Do not read this TR if you are allergic to it. May be habit forming. May lead to drinking & gambling

God dammit. Fired from my cushy NASA job on day one.

 

Your job should be safe. A good secretary never lets anyone know where their boss is really vacationing!!

 

Nah, I’ll take the bullet, I’ve already been headhunted for a job at MGM in VIP Services!

 

Excellent point!

 

Umm.. I'm here for the morning slots and redbull @MCann.. This you being back in FL nonsense is unacceptable. Some would even say.. Invalid.

 

You're right. I should go back.

 

So, I remembered to check MGM comps booking engine again this morning, and it looks like my theory is holding true. Today I can book up to 3 comp nights, so I should be able to book my next trip tomorrow with all 4 nights comp, but I'll check again to confirm.

 

Last December when I was trapped at the Greyhound bus station for 97 hours, I did consider just giving up and going to check into any hotel. I was getting MLife comps which was bizarre since I had "checked out" of NYNY just 2 days prior. (Booked for resort credit but didn't stay)

So maybe I unlocked a loophole where you cannot book without 72 hours between unless you already checked out?

 

Not sure what you're saying there? Normally you can't book within 72 hours of a pending reservation, but Cosmo is breaking that rule at the moment. Also, in the past I know people have been able to book a new stay a day after checking out(no FP though). Not sure on the same day though. Has that changed or something?

 

I checked out of NYNY on (let's say) Tuesday.
I was able to book a comped room 2 days later, on Thursday. Even though 72 hours had not passed.

I had never seen this before, although I had also never tried it before.

 

OK. Either my being dense, or your wording was a little weird so I didn't understand.
Its always worked that way from what I've seen.

 

Thanks for writing your trip report. Always entertaining, wish you could have won more. Hope your home repairs find a way to get expedited and you can finally sleep in your own bed.

 

Living in FL..you know that happens all the time.

 

I dont think it is actually 72 hours, but more of a '3 days' concept meaning in your scenario, stay was monday night, so no tuesday or Wednesday night booking, but Thursday night ok.

What's new is they put an arbitrary cap on total future nights booked back in May or June of this year. Prior to that change, it was 8 nights per property. Now it's 8 nights total for most people, though there seems to be a subclass of people who claim sixteen- this may or may not be due to rules not properly implemented at Bellagio, Aria, and MGM Grand for the first month or two of this rule though; those 3 properties didn't count other properties toward the 8 night limit for the first month at least. Currently, Cosmo doesnt seem to have all the rules implemented and isn't blocking reservations based on future bookings at other properties.

So the 3 days I'm talking about here with my trip is in terms of what it considers a "future booking" as it relates to the cap on number of nights booked. It appears to be holding each night individually, and considering them each to be a "future booked night" until 3 days after it actually completed. I only have 3 nights booked that havent already been checked out, but yesterday it would still only let me book 2 anywhere but Cosmo. Today it will let me book three. Tomorrow I predict it will be four. So I'm just pointing out that in my case, it is releasing that number from the cap, one day at a time, 3 days after they already happened, even though my trip is over and folio cleared etc. Its just a detail I've never seen mentioned on VMB since they made the limit changes on the backend.

 

Okay, playing some catch-up from that time I slacked on updating my TR...here are some still shots of the Mad Apple shadow puppet guy (I only had video of that so I had to go clip a few before I could post them)

 

On adventure day, I took an impromptu detour to Red Spring Picnic Area, not far from the Red Rock visitor center, where I walked the whole half mile loop to see the spring, only to not exactly find it because it was dry. Much disappoint. I love springs in the desert. But I was able to easily identify the telltale signs of one like conspicuous flora and fauna, and especially the abundance of bright green grasses.

There are springs sprinkled about the Lake Mead area, and I thought one of the coolest things about them was being able to stand at the head looking down the valley and see the exact path the water takes to the basin by the conspicuously out of place Palm trees and greenery. So this was similar but less extreme because it was either just subterranean seepage or entirely dry at the time. In spite of having no visible water, there are still several signs asking that you not dispose of live fish there so as not to damage the native ecosystem. I suppose a bird could pick it up and drop it in water somewhere nearby lol

Grass? In the desert???


These trees don't grow in arid ground



Badger badger badger badger...SNAKE!






This pic is zoomed in 10x, so I'm looking WAY up here. If you zoom and have a good eye, there are some crazy people walking around near the top, somewhat centered left to right




Don't ditch a fish!


This was from as far back as I could get. You can sort of make out the line of out of place greenery going left to right.




These birds were called whirley birds on a lot of signage. I dont know if that's the scientific name, but they were really cool; to me, they looked like hummingbirds but not on coke, and cool bright green color that matches the bright green grasses and trees growing out of the wet area



Unusual sight of rain clouds over the ridge!

 

Love pics of the nearby parks. Looks like a fun side trip…

 

$18 for a slice of pizza? Vegas needs an enima.

 

It was 2 slices at slightly under $9 each, but my Ellis Island reference is because they are $3.39 per slice there, and slices are BOGO on Thursdays.