Vegas/Laughlin trip Feb 15-21

Going to do a recap of my trip to Vegas and Laughlin from 2/16-2/21. Here we go!

So this was a late-planned trip for me. I had hoped to go somewhere in Florida with the bf in February but because of his weird vacation allotment schedule (he gets his vacation deposited once a year), he doesn’t really have any vacation days until May and I decided to do a solo trip in February. The dates for the Jokers Wild Laughlin M&G worked out perfectly.

Flight

The flight was completely full – every seat. Had a window seat, took some pretty photos and we landed about 45 minutes early.





Got my luggage quickly, met my Uber driver and got into my room at MB at the same time I was supposed to land!

MB stay

Was booked on an offer with $150 FP and $100 resort credit in an elite king room. My room was at the very end of the long hallway.










First time staying at MB. I liked the room a lot! Very strange having the tv reflect in the bathroom mirror.



Went downstairs and slotted some before dinner. Here are the pre-dinner slot pics. Of note, the Gold Stack hits were consecutive. The Lightning Link bonuses came two spins apart. Had no luck on Wonder 4 Tower. Got a randomly awarded Davinci Diamonds bonus … and it paid 4x. Also had this great line hit on Cleo II – one of the few $1+ machines I played this trip.





















Went to Libertine Social for dinner. It opened a few months ago at MB by the same executive chef that runs Sage at Aria. It was excellent. I sat at the counter at the open kitchen which was a grill and a woodburning oven. The cook was very friendly and when I said the shrimp & grits dish looked good, he gave me a sample.




I ordered the oysters (similar to Sage’s) and a fancy egg/corn/caviar dish. Also ordered the pretzel and cauliflower. My waiter relayed to the head chef that I was a Sage fan and he came over to chat. He also brought me their king crab salad dish to try! So … six (small-ish) dishes in total! Plus two yummy cocktails. It was a wonderful experience and I’ll definitely go back.









After dinner, my slotting had major ups and downs. Lost a bunch trying to get bonuses on 5 treasures, diamond queen and Cleo 2 (playing $5-10 a spin at the 10 cent denomination on the latter 2). Got the 5 treasures bonus finally when I was waiting for a water. No pics but it totaled $600 or so. Now I was back in business.


A Wonder 4 jackpot had a grand over $8400 so I sat down. No bonus but hit this beauty.



A couple more hits from the evening.








I got a ton of coin-in in about 5 hours of gambling and ended the night up several hundred bucks.

 

Thanks, tring. I'm copying and pasting text from a Word doc then adding the photos from my phone on tapatalk. So there's going to be a bit of a delay.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thursday morning

Had a terrible night sleep. Went to bed around 11, woke up at 2 and woke up again at 5 for good. I putzed around the room for a bit, went downstairs around 6:15 and slotted a bit before breakfast.







Went to Verandah for a basic breakfast which was good.




Checked out and headed to Cosmo. Got my room right away which was great. Stashed my stuff and went downstairs. Found Wonder 4 Wheel … which is a really tough game. That morning, $200 in, 5 bonuses betting $4.40 a spin and no bonus over $30 (and no super free games). Overall 40-50 bonuses and got super free games twice with one nice sized bonus and the rest under $100.


Went over to PH to start my CET quest and ran into a friend. I had just triggered the Sharknado wheel bonus when she came by so I missed how exactly I ended up with this good bonus … but I got it. It’s a fun game and it was nice chatting with her. We made tentative plans to meet up for dinner at GR Steak.








While talking with my friend, my phone blew up (I felt it vibrating nonstop) and I basically ran back to my room to work. Worked for 2 hours in a panicked state with lots of work emails flying at me at a furious pace. Tried to take care of it the best I could. Headed down to Holsteins and felt very stressed.


At Holsteins only after I ordered buffalo wings and poutine did I remember that I was planning to put in my contacts later and didn’t want to cover that finger in hot sauce. So I had to eat them with my left hand only and I looked ridiculous.



Continued the rest of the CET quest at strip casinos. Here are some hits at the CET places.













I kept track of my badge quest numbers.

PH: 28 tier credits, +$315

Paris: 146 tier credits, +$900

Ballys: 102 tier credits, -$200

Cromwell: 167 tier credits, +$2.50

Flamingo: 124 tier credits, +$401

Linq: 44 tier credits, -$50

Harrahs: 44 tier credits, -$100

 

At that point it was getting late so I went back and showered and got ready for dinner and figured I’d do Caesars later.


Dinner was great. I got a spicy drink, I got the rib cap and we split the fingerling potatoes and Brussel sprouts.






After dinner, took a cab to Venetian and tried to make the VF slot pull but I was a little too late and felt awkward showing up in the middle. Stuck around the Venetian HL room. Played 5 cent 88 fortune and got the bonus on consecutive spins!












Walked back to Caesars. Got totally turned around in the forum shops. At Caesars got about 150 tier credits (to make $1000) and was up about $190.


Had a bunch of good hits back a tthe Cosmo. Overall up around $1500 for the day with a lot of coin-in.

















View from my bed!

 

The downturn began Friday. Woke up early again and made the mistake of checking my phone. Lots of work emails. Took care of them but couldn’t fall back asleep. Went downstairs with a good-sized tito from Thursday night and promptly lost it without any notable hits.


Went to Wicked Spoon and got a work email while there. Went back to my room and spent a couple hours working. Went downstairs and promptly lost another $500 without many hits.







Did ask for toothpaste because of posts here and got some!




Work picked up again and was very stressful. Work was taken care of by 4. Went to Milos to take advantage of their happy hour menu. Got the mezze plate and the “Milos Special” which is fried eggplant and zucchini with tzatziki.







Headed off to Mirage where I saw Boyz II Men! They were fantastic. Sang their hits plus some Motown. Also the song “Amazed” that’s recorded by Lonestar was originally offered to them first but they turned it down.


Played at Mirage for a bit without my card on a new Babies/88 fortunes clone.








Met up with @Evoni and @noleman at Palazzo. Also met @VegasChic for the first time. We visited the fancy lounge which was nice and talked some. I tried the $1 5 Treasures (trying to recreate the magic of my last trip; the $1 88 Fortunes was disabled) but had no luck.



Came home to Cosmo and bonused a bunch on Cleo 2 at $5 a spin. Got $100 up to $800. Promptly lost half of that trying for Davinci Diamonds, Kitty Glitter and Diamond Queens bonus. Nada.




So Friday was both stressful and a heavy losing day. Seeing the concert and meeting up with friends were the highlights.

 

Finally slept in some Saturday and tried to will my mood to change for the better.


Played some in the morning. Got a 43-spin bonus on Buffalo Gold and had two animals turn to buffalo by spin 25 … but no buffalo hit after that point.






Went to Bardot for lunch – really love their onion soup. Got the “American in Paris” breakfast which was good but rich.






Played more that afternoon – had some good hits to keep me playing but was an overall loser. Got 84 spins on a Timberwolf Deluxe bonus. Some good $ with the retriggers and only one good hit (about $70 in kings).













Had an early dinner at Zuma. It was very very good. Got pork belly skewers, seafood/veggie tempura and the baked potato. And a rhubarb cocktail that was delicious. The weird part was that I was pretty much finished in a half hour – looking at the menu, ordering, food coming and eating. So I felt a bit rushed. It probably isn’t like that for non-solo diners so I’d try it again.







Decided at the last minute to see Jennifer Lopez that night! Bought a ticket towards the back of the theater. It was fantastic. I think she sings for a lot of it. And is a great dancer.






A couple nice photos from my room Saturday night – the clouds/fog were nuts.





Will finish up the rest tomorrow!

 

Woke up Sunday and redeemed my points for the slot promo and for point play. Turned 28,000 points into $215 of FP plus the $280 pointplay.

Got a couple hits.






Checked out and went to Rio for the badge quest. Got about 150 tier credits and came out even.




Clouds on the way to Laughlin were crazy pretty.






Got to Laughlin around 3 on Sunday. Checked in and the room was slightly different than Cosmo’s room J It was totally functional and the bed was comfy but there’s no in-room safe and it was tight by the window with the chairs abutting the bed and the window too so it was a little tough closing the shades. Also, the time zones totally threw me off. Laughlin is in the pacific zone but across the river in Arizona, it’s mountain time. So depending on where I was, the time on my phone was an hour off. It was a pain, especially after drinking some.

Went downstairs to play some. Until we returned to Harrahs after dinner, I did not get one bonus at Harrahs or GN before dinner. Had reduced my bets but still was a money suck.

Dinner was wonderful!! Sat at a table with a bunch of people I mainly hadn’t met before so it was great getting to know them.


We did the HL pull after dinner and we got back $37 for our $25 – played for a while too. Here are some hits from Sunday night. Played more 5 Treasures (it had a high grand) and got some nice hits and bonuses.

 

Woke up Monday late, did some work and got some In n Out. It again was too rich for me. Also, my debit card got declined there for a possibly fraudulent transaction so I had to deal with that.




Walked from Harrahs to Aquarius which was a pretty and long walk. Played at Aquarius before the cruise and got these hits. Did well on Britney!

















The cruise was fantastic. It was great weather and so pretty doing it at sunset. Got to chat with more people and enjoyed the pirate punch. The bartender actually ran out of the blue curacao because so many of us ordered the punch!











Some hits from Monday night. Did well on the Lock It Link and the new babies – finally got a bonus on it and it paid very well. Went up on the early side Monday night – by 11 I think – but wanted to keep some $$ from my winnings to bring home.

 

Woke up Tuesday and left quickly for Vegas. Plan was to play at Aria and Bellagio and get to Gold status at MLife. Started at Aria and had lunch at Javiers. Got the shrimp ceviche, a quesadilla and a cactus pear margarita. All weren’t as good as I had remembered.

Did ok at Aria but forgot to take too many pics. Again, the grand was high on 5 treasures so I spent some time there. Didn’t get a bonus on Buffalo Gold and got a small one on Cleo 2 25-cent.









Went over to Bellagio around 4. Had a bad 90 minutes there. No cocktail service even though plenty of waitresses walked by me – they either didn’t make eye contact or said it wasn’t their section. Also lost pretty quickly. Probably lost $700 or so and got only $1800-2000 in coin-in!




Decided to cancel my reservation at Lago and went back to Cosmo for a few hours. Went to Scarpetta for happy hour – got two pastas! The bartender convinced me to get the short rib agnolotti instead of the app I was going to try. It was delicious as was the spaghetti.







Got a bunch of nice hits at Cosmo including this one (one of my two super free games on Wonder 4 Wheel) and ended my last day on a high note.




Specifically took the late redeye home to take advantage of the lie-flat seat. It was a strange experience! I fell asleep but it was a very short flight (3.5 hours) and I was pretty cold - I'd bring a blanket or big shawl if I did it again.

 

Thanks!

All 3 were delicious and I particularly liked the cocktail!