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

T-minus one day to Los Weegees. The readiness is all. The money is set, will have the Mlife CC to do the heavy lifting of the room and food and drink stuff, and will have $700 each day for gambling/tip/cab money, which should be more than enough, and a couple hundred for walking around (and airport beer) money. Taking the Discover along too for another $1200 of emergency funds that will not be needed, but it's nice to know it's there. Hoping to rack up that Mlife Gold this trip, if the video poker gods deem me worthy. Looking forward to the Mandalay Bay Elite King Suite that awaits, hopefully can luck into a strip view but I really don't care that much. It's been a long time since I've been at MB and I'm exited to be back. It won't happen on this trip but it really is a resort that you never really have to leave while you're staying there. So much to do and eat and drink. No change to the plan, in that there is no plan. It'll be warm in town...

Got the inevitable email from Mandalay Bay offering upgrades for the 3 nights starting Sunday, so I took them up on an Elite King Suite at an extra $30/night. Figured why not, last trip until Xmas so let's do it up in style. More space than I need at around 700 sq ft., but again what the hell. The bathroom alone looks like it's bigger than what I live in at home. Dual windows, big soaking tub, sitting area, etc. Could have gotten a penthouse for $70/night but that just seemed ridiculous for a single guy. More triple points earned too toward the Gold - I have had my last Mlife CC statement points load in so I'm just around 25K points away from the next Mlife level. Should be reachable with a decent amount of VP and slot play. Get Gold and take a swing at Platinum for next year is the plan, though for my low-rolling ass that may be a stretch. Free room upgrades on Gold will be worth the effort. Also now have over $180 in either RC or Freeplay to cash in, planning to do...

Rapidly approaching trip 6 (!) of 2019. Freebies and discounts as they stand 3 weeks out. No myVegas this time as I no longer play myVegas. -Three nights at Mandalay Bay, 2 comped nights, $207 with resort fees, would be $473 w/o Mlife, Savings of $266. -Dinner at Charlie Palmer Steak at Four Seasons, will use Resort Credit gained from getting/using the Mlife CC. Probably around $100. Still will have another $80 or so left for another meal if I want to use it. -STILL have the 2 Restaurant.com certs for Senor Frog's and Carlos & Charlies if I feel like using them. $50 savings if used. And that's it. Short trip, small savings, just $481 this time. Still not bad for just 3 days in town. Combine these with the low flight rate and it'll be a low overhead trip. T-minus 3 weeks.

Less than a month until Vegas-McVegasface. Just a quickie (the only kind of quickie I get nowadays, but that's fine). Still with the early fly-in a full 3 days in town. Should be a lively start to things as it will be, after all, Labor Day Weekend, though I'm missing most of the weekend part.  Assuming on-time plane-ness, I'll be on the ground around 9a (hopefully having had a good night's sleep the night before, but TBH I'm used to waking up at the ass crack now so it shouldn't be too much of a chore), then straight over to MB to drop the bags at the bell desk and get some brunch/drink on. Not sure where, probably will try to stay somewhere south strip so I don't have to trek too far once it's check in time. Don't think there's much open in MB at that time of morning except House of Blues and that's gospel on Sundays, so, no. Having gotten a food and a drank on, I will see what can be done about checking in - will likely go ...

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.