Yes the $675 rate was a 2br Penthouse suite, not the Aria suite.

I've never seen this at a Virtuoso property before, but Aria actually lowered the rates once we got within 72 hours of the arrival date. 2BR penthouse was being quoted @ $800+ Virtuoso rate the week before; then we made the actual booking 2 days before arrival and it indicated $675 Virtuoso rate.

There was NO additional resort fee for Virtuoso. Also, the breakfast benefit was supposed to be limited to $25 per person, up to 2 people. We had 3 people in the suite and they comped all 3 champagne brunches (a $33 per person value + tax). This was the first time I remember a Virtuoso property and especially a low-end one making this kind of exception. It wasn't a big deal, but it was a nice touch.

We arrived in our own car (drove from CA), and were told we could NOT use the Sky Suites valet. We had to go to the regular Aria valet, which was enormous and not very personal at all. However, I must say it is among the most efficient valet services I've seen at a large property. Immediate greeting and very short wait to pick up the car.

Sky Suites reception is intentionally hidden from public view unless you arrive via the Sky Suites valet area. It took us a couple minutes to locate the lobby even after we entered the Sky Suites wing. There could have been better signage and/or guidance from the valet.

Check in was efficient, but nothing special. No welcome beverage, towel, etc... I asked for an upgrade to a Sky Villa. Agent made up some story about a convention being in town and all of the Villas being occupied. Bizarre to me that they had plenty of $675 penthouses available, but the $4,000+ villas were sold out? It sounded like it could have been a story just to discourage my further pursuit of the issue.

The lounge area was billed as having 2 light food and beverage presentations and free wine from 4-8pm. The morning presentation was muffins and fruit along with coffee and juice. Complimentary soft drinks including bottled coke, diet coke, sprite, san pellegrino, and fiji water were available all day. Evening food presentation was a cheese plate, chocolate covered strawberries, and one white wine with one red wine. No sparkling wine or champagne, which was too bad; it would have been a nice touch to have. Free unlimited Fiji water was worth its weight in gold, as most Vegas properties charge $6 a bottle. Otherwise, the lounge presentations were average and certainly not up to a Ritz Carlton Club level.

The 2BR penthouse was very nice and made excellent use of very impressive technology. From a gadgets perspective, I think it was on a similar level to Peninsula Tokyo. There were a total of four 42" plasmas and two 20" LCD TVs. The electronic command center was fairly intuitive and allowed you to control all curtains, lighting, televisions, climate control, and "do not disturb" signs from any of the controllers. It was fun waking my friends up by messing with their lights and curtains from the comfort of my bed, but I digress.

My favorite design feature of the room was the wet bar with fridge and ice maker. Unfortunately, the hotel only provided 4 rocks glasses. No other glassware, china, or cutlery was included - a severe oversight on their part. As was mentioned in previous reviews and youtube videos, ice was a difficult commodity to procure in large amounts unless you wanted to make the long journey to the ice machine yourself. Bizarrely, we found the in-room icemaker was shut off when we arrived. We turned it on, but it was a good 12 hours before we had a usable quantity of ice. The ice bucket was also empty upon arrival, though the bellman offered to get us some ice. We accepted his offer, and he brought the bucket back less than one-fourth full. My only possible explanation for the ice rationing is that the hotel is LEED platinum rated and perhaps this is part of their conservation program. As a brief aside, the bellman did NOT offer to show us any of the room features.

The hard product overall was nice, and would fit most objective criteria of a 5-star property. Still, it was missing a certain subjective indescribable element that made me feel we were in a very nice 4-star property as opposed to a true 5-star.

Bathrooms were large, but somewhat poorly planned IMHO. I did not care for the bathtub to be smack in the middle of the bathroom, interrupting the flow of the room. It was a great design element, but less practical than it could have been. Steam shower was double the size of the average Four Seasons-style shower, but only had 1 shower head (a cheap Delta one at that). It easily could have accommodated 2 shower heads and a rain feature, etc...

Walk in closets were great to have, and actually included plenty of hangars. Strangely, even though there were laundry service order forms, there were no laundry bags in either bedroom. Very frustrating.

Turndown service was hardly worth the effort. They literally just closed the curtains, dimmed the lights, and put chocolates next to the beds. That's it. No slippers, no breakfast menus, no shoe shine bag, no weather forecast. Overnight shoe shines, incidentally, were available at a $6 charge(!)

I asked the concierge for help with dinner reservations a couple nights before we arrived. I indicated Twist was my number one choice, but she quickly shot down saying it was fully committed for the entire weekend. No offer to keep trying or to put me on the wait list. I then asked for recommendation for her favorite fine dining venue in City Center. Without hesitation she said Sage was the first choice, followed by Mastros, followed by Sirio. Interesting that she recommended the chain restaurant Mastros over the eponymous Jean Georges steakhouse. Also interesting that she did not mention Masa.

We tried Sage. It was a cool purple and black setting, but service was just average, as was the food. It was priced reasonably by Vegas standards, at approximately $80 - $100 pp for 3 course a la carte. I had the server's #1 rated dish, the New York Strip, but found it boring and bland. My friends both had the duck, which was also highly recommended. It too was just OK. It was not a bad meal, but we would not go back. I would not recommend Sage to any FTers.

We walked through Vdara and found it to be blahsay. It seemed dead, boring, and didn't look like it had much to offer.

Also checked out Cosmopolitan. I liked the vibe. A lot. The color scheme, the decor...it all just seemed to work. I may have to stay there on a future trip. Great burgers @ Holsteins Shakes & Buns - substantially better than Burger Bar IMHO, though horrible service.