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Sin City, Full Speed Ahead
By Ron Donoho
Sin City, Full Speed Ahead

It’s not an extreme makeover. The renovation of the Treasure Island Resort & Casino is more like an expensive nip-and-tuck. But from décor to décolletage, there is a difference. As a cabbie remarked as he dropped me off at the new TI, “They took every pirate out of the place.”

Well, almost. The first noticeable difference in the transformation from theme-parkish Treasure Island to the hip, initials-only TI is on display thrice nightly. Long a Vegas Strip tourist attraction, the nightly pirate-ship battle—it takes place between two high-masted ships in a man-made lagoon in front of the property—has been sexed up. The once male-dominated faux fight now features the Sirens of TI. There’s a light show and dance numbers, and fireworks at the end seem to shake the entire resort. Some tourists wait a half-hour to secure a good view of this free show. It’s cheaper than a bad run at the craps table, I guess.

A seasoned Treasure Islander, I am taking my first look at the new TI. My room—a premier suite—is A-okay. At the foot of the bed in the spacious master bedroom is a table. But wait—push a button on a remote control, and a TV rises out of the table. The suite contains three bathrooms—including a Jacuzzi tub off the bedroom. The living room is big enough for a 13-man game of Texas Hold ’Em. No, really. I came in fifth.

TI is generally an improvement over Treasure Island—save for on-property restaurant Kahunaville. I try dinner at this noisy, uninspiring eatery. The food is passable, but the server is lackluster and scarce. Fool me twice—I came back for lunch. Service was worse. Note to management: Cancel the dancing waters show and hire half a dozen competent waiters.

Here’s a restaurant recommendation that’ll make you feel like a high-roller: Craftsteak at the MGM Hotel. It’s pricey—but casually upscale. Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss is dining in a semiprivate room the night I saunter in. No complaints about the cuts of steak, or the seafood. Go off your Atkins diet for the Yukon gold purée—mashed potatoes that border deliciously on soup.

Pool time. Unfortunately, the TI pool is being renovated. But since TI and tram-connected neighbor Mirage are owned by the same company, access to the Mirage pool is allowed.

You could do much worse than spend a day in a poolside cabaña at Mirage. The white cabañas come stocked with sodas and a fruit plate. To keep your spirits up, a server comes by for bar drink orders.

a cabana by the pool The Mirage cabaña experience is more than a cheap tent with a couple of deck chairs. Each has a sofa, recliner, flat-screen TV and a wood-paneled fridge-and-table ensemble. Deck chairs and a table are on the patio-esque area. Again, you can fit your whole Hold ’Em crew here for the day. Let the winner pick up the bar tab.

At night, a cohort and I make a beeline for The Palms Casino Resort. Located several blocks off the Strip, The Palms is Vegas’ newest place to be seen. Supplied with a couple of VIP passes, we head for The Palms’ premier clubs—Ghost Bar and Rain.

A VIP pass is a powerful tool here—provided you can wedge yourself to the front of a mob scene. Everybody and their poker buddies are trying to get up to the 55th-floor Ghost Bar, or over to the Rain dance club. Catching a bouncer’s eye gets us to the VIP ... line. It’s definitely shorter than the mob scene/mosh pit for LIPs (Less Important People).

Inside the throbbing mass of humanity that is Rain, my buddy voices his disappointment. “It’s like a sausage convention in here,” he says, dismayed at the dearth of female patronage. It is, after all, the opening weekend of the dude-oriented NCAA Basketball Tournament. Perhaps the ratio is better in Rain’s private rooms—party booths within the VIP area, presumably for MIPs (Most Important People).

Maybe someday, after an extreme financial makeover, we’ll find out.


If You Go


A premier suite at TI (702-894-7111) starts at $500—but they go fast, so book in advance ... Craftsteak is in the MGM Resort & Casino (702-891-1111). Cuts of beef start at $29 and go all the way to a Kobe rib-eye at $98 ... You can rent a cabaña at the Mirage (702-791-7111) for $250 a day ... For more information on the clubs at The Palms, call 702-942-7777.