Survival Of The Fittest

Mortimer's 10 Hotels - Number 8 - The Behemoth

Mortimer appears at the front of the MGM Grand Hotel, where he stands in front of the golden lion statue by the emerald-colored hotel.

"This here is the MGM Grand. It doesn't look remarkable, but this is a building that has set records and is vital in Las Vegas history. Now, in terms of how many tourists can come to this city's biggest hotels and resorts, I would say that the minimum amount of tourists in a single day could be at 64,000 when using the largest hotels. The maximum of that amount is about 256,000 though it could be higher. When the MGM Grand opened up in 1993 on one fine December for Christmas, it was considered the largest hotel in the world. That ranking at being the largest had dropped down to 3rd place, though Las Vegas hotels are known to be large to accommodate the tourists and gamblers. The 2nd place ranking belongs to the Venetian resort, but only counting both the Venetian hotel and the Palazzo with the Venezia Tower. The largest hotel ever as of now is all the way in Malaysia, known as the First World Hotel."

Mortimer looks like he is about to take the reader to the tour of inside of the hotel, but he pauses and frowns.

"Now, here is something important. Obviously, while I'm not covering the Mandalay Bay (Surprise, surprise! I know. I spoiled the twist), any city in the world has its fair share of massive tragedy. Knowing and acknowledging of the 2017 mass shooting that happened from the Mandalay Bay that managed to beat the record; a record that those narcissistic gun-wielding trigger happy trenchcoat mafia dipshits shouldn't be allowed to beat; in terms of people killed, scars will always remain. It didn't help that the year before that, there was the Pulse in Orlando. I shall not drift into the topic of such horrible gun violence that had happened, knowing of the frequency it has been happening even after the pandemic put a pause of that for a year. Though 2018 was a bad year in general, not helping that a shitload of high school students from Tennessee got kidnapped and killed off."

Mortimer grows uncomfortable, before he continued.

"But... there is one disaster that had happened in Las Vegas that might seem distant now, but those who thrive off of the city's past can see the gaping wound left behind."

Mortimer appears in front of the Horseshoe Las Vegas, wearing an old fireman's coat and helmet.

"The original MGM Grand actually used to be here. First, it was the MGM Grand. Then, it changed into a place called Bally's. Now, it's the Horseshoe."

Mortimer spots the Guy Fieri's Flavortown Sports Kitchen nearby.

"There isn't anything else fancy of the place, since it has been going through renovations every now and then, but let's talk about what happened when it was still the MGM Grand."

The fabric of time and space shift the present day into November 21, 1980.

Firefighters are swarming the MGM hotel after it had caught fire. Helicopters are helping with evacuating people who were stranded on the upper floors.

"The MGM Grand fire. The deadliest disaster in Nevada history and is the 9th deadliest high-rise fire in the world. The original 10th deadliest high-rise fire still needed a mention, since it was the Grenfell Tower fire back at the United Kingdom. Knowing that there are a lot of Brits who are secretly gods, some of us in the US are able of what happened. In terms of the current 10th deadliest high-rise..." Mortimer knew the answer, though it would require him to do some literal time crimes, "it's bound to happen later".

Mortimer went back on topic.

"The MGM Grand was the 3rd deadliest hotel fire in the United States, being beaten by the Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in Puetro Rico caused by some fucking scab hunters, and the Winecoff Hotel fire in Atlanta back in 1946. The deadliest hotel fire was back at Korea in 1971, while the 2nd deadliest high-rise fire was when Black October happened in Russia with tanks shooting at the top of the House of Soviets. The deadliest high-rise fire of all?" Mortimer reaches down to the ground to pick up the severed chocolate head of the Statue of Liberty. "You get the idea."

"Now, whenever a skyscraper fire happens, it's bad when the fire starts on a lower floor, since fire can travel upwards fast like a matchstick. The kicker was that the sprinkler systems in the original MGM Grand didn't apply to all of the floors of the hotel. Only the first two floors and the top floor. The fire started in a restaurant when it was closed to which there were no one around to put out the blaze or have sprinklers get rid of the issue. All of this was because some cereal box mail order degree building inspector didn't listen to the fire marshals. Not helping much was that the lack of sprinklers were due to saving money, which if the inflation is put in with the math, could've been expensive but was necessary.

Then, here's where things get insane after the fire..." Mortimer says, to which some guy runs out of the hotel, clutching charred bills and valuables. "The fucking looters saw it as free real estate! Even more bizarre, there might have been some sort of burgular/extortion ring that showed up to the city. The police at the time after the fire got a phone call from the 'Scorpion' organization wanting 25 million in some bank account in Zurich, Switzerland or they would rob the other hotels. I doubt they would've done a good job at robbing hotels, since 1980 was still when the mob-run casinos were up, so such some crooks try to break it and start a fire, a whole lot of people are going to get whacked."

Mortimer appears back in the present day inside of the lobby of the MGM Grand.

"Now, for the actual hotel itself here. The emerald exterior is supposed to have the hotel themed to be based off of The Wizard of Oz, but there is a bunch of other theming that came from the opening of the hotel, so you have references to Hollywood and some other shit. Just like the Planet Hollywood, the Hollywood theming itself does nothing to present itself and comes across as generic. Inside of here looks like the inside of a movie theater palace. There is a bit of a weird complaint, since even though the MGM Grand is supposed to be themed around Hollywood, there is this weird 00's television studio feel. A lot of stuff here have references to cable channels, like you're in some bootleg media dimension."

Mortimer appears in a hallway in the MGM Grand.

"Here's something to note. You know how it is with liminal spaces. Stuff like empty hallways and dream-like settings?" Mortimer steps to the side to show how long the hallway he's in is.

"Take this surreal nightmare. Due to how large the hotel is for guests, you would need to walk or jog down a hallway like this to get to your hotel room. It doesn't help that while you're walking down, the carpet changes and makes you think you just walked through a mirror. If you get drunk or tripping balls under some drugs, you're going to get lost while being subjected to the carpet trying to consume you."

Mortimer appears inside of a regular hotel room inside of the MGM Grand to demonstrate how cramped the room feels.

"Immediately when you go in, you're met with the bathroom, which is just as cramped as the room. You don't feel like you're in a hotel room! It's more of a cabin in a train or a cruise ship. No sense of space and the bed is- ARGHHH" Mortimer didn't enjoy how uncomfortable the bed felt when he sat down on it. "It's like a dorm room bed in a low-end apartment. The very definition of quantity over quality here."

Mortimer appears at the Topgolf attraction next door to the MGM Grand, where he has an umbrella open to deflect many of the golf balls falling at him.

"The good news is that you do have a lot of options here to not worry about a shitty room or when looking for stuff to do in the MGM Grand. Along with shows, you can also eat at several restaurants here at the-"

Mortimer gets struck by a golf ball that managed to nab his ear.

"Ah fuck! DO YOU FUCKING MIND!" Mortimer drops the umbrella briefly to yell at whoever took the swing, but he gets immediately pelted by several other golf balls that fly into him fast, causing him to retreat from the greens.

Mortimer appears inside of the Wolfgang Puck restaurant with multiple visible bruises.

"A lot of people who may have shows on Food Network have a restaurant here. However, the most prevalent would have to be Joel Robuchon with both the restaurant of the same name and L'Atelier. Both of them are ungodly expensive places with French cuisine, which can easily eat up literally the money in the wallet, when you're feasting on a tasting menu or some foie gras. My recommendation is to just go to Wolfgang Puck's place also in the MGM Grand. The prices are much more reasonable and the food is just as good. I would recommend getting the truffle potato chips and the spaghetti and meatballs." Mortimer digs and twirls his fork into the spaghetti noodles. "The creme brulee is also something I would enlist to for something sweet."

Mortimer appears in the middle of the Hakkasan nightclub that is booming with crowds and a massive DJ performance. Mortimer has to yell, so that the reader can hear him.

"FOR THE NIGHTLIFE, THERE IS THE HAKKASAN NIGHTCLUB THAT YOU CAN GO TO! THE MAIN ISSUE IS THAT JUST LIKE ANY CROWDED NIGHTCLUB, YOU HAD TO DEAL WITH STANDING SIDE TO SIDE WITH SWEATY DRUNK PARTYGOERS WHILE ALSO BEING SWEATY AND DRUNK! I SAY THAT YOU SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM HERE, SINCE IT'S OVERRATED!"

Mortimer appears chilling on a pool float with sunglasses on, drifting in the middle of a crowded pool.

"You should still enjoy the pool action here, since it's a popular part of the hotel. In terms of shows, there is some options. Las Vegas is no stranger to magic shows, to which you can watch David Copperfield here. There is also the Jabbawockeez dance group that also performs here. However, there is one notable show that is still well-known."

Mortimer stands in front of the giant floating platform belonging to the Cirque du Soleil show Kà.

"Perhaps the most technologically advanced Cirque du Soleil show to grace the world, Kà is a technical marvel in performances. The stage lacks an actual floor to which the main set is composed of two giant moving platforms that hover below the pit and audience. Knowing how it is with Cirque du Soleil, they like to make spectacles of a lot of things." Mortimer peers down into the pit below the stage.

"A lot of things that are spectacles around Vegas in fact."