The weather was warm enough, so we grabbed a coffee at the Patisserie at the Aria and headed to their pool.
The pool was clean, well maintained, not loud, spaced out and very relaxing. There were two pools and hot tub in the complex with a couple bars.
We had to cut our time short at the pool to adhere to ridiculous Canadian COVID testing requirements for returning to Canada via air. We had to book and pre pay our Vegas PCR COVID test well in advance.
We have heard many stories, none of which I could ever substantiate on paper or via phone call on Canadians getting free PCR COVID tests in Vegas at places like Walgreens and CVS. From what I understand you have to present a local address, which some people say they get away with providing their Vegas hotel address, but someone has to pay, so either that is being paid via Nevada state funding or you have to provide health insurance, and they typically refuse Canadian insurance policies for COVID testing.
Instead of risking not getting home, we did some research talking directly to others who went through testing and chose to deal with WORK SITE LABS.
TIP – If you need a PCR COVID test done, we recommend WORK SITE LABS, located around back of the Orleans Casino, just west of the strip. In the main floor of the parking structure in the back North West corner you can take a Lyft and do drive through testing. The real tip here is how to do this without a rental car. Grab a lift, but CONFIGURE a 3 STOP TRIP. I did it on the fly and havoc occurred, so do it upfront. For example, we were at the Aria, went to get tested and then went to MGM Grand for a buffet, so I should have configured a 3 stop trip, Aria, Orleans Casino, and MGM Grand. MAKE SURE to verify before you get into the Lyft the drive will wait 3 minutes while you do the test. You can walk through, but this is easier. Our driver actually recommended this and it worked great! We received our results via text in approx 12 hours, even though it was a 24 hour test.
After the COVID testing, we did go to the MGM Grand to use another MGM Mob App Casino comp, a BOGO 2 for 1 coupon at the MGM Buffet. The selection was very limited and the freshest food. If it was not for the BOGO, this would have been a bad experience. Our bodies did seem to “resist” the food we ate later; nothing serious, but not normal.
We gambled a bit at MGM Grand, no big wins or losses, so we headed back to the Aria to change and then head out to the Cosmo to keep working on building our comps there in hopes of hotel comps coming to use later for our next trip.
We did pretty well at the Cosmo. Met some people, had some fun and drinks, built up our comps and then headed back to the Aria to try Posh Burger, a highly recommended Hemberger joint, a favorite of one of our favorite Vegas YouTubers, the Trooper! There is a link to his YouTube channel in our Favorite Vegas YouTube Channel page. Unfortunately we got there too late for our late night snack, so we went to the Patisserie instead, and the food was good there also …
We gambled for a couple hours at the Aria, trying to win and build up our MLIFE comps, but no wins!
Time for bed.
