Las Vegas Room Rates Skyrocket

Above, the Excalibur Resort Tower where a room tonight costs $504. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

More than once, I've said that Las Vegas was more reasonable and fun when the mob was running it.

Today, corporate America is running the casinos and hotels. Whenever big events are held in the city, the hotel room rates skyrocket. Such is the case this weekend.

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal: 

Southern Nevada’s resorts are expecting plenty of guests this weekend as the region welcomes a stacked calendar of special events happening on and near the Strip.

Last-minute travelers, on average, should expect to pay more than $600 per night at properties on and near the Strip.

Hotels and motels are preparing for a surge of tourists for the When We Were Young festival — a three-day music jubilee on Saturday, Sunday and Oct. 29 — at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds. A spokesperson for When We Were Young estimated that 60,000 attendees will be at the inaugural punk and emo festival, bringing bands from the early 2000s.

A survey of room rates listed on hotels.com conducted Thursday afternoon showed the average rate among 28 hotel-resort properties around the Las Vegas Strip was $646.14 a night, for a two-night stay starting Friday.

Rates can fluctuate up to Friday.

Some of the highest rates were seen at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, $740 a night; Caesars Palace, $749; Delano Las Vegas, $929; Wynn Las Vegas and Encore, $1,034 each; and $1,099 for a room at Four Seasons.

No hotel-resort properties listed on hotels.com were offering two-night stays for less than $350 per night, according to the search. The lowest rate offered was $374 at The Venetian.

Tonight, Excalibur Hotel is charging $504 for a Resort Tower King Room. Ouch! Nothing like gouging the public. Still, it's cheaper than what the article posted.

To read more, go here.

Adam West Lives On As A Slot Machine

During our trip to Las Vegas, we visited several casinos. They included Wynn's, Binion's, Excalibur, and Golden Nugget.

Most of the slot machines were the same, no matter which casino we were at. I noticed that there were some with movie or television show themes such as The Godfather, The Walking Dead, Batman (Adam West version), Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter version), Big Bang Theory and others.

I managed to take photos of a couple of super-hero themed ones:

Above, the Adam West Batman slot machines at Binion's Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Above, Lynda Carter Wonder Woman slot machines at Excalibur. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Dick's Last Resort, Las Vegas

Above, Mitch in his Dick's Last Resort hat. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

After resting up from our little trek to Hoover Dam on Tuesday, we went to Dick's Last Resort in the Excalibur Hotel.

Above, the utensil wrapper sleeve. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Until this trip to Las Vegas, I've never heard of Dick's Last Resort.

Above, Max ordering his dinner. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Here's what Wikipedia says about it:

Dick's Last Resort is a bar and restaurant chain in The United States, known for its intentional employment of an obnoxious staff. The chain consists of seven restaurants. The restaurant has its origins in the owners' original opening of a "fine-dining" establishment. The establishment was a failure, which resulted in bankruptcy. Rather than continue with the upscale restaurant motif, the owners retooled their efforts and decided to "go sloppy". The end result was a success, leading to the creation of six additional locations.

Above, my hat as written by our waitress. 

Well, Dick's lived up to the above description and we gave as good as we got. It was a lot of fun and the food was good (which is a plus). I stayed to my diet, I had salmon.

Above, Max waiting for his dinner. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To read more about Dick's Last Resort, go here.