First Look: The Palazzo

OK, it's really late so I'll post my pix from the red carpet of the opening of Jay-Z's 40/40 Club tomorrow. Right now, I just want to get up this dozen photos of the first night of the Palazzo.

And I have to say, I am extremely impressed. In particular, there is an extremely dramatic and truly beautiful 20-foot waterfall that bridges the two floors that connect the Venetian to the Palazzo. It is breathtaking. Sadly, I had assumed it would still be running by the time I left the red carpet thing and it was not.

Below is the view towards the waterfall from the exit of the Palazzo casino. To orient you, the second floor of before you leads you directly into the Grand Canal Shoppes (and the Palazzo Shoppes will span around this area and then on the floor above the casino, when those stores are opened. As of now, all I saw open was a jewelry shop.) If you walk past and behind these escalators, you walk into the end of Restaurant Row, where Delmonaco Steakhouse and the B&B restaurant are. That was where I took the pix the other day.

Note: Click on any pic to see it larger.

Here's a closer shot of the waterfall. As I said, it's not on when I took this, which was after midnight. There was something quite mesmerizing about the enormity of it, the elegance of the pool (not attached) in front of it and the sheer audacity of the high ceiling. It really works, especially when coming from the Venetian.


Here's what the same area looks like from right above this waterfall. You can see the entrance to the casino down below.

By and large, the place is open for business. Here's what the front desk, front indoor atrium (with that big white statue) and the porte cochere look like. Behind the statue is the casino, to the left is the front desk, to the right is the valet entrance and the escalator down to the 40/40 Club. Take note of the wall of flowers behind the front desk in the inset to the right of inset with the big cup, as I am betting the media will be fed some info about how many live pink roses it takes each day to keep it looking as it does, a la Fleur de Lys at Mandalay Bay.




Here's some casino shots. It felt larger than the Venetian's, but that may just be because it was all one big, wide-open room, as opposed to the Venetian's which I think feels like it bends around and is shaped like an L.



There's a Grand Lux Cafe along the periphery and a casino lounge-bar with the pretty white-spired fixtures:


Alas, some things are still not ready. This is what you find outside the passage to the guest elevators:

These pix were taken with my new Sony Cybershot digicam, and I'm still working out how to use it, so my apologies that some of the color balance is a bit off.