Post Mortem Xmas 2019.
Whew, that was a trip then, wunnit?
Some ups and some downs on this one. Will eschew the normal daily blow by blow because it was a 7-day trip and it would take a week to write this post, and ain't nobody need that. Will go with ups and downs.
Ups:
Food - ate well on this trip and only one bad meal had. Lunch at Jaleo great as always, had the filet at the newly reopened Delmonico, always awesome. Had a surprisingly good Bolognese at Il Fornaio in NYNY, and another good pasta dish in the lobster ravioli at Carbone. Also went downscale but good a few times with the buffalo chicken nachos at Nacho Daddy, the very good tenders at Twin Peaks and Yardhouse and finally made it into Secret Pizza at Cosmo which was pretty solid. The only not great meal was the supposed to be best one at Jean George, had the lamb chops and they were a fatty gristly mess. Other than that well done on the foodz.
Rooms - Mirage for 2 nights was serviceable if bland as always but the room at Cosmo was frickin' great. I was offered the upgrades to suites but decided to stick with the City room and got a winner. Had the great fountains view on a high floor and was able to check in super early on Sunday morning. The rooms have been remodeled since I was there a couple years ago and they are really nice for a base room. Plenty of space and everything top shelf. Great base of operations for the 5 days there.
Drinking - had mostly personable and good bar service for most of the trip. There were a few of the jaded people haters in there behind a few bars but I just one and done'd them and didn't stress about it. Rematch, Fuel, Electra, Dorsey, Vesper winners as always. The new Vesper is quite nice, like what they did with it. Subtle changes for the better. Didn't spend nearly as much time there as I thought I would since I was staying in the resort but still good. Saw a lot of the old standbys at the Sam Ross trilogy.
Downs:
Allegiant fucking Airlines - I shit you not the flight into Vegas that was supposed to be on the ground at 10p didn't arrive until 1:30a. I sat in fucking OAK for 7 hours waiting for that flight to take off. Total shit show. Ruined the first night in town 100%, all I had time to do was grab a couple shots and a burger when I finally got into Mirage before collapsing out from the tiredness and stress. Asshats.
Walking the strip - this is something that has been getting progressively worse year by year on Xmas week, the strip seriously turns into little Pakistan. It's ENTIRE FAMILIES of like 20 people just taking up every bit of real estate on the sidewalks doing nothing but just walking around as slowly as possible taking pictures of everything. Made it nearly impossible to get anywhere in a normally fast fashion walking. Luckily they hardly ever went into bars or restos but when they did they were rude and inconsiderate of the staff and didn't tip. Note to future self, build in taxi money for going ANYWHERE on strip next year.
Gambling - I played almost exclusively Vid Poker while there and hit a grand total of two 4OAKS all week. And that's it. I went with $4100 cash, came back with $700, the rest went poof. No fun whatsoever, I was the king of 3 of a kinds and 2 pair. I also wasn't smart and spread the gambling between Cosmo and Mlife when I should have put it all into Mlife maximizing points. Is what it is, but Vegas you have to give us a little to keep us interested or we won't gamble any more. Another trip like that and I'll be dropping my gamble budget down to peanuts. Only good part was adding to my coin-in at Mlife somewhat, over $17K for the year last year. most I've spent there by far since like 2013. Should help with getting to Mlife Gold and better offers this year.
Atomic Saloon - after seeing Opium (by the same crew) a couple years ago this thing is a far cry. It as barely entertaining and seemed to have no new ideas compared to Opium. Can't recommend.
Star Wars - you're dead to me.
Girls - they don't see me.
All in all a plus trip, certainly a better use of 7 days of a 12-day vacation than sitting in my underwear watching Youtube. A great room, some good times had and some more memories for the Vegas file in my skull. Aside from being robbed by VP machines nothing really bad happened and I came through OK physically despite slowing down a bit the last day. Good way to blow out the decade.
80 days to trip one of the 2020's.
Some ups and some downs on this one. Will eschew the normal daily blow by blow because it was a 7-day trip and it would take a week to write this post, and ain't nobody need that. Will go with ups and downs.
Ups:
Food - ate well on this trip and only one bad meal had. Lunch at Jaleo great as always, had the filet at the newly reopened Delmonico, always awesome. Had a surprisingly good Bolognese at Il Fornaio in NYNY, and another good pasta dish in the lobster ravioli at Carbone. Also went downscale but good a few times with the buffalo chicken nachos at Nacho Daddy, the very good tenders at Twin Peaks and Yardhouse and finally made it into Secret Pizza at Cosmo which was pretty solid. The only not great meal was the supposed to be best one at Jean George, had the lamb chops and they were a fatty gristly mess. Other than that well done on the foodz.
Rooms - Mirage for 2 nights was serviceable if bland as always but the room at Cosmo was frickin' great. I was offered the upgrades to suites but decided to stick with the City room and got a winner. Had the great fountains view on a high floor and was able to check in super early on Sunday morning. The rooms have been remodeled since I was there a couple years ago and they are really nice for a base room. Plenty of space and everything top shelf. Great base of operations for the 5 days there.
Drinking - had mostly personable and good bar service for most of the trip. There were a few of the jaded people haters in there behind a few bars but I just one and done'd them and didn't stress about it. Rematch, Fuel, Electra, Dorsey, Vesper winners as always. The new Vesper is quite nice, like what they did with it. Subtle changes for the better. Didn't spend nearly as much time there as I thought I would since I was staying in the resort but still good. Saw a lot of the old standbys at the Sam Ross trilogy.
Downs:
Allegiant fucking Airlines - I shit you not the flight into Vegas that was supposed to be on the ground at 10p didn't arrive until 1:30a. I sat in fucking OAK for 7 hours waiting for that flight to take off. Total shit show. Ruined the first night in town 100%, all I had time to do was grab a couple shots and a burger when I finally got into Mirage before collapsing out from the tiredness and stress. Asshats.
Walking the strip - this is something that has been getting progressively worse year by year on Xmas week, the strip seriously turns into little Pakistan. It's ENTIRE FAMILIES of like 20 people just taking up every bit of real estate on the sidewalks doing nothing but just walking around as slowly as possible taking pictures of everything. Made it nearly impossible to get anywhere in a normally fast fashion walking. Luckily they hardly ever went into bars or restos but when they did they were rude and inconsiderate of the staff and didn't tip. Note to future self, build in taxi money for going ANYWHERE on strip next year.
Gambling - I played almost exclusively Vid Poker while there and hit a grand total of two 4OAKS all week. And that's it. I went with $4100 cash, came back with $700, the rest went poof. No fun whatsoever, I was the king of 3 of a kinds and 2 pair. I also wasn't smart and spread the gambling between Cosmo and Mlife when I should have put it all into Mlife maximizing points. Is what it is, but Vegas you have to give us a little to keep us interested or we won't gamble any more. Another trip like that and I'll be dropping my gamble budget down to peanuts. Only good part was adding to my coin-in at Mlife somewhat, over $17K for the year last year. most I've spent there by far since like 2013. Should help with getting to Mlife Gold and better offers this year.
Atomic Saloon - after seeing Opium (by the same crew) a couple years ago this thing is a far cry. It as barely entertaining and seemed to have no new ideas compared to Opium. Can't recommend.
Star Wars - you're dead to me.
Girls - they don't see me.
All in all a plus trip, certainly a better use of 7 days of a 12-day vacation than sitting in my underwear watching Youtube. A great room, some good times had and some more memories for the Vegas file in my skull. Aside from being robbed by VP machines nothing really bad happened and I came through OK physically despite slowing down a bit the last day. Good way to blow out the decade.
80 days to trip one of the 2020's.
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