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

Aaaand we're back to Vegas again the first week of September. Seeing Coldplay at the new T-Mobile Arena. Been looking for an act to get me to check out the new joint and one of my fave bands is as good a reason as any, Flying in on a Wednesday, out on a Sunday. Bit of a late out again (after 7p) but the price for the flight was too good. Getting away from Jetblue this time b/c for some strange reason they were charging over $200 for every return flight on that Sunday. So it's United this time, $115 done and dusted on the fare. Whatever. It's an hour and a half flight, I don't need a damn entertainment system in my seat anyway. The seats aren't the greatest, but for about a hundie they're decently close. It's in the upper deck but at least it's a seat, no SRO this time like the Cure will be. Snuck in early on a Citi card pre-sale. I don't have a Citi card. Don't ask. Should be fun, Coldplay has slowly lost my attention in rece...

Little over a month to Vegas trip #2 of the year. Not really hyped yet. Should be a good one, most likely. Going to see one of my favorite bands, almost certainly for the last time. Can't imagine there'll be many more Cure tours after this one. Don't see Robert getting out there with teased out hair in his 70's. Money should be in a good place. Have $1500 socked away already and just need to double that with my last two checks before going. That with the $1K I'll have on the last day there from another paycheck will give me my full normal 1K per day complement. Besides seeing the show I don't really have much planned. I'll have a $150 resort credit at Aria so I'll likely book a couple dinner reservations there. As previously mentioned I'm probably going to spend a lot of time at Aria to stay away from the general fuckery of walking the strip in summer. Sure I'll spend most of the trip shuttling between Aria and Cosmo. Might try to make i...

I went to Vegas. I did things. This is a very delayed Post Mortem as I had no keyboard on my laptop. Killed it with liquid. This is a new keyboard on a new computer. EXCITING. Not the best, not the worst trip. As it's been a while I only have generalities in my head. Pretty much went according to plan, though there wasn't much of a plan. Flight in was good, not too busy, landed and went to MGM to hang out at Whiskey Down for a few hours. Worked over to NY to check in and had to wait around as nothing was available, so had a beverage in Nine Fine while waiting. Finally got up to room, typical clean, comfy NYNY room. 5 stays, 5 good rooms. Was on a corner so not much of a view. Went out, drank a lot in bars. Gambled a little, more or less broke even. I saw Beatles LOVE on the second day. Not quite as great as I remember from the first time, but still enjoyable. Ate at Portofino, it was meh. Went out, drank a lot in bars. Gambled a little, lost a lot. 3rd day, went out, ...

Added a day to my trip. 4 days now and most of a 5th, as I don't fly out until almost 8p on Sunday. Wew lad. Decided to stay in this weekend, save a couple hundie and be able to extend the trip. So now I fly in early Wednesday, have all day Thu/Fri/Sat, and can (hopefully, if I can work out late checkout) sleep in Sunday and be back in my hobbit hole by around 9:30p Sunday night. I've got $3700 going in to the trip, and I kept thinking that I would likely add another day while there. Booking it ahead of time saves a lot of money in that respect as I moved around my comp days to have the cheapest night be the one I added. Only $56, Mlife rate. So even with the devil Resort Fees I still come in under $200 for the room. Going a day later on the flight did cost me another $150, but I dare say that would be a lot less than if I booked it day before or day of. So all in $430-ish trip overhead, still less than all the freebies I'm cashing in. I can just take it a bit ea...

Pretty good haul of Mlife and myVegas freebies on this trip, unexpectedly. The 3 comped room nights goes without saying. Freeplay. I've mentioned the Beatles LOVE ticket, which is great. Then today I somehow hit the lottery on myVegas Loyalty Points (the things you can actually cash in for rewards) and have enough now to do a $25 food credit at Nine Fine Irishmen, one of my fave places in Vegas. The food's not out of this world, but it's good comfy pub grub, it's onsite at the resort I'm staying at (so no unnecessary roaming) and there's no minimum buy so I can get an entree and a couple drinks and have it be basically taken care of. I'll be going in there anyway, for fuck's sake. I will also still have enough LP's by the time I go to cash in a 2-for-1 beer flights reward at Monte Carlo next door as well. Good cheap "get fucked up" fuel. So the tally for this trip: -3 free nights at NYNY - $300 -Freeplay - $50 -Beatles LOVE ti...

OK, so I've added a LITTLE planning to the February trip. Going to see Beatles LOVE at the Mirage again. I saw it last year and it blew me away. It was my first Cirque show and I didn't have super high expectations but it was beyond great. I'm a big Beatles fan and honestly the music mixed with the imagery mixed with the acrobatics can (and did) bring a tear to the eye of a Beatles fan. It's an audio/visual assault, in the best way. The music surrounds you completely and the acrobatics are going on all over the place simultaneously. It's almost overwhelming to watch, which is why I'm going again, I know I missed a lot the first time. It's a free myVegas ticket again, up in the nosebleeds but honestly it's an intimate theatre and there's not really a bad seat to be had. I'm also centrally located so hopefully I'll be able to take more of it in this time. Little over $100 ticket value so a good use of my 40K myVegas LP's. Can maybe...

I'm thinking my May trip (so, so far away) might be a good time to test out my "stay in one resort for most of the damn time" theory of enjoying Vegas. The summer crowds in Vegas can give me, what are the words...a mental breakdown? I talked about it in my July '15 Post Mortem, it just seems like the best way to survive the summer heat and crush of summer crowds might be to just avoid both of them. Aria is a beautiful, basically self-contained resort that has plenty of bars, food and gaming to keep me occupied for the better part of four days it would seem, and though I will be leaving (at least) once to see The Cure next door at the Cosmo, I'm thinking there may be no real reason to leave aside from that. I'm sure I'll get around a bit on at least one of the days, but even there I may be able to avoid the crush of humanity on the Strip sidewalks by utilizing the Monte Carlo - Bellagio tram that runs on the backside of the resorts every 10 minutes...