It's time again for my annual birthday trip to Vegas. Hubby and I started doing this when I turned 40. Hubby (boyfriend at the time) was a Vegas Virgin, now he's a seasoned veteran. This was my 51st birthday so not much planned except for my 3rd bday dinner (hubby surprised me with a res @ McCormick and Schmick at home the week before we left to Vegas, then a dinner at one of our favorite local Italian restaurants on my actual bday) at BLT Steak. Last year for the big 5-0, hub surprised me with a beautiful suite at Bellagio, this trip we stayed at our home away from home, Paris.
We left Austin on the last non stop on July 11, leaving 15 minutes late but still arriving about 9:15 pm. Uneventful flight, was supposed to be a wifi flight but change of equipment they said, so no wifi. Oh well, we'll live! We found our favorite driver from Presidential, Sean, waiting for us. Caught up with him on the drive over to the hotel, always great to hear about his kids. Diamond registration was still open when we got to the hotel and we were given a nice red room on the 27th floor. Great view of the Eiffel Tower, Paris pool and the Bellagio fountains.
We quickly unpacked and made our way to PHo for a bite at planet dailies. We had stopped going there a few years ago because of consistently slow service, but my niece and I had gone last year once and service had improved so I thought we'd try again. Service was great, we split a Caesar salad, hubby had a burger, I had a sandwich, nothing memorable but we needed sustenance, we had gambling to do!
Piddled around a little on some machines at PHo then decided to go to our favorite $1 slots in the high limit room at ballys. I was playing on a 3x 4x5x pay machine, hubby was playing on the triple something machine next to me. We both put our $100's in.....let's get lucky! He played quite awhile on his machine, had a couple of nice hits, got it up to $300 or so and I suggested he play it down to $200 and cash out, then he'd have double his money. I was up and down on my machine, more down than up so I put in another $100. Hubby still playing on his first, then he hits something that puts him up a little over $400 (thank goodness he didn't listen to me and cash out at $200!). A few more button pushes later and he says LOOK! He had a red 7, a triple and another triple. The attendant light comes on, machine locks up and I say "I wonder how much you won. 3 red 7's would be $300, that tripled would be $900 and that tripled would be $2700." Then we noticed the little screen that tells you how much you have in the machine and it says PAY $4500. SWEET! I guess what it did was take the $500 red, white and blue 7 payout, tripled it to $1500, then tripled it again making $4500. Ok so we hadn't even been gambling for 2 hours and he's almost doubled what he brought with him for the trip. Very happy for him. If you remember in other reports, I always say my hubby is a happy loser, he just enjoys being there and we don't bring more than we can afford to lose and we don't pay for hotels or airfare so his gambling losses are chalked up to vacation expenses. This year Vegas has been good to him, in Feb. he got his very first W2G at Paris on the first night we were there.
I lost my second hundred and I think he ended up cashing the machine back out after he got it back down to $300 or so. The $4500 would get tucked safely in the ATM in the room (aka room safe) and we'll forget about it til we go home. We both then went and bought in for $200 at let it ride and we didn't ride long. We stopped to say goodnight to our pit boss friend Andrew and then we had to go back to Paris for our new end of night ritual, $100 each in the $5 top dollar in the champagne slots. Our $200 was doubled after a few minutes and we both finished up the night with 500 TCs so we got the 125 bump for Friday. Bed time was 2:30 Vegas time, 4:30 our time...and I'd been up since 6:30 our time so needless to say we crashed quickly.
We were up about 8:30 and got ready for the day. We were there on one of hubby's offers for some drawing but registration and free play distribution didn't start til noon so we had breakfast at the coffee shop at Paris, hubby had the 2 egg plate and I had the French vanilla French toast with a side of strawberries. Always a good breakfast. There was a 30% off coupon in our room for a treatment at the Paris spa so hubby told me to sign up for one for my bday so we went to the spa and picked a treatment and made my appt for Sunday.
About 2 weeks before our trip a friend from high school (that lives 2 hours from us) posted that she was going to be in town from Thursday through Sunday so I told her we'd be there Friday through Tuesday and planned to meet on Saturday. She was staying at the signature at MGM so when she called she said she'd come find us. We played around the quarter machines, registered for the drawing and collected his free play the picked up his $100 voucher for getting to diamond last year, we'd be using it at BLT Sunday. My friend got there about 12:30 so I suggested we go to the diamond lounge where we could visit. I haven't seen her for 3 years, at our 30 year class reunion, she always seems to go to Vegas the week after we go, no matter what time of year we go! I had a few mimosas, she had a few glasses of Merlot and hubby had a few margaritas. We talked for 3 hours then we took her to ballys to show her the machine hub won his money on. She had an event at Fizz at 6:30' so we said our goodbyes. Hubby and I played for about 30 min and he said he needed to go lay down. When we got up that morning he had said that he was still really tired and didn't really feel 100%, thought he'd feel better after we got moving. Apparently that didn't happen so we decided to nap so about 4:30 we laid down to the thump thump of the music by the pool. I woke up at close to 6 and he was crashed. I left him a note saying I was going to Ballys if he woke up. We had been playing on his card trying to get 1000 TCs on it to get the 1000 bump so I thought I'd go down and finish them off. I played til about 7:30. No word from hubby so I thought I should check on him. He's never been sick in Vegas so I was a little concerned. I got back to the room and he had crawled under the covers while I was gone so I knew he was down for the count. I sat on the sofa and flipped through all 3 Vegas mags on the coffee table then left him another note saying I'd be playing 3 card poker at Paris. I bought in for $200 at a fun table, there was a guy in the last seat the own nearly every hand. After an hour they changed the cards so he took his chips and moved to another table. By that time it was me and one other lady and we weren't doing too bad, then they changed dealers. I should have cashed out and piddled on slots and looked for him to come back after his break, but NO, I let her take all but my buy in from me. By this time I still haven't heard from the hub so I called it a night. He'd gotten his 1000 TCs so we were good. I was in bed with the sleep timer set by 10, no biggie. Hubby woke up at 10:30 and asked why I wasn't down in the casino, I told him I had come and gone twice, he said he woke up once when I was gone. I told him I was done for the day. I set the timer for 2 hours, I can't say I ever heard the thump thump of Chateau, maybe they take the music inside when it's over 100.
More tomorrow.
We left Austin on the last non stop on July 11, leaving 15 minutes late but still arriving about 9:15 pm. Uneventful flight, was supposed to be a wifi flight but change of equipment they said, so no wifi. Oh well, we'll live! We found our favorite driver from Presidential, Sean, waiting for us. Caught up with him on the drive over to the hotel, always great to hear about his kids. Diamond registration was still open when we got to the hotel and we were given a nice red room on the 27th floor. Great view of the Eiffel Tower, Paris pool and the Bellagio fountains.
We quickly unpacked and made our way to PHo for a bite at planet dailies. We had stopped going there a few years ago because of consistently slow service, but my niece and I had gone last year once and service had improved so I thought we'd try again. Service was great, we split a Caesar salad, hubby had a burger, I had a sandwich, nothing memorable but we needed sustenance, we had gambling to do!
Piddled around a little on some machines at PHo then decided to go to our favorite $1 slots in the high limit room at ballys. I was playing on a 3x 4x5x pay machine, hubby was playing on the triple something machine next to me. We both put our $100's in.....let's get lucky! He played quite awhile on his machine, had a couple of nice hits, got it up to $300 or so and I suggested he play it down to $200 and cash out, then he'd have double his money. I was up and down on my machine, more down than up so I put in another $100. Hubby still playing on his first, then he hits something that puts him up a little over $400 (thank goodness he didn't listen to me and cash out at $200!). A few more button pushes later and he says LOOK! He had a red 7, a triple and another triple. The attendant light comes on, machine locks up and I say "I wonder how much you won. 3 red 7's would be $300, that tripled would be $900 and that tripled would be $2700." Then we noticed the little screen that tells you how much you have in the machine and it says PAY $4500. SWEET! I guess what it did was take the $500 red, white and blue 7 payout, tripled it to $1500, then tripled it again making $4500. Ok so we hadn't even been gambling for 2 hours and he's almost doubled what he brought with him for the trip. Very happy for him. If you remember in other reports, I always say my hubby is a happy loser, he just enjoys being there and we don't bring more than we can afford to lose and we don't pay for hotels or airfare so his gambling losses are chalked up to vacation expenses. This year Vegas has been good to him, in Feb. he got his very first W2G at Paris on the first night we were there.
I lost my second hundred and I think he ended up cashing the machine back out after he got it back down to $300 or so. The $4500 would get tucked safely in the ATM in the room (aka room safe) and we'll forget about it til we go home. We both then went and bought in for $200 at let it ride and we didn't ride long. We stopped to say goodnight to our pit boss friend Andrew and then we had to go back to Paris for our new end of night ritual, $100 each in the $5 top dollar in the champagne slots. Our $200 was doubled after a few minutes and we both finished up the night with 500 TCs so we got the 125 bump for Friday. Bed time was 2:30 Vegas time, 4:30 our time...and I'd been up since 6:30 our time so needless to say we crashed quickly.
We were up about 8:30 and got ready for the day. We were there on one of hubby's offers for some drawing but registration and free play distribution didn't start til noon so we had breakfast at the coffee shop at Paris, hubby had the 2 egg plate and I had the French vanilla French toast with a side of strawberries. Always a good breakfast. There was a 30% off coupon in our room for a treatment at the Paris spa so hubby told me to sign up for one for my bday so we went to the spa and picked a treatment and made my appt for Sunday.
About 2 weeks before our trip a friend from high school (that lives 2 hours from us) posted that she was going to be in town from Thursday through Sunday so I told her we'd be there Friday through Tuesday and planned to meet on Saturday. She was staying at the signature at MGM so when she called she said she'd come find us. We played around the quarter machines, registered for the drawing and collected his free play the picked up his $100 voucher for getting to diamond last year, we'd be using it at BLT Sunday. My friend got there about 12:30 so I suggested we go to the diamond lounge where we could visit. I haven't seen her for 3 years, at our 30 year class reunion, she always seems to go to Vegas the week after we go, no matter what time of year we go! I had a few mimosas, she had a few glasses of Merlot and hubby had a few margaritas. We talked for 3 hours then we took her to ballys to show her the machine hub won his money on. She had an event at Fizz at 6:30' so we said our goodbyes. Hubby and I played for about 30 min and he said he needed to go lay down. When we got up that morning he had said that he was still really tired and didn't really feel 100%, thought he'd feel better after we got moving. Apparently that didn't happen so we decided to nap so about 4:30 we laid down to the thump thump of the music by the pool. I woke up at close to 6 and he was crashed. I left him a note saying I was going to Ballys if he woke up. We had been playing on his card trying to get 1000 TCs on it to get the 1000 bump so I thought I'd go down and finish them off. I played til about 7:30. No word from hubby so I thought I should check on him. He's never been sick in Vegas so I was a little concerned. I got back to the room and he had crawled under the covers while I was gone so I knew he was down for the count. I sat on the sofa and flipped through all 3 Vegas mags on the coffee table then left him another note saying I'd be playing 3 card poker at Paris. I bought in for $200 at a fun table, there was a guy in the last seat the own nearly every hand. After an hour they changed the cards so he took his chips and moved to another table. By that time it was me and one other lady and we weren't doing too bad, then they changed dealers. I should have cashed out and piddled on slots and looked for him to come back after his break, but NO, I let her take all but my buy in from me. By this time I still haven't heard from the hub so I called it a night. He'd gotten his 1000 TCs so we were good. I was in bed with the sleep timer set by 10, no biggie. Hubby woke up at 10:30 and asked why I wasn't down in the casino, I told him I had come and gone twice, he said he woke up once when I was gone. I told him I was done for the day. I set the timer for 2 hours, I can't say I ever heard the thump thump of Chateau, maybe they take the music inside when it's over 100.
More tomorrow.
