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Tags: Travel Snapshot / Las Vegas Travel / Airport WiFi / → All Tags

Please Don't Ever Change, McCarran Airport (When It Comes To Free WiFi)

We've sung the praises of the free airport WiFi at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas before but now that we're sitting pretty in the airport's B Terminal surfing the incredibly fast network, we realize just how much this service means to us.

We spent the past two nights at Encore Las Vegas where, despite the use of a Verizon Wireless Card, we found our signal extremely slow in the rooms. We were able to find a great place to work in the hotel's Lobby Bar and Cafe but the whole point of working from a hotel during a trip is to be able to hide away in your pajamas while you work.

So today, we're extremely grateful that McCarran has continued to offer free WiFi. This new B terminal also rocks. It's bright, airy, clean and has plenty of Wheel of Fortune slots. There's also a 360 Burritto shop, a Fox Sports Bar and a Starbucks. Kinda makes the inevitable Leaving Las Vegas hangover a little more bearable.

Related Stories:
· Airport WiFi Map [Jaunted]
· McCarran Airport coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Film Travel / ShoWest / Las Vegas Travel / Robert Downey Jr / → All Tags

ShoWest Begins in Las Vegas

ShoWest, the longest running convention and trade show for the cinema exhibition and distribution community, aka movie theaters, is happening this week at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas. The gathering gives theater managers a first look at new products, concessions, and technologies. Basically, this is where all of those cool new seats, screens, and sound systems at your local Cineplex are unveiled.

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Tags: Geek Travel / Star Trek / Star Trek Experience / Las Vegas Travel / → All Tags

Good News for Geeks: Star Trek, The Experience Will Reopen in May

For 10 years the Las Vegas Hilton hosted Star Trek: The Experience, an alternative for tourists inexplicably seeking something beyond Sin City's decadent cocktail of hookers, booze, and gambling.

The exhibition had Star Trek-themed rides, Star Trek-themed shops, and Star Trek-themed characters. The word "immersion" was thrown around with abandon. The world was filled with light and joy.

Then last year the stars flickered out and darkness descended. The Hilton's contract with the owners expired. The exhibition was left without a home. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth heard throughout the Kingdom of Dorkdom Universe of Geekdom.

But now, perk up geeks.

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Tags: HotelChatter / March Madness / → All Tags

Hotels Heart March Madness

"It's the most wonderful time of the year..." for college basketball fans. The NCAA College Basketball Tournament has officially started today and no one loves March Madness more than hotels, especially those in Las Vegas. Our sis HotelChatter has the latest scoop on what's going on where:

· The Sahara: The Sahara's NASCAR Cafe is selling Brew Towers which hold 15 beers and Shot Trees which hold five to 10 of your favorite shots.

· Encore Las Vegas: The new resort from Steve Wynn is offering $199 rooms and tickets to former Indiana coach Bobby Knight's "Survive and Advance" show tapings.

· NOLA Marriott: Rooms here are an unbelievably low $69 now through April 13th and while the deal is set up to draw you to the New Orleans Hornets games, Bourbon Street is just a few steps away in case you need to celebrate your school's win.

· Final Four Hotels: Should you want to head to Detroit for the championship game on April 4th, HotelChatter recommends the city's new MGM Casino Hotel.

Tags: Chocolate / Attractions / Secret Vegas / → All Tags

Vegas Machine Spouts Chocolate Jackpot

While a solitary truffle may not strike everyone as interchangeable with hitting the Triple 7s, there are enough fans of the hallowed cocoa bean who will take nearly as much delight in the payout of the Chocolate Clock at the Payard Patisserie inside Caesars Palace.

From the city that brought you…well, sin…comes not only a soon-to-debut resident production of “The Lion King”but also this mechanical novelty straight out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

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Tags: Stripper 101 / Strip Clubs / To Do / Sex Travel / → All Tags

Learning How to Pole Dance in Las Vegas

HotelChatter editor and Jaunted contributor Juliana recently visited Las Vegas and decided to do as the Las Vegas folk do: Strip.

Last week I took a field trip to Las Vegas where I checked out some of the renovated hotel rooms on the Strip. But I also had a secret side mission. I was trying to track down stripper poles that didn't require me to actually get up in front of a gaggle of men and strip down to my granny panties as Motley Crue played in the background.

While several nightclubs have stripper poles (for females only) like Tryst at The Wynn and Christian Audiger at Treasure Island, I found a place where I could really concentrate on my pole-dancing skills: Stripper 101 at the V Theater inside Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.

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Tags: Helicopter Tours / Attractions / Las Vegas Attractions / Las Vegas Travel / → All Tags

Las Vegas Strip Helicopter Tour For Those With ADD

Everyone knows there is plenty to keep Las Vegas touristers and conventioners occupied once the sun goes down, but what do you do while the sun is out? Yes, we know, you can lounge by the pool, however the desert is not exactly a tropical climate and many pools are empty, closed, or sparsely populated during the winter months.

With this in mind we set out to find something to do during the daytime that didn't involve shopping, drinking or gambling, but still involved an adrenaline rush. Thus, it should be no surprise we ended up sitting in the co-pilots seat for a strip helicopter ride.

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Tags: Adult Entertainment / Spice Girls / Mel B. / Kelly Monaco / Dancing with the Stars / → All Tags

Spice Girl Does Vegas Peep Show

That's a headline we've been waiting to write for about 12 years, and frankly, we're kinda surprised it took so long.

The Spice Girl in question is Mel B., who'll be starring in the painfully capitalized PEEPSHOW, Planet Hollywood's latest over-the-top, very Vegas-y production, which also includes Playboy playmate and Dancing with the Stars champ Kelly Monaco, along with 20 more sexy dancers and an all-female band.

We should clarify that PEEPSHOW isn't exactly a sleazy porn thing, but more of a "highly stylized, full-throttle modern burlesque show that combines sexy striptease and celebrity with high-level production values and a dash of passion."

So, are they gonna be naked or not? We'll find out when the show starts March 30.

Related Stories:
· PEEPSHOW [Official Site]
· World's Most Expensive Nightclub Opens in Vegas [Jaunted]
· Spice Girls coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: PEEPSHOW]

Tags: $10k Drinks / Nightlife / Clubs / → All Tags

World's Most Expensive Nightclub Opens

We would've guessed that the rapid pace of Las Vegas nightclub openings would rapidly fall off this year, but so far Sin City is still popping out shiny new hot spots at a mind-boggling pace.

The latest is XS, which opened New Year's Eve at the new Encore resort, and this is one party spot that's just outright ignoring the whole recession thing. XS--rumored to be the most expensive club ever built--is over-the-top, even for Vegas. The 40,000-square-foot party den includes 30 cabanas surrounding a shimmering pool, while the interior features a lavish, gold-plated design "inspired by the sexy curves of the female body." Speaking of sexy curves, shirts are not required--and definitely not encouraged.

Las Vegas Weekly sums up the space:

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Tags: Travel Gear / Travel Accessories / CES / Travel Technology / → All Tags

Some New Travel Gadgets Await At CES

If you're in Las Vegas this week and are wondering why there are so many pocket protectors around, it's because the annual Computer Electronics Show (CES) is taking place.

On Wednesday, geeks will descend on Las Vegas--some by car, most by plane and almost all of them filling up the city's lonely hotel rooms--for the world's largest consumer technology trade show. Here, companies will unveil their latest products, inventions and toys which will eventually be sold to the masses in 2009.

On the travel gear side, iGo--you know the company that sells like, a million different adapters and chargers for your laptops, cellphones and iPods--will show off their newest products for use on-the-go. The coolest one seems to be the iGo Laptop Charger which uses iGo Green Technology that reduces energy by thwarting "vampire power." (Yes, mention the word vampire and we're interested.)

Vampire power is the energy suckage that reduces your battery life even when a device is turned off or in stand-by mode. As anyone who travels frequently with a laptop knows, conserving battery power is all too important. Oh, the things we will do for an outlet. It's embarrassing actually.

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Tags: Ostentation Vacations / Videos / New Year's Eve / → All Tags

Vegas Volcano Up And Running--And On Webcam

As Jaunted reported this weekend, the recession hasn't encouraged Las Vegas to tone down it's lavish ways just yet, and, as if to prove the point, one of Sin City's iconic over-the-top attractions is back in action today in even more over-the-top fashion.

The volcano at the Mirage, which ushered in the age of the new outlandish Vegas when it debuted 19 years ago, is back after a nearly year-long, $25-million-dollar renovation. The amped-up volcano features more than 100 new fireball-launching devices and shoots water 120 feet into the air, all choreographed to the music of Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and Indian tabla artist Zakir Hussain. If that's not impressive enough, daredevil and son-of-Evel Robbie Knievel plans to jump the volcano in a New Year's Eve stunt.

The four-and-a-half minute show runs every hour, on the hour, from dusk to midnight. But don't fret if your NYE plans are taking you to Copenhagen instead of Vegas: The volcano is also on a 24-7 webcam. And if you don't feel like waiting 'til the top of the hour, check out the YouTube video after the jump.

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Tags: Celeb Travel / Music Travel / Mariah Carey / → All Tags

Rumored Concert Travel: Casino Life for Mariah?

Is it time to put Mimi out to pasture? A Vegas casino has reportedly made an offer to Mariah Carey for a residency there--with a $100 million price tag.

The Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, which rose out of the ashes of the Aladdin this year, thinks the singer could be the next Celine Dion or Elvis. It's the same place whose clubs called in Heidi Montag's employer, Bolthouse Productions, to help them get with the times.

Vegas is a great place to make money (just ask Dion, who raked in almost $400 million over five years at Caesars) but we're not sure it's really Mariah's style!

Related Stories:
· Mariah Offered Vegas Residency [ICYDK]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of Carey performing in Vegas in '06: Swagger City]