In our last post, the Competition Council took a look back at and ahead to the old/new DECAGONATHON North Loop. There was a time in the long ago 20-aughts when the North and South loops were both very popular, before the Financial Meltdown in 2008 killed the North loop, every visit during DECAGONATHON weekend would include at least one North and one South loop rotation. After 2008 the North loop was caught in destination limbo with many of the planned replacements to demolished casinos were placed on hold while the South loop continued to complete project and remained a mainstay of DECAGONATHON. While we wait for the new Tillman Fertitta Casino to fill in the currently being demolished Harley Davidson Cafe/Hawaiian-Marketplace/Strip-Mall-with-Fat-Tire/ stretch of the East side, we decided to reminisce about the old South loop.
Looking north from Bali Ha’i (prices)
First let’s take a step back to the mid-2000’s and head south from Flamingo on the east side of Las Vegas Blvd. Pretending it’s January 2007 we are walking out of the Flamingo south strip door and heading to the (soon to be Bill’s Gambling Hall) Barbary Coast. On the way to the back bar for a cheap drink we might play some $2 roulette or $3 craps. Heading out the back door east of LVB on Flamingo we head to Bally’s. There’s nothing special here, we might play a table game or hit a slot or two, but the big draw of Bally’s is a climate-controlled path to Paris. Walking through the row of restaurants leading from Bally’s to Paris we might stop for a crepe or grab a beer from Le Journal. Once in the casino proper it’s standard operating procedure (SOP); roulette, table games, and almost certainly a few slots will take our $20. Now out the south end front door to Planet Hollywood. On our January 2007 loop we’ll probably still see remnants of the Aladdin signage and construction walls for the soon to be completed Planet Hollywood transformation. While we are here, we might hit the buffet but we most likely won’t stop at Earl of Sandwich, the Competition Council doesn’t think the Planet Hollywood location is open yet in January 2007, and we are too lazy to search the interwebs. Continuing out Paris’ southwest LVB door we’ll dodge the cars to cross Harmon and not stop at the Harley Davidson Cafe, we visited once before and were not impressed. Walking south we’ll go through the Hawaiian Marketplace and to a random store in a small strip mall located just to the south to grab a 20oz Fat Tire. Using the bottle opener on the door handle we check out the exotic cars for rent outside. The green Lambo looks fast, but we aren’t here to die in a high-speed crash spend money driving in traffic, so we continue walking south toward MGM Grand. Before we get to MGM Grand, we have to resist the urge to buy M&Ms or play air hockey at GameWorks, and we probably visit at least one of the two. When we reach MGM Grand, we’ll hit our favorite Sigma Derby machine then continue on to Tropicana. The Trop is generally SOP, roulette and other table games, a random slot or two, then hit the sundries store on the way out toward Excalibur. Crossing the bridge in 2007 we will definitely paly the original DECAGONATHON game, Three Coin Drop. The Excalibur casino will be SOP, but there’s a great chance we head downstairs to the arcade and play air hockey for money. Now we head upstairs and cross the interior bridgescalator to Luxor. Luxor is another SOP casino, roulette and other table games maybe, random slot here and there until we leave for Mandalay Bay. Mandalay Bay is best known as the south end of the South loop; we’ll SOP some table games and machines then hit the tram back to Excalibur. From the tram station we head across Tropicana Avenue to New York New York where we’ll grab a drink in the Big Apple Bar, maybe grab a snack, and probably ride the Manhattan Express. Out the door near ESPN Zone we’ll look right to see the Brooklyn Bridge before crossing the street to Monte Crispo Carlo. Monte Carlo is another SOP casino with the random table game and machine paly depending on the vibe, and probably a convenience store stop for a beverage. Now we’ll head out the northeast door back to LVB and walk in front of construction walls blocking what used to be the Boardwalk. Boardwalk was home to the only mini craps table we have even seen, and we talk about missing playing craps here. No, we don’t know how to set dice even on those little tables, but we liked the short throws and quicker trip around the table to be the shooter again. Continuing past the construction zone which was Boardwalk and will be CityCenter we head toward Bellagio. The Bellagio casino minimums are mostly out of our range in 2007 but we may hit a table or two or a machine here or there. We’ll check and see what’s going on in the poker room. Since we are still 4 years away from Poker Black Friday there’s a good chance the room is packed, and we’ll see at least a few poker celebrities playing in Bobby’s Room. As we head out the mall toward Caesar’s Palace, we’ll resist stopping at Tiffany’s for corn cob holders and make our way across the Flamingo Road bridge. Just inside the portcullis entrance we’ll replenish our luck rubbing the bronze Caesar statue’s index fingers, then head further in to rub Cleopatra’s nipplyboobies bobbing up and down as the barge’s masthead. More SOP in the casino, then we’ll decide if it’s time for a reboot or power on northward to complete a full loop.
DECAGONATHON is necessarily not kid friendly