Treasure Island Hotel and Casino

* 2017
* 1993

Treasure Island, also known as simply "TI" is a pirate-themed mega-resort, hotel, and casino located on the left side of the Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The hotel has over 2,000 rooms and is owned and operated by Phil Ruffin. The hotel is named after the adventure novel with the same name.

The hotel is home of multiple infamous shows, such as Sirens of TI, which closed in 2013. There's also Mystere, an indoor show owned by Cirque Du Soleil.

## History

### **Early Years (1993 - 2002)**

The original intent of Treasure Island was going to be a massive 3,000-room addition to the newly opened Mirage, talked about by Steve Wynn himself in 1991. The addition later turned into a whole new hotel and casino project based on the theme of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, Treasure Island.

The hotel cost over $450 million to build, and officially opened on October 27, 1993. The grand opening of Treasure Island included the implosion of the Dunes Hotel and Casino, as the hotel's new Buccaneer Bay show "fired" several shots onto both the Diamond of the Dunes tower and the massive spire-shaped neon marquee, engulfing them into flames. When it opened, it became Steve Wynn's second resort in Las Vegas.

During it's early years, Treasure Island was much more heavily themed than it is now. The original marquee included a massive skull, swords representing the crossbones, and a ship-like bottom. The hotel tower was originally more red-orange with brown fluorescent signage.

In 1996, Cirque Du Soleil introduced Mystere for the first time ever in Treasure Island's Cirque Du Soleil Showroom.

A $65 million renovation occurred in 1999, adding a new lobby, registration desk, and upgrading all 2,885 of the hotel's rooms and suites. On July 1st of the same year, multiple propane tanks containing five to seven gallons of gas in a warehouse near Treasure Island exploded into oblivion, injuring a firefighter in the process.

Just one year after the explosion in May 2000, the Prairie Island Indian Community tried to stop Treasure Island from using it's own name by petitioning, thinking that Steve Wynn ***pirated*** the name. (get it? pirated?) the tribe said that it was "an example of how arrogant Las Vegas is towards Indian gaming". The petitioning completely failed.

Later in 2000, MGM Grand Inc. (Now known as MGM Resorts International) bought the hotel for over $4 billion. After that, Treasure Island was the seventh resort on the Las Vegas Strip to be a Four Diamond Resort-rating from the AAA, on February 2. At that time, the only resort on the Las Vegas Strip to have a Five Diamond award was the Mandalay Bay.

### **Later Years (2003 - Today)**

In 2003, some years after MGM Grand Inc. bought Treasure Island, the company abandoned almost all of it's pirate theme for a more adult look. The Pirates of Buccaneer Bay was replaced to Sirens of TI, a more adult-themed pirate show directed by Kenny Ortega. The original marquee was replaced with a modern LED screen, and Treasure Island was given a new name, "TI." The hotel tower even changed to a red color with white signage. The arcade in the casino was also replaced with a smaller one. The massive skull on the marquee was donated to the Neon Museum and can now be seen in the middle of their main boneyard, as it is the largest piece of signage in their boneyard, in front of the Stardust Hotel and Casino's neon marquee. An auction was also held inside the casino, selling off everything from pirate hats, swords, props, etc...

Despite the Sirens of TI being relatively successful, the reviews of the show were genuinely poor, gaining a 2 out 5 star rating based of 150 reviews on Yelp before closing in 2013.

On October 20, 2013, the Sirens of TI show was supposed to temporarily close for two months for new renovations, but on November of 2013, it was announced that the heavily criticized show closed for good. After the closing, a new CVS store was added in 2014 next to the bay along with the addition of Marvel's Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. Later that year, the CVS Pharmacy expanded and became a miniature grocery store. A Senor Frog's opened and replaced much of the Sirens of TI's background buildings.

*Former:* ● Monte Carlo ● Treasure Island ● Boardwalk ● Desert Inn ● Mandarin Oriental ● Golden Nugget ● Sands ● The Shops at Crystals