Hubby and I took our annual February anniversary/bday trip from 2/19 to 2/23. We flew out of Austin Friday afternoon, left about 20 minutes late but arrived on time. My in flight drink of choice was vodka cran-Apple, needed to change things up from last years unlucky Bloody Mary. I had set up the Caesars limo with our host and he was waiting at baggage claim for us. Really nice guy. We stayed at Paris, our first time in a LeMans suite, on the 27th floor, thanks to our host for bumping us up from a red room. We really didn't have a view of much, the high roller, Ballys and the Flamingo, but that was fine. The suite was our first win of the trip...there would be many more!
We unpacked and head to the Cafe in Paris for a bite, then we piddled around, playing slots at Bally and PHo, earning enough for free buffets. I tried to swipe my card in the kiosk at PHo but there was a paper jam so my voucher didn't print, hubby used a different machine and was able to print his. I stopped at the TR desk the next morning and they were able to print mine. Friday night before bed we ended up in the champagne slots in Paris, playing the $5 top dollar machine. At 12:01, officially his birthday, he hit a bonus. He hit several bonuses but none were hand pays but he did cash out at $1200 so that put him up for the night. I, of course, was down.
Saturday morning we used our $100 diamond voucher for the Bacchanal buffet. His first time, my second. When the server came by to take our drink orders I asked if mimosa came with it and she said she'd get me a glass. Nice way to start the day. After breakfast we puttered around in the high limit slots playing the $5 top dollar machines. I think I was down about 300 so I wandered off a minute and when I walked back in, hubby was standing next to the machine and points at the 1000 credit that was lit up on the top dollar bonus. I had dollar machine in my head so I was thinking $1,000, he said no, $5 machine, $5,000! First hand pay and W2G for the trip. Next stop was Bellagio, he hit the $5 top dollars and I hit the $1 machines. I cranked through a few hundies with no luck and I look over and he's smiling, he'd gotten a bonus, $1,700 this time. Hand pay and W2G number 2 and it's not even noon, it hadn't even been an hour since his first one. He's on fire. We've read so much lately about the Cosmo's new high limit room so that was our next stop. He finds a $5 top dollar and I sit at another one. Again, I burn through a couple of hundred with no luck, meanwhile he's getting bonus after bonus. No hand pay but he takes $1500 away from that machine. This was all before about 2:00. We go back to the room to put his winnings in the safe, at that point he was up almost $9k from what he brought with him. Happy birthday!! We slotted around PHo, Ballys and Paris the rest of the afternoon and stopped in at the Paris diamond lounge for a snack. We went back to Ballys for awhile and ended up in the champagne slots at the end of the night at Paris, as per our usual end of night ritual, we both put a hundred in the $5 top dollar and hope for a bonus. We didn't hit one so it was off to bed. I ended up being down around $2k at the end of the night, hubby, well let's just say he was up, WAY up. He ended up with 2500 + TCs so he would get the 5000 bump, I only had 1000, so I would get the 1000 bump.
Sunday morning we head to PHo to use our buffet vouchers. After breakfast hubby suggests we go to the high limit room and tells me to put $100 in the $5 top dollar, $15 max coin in. I put my money in and spin til I'm down to $10 left in the machine. He gives me $5 to put in so I can have one more pull, boom, bonus. $3,800, thank you very much, I'll take it. MY first hand pay and W2G of the trip (and only my 2nd one ever, last year at Aria was my first). That puts me back up for the trip! Off to watch our niece in a softball tournament at a park WAY out past the airport off Russell and Galleria. First we took a cab to the softball field by the Thomas and Mack center but found that we were at the wrong place. We walked across to the Embassy Suites and took a cab to the right one. Our niece plays softball for Nevada in Reno and she didn't know we were even in town so it was a nice surprise. They won, they 10 run ruled the other team. We took our first Lyft ride back to Paris, way cheaper than the cab out there and it was easy. We'll use Lyft again I'm sure.
Anniversary dinner Sunday was at Mastro's Oceans Club, one of our favorites. It didn't disappoint, although we need to remember that we can order half portions of their sides...not so much waste. Our waitress's name was Trista and she was wonderful. If you go, you have to save room for the warm butter cake. We definitely had to walk that dinner off!
After dinner we slotted around awhile but I ended up going to to room around 10:30, I left hubby in Paris playing slots. He was at his favorite $5 top dollar and was playing, but not doing much he said. At one point he's sitting at the machine and one of the slot attendant asks him if the machine has gone cold and he said no, I'm waiting for midnight so I get a bonus. He looks at him like he's crazy and at midnight he hits the spin button and boom, bonus. I think he said he came back to the room around 1:30, we both were still up for the trip and each had put 1000 + TCs on our card so we both got the 1000 bump.
Monday we decided to have breakfast someplace different. I had $100 food credit for reaching diamond aspiration level 1 last year so we went to Central at Caesars. It was ok but the breakfast potatoes were weird. They were regular potatoes, sweet potatoes and way too many green and red peppers. I wish the menu had specified that, I would have ordered the hash browns. I love sweet potatoes but the peppers just made it all taste bad. After breakfast we went back to the high limit room in Caesars to see if lightening would strike twice....it didn't. We really enjoyed the Cosmo's high limit room so we went back over there. We had both gotten an email from Cosmo after playing there on Saturday, come back within a few days for some free play, $20 for me, $30 for him. We had it loaded, he went to the $5 top dollar, I went to the $5 4x cherry. I cashed out at $400, went to show hubby my TITO then went to cash it. Took $100 and went back to the same machine and hit something with the 4x cherry on the line and won $1000, I think I ended up cashing out at $1300.
Time to learn something new, I take hubby to PHo to teach him Criss Cross Poker. I bought each of us in for $100. He won a couple of hands, I ended up buying in for another hundred. He decides this game is too slow so he gives me the chips he has left and says to give him a green chip, he's going to win me back my $300 buy in. He walks around the corner to the roulette table, a minute later he brings me back 2 greens. Then he says give me another, then comes back with 2 more. Lather, rinse, repeat! He hits his color 7 times in a row, then the 0 breaks his streak.
We go back to the room for awhile, I was starting to feel bad, not sure if it was allergies or what but I needed a nap. After that we went to the burger brasserie to use the rest of my food credit. I really prefer the OLD burger brasserie menu, the last 2 times we've been there I just don't think it's as good. Maybe Wahlburgers will be open in the grand bazaar shops by the time I go back in April. After we eat we go back to the high limit slots in Ballys, I'm playing a 3x 4x 5x $1 machine, not winning a lot so I slip a hundy in the $5 machine next to me but was only playing $5 a spin and I hit a 7 double diamond double diamond and win $1600, another W2g for me!
We decide to turn in early since we were leaving the next morning. We went back to Paris to run through the champagne slots before bed, not hitting anything so around 10:30 we call it a day. I thought it was only fitting that while I was packing that the movie Showgirls came on. I watched about an hour of it, hubby had already crashed, then I flipped channels to a re run of the original CSI series so I set the sleep timer and went to bed. Those were my signs that Vegas was saying goodbye.
Up at 7:00, finished packing and was really feeling puny, coughing like crazy. As we cleaned out the safe, hubby was still WAY up for the trip...and a first for me in a VERY long time...I was up for the trip! We really had a great trip. Hubby was up more than I was so he had to buy the Ethel M at the airport, pay to get the car out of Fast Park, pay to get the puppy out of the puppy spa and buy the pizza for dinner.
This was the first time I've ever come home from Vegas sick. I have a feeling it was the lady that played next to me at Ballys a couple of times. She was coughing a bunch, she played next to me several nights in a row. I ended up sleeping the whole way home one the plane, which is my norm, so I didn't cough on anyone so i couldn't have spread my cooties to anyone, I hope. I ended up going to the doc in a box (Redi Clinic at HEB) and I had an upper respiratory infection. Yay.
I had started the trip with 7400 TCs, I had a the 5000 from diamond aspiration level 1 and 2400 from my trip in November where CET was offering bonus points for 2016, so I was almost half way to diamond whe I got there. I got bumps every day we were there, the 125 on Friday and 1000 each on Saturday, Sunday and Monday so my tier score is already just over diamond for the year. Hubby started at zero, he got the 125 Friday, 5000 on Saturday and 1000 on both Sunday and Monday so HE's at diamond too.
Looking forward to my next trip, April, with my niece.
Thanks for reading and thanks for all that post reports!
We unpacked and head to the Cafe in Paris for a bite, then we piddled around, playing slots at Bally and PHo, earning enough for free buffets. I tried to swipe my card in the kiosk at PHo but there was a paper jam so my voucher didn't print, hubby used a different machine and was able to print his. I stopped at the TR desk the next morning and they were able to print mine. Friday night before bed we ended up in the champagne slots in Paris, playing the $5 top dollar machine. At 12:01, officially his birthday, he hit a bonus. He hit several bonuses but none were hand pays but he did cash out at $1200 so that put him up for the night. I, of course, was down.
Saturday morning we used our $100 diamond voucher for the Bacchanal buffet. His first time, my second. When the server came by to take our drink orders I asked if mimosa came with it and she said she'd get me a glass. Nice way to start the day. After breakfast we puttered around in the high limit slots playing the $5 top dollar machines. I think I was down about 300 so I wandered off a minute and when I walked back in, hubby was standing next to the machine and points at the 1000 credit that was lit up on the top dollar bonus. I had dollar machine in my head so I was thinking $1,000, he said no, $5 machine, $5,000! First hand pay and W2G for the trip. Next stop was Bellagio, he hit the $5 top dollars and I hit the $1 machines. I cranked through a few hundies with no luck and I look over and he's smiling, he'd gotten a bonus, $1,700 this time. Hand pay and W2G number 2 and it's not even noon, it hadn't even been an hour since his first one. He's on fire. We've read so much lately about the Cosmo's new high limit room so that was our next stop. He finds a $5 top dollar and I sit at another one. Again, I burn through a couple of hundred with no luck, meanwhile he's getting bonus after bonus. No hand pay but he takes $1500 away from that machine. This was all before about 2:00. We go back to the room to put his winnings in the safe, at that point he was up almost $9k from what he brought with him. Happy birthday!! We slotted around PHo, Ballys and Paris the rest of the afternoon and stopped in at the Paris diamond lounge for a snack. We went back to Ballys for awhile and ended up in the champagne slots at the end of the night at Paris, as per our usual end of night ritual, we both put a hundred in the $5 top dollar and hope for a bonus. We didn't hit one so it was off to bed. I ended up being down around $2k at the end of the night, hubby, well let's just say he was up, WAY up. He ended up with 2500 + TCs so he would get the 5000 bump, I only had 1000, so I would get the 1000 bump.
Sunday morning we head to PHo to use our buffet vouchers. After breakfast hubby suggests we go to the high limit room and tells me to put $100 in the $5 top dollar, $15 max coin in. I put my money in and spin til I'm down to $10 left in the machine. He gives me $5 to put in so I can have one more pull, boom, bonus. $3,800, thank you very much, I'll take it. MY first hand pay and W2G of the trip (and only my 2nd one ever, last year at Aria was my first). That puts me back up for the trip! Off to watch our niece in a softball tournament at a park WAY out past the airport off Russell and Galleria. First we took a cab to the softball field by the Thomas and Mack center but found that we were at the wrong place. We walked across to the Embassy Suites and took a cab to the right one. Our niece plays softball for Nevada in Reno and she didn't know we were even in town so it was a nice surprise. They won, they 10 run ruled the other team. We took our first Lyft ride back to Paris, way cheaper than the cab out there and it was easy. We'll use Lyft again I'm sure.
Anniversary dinner Sunday was at Mastro's Oceans Club, one of our favorites. It didn't disappoint, although we need to remember that we can order half portions of their sides...not so much waste. Our waitress's name was Trista and she was wonderful. If you go, you have to save room for the warm butter cake. We definitely had to walk that dinner off!
After dinner we slotted around awhile but I ended up going to to room around 10:30, I left hubby in Paris playing slots. He was at his favorite $5 top dollar and was playing, but not doing much he said. At one point he's sitting at the machine and one of the slot attendant asks him if the machine has gone cold and he said no, I'm waiting for midnight so I get a bonus. He looks at him like he's crazy and at midnight he hits the spin button and boom, bonus. I think he said he came back to the room around 1:30, we both were still up for the trip and each had put 1000 + TCs on our card so we both got the 1000 bump.
Monday we decided to have breakfast someplace different. I had $100 food credit for reaching diamond aspiration level 1 last year so we went to Central at Caesars. It was ok but the breakfast potatoes were weird. They were regular potatoes, sweet potatoes and way too many green and red peppers. I wish the menu had specified that, I would have ordered the hash browns. I love sweet potatoes but the peppers just made it all taste bad. After breakfast we went back to the high limit room in Caesars to see if lightening would strike twice....it didn't. We really enjoyed the Cosmo's high limit room so we went back over there. We had both gotten an email from Cosmo after playing there on Saturday, come back within a few days for some free play, $20 for me, $30 for him. We had it loaded, he went to the $5 top dollar, I went to the $5 4x cherry. I cashed out at $400, went to show hubby my TITO then went to cash it. Took $100 and went back to the same machine and hit something with the 4x cherry on the line and won $1000, I think I ended up cashing out at $1300.
Time to learn something new, I take hubby to PHo to teach him Criss Cross Poker. I bought each of us in for $100. He won a couple of hands, I ended up buying in for another hundred. He decides this game is too slow so he gives me the chips he has left and says to give him a green chip, he's going to win me back my $300 buy in. He walks around the corner to the roulette table, a minute later he brings me back 2 greens. Then he says give me another, then comes back with 2 more. Lather, rinse, repeat! He hits his color 7 times in a row, then the 0 breaks his streak.
We go back to the room for awhile, I was starting to feel bad, not sure if it was allergies or what but I needed a nap. After that we went to the burger brasserie to use the rest of my food credit. I really prefer the OLD burger brasserie menu, the last 2 times we've been there I just don't think it's as good. Maybe Wahlburgers will be open in the grand bazaar shops by the time I go back in April. After we eat we go back to the high limit slots in Ballys, I'm playing a 3x 4x 5x $1 machine, not winning a lot so I slip a hundy in the $5 machine next to me but was only playing $5 a spin and I hit a 7 double diamond double diamond and win $1600, another W2g for me!
We decide to turn in early since we were leaving the next morning. We went back to Paris to run through the champagne slots before bed, not hitting anything so around 10:30 we call it a day. I thought it was only fitting that while I was packing that the movie Showgirls came on. I watched about an hour of it, hubby had already crashed, then I flipped channels to a re run of the original CSI series so I set the sleep timer and went to bed. Those were my signs that Vegas was saying goodbye.
Up at 7:00, finished packing and was really feeling puny, coughing like crazy. As we cleaned out the safe, hubby was still WAY up for the trip...and a first for me in a VERY long time...I was up for the trip! We really had a great trip. Hubby was up more than I was so he had to buy the Ethel M at the airport, pay to get the car out of Fast Park, pay to get the puppy out of the puppy spa and buy the pizza for dinner.
This was the first time I've ever come home from Vegas sick. I have a feeling it was the lady that played next to me at Ballys a couple of times. She was coughing a bunch, she played next to me several nights in a row. I ended up sleeping the whole way home one the plane, which is my norm, so I didn't cough on anyone so i couldn't have spread my cooties to anyone, I hope. I ended up going to the doc in a box (Redi Clinic at HEB) and I had an upper respiratory infection. Yay.
I had started the trip with 7400 TCs, I had a the 5000 from diamond aspiration level 1 and 2400 from my trip in November where CET was offering bonus points for 2016, so I was almost half way to diamond whe I got there. I got bumps every day we were there, the 125 on Friday and 1000 each on Saturday, Sunday and Monday so my tier score is already just over diamond for the year. Hubby started at zero, he got the 125 Friday, 5000 on Saturday and 1000 on both Sunday and Monday so HE's at diamond too.
Looking forward to my next trip, April, with my niece.
Thanks for reading and thanks for all that post reports!
