I could no longer edit my first post, and I didn't save the longer post that I had deleted, so, by request, here is a longer description of our Aria visit.
We had an invitation to Aria for the past three days, and we hadn't made it down there yet, so we went. We really enjoyed the Aria. We didn't eat anywhere fancy, and didn't attend any shows...just poked around and had fun. In my opinion, this is one of the nicest hotels in Las Vegas.
We arrived on Sunday evening, and it was very busy....surprisingly busy. I had expected it to be very quiet. The hotel was decorated with lanterns, floral displays and probably other things for Chinese New Year. It was very pretty. We just got used to the space and our room that evening.
Our room had lots of neat electronic stuff. The Wynn had automatic drape closure buttons, but they were on the wall in the small hallway and were not very convenient other than when entering or exiting the room. This room had a personalized touch pad next to the bed, as well as having all functions available on the tv remote control. Along with the usual tv functions, the remote controlled the drapes, the sheers, the temperature, the privacy notice outside the door, a service notice outside the door and all the lights, individually, in the bedroom and bath. If you hit the "goodnight" button, it closed the drapes, turned off the lights and the tv. The remote also accessed the display of flights arriving and departing to/from McCarran, your folio display, checkout, and something else I can't remember. A seven year old boy in the elevator and I agreed that that remote was the most fun of all!
The room had a minibar with a pressure sensitive mini refrigerator, we didn't open it. There were goodies on top, along with a cocktail shaker, some drinks and Fiji water. We didn't touch those either. I didn't check the prices.
We did have our laptop with us, and used the wireless internet which was fast and did not disconnect every once in a while which so many other internet connections at other hotels do. There did not seem to be any charge for this, however, when we checked in, we were told that we would not be charged the "resort fee" as our visit was complimentary. I have no idea what the resort fee would have been. When we turned on the computer, it did not tell us that there was a charge, nor did we have to enter a credit card, etc. We did have our Clear "thing-y" with us for internet, but didn't need it.
We had dinner at the buffet that evening, and it was quite good. There was the usual types of differing cuisines, but they had Indian, which I hadn't seen before, and several choices of Nan. I had lamb, which was wonderful, even better that night than the lamb at the Wynn. There were the usual beef and poultry choices along with what seemed to be more vegetables than are usually available at a buffet. There were crab legs, shrimp, salmon, and other fish for those seafood fans. I'm allergic so did not have any, but Toby pronounced it "pretty good" which is high praise indeed. After we were seated, we were offered wine, either Merlot or Zinfandel, and a lobster. Toby decided that he hadn't had lobster in a long time, so agreed, and about five minutes later, our server brought him a whole lobster. A small whole lobster, but a whole lobster, cracked in half with lobster fork, a cracker and drawn butter. He said it was great, and when I looked around the room, I saw many people enjoying them. The Aria web site says that lobster is served on Friday and Saturday, but we were there on a Sunday. The price for the buffet was $39.95 or $39.99. Again, this was a comp, so I didn't pay super close attention. Before we went to bed we got a cup of coffee and a biscotti at the Patisserie to take upstairs. Coffee was excellent and pastry wasn't too shabby either.
The best thing about this get away was that we had absolutely no plans for shows, special restaurants, or any activities. It was just relaxing and nice.
The next morning we had breakfast at the coffee shop. It was very pleasant, our waitress was friendly and professional and the food was good. I had the "regular" two eggs, bacon, hash browns and wheat toast. Toby had a pastry basket and bacon. The waitress was very proud to tell us that the jam was from England, and very special. We thought it was good, but eat jam/jelly so seldom that I really couldn't compare.
We played for a while on machines with the usual Strip odds on video poker. There were many slot machines we hadn't seen before, pennies with as many as 500 lines, so that a minimum bet with all lines covered would have been $5.00. I didn't play those, as I love the penny machines, but don't want to not like playing them. We found a Lord of the Rings machines, one of our favorites, and I hit some pretty fair jackpots on a Goldfish machine. We like Hot Shot, too, but that wasn't paying for us that day. The table minimums I saw, on Monday, were $10. I heard people yelling at the Craps Table but did not check it out. The Aria was not very busy on Monday morning, but it wasn't empty........a light crowd. Coffee shop was busy.
We wanted to check out the Cosmopolitan, so we headed out the door. It was very cold and windy (never mind, you Easterners.......it was COLD to me) We saw a few sculptures and decided that we would have to come back in more temperate weather. We went through Crystals, the high end shopping center. Many of the stores were not occupied, and the ones that were, were totally empty of customers. I'll bet we saw no more than ten people in the whole place, and maybe ten more workers. The Cosmopolitan was nice, and I thought the bar with the crystals draped down around it was pretty. I did not see any of the tented machines that Will described, but maybe I wasn't looking. We signed up for the slot club, and wandered around some. We played a little, and the machines were pretty much like the ones in the Aria, though the casino seemed smaller. Everyone we spoke to was friendly. This casino was not real busy either, although there were a few people ahead of us in the slot club line.
Lunch time, so we decided to eat there. We debated about a couple of places, but ended up at Holsteins. That place was PACKED, but there was no wait. The hamburgers were good, Toby had a milkshake and said that was terrific, and my water was good as well. We ordered onion rings to share and fries came with the burgers. Our waitress was terrific and efficient. The managers in there were really on the ball, keeping things moving and pitching in when needed. I asked our waitress about them, and she said they were wonderful and they all loved them......if I had a restaurant, I would have tried to hire them right off the floor. Also, when I asked if that was a chain, waitress said that no, but they had a sister restaurant, named LBS at Red Rock. We also like LBS, so if you like one, you will probably like the other.
After lunch, we again wandered around a bit, and then nap time. Surprisingly, our room was all made up........guess the hotel was not full. I was surprised to see that the Aria has around 4000 rooms. By the way, the elevators were speedy and prompt. We never waited more than 2 or 3 minutes for one. We were on the 32nd floor, and had a nice view of the mountains, the Vdara, and Red Rock. They did not have any rooms with roll in showers available overlooking the Strip.
Dinner that night was in the coffee shop, and late. Again, we had a great server. We were not very hungry after that huge burger for lunch, so we each had a sandwich (BLT's)and they were very good. We stopped at the gift shop (which was very large) for a soda, and I got some lemon sorbet at the patisserie. It was very good. That was Monday.
We couldn't stay too long on Tuesday as we had a post op dog at the kennel that we had to pick up and do his physical therapy.
We had breakfast at the Patisserie. Well, we bought breakfast at the Patisserie. We had various pastries......a chocolate filled croissant comes to mind, and some more of that great coffee, but there were no available tables, so we took our stuff over to the bar next door, which wasn't busy. We decided to play vp at the bar after breakfast, which we did, and were accompanied by a very bored bartender. He had no customers and a few more hours of his shift. It turned out that he was from the area in upstate NY that Toby was from, so they had a nice long chat while I lost my money.
We played a few more machines and headed home. We had a parking spot right next to the elevator, so it was a quick getaway.
We really enjoyed the Aria, and all of the people we met there. Its a beautiful hotel, and one of our new favorites. Everyone we spoke to was pleasant and friendly, and everything worked!! What more could you ask?
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