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.

For the first Vegas leg, I am at Cosmopolitan for four nights.  I get to sleep in none of these since I have to work.  Then it is off to work from Long Beach for one day.  Then back to back to back cruises, before returning to Las Vegas.

Second leg, I begin at Fontainebleau, which I have been misspelling wrong since the property name was first announced .  I got an offer for two comped nights.  They must be desparate because I had barely played here the one time I visited.  And the offer was good for weekends.

I am spending one night, although I booked two.  I can then sleep in and not have to check out at 11:00 AM.

Then it is off to Virgin, where I have never stayed.  They sent me an offer “Inactive 2025” that came with 3 comped nights, $120 free play and $55 slot play.   I had only visited here one time, and the dude at the Dunkin Donuts (which I believe is gone) kept insisting I could not pay with the app because he didn’t have a scanner.  But he was leaning his hand on the scanner during this conversation.  Then he gave me cow’s milk instead of oatmilk so fuck this place.

I booked three nights but am only staying two.  The extra night means I can work until 5:00 EST without being homeless.

Then to The D.  I haven’t stayed here in maybe 5 years.  I used to stay here every trip.  Then I began burning them and the offers stopped.  I got back in their good graces but I cannot get my offers to go above 2 nights.  I hate staying places for 2 nights.  Well I hate BOOKING places for only 2 nights.  The whole work thing means I can only sleep her one night.  On night two, I can’t because then I would have to move on day three and I cannot do that in the middle of a work day.

On some trip in recent-ish years, a host from The D reached out to me after I went completely degenerate.  I thought this is it – this is where I get my three night offers back.  Nope.  And if you are wondering why I did not ask the host to book my trip for three nights, it is because I don’t want to.  I can never guarantee any play.  I don’t want to go through a host and show up having lost too much to play to earn my keep.

From the D I move to Bellagio for three nights.  I am excited about this because I just want to sleep in their marshmallow beds.

Then back downtown to El Cortez.  I almost booked Fontainebleu here but really didn’t want to.  I love El Cortez, it is so nostalgic for me.

Then the last hotel of the trip is Vdara.  I can do my laundry in my room – HUGE thrill.  And return home with clean clothes.

My Boyd offers are completely beyond gone, which is both frustrating and fine.  Frustrating because I used to stay at Boyd properties multiple times per trip.  Fine because eh.  At time of writing, I can get some comped nights at Sam’s Town (with $10 food and $10 slot.) I went back and forth on this so many times.   If I had to stay at Sam’s Town, I would back out El Cortez.  I would rather stay at Sam’s than El Cortez.  I want the Christmas atrium.  But I also do not want to give Boyd any play since they yanked my offers.  But I could go and burn them.  But fuck them.  But way easier to grab breakfast before work than at El Cortez.  But FUCK THEM.

I have a very long list of new to me restaurants I want to try, almost all of them require me paying my money for meals rather than using comps.  I think it is time to go back to the begining when everything in Las Vegas was new and exciting to me.

I am already fully booked in 2026 and have started planning out 2027.  This is a sickness, yes.  But a good one.