We were up on Monday around 8 and had decided we would head by cab down to Mandalay Bay and wind our way back and decide where to eat lunch as we made our way back to Paris. We got to Mandalay around 10 and began our hunt for their $1 top dollar machines. They used to have a nice bank of them by Raffles Cafe but a few years ago they moved them, the. They got rid of half of them and moved the few they had over near the entrance to Mandalay Place. I don't remember where we found them but they looked like they'd added some back, I know there were more than the 3 we saw last time we were there. We used to love Mandalay and have stayed there many times, but now we're just not feeling it. We both ordered a Bloody Mary from a CW and it took forever for her to come back. I think I only saw 3 CWs on the floor the whole time we were there. We probably didn't stay there for more than an hour. We stayed inside and made our way to, then through Luxor. This is where we stayed for my 40th birthday and where I was in an episode of Chriss Angel Mindfreak in 2007, never really have enjoyed playing @ Luxor. We then head to Excalibur, happy memories there as it's the hotel we all stayed in when hub and I got married at The Little Chapel of the Flowers. We then crossed over to
NYNY, the hotel we graduated to once we stopped staying at the Ex. Decided we need to try Gallaghers on one of our next visits, it was always a good steakhouse and their service was spot on. We went to the new Hershey store, they were giving out pb cup samples in milk, dark and white chocolate. Interesting store, lots of yummies but we were good and kept walking.
Next stop, Monte Carlo. Just before MGM changed to the mlife players card, we used to be VIPs at Monte Carlo, funny, we've yet to get a free night there since then....we got offers from Aria the first year they were open and we still get free offers at Mandalay but that's it from MGM. We pretty much can't seem to get higher than gold with them, oh well, we like our diamond status w/Caesars. Hubby had lost a couple hundy at Mandalay Bay so he thought he'd try to win it back at Monte Carlo so he found a $1 top dollar machine. I played around on some pennies while he played, then I sat down behind him at a VP machine that I saw as a penny machine and I had a $5 bill so I stuck it in. Now I know nothing about VP strategy whatsoever but I play what I thought was a penny and my first hand was 2 pair. I played my penny again and got a pair of queens so I thought woo hoo bump your bet up to a nickel, so I get a flush in spades. Play another few hands and I get a flush in hearts and I see it says I have $50, I thought I'd better cash out with my $45 profit when I looked at the machine and realized it was a dollar machine. Oops. Hub cashed out with enough to cover his loss at Mandalay and then some. I made $45. We decided it was time for lunch so we walked over to Aria to the coffee shop so we could used express comps. Lunch was ok, we both had sandwiches if some sort. Service was terrible.
After lunch we decided to go use our free play at the Cromwell. I ran through my $50 pretty quickly, but had a nice glass of champagne while I watched hubby turn his into $200. We then went to check out the Linq since hubby had not been. I wandered through on my last visit but it wasn't finished. It really turned out nice, next trip we'll ride the high roller, especially since you can make it your monthly diamond show ticket. We walked through O'Sheas and the Quad then thought we'd run into the diamond lounge at Flamingo but when we got there it wasn't open yet. We though we'd try the high limit room for some $5 slots. Instead we found some dollar ones so we played awhile and broke even. Back to Ballys for some more WOF where I hit small wheel after small wheel. We found out pit boss friend to say goodbye and visit with him a few minutes. Told him we'd see him again in either mid Nov or the end of Sept.
We decided to call it an early night since Sean was picking us up at 5:00 a.m. but we wanted to play a little at Paris before turning in. We found the high card flush table and bought in for $200, it was a pretty full table. After about 5 hands one lady and 2 guys left. The lady next to me moved to the last seat. She was a seven star player and had been asking to make sure she was being rated right. We played a few more hands and a pretty tipsy lady sat down next to me and said " this looks fun, is it hard?" I told her no and I'd show her how to play. I had her bet ante, flush and straight flush, $5 each and told her what the dealer needed to have to play, etc. she shows me her cards and I said, "see those 6 spades? Put those and $5 here and out this card over here, you won a really nice pot unless the dealer has a better hand". I'm not sure what she got paid for her 6 card flush but she got a bunch of black chips and kept trying to give me one for helping her. I kept telling her no and a few hands later I was out of chips and said goodnight, she was still insisting I take her money. Hubby had gone to a quarter machine to get the last few points he needed for his 1000 bump, then we lost our $200 on the $5 top dollar machine. We were hungry so we opted for room service burgers. We got to the room and called in our order, then packed while we waited. The burgers were very good, just what we needed at 10:00 at night.
Morning came way too early, we got ready, counted up our $$ and realized we hadn't done too bad, plus hubby had all the $4500 from our first night. Sean picked us up and dropped us off at a pretty dead airport where we left on time and we're back in Austin by noon.
Some observations about Ballys, we were approached Friday night at the high limit slots by a younger Ballys employees in a suit, welcoming us. Every day that we played in that area a security guard came up and said hello and said good luck. Our last night, Monday, an older man in a suit was wandering around with a Walkie talkie and I heard him say, "I'm looking for him", then he approached hubby and introduced himself then gave us drink coupons for the bar at the High Roller.
This trip we both wound up about 2000 TCs each from renewing our diamond status. We are in the process of planning our next trip which is now confirmed for Rock n Roll marathon weekend in Nov. Hubby and his friends start turning 50 this fall and a bunch of us are heading out, so far it's 4 couples and 3 singles going but there may be more additions since we just confirmed the weekend yesterday. THAT may be an interesting report!
Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone for posting.
NYNY, the hotel we graduated to once we stopped staying at the Ex. Decided we need to try Gallaghers on one of our next visits, it was always a good steakhouse and their service was spot on. We went to the new Hershey store, they were giving out pb cup samples in milk, dark and white chocolate. Interesting store, lots of yummies but we were good and kept walking.
Next stop, Monte Carlo. Just before MGM changed to the mlife players card, we used to be VIPs at Monte Carlo, funny, we've yet to get a free night there since then....we got offers from Aria the first year they were open and we still get free offers at Mandalay but that's it from MGM. We pretty much can't seem to get higher than gold with them, oh well, we like our diamond status w/Caesars. Hubby had lost a couple hundy at Mandalay Bay so he thought he'd try to win it back at Monte Carlo so he found a $1 top dollar machine. I played around on some pennies while he played, then I sat down behind him at a VP machine that I saw as a penny machine and I had a $5 bill so I stuck it in. Now I know nothing about VP strategy whatsoever but I play what I thought was a penny and my first hand was 2 pair. I played my penny again and got a pair of queens so I thought woo hoo bump your bet up to a nickel, so I get a flush in spades. Play another few hands and I get a flush in hearts and I see it says I have $50, I thought I'd better cash out with my $45 profit when I looked at the machine and realized it was a dollar machine. Oops. Hub cashed out with enough to cover his loss at Mandalay and then some. I made $45. We decided it was time for lunch so we walked over to Aria to the coffee shop so we could used express comps. Lunch was ok, we both had sandwiches if some sort. Service was terrible.
After lunch we decided to go use our free play at the Cromwell. I ran through my $50 pretty quickly, but had a nice glass of champagne while I watched hubby turn his into $200. We then went to check out the Linq since hubby had not been. I wandered through on my last visit but it wasn't finished. It really turned out nice, next trip we'll ride the high roller, especially since you can make it your monthly diamond show ticket. We walked through O'Sheas and the Quad then thought we'd run into the diamond lounge at Flamingo but when we got there it wasn't open yet. We though we'd try the high limit room for some $5 slots. Instead we found some dollar ones so we played awhile and broke even. Back to Ballys for some more WOF where I hit small wheel after small wheel. We found out pit boss friend to say goodbye and visit with him a few minutes. Told him we'd see him again in either mid Nov or the end of Sept.
We decided to call it an early night since Sean was picking us up at 5:00 a.m. but we wanted to play a little at Paris before turning in. We found the high card flush table and bought in for $200, it was a pretty full table. After about 5 hands one lady and 2 guys left. The lady next to me moved to the last seat. She was a seven star player and had been asking to make sure she was being rated right. We played a few more hands and a pretty tipsy lady sat down next to me and said " this looks fun, is it hard?" I told her no and I'd show her how to play. I had her bet ante, flush and straight flush, $5 each and told her what the dealer needed to have to play, etc. she shows me her cards and I said, "see those 6 spades? Put those and $5 here and out this card over here, you won a really nice pot unless the dealer has a better hand". I'm not sure what she got paid for her 6 card flush but she got a bunch of black chips and kept trying to give me one for helping her. I kept telling her no and a few hands later I was out of chips and said goodnight, she was still insisting I take her money. Hubby had gone to a quarter machine to get the last few points he needed for his 1000 bump, then we lost our $200 on the $5 top dollar machine. We were hungry so we opted for room service burgers. We got to the room and called in our order, then packed while we waited. The burgers were very good, just what we needed at 10:00 at night.
Morning came way too early, we got ready, counted up our $$ and realized we hadn't done too bad, plus hubby had all the $4500 from our first night. Sean picked us up and dropped us off at a pretty dead airport where we left on time and we're back in Austin by noon.
Some observations about Ballys, we were approached Friday night at the high limit slots by a younger Ballys employees in a suit, welcoming us. Every day that we played in that area a security guard came up and said hello and said good luck. Our last night, Monday, an older man in a suit was wandering around with a Walkie talkie and I heard him say, "I'm looking for him", then he approached hubby and introduced himself then gave us drink coupons for the bar at the High Roller.
This trip we both wound up about 2000 TCs each from renewing our diamond status. We are in the process of planning our next trip which is now confirmed for Rock n Roll marathon weekend in Nov. Hubby and his friends start turning 50 this fall and a bunch of us are heading out, so far it's 4 couples and 3 singles going but there may be more additions since we just confirmed the weekend yesterday. THAT may be an interesting report!
Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone for posting.
