GUYS. I swear this Las Vegas trip is not my fault. I swore I would never take a trip where I have to work from Vegas again because it just ruins the trip. I also had zero plans to go to Las Vegas at all in 2024 (I swear!) In 2023 I discovered the joys of cruising. And since I have so many comped* cruises (*comped = kinda free, but you still pay port fees and taxes, so there’s still a cost, even if a minor one), I booked a million and used up all my 2024 vacation time before the calendar even turned to 2024. And as I write this in December of 2024, I have booked all my vacation for 2025 and am currently making plans for 2026.
So one day, Jetblue Mint fares dropped to an insane price of $730 each way. I haven’t seen prices that low in a long time. I am not supposed to fly Mint, I am supposed to be returning to economy where I belong. But I couldn’t NOT book it, even though I wasn’t really going to go. Wanted to lock in the price, just in case.
The same day, new MLife offers came out and for some reason mine were higher than ever before, which makes ZERO sense. They had gone down earlier in the year, which made sense since I burned them in December. It hurt my soul to see the crappy offers and resort fee since I am not longer gold. But for the offers to go back UP? Without any new play? AND the resort fee is waived? And the room choices being fountain view Bellagio and tower suites at Luxor? That’s absurd.
So I booked some rooms just in case.
And then insert my landlord.
My landlord decided she was going to get crafty. I know the world hates landlords, OMG scumbags. But mine is actually a wonderful person. When my next door neighbors moved out, she offered me their apartment (at an increase in rent) because it was updated. Mine has not been touched (other than changes I made myself) since before I moved in, and I moved in in 1998.
I did consider it, but once I saw their apartment, I said no. All the things that were updated were wonderful. But what was NOT updated, are the things that I updated in my own apartment. Very specifically, the carpeting. So while she had a brand new kitchen and fresh paint everywhere, the carpets were kind of grungy.
But I suppose the wheels in her mind began turning and she wanted to raise my rent. I don’t blame her. I pay $1375 for a 2 bedroom that also has a dining room. In NYC. In 2024.
Even though she can do whatever she wants, my building has less than 10 units so the law limiting raises does not apply, she still went about it in a way that justified the increase, even though it would be perfectly legal for her to double my rent for no reason.
She offered to renovate my entire kitchen and replace the flooring. Um, I am down. My floor is all yellowed, and honestly, so is everything in here. I had been planning to replace the floors myself and never did. I did paint the kitchen cabinets myself and did a not perfect job.
Of course this comes with an increase in my rent, which was her goal the entire time. And with the increase, I am still paying less for a 2 bedroom than a studio would be at market rate.
So I said yes and she asked me if I was going away soon because I needed to be out of here for 2 weeks. Why yes, I am taking a 2 week cruise! Well the handyman was not available those dates. Well then I guess I can go away in December?
Full disclosure, even though I had the Vegas stuff booked just in case, I did look into spending the time elsewhere. We are no longer allowed to work internationally without jumping through hoops I was unwilling to jump through, and anywhere else would just end up costing me a million dollars. I even looked into staying in a hostel in NYC now that after 30 years of living here, I have decided I love NYC? That’s a whole other thing. But thinking of just paying to eat out instead of using comps, drives the price way too high.
So Vegas it is!
I always book trips and then spend months switching everything around. Hotels, flights, can’t stop redoing everything until I feel the trip is absolutely perfect.
Well this time I was not able to get it perfect. Flaws in my plans:
Possible no Cosmopolitan Fountain view. Since Cosmopolitan is now under MLife, I wasn’t given the option to secure a fountain view room. I won’t know what I have until I am there. And considering there is SOMETHING going on that weekend that is causing rates to be skyhigh, I don’t have confidence I will get fountain view.
Bellagio – I am dying to SLEEP here. I have booked this hotel twice recently-ish but both stays, I could not sleep in because I had to get up and start working at 6:00 AM. I want to SLEEP here. I originally booked a fountain view room here. But my dining credit for Bellagio is only $100, which may be 1.5 meals. And my dining credit at Luxor is $250, which could be six or seven meals. Luxor also came with a one bedroom suite. I went back and forth – cancelling, rebooking. Of course I want Bellagio. Of course I want the dining credit. Eventually I settled on Luxor only because I do have to work one day from here and getting iced coffee before work at Bellagio is a pain in the ass. Starbucks doesn’t open until 6:00 AM, it is a far walk from the rooms. BONUS: Bellagio doesn’t have refrigerators so I could not even purchase iced coffe the night before. And if you want to use the dining credit at Starbucks, you cannot order on the mobile app. Luxor’s Starbucks opens at 4:00 AM.
Paris – I wanted to stay here so badly. I love this hotel for no real reason. I was even able to score a new balcony room, although I would have expected to be downgraded at checkin. The problem with Paris is the resort fee. I had tier matched the past few years to Diamond, but I am not elligible this year, mainly because I am no longer Diamond with Wyndham. I am abso-fucking-lutely not paying $50 for a comped room so sorry Paris, maybe next time, maybe never.
No luxury of doing laundry in my hotel room! I have 3 MLife stays booked. I had originally ended my stay at Vdara in a one bedroom with a washing machine. Switched that to Luxor to have more resort credit. Realized I don’t want to end my trip at Luxor and when I went to switch back to Vdara, I no longer had one bedrooms available. I could very well switch out my mid-trip Luxor reservation to Vdara and stay at Vdara twice. But I really want the Luxor resort credit. So we are returning to full sink washing and no more taking soft, warm pajamas out of the dryer in my room.
I almost booked Nomad because I haven’t stayed there, although I did stay at Park MGM. But the choice between Bellagio and Nomad was way too skewed for Bellagio to win. And Luxor beat Bellagio so…..
Fountainbleau – my new arch nemesis. When I first visited, they were not doing tier matches. At the time, I still had high statuses from the great match of 2021. I also did not play a lot here since I wasn’t expecting to get an offer. Well I keep getting low ball offers for $149/night (includes taxes and resort fee) but I have to stay 3 nights and I am not paying $450 for a hotel.
BUT THEN! FN Blue sent me a very limited offer that is good for when I am there! 2 nights comped, no resort fee. I struggled to fit this one in. It seems very logical that I would replace 2 nights at Luxor with 2 nights a FN Blue because duh. But realistically, I have zero comps at FN Blue and tons of comps at Luxor. So moving to FN Blue would actually cost me money. So I ended up double booking it with Encore.
El Cortez! I was planning to make my return here! Checking in on Christmas night. But since I never made it to El Cortez last year – seriously – I did not even use the LVA free play coupon – my offers have ended. Could I call them? Yes. Would I? No.
I tried to book a bunch of non-gambling things because I purposely have a smaller budget. I have tried this before, vowing to do something not gambling every single day. On that trip I booked either a show or a spa every day. Then ended up not doing most of the things I booked (and paid for) and just lost the cost of things I bought AND my gambling budget.
I did book a few shows and some spa treatments. OF COURSE one is Soulu Head Spa, which I can never rave about enough.
I also wanted to go to Valley of Fire but ended up saving that for later as I also want to repeat Monument Valley and found a tour that goes to both. I can’t do that on this trip as that is a three day trip and since I am working, I do not have three consecutive days off until the end of the trip but I am flying home on day three so oh well.
So I am off with a very small gambling budget. I am curious to see how I do. Will I go degenerate? Or will I stick to my budget for the first time? Will I get disgusted with gambling as a whole and just do other things? You know, when I was on my last cruise, I budgeted $100/day and there were many days where I decided to instead of gambling with that $100, I went online and ordered subscription boxes and booked show tickets with my daily $100. I loved coming home to finding boxes of stuff waiting for me and having a calendar full of fun things to do.
Las Vegas is not the budget city it used to be. By comparison, in NYC, I can go to a free show every night for a whopping $4.50 service fee with a subscription to Club Free Time. This is just adding to the souring of my love for Vegas. I am honestly surprised there are not more off Strip cheapo shows for locals. Off Off Strip akin to Off Off Broadway in NYC.
So let’s see how it goes this time? Do I really want to put a $100 in a slot machine or do I want to book 22 shows? I think I want to book 22 shows. But that’s easy to say when I am typing this up NOT in a casino.
Let’s see how this goes, shall we?
I admit I am a bit stressed about coming home with all my kitchen stuff packed away. I had to get rid of most of my food, the refrigerator will be unplugged when they do the floors, so there’s only cans of soup and coffee left. I come home on New Year’s Eve. But less whining, more Vegas.
Some things I am doing on this trip:
- New (to me) hotel – FN Blue
- New (to me) restaurants – I don’t want to make the same loops I make every god damned trip from the same hotels to the same restaurants without even thinking about where to go. I booked the Cosmopolitan buffet, La Cave at Wynn and Vida at FN Blue. I also want to try some places at Mandalay Bay I have never been to because I keep using my dining credit on the same places over and over.
- New (to me) casino. I used to visit a new-to-me casino every trip and kind of ran out of them. I do want to try Durango this trip.
- New (to me) (or rather, thing I have not done since before Covid) booking better hotels on weekends so I can sleep in, in marshmallow beds. I keep booking Cosmopolitan and Vdara on working days because those hotels have easy access to food and iced coffee before work. But this time, I have them booked on days I can actually sleeeeeeeeeeep all god damned day.
- Lake Mead! I booked a day trip here via Viator. It is only 3 hours, but that’s three hours of something to do that’s not gambling. Last year I did so many side trips and loved the fuck out of it. But I was also on vacation last year so there’s that.
- I’m not going to see Mystere. I think I have seen this show about 20 times and stopped myself from hitting “buy now” more times than I have seen them show. I just really feel like I’m too much of a creature of habit
- Not gamble on arrival night? I’ve never not gambled on any day in Vegas. Kind of curious if I pull this off? I think my chances for success are better if Cosmopolitan puts me in the Chelsea tower and I don’t have to walk through the casino.
And off I go!
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