Las Vegas Trip Report 12.22-28.2020 - The one with Christmas and COVID

Sometime over the summer we booked a trip to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving weekend, hoping the pandemic conditions would be better by then. We actually ended up rescheduling for Christmas and the case numbers were worse at Christmas than Thanksgiving, but we decided to go anyway. Whatever your opinions on our trip, it doesn't really matter at this point. It is long since past. We tried to be as safe as possible and tested before and after our trip and made sure to social distance and wear masks everywhere. Mask requirements were very strict all over Las Vegas. In the casino you could only slip your mask down for a second to take a drink of your beverage and then you needed to put it right back in place. In restaurants, capacity was reduced to 25% and reservations were required everywhere. We did run into some issues getting into high demand establishments, but it was workable in most cases. We just tried to plan ahead. Overall, most places were open and operating, but on reduced hours.

We rented a car from Budget for the entire trip, which we have never done before. The process was very simple and pick up and drop off were easy. It was nice to have a car to visit off strip casinos and to change hotels also. I'm not sure we will continue after COVID. We were just trying to reduce rideshare usage and time in a car with a stranger. We did take rideshare a couple times on this trip and everyone was masked and it seemed safe enough. 

NYNY from the car

We used valet at the Cosmo and there were no lines to check in. We did notice later in our stay, closer to the weekend, the lines and number of people around increased considerably. We decided to upgrade our room to a one bedroom fountain view terrace suite. We paid a bit for the larger room, but it seemed worthwhile to us. (We each had one night comped and we paid for one night. Room rates were very low.) It was especially nice to have a second full bathroom so we could both get ready at the same time. 

sitting/living room area

master bathroom 

second bathroom

view from balcony

After settling in, we went down to Chandelier bar and played video poker for awhile. Because of capacity restrictions set at 25%, we had to put our names in for a reservation, even just to sit at the bar to play video poker. It was a bit odd, as it never looked full, but we only had to wait for spots a bit here and there. 

We had a late-ish dinner at Blue Ribbon. I think we had made reservations ahead of time. We ordered a few favorite appetizers and snacks things. I think we may have gone back to the room after dinner. 

Wednesday morning we had breakfast at The Henry at the Cosmo. Pretty standard breakfast fare this time around. 

I took zero for notes on this trip, so I guess we have to go off of my photos for things we did. Oopsie. Some things will be missing. 

We had a late lunch at Holstein's. I know that for sure, because I saved the receipt. Getting reservations for lunch was never a problem for us. 

A few pics of the new Circa casino downtown on Fremont street. 

It was exciting to finally see the completed Circa casino. I should do a compilation of construction photos. I have quite a few from last last several years starting with demolition of the Vegas Club and the early stages of Circa construction. Unfortunately, 2020 stopped the Vegas trips for us, except for this trip, so I don't have many late stage construction photos.  

The indoor sports book is really very impressive. There is an outdoor pool/sports book as well. Heck, the whole place is quite impressive. It will take us several visits to fully explore the property, but here are a few photos. 

We played a few slots at Circa, some video poker and may have used a few coupons from the ACG or Las Vegas Advisor books at other casinos downtown. 

The Downtown Cocktail Room was open for business and did not require reservations, so we popped in for a drink before dinner. Great drinks as always! 

We had a late dinner at Pizza Rock (great as always) and grabbed an Uber back to the Cosmo. 

Thursday we took the rental car and ventured out to the Suncoast for breakfast at DuPar's. Apparently I was starving and forgot to take photos before we ate. 

I had a nice win on this slot machine. I didn't get a pic of the bonus, clearly. 

We stopped at Rampart for some couponing and also checked out a Vegas Costco for the heck of it. 

We had In and Out for lunch. The dining room was closed, so we drove through and ate in the car in the parking lot. 

Back at the Cosmo we played video poker for awhile before dinner. Apparently, I had a run of quads, per the pics above. 

We had made a dinner reservation at STK at the Cosmo. The place was hopping too. 

The food and service were all quite good. I'd say STK is more of a bar/club type experience than a relaxing meal though. 

I think after dinner we went back down to Chandelier bar and played video poker before calling it a night. Or maybe that was the previous night. Again, no notes, so I'm not totally sure. I should really go back to taking notes next trip. 

Friday we decided to grab Eggslut for breakfast and we ate in the room. I think we may have played a few slots at Cosmo that morning before we packed up and headed over to the Wynn to check in for the second half of our trip. 

view of the new convention center addition from our Cosmo balcony

All of the rooms at Wynn are pretty much the same. We had a nice room on a high floor with a strip view. I had used gems from the Wynn Slots app for two of the nights at Wynn and I think I paid for one night, which had a $50 per person breakfast credit. 

We had lunch at Yardbird at the Venetian. The donuts above were AMAZING. Light, fluffy, warm, fresh donuts with maple glaze and bacon bits on top. 

I think we both had the fried chicken for lunch. 

Masked up at the Wynn gardens. 

I think we went over to the Mirage and did some MyVegas/Konami free play and watched some football. Not sure what else we did....eventually ended up sitting at Parasol Down and watching the new Lake of Dreams shows. Apparently, they updated all of the shows right before the pandemic shut down, and they were certainly entertaining. Some were probably not supposed to be hilarious, but we found them hilarious. At least we were entertained! 

We had reservations at Costa de Mare for Christmas dinner. We sat outside in a sort of cabana/tent type situation. There was heat, so it was comfortable enough. 

they specialize in fresh fish, so we had a whole fish of some sort

The service was excellent, but I think the food was just OK. We both liked Estatorio Milos at Cosmo a lot more. (Milos has since moved to the Venetian.)

After dinner I think we played video poker in the casino a bit. I think John even played some blackjack at Wynn one evening.

Saturday morning we drove downtown for breakfast at Magnolia's at Four Queens. I forgot to take photos before we started eating, but we've been to Magnolia's about a million times now, so you know what the food looks like. It was just as good as it always is. IT was nice to go back and see the many familiar faces still running the show too. 

Things downtown were pretty sedate during the day. For some reason I found the closed performance circle and sign hilarious. 

We did a bit of ACG and LVA couponing around downtown. I think we did ok on most of the matchplay, but not much to report with the free slot play. 

We went to 8 East at Circa for lunch. It is operated by the same owners of Le Thai, so we had pretty high hopes, which were met. The sizzling shrimp are above. 

salt and pepper chicken wings

The brisket fried rice was very flavorful and delicious with lots of tender bits of brisket throughout.  We enjoyed 8 east and will be going back.  

I have no idea why I took this pic. I think it was a little hit on some free play. 

We went to Parasol Down again for before dinner drinks. After a bit we were able to move to the outdoor patio so we could see the new Lake of Dreams shows a bit better. 

The smilie faces were singing "I got you babe" by Sonny and Cher and floated around on the pond. Hilarious! 

The smoking frog sang Frank Sinatra. Also hilarious. Again, I don't think it was supposed to be that funny. But we found it funny! 

We had dinner at Sushi Samba at the Venetian. We couldn't get it anywhere at the Wynn as everything was booked up. Sushi Samba was very good though. I don't think we had ever eaten more than happy hour snacks here before. 

Sunday we had breakfast at Terrace Point Cafe at Wynn. It was really good on our last trip and it was good this time also. The service is really great. 

this is an avocado and bacon omelet that tasted way better than it looked

After breakfast we drove downtown and did a bit more couponing and played video poker at Four Queens among other places. 

Even the budda at the Cal has to wear a mask, so you should too! 

We sat at Parasol Down again for before dinner drinks. We did not get upgraded to the patio. I think they forgot about us. Oh well. But I did get a Sinatra Smash. If you ask and they have the ingredients, they may make you one if you are really nice. 

We went to Majordomo at the Venetian for dinner.  It opened just before the shutdown in March. Apparently they are supposed to have a bunch of cool table side food and drink preparation but they can't do any of it right now because of the pandemic. boo. 

Anyway, we both had the prime rib dinner that included a salad, potato and very amazing smoked prime rib. Seriously, this was the best prime rib I've had in awhile. It also included a great horseradish sauce. 

This is not a great photo of the most amazing sunrise I've ever seen in Las Vegas. If you have to be up early in Vegas at least you get to see amazing sunrises. 

We had breakfast at Tableu at Wynn. We could not get a reservation on our last trip, but planned ahead and made the cut this time. Check out the tray of warm and tasty pastries. 

breakfast beverage trifecta 

The breakfast foods were very good. The service was impressive also. 

John just happened to be sitting under this sign in the perfect spot. Are you a mask model sir? : ) 

We had a great trip even in the midst of a global pandemic. It was also a bit stressful, because I wondered if everyone was secretly infected and if I was going to get infected soon too. Sigh. So that was not fun. But being in Vegas and trying to forget about crap was better than sitting at home. 

We flew Delta and our flights were on time and great actually. I quite like flying with social distancing and seat blocking. It makes coach feel tolerable. And Delta is doing a great job enforcing masks and plenty of hand sanitizer being handed out throughout the flights. I have never seen airplanes so clean. Truly impressive. I hope that the new cleaning standards stick around for the long haul.