Post Mortem, Xmas 2021.

A fine trip. As usual with these now, some headlined highlights.

The Flights:

Not really through any of Allegiant's fault, the flight in was fucked up by its lateness and OAKness. Didn't get off the ground until nearly 11p and not out of the room to have some fun until 1a. Regardless of how much I think I'm saving I cannot do flights that late anymore. It just reduces the first night to zero fun. Flight out on Southwest was 2 hours late getting off the ground. Shitty waiting around in the airport for 4 hours under any circumstances, but even worse when it's fly out day and all you want to do is just get home and rest. Note to self, pay the extra damn money for the good flight times and SFO.

The Rooms:

The Conrad at Resorts World was 90% of a good stay. Got to choose the room ahead of time which was good, got a high floor away from the elevator as is my wont. Check in line when getting there was a little long for 12:30a on a Thursday but got through it quickly enough. Room was very nice, spotless, looked hardly worn or used at all. Nice bathroom, everything worked, good strip view, all fine. Then on the last full day there they didn't clean my room. I called down at 2p, nothing. Talked to a CS person at 5p, nothing. Talked to front desk at 10p, nothing. They did take 1 resort fee off of my room for the "inconvenience", but it really left a bad taste on what could have been a 10/10 stay. The problem was that I had to do all the reaching out, no one contacted me to tell me what was going on or why I couldn't get the damn housekeeping done. The key to good CS is not the issue but how you respond to it, and RW earned a 0/10 on that one. Probably would stay again but with a little foreboding.

Decided to tack on a night at the end of the trip (see below) so that was at Vdara, comped. Vdara still is what it was when I stayed there years ago; run down, used up and in desperate need of renovation. But for one night it filled the bill. It was center strip, free and easy through Mlife. Wouldn't stay there for a longer trip until they reno but for one night it was fine.

The Resorts:

Spent probably 60% of my time at RW. When I checked it out on the last couple trips I really wasn't that into it, but on this trip I kinda fell for it. There's a lot to like and a lot to do. It was busy and had a much better vibe that in past visits. Heavily Asian clientele, but that may have had to do with the time of year as much as anything else. The resort layout is easy to navigate and it's easy to move around in. Good mix of bars. Probably will be a do on most trips in the future. Other than that I mostly prowled the north strip. Lot of V/P, a little Wynn, a little Bellagio, Aria, Cosmo a couple times. Linq a few times. Made it down to the MB one day. Nothing adventurous.

The Gambling:

The winner (literally) of the trip. Was doing nothing Thurs/Fri/Sat on VP, nothing more than a 4OAK here and there. Wasn't saving much day to day. Sunday was the same until late in the day at the Crystals center bar I hit 4's with the kicker and walked away with a grand. Then walked into the high limit and won 800 more. Ended the day with over $2K in pocket and never opened the envelope for Monday. Then at MB Monday afternoon I farted around on a multi-play dime machine and won $900 more. Nice.

Would have been fine with this as it was, and made my way down to Palazzo to do the Electra thing, had a few minutes before opening so threw a hundy into a $1 VP machine and hit...my first Royal. In 43 trips, half of them playing mainly VP I finally hit a Royal. $4000. Then after getting paid out for that, with the $35 left in the machine I hit 4 aces and $800 more. Crazy. I hauled my unspeakably fat wallet upstairs and laid out what you see in the header pic above, $7K. At that point on Monday night I had nearly $9K in cash sitting around in the room.

Unfortunately and predictably, the old luck returned the rest of the trip. On Tues and the tacked on Wed (stayed an extra night due to the windfall) I hit nothing on VP and lost back $2500 over the two days. Still left town, for the first time in all those trips, cash up for the trip, by $20. So I covered all my gambling and most of my food/bev in winnings. Nice for once.

The Drinking:

Heavy. Lot of Belvedere, lot of half drunk beers to chase the Belvedere. Saturday was a rough night, I sweat through my bedding and was barely able to sleep. Just totally alco poisoned and dehydrated. Recovered decently the rest of the trip by trying to at least stay hydrated but I was pretty well used up by Wed night. Good that I had a few days to recover after coming back. Hit many of the usual spots, Fuel, the bars at RW including Alle' on 66 a few times, Electra a few times, Rosina once, Rock House a couple times, random places here and there. Bought a bottle of white that I dipped into in the mornings at the Conrad room.

The Food:

Had a couple good Japanese dinners at Kusa Nori in RW, on Xmas night and Sunday. Great wagyu pot stickers. Didn't really have anything else remarkable for the rest of the trip. Yard House once. Nothing else I can even remember, TBH. There were a couple days I didn't eat much of anything at all, which was bad. 

The Strip:

It was busy. Busiest I've seen in any Xmas trip I've taken. I think the old rules about "slow times" of the year for the strip have gone by the wayside right now. A couple nights, the taxi lines were so long I had to walk, or go to alternate valets. A few times I just said fuck this and went back to RW rather than deal with the crowds and crowded bars. I think COVID has just upended all the old rules about when it's busy. Adding to that were staffing issues all over the place. Too many people for not enough servers. If this keeps up there could be some real staffing issues brewing in that town. Something to keep an eye on.

So, to sum, some good, some not great but in all a positive trip. It was long and in some spots a little tiring but I on the whole had a good time and it didn't burn me out for Vegas, which is good. Now probably a couple months off and maybe up to 3+, depending on the work sitch which is likely to get quite a bit busier. Aiming for maybe a short Feb trip but might not be until April for something around the birthday.