Trip Report day 4 and 5

Took me a long time to catch up at work.


Day 4
This is the Moving day, check out of Encore, Check in to Cosmo and take GF to airport for 2 days in CA.
Checkout was a Breeze - as usual and drop off at airport was a little tricky as most people seem to be leaving monday and not Sunday. Arrived at Cosmo at noon and checkin line was long - mostly caused by people checking out (not too sure why they do not checkout via tv in room)...Anyhow finally got to desk and showed ID (for Marriott room discount) and paid $25.00 for upgrade of fountains(well worth it for the view...NOTE: you cannot hear the music from the West tower).
Cosmo does have the best rooms but they have now removed the pod coffee maker from the room.
Decided to travel around, as I am now alone in vegas. Went to check out the Trop...WOW what a turn
around - the place is amazing, white tile all over, very bright nice casino...NOTE: Recommend for anyone on a Budget.Returned to Cosmo, read in the room, watched some TV and went to The Henry for dinner..sat at Bar and relaxed.Did a little slot play - just too many new machines with Min. 30 to 50 coin play for penny slots.
Casino was not that busy - but there wer a ton of people...just not playing. Cosmo gets as many "lookie Looks" as the Bellagio and even more who just "wanna be seen" crowd. Of to room the see "Teen Wolf" adn to bed.
RESTAURANT: The Henry 4 of 5 stars, Fish and Chip was great, very relaxing place at Bar area
HOTEL: Cosmo: Yeah, it has the best rooms and balcony is great addition

Day 5
Pickup parents from the airport at 8am...yes 8am !!!!!very easy in and out. Saw a little of the new terminal they are building - hope it does not change the parking configuration too much. Went straight to Vdara and checked-in. I called the hotel prior to arrival so they could note the early check-in time. The room was dissapointing for me, when compared to Cosmo, Encore and even Aria. No LCD control box - the Aria had this. Room was split into two seperate areas making the room much smaller than it was.Soaps used reminded me of the soap commons in cheaper hotels (the same soaps joked about in Jersey Boys !!!).
Then it was off to the races - well following my "speed walking fanatical" parents around Aria, Bellagio and Cosmo. I finally got them to slow down and showed them my room at Cosmo. They loved the balcony and started snapping photos. I mean how many photos can you have of the maintanence crew working on the Bellagio fountains - fascinating stuff (oh well they are my parents and I love them). We went back to Aria to pick tickets for Elvis - then we parted. I went back to cosmo, slept and played some slots - no one was playing just many people walking around - even some well dressed, elegant hookers at 3pm in the afternoon.Back to Vdara (see notes for sidewalk info) and over to Aria for Elvis. got 4th row seats, dead center for $95.00. Very cool show. Missing major wow factors like O and Ka; but I think it was better than Love. We went to henry for Dinner then bed.
RESTAURANT: The Henry 4 of 5 stars, was very fast service
HOTEL: Vdara, Dark rooms, making them smaller than they are 3 of 5 stars
NOTES: There is a sidewalk from Vdara to Cosmo; but ends at Valet area of Cosmo.
NOTES: Can get to Aria and Bellagio from Vdara. To Aria you walk more outside than path to Bellagio

I have not seen Elvis, but loved O and KA. You can have LOVE. I sisn't get the wow factor on that one at all.
Why didn't you put your parents up at Cosmo or give them your room? j/k
Not much gambling looks like...you need to hit more machines. You said the penny machines required 30-50 coins. That sounds reasonable to me. I didn't know they get any cheaper than that for max credit.

Good luck

I am dissapointed to hear this about the Vdara. I have always liked that hotel. I have never stayed there, but always take the time to ride up to the 56th floor to take pics of the view when you walk to the end of the hallway. I was going to book and stay there for our one year anniversary this December 1st. Maybe I'll go elsewhere, hmmmm.

I also stayed at the Cosmo. We had the wraparound suite and then moved to the one bedroom premium suite which we ended up likeing better. We also loved the Cosmo.

franco:
where have you decided to stay ?

My Hotel room preference (just rooms)

1. Cosmo
2. Palazzo
3. Encore (very close to second, as Palazzo rooms are showing age)
4. Wynn (not stayed in new remodelled rooms)
5. MB


Discount Hotels:

1. Tropicana - very nice rooms.

Sorry for the late post Andrew. We ended up staying at the Mandalay Bay at the time. It was very nice. We went to Vegas again last November and stayed at THEhotel, which was amazing! We are going to Vegas again at the end of February and have decided to stay at Vdara after getting a great offer in the mail recently.

Thanks for taking time to share. Interesting about people leaving on Monday am. Walking into the Trop must of been like taking a time machine.

Hello

I was impressed with Tropicana - very clean, bright and none of the old musky smell.

Rooms were nice, HDTV, 42"lcd's.

Elevators were a little slow - but for a dicounted rate hotel it was nice.

Will be back in a couple weeks. Cosmo this time adn I am renting a car JUST so I can park in their garage (oh and the $11.00 per day !!!!! rate from Dollar....yep 11)

Glad the Trop got rid of that moldy old musky smell... it was the 1st impression when you walked in.

I love Cosmo...Thanks for the TR and taking your time to post it.