Post Mortem, May 2016.
Back from trip 2 of 2016. Fairly normal Vegas trip, as it was.
Flight out was fine, JetBlue reliably on time and comfortable enough for a short trip. The TSA line was a lot longer than I normally see, but supposedly that's a thing this summer and I left myself plenty of time to get through it. Was funny watching all the idiots trying to tell TSA members their plane left in 15 minutes and being told "too fucking bad".
Once on the ground in LAS the Bell limo ride went about as well as could be expected. Had to wait about 15 minutes from check in to ride out but was solo in a limo and for only $25 each way including tip it was worth it. Taxi would have been more and this way I arrived in style.
Once to Aria check in there was beyond easy, I did mobile check in earlier and asked for a 12:45 check in time, wasn't expecting to actually be in the room before 3p but I got an email as soon as I walked in the front door and was in my room 5 minutes later. Total breeze. Wish all resorts were like this.
Unpacked, checked out the room. For a standard room the Aria Deluxe King is one of the better I've stayed in, plenty big with floor to ceiling windows and this room had a "strip facing" view on the 28th floor, which at most resorts would probably be spectacular but with the Cosmo literally 50 yards away you couldn't see much of the strip. Basically my view was the side of the East tower of Cosmo and the Cosmo pool deck. Would have been a good view of some bikinis maybe if I had had binoculars.
The cleanliness of the room left something to be desired. There were noticeable and easily identifiable stains on the dark blue duvet and desk seat (this couple got around apparently) which were pretty gross. The big windows were also so filthy I couldn't get a good picture through them of what view I had. The room cleaning was also inconsistent and slightly annoying. 2 days I had no bath mat, one day it was huge and plush, the last day it was a hand towel :/ They also had a penchant for re-arranging my personal toiletries; just DON'T. Leave my shit alone where I left it, it's my room for those 4 days. In general though it was a comfortable enough home base for 4 days. The shower was heavenly. They had plenty of elevator banks so that was never a problem and room security was good. I had nearly a corner room so was it very quiet.
So, out of the room and out very early for first drinks. Had one at Alibi, a couple at Lift then made my way to the PUB just outside Aria. Hadn't eaten anything all day and was getting a little toasted but pressed on feeling invincible on my first day in Vegas (foreshadowing). Made my way to Cosmo, had one at the 3rd level Chandelier, then Clique and Vesper.
Getting petty toasted by this point. I knew I needed something to eat but it was only around 5:00 and had Carbone reservation at 6:00, so making my way back to Aria I stopped into Javier's to get what turned out to be a very good Chile Colorado. I guess I figured I would cancel my Carbone reservation, but decided to go eat there, now, too. Wut. So I had 2 entrees in the space of about an hour, and 2 more glasses of wine. Thinking this caused a food coma as all I wanted to do when I got out of Carbone at 7:30 was go up to my room and sleep. I didn't set an alarm. I slept until 3:30 in the morning.
Fuck.
So the first "night" in Vegas ended up being an afternoon. Disappointing to lose a whole night like that but can only blame myself for not pacing it. So I dicked around in room for a bit, got a couple more hours of sleep and was up and ready for day 2 at about 9:30a.
This was the day I was going to use my 2 myVegas rewards at the south strip locations. I got down to The Park between MC and NYNY looking for a place to hang, nothing was open yet. They did the big "grand opening" of the Park last month, boy was that premature. It is NOT done. Only the NYNY side has anything on it and there's construction going on everywhere. I think MGM envisions it as similar to The Linq but it is not remotely there yet. So failing that I went into the Pub at MC and had a meh bacon and eggs breakfast.
Jumped on the tram and went to MB for drinks at the Ri Ra which is usually nice and mellow, but this time they had some damn English soccer match on and all the Brits and wannabe Brits were in there getting rowdy for that. Not my scene, So I figured I could go use my Public House reward at Luxor, but they didn't open until 4p on Wednesdays. Great. So wandered back to MB, had a couple at the Franklin. I'm throwing a hundie in the slots occasionally during the day with no luck at all. Just kinda meandered around for a while before being allowed to go get a late lunch at Public House. Honestly I felt a bit like I was wasting my time just to satisfy a myVegas reward.
Did go up as planned to catch a drink and the view at Skyfall which is always great. There was some conference party in there though and I felt under dressed in a t-shirt so I just stayed for the one. I then ducked in to watch the first half of the Dubs game at Beer Haus in The Park. It's kinda whatever. No there there yet, really.
Then it was all the way back up the strip, taking 2 separate trams and quite the walk to get to the other new place I wanted to check out, The Still at Mirage. Both Beer Haus and the Still have "serve yourself" food, basically you go buy your food from a kiosk and bring it back to where you're sitting. Wondering if this is going to be a trend, cutting out food servers. Anyway, watched the Dubs do work there and then rolled out, heading across the street to Palazzo and the Rock House. They had a lame cover band playing in there, and by this time I was starting to get tired and annoyed and wasn't feeling "party". I went into Bourbon Room and had one, same thing. Tilted Kilt at Linq, same thing.
By this time it was around 11:30 or so and I was done. I made my way back through the annoying crowds (didn't I say I wasn't going to do this?) and back to Aria, pretty well exhausted. Got a to go sando at the Aria Cafe, took it upstairs, ate and crashed out.
Didn't sleep well that night at all, up and down, hot/cold, couldn't get used to the bed or the room. Finally rolled out of bed around 10:30 for Cure day. Went over to Cosmo wanting to get a brunch going at the Henry, but it was packed so I went across to the new Sports Book and ate some gnarly tater tots there. Rambled over to Vesper, had a couple there, then back to the PUB again. Had some cheese bites and a beer there. Was hoping to catch a nap before the show so went back up to the room around 3 but couldn't sleep more than a bout a half hour. Took another shower, changed and back out to go to the show.
Had time to grab one at Vesper then went up to the Chelsea at around 7:30. Saw the last couple songs of the Twilight Sad, the opening act, then it was Cure time. Really good, energetic show, great set list, mostly uptempo songs, unusual for a Cure show. They were great, I was not. I am NOT used to standing in one spot for 4 hours straight. By about the 2 hour mark my legs and back were killing me and I was sweating through my shirt trying to keep from falling over. Nobody noticed, but it's personally embarrassing. Am I that guy now? The sad old guy who needs to be sitting down all the time? Guess so. Anyway, the band was great and on balance it was worth the effort and expense
After the show all I wanted to do was get to my room and change out of my sweat soaked shirt, so it was over to Aria and up to the room. I was feeling pretty physically exhausted but wasn't ready to admit defeat yet so I came down and grabbed a late dinner at Javier's, Chile Colorado again. Great again. I half-heartedly wandered around looking for a bar to hang in but I was toast really, I had one at the Sports Bar then called it a night. Was in bed by about 1a
That night I did actually get a good night's sleep, so was feeling pretty strong for the last day, Friday. Headed out wanting to use my last myVegas reward at NYNY, so on the way I stopped at the Beer Haus again and got a meh brisket sando. Just something to soak up the alcohol. Headed off to the Times Square bar to get my $50 worth of free drinkies. Had a really good time in there, a personable bartender makes so much difference. It could have been boring but they made it a fun couple hours. I then went across the street to PH and had drinks at Twin Peaks and the Pete Rose bar, and into the Miracle Mile at Blondies. All the east side strip places are seedier than the MGM side, slightly more dive-y. More the "bros" type of bars, and there were plenty of them.
So by this time it was 4p-ish and it was time to head back to Aria, change and get ready for my reservation at Jean Georges steakhouse. I went in early and it was dead in there but the appetizer and steak were quite good. Still not Gallagher's quality, but it tasted great, anyway. I then made my way over to Cosmo again and spent a couple hours at Clique in there. Again, a really personable bartender and a good time. Back across the street again to Twin Peaks and the PBR Rock bar, for some reason. BY this time a unit of full dress Marines was all over the place in the Miracle Mile, lowering any miniscule chances of my getting laid to zero. Had a last couple at Cabo Wabo bar (why?) and I was done. Made my way back to Aria, grabbed a couple slices at 5Fifty and was in bed around 1a.
Saturday, fly out day, woke up around 10a to clean up/pack/check out. As easy as the check in was, the check out was NOT. I tried twice to use the email link THAT ARIA SENT ME to check out, no dice. Then tried the TV, it finally worked after 10 minutes of having to dick around with it. Then I had the frustrating 4 hours of wasted time before I could head to the airport and get out of town. As always, when it's fly out day I just want out of there, so a 5:15p flight was no bueno, but the fare worked out that way. Spent much of it in the Aria sports book randomly watching whatever was on. Felt weird to be the one guy just wanting to get out of there on a Saturday while the rest of Vegas was just getting going on a weekend.
Finally caught my limo around 3p, got to the airport, breezed through TSA and had a burger at the chop house in the terminal. More or less easy flight, taxi and back in my hobbit hole by 6:45. Came back not having touched my Friday paycheck and with enough cash left to pay half rent, so I spent $2500 plus the trip overhead.
So yeah, that was something. Aria was nice, I think honestly I was expecting something more being it's the best MGM resort in the world behind Bellagio. Maybe a suite would make a difference, I don't know, but honestly I would probably have enjoyed the rooms at least as much at NYNY again had I stayed there instead, and it wouldn't have cost me $69 a night. Cosmopolitan blows it away.
My main takeaways? I'm too old, out of shape and fat to really enjoy these 4 day bender trips anymore. Harsh but true story. I go there to drink a ton, eat whatever, stay up late and play the What Stays In Vegas, girls everywhere thing, but I'm not in a condition to do it. In 4 days I never had a female so much as look in my direction. At. All. I'm 47. I'm bald. I'm 50 lbs overweight. I can only fix one of those things to give my self a fighting chance. Sure, I could just blow it off and say "fuck it, I don't give a shit if I'm invisible to the opposite sex", but I'm too YOUNG to give up trying.
I never stayed up past 1 am on any of the nights I was there. In Vegas. And yeah, I started early most days, but to really get the Vegas experience you need to be able to go deep. I can't right now.
Second, I need to stop being beholden to myVegas rewards. I either need to stop doing it altogether, or just get rewards that will fit seamlessly with my trip and not require going out of my way. I spent half a day on the south strip just to cash in a $20 fucking food discount. That's a tip to me. So not worth it if I'm not planning on being there anyway.
I also got away from my plan of staying rooted in the Aria/Cosmo nexus. I kinda figured I would, but all the walking up and down did contribute to tiring me out, especially on day 2.
So lessons learned, or another nail in the Vegas coffin? May need to let this one sink in for a couple weeks. No matter what I have another trip in September and I always do Xmas, so this year is locked up. Next year I may well need to re-evaluate. It WAS fun, but was it $3000 worth of fun?
Flight out was fine, JetBlue reliably on time and comfortable enough for a short trip. The TSA line was a lot longer than I normally see, but supposedly that's a thing this summer and I left myself plenty of time to get through it. Was funny watching all the idiots trying to tell TSA members their plane left in 15 minutes and being told "too fucking bad".
Once on the ground in LAS the Bell limo ride went about as well as could be expected. Had to wait about 15 minutes from check in to ride out but was solo in a limo and for only $25 each way including tip it was worth it. Taxi would have been more and this way I arrived in style.
Once to Aria check in there was beyond easy, I did mobile check in earlier and asked for a 12:45 check in time, wasn't expecting to actually be in the room before 3p but I got an email as soon as I walked in the front door and was in my room 5 minutes later. Total breeze. Wish all resorts were like this.
Unpacked, checked out the room. For a standard room the Aria Deluxe King is one of the better I've stayed in, plenty big with floor to ceiling windows and this room had a "strip facing" view on the 28th floor, which at most resorts would probably be spectacular but with the Cosmo literally 50 yards away you couldn't see much of the strip. Basically my view was the side of the East tower of Cosmo and the Cosmo pool deck. Would have been a good view of some bikinis maybe if I had had binoculars.
The cleanliness of the room left something to be desired. There were noticeable and easily identifiable stains on the dark blue duvet and desk seat (this couple got around apparently) which were pretty gross. The big windows were also so filthy I couldn't get a good picture through them of what view I had. The room cleaning was also inconsistent and slightly annoying. 2 days I had no bath mat, one day it was huge and plush, the last day it was a hand towel :/ They also had a penchant for re-arranging my personal toiletries; just DON'T. Leave my shit alone where I left it, it's my room for those 4 days. In general though it was a comfortable enough home base for 4 days. The shower was heavenly. They had plenty of elevator banks so that was never a problem and room security was good. I had nearly a corner room so was it very quiet.
So, out of the room and out very early for first drinks. Had one at Alibi, a couple at Lift then made my way to the PUB just outside Aria. Hadn't eaten anything all day and was getting a little toasted but pressed on feeling invincible on my first day in Vegas (foreshadowing). Made my way to Cosmo, had one at the 3rd level Chandelier, then Clique and Vesper.
Getting petty toasted by this point. I knew I needed something to eat but it was only around 5:00 and had Carbone reservation at 6:00, so making my way back to Aria I stopped into Javier's to get what turned out to be a very good Chile Colorado. I guess I figured I would cancel my Carbone reservation, but decided to go eat there, now, too. Wut. So I had 2 entrees in the space of about an hour, and 2 more glasses of wine. Thinking this caused a food coma as all I wanted to do when I got out of Carbone at 7:30 was go up to my room and sleep. I didn't set an alarm. I slept until 3:30 in the morning.
Fuck.
So the first "night" in Vegas ended up being an afternoon. Disappointing to lose a whole night like that but can only blame myself for not pacing it. So I dicked around in room for a bit, got a couple more hours of sleep and was up and ready for day 2 at about 9:30a.
This was the day I was going to use my 2 myVegas rewards at the south strip locations. I got down to The Park between MC and NYNY looking for a place to hang, nothing was open yet. They did the big "grand opening" of the Park last month, boy was that premature. It is NOT done. Only the NYNY side has anything on it and there's construction going on everywhere. I think MGM envisions it as similar to The Linq but it is not remotely there yet. So failing that I went into the Pub at MC and had a meh bacon and eggs breakfast.
Jumped on the tram and went to MB for drinks at the Ri Ra which is usually nice and mellow, but this time they had some damn English soccer match on and all the Brits and wannabe Brits were in there getting rowdy for that. Not my scene, So I figured I could go use my Public House reward at Luxor, but they didn't open until 4p on Wednesdays. Great. So wandered back to MB, had a couple at the Franklin. I'm throwing a hundie in the slots occasionally during the day with no luck at all. Just kinda meandered around for a while before being allowed to go get a late lunch at Public House. Honestly I felt a bit like I was wasting my time just to satisfy a myVegas reward.
Did go up as planned to catch a drink and the view at Skyfall which is always great. There was some conference party in there though and I felt under dressed in a t-shirt so I just stayed for the one. I then ducked in to watch the first half of the Dubs game at Beer Haus in The Park. It's kinda whatever. No there there yet, really.
Then it was all the way back up the strip, taking 2 separate trams and quite the walk to get to the other new place I wanted to check out, The Still at Mirage. Both Beer Haus and the Still have "serve yourself" food, basically you go buy your food from a kiosk and bring it back to where you're sitting. Wondering if this is going to be a trend, cutting out food servers. Anyway, watched the Dubs do work there and then rolled out, heading across the street to Palazzo and the Rock House. They had a lame cover band playing in there, and by this time I was starting to get tired and annoyed and wasn't feeling "party". I went into Bourbon Room and had one, same thing. Tilted Kilt at Linq, same thing.
By this time it was around 11:30 or so and I was done. I made my way back through the annoying crowds (didn't I say I wasn't going to do this?) and back to Aria, pretty well exhausted. Got a to go sando at the Aria Cafe, took it upstairs, ate and crashed out.
Didn't sleep well that night at all, up and down, hot/cold, couldn't get used to the bed or the room. Finally rolled out of bed around 10:30 for Cure day. Went over to Cosmo wanting to get a brunch going at the Henry, but it was packed so I went across to the new Sports Book and ate some gnarly tater tots there. Rambled over to Vesper, had a couple there, then back to the PUB again. Had some cheese bites and a beer there. Was hoping to catch a nap before the show so went back up to the room around 3 but couldn't sleep more than a bout a half hour. Took another shower, changed and back out to go to the show.
Had time to grab one at Vesper then went up to the Chelsea at around 7:30. Saw the last couple songs of the Twilight Sad, the opening act, then it was Cure time. Really good, energetic show, great set list, mostly uptempo songs, unusual for a Cure show. They were great, I was not. I am NOT used to standing in one spot for 4 hours straight. By about the 2 hour mark my legs and back were killing me and I was sweating through my shirt trying to keep from falling over. Nobody noticed, but it's personally embarrassing. Am I that guy now? The sad old guy who needs to be sitting down all the time? Guess so. Anyway, the band was great and on balance it was worth the effort and expense
After the show all I wanted to do was get to my room and change out of my sweat soaked shirt, so it was over to Aria and up to the room. I was feeling pretty physically exhausted but wasn't ready to admit defeat yet so I came down and grabbed a late dinner at Javier's, Chile Colorado again. Great again. I half-heartedly wandered around looking for a bar to hang in but I was toast really, I had one at the Sports Bar then called it a night. Was in bed by about 1a
That night I did actually get a good night's sleep, so was feeling pretty strong for the last day, Friday. Headed out wanting to use my last myVegas reward at NYNY, so on the way I stopped at the Beer Haus again and got a meh brisket sando. Just something to soak up the alcohol. Headed off to the Times Square bar to get my $50 worth of free drinkies. Had a really good time in there, a personable bartender makes so much difference. It could have been boring but they made it a fun couple hours. I then went across the street to PH and had drinks at Twin Peaks and the Pete Rose bar, and into the Miracle Mile at Blondies. All the east side strip places are seedier than the MGM side, slightly more dive-y. More the "bros" type of bars, and there were plenty of them.
So by this time it was 4p-ish and it was time to head back to Aria, change and get ready for my reservation at Jean Georges steakhouse. I went in early and it was dead in there but the appetizer and steak were quite good. Still not Gallagher's quality, but it tasted great, anyway. I then made my way over to Cosmo again and spent a couple hours at Clique in there. Again, a really personable bartender and a good time. Back across the street again to Twin Peaks and the PBR Rock bar, for some reason. BY this time a unit of full dress Marines was all over the place in the Miracle Mile, lowering any miniscule chances of my getting laid to zero. Had a last couple at Cabo Wabo bar (why?) and I was done. Made my way back to Aria, grabbed a couple slices at 5Fifty and was in bed around 1a.
Saturday, fly out day, woke up around 10a to clean up/pack/check out. As easy as the check in was, the check out was NOT. I tried twice to use the email link THAT ARIA SENT ME to check out, no dice. Then tried the TV, it finally worked after 10 minutes of having to dick around with it. Then I had the frustrating 4 hours of wasted time before I could head to the airport and get out of town. As always, when it's fly out day I just want out of there, so a 5:15p flight was no bueno, but the fare worked out that way. Spent much of it in the Aria sports book randomly watching whatever was on. Felt weird to be the one guy just wanting to get out of there on a Saturday while the rest of Vegas was just getting going on a weekend.
Finally caught my limo around 3p, got to the airport, breezed through TSA and had a burger at the chop house in the terminal. More or less easy flight, taxi and back in my hobbit hole by 6:45. Came back not having touched my Friday paycheck and with enough cash left to pay half rent, so I spent $2500 plus the trip overhead.
So yeah, that was something. Aria was nice, I think honestly I was expecting something more being it's the best MGM resort in the world behind Bellagio. Maybe a suite would make a difference, I don't know, but honestly I would probably have enjoyed the rooms at least as much at NYNY again had I stayed there instead, and it wouldn't have cost me $69 a night. Cosmopolitan blows it away.
My main takeaways? I'm too old, out of shape and fat to really enjoy these 4 day bender trips anymore. Harsh but true story. I go there to drink a ton, eat whatever, stay up late and play the What Stays In Vegas, girls everywhere thing, but I'm not in a condition to do it. In 4 days I never had a female so much as look in my direction. At. All. I'm 47. I'm bald. I'm 50 lbs overweight. I can only fix one of those things to give my self a fighting chance. Sure, I could just blow it off and say "fuck it, I don't give a shit if I'm invisible to the opposite sex", but I'm too YOUNG to give up trying.
I never stayed up past 1 am on any of the nights I was there. In Vegas. And yeah, I started early most days, but to really get the Vegas experience you need to be able to go deep. I can't right now.
Second, I need to stop being beholden to myVegas rewards. I either need to stop doing it altogether, or just get rewards that will fit seamlessly with my trip and not require going out of my way. I spent half a day on the south strip just to cash in a $20 fucking food discount. That's a tip to me. So not worth it if I'm not planning on being there anyway.
I also got away from my plan of staying rooted in the Aria/Cosmo nexus. I kinda figured I would, but all the walking up and down did contribute to tiring me out, especially on day 2.
So lessons learned, or another nail in the Vegas coffin? May need to let this one sink in for a couple weeks. No matter what I have another trip in September and I always do Xmas, so this year is locked up. Next year I may well need to re-evaluate. It WAS fun, but was it $3000 worth of fun?
Comments
Post a Comment