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

Quickie trip added for Labor Day week. Going to get there on Sunday early (9a), have 9/10ths of Sunday, then all of Monday and Tuesday before a late morning fly-out on Wednesday. Since it's Labor Day off, just losing/using 2 vacation days and back to work on Thursday. No real reason to go aside from I can . I won't cost me that much and I frankly can afford it now. The job is going well (slightly stressful but I'm a rock star there), I'm making good money and I deserve/need a couple days off now and again to keep from getting into a 4 month no-Vegas rut, which I was facing until the Xmas trip. Great room and flight rates made it easy to book. $109 round trip on United, and only a little over $200 all-in for the 3 nights at Mandalay Bay. Order of magnitude less than coing in on the Friday before the holiday like I was looking at. Won't need as much cash from the bank this time either, as most of the incidentals (room, food, drink) will go on the Mlife CC. ...

A fun one, more interesting than most and for once I didn't run out of steam. Got in more or less on time, headed over to MGM to check in. Made my way up to the 9th floor West Wing room. WW gets a lot of hate as the rooms are small and older but they were fine for me. Coming from the hole I live in even a 300 sq/ft room seems like a palace to me. Strange layout, no real view and definitely showing it's age but again no problem for a single guy. Was easy enough to get in/out of and elevators were never too packed even on 4th w/e. Got out to the strip while the sun was still declining, hit a couple spots to liquor up then went up to Twin Peaks to get some food. Sort of meandered about after that not doing much memorable. This whole night pretty foggy really, made my way down, already pretty drunk to Fuel and hung out there for a long while. Met a girl from Kentucky who was kind of boring but we sort of hit it off I guess? She ended up having to leave to meet some arriving fri...

Yeah no. -4 nights in MGM Grand West Wing room, $482, would be $1263 to book non-Mlife, $781 saved. -$75 Freeplay via myVegas rewards. -myVegas reward for a dinner buffet at Bellagio - $39 value. -Possible $50 Restaurant.com cert value. So "savings" of over $900 but if I hadn't had the discount from Mlife on the MGM rooms I wouldn't have booked it at all. Factor in the rape from the flight cost of $450 and it's by no means a bargain trip worthy of a Freebies post. The buffet would be my first in Vegas, we'll see if it fits my spur jinglin' that day, it has to be Thursday or not at all. So decidedly meh, but I suppose the moral of the story is - I'm going to Vegas for 4 nights instead of sitting around in the City in my underwear. So there's that.

Since Las Vegas is now, has been and apparently always will be the sole focus of my leisure life, and since I seem to have settled on MGM resorts as the focus of that focus, I have signed up for an Mlife Mastercard. I've dabbled with the other resort companies in town. I tried to single-play Cosmopolitan for a year, nothing really came of it tier-wise or comp-wise. I saw some decent resort credit accrue but for me the name of the comp game is free rooms, and they haven't so much as given me a sniff. I'm in Grazie with V/P but they also don't know I exist. I had a good run of about a year with Caesars Rewards hooking me up with rooms, but I always low-or-no played them so they finally caught on to me and cut me off. MGM and Mlife, despite some ups and downs, has consistently been the resort group that has taken care of me with stay and play packages that fit my needs at resorts I like to be at, mostly (looking at you, Bellagio and Aria). It was more so that way whe...

Happy happy good times in T-minus two weeks. If the flight's on time I should be at the resort around 6:30p, with any luck I'm checked in, unpacked and out to the strip by 7p. Again, fairly easy-going first night probably as I will have just a half-day's spend, so maybe a reasonable dinner, some drinkies and little to no gambling. Not going to overdo it on the first night by design. Rest of the trip is the full 3 weekend days, and I plan to really just wing it. I'm really likely to just pick a direction in the morning and see where the days take me. Will have a full $1K per day so no limits on spend, practically speaking. For foodz, I'm kinda steak'd out after having hit Delmonico on my last 3 trips, I think I will branch out from the beef on this trip, but nothing really stands out to the extent that I need to make a reservation I don't think. There are plenty of food venues in MGM where I'm staying, so I'll probably just wing it nightly. ...

A trip. A palpable trip. Flight delayed 45 minutes on the ground and another half hour on the tarmac, got in an hour late as a result. Fucking Alaska again. Hopped in a cab and over to Luxor to check in, painless, used the kiosk and up to the room in no time. Same room as last time, nothing luxurious but clean and simple and got the job done. Some waiting for elevators as it was a weekend but all in all a fine place to spend 4 nights. So out to the strip by 8p, over to Park by cab and wandered over to Rock & Reilly. This has been one of my go-to's for the past year or so of trips but I think I'm done with it. All the personable bartenders have left and despite my going in there all the time (often in one of their t-shirts) I don't get so much as a nod from the bar manager. Over it, plenty of places to drink in Vegas. Jumped in another cab at PH and headed to Fuel, one of the bars I still love. Always a great vibe, high energy and a bar staff that knows and appreciat...

Sure, why not. No other real opportunity to get a few days in Paradise, Nevada aside from that weekend, so we'll squeeze it in. Going MGM this time in a West Wing room, decent rate for not much notice and a holiday, just over $480 for four nights. One night comped. No reason to spend any more than that on such a short trip, West Wing rooms are small but I don't mind that and I like the quick in/out they provide to yjr strip from the resort. Lierally you wlk out of the elevators and onto the strip. Only concern might be crowded check-in and elevators on that weekend, but what are you going to do, it's going to be busy everywhere. If a better offer comes through (now that I Pearled up) from another Mlife resort I can cancel this one and re-book but I certainly am unlikely to find a better rate. No work time lost, really, taking the Friday as PTO (everyone was going to be off at the facility anyway) and just will leave slightly early from work to catch the fli...