Post Mortem, December 2020.

Back from the yearly Xmas trip. Things happened.

Flights: 

Both Alaska and both fine. On time and no drama. No seat mates either flight and no 'rona concerns. Forfeited the flight credit on Allegiant not taking the Sunday flight back but it was a very good decision.

Rooms:

Cosmo was the reliable Terrace Studio for the first 3 nights. Had the view facing PH this time, quite nice. Had a look at the ice skating rink. Room great as always, this resort and room have cemented themselves as my go-to now for trips and I'm sure I'll be there many more times. Bellagio I had the Resort Tower King, non fountains view, so a view of the side of Caesars and of the Rio/Palms. Pretty meh. Bellagio has a kind of old, run down feel. Everything is in need of renovation; wallpaper peeling, old furniture, barely working shower. Best way I can describe it is it's your grandma's idea of a luxury room. Vegas has moved on and Bellagio needs to keep pace. Nice enough for $20/night though I guess. Both were quiet and comfortable and all in all 2 fine spots for 6 nights.

Food:

Pretty much as planned, kept most of my reservations, and used various methods of discount to not have to pay full price for many of them. No meals really stood out. I wasn't very hungry Xmas night so just had an app at Delmonico not the filet. STK steak was very good but didn't treat my stomach well the next day. Best meal I had was probably a breakfast burrito at C&C on Monday, ironically. To sum it was enough to keep me going and didn't spend much on any of it.

Drink:

WAY too many caffeinated drinks. Note to self for future trips...lay off. It was in reaction to the lack of sleep I'll detail below, but, yeah. Other than that it was the normal shots of vodka with a beer I would half drink then throw away. Had a few Amaretto rocks during the trip which is kind of becoming a thing for me. In general it was drinking pretty much sun up to sun down with no real break, which could have helped. My "cool down days" on longer trips might need to come back.

Body:

Did not do well, at all. I was consistently underslept and tired throughout the trip. I constantly was fighting a feeling of fatigue, and I think a good part of the problem was the shitty street-bought blow I was doing little key bumps of all trip. It wasn't letting me sleep. I would just toss and turn and get a half hour here and a half hour there. The constant drinking was no help I'm sure. I feel like my body just isn't used to benders right now especially as I'm not doing any of them here at home any more. Need to stay away from the blow and the caffeine on trips going forward so I can have something like a normal sleep pattern. Missed out on a lot of Vegas nights this time.

Gambling:

Very meh. Hit nothing for the first couple days and was bumping up against my daily spend those days. Was just blowing through money and slowing my roll to not stop having fun. Then by Wednesday I hit a four aces and started to hit a 4OAK here and there to do a little better. Had a full day's spend banked by Thursday night. Came home with $1200 out of $5200 so $4K gone. Not all of that was gamble spend, and not the worst trip ever but man, at some point it sure would be nice to fucking come home up, for once. Next time! Didn't do as well as planned on points, still have a way to go to get to Identity Gold, but got closer. Turns out Mlife Plat might have been in play since they bumped the expire date back several months, but ID is the one I want anyway.

Experience:

Town was deadsville. Mon-Wed hardly anyone there and anything open, Th-F a little busier but then that became the issue as it seemed like everyone who WAS there was stupid, and that annoyed me. Ran into the same problem as on earlier trips this year which was lack of things to do. No shows, most bars closed, food places shut down early, just a shell of the normal Vegas experience that I, you know, go to fucking Vegas for. I felt like I just rotated between the few places on strip that were open, and even those places were kind of sad to be in. I have to just come to expect it now until conventions come back. It's not Vegas RN.

Overall:

BUT, as I've said it ad nauseum, even a middling Vegas trip is better than 6 days in my hobbit hole. This was that. It could have been better but it could have been worse, as is sort of the epitaph for the whole year would read for me. When I was awake and alert I had a few good times and it was by no means wasted time.

So next...had considered a 10th anniversary trip for February but I think that's just too soon right now. I'm going to keep an eye on flights and rooms for my birthday and that might be the next trip at this point. Unless I get some Joebux from the Feds I'm unlikely to have the funds for an earlier trip this year anyway with no tax refund coming. Also going to go back to weekend trips in the short term. Until Vegas gets it's weekday groove back there's no reason to even be there Sun-Wed.