10 nights celebrating 10 years. Encore/Cosmo/Aria

We are about 75% packed for our big vacation that starts tomorrow. This will be an awesome trip and our longest Vegas Vacation to date at 10 nights. I’m hoping to keep you guys as updated as possible but I do tend to fade out from the reporting a bit as a vacation goes on. The reason for this trip is first and foremost our 10 year Vow Renewal ceremony on July 6 at Aria and second fo have an awesome vacation in our favorite city. I’ll lay out some of the things you may or may not get updates and pictures of depending on how diligent I am in keeping up with this report. We will also be joined at different parts of this trip by 6 Vegas virgins of various ages so I may be playing tour guide quite a bit but also just catching up with family and so please understand if I disappear for a day or two at a time. I do like to do trip reports though so I can look back and have a record of the fun as I am not on any social media besides LinkedIn so a TR gives a nice way to relive memories from the trips.

Transportation: 1st class on Delta from OKC to Las Vegas with a layover in Salt Lake City. Departing OKC at 1:50 pm and arriving at LAS at 6pm. We will catch a cab to Encore. We are mainly cab and not rideshare people when in Vegas. Also have limo that comes with Sky Suites picking us up from Cosmo on the 5th and also taking us to the airport on the 9th.

Hotels:
6/29-7/1 at Encore in a resort king room. Booked this buy one night at $99 get second night free offer from them to extend what was already an 8 night trip because hey, why not spend two more nights in Vegas. Also have a little resort credit and free play so the cost for the second night plus resort fees is basically a wash.

6/30/7/5 at Cosmo. Even though we are still at Encore Wednesday night we are going to check into Cosmo that evening and take some of our stuff over so it’s less of a hassle in the morning and because my brother in law and his wife are coming into town that night and staying at PH so we will head to Cosmo after dinner to check in, slot around, and wait to meet up with them. Host has me in a 1 BR fountain view Terrace. We’ve never stayed in this room type before, with both previous stays we paid the upgrade fee from the comp for wraparound terrace suites, but we both didn’t really feel the need for the big suite over 4th of July weekend, we want the FV And didn’t want to pay what they would have wanted for the upgrade fee for a FV Wrap for the 4th. Also have some resort credit and free play at Cosmo.

7/5-7/9 - Aria Sky Suites. This room we are paying full freight for but at a hell of a bargain compared to what rates are running now that Vegas is Back. We have a Panoramic Penthouse, this will be our first stay at Aria and we are very much looking forward to it. My interaction so far with Sky Suites concierge to arrange certain things has been very pleasant. At this point in the trip my father and mother in law and a dear friend of mine and his lady will also be in town, and since Aria is where we are having our Vow renewal, this suite makes a lot of sense for us.

Activities: as mentioned, we have our 10 year vow renewal ceremony on Tuesday the 6th, which will be outstanding, but in addition to that we have the following things already reserved or purchased.

Spas: Encore and Aria. I will be getting massages at both, my wife is getting a facial at Encore and a massage and mani/pedi at Aria. We both really enjoyed all of the Encore spa amenities in the past and are looking forward to experience the Aria.

Cabanas: we have a Chelsea cabana booked for 7/1 at Cosmo and will be joined by my BIL and his Fiancée. We also have an Aria Mega cabana booked for July 7 the day after the bow renewal and will be joined by all of our friends and family.

Shows: wife and I purchased Bill Burr tickets for Friday 7/2 before Cosmo sent me an email that I could get complimentary tickets so we are going to donate our Comp tix to my BIL. Our whole group of 8 including by FIL and MIL are going to Absinthe on the night of July 4. This will be the very first Vegas show for everybody but my wife and I, and we weren’t expecting her parents to go, but they called at the last minutes and said they wanted to go to a Vegas show. Well, we all have front row seats so I hope they love it as much as we do! My wife and I also have tickets for O on July 8 the night before we leave. We have seen it before and enjoyed it so we are looking forward to that. Our favorite Cirque style show was Le Reve even though it wasn’t CDS, but obviously that show is gone forever now.

gambling: I am primarily a BJ player here in OK But I play a lot of slots in Vegas. I am anticipating that mainly being the game of choice this trip as recent reports of table minimums at the places I will be do not sound promising. I am hoping to maybe sneak away for an afternoon down to El Cortez as I enjoy their $10 double deck game. I don’t mind playing green chips or even $50 minimums occasionally as long as it’s 3/2 so we shall see if I run into any of that. I am also known to play a little roulette and I did try Baccarat at my local recently and I could see myself playing a little in LV if I can find decent money bets. As far as slots go I’m a Quick hits junky. I’ll probably concentrate as much of my play at Cosmo as possible to keep up a good relationship I have started with a host there and because I really like their Identity program and resort. The location is perfect, the casino is high energy, they have excellent food choices, and they have taken good care of us to this point. Anyways, usually I will play a couple times a day, either early in the AM or during the day sometime my wife and I will wander from machine to machine and play together, and then usually later at night I will venture down by myself and degen for a while as my wife tends to go bed much earlier than I do.

Food: reservations so far include: Milos for lunch, Mizumi, Costa Di Mare, Jaleo, Overlook Grill brunch, Wing Lei, Bardot Brasserie brunch, Scarpetta, Catch, Carbone, Din Tai Fung, and Noodles. We also Love Block 16 although I am sad Pok Pok Wing is gone, and we will definitely be doing some room service and various other quick eats that I don’t care to list. The variety and quality of restaurants is one of the huge draws of Vegas for us as OKC is not exactly what I would call a culinary wonderland. I will likely take lots of pics at the restaurants to share with you all. I do not drink at all and my wife isn’t much of a drinker and when she does it’s usually a Tito’s and tonic with no fruit, so don’t expect pics of fancy cocktails.

Ok, so hopefully I will be able to feed the ravenous appetites of my fellow VMB’ers as I like to return the favor of all the wonderful contributors of this board. I will do my best. Tomorrow morning is busy, we have to finish packing, take our two Schnauzers to the Vet where we board them, and then we both have dental cleanings before heading to the airport.

 

Best wishes for an exciting and wonderful anniversary trip. I'll be following along!

 

Up early to finish packing and get the doggos ready to go to boarding. I’m sure there will be opportunities for my obligatory sad sack dog pictures as they are very accomplished emotional blackmail artists. In either case, I have had this trip planned for months and it feels slightly surreal that the day is finally here. We went twice during the pandemic so this isn’t quite the triumphant return of some members of the board, but looking forward to this trip more than any others in recent memory for sure.

 

Wilhelm is sitting in my lap to prevent me from packing.

 

Sounds like an awesome time! Last time I was there wasnt a holiday weekend, but there was plenty of 3:2 at $25 or less at the south MLife properties including Mandalay. Sounds like this weekend will be mobbed though so we'll see how that affects tables. I'm also staying through the 9th and if pool cabana prices are any indication, it looks like they're expecting a mass exodus on the 4th and 5th which is great for us!

 

Good to know. And yes I am thinking the same regarding 7/5 and beyond. I think today and tomorrow will be pretty tame, obviously things will ramp throughout the weekend and then the tide should flow back out for the following week.

 

Go get ‘em! Such a great plan, can’t wait to go along for the ride...

 

Obligatory Sad Schnauzers. They’ve known something was wrong since at least yesterday when the luggage came out. This will be the longest we have ever left them.

 

Your babies are adorable!

 

Sounds like a great time with plenty of things planned. Will be following along!

 

Congratulations on your 10-year anniversary! Hope the trip is a great time for you, the wife, and extended family. Now go enjoy yourselves!

 

Waiting on the vet tech to come out and get them. They have some fairly complicated feeding and medication instructions since the older one, Tyrion on the left, has hyperlipidemia and the one on the right, Wilhelm, suffers from mild seizures. We are very blessed to have an outstanding vet who also does boarding, so it’s nice knowing that if something went bad for them health wise they are already at the place they would need to go. Also, the boarding facility here is built into a big F5 rated Tornado shelter which is an added bonus for security here in Oklahoma that a lot of kennels do not have.

 

Congratulations and Good luck, have a great trip.

 

One dog looks happy to go. The other one, far less so.

 

At OKC airport and through security. It’s busier than I’ve ever seen it at Security. It’s still very tame compared to some other cities I’ve lived in but there are definitely a lot of Oklahomans on the move. Flight is supposed to board in 3 minutes but the arriving aircraft isn’t here yet so looks like a delayed departure. That being said, we have a 2 hour and 21 minute layover in SLC so unless the flight is way late, shouldn’t be any issue making our connection.

 

In SLC now, flight was pretty uneventful, little turbulence coming into Salt Lake. We had a little more than 2 hour layover so we decided to make the hike all the way outside to catch a smoke. Breezed back through security, there was virtually no line despite the airport itself being fairly busy. I’m guessing with SLC being a Delta hub that a lot of the traffic that comes through here never actually leaves the airport because the size of the lines does not jive with the amount of people in the terminal. Got some starbucks cold brews and are now waiting at the gate. The flight isn’t until 5:40 so we are probably a little less than an hour from boarding.

 

Dallas is like that too, major airport, one of the busiest in the country, 6 terminals, but 20 security checkpoints and the longest TSA line I've ever waited in there was behind 2 other people.

 

Oh yea, I’ve lived in Fort Wortg and flown DFW many many times. A lot of people hate that airport but that’s one of the things I love about it. Also it has a Pappadeaux so when I have a long layover I have a great place to grab some crawfish ettoufee.

 

Happy 10th Anniversary!

All of your restaurants had me drooling. Your trip sounds absolutely amazing!

I know the surreal feeling. I'm starting to panic how close my upcoming trip is and how much I have to get done before then.

And then again....Vegas, baby!

Vegasworm

 

We landed in Vegas with no issue, grabbed our luggage and got in a can no problem. Got to Encore, no line to check in, and the front desk attendant was very sweet. The Bellman Alfredo that got our bags was super friendly. We got up to the room and noticed there were no shampoo, conditioner or body wash, just bar soap in the bathroom. I called the bell desk to bring our bags up and then sat down to call housekeeping to ask for shower amenities. No answer and I was still waiting when the bellman arrived maybe 5 minutes later. He asked if everything was satisfactory and noted he could call for the shower amenities, so I hung up the phone and let him handle that. He also took our suit and my wife’s gown to the bell desk so the bridal steaming service can pick it up tomorrow for delivery to Aria later in our trip. He got a nice crisp $20 for his help. Our neighbors were being super loud at the time and he asked if he needed to do anything about that and we told him we would give them some time and call later if they were still being very loud. Not 5 minutes after he left the doorbell rang and it was housekeeping with him he shower amenities plus extra towels. The Bellmen have their shit together here for sure.
We decided on room service but once again the phone just rang and then played the hold music forever when I tried to call in room dining to order. So after about 7 minutes I’m home we decided to just go downstairs and try goodies in demand or Wynn cafe. Goodies was closed so we walked to Wynn cafe and both got grilled cheeses and tomato soups. They were outstanding, and honestly I’m glad we did because the ribeye I was going to order by itself from room service was going to be as expensive as our combined meals plus two Fiji waters so that’s a win. Hat tip to @Flowers for pitching the grilled cheese and tomato soup combo in her TR’s!
Our spa appointments also weren’t quite right on the papers that the front desk printed, so I also tried to call the spa but again no answer. Oh well, they are close enough it won’t matter. I’m not spending another minute on hold.

Overall impression so far is we are so happy to be in Vegas and also we just love Wynn and Encore so much. The base rooms here really are spectacular also. I think they are still quite short handed though, I’ve never experienced waits when trying to phone hotel services like that before. We made do and it’s no problem, but it’s not exactly what you expect from WynnCore. We are back in the room now and gonna shower and then I will probably try my hand t some blackjack or slots, haven’t decided yet. I did see a few tables of $50 3/2 BJ downstairs and $25 6/5.