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South Point - Aria - July 13-18, 2014

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by jpw711, Jul 29, 2014.

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  1. jpw711

    jpw711 Is that your cat?

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    My Trip Report


    This was my late birthday trip, the cast of characters, as usually is Ann (52) and me (48). I'll break this up into parts as it's easier. We stayed at South Point and Aria. July 13 (Sunday) – July 18 (Friday)

    Flights: Boy, airfare went nuts for the summer, $900 for two, that's to high, but gotta pay to play. Flew Southwest out of Tulsa, N/S on the way out, connected in Denver on the way back in. Would have flown N/S back but flight wasn't due to get back to Tulsa till 11:30 PM and I need my beauty sleep. Had a three hour layover in Denver, managed to pass that time smoking in the lounge in Terminal C. Flights were on time. Arrived in LV around 3 PM.

    Transportation: Presidential from the Airport to South Point, book a Sedan, got a Escalade. Driver wasn't our usual “Ted from WI”, but was a good guy none the less.

    Presidential from South Point to Aria, Super Stretch, Ted was our driver. He took the scenic route and the ride took a full hour. We enjoyed catching up with him, for anybody who knows him, his grand babies are walking.

    Cab from Aria to the Airport, $13 fare with a $7 tip. Driver was a “low” talker, from NY. Strange combination.

    Entertainment: We saw one show, Friday morning in line at the SW skycap line, with the opening act being the line from one end of the terminal (outside) to the main entrance of Allegiant Air. Apparently their computers went down. People seemed to be taking it pretty well, but add that to another reason I won't fly them.

    We'll call this show, Dude from South protects some strangers honor. I missed the first 30 seconds, but got to see the best part. Dude from South asks this other dude if he was from NYC, and the cussing began, yelling at him for talking to a lady (who he didn't know) that way. Lady doesn't seem to be to upset, but boy, the dude from NYC sure was. Pretty soon, the sky caps start noticing.

    Act two begins with NYC throwing his carry on down on the ground and advancing. My money was on Alabama (per his cap), but it never made it that far. Apparently, good sense prevailed and the cops weren't called to the area.

    Probably a good thing as neither one of these 60 year olds were in fighting shape.

    South Point:

    Room: Had a comped 1BR suite for two night, great room as usual. WiFi streamed well enough that we could enjoy netflix in HD. We were there on an offer that included 75 FP, comped dinner to Silverado Steakhouse, 25 % spa/salon.

    Salon: Ann had her nails done, taking the old ones off. Women know what this entails, I don't have a clue. She also had a pedicure. Must have been the full treatment as it took four hours and the bill was around $250.

    Dining: First night was room service. I had the General Chicken with a dumpling kicker, Ann had Nachos. There was plenty of chicken left over for lunch the next day, good thing the suite has a fridge. The Nachos looked pretty sad, Ann called down for more cheese and they sent up a bowl full. That worked out pretty well later on in the week at Aria. The Chicken/dumplings were solid. Bill was somewhere around $50.

    Lunch turned out to be a 75c hot dog with a 7/7 to wash it down. Actually several 7/7's

    Dinner for the second night was the Silverado Steakhouse. Comp includes app/salad/entree/desert for each person. Ann had the mushrooms, I had the pork belly. The pork belly was killer, in a good way, to hell with the entree, bring me some more of that. We both had ceasar salad, and prime rib.

    After the pork belly, I decided this dinner would be much better in our suite, so we got the rest to go. Everything was good, except the prime rib, it was tough.

    Gambling: Didn't win. Hit a $14xx.00 hand pay on a 80c bet on some penny machine, and put it back in. Link to photos at the end of this report. Think I ran $11,000 through the machines in the day and a half I played.

    Comps: Stopped to see my host Tuesday morning, she reviewed my play and comped the room service and salon off. Mentioned to her that if Aria doesn't have a smoking room, I'll be back later tonight. She said to call her as she was there till 5.

    Aria.

    Room: Checked in at invited guest counter. Ann showed a $50 and asked for an upgrade to a suite and to be away from the Cosmo due to late night pool noise. Clerk looked for quite awhile and said no suite, but can upgrade you to a city view room away from the Cosmo. Turned out to be 38-118 with a view from the Cosmo to NY/NY (and beyond), and it was a smoking floor. Could still here some thumping from the cosmo, but not nearly as bad as the loud Europeans next door. Like I've always said, paybacks a bitch, you make noise at 3 AM, I'll make more at 8 AM. Good lord, those people could talk, loud, and not in English, so it wasn't even interesting.

    We were booked in on a 3 night, 225 FP, 75 resort credit.

    No complaints about the room, except the connectivity panel didn't work, they came up and plugged my HDMI cable right into the tv.

    Gambling: Put 100,000 tier credits on, playing non specialty slots. Managed to get on a tear on a 9 line $ machine, hit max bet ($27) twice and the gods were nice. Cocktail service sucked on Wednesday, was spot on Thursday, so good Ann told the CW to cut me off. (She didn't, the CW that is). Played about 1.5 hours at Bellagio Thursday morning, couldn't get a drink to save me.

    Dining:

    Ate at Javiers the first night, we liked it Good service. Asked for some hotter salsa, and they brought out a green and an orange habenero. It was good. Ann had the Carnitas, I had the lobster enchiladas.

    Second night we had room service. Ann had the chicken fingers and I had the grilled ham/cheese sammy. Both were huge, good and expensive.

    Third night, we went to Bar Masa for sushi. Food was great, service was spotty. Server wanted to argue with us about what tea we ordered (hot or iced).

    Comps: Thursday night went down to see the host on duty to see what could be done about our bill, about $200 wroth. Got the start of the “we can use your express comps” speech, I've heard it before and told him “I just want you to make it so I don't have to check out tomorrow morning”

    What a difference from Aria and SP (and MGM from the last trip where all was comped off without touching express comps).

    Not a bad trip, lost about 1K between us.

    Thanks for reading.



    <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://s1277.photobucket.com/user/jpw7111/embed/slideshow/Vegas%20-%20July%202014"></iframe>
     
    No reason to go home yet.
  2. KnotGillty

    KnotGillty High-Roller

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    Thanks for the report.

    I really like the photobucket slide show. Makes it easier than attaching pics individually. I'll have to look into how that's done.
     
  3. bjpcyclone

    bjpcyclone High-Roller

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    Enjoyed it! I second the photobucket slideshow, good stuff.

    I also paid about $900 for my wife and I on SW out of Tulsa this April...I haven't seen flight prices much cheaper than that since. We are flying out of Wichita (ICT) for about half the price (and an extra 1.5 hr drive) in August.
     
  4. dbueler

    dbueler High-Roller

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    Nice report, JPW.... I thought about you and Ann in Mecca living it up! Nice pics, but I can't EVEN believe you won on CATS! I've played this game so many times and never, ever, ever once won a dime. I can see the big potential pays, it just doesn't for me. Interesting between Aria and SP, besides the obvious differences. Bet it felt like two different vacations! So sorry about your badly mannered, loud a$$ neighbors... you've read enough of my reports to know I'm a magnet to those folks. Lotta people out there who just don't care any more. I hope you woke their sorry asses up over and over.

    Glad you had a fun trip with lots of comps and not a major loss, considering your BIG win last time! Thanks for posting!
    diane
     
  5. zoey11

    zoey11 Mid roller and Vegas fanatic

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    Great trip report! Like the slideshow too!
    There is a smoking lounge at Denver airport? I didn't know that?
    Thanks for the info on Cosmo, have considered staying there. Glad you had a good trip!
     
  6. Okie21

    Okie21 Low-Roller

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    I hear you on the flights my man. Mine for Sept was also $450, but rebooked when SW had a sale that was actually a sale and is now $325 out of TUL and direct both ways. Fortunate!
     
  7. S'AllGoodMan

    S'AllGoodMan High-Roller

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    Great report.
     
  8. Tammy58

    Tammy58 Frugal Slot Jockey

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    Great report as always! Loved the slide show! I need to learn how to do that. I got the same offer as you for the fall, we are considering a trip in Nov. I know we are both use to the comped suites at SP. First time for us with the Silverado comp this time, we will avoid the Prime Rib.
     
  9. VegasGarden

    VegasGarden Low-Roller

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    great stuff - thank you
     
  10. jpw711

    jpw711 Is that your cat?

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    Thanks for all the kind replies.

    There is a smoking lounge in Terminal C at Denver, it's off the center core, behind the bar, separate entrance. You do have to buy a drink, but that includes soda.

    As far as the slideshow is concerned, if you upload your photos to photobucket, just go to your library, open the particular album, on the right under "links to share this album" click on HTML embed with the left button, it copies the link to your clipboard, then you just paste it in your post here. Easy.

    Dbueler, as far as Cats goes, that game is hit or miss, seems to hit more for me, but sometimes I have to "invest" a lot to get it to hit. As far as two vacations, you are exactly right, totally different vibe.

    Bjpcyclone, if your driving all the way to Witchita, check out the prices out of KC on SW, there were seats for 94 each way all over the fall period.

    Tammy58: Go with the pork belly!

    On a side note, I did have to wait about 30 minutes for an attendent to show up for the hand pay, their computers were down, but I didn't know it at the time. Filled out the comment card, and received a phone call yesterday from them, was told a director would call me today for a follow up. Nice to see they read the cards.
     
    No reason to go home yet.
  11. Jordan

    Jordan Caveman

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    Thanks for TR....We stayed at Aria for 3 days over the 4th weekend (paid for corner suite) and were not impressed, but they did wipe out a bunch of my room charges and 2 of the 3 days for the suite were comped on the backend and they let me keep my express comps earned (around $70 if I remember correctly)!
     
  12. westie

    westie VIP Whale

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    Thanks for the report Joe. $450 x 2 flight - I feel your pain. We are up to almost $400 from CT on SWA, but I always claim a reward for my wife. I am surprised by
    the Silverado's prime rib - we usually get a steak and have never been disappointed.
     
  13. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Great report! And good to know about the slideshow!
     
  14. bjpcyclone

    bjpcyclone High-Roller

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    Yeah, we've looked before. It's a strong 3.5 hours to MCI for us and about 2 hr 15 mins to Wichita...that extra hour+ on the drive home is a killer! Prices were actually cheaper out of Wichita this time too. It's 45 minutes to TUL for us so it's worth the $300 savings for the extra 1.5 hours of travel to us.
     
  15. chonglosaxon

    chonglosaxon MIA

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    JPW-

    Next time on the airfare, by a sw reward ticket from someone on craigslist. They go for 325 all the time or evena little less and can be booked right away.
     
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