How They Do it: A Bellagio Conservatory Changeout
Watching the amazement that is a Bellagio Conservatory changeout
Everyone knows that the Bellagio Conservatory is one of the best free things to do in Las Vegas. It is a pure awesome display of plants, flowers and scenic decorative items usually scaled to the season you are in. They are one of the “Must Do’s” in Las Vegas.
So when and how do they change it out?
Usually, in a soft timeframe (low visitation like the week after Thanksgiving) the hard hat construction workers start to pull out the existing display. Then, once all cleared they check the floor and major underpinnings for any issues. Once that’s done, they start placing the new display. I caught some of this action last year (between autumn and Christmas display) and was surprised at how much, like Disney Imagineering, it was, with some unknown magic mixed in.
1) Plant areas seem to be on a raised floor (a more robust version of Data Center flooring I’d guess). Hmm half an igloo anyone?
2) Small cranes and cherry pickers are used, these can fit in a doorway. Also, you can see the plant buckets I mention below…on wheels even.
3) All workers wear hard hats; they are hoisting up large pieces.
4) Wait, a tunnel?
5) Flower beds are actually groups of flower bins. The bins are placed first then the plant material is put into them. And the bears don’t have the outer shell…if I remember these are eventually polar bears…I think one of them is naked and frisky right now…or just flashing the workers for fun.
Needless to say, I like to see new things going in, and the swap out showed things I always wondered…like how do they make such a beautiful display with the limited space? Hope this answers some questions if there is anyone out there like me. There are some older YouTube videos but they are shot from a high angle, and you don’t get to see exactly what is happening with the fast forwarding and low resolution they use.
[Images: BigAzMarty]
A computer professional who has worked at several types of positions with several different businesses and still learning and changing.
Introduced properly to Las Vegas and Laughlin by the spouse and have been going ever since 1990.
A frequent visitor from not to far away where it’s almost always 10 degrees warmer than Vegas.
