{"id":10744,"date":"2015-03-17T00:47:17","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T07:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/?p=10744"},"modified":"2015-03-17T01:33:39","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T08:33:39","slug":"linq-hotel-just-keeps-whipping-out-happy-surprises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/linq-hotel-just-keeps-whipping-out-happy-surprises\/","title":{"rendered":"Linq Hotel Just Keeps Whipping Out Happy Surprises"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Linq Hotel & Casino, for many years the Imperial Palace and for a minute The Quad, has come a long way. A recent visit revealed more new surprises. Nothing too Earth-shattering, but along with room renovations and other upgrades, the Linq Hotel is slowly shedding its “meh” reputation and turning into a hotel-casino worthy of your Las Vegas to-do list.<\/p>\n

Here are some recent surprises at the Linq Hotel & Casino, both big and small.<\/p>\n

The first surprise would seem small, but to this Las Vegas blog, it’s huge. For the first time in recent memory (at least eight years, by our estimation), the Linq has pressure-cleaned the floor of its self-parking garage.<\/p>\n

\"Linq
Don’t laugh. It was starting to look like the floor of an adult movie theater. If those still exist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Off to an encouraging start!<\/p>\n

Next, the doors of the long-neglected elevators in the self-parking garage have been repainted. Again, small to some, but a sign of a renewed commitment to getting the Linq hotel out of TripAdvisor purgatory.<\/p>\n

\"Linq
The door colors don’t yet match the color coding inside the elevators, but we’re not quibbling at this point.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The surprises continue inside the hotel.<\/p>\n

The hotel’s shopping promenade, which has been empty since the renovations began<\/a>, has suddenly sprung to life. Or sprang. Springed? Stupid public education!<\/p>\n

\"Linq
Look! There’s stuff! Which the Linq Hotel & Casino should totally use as their advertising tagline.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are multiple shops in the revamped shops area. They aren’t going for flashy. That’s outside at the Linq shopping and entertainment district. Here, it’s the basics.<\/p>\n

\"Linq
Las Vegas trivia: Did you know many casino gift shops don’t sell gum? That’s because casinos got tired of cleaning up the discarded gum. (Ditto at Disneyland.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Within the collection of shops is a spacious new tattoo joint, Club Tattoo.<\/p>\n

\"Club
Club Tattoo was created by Linkin Park’s frontman Chester Bennington. A “frontman” is like a lead singer, but blogs sometimes use the other term because they want to distract readers from the fact they can’t think of a Linkin Park joke.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next surprise? Remember when they closed Fat Tuesday, the slushy drink place? Well, it’s been replaced with a new slushy drink place!<\/p>\n

Outside in the Linq shopping mall is a Purple Zebra<\/a> featuring both the slush and a wide variety of drink receptacles. In Vegas, you can never have too many slushy drink outlets, so there’s a petite version in the Linq Hotel’s shopping area.<\/p>\n

\"Linq
Fat Tuesday, third party operator. Purple Zebra, operated in-house by the hotel’s owner, Caesars Entertainment (where we worked at one time). Smart move, Benjaminwise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few feet away is a new walk-up snack shop, Nook Express, with all the usual hotel snack shop goodness like coffee and pastries.<\/p>\n

\"Nook
The Nook Express has been open a couple of weeks and heralds another surprise at the Linq Hotel. You have to love heralding. Much better than portenting. A portent is like a herald experiencing PMS, if you ask us.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There’s a reason they call it “express.” That’s because the Nook Express will soon have a full-fledged sister eatery, Nook Cafe. The Nook Cafe will be in the back of the shopping area, in the space formerly occupied by Betty’s Diner and Cyber Cafe.<\/p>\n

Here’s what it looks like at the moment, so there are obviously still some surprises in store.<\/p>\n

\"Linq
You can’t be a Las Vegas hotel without a hotel cafe. It’s the law.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Great news for anyone who spent time waiting for the old elevators in the former Imperial Palace, the elevators have been overhauled, and our recent visit was the first-ever when we didn’t see a crowd of surly people sighing deep sighs of frustration at the excruciating elevator wait times.<\/p>\n

Nobody’s winning any interior design awards here, but faster elevators beats out fanciness any day.<\/p>\n

\"Linq
Thanks to that security guard for reminding us not to take photos or video. Like the video below, for example.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This seems like a good juncture to share a slick video we took from one end of the Linq Hotel’s shopping area to the other. It should be noted that by “slick” we mean “we don’t claim to be a videographer, so keep your feedback to yourself.”<\/p>\n

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