This is our Second Las Vegas Trip Report Blog
Although we have been to Las Vegas many times.
Although we have been to Las Vegas many times.
Part 2 Aria (Continued from Luxor Part 1) - Wednesday 7th
Nov 2012
Up and about, decided to check out the Pyramid Café in the Luxor, but hey ho, this now only opens for breakfast, what a pain, but their loss, so off to Raffles, (the 24 hour Café in the Mandalay Bay).
Simon had a Classic Burger, Lesley and Ollie had the rosemary chicken sandwich and I had the club sandwich, all with fries, and all delicious.
We were checking out of the Luxor after 2 nights as the Aria had comped us 2 rooms, with free play and food credits, so it was a no brainer, as the Aria is a 5 star hotel and we love it, so nothing against the Luxor, just had a better offer. Mind you, the palaver to check out was very time consuming, it took around 40 minutes this was without a line. We did get around $115 off the bill in comps which was nice, but it did take a while. We did later lose a chunk off this as the check out lady, charged our card, before the deductions (even though I went to great pains to explain what would happen before she did this whole process against our card?), so she reversed the charges then applied the new amount, but as we are in the UK once a charge has been made to reverse it always costs dearly in currency exchange rates, no one in Vegas seems to understand this, so we lost around £30 on this transaction alone.
Got a taxi to the Aria a very friendly chap, (have previously had some bad experiences with taxi drivers in Las Vegas, but not this time). Even when I tried to get in the driver’s side, the bloke must have thought I was nuts or British, still think we have the steering wheel on the correct side.
As we were invited guests of the Aria, (this will probably be first and last, so aimed to enjoy it), we were able to check in at the VIP desk! All very smooth, rooms 33116 and 33118, Wow wow wow, a great strip/city view amazing, both had 2 queen beds, so all able to spread out. Whilst unpacking a knock at the door, the hotel had sent us some complimentary chocolate covered strawberries and macaroons, what a lovely touch, made us feel very important.
Ollie headed off to the pool, Lesley headed for the bed/view and a few episodes of Storage Wars and Duck Dynasty, (her knee is giving her some jip), Simon and I, yes you guessed it, off to the casino, to rack up our play with our "freeplay" courtesy of Aria!
"Alice" slot bonus - Aria Las Vegas
Not bad for a 50c bet.
Not bad for a 50c bet.
"Great Eagle" slot bonus - Aria Las Vegas
We hit this "Super Big Win" after being awarded Free spins with an additional free spin re-trigger. Although not bad for a 40c bet - could have had a bigger outcome but very happy with what we won. I did not record the whole bonus as we have done this on a previous Great Eagle win from the May Blog (see list of blogs on this site on right hand side column) - over 6 minutes worth. Could kick myself for not playing a greater denomination this time around - but there again it may never have hit.....if I had done!
"QH" slot bonus Win - Aria Las VegasNot bad for a $1.25 bet.
"Jokers Heist" slot bonus Win - Aria Las Vegas
Jokers Card Caper Bonus Free Spins. Not bad for a 45c bet.
We are a bit well oiled at this stage and Spud was checked by the cocktail waitress for underage at 23 yrs of age, his 1st " I - d " ing of this year.
As you can tell from the clip we are having a great time as usual - we really love the Aria...food, drinks and rooms etc..absolutely top notch!
"Jokers Heist" slot bonus Win (2) - Aria Las Vegas
"Joker Heist" slot bonus Win - Aria Las Vegas
This 3rd consecutive Jokers Bonus was not awful for a 45c bet - but was a bit of fun even though the payout was an even bigger "joke". We had a good laugh anyway...Grenades..Splitters.. multipliers..we had the lot! Considering we were playing on our original "Freeplay" as well as the free (comped) high level City view rooms (33rd Floor adjoining) this is all going very well.... with more bonuses to follow...did I mention the free restaurant credit too? The Aria certainly look after their Gold (M'Life) Card members, which Simon has in his own right as I do too.
"White Pearl" free spins slot bonus Win - Aria Las Vegas
This slot "White Pearl" game gave us 15 free spins for a 50c bet, which was a fair return on a fun 2x3x5 multiplier bonus, we had a good laugh "star fish alert" not sure what that was all about? but the cocktails were still flowing nicely so we stayed in high spirits. This clip Includes a clamshell bonus - you can hear the obvious surprise at the big pearl suddenly appearing....
As you can tell we are having a great time as usual - we really love the Aaarrriiiiaaaaa...(not the "Rio") food, drinks (especially the cocktails) and rooms etc..absolutely top notch!
We are both "very" well oiled at this stage, as the Freeplay seems to be keeping us well in the zone.
After converting our respective Freeplay separately into played through cash, we then put in $20 each out of our respective winnings together and as we said in the video, at this point we are still on our initial $20 after several hours of play.
"Gone with the Wind" slot Bonus - Aria Las Vegas
Ollie arrived back after an hour or two from the pool,
he chilled for a bit, then showered then off to find Simon and me. He tracked us down as we were passing by the above slot machine, and we pooled him in with us. Anti-climax was an understatement on this bonus. But as we were 3 sheets to the wind ourselves, it was just a bit of fun to share. Needless to say one we will avoid in future.
"Michael Jackson" Touch & Slide - slot bonus Win - Aria Las Vegas
For $1.20c bet a fair return on a fun 2x bonus, we had a good laugh even though the 10x multiplier would have been more like it.We are now "very" well oiled at this stage - so apologies for the poor attempt at MJ impressions. As you can tell we are having a great time as usual - we really love the Aaarrriiiiaaaaa..food, drinks (especially the cocktails) and rooms etc..absolutely top notch!
"Superman" Bonus - Aria Las Vegas
For 50c bet this was not really that brilliant but the idea of it collecting pieces of Green Kryptonite through the free spins to build up the final payout is interesting and watchable, I am sure there must be lucky folk out there where this has delivered more than a 10 x payout.
6 "Quick Hit" Progressive Jackpot slot win - Aria Las Vegas
This was a nice little Jackpot win on the Platinum Quick Hits slot with an outlay of $1.50 a push max bet. Keeps the funds topped up and makes way for plenty more action to come. Always a favourite one the reliable QuickHits are for us. Did I say we like the Aria? The turn down service in the Aria is great, the free chocolates are fab. Lesley liked them so much she bought 2 boxes to take home. They also leave slippers, Its gives it that extra special something.
Around midnight we wandered back to our rooms, ( gambling for 9 hours), after a heavy drinking session and playing all that time on our free play, no money lost from anyone, I actually still had $88 still left from free play, that’s a result.....
Lesley said I snored all night yeah right! Lesley stayed in bed for 16 hours! Admiring the view, both day time and night time! Also eating chocolates, along with the TV, a blast of a night. She watched the sun rise, against the sweet noise of me snoring, although she said she had not heard sounds like it before. She said the view over the mountains was lovely, she waited patiently for us all to wake up.
Thursday 8th Nov 2012
Lesley got up and went around the shops, she then had a wander around the casino and won $40 on Davinci Diamonds (her special favourite) and $20 on the Megabucks. We met up with her, then caught the tram over to the Bellagio. We were on the hunt for some show tickets to "O". After much confusion, not sure if the MGM computer systems are that well integrated, anyway, with Gold card managed to get a good discount, saving us around $250; tickets were for this evening 10pm. ( Men still hungover).
Had a few spins in the Bellagio, Lesley and I around $20 down each. Needed food, so went back to the Aria to check out "Lemongrass" a Thai restaurant. But the wait was around 40 minutes, we thought at the time that it was too long, but in hindsight, we should have waited.
Anyway, went to Café Vettro, looked very nice, view over the front entrance area was nice. Simon Lesley and I had the steak and eggs, not the best by far, the steak was not really cooked well, my eggs were frazzled to way below anyone's standard (will not do again), Ollie had the Turkey Club, which he thought was great. Overall, will probably not try Café Vettro again.
Lesley went off to the shops again! Boys went too, bought some water, key rings.
Back at the casino, I am still on my original $100 free play, (this is now Thursday 4pm, so lasted so far around 2 days), did lose a bit, but got it back on the QH.
"American Original" Slot 100 free spins - Bellagio Las Vegas
Back to the room for a freshen up before the O' show at the Bellagio, over to the Bellagio, we decided to club in $20 a piece for a few spins, not much happening, until we came across the "American Original" slot, it gave us 100 free spins, which turned out to be $xxx (see the above vid for the number), so more than double our money, back in profit before the show.
We had very good seats for the show (Thank you MLife - Gold), always a bonus. The show was not as much of a wow factor as I remember, Lesley and I had seen it before a few years ago. We all agreed that Le Reve at the Wynn had the edge, but very good all the same.
"Elvis" Slot Viva Las Vegas Bonus - Aria Las Vegas
not too shabby for an 80c bet we have had a lot worse, as well as not much more for a $2 max bet before now.Back at the Aria, Lesley and I put in $20 each, boys did their own thing, this lasted us over 2 hours, had great cocktail service, (Brandy Alexander, Cosmo on the rocks for Simon and Ollie with his Hawaiian). Off to bed 2.30am.
Friday 9th Nov 2012 - Aria Hotel & Casino
Up late'ish for us but I went down ahead to the Casino for a few spins while waiting for the others to catch up. Headed over to the Betty Boop slot to see if she was up to anything much - as I do tend to hit her Bonus features with some regularity.
"Betty Boop" slot Bonus free spins - Aria Las Vegas
For a 50c bet and 10x multiplier, I was just a bit unlucky not to get more from the 15 free spins but not bad nevertheless - should have bet higher on the 1st few spins, but did not feel my luck would continue so had held back a bit..
"Betty Boop" Bonus (2) slot feature - Aria Las Vegas
As mentioned before with our approach after any win, is to do what I refer to as a few spin-out spins. This spin out produced another bonus but this is very weak and only here to show how the "How Hot are You" feature plays through - obviously "Wild" is not worth a lot - the truth hurts....
"Zeus III" slot bonus - Aria Las Vegas
Not a bad return for a 40c bet - I really like these different types of game play and Bonus slots.
"Sex in the City" Miranda Bonus - Aria Las Vegas
2nd best pick, just missed the progressive payout....
at the Entrance to "Lemongrass" at the Aria
We shared 2 Chicken Satays to start. These were really good.
Ollie, Lesley followed these with a yellow curry. On ordering they ask what "spicy hot" level between 1 - 10 you would like. They asked for level 3 but on reflection would go for a 1 or 2 next time. I had the same dish but heat level 7, which I too will drop this level also next time. Simon had a green curry, again heat level 3, and again would go for 1 or 2 next time. We all agreed unanimously there will be a next time, (all being well etc) as it was very good.
We shared
a "Bua Loi", a traditional Thai desert,
this is rice dumplings in warm milk, all good.
After this we headed over to the Cosmopolitan Casino. The Cosmo' always does great Chocolate Martini’s and their obvious signature "Cosmopolitan" cocktails - Arguably best on the strip with the highest quality spirits and liquors.
For those not familiar - one of the various ways you can get to the Cosmo' from the Aria - is walking through via "Crystals" which is a kind of Up-Market shopping Mall - not a Casino / Hotel.
If you are into Arty-Farty Architecture and top of the range shops you will like this route through...
"Bag em and tag em" Slot Bonus - Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
We headed over to spook central aka the Ghostbusters slot machine and hit into the Bonus very quickly. These slots are always good fun and tend to bonus us fairly regularly as well as being quite a bit of fun - mind you we have a great time anyway.
"Golden Eagle" Slot Bonus - Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
I will only add that that the Eagle did not really land for us on this Bonus set of free spins. My take is that if folk never show that some of the poorer Bonus plays (like this one) you get on some of the slot machines, you could get disappointed with some of the payouts when you have a go yourself.
"Lil Lady" slot win - Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
Not bad 1st spin $1bet, straight in with a win.
Lesley loves the Lil Lady Slot (bunch of ladybird bugs essentially) mainly as she usually is lucky on it - like this time too.
"Robin Hood" slot win - Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
Nice win for an 80c bet - hitting a string of "wild" arrows...
We always tend to try out some new slot machines on a fairly random basis as well as the ones we particularly want to play. So it is nice when they cough up like Robin Hood did in this instance. Always looking for slots with interesting Bonus / Features as well as either making your budget last or even better, coming out on top.
"Sex and The City" Hello Lover Bonus slot - Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
This was a nice Bonus win - after initially thinking it was going to be a bit naff. The Cocktails are flowing nicely as you can tell from the background - this one actually paid better than some of the progressives, so although a bit girly it usually is good to us as a favourite.
"Buffalo" 15 free spins - slot win - Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
Bit slow on getting the camera out for this one and caught the tail end of the Bonus.
Goldfish slot bonus free spins - Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
not the best hit we have had on the Goldfish but a good bit of fun nevertheless...
...and having a rocking good time
WOF spin win - Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
Nuff said..."Wheel Of mis-Fortune"!
Wheel Of Fortune - Spin win 2 - Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
On the spin-out from above we hit the Bonus WOF spin again...Woo Hoo!
Wheel Of Fortune - Spin Win 3 - Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
Same again - On the spin-out from above we hit the Bonus WOF spin again...Woo2 Hoo2!
WOF Spin win 4 - Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
And again...
"Cash Wheel" Slot Spin - Aria Las Vegas
predictable wheel spin Bonus outcome
but you can't hit the high numbers every time and it all adds up...
Continued in November 2012 Blog Part 3 - Monte Carlo...
