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

This is going to be a baller-ass vacation. Private planes, 1100 sq ft suites in a 5-star resort, steaks and high-end sashimi. We be living  good  on the 55th birthday trip. It all starts with flying semi-private on JSX in and out. Flown with them a couple times before, SO much less hassle than dealing with the fucking major airports. Private terminal, no TSA, no bag worries, big cushy seats, free drinks. Hopping on in OAK and will just UBER it to and from. So much more evolved than being basically violated by TSA in the normal airports.  Then on arrival in LAS it's in the taxi and over to Resorts World. I have added early check-in to standby, so hopefully I can just roll straight up to the room at 1:30p. It's the One Bedroom Suite at the Conrad, 1100 sq ft of lovely at the north end of the strip. No resort hopping this time, one room, one unpack, one relax.  Trying to think back, pretty sure this will be the biggest room I've ever had in Vegas, I think Encore or Dela...

Holy shibbles. Just booked the 55th birthday room, and it's a dooz. I will be in a One Bedroom King Suite at the Conrad. This is big swinging baller. It's also $1500, but that's actually a sincere fucking bargain. For my dates right now, places like Wynn are wanting $400+ for a standard room, V/P even more, no other 5-star on strip is less than $170/night for a standard room, I'm getting a 1100 sq ft 2-room suite for a couple bucks less than that. Even with my MGM status I would have paid more for a standard room at Bellagio, for ex. Thank you Priceline. Have seen video walkthroughs, it's a gorgeous room and far better for a celebration trip than anything I was going to be able to book with any other resort group that week. Rates are high, must be a convention in town. Yes, $1500 all in is still a chunk of change but as previously stated, I'm only turning into a senior citizen once and damn it I'm going to leave middle age with a fucking bang.  I have 3 full...

Whelp, a couple weeks back from Xmas Vegas and I'm booked in the air for the return. JSX again this time, feeling like posh-ness for turning 55. Going in on a Saturday afternoon, early-ish, getting in around 1p. Quick Uber from the private terminal, then I can get the bag dumped and get settled for 5 full days over the Bday week. No resort-hopping this time. The out is around 1:30p Friday so no need for an early last morning wakeup, just breeze back to the JSX term with no TSA worries and it gets me home by around 4p with any luck. It's $530 fucking dollhairs but the lack of TSA hassle, relaxed vibe and the bag allowances make it so much more civilized than going through standard airlines. I'll have it paid off next month so no worries. Fuck it, it's my 55th Bday I'm going to splurge. No resort booked yet and it might be a while, I want to see what my booking packages look like with MGM when they flip in February, after all my play in December. I put through $30K co...

OK then. That was OK. Slightly strange, but a good time. Highlights by subject, as always, below. Flights: Both good, on time, but I did have to check my bag both times. Not ideal and on the in flight it freaked me out because I inexplicably left $7K in the checked bag. Luckily I had honest or oblivious bag chuckers on both ends or it could have led to disaster. As it turned out though no issues with United. Rooms/Resorts: Again no complaints. 1 night at Cosmo was good though all I really saw was the bed. Had the PH facing view. Then Delano for the last 6 nights was, again, fine. I'm an old pro on the MB campus now and the suite was a fine place to start and end the days. Resort was pretty mellow except the first couple days at MB, they had a football bowl team staying there so a lot of them around but otherwise pretty slow. Food/Bev: Had a few good meals, did a great bone-in pork chop at Blue Ribbon on night 2, good tapas on Xmas night at Jaleo and had good sushi at Kumi on the la...