Hello from Las Vegas!  If you missed the first part of this trip report, you can find it HERE.

I mentioned in it that I was going to attempt to not gamble on my first night.  Was I successful?

I flew out of JFK on JetBlue.  God damn I fucking love flying on Mint and laying down.  God damn I need to stop booking Mint flights and remain in economy where I belong.

In addition to no longer laying down on flights, I’ve also sworn off Ubering to the airport, so obviously I took an Uber to the airport.

I ran out of my apartment in a frenzy and didn’t really get to say goodbye to my kitchen or do a ceremonial last cigarette in my apartment.  I wont be smoking in the renovated apartment.  Yes I know smoking is gross.

The airport was in the Christmas spirit. There was also a DJ. Why.

And plane doggo.

Jetblue changed the color of their socks.  You cannot tell from this photo in the blue light, but they are black with MINT green ankles.  Aw.  This photo is upside down.  I am not going to fix it because fuck you.  And me too.

Menu.

Uber was over $40 from the airport to Cosmopolitan.  This is the first time I personally have seen Uber cost more than a cab.  So I took a cab.  I hate it because there is a credit card fee for cabs and I won’t pay that.  So I have to use cash and my soul dies paying cash and not getting points for the purchase.

Checking into Cosmopolitan – I made a decision that if they put me in the Chelsea tower, I would go right to bed.  If they put me in the Boulevard Tower, I would go to Walgreens.  I did not request either tower, left it to fate.

I got the dreaded thing where the check in person made a face when pulling up my reservation and then picked up the phone.  I wasn’t expecting a fountain view (unfortunately) but I was worried he would try to get move me to a city room.  Nope.  I got that bullshit “we are giving you an upgrade!” line about being moved to a room with a Japanese tub.  I hate those tubs.  They are death.

The balconies that face South are so hot in the daytime as the sun beats down on them.  I hate.

Somewhere in a recent trip report that is either on this blog, or on vegasmessageboard or is sitting in my drafts never posted – is me praising whoever designed the Cosmopolitan balcony doors because they truly block out all noise.  Well guess what.  Mariah Carey would like you to know that it must only apply to the fountain view side because my balcony door right now will not shut her up, nor will it shut up any of the gross music they are blasting somewhere below it.

Gone are the slippers and the ipads that never worked.  New is the wifi actually works again.  Also new is the thermostat in the room actually works.  It has been years.

Something was gurgling when I was sleeping – you know how sometimes another room’s plumbing comes up in yours.  I don’t know if it was one of the sinks, the shower drain or the stupid Japanese tub.  I saw zero evidence but when it happened, it was loud enough to wake me up.

I also hate that the Japanese tub requires you to step inside it, risking death, to close the blinds or the light gets into your room via the bathroom door.  Actually I just turned around and looked and LOL the bathrooms DO have doors that slide closed.  I have just never used it because I travel solo. God I am dumb.  Would have served me right to die in the tub.

Since I was given the Boulevard tower, of course –  I always ask for this and have been denied my last few trips.  Now I actually prefer Chelsea because of the walkway to Vdara where there is never a line for iced coffee at 5 AM – and I got Boulevard.  So I had to follow my rule and go to Walgreens.

I got a new card (bye bye Gold status) and was told my freeplay was $125.  Nope, it is $225.  Cosmopolitan is so glitchy and you don’t get confirmation emails and pulling up the reservation on the website or app either works or doesn’t work.  I had zero proof I booked an offer with $225.  I showed my current offers on the website RIGHT NOW showing $225 and was told I must have booked a different offer.  Nope.  But I wasn’t going to argue and decided this would just aid me in doubling down to not gamble on my first day.

I do not have a host and I have no proof of the offer being $225.  I also have 2 more MGM stays on this trip so let’s see what happens when I check into those?

I also want to say I posted about this on vegasmessageboard.com and someone responded that they had the same issue because they booked an offer when the offers updated on the 1st of the month, but the “book by” date had not changed so the system gave them the wrong offer.  That MIGHT have happened to me. I don’t remember either way if I checked the date so perhaps I did unintentionally book the lower offer.  I am a bit less mad, but still want to boycott.

I also got an email when I was on the flight for $50 free play at Rio.  Not sure if I will get that on top of the offer I am checking in for on Sunday.  So that may make it up.

Managed to wake up on time for work.  Starbucks had mobile ordering turned off.  Thank god the only people on line in front of me told me I could go in front of them.

I gambled a total of zero pennies on my way to and from Starbucks.  Wouldn’t it be hilarious if I boycotted gambling over the missing freeplay?  And since MGM owns every god damned casino, I cannot go next door.  Oh wait, I can cross the street.  Oh wait no, because FUCK YOU resort fees.  I won’t make Diamond so it seems like wasted money to gamble at CET since I cannot reap the benefits with comped rooms since they charge resort fees on comped rooms.

In an attempt to not be a creature of habit, I booked the buffet and hate myself for booking it at a time close to a meeting with my manager.  She does not care if I work from Vegas.  She does care about me being ontime for meetings though!  So I rushed through that.  I walked to and from the buffet via the second floor and didn’t even touch the casino.  This is so weird and kind of fun?  Let’s make it a game?  How long can I truly go without gambling on this trip?

Woof.

Once I finished work for the day, I wanted to go to sleep. I had a ticket to see Paranormal the Mind Reading Show at Horseshoe. I have bought tickets for this show a few times in my life and never made it.  It almost happened again today.  But I had been in Vegas for 17 hours without gambling so I thought it would be fun to see how long I could go.  Turns out the answer is 17 hours and 5 minutes.

I haven’t been in Vegas for 11 months and so many of my machines are missing.  Cosmopolitan moved or removed all three banks of Ultimate X machines I used to play, as well as my Dancing Drums.  Bellagio moved or removed most of their Keno machines.  I was able to find and play and lose on Keno at Bellagio.  I have a MyKonami freeplay I didn’t redeem because the line was too long so I will do that tomorrow, which is also when I will go the Holiday Gift Shop thing since I was too tired today.

Over to Horseshoe.  Lost $20 here and saw a good show.  This fucking asshole kept his huge hat on during the show, blocking the views of many people, including me.  Why do people do this?  Same question goes for women who wear their hair on top of their head at shows.  Do you think your huge bun is invisible?

After the show, I went back through Bellagio and stopped at Starbucks and then went back to Keno and lost.

I grabbed a sandwich at Snacks and took it to my room.  I could only eat half and attempted to put the other half in the refrigerator and dropped it on the floor.  So sad.

I went downstairs to the Cosmopolitan casino.  I should have stuck to my no gambling rule.  It was just one of those nights I could not get anything at all.  Like zero hits.  Nothing.  I went through today’s budget (which was smaller since I was expecting $225 in freeplay) and tomorrow’s and Sunday’s.  Wonderful, I hate myself.

I kind of feel trapped.  I would love to be in NYC right now (me, who hated NYC for decades?) seeing 3987483 shows, but I cannot go home because stupid renovation.   I have free will to be anywhere else in America if I choose to not be in Vegas for 3 weeks.  But I am not on vacation so I’d be spending more money and not even be able to see or do a lot.  I really loved last year when I was able to take a million side trips.  But I was on vacation.

Me: Stop whining, you live a life some people only dream about

Me: FINE.

It is 9:45 PM right now and I am going to attempt to proofread this about 5 times and then still post it with typos I won’t notice until I am fully awake tomorrow. Then it is off to bed.  I am looking forward to showering and washing all the bad luck away.

Side note – I never unpack, ever.  I unpacked for the very first time in my life on a cruise to Alaska back in May.   My sister came with me and I accepted that living out of a suitcase in a room that small with another person in it was not going to work.  I unpacked again when I was solo on a 2 week cruise to the Panama Canal.  Right now, more than half my shit is all over the room and I have to pack it all and move again on Sunday.

I used to include my daily itineraries in my trip reports so people could see how little I stuck to it, just for fun.  So I’ll bring that back starting now!  These were my plans for today.  Yes my itineraries are color coded.  No, I never actually follow them.  YES the quality of this screenshot sucks.  Sue me.  But do it now before I lose all my money gambling!

I did not do the HGS tournament, nor did I redeem either MyKonami freeplay.  Tuscany who?

To continue reading this trip report, click HERE.