Monday, January 7, 2008

Do The VegasTripping Folks Smoke CRACK?

WOW. So I was having a pretty difficult Sunday, having gotten the call that my uncle, struggling with pancreatic cancer in New York for 18 months, finally succumbed and not being able to do anything but focus on the flooding in Fernley, Nev., so I could file this piece for the Times and then fly back to Vegas to see "Love" at 7 pm for a story I'm working on.

Then, in the midst of all that, I start seeing emails and text messages congratulating me and/or asking if I'd noticed that the fine folks at VegasTripping.Com had done this:


And this, too:


That's NUTS. And a great, great honor. You can read about the Person of the Year thing and the Best Blog write-up at those links or check out all the Trippies winners here.

A few other Trippies outcome observations:

* Readers voted The Bellagio both best overall and worst "swanky place." Odd.

* There's a great deal of hate spewed from the Trippies editors at all things Venetian. Worst overall, worst "swanky joint," worst value, worst rooms, worst nightclub (Tao), most overrated, Then, randomly, the Venetian get editors' pick for best room service.

* On the other hand, there's a ton of hate from readers for Circus Circus, from worst grind joint to worse eats to worst carpet.

* The editors are uniformly down on Vegas gambling in general, giving a "they all suck" to table games, slots and casino. I may need to dig deeper on that in the Weekly.

* The Deuce got editors' pick for best place to get laid. But they don't 'splain!!!

* Congrats to Tim & Michelle at Five Hundy for taking the best podcast categories, VegasTodayandTomorrow.Com for reader-voted best site and RateVegas.Com's iPhone edition for editor-selected best site. The reader-selected LeavingLV.Net for best blog was an inspired choice and evidence that, even in this saturated age of Vegas media, there's still room for an innovation to fill a niche.

Congrats and thanks to all!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I sort of understand the Bellagio rating. I've seen service people more interested in talking to each other than customers, the occasional poorly run operation, and then there's the tables that have high limits but aren't as great as you'd hope for a high limit table.

It's Wynn's best work, easily, but it's hard to stay in love with the place thanks to MGM-Mirage.

Anonymous said...

CONGRATS TO STEVE!!! and all the rest. Well deserved!!

Anonymous said...

Bellagio is starting to look very high mileage in areas like the doors and flooring in the entrys. Who would think marble could look worn down in just 10 years?
Your selection as MOY is well deserved, and well thought out and explained by Chuckmonster. You got my vote. Congratulations

Anonymous said...

I understand the Bellagio rating. As far as legendary swanky places go, the Bellagio has a large reputation to live up to and just doesn't. In recent years it's been in desperate need of renovation, and while the service quality has been good, it doesn't stand above Wynn, much less the boutique subsidiaries like THEhotel... much less the Four Seasons. Congrats to you Steve, and to Miles for the honors!

Anonymous said...

YAY Steve. Congratulations! Although 5 Hundy is a fine podcast, yours is outstanding. Nowhere else will you get interviews by Vegas' latest and greatest. Perhaps Vegas Tripping needs more than one podcast category because yours and Tim and Michele's are so different. And then there's the chatroom, which is in a class by itself.