December 28, 2014: Day Thirteen of Thirteen
I woke up very early to try and get the most out of my last day. Here is a picture of my last view of the sunrise over Las Vegas:
So pretty.
I woke up at Four Queens very early this morning. I had originally planned to go to Sunset Station for breakfast since I have a free buffet from MyVegas. But I kind of didn’t want to go. But I kind of felt like I should go. I have not left downtown since arriving here Thursday. Today is Saturday. I do need to go to the Strip and take photos. I sit around trying to decide what to do and my final decision is to go outside and take pictures of Fremont Street before all of downtown wakes up. Then I will figure out what I want to do after.
This morning I wake up at Orleans. I have a little bit of time to go gambling between Starbucks and checking out.
Orleans now has one HUGE Ultimate X video poker machine. It is enormous. I have wanted to play it the entire time I have been here, but it was always taken. Not today! I played a bit and doubled $40. Then I went off to play the nickel Keno game that gave me $942 yesterday. Some girl was sitting at it, on her cell phone, talking to whoever about “I am already in the casino, hurry up and come meet me!” Yes please. Hurry up so youse guys can take off and do whatever and I can have my machine. I eventually grew tired of losing money while waiting so back to my room I went.
I packed up and got ready to move. Today’s hotel is my last one of my stay. Four Queens. I booked this through Priceline Express Deals. It is easy to pick out the downtown hotels on here based on resort fees. Or lack of, like the Four Queens. So you can pretty much figure out what you are getting. Three nights, which include Christmas and a weekend came to $180 with tax included.
Today is not only Christmas Eve, it is also unfortunately day nine of thirteen, my trip is almost over.
I head downstairs at Orleans for breakfast with $25. Breakfast is actually at Starbucks because I have a $100 gift card. Starbucks is supposedly only two blocks away from Orleans but this is Las Vegas so that two block walk took about fifteen minutes.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014: Day Eight of Thirteen
I woke up insanely early today in my comfy Cosmopolitan bed and have what I recognize as an uncontrollable urge to go degenerate gambling. I want to gamble. I want to gamble NOW. I want to put every dollar I own into the pretty machines downstairs.
I have been pretty good for days, but that was only because I messed up so badly on day one that I had a choice to either continue doing things that would send me to the ATM, or to slow down gambling. I chose the latter but I am CRAVING a binge session on video poker.
The sun isn’t even up yet and I am FIENDING. What to do? I don’t really understand how I came up with this plan, but I decided to: Leave all my money in the room safe, walk to Walgreens across the Strip, get a Diet Pepsi, get $40 cash back and use that and only that to gamble. It seems like a pretty good idea. If I win, great. If I lose, the walk back to the room to get more money might cool me off. Right?
Monday, December 22, 2014: Day Seven of Thirteen
Today I wake up insanely early. I am at Cosmopolitan and I want to go next door to Bellagio to get some pictures of their conservatory done up for Christmas while the masses are still sleeping. Bonus: I got to watch the sunrise from my terrace:
Sunday, December 21, 2014: Day Six of Thirteen
I am growing more and more tired every day but still cannot sleep. Today’s excuse for getting up is that my room at Main Street Station came with a buffet offer that needs to be used before I check out. It actually came with two buffets, which worked out great because the credit was actually only good for two regularly priced breakfast buffets. Since I am here on a Sunday when there is no regular breakfast, only brunch, I would have had to pay the difference. But while brunch is more than a regular breakfast buffet, it is not more than two breakfast buffets, which is what my credit is for.
I am tempted to play after I eat. But again, since I paid for this room, I do not have to earn my keep. Any play I put through a machine is wasted since it will not be covering my room on this trip and I swear I am never coming back so I do not need to play for a future trip. This is the train of thought I need to keep me away from playing and I am happy to have it.
Saturday, December 20, 2014: Day Five of Thirteen
Today I am checking out of MGM Grand and moving to Main Street Station. Since I am fully paying for my room at MSS through an Orbitz sale, I do not have to play to earn my keep. Therefore, I have decided to use today to repair my budget by not gambling at all except for using my free play.
I called the Bell Desk at MGM to have my bag stored. Then I try and check out of the room. The televison check out is giving me an error (remember when it told me I was checked out days ago? Clearly this thing needs to be fixed.) However, MGM emailed me a link to check out on my phone. Guess what, doesn’t work and it gives me a 702 area code to call. I am not going to direct dial the MGM Grand so I pick up the phone in my room and dial the front desk. It took all about one ring before I realized that screw this, why am I putting effort in to check out of your malfunctioning hotel? So I leave my room without checking out. Interestingly enough, a few days later I discovered that I was charged for two night’s resort fee, not three. This probably has to do with the two different room confirmations. So I guess I owe MGM Grand $28, but damned if I am going to contact them to tell them that. Serves you right for having ridiculous resort fees to being with.
Thursday, December 19: Day Four of Thirteen
I swear, every trip I take to anywhere always has to have one day where everything goes wrong. Today is that day.
This morning I wake up at MGM Grand, and go about getting ready to start my day. This morning’s plans were to go to Green Valley Ranch to use a MyVegas reward, and then off to the spa.
This was all suddenly halted when I realized I did not pack one of my medications. How did I not realize this until today? Easy. I had a pill box leftover from my trip to Seattle a couple of weeks ago that I had been using. When it came time to refill the box this morning, no meds.
Thursday, December 18, 2014: Day Three of Thirteen
This morning I got up at 7:00 to get my day started. I planned to eat breakfast at the Bellagio buffet. I have not eaten here and years and wanted to treat myself.
I walked over from MGM since honestly, it is the quickest way to go. Public transportation here is awful. Even when it is available, it takes forever to go ten feet. I took pictures along the way.
