It's Not A Bender, It's A Lifestyle.

Finally broke down and will see my first Cirque show in Vegas. Booked a seat on Saturday the 28th to see Beatles Love at the Mirage. It's the night my buddies who are in town will be seeing a Widespread Panic show at the Hard Rock (no, thank you and NO, thank you) so the timing is good. I also am a huge fan of (duh) The Beatles but also of the Love album which is really amazing. Cirque pretty much owns Vegas show-wise, for the most part all the MGM properties have a Cirque show, and they are all pretty long lasting so I suppose it's time to finally find out what all the fuss is about. This was another myVegas reward redemption. A $104 ticket, free, just for playing a goofy slot game on my phone for a half hour a day. I imagine in the month I have before hitting town I'll have cashed in a couple more (likely liquor related) rewards so it'll be another nice freebie haul this trip. The free room for 3 nights (going now-a month beforehand for $669), the $100 in slo...

The Riviera will close in May. Being turned into more Las Vegas Convention Center space. Not really sad to see it go, and not really surprised that it's happening. I stayed at the Riv on my 3rd trip to Vegas in 2012. It was very underwhelming. The check in line on a Saturday night was an hour long. The place looked like it hadn't been renovated in decades. Garish carpet, dingy brass fittings everywhere, musty. It looked like it was stuck in 1978. The rooms were no better. Smelly, small, with awful old carpet. Tiny bathroom. No view. It was very cheap though, and I suppose that's why it stuck around as long as it did. It certainly had a terrible location, almost at the very end of the Strip. Very light foot traffic up there. Being in the shadow of the half-built Fontainebleau couldn't have helped either. Probably says a lot too when the biggest attraction on your neon marquee is your food court. It felt like I was slumming when I was there 3 years ago, I can...

Little over a month until Vegas trip #1 of 2015. Really not that into it yet. Maybe it's still the hangover from the last crappy trip but any sort of excitement has yet to set in. Maybe it's because it's a trip in March. Maybe it's because I'm going to be tied down a little (but in reality probably not much) by the fact I'm not going to be there alone this time. Maybe Vegas is just becoming...routine? I'm checking all the Vegas blogs every day and saving up the money diligently and all the usual prep is happening, but it feels a bit like going through the motions. Starting to think I should take a trip somewhere else this summer, maybe do that US Open trip I've thought about for years. Maybe go to a Giants road trip city somewhere east coast and catch a couple games. Chicago? Mets? Dunno. Hoping this upcoming Vegas trip will break the slight doldrums I'm in about...Vegas trips right now.  Eh, when it gets down to a couple weeks...