Travel, Attractions & Events: Entertainment in Arizona, CA, NV and beyond!

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Is Demolition in the Cards for MGM's Luxor Resort and Casino?

I personally like the themed nature of the Casino Resorts in Las Vegas. I Like Circus Circus and the Live Circus acts. I miss Treasure Island and the nightly battle of pirates and Sirens. New York New York, Paris, Excalibur and Luxor all attract me for the themed entertainment and decor.

So anytime I hear a major casino resort in Las Vegas may have plans to revamp and de-theme like Monte Carlo which is now Park MGM, Treasure Island which is now TI, Imperial Palace which is now Linq and MGM Grand forgoing its “Wizard of Oz” roots; It saddens me.

I do understand the need for remodels and updates and even them changes, but would prefer Vegas keep resorts and casinos themed.

Enough Whining... On to the rumors.

While no official announcement has been made by MGM Resorts, the iconic Las Vegas Luxor Resort and Casino could be facing demolition if the gossip is to be believed. The consideration is believed to be based on the distinctive and limiting design, which does not allow for much in the way of change. There is also some possible issues regarding inability to repair structure and talk of a MLB ballpark looking for a spot on the strip.

The same face-lift dilemma is rumored to be a topic possibly being discussed regarding the Excalibur Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas as well.

Luxor opened 26 years ago, on October 15, 1993. During a time when Las Vegas was much more focused on attracting families. In recent years it has tried to return to its Sin City roots. Las Vegas spent the 1990s trying to attract families by transforming into a kid friendly entertainment destination, but children don't gamble and neither do parents who are entertaining children.

Some de-theming of casinos in Las Vegas began earlier this decade and many changes have already been made at Luxor and other casinos to move away from the original themes. However, it’s nearly impossible to re-image a massive pyramid.

Sources say MGM company officials have discussed the demolition of both Luxor and Excalibur for the last five years and perhaps the COVID-19 shutdowns may contribute to rumors.

MGM Resorts’ real estate investment trust MGM Growth Properties (NYSE: MGP) owns the physical assets of Luxor.

Thursday, June 4, 2020

MGM Las Vegas Casino and Resort Opening Announcements

Las Vegas Casino and Resorts were shut down back in March as part of Governor Steve Sisolak’s mandatory closure of non-essential Nevada businesses.

MGM Resorts has since announced return of some of it's Las Vegas hotel-casino operations:

Starting on June 4 with the reopening of the Bellagio, MGM Grand and New York-New York.

Excalibur is set to open on June 11

The Luxor will reopen on June 25th.

Followed by Aria, Mandalay Bay and Four Seasons Las Vegas on July 1.

The upcoming reopenings will come with several new safety protocols to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19. These include screenings and temperature checks for employees, who will be required to wear masks. Social distancing also will be implemented, with plexiglass barriers to be installed where distancing restrictions are more difficult.

MGM Resorts will also offer free parking when it's properties reopen.

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Looks like Las Vegas Strip may be planning to open for Memorial Day Weekend?

All nonessential businesses in Nevada were temporarily closed on March 17 by Governor Steve Sisolak because of COVID-19. Sisolak’s order was extended through April 30.

MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) company spokesman says they have canceled room reservations at its Las Vegas properties through May 21.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, whenever the Las Vegas Strip reopens, MGM officials expect to open their properties incrementally. MGM's filing indicated the company’s 10 casinos on the Las Vegas Strip will be opened in phases. However With reservations for Friday May 22nd and the Memorial Day weekend not being included in the cancellations notice, this may indicate that the first phase will be a soft re-opening for the holiday weekend for those who already have reservations.

Visiting the MGMResorts.com webpage, the first available date for booking is June 1st. This may indicate a second phase in re-opening of the Las Vegas Strip for new reservations.

Because of the economic fallout from the Coronavirus pandemic, MGM's stock took a downturn around February 20th and bottomed around March 18th, dropping approx $25 a share the day after Vegas was shuttered.

While the company isn’t scheduled to release its first quarter financial performance until 4/30/20, company officials predicted dire results for the first quarter of 2020. MGM is estimating its consolidated net revenue total for the quarter to be about $2.3 billion, which would be about a 29% decrease from the same period in 2019.

Officials also mentioned MGM’s solid liquidity, the company reported it has about $6 billion in cash. The domestic properties still cost about $270 million per month to maintain and have begun "aggressive cost reduction initiatives".

About 52,000 of MGM’s 80,000 world wide employees are based in Las Vegas.

MGM Properties: Bellagio, ARIA, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Delano Las Vegas, Park MGM, The Mirage, New York-New York, Luxor, Excalibur.

Not knowing how long travel restrictions will last and how scared the population is to return to crowded venues, it remains unknown how fast the casinos will get back to normal. So these cost cutting measures will help ensure sustainability until it is back to business as usual.

No matter what, vacations like Casinos, Cruises and Theme Parks will likely be forever changed.

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Thursday, April 9, 2020

CDC - Cruise Line No Sail Order Extended

Cruise ships haven't been sailing since March 14th, 2020, and that means a lot of refunds being issued by Carnival (NYSE:CCL), Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL), and Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:NCLH).

On Thursday April 9th, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced an extension of a No Sail Order for all cruise ships for 100 days. This means Ships won't sail til at least mid-July.

The highly leveraged cruise lines are attempting to retaining the funds already paid to them for Spring and Summer bookings and encouraging guests to accept 125% credits toward a future cruise and/or large amounts of on-board credit to rebook a future date.

Even those booking new cruises are getting great deals. For example, I checked today on a Cruise to Mexico and the cruise, taxes, fees and gratuities add up to less than the onboard credit Carnival offered, meaning I would make $6.78 on taking the cruise.

All 3 cruise lines have taken steps to slow spending, but cash flow is still needed.

As the cruise lines are not registered in the US, they may not be eligible for US Government loans and assistance from the Stimulus. Carnival is incorporated in Panama, Norwegian is incorporated in Bermuda, and Royal Caribbean is incorporated in Liberia.

Royal Caribbean has recently accessed approx $3.5 billion from existing credit lines.

Carnival has shown that at the right price, the cruise industry can find the money it needs amid turmoil caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) panic. Carnival initiated an effort to raise over $6 billion to shore up liquidity. Approx $4 billion was raised by selling its debt by way of secured bonds (secured by a first-priority claim on the company’s assets). The three-year bonds have a yield of just under 12%. Information released during the bond offering: Carnival has received 39,000 bookings since it stopped sailing, and 45% of customers whose cruises had to be canceled/rescheduled chose credit for future trips as opposed to cash refunds.

On 4/6/20, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) now owns an 8.2% stake in Carnival. Saudi Arabia’ PIF held no stock in the cruise line at the start of 2020.

The same day, Carnival director Randall Weisenburger paid $10 million for a large block of shares at $8 a share. He now owns 1.38 million Carnival shares, he had last bought Carnival stock on July 3, 2019, when he paid $930,000 for 20,000 shares, a per-share average price of $46.50.

Swiss bank USB report issued March 31, found that 9% more cruises have been booked for 2021 than were being booked the same time last year. This does include people using credits for canceled cruises, but the increase still shows many have the desire to book a cruise and the industry will bounce back when restrictions are lifted. How soon will you plan your next cruise?

Carnival Cruise Line - CCL - Stock Price