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| The Tropicana: Our Opinion At A Glance | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The Tropicana: Full Review | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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As the name implies this hotel has a tropical flavor inside and out with jungle print carpeting, lots of lush foliage, and even some wildlife - the animal variety. It may not be as splashy or fancy as some of its newer neighbors (Luxor, New York New York, MGM Grand ) but it has a great location and you often can't beat the price.
A Caribbean style village, leading to a nice marble and wood lobby, fronts the hotel. Typically, it is quite a walk from the front desk to the elevators if you are staying in one of the two towers and even farther if you are staying in the "Garden" rooms. The casino has more of that jungle carpet and Tiki-torches but the relatively low ceiling and dark colors makes it a bit claustrophobic in my opinion. To be honest, I don't spend a lot of time gambling here simply because the room is not very inviting. The tower rooms are simple and tastefully decorated with muted woods and a vaguely French Provincial feel. Many are larger than hotels of this ear but offer nothing more or less than your typical hotel room. Not sure why they abandoned the tropical stuff when they got to the rooms but I'm grateful. Garden rooms are not much better than your standard roadside motel and in some cases are roughly the size of a walk-in closet. I once got stuck in a room where I literally had to squeeze in between the bed and the chest of drawers to get from one side of the room to the other. But here again, it's hard to complain when you are paying as little as you can to stay here. I've paid as little as $49 although typically it's more in the $100 and up range. There is a very nice pool area complete with a swim-up blackjack table, several restaurants (including one of my favorites Mizuno's, and the world famous Folies Bergere production show. Other hotels in town make more of an impression so it is easy to overlook the Trop but it is a solid, dependable option that is close to a variety of other casinos, shopping, and restaurants.
Related Reviews
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| The Tropicana Blog | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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From the Vegas4Visitors Weekly Column 8/20/07 Tropicana Pauses Pursuit of Makeover If you’ve been reading the headlines lately you have probably been seeing some kind of scary stories about the looming credit crisis in the American financial markets. Wall Street has been swinging up and down faster than an amusement park ride and cable news channels are filled with dire predictions about how this is only the beginning of a problem that could extend into previously untouched segments – like hotel construction. In part due to that financial volatility and in part due to spiraling credit costs, the owners of The Tropicana have announced that they are pushing the pause button on their ambitious plans to make over the 50 year old hotel. Construction was supposed to begin this fall on a $2.5 billion transformation of the “Tiffany of The Strip” from a weathered 1,800 room afterthought to a 10,000 room, multi-tower complex that would have eventually replaced almost all of the existing hotel. Now that construction will be delayed until at least 2008 according to press reports. Whether the credit crunch will affect other planned mega-resorts on The Strip is yet to be seen but with will over $26 billion tied up in financing for various projects pretty much anything could happen at this point.
From the Vegas4Visitors Weekly Column 11/06/06 Tropicana Spared, Partially The new owners of The Tropicana say they will be sparing much of the nearly 50 year old resort a date with the wrecking ball, choosing instead to redevelop the property and build a lot of new stuff around it - $2 billion worth, to be specific. The plans, revealed in a session with state gaming officials, include keeping the two main hotel towers but those will both get major overhauls. Although prices will undoubtedly go up, the company swears it will maintain a focus on the middle-market Vegas visitor, eschewing the luxury market that everyone else is going after. The less than appealing “garden rooms” will be demolished and as many as five new hotel towers will be built on the property, including at least one that will launch a new brand for Vegas (the name hasn’t been announced yet). The existing casino, restaurants, and showroom will be kept open while new ones are being built elsewhere on the land but then those will eventually be torn down or substantially overhauled. Construction is expected to begin as early as July of 2007.
From the Vegas4Visitors Weekly Column 5/22/06 Tropicana Bidding: And The Winner Is… It started out relatively simply: Pinnacle Entertainment announced they were going to purchase Aztar Corp, parent company of The Tropicana in both Las Vegas and Atlantic City among other casinos around the country, for about $2.1 billion (or $38 a share). The deal seemed done and the new owners were already talking about the future of the aging Strip hotel. Then things got out of control. Three other companies leapt into what turned into a massive and unprecedented bidding war for the company with share price bids being topped almost every day. $39 a share. $41 a share. Did I say $41, I meant $45. No, look over here… I’ll give you $48! And a pony! Two months of this kind of shenanigans ensued and the price climbed higher and higher, reaching levels that most gaming analysts were either privately or publicly referring to as ludicrous. But the bidding continued and two of the apparently less intense competitors fell out early leaving just Pinnacle and Columbia Sussex as the sparring partners. Well, last week it appears that the end of the war has finally been reached. And the winner is… Columbia Sussex, whose final offer of $54 a share (or roughly $2.75 billion) made Pinnacle Entertainment take their checkbook and walk away. So what is a Columbia Sussex and what are they going to do with the Tropicana? Well, the Kentucky based company has been involved in the “hospitality” industry for years, operating more than 80 hotels around the country with such familiar names as Marriott, Wyndham, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Hilton, Sheraton, and Westin among others. In addition, they have eight casinos in the United States. Well, seven really since one of them, the Belle of Orleans riverboat was damaged in Hurricane Katrina and has not been open since. The others include the Belle of Baton Rouge; the Lighthouse Point Casino and Vicksburg Casino in Mississippi; Caesars Tahoe and the Lake Tahoe Horizon Casino in Tahoe/Stateline; the River Palms in Laughlin, Nevada; and the Westin Casuarina casino in Vegas. On that last one it is important to note that Columbia Sussex only operates the casino at the Westin and has nothing to do with the rest of the property so the Tropicana is their first foray into the Vegas hotel market. The purchase of Aztar adds the Vegas and Atlantic City Tropicana properties, the Ramada Express in Laughlin, and Casino Aztar branded properties in Evansville, Indiana and Caruthersville, Missouri. What they intend to do with the Tropicana in Vegas in a harder question to answer. Although the president of the company says they have no intention to close and/or tear down the hotel in the near future, that seems to be the foregone conclusion at some point in the not to distant future. Columbia Sussex officials say they will take their time to examine what the hotel has to offer, what can and can’t be improved, and what can be done with the land or the buildings that sit on them. I’d guess that the hotel has won yet another reprieve from the wrecking ball until 2007 at least. As far as Pinnacle is concerned, don’t feel too badly for them. As part of the deal they received a big fat “break up” check worth $78 million. Yes, you read that right. They wisely built into the initial offer that if they didn’t wind up with the prize they’d get paid for their time and effort and man did they ever. And this doesn’t mean that the company has given up on their quest to make a splash in Vegas. Officials with Pinnacle were reportedly seen touring the Sahara and apparently the Riviera may also be on their radar.
From the Vegas4Visitors Weekly Column 5/15/06 Trop Bid Trumped Again Columbia-Sussex must REALLY want the Tropicana. The gaming company is locked in a fierce bidding war with Pinnacle Entertainment for control of Aztar Corp, parent company of the Tropicana and other gaming destinations in the US. That bidding war went to even higher heights last week as Columbia-Sussex raised their offer to $53 a share or roughly $2.64 billion, topping Pinnacle’s last offer of $51 a share. Most gaming and financial analysts feel that the prices are way too high for the company and are both publicly and privately telling both companies to cut it out. I’m paraphrasing. It’s likely this will be the final offer for Aztar since it is too rich for just about anyone’s blood, including Pinnacle, who may still turn their sights on another aging Strip property like The Sahara. Stay tuned.
From the Vegas4Visitors Weekly Column 5/8/06 Strip Ownership Battles Continue The war for the Tropicana has resulted in its first casualty as Ameristar Casinos officially dropped out of the ever escalating bidding. So far it appears that Pinnacle Entertainment, the very first casino to bid on Trop parent company Aztar, is winning the battle with their latest bid (the 14th since all of this started) coming in at around $51 a share (or roughly $2.58 billion), topping the $50 a share bid from Columbia Sussex, which had more or less been accepted as being the superior deal. None of this is done yet – the other two companies still in the race (Columbia and Colony Capital) could still choose to up their bids. Of course any of the four companies could turn their attentions elsewhere. It was reported in the Las Vegas Review Journal that officials with Pinnacle Entertainment were seen touring The Sahara, fueling rumors that the venerable north Strip property could also be headed for a sale.
From the Vegas4Visitors Weekly Column 5/1/06 Trop Bidding War Continues Things are getting nuts in the bidding war for Aztar Corporation, the parent company of the Tropicana on the Las Vegas Strip. Four separate companies are actively trying to outdo one another with the latest bids coming in at $48 a share from Pinnacle Entertainment, which was eclipsed by a $50 a share offer from Columbia-Sussex. Most gaming analysts believe that the bidding, which started at around $38 a share, has gotten out of control and that whichever company wins and winds up having to pay roughly $2.5 billion for Aztar is paying too much.
From the Vegas4Visitors Weekly Column 4/24/06 Tropicana Wooing Continues Add a fourth suitor to the ranks of those wooing Aztar Corporation, parent company of The Tropicana in Las Vegas. Columbia Sussex is the latest gaming company to jump into the bidding war for Aztar, looking to expand its portfolio beyond the nine casinos it currently operates in Laughlin, Tahoe, Mississippi, and Louisiana (they also operate the tiny casino at the Westin just off The Strip). Their offer of $47 a share is leading the pack so far although the other companies in the fight have already started increasing their offers to try to compete. From the Vegas4Visitors Weekly Column 4/10/06 First it was Pinnacle Entertainment with a $38 a share offer for Aztar Corporation, parent company of The Tropicana on The Strip. Then came Colony Capital who jumped into the fray with a $42 a share offer. Now Ameristar Casinos has gotten into the bidding with a $43 a share offer. Ameristar has casinos in Laughlin, Missouri, Iowa, and Colorado but The Tropicana would be its only Las Vegas presence after it sold The Reserve to Station Casinos who remade it into the Fiesta Henderson. Now we wait to see if Pinnacle or Colony up their offers or if the spoils go to Ameristar. From the Vegas4Visitors Weekly Column 4/3/06 I have wasted more (virtual) ink on the past, present, and future of The Tropicana than just about any other hotel on The Strip, what with the endless for sale, not for sale, to be torn down, not being torn down, closing this week, closing next year, closing never back and forth that seems to have become the hallmark of the property. So imagine my relief when Pinnacle Entertainment made an announcement that they were purchasing Aztar Corporation, parent company of The Tropicana, for $2.1 billion and sparing the legendary Strip property for at least two more years. I figured I had a good 12-18 months before I had to talk about what was going on with The Tropicana again. Yeah, that lasted about two weeks. Now, Colony Capital, the parent company of the Las Vegas Hilton and other casino-resorts around the country, has apparently stepped in to start what may turn out to be a bidding war for Aztar. Pinnacle offered $38 a share for the Aztar stock and Colony came in at $41. Now it’s back to Pinnacle to see if they throw in a counter-offer, expected by analysts to be in the $42-45 per share range. Then it’s back to Colony. And some people think there may even been another company in the bidding game. So the saga of The Tropicana continues since its future will undoubtedly vary depending on whoever winds up buying it. From the Vegas4Visitors Weekly Column 3/20/06 This place has got more lives than a cat. After years of repeated rumors and public declarations that the Tropicana would be torn down and replaced by a new mega-resort, including speculation that it could be as early as April of this year, we now know something resembling the actual truth: the hotel is staying right where it is until at least 2008 and perhaps beyond. All of this is part of the fallout from the sale last week of Tropicana parent company Aztar Gaming to rival Pinnacle Entertainment. I know, you’ve probably never heard of them before if your gambling focus is centered solely on Las Vegas. But the $2.1 billion deal makes Pinnacle the sixth-largest casino company in the world in terms of revenue and gives them a long-desired foothold in Las Vegas. Executives with Pinnacle say they are throwing out all of the plans Aztar had developed for the Tropicana and will spend the next two years developing a new plan for its replacement. It will most likely go in a totally new direction, scrapping the concept of two resorts on the land with one really, really big one. In the meantime the Tropicana will remain open and may even get some cosmetic upgrades in the process.
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