Thursday, March 03, 2011

South Strip Ferris Wheel Project

Plans for an amusement park that would feature a 500 foot Ferris Wheel have been approved by Clark County commissioners. The location is across the Strip from Mandalay Bay on the same site as the closed Cloud Nine balloon.

Plans for the amusement park call for up to seven rides with a possible expansion to include shopping, restaurants and convention space.

It appears that funding is still needed for the $100 million project, so it's far from being a done deal. It will be interesting to see if they can come up with the money to build this thing.

There have been a few different Ferris Wheel projects proposed for Las Vegas over the years but none of them have come to fruition. Most recently Caesars Entertainment featured a Ferris Wheel in their plans for Project Linq, which still seems to be on the table.

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Fontana to become Hyde Lounge at Bellagio

Fontana Lounge at Bellagio has closed and will be replaced with Hyde Lounge.

Fontana was a low key bar overlooking the fountains. The spot featured live music sometimes and catered to a generally older crowd. It had some problems though as it seems like it was closed on a regular bases, and sometimes the lounge was preempted by hosting live poker tournaments.

Hyde is more of a nightclub from what I can gather. The Hyde location in Los Angeles is famous for being a celebrity hot spot.

It will be interesting to see how people react to this change. Nightclubs have been the big thing in Las Vegas for the past half decade or so. Adding a big name like Hyde is probably good for Bellagio, but I'm just not sure it fits with Bellagio's clientele. I should note that Hyde won't turn into a full fledged nightclub until 10 pm every night, so maybe the old folks can grab a drink before then.

Source: Press Release.