- An update on the latest conditions in Las Vegas.
I'm Chris.
This is Yellow Productions.
I do travel guides that are fun in form of entertaining.
And in this video,
I'm gonna tell you everything you need to know
if you're planning a trip to Las Vegas.
We'll talk about current social distancing,
COVID, mask regulations.
We'll talk about the return of buffets.
Many of them are back.
A few of them have closed,
but most of them are coming back.
We'll talk about some of the new hotels that are opening,
including Resorts World.
I've actually got special guest, Derek,
from All You Can Vegas on to talk to us
about all the tasty things we can eat at Resorts World.
I'll give you an update
on some of the return of transportation.
We'll talk about some of the shows that are coming back,
and I'll even share with you the latest sneaky fee
coming to Las Vegas,
particularly fees if you're going to Allegiant Stadium.
Stay tuned for that.
But first, the good news.
The good news is that right now,
everything in Las Vegas can open.
There are no government regulations that close anything.
There's no government regulations for capacity restrictions.
So restaurants, casinos, adult entertainment, nightclubs,
it is all open.
Now, the one COVID restriction that just changed recently
is that about face masks.
Face masks, as of Friday, July 30th,
now have to be worn by everybody indoors,
whether they are vaccinated, unvaccinated.
It doesn't matter.
Everybody currently inside must wear a mask
unless they're eating,
unless they're a show performer, or a musician.
Those people on stage don't have to wear it.
But you, if you're inside a casino, you do.
Now the good news on the mass regulation
is it only applies inside.
If you're outside, you don't have to wear a mask.
So good news for that,
no more mask tan lines at the swimming pool.
Now, I'm sure this new mask regulation
is gonna end up having people
cancel their trips to Las Vegas.
I've already heard a lot of people
say they don't want to go to Las Vegas
and wear a mask all day.
So the good news for you,
if you're still planning to go to Las Vegas,
is that the room rates are gonna be cheaper,
and there'll be less people there.
It'll be easier for you to get the restaurant reservations,
because I think less people are gonna go right now
while the face mask mandate is in place.
Now, one of my favorite things about Las Vegas
is the buffet.
I love to eat.
And so All You Can Eat buffets are amazing,
particularly the ones in Las Vegas.
And the rumor demise of the buffet due to the pandemic,
definitely more rumor than reality, buffets are coming back.
The ones that are currently open
are the buffet at the Bellagio,
the Back and Now buffet at Caesars Palace,
the Circus Circus buffet,
Cosmopolitan's Wicked Spoon buffet,
the Excalibur buffet, the MGM Grand buffet,
the South Point Casino Garden buffet,
and the buffet at the Wynn.
Now, if you are heading to one of these buffets,
you should definitely check the hours
because they're not what they used to be,
and they're all over the place.
At the Bellagio,
it's only open for breakfast, lunch, brunch.
It's open 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
The Back and Now buffet at Caesars Palace
is only open for dinner, 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
But I would tell you my choice right now
would absolutely be the Back and Now buffet
at Caesars Palace.
And I know in the past, I've actually said,
it's one of the multi rip off buffets on the Strip.
If you go weekdays right now,
it's about 60 bucks for dinner.
But the really good deal is that you can make reservations.
So you don't have to stand in line.
You can reserve a time.
You can go right in there.
It's currently Las Vegas's biggest buffet.
But due to the reservation system,
you'll have to fill your belly in 90 minutes.
Then they'll need to turn that table over to someone else.
There are some buffets that are closing forever.
At Mandalay Bay,
it looks like their buffet is not coming back.
There's currently construction in the buffet space.
Also the station casinos,
a bit more local casino off the Strip,
none of their buffets have reopened,
and it doesn't look like they're reopening anytime soon.
If you're planning to eat at a sit-down restaurant,
definitely make sure to make a reservation ahead of time.
I know I said that there's no current
social distance, capacity regulations,
but there are challenges
with casinos and restaurants getting employees.
So they might not have enough employees
to actually operate all the tables.
Make sure you make a reservation.
Make it before you even go on your trip.
Next up, let's talk about what's going on in gaming.
A big trend in gaming related to cost cutting
and cost reductions is many of the casinos in Las Vegas
are removing table games in favor of electronic games,
slot machines, and also semi live hybrid games.
In particular, at a number of Caesars hotels,
they've been removing their games
at the Flamingo, at the LINQ, at the Cromwell.
They've all removed some of their table games,
and replaced them with electronic games.
Now they haven't gotten rid of all of their table games.
They still have some, but this is definitely a trend
that I think we're gonna see more,
because slot machines are way cheaper to operate
than tables with dealers.
Now, there is one casino that has gone all the way,
and they've removed all of their table games.
The Tuscany Casino, one of the off Strip,
more local's casinos, there are no more table games
at Tuscany Casino at all.
Now on the note of hybrid games,
one of those that you're gonna see
is called roll to win craps.
It is a new hybrid, digital, live action version of craps.
Instead of requiring three people at the table,
it now only requires one casino employee at the table.
I believe we're also gonna start seeing
more stadium style games, for example, this kind of a game,
Blackjack, with one dealer and lots of stadium digital seats
for the people to actually play and wager on the hands.
A live dealer,
but a whole bunch of digital style stadium seats.
Now, one new interesting digital game you'll find
at the D Hotel and Casino in Downtown Las Vegas
is called Go Go Claw.
This looks like something that should come
out of Chuck E. Cheese.
It's one of those crane games.
You have a crane and you pick up a ball,
and you use a joystick to move it around.
It seems like it's skill-based, except it's not.
None of the balls have any values.
It's entirely random.
But you do kind of have this fun thing to do
to pick up a ball and just see how well you do it.
It does not matter how well you do.
You still win the same amount
as determined by the random number generator.
Now, if you're a fan of poker,
unfortunately, poker rooms appear to be a dying breed.
Planet Hollywood just closed their poker room permanently
on July 11th, and the Mirage, Mandalay Bay, and Excalibur
have all closed their poker rooms as well.
Now, a lot of people have asked me
about the World Series of Poker.
It is coming back for 2021 at the Rio Hotel,
September 30th in the November of this year.
Now, on the subject of transportation, Uber, Lyft, taxis,
they are all back again.
Bus service is running.
The monorail is running.
Something that just started running a couple of days ago
is one of my favorite transportation options,
the free tram that goes from Park MGM to the Bellagio
with a stop at city center in the middle.
Now, it has some wonky hours.
On the weekends, it's open till 2:00 a.m.
But on weekdays, it closes at 9:00 p.m.
So if you're planning to take that
after a long night out on weekdays,
you're not gonna be taking that after nine.
Now, back on the subject of food,
a new interesting establishment
that just opened is called Bagelmania.
It is right across the street
from the Las Vegas Convention Center.
It is a 10,000 square foot bagel shop.
It's almost like a bagel amusement park.
If you don't like bagels, they have donuts too.
Coming soon to the Las Vegas Strip, Raising Cane's,
the chain famous for their chicken tenders
had just announced they're starting construction
on a new two-story location on the Las Vegas Strip
in the Showcase Mall.
That's the one across from the New York-New York
with the giant Coke bottle.
Now, speaking of food, some of the most exciting restaurants
and eateries have opened at Resorts World
was just opened on the Las Vegas Strip.
I've not been there yet.
But I want to tell you all about it
by asking Derek and Catherine from All You Can Vegas.
They've been there, they've made a few videos about it.
But Derek, what's going on at Resorts World Las Vegas?
- Hey, Chris.
Yeah, so Resorts World Las Vegas.
It's a brand new casino in the Las Vegas Strip,
and there are brand new places to eat.
I mean the whole casino, it's very large.
It's a huge property.
It's just like as huge as the Venetian or the Bellagio.
Not as opulent though.
It kind of has a different style.
- Yeah, it feels like a mall and an airport.
- Kind of mall-like.
(Catherine chuckles)
But they have a food court just like at a mall.
And this is not any normal usual type of food court.
This is called the age or it's called the street...
- Famous street eats food hall.
- Right, it's all based on the hawker food stalls
of Southeast Asia.
It's almost all entirely Asian food.
Some really unique places,
in fact, award-winning Michelin stars some of these places,
outpost of actual places in Asia.
- Yeah, I mean, it's definitely
a not-hawker street food prices.
- Oh, that's right, yeah.
Everything there is gonna be about $20 a plate
for not the biggest serving.
But it's got the variety where you can definitely try a lot.
And the ordering process is a little bit unusual.
There are kiosks where you literally order
from any of the places all at once,
and then you wait for like a text
to get to pick up your food at each individual place.
It's a little bit unusual.
But at least you can try all the different places.
And in fact, speaking of trying lot of different foods,
they do have a buffet at Resorts World.
We love buffets here at All You Can Vegas.
But we haven't been to it.
It's at the restaurant called The Kitchen.
And really it's the report seemed to indicate
it's more just like a hotel breakfast buffet.
So it's not the traditional Las Vegas buffet at all.
- It's available for breakfast and dinner.
- Yes, but there are other restaurants,
lots of other restaurants there.
There's Suns Out Buns Out, which is like excellent
at The Cosmopolitan for breakfast foods,
you know, eggs and donuts and stuff like that.
And everything from that to all the way to Genting Palace,
which is their high-end Chinese restaurant, we went there.
Experience didn't go quite as we had hoped.
But you'll have to watch that video to see for yourself.
- If you're craving Mexican food,
there's a VIVA by Ray Garcia.
If you're craving Italian, there's Brezza.
And there's even a steakhouse called Carversteak
opening up later in the year.
Speaking of Italian, just to track back, just to go back,
but there's a pizza place opening up
based in Los Angeles called Mulberry Street Pizzeria.
It should be opening up hopefully soon.
That's one thing
that you don't have yet, pizza.
- Yes, something's still opening,
a lot of the retail not opening yet.
Most of the restaurants are.
So there's so much to eat.
You should definitely come check out
what there is to eat at Resorts World Las Vegas.
- Thanks for sharing that Derek and Catherine.
You made me really hungry.
I know I have to get over to Resorts World pretty quick.
By the way, if you've never seen Derek and Catherine before,
check them out on the All You Can Vegas channel.
They've got a whole bunch of great videos about buffets,
cheap eats in Vegas, all the things you could eat,
all in one channel.
Now on the subject of hotel,
Caesars Palace has started remodeling their grand entrance.
They're going to make a big dome,
and you'll be greeted by who else,
but a 15-foot tall statue of Augustus Caesar.
Expect construction through December.
Now, something not coming anytime soon now,
but coming in the future,
people always ask me about what's going on
at the Fountainebleau, The Drew,
it was just announced that it's gonna be called
the JW Marriott Las Vegas Blvd.
It's gonna open in 2023.
In addition to being a JW Marriott,
it's also gonna be an addition branded hotel.
The addition is gonna be the top 900 rooms at the top,
while the JW Marriott is 3,700 rooms on the lower floors.
I really love Marriott.
And so I'm looking forward to a JW Marriott
on the Las Vegas trip.
I'll keep my fingers crossed
that this one actually stays on schedule and goes forward.
It's really great to see all the entertainment
coming back to Las Vegas.
In particular, people always ask me about the Cirque shows.
So here's the Cirque rundown.
O just reopened at the Bellagio.
Mystere is currently running a TI.
Michael Jackson One is online at Mandalay Bay.
And Blue Man Group, which yes is a Cirque show
is open at Luxor.
The Beatles LOVE show opens this month,
August 26th at The Mirage.
Ka is missing in action,
no reopening date announced for that show yet.
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And you know what?
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Now back on the subject of shows,
the Fremont Street Experience
has live entertainment every night.
But their big free show this month is on August 21st
when Steven Adler from Guns N' Roses plays their free stage
on the Fremont Street Experience.
Why is Steven Adler in Vegas?
Well, because Guns N' Roses is playing at Allegiant Stadium.
Some other events at Allegiant Stadium.
The Raiders are playing a pre-season game
against the Seahawks,
and the WWE hosts their SummerSlam event this month too.
Now, if you're going to Allegiant Stadium,
you should be aware of some of their fees.
The parking fees at Allegiant Stadium, outrageous.
To park in some of their closest parking lots,
a hundred dollars.
I am not kidding with that number.
And all of the hotels and casinos
that are nearby Allegiant Stadium
have increased their parking fees.
Take a look at this parking map
for the day of Allegiant Stadium games.
You'll notice $50 is the cheapest you're gonna pay
to park at the neighboring hotels.
You want to park at the Delano Hotel at Mandalay Bay,
that'll be $102.
Now, the other gotcha to pay attention to
if you're going to one of these Allegiant Stadium games
or shows is their bag policy
and the sneaky fees that come along with it.
Basically, they only let you bring in the kind of bags
that nobody carries.
What do I mean by that?
All the bags that you can bring in to Allegiant Stadium
basically are small, clear plastic bags.
You can bring in clear backpacks.
But anything that isn't clear,
they won't let you bring into the stadium.
That means that if you have it with you,
and you took an Uber or Lyft or you walk a long way,
what are you gonna do with that bag?
They kindly have a bag check station for you,
and they will check that bag for the low fee of $20.
So bring your $20.
Actually don't bring in cash 'cause they don't take cash.
It's credit, debit, cashless only.
But beware of the bag fees at Allegiant Stadium.
Now slightly smaller than the Allegiant Stadium
down at The STRAT, they have a new show opening
on August 26 called iLuminate.
These people dance around
in these really neat pulsating suits.
Same technology that I've seen at the Robot Restaurant.
This footage that you're looking at
is actually not in Las Vegas.
This is in Tokyo at the Robot Restaurant.
But you'll see things like this iLuminate.
Tickets, pretty reasonable price, $49.
And tickets are now on sale
for the Whitney Houston Hologram show
that's opening at Harris.
This show opens in October,
but you can get your tickets now,
if you already know you'll be going.
No doubt due to the success
of the Michael Jackson Cirque show.
They said, "Hey, let's give it a try with Whitney Houston."
I'm really intrigued to see what this show looks like.
Now on the note of new attractions in Las Vegas,
one that's currently open, there's a new escape room
that's open at The Venetian in the Grand Canal Shoppes.
It's called PanIQ.
What's its claim to fame?
It's the only escape room
that combines brain-teasing challenges
with a full service bar.
And then opening in a couple months
over by the Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip
will be this ride called FlyOver.
It's kind of like Soarin' at Disneyland or Disney World
where you fly over different things.
Their rides though are themed on flying through Iceland
or the Wild West, kind of an odd pairing.
Tickets will be $34.
Should be another interesting attraction.
And finally, on the subject of sneaky new fees in Vegas,
the latest sneaky fee to invade Vegas, not resort fees,
those have been around for a long time, it's the view fee.
Chris, what is a view fee?
Well, a number of restaurants on the Strip
that have tables with views, if you want to confirm them
are now charging a fee to reserve a table with a view.
In particular, Geode at the Cromwell charges of view fee.
The restaurant at the top of The STRAT charges a view fee.
And the restaurant at the Paris near Eiffel Tower
charges a hundred dollars view fee.
That's right.
At Geode and The STRAT, it's $25.
The $25 doesn't go to feed you.
It is merely so that you can get the table
to then buy more food.
Yeah, I remember when restaurants with views,
you could just ask for view table, and then you'd get one.
Well, now, you've got to pay for that view.
Now, if you're heading to Vegas,
you might enjoy watching some of my videos right here.
This one, all about the best cheap eats in Las Vegas,
or maybe this one here about how to save money
on your Las Vegas hotel.
As usual, I won't say goodbye,
'cause I'll see you in one of those videos.
Links are also in the description below.