This is the 3rd part of a massive trip report. Check out parts 1 and 2 from the previous days. Be sure to follow @Snickers99Poker, the author, as well.
Since I spent a crapload of money on a Sky Suite, I get transportation from the airport to Aria. I’m supposed to look for a guy with a sign with my last name. Probably on an iPad. Signs are so last year. You see the limo drivers standing there holding up iPads now. I get to the bottom of the escalator and see two people holding iPads with names. Neither is for me. I’m not totally sure where I’m supposed to meet this guy so I go to the luggage carousel to get my luggage. The plane did get in a couple minutes early. Maybe he’s not here yet.
I get to the carousel and now more ranting. Why does everybody swarm around the area where the bags come out? It’s a carousel…it goes around in a circle. So I stand on the other end where there’s like three people waiting instead 124. Oh, and look at that! My bag came out and actually went around the carousel where I could easily pick it up instead of fighting with 124 people while trying to get to my bag. Of course, it took me 10 seconds longer to get my bag as opposed to those fighting at the carousel opening. Relax people!
There’s a couple more people holding up iPads at the carousel but I don’t see my name. So I hike it back to the escalator to see if he’s there. Nope. Same two people. They did send me an email on what to do. Maybe I should look at it. I break out the iPhone and find the email. Says to meet my guy at the carousel. Oops. So I hike it back to the carousel and find my guy holding an iPad with my last name on it. I so wanted to take a pic of this but didn’t want to seem corny. I suppose I could have stood back and taken his picture without him noticing…didn’t think about that.
He asks if there’s more than one person and I said no…unless Aria is providing me with, uh, a special perk. He laughs. Says he was told two people. Nope…just me. He takes my bag, we head out to the parking area, and he puts my bag into a big SUV thing. Maybe a Cadillac Escalade? Not sure…I’m not good with cars. He opens the back door and I jump in with my book bag. There’s an air conditioning vent blowing cool are right on me. Ahh. (Just occurred to me…he never asked for ID. I could have been anybody.)
I forget if I mentioned this before but I get very hot. I can’t handle the heat well. I’ve always been like this. I’ve been skinny, I’ve been fat…doesn’t matter. And it’s getting worse the older I get. My mom is the same way so apparently it’s another thing I picked up from her, along with the sleep apnea and a severe love of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
So why am I in Las Vegas in July? When it’s 107 degrees? Because my first trip in 2011 was to go to the World Series of Poker. I stayed at the Rio and played in a $1k event. Didn’t cash but it was awesome. If you’re going to the WSOP, I recommend staying at the Rio even though it’s not a very nice ‘resort’. But it’s a great chance to soak in all the poker stuff and you don’t have to worry about getting to and from the Rio.
The next year I switched to playing the daily deep stacks and did that for a couple years (cashed in a couple) but they were getting harder. So I started staying on the Strip playing other tournaments and it was much better and more fun. I thought I would still come out during the WSOP because there’s poker all over and a lot of the casinos have their own tournament series at the same time. So that’s why I’m here in Las Vegas in the summer when I can’t handle the heat.
The driver hands me a bottle of water and we’re off to the Aria, he telling me about the Sky Suites and other Las Vegas things. How there’s a separate entrance for people staying in the Sky Suites, there’s the Sky Lounge just for us with free snacks and beverages, the Sky pool just for us, etc. I know I spent a lot of money, but it’s starting to sound worth it. Usually I prefer the driver just to be quiet but I didn’t mind him talking. He asked me why I came out and I explained it was my 50th birthday earlier this year and I was laid off so I’m blowing it all out at the Aria.
We pull up to the Aria gate…yes gate…and he clicks his remote to open the gate. Not only is it our private entrance, you can’t even pull in by mistake. I get out of the humongous vehicle as he gets my bag from the back (if he said his name, I don’t remember it). We walk into the Aria and he takes me to the Sky Suite check in area (JUST for us staying in the Sky Suites), him pointing to the Sky lounge as we walk by it. I wasn’t sure how much I was going to tip him. I had asked on Twitter the night before and answers ranged from $10-20. I was going to give $15 but he was nice and did his job well so I gave him a $20.
Check in was smooth. No issues. The chick that checked me in (I really should start paying attention to names) told me about Aria, where the lounge was, hands me a line pass for the buffet and for the Aria Cafe as she said they both get busy. She asks me what brought me to Las Vegas and I explain the whole birthday/laid off thing again. A few weeks ago I was thinking of doing the $20 trick when checking in. Thought if maybe I mentioned the birthday/laid off thing and asking if she could do anything for me (higher up room, waive resort fees (yeah, right!), but once again chickened out.
She charges me upfront for the balance for the room. Don’t places usually wait until you check out? I guess with the fancy rooms/service, they don’t want to risk having someone who couldn’t pay. I make sure she uses the new credit card since the one I used to make the reservations and make the down payment (not down payment…what’s the word? Security? No…shoot, is it down payment?) was compromised. She does and not soon after I get a text from Chase warning me about the huge charge. Cool…at least I know it went through and the text alerts I set up are working. Deposit! That’s the word! Although it was big enough to seem like a down payment.
Someone at some time offered to take me to my room with my luggage…was it the transportation guy before he left? At any rate, I declined. I only have the one bag and it has wheels, although I was warned it’s a long walk from the elevators. She tells me which set of elevators to take as there are two of them. One bypasses all the floors until the 25th and goes up to floors in the 40’s, I think. That’s mine. Can’t remember but the other bank of elevators goes even higher. Probably for the bigger suites that I did look into but were way too expensive for me being alone. But they looked nice on the website.
Up the elevator to the 33rd floor. Is that high for a Sky Suite? I’m not sure. Kinda wished it was higher. And whoever told me it’s a long walk from the elevator was right. Makes sense as the suite is on the end of the building. I pass some housekeepers who say hi and smile. I’m guessing Aria tells all employees to greet every guest in passing as this happened with everyone I came across…housekeeping, maintenance guys, security, etc. Was kinda nice even though I know they were told to do it.
I slap the key card on the pad on the door and open it. Oh, this is kinda nice! Better be, right? There’s a powder room right off the door. If I had any guests over during the week, that’s the bathroom I would have made them use so they wouldn’t walk into my bedroom to get to the ‘real’ bathroom.
There’s a little dining area with a table and along one wall there’s a counter with a wet bar (really, just a sink), my ice bucket, various tools like bottle and wine openers, and the highly priced in-room snacks. There’s also an in-room snack refrigerator with a warning that I can take something out to look at the ingredients but if it’s not replaced in 60 seconds, I would be charged for it. I didn’t even open it up the whole trip. On the other side of the counter was my fridge. Man, how much do I like a fridge in my room? I hate that some places are now charging extra to bring one to your room. Another nickel/dime thing. Kinda surprising, there’s no microwave. So I can’t bring food back to the room (like a doggy bag from dinner) and put it in the fridge with plans to heat it up later. But eventually I’ll buy some bottles of soda and alcohol to put in there.
On the dining room table is a nice personalized envelope addressed to me along with a small bag of cookies. Kinda nice. I’m usually looking for the cheapest rooms on these trips (within reason…I’m not staying in some flea bag) so I’m not used to these nice things. Oh, but I could get used to it! I had the cookies later once I settled in. Pretty good! Some type of cinnamon sugar I think but not a snickerdoodle.
My living area has a couch with two other comfy chairs, a glass coffee table, a couple end tables with lamps, a TV on the wall and a little desk area with chair, phone, and lamp. The windows are full floor to ceiling. The one thing it does not have is cold air. The AC was on, but remember I get too hot. I pick up the tablet-like device on one of the end tables. I had read that this thing controls pretty much everything in your room. Doesn’t take me long to figure out how to turn up the AC (turn down the AC?), plunging the thermostat to 62 degrees…the lowest it will go.
I walk into the bedroom and it’s nice too. King size bed with a ton of decorative pillows on top, more end tables with lamps, another TV on the wall, another tablet thing, and more floor to ceiling windows. It has a separate thermostat so I crank that one down to 62 as well.
The bathroom is super nice. A tub, two sinks, separate little room for the toilet, stand up shower, and a closet where I find the safe and three Aria robes. From doing research, I know these robes aren’t free to take home. That’s OK…not really an Aria robe kinda guy.
There are shear curtains and ‘blackout’ curtains that run the length of the windows. The neat part is there are controls on the wall and on the tablet thing to open and close them. Oh, no manually opening the curtains for me! I don’t think you can even do it manually if you wanted to. There is a stop button if you don’t want them opened or closed all the way. I tried it later in the week but they didn’t stop. Either I didn’t press it hard enough or it wasn’t working.
The view is kinda neat. I can see Planet Hollywood on one side and MGM, Monte Carlo, and some of New York, New York on the other. It’s daytime so I’ll be interested on how it looks tonight with the lights. Of course, I wish I was higher up.
The amenities for the room on the web site said something about a laptop or iPad but I don’t see it. I’ll have to ask about it. Embarrassed to say, I need to file my unemployment for the week starting tomorrow. But don’t think the fine folks of Pennsylvania are paying for my trip. I already had the money set aside and I haven’t even started collecting unemployment payments because of severance I got from work. But I still have to file bi-weekly.
With my ‘not using the airplane bathroom’ streak in tack, I need to use the toilet. I sit down and OMG, it’s a heated seat! I’m kinda hot and gross…don’t really need a heated toilet seat right now. But that feeling lasted just a few hours as I came to like the heated toilet seat. It also has a bidet. You can select rear cleansing, front cleansing, and a dryer. You can also adjust the pressure. This is another ‘I ain’t used to no fancy stuff’ moment. Never used a bidet. I did eventually use it a couple times but not sure I really enjoyed it.
It’s about 4:30 or so and I’m pretty tired. I tweet out “I have arrived in Vegas! I’ve been looking forward to this trip for months & it’s final here! What’s up first? I think a nap. I’m old.” I thought maybe a nap would be good…get a few hours in and then hit the Strip for some gambling. I unpack my stuff. I think I bring too much stuff.
But instead of a nap, I decide to check out the Aria a bit…see if I can find some places to maybe eat during the week, check out the Sky Lounge, and I should locate the Sky pool too. Out of my room, I walk to the end of the hallway away from the elevators. There’s more glass windows and I can see the Rio, Palms, etc.
Back towards the elevators, I go down to the main floor and go over to the Sky Lounge. Kinda nice…there’s a bunch of comfortable couches and chairs, around some small tables. They have self-serve beverages like tea and coffee, bottled Fuji water, sparkling water (that I first thought might be beer because it was in a fancy green bottle), Coke and Sprite in 8.5oz aluminum bottles (great size, BTW…easy to finish in one sitting and I’m sure cuts down on what people would throw away if it was like 12 or 16 ounces…and I shouldn’t be drinking soda anyway), orange juice, etc. The snacks change at different times during the day. Right now there were these little cheesecake things and little raspberry cake things. Both really good. And they had cheese and crackers. Plus the lounge serves free wine after 5. Touches like this make me think I made the right choice in spending too much for a Sky Suite and I’m not sure I can go back to the way you common people stay in Las Vegas. It was slightly crowded so I had to share a table with a couple who spent the whole time looking down at their respective phones instead of, oh I don’t know, talking to each other or something crazy like that.
I want to check out the Sky pool…yet another Sky Suite benefit. A pool just for us Sky Suite people. A private guest entrance, complimentary refreshments, luxurious amenities, and more. I wanted to scope it out first because of the whole ‘can’t handle the heat’ thing. I’m not much of a pool/beach person unless I’m actually in the pool/ocean. But if there’s parts around the pool a that have shade or I can snag an umbrella, it might be nice just to relax by the pool (without those smelly commoners to ruin everything), read a book and enjoy the free refreshments.
When they said there’s a private entrance, I thought it was a private entrance…like, a door to the pool off to the side just for us snobs. But what you do is go to the common pool area and then walk amongst the peasants to the Sky pool where there the private entrance is. There, you show your key and get in. I tell the guy I’m staying at a Sky Suite but I just came down to see if there are shady areas. The one side seems a little shady…it’s probably around 6pm now. He said some parts get shady later in the day (like right now) and they could always move an umbrella if one is available. I’ve been joking about the common people and peasants not staying at a Sky Suite but honestly it’s things like this that make me uncomfortable. I’m more than capable of moving an umbrella myself but because I overspent on a nice room, I get treated better than other people. That makes me uncomfortable. I’m no better than anybody else.
The pool properly ‘checked out’, I head back to the room. Now I know where the pool is, and I also passed the buffet and a Starbucks. I’m not a big Starbucks fan…I actually don’t like hot coffee…but I like the vanilla Frappuccino. It’s pretty much the only thing I order there. In the past I’ve had a pastry or two as well and they’re not bad. So knowing where the closest Starbucks is means I can have a quick morning snack or cool down with a Frap.
The stop in the room was a quick one and I’m out the door, heading to the ABC store in the Miracle Mile Shops next to Planet Hollywood. I love the ABC store and I don’t know why it doesn’t get more love. Probably the cheapest bottles of soda on the Strip along with supplies like chips, candy, etc. So cheap I stopped bringing my own from home and just get them there. Plus, they sell single bottles of alcohol (along with 6-packs, etc.). I figured it’s a great way to try some new stuff. I’m interested in trying the Redd’s stuff but I don’t want to buy a whole 6-pack and not like it. So I plan on getting different kinds of those and whatever else strikes my fancy. I’ll bring $300 with me and check out the tables at Planet Hollywood too.
It’s not too long of a walk to the Shops. Of course this means I’ll have to venture out into the heat. I think it’s 107 or so. I take the elevator down to the casino floor, walk through Aria casino floor stopping to see the table limits (OMFG! I don’t think I’ll be gambling here!), out of Aria and into the Crystals mall. Or The Shops at Crystals. Or just Crystals. Whatever you want to call it. Crystals is a popular shortcut and is filled with expensive high-end stores. Clothes, watches, etc. There’s also a monorail station that will take you to Monte Carlo. In walking through Crystals during the week, I’m not sure I saw very many people actually shopping. I would love to see a percentage of people who enter Crystals and actually shop…actually shop with the intention of buying, not just window shopping. It’s got to be in the single digits, right?
Outside Crystals into the heat. Ugh. It just hits you and stays with you. I grew up in South Jersey and now live in Pittsburgh. NJ is very humid in the summer, especially in August. Pittsburgh isn’t as bad with the humidity, but it does get up there. Not much humidity in Las Vegas but it’s hot. I describe it as like walking through an oven…the heat gets into your clothes. My transportation guy from the Aria said it’s like walking with a blow dryer blowing in your face. That’s a good one too.
I walk over the pedestrian bridge towards Cosmopolitan, make a right over the pedestrian bridge that goes over Las Vegas Blvd, down the escalator and into the Miracle Mile Shops. The Shops is a 475,000 square foot, 1.2-mile long, enclosed shopping mall on the Las Vegas Strip. There are more than 170 stores, 15 restaurants and live entertainment venues. No matter how many times I go through this mall, I almost always get lost. But it’s easy to get to the ABC store…you can kinda see it when you enter the building.
But first let me check out Planet Hollywood. When I stayed at the Linq last year, I took the monorail to PH at least once so I know they have my favorite table game, Ultimate Texas Hold’em (UTH). Last year they had two tables, one $5, the other $10. I thought I remembered where they were but got lost trying to find them. Maybe they moved them or maybe it was because I was coming in from another direction this time. At any rate, I do find them but they are both $10. That’s a little too much for me right now.
One of the objectives for this trip was to gamble more. I brought twice as much money as I usually do. I would probably stop myself before losing it all but the point of this trip was to gamble/drink more and have a good time since this might be my last trip for a while. But right away I balk at a $10 table (it was $25 at Aria). I think I like money too much. Plus, I didn’t want to start the trip off with a big (to me) loss as the game can be very swingy. If that would happen, I’ll kick myself saying I should have just taken a nap. Of course I could have won too. They have $10 3-card poker tables, which I can handle since the maximum amount of money I can have out there per hand is much lower than UTH. It’s my second favorite table game but it’s pretty robotic if you’re following basic strategy. I think UTH has more strategy and more thinking. At least it seems that way but really, you’re just looking at your cards and following the best strategy. Anyway, the 3-card tables are either full or I don’t like the looks of the people at the table.
So back out to the Shops and into the ABC store. I want to get some soda and some single bottles of alcohol. Oh crap. The ‘singles’ area doesn’t look the same. There isn’t nearly as many single bottles now and a lot of it is energy drinks. Crap. What happened? It’s a little crowded around the drinks so if they had stuff like Redd’s, I missed it. I tend to get frustrated and hot easily in crowds so there’s a good chance I just gave up too. I grab a couple of bottles of Mountain Dew, pay with my credit card, and start the walk back to my room.
Back out to the Strip, over the pedestrian bridges, through Crystals, into Aria. I’m getting hungry and I’ve heard good things about Five50 Pizza inside Aria. I go to check it out but there’s a line for the To Go slices and I can’t get a good view of what’s available. I didn’t want to stand in line, get up there, and then not like what was available so I head back to my room to regroup and to cool down.
Looks like it was a good thing I didn’t decide to gamble anywhere. I walk back into my room and sitting on the bed is the $300 I thought I put in my pocket. Oops. I like to put trust in housekeeping people but wonder if someone came in, would they resist taking it? Since I didn’t know I left it there, I wouldn’t have even noticed. Maybe at the end of the day I’d start looking for it…count my stash and wonder what happened. But I wouldn’t have remembered that I left it on the bed.
I need to get it together here. I didn’t plan anything for this trip…just going to do things as the days goes by. But I’m kinda directionless right now. Didn’t gamble, don’t know what to do for dinner, tired. I go through my Las Vegas Trip notes, notes I have compiled during my trips and add to as I find out more stuff and do more research. Oh, right…Holstein’s inside the Cosmopolitan. I wanted to try alcoholic milk shakes this trip and made a post on a forum asking where the best ones were. Holstein’s name came up a lot in the replies. I can always go for a burger and it’s basically right next door. Looks like I got my dinner plans.
Back outside, through Crystals, over the bridge, into the Cosmopolitan. I’ve never been in here before. Took me a minute to figure out where Holsteins was since there’s multiple levels…turns out it’s on the level that I was on when I walked in.
Doesn’t seem too crowded but I take a seat at the bar as there’s a couple empty seats. Not sure there was an open table, but this will work. Probably get my burger faster this way. Energetic bartender (aren’t they all energetic?) gives me the menu and points out a few things. I had a copy of the menu in my Las Vegas notes so I was pretty sure what I wanted but I look over the menu to make sure they didn’t add something or something else doesn’t catch my eye before ordering.
My energetic bartender is back and asks if I’m ready. Yep…not really happy with the name and I think I sound stupid ordering it but I’ll take the Nom Nom Burger…Kobe beef, cheddar cheese, potato chips, and 1,000 Island dressing. He asks me if I would like anything on it, like ketchup, etc. I think the 1,000 Island dressing will be enough so I say no. I also get a Frozen Grasshopper alcoholic shake (a Bam-Boozled shake, they call them), peppermint, chocolate, creme de menthe, and chocolate vodka.
While I’m waiting for my food, a group of four young ladies come up to the bar to my right and my energetic bartender is talking to them. And asking them questions like where are they from, and flirting with them. He spends a couple minutes doing this and pointing out the alcohol milkshakes. It’s here I learn that the frozen grasshopper is one of the most popular. How come he didn’t talk to me and point this out to me? Maybe because I wasn’t a group of four young ladies?
My burger and shake arrive…wait wasn’t too long. The milk shake tastes great but I really don’t taste the alcohol. After I’m done, I really don’t feel the alcohol either. I’m a super lightweight, it doesn’t take much for me to at least feel a little buzz. But I feel nothing. Could be because I was eating a greasy burger at the same time. At any rate, it tasted good but at $13 I don’t know if I would get it again if I don’t get the benefit of the alcohol. If they had a non-alcoholic version for like $5, I’d go for that.
The burger was OK. I mean, it was good. But it was dry. I thought maybe I was wrong about the 1,000 Island dressing. Maybe that was the one I was thinking of getting before deciding on the Nom Nom. Later, in my room, I double check the menu. Nope…this is the one that’s supposed to have the dressing on it. I don’t taste it or see it. Because of the dryness, I wouldn’t get it again although the fries were good. Like the milk shake, I’m not going to pay $17.50 for a dry burger. I might go back and try my other choice, the Gold Standard (dry aged beef sirloin burger w/ smoked bacon, aged goat cheddar cheese, tomato confit, baby arugula, & garlic-chive aioli for $18.50) or just get a regular burger for $15.50 and add blue cheese for $2 more.
I decide to check out the casino since I’ve never been there before. Seems nice and of course I check out the table limits. Again, too high for me. I mean, it is Saturday night and it is the Cosmo. I just did a quick lap around the casino floor and headed out the door.
Back into Crystals and I decide to take the monorail to Monte Carlo…another casino I’ve never been in. I’m a Total Rewards person so I usually stick to those casinos. I don’t think the amount I’m going to gamble will affect my MLife rating that much to the point of getting good comps so I’ll probably just stick to the TR casinos again this trip. But if the MC looks fun and the limits aren’t bad, I might sit down for a spell.
After a couple minutes the monorail arrives and it’s a quick trip to Monte Carlo. And then it’s the long walk to the actual casino floor. I’m not sure if it’s really worth taking the monorail versus just walking through Aria to Monte Carlo. I mean, you are sitting down on the monorail so it’s a nice break that way. But I don’t know if it’s much quicker than walking.
I wouldn’t say I liked the Monte Carlo, but I wouldn’t say I didn’t like it. They had some $10 3-Card Poker tables but again I didn’t like the crowd or the table was full. Maybe I should explain what I mean when I say I didn’t like the crowd. I’m a quiet person. If there’s people at the table being loud, I tend to stay away. Also, I hate when guys sit kinda side saddle. Know what I mean? They kinda sit off to the side of the chair, their leg hanging over the side of the chair, and they’re leaning way back. If there’s an ass not sitting in his chair correctly, I’ll probably skip that table. I like being either the first seat or the last so there’s nobody on one side of me. I’ll sit elsewhere, but those are the two seats I like the most.
We’ll continue on with Part 4 tomorrow!
