Category Archives: Las Vegas

Las Vegas Trip Report: Lucky Duck = Lucky Fuck YAY

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Good morning Las Vegas! I woke up 3 minutes late for work which is always wonderful.  Thankfully I have coffee in my refrigerator.

Work, work meh.

I gambled a total of zero today before I got off work.  I have the Lucky Duck promotion tonight where I will win anywhere from $50-$100.  Then I move to Luxor and I have $225 freeplay there + $25 MyKonami freeplays at Luxor and Mandalay Bay.

Although I have a plethora of Downtown comps, I am going to save those for my Fremont stay later in this trip.  I probably won’t need or use them because I also have Fremont dining credit.  So maybe I should eat down here and then use whatever is left of my MGM credit to go shopping at Starbucks to bring with me to Wynn.

I have $250 dining credit at MGM properties as well.  I wanted to try a new to me place every meal but went to Citizens at Mandalay Bay because while not my favorite, I rememeber them fondly for actually being open during Covid, when just about everything else was closed.

I have a one bedroom suite at Luxor.  I almost booked a Pyramid suite and last minute changed my mind for a tower suite.  The tower suites are nicer, but I appreciate the kitsch of the old Egyptian furniture.

Lucky Duck Promotion went well for me.  There were 6 prizes for $500, all were won before I got to choose my duck.  Most people got $50-100, but I picked a duck worth $250 in free play.  It was not going to be available until 6:00 so I had an hour to kill.   Honestly, I would have just left and came back but it needs to be used in 72 hours and I won’t be back Downtown until Wednesday.

I killed time by eating dinner at Victory Burger at Circa.  And then it was time to PLAY!

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Las Vegas Trip Report: NOT Going Degenerate?

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Good morning Las Vegas!  I woke up in the dark, and the sun must have risen at some point but I missed it because my back is towards the open window.  This reminds me of when my job put us in a temporary office that had a gorgeous view of NYC and amazing sunsets and we never saw them because we never had time to turn our heads to the right (or left, depending on where you sat.)

I went out to smoke and get coffee.  I was too late for Dunkin Donuts so I went to Lapperts.  They now have some actual food beyond donuts.  I didn’t get any because I didn’t have enough comps.  I am thinking of all the times I barely scratched the surface on my resort credit with offers.  Can I have all that credit back in one lump sum?  No?  FINE.

I got an early morning quad, which was nice.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: Time to Move Downtown!

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Good morning Las Vegas!

I have decided to not gamble today except for the $50 freeplay I have at Palms.  I am moving to California tonight.  I am getting texts and emails to do mobile check in but it never works so why bother even trying.

I am staying at California on a Lucky Duck promotion.  It is an event that takes place on Friday.  I guarantee you that when they hand me the paper showing me what time the event is, it will be during a work meeting I cannot miss.  I think I won $100 freeplay the last time I did the Lucky Duck promotion.  If I am remembering that trip correctly, it was also the day the fire alarm kept going off at Fremont hotel during work meetings so I just logged off and never came back.  Unfortunately, I cannot do that this time.

I logged onto my Boyd account to see the result of yesterday’s 10x points and found this surprise offer.  I had it last year too.  I wonder if I have had it many years and just never noticed it.
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Las Vegas Trip Report: Nickel Royal Flush!

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Good morning Las Vegas!  Oh god I hate working from Vegas.  Oh god you must all hate reading me whine about the same thing all the time.

There is a weird thing happening in my room here at Rio.  When I sleep, I am woken up by a smell of citrus scented cleaner.  It smells like the exact brand my landlord uses to wash the floor outside my front door.  It is STRONG and in the middle of the night.  I suspect someone next door is smoking weed in their room, because I can also smell that, and trying to cover it up with spray.  It wakes me up when the scent kicks in.  This is the first time I’ve ever experienced something like this.

And speaking of smells in hotel rooms – my perfume opened in my bag and my room now smells AMAZING to me, but might not to the next guest if they do not the smell of my spilled perfume.  I hope they do!

I woke up this morning and went to get coffee.  I am checking out tomorrow and have to use up my resort credit so this meant waiting on the line to order face to face vs using the app.  Please hotels and casinos PLEASE find a way to charge mobile orders to the room.

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Why Yes, Rio is My New Favorite Casino in Las Vegas

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Good morning Las Vegas!

I woke up at 5:00 AM this morning, which makes sense since I fell asleep just after 7:00.  I used the Starbucks app for…..Starbucks.  I really wish there were an option to do room charge via the app since I have resort credit.

The elevators here at Rio are very quick but there were a TON of people checking out at this ungodly hour, with a shit ton of luggage and handcarts filled with what looked like shopping sprees from Costco with appliances and huge boxes of snacks.  I don’t know if this is a normal thing or if maybe there was something going over the weekend that attracted large groups with food and appliances?

I played Dancing Drums Prosperity and god this thing hated me.  It did give me this though, after I put in $200.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: Eff You Cosmopolitan Maybe?

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Hello from Las Vegas!  If you missed the first part of this trip report, you can find it HERE.

I mentioned in it that I was going to attempt to not gamble on my first night.  Was I successful?

I flew out of JFK on JetBlue.  God damn I fucking love flying on Mint and laying down.  God damn I need to stop booking Mint flights and remain in economy where I belong.

In addition to no longer laying down on flights, I’ve also sworn off Ubering to the airport, so obviously I took an Uber to the airport.

I ran out of my apartment in a frenzy and didn’t really get to say goodbye to my kitchen or do a ceremonial last cigarette in my apartment.  I wont be smoking in the renovated apartment.  Yes I know smoking is gross.

The airport was in the Christmas spirit. There was also a DJ. Why.

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That Time I Went to Las Vegas to Get a New Kitchen

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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.

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Epic (Not All) Las Vegas Trip Report: Christmas, New Year’s Eve and Beyond

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It is that time again.  Las Vegas at Christmas time.  Although it was not supposed to be. I am supposed to be in the Middle East.  But war.

I never posted my last trip report so you do not know this but back in May, when I was in Vegas, I got sick of Vegas.  I mean I got SICK of Vegas. It just felt increasingly dumb to gamble.  I wasn’t having fun and I didn’t want to be there anymore.

I had another trip booked for July and cancelled that while still in Las Vegas. I thought this was finally it.  But then here I am with time off and nowhere to go because my planned trip to the Middle East was off.  But I don’t want to spend the trip in Vegas.  But Vegas is easy.  But I don’t WANT TO GO THERE.

I priced some other destinations that were quite expensive as I was now not booking far in advance.

I also really hate my job. Perhaps if I had spent a week or two checking on things, I could have done better.  But because I hate my job, I absolutely must have all trips booked NOW because having trips booked NOW is how I stop myself from screaming FUCK YOU I QUIT.

So I decided to use Las Vegas as a base to see other cool stuff.  This way I get to take advantage of my comps, but this is not an actual Las Vegas trip.  It is a trip where I am using Las Vegas as a base to see other cool stuff.

I’ll write more about that cool stuff as it happens.

Booking this trip was so difficult.  I had to keep telling myself this is not a Vegas trip.  Yes, you do want to stay in this hotel but guess what?  YOU CAN’T.  Because this trip is not about Vegas. It is about using Vegas as a base.

I am also going to be burning a lot of my comps on this trip and I am fine with that too.  I do want to keep Boyd in tact because I love Boyd.  Cosmopolitan too, but since they are now owned by MLife, they may break up with me after I burn MLlife on this trip.  Oh well.

I arrived in Vegas, fresh off a cruise to the Bahamas that was plagued by weather issues.  I didn’t care about all that.  I didn’t want to go to the Bahamas.  I just went because it was a $100 cruise and I had time to kill.

Then off to Vegas!  I rarely arrive in daylight so I took a million photos as we were approaching Las Vegas.

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Las Vegas Extended Version: Let’s Fucking Go!

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Today I woke up at Cosmopolitan in time to watch the sunrise, before going back to bed.  I am personally confused on how I was facing the Rio when I was facing South, but here we are.

Waking up for real, headed right to MY Ultimate X video poker machine.

Arrived at District Donuts 2 minutes late for breakfast. Yeargh. When attempting to put sugar in my coffee, the lid fell off the sugar and a pound landed in my coffee.  Oddly, I never use sugar, so this was just reinforcing that choice.

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