Girls gone wild in Vegas-February 2010

Now that I have your attention, I will confess, we didn't go wild. For those who were following me on Twitter this trip it isn't a big surprise, we were actually quite sedate for Vegas. I blame it on the shortage of cocktail waitresses!

This was a short 2 day/night trip to Vegas with my girlfriends RJ and Denise. Free airfare courtesy of RJ's Southwest credits that she needed to use before March and all 3 rooms were comped. We left San Jose Tuesday at noon and had a easy flight to Las Vegas, arriving about 1:30pm. I left with a slight cold and took the advice I received on the Blonde4ever Vegas message boards and took a Benadryl before the flight and also use the earplanes. Thank goodness I did because while I was feeling fairly good by the time Tuesday rolled around to depart for Vegas and even using those things the plane did a number on me and I was a bit worse for wear after we landed.

RJ didn't let us check luggage since it was only 2 days and night so we were quickly in a taxi and on our way to the Flamingo where RJ checked into her GO room and I checked Denise into a Flamingo deluxe which was comped thanks to my 200 total reward points. Yep, I don't usually gamble at Harrah's and when we do we usually use my husband's total rewards card so my points were pitiful. I went with Denise to her room and it was fine and thankfully clean. 

I left RJ and Denise at Flamingo while I took a taxi to Venetian for my comped room. Taxi driver didn't take me the short way through the parking lots like the others did later in the trip, but out on the street so he could bump the fare up. Oh well, I'm in Vegas, going to have a good time and not going to start out by getting annoyed. 

Check in at Venetian was easy, they gave me the main tower as I requested and I was on floor 28 with a terrible view, but again I have views a plenty on past trips. 
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After unpacking I went downstairs and they replaced my old orange grazie card with a new purple one which had my $15 free play on it. Whoopie! Now I purposely decided to stay at Venetian due to my low play history there so I wouldn't have to gamble much this trip. Normally we play at Venetian on my husband's grazie card which is gold and usually comes with a good amount of free play and some food credits.  If I had stayed at THEHotel at Mandalay Bay or taken a suite at one of the other MGM/Mirage hotels I would have been comped upfront a good amount of free play and free food, but I would have had to gamble a lot, so I went with my grazie room comp offer instead. This was nice in theory, you will see how it went in reality soon.

RJ and Denise were going to join me at Venetian in about 2 hours for us to eat at Grand Lux. Thinking we would then go on and catch a show or something I decided to get some gambling out of the way, and went to our favorite machines, $5 Wheel of Fortune, $1 Zeus (this only has 5 lines at Palazzo) and a few other slots. Well, I couldn't hit anything on them, but did get a couple minor wins on $1 Pinball and Wolf Run so by the time RJ and Denise arrived I'm up about  $200 and ready to eat. We ended up walking over to Palazzo because while both the Venetian and Palazzo were very crowded for a Tuesday night, the Grand Lux at Palazzo is usually a bit less busy.

Grand Lux as always was a bargain and I ended up having the Salmon 3 ways which is soy glazed salmon with shiitake mushrooms, horseradish crusted with asparagus and almond-ginger with green beans and beurre blanc sauce. The 3 pieces of salmon are separated by mashed potatoes. I've had this before at Grand Lux and it's always delicious. It's really pretty too, but unfortunately you won't see that in the photo below since I had already started to eat it.
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RJ ordered the Zen Noodles.
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Denise had the Pasta with Chicken, Sun -Dried Tomato and Mushrooms. 
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For drinks Denise and RJ ordered a glass of wine and I had the wonderful spicy Mary that Grand Lux makes and serves with pickled asparagus spears.

After dinner it turned out that all RJ wanted to do was gamble so that's what we did. No problem for me, but perhaps a bit boring for Denise who is on a limited gambling budget. Well, my luck started to turn and I quickly lost that $200 I was ahead and started to make some inroads into my gambling budget. Now, it was likely my imagination but everytime I sat down at a slot if I started to win, soon Denise would get bored at her machine and wander over to watch and every time that happened I would start to lose. After this happened about 10 times and I'm down about $600.00, I start to get the feeling that my friend isn't bringing me luck!

As I'm starting to feel like my luck is out for the evening, RJ hits on Star Trek for more then $600 at Palazzo while only playing $1.05 a push. Never have I seen so many Jackpot symbols on a Star Trek screen!

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Now, I'm glad that RJ hit a jackpot, but at this point I'm losing and starting to get grouchy. Yes, when I'm not winning, I'm like that. 

I suggest we walk to the Venetian hoping a slot there will treat me nicer and everyone agrees, so off we go and RJ quickly finds another Star Trek there and starts her win cycle again!

Normally I don't play 4 game Cleopartra but my usual favorite slots are not coming through for me, so I decide to play it even though the machine has a sign on it saying it will be disabled in a few hours at 10:00pm. By the way this was a theme those 2 days, groups of slots at Palazzo and Venetian roped off and disabled, I have never seen so many like this before and since both days P&V were wall to wall people in the casino it was annoying because of course you had to wait for the more popular machines.

Finally a bit of luck, I hit a bonus on the progressive 4 slot and during the bonus round I hit the $300.00 Progressive and ended up with this win.



Feeling a bit better I go over and start playing some slots near RJ who is still winning and is up about $900.00, Denise joins me and again I start losing. It's about this time that RJ decides she wants a real drink since service is spotty at Venetian due to heavy crowds so we go upstairs to Zeffirno's where RJ buys us a round of drinks because I'm about $700 down (don't ask) and she's ahead while Denise who doesn't gamble much is about $80.00 down.

RJ and Denise both order a glass of wine but I go with this delicious caramel apple martini. It was a pretty drink with swirls of caramel but too dark in the restaurant bar to really capture it with the Iphone.

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After our drinks we left and looked out over the gondola's for a bit where Denise decided she had enough gambling and wanted to go back to Flamingo, hit a few shops and then back to her room because she had some online work to do. It's about 10:30pm at this time and RJ decides to stay at Venetian to gamble because she wasn't lucky earlier at Flamingo.



Can we say this is about when my luck starts to improve? 

RJ and I walk Denise to the taxi stand and then enter the casino where RJ finds a slot that is giving her some nice wins, but the one next to her isn't giving me any love so I go to one of Randy's and my favorite machines at Venetian which is a couple rows ahead of RJ's slot and it's Stonehenge at the 5 cent denom. At first I start playing the usually $2.00 a push but as I'm playing it seems that the bonus symbols are active and I get a feeling I should increase my best which I do to $5.00 a push and it's not long after that I do hit the bonus game which for once really pays off for me for over $1000.00 once the bonus is finished. 




I'm feeling a bit better now so I go over to Happy Day's which my husband doesn't like so normally I don't get to play it and I hit the bonus on it, but only for 9 spins. 



RJ at this point is thirsty for some water and we're not far from the gold lounge so using Randy's card we enter and grab a water. As we're exiting the Sands high limit slot area, we spot 3 pinball machines together and since this is one of RJ's favorites she wants to play it. At first I'm a bit reluctant to join her because unlike the Bellagio machine where max credits at $5 was 2 credits for $10, this Pinball wants 3 credits for $15 a push. RJ starts playing and I decide what the heck I'm a little bit ahead now that I won on Stonehenge and recovered my losses, so I start playing only to hit Pinball on the 3rd push and 10 seconds after that RJ hits it too!



This was just too cool a coincidence and one of the slot attendants noticed it and came over to cheer us on. We pushed our pinballs together each time to see who would win the most and we actually came out pretty even when all was done as I had 105 credits for a win of $525.00 and RJ had 110 credit win for $550.00



We ended up playing for about 1 hour more with little wins and losses so by the time RJ left around 1am to return to the Flamingo she was still up over $1000 and I was up about $800.00.

Of course on the way back to my room machines kept calling to me like Sex in the City which had a open seat, which was almost a miracle because the whole trip that slot always had people at those machines.



The above is actually a big win for me on Sex in the City as that slot doesn't like me. Unfortunately I had put more in it then the win.

After that I played WOZ and hit this Glinda but it wasn't enough since I had played too long and managed to lose a few hundred so I only went to bed that night $500.00 ahead.

I woke up around 10:00am and was out of the suite and on to the Flamingo to meet my friends by 11:30am. Got lucky to get a honest cabbie which is getting rarer these days in Vegas who took me the back way via the parking lots behind Harrah’s and IP. Whenever I get a honest one I always like to tip them big as a reward, so it ends up costing me about the same, if not more, but I see it as encouragement not to long haul the tourists. With me it’s not the extra money when they try to tunnel me from the airport to Mandalay Bay, it’s the dishonesty of it that annoys me. 

When I arrived at Flamingo RJ and Denise were both gambling already and getting lucky. RJ was winning on a Panda machine and Denise on a Firehorse slot, both of these slots have never been lucky for Randy and me so I was glad to see you can actually win on them. Poor Denise had just come down for a coffee with the intent to go back to her room to clean up but RJ talked her into playing the slots. While not of us had eaten yet, and our intent was to go to Margaritaville for brunch, we ended up gambling for the next hour with RJ once again adding to her bankroll, Denise winning back her losses from last night and being up about $50 and myself in search of a winning slot. 

After losing to Goldfish, the Panda’s and a few others I finally had a win of over $200 on this Gyptagon one. 

 

Since RJ and Denise were ahead and I was now holding my own again staying about $500 ahead we went on to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville around 1pm where we had about a 10 minute wait for a table. Denise and RJ waiting outside for table.

Denise's husband is employed in the tech field here but his hobby for the last 25 years has been flying planes and hot air balloons. They just sold their plane, but they do the hot air shows during spring and summer around the California/Nevada area on the weekends. This means whenever we see something plane or hot air balloon related we either take a photo of it, or if it’s a knick knack stop and buy it.  This time it was take a photo of the plane that is overhead the diners at Margaritaville.

RJ had the chicken wings which were tasty and Denise and I had the island salads. 

 We also had Margarita’s of course and mine was a delicious raspberry one.

 

 

After lunch we passed a Wizard of Oz machine and sat down to play it and I had a run of several bonus games and 3 passes by Glinda, but Glinda wasn’t feeling generous and I picked poorly during my Emerald City bonuses, each time going to Emerald City with the 1^st and 2^nd pick, and since I didn’t get lucky and pick the character award the bonuses only paid out about $6.00 to $12.00 at max credits. 

I ended up putting about 1600 credits on my total rewards card and decided that was enough play at Flamingo to repay them for the comp for Denise’s room, so I went back to Venetian and RJ and Denise went for a nap before getting ready for our early dinner at CUT at 6:30pm. Hmmm, what’s the opposite of girls gone wild? Whatever it is, I guess that pretty much describes us this trip, though it didn’t help that I was still fighting that cold I had before leaving home.

Okay, so course I didn’t nap, there was money to lose, err win. Walking through the Venetian casino I noticed a bank of 6 Goldfish 2 machine’s I missed last evening. I had played the one at Palazzo earlier but it’s my impression the bonus pay outs suck big time, and so far I prefer the original Goldfish for not only larger payouts when you hit a bonus, but for the fun factor of the bonus game. While I had a handful of bonuses on the Venetian slot they didn’t pay anything and were boring. I did have one good hit so I guess the machine can pay some money back, but that was when it dropped a bunch of stacked ships and was not during a bonus.

Later that evening when I walked by these GoldFish 2 slots 5 out of the 6 were out of order. As I mentioned earlier I have never seen more out of order slots or disabled ones at Venetian and Palazzo and most seemed like they were server based type slots.

 I walked over to the Palazzo telling myself I’m lucky to still be $500 ahead while putting over 12,000 points on my Grazie card so far. RJ was telling me earlier she is lucky on slots with Egyptian themes and remembering my nice hit on Cleopatra which is now removed from the Venetian, I decide to play a slot called Nefertti over by the players club desk. It’s a penny machine and I’m playing max credits of $2.50 a push when I hit the bonus. The bonus games gives me 4 fans on the left and 4 fans on the right. Picking a fan on the left I get the highest muliplyer behind them which is a 4. Picking a fan on the right I got 9 spins, and there was only one higher amount of spins I could have picked. Now, I’m getting a bit excited, I’m usually a lousy picker and this seems pretty good. It seems even better as the spins start and on the second one I get a retrigger for a total of 18 spins and the retrigger gives me $25.00. Well, that’s all folks, not one spin after that retrigger made me even 1 cent, so my win was just the $25.00, talk about disappointment as I slunk away defeated by my win.

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I wander over to my favorite Wolf Run slot, sit down, look to the right and there’s a lady sitting waiting for a hand pay on, wait for it, Nefertti! Yes, it can pay off big and she didn’t even get a retrigger. We strike up a conversation and while talking Wolf Run is giving me enough wins that I’m holding my own racking up points and still staying up about $500 ahead. After the woman received her handpay she continues to play Nefertti and it’s still warm giving her lots of $100 to $200 wins.

It's time to get ready for dinner so I reluctantly leave Wolf Run which while it isn’t giving me the big win its at least treating me to enough action I’m not losing.

Wednesday evening starting at 6:30pm, Denise and RJ met me at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant Cut. My husband and I have eaten there before as I've mentioned in past trip reports, and while service has always been great for us there, this time they rolled out the red carpet treatment because the night before when we stopped by RJ had met Cut's award winning female Sommelier who unfortunately had the night off when we were dining there and she said to RJ she would be taken care of, and so they did. 

Dinner at Cut always starts out with cheese bread sticks and the chef amuse which is mini cheese pop-ups, and I've yet to remember to take a photo of the Amuse. They also bring out various cuts of raw meat on a tray that they explain before you order. While many steakhouses do this, personally I find it a bit unappealing to stare at raw fatty looking meat, but perhaps that's just me.



Denise and I ordered from the pre-theatre menu which is different from what is still listed from last summer on the Cut website.



Denise ordered the Honey Crisp and Fuji Apple Salad with dates, almonds and Parmesan cheese for a starter. For her entree she had the Organic Chicken and all of us ordered chocolate souffles for dessert but since I've posted photos of that before, I didn't bother this time.



I had the roasted baby beets as a starter and the petite filet. Since I've posted photos of that in the past, I won't bother to repeat that. The sides on Denise's and my entrees were braised greens, artichokes and Cut's version of Mac & Cheese. Everything was delish. 

Since RJ is a Sommelier she naturally orders the wine for us when we are together. This trip RJ insisted on buying the wine for the 3 of us and it was a wonderful red from France, a 1er cru which is the level before Grand Cru. Since this bottle was well over $400, I was glad RJ was still ahead for the trip with her gambling.



RJ ordered off the menu for herself, starting with the beet salad which was a bit different then the one I had off the pre-theater menu. If I had been thinking, I would have taken photos of both to show the differences but oh well. For a entree she ordered the New York Sirloin, American Wagyu/Angus Kobe Style and a side of the Yukon Gold Potato puree. 

For those of you who enjoy bread, Cut offers 4 different types, and if I'm eating bread I usually select the pretzel and foccacia. 

During our meal there was 2 assistant managers who came over and introduce themselves and the manager, each one giving RJ and I their business cards. After the chocolate souffle, Denise and I paid RJ our share of the bill and tip, with me charging it to my room. At that time one of the assistant managers returned and offered to give RJ and the rest of us a tour of their wine cellar, so we did that and it was fun seeing how they had it arranged and it was in 3 different sections. 

After dinner I took this photo of RJ and Denise at the waterfall area of Palazzo and then it was off for more gambling.



The only unpleasant moment of my trip came after dinner at Cut when I went away from RJ and Denise to play Jaws, where two women were sitting next to each other. Taking the last seat on the aisle I stick a $20 in the machine, put my player's card in the slot and then for the next few minutes instead of playing I'm trying to discreetly count the $100's in my wallet before I slip one in the machine. 

All of a sudden the women on the other aisle, not the one sitting next to me, starts yelling at me that I'm at her husband's machine and I'm taking his money. Sure enough I look up where the credits are display and instead of just showing $20 it's showing $70.00 something. I tell her that I haven't played it yet, but that I didn't see money in the machine not thinking someone would walk away and leave it in the machine, and I've already put in a $20 so her husband owes me my $20 back. This lady continues to yell at me about it's her husband's money, I can't play it and to go away. I remain calm and say we can call a slot attendant to sort it out since I'm not giving her husband $20 of my money to reward them for leaving unattended money in this slot. 

At this point the woman next to me who has seen and heard everything steps in and says this other lady had warned her off the machine 10 minutes ago when she tried to sit there but didn't mention a husband so when I sat down she thought I was the person who the credits belonged to so she didn't say anything to me. She also turns to the other woman and tells her that she is wrong, that she should have watched the machine more carefully and that I had been sitting there for at least 4 minutes or so before the woman even noticed me. At this point she volunteers to go find a slot attendant for me, or to wait until the husband returns to ensure I get my $20 back. Fortunately a couple minutes later the husband returns, sees the extra money in his slot and gives me my $20 out of his wallet, being completely reasonable unlike his screaming harpy of a wife. The nice woman who was sitting next to me, cashes out and we walk off together and she tells me the woman was nasty to her too earlier and she wasn't about to let her get away with cheating me because she couldn't keep her eye out on her husband's machine 2 seats over.

I go over to RJ who is playing the Tabasco slot, having lost my urge to play Jaws and tell her it's time to introduce her to the Goldfish slots. We start playing the Goldfish slots near the player's club desk and for a change the cocktail waitress is coming by, so I ordered a Bailey's and Coffee and try to relax. Well RJ starts a super winning streak of fishcan bonuses and since she's a great picker she is getting $100.00 or so out of them. I'm getting some bonuses but slowly starting to lose, so I'm thinking of trying a new slot, but RJ has decided I'm her lucky charm so I have to stick around. 

This continues for the next several hours with me slowly losing at most slots and as long as I'm sitting next to RJ, she's winning. Not that we're superstitious or anything but it did seem like I was her lucky charm and glad to be it too as I certainly don't want to be a cooler.

Denise in the meantime having won earlier in the day is now down about $80 but says she had a blast playing the slots. It's about 1:30am now, so Denise and RJ go back to Flamingo and I continue to have some minor wins and losses until I decide to quit about 2:30am. 

Starting back to Venetian I pass the Palazzo host desk and decide what the heck, lets see if they will take off anything from my 2 meals at Grand Lux and dinner tonight at Cut. I introduce myself to the man behind the desk, hand him my player's card which now has 16,000 points on it, also hand him my husband's gold card and mention that while I know they keep our play separate I don't know who are hosts was on the other card if he wants to call them over instead. Turns out that the host we never met who was assigned to Randy's card (in the past when we would go to the host desk whoever was there would take off food if we had any credits coming) no longer works at V&P and this gentleman (who shall remain nameless) wants to be our host if we will give him the go ahead to transfer our next couple trips from our marketing offers to him. I agree to that and the next thing he does is clear my food/beverage bill of the whole amount which was about $249.00 for the 2 days. I felt that was a good start to our future with him, but time will tell.

The next morning I counted my cash and I was only $100 ahead at this point so I decide for once to go home ahead and that was it for the gambling. RJ in the meantime tells me she has found a Gold Fish machine at the Flamingo that has decided to pay her a few more hundreds so her morning is going well.

The three of us ended up meeting at the airport, having a couple drinks and deciding we would go this again this again next year but for 3 days and devote one day to non-gambling activities.