NEW EVENTS AND ATTRACTIONS FOR LAS VEGAS FOR YEAR-END 2017 AND 2018

The Electric Daisy Carnival will have new dates and experiences in 2018. The event will move to May in 2018 according to organizers, and will be held from May 18 to May 20. There will be new events as well.

SOME CHANGES AT GORDON RAMSAY STEAK AT PARIS LAS VEGAS

Update February 17, 2017  There has been a very significant and welcomed change at Gordon Ramsay Steak -- the upscale and delicious steak house at Paris Hotel and Casino on the Vegas Strip. The change isn't about the menu or the decor or the service. The menu is exceptional with all the great tastes from the celebrity chef that diners have enjoyed since Steak opened. The decor hasn't changed either -- you still enter thru a Vegas version of the Chunnel and as your hostess escorts you to your table she reminds you of that. And the service is still exceptional and not only does the waiter go to great detail explaining the dishes and the cuts of steak from the "steak trolley" but as each dish is served (starting with the bread basket with various kinds of interesting breads) the server describes each item.

So what changed? The music isn't as loud as it used to be. I've dined at Steak at least half of a dozen times over the last couple of years and each time it was difficult to carry on a conversation, even with a dinner date who sat next to me. And it was impossible to carry on a conversation with anyone sitting across from you at a larger table. About a year or so ago I wrote a review about Steak and suggested that if you wanted to have a conversation you should ask to sit on the second level of the restaurant where the piped-in music wasn't as loud and there were even private dining areas.

Now the music has been turned down, and you can actually have a conversation with your dinner date. It was pleasant to have conversation again with a fantastic meal. And with the music lower, you could actually listen to and take in the rich descriptions of the food before you ordered and when it was served. Bravo for turning down the volume.

I was curious why the music was turned lower and why it was so loud before? One of the staff told me that a previous manager came from the "club business" and he tried to bring a club atmosphere to the restaurant with loud music. It seems that manager is now gone and so are the decibels. But the fantastic service and food selections are still there for complete enjoyment.

But beware, the prices are not cheap. Dinner for two including a shared dessert and two cocktails could easily set you back $250 or more and that's before adding on appetizers and ordering lots of sides. Because Steak is actually owned by Caesars which operates the Paris Hotel and Casino, diners can use their Caesars Total Rewards reward credits or comp dollars as well as their anniversary dining certificates if they are Diamond or Seven Stars players. Below are some photos of some of the dishes including a beef cap steak, a seafood plate and a side of grits with seafood. The portions might look small but they were big enough that there was something to take home if you were a Vegas local or to your room if you wanted a snack later. My date and I barely made a dent in the grits because the serving was big enough for four to share.

A couple of notes about the beef cap steak if you are not familiar with it. The cap is the darker meat that surrounds a delicious slice of roast beef. And the beef cap steak is made when the cap is sliced off of the roast beef as a single large cut. If you are a roast beef eater, you will love the beef cap steak.

THE T-MOBILE ARENA AND WHERE YOU SIT COULD BE HAZARDOUS

Update May 2, 2016  There are as many as 20,000 seats in the new T-Mobile Arena near The Strip in Las Vegas and some of those seats could be hazardous. I got a look at just what the dangers were during the Billy Joel live concert on April 30th. The new T-Mobile Arena is beautiful and big and packed with seats. It has about five-times more seats than the Colosseum in Caesars Palace, for example, but unlike the seats at the Caesars facility some of the seats at the T-Mobile Arena have narrow leg room which means there is little space to walk, and the seats in the upper deck are stacked at a very sharp angle which makes walking the staircase scary if not absolutely dangerous.

Before the Billy Joel concert started I watched as many people hesitantly walked down the staircase in the upper deck to take their seats. The steps on the staircase appeared to be narrow, or perhaps it was just the view from the top of the upper deck and the height, that made concertgoers nervous and maybe even dizzy as they walked down the stairs to take their seats. When I checked out the seats and the stairs before the concert started I was not only nervous about walking down the stairs, I made sure I was holding the railing to reassure myself I wouldn't fall. When the concert was going on and the house lights were dimmed, some patrons said they tripped on the stairs. And leaving the Arena at the end of the concert wasn't easy either because the steps were steep and even I felt a "burn" in my legs as if I had been working out on a stair-climbing machine at a gym.

There were also instances where patrons who had too much to drink were stumbling and falling over into the patrons sitting in the row below.

The sharp-angled stairs might not be a problem for younger patrons, but I saw folks in their 60s and 70s at the Billy Joel concert who felt relieved once they got down the stairs and into their seats. Younger patrons might not give the angle of the stairs a second thought at the end of an event, but older fans at the Billy Joel event exited the event a bit cautiously and I can't blame them because I was one of them.