Easy flight out of San Jose and it landed on time in Las Vegas where my driver Doug was waiting to whisk me off to Palazzo.
Upon arrival I went to the VIP Platinum lounge at Palazzo where my room was ready and as requested on a high floor, 47th in the 900 section with a view of the strip, and Mirage volcano. My room was not a handicapped room but once again I didn't have the step down into the living room area which I like.
After unpacking it was time to go hit some slots as this five night trip was full of activities with numerous friends who would be arriving today and later.
I first tried $1 Jungle Wild and lost a hundred on it and then tried the above slot that was next to it for a couple hundred and lost there too.
Went over to $1 Diamond Queen and continued my experiment from last trip in playing only 9 lines out of 20 and hit the bonus for a win of $360.00, which I don't think would have been that much more if I had been playing 20 lines! To see a video of this bonus and others go to my youtube channel at the link below. I don't want to embed the videos on this page as it seems to slow down things for readers with slower connections.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Dianaevoni
I tried a few more slots at Palazzo after my bonus on Diamond Queen but wasn't winning so walked over to Venetian's High Limit room where I immediately got lucky on $5 Cash Wheel hitting for $1000.00 when I hit the above seven's!
After that hit I tried the other $5 Cash Wheel next to it and very quickly hit the double pay spin for $700.00 and after a few more spins decided to cash out my ticket and move on to a couple more dollar slots like Sun and Moon.
Sun and Moon and the other dollar slots in Venetian's HL room let me down until I got a bonus on $1 Quick Hit for $287.00!
However my luck in the HL room had fled so I went outside to play one of my favorites the penny Walking Dead slot. Had a fun bonus on it for $128.00!
Around this time I had a text from Sandra who was staying at Palazzo and Wynn with her family and friends. Sandra and I had met on the SF message boards and then in person for the first time last summer during my birthday trip. We really hit it off so I was glad when she took a break from her family to meet up to play some slots for a hour. Had a great time but both of us had busy trips planned so this brief time would be our only chance to see each other until we both return to Vegas in July.
Sandra and I played several penny slots together. Both of us had some minor bonuses on the new Wizard of Oz, Road to Emerald City slot and Sandra had a decent bonus afterwards on Michael Jackson. However we had places to be and friends and family to see so we said goodbye and I returned to Palazzo to get ready to leave for dinner with Mike and Ken. On the way to the room to freshen up, I stopped at the $5 Wheel of Fortune Slot and was thrilled to get a spin on my first push, but it only ended up playing $175.00, still a good win since it was first push.
After changing my clothes I grabbed a cab to Aria as I was meeting Ken and Mike for dinner at Bardot. It was a happy surprise when I arrived to find that Chris had walked over with Ken from Cosmopolitan to join us in a drink which ended up also joining us for dinner!
Bardot is a Michael Mina restaurant that recently replaced his American Fish. We were lucky and arrived there early for our reservation while Happy Hour was still going on so the four of us sat at the bar and had appetizers and drinks.
Chris had a sparkling wine from the Happy Hour menu, and both Ken and Mike went with the cocktail of the day that was gin based and very strong, or as the bartender described it a manly drink, LOL!
I decided to pay full price and ordered a cocktail not on the Happy Hour menu and went with the le Detroit, which had Bombay dry gin, Canton ginger liquor, green chartreuse, lime and cilantro. It was a pretty drink and tasty.
Ken and I ordered a few appetizers off the happy hour menu. Ken's macaroni au gratin.
My shrimp cocktail and Tarte Provencal during Happy Hour. The portions are larger if you order them off the regular menu.
