Cosmopolitan Las Vegas February Trip Report

Above is the view from our Wrap Around Terrace Suite at Cosmopolitan on the 69th floor, number 6993 in the east tower. Below is Randy sitting in the VIP registration lounge which is located within the glass doors near the regular registration desks.

Our stay at Cosmopolitan was the last two days of our five night trip that began on February 10th with the first three days at Palazzo. I will be writing up our stay at Palazzo soon but first wanted to cover Cosmopolitan since it's new and there's a lot more interest in it at the moment then the LVS casinos.

Earlier in the trip we were at Cosmopolitan attending a party that our friend Kydds had in his Wrap Around Terrace Suite and before we joined it we went to the Identity desk like last trip where we were upgraded to Gold without speaking to a host because none were available. This time I asked to speak again to a host and Socalgirl, Randy and I got to talk to one and so were upgraded to Platinum status, due to not just being Platinum status with Mlife and Grazie Gold, but on our play history too and the frequency of our visits.

The main reason why I wanted to be upgraded was I had seen the lines at various times in front of the normal registration desks of Cosmopolitan and it looked like if you come at the wrong time you might be standing in them for a long time and more importantly Platinum level helps in getting the view of the Bellagio fountains which is not guaranteed even if you take one of their premium view rooms.

The taxi ride from Palazzo to Cosmopolitan was quick with the driver not trying to long haul us, as has become the norm with some Vegas cab drivers and he was also friendly so we tipped him generously since I always like to encourage the nice honest ones to stay that way. Valet quickly checked our luggage while warning us that we would likely have to wait for a room because it was only 11:30am.

The VIP registration lounge which is separate from their VIP Platinum Identity Lounge was a quick walk from valet and we were soon greeted by Nolan and offered chairs in front of his desk and champagne. We turned down the champagne but did accept some water while he looked to see what kind of view of the Bellagio Fountains he could find for us. The only thing he found that was available with the view we wanted was on the 22nd floor of the west towers and he told us to go take a look and if we wanted something different to return.

Unfortunately while the view was of the Bellagio Fountains it was also a great view of the parking garage rooftops and some other unsightly views so back to VIP checkin we went. Nolan was fantastic, he insisted we keep that suite until he found us a better one so that I would have someplace to keep my laptop without lugging it around. This was a first for me since most hotels of course want you to release the cleaned suite so they can give it to someone else, which I offered to do but he insisted we keep it for now.

We hadn't eaten yet so we decided to have lunch at Holsteins. Holsteins has marvelous shakes and burgers but my husband who hadn't been feeling well the first couple days of the trip was currently staying away from red meat so he decided to go with a chicken caesar salad. As a gift from the chef they bring out a mini pail of truffled oil popcorn, which was very good.

I don't usually eat burgers (don't ask), so I ordered the Bloody Mary shrimp cocktail which was good. The cocktail sauce also came with a garnish of olives but I ate them before remembering to take the photo.

I also ordered under their mini bun selection the Maine lobster rolls with chive aioli and cole slaw and they were fabulous!

Just as we were finishing lunch we got the call from Nolan that he had found us a suite on the 69th floor in the east tower so we quickly paid up and went back to VIP registration to get our new card keys. While there Nolan answered some questions we had and all turned out to be correct answers, kudos to him for excellence. Unfortunately Nolan was off duty the rest of our stay and we found other employees to still be confused about features and procedures at their hotel and I wasn't surprised to later hear from one of them that most employees were scheduled to have some retraining meetings.

The wrap around terrace suite is lovely and the Bellagio Fountain view is fantastic from the 69th floor. At the end of this portion of my trip report I will add a lot more photos of the room.

Valet brought up the luggage in a timely manner and while there found me struggling with the TV remote. We quickly learned that the bedroom remote was missing batteries and the TV remote for the living room was missing. We also needed extra wine glasses that evening as we were having guests for champagne on our balcony and the bellman offered to speak to the appropriate departments for us. We received calls later to confirm the problem with the remotes which were eventually taken care of and is only a big deal because the TV's contain a lot of information on the property and also if you want you can control the room lights from your TV.

While we ended up requesting the extra wine glasses twice from a couple different employees with room service and housekeeping, we never received them as promised but ended up making due with other glasses. The kitchen while very nice, only contains some glasses there are no dishes or utensils.

After unpacking and admiring the suite, we had about 90 minutes before our guests arrived for drinks and dinner so we went to try our luck at the casino.  Earlier in the trip we had a very bad run at Palazzo and were down by quite a lot but had recovered the majority of that from Palazzo and Venetian during a lucky run on Saturday.

We were encouraged immediately by some lucky hits on a couple Wolf Run slots for $324.00 and a bonus for $125.00 when only betting $2 a push.

After that it was time to meet our friends for drinks on our balcony. Randy and I are on the left and our friends Pennyplayer from the blonde4ever board (Tinker on the Rex board) and her husband are on the right with Socalgirl who is camera shy taking the photo. The champagne was Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin and was a gift from Socalgirl who had somehow managed to break two bottles of it before navigating successfully from her home to Cosmopolitan with it and no she wasn't drinking!

Later we switch to a cheaper sparkling wine which was a gift from M Resort during a short gambling visit there a couple days earlier.

We had fun chatting and watching the fountains try to go off. Yep, earlier the fountains were working around 3pm and then they seemed to be having problems and they were doing short test runs without any fountain shows going off until later that evening.

We torn ourselves away from the beautiful views to make our reservation at Scarpetta's where we had a lovely booth with a view of the currently non-working Bellagio Fountains. The great table was something that Nolan had arranged for us at my request when checking in and once again he came through for us.

We were having so much fun that evening that unfortunately I don't recall what most of us ate. I believe we all agreed though that service was great and Randy and I thought our food was delicious.  Lighting was dim though so most of my photos are not great, but the breads and spreads above were so good we had them bring more. The stuffed bread they have among the other choices was fantastic!

Above is a photo of the stuffed bread we all enjoyed.

The wine for the evening that Pennyplayer (Tinker) and her husband treated us all too.

Enjoy the food photos of our meal at Scapetta at Cosmopolitan. I remember how good everything was, but not the names or the dishes that everyone ordered. A little too much celebration on the balcony I suspect! I believe the above is the Stracciatella with baby beets, spiced pears and baby greens.

The above I'm pretty sure is my scallop appetizer with sunchokes, apples and celery root,  that I believe both Pennyplayer and I had ordered.

The pasta dish that Socalgirl ordered is above.

Above is my black cod entree which I loved, though it wasn't quite as good as the black cod I've had previously at The Mix. Randy also ordered the black cod.

The above pasta was either Pennyplayer's or her husband's entree.

Another pasta dish that was either Pennyplayer's or her husband's entree. Perhaps they will remember and comment on it.

Desserts were wonderful, I loved mine which is pictured above and was their version of a Napoleon with creme brulee, macadamia tuiles and blood orange sorbet.

Socalgirl ordered above their version of doughnuts, Zeppole, which has a nutella center, vanilla sauce and candied hazelnuts.

Two of us must have ordered the same desserts since I only have photos of four and I know each of us had dessert. The above dessert is Amedei Chocolate cake, toasted almond gelato and salted caramel sauce.

I'm betting the above dessert was the mocha swirl cheesecake with expresso sorbet, and graham cracker crust.

Midway through our dinner the Bellagio Fountains finally started working again and we were able to see several shows though not hear the fountains since we were inside. The photo above is Pennyplayer and her husband before we had ordered our dinner at Scarpetta's.

Since Socalgirl, Randy and I had been upgraded to Identify Platinum level we went with Pennyplayer, and her husband to show them what the Platinum lounge was like at Cosmopolitan and of course to have a drink.

In the entrance way there is a check in area and they do verify that you are Platinum level before admitting you.

It's a lovely large room with comfortable seating and some snacks and drinks on various tables but for the most part the butlers/servers take your drink order and bring you any snacks that might be available for that time of day or evening.

Throughout Cosmopolitan you will always discover something fun or quirky and the Platinum lounge is no different with this old time photo booth in one section that Pennyplayer pointed out to me. We did get inside of it but it isn't in working order.

There were several trays about of various mini desserts. After eating at the Wicked Spoon buffet later in the trip I believe the desserts were from that area.

There are also lots of energy and Red Bull drinks sitting out and in buckets.

After our visit to the Platinum lounge we said goodbye to Pennyplayer and her husband who were leaving the strip to check in to a downtown hotel/casino for the remainder of their vacation.

Randy and I found the new Star War's Droid Hunt slots at Cosmopolitan and commenced a lucky run of bonuses on them while Socalgirl finding her luck wasn't going well that night said goodnight and left for home.

We also had some luck with 2 cent Wolf Run for $4 a push and many other favorite slots so that when we went back to our suite late that evening we were quite happy with the way the casino was treating us and thought we might be on our way to recovering the rest of our losses from Palazzo and Venetian.

The next morning was Valentine's Day and while you can see the weather was gorgeous, the day started out on a sour note when we were woken up by maintenance hammering for 90 minutes in the suite next door around 9am. Since they must have seen that we had a do not disturb sign on our door it would have been nice if they had waited until noon to start their work up since it was next to rooms being occupied.

Having our plans for a late awaking and room service breakfast on Valentine's day spoiled we decided to go down and eat brunch at one of the restaurants. We ended up eating at Wicked Spoon buffet even though my husband tried his best to talk me out of my choice and we both ended up liking it a lot. The review and photos of that meal can be found at this link on the blog.
http://www.lasvegasdaze.com/2011/02/wicked-spoon-buffet-at-cosmopolitan.html

After our meal we took a look around at some of the art work and fun things around Cosmopolitan though we never got to the game or pools areas this trip so still a lot for us to see next trip. Above is one of the old time cigarette dispensers that now instead contain art you can purchase.

Several art works not far from the Wicked Spoon Buffet had chocolate dripping from objects. I think I have that correct, and it wasn't blood. :)

Despite these sculptures, Cosmopolitan is not going to the dogs, though they do let you bring your dogs with you.

This shoe is definitely too large for moi! My feet feel so tiny now!

We had to wait for our photo ops with the large shoes, they are quite popular for photos and most people unlike me get inside the shoe. They don't have them blocked off and it says nothing about not getting inside them so I guess they truly want you to come in and act like you own the place.

I thought this display in one of their jewelry stores was amusing. Just the right amount of wrong?

It was time to get our gamble on again and we continued to stay ahead or even at Cosmopolitan. I couldn't get the Top Dollar symbol but was quite happy to get this instead.

Found a penny airplane too that was fairly active and we continued to play both Wolf Run and Star Wars Droid Hunt with decent wins and bonuses. It's always fun when the slots give you a lot of play and even sometimes let you be a winner!

We stopped in briefly at the Platinum lounge for drinks and a appetizer.

We had a nice Valentine's dinner at Jaleo, unfortunately I forgot to take photos of our food with the exception of the spinach and pine nut dish above and the fried date and bacon dish below. However you can read and see photos of my January review of Jaleo at this link:
http://www.lasvegasdaze.com/2011/01/jaleo-at-cosmopolitan-review.html

We will return to Jaleo in the future because we continue to love their tapas but this time the service was very slow and it seemed due to the inefficiency of our particular server that evening. Other servers and tables were faring better and at the end of the dinner our check was presented to us by one of the managers so I suspect they knew they had some problems with her.

Earlier when in the Platinum lounge we asked where the closest drugstore was and what we thought was a identity lounge employee offered to have a limo take us there that it was too long a walk. While we were considering this we discovered and so did the employee that we weren't part of the Magic group convention that was there and had been given access to the Platinum lounge during their convention. This was the first time I have encountered one of the strip casinos giving access to their VIP lounges to convention groups/non gamblers. I'm not sure if this is Cosmo's general policy to gain convention business or if they did it this time since they currently don't have that many Platinum members but it did make it confusing on who in the lounge was working the convention and who was a Cosmo employee.

We finally learned that the drugstore closest was next to Monte Carlo and the quickest way to walk there but it wasn't easy finding a employee that actually knew the answer to our question. After the drugstore we walked over to Bellagio and briefly played and lost a few hundred there until wisely deciding to return to Cosmopolitan and hopefully our ongoing lucky streak.

We continued to be ahead at Cosmopolitan thanks to lucky bonuses like this one for $500.00 on Genie's Riches. We also went back to Star War's Droid Hunt and played for 2 hours on a machine that continued to bonus on regular intervals. We finally had to leave it due to the noisy group of about 10 or so 20 somethings sitting and standing near a bank of reel slot machines off to the side of Star Wars who had discovered they could get free quality drinks from the Cosmopolitan servers and not even put any money in the slots. Yes, you heard that correctly the servers didn't care if they were gambling or even had money in the slots and as time went on and they were over served they got rowdy enough that it wasn't pleasant to gamble near them. I really think Cosmopolitan might at least want to have a policy that you have money in the slots and at least be pretending to gamble since I don't see how giving out free drinks to groups of non-gamblers will be good for their bottom line. There was also a shift change of cocktail servers during the 2 hours we were there, and both of them allowed this so I assume there's currently no policy against serving non-gamblers on the casino floor.

We sought out a quiet area after that since Cosmopolitan was quite busy for Valentine's Day since their clubs were open and we found one in the high limit room. Cosmo's high limit room means business, unlike Grazie and others there were no dollar slots to be found and the majority were $5 or higher slots of numerous lines. The only one we could find that fit our gambling budget was the one lonely $1 DaVinci Diamonds for $20 a push which my husband wanted to play. Fortunately we got lucky and hit after a few pushes for $600.00 and then after that for another $300.00 before leaving.

It's getting late now but we think we are still on a lucky streak so we continue to play.

We have some luck on two cent Monkees for $190.00 and other slots but our ticket never grows past it's all time high of $1234.63 which was a healthy amount since it grew from the original $100 I stuck in a machine earlier that evening.

Normally I don't like reel slots that much but Pink Diamonds where ever I find then usually treats me nice.

We also got lucky on a WMS spinning streak slot called Bamboozled, but I guess I neglected to take any photos of that one.

By the time we retired for our last evening in Vegas we had recovered the majority of our losses from Palazzo and Venetian but could never get past them, so if we include the comps we had this trip basically we broke even for our 5 night Vegas trip.

The next day we had a late checkout. I had been told earlier by someone in the VIP registration area that I had to wait for the day of checkout to request a late one even though at Platinum level, but when I spoke to someone else about it later that evening I was given the late check out of 2pm immediately. While I can't recall every instance this was something we encountered frequently at Cosmopolitan, conflicting answers to our questions from various employees.

Gold and Platinum Identity members also get a free in-room movie during their stay but we never had time to watch one. They are also suppose to get turn down service or for Platinum level upgraded turn down service with a welcoming amenity. We did get a normal turn down service our first evening so not sure what upgraded is unless it's a candy on the pillow. The second night even though the do not disturb sign was off the door there was no turn down service at all. The welcoming amenity also never arrived and someone at the VIP registration desk confused that with Marriott's milk and cookies or extra points during a stay when I asked about it, and didn't seem to understand I was talking about the Identity platinum level amenity which on the day we checked out I learned from a player's card desk employee that it was usually a basket of fruit or treats. The person at the player's card desk I spoke too mentioned a lot of employees were going in for a retraining meeting because they were trying to be a 5 star property but were still having too many glitches.

Check out almost went smoothly but for the white wine they added to our bill. We never touched the wine in their fridge so I'm assuming housekeeping saw the sparking wine from M Resort we had left out on the counter and assumed it was one of their's and billed us for it. I didn't notice this error on our statement until we were driving away but since thanks to Nolan that first day I had a number that went directly to the VIP desk I was able to call and get it immediately subtracted from the bill.

Fortunately the one thing we did get was limo service back to the airport as a platinum level member. However we were given incorrect information to wait in our room and the driver would call us 10 minutes before departure time to tell us to come down. That didn't happen but we were ready and went downstairs to the VIP registration desk when we didn't get a call to my cell where a different employee told us that was incorrect and to just go out the doors near their office and to look for a driver who would have a sign with our name on it, which did turn out to be the correct information.

All in all, I like Cosmopolitan, the glitz of the chandelier bar, the quirky art, the view from their rooms, the friendly employees including the ones that still need to improve, their restaurants and location on the strip. For those who gamble, their comps seem comparable with other strip locations with the exception of the new harsh comp policies of LVS and we ended up getting our dinners at Jaelo and Scarpetta comped off by one of the other hosts as our host was off the day we checked out. I will definitely return to Cosmopolitan if my offers from them are the same or better then comparable properties on the strip. I don't currently feel they are a 5 star hotel but there's no reason why they can't reach that in the future if they are committed to improving some of their service issues.

Our Southwest flight back, went well until the last 20 minutes where we hit a storm coming into San Jose and boy was that a bumpy ending. Due to high winds we had to land going at a high speed and once on the ground our pilot over the loud speaker let out a humorous long drawn out WHEWWWW.

Below are additional photos of our wrap around terrace suite at Cosmopolitan, enjoy!

There were lots of Bigelow Apothecaries amenities in both bathrooms, including mouthwash and toothbrush in addition to the usual shampoo, conditioner, soaps, etc..