Post Mortem, Xmas 2025, and Math

Yeah, OK. That was by far not the best trip ever, but also not the worst. Highlights:

Flights: 

OK on the in, a little late to be flying in really, kinda wasted the day to not even be in the airport until like 8:30p. The flight left on time though and I got there with no issues. On the out, on the day after Xmas, there was a 1 hour delay due to weather in SF. Not much to do or say, just sat there at the gate and dealt with it.

Resorts:

Love love loved Fontainebleau. Beautiful room. Oblique strip view, everything new and clean and beautiful. Hoping to continue to get offers from there to stay, even if it's only a couple nights. Especially based on the MGM sitch detailed below.

Mandalay Bay for the other 4 nights was...fine. Gotta say, MB is one of my fave resorts but it's time for a refresh. A lot of dinks and dents in furniture, stains, nothing is automated in the room, etc. It's just showing its age. It still works but it's not up at Aria or Bellagio standards anymore like it was maybe 5 years ago.

Drinking:

Heavy. I eased into things on the first night but then on I think the 3rd night I way overdid the Belvedere and had a sleep night of sweat. Outgassed all night then stayed in bed til like 1p. Other than that it was mostly fine, I was able to pull decently long nights most of the time and didn't need to nap the whole trip. Hung out w/my buddy Evan at his new bar a couple nights, that was fun.

Food:

Did the 2 reservations as planned, had the steak at Bourbon Steak on the Monday, it was a good filet but not much vibe going on the in the place, it was dead and service was meh. Then did the fantastic Bolognese at Carama on Xmas night which is always ace. Other than that mostly just ate here and there, had hand rolls a couple times at the Japanese place in the Aria food court, quite good, can't really remember much else. Like always it was a meal a day and that was about it. Not enough to soak up the alcohol.

Gambling/Rewards: 

Mostly ass, I did hit 2 hand pays on the trip including a Royal (on the last night, again, like last Xmas) which helped, but I still blew through 4K in gambling funds. Came home with $1500 but put that immediately toward paying off the CC bash I accrued during the week.

Conclusion/Math:

So. Not a terrible trip, I stayed within the budget and racked up a lot of MGM points. Ok, right? Then I looked at the math. Last year I fed $53K into VP and slots at MGM resorts. My win/loss was -$7500. I hit *one* MGM hand pay the entire year. For that I earned MGM Gold status, which gets me waived resort fees (maybe $500 a year, tops?), free parking (which I don't use), and a $100 resort credit. The gambling also does, of course, earn me comped nights on every trip, but does all that add up to $7500 of cash loss? If not for the other MGM rewards I get from the CC this whole thing would make zero sense.

Yes, it was a bad gambling year. Other years I have broken even and even made a small profit from gambling at MGM. But this trend can't continue. $7500 is a significant chunk of what my middle-class ass makes. If the Birthday trip (that I'm going to struggle to be able to save for) is another financial wash, it might be time to start rethinking my vacation plans.

We shall see.