caesars – The Vegas Tourist

Parking Fees Returning to Las Vegas Strip

Mark Anthony on May 14, 2021

The arms are coming down! Start Paying!

As the Michael Douglas character Gordon Gekko stated in the 1987 movie Wall Street “Greed is Good”. And so the wolves of the Las Vegas Strip, most notably MGM, have decided that it’s time to stop being nice and it’s time to start being greedy. Again.

With that said, we are seeing the end of free parking at a majority of Las Vegas Strip resorts as we pull out of the mask mandates and people are starting to travel again. If you remember, all Strip properties stopped charging parking fees last summer. At the beginning of the shutdown. Ho-Hum, It was good while it lasted!

Yes, this article is mostly about the one who started the practice of charging the guests for parking, MGM. Caesars is mentioned. I’m not here to just pick on the greed of the Las Vegas Strip. That’s just too easy. We will talk about the greed of downtown at a later time!

Caesars has been charging for parking since last October (locals are free). But it’s the monster of the Strip that catches everyone’s attention. So that monster being MGM, has let it be known that as of June 1st, they will get back to the business of nickel and diming anyone who steps foot on any of their properties for any reason. The greed has returned!

With that being said, I do have to note that they apparently learned their lesson from the last time and are realizing that the locals could be a good source of business to them. or to look at it a better way, scaring off the locals can be painful to their bottom line. So for now, they have granted us, peasants, a little more of a break on parking compared to the last time. MGM is now giving us three free hours of free self-parking instead of one.

Not as generous as Caesars-related properties, which is giving locals free self-parking, period. But it is nice to see that MGM is at least making an effort to acknowledge that maybe they really do need the locals to visit their palaces occasionally!

MGM Properties Paid Self-Parking Update

Starting June 1, 2021
The first hour will be free for everyone.
Locals (Nevada Residents) will be free for the first three hours

Aria
$15 up to four hours
$18 for four to 24 hours
$18 each Additional Day

Bellagio
$15 up to four hours
$18 for four to 24 hours
$18 each Additional Day

Delano
$12 up to four hours
$15 for four hours to 24 hours
$15 each additional day

Excalibur
$12 up to four hours
$15 for four hours to 24 hours
$15 each additional day

Luxor
$12 up to four hours
$15 for four hours to 24 hours
$15 each additional day

Mandalay Bay
$12 up to four hours
$15 for four hours to 24 hours
$15 each additional day

New York-New York
$12 up to four hours
$15 for four hours to 24 hours
$15 each additional day

Park MGM
$12 up to four hours
$15 for four hours to 24 hours
$15 each additional day

Vdara
$15 up to four hours
$18 for four to 24 hours
$18 each Additional Day

Who Will Still Get Free Self Parking at MGM Properties?

Self-Parking will remain free for military members and spouses through the M Life rewards military and veteran program, M Life members with Pearl status or higher and M Life rewards Mastercard holders.

MGM Properties Valet Parking

Paid valet parking will return May 25 to Aria, Vdara, Bellagio, and MGM Grand
Paid valet parking at all other MGM properties in Las Vegas starts on June 1 and will be cashless
Valet parking will remain complimentary for gold, platinum, and noir M Life members.

MGM Related Event Parking

Event parking will be timed with the Vegas Golden Knights Stanley Cup playoff games in May. Parking will be cashless for the games, shows at Park Theater, as well as for events at MGM’s other properties. You pay at machines at the entrance to the parking structures before you go to your car.

Free Parking on the Las Vegas Strip

There are still a few properties that are allowing guests to stay for free while they dine, shop, and stay at their properties.

Treasure Island, Circus Circus, Sahara Las Vegas, The Strat, the Tropicana, the Wynn, the Encore, Venetian/Palazzo all continue to offer complimentary self-parking.
Note: Self-parking at Planet Hollywood/Elara/Miracle Mile Shopping is currently free. However, they are beginning to install the sensors and kiosks to start paid self-parking soon!

Another Las Vegas Landmark Gone??

Mark Anthony on September 11, 2017

Am I missing a memo or is the corporate greed at Caesars Entertainment gone off the deep end and they really are trying to remove anything that makes their properties interesting and unique?? Serious. I realize I’ve been putting in a lot of hours on another project, but normally I am tuned into the major Vegas news about iconic landmarks being dismantled and replaced by more shopping.

Like the world famous Caesars Palace Fountains.

Next door, they are recreating a $15 million shrine to the biggest most annoying celebrity chef in the business, Gordon Ramsey. Is this to be part of the infamous recreation of “Hell’s Kitchen”?? It doesn’t look temporary. But in Las Vegas, that can always be deceiving. And being Caesars, they never have to use permits or follow the customary rules of construction in Las Vegas. So the information can be buried on some desk of a former city or county worker’s desk. Like former mayor Jan Jone’s who thought to have the permits on her desk to remodel Rio was the same as having them filed with the county.

Kind of like when Caesars was called Harrah’s Entertainment and they remodeled the main tower of the Rio and forgot to file the proper permits. Former Las Vegas Mayor and now Executive Vice President, Public Policy & Corporate Responsibility for Caesars Entertainment, Jan Jones (Blackhurst) reportedly said that the paperwork for the proper permits was on her desk. So that should be good enough.

Anyway, it’s sad to see another bit of Las Vegas beauty go away and replaced by another shopping emporium….

Caesars Turned 50

Mark Anthony on August 11, 2016

When we first started to visit Las Vegas in the 90’s and needed directions to someplace on or near the Strip, they always started out with “From Caesars, you go…” Everyone knew where Caesars Palace was. It was the epicenter of the world here. In some ways, it still is. The Palace that changed Vegas turned fifty years old this week and they celebrated in Grand Caesars Style!

Jay Sarno, the Imagineer of the place, wanted it to be like Disneyland. A place that as you entered it, it psychologically removed you from where you were (a small town in the middle of the desert) and transported you to another world, an imaginary world of Roman Gods, Cleopatra, and where your wildest dreams was their pleasure to fulfill (within reason and your budget).

On land leased from Kirk Kerkorian and with a $10.6 million loan from the Chicago Teamsters fund/Chicago Mafia, his dream came true. On August 5, 1966, the 14-story, 700 room Caesars Palace opened with each guest being welcomed by the official greeter, a blond 40-20-37 Cleopatra. Not only was Jay Sarno setting a new standard of luxury accommodations in the west, he also set the new standard on how a Las Vegas Resort was to be opened.

Gone were the press releases, newsreels, and photo ops near a cactus and a swimming pool with a bathing beauty. Now it was celebrities walking the red carpet, titans of business shaking hands and eating foods fit for a king along with grand festivities that made the world media take note. With the 2 day gala of an opening, Jay Sarno also was resetting how the world saw Las Vegas. No longer a dusty, desert outpost for gambling, divorces and horse rides. Now it was seen as the place you had to go see and where you had to be seen.

Sarno banished the apostrophe in “Caesar’s” as being too passive. He wanted to create the feeling that everybody in the hotel was a Caesar. So he named it “Caesars”

A lot has happened in those fifty years. Owners have come and gone. Top athletic moments occurred on their grounds and the most famous of famous celebrities have graced it stages. From Andy Williams and Frank Sinatra to Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Grand Prix races and daredevils trying to jump their famous fountains to prize fights under the stars. if it happened, it happened at Caesars.

The Palace Turns 50

With the new kings of debt in charge of the old palace, the fiftieth anniversary commenced this past week. The pools filled with ping pong balls as roman dressed goddesses waded in the water. Some of the top entertainment and famous reality stars of the food courts found in the walls of the Palace held the attention of visitors and fans. Chef Gordon Ramsay, Roller Skating ABSINTHE Brother & Sister Act Billy & Emily England, to name a few.

Roller Skating ABSINTHE Brother & Sister Act Billy & Emily England

and what Vegas celebration would be complete without Fireworks??

Go See the Show Absinthe!

What Are Your Thoughts on Caesars Turning 50??

Photos: Tom Donoghue