20k win and 7 hand pays, best trip so far!

This was a last minute trip for my husband and I due to finding out he wouldn't be able to go on our planned October trip during G2E and since he hadn't been on a trip with me so far this year we really wanted to make one happen.

We had a easy Saturday flight out of San Jose airport and the Palazzo limo driver was waiting for us at baggage claim when we arrived in Las Vegas. (to enlarge photos click on them)

Palazzo VIP services was quick as usual and we were in the room and unpacking in less then 10 minutes. We were on the 40th floor and this time instead of the usual view of Treasure Island we had a view of the strip toward Venetian.

Since this was the first trip to Las Vegas that my husband had been able to make due to work,  I was  hoping we would have some wins to keep the gambling fun going instead of my losses on earlier trips. We tried our luck first at Palazzo's $5 Wheel of Fortune and couldn't get a spin so we went over to the Jungle Wild $1 slot that has a minimum bet of $5 and quickly hit a bonus for $382.00.

We tried a couple other dollar slots that had minimum $5 bets like Zeus with little luck so decided to go play the pennies. Things starting looking up when we were playing the Lord of the Rings slot Fellowship and hit the Gimli bonus for about $100 which then said pay that again for about 9 times for a win of $961.00.

Feeling flush since we hadn't touch our $600 free play yet, we decided to walk over to Venetian's High Limit room to try our favorite $1 Da Vinci slot but briefly stopped to play the original WOZ where we hit a Monkey bonus for $190.00!

The high limit room at Venetian has been renovated recently and I'll talk about those changes later.  We quickly found $1 Da Vinci but couldn't get anything going on it so we decided to check out the renovations when we noticed the $25 Wheel of Fortune in the area that used to have the $5 WOF and my husband said lets just put $200 in it for fun since we're ahead and take 4 pushes and hope for a spin.  

I pushed first and got nada, then Randy went and nothing again, third push is the charm as I hit two double diamonds and the Wheel of Fortune symbol for $20,000.00!!! Wow, last  year when I hit the 20k on $5 Top Dollar at Aria I guess I was in shock because I didn't have much of a reaction, this time perhaps because my husband was with me I did a little dance and squeal.




The slot attendant appears a couple minutes later giving his congratulations and asks if we wanted it in cash!  No thanks, give us $5k in cash and a $15k check. The attendant warns us that might take 15 or more minutes and we say no problem.  It did take about 15 or 20 minutes but I've never been so happy to wait around not playing in a casino, LOL. The slot itself doesn't make any real noise to announce the win so the slot attendants must have been talking about it up front as we had quite a few people walking to the back area during the 15 plus minutes we were waiting, look at our machine and giving their congrats.

After the slot attendant paid us off, we went back to $1 DaVinci, $5 Triple Double Diamond Cheese slot and a couple others in the HL room to see if our luck was still hot. It was not but we did have a hit for $550.00 on the $1 Wolf Run.

Deciding we didn't need to give back too much of our winnings immediately we walked back to Palazzo and started playing the penny slots again.  We both played Grease but Randy wasn't impressed and went off to play the WOZ community slot. I continued to play Grease and got a couple decent bonuses but ended up losing.

We continued to play the penny slots until dinner and it's always amazing how fast one's cash can disappear even when playing the pennies. However we had our 15k check put away to console us with each loss and to guarantee we went home with a lot more money then we came with!

Dinner our first night in Vegas had to be at one of our favorites, if you have read my trip reports before I'm sure you are thinking not Tao again.  Tao was packed on a Saturday night but we've eaten there so often which they know from our information in their computer system that they always give us the booth we like and we were seated immediately. We both ordered the Phuket cocktail with Tequila, thai chili's and cucumbers we like so much but I wasn't going to do a repeat of my July trip and mix it later with champagne and beer, LOL!

Yes, I'm a creature of habit, had to order the garlic tempura green beans.

Randy ordered his favorite appetizers the pork potstickers.

Always the same entree for both of us at Tao, their fabulous miso glazed sea bass!

We shared our favorite dessert the giant fortune cookie filled with white mousse on one side and chocolate mousse the other!

After dinner I suggested we go to Wynn and had to remind Randy they had $1 DaVinci there before he agreed. Once at Wynn we were still on a losing streak and lost $100 on DaVinci, and another $100 on a penny slot I had luck on in July, so we decided to walk to Encore to see if the WOZ games and the new Jaws slot would be lucky. They weren't, though we briefly had a fun bonus on Jaws, so after a few more hundred in losses we return to Wynn. Once back at Wynn I wanted to insert one more hundred in $1 DaVinci before returning to Palazzo and that's when our luck changed back to WINNING! We started out with a good bonus on $1 DaVinci of $820.00.

We continued to play $1 DaVinci Diamonds and after a few more spins we hit a hand pay for $1290.00!

After receiving our first hand pay at Wynn we moved to a $1 Cleopatra slot that had a minimum bet of $9 a push and quickly hit for $960.00 on a bonus.

Deciding to hit and run on Cleopatra I spied the $1 Jackpot Block Party for $20 a push and said since we are ahead now at Wynn lets just run a hundred through it and see if it's active. It was active and gave us a hit almost immediately of $500.00.

We decided to do a few more pushes before walking away and hit the bonus! Our first two picks opened up more parties but then on the 3rd party we hit the popper and I thought our bonus was over only to discover that it just closed off the one party screen and we continued to pick on the other two until our bonus ended with a jackpot of $2380.00!

We're up to three hand pays within 6 hours, that calls for a chocolate martini to celebrate!

I've tried the $1 Diamond Queen at Wynn before with no luck but the penny version is one of Randy's favorites though he seldom gets a bonus on it so it was a shocker when we quickly hit a bonus on the $1 version for $1365.00!

After the Diamond Queen hand pay we couldn't resist our favorite slot, Wolf Run so decided to see if we could get lucky on the dollar version and quickly got a hand pay of $1395.00! 

Ever since we had arrived at Wynn that evening I had wanted to try the $5 Pink Diamond slot in the Wynn HL room since we were on a lucky streak, but it was not to be because for the three plus hours we were at Wynn the same lady was glued to that slot. I sure hope she was winning because otherwise she lost a heck of a lot of $$$ in that slot!

It was time to return to Palazzo and Venetian but before we called it a night we had one last flurry of penny slots where we didn't really have any wins but after a return to the Venetian HL room we had a grand finale to our winning steak for the night when we finally hit the bonus on the $5 triple double diamond cheese slot for $1275.00 bringing our total hand pays during a twelve hour period to six!

Next day we woke up late but I didn't get much sleep as I was too hyped up from all those lovely wins! We made it to brunch at 2pm at Grand Lux at Venetian. Randy ordered his favorite the egg sandwich with ham and cheese, hold the tomatoes and I had a Sonoma Salad.

After eating we tried a few penny slots around Grand Lux like Top Gun, WOZ and Hangover but it seemed our luck was worn out and needed to recharge so we headed over to see the interactive Da Vinci Exhibit since our host had arranged for free tickets.

They don't let you take photos inside of the exhibit so we took a few outside around the ticket stand and gift shop.

When you first enter the exhibit they take a photo of you against a blue screen and then after the tour you are able to look at photos of yourself that make it look like you are painting one of DaVinci masterpieces like the Mona Lisa. We did not buy ours. :)

Randy and I both enjoyed the exhibit. There were about four rooms with one room being very interactive and hands on while in the other rooms you couldn't touch the items. It was interesting to read about how people had taken the plans for Da Vinci's inventions and made them with some working and some not. Da Vinci was such a well rounded genius it's astounding to see how versatile his inventions were and to be able to try out some of the mock ups. There was also a mirrored cubicle you could enter that was interesting both for the person standing inside it and the person outside of it who could look through a peek hole at you, giving them them the view that there was infinite amount of images of you.

Another room was devoted to Mona Lisa and what they had discovered of the painting using today's technology and they had many sizes and colors of Mona Lisa on display there. The last room of the exhibit had a short movie about Da Vinci's famous Last Supper Painting.

After the exhibit we were drawn back into Venetian's High Limit Lounge (shocker) which is almost next door. We decided to go crazy and stuck $400.00 in the $25 Top Dollar at $75.00 a push to see if we could get the Bonus in a few spins. We were thrilled when we got it the third push. The first offer was only for $1,000 which is not that great on a $75 bet, plus the slot's advice in the window on the bottom left said to go for Try Again so we did. The 2nd and 3rd offers were worse then the 1k and the last offer ended up $750.00. We made money but considering the risk of the bet it wasn't good so we left Top Dollar to return to the scene of our big win the $25.00 Wheel of Fortune.

We really wanted a spin but didn't want to give back to much money to get it so we said we would do 3 spins each. We lucked into the bonus on about the 5th spin and while we were hoping for the 10k prize we were still happy with $1175.00 as there were lots of lower amounts on the wheel. After that we gave it a couple more pushes just in case but ended up moving on.

Deciding to go play the penny slots at Palazzo we tried Pinball on the way out and hit our only bonus on it for the trip which was for $325.00.

On the walk back to Palazzo the Carnevale performers were out in the waterfall area posing for photos.

I enjoyed seeing the parade and performers wandering around Venetian and Palazzo, I hope they have Carnevale next year too.

Oops, forgot to add that before we left Venetian HL we hit for $630.00 on $1 Da Vinci Diamonds but gave most of it back.

Back at Palazzo we played our favorite Wolf Run and our best hit was for slightly over $200 on a $4 bet.

I found Cash Coaster that I've played before at Bellagio and introduced Randy to it. We hit a bonus pretty quick and won $187.75 on a $2 bet.

After that we tried a bunch of the new slots like Aladdin, Grease, Michael Jackson, etc...all fun slots when they are giving bonuses out but our luck was taking a break. We still have 40 minutes before dinner so we went back to the Venetian High Limit Room to see if I could take some photos without getting other gamblers in them.

As mentioned earlier they still have the one large room in Venetian High Limit with cashier cage and entrance to the Gold Lounge, and it seems to be the same slots, but they have angled them a bit differently. I didn't get any photos of that room or the renovated Gold Lounge because there were always people around and if you take photos of strangers that is when security tells you to put the camera away or possibly takes it away. However I was able to get photos of the small rooms that are now built along one side. Above is one semi-private room with four slots, couch and chairs and televisions above the slots.

Entrance to one of the rooms from the side gambling high limit gambling area.

Another shot showing the rooms, I think there are four total.

The rooms are very comfortable and during various times of the trip I would peek in and see people not playing the slots but relaxing and watching television or  even reading on the couches.

All the rooms are decorated nicely in my opinion.

This is a shot I took as I was standing at the end of the side room, there's slots on one side and then the semi-private rooms on the other. I was told it's possible for the whales to reserve one of these rooms and make it private.

Same room with Zeus slot as above but wanted to get a shot of the flatscreen.

This angle is if you were standing at the entrance to the side area from the large room in high limit. At the back against the wall is the $25 and $100 Wheel of Fortune slots.

Last example of one of the semi-private rooms. 

It was time for our dinner at Cut, one of my top 5 restaurants in Las Vegas. We've eaten here a lot and I've never had anything less then great service and delicious food! Above is their parmesan bread sticks.

The amuse is always the cheese gougere's.

There's several different types of bread served with butter with sea salt sprinkled on top. I usually select the pretzel and focaccia bread.

Randy always orders and enjoys the butter lettuce salad, it has tomatoes, avocado, Point Reyes blue cheese and a champagne herb vinaigrette dressing.

I went for something new for me this time, a Maryland Blue Crab and Carolina shrimp Louis Cocktail with a spicy tomato horseradish dressing, with a layer of avocado mousse. I liked it but it was very rich and I'm not sure I would order it again.

Before they bring out the steaks they serve sea salt, a couple different mustards and a sauce.

My Mango passion cocktail with passion fruit, Bacardi 151 rum, orange juice and chili syrup was so good, I ordered two!

Petite cut filet Mignon with a side of asparagus that had a wonderful crumb and cheese topping. Our steal had the perfect sear, tasted delicious and we had the house steak sauce with it.

Randy ordered a cappuccino.

We shared our favorite dessert the chocolate soufflé. The server starts with pouring in the chocolate sauce.

Next comes the whipped Creme Fraiche!

A generous scoop of Gianduja ice cream! This is chocolate ice cream with finely ground hazelnuts in it.

Additional Chocolate sauce and it's ready to share and enjoy! The serving is large and as you can tell rich, plenty for two to share!

After eating at Cut we noticed the Palazzo waterfall area wasn't busy so took advantage to take a couple photos as it's usually packed due to Carnevale activities.

Carnevale is ending in September so I'm expecting a new theme in October.

Back at Palazzo we hit the penny slots hard for a few hours but mainly lost so we ended up going to bed. We woke up late and went to brunch at Palazzo's Grand Lux where we both ordered and enjoyed the Egg sandwich that Randy had also ordered the day before.

After breakfast we played the penny and 5 cent slots but our losing streak from last night continued. I did get one decent hit on original Gold Fish and I still love the original game more then the sequels.

Wizard of Oz regardless of which version didn't want to give me much in the way of wins.

While Randy was playing the original WOZ in Palazzo a couple walking vine ladies strolled through the casino to the waterfall area.

The penny and 5 cent slots were beating us up so we decided to follow the walking vines out.

We headed back toVenetian's high limit room but found our luck was no better there at this point though we did get a hand pay on $1 Da Vinci for $10!!! After they paid us they put the slot out of order and we didn't get to play it anymore at Venetian this trip because they hadn't fixed it yet by the time we left.

We took the $10 hand pay as a sign and decided to go check in at THEHotel for Mandalay Bay where we were booked for 3 nights. The offer was only for $200 free play, $200 F&B, but it had a fly back voucher with it that I was interested in getting. We took a taxi from Palazzo and had a honest driver who when I requested he take Industrial to Sinatra to THEHotel didn't try to give me the excuse he didn't know the route and cut through the Mirage parking lot to get to Industrial.

Once at THEHotel we went right up to registration because there wasn't a line and was told we had to check in via VIP. This surprised me because I've checked in at the regular registration desk at Bellagio when I had VIP check in and forgot to go there, but each M-Life hotel does it different and they said VIP had our key cards and they couldn't do it. The host at VIP checked us in quickly and the suite was the usual one but only on the 17th floor so while we had a strip view Luxor blocked part of our view.

We were still planning on staying at Palazzo this night so we didn't have our luggage and only did a quick check of the suite. I rarely over book but this one trip I had a one day overlap and we were only going to stay the one night sleeping at THEHotel and planned on checking out early and not stay the 3rd evening. Hoping our luck would return we went and used up our free play at Mandalay Bay's $1 Da Vinci, but we couldn't get much going on it, though we had one decent hit above.

We also tried the $5 Top Dollar and $1 Cleopatra but couldn't get anything going so went off to play the pennies. We found the new Amazing Race slot and had a couple quick bonuses on it but I only took movies, no photos. Nearby was the new Reel Ghostbuster's slot that we like more then the original and we had quite a few fun bonus on it.

After Ghostbusters we tried 5 cent Da Vinci, Kitty Glitter and others but nothing was hitting for us. On the way to dinner we tried a 5 cent Wolf Run and did get a hit for about $325.00.

Dinner tonight was at Red Square. Since Red Square is going to be rebranded later this year we thought we would take a photo with the headless Lenin statue in case it goes away permanently.

We were seated at a lovely corner booth and started out with pretzel bread.

We both had the spicy Russian Mary with stuffed blue cheese olives but Randy didn't care for his so they replaced his drink with pepper vodka on the rocks.

I really enjoyed my walnut crusted goat cheese salad of greens, charred beets, oranges, walnuts and fried goat cheese.

Randy liked his Russian chopped salad. It was romaine, smoked bacon, blue cheese, hard boiled eggs, hold the onion and tomatoes with Russian dressing.war

There were a lot of entrees that we felt like eating that evening but we were so happy that we both went with our server's suggestion of the roasted jumbo sea scallops in a lobster cream sauce served with applewood bacon and a potato veggie succotash. Just delicious, we both loved it!

We ended up ordering two desserts because we couldn't agree on which one we both wanted. I thought my Rasputin Magic Bar of layered white chocolate and hazelnut mousse, chocolate cake, with a graham cracker crust with peanut butter powder and whip cream was the winner!

Randy's cheesecake with roasted meringue, raspberry sauce and lime glaze was great and he ate it all in addition to half my dessert, but seriously the Rasputin Magic Bar was the winner!

During dinner the manager came over and we had a nice chat about how sorry we were that the restaurant was closing this year and he shared that the replacement restaurant would also be Russian with a ice bar, though run by a different company which I believe is the Light Group. Current employees will have to interview again but it sounded like a lot of them would be rehired. China Grill is also closing down and will reopened in the future as a Japanese restaurant. Not sure why as it didn't seem like the now closed Shanghai Lily was a big success.

Couldn't resist taking a photo of the large Ketel One Vodka bottle next to our booth.

We gambled a bit more at Mandalay Bay after dinner but were just losing so we took the tram to Excalibur and walked over to NYNY where we continued to lose. Next up was walking to Monte Carlo where we found the new Gone with the Wind slot which we like the feel of but our particular bonuses didn't pay much. After Monte Carlo we walked to Aria and had to try my lucky $5 Top Dollar that I won the 20k on last October but nada from it.  However 10 days later my friend Terri played it and hit 10k on it! Congrats Terri!! 

After losing at Aria we took the City Center monorail to Bellagio and briefly walked through the conservatory.

A lot of the same elements as last year's display during this time, but always beautiful!

We found the Gone with the Wind slot at Bellagio too and again hit a bonus but it didn't pay much. I hope to get lucky on it in the future as we both like this slot despite the low pay outs so far.

We played several slots at Bellagio including Whales of Cash and Hitchcock Theatre but our luck was taking a well earned rest so we caught a cab back to Venetian.

Once at Venetian we started playing our favorite penny slots but with the exception of a few decent hits we were just losing.

I can't stay away from the original Goldfish but it quickly took my money after this hit.

I went to my lucky Hangover slot and got some bonuses but again ended up losing.

We constantly went to Top Gun this trip after my hand pay on it in July and the fact the progressive was a million and a half it was just too tempting with the max bet being $2.00. We did get one decent Flyby but after that it died on us and our losing streak continued for that night so we took ourselves back to Palazzo and bed.

The next morning we got up late, packed and checked out of Palazzo. Our host had picked up everything so all that was on the bill was the restaurant tips. Since we already had our room waiting for us at THEHotel and would only be staying the one night there we quickly dropped off our bags and went to the THECafe for brunch. My husband had his usual eggs, fruit and toast there and I ordered my favorite the lobster salad. This is the 3rd time they have changed their lobster salad recipe over the last 5 years.  I did prefer this recipe to the last change but it's never been as good as the original that had lobster medallions and hearts of palm.

After eating my husband went off to the spa as he had a massage scheduled for today and as he was leaving jokingly said get a hand pay.

The first slots I spied was the Lord of the Rings and I headed right to the Fellowship version as that was the type that had given us the $900 win at Palazzo. I was happy the slot was active with bonuses but I was getting Aragorn which times your win on the screen usually as high as 30X but since most of the time there's no win, it's  a zero bonus. The second time I got Aragorn and it flashed the 30X on the screen before spinning I'm moaning not another zero bonus, curse you WMS, when a bunch of bars lands on the screen and open mouth I'm letting it ring out as the amount just keeps going up until I have a hand pay for $1230.00! Wow, is our luck back? Are we going to have a run like we did our first day in Vegas? Does this mean I have to stop moaning about WMS and their zero bonuses? 

I don't know if I have to stop moaning in the future about WMS zero bonuses but except for a few nice hits like the one below on Aladdin for $405.00 my slot play and my husband's once he rejoined me in the casino was back on a losing streak and the hand pay win was given back to the casino.

We were meeting my friends Terri and Boots for dinner tonight and Terri arrived early and started playing her favorite slots like the $1 Da Vinci Diamonds we had tried earlier, the $5 Top Dollar that we  couldn't get a bonus on but for Terri it was in bonus mode and DaVinci was giving her some great hits so by the time all of us headed off to dinner Terri was ahead.

The four of us were given a a nice table and since it was restaurant week they had a prix fix set up for it at around $50 with a wine pairing for $24.00. All of us did the prix fix and all but Terri took the wine pairing. Terri was driving that evening so was skipping drinking.

First up was the bread basket and it had great cornbread.

Randy was the only one to select the soup. I had a taste and it was very rich and delicious with rock shrimp, bacon and roasted corn.

The rest of us had the fresh greens salad with heirloom tomatoes, fennel, and cheese, very refreshing.

The sides came family style and there was creamed spinach and parmesan gratin potatoes.

The main course was butter poached lobster and filet mignon and it was outstanding!

Dessert was their Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce, and we all loved it! As far as service went that evening it was good but not outstanding. I still prefer Cut as my all time favorite steak house, but I would return to Charlie Palmer if staying at Mandalay Bay.

After dinner Boots played slots with me for a while but she had just arrived earlier that day and after about a hour returned to Wynn. We'll be in Vegas together at the same time in October for G2E so we'll get to spend more time together then.

Terri's winning streak at Mandalay Bay continued after dinner and she won a hand pay on the 5 cent Da Vinci slot that Randy and I had lost on earlier that day. It's all luck folks, the slot was tight for us and loose for Terri!

After Terri left for home Randy and I continued to play since we needed to earn X amounts of tier points to keep our NOIR status since some points had dropped off in July and M-Life goes to their new system October 1st of zeroing out points each year. From what I've read I don't like the changes in the M-Life program so I'm not sure how much play they will get from me next year, but we decided to try and see if we could keep NOIR status for one more year to see if it's worth it with the new system. From what I'm reading since it goes back to invite only after October 1st, it likely won't be worth it for us since we like to spread our play around among the casino groups.

We had some decent hits on Wizard of Oz and other slots but we were back to losing.

Clue wasn't very lucky for me this trip but I do like this slot and enjoy the bonuses.

I really like the new Michael Jackson slot if the bonuses are active. Since the MJ Cirque show will be arriving at Mandalay Bay next year I'm guessing they will add to the current bank of 6 MJ slots.

I can't stay away from Aladdin either but lately bonuses are hard to come by for me, so while this wasn't a bad bonus I was still losing on Aladdin.

My best and last Clue bonus on the trip!

We returned a lot to the new reel Ghostbusters slot. We didn't walk away a winner from our sessions but we had a lot of bonuses and fun on it. Unfortunately since it's a speciality slot one hardly gets any M-Life points from it. One of the things I really dislike about the M-Life program is almost all new slots anymore are speciality slots and only the old slots which are slowly disappearing give you a decent amount of points for playing. I don't know about all of you but I can lose even faster on the speciality slots so it seems sad that they also have the penalty of earning points at a snails pace.

I also like to get one photo a trip of a bride. :)

We stayed up late playing and had fun but thank goodness for our earlier wins the first day of our trip, otherwise we would be losers instead of winners this trip.

Next morning we slept in late and ended up eating around 1:30pm back at THECafe where Randy ordered eggs again and I decided to mix it up with their Greek Caesar pawn salad with olives and sun dried tomatoes. The salad was good but I thought $26.00 for 2 pawns was ridiculous. Good thing our meals here were comped! THECafe is also a restaurant that is getting rebranded next year when the Morgan's Hotel Group takes over and rebrands THEHotel to the Delano.

Our flight wouldn't leave that evening until 8:30pm so we were booked a extra night at THEHotel but we ended up checking out early around 6pm. Before we left we played a bunch of the penny slots with little luck but did have a decent send off from $1 Da Vinci Diamonds for over $500.00

The 15k check from our 20k Wheel of Fortune win at Venetian!

What a wonderful trip!  I was so happy Randy was able to be with me this time. After all the losses earlier this year it was fabulous to be reminded that just one spin can ensure a trip is a winner! I love winning the first day and knowing it's going to be one of those very rare trips where we will be going home with more money then we came with. The only downside is we tend to then gamble more and at higher levels. This time it paid off since we got lucky at Wynn, but that's so unusual for us and while I would love to repeat this luck in the future, I'm not expecting it.

Our flight home was easy and I'm hoping that Randy's and my son's work schedule will allow a trip to Vegas in November the week of Thanksgiving as my Mom will be visiting Vegas then with a friend until the 23rd. It's the time of the Grazie holiday gift show so that would be a great time to return together.

My next trip is the first few days of October to see friends and go to G2E the Global Gaming Expo to see all the new slots that are coming out soon! If you are there during that time period and spot me, please say hello!