The Cosmopolitian Grand Opening

Last night I attended what might be the last major casino opening in Las Vegas for quite a while.

The Cosmopolitan is unlike any other casino on the strip, they are going for high end, and they hit that right on the head. I will go into more detail as this blog progresses, but let's just say the place is AMAZING.

I'm going to walk you through the whole night, some events have pics, some don't but all in all it was a night to remember. It will include my thoughts some are nice, some are not, but hey everything can't be perfect can it?

The night started off by meeting my buddy David Shapiro at Bally's (most of the photos were taken by Dave since the phone on my camera crapped out). He booked a room which would serve as grand central station for the evening. After settling in we decided to hit the strip. Armed with Fruit Punch Four Lokos we wandered around for a while, and soaked up the strip atmosphere.

I have lived in Las Vegas for almost 2 years now,and I work full time at a casino on the Strip. I should hate it, but I can honestly say there are few places in the world quite like the strip. I can not get enough of it, the lights, the sounds, the people, it's a rush.

After finishing our drinks we hit up the Spice Market Buffet at Planet Hollywood. I managed to get my hands on a comp for the buffet and with Daves Baby Baller (platinum) card, we got to skip the line and hit the VIP section of the buffet.

The Spice Market Buffet had quite the selection, but the stand out dishes had to be the prime rib (perfect medium rare), the desserts, the cheese plate, and the #1 dish IMO the Tandoori Chicken. I think I ate my weight in chicken and prime rib.



A plate full of yummy meats....and an insider tip, if you go to a buffet that doesn't offer chocolate milk (spice market didn't), go to the dessert bar and fill a bowl with the chocolate sauce for the ice cream, so you can make your own choco!!!

Another added bonus of the Spice Market Buffet



Cotton Candy (it has been years since I've had cotton candy)

After hitting the buffet we met up with Karsten
and headed to the Cosmo.




Dave and I had both won tickets to the Brandon Flowers Concert, and according to the letter with our tickets we were allowed "priority access" to the casino. After talking to a security guard he told us to head to the Valet Entrance and we would get in from there.

We grabbed a round of drinks at The Vesper Bar, I had a Negroni which was pretty good (maybe a touch too many bitters), Dave had The Vesper (a peppery manhattan), and Karsten's drink escapes me but it was pretty decent. The Vesper Bar is located right off the hotel lobby and focuses strongly on hand crafted cocktails. They did have a beer and wine list, but since it was a festive occasion I figured I'd let the mixologists take control.

We sat at the bar for a few minutes as the countdown to the opening slowly ticked down to Zero.



When the casino officially opened we hit up the players club and got our Identity Cards, there were a few technical RANFU's with the printers and such, but the staff was friendly and did their best to get us taken care of as quickly as possible.

After getting our cards we went and checked out the casino. All the table games were $25 min, the Pai Gow tables were $50, and most of the craps tables were either $25 or $50. After ruling out table games (sorry green chip play is a little out of my comfort level), we hit up a few slot machines.

I am not usually a slot player, but it was the only real option for the night. We hit up Fireball, Dave hit a small profit and cashed out with Voucher #5.

After the slots we checked out Chandelier.




Chandelier is without a doubt one of the focal points of the casino, it is a 3 story bar that looks like a large Chandelier, it was a little hard to navigate your way around it because there were way too many people, but I was impressed with the look of the lounge. The couches and chairs were comfy, there were several bars, and bathrooms (which didn't have any soap for some reason). The place can get a little cramped when crowded, but it was really really nice (as was pretty much everywhere in the place).

After Chandelier we headed over to Bond, the Bond lounge is the first thing you see if you walk into the casino from the Bellagio side. The lounge has a great ground level view of the strip, some interesting tables and chairs, and a big bar. One complaint about bond...ok 2. The drink menu had their specialty drinks listed at $11. Yet when they made them and rang them up they magically became $13, I don't know if the menu or the register was wrong, but they decided it was the menus wrong and the drinks would be 13. I opted for a $5 beer (not a bad price for the strip), while Karsten got a Berry Long Island Iced Tea (after he ordered was when we discovered the pricing discrepancy). Dave tried to order a drink from the waitress which leads us to complaint #2 after 5 mins the waitress was nowhere to be seen, after 10 mins still nothing, we finally left after 15 mins and Dave was still sans drink. I know there is some confusion on opening night but that seemed a but much.

I really like the look and feel of bond, they have some really cool fiber optic light setups that make for an interesting show that seems to feed off the beats of the songs the DJs were playing. If you don't step into Bond you could miss one of the best parts of the lounge, between the bar and the strip are 5 pods about 20 feet up in the air, they didn't seem all that interesting, until a troop of Go Go dancers came out, got hoisted into the air, and ended up in the pods to dance. I have never really understood the Go Go Dance trend at lounges, but I have to say this was a pretty interesting twist.



After leaving Bond we decided it was time to head up to the Boulevard Pool for the concert. This lead to another amazing voyage, lets just say there were 9 different ways to get to the pool, however they were only allowing people to enter through one point of entry. This lead to one hell of a cluster fuck as everyone would tell you to go to a different place, and none of those places were correct. We finally ended up asking an employee (I think her name was Megan...it escapes me) who was nice enough to walk us through the place for about 15 mins going to a few different places before we finally found out where it was.

We got carded on our way into the concert (first time of the night), and after waiting in a short line we were at the pool.

The Boulevard Pool at the Cosmo is going to be the pool of the summer this summer. It is 14 stories over the strip and offers some amazing views. Right as you walk in (well at least from the entry we came in) you see a small pool surrounded by Pool Tables, Ping Pong Tables, Foosball Tables, TV's and a bar (all the tables were on fake grass which was surprisingly soft). Karsten and I tried to play Ping Pong, but the wind was a little too strong.

We then hit up a bar, I was expecting a price gouging for drinks at the show, however beers were $5 and mixed drinks were $7 (again not to shabby for strip prices). After grabbing our drinks we did a recon lap. the place has 3 pools however the main one was drained and had a stage set up on one end. The cool thing about the drained pool was that they had a floor that covered the deep end making for a large area for the crowd to gather to watch the show. I don't know how many shows they plan on doing up there, but the set up was impressive.

We then proceeded to do a recon lap of the area, I counted at least 5 bars, 2 sets of restrooms, 3 pools, a ton of lounge areas, and a bunch of "vip cabanas" (that we couldn't get to.

We found a comfy spot to put our feet up and waited for the show to begin.



I have a very strong feeling I will be spending some quality time on that lounge this summer.



Amazing View from the Boulevard Pool

Dave and I light up some Rocky Patel Decade Robustos while we waited on the show to start.




Brandon Flowers was the headliner that night on the pool deck, and I'm going to be completely honest and say that I could really have cared less. I was there to check the place out more than to enjoy the show. He played about an hour long set, and the only song I recognized was his finale. The sound was really good, and they were showing the concert on the Comso's Marquee out front so it made for a nice little Jumbotron for those of us who stayed towards the back (there really wasn't a bad spot in the whole venue for the show).



Brandon on the Video Marquee



The Crowd and the Stage



If you want to hear the one song I actually know feel free to check out YOUTUBE. For the whole song (not my video)

After the show we hit the casino for a little while before calling it a night. All in all I was extremely pleased with the Cosmo, in a strip filled with similar casinos the Cosmo really stands out I will be going back there are 14 restaurants I have to try, some kick ass rooms I need to stay in, and I'm sure some amazing experiences yet to be had.

Oh and one minor complaint before I sign off...How can you offer Budweiser but no Bud Light, Miller Lite and Coors Light, but neither of the originals? The cosmo's beer and liquor selection was a bit of a bummer, but the mixologists more than made up for it.

Sorry this was a lengthy post, but it was one hell of a night, and I was glad to be there.