In many ways, the New York, New York Hotel and Casino  in Las Vegas represents the true essence of New York: It stands as a gateway to a new world, it’s crowded, and full of Germans and French tourists. C’est bon! 

For many years, New York, New York was the gateway to either Bellagio Hotel if you’re headed north, or Mandalay Bay for those who are southbound. You see, when you’re at either one of those hotels, walking from one to the other, the tram does not cross Tropicana Ave. You can catch a tram from Mandalay Bay to Excalibur, then you have to exit the tram, walk across the bridge to New York, New York and proceed to the Monte Carlo tram stop, or walk directly to Bellagio to enter from the front. And vice versa, once you’ve lost all your money at Bellagio and need to walk back home, because cab fare is out of the question now, to Mandalay Bay, you reverse the trip, and walk through New York, New York to the Excalibur stop. Or you can walk the strip along the outside and take pictures in front of the Statue of Liberty, but one way or another you’ve got to go through New York if you want to get to Europe or Asia. 

I walk through the casino of New York, New York, and I am amused by the kitchy-ness of the Time Square decor. On the outside, as I stated before the Statue of Liberty is there, the buildings are designed as the New York skyline. This is no easy feat when you think how do you build a hotel and make it look like a skyline. Hats off to the architects and engineers, and once again, this is my true passion about Vegas. The engineers that take what seems to be unbounded imagination and bring it to life. The Chrysler building, the Empire State building, the big Hershey sign from Times Square, they are all here, including my favorite, The Coney Island roller coaster. 

After all the years of visiting Las Vegas this is actually our first stay at New York, New York. All the years of walking through the casino, past the lobby, pass by Nine Fine Irishmen, I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised. The rooms are well appointed, spacious, and practical. No fancy-schmancy stuff, just a good solid room to hang out in. And like New York where you walk everywhere, you do have an interesting walk to the rooms. Full of twists and turns like an Agatha Christie novel, this is what is needed on the inside to get the effect of the skyline on the outside. Pretty cool actually. 

The casino is classic Vegas. It has all the bells and whistles, slot machines and card tables. There is a more popular center bar, main floor and a back floor off to the right-hand side as you come down the elevator from the rooms. I really like the walk through the back alleys of New York over to Bleecker Street where the pizza shop stands, then over to Broadway and Greenwich representing the village.

We enjoyed dinner in the village Sunday night at Nine Fine Irishmen. Stepping up to the entrance, hopes were high after that awesome Irish breakfast back in March at the Rí Rá Irish Pub in Mandalay Bay. Would the Irish food superiority would continue? As we all know, if you want the finest cuisine, go Irish! All joking aside, my short rib dinner was wonderful, and it gave me one of my favorite dining features: Alfresco. I was actually relieved at the relative comfort we were able to dine on the front patio of Nine Fine Irishmen. We didn’t feel as if we were on display with thousands of people walking by us. OK, maybe hundreds. They weren’t hovering over us and drooling on our food like in the real streets of New York. It was actually quite nice and gave that outside dining feel to an indoors restaurant. Then again, maybe it was the fact that I was keeping an eye on that slot machine that seem to be playing paying off right across the walkway that made everyone else fade to my peripheral vision. 

Dining options at New York,  New York span the full range of cuisine choices. From Nathan’s hotdogs in the Village Street Eateries to casual at Nine Fine Irishmen, to diner style breakfast at America, to upscale Italian dining at Il Fornaio and fantastic steaks at Gallagher’s. But one of my favorite spots to grab an afternoon bite is just outside of New York, New York, Beerhaus, along the MGM Parkway. The boardwalk of sorts lies between New York, New York and the new Park MGM, which was the old Monte Carlo, and runs from the strip back up to the new T-Mobile arena. And halfway up is Beerhaus, a German inspired brew house that sports great beers and a great indoor/outdoor setting. Sometimes, I just want to get out into the warm sunshine and fresh air of the Las Vegas wilderness.

But to cram all of this into a single hotel, and then add a roller coaster! You had me at “keep our hands inside the car.” Of course, I didn’t, and snuck a little video. Maybe I should’ve just talk to management so I could do a full shoot on the ride, but I think sneaking this adds to the covert excitement of it all. The pool area is quite nice as well, it sits under the roller coaster and looks up at the skyline. Pool side service is good, and it does offer a relatively large amount of shade for those super-hot summer afternoons.   

I have to admit I was a little apprehensive when my wife said let’s stay here. I was imagining tiny New York sized rooms. But since this is one of three or four hotels on the strip we have not stayed, and my bucket list is to stay at every hotel on the Las Vegas strip, I knew at some point we were going to have to pull the trigger. And now, next time I’m at Bellagio, I’m going to look forward to walking back through New York, New York, and will reflect with fond memories. I think I’m going to have to visit that Nine Fine Irishmen for yet another Smithwick’s Irish beer and short ribs. And maybe this time I’ll go ahead and grab some extra cotton candy for the roller coaster ride. Aye, fuhgeddaboudit!