Better tables, somewhere beautiful

Most of us will never sit at the championship tables in Las Vegas, and Prim has made her peace with that. What she cannot make peace with is the idea that the sparkle belongs only to the ballroom. So when she went looking this autumn for a weekend that ordinary players could actually book, with every bit of the glamour and none of the waitlist, she found Carry-On Mahjong.

Their motto is four words long, and Prim wishes she had thought of it first: beautiful places, better tables. Carry-On Mahjong hosts luxury Mahjong retreats in destinations, as they put it, worth staying a little longer for. Poolside games, relaxed dinners, beautiful hotels and new friendships, with American Mahjong at the center of all of it.

Two teachers, two thousand miles apart

Carry-On Mahjong was founded by two women who already spend their weeks bringing new players to the table.

Dawn Hach is the founder of The Mahjong Mingle in Michigan, which calls itself the place where Mahjong becomes a social experience. She teaches group classes and private lessons, hosts themed game nights and private parties, and rents out beautiful sets so anyone can host a table at home. The Village Club, where she teaches a beginner series, describes her style as welcoming and confidence building, and FOX 2 Detroit has featured her work.

Lisa Waishes-Cornwell is the owner of LA LA Mahjong, which teaches the game, as she says, the LA way: easy, social and approachable, with laid back California energy and play grounded in the rules of the National Mah Jongg League. She runs beginner classes, private lessons, events and a full league season across Los Angeles. Her students are her best advertisement. One of them, Reba from Santa Monica, writes that Lisa broke a very complicated game down in a few hours, and that six months later she was champion of Lisa's league.

A teacher near Detroit and a teacher in Los Angeles, building one weekend in the desert together. Prim finds that a lovely piece of geography.

“Some guests come for the game. Most leave excited about new friendships.”Carry-On Mahjong

Four days in Palm Springs

The first retreat runs Thursday, November 5 through Sunday, November 8, 2026, at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort and Spa. It opens Thursday evening with a welcome cocktail hour and live music from the country rock singer Nikki Sparks. Friday brings strategy sessions and instruction in Two Player Mahjong, with open play or resort time in the afternoon. Saturday is tournament day, with a "What Would You Throw?" strategy discussion, optional mini tournaments with cash prizes, private boat tours, and a pajama party to finish, which Prim still considers the single most civilized way to end a mahjong tournament yet devised. Sunday closes with last call open play and a farewell breakfast.

The special guest is Brent Reinke, the man behind My Wife Plays Mahjong, who hosts games and special events through the weekend, including a VIP cocktail hour where guests can play with Brent himself. There are retreat gifts, raffle drawings and surprises, and plenty of time for the pools, the spa and the golf.

Nobody needs to be an expert. Carry-On Mahjong says its retreats welcome every level of player, that many guests come on their own and quickly become part of the group, and that the game at the tables is American Mahjong by National Mah Jongg League rules.

How to go

As of this writing, registration is open. It is $795, which covers every retreat activity, the open play, the social events, the prizes and giveaways, and the farewell breakfast. Rooms are booked separately through Carry-On Mahjong's room block at the resort, at $354 a night plus the resort fee and taxes, and you register through the Register Now button on their Palm Springs page. Who should go? Anyone who will watch this weekend's photographs from the championship in Las Vegas with a small ache of longing. The desert, a resort, a party dress and a pajama party in one weekend, three weeks from now. Prim calls that a very reasonable consolation prize.

And if November is spoken for, take heart, because Carry-On Mahjong is already planning the next ones. Sedona, Arizona, is set for spring 2027, with red rock mornings and a slower pace. Aruba follows in the fall of 2027, with ocean views and Mahjong by the water. Both have an early access list on the Carry-On Mahjong site, and Prim suggests you put your name down before your friends do.

Prim's view

Prim has a soft spot for anyone who looks at a card table in a living room and thinks, this could be bigger. Dawn and Lisa had each done that once already, at home, in their own cities. Then they did it together, in the desert, and invited the rest of us. That is not luck. That is two teachers who know a good table is mostly about the people sitting at it, and who went and found a very beautiful place to put one.

To everyone heading to Palm Springs next month: pack the pajamas. Prim will be thinking of you.