I learned how to play craps on Fremont. Iirc, the Golden Nugget has a shark tank at their pool and craps tables surrounding it. I loved playing there.
Buddies and I are talking about going for March Madness next year. How soon in advance do you need to book shit?
i book flights when SWA releases their flight schedules, rebook if prices drop to save $. Hotel usually in the summertime. book direct w/ hotel instead of expedia/travelocity/etc. that will allow you to call and see if rates drop throughout the year into next, they will honor the new prices.
I booked airfare in early December and flew for like $220 round trip. Prices went up after the new year. Booked hotel in early January.
I’ve booked up to 6 mo out in the past. Usually I just start to sit on flights and hotels daily and when I hit a magic number between flight and hotel for days that work I pull the trigger. More work, but bigger discount when you have a flexible range of like say ‘the fall’ vs oct 2-5 kind of thing.
Not a whale. I get comped. Think ill take Mlife up on their fountain view room at the bellagio against in June.
Decent amount of stuff between Park and NYNY leading to the Arena. The usual interior open and close of restaurants and reinvention of properties is still daily like usual.
I really like their casino now. The rooms.....not so much however. Only stayed there a night though. Had never stayed there before, so I can't compare before and after rebranding. But they ended up comping me, so they seem like they want your business again.
The room was very unique. Had like a retro feel, it’s an ugly shade of green. Had a great view of the strip. No fridge sucked tho
I can't really bring myself to stay anywhere other than Cosmo now, but I do like the new Park MGM casino, and the Nomad Bar is awesome.
At Park MGM: Nomad Bar Eataly Bavette’s steakhouse Primrose for breakfast The rooms are good, but not as nice as you are used to. Aria: CATCH restaurant. In the space that Bar Masa used to be in. Waldorf Astoria: Used to be Mandarin Oriental. There might have been some changes in the Food & Beverage program. I’m not sure. Twist is still there. You should try it; it’s a Forbes 5-Star.
Bellagio used to be our go-to and I still love the Bellagio. My buddy is usually comped there, we'll do the suites in the middle with the 2 small balconies. I've stayed at Aria and love the rooms, but am not a huge fan of having to haul ass to get out to the strip because it sits WAY back there. The SkySuites at Aria are fantastic, though. Cosmo is my go-to because of the balconies. The wraparound suites in the Boulevard Tower can't be beat IMO. I like having a cigar on the balcony as well as having a coffee and getting work done out there in the morning. It's relaxing. Plus, I have status with them now so that it's worth it. Huge fan of Wynn, too, but I prefer center strip. Also have stayed at Planet Hollywood (love the casino, the rooms are awful), Caesars which I do really like, but only the Nobu or the new wing, and years ago once stayed at Luxor, which is shameful. I'm an admitted hotel snob, though. When we were there for March Madness, my friends were comped at Bellagio and I stayed at Cosmo.
Bavette's is fantastic. I haven't been into the Waldorf since the Mandarin switch. Curious for feedback from others on that one.
Good stuff. If the rates ever worth it, I'll stay at Cosmo just to see how it is. What'd you get to eat at Bavette's?
Dry-aged ribeye, which was incredible. Tried some filet, which was good but not great, had the thick cut bacon, roasted bone marrow, and truffle mac as sides. Best meal I've had in Vegas remains the Bazaar Meat tasting menu, though. Paired with a couple of bottles of Spanish wine, perfection. Have done that three times now, can't help but take friends there when I have people who haven't been.
-Lobby was like a visiting room at San Quentin - Spoiler Disgusting !!!!! When we arrived at 2am there was a hug clump of hair and puke splattered against the shower wall which me and my children discovered after 2 of us had taken a shower already. The pooling water at our ankles was sudzy so we didn't notice the disgusting things floating in the backed up tub. Later that morning we noticed puke (chunks of some sort) in the tub as well as some black substance floating in standing water. Smaller issue...the iron was spitting water on my clothes, even puddled on the ironing board. We poured the water out of the iron to use it. Housekeeping cleaned the room while we were out. Hair and puke still there, alongside well made beds when we returned to our room at 7p. I called for the Housekeeping Manager. Whomever took the call didn't confirm she was the manager when I asked her to confirm to whom I was speaking. She sent a housekeeper and maintenance person. Lots of apologies. Plumber did nothing. Housekeeper cleaned again. On the inspection, I pointed to part of the original puke still there splattered on the wall. She scraped it with her fingers and claimed it was Ajax or cleanser that she just used to reclean our shower. Next morning we're all awakened by the sounds of water racing through the plumbing and the smell of sewage. Please see attached pictures and video. We watched the tub fill up with hair, a black substance and whatever my upstairs neighbor washed from their dirty bodies. #Never #ever #ever #ever will I stay at #CircusCircus again. By the way, it still smells smokey like it did when I was a child. The quality of the food in the Buffett was horrible. Not sure how you get roast beef to taste mushy. Stir fried rice was greasy, made with bloated gummy rice. Me and my children were astonished that as hungry as we were we just couldn't eat more than a few bites of a wide variety of foods we found in the buffett. The deli was better. Golden Corral is 100 times better for less money. I wanted my kids to have a great #LasVegasExperience. Incredible disappointment. Go straight to #TheAdventureDome and #Midway for your children's entertainment. The #hotel is #garbage. - Even if you want to do Vegas on a budget there are better options. Don't stay here unless you really, really want to, and even then, I'm not sure why you'd want to.
Febreeze to cover smoke smell. Which was a big fail. The carpet has not been changed since Elvis was alive. Actually I thought I was in a time machine. Bedding was decent. There was no extra blankets. We were told the morning after we could have called housekeeping okay. The air conditioning/heater was making the noise of a boing 747 which was still better than hearing the class act next door.
Circus Circus is what it is....old and worn. MGM would love to rid itself of this property. That said, The Steakhouse at Circus Circus is excellent.
I'm a big Andres fan and when we went, there was nothing I found that was any better than OK. I was disappointed considering how much it cost.
There was a change in management. I thought that might have been at the root of your bad experience. A friend of mine was the GM there and left to open his own place. But that was later than your visit. Sometimes places just have a bad day. My worst dining experience in Vegas was at Tao. Yet, Tao remains to be a highly acclaimed venue.
Blackstone putting Cosmo up for sale for $4B. I'll be holding my breath in hopes that they don't make any material changes if there is a sale.
I remember when I did a project on MGM in grad school reading that originally Cosmo was the quite possibly the worst real estate deal in the history of real estate deals. This is the gist of it...
They’re pretty good about funneling people in from the south side with the bridges. North side is easier to avoid the building.
When I worked at Zappos I wrote Tony Hsieh a proposal to buy it and turn it into our own hotel/casino/office.