Up, down and all around at Venetian-Day One!

Driving to San Francisco airport was almost bumper to bumper the whole drive from South Bay, but my husband safely got me to the airport in time and a good thing too because it was very busy. Fortunately I got a bargain price upgrade to select so was able to check my luggage for free and use the priority line for Virgin America and airport security. Virgin America flies out of the International terminal and the lines were long even for those of us in the priority lane.

Boarding was pleasant, the plane was completely full and the flight was smooth. I managed to get the only seat on the aircraft where the entertainment center wasn't working but that was a minor inconvenience as I had a book with me. They did offer to swap my seat with a pilot who was off duty and had a seat where the TV worked but I turned them down, karma and all that.

Once at McCarran I didn't have to wait long for my luggage and I was lucky enough to find the the free shuttle for gold grazie members ready to leave so no wait.  I was initially told my suite at Venetian wasn't ready but they called my cell 5 minutes later so it wasn't long until I was up in my room admiring the view of the strip just in time to catch the Bellagio Fountains going off.

For anyone who read my tweets you already know after I unpacked I headed off to the Venetian high limit room to see if luck was with me and for the next couple hours I had quite a few bonuses on the various slots in that room. I started out with a bonus on the $5 Pinball and received 92 credits. Moving on to $5 Top Dollar I accepted the 3rd offer for $40 credits. The first two offers were both 30 credits.

After winning $500.00 on the $5 Wheel of Fortune, I found $1 Cleopatra and was lucky enough to hit a bonus on it. I was pretty surprised as I usually can't hit the bonus when I play the penny version.

After Cleopatra, I also played $1 DaVinci Diamonds and hit for $300, after putting $200.00 in that slot. I was about $1000 ahead at this point and then I got a bit carried away and tried $1 Wolf Run and lost a couple hundred. Deciding at this point it was time to return to my usual penny slots I left the Venetian high limit room.

I've have some luck on Stonehenge in the past, but other then this hit, lost about $100 on it today.

Walked over to Palazzo to try my favorite $5 Wheel of Fortune slots since I got distracted from the pennies while walking past them and lost a quick $100. Went around the other side and didn't hit a spin but did hit 3 seven's for 50 credits or $250.00.

After that WOF hit, it was all downhill from there. I had bonuses and some mediocre hits, but the machines were taking much more then they were returning.

 Tried my husband's favorite penny Kitty Glitter machine, but I sure didn't have his good bonus results.

Played $100 through Ruby Slippers without a bonus or decent hit. Tried the original WOZ and had some bonuses but this Glinda was the best hit.

Played two different penny Wolf Run's losing a few hundred and no hits over $40.00

Winning Bid 2 was a cute slot and when I picked from the above three "Sold's", I got the bonus, but it didn't pay anything at max bet.

Went over to original Gold Fish slot and hit a couple bonuses but they didn't pay anything at max bet, in fact one of them was only a $3 win and I was betting $3.50!

Went to my favorite Witches Riches slot and had a good hit, but lost most of it back. Tried various penny slots like Jackpot Block Party, Fireball, Jackpot Station, no luck anywhere to be found. Quickly lost my winnings, free play and now into my own bank roll.

The Vampire slot above has cute bonuses and I hit one, but the win was almost like a lost at max bet.

Went back and tried $1 cheeseburger slot, had some yahoo's from the machine but not a glimpse of a bonus. Tried Double Bonus Poker and lost. Went to Venetian gold room and had some appetizers and a diet coke and after my snack walked out into the Venetian High Limit room to try the $5 WOF, but one machine was taken by a women who said the other one was saved. Deciding to go back to my room for a while for a break, I passed the $5 Pinball and at 3 credits max bet quickly donated a couple hundred.

Back in my room I ordered a Cobb salad with shrimp from room service and briefly chatted by phone with Socalgirl about meeting in the morning at the Venetian Gold Room to go together to the last day of G2E.   I can really tell there is a convention in town, in fact there is more then one here at Venetian and Palazzo which is why they are sold out. Besides the G2E attendees, we have HP employees having some sort of event.

After eating the salad which was excellent if over priced, I took a break and caught up on a few things online before venturing back down to the casino. Once there I couldn't resist the Sex in the City slot and actually got a few half way decent bonuses on it so walked a way a small winner from that slot.

In addition to the below shoe bonus, I also got the Charlotte progressive twice and another shoe bonus.

Thinking my luck might be changing I tried a slot I had never seen before called Rockin Olives and hit a bonus with my first spin. I wanted to take a movie of this because it was very cute, but unfortunately I was too close to the table games and was concerned they might not like me filming.

While the bonus didn't pay a lot this is a very funny slot.

My bonus told me to select 5 speakers, all of which had credits.

During play there's also a chance of a Olive coming around and turning things wild. However, I didn't get a photo of that. Below is another scene from my bonus.

After picking a flame, I got a encore performance for additional credits.

I enjoyed Rockin Olives but since it wasn't paying that well and I hate it when I can't hear the machine sounds, I left and played some Witches Riches.

I had a bit of luck with Witches since I hit a bonus for about $160.00. I was still even since leaving my room but it was so noisy and crowded at Venetian so I walked over to Palazzo where I started losing on everything. Far from being a winner as earlier in the day, I was now down quite a bit and ready to walk back to my room and retire for the evening in bitter gambler mode.

As I was walking out of Palazzo to the Venetian I saw my husband's lucky Kitty Glitter machine that gave him the hand pay back in May and last month paid him over a grand. I had played it earlier today but had what I felt was a sad little bonus. I had a ticket on me for around $80.00 so I decided one more time on Kitty Glitter before bed. I was down to about $50 when I hit the bonus and it started out nicely with some diamonds quickly turning the persian cat wild, then a retrigger hit and I quickly got out my camera and started to record my bonus (will upload later when I return home). At first it didn't look too promising as I was getting spins that paid nothing, then the diamonds starting turning up again and turning the cats wild and my last 10 spins were really good wins for a total bonus of $1104.00!

That bonus was worth a call to my husband at midnight to let him know once again the kitties saved my bankroll. All of a sudden I'm awake and I go over to penny Mega Bucks where I hit a bonus with my first spin for $107.00 the most I've ever gotten on that slot.

Feeling I'm on a lucky streak, I go to our favorite Wolf Run machine at Palazzo and hit a bonus quickly for around $100, followed by this nice hit for $367.00. Now most of my wins today have not been made on WMS slots, though I love them, so back I got to the original WOZ and lose. Drat, there's Ruby Slippers, just let me donate a $100 to it with nary a bonus or wild in sight. Hmmm, perhaps time to try my lucky $5 WOF at Palazzo, oops, not so lucky.

Time to go back to Venetian and get some sleep, but first I stop off at the Gold Lounge to get a water. Drat, there's the $5 pinball, oops another donation. Walking quickly out of the high limit area, I'm thinking darn them for making me walk through the high limit area to get to the Gold Lounge. Next I'm thinking why is that Gold Fish machine in my way, hmmm, I'll put $20 in for a few spins at max. End up with 80 cents, should cash it out or put a few more bucks in if I'm going to spin again, but oh no, I take the bet down to 70 cents and hit 5 fish cans on a line, the most I've ever had. I do my usual poor picking but it seems 5 fish cans on a line are worth a little money.

Knowing I'm making silly decisions now and have played slots way too much today, though I did get a lot of points to use at the Grazie VIP party on Friday, I make my way back to my room just in time to post this trip report before I collapse.

Tomorrow morning will start out early as Socalgirl and I make our way to G2E. It's only open tomorrow from 10am to 3pm but we'll do our best to get to the exhibits of  WMS, IGT, Bally, Aristocrat and others.