trip report from aug. 2011 til jan. 2012

i used to go to vegas for new years eve with my ex and came home after the fireworks, so we've never stayed at a hotel or anything. went about 3 years consecutively, until 2009, we broke up

now that i'm with my current bf, we started going to vegas for my birthday which is in august and for our anniversary in january. we started going in august of 2011.

january 2011 - we stayed at the Mandalay Bay's basic rooms, first time here. (we weren't into fancy rooms at this time and was ok with basic rooms) yes, mandalay is all the way at the end of the strip which sucked because if we wanted to get to the center of the strip, we'd have to walk or use transporation. we did take our car but didn't want to take it around at that time. so we stayed our 3 days/2 nights in mandalay bay and i can say that we didn't have to leave the hotel to do anything because everything is there. rooms were nice and so was the hotel. we ate at the buffet and the cafe. that's all i can remember now that it's 1.5 years later. mandalay bay - GREAT EXPERIENCE! would return maybe another time if i no longer cared where we stayed on the strip.

august 2011 - we stayed at the aria, first time here. we got the deluxe king room, again, basic room. but - wanted to try a "suite" and got the corner suite through the $50 upgrade to corner suite promo. the room is DOPE! i love the huge bathroom, from the bidets to the whirlpool tub to the double sinks. this was for my 30th birthday. we went to del frisco's and food was excellent! my bf got the ginormous tomahawk. he could've knocked someone out with that thing. we also got the delicious crab cakes that were NOT fried. that was my first experience with crab cakes and that's how i will remember it. (because i've had other crab cakes after and they were fried and i do not like fried foods) they had a birthday card on the table when we got there and at the end of the meal, they brought out big slice of lemon cake for my birthday. on this trip, we also tried earl's of sandwich and the wicked spoon for the first time. earl's was delish! we knew we had to always have earl's every time we visited vegas. wicked spoon, we had for lunch before we left. it was ok to me. we did plan on trying it again for dinner, and so my bf can try their bone marrow. this trip, we would return to the aria, earl's, del frisco's and wicked spoon. though we had mcdonald's the first night we were in town because we arrived late, starved and no one was open. i almost passed out because i skipped dinner to try to get to vegas sooner. haha

january 2012 - we stayed at the cosmopolitan for 4 days/3 nights. we reserved a one bedroom terrace (getting a wee fancy with rooms now) but was upsold to a wraparound suite at check-in for another $100 per night and we took it. the room is spacious and was filled with fresh air when we opened the wraparound sliding windows! two bathrooms, a kitchenette, the whole corner balcony all to ourselves. the bathrooms were ok, i still like the aria's corner suite's bathroom. their tub is a bit bigger than that of the aria. the only complaint about cosmo is that it made us itch. i don't know what it could be...maybe it's their sheets or towels? or the type of detergent they use? or something we ate? my bf was itching while were there on our 2nd night, i started itching the day we left and for another couple of days once we got home. i do like that they have the washer/dryer but i didn't use it. i'll stay here again maybe in the future to see if we would itch again or if it was just us. we ate at wicked spoon - dinner, stripsteak - dinner, chipotle - dinner, earl's - lunch, secret pizza @ cosmo - lunch, pizza @ NYNY - lunch, etc. wicked spoon for dinner was good. my bf had the bone marrow and it wasn't comparable to stripsteak, of course, but it was good. he had a few plates of those. stripsteak was excellent. he had the bone marrow with his NY strip steak. i had the fish or scallops, i don't remember, sorry. the highlight of the night was the foie gras sliders . i wanted to have more of those and their complimentary duck fat fries. i can't wait to go back for those. chipotle, we had at the fashion mall because we walked all the way there and wasn't feeling an expensive dinner. earl's for lunch of course. pizza at the secret place in cosmo was good. and we had pizza at NYNY. it was so good there it made me crave for pepperoni pizza when i got back for about 3 months searching for that same taste.

august 2012 - we will be staying at the aria's corner suite again for 5 days/4 nights, the longest we've ever stayed in vegas. :banana::banana: we made reservations to try gordan ramsay's & julian serrano and back to stripsteak again. we plan on also trying margaritaville's volcano nachos, and of course, earl's of sandwiches!!

i will write another trip report when i get back in about 2 months.

thank you for reading :banana:

 

Thanks for taking them time to write some reports for us!

 

I thought you meant a trip that lasted from August to January!

 

haha, i wish! sorry for the confusion.

 

How long did that itching last? Yikes!! Thanks for posting.

 

about 5 days to a whole week total. i was itching particularly on my chest area, legs and arms. i itched it so much it was dry and chaffed(?) my bf itched on the legs. i'll give cosmo another go if there's a good deal.

(i don't think we are allergic to anything/any type of foods. we ate the normal food we eat, we didn't try anything out of the ordinary.)