Category Archives: Las Vegas Trip Report

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

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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The One Where I Go To Las Vegas AGAIN

Today is the day, I arrive in Las Fucking Vegas.  I am going to be gone from home for 40 days, HERE is where I posted all the places.

JFK was insanely empty, I have never seen it that empty before.   My flight was also pretty empty but have no fear, we still had the required screaming baby.  

We left early and landed early.  I don’t really know what time either of these things were?  I am so mentally disconnected from everything that is not my upcoming cruise that I cannot focus.

I decided to take a cab to Cosmopolitan and the driver asked me if I was here for F1.  Eff no.  Turns out it starts on Thursday.  Guess who has to get back to the airport on Thursday fuck everyone.

The Strip is ready:
I get to Cosmopolitan and it is past midnight.  I have not one but two emails from Cosmopolitan saying my online checkin failed and letting me know to go to the front desk.  I didn’t think mobile checkin worked for Cosmopolitan at all so these emails are concerning.  They were from human names, not a distro.

I attempt to check in and as is normal when checking in, the person helping me has to call someone.   This often happens when you check in late at night because your room type is probably gone and they need permission to move you.  Sometimes upgrade you.   But with the pairing on those oddball emails, I find myself getting a bit paranoid.   He gets me a room and I need to swipe my card for incidentals and it declines.  Um.  Let’s try again.  Declines again.  Oh dear.  I have more card with me so I just use a different one and I am given room keys yay and for the first time since MLife took over Cosmopolitan, I got Strip view!   Oh how I have missed this!

I called my credit card company first thing and they said they needed to verify some potential fraudulent activity.   First one, Cosmopolitan trying to make a charge for $0.  Second one, Cosmopolitan trying to make a charge for $600 (that would be the incidentals.).  So that was all fixed, my card is back.  And let’s fucking go?

I decided that despite it being incredibly late and I have to work in the AM, I am going to be a good girl and go to Walgreens for water.  I do this and come back and play.  Whoops?  I will only play $100 of my $225 free play.  Okay no I won’t.  I will play it all. Is that BUFFALO?  OH LET ME PLAY SOME MORE.  

Finally I am at $245 which is exactly $225 free play + my $20 I started with so I cash out and go and eat at The Henry.  The server was wonderful, the food was not that great.  The hashbrowns are normally in a crispy square.  Tonight they were oozing oil and brown nowhere.  The server was fantastic though. Shout out for the extra iced tea to go I LOVE YOU.

I was going to go to bed now but saw single line quarter Double Double Bonus video poker and gave it a whirl.

Now it is definitely bed time, I can barely keep my eyes open.

I am going to bed up $260 which is a fantastic day to end day one.

Good night.

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

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.

So here is me responding to THIS post: Continue reading

Las Vegas Trip Report: The Finale

Good last morning Las Vegas!  Today is day 18 and it is also my last day of this trip.   This trip has been so unusual for me.  I wasn’t supposed to be here.  I didn’t LOVE being here.  I hated working from here.  My time not working was sort of a let down, specifically not having a marshmallow bed at Vdara.  I only had a Bellagio fountain view one time.  I am kind of ready to go home for the first time in my life.  The only dread I feel about going home is having to unpack all the stuff in my apartment I packed for the kitchen renovation.

As soon as I wake up, the texts start from JetBlue.  Flight delay. Flight not delayed.  Flight delayed again!  Whoops, no it isn’t.  Yes it is.  This is getting annoying.  When I originally booked my flights, I then was myself and rebooked a million times.  I settled on flying home on January 1 in the afternoon but realized that this was a terrible idea to get home late and start January 2 working in my apartment, with the bulk of the apartment packed in boxes that are filling the apartment.  So I tried to change it back to fly home on the 30th and now prices are skyhigh.  But there is a flight with a layover in Boston – Mint seat for $709.  Yes please.  So now I am on that flight, with the nonstop delay texts.

I tried to change the flight to make it stop but they tried to charge me. So no.

I got dressed and went to the buffet at Cosmopolitan. I am still fucking thirsty from Wynn other other day.

After, I sit down to play Ultimate X.  Is this my last time playing?  It might be?   Some dude was playing the one next to MY machine but he is also playing on my machine.  I didn’t realize this until I came around the corner to ask if he was playing MY machine and saw that not only is he, he just hit a dealt full house on ten play quarters.   He cashes out and lets me have it.  I asked him if he wanted his multipliers and he did not because it is too expensive to play one hand.   He also told me he left multipliers on other games on this machine if I want to find them.  So  now I have no choice but to bet $25 to get his multipliers, which sucks because these machines will only let you play max bet.  You cannot bet just 5 coins a hand to get the multipiers.  Each bet is $25.  And next thing you know, I am playing ten play quarters no no no no NO you cannot even afford this on nickels stop it.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: Sheep and Aces

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

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

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

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: Merry Christmas

Merry fucking Christmas from Las Vegas!

I am in pain. My back hurts. I want to sleep forever. I can only get a breakfast reservation at 8:30.  This is why you booked FN Blue remember? To have a room today that you could sleep in. Oh well.

I should go to a spa today to address the back pain. But I’ll likely just gamble and hurt my back more from sitting for hours yay.  Actually I imagine the only spa with appointments available on Christmas is very expensive and the funny thing is that since I won money, I am less willing to spend it.

I’m checking into Fremont today. I’ve read they now charge an early check in fee. Sign me up, I’ll pay it.  I’d rather pay the $25 fee and put my handpay in the safe than risk losing it.

After eating breakfast at Jardin, I went to see Cleo!  She did not like me at all today.  So sad.

I had $100 for my Ultimate X and a jerk was on her.  I played Buffalo instead and as I hit zero, jerk got off my machine.  Fuck it, let me go get $100.

I turned the $100 into $100 and cashed out.  I’ll be back to visit her this weekend.

Chilled in my room before checking out, completely exhausted.  As I read the little notes I leave in here throughout the day and the word “exhausted” was typed 3984738 times.

My Uber driver was annoying.  He pulled up in the wrong spot and acted like I was the asshole.  Then he kept mansplaining how to take an Uber to the airport on New Year’s Eve.  Over and over.  The more I kept saying “yes, I know” the more he kept talking.  It would get quiet for a minute and he would start all over again.  I am not even going home on New Year’s Eve.

Then the guy who checked me into Fremont was also annoying.  He went on a monologue about how Americans are rude.  For a very long time.  I don’t think he was talking about me, but who knows.  I was the only person on the line and he was on the phone so I stood on the line.  I did not approach the front desk until he hung up the phone and called me over.  But blah blah yammer yammer Americans rude.

I’ll post photos of my room when I check out because it is an odd room type I have never seen and I would hate to post it and (a) find out there is only one of these rooms and (b) some weirdo creep has slept in it before and now knows my room number.

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Las Vegas Trip Report: I Love Encore

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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