City Center opening

The Vdara part of the ginormous City Center complex had its official opening today. As usual with such things, I think the best photos and commentary are to be found at Vegas Rex's blog--see here.

The Aria hotel/casino is slated to open December 16. I'm sure I'll get there eventually, but I feel done with trying to be one of the first in the door on opening day. I did that for the Eastside Cannery and Aliante Station, but it just wasn't worth the hassle of fighting traffic and crowds. With the M Resort, I got there a few days after the grand opening, and that worked out fine. I expect that Las Vegas Michael and others will be among the first to post early impressions of every new poker room on allvegaspoker.com, but I'll no longer be trying to compete to be first. I hate crowds and traffic.

And speaking of traffic, the Las Vegas Sun has this useful article about how best to get to and into the City Center complex, as well as how to avoid the traffic congestion it will undoubtedly generate if it is not your destination. I was surprised--and a little disgusted--to learn some key facts: (1) There is only one self-parking garage for the entire complex. (2) To access this garage, you must enter the complex from the Strip--no back-roads way into it. (3) There is, however, a convenient back-roads entry to the valet services. (4) If the accompanying map is correct, you can only get to the parking garage from southbound Las Vegas Boulevard, and only exit again going southbound. (But it's possible the sketch is wrong on this detail and there's actually an intersection that allows you to go to and from the place either direction. We'll see.)

I dislike valets. No, it's not that I'm trying to avoid tipping. It's just that I like the sense of freedom and independence from parking myself. I also hate waiting for the valet when I'm ready to go home. When I want to leave, I want to leave now, and sometimes it can be a very, very long wait for somebody to bring you your car. I can't stand that. I dislike the nuisance of taking the car key off of my key ring and putting it back on (and I think it's foolish to hand them all of your keys). Finally, I just don't like strangers driving my car. Even though it's an old beater, it's mine. I've had it for 17 years, since the day I drove it brand-new off of the dealer's lot, and I'm unduly possessive and territorial about it. The stupid valets also tend to fiddle with the driver's seat position and radio, which is beyond annoying. In short, I dislike everything about valets. I used to valet all the time when I first came to Vegas, but I gradually grew to hate the process, and swore off of it. Which is a long explanation for why I raise my eyebrows when I learn that the biggest hotel/casino complex ever to hit this city is entirely built around valet service, with self-parking being a grudging, ugly-stepchild concession to the masses. Dammit, free parking is the birthright of every Las Vegan! Don't tread on me!

Anyway, I'll get to the Aria poker room sooner or later, but this whole parking thing has me already casting a jaundiced eye on it.