New York New York Las Vegas

New York New York (an MGM Mirage property) is the northernmost Las Vegas strip resort of the six "South Stripolopolis" network of resorts that are interconnected with pedestrian tunnels and bridges. The bridges which are elevated above the streets and sidewalks connect NY NY, MGM Grand, Tropicana and Excalibur while indoor tunnels connect Excalibur to Luxor and Luxor to Mandalay Bay. This network offers the unsurpassed opportunity to enjoy six different megaresorts without having to deal with automobile traffic as a driver or pedestrian.

Opened on January 3, 1997; New York New York is intended to mimic the appearance of New York City during the 1940s. The facade on Las Vegas Blvd. includes a half-scale reproduction of the Statue of Liberty and a miniature model of the Brooklyn Bridge, while indoor areas are named after New York landmarks and include a food court modeled after Greenwich Village. There is also a roller coaster, perhaps in honor of Coney Island.

The large casino is dimly lit and somewhat sedate in comparison to most Las Vegas strip casinos. The ambience is similar to Caesars Palace and the old Aladdin (since Aladdin became Planet Hollywood, their casino has adapted the party atmosphere style of Rio and Hard Rock.)

New York New York is not quite a luxury resort like Bellagio or Wynn, but neither is it a mid-range resort like the Flamingo or Luxor. It belongs in the "upper mid range" category with resorts like Paris, Mandalay Bay, and Treasure Island. It's a good choice both for it's location in the "South Stripolopolis" and offering an affordable level of luxury. (I was considering staying at Wynn or Encore for an upcoming trip to Las Vegas... but at almost $300 per night, I'll reconsider.)

Rates on the Las Vegas strip fluctuate wildly, in accordance with upcoming conventions, holidays, and weekends; therefore it's impossible to offer accurate pricing guidelines in terms of dollar amounts. You can, however, rely on comparisons to other properties.

If budget properties like Excalibur and Imperial Palace are offering a price of $50 per night; the mid level properties like Bally's and Luxor may be priced at around $80 to $90; upper mid level properties like NY NY at $120 to $150, and luxury properties at $200 to sky is the limit. Some properties are tough to categorize... Caesars could be seen as a luxury property or upper mid level; MGM could be mid level or upper mid level. Rio Suites, which used to be upper mid level, is sometimes priced like a budget property.

Conventions can throw off this pricing structure though. If one hotel is expecting 5,000 or more conventioners, their room rates will go way up for those dates. For huge conventions like the annual CES (Consumer Electronics Show) every January, every hotel rate will increase. Medium sized conventions will only affect the pricing of the hotels nearest to the convention.

The cocktail servers at NY NY are very friendly and are surpassed only by the Paris cocktail servers in their eagerness to pose for photos. The original management company (Caesars Entertainment; also known for a short time as Park Place Entertainment) frowned upon this behavior, however. NY NY is now owned by MGM MIrage, which seems to be less uptight about indoor photography. In the "old Las Vegas" photography was never allowed inside casinos. The transition to corporate owned casinos around 1990 saw a major shift in this attitude. Photographers are now welcome in nearly every Las Vegas property although policies vary between the management companies. The two most common policies are to either allow photography in all areas, or to restrict photography to non-gaming areas.