viva las vegas 2025 chapter 2, day 2

LINK: viva las vegas 2025 chapter 2, day 2

Currently listening to: Remix (I Like The) – New Kids On the Block

And her body’s so crazy
Got mad attention
Everybody wants her
I forgot to mention
My baby’s so intelligent
Down with it
Independent
Got it all

Play

We slept in until 11:30, mostly because Five Star requested a late checkout since she has status at the hotel. I didn’t have much to repack since I barely unpacked the night before.

We headed over to MGM Grand to check in for the next couple of nights. The Uber driver was an epic douche. He didn’t get out of the car to help us with our bags and barely acknowledged that we were there. He was by far the worst driver I’ve experienced. The bad thing about Uber is that the drive can also rank its passengers, so if we gave him a poor rating he could do the same to us and it wasn’t worth it.

The room was nice—clean, modern, and perfectly fine—but if I had to choose between MGM and the Palms, I’d pick the latter. I slept like a log the night before and it seemed a bit more comfortable and I liked the layout of the room better.

Once we got settled, I showered, and got dressed, and we headed downstairs for lunch. I wasn’t planning on eating because I wasn’t really hungry yet, but our schedule was packed and I knew if I didn’t eat now, I’d be hangry later.

We decided to try Netflix Bites because it sounded interesting and different. It’s foods inspired by Netflix shows. I ordered the Netflix & Chil-aquiles: tortilla, chips, avo, salsa verde, queso fresco, crema, and eggs. The salsa verde was… not good IMHO. And unfortunately, it was smothered all over everything so I ate around it, the eggs and less-drenched chips. They did have cool props though—Demogorgon and Vecna from Stranger Things.

After lunch, Five Star had an appointment to get her makeup professionally done at the salon. I opted out of this. The last time someone else did my. makeup was for my brother’s wedding (paid by my sister-in-law) and then for the Oscar party when a friend hooked me up with an affordable traveling artist. Otherwise, this face is a DIY project. I even took makeup lessons at Sephora, which was way more useful than I expected.

Cue the millennial poof, I heard It’s making a comeback, so why not? I went soft—pinkish blush, glowy/dewy, very much typical Korean style. I skipped the colored contacts this time. Five Star came back with a full glam look: dramatic eyes, dark lips, the whole nine yards. It was different from her usual look, but it worked and she seemed happy with the results.

We walked from MGM Grand through New York-New York to Park MGM. I’d only ever seen the outside of NYNY, so being inside was interesting. It was designed like the city streets in New York City.

Park MGM had Lady Gaga dresses on display (fits that she wore in videos), plus merch throughout the store.

Five Star got us VIP backstage passes and barstool seats for the concert. By 16:00, we were lined up for the backstage tour. There were hundreds of people in line.

The classic car was from the music video: You Got It (The Right Stuff).

We got to stand on the stage and look out from their POV. It was so surreal.

After that, we were lined up for the meet and greet. They said we would get an e-mail with the official photos. But no photos or videos from fans were allowed during that time, but they had other photo ops outside.

By the time we finished, it was 18:45 and we were starving. I was living off eggs and vibes all day. We went next door where she had reservations to La La Noodle and split Kung Pao chicken and Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce. It hit the spot without putting me into a carb coma.

Then it was concert time. Our seats were right up by the stage—no barricade, nothing between us and them. I wasn’t prepared to be within arm’s reach of them. At one point, Donnie held my hand. I swear, I died. He may have dethroned Jordan as my bias.

One thing I appreciate about NKOTB is how much they want fans to have a memorable experience. They had these rectangle mobile lift platforms that carried them up into the balcony section so upper-level fans could get their moments too. It was very thoughtful of them.

After the concert, we wandered back to MGM Grand and played more slots. Back to chanting nonsense at machines like we were summoning spirits. I played for about 30 minutes before I cashed out. I broke even. Meh. I switched to cheering on Five Star while she hit multiple wins. Eventually, her sister and fam arrived around 03:00. They’d driven from LA and were staying on the same floor as us. Their daughter has become slightly obsessed with me—we play “kitty”, talk about food (she loves sushi and prosciutto), games, and 6-7 (internet meme, her parents have no idea what it even is).

By the time we finally crawled into bed, it was 04:00. I was beyond exhausted and this was only day two.