Category Archives: Las Vegas

Las Vegas Trip Report: The One Where I Leave to Cruise to Hawaii

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Good morning Las Vegas!

My plans today are to work and then head downtown to use my November free play.  Well thanks to Formula One, the bus is not running on the Strip.  Google Maps is telling me to walk to Polaris.  They cannot be serious about this?  I took an Uber to Circa.  I have dining credit here.  Saginaws got rid of my favorite sandwich, Nicole’s Tangy Turkey.  No no no no no.

Today was just not a good gamble day. For me anyway.  It was a good day for the dude I saw at California who was waiting on his $1600 handpay for hitting the progressive royal.

Being in California broke my heart.  I cannot stay here because they yanked my comps so other than the $10 free play, I also cannot play here because why would I?  But I love it here. But fuck you.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: The One Where I Buy Buffalo Bonuses

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Good morning Las Vegas! I would show you a photo of sunrise taken from my balcony except I didn’t take one because oh well?

I am in the Chelsea Tower at Cosmopolitan, so nowhere near Cosmo’s Starbucks. I am however, near Vdara’s Starbucks and for an insanely rare treat, their mobile ordering is actually turned on. It is a Christmas miracle. Unfortunately, it is too early in the morning to get croissants from Vdara’s Market Cafe. They are open 24 hours, but the croissants are never ready until after I start work.

Back up to the room to work like a jerk. Then I took a break to gamble and did really shitty. I am now dead even for the trip. I was up $300 before going out.

Back to the room to eat the salad I got at The Henry this morning and stored in my refrigerator. Then to finish work. Then to just DIE. And by “DIE” I mean “why did I book anything for tonight?! I had to have known I would be completely exhausted, why would you book THINGS?!”

But I did.

First up – Soulo Head Spa.  I can never say enough great things about this place.  I got the world’s longest head spa and added on extra shoulder and face massaging.  It was so blissful.  I will be doing this again when I come back to Vegas after my cruise.

From here, I went to Rio where I have $50 free play.  They actually call their free play “Frio play” which is adorable.

I am not sure why, but I decided to buy a $60 Buffalo bonus. I won.  Did it again, won again.  Did it again, won again.  Mind you, by “win” and “won” I mean a few dollars, nothing major.  Until the major win happened.

I hit for 118 spins.

It retriggered up to 177 spins.

And I won!
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December Travels Begin Today YAY

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Remember when I started this blog to have a travel blog?

I am leaving tonight to start an insaneo trip that I have been waiting all year for.   It started out as a cruise to Hawaii, which leaves Long Beach on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  I then decided for funsies, to see if I could add a second cruise to the beginning since it seemed like a waste to have Thursday – Saturday off work, just to wait for my cruise.  Well guess what.  There not only was, there was also a second cruise for me to add.  So I am doing:

Long Beach to Ensenada
Long Beach to Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas
Long Beach to Hawaii and Ensenada

I had been toying with spending Christmas in Las Vegas because I get 5 consecutive days off work for only one vacation day.  Then I realized it was dumb to fly home from California, only to fly right back to the West Coast a few days later.  So I booked Las Vegas for 14 days.  And then added on four more Vegas days pre-cruise.

I fly home from Vegas on an overnight flight on a Friday.  I will unpack what I assume will be 387948374 pounds of coffee purchased in Hawaii and repack for a New Years Eve cruise leaving from New Orleans.

I will also go see Pen Pals with Melissa Gilbert during the 3 nights I am home in NYC before flying to New Orleans. Laura Ingalls!  I have a few other shows I’d like to fit into my very short time home but who knows.  I may do ALL THE THINGS.  I may just sleep.

Just between you and me – I hope I do all the things.

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45 Days Until Las Vegas > Mexico > Hawaii > Las Vegas

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And then after Las Vegas, I go home and unpack / repack and head out to New Orleans to spend New Year’s Eve cruising to the Carribbean.

Sounds amazing, right?  RIGHT?

I am actually feeling a bit excited about the Vegas part of the trip, which is something I am not sure I have felt in a long time.  I was supposed to go to Vegas this past January as a kick off for a National Park tour. I cancelled that.  Then I was supposed to go in May, cancelled that too.

I wanted to re-read last year’s trip report for Vegas so I could see what my mindset was for that trip.  Was I excited last year?  I remember I hadn’t planned to go, but then needed to be out of my apartment for 3 weeks for a renovation so that’s where I went.  But was I correctly remembering that I wasn’t excited?

When I went back to read the posts, I realized I never updated the main page HERE so I went ahead and did that.   Then I began reading the trip report and felt fuzzy brained because it was like reading someone else’s trip report since I didn’t immediately remember some of it.  Even though it is MY trip report and happened less than a year ago.   I know I was working through it and my job is mentally intense so it is not surprising that I would have gotten the posts up without them or the actual days I was living – being added to my memories.  But I felt like I wanted to respond to some of those posts so I thought I would do this here.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: Sheep and Aces

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Good morning Las Vegas. I woke up too late to shower or eat so I ate a Kind bar and…didn’t shower.  What am I too late for?  A tour!  Specifically, THIS one.

Got picked up at 9:00 on the dot and headed off on today’s tour. I am the sole person who signed up for this tour so I am thrilled they did not cancel on me.  I want to see the big horned sheep.  I attempted to see the big horn sheep last year but the tour I was on did not stop at the park. The driver said they aren’t out in winter. So why advertise it as part of the tour you jerk.

This year though, my driver assures me we are stopping.

This tour was a bit expensive for what it is but it seems new as it wasn’t an option last year when I spent 6 weeks between Vegas and Arizona and took a million tours that I should probably post about.

We started at Seven Magic Mountains.

Then to Hemenway Park, where there were no sheep.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: The One Where I Expose the Vortexes

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Good morning Las Vegas! Although I did sleep in at Vdara, which I desperately needed, I have to say both the beds and bedding are not the same in the studios as they are in the suites. My bed was perfectly fine, but I was daydreaming about the marshmallow beds I had on past stays, and could not take advantage of because I had to get up to work.

Oh well, I still have my marshmallow bed at home.

I had reservations for La Cave at Wynn. I took an Uber who dropped me off at Encore, which was not my intention. So that threw off gambling plans entirely. I was supposed to start at Wynn, eat, and then end with my Ultimate X video poker.  I went backwards and so did my winning plans.  Cleopatra Keno?  Never met her.  Video Poker on the same machine though.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: Last Hotel of The Trip, First Fountain View of The Trip

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Good morning Las Vegas – burning sun from my room at Fremont Hotel.
I was up 3 minutes late for work.  This is my last day working from Las Vegas this trip and I wish forever.

I got packed VERY early as I am getting the fuck out of here as soon as I get the notification that my room at Vdara is ready.  Well maybe not because I need to collect some more snacks with my dining credit that I am too cheap to let go.

I then unpacked to shower because the shower here at Fremont hotel is the best shower I have had in all the hotels I have stayed in during this trip.  The water pressure is so strong.  For the record – I typically shower after work because who the fuck has the time to do it before work when you get to work at 6:00 AM in Vegas?!  Also for the record, Encore had by far the all time worst water pressure in their shower.

Went to the food court at Fremont and continued trying new coffees with my dining credit.

Strawberry Matcha (not coffee) and an iced caramel apple chai, which is also not coffee fuck I need coffee before I write about non-coffee.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: I Now Hate Fremont Hotel

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Well it is a morning, Las Vegas.  Not sure how good it is.

Woke up for work with Dunkin Donuts coffee waiting in my room refrigerator for me.  I had decided in advance to not gamble before work is over.  So I gambled before work is over.  And every time, had those sessions that suck – where the credits go straight to zero without any wins at all.  That is not fun at all.

Here is a win I did not post yesterday though:
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Las Vegas Trip Report: I Love Encore

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Hi Las Vegas, although you may as well be Oklahoma for all the fun I am going to have while working from my room today.

I went to Starbucks and people did not know how to form a line at all.  The employees had to sort that out, which took a bit of yelling “EXCUSE ME, LADY ON THE PHONE, THE LINE IS THIS WAY.”

The woman in front of me had resort credit she wanted to use up.  Perfectly acceptable.  Except she kept asking “how much is it now” about her total after each single item, but we started at like $20 and she made her way up to $80 so we didn’t really need to be asking after the first 3884798347 items now did we.

I also have resort credit to use up and I will also use it at Starbucks before I check out, but I will be less annoying.

I HATE WORKING FROM LAS VEGAS OMG I WAS TRYING TO STOP SAYING THIS IN EVERY TRIP REPORT BUT I CANNOT STOP MYSELF.

Tonight I have a Thai shampoo treatment booked and then I move to Encore.  I am actually not going to Soulo spa, because I had $100 in Groupon credit so I bought a Groupon for Mutao Spa. I did not think this one through when booking it because it is on Spring Mountain, but I did not leave time to check into Encore before my appointment, nor did I use all my resort credit so I have to come back anyway.  Oh well.

The shampoo was great.  I cannot say this enough – if you have never had someone else wash your hair while you are laying down, you are missing out.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: Annoying Day

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If you have been reading my Las Vegas trip reports for awhile, you know I always have an annoying day, where everything is annoying.  Today was that day.

Today is also a day I can actually sleep in while in Las Vegas.  I love sleeping in!  I could not get out of bed. Just wanted a cigarette. Refused to go smoke without showering.  Could not shower without a cigarette.  Terrible cycle that I am not even kidding when I said it took me two hours to finally just get up and shower already.

I got breakfast at Pyramid Cafe.  It was very busy but even busier as I was leaving.  I got in just in time.

After, it was time for Starbucks.  Luxor Starbucks does not make drinks correctly.  Or maybe they do and other places don’t and I prefer the wrongly made drinks from other places?  I worked at Starbucks for half a day before walking out.   They want there to be consistency at every store in the world.  You should walk into any store anywhere in the world and get exactly the same thing you would get back home.  Fail.

Out of all the Las Vegas Starbucks, Aria is best.  They make strawberry acai refreshers great, and they also never hand me black coffee with oatmilk where the coffee is still black.  Luxor does not do either of these things well.

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