make sense.

File a trademark on a new bar at the time you're building a new bar.

Put two and two together.

You've got Jose Andres moving over to Fini or Palazzo.

So yeah, Midtown Bar likely coming soon to New York, New York.

We'll keep an eye on it.

Speaking of disasters, over at Horseshoe, Dino Safari, Dino Safari.

I read it as Dino Safari too.

I know, I'm like Flintstones?

Dino Safari is closing.

That is the dinosaur exhibit in the lower level of Horseshoe.

It's been there for about a year.

It opened last April and it's closing on September 24th.

We found this news on Vegas Changes and yeah, it looks like that's, I verified that that's

how long they're currently selling tickets.

Previously, this was a net, uh, the space was a National Geographic rare photos exhibit

and it was from the same, the same company produced both of them.

Um, imagine exhibitions they did.

The National Geographic thing, then they converted it to Dino Safari.

Looking at their website, they have a whole shit ton of this type of exhibit

that they tour with and that they have in different locations.

So there could be any number of things moving into that space.

Apparently they're planning something else.

And I would imagine they will continue to swap out themes every year or so just to

keep it fresh and to keep selling tickets.

So who knows?

They do like a Harry Potter touring thing and they do a Don, Downton Abbey.

I think, but a lot of, some of them are more generic, like the Dino Safari.

And so we'll see what they come up with, but that is happening.

If you have some desire to go to Dino Safari, get your butt over there by the 24th.

Finally, speaking of disasters, they're putting a comedy club into the, uh,

drays after our space at Cromwell.

It's not like they're not really changing anything.

They're just using that space at times where they otherwise wouldn't be using it.

And they're trying to make a go at a comedy club.

So it's going to be called.

Cleverly enough, Dre's comedy club, uh, they have dates scheduled through mid October

and it's mostly, I say mostly because there's one week.

That's an anomaly, mostly Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays with seven and 10 PM shows.

There's one week where for some reason they're doing Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Instead tickets are 60 bucks plus fees.

That includes a drink.

Um, Dre's after hours is still a thing that's still happening, but it doesn't open till after 1am.

I haven't been in that area early in the morning.

So I don't know if they still have the walk of shame after Dre's closes at about 6am.

That was one of my favorite things for years.

Oh, the people watching was delightful.

It was, oh, it was great.

You'd be playing video poker at the bar.

And just these.

Having anything but a Bloody Mary.

These people who have been drinking all night, coming out of Dre's after hours,

just stumbling around.

Um, what was the thing that we heard?

Do you remember?

There was one time we were at the coffee.

We were at the coffee shop at.

Oh, God.

I'd have to, I'd have to.

Oh, man.

There was like just the greatest.

It sounded like a conversation right out of like 90210.

Oh, it was something about, we're going to have to get some eggs in you.

Oh, no.

It was, um.

Dude, if you get pulled over, the only thing the cops are going to be smelling on your breath is eggs.

Yes.

Something like that.

Yes.

It was like, oh my God, whoever, whoever the screenwriter is for this scene is brilliant.

Um.

What was it at the bar?

Okay.

So the tap beer.

The taps were kind of funky and the Bloody Marys weren't very good, right?

Or was that Caesars where the Bloody Marys were suspect?

Um, I had a really bad Bloody Mary 25 years ago at Caesars.

I do remember that.

Yeah.

But, um, I mean, the, everything at Barbary Coast was somewhat questionable, but that

was part of the charm.

That was part of the charm.

Yeah.

Didn't stop us from making that our main place for a long time.

Yep.

But now it's Cromwell.

Yep.

The day's after hours.

The night, the late night club's still happening.

That's been around forever.

Yeah.

And, uh, yeah, now they're going to see if they can use that space for comedy as well.

So if you want to see who the comics are, what the schedule is, you want to buy tickets,

draysgroup.com is the place to go.

I didn't recognize any of the names, but you know, I'm not.

You're not as into the comedy scene as you used to be.

Oh my God.

Can I tell you, Netflix is handing out comedy specials like with, I don't know what your

qualifications have to be now.

Huh?

No, I do know.

You have to have, you have to have.

You have to have.

You have to have a buzz on Tik TOK because of your crowd work videos.

But I've, I've watched a few of these.

I'm like, oh, let's see if this person's any good.

Like I've seen their videos online and I've watched, so they're giving out these specials

to people who have like one viral moment or something.

Well, not even that they have like, they get regular views on online, but their actual

act is not good.

So I've seen a couple of them like that.

People discovered that when they put that Matt Rife special up and they're like, oh,

this guy sucks.

Because he was, he was everywhere.

And then his actual standup was not good.

But like two separate skill sets, I think.

And well, it depends what they're doing.

And it seems like, um, some of them are really good at crowd work.

Like I think Netflix is putting up a second Matt Rife special.

That's just crowd work or mainly crowd work because they're like, oh, that's all this

guy can do.

But like, I really, I've watched a lot of videos from Hannah burner.

I'm sure you've seen her, her videos are just everywhere.

And like her videos are really funny.

And she does some, you know, she does a lot of, you know, she does a lot of, you know,

she does like man on the street interview kind of stuff too.

And I really like her personality.

I've seen interviews and stuff with her, but I watched part of her special.

I'm like, oh, her act's not that good.

Anyway, that's my little thing in comedy.

Oh, do you want to talk about the Adam Sandler special while we're talking about comedy?

That had its moments.

That was pretty good.

That was pretty funny.

Yeah.

Yep.

I liked it.

Yeah.

I wasn't sure where it was going, but it was, it was different and it was good, but it was

still very Sandler because it like had a lot of the musical stuff and it had.

It had enough laughs where I was glad I watched it.

Yeah.

Me too.

All right.

So there you go.

That's Comedy Watch here on 500 by Midnight.

Aren't you glad you're listening?

All right.

We do have some listener calls.

We've got a bunch of them.

Speaking of disasters.

Speaking of disasters, let's, no, these are our listeners.

They're not disasters.

They're wonderful.

They're not.

We are.

Yeah.

I don't want to insult any of our callers.

They're wonderful.

Anyway, let's listen to some of our callers.

They are the only thing on this podcast.

I was just thinking like you're, the disaster will be me picking on you when you're trying

to work.

When I let the calls run together.

Yes.

Instead of working.

Pausing them at the correct time.

All right.

Here we go.

Let's go.

Hello, Tim and Michelle.

Terry from Nebraska.

Calling with a trip report.

We stayed in Las Vegas at the Cosmopolitan July 14th through 18th.

Our room was on the 39th floor of the Chelsea Tower Fountain View.

Everything was fine with the room.

Although I will say it's starting to show a little bit of age.

A shower handle was loose.

Bathroom light switches.

Just looked like they were hanging on for dear life.

So probably could use a little refresh, but everything else, what you would expect from

the Cosmo.

I had heard a lot about drink service.

Our experience on our trip during the week, we found it to be really good.

I would say that 30% of the time we actually were turning drink service down just because

we had already been refreshed.

That was both at the slot machines and at the blackjack tables.

So I didn't find any problems there.

As far as blackjack goes, it was easy to find three to two tables.

They were $25 minimum, usually around 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock.

Tables start to fill up.

That would quickly go to 50.

Also, in regard to the Cosmopolitan, we went to the Marquee Day Club on Sunday.

Kind of your usual thing.

Obviously, you know you're paying a premium for drinks, but always a good time there.

What I did find to be quite a bargain is the Marquee Day Club has resumed weekday pool service.

So it's a different experience from what you would have during the weekend.

There's no live DJ, just recorded music.

And right now, it's a really good value for $100 and I guess $143 all in.

I was able to get like a poolside couch daybed situation.

And of course, that all goes.

That all goes toward your food and beverage.

So there were probably only 50 people there.

We were on a Wednesday and just a great experience.

Almost felt like we had the place to ourselves.

There's more to it.

I will call back with some other thoughts on Vegas, but wanted just to take a moment to thank you guys for the podcast.

I'm sure that week to week might become a chore for you guys, but just want you to know how much all of us Vegas,

freaks out here enjoy listening and how much we look forward to the episodes dropping every week.

So thank you for that.

Oh, thank you so much.

That's so kind.

Thank you for the kind comment.

I appreciate that.

And yeah, thanks for the info on Marquee.

That's great.

Yeah, that's great info for our listeners.

So if you're looking for someplace that, you know, might be a decent value, that's still, you know, Cosmo centric and all that Marquee during the week.

That's great.

Appreciate that.

We're going to hear more from Terry later on.

During the show and we've got this caller, if you've been listening to the podcast, you've heard him a lot and, uh, he calls it and he does these restroom reviews.

Right.

Yep.

And I know people like to talk and they're like, oh, that guy's a one trick pony.

All he does is these restroom.

No, he's not.

He's a multi-dimensional human being just like you and me show him reset some respect.

Alonzo is here to share with us some information, and this is not a restroom review.

Take it away.

Hey, Tim, this is Alonzo one more time.

Uh, this is not a bathroom report, although I am starting at the Excalibur and, uh, this important, this report involves the transit from the Excalibur over the walkway to the Luxor.

And if I remember correctly, several weeks ago, you were sleuthing and found some info on some moving sidewalks being removed between.

Excalibur and Luxor.

So to lay the picture here, um, there are three sets of moving sidewalks between Excalibur and Luxor.

There's one starting at Excalibur and heads probably feel like the edge of the Excalibur property.

And then a second one picks up and that's the bridge over the street.

And then the third one, sort of a nice long, long one ramps down and dumps you into the Luxor.

So.

So as of right now, and it is the middle of August, the, uh, heading towards the Luxor from the Excalibur, the first escalator or the first moving sidewalk is under construction or closed off and completely sealed off behind the drywall wall.

It's a skinny little walkway.

Now, um, the second moving walkway over the bridge in the middle section, also from, if you're on the right hand side from.

Excalibur towards the Luxor is also completely walled off behind raw wall, drywall and not accessible.

So as of right now, those two are not even in existence and their partners going the other way are not moving at all.

When you do finally make it to the Luxor side, both moving, uh, escalator moving sidewalks going both ways are working on the Luxor third of the jump.

So anyway, that's a start to what's going on.

I don't remember.

I don't remember how many you said they were removing, but two of them are in the process of not working right now.

Anyway, actually all of them are, well, four of them aren't working.

Two of them are walled off and two of them are working.

So does that make any sense?

It does.

Okay.

That's all.

I'm done.

Three minutes.

Bye.

I don't remember what the number on the walkways on the permitting was, but I will say I have a feeling that the, the one that goes directly to Luxor at the end, I'm guessing that one will remain open.

Cause that's kind of an incline there.

Yeah.

If I remember correctly.

Yes, it is.

Um, it seems like it would be well served to have one there, but time will tell.

Thank you for that update, sir.

And as I was listening to that, I was thinking, you know what, that is kind of a bathroom space unofficially.

Cause I know that people have peed along there.

Don't you think?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

But that was not an official restroom review.

And I thank Lonzo for calling in his observations.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

Next up.

Good evening to Michelle.

This is Team Frontliner, aka Best of Kit.

Sitting here about a week.

11 o'clock on Thursday night.

And the last night of my trip out here in Vegas.

And I figured it was time to give you guys a call.

It's been an interesting trip.

Gambling up and down, but at least I'm walking out of here ahead a little bit.

It's been a really good trip.

I went to a few old places.

Went to a few new places.

And that's a, uh, Straight Pirate is a really cool tiki bar.

And if you're ever in Vegas, those of you that are light or less, if you're ever in Vegas in the middle of the month,

the Punk Art Museum is doing a really good burlesque show on Wednesday nights.

Had a really good time.

Actually, uh, Boston Rival States won a bottle of liquor and some coaches.

It was fun.

I'm sitting here at Vegas Vickie's.

Joining with something on my trip.

And it's not fair to give you guys a call.

You guys are great for what you do.

And the rest of my Vegas nerds out there, get your butts out here sometimes.

All right.

Thank you for that call.

Appreciate your updates.

Um, I thought of a couple of things while I was listening to that.

Um, I don't know why.

Completely unrelated to what he was saying.

But, um, you mentioned last night, it was after I was done with the show notes, that, um, bombshell.

Yes.

The hair place that you've reviewed a couple of times.

Yes.

Hair and makeup and waxing.

Downtown.

Is closing.

They're closing.

I'm very sad.

They, they're closed immediately.

Oh, they are closed.

Okay.

I thought, yeah, I was like, I was going to add that this morning and I forgot about it.

So I thought we would mention it here.

Yes.

I'm, I'm sad for the staff and the people who liked going there.

I know you enjoyed it.

That's too bad.

I'm sorry to hear that.

Another thing I was going to mention too, is that, um, you know, we're still fairly

recent off of the combination of identity at, um, Cosmo, the identity players club into

MGM rewards.

And, um, they tend to update.

Offers toward the end of each month, if you've not checked them, if you were like a Cosmo

player and are wondering if you check them previously, maybe one, oh, okay, here's what

my offers are.

Um, I checked mine yesterday and was pleasantly surprised.

Uh huh.

They've increased from the previous month, not only at Cosmo, but at all the other MGM

properties.

So that might be the case for you as well.

And when I started looking at individual rooms.

By you, I mean our listeners.

Yeah.

I started clicking on the different hotels with just random dates just to see which room

options came up as comped and like some of those were surprising too.

Uh huh.

In a good way.

Yeah.

Mandalay Bay.

I like, I haven't played there in years, but obviously based on my Cosmo play, they're

offering like a really nice suite.

So plus free play and other stuff.

So anyway, um, it might be worth checking is what I'm saying, especially if you're thinking

about booking a trip in the near future and want to stay at an MGM property.

So there you go.

I don't know if it's a seasonal thing, like because I was looking at winter dates.

I don't know if maybe it was during a time where they're not as busy.

I don't know, but your mileage may vary.

Might be worth taking a look.

All right.

So with that, with that disaster of a, an unplanned news block, let's move back to our

callers.

Terry from Nebraska with a few more thoughts on our Vegas trip.

We'll kind of focus on dining here.

I'm definitely not a foodie.

I'm a guy who's really happy getting a sandwich or a wrap from CVS pharmacy for lunch.

So take everything I say with a grain of salt.

Um, we had our anniversary dinner at a STK Cosmo kind of probably the main reason was

we had a $50 dining credit and didn't know what the situation would be with identity

switching to MGM reward.

So we wanted to use that.

Um, it was a good steak experience.

I had a New York strip steak and my wife had a filet.

We were both happy with that.

I would say probably kind of the standout was the Yukon gold mashed potatoes that were

probably, uh, you know, I don't know.

The thing that I enjoyed the most.

Um, also we visited old red, uh, Blake Shelton's, uh, uh, place on the strip there.

I think it's been going since January.

I was there on a Tuesday night, about seven o'clock.

There was probably a, it was a line, but, uh, our weight was probably only 10 minutes.

Line moves pretty quickly.

Um, obviously, you know, if you like country music, there's a live cover band going there

that was, uh, doing a great job.

Um, we, uh, dined on the, on the main floor.

Um, let's see.

I had a triple decker, uh, club sandwich.

My wife had pulled a barbecue pork sandwich.

Again, both satisfied.

We're not hard to please.

The thing I would recommend on that menu is, uh, something called loaded tots.

Imagine if you will, a, uh, tater tot that's like circled by a perfectly cooked crispy

hash brown.

So those were a nice surprise.

Um, after we finished eating, we did go up to the top floor.

And checked out the rooftop bar.

Um, you're away from the live music there, but they do have a DJ and, uh, it was really

nice.

Uh, uh, I think it was still a hundred degrees at eight or nine o'clock at night, but found

it really enjoyable.

They had misters up there.

The view across the fountains and the Bellagio was great.

Great photo opportunity.

So, um, if you like country music at all, here's looking at you, Tim, I think I definitely

would recommend stopping by all red.

And, uh, then just find out.

There's finally, uh, uh, I don't know how you pronounce it.

If it's, uh, Cape Hans burgers at a fountain font blue, um, just another solid place.

If you're looking for a good burger, waffle fry, onion ring situation, not going to set

you back a lot of money.

And if you go over there for the first time, you can use your dining credit and, uh, basically

come out with a free meal.

So highly recommend the onion rings.

Once again, not a big foodie, as you can tell from my selections.

But.

But that's my Vegas dining experience.

Thank you for that report.

Yeah.

Good recommendations.

A couple of things.

Absolutely good recommendation.

And I'm going to be, uh, Terry's, uh, life coach now.

Okay.

Don't, don't discount your opinions based on, like he kept saying, I'm not a foodie.

So.

Like what you like.

Exactly.

Don't discount that.

I've, I'm, I'm, I know, um, I know a handful of people who are really into the, like, I

don't like the term foodie anyway.

It's like, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're,

we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're,

we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're,

your hobby is eating.

Okay.

Great.

Good for you.

But no, I know people who really like to go to various restaurants and try different

things and all that, blah, blah, blah.

But I know people who pride themselves in that and then have just shit taste.

So, you know, you like what you like.

And I think those are great, great recommendations.

And most people aren't like super into, you know, you like what you like.

So anyway, that's my life coach moment for Terry.

Don't discount your opinions based on comparing yourself to someone else's self-professed

love of something.

It's all nonsense anyway, isn't it?

Um, I would go to All Red.

Yeah.

I've considered it and it just didn't work out, but I would go there.

We went to, uh, what was the country bar at, uh, Treasure Island that's been there

forever?

Oh, Gillies.

Gillies.

We went to Gillies and had just an awesome night.

Awesome time.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I, I would do that.

All right.

Thank you for that.

Next caller, please.

We'll hear from Terry one more time, by the way.

One more call.

Hi, Tim and Michelle.

Uh, Tim here from Fargo, North Dakota on a nice little Vegas trip here in the middle

of the week.

And, uh, I just saw something that I just for sure have to share.

Um, ran it, you know, it's like one in the afternoon, ran into the bathroom here, the

park MGM, and there was a hover around, uh, fat Elvis guy that got stuck trying to turn

around in the bathrooms.

And it was like an Austin power situation where it's like, turn a little bit.

And then he kept doing the damn.

I just, I lost it.

It was the most biggest thing I've ever seen.

I've never shared before.

Love to share more and, uh, really excited to let everyone know about this fiasco.

I am thrilled for Tim that he got to witness that.

Yes.

I've got quite a mental image there.

It is.

And the fact that that he didn't break, that the Elvis didn't break character is beautiful.

Yes.

Um, I, I, I'm, I'm a little jealous right now that he got to witness that.

So thank you for sharing that with us.

I can picture it in my head.

And I'll take that.

All right.

Next up.

Hey, Tim and Michelle.

This is Jeremy from New Hampshire.

I'm calling with my trip report.

Well, never is the adage been enjoy things while you can, because I was literally at

Carl's Donut Hall on Monday, spoke to the cashier, said, oh, we'll see you tomorrow.

And he reminded me that they were closed on Tuesdays.

Well, they were closed.

That closure was a little bit longer.

Now, really great donuts.

We probably went there three or.

Four times, um, you know, they did the basics really well and, uh, not six or so hours after

my wife said, these are the best donuts I've ever had.

It closed.

So that's a shame.

Yeah.

But I agree.

I don't think they'll probably need another donut place there.

Um, directly across the street and on the opposite end of the spectrum, or I should

say more diagonally across the street is broken yoke.

Yes.

It's a West coast chain.

We went there on a Saturday.

Not too, too busy.

But very fresh, clean interior, as you would expect for a newly open place, pretty expansive

breakfast menu.

Uh, one of the things I did like is that if you're kind of sick of the breakfast potatoes

after third or fourth day on a trip, uh, with some of their entrees, they offer, uh, beans

and rice.

So like the food we'll go there.

Hope it does last there.

I did talk to some of the staff that, uh, when they opened Saturday, I think it was

the first or second Saturday in August.

They did.

They did the thing that some new restaurants do and give out in their case pancakes for

a year.

You know, normally you hear about people lining up outside the door for that, but in their

case, uh, they lasted until 1pm.

So hopefully it's a slow burn with them.

Also just wanted to talk a little bit about some of my hotel experiences.

Stayed at the Golden Gate downtown.

Uh, you know, always impressed by the customer service with, uh, Stevens property.

Actually right after we checked out of there, my, um, my partner had left.

Uh, he was, uh, he was, uh, he was, uh, he was, uh, he was, uh, he was, uh, he was, uh,

he was getting something behind and there was quick to reclaim it.

Very easy process.

So hats off, uh, with that.

The opposite end of that stay is, uh, when you, uh, when we checked in Willy Wonka style,

there was a golden ticket in the room.

And if you take that ticket to the players club and you can spin a wheel, you can get

anything from a free cup of coffee to some food credit for two, $75 a match play.

So just a nice little touch.

Okay.

at the D last year I was able to get

a free beer

so always nice to have a little extra

MGM, we did say MGM

Grand, I will say that the ticket

experience, the digital

online check-in

much smoother, much better this time

found that the key works

in all places, if you do

book directly through them, check your MGM

rewards app, it's a pretty easy way to

get $50 by visiting

a couple of their different resorts

so, love the podcast, hope you guys

are doing well, take care, bye. Alright, thanks Jeremy

great information, great reviews, I appreciate

that, I'm really sorry one of your favorites closed

yeah, yep, but

yeah, that's

a common piece of advice we give here, if there's something you

really love, try it, take it in while

you're there because it might not be around next time

you just never know, and yeah

we've been wondering about Broken Yolk since that recently

opened and we've talked about it on the podcast a few times

so glad to know that that's worth checking out

I appreciate that

glad you had a wonderful trip

alright, final call, we're going to check in with

Terry one more time

Terry from Nebraska, wrapping up the trip report

with just some random musings

first of all, I went to the

sphere, kind of knew what I was getting into

with the movie postcards from

the earth, but was really curious

and wanted to see the inside, so in that

regard, I'm glad I went

the movie itself, very mixed

feelings about the visuals

and the audio, sensory, all of that

was incredible, I mean

truly tons of potential for what can be done

in there, yet

the movie itself

just kind of got off on the way it was

handled, and

like a bad sci-fi plot

mixed with messages

that were just

very tiresome after a while

I will say

on the tickets this year, have you arrive

45 minutes before the show time starts

so you can enjoy some of the

interactive activities

out in the lobby, probably could get through

those in 15 minutes, but

they give you plenty of time

and the other tip would be

you can walk all the way to the sphere

indoors through the Venetian

conference center

a lot of people I think

were confused and walked outside

which is not that bad of a walk

but if you prefer to stay indoors

there is a way

also wanted to take a trip

by Fountain Blue and

have to say I really came away

with a positive feeling about the property

we showed up at 10.30 a.m.

on a Monday, so obviously it was

pretty empty, but

there was a fairly large convention there

and things picked up towards

midday

really enjoyed the layout, the look

and certainly would stay there

if given the opportunity

location maybe not the best

but if you were on a trip

where you just planned to basically stay at the resort

I couldn't see any

reason why I wouldn't go to Fountain Blue

gambling, a little bit of

a losing trip, not too bad

interestingly enough

pretty much our biggest hits

came on free play

we had free play from the Fountain Blue

I hit for $320

and my wife hit for $650

on Bull Blitz

we also had free play from the Cosmopolitan

had a $250

jackpot there

also had a $900

hit on Buffalo

but myself

not such great look for Michelle

I will note that

I had 27 of 28

bonus bonus

mother effers

that is not even kidding

it was unbelievable how many times that occurred

and once again another trip

with no hand pays

that's 16 in a row

and finally I attended Fantasy

the dancer

and the singer, very talented

but although it's advertised as being

very classy, it's kind of more like

seeing a titty show in a junior college setting

awesome, I'm in

thanks again guys, love the show

thanks Terry, appreciate all your calls

all your reports, that's awesome

I'm with Terry's assessment on

the movie at Sphere 100%

impressive and all that

yes, climate change is important, however

here's the thing about that too

it's a little hypocritical to

preach about climate change

in a building that is nothing but a drain

on resources

like unnecessary

power use like you can't imagine at that place

it's like yeah, it's really cool and all that

but come on, maybe not climate change

as the drum you're going to beat

yeah

I'm going to let the dog out

I'm going to thank some people while you're doing that

I'm going to pause

we've got some carbon donations to thank folks for

would like to thank them for their support

starting with Jenny from Pryor Lake

she has a trip going on

this weekend

sun and pool time plus gambling

she said love the podcast and trip report

we appreciate your support Jenny

and hope you're having a wonderful time

John with a carbon donation for a quick

Labor Day trip as well

staying at Circa Monday through Wednesday with his brother

first time staying downtown and first trip

in four years

you've got a lot to catch up on

dinners at 8 East and Oscars

stadium swims, Sand Dollar, revisiting

other downtown favorites

hope you have an amazing time

and that you and your brother make awesome memories

while you're there

Jason said my wife Bree and I

had such a great time last month in Vegas for our anniversary

we decided to book a last minute trip

Labor Day weekend

everybody's going to Vegas this weekend

they're seeing The Killers and Kevin Hart

hope you have a wonderful show

I hope you have a wonderful time

I know those are going to be wonderful shows

I've heard so many good things about The Killers

residency

and I'm kind of jealous of you for that one

and that wasn't something I was necessarily all that interested in

before I started hearing reviews

so have a great time

and finally long time friend and supporter of the show

Carl

and Indy with a karma donation

heading out Thursday for five nights at Cosmo

meeting up with friends from Oklahoma City

and a couple cousins

looking forward to enjoying the first NFL Sunday

can you believe that's here already?

oh I know

I'm excited for football this year

it's going to be fun to see how the Vikings crash and burn

going to be

taking in a few

oh this is really nice

he's taking a few of his favorite Cosmo bartenders

out to dinner one night as he does from time to time

cool

very cool

he said

happy Memorial Day weekend to both of you

of course a throwback to when I used to troll businesses on Twitter

that improperly labeled this as Labor Day weekend

I mean Memorial Day weekend instead of Labor Day weekend

I was thinking about doing that on threads

and I did a search

there's plenty of

plenty of material

well there's plenty of individuals

oh

but I

but not

it's more fun when it's businesses

it's especially fun when it's like libraries and government entities

who should know better

yeah but there's not as many businesses on threads

so

yeah I'm not going back to Twitter

so

anyway thank you Carl

thank you to all of our PayPal donators

we do appreciate it

hope you all have wonderful trips

yep

500bymidnight.com is our website

dear Tim and Michelle questions

I love that Max came back in and immediately went over to start drinking

I'm still making noise you fuckers

dear Tim and Michelle questions can be sent to 500gmail.com

if you are a foodie who's upset with my assessment of your hobby

then please send me a message at 500gmail.com

please send your hate mail to hunter at ratevegas.com

as always our voicemail line available to you anytime

702-866-9494

we always love to hear from our listeners

call us with your reviews

your Vegas-y thoughts etc

and of course once again that place to go for supporting the podcast via

patronism

speaking of disasters

patreon.com slash 500 is our Patreon page

we appreciate all the support over there

alright that's it for today

that's going to do it for this week

we hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend

yep

if you're in the US

if you're not

take Monday off and consider it a holiday anyway

yeah

just have a good weekend wherever you are

and we'll be back soon with another show

alright bye bye

bye