Friday, Aug. 18, 2000 | 10:37 a.m.
Aladdin officials scrambled to put the final touches on their $1.4 billion megaresort Thursday, but were unable to get county approval to open until Friday. The hotel announced it would open today at 10 a.m.
Fire inspectors were still running tests Thursday that hotel officials blamed for the delay in their scheduled opening of the hotel and casino. Desert Passage, a 130-store retail mall adjacent to the new Aladdin, opened on schedule at 7 p.m. Thursday
Hundreds of Aladdin guests were sent to neighboring Las Vegas Strip hotels Thursday night and the fireworks show that was scheduled to herald the opening at 10:30 p.m. was put on hold.
"It's utter pandemonium," said Paul Walton, an invited guest from San Diego. "They invited the public to come in too early."
But Michael Goebel of Seattle waited patiently in front of the new resort, confident the delay would be short.
"They'll make it happen. This is Las Vegas. They always do," he said.
Along with the delayed opening, more than 2,300 uninvited Culinary Union workers showed up to protest that the resort is a nonunion employer. Some shouted "Shame on you," during a parade of camels, belly dancers and street performers in front of the hotel and an appearance by actress Barbara Eden.
Eden, 1960s icon of "I Dream of Jeannie" fame, offered celebrants her famous blink to officially open the Aladdin - although it wasn't open yet.
Aladdin Gaming LLC officials had hoped all would go smoothly and union protests wouldn't spoil their opening.
"It's negative when people have to walk across picket lines," said Bill Thompson, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, professor and gambling expert. "It looks bad for the city because it's in a critical location."
Final tests of the Aladdin's fire and life safety systems were delayed Thursday morning at the property's request. Initially scheduled to begin at 5 a.m., the tests had been rescheduled twice. The Aladdin must pass these tests before it will be permitted to open to the public.
The testing didn't begin until 8 p.m., ultimately forcing officials to delay the opening.
"It's their schedule," said Ron Lynn, assistant director of the Clark County Building Department. "We're prepared to work through midnight."
Construction on the property was essentially complete Thursday. The two major jobs yet to be complete were construction on the high-end London Club at Aladdin gaming parlor and the Theater for Performing Arts. Holt said he expected the London Club to be ready by Thursday night, while the theater doesn't need to be complete until its first concert Saturday.
"The rest of the place is essentially ... cleaning up for the guests," Holt said.
While the Aladdin's opening was delayed, that is not the case for attached Desert Passage.
Desert Passage officials said Thursday they would open at 7 p.m., regardless of whether the Aladdin receives final approvals. Desert Passage did open its doors at 7 p.m. Visitors immediately began shopping in the more than 100 shops.
Opening night at Desert Passage featured a wide variety of entertainment in the mall,including performances by Moroccan acrobats and musicians, dancers from Morocco, Arabia and East India, yoga contortionists, costumed story tellers and 15-foot-high animal characters.
One of the mall's most unique features, a 155-foot freighter complete with fog machines, was christened at 8 p.m. Starting at 8 p.m. and throughout the night, artificial thunderstorms pealed every 20 minutes through Merchants Harbor, home of the freighter. The thunderstorms come complete with fog, thunder, artificial lightning, wind machines and rain spilling over the ship's bow into a wave-swept harbor.
"It is a phenomenal experience," said Paul Beirnes, director of marketing for Desert Passage.
About 100 stores and six restaurants were open Thursday. Ultimately, the mall will feature 130 stores and 14 restaurants.
The Aladdin is the final grand opening in a frenzied building blitz on the Strip that began with the October 1998 opening of the Bellagio. Since that opening, four additional hotels -- Mandalay Bay, the Venetian, Paris Las Vegas and the Aladdin -- opened their doors, adding more than 15,000 new hotel rooms to the Strip market.
Unlike the black-tie event that christened the original Aladdin in April 1966, there are no plans for a invitation-only pre-grand opening party. Instead, Aladdin officials hope to simply open their doors and let the public walk in.
"Those huge blow-outs are for a tiny number of people, and we wanted to gear this to our customers and fellow citizens who might want to come down and see the proceedings," Holt said.
The group of invited guests were to stay in 600 of the hotel's 2,567 rooms the first night. The remaining rooms are expected to be made available in phases during the next two weeks to allow hotel workers a chance to get acclimated.
Because construction was marked by overruns and infighting among Aladdin's owners - the Sommer Family Trust and high-end casino operator London Clubs International - questions surfaced whether the project had enough money and time to open on schedule.
Within the resort, PF Chang's China Bistro, a health spa and a 1,200-seat showroom are scheduled to open later this year.
The completely remodeled Center for the Performing Arts - the only portion of the original property that wasn't razed - will host Enrique Iglesias for its reopening Saturday.
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