Post Mortem, June 2020.

So here's the breakdown. Long post here as a long trip and what the hell.

Saturday, fly in day, Airport crazy dead, TSA line non-existent and almost nothing open, got lucky and found a wine bar open and had 2 glasses. Got to do the usual "airport bar acquired" tweet. Boarding plane, it was only half full, on time flight, smaller plane so a little rough on the pre-land but fine.

Got to Cosmo at around 2:30p, expected to be able to check in right away but was told room wasn't ready yet - foreshadowing here is dense. Decided to hang on to my bag and wait, thinking it wouldn't be long. Posted up at Holsteins and had a beer and shot. Still waiting, another beer and shot. Got into a long conversation with a tequila rep who was in the same boat. Finally at 5p it was getting ridiculous, went down to front desk to bitch, basically demanded room and was given same room with a view upgrade, fair enough (so I thought).

Get up to the room and it's got the beautiful fountains view I'm accustomed to now at Cosmo. What it doesn't have is bed linens or towels. So I have to call down to housekeeping to get them sent up. Not a big deal as I'm headed out to the strip anyway but, again, signs of things to come.

Finally ready to party after getting into town 3 hours earlier, I'm out to Venetian in a cab to do the Sam Ross run. Joo Young and Joseph there, old timers, got caught up over some Coconut White Russians. Then jumped over to Electra at Palazzo to see Evan for the first of many times. Stayed there a good long time hanging out.

Getting pretty liquored up at this point, in need of food. Tried to get into Yard House at the Linq but they had a wait list, went to Off the Strip instead for a surprisingly good beef Stroganoff. Wandered down to Bellagio to do the first gambling of the trip, won $300 on various slots so that was nice. Bellagio and Cosmo were decently busy, almost a normal-looking Saturday. Went into Petrossian, the piano bar in there for a couple great drinks then decided to shut it down as it had been a long first day and I didn't want to over do it on day one. Had some ice cream on my balcony for an awesome way to end up the first day.

Sunday, OK sleep, did a bit of an exploratory strip walk. Strip VERY mellow, few cars, few walkers, not much open. No Rock & Reilly, no Fat Bar, no Fuel, few restos. Made my way down to NYNY, won $200 in HL video poker, then across to MGM, more VP, not losing. Hit the Wolfgang Puck place in there for food, had a fucking great Bolognese. Was feeling a little low energy after food, hit the room for a reset, no nap.

Trying to max the Mlife gambling, I freshened up and hit Bellagio, won $600 on VP and slots, doing well for cash at this point had $1800 at 5p. I had made a reservation at Jaleo for dinner, was still pretty full from the lunch so just had a couple apps, a very eh tiny burger and the always good Manzana salad there. 

Not much else going on at Cosmo so just went up to the room to do a money dump, then grabbed a cab to do the Dorsey/Electra run again, always good. Got a rum education from Caesar one of the bartenders in there. Evan there as a customer, hung out again for a good long time again. Kinda made the same rotation this night as last, hit Linq again looking for late night food, fucking Yard House not available again so settled again for Off the Strip. Had some OK fried shrimp.

 

General walking vibe on the strip still very low, aside from the few resorts that were open there wasn't much going on. The normal street buskers and faux showgirls were here and there but not nearly as much as normal. Finished off the night again at Bellagio, got up another $150 on slots, doing well on the gambling front so far on the trip. Slowing down a bit, tried to do one last turn up at Lily bar in Bellagio, same old Lily. No vibe and poor bartenders. Was getting tired and decided to shut it down, back in room by midnight.

Monday, choppy but decent sleep, got up and did the relaxed shower/dress/prep routine with the Vegas playlist going on my Boom 2. Good fun list this time, got me going every morning. Headed first over to Bellagio, lost $200 on VP and slots in about 10 mins, the worm seemed to turn a bit on gambling this day. Hit up a cab and made my way to Yard House to finally get my beloved chickie strips there. Super dead, a couple tables and I was the only one at the bar. No eligible females anywhere within 400 nautical miles.

Wandered a bit, hoping Fuel might be open (nope), went back into Bellagio for more losing gambling. Hit the room to do a reset again, had a toe thing I had to get Bandaids for, was bleeding through my sock into shoes but luckily it never showed through the top of the canvas. No nap, so back out and stopped at Vesper to talk to George the bartender and have a couple espresso shots to wake up a bit.

Had a reservation at NYNY for dinner so got a cab to the Grand to try to position myself for that, played some VP and hit 4 aces, got up a couple hundy but gave it right back. Said fuck it and headed over to NYNY, had a beer and a shot at Nine Fine Irishmen. Then off to Gallagher's, had the filet and it was back to awesome after the last time not being so great.

Dinner done and did, tried to do something different and headed over to Double Down but I got there at happy hour-ish, no seats were avail at the bar so I just called an Uber. Back to Venetian and the Dorsey, 3 Coco White Russians there, then back (again) to Electra. Daniel was working and no one was in there so we had a long conversation about his old club days. Had something for the first time called a Spagett (Tim and Eric reference), is a High Life bottle with Aperol and lemon. Pretty good. Apparently an industry thing in Vegas.

So then things fell into the same daily pattern. Went over to the Bellagio in a cab, won a hundy. Tried to order a Spagett at Cosmo but the shitty bartender had never heard of it and didn't have the customer service skills to make it worth staying there. 1 and done, up to the room, spent some balcony time then bed and sleep.

Tuesday, Good sleep. got up and ready to go, decided to cross the bridge and check out Miracle Mile as it had just opened. Hit the new Flights place in there, hadn't been, just had one beer. Then across the hall to Blondie's for a Coors Light Spagett and a shot, nothing going on. Super dead in the mall only a few places open. Trend. Wanted to get some gambling going to I walked down to MGM, no luck on slots or VP at all.

Needed some lunch, went to the Avenue food place, literally NOTHING open at 1pm for lunch. Not one thing. Fuck MGM, you can't just open the resorts and have nothing available for amenities. Settled for the Wolfgang Puck place again, very meh crabcakes. Just needed a snack really and to have a beer but a super annoying bar patron drove me out in 15 minutes. I converted my Mlife points while there, $211 in Express Comps, not bad.

Kinda was feeling meh about things at this point and grabbed a Cab back to Cosmo. Was going to sit in the 1st floor Chandelier and  have a drink and a little VP but they were full for seats so just sat at a VP machine on the floor by The Best Bathroom In Vegas. Hit quad 2s with the kicker and 4 OAK while sitting at it. $1300. Attitude adjuster. 

Celebrated with George at Vesper with a couple espresso martinis, then decided to go upstairs and do a cash dump. Got up there at 3p, room not clean?! Did my thing and called down to housekeeping for the second time on the trip, they assured me it would be done. Curious. It was getting close to Prime time and the big splurge meal so made the way over to Bellagio. Went into Petrossian and had the good coffee drink I semi created there, it's a cold brew drink on their menu but I sub'd Bailey's for whiskey and it was a killer.

Sat down while waiting to eat and hit another $300 on VP, but then gave $200 back immediately on slots. All this play at both resorts is piling up though, as will be seen. Got into Prime, meh appetizer pretty good steak, really nothing special and nothing that would bring me back. Even the filet at Gallagher's beat it. Caught a cab and it's the same pattern, hit Venetian again for the Electra, Dorsey, then back to Electra trip. In retrospect it sounds super locked in and non-adventurous but not much else was open so the choices were very limited.

Another cab and back to (surprise) Bellagio, had a couple more cold brew drinks, was feeling pretty good so did some gambledrunk. Nothing to show for it but again, racking up those points and coin in. It was getting pretty late at this point so I decided to pack it in, stumbled back over to the room, walked in...room still not clean. 12 hours later and not at all during the entire day. So pissed. I called down again, drunkenly, but there wasn't much they could do but apologize, I wasn't going to have them come up and clean the room at 3a. Got to bed in a pissy state.

Wednesday, Started off day pissy over Cosmo service in general. Got crap sleep, probably only 5 hours. Got showered and dressed, needed to talk to CS manager about the situation. Got 125 food/bev credit but was still fuming. Not the best way to start the day. Compounded that by going over to Bellagio and losing $300 in no time.

Back to Cosmo no food open for lunch, again. Having a generally shitty day, went back to the (finally) clean room to reset. Went back out, jumped back over to Mir Mile, decided to have an aqua massage, that wasn't so great but bought a TENS electro massager just basically to satisfy the little angry boy in me that day. That and a Blondie's Michelada turned things around a bit.

Went BACK to the room again to the dump the package and freshen up, time to finally get some food at Bellagio and Yellowtail. I actually had a reservation at a completely different hotel for this time, but just cancelled that and sat at the bar. Had Miso soup, gyoza, saba, all fine nothing spectacular but all paid for with Ex Comps so that was good. had to run out of dinner at one point as I almost lost a $150 ticket that I left in a machine. Luckily no one else had sat at it in the 20 minutes or so since I left it. Dumb but lucky.

Then of course it was off to the standard trip night, a cab to Venetian to the Dorsey. Joseph and Joo Young there, good times, then over to Electra for Evan and Ronny. Lack of enough food during the day meant I was getting uncomfortably toasty so I broke it off pretty early and cabbed to Bellagio where I lost another $200. The shine had come off the gambling rose for sure. By that point I was done, I hit Secret Pizza for a couple slices and was in bed by 11:30p.

Thursday, the last full day. Good sleep, called down and got free late checkout for 12p the next day which was all I needed. Feeling OK, did the usual get ready with tunes and a glass of white wine in the shower, and out the door. Decided to skip the gambling and head over to see one last time if Fuel was open, it wasn't but the BAR place next to fuel was, good bartender there spent 2 hours talking to him and getting liquored up.

Needed lunch, so Linq happened for Yard House and my chickies again. Totally dead in there again, daytime. Fooded up, wandered into Harrah's for some stupid reason, horrid, no cleaning at the bar totally gross in there. The cleaning standards around the various resorts were strikingly different. Bellagio almost seemed to take it too far, with plexi dividers and wait times to sit after sanitizing. Cosmo was just about right, you felt it was clean but it wasn't intrusive (this was true on the casino and bar areas, the rooms and elevator lobbies - issues). CET - no fucks given.

Got the hell out of there and went into wander mode, went into Grand Canal Shops, almost nothing open. Was feeling a little blah after the meal so got a cab back to the room, reset, gave myself an electro massage. Never did get a nap the whole trip. Came down around 5p, went into Clique which usually sucks but finally a decent bartender in there so stayed and had a couple. Over to Bellagio to Petrossian again, had a couple of my drinks and was feeling great, ready to go on the last night. Lost $300 on slots but wasn't letting it get me down, time to do the V/P run. Electra, Evan Schul Daniel and Caesar, Dorsey, Kyle and Dominique. Many drinks, many laughs.

Walked down to OTS for a shot and a beer, needed some food but didn't get any. Kept walking to Bellagio played some VP nothing, Cosmo, played some VP, nothing so that was it. Done. Went back to the room, watched a little CNN, did an electro massage on the balcony, finished off the bottle of white I had and finito. Bed.

Fly out day all went according to plan, plane on time no issues. Home and in the hobbit hole by 5p.

So yeah. A long trip but it felt pretty limited. There just wasn't much open so every day played out pretty similarly. I could have branched out a little more than I did but aside from going downtown or something I pretty much tapped out what there was to do. Glad I went, it was certainly better than sitting around for another week but it was about 1/3 Vegas, if that.

Cosmo, whew. The room was nice as always but they were just clearly not ready for guests that first week open. I understand it after the closure but you guys opened the resort and we as guests had a reasonable expectation that we could have a 5-star stay in a 5-star resort and it just wasn't.

On the good side I did rack up a lot of coin in and points for that trip and the future, I'm only a few thousand points away from Mlife Gold and I surprisingly got to Identity Sterling, so I more than hit those goals. Between MGM resorts and the Cosmo I was almost $15K coin in, which should really help with offers in the future, especially Bellagio.

So now it's a short waiting game for August. Locked into that one with the no-resort fees deal at Cosmo and Alaska air again. In a good Vegas frame of mind and already pumped for that one.