Girl's Just Want To Have Fun or Liz's June Birthday Party in Vegas!

It's June 23rd, so it's time to head out for what is becoming my annual Liz's Birthday Las Vegas Trip!

This year I was thrilled to have Roz with me on my Southwest flight. Where's our husbands? Home taking care of business, it was time for the girl's to have fun! Alright, I know lately it seems like it's always my time to have fun, but I promise you that before I leave on what are usually short little trips my family has lots of home cooked food in the fridge and they are looking forward to a break in my nagging err suggestions.

Time went fast at the airport with a friend to chat with and our Southwest flight was uneventful. Roz and I arrived in Vegas around noon and as always Palazzo had sent a limo for me. Due to being busy this weekend with the EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival) we were with a driver and limo contracted out to Venetian/Palazzo. This worked out in our favor since Roz was staying at Wynn and our driver on learning this offered to drop her off at Wynn first! During our drive to Wynn we were entertained by our driver with stories of the crazy goings on with the EDC group running around the casinos and streets.

After dropping Roz off at Wynn and as we were pulling up at Palazzo I got a text from T asking me if I had time to meet real quick before their massage appointment at Canyon Ranch Spa and I replied sure and told them I was checking in and would meet them at the VIP check in area. Check in was super fast so I exit the VIP lounge area and I'm looking around for T when I run into Top Dollar Player from the Slot Fanatics forum! What a sweetheart and it was so great to meet him. Well to make a long story shorter and for me to look less like the ditz I was that day (blaming that on only 2 hours of sleep the night before) T was Top Dollar Player and he was the one that was texting me.  I had confused him with one of my friends who also goes by the nickname of T and who was in town and while I'm running around looking for that friend while talking to him I make him late for his spa appointment before figuring out later from the texts sent back and forth that I had been talking to him all the time!

After leaving T and going to my suite and unpacking, instead of taking the nap that I obviously needed I run down to the casino to get my slot fix. Practically the first slot I see is a new favorite of mine the 3d Twilight Zone and I have some middling bonuses and hits from it.

After taking a quick look around at Palazzo and getting a bit upset that a lot of slots had been removed again to make way for those silly poker tables I head out to Venetian. Rumor had it that Willy Wonka was getting installed this week in some casinos and I felt like I had scored when I found it right away when walking into the Venetian Casino.

There were some employees around WW admiring the graphics and sounds who told me it had just been installed the night before. One suit told me he was planning on playing it soon but of course at another casino since they aren't allowed to play at their own.

I've been excited about this slot for a long time and really looking forward to playing it so I was excited to get some bonuses on it, but then disappointed when initially they were low pay outs like the one above for $4.00.

The Oompa Loompa random bonus was also very disappointing though I can see a potential of a big win with this bonus like one can get with Glinda in the original Wizard of Oz slot.

After Willy Wonka I went in search of the new Star Wars slot that my friend Boots had fun playing the week before at Cosmopolitan. I found it both at Venetian and Palazzo but while I could imagine the fun factor when lucky on it this trip I wasn't lucky.

The Rich Life slot at Venetian was a new one for me. The bonuses were hitting every other spin or so but didn't pay much, however it was an amusing slot for about 30 minutes or so.

After Rich Life I took a brief turn at one of the penny Wheel of Fortunes before I noticed the new Family Guy Slot. I really wanted to like Family Guy but my bonuses didn't pay out much and it didn't have the fun factor of the new Willy Wonka slot to make up for it. I haven't given up on it because there were bonuses I didn't experience and it's possible that in the future there might be more fun and money to be made with this slot.

I had to try one of the new progressive slots by WMS since Shamus recently posted a big win on it but the one at Palazzo let me down big time.  I tried it a few more times on this trip but never got the bonus again on it.

It was getting close to dinner when I exchanged texts with some of the other ladies and found out we were meeting at Wynn's Parasol Up lounge for a drink before dinner so I hurried over to Wynn.

Parasol Up at Wynn with Julie, Liz, Teresa and me. Liz our birthday girl hit a 4k Royal at Wynn earlier that day on VP, got to love that birthday luck!

Roz and Gwen at Parasol Up.

Gwen, Debra and Mark.

My drink the Cucumber and Ginger Cooler. Jen had this back in February when we had drinks here and after a sip from her drink I decided it was one of my favorites.

Sinatra smash with the delicious potato chips and nuts served at Parasol Up.

The cocktail portion of the Parasol Up menu to give you a idea what's on it and the pricing.

Julie, Teresa and me, just because I like a lot of photos. :)

Our group with Liz's husband John, before Liz and John head off for their own dinner plans, while Mark and Debra also went off to enjoy the rest of their evening.

We had dinner plans at Postrio tonight and as we walked through Palazzo to Venetian the Carnevale performers were out and about.

At Postrio we met up with Micheal, Jonathan and Maggie (Micheal's Mom).

Gwen, Micheal, Teresa, Roz and Julie.

The menu at Postrio, and here's the game, match the food photos below with the menu items above.  Click on the menu photo to enlarge it. Okay, so I'm being lazy in not naming the entrees, deal with it. ;)

The drink above is the white sangria! It was great to be back at Postrio and as always the food was good. It's been a while since I've eaten here because a couple years ago a server accidentally dropped my husband's dinner on him and ever since Randy refuses to return.

I had a pineapple ginger mojito drink which was fine, but not my favorite drink of the trip.

After dinner as we walked back to the Palazzo casino we were lucky enough to hear and see part of one of the Carnevale free performances, this one with the 3 pianists.

The shoe in the background is tied in with Priscilla Queen of the Desert which is currently one of the shows at Palazzo.

After dinner the ladies went back to the casinos/hotels they were staying at so I resumed my losing, err gambling.

The 3 squares that are showing up blank are the bonus symbols and it's appropriate because it's the worse Zeus II bonus I have ever had. I won one dollar over my bet! Funny how on Facebook's Jackpot Party I do so well, on this slot but at a real casino my luck just sucks.

I still like the new WMS Gamefield xD Wizard of Oz slots but couldn't get much going on them this trip.

While I wasn't getting big wins on Willy Wonka I couldn't stay away from this slot, its graphics, and music act like a magnet and before I know it I'm playing it again.

While it wasn't my biggest win on Willy Wonka the bonus that was the most fun was the Chocolate River Ride. Here's my video of the one Chocolate River Ride Bonus I won.

I continued to play a lot of slots tonight and while I had some luck earlier in the day on $5 Pinball it turned on me big time, along with most of the slots and the few hours I played after our dinner resulted in big losses. I was sad when I went to bed around midnight and then to make things worse I was hearing what sounded like music from one of the nightclubs.

Next morning I got ready quickly to meet up with Gina so we could walk over together to Wynn because Gwen was throwing a birthday party for Liz in one their fabulous cabana's. Gina and I during our walk were having fun chatting so we passed the elevators to the Wynn pools and ended up walking to the convention meeting room area before realizing our error and making the long walk back!

We got to the cabana just in time to see the birthday cake being delivered that Gwen had designed. Best decorations ever, but more importantly this cake tastes great. Underneath the fondant is also a butter cream icing and there is a mousse filling in the cake.

There were quite a few of us there for the Cabana party but I seem to have missed getting photos of Gina, Trish, Julie and others. Up above in the background is Liz's Dad and below is a photo of Liz with her Mom.

Gwen also had on hand some delicious finger foods and drinks.

We were really lucky with the weather that day it actually was only about 90 degrees, the severe heat wave was to follow in 3 days after we had left.

Roz, Gwen, Liz, myself and Teresa.

Liz had a lot of cute birthday presents to open.

Roz gave us all really cute party favors of a headband, cookies and jackpot napkins!

I lasted almost 2 hours at the Cabana party, but since I'm not a pool or sun lover I left and returned to Palazzo where once again the performers for Carnevale were out and about.

The puppet show they had going on in the Palazzo waterfall area for June was really cute. If you are staying at Palazzo or Venetian this summer make sure to ask for your Carnevale coupon book which is filled with discounts and also a few free drink offers. Sorry, no free cupcake this year from Sweet Surrender!

My luck started to pick up today, perhaps some of Liz's birthday luck rubbed off on me?

I can not stay away from the Hangover slots even though this trip I couldn't get many bonuses on them.

Love the Beverly Hills slot at Venetian and got a couple of my favorite Millionaire Mile Bonuses this trip but just couldn't go all the way to the silver or gold progressives.

My favorite Witches Riches slots had been removed from Palazzo to make way for those darn poker tables but I found one at Venetian and had a decent bonus on it.

I would return to the Twilight Zone slots at Palazzo frequently this trip and each time they would reward me with fun bonuses.

A big surprise this trip was trying Monster Jackpots once again and winning. This is a slot I never have had any success with but for some reason possibly because my friend Boots likes it so much I continue to try. Imagine my shock when I went all the way with the monsters and won their jackpot!

 Above is the video of my Monster win!

$1 Jungle Wild was a big tease this trip. I had a few decent hits on it, but the bonuses were pathetic.

I started to make up some of my first night losses when I hit a bonus on Cleopatra II that re-triggered for a hand pay of $1,241.20. Actually I thought I should have won more but the last few spins with a X24 multiplier just wouldn't hit.

After my hand pay it was time to walk to Wynn's Lakeside Grill for Liz's birthday dinner.

Here's our dinner group minus Liz's parents who arrived a few minutes after we took the photo. Julie, John, Liz, Gwen, Roz, Teresa, Gina, myself and Trish.

It was time for my first Sinatra Smash of the trip. I love this drink but avoid ordering it at the Parasol Up  lounge as they seem to make it a bit different then the other bars at Wynn.

Breadbasket filled with a variety of great tasting breads.

Teresa and I both had the appetizer of King Crab & Guacamole. This delicious appetizer has cilantro, an orange infusion and plantain chips. The shocker for T and I was how big this appetizer was and how much crab it had, it was a lot! Usually appetizers like this even at $22 contain a small portion of crab.

My Atlantic Sea Scallops above were great, but after my huge appetizer I had a hard time finishing my entree. The Scallops were served with a turnip puree which I found very rich so I'm thinking it had a lot of butter and cream in it. There was also a pineapple chutney in there.

Above is roasted jumbo shrimp with peppers, capers and tomatos.

I think this was the lobster risotto.

There were quite a few side dishes ordered such as Alaskan Crab mac & cheese.

English peas and glazed carrots.

I'm not sure what the dish above was as I didn't order it, but below are the Harissa Spiced French Fries with a ancho aioli dip.

The complimentary birthday cake with ice cream.

As we were finishing our dinners one of the Lake of Dreams shows came on and it was the one with the froggy.

After dinner I gave a few slots at Wynn a try but with the exception of Victory's Favor, I lost on all of them.

It was now time to meet the ladies at the tower valet area of Wynn as Gwen had arranged for us to go by limo to Mandalay Bay to see Liz's favorite group, the Vegas Limit.  The walk way below leads out to that valet area and has water with Koi in it. It's a really pretty area, but then what part of Wynn and Encore isn't beautiful? If only I could win at Wynn!

Teresa, Liz, Gwen, Julie, Roz, myself and Gina had a fun ride to Mandalay Bay but the fun stopped suddenly when we found out that Vegas Limit had canceled their performance for the evening even though it was still posted on their website. What a disappointment, but it has taught us a valuable lesson of calling in the future before we leave to make sure they are actually going to be playing. Gina and I shared a taxi back to Palazzo and the other ladies shared one back to Wynn.

Once back at Palazzo I headed straight for my $1 Jungle Wild slot which decided to give me 3 bonuses but all of them were disappointing, especially the one for $20!

This would be the mixed gambling theme tonight, I was getting lucky with bonuses but then when I thought they should be big wins they would fizzle out.

I was playing Clue quite a bit this trip but seldom got the bonus and up until now they were really low.

This was my best bonus on Willy Wonka for the trip but it took 2 re-triggers.

This PompeII slot at Palazzo seemed to always have someone playing it so I jumped on it when I finally saw it empty and it paid off with a nice bonus for over $400.00. Visit my youtube channel if you want to see a video of this bonus.

After that it was back to the Twilight Zone slots which were nearby and I hit my best bonus of the trip on it for $230.40.

Feeling like I might be on a small lucky streak I headed to the $1 Quick Hits in the Palazzo high limit room. Not feeling lucky enough to risk the max bet of $45 that you need to bet to hit the progressives, I was playing at $15 a push when I hit the bonus. For once I picked correctly and got the 20 spins with a wild for a extra 5 and a total of 25 spins. I then re-triggerd and had 50 spins! However imagine my disappointment when what I thought was going to be a huge jackpot ended up not even being a hand pay! Worse yet I re-triggered 2 more times during this bonus but didn't get extra spins! After the bonus when I read the rules I discovered the max free spins you can win are just 50! I have a video of this bonus below if you want to see how it went down.

After the bonus I did a few more spins and hit the 6 quick hits which paid $750.00 instead of the 2k since I wasn't at max bet.

I'm still down but approaching breaking even for the trip, (yep the first day's losses were that bad) when I decide to visit the Venetian high limit room.

I head to Pinball but couldn't get the bonus, though it threw me a bone of 3 bars for a $100.00.

They have $1 Quick Hits at Venetian too and it gave me some play though nothing exciting.

After Quick Hits I started a losing streak so decided to go to bed around 1pm as I had a early lunch to attend.

Next morning Gwen and Roz were nice enough to walk over from Wynn so we caught a taxi from Palazzo to Caesar's Palace at 10:45am for the lunch that Gina had been nice enough to arrange at Mesa Grill so we could get together with our friend Shirley and her husband.

Shirley, Gina, Roz, Melissa, Gwen, myself, and Shirley's husband Marc.

Trish, Shirley and Gina.

Photos of what Dollie called threesies. :) Myself, Dolly and Melissa. Some of you might know Dollie from her website of years ago cocktaildoll.com. Melissa and Dolly work at the same Las Vegas casino on the strip.

Here's a link to Dollie's cocktaildoll site:
http://www.cocktaildoll.com

Gwen, moi and Dollie.

Gina, Roz and Trish.

Shirley, Gina and Roz.

I ordered this cocktail because it looked so pretty. It was alright, not sure if I would order it again.

If it's a tomato type soup you know Gwen ordered it! This is a tomato and tortilla soup with avocado relish.

I'm thinking the salad above is Sophie's chopped salad with crispy tortillas.

I ordered what I always order at Mesa Grill, the Ancho Chile Honey Glazed Salmon with spicy black bean sauce and Jalapeño crema. Delicious if you like a dish with some spice to it.

Smoked shrimp tacos with cabbage slaw.

Spicy Chicken and Sweet Potato Hash with poached eggs and green chile hollandaise sauce.

Shirley who like Trish is from the UK gave us lovely gifts at lunch, tea from Harrods and her favorite candy drops. Lunch was a lot of fun and I was happy to finally meet Shirley and Marc in person and to also meet Melissa and Dollie.

After lunch we broke up into our separate groups and I went back to Palazzo. Today would be my last gambling day of the trip as I usually never gamble the day I leave.

I had some modest wins on Clue and my old favorite the original Wizard of Oz.

I played a bit on this new Mega Bucks slot and my best hit was $100.00 before I gave up.

I had a couple bonuses on Treasures of Troy for moderate wins.

Yep, it was back to Twilight Zone which always gave me a few bonuses each time I played it.

No more bonuses on $1 Jungle Wild for me this trip, but I had a hit for $100 as a goodbye win.

Dinner tonight was at Encore's Sinatra restaurant with Gwen, Teresa and my friend Terri (socalgirl) who lives in Vegas. Terri had met Gwen this past April and they had hit it off and I wanted her to meet Teresa, Liz and the other ladies too. Unfortunately most had other plans tonight but we did hook up with Liz after she had dinner with her parents so that worked out well.

Yes, another Sinatra Smash at the restaurant that started this craze! In my opinion the best Sinatra Smash is found at Sinatra!

Bread Basket, good selection and warm.

Above is the Caprese salad that Gwen ordered, it looked yummy!

My starter of Gamberoni which is jumbo shrimp with blood orange cocktail sauce and a baby fennel salad. Delicious!

Gwen had the Chicken Parmesan for her entree and it looked good.

Terri suggested that I order the Branzino for my entree, which is mediterranean sea bass. It was very delicious and I will order this again. The Branzino was served with a cannellini bean puree, pesto and what the menu called tomato petals.

I ended my meal with Expresso Affogato which is Expresso with Vanilla Gelato in it!

After dinner Gwen, Terri, Teresa and Liz played some VP at Encore but like usual I was losing so I said goodnight and went back to Palazzo. Yes I ate and ran, LOL! Once back at Palazzo I saw that the Clue puzzle was close to being solved so I played it and solved it!

After Clue I wasn't doing anything great but I did have a decent hit on Life of Luxury's Bier Haus slot but then I started losing big time on the pennies again.  I decided to stop gambling with my money and I  cashed in my points for free play and went over to the Venetian High Limit room where I had some quick bonuses on $5 Pinball and then the Double Triple Diamond Cheese slot so I turned my free play into cash with a bit extra and decided to call it a night!

I got up late as this was the day I would be leaving for home. I had a late check out of 4pm and I was meeting Gwen for lunch at 1pm at the Country Club restaurant for lunch.

On my walk from Palazzo to Country Club I couldn't resist waking through the Wynn High Limit Room to enjoy the beautiful view from that room.

Gwen was already waiting for me at Country Club and we were quickly seated at a great table overlooking the Wynn golf course.

I woke up this morning with a ominous tickle in my throat so I decided to have Chef Carlo's Gumbo and it had the perfect amount of heat and spice to sooth my throat, at least temporarily.

Gwen ordered and enjoyed her favorite soup the the sweet corn chowder.

I ordered the salad special of the day which had lots of shrimp, veggies, bleu cheese and other goodies.

Gwen's Country Club sandwich of poached chicken looked great. I tried one of those homemade potato chips and they were terrific! Thanks Gwen for a lovely lunch and wonderful company. I would have been very sad at this point about saying goodbye to Gwen but I knew I would be seeing her again in 3 weeks.

Here's some information on Carnevale for anyone who will be in Vegas this summer, especially those of you who might be staying at Venetian or Palazzo.

I had comped tickets to it this trip but couldn't use them and was going to reschedule for my August trip with my Mother but I just heard the show is closing the end of July instead of August.

Thought I would throw in a photo of the giant shoe without anyone blocking it.

Anyone want a silly ceramic cupcake? This was the prize in a Grazie promotion that also gave Grazie members a pull tab that could be worth a $1000 free play. Of course I got the pull tab that was only worth $10 free play. While we only had to earn 500 slot points for this promotion I prefer the ones that lets you at least earn 5 pull tabs a day for a chance at more prizes then just getting one shot at it like this.  Likely the one shot deal was because of them giving out the ceramic cupcake but I prefer past promotions of chocolate bars or even just the pull tabs alone like earlier this year.  I think I like the lined box it came in better then the cupcake, but hey that's just me.

After lunch with Gwen, I went back to my room and packed. As mentioned I had a late check out at 4pm and the do not disturb sign was on my door, but twice before I checked out housekeeping knocked on my door. Once was around noon and I told that person I would be leaving at 4pm and then at 2pm when the excuse was that their supervisor hadn't passed along that information to them, <sigh>.

As I went to check out at the VIP lounge since late check outs can't use the TV for that purpose again the Carnevale performers were around to entertain. Check out was quick, my limo was on time, and the  flight home was not full so no one in the middle seat next to me.

So far this year I've been losing, though lately the losses are at a much slower pace, thank goodness! This trip my comps ended up being worth more then my losses so I was happy about that. I would have been more happy if some of my bonuses like the one on Quick Hits that had the potential to be a big win had worked out.

I was planning on returning to Vegas in about 5 days from this trip for the Grazie Summer Gift Show as I had points worth about $600.00 so far in merchandise and also to celebrate my friend Brian's 30th birthday with him and others, however on this last day I started to feel that ominous tickle in my throat and that night after arriving back at home, I had a icky cold going.  I'm not blaming Vegas this time for getting sick, I was likely exposed to this bug before I left home.

Perhaps it's just as well I missed the Grazie Gift Show since my next trip which is July 17th will be for 7 nights in Las Vegas! I'm looking forward to this trip since it worked out that a lot of my friend's will be in Vegas during that week. Okay, so I'm always looking forward to a trip to Las Vegas,  my favorite play ground. Hope to see you all there soon!