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August 2013 trip , Cosmo/Aria

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by 23pebbles, Aug 24, 2013.

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  1. 23pebbles

    23pebbles Tourist

    Joined:
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    Location:
    London, UK
    Trips to Las Vegas:
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    My Trip Report

    Ok, this is my attempt at a first trip report so sorry if I ramble on. I have previously been to vegas with friends where we went to clubs and did the whole table service thing but the last 4 trips in 2 years have been just me and my bf where all we do is drink and gamble. Not so easy to report on when am usually in a drunk haze.

    Flew direct with Virgin Atlantic from London, landed about 2pm. It seemed like such a long time going through security and waiting for our baggage but as it turned out we were in the Cosmopolitan terrace studio room with fountain view in an hour.

    This was also the first time we weren't long hauled in a taxi. We never mentioned a route, he didn't take the tunnel and I think the fare was about $18 plus tip. I have previously paid $45 plus tip to the Venetian and $38 to Mirage being oblivious to this long haul business and trip advisor forums, but now knowing this information I was worried I would have to stand my ground. Thankfully didn't have to say anything, I hate confrontation, and I know it would leave a bad taste in my mouth if it happened. I wouldn't of course let it ruin my holiday.

    Too excited to unpack or freshen up after a 10hr flight we went straight down to the slots and had our first cosmoplitan cocktail. This was our first stay at the Cosmopolitan. We joined the identity players club on our last trip in January whilst there trying the Wicked Spoon buffet and the $100 loss rebate promo. We are linked players card holders at mlife platinum level and identity matched our status. So after a few hours slot play back in January we each had been receiving marketing email offers for 2 free nights.

    After a few changes in options we finally decided to book both our 2 comp nights on either end of our mlife corporate offer for 3 nights in any mgm casino which we chose Aria. I did think at times this was a crazy idea to move twice in one week but as it happens, each move was just a short drive/walk away and a room was available for us straight away at each check in.

    Anyway back to the first day... we lost at the slots for a few hours, had a burger at Holsteins and then decided to try take a nap after being awake for well over 24hrs. Well the nap turned into us both sleeping till about 2.30am. Well if there's anywhere you can just get up at anytime, its Vegas, yay! So after getting ready we went down to the casino to gamble. We both gamble but not always together and we mainly play slots and roulette.

    On my first night of play I always have to play a few hands of three card poker. I don't play this game for extended periods of time as I find I get bored, but it has turned into a first night ritual for me. So I go play a $15 dollar table and play all 3 bets blind. After a few hands the dealer shows a straight 678 and then turns my cards over one by one, 4 of spades, 3 of spades.... omg, yes, the last card was a 2 of spades. My first ever straight flush at 40-1 plus extra for the ante bonus. Played one more hand then I went to find my bf so I could boast about my win.

    Anyhow, we didn't really get much play for the rest of the stay there and after playing slots, craps and roulette we both ended up down for the 2 nights at Cosmo with no more notable wins, just a few hits on the MJ slot for $120-$200. I was surprised to see a $5 craps game in the early hours/morning there but didn't see this again for the rest of our trip.

    I had checked in at the vip room, so tried to check out there too but a guy outside the room looked up my reservation on his ipad and told me I had to go to the front desk and ask them to call a host assistant to see about my room charges being taken off. Once at front desk was then told to go to the host office as they could only apply the points I had gained on my players card. So off I went to the host office where my charges were taken off and was able to check out there too.

    Oh forgot to mention, I had a prepaid reservation for 24hrs car rental at Hertz inside the Cosmopolitan. I only wanted it for the day of check out incase we were stuck for a few hours and an excuse to go to the outlet mall. This is a first for me and I was very nervous about driving in Vegas, as everything is all on the opposite side! I had never ever considered driving there before either as preferred to drink and take taxis but thought what the hell, might aswell make a morning of it and visit the Valley of fire after reading some good reports of it. I picked up the keys before they closed at 5pm the day before, then at 5.45am day of check out, picked up some snacks at Walgreens before my little adventure.

    I had reserved a compact car as I'm only used to driving small cars. I got a SUV.. arghh extra nervous now. I frightened the crap out of my bf after only leaving the carpark and entering the strip and had to keep reminding myself that I can drive just fine. With him feeling that I was nervous, it was making it extra worse for him. Once on the freeway, I started feeling more comfortable driving the beast and also thought I was getting to like the automatic gearbox as I had never used one before.

    It took roughly 1hr to get to VOF, it was already hot at 6.45am. We didn't stay as long a I would have liked but I could tell that the bf was getting restless, couldn't believe he had agreed to spend some his precious Vegas time in the desert, and that there was also shopping to come later! Lol. So after a few stops and pics, we headed back to check out of Cosmo and into the Aria. We were prepared to leave our luggage with the bell desk but got a corner suite room straight away. The bf tried to get out of shopping at this point, but I talked him into only going to the south premium outlets as it is indoors with aircon. Also as we were both losing, I thought it was a better idea to spend some money on 'things' before donating all our money to the casinos.

    I'm not the biggest lover of shopping, but having a restless bf makes it all the more difficult. We got some good bargains in Ralph Lauren and a few other bits and were out of there in less than 2hrs. I had planned to buy so much more.. sigh!

    We spent 3 nights at aria mainly playing there and only visiting Monte Carlo via the walkway for one short gambling session. Used all the $600 freeplay in the high limit slot area on a $10 top dollar, $20 a spin within 5mins and by the time our beers came we had $450 in cash.

    I like the vibe of Aria but we couldn't really get much play here either. The bf had a nice run on roulette on the last morning of check out. He also won $500 twice, on a Jaws slot. I tried some VP this trip too, no 4oak's for me though. I had a few wins on the slots of up to $300 but still ended up losing my budget each day.

    We loved the almond croissants at JP's. Also tried the pizza at the new pizza place and had a lunch at Lemongrass. The potstickers there were great. Ate at the Aria cafe a couple of times as it was the only 24hr place to eat there. Our sleeping/eating was still all over the place. Yes, we are kinda lazy too and like to just play/eat where we are staying.

    We ventured out to make a first time visit to the Bellagio conservatory in the wee hours one night/morning. He loved the aviary as he has always had an interest in birds. We've never stayed at the Bellagio and don't know if we ever will, it just feels more stuffy to us. Maybe we will give it a chance one day.

    We then gambled until the Aria spa opened at 5.30am. We waited until 5.45am, as didn't want to seem too keen! ;-)

    Enjoyed a couple hrs at this very nice spa and I had the female section all to myself for over an hr.

    Saturday night, our last night at Aria we had tickets to see MJ one at Mandalay Bay. Had great seats from a host in section 102, centre section. I thought the show was great but I think I went in expecting just a little bit more. Wish I hadn't read all the great reviews first. There were some emotional parts and I also got goosebumps at times and I loved the original MJ music with the great sound system. My bf thought it was better than Love at Mirage. I'm not too sure...I felt more immersed during Love with the 360° stage but maybe I wasn't expecting that much from it in the first place not being that big a Beatles fan.

    We checked out of Aria on Sunday morning and had our $450 room charges on top of our $300 resort credit taken off using our express comps.

    Back to the Cosmopolitan for our last 2 nights on the bf's reservation. Got a room straight away and noticed how it seemed alot more busier this time round. There were lots of drunk ppl spilling out of the Marquee dayclub, ppl having full blown arguments in the hallways and quite a few drunken casualties lying around. It also seemed that waiting for the lift/elevators seemed to take longer. When I was in the lift, a couple were saying a guy had previously pressed all the floor buttons. Well, I had the pleasure of sharing a lift with I think this same guy later that day. Great!

    We played a little craps, I love all the carny bets, horn and hardway bets which I play along with pass and come bets with odds. Was winning a few hundred and thought it best to go spend some on a second attempt at shopping before I got too settled. I set off alone to Caesars forum shops, where I got a few handbags from Coach and Ugg boots for my mum. Remember earlier I was saying how my bf was restless at the outlet malls, well that's how I was feeling in the forum shops. We're just as bad as each other. I had a stressfull time trying on about 5 pairs of jeans and having to listen to the up sell blah blah. Went into Ugg and a nice sales assistant must've noticed my mood and offered me some perrier water! How kind of him and it was gratefully glugged down. It seemed a little cloudy on my way to the forum shops and was raining/stormy when I was coming back. Wow! Enjoyed watching the lightening show in the sky from the Cosmo balcony after dropping my bags off.

    We had tickets to Raiding the Rock Vault at LVH that evening. I'm not that big a fan of 80's rock and didn't know all the songs/artists. My bf kept saying how I must have lived my life under a rock.. lol. I still enjoyed this show and thought that the 80's ex band members have alot of talent. I have more appreciation of this music now, especially live. I had wanted to originally see Human Nature at the Venetian but alas the show was dark during our trip. Something to see for our next visit then!

    When we got back to Cosmoplitan we were thinking to have a sort of early/quiet evening as our funds were running low. Vegas didn't let that happen...

    After losing on slots, dice and roulette the bf decided to sit down and play BJ. Hopefully for the slower pace and more socialable gambling session. Hmmm.

    I joined him a few shoes in and met a nice couple from Calgary and a guy from Orange County. It was definitely more sociable. We drank many cocktails, rounds of shots and there were lots of high fives around the table.

    BJ can feel like a grind for us and we can never last long without pressing up bets to make it more exciting.

    As you can see, we both usually like all the sucker games with high house edge hence the casino's like us and comp our stays.. We arent deluded, we know we just end up paying for it through our gambling but it's so much more fun in Vegas than what we used to spend in our local casino's which don't have all the slots, craps, entertainment, nice suites and great atmosphere. Love love love Vegas!

    Anyway back to BJ, cards started to get cold, they were never really hot in the first place, we were just surviving.

    After raiding the room safe and losing most of our last 2 nights bank roll, the bf decided to bet his last $1k on one hand. He got 14 against the dealers face card and obviously bust... Dam! At this point we were both very drunk and lost each other stumbling back to the room at about 5.30am.

    We slept well through the afternoon feeling very worse for wear. Lots of taking turns to being sick in the toilet. Yuk! Drank all the water from the minibar and finally decided to order room service and sort ourselves out about 4pm.

    In Vegas we find it hard to sleep for more than a couple hours at a time and it had all started catching up on us. Along with the smoking and drinking, we were feeling like death and wondering how $250 was gonnna last us another night let alone until our flight home at 4.40pm the next day, we braced ourselves for hitting the ATM very shortly.

    Anyhow, I decided to go for a slot jackpot. Put $100 in a $1 megabucks. Played max bet and cashed out $200. Then this $1 pink diamond machine caught my eye. A few spins after hitting a win for $60, the next thing I knew it was asking for attendant. I had 3 pink sevens and was quickly scanning the pay table and thought it was $600. My bf pointed out the middle 7 had a double on it so the payout was $1200. Was so excited for my first ever handpay! It was just what we needed and we didn't have to pay any tax, being from the UK.
     

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  2. 23pebbles

    23pebbles Tourist

    Joined:
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    Anyway our luck seemed to get better from this point forward and the bf finally got a few hits paying over $1k on roulette and we started to feel so much better! Funny that, even though we were no way near being out of the hole.

    By the time we left the next day we had dwindled any winnings from our last night in Vegas but at least got some play and had some fun for our money. We don't expect to bring home any cash from our trips to Vegas and if we do bring anything back it is a bonus.

    I noticed on this trip how roulette seemed to be a lot more popular, especially with the younger crowd. I found it harder to get onto the tables and could have sworn there was always a sea of empty roulette tables on previous trips.

    We went straight to the Host office to check out this time around and had our charges taken off. Flight was a little delayed back to London but we both fell asleep before take off and woke up for an hour before landing! That was a good 8hr catch up sleep.

    Well, we are planning to be go back at the end of October 2014 for a friend's wedding, but it seems so long away.. We booked this August trip about a week after coming back from our Jan trip.

    Maybe we could squeeze a short trip before October!

    Just in case you were wondering, we tipped everyone we were supposed to. I know ppl from the UK have a bad reputation but I think we are both reasonably good tippers. $2.50-$5 per drink. $10 housekeeping each day that the room was cleaned. Usually about 20% of bill in restaurants. During craps and BJ, we place bets for the dealers as well as straight tipping. On roulette, we tip with chips from any winning payout we receive. This is regardless of how we are doing each day or session. We receive good service, makes for an enjoyable experience and like the idea that some of our money that would most likely be going to the house is going to the ppl that work on the frontline instead.
     
  3. TomTWI

    TomTWI Custom Title

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    Great trip report thanks for posting!

    TomTWI
     
  4. vegas3

    vegas3 Low-Roller

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    Great trip report !!!

    We arrived Thursday and felt the same way when Friday came around...
     
  5. Kickin

    Kickin Flea

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    Nice read! Its cool to see a report from a girl that is mostly about gambling. Were those MJ seats the host got you in the "golden circle" section? If so how were those seats compared to other areas? That's the same section a host of mine is offering tickets but I know a lot of times closer seating isn't really better.
     
  6. robert m.

    robert m. High-Roller

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    Thank you for the very nice trip report!

    You were brave, indeed, to drive in Las Vegas.

    I would love to visit England. My dad spent time there in 1944. He liked it a lot -- until he took a tour of France.

    Hope you make it back prior to October, 2014!
     
  7. 23pebbles

    23pebbles Tourist

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    Thanks Kickin, the seats we had were just one row behind the golden circle. I don't think I would have liked to be any closer than this, maybe a few rows back would be better but not significantly so.
     
  8. luvstp

    luvstp High-Roller

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    Great trip report and thanks for posting. I have that same photo of pink diamonds.....but from Aria. Glad you didn't have to hit the ATM!

    Last time I stayed at Wynn (we were on the 55th floor), I got on the elevator with a woman and her ~3 year old son. As I got on the elevator, I noticed that every single button was pushed.......smart money would have been to just get off, but I stayed on and endured the 20 or more stops to get to the bottom. She didn't even look me in the eye.......

    Thanks again for posting....I love the cheese danishes at JP and am looking forward to having one in less than 2 weeks!
     
  9. Electroguy563

    Electroguy563 Vegas Joker

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    Very nice trip report! I like the way you tip in Vegas. I tip the same way. It's nice to know that some of our gambling money goes to the front-line people who make our stay enjoyable.

    Hope you'll be able to sneak a trip before your next trip in Oct. of next year!:beer:
     
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