Aug 2022 This time, it's personal!

I'll get the pre-trip bitching out of the way right here. 

It is the end of summer. And while I did a Reno trip this year, I haven't been to Vegas since last December. To say I was itching to get back, is an understatement. Here is a wall of text you have to read, before you get to the actual report. In your faces!

MGM officially bought my beloved Cosmopolitan. And with that, every single person I knew at Cosmo left. My buddy, their Slot Director, the guy that brought me to Cosmo to begin with. Gone. My host, who I fast became friends with over the past 5 years. Gone. I couldn't imagine a Vegas Vacation without Cosmo. And since I was downright abandoned, and left without a host, I reached out to one there blindly.

I gave her all my info, and asked the same I did of my last host. I am comped in a suite on a corporate offer for 5 nights, but I never use more than 2. With that, I want a connecting room for my braty kids, so the wife and I can have some adult time at night. Wink Wink.

New host is pretty short with her reply. Something about just booking my offer, and telling me to fuck off with anything extra. Fuck off I did, and I reached out to my host at Treasure Island to see what she can do.

Treasure Island had always been my go to in the past, so I can split each stay between players clubs. That way, we get a change of scenery, and I can double dip on my offers. I had been going back and forth with my ti host for the past couple years. While most casinos offer you more, to get you to come back when you don't show up for a few years. ti kept cutting my offers like clockwork every 6 months.

I had a suite comped and $450 in free play, which turned into $350 after I stayed away for a year. And that $350 was down to $200 by now. I had sent my host there my offers from other casinos. Cosmo offering me $275, and a balcony suite, plus $200 in resort credit. Delano offering me $500, and a 2 bedroom penthouse suite. It makes it hard to chose ti for $200 and a 1 bed petite suite.

She eventually offered me a room with a connector, so I can stow my kids away from us at night. And was going to talk to her Boss about upping my free play.

Good enough for me. I book that, and the 2 bedroom penthouse at Delano (Mandalay Bay), which came with $225 in free play & $250 in resort credit.

The only thing standing between us and Vegas, was the below crowds at the Spirit Airlines gate in Chicago. A fucking zoo to say the least. They overbooked our flight. Which is on them. I mean, how many people routinely book, pay and no show for a flight, for it to be common enough to sell tickets for seats you don't have?

The woman at the gate actually had the gull to announce that no one will be flying out tonight, if they didn't get 3 people to give up their seats. Fuck them! They cant pull that shit. The flight was already leaving at 9PM on a Friday. And the next flight out, was noon the following day. Who would agree to that for a $250 credit?

Anyway, that resolved itself once they announced the last 3 people to check in, just lost their seats. But we did leave almost 30 minutes late. Fuckers. 

Well, let's begin!

Day 1

Not really a day, as we roll into Treasure Island around Midnight. Thanks to stupid Spirit and their shenanigans. But there she is, in all of her twinkling glory!

And, there goes my vacation, the moment I check into Treasure Island. Room one comped, pay the $200 holding fee (like there is anything in there I can break worth $200). Room 2, my connector, they want something stupid like $350 + another $200 holding fee. I tell the poor check in girl that is wrong, and my host comped me a connector. I showed her the email from the host saying she would book it, and the confirmation number that came with.

Nope. She wouldn't budge. Pay the money, or cram everyone into the lone single room. 

It is midnight, I have a couple of cranky kids sitting in the lobby that need to get to bed. I email my host, tell her what happened and let her know how disappointed I was. After 4 years, she finally got me back to play with her. And I was given a shit sandwich to eat.

I take my lone key, to my lone room, and decide to fuck them and not play tonight. Ill gamble tomorrow, what my Motel 6 room is worth to me. 

Day 2

Wake up, get my card and have the $200 free play loaded. My host called the room in the morning, but I was already down in the casino. I ended up meeting her in the hosts office. But it just turned into semantics.

Me: I sent you my offers from 4 other places in Vegas, offering me twice the comps and actual suites. You were going to get me a connector, to make up for not having a 2 bedroom suite for me. You said so in your emails.

Her: I did get you the connector like I said. I booked it for you. I never said it would be for free!

Me: Come on, you know that is BS. You never said I'd have to pay for it either. You getting the connector was your attempt to match the other offers I sent you.

Her: Well, if you are going to be angry about it, I'll see what I can do. Maybe I can move you into another room that is bigger. Or, the connector I got for you next door is still vacant. I'll see if I cant get you that, and you can move the kids over. But looking at your trip from 5 years ago, you only did like 5,000 points.

Me: 5 years ago? What about my last trip? I did over $20K coin in over 2 nights, that was 3 years ago. Don't bother. I check out tomorrow. I will deal with what I have. It was nice seeing you again.

Her: OK, if you change your mind, let me know.

Fuck that. I wasn't going to argue. It is Treasure Island, not Bellagio. I don't need to come back. Not if getting comps will be like pulling teeth.

I do manage to turn that $200 in Free Play, into $192. So there is that.

Up $200, and I move on to The Mask. Took about $100 to get the bonus, but it paid over a hundo. So all is right with the world.

Everyone is still sleeping, and I am not a big enough prick to completely no play this place. Same as the above, it took almost a hundo of that ticket. But I got the bonus for all my money back.

Say what you will about ti, but I have always felt their casinos was very fair. 

And just like the past few slots, I end up winning back what I had invested. And what I have always liked about ti, is their weird assortment of older games.

When was the last time you saw this creepy clown slot below? For me, it was the last time I played here 3 years ago. And before that, it was probably 10 years ago at the old O'Sheas casino. Which hasn't even existed for years. 

Text the wife, and they are up and running. She said they will be down soon. That gives me a few more minutes to do some damage. 

I end up on these older $1 Denom Texas Tea machines overlooking the elevator. I have played for a good hour by now, and I was still up on my free play money.

While hitting $111 & $135 on a $9.00 bet isn't great, it still doesn't suck! By the time they get to me, I am cashing out $300 of "their" money. Suck it ti!

One of the biggest drawbacks to staying here, is their absolute shit assortment of dining options. They used to have a deli in the back of the casino that was OK. At the very least, it wasn't as overpriced as Vegas often gets. 

But that space now sits abandoned, like so many other places at the resort. The old pizza place is now a timeshare booth BTW.

We opt for literally the only place there is to eat at 9AM, their Coffee Shop. The food was fine, and the portions were big. But $100 for common breakfast food is crazy. And the kids split a plate. 

Being the addict I am. I tell the wife to room charge it, and I toss a few $5's on the table for a tip. They can finish eating, but I am already on day 2 of being in Vegas and a junky needs his fix!

Back into the casino, and betting $9.00 a spin on a different bank of Texas Tea slots. 

I start with a new hundo, and hit for $106. Now I have a TITO worth $182. I play on, and hit for $170. Now I have a $359 ticket. 

I keep playing, and hit for $255. Now that ticket is up to $572.

I play it down to $500 even, and cash it out. That is a $400 win on top of my $300 win from earlier.

Up $700, I go on tilt. While the girls are back in the room getting ready for the days adventure, I donk off about $300 in losses. The below $100 Double Diamond hit just got me that hundo back.

Still, I head back up to the room to gather them, up $400 on the trip. 

The kids still got it!

The plan is, to walk over to Adventuredome at Circus Circus. It is only a 20 minute walk from ti. That way, we get some sightseeing in as well.

Even with the room and host debacle, I am happy to be here. Maybe it is because Steve Wynn's Treasure Island was the first place I stayed at in Vegas, way back in the 90's. Maybe it is because I was married here 15 years ago. Part nostalgia and part me being horny, and winning, in Vegas.

We make it as far as Resorts World, and this fucking 105 degree heat is just roasting us. We have only been outside for 10 minutes for fucks sake!

We decide to cut through RW and suck up their AC, before popping out near the Circus. 

I reviewed RW before. It is a nice space. Not really for me, but I am glad it is here. Vegas in summer is hopping! We had to wait in a line to get out of ti. But in Resorts World, it is wide open spaces. They are still struggling to find their footing I guess. 11AM on a Saturday, and it was nearly a ghost town in there. Same as last year, the entire second floor of their mall are still vacant shops. 

After what seems like an eternity, we finally make it to the Dome. My oldest kid is now too tall to ride at half price. She now costs me $60, with the little one just short enough to be $30 still.

Being up $400 and all, what do I care? Vegas is just shitting out money! I'll get this hundo back in no time!

We went to Disney World back in February. And the kids were not all that impressed. Before we booked this vacation, we asked them if they wanted to do Disney again (which I would have just overruled, Donald Trump style. It doesn't matter what the actual vote was) or Vegas. They both immediately said Vegas and Adventuredome.

I am not stupid enough to say the Dome is on par with the Magic Kingdom. But from a kids view, not having to walk miles a day at Disney. Not having to stand hours at a time in line for a ride. Or try to eat in a jam-packed dining area is a major thumbs up.

Here, they can walk on to whatever ride they want. Slip their slurpies and sit on the same ride for another turn if they choose. All at a fraction of the cost!

They had the times of their young lives once more. At home, it is yelling and hair pulling. Here? Hugs and high fives.

Somewhere along the line, we ended up hanging out with this family below. My youngest made a friend on one of the rides, so they joined my posse for the rest of the afternoon.

If only life worked like that for all of us. Hi, I am Grid. Nice to meet you. We are now best friends! 

We learned our lesson from this morning, and took a cab over to Venetian for dinner. Lux Cafe was good, and even for a fancy place like this, it was still cheaper than the Coffee Shop back at home base.

I pull the same trick as last time. I throw money on the table for the tip, and tell the wife I'll be right back. I know it is a total Griswold move to make. But the wife takes it like a champ. It is better to let me roam free, then to have me sitting there nervously twitching my leg, knowing that awesome Vegas gambling is just a few feet away. And I am trapped here with you people.

And awesome it was! I was just dicking around with $60 as I had a quick smoke. And ended up with a line hit for $104. I was going to play that down to an even $200, but I hit another liner for $124 instead.

So I cashed out up almost $200, and headed back to Lux to show them my fistful of sweaty money. Adventuredome now free and so was dinner! Vegas takes care of everything!

We eventually walk back to ti, which is just across the street. I send them back up to the shitty small room, and I gamble on in the casino here.

It is good to see a pair of Goonies slots still out in the wild! Like I said before, slots die a slow death here. And that gives me another chance to revisit some older favs.

I end up losing a couple hundred bucks in that Goonies slot. Then I dropped a few hundred more making my rounds.

I did eventually hit for $230 playing $2 Denom Pinball. Which helped slow the bleeding some. 

But then I was wayyyy too invested into the below to even come close to getting back my money. I was only playing $7.50 a spin, but I guess this game was feast or famine. 

On the above, my $350 TITO was down to $7.70 left, just enough for one more spin. But I broke a bonus for $205. Just to cycle that back down to $80, before a bonus of $226 got me back over $300. Which I pissed away on the same game soon after.

Some fleeting luck on Wheel of Fortune. 

Monopoly..

And a good hit on Conan. Which is one of the only newer penny slots I have been playing. $10 bet, but a solid $290 bonus spin. 

Which I shit away, cause I don't know when to call it a night. 

Eventually, I somewhat redeemed myself on this now hard to find Wizard of Oz slot. When I landed the Wizard spins at Max Bet, and lined up double 3 X Wilds with a Wild. I thought I just struck it rich. Nope. A $201 bonus is OK, but I thought I just pulled a rabbit out my ass.

By now, I am down all of the money I won earlier in the day. Plus all the money I won at Venetian. Plus at least $1,500 of my bankroll. That is  good $2,000 swing. By good, I mean good for them, not for me. 

I end up back at the tried and true games I have been playing. Mostly just the older shit, that I hardly get too fucked on.

$9.00 bet on Texas Tea? Sure, I'll take a $395.00 bonus!

I end up closing the gap on my losses in the High Limit room. I ran through just over $8,000 of coin here today. $1.50 of play on the slots, is good for 1 point. 1 point is worth 1 penny in free play. So simple to understand. And so easy to figure out how much you have played.

I end up with just over 5,000 points. Which is good for $50 in point play. I convert that on the below $15 bets, and it was a good choice. 

Bonus spin worth $215.

And right after, another bonus spin for $225. I turned $50 of point play, into $440.

And with that, I head up to the room. Down $500 for the trip, but that includes cabs, tips and ride tickets. So only a few hundred lost gambling. Not too shabby!

Day 3

Tram over to Mirage, at least that was supposed to be the plan. Tram hours are different during the week I guess. 

Dear Treasure Island, please put a sign with the tram hours at the bottom of the escalators leading up to it. That way, idiots like us don't have to walk past the showroom, up the escalators and down the hall, to see the lone sign saying what time it is actually open. Signed, everyone that ever used your fucking tram ever.

So, now we have to back track to where we came from, to get outside and walk to Mirage. Why Mirage? I have Express Comps to burn. And since we will be checking into Delano soon, I might as well get the party started. 

I liked Mirage, for what it used to be. I am happy it was sold to the Injuns, and will be turned into a Hard Rock hotel. Not that I like the Hard Rock brand. But the Mirage, as she sits, is just a shell of what it once was.

All of the sit down places in here are packed, so we end up at Snacks, which used to be a deli. So far, this is the first reasonably priced food we ate. About $12 for a breakfast sandwich and some tots. Don't get me wrong, if they opened up a place priced like this back home, no one would go to it. But by Vegas standards, it is an OK deal. 

I will rag on the orange juice though. Maybe I just don't like fresh squeezed, as it was a bit tart. 

Speaking of tarts, look at these 2 here. I went from dating the weird girl in college, to living with 3 weird girls now. It happens. 

Cabs are Here! So long ti, which might be for the last time.

Hello Delano! Speaking of which, I had always pronounced this place Del-AH-No. Which they were quick to correct me when I got there. Dell-A-No. Like Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I wont make that mistake again!

Check-In starts at 3PM. But we get here before 11:30AM. Still, the staff in the VIP lounge were super helpful. Night and day from my Treasure Island experience.

Ron, who checked us in, said the room wasn't ready yet. BUT, he was going to see if a different room than the one I pre-checked into on my phone was. At the very least, he would get us one of the rooms early, so we can unpack and have a space to hang out in.

He switched housekeeping around, grabbed us a few drinks and some popcorn while we waited on the maids to confirm. And just generally went out of his way. He earned the $20 tip I gave him at the end!

My host here coded us for VIP check in, late check out at 3PM and got us access to the Penthouse Lounge. In other words, my host did host stuff! Which again, is unlike at Treasure Island.

Ron said to give them an hour, so we headed over to Luxor for an early lunch. 

I Griswold them once more, eat quick and head down to the casino while they finish up their milk shakes. Embarrassing to say, but I went on tilt on the first game I played. $7.50 a spin, I dropped a hundo. Fed it another, and lost that too. Fed in another, and was down to just $20 left, in 10 minutes, before I got the below bonus.

But being the genius I am, that bonus paid $325, so now I am up for the day!

We have $250 in resort credit, but cant use that until we get the room number. Still, this why I keep Express Comps on hand. We end up doing Titanic, as we are all pretty much burned out on Shark Reef by now. 

We knew what we were doing, and tickets were like $120 for the 4 of us. Not cheap, but nothing out of pocket as I just used up some more Express Comps. 

Not much has changed, but the girls are a bit older since the last time we did this. So they understood the gravity of what they were seeing this time. 

If you have never done the Titanic Exhibit before, it is worth an hour of your time, if you even have a remote interest in its story. 

The first half recreates what the Titanic looked like. Which is neat. And plenty of actual recovered items on display. 

Full rooms are recreated, along with the ships deck and grand staircase. They wont let you take a picture of the staircase, because they want you to buy a picture of you on it from them. Lame. 

The second half of the exhibit is much more fascinating to me. That focuses on how the Titanic looks now. 

By the time we are done, Ron is calling me and telling me to head up. He gives me the first room number, as the maids fix up the second half of the suite.

I pat the kids on the head, and run down to the casino. This is a redemption trip of sorts. We stayed at Mandalay Bay last Spring, and it was the worst gambling beating I have even taken. This time, I am going to stick with what I know. And even then, I wont fall into the same trap, as I will do most of my gambling at the other MGM joints. 

Get my free play loaded, which took longer than I thought. I went to where the players club booth was, and still is I guess. But they no longer man it. I had to trek all the way over to the casino cage, where they are now doing double duty as both cashiers and club boothlings. A penny pinching move for sure. But that is what MB gets, since there are hardly any gamblers in this place.

Since everyone is in the same funnel in the cashier line, and they do not have a dedicated Platinum/Noir line. I just had to wait my turn. And when it seems like everyone in front of you is signing up for a new card, it was a good 20 minute time suck from my vacation. 

I turned that $225 of free play, into $299. So there is that. 

I played down that ticket on some older games they still have, and was down to my last $50 when I hit a $120 spin on Cash Wheel. 

From there, I settled on some Playboy Quick Hits. Which was a good move, as I played the Quick Hit respins for 8 QH's, which netted me $272. Now I have $455, all starting with their free play. 

I was way too deep into the below. I went from $455, down to $20 before hitting a liner of $156. That is a $300 swing.

Which I got back playing Gong Xi Fa here. It is the same game I handpaid on a few months back for $2,500. I don't know why, but this game seems to like me. And with this $411 bonus, I am now up over $600!

I can only image how much more I would have been up, if the wife didn't text me to take them to go do something. I get it, and it is totally cool. This is their vacation as well.

I take some pictures of the suite, which was lacking in style, unless your style is white on white. But it was a good space. And it was the Taj Mahl compared to where we just left!

A full living room, 2 separate bedrooms and 3 shitters. Separate bedrooms, means Daddy is getting laid tonight!

While the rest of the room looks like it was redone in the past decade. The bathrooms are still the same late 90s marble I remember from the first time we stayed here nearly 20 years ago, back when the wife and I were just dating. And back when it was called THEhotel.

And maybe because the 2 bedroom suite was really a smaller suite, with a connector. But we had 3 of these wet bar areas for some reason. And while the mini fridges are packed full of shit they want to sell you. They do leave the top shelf open for you to put your own things in there. Which is nice. 

And it wouldn't be a South Strip stay, without a view of nothing in particular. Really, the best you can hope for is a view of the pool. We were blessed with a view of the highway and Allegiant Stadium. 

The plan for today, is to hike over to Excalibur and do the Fun Dungeon. Always a fan favorite with this tribe. Plus, I have a pocket full of cash and MGM just gave me back all of my Treasure Island losses. Day 3 of a Vegas Vacation, and I am up money.

Can't say that too often! 

Before we get to Excal, we need some eats. We settle on Ri Ra in the MB mall. Turns out, you can room charge from any of those mall places, so it is an easy way to chew up my resort credit.

The food was, edible I guess. Service was a bit spotty. The place wasn't exactly hopping on a Sunday early evening. But they still seated us all the way in the back, I assume so the party crowd didn't have to look at my stupid kids. 

Neither of those kids ate much, as the food just wasn't for them. 

Crazy to say, but we spent more in the arcade then I lost gambling today. But I guess that is a good thing!

$60 in arcade credit, got a handful of tootsie rolls and some worthless shit we wouldn't have otherwise spent $1.00 on. But the fact that they "won" it, makes it a valuable treasure. At least for today, I am sure Mom will just throw it away once we get home, and it becomes forgotten. 

The Ri Ra soup didn't sit well with me. Maybe the kids were on to something! I had to brave the public shitters in Excalibur. Which were, surprisingly nice for them.

Since I am up in the casino anyway, I might as well play something and have another smoke. And wouldn't you know it, a $105 Plinko Bonus! Now I have more money!

I cut a deal with the wife, for her to leave me behind so I can gamble here and then Luxor, before I head back over to the suite. I just didn't want to be stuck playing at Mandalay, after last years fiasco. 

She takes the kids onto the free tram here, heads back to MB and leaves me to my own accord. I should have gone with them, as I couldn't buy a win this round. I dropped too much at Excal, and Luxor this time was a lemon as well.

I ended up giving back every penny I won, including the $500 that got me out of the Treasure Island hole. Plus $1,000 from my bankroll. So now I am down -$1,500 for the trip, but I got a good days worth of gaming in.

How good? Who can say. This is the first time I have played with MGM, since they moved to a new horrible Theo Based point system. Unlike before, where I knew with every $3.00 I gambled through, I would earn 1 point which can be used for free play. And 10 tier credits. Plus a mystery amount of Express Comps, which used to be straight forward as well.

All I know is, I earned about 2,000 points today. If that is good or bad, I cant say. But it is a fraction of what I used to earn just last year. I know that much!

Meet up with the girls in the room, for a few rounds of High Limit Uno before bed.

Day 3

They actually get up before me, as today is pool day. The biggest reason we are staying here is for access to the Mandalay Bay pool. The kids go nuts for that place. I swear, the lazy river is some sort of Spanish Fly to these two.

Wake up, get our suits on and head down to the pool for a couple of hours. We will worry about breakfast once we are done. Trying to avoid the crowds and all. Get in early, and get out before the crush of humanity begins. Trust me, you don't want to be in a lazy river log jam. 

It did get packed a couple hours past opening. But the kids still got their fill of swimming in. I get changed faster than them, so I can get back to gambling.

And gamble I did! 

While not a big win on the above, it is still a fun older game that MB still has. Don't worry, I lost that money plus a couple hundred more. 

Finally they come down to save me from myself, and we head over to Citizens for breakfast. It was fairly good, as was the service. Still, another $100 spent on breakfast food is crazy.

The plan for today, is to get out and do the Strip. We take the tram from here down to Excalibur, and cross over to New York New York. 

They like to pick up stuff and pretend to buy it. But hardly anything ever gets bought. Still, I guess its a fun game for the 3 of them to play. And it doesn't cost me anything, so I am good with it. 

After we do Hersey World at NY NY, we cross over to Park MGM, so the 3 of them can walk through the Haus of Gaga. All of them are Lady Gaga fans.

I said all of them are fans, not all of us. I give 2 shits about her, so I gamble some while they fart around in there. 

And just like that, Boom! I should have taken a picture of the win, which was 5 of a kind double Mona Lisa symbols. Since these are cascading reels, that win fell off but I snapped a shot of the actual total win.

15,549 nickles! If I wasn't down from last night, I would have bet more than $6.00 a spin. But still, I'll take a $777 win! That fixed me up fast!

For the first time ever we head over to Crystals at Aria to actually shop there. Via the free monorail from Park MGM.

For whatever reason, my 9 year old like Louis Vitton. Not that she has anything LV, but she wants some. We play along, and I tell her she has $100 to spend in there. Which in her mind, she was getting a bag, backpack and a pair of glasses with that money.

Nope! Her mini backpack was $3,500. We had to ask, since nothing in the store actually had a price. Is that how rich people shop? I have heard the expression "If you have to ask, you cant afford it". Which I guess is exactly how things worked here.

You find an associate, you point at what you want, and they have to use their phones to look up the price by hand. They cant even scan a code to get a price, as there are no bar codes on this shit. 

The kid thought she was smarter than me. And found a display of key chains. She picked out what we thought was a small leather red panda, and asked the lady how much it was.

$570? Oh, it is a fox, not a red panda. That is why we don't want it. Has nothing to do with it being $570, for a 4" key chain.  

We toil around the mall for a bit, as we never actually spent time in here before. It was always just a cut through from Aria to the Strip in the past for us. 

Back on the monorail and over to Bellagio this time. The kids were beat. All that swimming, shopping and now walking. It was just a bitch fest between the 2 of them.

The summer display is nice, so it wasn't a waste of a trip. Plus, it is free to see. Which is getting rare in Vegas. 

Don't let my pictures fool you. Sure, it is the afternoon on a Monday. But it was packed in here!

How packed? Packed! The lobby, the casino anyplace that would normally be open, had someone standing or walking in it. 

I give the wife some cab fare and she takes the now crabby kids back home. My plan is to avoid gambling at Mandalay once more, and get my action from the other linked casinos. 

Bellagio, IMO, has the best older slots on the Strip. I typically do well there too, as I don't fall into the trap of playing the new fancy pennies, which suck my money too fast.

Tried and True, Texas Tea gives me some action. And tried and true, the wins were a bit light compared to my bet size.

Playing $6.75 a spin, I hit for $187.50. Which is solid. I upped my bet to $9.00, and that bonus was only worth $87.50.

Still, I am up for the day thanks to that fat $800 win at Park MGM. So grinding through some coin here wont hurt me. Well, wont hurt me too much.

I drop about $500 dicking around. With the below $100 hit being anything of note. 

To make matters worse, most of the higher limit area is curtained off. God only knows what shit they are up to in there!

I make my way to my good luck machine here, $5 denom 21 Gambler. If you go back and reread some of my recent Vegas trip reports, I have plucked this machine for a bunch of good wins lately.

This time its no different! Bonus game for $375!

Play $5 Quick Hits next to that, and land a $200 win right away.

I ran and cashed that $635 ticket out right away. But saw this Price is Right slot on my way out. The same game I took down at Venetian earlier in the trip. And I steal almost $200 off that one!

I went from down $500 at the B, to up $300 real fast!

Up $700 at Park MGM and now up $300 more at Bellagio, I felt bullet proof. I still missed my Cosmo, and even though I wasn't staying there. I felt I had enough of a bankroll by now, to give them some honest play. After all, I am going home tomorrow, and I still have cash. What could go wrong?

I pulled my card here, and have them load my no stay free play. Cosmo is cool like that, where they don't tie you to a room to use the free play. But, it comes at a cost. You forfeit said free room for that period, as well as any resort credit you had with the same offer.

Still, new Cosmo host seems like a waste to me. And with MGM owning the joint, I'm sure they will fall into the MGM corporate offers soon enough. If anything, I would be doing myself a disservice playing up my comps here, instead of MGM. At least that is what I keep telling myself. 

$275 in free play is a good start!

Of which I convert to $235 playing video poker, which is my MO.

And that is it! I spent an hour in here, ran through over $2,000 and hit nothing of note. Which is fucked up, cause Cosmo has long been my honey hole for slots!

Who would have thought, that most of my losses would be at Cosmo & ti, where I have historically done the best at. Obviously I gave back that $235 converted free play money. Plus all of my Bellagio winnings, of $300, plus $300 more for good measure. Now, I am just up $400 thanks to the big win at Park MGM.

It happens, for as much as I am playing, I expect a few lumps. I still like to bitch about it though!

Leave Cosmo, and barley play anything at Aria. I did manage to drop another hundo though.  I wanted to save my money for New York, where I had a good time gambling last December. 

It was a rough start, and I dropped a few hundred bucks in a blink.  And by now I am at even for the day. But got all of that back and more, playing the new Voice slot at $9.00 a spin. With a rock solid bonus of $510!

I walk out of NYNY up a hundred bucks, and head back towards home base. 

Meet up with the girls, and went over to Citizens once more for dinner. We just took it up to the suite, so we can watch TV and eat like at home. I did play a bit more while we were waiting for takeout. And I managed to win another hundred bucks. Leaving me +$200 on day 4. Which is still down -$1,300 on the trip. But a winning day sure feels good!

Day 5, Last day.

Wake up, hit the pool, grab breakfast from Citizens once more. In other words, a Groundhogs Day. 

The host has me in the suite until 3PM. Our flight out is not until 6PM. So I still have time to do some damage. 

I end up over at Luxor once more. And I manage to drop a couple hundred bucks, but I an getting decent play. I am picking out games I can grind up some points on, as I want to show good enough play on the trip. That way my host here stays generous. I cant afford to lose any more friends, after the Cosmo and now Treasure Island host issues.

That $200 lost was yesterdays winnings. And I am now back to being down -$1,500 for the trip. But, it is just 11AM and I have time, and money to burn.

I settle in on this "Lovely Outlaws" slot below. Betting $10 a spin, I was up to $300 and down to $50 but seemed to settle around the same hundred bucks I started with. I got massive play out of it. On day one of playing with MGM, I had earned 2,000 points. In a 30 minute session on this game, I had like 800 points before my $100 ran out.

Played and lost another $200 chasing some Quick Hits games, before getting that money back on the new Stinkin' Rich game below. 

I dick around on a few more games here for a bit, and drop a few hundred more chasing my losses. Eventually I wander in to their high limit room.

I like to see what older IGT games are still around wherever I go. And find many HL rooms are typically time capsules for many of these. And Luxor was no different. 

I was playing Money Storm for $15 a spin. With time running out on the trip, if I bet more I win more. That is how it works, right? I did manage a $111 hit below. Which is only 7 times my bet. But every hundo won helps!

At $15 a whack, my money was going fast. I was down to about $30 left on my buyin, when I dropped my bet to $7.50 a spin. And wouldn't you know it, I managed the free spins on a bitch bet. 

Still, the spins were solid! Retrigger after retrigger. I did pay the extra $1.25 on my bet for "Extra Free Spins". I didn't realize just how Extra it would be. I think I started with just 5 free games. But I ended with 80!

When all was said and done, it was a bonus worth $1,111.00! And just like that, nearly all my money back on the trip!

I farted around in the HL room a bit more, now drunk with power after scoring over a grand in that bonus. Before I converted my point play on the trip, into free play on the below Deuces Wild.

I now had a TITO worth almost a handpay. I cashed that fucker out, and did a quick count of the bankroll. 

4 days of gambling, and I lost $500 on Saturday at ti. Lost $1,000 Sunday with MGM. Won $200 Monday with MGM. And with this recent run on Tuesday, I am up $800 on the last day. Making the total trip a $500 loss. Which, as it turns out, was the $500 I lost on the first gambling day. 

A complete 180 from the last time I stayed at Mandalay Bay, and I dropped -$4,000. Shit, if it wasn't for ti & Cosmo, I would be going home up over a Grand on the trip.

Who would have thunk it? 

So long Delano! While your room was nice, it was a fucking hike to and from it from the casino each trip. Plus a major pain in the asshole to get to and from the pool, which is on the Mandalay Bay side. Add in your sort of shitty location at the far end of the Strip, and I will have to think long and hard before staying with you again.

The saving grace was your staff! Everyone was so nice and welcoming. They made us feel like "Resortists", which is what MB calls their guests. 

And since the theo based point system needs a slide rule and an abacus to figure out how much you gambled now. On the below, I started the trip with about 9,000 points. I earned those using their credit card. 

So I earned 30,000 points during this trip. The pisser? They had a 2 X multiplier on points during my stay. Without that, I would have only earned 15,000 tier credits. The last time I played 2 night in Vegas with MGM, back in December. I earned over 50,000 TC's. Which makes earning points on slots, more than 3 times as hard to do. Yikes!

I knew it was bad, but that is just pitiful. Zero chance for me to stay Platinum now.

I had to log into the actual site, to figure out my coin-in. Which you can see if you bring up your current year tax statement to view wins/losses by their casinos. 

This trip, I posted wins at Bellagio, Park MGM, New York New York & Luxor. Losses at Excalibur, Mandalay Bay and less then $100 lost at both Mirage & Aria. I knew enough to not play at MGM.

All in all, it was a great trip. It was nice to get away for a bit. And even with this small gambling loss, it was a tremendous value vacation. Where else are you going to go where your rooms, food and entertainment are free. And outside the flights, it only cost you about $500 for a 4 person getaway!