The Mirage
In the mid 90’s I directed IT Services for a small software
development firm based in Seattle. I was always on the road, traveling to
support our servers and sites nationwide. I also traveled for the
tradeshows. If there was a software convention happening in the US
between 1995 and 1997, I was probably there. ComDex was a big one, CES (of
course) and Microsoft sponsored events were among just a few of many show I
attended when I was on the “Tradeshow Circuit”.
It seemed like I was always headed to Las Vegas for one
reason or another, and anytime I was in town I always made it a point to stay
at or visit The Mirage hotel and casino. After opening
in 1989 The Mirage was marvel on the strip. No other hotel compared to
it. This place was nothing short of Amazing. One of the first “Mega Hotels” on
the strip hosting more than 3000 rooms, it was the new standard that all other
hotels in Las Vegas looked up to. Complete with an indoor atrium featuring
ponds and running water, you immediately felt like you were transformed to
another place entirely as you walked over the elevated walkways through the
vast greenery. Looking up you could see outside through the class domed roof.
Out front there was a volcano that erupted several times each evening offering
a free show for tourists who were walking up Las Vegas Blvd.
The Volcano in front of the Mirage Hotel and Casino
If I were entertaining clients, we would take them to The Mirage. Entertaining a prospective client at this hotel meant you really cared about them and were serious about the business you were trying to do because this was the best hotel/casino on the strip. If you stayed at the hotel, you could get a discount on tickets to see Siegfried and Roy in their custom-built theater with some of the most beautiful White Tigers. Later they added a Dolphin pool and a “Secret Garden” where you could pay $10 and walk through a maze of walkways and be up close and personal with the magnificent animals in the Siegfried and Roy show.
The food was always amazing here. I
remember an all you can eat buffet for $10 at the time. I could eat once a day
at the buffet and have lots of per diem cash left over for a night on the town.
If you took a client to one of the high-end restaurants at The Mirage, your
chances of closing a deal went up drastically.
Occasionally when I was in town my grandmother would meet
me in Las Vegas. She loved that place. She visited often with my
grandfather before he passed away. I used to love to take her to The Mirage and
just walk around. She would walk slow and take it all in. She was always
enamored with Last Vegas, and more importantly, The Mirage.
I moved to Las Vegas in 1999 and started working with DIRECTV. As a “Local” we would always
take friends and family to The Mirage just to let them see it and be dazzled by
the splendor of this massive destination. I remember taking my parents to see
the Mirage in 2000, and my Father was struck by how massive the outdoor
swimming pool was. The Mirage had a state of the art Pool at the time that was
more than large enough to cater to their average occupancy of 5000 guests
daily.
When I came back to DIRECTV in 2016 and left Las Vegas for Dallas, our family took one last drive down the Las Vegas strip and took one last look at The Mirage. That hotel felt like home to me because I had so many memories there. When Roy Horn was attacked by one of his white tigers on stage, I knew the show would not return to the theater despite the PR teams attempts to calm the public on television on TV and in print media. The next day after Roy was attacked, I drove over to the Mirage and bought a few playbills from their show. I framed them. I sent one to my mother, one to my father and kept one for myself. I still have it today.
I was in Las Vegas at the NFR in December of 2023. Though I
stayed at The Conrad Hotel, I did make a trip back to The
Mirage for a walk down memory lane. The hotel was no longer the jewel of the
strip. Without any renovations in the last several years, most all the nearby hotels had passed her up on the “Destination List”. That didn’t matter to
me though. As I walked through the atrium it was as grand to me in December as
it was for me the first time I walked through it 30 years earlier. I sat on a bench in
the atrium and thought about the time I got a room there for my
grandmother and I so we would wake up at 100am and watch the Sands hotel implode next
door. I remember walking through the hotel with my father the day before I got
married as he told me how proud he was of me for finding a lovely lady to marry
and start a family. So many memories…
At the tail end of my trip last December (you can read
about my trip HERE) I diverted from the Conrad and stayed
at The Tropicana Hotel and Casino. I purposely
diverted to this specific hotel as it had already been made public that the
Trop was closing and would be replaced with a Parking lot to support the new
Baseball stadium for the Oakland A’s. I wanted to walk the Trop one more time
as well. Had I known that the Mirage was going to be closed and transformed
into a Hard Rock hotel and casino I would have stayed there for sure. I
just didn’t know at the time.
I am so happy that I was able to walk the Tropicana and
Mirage Hotels one last time before they closed their doors. Las Vegas has had
many “Golden Ages”, and for me those were the 90’s and 2000’s. I always thought
The Mirage was “Too big” for Las Vegas to lose. I always thought it was a
landmark that Las Vegas couldn’t live without. I guess I was wrong.
Long Live The Mirage Hotel...
To learn more about John and the work he does for DIRECTV please click HERE.
The views expressed in this blog post reflect the experiences and opinions of the author only and are not meant to be any official correspondence from DIRECTV, its Dealers, affiliates or any related entities. Copyright John Mac's Travels 2024
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