Las Vegas Tips, Entertainment and News

The famous Mirage Volcano, which had been under construction for the better part of 2008, has finally re-opened. We give the made-over lava spitting structure a 7 out of 10, up from a 5 out of 10 before the remodeling. The new Mirage Volcano has been re-vamped, adding more fire, more water, and a thumping tribal soundtrack.

For those stopping to watch the new production their stroll down Las Vegas Boulevard, they might find it eerily similar to another free show just a couple hotels south. Another show that is also in front of a hotel, also takes place on a lake, and is also choreographed to music. Yes, unfortunately the Mirage definitely played the copy-cat card here, heavily borrowing from the Bellagio’s gorgeous fountains. Except now, instead of spitting streams of water, it spits little puffs of fire.

Still, despite the lack of creativity, Mirage Volcano v2.0 is definitely an improvement over the original. Next time you’re in Las Vegas, stop to take a look and watch the dancing flames of the brand new attraction. Or, if you just can’t wait, check out the video of the production:

Leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Here is the press release related to the volcano’s re-opening:

LAS VEGAS, NV–(Marketwire - December 9, 2008) - The Mirage, a wholly owned subsidiary of MGM MIRAGE (NYSE: MGM), once again set the standard for Strip-front attractions Monday as its redesigned signature Volcano premiered to the world. When The Mirage first unveiled The Volcano in 1989 the landscape of Las Vegas was forever altered. This all-new audio/visual spectacle again raises the bar with never-before-seen fire effects and an exclusive soundtrack composed by Grateful Dead drummer and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Mickey Hart, and Indian tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain.

Celebrity impressionist, singer, comedian, ventriloquist and soon-to-be Mirage headliner Terry Fator acted as Master of Ceremonies for the historic reignition, which took place on The Las Vegas Strip at dusk. Fator was joined on stage by Grammy Award-winner Hart, as well as Mirage President Scott Sibella and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. Following the inaugural eruption, the Las Vegas sky was lit with celebratory fireworks from the top of The Volcano.

In addition to commemorating the renovation of The Strip’s most enduring landmark, The Mirage used the opportunity to shine light on the value of music programs in local schools. In honor of the new Volcano and the exclusive soundtrack composed by Hart and Hussain, The Mirage made a donation to the Clark County School District to be used to support music in schools.

“I would not be the musician I am today if I had not had the opportunity to embrace music at a young age,” said Hart. “And now I get to do things like put percussive sound to the image of fire and have it dance around a lagoon. That’s not something one gets to do everyday; to birth a volcano. Zakir and I immersed ourselves in the legends and myths and studied what really makes a volcano work. The result, a true union of the senses, will rattle your bones, just like a real volcano.”

Tasked with bringing the latest innovations to the project, WET forged a primal volcanic environment of sound, light, music and heat. WET’s choreographed FireShooters™ — which send massive fireballs more than 12 feet into the air — were designed specifically for The Mirage using the latest developments in flame-expression technology. The FireShooters™ punctuate the performances with eruptions of fiery “lava” that flow down the mountain’s fissures in a series of lively flames. As the eruption ignites the surrounding lagoon, the FireShooters™ bring Las Vegas’ signature blast within feet of spectators.

“In its prior incarnation, the action stayed primarily on top of The Volcano,” said WET’s Director of Special Technologies Jim Doyle. “We’ve not only created a much more realistic eruption, but we’ve taken the action down into the Lagoon, where spectators will feel the heat on their faces.”

Further enhancing the overall experience, The Volcano features a new Meyer Sound state-of-the-art sound system. An award-winning industry innovator, Meyer Sound is widely recognized for providing the gold standard in audio systems, as heard in theaters throughout the world, including The Mirage’s own LOVE Theater. With more than 60 Meyer Sound cabinets strategically placed throughout the lagoon, Hart and Hussain’s invigorating composition immerses guests in the volcanic rhythms.

The new Volcano is the crowning jewel in a transformation project that began at the property in 2006. During the past three years, The Mirage has introduced new amenities including The Beatles’ LOVE™ by Cirque du Soleil, nightlife outposts JET Nightclub and The Beatles Revolution Lounge; the luxury adult pool BARE, and restaurants created by the world’s most acclaimed restaurateurs and designers. A recent $110 million room and suite redesign has further enhanced The Mirage’s leading-edge position.

“Technology and The Las Vegas Strip have come a long way since 1989, making for an increasingly competitive tourism market,” said Sibella. “With tonight’s rebirth of our Volcano the exterior of the resort reflects the energy and excitement found within the new Mirage.”

To discover more about The Volcano, see images and view interviews with the creators behind the magic, go to mirage.com.

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Here comes summer! Vegas Hotel Hunt is in full swing and the Summer 2008 Deals are rolling in every day. If you’re still trying to decide which hotel to stay at, while price is undoubtedly the most important factor, hotel location is probably number two. Not sure which hotels are where? Try checking out our new mapping tool, Vegas Vision. It is a map of The Las Vegas Strip which uses Google’s Street View technology to give you a real look at each hotel. You can travel up and down the street, jump from hotel to hotel, change your view, and explore Las Vegas! It’s a great tool to get a feel for the layout and spacing of hotels on The Strip. Even if you’re a Vegas veteran, it is still fun to cruise up and down Las Vegas Boulevard, checking out the new hotels that have opened since your last trip (try Palazzo), and to also reminisce on your favorite Vegas memories.

As always, we’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment or use our Contact Form to let us know what you think about Vegas Vision!

If you’re a regular at Vegas Hotel Hunt, you may have noticed a few changes. Besides a couple design improvements, we’ve decided to add a few lighter posts on our blog. We understand that while you may not always be planning our next trip to Las Vegas, it is still fun to stay in the loop of Sin City. While the primary focus at Vegas Hotel Hunt is to find the best hotels rates around, we still know a few other websites that can help give you that Las Vegas fix. With the addition of these posts, we hope to bring to you some fun online resources for your own Las Vegas pleasure. From travel tips, to Las Vegas news, to just plain entertainment, we hope we can show you the lighter side of Vegas Hotel Hunt!

Beyond our new blog posts, we also wanted to let you know that we’re continually expanding our All-In-One search to include more and more online booking sites. Just recently we added TravelRes to the search, a booking engine with very competitive rates for Las Vegas hotels. Finally, all of the Spring 2008 package deals are flowing in, so take advantage of them before the hotels are booked, and enjoy a spring getaway in fabulous Las Vegas!

As requested, we’ve updated our Special Promotions page. It lists the free included extras that come along with many of the deals that we post here at Vegas Hotel Hunt. Although it may clutter the page a little, we feel that these extras are important to be listed along with each deal. After all, when you add in their value when calculating a promotion, it makes your stay that much cheaper!

Our All-In-One search continues to be a popular destination on our site, and we’re glad you like it! We know our search takes away a lot of the effort required in manually browsing the Las Vegas promotions, and we’re glad to save you a little time and money!

Greetings to all! We’ve been completely thrilled with the feedback we’ve received over the first operational month of our site! The promotions have been updated, and many of the Spring 2008 deals are here. One that looks particularly interesting is Mandalay Bay’s Gold Key promotion. For those looking to really turn up the luxury in Vegas, this is the way to do it! There are sorts of amazing VIP extras that can be tacked onto this deal for a really great rate! Also, the All-In-One Search is growing, as we’re adding more sites to its online hotel rate search.

One thing that we wanted to ask you all is whether or not we should list the “extras” or “includes” that come along with many of the promotions listed on our Special Promotions page. To get an example of what this may look like, check out our older site, Vegas-Promotions. Would this sort of a layout be helpful, or just clutter up the important details? Please let us know. Enjoy your mid-winter Vegas get-aways and, as always, we hope our site will bring you one step closer toward beating the house!

We’ve added lots of new Las Vegas deals over the weekend. Visit our Special Promotions page to check them out! Our list of hotels is now expanded beyond the MGM Mirage properties to include many more popular destinations on and near the Las Vegas Strip. For now, we’re planning on just sticking to publishing deals for hotels that are on or near The Strip, as those seem to be the locations people are most interested in. If you are interested in staying off The Strip (perhaps around Fremont St.?) there are a few sites that publish some of their deals. Look around on google, and they’ll surely come up.

We are also working hard to expand our All-In-One search. We established the search with the intention of giving patrons the ability to simultaneously search a list of sites that includes specific Las Vegas hotel websites, and now we’re even moving beyond that! Many of the promotions listed on our Hotel Deals page are included in the search already, but we’re looking to do better. Make sure to check back soon, as we continue to develop and expand our All-In-One search capabilities. That’s all for now. As always, we welcome any comments or suggestions. See you in Vegas!

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We are just getting off the ground and are still trying to finalize a few things throughout the website. Please bear with us in this process. Still, we hope that you enjoy what we have to offer thus far.

Make sure to check back frequently as we will be expanding our Special Promotions page and improving our All-In-One Search. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or bug reports, please fill out a message form or contact us via email at webmaster@vegashotelhunt.com. We would love to hear from you, and we’re always interested to see how we’re doing.

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