Category Archives: Las Vegas Travel Blog

Las Vegas Trip Report: Have I Mentioned I Love Free Play?

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Las Vegas is fucking expensive.  i know, breaking news right?

My Instagram feed tells me that Fever now has Las Vegas events.  Fever is an app that I use constantly in New York City to book cool stuff.

(When I get home, I’ll finish a post i started about finding cheap things to do in New York City.)

But it kind of blew my mind to see how much more expensive the same things are in Las Vegas than in NYC.  Candlelight concerts.   These are forever happening in NYC. At home, they are under $40.  Here they are $50.

Aria has a “Museum of Illusions” for $50.  There’s a million of these places back home where I can get tickets for under $30.

I am not sure why I woke up whining about prices in Las Vegas.  Maybe because Instagram is showing me overpriced stuff while I am online at Starbucks.

I have plans today.  Too many plans.  I slept 11 hours last night, it felt great.  Let’s fucking GO!

I got a text to check out of California via their mobile check out and it worked! I wonder if mobile check in now works too?

Out to smoke before getting dressed. Being in the silver elevator tower at Luxor makes it easy to actually go outside vs the casino and there’s benches in the smoking area. Much better than losing $100 smoking in the casino.

Also this just in: Luxor has the weakest shower water pressure in all of America. Had to use the sink in the wet bar to get the conditioner out of my hair. Continue reading →

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: 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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Lazy Las Vegas Blogger Posts About Being Lazy in Vegas, Film at 11:00

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Although yesterday was my first full day of this Las Vegas trip, I am considering today the first full day.  Yesterday I woke up after not sleeping and worked.  Today, I am free.

I woke up at 6:30 AM and instead of “OMG GAMBLER YAY” I was “Ugh, need to run an errand boo.”

I needed to go to the Las Vegas Paiute Smoke Shop to get cheap cigarettes.   A round trip Uber was $45, lol no. I just sat on my balcony for a bit.  I’d still be sitting there Googling all the places in the world I wish to visit if not for the fucking sun blinding me on my balcony.

But that brings me to Dear Diary time.  I went to a fortune teller earlier this year who told me a few odd things that came true so far.  One was that my manager would be gone in 2 months.  She isn’t fully gone, but she isn’t MY manager anymore.  He said I would be undergoing a renovation that would cause a huge change in my life.  Well here I am in Vegas because my apartment is being renovated?  And honestly, I cannot stop binge searching for Manhattan apartments.  Because while mine will still be very much under market rate, that’s market rate for a 2 bedroom.  I don’t need a 2 bedroom.  So my new rent will bring me closer to the market rate for a studio in Manhattan.  Then I could not spend hours of my life on the fucking N train anymore.  No longer walk through my train station which is always coated in pigeon poop.  Ah this is the new dream.

But back to the fortune teller.

And the final two things he told me were:

I will be retied in 2 years.  I do believe I may somehow be able to pull that one off.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: Sam’s Town and Ultimate X

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Continuining the Las Vegas trip report that started HERE.  Between these 2 posts was a National Park tour, and I will post about that eventually as well!

Returning to Horseshow from the tour, I had to pack and move hotels.  I am normally a light packer but for this trip, I packed too much.  Because I started out on a cruise to the Bahamas.  Then needed warm clothes for National Parks.  Then for Vegas, the Bahamas clothes were too summery and the National Park clothes were too wintery. I did not want to go home between the cruise and the flight to Vegas to change out wardrobes so I just overpacked.

For this first tour I am took, you cannot bring luggage.  You can only bring a backpack or duffel bag.  No problem.  I will just keep my shit at Horseshoe wihle I am gone and bring just what I need with me for the tour.

I thought I was smart. I packed everything I needed for the first tour in one packing cube.  So I should have simply taken it out, put it in my backpack and been done with it.

But when I opened the door when arriving back at Horseshoe, I was stunned to see SO MUCH STUFF all over the god damned room.  What the hell did I even do here?  Why is every single thing I have ever owned in my life in this room?  And all over the room?  Wasn’t I awake for only maybe an hour in total in this room before I left?  When did I even have the time to make this mess?

I make an agreement with myself.  I can repack in two parts.  First part, the annoying stuff.  You know, breaking down the camera and putting it in my backpack.  Repacking the toiletries so they are ALL together.

Then I can go smoke and gamble and come back and do the rest.  Which is exactly what I did.

I lost $200 on Dancing Drums but I am not mad about it.

Back to the room to finish packing.  Then off to Sam’s Town.

Much like I am weaning myself off business class flights, I vowed to also wean myself off Uber/Lyft.  So I have to take the bus to Sam’s Town.  But do I really?  Let me just look.  Fuck a Lyft is only $17, I am doing it.

I love the Sam’s Town atrium, most especially at Christmas.

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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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