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Stadium Ariacadium [Cromwell/Aria? 6/22 - 6/26]

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by DoubleDoink, Jun 22, 2022.

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  1. DoubleDoink

    DoubleDoink Low-Roller

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    Did some slots/VP at Aria and got demolished immediately, down several hundred. That’s okay—still up on the day, and have still retained most of the trip bankroll. Pretty good outcome for having a bunch of fun experiences and accruing some good play at a few casinos.
     
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  2. DoubleDoink

    DoubleDoink Low-Roller

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    I wish the trip were one day longer. But, from experience, that feeling is so much better than wishing the trip were one day shorter.

    One of my old high school friends is between jobs, and just texted me a few minutes ago out of the blue to see if I want to do Vegas in the next month. That’s hilarious, and is a question for 36 hours from now.

    Flight’s at 1 PM. Next up: realizing I have a $50 resort credit, and seeing if I can stay awake for room service.
     
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  3. Grandmaw

    Grandmaw Low-Roller

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    Great report - love your writing style. Did you ever meet up with the bachelorette party? If yes, how were they doing?
     
  4. DoubleDoink

    DoubleDoink Low-Roller

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    Yes! They bought a bunch of purses from Coach at Bellagio, smoked mini-cigars with me (the Cosmo pictures in the thread are of that moment), and played a round of Jeopardy! with me. The bride and my wife are very asleep. The other two girls went clubbing at Resorts World, which was way too ambitious for me.
     
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  5. DoubleDoink

    DoubleDoink Low-Roller

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    Not much fine dining this trip, but at least I’m in my pajamas for this:

    13B76880-6EFE-4677-8918-B6059EA0651D.jpeg
     
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  6. DoubleDoink

    DoubleDoink Low-Roller

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    Quick breakfast at The Henry, then the airport. Lost $200 today on a quick swing at $5 VP, and that’s the last gambling I’ll be doing.

    Great trip! More thoughts later.
     
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  7. M0rtyC

    M0rtyC TBD

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    Safe travels. Nice baseball recovery.
     
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  8. Geogran

    Geogran VIP Whale

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    Enjoying your TR, thanks for some fun and interesting off the eaten path pics keeping Vegas fresh and fun, looks like a fun trip!
     
  9. DoubleDoink

    DoubleDoink Low-Roller

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    take a drink every time you hear the phrase “completely full flight”
     
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  10. DoubleDoink

    DoubleDoink Low-Roller

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    I just realized this picture, which I am fond of, lets you see my little scar on my hand from 15 years ago when I (with permission) destroyed and attempted to remove a pool table as part of a move. Some life advice as we end this TR: don’t eff with the slab of slate that constitutes a pool table.
     
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  11. DoubleDoink

    DoubleDoink Low-Roller

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    also, clean your nails, @DoubleDoink!
     
  12. greekjim

    greekjim King Gyro

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    Sox win! Sox win!
     
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  13. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Great report!
     
  14. DoubleDoink

    DoubleDoink Low-Roller

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    Quick recap, starting with Friday afternoon when I checked out of Cromwell:

    • I could have certainly planned this part better, but I tried to check in at Aria around 1 PM, had to wait (no big deal, I didn't pay for early check-in), got bored, went downtown at 2:30 PM (of course, 5 minutes into the Uber ride, my room was ready), and went to Plaza.
    • Plaza's actually surprisingly nice--I had a pleasant time in my 45 minutes there playing VP.
    • I went to The D to eat McDonald's quickly and to check into my room, since I was going to Stadium Swim at 5 PM and still had all of my stuff with me. I used my comped room at The D solely to hold my things for Friday, take a quick shower, and charge my phone. A bit wasteful, but it did help.
    • Stadium Swim was amazing! The bachelorette party considered meeting up with me, but they were all conked out from Marquee earlier in the day. Oh well. It was fun watching baseball and the hockey game. Great service.
    • I stumbled through Circa after drinking way too much at the pool, got to The D, grabbed my stuff, won the little handpay earlier in the thread, and went to Chandelier Bar to meet the bachelorette party briefly. We had one round of drinks, and I showed them how to play a couple of table games (blackjack, roulette, craps). This was actually my worst gambling of the trip--I just immediately lost $500 or so on a few spins/turns, due to Cosmo's high minimums and me being too into teaching them and moving quickly. Ah well, it was fun.
    • Went back to Aria--I had hoped getting into a room would be easier, since I already checked in and they texted me 12 hours prior that my room was ready, but a "computer error" made this take an hour. Ah well.
    • Saturday morning, I made the silly sports bets I mentioned above and then had a Jack and Coke from the minibar.
    • So, look, minibars are expensive. I know this. It's a bad bet. But I had a few dollars in comps I intended to spend anyway, plus a $50 F&B comp (I didn't yet know I'd be ordering room service that night), so I thought "Okay, fine."
    • Cosmo, which I think of as a "pretty expensive property," charges you $11 for a mini-bottle of liquor (the airplane size) plus $7 for a soft drink. That's ridiculous, at $18, but is the price range I came to expect.
    • Again, I should have just checked, but I did not. Aria's price for the same two items is $35.50, which is just wild.
    • This is when I went to the Arts District, as I described above. Silver Stamp, again, was just incredible for a dive-bar lover like me. I will 100% be back.
    • The girls wanted to meet up at Cosmo after they did Bacchanal, but as I detailed, they went purse shopping so that took longer than expected. We smoked some cigars, drank some, and then I went back to Aria to gamble a little.
    • That went poorly, so I got some sleep, woke up, got breakfast at The Henry with my wife, and had a smooth trip back home.
    Takeaways:
    • I should have done a better job tracking gambling (stupid alcohol, getting in the way), but I ended up down about $1300 on the trip of my $2500 bankroll, a little of which would have been cabs, tips, etc. For getting blitzed the whole time and having some big ups and downs, that's not so bad. It's always nice to bring some $ home without going again to the ATM.
    • I really like Aria! That was my first time staying, and everything was nicely appointed.
    • Arts District is fantastic. Go to Silver Stamp, check it out.
    • I made Gold at Cosmo. I'm not sure that actually matters much, I'll need to look that up.
    • My buddy's trying to talk me into a Vegas quick-hitter in the next two weeks for poker. He's not a drinker (but he likes steak) and does no gambling other than poker. I'm a "probably no" at this point.
    • I am certainly going for a 4-day trip in November for college basketball (my Illini play a tourney there). Still thinking through lodging for that.
    Thanks for reading along!
     
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  15. LASLover

    LASLover Tourist

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    Great report. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Much appreciated.
     
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  16. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    $35 for a jack and coke from the mini bar??? That's just nuts.

    Thanks for the report!
     
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  17. jcooper911

    jcooper911 Low-Roller

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    Catching up on this, but cannot agree more. I stayed there last year and literally everything was looking like it had been scratched or scuffed in some ways. The gaming tables need refelting, the leather pads are a bit ropey, the rooms now look weirdly cheap because the previously nice decor (IMO) has been left to decay.

    Obviously the worst thing of all is the woeful gambling conditions there now. I used to spend literally every cent of my gaming budget in there in 2017-2019... now I refuse to give them any action at all. Not gonna make a huge difference with my $7-8k bankroll playing $50 BJ and craps and whatnot, but holy moley is it a drop off. I told the on duty host when I checked out last year that I was never coming back because of this drop off, he literally shrugged and went "completely respect that". Sad decline.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2022
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  18. DoubleDoink

    DoubleDoink Low-Roller

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    Gosh, that is depressing.
     
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  19. DoubleDoink

    DoubleDoink Low-Roller

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    I lied, so look out for my next (poker-heavy) report in about a week and a half.
     
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  20. casinokid68

    casinokid68 Caesars Diamond Member

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    And as we sit here today, the Orioles and the White Sox have exactly the same record. The only saving grace for the Sox though, is that they play in the AL Central, not in the AL East, where the Orioles sit 18 games back, while the White Sox can actually still win the division.
     
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