FlyerTalk Forums - Consolidated "Cosmopolitan Resort" Thread

Hi All,
I just got back from Vegas... a 9 day trip which included a 5 night stay at the Cosmopolitan. I did a lot of research before booking the cosmo, including asking a couple of members on this forum what their experience was, as I'm travelling with my wife from Europe so we can't fly to Vegas whenever we want ;-)

Here goes my review : (sorry if it is too long ;-) )

Last year we stayed at Planet Hollywood. We had a fountain view room (resort vista) which was nice. This time we wanted to celebrate our 1y marriage so we wanted to go back to vegas. For both of us a high room with view is very important, so after receiving lots of advice fomr this forum I finally booked a 1 bedroom terrace room for 5 nights (sunday until friday). I always look for the best price/room option, as our budget is not limitless, so I did book a regular view 1 bedroom room, as the premiuum view room was 250$ more for 5 nights. I was going to try to get the view upgrade at checkin, using the sandwich tip.

We arrived in Vegas around 3:30PM on Sunday. First we went to Paris as my aunt & brother were staying there. I used a 20$ sandwich and got them upgraded from a standard room to a Eiffel tower room on the 15th floor, so that one worked ;-). (again it would have cost a lot more if booked the view room up front for 5 nights).

Then we went to the Cosmopolitan. My wife didn't know what hotel I had booked until then, as it was a surprise for our wedding aniversary. So I dorve in the Cosmo underground parkign and she was delighted. we arrived at checkin around 4:30PM. The lines were very short. Only had to wait like 5 minutes. The checkin clerk was a young woman. We started talking and I handed my credit card & id with a 100$ sandwich. After some small talk I told her I was hoping that we could get a fountain view room on a high level if possible. She saw the 100$ tip but left it in between the id & credit card. After some typing on the keyboard she said she could give us a premium view room at no charge. So bingo, we got what we wanted... As it never hurts to ask, I asked if there were any other rooms available, specially the wraparound terrace suite, their biggest room. Again she typed on the keyboard, but said that unfortunately they did not have wraparounds with bellagio view available, but they did have one with the South view available. The upgrade would normally cost 150$ per night more, however she could give it to us for like 100$ per night more. (which is a lot less than when you would book the wraparound up front via the cosmo website!)
I was not going to spend another 500$ anyway, but the fact that they had no fountain view suites available anyway, turned me down, so I said no thanks we'll be fine with the 1 bedroom.
So our 1 bedroom room was in the east tower and on the 30th floor, facing north. (I did request the east tower when booking the room in August). She did return my credit card & ID, with the 100$ sandwich still between it. I did take back the 100$, but I gave her a 20$ tip for helping us out with the premium view. (so now you can argue if the sandwich trick did work or not ;) )

When we arrived in the East tower, which is a short walk since checkin is near the west tower, we took the elevator to the 30th floor. Big was our surprise when I opened the door, as 3 Chinese people were in it. Apparently they had a late checkout and were about to leave the room. Of course then the room still would have to be cleaned before we could go in it. So we went back down to the checkin desk. I was not angry or anything, so I told the checkin clerk, this time a young guy, that there were 3 Chinese people in our room. He was very sorry and told us he would take care of us. Again I wasn't mad or angry or anything, .... like this can happen so I remained very friendly during our conversation. He started typing on his keyboard, and said we would receive 50$ drink/food credit and he would give us another room. I thanked him for the credit, but told him we didn't want another room, as we got a great view room and we would be fine with waiting a couple of hours until our original room would be cleaned. I told him the fountain & eiffel tower view were realy important for us. He offered us a 1 bedroom in the west tower, but on a higher floor with view. He also offered a 1 bedroom room which is a liitle bigger than the standard 1 bedroom, as it's in the curb of the west tower. (you know the west tower has 2 curbs in it as it's not entirely straight). Again I respectfully declined as I wanted to be as close to the Strip as possible, meaning in the East tower.
Finally, the clerk told us to wait... he went back to another room (maybe talking to the manager?) and after a minute or 2 he returned. He said that he would give us an offer that we couldn't refuse... He said that we wouldn't get the 50$ resort credit, but instead he would give us a suite. It would be in the west tower, however it ould be 5 floors up our original room and in the 'angled' section of the west tower, with stunning view of the fountains & eiffel tower. I knew he was talking about the Terrace suite as he showed me the floor plan of the room. This suite is almost double the size of the 1 bedroom terrace. Since he offerd us this terrace suite at no extra charge I couldn't decline so I finally accepted his offer.
I basically knew what this room looked like, but my wife didn't. Nevertheless we were both just amazed of how nice this suite is. it has 2 bathrooms, whirlpool tub, living area with a couch & dining table, full kitchen with big fridge where you can store your own drinks + it has 2 freezer drawers. And last but not least it has a big terrace with an amazing view.

I really think we got a great room for a very good price, because all I paid was the original price for a 1 bedroom (non premium view) terrace room. To complete the madness daily brunch at the wicked spoon was included for 2 people for 5 days. (this is a package not on the cosmo website but they do offer it to international travelling customers)

The first day we went for breakfast at 9AM. We didn't know then that this is actually not breakfast but brunch, and you can go there until 2PM. So all the other days we took a noon brunch in the wicked spoon. The selection is nice and very good. Personally I think the quelity is better than the spice market buffet we did last year at planet hollywood. On the other side if the Wicked Spoon brunch wasn't included in our package, we probably wouldn't have brunched there every morning, as the price was about 46$ for 2 (without tips).

I want to talk about is the underground parking. Most hotels have big parkings behind the casino, which means you have to walk a long time each time you get back from your car. Well this underground parking, straight below the cosmo is just great. Since we were staying in the west tower I was able to park my car every day very close to the west elevator bank. The parking has 4 levels I think. I parked every time on the highest level (B2) and thanks to the lights system I was always able to find a spot quickly & near our elevators. (the system shows exactly how many free slots there are on each underground level, and also it has red/green lights above every parking space so you can see from far where the free spots are)
People without rental car could care less, but we used our car daily and this parking system is realy good.
From the parking elevators you go up to the lobby level, then you walk just around the corner to the elevator bak that takes us to our room level. It is realy that easy! No walking a mile thru the miracle mile mall and casino like last year. walk from car to elevator took us less than 30sec each time, then again less than 30sec from parking elavators to room elevators. Then less than 1 min from the room elevators to our suite. And you don't need to go thru the casino at all.
(the same goes for the east tower, there are parking elevators near the east tower & room elevators around the corner of the lobby level)
For people like us who walk alot this saved us a lot of hassle.

The in room entertainment system works fine. All the lights can be dimmed & controlled thru the television. 1 remote control didn't work very well. So I called the front desk just to test them. 10 min later a guy in a suit knocked on our door, with a spare remote. I heard people complaining about the service in the cosmo but we didn't have any problems. (maybe it was during the week?)
The first day my brother picked up a box of cookies from the minibar... I told him not to do that but anyway, I stopped at the checkin later that evening and it got removed from my bill immediately without any problems. We used the big fridge to store water, coke & beer that we bought at Kmart, which was a plus. (not sure but I think the 1 bedroom terrace room only has a small fridge?)
We didn't use the oven nor cooker as we ate out each night. 1 remark there are no pots & pans but you can ask for them. (I guess they will ask a fee for them right?)

We had no noise problems in our room. The only noise you have is when you open the balcony windows because well it's the vegas strip right ;-) but at night we had no noise whatsoever.
Also we could actually see the fountains & eiffel tower while we were lying in bed, because again our room was in the 'angled' part of the west tower. We also spent a lot of time on our balcony just admiring the views.

Let's talk about the pools. The Cosmo has 3 pools. The boulevard pool overlooking the strip, the bamboo pool located on the south side overlooking city center, and the marquee day & nightclub pool. The boulevard & bamboo pools are free. Officially only for cosmo guests, but we encountered people in the pool that didn't stay there. Apparently they don't check for you room key every time. To enter the marquee pool you have to pay. (not sure how much as we don't liek that kind of club music so we didn't go there).
I prefer the boulevard pool. It is not extremely big but it is quite nice. It has different elevation levels and palm trees which are nice for some shade. Also all the normal pool chairs & towels are free. The special beds and the beds that are in the water can be reserved for a fee. We were happy to take a free chair as we were relaxing in the water all the time. We entered the pool in the afternoon and spent about 2h in it. As with all vegas pools be early if you want a good spot for a pool chair. I don't know if you pay more for a drink from a waitress, but I ordered drinks at the pool bar, which is right alongside the pool, and a beer (bud) was 7$, so was the cuba libre cocktail. I have seen some cocktails go for 12$ though.
There are also cabanas for rent. We met 2 guys who were celebrating a birthday and rented a cabana. They invited us to have a look inside, so we did. Actually the cabana price was cheap compared to other resorts. They paid 200$ for the day (weekday) but it did include 100$ food/drink credit. So it is quite cheap. The cabanas have a flatscreen tv, ceiling fan, fridge, telefoon, radio system & nice beds & relaxing chairs. Also the cabanas are on a higher level than the pool, so they overlook the pool which means you have your own privacy there as normal pool guests won't welk nearby the cabana.
The day after we stayed at the bamboo pool. It doesn't have the different elevation levels, but it has more sun because it is on the southside below the west tower. There are also 2 poolside bars and cabana's. The cabana's are a little behind from the pool, but on the same level.

About the Casino : It is not the biggest casino, which is fine for us because we are not real gamblers anyway. The casino is small but long, so you don't get lost. Coming from the strip you can walk straight thru to the room elevators. Or you can go up 1 level from the strip, and then you don't need to go thru the casino at all. If you stay in the east tower then you can almost go straight into the east elevators from the strip. We were in the west tower but the west elevators aren't that far realy.

About the look of the resort : The look of the entire resort & the rooms was one of the reasons that we booked there. I call the look 'modern-chique'. It is modern yet with some nice touches & colors like the huge chandelier and the colors used on the walls & ceiling. It is a bit like the Wynn/encore but then more modern. (so it doesn't feel like old rich people would live there if you know what I mean).
I guess that looks are personal taste, but to us we realy felt like being in a nice environment & felt very welcome there. We mostly saw younger & mid-aged people in there, the 20-30-early 40's aged people I would guess. At night you would see more younger peopel near the marquee club. We did not notice elderly people nor families with kids.

About the hotel staff & service : ALL hotel staff was always very friendly to us. The cleaning of our room was always fast. Sometimes we would be in our room until noon, only putting the 'clean room please' sign in the afternoon. When we would return a little later our room would be cleaned. (we always leave a tip for the cleaning lady anyway, so we are sure that all amenities are refilled). One day we encountered a cleaning lady in our hallway, the first thing she said was 'thank you for the tips'.

Compairing to other resorts : If you don't care about room view but want center strip location I would recommend a corner room in Aria or Vdara, however it is a much longer walk to get to the strip. We went from Cosmo to Aria and we needed to go thru the entire crystals mall, and also when arriving in Aria it seemed like a huge place, as the hotel has different wings. You can also take the monorail that runs from monte carlo via aria & vdara to bellagio.

Overall we had a wonderfull stay in the Cosmopolitan, and we would love to stay there again. It is definately not one of the cheapest places to stay, but it is center strip, all rooms are great (even the city rooms), the balconies are fabulous, and the short parking-room-strip distance definately a big plus.
Here is a short video review of our Terrace suite. It is in my native language so I apologise for that, but you get a good impression of the size of the room & the view from our terrace : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLuzO...eature=related

To the person in the above message : Book the 1 bedroom room and try to get an upgrade to premium view or suite on checkin ;-)

Last thing I forgot to mention. I need internet in my room since the family & friends home like to follow my blog & daily pictures I upload, so I was expecting to pay 15 to 20$ a day for internet. Big was my surprise that wireless internet is actually free here! They told me it was free at the moment, so not sure if it will change in the future. And also worth notign that the wireless interent worked fine on the 35th floor, no issues whatsoever.