Chaos at Caesars Palace, MGM & Hyatt Break Up & Rio Renovation Moving Forward

Hello and welcome to the MT and Vegas podcast. I'm Sean Coomer, your host joined as always by Mark Ostriman. We have a great show for you. As a reminder, you can watch this entire show along with all the visuals that go with it at youtube.com forward slash miles to memories that's youtube.com forward slash miles to memories. We record two shows a week on Tuesdays and Fridays, release them on youtube and then combine them into this audio podcast once a week for your listening enjoyment. We hope you enjoy it. If you do like the show, consider leaving us a five star review and Apple podcast or your preferred podcast app. It helps us out tremendously. And as a final reminder, you can find all of our Vegas content that's posts, podcasts and videos at mtmvegas.com. Thanks again for listening. Let's hit it. So Mark, for over 20 years, this guy has had this license plate that basically says, go back to California. It's been his message consistently for all of this time. And the DMV finally got a complaint. Somebody complained about it. They investigated it and now they're taking it away saying it's like hate speech or something like that. All he wants to do is just tell the Californians to go back. What's so wrong with that? I mean, he's talking to you, right? Exactly. Yeah. Well, a long time ago. So I thought this like California hate was a more recent from, you know, the pandemic and people moving out there in flocks and raising prices of homes and everything. I didn't know this went back 20 years. So kudos to this guy, but it's kind of sad that we're spending our taxpayer dollars to investigate a license plate. Like it's been 20 years. I think it's, it's okay. When I first moved to Vegas back in the early 90s, they would say, you're not from Las Vegas unless you were born here. And so even someone like me who's lived here for 30 years, they would still say I'm not a Las Vegas. I did like the fact that he can appeal this and that there's this board of 13 voting members that decide whether your license plate is good or not. I just imagine these 13 DMV workers in a backroom somewhere deciding the fate of every license plate. I wonder if you like cut somebody off and they got really mad and they called in. They don't even care about the license plate. Like I can't imagine that being so upsetting to someone that they would take the time to file complaints. So I have to imagine there was some road rage involved or something, but this is just nuts. I don't understand. So we talked a few weeks ago about how the FAA is looking at this proposal for this, what 600 something foot tower at Casino Royale. Gonna be taller than Palazzo, I think. And we don't know a lot about it, but we do know the FAA is considering it. I don't think I've seen I did a search, didn't see whether the FAA has ruled on their proposal yet or not, but apparently the outback has been given notice that there's 90 days to vacate. So I guess the employees they're getting laid off. Those are external employees. So we don't really know if anything is imminent yet at Casino Royale. Nothing officially announced other than this FAA thing. We do know they want to build a huge tower. That's going to mean they're going to tear down the whole thing. So it's probably going to happen sooner rather than later, but we don't know yet. Yeah, my guess would be like the lease was up. So they, you know, versus renewing it for another year. They said, Hey, let's cancel this. So I would assume that something's going to be they're planning on at least something happening within the next 12 to 15 months on that timeline. But, you know, we're just guessing there. And it's just it's sad to see that this is going to happen, you know, another vague vague has always had like these little CD places in between these magnificent big buildings. And we're losing a little bit of that like budget conscious, you know, cheap hot dog or OSHAs and bills game and all like all those like fun little places on the strip have been gobbled up, which you kind of understand because there's only so much strip to go around. But it's still sad to see that you're losing that essence of Vegas a bit. But it's exciting that we might get this property. And it's not going to just be this small property, even though we know the land isn't very big there. Currently they have that best western motel in the back. And then the casino. It's big enough for a decent size casino. I think this is around the same size lot that Cosmos it's on. I could be wrong. It could be a little bit smaller than that. That's just off the top of my head. But with that huge height that they're going for, we should see something fun. But if we're starting to see outback, maybe we'll start to see other announcements and then we can actually get some juicy info. Let's get some concept art. What is it lately with nobody giving us concept art? Took the A's forever to give us that stadium concept art. Then they gave us a horrible wrong facing concept art and all that. But do you think that they'll do something cool? Like, you know, how Link, you know, put a little portion of O-Shays there as a throwback, even though it doesn't have anywhere near the same vibe. But at least it was a little bit too. Do you think they'll have like a little section that's called like Casino Royale? Or they'll just skip right over it and not want to be tied to $2.50 hot dogs or whatever? Yeah, who doesn't want that brand tie-in of the cheap hot dogs? Smoking Casino and beer pong. I don't think so, but who know? I mean, I would imagine we're going to get a whole new name and a whole new theme and everything else there. But we really don't know. So it's another exciting thing. Like, at least we have some unknowns on this week where we finally see the sphere, you know, not get to the finish line, but basically get to the finish line. And, you know, we're some of these projects we've been looking at for years. It's good to have new things that we're looking forward to. Since we can't go like a show without talking about this fear, can we talk about the basketball for a second and how fake it looks in pictures? Because it looks so realistic. It just looks like this big fake, I don't know, it's just crazy. And another thing of people driving down the road and probably stopping take pictures and somebody commented on Twitter, like, there's all these people taking a picture down this road because, you know, it's the best views of it. But it's really not in the best neighborhood. So, you know, what would kind of risks do you want to take to get that Graham worthy photo, I guess? Oh, come on, there's nothing that's too crazy around there. People are always afraid of stuff. I saw some naysayers say, oh, the sphere, just wait till those bulbs start burning out or you have darker areas because that does happen with those types of screens. Hopefully, I'll have the money to replace it. I mean, I don't think, like, when something brand new like that is spectacular, if you're first like go to thing is, oh, you know, in a year, it's going to look terrible because you're going to have, you know, at some point you've got to just give them props for it, for it looking good. I think it'd be kind of cool to watch them try to put new bulbs in like to mess with all that stuff and sure, they're going to have to like, you know, clean them some often or do something like maintenance is going to be kind of massive on that thing. It'll be interesting to see how they handle it and if they keep it up or if it starts to fade over time. But I mean, we're talking years down the road before it becomes something noticeable, I would imagine. Before you go in the comments and yell at us, we know there's not individual light bulbs. So they're going to go screw in and screw out. So don't get us. How many lost vegans does it take to screw in a light bulb? There we go. Let's answer that. Yeah, answer down in the comments. Mirage is, you know, on its multi-year journey to becoming hard rock. Part of that is getting rid of the animals altogether. They announced that we've seen them move the dolphins out. And now the last of the tigers are gone from Mirage. They were moved to two different rescue centers. Apparently, these are very well known world renowned. Even Pita, I think, commented saying that they're, you know, in the best place possible now. So hard rock did fall through along with MGM, coordinating all that to get the animals out of there. And there are no more animals. No more tigers at the Mirage. I guess this is a first step in that big transformation. Yeah, I'm glad they ended up finding, you know, a space to put them all that that's going to work for them. And we knew this was coming. So it's still sad to see a bit and the dolphins moved out, which is probably a good thing for the climate. And they were never really a great fit there. But it's still, you know, people love walking through that area. And this is like the end of it for sure, for sure. So sad to see, but also exciting, as you said, something new will come from it. So we'll see a big guitar someday with other light bulbs that need to be changed. Yeah, I mean, I just think the white tigers and Mirage are so synonymous with each other. And, you know, normally, I don't know what this would be a huge deal. I remember when MGM, you know, they had that line exhibit years ago at MGM Grand, which I was really cool. Yeah. But when they removed that, it wasn't like the heart of the place was removed. But I feel like white tigers and Mirage like that's those two things go hand in hand for basically since the beginning. And it is a big step, but it's good for the animals and it's good for hard rock as they redevelop that property one light bulb at a time. I just thought like, you know, the sphere, what if it was like Christmas tree lights where one goes out and the whole strand goes on. We're triggering all these people that know about lighting, but it's just funny. All right. Let's talk about something that we do know that actually we don't know about. And that's Cosmos switch over to MGM rewards. We've covered this occasionally. In fact, there was a rumor that was going to be happened in April. So we should probably stop covering rumors about this. But I know a lot of people are waiting for that. If you're an MGM rewards person, you want to be able to earn points at Cosmo, earn comms, all of that stuff when they switch over to MGM rewards. Currently, Cosmos still using their identity program and Vital Vegas is reporting another rumor. But this time, it's saying that it's delayed the February 1st, 2024, the integration. Clearly, they're having problems with integrating this. Identity still remains a much more generous program. So I feel like it's still a good thing for gamblers unless you're waiting as an MGM elite person. Yeah, you know, imagine it depends which side of the coin you're on. Like if you've been loyal to Cosmo, you're excited about this news. If you been loyal to MGM, you're pretty annoyed by all this. But I don't understand, like they've bought other properties and integrated quickly. We saw a change over at Mirage to Hard Rock. Like they want it happen. So I don't see why this would be so difficult or what the problem the holdup is here is. It kind of blows my mind a little bit. But it really depends on where you're coming from if this is good or bad. And, you know, so I don't really gamble it either. So it doesn't affect me in any way. But I'm sure more people are happy because they loved Cosmo and we're upset about MGM ruining it eventually. So I have to think it has to do with it. Marriott Cosmo's affiliated with Marriott and that's still in place. And maybe that mucks it up a little bit, whereas all the MGM properties are high it. Maybe that has nothing to do with it because we had assumed that they were going to switch to MGM rewards with Marriott. But maybe that's something to do with it. But for now, Cosmo's still a separate property as far as a rewards program. And that's good. So if you have those comps for my identity, you can still use them for a while longer. And maybe one day we'll actually get to switch over. So Flamingo has this new restaurant Havana 1957. And I guess it's under construction. It's in the space where the former tropical breeze cafe was. That's a cross from the former buffet space. And I guess this is a chain out of South Florida. Obviously, going to be Cuban food. I was a certain era in 1957. So you got that sort of throwback kind of theme going with it. It looks kind of cool. No, I mean, this is kind of cool to see for Flamingo. Like they've kind of up their game a little bit. They were never really known for having a good restaurant scene. And it's kind of below average food for the most part. The steakhouse that they put in the old diamond club area. Yeah, that place looks amazing. I've heard only good things about it walk through didn't actually get a chance to sit down and eat in there. But it looks awesome. Fits the vibe really well. And, you know, Havana really fits the Flamingo vibe. Those will be right down the hall from each other. So I think it's a good draw leading into the promenade, you know, and all those restaurants that are out there. So I think this is good for them. And good to see Caesars not bringing in a head chef, you know, Gordon Ramsay restaurant and plugging it in somewhere. So that's nice to see as well. Yeah, I think these types of additions work perfectly for Flamingo. I think that they should lean heavy into that historical theme, that old mob theme, all of that stuff. And this works really well with that. You know, if you were to redevelop Flamingo, and I don't think that they're going to, but if you were going to do it, these are the types of venues that you would create. And I think a historical sort of redevelopment. So even though we're getting it piecemeal, I think it's a good move. And like I said, it looks good. So looking forward to trying that out. And if you like Cuban food, it'll be a good option on the strip. Did you see this tweet? This guy talked about, obviously he's a big gambler, right? And so he has his numbers, right? Every casino, they keep track of your wins and losses. He went to Circa, reached out to them. I guess he's a big MGM player, and they gave him this full, comped suite, 1600 in free play. And you know, it's one of the, you actually pointed this out, kind of reminding to people, if you do gamble at one place, don't be shy to kind of shop yourself around other casinos and see what they have to offer. Yeah, if you're at the level that you have a host, you know, which, if you go quite often, it's not that hard to get to that level, if you gamble. So definitely reach out to other places, see what you can get. And you'll even get like as hosts move around, they'll send out targeted things to you, like once I got one for Venetian, even though I'd never gamble there before, like come try us, we'll give you a room and, and some free play and stuff like that. So they did that proactively where this, if you want to go check something out, definitely reach out there. And I think Circa's been one of the better ones as far as doing these type of things is in allowing big sports bats and stuff like that. Like they're definitely more pro gambler than I think, you know, an MGM or Cezars is a type of thing. So I think that they will play ball with you a little bit more. So definitely worth taking a chance if you have that type of play that you can easily show them, you know, here, here's what I've done on my last couple visits. What will that get me here? And I'm sure they'll try to bring you downtown. Yeah, I think that's a good point, focus on the smaller programs too, right? Circa has a smaller program, which is a couple casinos downtown. There's a ton of other things around town, you know, one-off programs, things like that. And, you know, you often can, there you go, you can get a million dollars in a new play and, yeah, I'm sure they'll give you something nice there at Virgin. But, you know, this is a thing to do, just keep yourself open to other possibilities. It's always nice to go to a different place as well. You know, I guess it comes down to how rewarding do you want your gambling to be? Because I think if you really focus all your play in one program, especially if it's one of the big programs, you're not going to get the most value out of your gambling. It's hard because like in the travel space, Mark, we talk about, you know, getting stuff for quote unquote free and, you know, maximum return. And gambling, I don't think you're really ever going to come out ahead or at least in most cases, right? That's how they build these big buildings. But you're trying to say, I'm getting this entertainment value. I'm spending this time and what's my overall value. And the truth is, if you kind of play multiple programs against each other and spread your play around, you can do a lot better than if you just went to one casino, if you went to MGM Grand on every trip and they know exactly what you're going to do and they know they got your loyalty, it's not going to be quite as good. Yeah, and if you're going to go big, you know, like you have one night where you always spend a lot more, maybe go to a new program and drop that big night on the new program because they're going to say, well, this is their norm. This is what he normally that averaged daily is going to be. So they'll offer you something bigger, you know, thinking that that's what you do over a five day period versus that's one night and then you you slow down the next couple nights type of thing. So definitely play off of that as well as, you know, status matches, which we've talked about. That's a good way to get free perks, you know, free dinners, stuff like that and take advantage. I think this is something resource world could have done better when they came on, especially trying to be, you know, a whale type place and a big gambler place is be more proactive in getting people to come over match, give them offers and stuff like that. And I didn't hear about it as much. Maybe it did go on, but I didn't hear about it as much as as I would have expected for them being a unique one off property in trying to be a gambler's type of paradise. Yeah, it's interesting, and it's interesting how everybody's competing for each other. You mentioned status matches. Obviously, those can help in certain circumstances. And then there's services to that will shop your gaming around. You are comped is probably the best known one and they work a lot with cruise ships, but they also work with land-based casinos as well. So you can upload different offers you have to them and they will go to their partners and try to match you with offers and they get, you know, kicked back, I guess, from the casino for bringing in a client. That's sort of how it works. And so you can get free cruises and stuff like that. So if you're just like somebody who does play enough where you're getting these kind of suite offers with free rooms, a decent amount of free play, then you can probably do better and you can try different things going to different cities. Cruises, maybe none of that matters to you. Maybe you want to go to the MGM grand and stay there every time, but it's just a good reminder that there is more out there. And oftentimes, like you said, when they're trying to get your business at the beginning, they don't know what your historical play is. So if you kind of play with that a little bit, you can do better. And they often treat you really, really good at the beginning when they don't know how good or not of a customer you are. Yeah, I think you made a good point. It's like it's weird how in Vegas, let's say all the Caesar's properties kind of talk to each other. They know what you're doing and they give you offers based off of that, what you've done in Vegas. But if you go to New Orleans or Baltimore or something like that, that's like a unique one-off thing. If you go there and you gamble big, you're going to get really huge offers for that independent place. And it's not really going to affect anything in Vegas. It's not going to help you in Vegas. It's not going to hurt you in Vegas. But when you go to these out of state, you know, one-off places, if you show them, you know, kind of think about that. And if you show them like one day big, big burn, you'll get offers. I've gotten better offers to New Orleans. And I've ever gotten to Vegas. And I didn't gamble any differently. It was just, it was my first night there. I did all my stuff in one night. And I got, you know, flight credits, limo, all that stuff. And it was kind of nuts. And then after I went back to her three times, they're like, well, maybe not, maybe not. We're not going to give you all that stuff. You'll get some free play. There you go in a room. So yeah, it's kind of crazy. Now, they don't really talk to each other very well, which I find bizarre. Yeah, they came, you came in that third time and they're like, yeah, we, we like, for me once. So Mark, it was a crazy week in Las Vegas. We have so much to talk about. But did you see this guy dancing naked in Harris? Apparently, his family says he was drugged. Now, I think that's the story. Anybody would tell if they did this. But based on what happened, it seems like probable that was the case. He hit a one-legged guy, I think in flamingo went out to link promenade, ended up in Harris. What a crazy story. And it wasn't even the craziest one this week. Yeah, I first saw the video and you didn't hear like the before stuff when it gets on a fight with a one-legged man, which I don't know why they bring up the one-legged, but it just like adds to the craziness of the whole thing. So fights in the flamingo, strips naked, runs through the link, promenade, all that stuff, ends up in Harris. And what do they do with that table? Do you just light it on fire? Because once you gyrate testicles on a table, I don't think you can use it anymore. You know, he's got a great Vegas story to tell. That's like a hangover level story, I think. He can be like, I'm a little feral in this, in this real life. We're going streaking through the quad. Going on in Vegas this week, boring company has finished their next tunnel. This is the one to Encore. And apparently the one to Westgate is finished as well. But they did announce that the Encore tunnel and that station will be opening in the first quarter of 2024. So the tunnel's done, but now I guess all the road paving, all that stuff has to happen. I think it said they took them 10 weeks to build this tunnel. So at this rate, we should have the whole system by 2045. Yeah, this is supposed to be quicker and easier, but it doesn't seem like it's working out that way so much. And then I know we're going to talk in a bit about the leaked video of what the van might look like that they're doing, but it just looks like everything. I still don't see how this works with all the humans you need to drive these cars. Even the van looks like it has a steering wheel and a driver seat and all that stuff. So I don't know how they're going to make this cost effective with all the labor and tents that intensive labor you need for it, as well as all the vehicles and everything. It just seems like a random crazy thing, but you know, hey, it's his time. Let him spend it, I guess. So this tunnel was 2,325 feet. So that kind of gives you an idea of the length. So obviously, you know, the big tunnels are going to be a couple miles long. So, you know, we could see what it would take him. This was the first time they didn't need to use a crane to pull the boring machine out of the tunnel for some reason. So I guess it was able to drive itself out. I don't know what's going on with that. But yeah, let's let's talk about that vehicles. Las Vegas locally a few weeks ago hinted that this vehicle existed. Jacob's life in Vegas. He apparently got a shot of it. So we have a video of what it looks like. And it looks a lot like the concept that they had a few years ago. I couldn't really tell. I think it's somewhere between 10 and 12 seats inside of there. But I tried to kind of look carefully, but it looks good. I mean, it's a big improvement over just a Tesla, right? I mean, they're tripling our quadrupling capacity. Yeah, I mean, alleviate some of the issues you have with people, whenever this is full-going, you know, but getting stuck at stops, waiting in line to get to have a car pull up. So it should move things along. It's still I don't think it's as efficient as like a subway car has how many cars attached to it. Everybody jumps on. You only have one or two people on it working it. So just, you know, that's what I worry about is the amount of labor that you need for this. But hopefully it works. This definitely an improvement. I'll give them that. And I don't know. Do you think it's going to be all open glass? Like they're it's showing. I mean, that's kind of cool that you can see all the tunnel from all the different angles and everything. You won't get blocked. You won't feel stuffy even though you're in a tunnel. I feel like having all that glass is sort of a design feature of Teslas. They have big roofs and things like that. So I wouldn't be surprised if it is for that and to give that more open space. So this is good news. I mean, we can say that, you know, maybe this won't be great. They're definitely going to have growing pains as they try to figure this out. But even moving taxi traffic below the level of the street will help. So good to see that. And I'm glad they developed a van. Hopefully autonomous vehicles will be on the plate at some point down there. Marcus Marcus Garrett. On the last show, we talked about Cosmos staying with identity rewards through next year. And we didn't really know what that was about. Obviously, you know, they aligned when they're supposed to switch over to MGM rewards to when the status ends at the end of January next year. But just after we recorded that show and released it, Hyatt and MGM announced that their partnership is ending in September. And, you know, if you're watching this show today and you haven't matched your MGM status to Hyatt or vice versa, this is your last day. The day this comes out July 14th to do that. So the status matches are going away in September. The match, you're not going to be able to earn points or anything between these programs. Maybe that's a reason they held off on Cosmos too. But this is a big loss for MGM. But we'll talk about Rio in a little bit and Hyatt is coming to town. So is this the surprise to you? Yeah, I'm wondering like who initiated this or was it mutual decision between the two? Like, is this Hyatt saying, hey, we're going to be at Rio. We don't really want to mess with MGM or MGM saying, hey, we're tired of, you know, paying out these points or whatever. So it's a big loss on the travel side for sure. Anybody that chased Hyatt's status because you could get a lot of cheap nights, elite night credit, uh, you know, staying at Xcalibur or something like that. And during midweek and not a busy time, you know, you could spend 20 bucks, 30 bucks, whatever it'd be to get a night. So that was as cheap as it gets really. And then the other flip side of this is Hyatt points didn't used to be useful to book the rooms, but with how crazy prices are on the weekends, you know, $5, $600 sometimes for a night, using those Hyatt points became super valuable if you needed to be there on a weekend. So that's a big loss as well. I'm kind of curious. Does Mariah move in and take over everything MGM or, you know, are they looking to part ways with that and not having any type of partnership? So that's still kind of up in the year too. Yeah, that's a big question. Is it going to be Mariah who we know partners with Cosmo currently? Could they partner with IHG who partners with Venetian or, you know, some other company or just stay it alone and realize that maybe they didn't need it. I always got the feeling that Hyatt got the better end of that deal. It was more of Hyatt's customers coming to Vegas and doing that than MGM's customers going out to the wider Hyatt footprint, but I don't know. But yeah, so a lot up in the air, but just make sure if you want to do the stats match, you do it if you're seeing this on the day it came out. And I'm sure we'll learn more as this goes on and we'll talk a little bit more about Hyatt and Rio just a bit later. But two of the closed COVID casinos Texas station Fiesta Rancho. We've seen them get torn down. We followed this for years, right? They were closed during COVID. Then station casinos said we're moving out of the neighborhood. They sold the properties and everything's been torn down except for the ice of rink at Fiesta. And now a company has said that they're going to build this massive mixed-use development, experiential commercial retail, dining, shopping, you know, residential units over 600 of them. This is an interesting thing for that area. I wouldn't have thought that area would really support something like this, but this seems like, you know, one of those very modern mixed-use live-work play kind of places. Yeah, it looks really cool. And I love that they have like a big awning overall. It kind of feels like a free-much street experience almost even though there's no like light show or anything. But, you know, you don't want to be out there in the middle of summer out in the sun. So that's cool that they got that plus if it rains or something and you're walking around. It's actually really nice to get all that stuff done. And, you know, we've talked about Vegas getting crowded and people moving in non-stop. And so maybe this is expanding out there where they see that that area growing in the future and adding 600 more units for people. Hopefully alleviate some of that pressure. So that's nice. And, you know, as you grow, you need more shopping. So I think I hope it works out. It looks really great. So I think it, you know, I'd go check it out for sure. It's also going to have the ice arena incorporated into it. I think a sports field. And then they also are filing for a 150 room hotel with a gaming license, which I thought, I don't know why I thought this. Maybe I just made this up that station casinos was trying to get that land restricted. So you couldn't put a casino there. So maybe that didn't happen. But, if you look at we had these two casinos in small hotels, you did a bowling alley movie theater. Maybe we'll get some of that back like a movie theater as well. But I think this is an improvement. You get shopping, you get residential units, and then potentially another casino, a new one. Maybe a smaller one. So yeah, I mean, this is a great development, I think. And it hurts to lose those those other casinos. I really did love them. But it's glad to see that it's not just going to be a dirt lot for the next 10 years. It's not going to be all not arena 2.0. So let's talk about the Rio. They were in front of the gaming control board this week. And basically DreamScape going and showing their plans for what they're going to do and talking about it. Caesar's is in control. But DreamScape is starting the moving process. We talked about how they closed off the buffet area. They confirmed that's going to be a food hall. And now we know kind of a time frame on how they're going to renovate the Rio. The first phase is going to be 18 months. And that's going to be the Ipanema tower. That's sort of the original tower there. One and a half thousand rooms are going to be renovated into various Hyatt brands, along with the pool, some food and beverage, and the convention space. And then in phase two, they're going to do the masquerade tower, which is that taller, newer tower, a thousand rooms there, plus more food and beverage. $350 million total for this renovation. I think that's a little lower than we had thought it was going to be. I don't know if that's enough to make Rio what it needs to be with bringing it down, fixing the plumbing and everything else. But Hyatt's not going to let them open a trashy hotel. So this is good. This is starting now, basically, even before the end of the year, they're getting going and they were recommended for approval for their gaming license. I want to first say, I love that you said one and a half thousand instead of 1,500 rooms. I don't know because I was reading it off the thing and it said 1.5K. Somehow, I just can't wait until 1.5K. Correct me up. But no, I mean, it does seem a little bit unallowing because that's a massive property. And nothing is in good condition, really, to the level that you want. And like you said, Hyatt, big partnership, they're known for having quality hotels. That's kind of the staple and why a lot of people love them is because no matter what Hyatt go into, for the most part, more than any other chain, you're going to get quality. So they need to hold up to that end of the bargain. So I imagine the rooms will be nice. Maybe that leaves left's money to take care of the more public areas or spaces. So we'll have to see about that, you know, the pool area. And I like that they're talking about, you know, making it for the locals as well as for tourists. Maybe that's starting to make sense to people like, hey, we do need, we have this big area, a lot of people in this area, why aren't we tapping that resource? So hopefully they do something cool with that for the locals. Yeah, historically, this property always was sort of tourist slash local. And then the Caesars over the years really went away from marketing the locals. Like they used to have 50% off at the buffet and all kinds of kind of local promotions in addition to the tourists that they were drawing. And that sort of just went away. So I feel like it's a great move back there. They said there's not going to be any nightclub or big DJs there. They are refreshing every square foot of the casino. So, and this is, you know, this is a very grand resort. It was built, you know, to be a mega resort, even though it's not on the strip. So there's tons of restaurants spaces. It's a big place. So there's a lot to do. And just about every corner of it's looking tired, dated, you know, not even given love in a long time. You know, and how many millions of dollars worth of pillows do they need, right? Yeah, there's the budget gone right there. Just getting, you know, go to Walmart, buy up all the pillows, be like Mr. Beast, buy out all the pillows in a store. So more bad news coming, Venetian Pilotso apparently are going to move towards paid parking. This was reported by Las Vegas locally. It's not confirmed publicly. Yeah, this is not a huge surprise. I had never really thought about this, but obviously with the sphere opening, they're going to charge for parking there. I mean, you're going to be bringing, I thought maybe we would have event parking, but it makes sense with things going on all the time there that they're going to do this new owners. They want to get that revenue. Vital Vegas said maybe when will be next, we will see because they did have paid parking at one point and then they backed away from that. Yeah, more paid parking coming to the strip. No news because it hasn't been announced whether locals will be free, other ways to get free parking at Venetian, but yeah, this is not a shock. Yeah, not surprising. I mean, when I don't think makes as much sense besides just wanting to get the revenue because who really wants to park that end of the strip and then walk, I mean, winds set back a bit. So you got to walk down that walk, what, you know, to get out on the strip, and then you're not really close to anything besides resource world. So I don't know why that would make sense, but yeah, this one, Venetian Pilotso definitely, people are going to take advantage of it, especially like you said, with the sphere opening and all those events going on, and people wanting to be somewhat close and not having to pay for it. So hopefully they allow locals, you know, to park free, like we've seen some other people do, and hopefully it's not a stupid app like the strat. Yeah, hopefully they pay a little bit of money and get away from the QR code nonsense. Treasure Island does still have free parking and they have those big signs that say it, so hopefully that'll stick around for a while. It's not too bad of a walk if you're going to the sphere. Certainly if you're just going to Venetian to see no parking at Treasure Island walking across isn't terrible, you know, it's not the best solution in the world, but you know, certainly there still is parking there. At your point, the parking garages that went in encore are far enough away from Venetian that, you know, maybe they won't get overloaded and maybe they'll see it as a positive. All right, so Caesar's Palace, let's talk about Caesar's Palace. It was in the news for a couple reasons this week. First, this tweet went viral where this guy arrives about 7 p.m. wants to check into the hotel, and there's like, according to him, a three to four hour wait. And, you know, Caesar's does have kiosks, and I noticed when I checked into Harris a couple months ago, there was like six or seven people in line, and the kiosks were empty, and people were waiting, and they only had one agent checking people in. And I wonder if part of the problem is that people don't know the kiosks exist, or if people are just trying to get upgrades, or whatever, because that is a thing about Vegas, because he knows they have so many different types of rooms and room categories. But he, so he just like, he's like, screw it, he goes away, he comes back at like, what, one in the morning or something, tries to check in, still has to wait a long time, and then he found out they gave away his room. Yeah, that's tough. I mean, all hotels have a cutoff time when you're, you're supposed to check in by, and they'll give it, usually they're not sold out, so they can, you know, reopen it up and, and give it to you. So that's sad to see, but yeah, I mean, it's the same thing you see at grocery stores or CVS, or anything, all those self-checkout, people wait in line with five or six people and not use the self-checkout. One, they're either stubborn and they say, it's not my job to do the checkout myself. Okay, then you're wasting your time in line, but that's cool. Or, you know, they don't feel comfortable doing it. So maybe this is the problem with the kiosk, or like you said, maybe trying the $20 sandwich, which is probably $50 sandwich now, a trick to get upgraded room or discuss, you know, views or whatever, try to talk to the check-in agent and get something better. But my thing is, if you're coming for a weekend, and you're there for a short period of time, book the room you want, and then just do the kiosk, check in, you don't have to worry about it, skip the line, or if you have status, you know, go to those status check-ins, which maybe some people don't even know those exist, but that's right around the corner at Caesars. And Caesars is, Caesars Palace is one of the worst, you know, you see long check-in lines there every Thursday, Friday, Saturday night. It's horrible. Yeah, it does get really bad there, and you gave some really good advice. Some other advice I saw was check-in at the kiosk, and then if you don't like the room you're given, call the front desk from a house phone, and they will switch you to another room if it's possible. Obviously, maybe they gave you, like, a first floor with a room of air conditioning, and you just want a normal view. Obviously, they're not going to call them up, give me a suite, or something like that, but I just don't know it's worth the $50 sandwich trick if I have to wait four hours to check in. I'd rather take the worst room possible. And like, if that Harris check-in, those people were waiting forever. I just walked right up, and I had my key in a minute. So, yeah, it's an interesting thing, but the big news about Caesar's Palace was this guy went nuts, held a woman hostage in his room for what, five hours, or something, and the big thing that kind of went crazy on social media was he broke a window and started throwing furniture out there. The police even said this was the worst property destruction, one officer that he's ever seen. And obviously, the window breaking out gives us, you know, flashbacks to October 1, so there was a lot of fear initially. They had a close-up pool area, got everybody undercover, and then once it turned into like a standoff, the casino went back to normal, and they just closed the floor, and then after like five hours of police went in and got this guy, he had a knife, no gun. Yeah, it was a crazy thing. It was just nuts to see the furniture flying out the window. I'm kind of surprised to see, I know it's just one police officer saying this is the worst damage he's ever seen, but you think, you know, that they're been worse or bigger rooms trashed or parties and sweets, but police probably aren't called to that, you know, normally that's more of an internal thing that they sweep under the rug, so to speak. Yeah, it's definitely a crazy story, scary, especially if you're in the pool and all of a sudden everybody's like, get out, get out, and you hear stuff flying out the window and crashing into the ground. Like, you definitely, this time, you know, these years, the last few years with all the shootings and stuff we've seen, everybody gets nervous, you know, what was it? Late last year where they heard a loud bang and somebody thought it was gunfire and they shut down a whole bunch of casinos when it was just somebody throwing a rock at a window, so everybody's on high alert, so definitely glad nobody ended up getting hurt and definitely a scary situation for anybody that was in the area. Yeah, people got hurt during that, that glass breaking thing with everybody panicked. It seems like the staff did a really good job of keeping everybody calm, getting them safe. The police were able to apprehend the guy, the woman wasn't hurt, so this actually ends up being a good story. Obviously, he's going to go to jail for everything that he did and through every piece of furniture or that he could basically out that window, so yeah, just a nutty story. In a nutty week in Las Vegas, naked people dancing on tables, there was this crazy fight at the wind that involved the wheelchair and a lady in a thong or something. I don't know. And then this, it really was like a week of hangover. It's like the movie hangover all in one week in Las Vegas. It's funny because we were talking, you know, before last episode, before filming Sean's like, you know, last couple of weeks, there hasn't been a lot going on. It just seems kind of slow and Vegas hasn't been super crazy. We don't have a ton to talk about and then this week, like everybody lost their mind. Thank you for listening to the MTM Vegas podcast. Don't forget to check us out on YouTube where we released the show twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. YouTube.com forward slash miles to memories and all of our Vegas content can be found at MTM Vegas.com. That's post podcast videos. See you there. Thanks again for listening. Talk to you next time.