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

Trip #2 of 2018 is booked. I had booked SLS previously on a really good deal, but bouncing around on Mlife I came across a 3-night comp to stay at MGM Grand in a Grand Tower King Strip View. Wut. BOOKED. I've spent a grand total of $200 in MGM resorts over the past year but for some reason I'm Comp Boy with them again. Shit I'll take it. So I cancelled SLS (too damn far north anyway) and will do the south strip thing in a resort I've never stayed in. I'm not a huge fan of the MGM but hey, comped is comped and the location is great for my roamings and interests. There are a lot of food/drink options there so if I'm feeling lazy I can just mostly hang around there if I want. Then I'm over to Palms Place into a Studio Suite for the last 2 nights. A good Express Deal on Priceline. Wasn't going to be able to do the myVegas comp thing as you can't book that back to back with an Mlife offer so had to plunk down real money but that PP room for $5...

Got the plan in place for the next Vegas-stravaganza. Flight on JetBlue probably for the last time, using up a travel credit. Crappy having to do the layover thing on a bloody 1 1/2 hour flight but the $75 flight credit makes it worth it. Bit terrified of having a tight connection on the flight in and missing the connector flight from Long Beach to Vegas so I plunked down another $60 for an earlier flight and a longer layover so less stress. If all goes according to plan I'll be in a little after 4p. My last experience with JB gives me little hope, but here's to luck. Tiny bit of hopping around resort-wise but eh. 1 night to kick things off on the Saturday at Tropicana. Will be there for the first time knocking another resort off my "never stayed" list. Will be getting in to room around 5p so probably won't see much of it, it'll be airport, cab to resort, check in then out to get falling down, then stumble back late no doubt. May see a bit of the room i...

Well Xmas trip is done and did. Came through more or less unscathed from the longest trip of my Vegas career. Flight in all fine, got in a little late but not badly. Had a long walk out from the gate but made it over to Mirage and out drinking by about 10:30. Mirage check in painless, room was fine, good sized and relatively modern aside from the very small and very 90's bathroom. Other than that though it was a fine place for a one-night stay. Unremarkable view. Made my way out and across the street to the Dorsey where shots and cocktails ensued, was fairly slow and the DJ was not my jam so I took off and over to the new Rosina at Palazzo. Very small place, small bar and maybe 4 tables. The same staff as the Dorsey crew so it was comfy and familiar. Was getting a bit tired and it was 1-ish so I jumped back over to Mirage and grabbed a not good eggs Benedict thing from the Pantry in there before heading up to the room and promptly left my jacket behind. Got a decent night...

In 24 hours I will be sitting in an airport bar waiting for my quick flight to LV. All set aside from some housekeeping tomorrow. Going in for a half day of work, out at about 1:30, hit the bank to pull out the Vegas funds and rent. Head home, quick shower, pack the rest of my shit then it's back in the car and over to the parking lot by the airport so the Audi can chill in safety for 7 days. Shuttle to the terminal, get through TSA a couple hours early then it's the waiting game for the (hopefully) on-time departing 7:55p flight. Always love the feeling of the hour or so in the airport before the flight takes off. Getting there plenty early takes the stress out of any possible security delays, and it's a great opportunity to relax, have a beer and get the head into a Vegas state; let all the day to day bullshit go and get amped for the upcoming fun. Then if all goes to plan it's on the ground around 9:30p, over to the Mirage in a cab by 10:00p, up to the room ...

Final countdown to Vegas-Xmas underway. Weeks/days flying by now. Not much left to do. One last laundry load to run, probably Monday or Tuesday. Kinda wishing I had a bigger backpack or real carry-on for the in flight on this one, I've never had to pack for essentially 7 fucking days before. My poor backpack is going to be heavy as fuck and bursting at the seams on the way in. I will have a lighter pack on the way out though as I have to trim weight and size to be able to take it with me on the Frontier flight back. They only allow "personal items" that fit under the seat or I'd have to pay as much as the flight ticket to take it on with me. So, I'll be shedding my undershirts as I go. 5 of them are probably 6-8 trips old anyway and are getting ragged so I'll just replace them when I'm back. No biggie. Everything else should squish down fine. No change on the money. It'll be enough to have a full, nearly normal save for each day. Looking back at...

It dawns on me that I'm starting to close in on having stayed in the bulk of the major resorts on-strip. At least most of the CET/MGM ones. The list as of the end of this year (and rolling updates): Stratosphere Riviera (RIP) Luxor and the Luxor Towers Excalibur THEhotel (Delano) NYNY Harrah's Flamingo Mandalay Bay Monte Carlo (RIP) Cosmopolitan Palms  Aria Planet Hollywood Paris Bally's Mirage Caesars Palace Park MGM MGM Grand Tropicana Vdara Palms Place That's a good chunk of what's out there. In terms of un-stayed major resorts that would leave: Venetian/Palazzo (would love to but pricey) Wynn/Encore (would love to but pricey) Circus Circus (LOL no never) SLS (probably not, SO north, see what happens after new ownership takes over) Waldorf Astoria (unlikely due to expensive and no casino) The Linq (quite possible at some point) Cromwell (would like to but it's pricey for smallish r...

The money is set for Vegas, and it may get slightly better. Got the Xmas bonus very early this year, it's the same as always with the caveat that instead of a big stack of ones like the last several years it's in the form of a check with taxes taken out - so it's $425 this year. Eh, the other $75 would be nice but I also don't want to be having them break the law for it. So that allows the total save to be a respectable $4570. That will mean $530 (see below) to spend in transit to Vegas and on the first short night, then exactly $700/day for the rest of the 6 days. My goal is always to have $1K per day but with the long-ass trip this time that was never going to happen. As stated previously, the level of gambling I do anymore makes the 7 bills enough for every day. I'll also have around another $2000 if needed on CC's as a backup, so it'll be plenty. My math could be fuzzy too (fuck math) so there might be a little extra to work with when I finally pu...