{"id":39925,"date":"2012-02-04T05:24:57","date_gmt":"2012-02-04T12:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wend.ca\/?p=39925"},"modified":"2020-06-20T18:35:27","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T22:35:27","slug":"the-venetian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=39925","title":{"rendered":"The Venetian"},"content":{"rendered":"

The resort opened on May 3, 1999 with a flutter of white doves, sounding trumpets and singing gondoliers, with actress Sophia Loren joining The Venetian Chairman and Owner, Sheldon G. Adelson, in christening the first motorized gondola. Built at a cost of $1.5 billion, it was one of the most expensive resorts of its kind when it opened. — Wikipedia<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As was mentioned in the Tussaud’s post<\/a>, the Venetian is the megaresort that replaced the legendary Sands hotel in 1996. The Sands<\/em> and Desert Inn<\/em> hotels were in close proximity to each other and were for a long time properties of Howard Hughes. <\/p>\n

There is a funny story about Howard Hughes, the Desert Inn<\/em>, and Banana Ripple ice cream. Hughes went through a phase where he loved Banana Ripple ice cream. Because of this, his handlers secured a very large bulk order of the flavour from Baskin-Robbins’ in California. When the ice cream arrived, they discovered that Hughes no longer liked it. Because of this, patrons at the Desert Inn received free Banana Ripple ice cream for over a year. <\/p>\n

But I digress…<\/em><\/p>\n

Unlike most of the megaresorts on the strip, the Venetian does not have a Cirque du Soleil show. Instead, it has two of the more renowned\/popular shows in Vegas history: Blue Man Group<\/a> and Phantom of the Opera.<\/p>\n