Hi and ahoy, maties! My name's Patrick J. Gallagher. I'm an autistic person and a very expert artist. I'm from North Tustin. And the best thing is, I went to Las Vegas with my family about five times over. But most importantly, I got myself a great story to tell you all about my two great visits to my favorite Las Vegas resort named Treasure Island Hotel & Casino in its original model, how I openly oppose the various managers' de-theming of the Las Vegas resorts, and how I want Treasure Island to be restored back to its former theme of buried treasures, cutthroat pirates, family entertainment, and live action pyrotechnic simulated ship-to-ship sea battles.

Cannons thundered and Pirates plundered! A long time ago, on the grounds of The Mirage's former parking lot and on the night of October 27, 1993, a recently new resort and casino was built and opened by its manager and Disney-inspired billionaire Steve Wynn with a very good focus on family entertainment and its name, to this day, is Treasure Island. Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure novel "Treasure Island", Treasure Island Hotel & Casino had once been called "The Adventure Resort" in order to provide family fun and entertainment with a lot of pirate themes, features, and icons like the skull-and-crossbones strip marquee, a hillside pirate bay village with a giant skull-shaped mountain called "Skull Point", nine rows of skulls on floral engraved architraves at the entrance, balconies from both the sterns of ships and a mermaid figurehead, gold door grips made out of golden skulls which, at opening, split length-wise, large shipwreck parts inside the casino, ceilings decked and draped with booty baskets, plundered treasure chests and overflowing riches, skeleton pirates, elaborate skeletal chandeliers, the registration lobby's elegant front desk decorated in gold and black colorings with fanciful golden skull decors, red curtains, and large baroque paintings of island villages and sea ship battles from the Golden Age of the Pirates, a stately pirates' library at its restaurants, pirate figureheads on both sides of its shopping promenade called "The Pirates' Walk", fine European fabrics uniquely designed for Treasure Island, a 220-foot-long action water slide plunged from a breathtaking three stories and into the tropical oasis pool below and a smaller slide for little kids, a whirlpool, and a kiddie pool, and its three main attractions namely "Mutiny Bay", the adventure amusement center that once featured interactive video, virtual reality, midway and arcade games for all ages, Mystère, the unique theatrical extravaganza by the world-famous performance troupe Cirque du Soleil, and the most popular, well-received, most beloved, and very best sea battle stunt show called "The Pirate Battle of Buccaneer Bay at Treasure Island" or "The Battle for Buccaneer Bay" for short where every 90 minutes each evening, cannon and musket fire were exchanged in a dramatic pyrotechnic battle between the pirate galleon "Hispañiola" and the British Navy six-rate frigate "H.M.S. Britannia" in front of Treasure Island Las Vegas. It immediately became an iconic part of Las Vegas' entertainment landscape ever since its opening day. Believe me, I was there at Treasure Island twice when my family and I were on a vacation back in 1994 and in 2001. I watched "The Battle for Buccaneer Bay" show, saw much of the pirate themed casino, went into "Mutiny Bay", and ate a bountiful brunch and dessert at "The Treasure Island Buffet". I loved that pirate show and everything else there inside the resort so much and so did millions of visitors. To me and to everyone else there, It even felt like, as the resort's main quote once said, you could travel the Seven Seas and never see anything like it again. 

But then, everything changed in the year 2003, some years after MGM Resorts bought Treasure Island, The Mirage, and every hotel properties from Steve Wynn, Treasure Island's new president Scott Sibella and the entire MGM Resorts executive staff who had no real love for family entertainment and themed resorts revamped "The Adventure Resort" into a more modern sophisticated property aimed primarily at adults and largely abandoned almost all of its pirate theme for a more contemporary adult look over the course of three years and auctioned them off in September 2003, so much to our dismay. Sibella even rebranded Treasure Island's resort name into the abbreviated name "TI" while removing and replacing the most famous skull-and-crossbones marquee at the Strip entrance with a stylish contemporary LED neon sign reading simply "TI". And to add insult to injury, "Mutiny Bay Adventure Center" was demolished and replaced by some party bars and meeting places, the tropical oasis pool had been renovated for a more adult look with two action water slides completely demolished, and the whirlpool and kiddie pool replaced by a 50-person adult-friendly hot tub, and the most beloved "Battle for Buccaneer Bay" show was replaced by a "sexy and beautiful", adult Broadway-caliber Sea battle show called "The Sirens of TI". Rumors stated that Sibella and the MGM Resorts staff claimed that Treasure Island's heavy pirate theme only appealed to children, not to their parents nor the other adults who came to Las Vegas in a weekend getaway. But those rumors were, and still are, really not true because my family, friends, and I, and most millions of visitors still love a lot of themes about pirates and buried treasures even as adults and parents and we just love to bring our kids to Las Vegas. But Sibella and the MGM Resorts staff wouldn't even listen to every one of us and what we loved. So instead, they told us what they thought "we wanted" and to go back to gambling which they were known for. When I went back to Treasure Island and saw the "Sirens of TI" show, I didn't ever like that show nor the way they changed Treasure Island into a contemporary resort. Neither did the rest. Even critics and public views found that "sexy" Broadway-caliber pirate battle show being more of a musical show than a real stunt battle show and it was very stupid. We believed that "The Sirens of TI" shouldn't ever replace "The Battle for Buccaneer Bay" show, its predecessor and we absolutely didn't like it when MGM Resorts did the same to all the other Las Vegas resorts just because they hated themed resorts and they wanted more money and I was against their de-theming of Treasure Island and every single one of their resorts in Las Vegas. 

Then everything changed even more on March 20, 2009 when another billionaire named Phil Ruffin, former owner of the "New Frontier Hotel and Casino", bought and took full ownership of Treasure Island Las Vegas from MGM Resorts International for over $775 million dollars. He made various new changes to Treasure Island Hotel & Casino, including new restaurants, new bars, new stores and a new ballroom. But the most major changes were made out front as a new restaurant called Gilley's BBQ and Dance Hall was built next to the Sirens' ship while much of Sirens' Cove's buildings were demolished and replaced by Señor Frog’s Las Vegas Restaurant & Bar and even the heavily criticized "Sirens of TI" battle show was closed for good and would never return, much to the many cast-members' shock and to ours as well. Well, good riddance to that foul sexy Broadway-caliber pain of a stunt show for replacing our beloved "Battle for Buccaneer Bay" pirate show! So now, some of the space would be used for a new CVS store in 2014 next to the bay along with the addition of Treasure Island's newest attraction called Marvel's Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. in 2016, which I love Marvel's The Avengers series as much as I love the pirates. Later that year, the CVS Pharmacy expanded and became a miniature grocery store, reducing the size of Sirens' Cove by approximately one-third and removing "Skull Point" mountain. It sounded like as if Phil Ruffin was half-following Scott Sibella's example by de-theming the resort a little bit. Today, Treasure Island Las Vegas is now just another contemporary resort on the Las Vegas Strip with so much of its uniqueness slowly removed over the course of 19 years. Recently, Treasure Island has already joined the Radisson Hotel Group in 2019 with the agreement that it keeps its current name and exterior signage as of today. But it still has a few of the original pirate theme remaining. And the ships on both ends of the lagoon still sit outside the resort and have now light-strings all over at night and the cove now features several water fountains to make it look pretty. Unfortunately, both "The Battle for Buccaneer Bay" and "The Sirens of TI" shows are long gone now. As of today, no new live full-scale simulated pyrotechnic sea battle show has ever replaced "The Sirens of TI". Until now... 

Now is the right time for Treasure Island Las Vegas to return to its former pirate themed roots and family fun and bring back both "Mutiny Bay Adventure Center" and "The Battle for Buccaneer Bay" show in front of Treasure Island to Las Vegas as it was during the 90's. As the resort is nearing its 30th anniversary this year, we all need to change it back soon and fast. Now if any one of you who remembered Treasure Island in its original form and "The Battle for Buccaneer Bay" show and want them all back and if any of you and your kids want to experience more of Treasure Island's uniqueness and its whimsical themes about pirates, buried treasures, and a live simulated pyrotechnic ship-to-ship sea battle show for years to come, I'm asking you all now to sign my petition to make Phil Ruffin and the Radisson Hotel Group restore Treasure Island Hotel & Casino to its whimsical pirate features and icons like skeleton pirates, skeletal chandeliers, door grips made out of golden skulls, the front desk's black and gold colors with fanciful golden skull decors and large paintings of pirate islands and sea ship battles, a stately pirates' library at the steakhouse, and booty baskets, plundered treasure chests, and overflowing riches all over the ceilings, fine European fabrics and furniture made specifically for Treasure Island, large pirate figureheads on both sides of the shopping promenade, bring back the 220-foot action slide, the smaller slide for kids, the kiddie pool, and the whirlpool back to the tropical pool, rebrand the resort's name from the abbreviated "TI" back to "Treasure Island-The Adventure Resort" and bring back the famous skull-and-crossbones strip marquee to the strip entrance by replacing the almost fizzled out LCD "TI" neon sign, bring back "Mutiny Bay Adventure Center" to the hotel and casino for everyone of all ages, and return "The Battle for Buccaneer Bay" pirate stunt show to its former glory by reimagining it as a battle between the pirates and the undead ghost pirates with the Sirens' ship remade back into the treasure-ladened pirate galleon renamed back as "The Hispañiola" and the black pirate frigate remodeled into a ghost pirate frigate renamed as "The Grim Ranger" which will "rise" from a watery grave with a reverse iconic sinking ship effect before being crewed by skeletal ghost pirates by means of projection mapping and hologram-style effects, and the entire façade of Treasure Island restored back into a hillside pirate bay village with a new skull mountain in front of CVS and Marvel's Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. and even build a new tattoo and art store called "The Treasure Chest Art Shoppe" for a new variety of art supplies, artbooks, tattoo makings, and art paper just in time for Treasure Island Hotel and Casino's 30th anniversary or its 31st anniversary next year. But we don't need to overdo it and let everyone else be alarmed. Gilley's Saloon, Dance Hall, & BBQ, CVS store, and Marvel's Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. will all still have a home at Treasure Island Las Vegas. 

And just in case when The Mirage will be rebranded as The Hard Rock Las Vegas when Hard Rock International bought The Mirage from MGM Resorts and the Mirage Volcano and everything else would be demolished, also sign my same petition to make Phil Ruffin and the Radisson Hotel Group turn one of the closed parking garages and/or the poorly received and very unpopular Villa De Flores Apartments into an extension resort called "Mermaid Mirage", a new hotel & casino themed as the lost kingdom of Atlantis inspired by rejected concept arts for ITT/ Sheraton's "Desert Kingdom" and with a unique architectural style that combines Graeco-Egyptian, African, Balinese, Aztec, and Babylonian inspired elements as describe by Ignatius L. Donelly in his book, "Atlantis: The Antediluvian World", and populated by race of Merpeople who are half-fish and half-pantherine and machairodont felids and with some treetop resorts, and several new tropical and Atlantean themed restaurants, shops, and family-friendly attractions, including a thrilling river adventure ride that plunges underneath the main casino through a series of dazzling hidden treasures, a new arcade center, a temple complex cinema theater that'll showcase both a 2-D hand-drawn animated/ stunt stage hybrid movie called "The Journey of Meraiya the Mirage Mermaid" and a spectacular water stage show called 'Legends of the Lost Kingdoms" which will come to life in a lush lagoon scenery. And a couple of pre-existing attractions from the Mirage such as Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat, the "Royal White Tigers Habitat" which used to be at The Mirage's moving walkway from 1989 to 2003, Siegfried & Roy's Theater which will showcase magic shows, comedy clubs, and a movie about Siegfried & Roy, and The Mirage Volcano will be built at "Mermaid Mirage" in order to save them all, and to both carry on The Mirage's legacy and further honor Siegfried & Roy's memories and their life-long dedications to preserve and save all the big cat species from poaching, just in case if The Hard Rock plans to demolish the Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat along with the Mirage Volcano if anyone else's petitions to save them both from destruction fail. Now is that time. It's now the right time to correct the many errors Sibella and MGM Resorts had done, make contacts with the resort's media counters or even higher ups, and restore Treasure Island Las Vegas back to its former pirate glory and save The Mirage's legacy for everyone of all ages for years to come. 
  
Check out these concept drawings and references I made for the Treasure Island Restoration Petition & the Petition Map.

 

 

 

And here is the Proposed Property Map for Treasure Island's Restoration Petition.