Saturday, April 12th
We got in the habit of calling this the “backwards trip” and it seemed to work. Since our son has been in school we use his Spring Break for our yearly trip to Vegas. This year he had his Spring Break one week ahead of mine. I only had 3 personal days, so I was going to use them to take our trip. Because of this, we would need to leave on Saturday and come back on Wednesday. We had never gone out on a Saturday, so that would be different.
We were lucky enough to have Southwest points for one of us. We found a pretty good deal on a direct flight, so that was good. This was the first time we would have to pay for rooms, since we had a Saturday night arrival. We ended up at the Main Street Station, using a promo they had. This is the first time in a long time that we didn’t have free rooms from MSS. The Orleans still loved me, so we booked our free rooms for Monday and Tuesday there.
Usually my son stays with my parents, but they moved to our town this year. So for the first time my son would stay at home and my mom would come here. That involved some stress and drama for everyone, but they all survived.
We flew out of Detroit on an uneventful flight. We arrived in Vegas at 12:30, and by 1:30 pm we were heading out the door. We love Downtown and usually stay there the whole time. But since MSS didn’t love us anymore, we would move to the Orleans on Monday. I like the Orleans, but we have always stayed there first, then moved downtown. Another in our “backwards trip”
Our first stop was to play a bit in MSS. I have 3 favorite things at MSS. I love to play at the bar, play Treasure Chest, and play Pay the Aces. So we played a bit, but I was really hungry, and wanted to go to the Container Park. We ate just a snack, since we were going to use the Pasta Pirate coupon in the POV. We each had a Pinches taco, which was great. Then we got some sorbet at Sasasweets Chillspot. The sorbet was fantastic. And the BBQ smelled great. The whole container park was really fun. They have a really nice play area for the kids, but I don’t know how they are going to keep them from roasting on the slides in the summer.
After that we went to our second favorite place, the El Cortez. My favorite game there is the deuces machine that pays double on the deuces. They only have 2 machines, so it can be hard to get on one. I was lucky enough to get one, but had no luck.
After that we worked our way back up Fremont, checking out the bar at 4 Queens and the Deuces Progressive at the Golden Nugget. The deuces were very high, but no luck. We checked out the bar at 4 Queens, but didn’t play. We saw a huge jackpot of $2200 on the Jokers game at the bar. My husband knows that game very well, and we would try that on Sunday. We had a 6:00 dinner reservation at Pasta Pirate, so we needed to get ready for that. After dinner we played a bit and I hit my first treasure chest and got my first scratcher. We were in bed by 8:30—what a big Saturday night! In our defense it was 11:30 our time and I did not sleep much the night before, so I was exhausted. And I knew we would be up early the next day!
Sunday, April 13th
I was up by 4:30 am, but my husband has a rule that I can’t wake him until at least 5:30 on our first day. So I sat in the chair and read my Kindle. Hey, it’s not my fault it was bright and woke him up! Up and showered and down to the MSS bar to get coffee. I love playing at the bar in the morning, and this time I even won something. We then went down to the El Cortez to get on the machines that we can only get on early in the morning, but no luck. At 8:15 we boarded the Deuce and were on our way. Since this was our first Sunday in Vegas, we thought we should try one of the brunches. I did a lot of research, and we finally decided on the Cosmopolitan. We have eaten at the Wicked Spoon before and we both loved it. I was surprised to find out that brunch was $35 per person. We had an American Express $50 gift card, so that was my “coupon” for the day. We are not big drinkers, but the brunch did not include any drinks. The food was good, but I was glad we didn’t pay full price. I don’t think we will do their brunch again. After that we went to the MGM to play the Lion’s Share machine that is over $2 million and has never hit. It was busy, and we wandered around for a while, but it never opened up. It was getting late and we still needed to get to Circus Circus, so we jumped on the SDX and walked from the Wynn. The weather was just gorgeous the entire time, and we wanted to enjoy it. We are from Toledo, and we just finished the worst winter ever, so it was even more of a treat to have the sun and no coat.
We went to Circus Circus for 2 reasons. First, I love the Aces and Eights machine. Second, we are roller coaster fanatics and their new coaster, El Loco, had just opened up. The coaster was OK, the Aces and Eights were better. I should have been keeping track of the number of 4 of a kinds I hit. I know I hit over 20 on this trip, but I just can’t remember them all. I did get 3 at the Aces and Eights, but no bonus quads. Still, I cashed out a profit and we headed back downtown. We had dinner reservations at The Flame at 7:00, so still a few hours to play.
One of the things I did to get ready for the trip was to download the “iCocktail” app for my phone. I did a lot of research and picked six as my favorites. I knew the bartender at MSS would be able to make some good ones. My husband was tired, so he went to lay down for a bit. I selected my first drink, the “Lady Luck.” The bartender and the man next to me thought the app was hilarious, but he fixed up my drink. It had about 8 different things in it, so I left him a good tip. I then told them I was going to test my drink, to see if it was lucky. After about only 5 minutes of play I held 3 to the royal and drew the other two. Hey, I guess this is a lucky drink. I texted my husband “Do you want to see my royal?” and he wasn’t asleep, as he showed up while I was waiting to get paid. After that I hit 3 4 of a kinds, including the Aces twice. But of course I was just playing Jacks. After all that I left the bartender an even better tip! After those wins I went to my favorite Pay the Aces machine, where I no longer saw any aces. We went up to the room and got ready for dinner at The Flame. Our plan was to work our way down to the El Co, playing for the deuces at Golden Nugget and the royal at the bar at 4 Queens. No luck at the deuces.
It is now 6:00 and we are at the bar at 4 Queens. My husband is playing the Jokers machine and the royal is at $2243. It deals him 4 to the royal and he pulls out the Queen of hearts! Bedlam ensues. It takes forever to get paid, and I don’t really want to walk to the El Co with that much money, so I make him run back to the room. While he does that I get 9’s on the Double Double machine. We run to the El Co and enjoy our dinner at the Flame. My favorite thing there is the “garbage salad” and it wonderful as usual. After dinner we play some more, but the double deuces still doesn’t like me. We work our way back to MSS and I hit a few more 4 of a kinds at the bar. Eventually we head to bed. This is another backwards thing, because usually we lose the first day or two and start to win when it is time to leave. Not this time!
We got in the habit of calling this the “backwards trip” and it seemed to work. Since our son has been in school we use his Spring Break for our yearly trip to Vegas. This year he had his Spring Break one week ahead of mine. I only had 3 personal days, so I was going to use them to take our trip. Because of this, we would need to leave on Saturday and come back on Wednesday. We had never gone out on a Saturday, so that would be different.
We were lucky enough to have Southwest points for one of us. We found a pretty good deal on a direct flight, so that was good. This was the first time we would have to pay for rooms, since we had a Saturday night arrival. We ended up at the Main Street Station, using a promo they had. This is the first time in a long time that we didn’t have free rooms from MSS. The Orleans still loved me, so we booked our free rooms for Monday and Tuesday there.
Usually my son stays with my parents, but they moved to our town this year. So for the first time my son would stay at home and my mom would come here. That involved some stress and drama for everyone, but they all survived.
We flew out of Detroit on an uneventful flight. We arrived in Vegas at 12:30, and by 1:30 pm we were heading out the door. We love Downtown and usually stay there the whole time. But since MSS didn’t love us anymore, we would move to the Orleans on Monday. I like the Orleans, but we have always stayed there first, then moved downtown. Another in our “backwards trip”
Our first stop was to play a bit in MSS. I have 3 favorite things at MSS. I love to play at the bar, play Treasure Chest, and play Pay the Aces. So we played a bit, but I was really hungry, and wanted to go to the Container Park. We ate just a snack, since we were going to use the Pasta Pirate coupon in the POV. We each had a Pinches taco, which was great. Then we got some sorbet at Sasasweets Chillspot. The sorbet was fantastic. And the BBQ smelled great. The whole container park was really fun. They have a really nice play area for the kids, but I don’t know how they are going to keep them from roasting on the slides in the summer.
After that we went to our second favorite place, the El Cortez. My favorite game there is the deuces machine that pays double on the deuces. They only have 2 machines, so it can be hard to get on one. I was lucky enough to get one, but had no luck.
After that we worked our way back up Fremont, checking out the bar at 4 Queens and the Deuces Progressive at the Golden Nugget. The deuces were very high, but no luck. We checked out the bar at 4 Queens, but didn’t play. We saw a huge jackpot of $2200 on the Jokers game at the bar. My husband knows that game very well, and we would try that on Sunday. We had a 6:00 dinner reservation at Pasta Pirate, so we needed to get ready for that. After dinner we played a bit and I hit my first treasure chest and got my first scratcher. We were in bed by 8:30—what a big Saturday night! In our defense it was 11:30 our time and I did not sleep much the night before, so I was exhausted. And I knew we would be up early the next day!
Sunday, April 13th
I was up by 4:30 am, but my husband has a rule that I can’t wake him until at least 5:30 on our first day. So I sat in the chair and read my Kindle. Hey, it’s not my fault it was bright and woke him up! Up and showered and down to the MSS bar to get coffee. I love playing at the bar in the morning, and this time I even won something. We then went down to the El Cortez to get on the machines that we can only get on early in the morning, but no luck. At 8:15 we boarded the Deuce and were on our way. Since this was our first Sunday in Vegas, we thought we should try one of the brunches. I did a lot of research, and we finally decided on the Cosmopolitan. We have eaten at the Wicked Spoon before and we both loved it. I was surprised to find out that brunch was $35 per person. We had an American Express $50 gift card, so that was my “coupon” for the day. We are not big drinkers, but the brunch did not include any drinks. The food was good, but I was glad we didn’t pay full price. I don’t think we will do their brunch again. After that we went to the MGM to play the Lion’s Share machine that is over $2 million and has never hit. It was busy, and we wandered around for a while, but it never opened up. It was getting late and we still needed to get to Circus Circus, so we jumped on the SDX and walked from the Wynn. The weather was just gorgeous the entire time, and we wanted to enjoy it. We are from Toledo, and we just finished the worst winter ever, so it was even more of a treat to have the sun and no coat.
We went to Circus Circus for 2 reasons. First, I love the Aces and Eights machine. Second, we are roller coaster fanatics and their new coaster, El Loco, had just opened up. The coaster was OK, the Aces and Eights were better. I should have been keeping track of the number of 4 of a kinds I hit. I know I hit over 20 on this trip, but I just can’t remember them all. I did get 3 at the Aces and Eights, but no bonus quads. Still, I cashed out a profit and we headed back downtown. We had dinner reservations at The Flame at 7:00, so still a few hours to play.
One of the things I did to get ready for the trip was to download the “iCocktail” app for my phone. I did a lot of research and picked six as my favorites. I knew the bartender at MSS would be able to make some good ones. My husband was tired, so he went to lay down for a bit. I selected my first drink, the “Lady Luck.” The bartender and the man next to me thought the app was hilarious, but he fixed up my drink. It had about 8 different things in it, so I left him a good tip. I then told them I was going to test my drink, to see if it was lucky. After about only 5 minutes of play I held 3 to the royal and drew the other two. Hey, I guess this is a lucky drink. I texted my husband “Do you want to see my royal?” and he wasn’t asleep, as he showed up while I was waiting to get paid. After that I hit 3 4 of a kinds, including the Aces twice. But of course I was just playing Jacks. After all that I left the bartender an even better tip! After those wins I went to my favorite Pay the Aces machine, where I no longer saw any aces. We went up to the room and got ready for dinner at The Flame. Our plan was to work our way down to the El Co, playing for the deuces at Golden Nugget and the royal at the bar at 4 Queens. No luck at the deuces.
It is now 6:00 and we are at the bar at 4 Queens. My husband is playing the Jokers machine and the royal is at $2243. It deals him 4 to the royal and he pulls out the Queen of hearts! Bedlam ensues. It takes forever to get paid, and I don’t really want to walk to the El Co with that much money, so I make him run back to the room. While he does that I get 9’s on the Double Double machine. We run to the El Co and enjoy our dinner at the Flame. My favorite thing there is the “garbage salad” and it wonderful as usual. After dinner we play some more, but the double deuces still doesn’t like me. We work our way back to MSS and I hit a few more 4 of a kinds at the bar. Eventually we head to bed. This is another backwards thing, because usually we lose the first day or two and start to win when it is time to leave. Not this time!
