This trip was about 7 months in the making as the main purpose of visiting Las Vegas in April was to attend the annual meet of the Slot Fanatics. Originally I was going for 3 nights from April 10th to the 13th but this changed when friends Laura and Yon asked Gwen and I when our next trips to Vegas were so they could try to time theirs around ours so I mentioned my upcoming April trip and Gwen, Laura and Yon all ended up booking around that time too.
Gwen decided to depart on Sunday April 7th and stay at Palazzo so I found myself scheduling a trip to Palazzo for two nights starting April 8th and changing my previous reservation for THEHotel at Mandalay Bay to arriving on the 10th and departing on the 12th. My friend Terri who lives in Vegas was also going to be staying a couple nights at the Four Seasons at Mandalay Bay to check out their newly renovated rooms.
We have three cats, and Troy our Siamese let me know he wasn't happy that once again I was off to Vegas without him so he briefly staged a sit in until lured out of the suitcase with bits of salmon.
I fly a lot but I hate flying in storms or high winds so I wasn't happy that both San Jose and Las Vegas airports had high wind advisories the day I flew out. Upon arriving at San Jose Airport I found long lines at security due to only having one x-ray machine running and only 2 lines open, but the good news was the planes for the most part, including my flight was taking off on time.
The high winds ended up working in our favor as we made it to Las Vegas in record time, only a hour flight, however the flight was bumpy and the landing while safe was interesting.
My Palazzo driver Robin was waiting for me at baggage claim and soon I was on my way to Palazzo. Notice how much Robin's hair was blowing in the wind in the covered parking garage.
Home sweet home, the lobby area of Palazzo. Check in, as always was quick at the VIP lounge. Gwen who had already checked in the previous day and had won at least two hand pays on Ultimate X poker had texted to say she was taking a short nap so I went up to my suite and unpacked.
On the way to the room I was surprised that the bank of Palazzo elevators for the high floor rooms now at one end had a private elevator roped off.
As soon as I was unpacked I couldn't wait to try out the latest Wizard of Oz slots with the new Gamefield xD cabinets. I enjoyed playing the Haunted Forest, love the game cabinet and graphics but was getting low hits like the one above so decided to wait and return later. I played a few other favorite slots and was holding my own but it wasn't until I met up with Gwen and we went over to the Palazzo $1 slots outside of their HL room that I finally had a decent win, which I chalk up to touching Gwen's lucky Vegas bag which will be featured later in this trip report.
While Gwen was playing $1 Zeus next to me and getting a couple good hits, I hit the bonus on Jungle Wild for $449.00. While we were laughing and enjoying ourselves I discovered that Gwen hadn't really eaten anything all day and since we were going to have a late dinner I talked her into walking over to Venetian's Gold Lounge where we had some appetizers and soft drinks before trying a few of Venetian's High Limit Slots.
