Yo-11 Minutes: Episode 17 "Stardust Truly Was That Great"

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Mostly Vegas. No BS. Casino Experience +more
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Yo-11 Minutes: Episode 17 "Stardust Truly Was That Great"
On this episode:
-Blurb about Culinary Union strike being averted for MGM and Caesars.
-Vegas History Moment: The Stardust

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Chapters

• 7:49 Memories and Nostalgia of Stardust Casino

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to Yo 11 Minutes. Yo 11 Minutes mostly Vegas, no BS, casino experience and more. Michael Traeger is a casino and travel loyalty expert who also helped people turn their travel dreams into reality. And now, michael Traeger, how's it going?

Speaker 2: 0:20

Michael, it's going great, everything's good. It's a good day. It's been a good week. It's been a long week. I miss Vegas already. I was thinking about Fountain Blue today.

Speaker 1: 0:31

What about Fountain Blue, in particular?

Speaker 2: 0:35

I was thinking about it because somebody asked me if I could book them at Fountain Blue for January and I said you know I'm supposed to get Armin on that stuff, so I'm starting to think about it. So I started poking around to see if I could have like a cool luxury program, so that's it. Yeah, I haven't thought about it a lot, I mean, but it's pretty exciting New hotel, new property.

Speaker 1: 0:59

And only one week after Durango opens. So a bit of a buzz going around Las Vegas right now about new things to do.

Speaker 2: 1:09

Yes, and I also hear there's a car race.

Speaker 1: 1:11

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:11

I heard something about that. I don't know. There are going to be cars that are racing. I suppose that's what I heard. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:19

I heard something similar.

Speaker 2: 1:20

It might be true, maybe. Yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 1: 1:23

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:25

I think it's all going to be, things going to be great. So what's happening? Do we have any news today, or is it a slow?

Speaker 1: 1:31

news day. It was a slow news day, but we do have a blurb, so I'm not going to give it the pomp and circumstance of an actual news story. But MGM and Caesars have both reached tentative deals with the Culinary Workers Union, thus avoiding a strike when it's negotiating with the union as we speak. If wins deal with the union, that Boston Harbor is any indication, it's safe to say your next Vegas day will not be disrupted by a union strike. No word yet on what's happening at Treasure Island or any of the downtown properties. That's it. What are your thoughts, michael?

Speaker 2: 2:05

My thoughts are. I am not surprised Same my thoughts yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:12

Same here. Not not surprised, I know it's not.

Speaker 2: 2:14

I know it's not exciting anymore because none of the influencers are going to be able to say what if they strike? The strike is coming. What will happen? Oh my God, they're teaching fill in the blank employee who doesn't get near culinary how to mix drinks at the bar. So it's not there. You know, I'm sort of actually happy about this, because my biggest nightmare is for a slot tech to be mixing my martini Like I really just don't, I don't want that happening.

Speaker 1: 2:45

Hey, I make it mean martini. I mean, as long as I follow the instructions in the app, I'm fine, you know okay, okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 2: 2:55

That's, oh, you know what? Actually, what's so funny to think about when they retrain, like when there's a strike, and you think of the people who are not you know, who are not union people, who have to do the union jobs that they don't regularly do, and you could think of some like really funny scenarios going on there.

Speaker 1: 3:16

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that would be, that would be. I mean, I don't think I think some slot techs do have a union. I think I'm trying to just picture like someone from the front desk trying to fix a slot machine. It's kind of funny to imagine, you know, especially like where's the Apple menu? It's like there is no Apple menu. It's just that's not how it works. But yeah, I could, yeah that, yeah, with more thought I could see some pretty funny scenarios happening there.

Speaker 2: 3:46

Well, you know, the other thing is too. That's what people take for granted. Like, like it's amazing to see, like an amazing cocktail waitress or a cocktail waiter with like a tray with like 12, you know, like with 20 drinks on it, running around giving all these drinks out to somebody Like think I couldn't do that right, you couldn't hand me a drink, a tray with 20 drinks, and I'd be able to figure out who gets the drinks and not drop the tray. So I think people take that stuff for granted sometimes. You know that's anyway, that's. It's sort of it's sort of interesting to watch if yeah, it's, but we're not going to have a strike.

Speaker 1: 4:18

So, yay, what a surprise, especially if those kind of jobs are the professionals you know, because it could get messy. So things can always get messy, exactly, especially with 20 drinks on a tray and spilling, and all that spilling, all the drinks that the Sloth technician made. That could just be horrible. What do you want?

Speaker 2: 4:40

It's bad for spilling the 20 drinks that the Sloth technician made on the Sloth machine. On the Sloth machine. Which is the worst?

Speaker 1: 4:51

Oh dude, I can't tell you how many times I've opened up a Sloth machine and just the smell of old beer rises out of it and it's like, oh, you got to be kidding. Some idiot spilled beer in this damn thing.

Speaker 2: 5:05

You know there is it's, it's. I mean people, people are sloppy, hey, people. People spill drinks all the time. Some people spill more drinks than others. But what can you do? It's the way it's. It's Vegas and life.

Speaker 1: 5:18

Spilling drinks is the Vegas way, yeah for sure. That being said, as opposed to having a tease, we have something new and special today, and it's now time for a Vegas history moment. Greetings, ladies and gents, and now it is time for a Las Vegas history moment, a moment of Las Vegas' history Brought to you by Travelzork. Take it away, michael.

Speaker 2: 5:55

Well, today's Vegas history moment is going to just be touching a little bit on Stardust in a rather random fashion, because we decided that once a week we want to do a Vegas history moment and I hate to break it to everyone out there, but we do not spend hours and hours preparing for the show, we just sort of do what we're going to do because we feel it's more interesting that way and also more fun. So we're going to talk a little bit about the Stardust today.

Speaker 1: 6:28

Do you have anything prepared for Stardust at all?

Speaker 2: 6:36

No, absolutely not. I'm just going to talk based on the picture. We have some pictures, so I'm just going to talk about Stardust, which, really, if you want to be a cool kid, if you get into a taxi, don't tell the taxi driver you're going to the resort's world. Say, take me to Stardust, because resort's world was Stardust.

Speaker 1: 6:58

That's right. That's right. And at resort's world they do have an honorary Stardust sign over by one of the lobbies. It's pretty cool, if you ever go, to be sure to check it out. All right, I'm going to queue up some of those pictures you told me about and here we go.

Speaker 2: 7:16

Oh, we'll start off by talking about the fact that Stardust was a really interesting property because they had a Bakara room for a mid-tier property and Bakara was a really big deal. Then Also, back when I played there, you were still able to play with cash, but they had a big, traditional, big Bakara game. They also had their own in-house limo, which was really really nice. A lot of properties now subcontract their limos, except for places like Wind Las Vegas, and it was a really special property. I think what's so interesting about it was that Stardust was a mid-tier property that had a lot of gambling action so the price of the hotel and everything. It wasn't the bougiest place in the world, but still had a lot of really great gambling going on and a really great gambling atmosphere. It also had amazing things like 24-hour room service with really decent room service, a coffee shop that was open 24 hours, a really cool steakhouse called Willy B's, a really great sushi restaurant and all of that. It was just a great all-around hotel. It's something you don't have. It's like. Imagine if Harrah's still had 24-hour room service and a great place to eat 24 hours, and that whole thing about a 24-hour dining place in the casino was a really big deal because this idea of just having a place which was just the coffee shop that you could go 24 hours a day and get breakfast or just get something to eat, and it was super convenient If you come from New Jersey, it's sort of like a diner and that was really great.

Speaker 2: 9:03

And one of the things I loved about playing Bakara at Stardust was that Stardust had a pit boss who was Shirley, shirley B, and Shirley came from Kentucky and she was the first Bakara dealer in Las Vegas that was female and she was actually trained by lefty Rosenthal. So I used to hear the most amazing stories at Baccarat there and she used to always tell me like her thoughts about Baccarat and they had a big Baccarat game where the shoe moved around the table where the players got to deal the cards and that was actually a twenty five dollar game, which was pretty amazing. What I would do again to have a twenty five dollar game where you can deal and face the cards, drink premium alcohol and just sort of chill and relax. So that's, that's a little bit of stardust, but I'm interested, maybe by Cole, if you have a couple of questions about stardust, about what it was like.

Speaker 1: 10:06

Yes. So for stardust I have never gone. It was already gone before I went to Vegas and I always had this if I could go back in time to see any casino, it would be stardust, and maybe the mint maybe, but definitely stardust. There's a lot of like stories of lore about the stardust and people have fond memories of it. It's, it's, it's, it's very enriched in Vegas history. Lots of mob stuff as well, of course. Do you think that now people over glamorize what the stardust was or do you think that you know it isn't made up like it still holds up to that kind of lore?

Speaker 2: 11:00

I think it holds up. But I think in general, it is that different generation of Vegas than you have today, where you had properties that were sort of mid tier, like flamingo or haras, that still had a lot of the features that made Vegas so special the twenty four hour dining that was always there, the room service that was always there. Those are the kind of things that made Vegas so, you know, so cool that you knew like there was always a place that you could go and eat twenty four hours a day, which isn't Exactly the case in casinos anymore. You know it's not as simple as it used to be and it also isn't the case where you're gonna have something like real room service. Add a lot of properties and I think I think what you got in Vegas and a property that was mid tier, like, say, going to the flamingo in the eighties or nineties what you got at those properties was a much more upscale vibe, even though they were mid tier properties, which made Vegas An even cooler destination and going to a lot of places.

Speaker 2: 12:12

I don't know does that sort of make sense like it, like the properties like just had More amenities for the level they were, so you didn't have to go to, like I guess if you're in the nineties like mirage or Caesar's or you know to get you know, or desert in to get you know, to get the poshest place, you could go to the mid tier properties and still it was pretty nice, whereas today I think that's a lot different, there's a lot different experience, like I think the differentiation today between, say, like, flamingo and wind is Outrageously wide. Where is that kind of differentiation? Wasn't there years ago, perfectly suned up?

Speaker 1: 12:56

Did you do these? See Lito de Paris or any of the shows that they had there at the time?

Speaker 2: 13:03

You know what show and remember I wasn't there. I was there. I was actually there for closing weekend and I'll find old day shift. I mean, I was there before that I play. I played there for about three years. But but what was interesting, the person I saw the most I think I saw him twice was George Carlin. When I played with the Nugget don't even let me see it, I don't even have the the thing and as I played it, my favorite theorem is someone who counts as well as fish, like on doing day when they're playing yeah, I'm the seven bed words guy.

Speaker 2: 13:24

Yeah, yeah, and he was great live and I saw some of their other, like some of their other shows. But this was past, lito was already done and I could I could was gone because they had a great Tiki restaurant. So the point that I was there was more boy, you know, into the two thousands is, remember that big tower, that big tower for stardust, and this is off, totally off the top of my head here we don't use Wikipedia that big tower wasn't built until the late 80s, I think early 90s, you know, and that was when boy took over the stardust, after all the mob stuff you know, in the in the 70s to 80s so, but they still had the original rooms that were around the pool. But then they have that new tower and the rooms. You know, the rooms are very interesting.

Speaker 2: 14:12

What was most interesting about the sweets At stardust was that they had this gargantuan shower, like literally, you could fit 12 people into the shower. Don't start laughing. I know you're going to start laughing, but you can fit 12. You can fit 12 people into the shower. We were having a conversation before this episode, which will not be repeated, but anyway it had to tend to lead to with with clowns and what you would do if you could fit 12 people in a shower. No, anyway, sorry the sweets. The sweets were very interesting and they had very, very large showers. Just leave it at that.

Speaker 1: 14:58

Leave it, believe it at that before we get going. Are there any any final thoughts, any closing remarks you'd like to make?

Speaker 2: 15:07

I always love to hear what people's thoughts are, those things like I think actually I love the question, which I didn't know you were going to ask me that question because we did prepare. You know, we like to do it this way. I just love the concept of what you said. Like you know, is that you know is sometimes is your memory like just so good, but you know what those memories really are good and I still remember all those aspects of the property and for what the property was.

Speaker 2: 15:32

It was absolutely amazing because, you know, I truly felt that a lot of the things that I could get there, I get it when Las Vegas, you know, like access to room service 24 hours a day, access to eating dining somewhere 24 hours a day, great dealers, that kind of thing, and if you think about it, at a price point that was like a fraction of a fraction of a fraction, so that was cool. Yeah, you didn't get some of the bougie stuff, that's true, but you know what the will be steakhouse was really really good and I got to know some of the servers there and the food was really good. So, yeah, those memories, yeah, those memories are still strong and I think they're completely valid.

Speaker 1: 16:13

But does when have a shower that can fit 12 people. That's the burning question.

Speaker 2: 16:20

No, but, but you know skylofts, does you know this will be Future hours, the showers of Vegas that can fit 12 people will definitely have to do. We'll have to do something like that. That's it. It is, hey, you know somebody I'm sure someone's out there googling like which hotel has a shower that can fit 12 people? I don't know why I say 12. I mean, why not 10 or 8?

Speaker 1: 16:46

it's probably a better number it's a good actually 8 is a is a good number 10 is nice, 12 is very, you know, disciple. So yeah, I mean you know what do you want to do. Get 13, get a bigger dozen of people. Why not bigger? Doesn't people, what they is, what they shower, can hold a biggest dozen?

Speaker 2: 17:05

A big dozen of people?

Speaker 1: 17:06

that's. That's the question. We'll have to do some research and find out.

Speaker 2: 17:10

That's there's always. There's always research to be done. That's the beautiful thing about. That's the beautiful thing about Vegas. But anyway, no, memories are great. This is fun. This is fun to do. I hope people enjoyed it.

Speaker 1: 17:20

Indeed, and that's going to do it for this episode. Luxury travel booking. Sorry folks, I was waiting on the teleprompter to catch up. Luxury travel booking. Travel Zork travel is a travel Zork travel dot com to plan your next amazing vacation and please join the conversation on social media. You can find us easily, as all social platforms are, at travel Zork. We'll see you next time and have a good one.