Both are good properties, but neither is perfect. Here is my breakdown and opinion: Casino: ARIA. Better high limit rooms (although I do like Talon at Cosmo) and, in some spots, Cosmo feels cramped. The craps tables at Cosmo are slightly larger than Aria, which I dislike. Also, I am not a fan of the Talon room being on a different floor than the rest of the casino. Restaurants: ARIA, but only barely. Both have excellent dining options, but Aria has a few more and has some interesting new stuff opening soon Rooms: COSMO. Aria has better bathrooms, but it is hard to beat the balconies at Cosmo Sportsbook: ARIA. No doubt. CG sucks. Aria is much comfier, actually has servers that will bring you beverages, and you don't have to deal with CG employees who never seem interested in being there and doing their jobs Spa: ARIA. Best on the Strip and much larger than Cosmo Service: PUSH. Both have their issues with service and you will find better service at other high end properties Comps: ARIA. I have always received better comps from MGM, although Cosmo appears to have gotten better since the ownership change. Then again, I wrote about an issue with my host and comps in my latest TR, so I am not too happy with the comps at Cosmo at the moment. Regardless, I have always received better comps at Aria Overall, Aria is my favorite property on the Strip
I would agree with all of this except for the "Rooms" part. The actual Cosmo rooms are absolutely far superior. However, if you broaden that category to "Hotel", then I think Cosmo still wins but it's closer. I've experienced massive unruly crowds in the elevator lobby and in the hallways at Cosmo on a number of occasions; nothing close to that has ever happened at Aria, and I really do hate it. As far as Casino, I'd add that I much prefer Aria's main floor to Cosmo's, especially since many of the tables at Cosmo back up to the main thoroughfare that tons of people are constantly passing through. People obviously walk through Aria, but at Cosmo, to get to and from the hotel requires walking directly through the table games pit, which results in a ton of foot traffic. Until recently, Aria also had the edge on blackjack rules, although the recent introduction of 6:5 might reduce that edge. I'd also add one more category: Bars. I think that from a pure mixology standpoint, Cosmo is the clear winner (except for that one bozo at The Henry who reversed the proportions of gin and maraschino in an aviation once), but Aria has 9/5 $1 bartop VP and excellent bartenders at Lift Bar, which is phenomenal for a major Strip resort, let alone a bartop.
Another thing to consider is that the Cosmo has the Marquee Day and Night Club, which generates a lot of eye candy traffic, while the Aria does not have a nightclub.
True, but its Vegas. There is eye candy everywhere on the Strip. You just have to look for it - - - Updated - - - Good point about the casino traffic. Cosmo definitely feels like more people are just walking through the casino, probably because of the layout of the property
Also true, but during the weekend, the eye candy is abundant/plentiful and it comes to you at the Cosmo. So no need to look for it, as it's right there in your face, for better or worse.
I totally agree with UK. However, if you are between 21 and 32 cosmo is the place for you. Unless you party and have access to bungalows the way PartyTriple does. As far as rooms I agree, nothing like having a wraparound 2 bedroom suite with the balcony but really how much are you in the room. For me the CASINO, service, pools, spas, food, limo access, and vip areas are way more important to me than a room. But the 1 or 2 bedroom sky suite penthouse or regular suite at Aria isn't bad at all. Regular rooms are nice too. (See post # 505 of my July TR) Unlike pphold I have had the exact opposite experience at Aria and I have stayed there maybe 35 times give or take. I have stayed at Cosmo about 15 stays. FYI, Wynn is #1.
Casino: Aria's is much better. Cosmo just doesn't have enough room. When I was there in July they had added some tables jammed right up against and practically among a slot area, it was cramped as hell. Rooms: There's no substitute for the balconies. And Cosmo also has more room types and price points in between the standard room and the Terrace Suite (equivalent to Aria's Corner Suite). Take away the balconies, and I'd say the rooms are comparable, although the decor is different. A Terrace Suite is almost identical to a Corner Suite. Comps: Cosmo has a pro and a con here. The pro is you earn cash equivalent comps/rebates on your hotel spend, which is not true at MGM properties. It's relatively easy for a player at my level to obtain 3 comp nights a year based solely on tier level (reaching Sterling on one trip gets you one comp night, you use that one on your 2nd trip and reach Gold, which gets you two more). And those tier-based comp nights can be used back-to-back with marketing comp offers based on your play. The con is you don't earn any cash-equivalent comps on table play, so if you want to track it, you have to keep asking or go to the Identity desk. A side con of this is that as bad as the MLife site can be, Cosmo's player club info accessible online is much worse. MLife normally updates slot play in real time, and table play not far behind, with overnight updates of tier credits based on hotel spend. And the website breaks out all the buckets. Cosmo's website only shows you one number, which represents your spendable comps, not your accumulated tier credits. So again, if you are monitoring your tier credits at Cosmo, you have to keep going to the Identity desk. A con for Aria on comps is that the hosts/assistants on duty are notoriously shitty with back end comps. But my front end offers from Aria have always been fair. I stay at Cosmo part of every trip now because Aria eliminated smoking rooms in the main tower. If they hadn't done that, I would have stayed at Cosmo once to get the balcony/fountain experience, and then gone back to Aria.
This might be a dumb question, but can you get comped a room at one MLife property and play at another and be ok? I tend to agree that Aria has some perks, cosmo identity is not very attractive for table players, but the rooms are definitely awesome. As far as the hotel design itself, do you guys prefer Aria? Aria seems a bit more elegant and the casino is definitely more urban classy in my view, the cosmo seems more trendy. As far as restaurants go, I have to say cosmo has some great ones, holsteins, secret pizza, haven't had a chance to check out the others, I did hear that javiers at Aria is awesome.
Just personally I thought that the slots at Aria sucked big time. Gambled there in Sept and I had to leave after an hour as almost every. friggin. slot. except maybe one or two acted like a hoover and I got almost NO play for my money. And we're not talking 10's and 20's - we're talking 100's...
