{"id":7339,"date":"2014-05-04T14:41:30","date_gmt":"2014-05-04T14:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/2014\/05\/04\/how-new-is-new-first-impressions-of-the-cromwell\/"},"modified":"2014-05-04T14:41:30","modified_gmt":"2014-05-04T14:41:30","slug":"how-new-is-new-first-impressions-of-the-cromwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/2014\/05\/04\/how-new-is-new-first-impressions-of-the-cromwell\/","title":{"rendered":"HOW NEW IS NEW? FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE CROMWELL"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tA view of the casino floor at the Cromwell, formerly Bill\u2019s Gamblin\u2019 Hall & Saloon, during a soft opening Monday, April 21, 2014. The casino is undergoing a $185 million renovation project that includes remodeling of guest rooms, casino floor and common areas, the addition of a new second floor restaurant, and construction of the 65,000 square foot rooftop pool and dayclub\/nightclub.<\/span><\/p>\n

\tI\u2019m on the fence when it comes to this year\u2019s Strip. We\u2019ve got construction and development again, which is fabulous, and the big gaming companies are creating innovative (for Vegas) projects that are making something where there was nothing.<\/p>\n

\tBut what about these \u201cnew\u201d casinos? The SLS is coming on Labor Day, promising to be nothing like the old Sahara it\u2019s replacing. And the Gansevo\u2014I mean, the Cromwell will be fully operational by Memorial Day Weekend, and no one will confuse it with Bill\u2019s Gamblin\u2019 Hall. Right?<\/p>\n

\tThe Cromwell, operated by Caesars Entertainment on the plum northeast corner of Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard, is already open; its refurbished casino sprang to life suddenly on April 21. The highest-profile pieces of the property\u2019s puzzle are still coming soon\u2014Victor Drai\u2019s massive rooftop beach club and nightclub (plus the return of Drai\u2019s basement afterhours spot) and Food Network superstar Giada De Laurentiis\u2019 first-ever restaurant. If you\u2019re wandering into the casino between now and then, your personal ooh-and-ah factor will depend on your familiarity with the property.<\/p>\n

\tThis building opened in 1979 as the Barbary Coast. Boyd Gaming took over when it acquired Coast Casinos in 2005, then swapped it to Caesars two years later for some land where Boyd\u2019s Echelon Place was supposed to rise. Caesars (then Harrah\u2019s Entertainment) didn\u2019t renovate the property but did rename it Bill\u2019s Gamblin\u2019 Hall (for Bill Harrah).<\/p>\n

\tIt closed last year for this grand refreshening, and it\u2019s pretty fresh. Everything is deeply red, with lots of gold accents\u2014red upholstered leather columns, red fringed chandeliers. The old-school lounge in the casino\u2019s front corner has been pushed back and transformed into the swanktastic Interlude, where the signature Champagne cocktail, the Vegas Newborn, has gin, honey syrup and orange flower water. This bar has potential.<\/p>\n

\tCromwell Opens Casino Floor<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe Cromwell\u2019s casino feels more spacious than its predecessor\u2019s, probably because Caesars hollowed out the steakhouse, coffee shop and back-of-house spaces to make more room for Interlude; the hip gift shop Curios; an airy, golden lobby space that\u2019ll become a bar called Bound; and a private gaming salon dubbed Abbey.<\/p>\n

\tIt\u2019s all very pretty, embellished and ornate, but I can\u2019t shake how Barbary Coast it still feels. It\u2019s nice and new, but how new? Is it possible to create a crisp, different Vegas experience without starting from scratch?<\/p>\n

\tIn Strip terms, the Cromwell is tiny. Its casino clocks in around 40,000 square feet, topped by 188 rooms and suites. Its website brags that it\u2019s \u201cthe Strip\u2019s first luxury standalone boutique hotel.\u201d I guess hotels-within-hotels don\u2019t count, and though the Cosmopolitan feels boutique-y, its thousands of rooms push it into the big-boy category. The Cromwell\u2019s vintage-meets-modern theme reads a little Cosmo-ish, perhaps an attempt to cash in on that old Vegas vibe everybody claims to adore while bringing fancy new amenities into the mix. Judging by the many players and partiers who visited on its first night\u2014packed on a Monday, no less\u2014it seems entirely possible that this \u201cnew\u201d casino will be able to attract guests who would have never stopped by Barbary or Bill\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\tIf it is new, the Cromwell is the first Strip casino opening in more than three years … unless the Quad counts. Imperial Palace never really closed, it just gradually transformed into its renovated version, now festooned with Guy Fieri\u2019s Vegas Kitchen & Bar and all kinds of walkable Linqery. And if a new casino is going to open, doesn\u2019t it have to have a real opening party? Maybe not. Maybe those days are over, or maybe the Cromwell\u2019s coming out is still to come.<\/p>\n

\tWhether it feels new to you or not, it\u2019s hard to be cynical about the Cromwell when you\u2019re exiting I-15 and heading toward the Strip on Flamingo. You can\u2019t miss the cream-colored building with gold and purple accents, and you really can\u2019t miss the palm trees jutting skyward on the roof. Imagine what that roof will look like once Drai\u2019s fires up, pure Vegas energy. It\u2019s hard to argue with that.<\/p>\n

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A view of the casino floor at the Cromwell, formerly Bill\u2019s Gamblin\u2019 Hall & Saloon, during a soft opening Monday, April 21, 2014. The casino is undergoing a $185 million renovation project that includes remodeling of guest rooms, casino floor…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}