Vegas Day 9 - Monday 14th May 2012
I woke Lesley up, after being in bed for 15
hours. Checking out of the Aria to day, it took 35 minutes for us to get
checked out, what a pain, I got comped, $70 , $50 Simon $11 Lesley not bad off
the bill.
Took a cab to the Mandalay Bay, chap drove like a nut through 3 red
lights. Checked in at Mandalay Bay, $20 dollar trick
did not work, she gave our money back to us, she did not have the rooms together but were on the same floor a few doors apart. However, the boys had their own seperate Queen size beds each and we had a fantastic strip view from both rooms and reasonably high up as a result and complimentary late check
out. We duly unpacked, whilst checking out the fantastic view, then headed on down to the casino for some hotly anticipated action!
Golden Apple Power Spins slot machine
So, day one at the final stop off (Hotel number 3 in our 15 night tour) and probably our favourite Casino / Hotel in Vegas the Illustrious Mandalay Bay. Just easing ourselves in gently with some low denomination play through (big mistake, as I felt our luck should not continue and determined to keep well up on our bank roll for the tour) this is the (new to me) Golden Apple Power Spins slot machine. This win, using 1 bonus spin, gave a really nice pay off for just a 40cent bet.
Played a little bit more in the Mandalay, went down a little but
nothing much. Food was starting to beckon, so we walked through the Mandalay Place to the Luxor, we do like
this casino, even if only for the Grand Pyramid and the Pyramid Café, for which we
are headed for our daily feast. We only seem able to eat once a day in Vegas,
hmm I wonder why?
Got our usual booth seating. Lesley and I had a Burgundy burger and Simon had a
BBQ burger, Ollie had a meat feast pizza. Played the Casino for a little while after in
the Luxor, didn’t really do much, so headed off to the ABC store to stock up on
water, beer and a bottle of Rose Champagne to help drink in the wonderful Las Vegas Strip view from the room. The tinted glass on the windows makes the photos appear a bit darker.
FireBall Frenzy Bonus - Progressive Win
On the return back to our rooms we had a nice FireBall Frenzy hit for a 160c bet, 2 spins in. Mandalay Bay stay day1 is starting very well, continuing the luck we have had from the other hotels we have stayed at, on this 15 day tour.
Back in the room, opened a beer and sat on the bed, looking at the great strip view we had from our rooms.
We are already starting to plan a mini return trip later this year, if this streak continues.
Vegas Day 10 - Tuesday 15th May 2012
Today we took the express bus down to Flamingo. We were
planning to buy some tickets to the Penn and Teller show at the Rio. We thought that as the
Flamingo was in the same (Harrah's Group) Casino group this might work, but the concierge at the
Flamingo said to get any promo, we would need to visit the Rio in person. Unphased by this (as Ollie is a big fan of them) we walked next
door to Harrahs, to get the free shuttle out to the Rio. Good job too as Penn
and Teller were only doing 2 more shows before they went off for two weeks
holiday. We really got an excellent price saving over $120, so well worth the trip. The tickets
were for the following evening.
Rio - Bombs Away slot win
This was a healthy win for a straight in 50c spin, the beat goes on.
Since we like the Rio so much, we stayed (as you do) for a few spins. Simon won $375 on the Quick Hits, Lesley and I put in $5 each and left with $20 each, after many many drinks, (Ollie drinking more than the rest of us as usual), so a result as it is very entertaining (I plan to do a retrospective blog for last years action scenes including the Bar Flaring which is a must see as well as a open singing and dance routines around the Casino while you play).
Shuttled it back to Harrahs, with the view to
eating next door at Imperial Palace' Hash House a GoGo. This place is featured
on man verses food, as the portions are huge and the theme is twisted farm
food, so they put together ingredients that most probably would not seem the norm, but the
results were very nice.
Lesley, Simon and I had the famed "Andy’s Sage Chicken Dinner". It had everything in it, sage chicken, bacon, hash browns, toms, lettuce, cheese sauce, eggs, scone etc. Lesley only managed half of hers, I had to finish it - man versus food and all that; Simon nearly made it. Ollie had the "Salmon Hash Special". It looked really good - Salmon, Hash browns, scrambled eggs etc.. Huge portion again. We needed to head back to the Mandalay Bay Hotel to recover.
Hash House a GoGo - Ollie with his "Salmon Hash Special"
Lesley, Simon and I had the famed "Andy’s Sage Chicken Dinner". It had everything in it, sage chicken, bacon, hash browns, toms, lettuce, cheese sauce, eggs, scone etc. Lesley only managed half of hers, I had to finish it - man versus food and all that; Simon nearly made it. Ollie had the "Salmon Hash Special". It looked really good - Salmon, Hash browns, scrambled eggs etc.. Huge portion again. We needed to head back to the Mandalay Bay Hotel to recover.
Took the Express Bus out to the Las Vegas Premium Outlet shopping mall. It
was very hot, around the 100F mark. Lesley bought flip flops and a belt, I bought underwear and a belt, Ollie jeans, leather jacket and t-shirts and Simon numerous t-shirts and
a leather jacket. This all took 6 hours, so back on the strip we popped into the
pyramid café for some nachos two seperate mountains one of chicken and the other beef. They tasted good, but could have been hotter, the
cheese was not as melted as usual - but hey, once in a while we all have an off day - it is still one of our staple watering holes at that end of the strip.
Back to the room for a shower and get ready for
the show, Penn and Teller out at the Rio. Excellent show, better than I
expected. There was a long wait for the
shuttle back to the strip, but we made it. Back at the Mandalay bay, had a few
spins and a few more cocktails. No losses (swings and roundabouts) so all good as the points are all racking up nicely - heading for Gold on the MLife (loyalty scheme) Card.
Off to bed at 3am.
Off to bed at 3am.
Vegas Day 12 - Thursday 17th May 2012
Up late, I wonder why. We strolled over to have a play at Excalibur for bit. Simon and Lesley no losses and a
few drinks, myself and Ollie not so good, but did get a good drinks service. Headed across to the Luxor to the Pyramid café,
quite hungry by now, so ordered some cheesy chips to start (not on the menu but they were happy to accommodate us), followed by
3 steak and eggs and Ollie had Eggs Benedict it was back to their normal high standard, very nice breakfast!
After our late breakfast we
went to the "New York New York". Not a great session, but Simon won $60 on the
wolf run, so off to ABC to stock up again (beer and earings). Then headed back to the Mandy'.
Boingy Beans Bonus slot win
Back at the Mandy - Ok I have seen many entertaining fun video slot machines over some time now but I think this one takes the prize for this year in terms of new games. Getting now towards the end of our 15 night vegas tour this was at our last Hotel The Mandalay Bay. For an 80c bet this was a very reasonable Jackpot bonus win. The machine was "warm" so although it took a few more spins to reach the bonus than my normal 2 or 3, it was with balancing payoffs along the way - so still topped out as a decent win and back up on the day after going down a bit at Excalibur earlier.
We all went back to the room for a chill, opened a bottle of pink fizzy Champagne to drink in the excellent strip view. The boys joined us, took in the view whilst sipping the fizz. The boys went back to shower, Lesley and I were already showered, so we went down to the casino for a few spins, whilst waiting for the boys.
We were now headed for the Tropicana. We didn’t do too bad in the Tropicana, it has recently been refurbished and looks nice.
Platinum Power Progressives - Power Up Bonus Slot Machine Jackpot Win
Tropicana Casino - this win was on the free play chunk of money i.e. the other half from my sign up last year under the new match what you lose bonus for a new sign-up. i.e. I played through $100 so they gave me $50 free play the same day and was able to pick up the remaining $50 on this day nearly a year later.
Needless to say I cashed out chunks of play like this as the freeplay money was played through.
It was a fun evening we had before venturing back to the Mandalay Bay where we were staying.
On the way back stopped off at the Krispy Kreme donuts shop in Excalibur, brought 12, 3 each. Very nice, this is around 2 a.m.
Vegas Day 13 - Friday 18th May 2012
Met the boys down in the Mandalay bay casino, then
headed off to the Express bus stop to catch the bus down to Fremont Street (old / original Vegas).
On arrival we started play in the Plaza. This Casino has been refurbished, very nice too.
Couple of spins in and hit a nice win on the Black & White Sevens for 75c. Good start to our foray downtown to see the Freemont Experience.
More importantly, on our way to our pilgrimage to the unmissable Main Street Station Casino for the best value T-Bone in Vegas, at the triple 7 Pub there - not to mention the fact they have their own microbrewery! so some serious high quality real ale tasting session is in the offing too.
I am sure some folk will have had much better wins than this on this machine, but I thought I would show you anyway so that those who dont know how the bonus plays may learn how to make a better choice than i just did...or just know what is coming once your selection is made.
We did well in here overall. Simon, Lesley and I, clubbed in for the Megabucks and got the free spins which amazingly retriggered twice, which gave us around $80 so not bad. The Plaza Downtown was a really good bit of fun.
We were all getting hungry by now, so we cashed out and went over to the Main Street Station to the 777 brewery. Had 3 T-bone steaks, absolutely delicious, Ollie tucked into a pizza. We actually shared 2 desserts - hot fudge sundae and a deep fried cheese cake, very nice. Us boys are getting well oiled, did I mention it was a brewery, mind you Ollie was already worse the wear after the Plaza, so he was on water to sober up. The rest of us had a few more beers and spins after food.
We arranged to met the boys in Binion's as they were enjoying the beer. Lesley checked out the shops in Fremont, she met back up with us over at Binions. Fremont was very lively, with bands playing and the light show, a good atmosphere.
Plaza Downtown - Black & White 7's Jackpot Win
Couple of spins in and hit a nice win on the Black & White Sevens for 75c. Good start to our foray downtown to see the Freemont Experience.
More importantly, on our way to our pilgrimage to the unmissable Main Street Station Casino for the best value T-Bone in Vegas, at the triple 7 Pub there - not to mention the fact they have their own microbrewery! so some serious high quality real ale tasting session is in the offing too.
Cashman Bonus slot win - Plaza Downtown
I am sure some folk will have had much better wins than this on this machine, but I thought I would show you anyway so that those who dont know how the bonus plays may learn how to make a better choice than i just did...or just know what is coming once your selection is made.
Megabucks Slot Jackpot Freespin Bonus - Plaza Downtown
We did well in here overall. Simon, Lesley and I, clubbed in for the Megabucks and got the free spins which amazingly retriggered twice, which gave us around $80 so not bad. The Plaza Downtown was a really good bit of fun.
We were all getting hungry by now, so we cashed out and went over to the Main Street Station to the 777 brewery. Had 3 T-bone steaks, absolutely delicious, Ollie tucked into a pizza. We actually shared 2 desserts - hot fudge sundae and a deep fried cheese cake, very nice. Us boys are getting well oiled, did I mention it was a brewery, mind you Ollie was already worse the wear after the Plaza, so he was on water to sober up. The rest of us had a few more beers and spins after food.
Triple 7 Pub & Microbrewery
We arranged to met the boys in Binion's as they were enjoying the beer. Lesley checked out the shops in Fremont, she met back up with us over at Binions. Fremont was very lively, with bands playing and the light show, a good atmosphere.
All revisited the shops, boys brought a poster
for their room each and I bought a cowboy tie. We got the express back, it was
very busy as usual, oh did I forget, stocked up on beer in the ABC store again.
Then back to the Mandalay Bay...
Zeus III - Bonus Slot Win
Started off with Zeus III - after an initial free spins Bonus it did a Re-trigger of a further 10 free spins. Nice kick start to the evening.
Pirate Ship - Slot Free Spins Bonus Win
Moved a couple of slots along to try out the Pirate Ship and swiftly hooked into the free spin bonus. Yo-Ho-Ho Aaaaarrrrggh!
Great Eagle II Slot Machine - Mega Big Win
Moved to the Great Eagle 2 slot machine and again bit into a Bonus. This amazingly Re-Triggered 3 times! Still in Mandalay Bay Casino Las Vegas Day 13 of of 15 day tour of the Las vegas Strip. Nice win for only 80c and 1st go on this (to me) new slot machine. I will certainly look this out again when we go back in November 2012.
Spartacus - slot win
Inspired by the previous 2 similar new slot machines I had a go on Spartacus - not bad for a 50c spin or two so swiftly moved onwards - as you can see by now I don't like to put it all back in - one or two spin out pushes and away with the winnings. As you can see for this session so far I am up overall around $228, along with racking up plenty of points towards Gold Card (currently Pearl from last trip)!
Van Helsing - slot hit
Feels like a bit of a roll on this type of slot machine, so I venture onto Van Helsing - another 1st for me but the research / plan before we went on this trip was to give these slot machines a look and this upped the winning session to a tidy $262. This gave the same feel as the winning streak we had at the Palazzo (see earlier - 1st stop - in the blog).
Free 8 Games Clocking Hot Zone - Sea Goddess
King of Africa slot win re-trigger bonus
Still the same session at the Mandalay Bay - nearing the end of our 15 night tour and this was the continuance of quite a night of continuous wins, almost one after another on each machine we went onto we felt we could not lose it was great fun....with more to follow..
Double Diamond 1$ WOF Bonus Spin
Decided to see how far the luck continues so upped the ante onto the Dollar Wheel of Fortune max bet per spin of $2. Nicely bit into a Bonus Spin of the Wheel. No prizes for guessing where it lands, but hey it all counts...All told we were well up on the day, so a good end to a nice day.
Bed 1.30am
Vegas Day 14 - Saturday 19th May 2012
Played in the Mandalay Bay while we waited for the boys to get ready before venturing over to the Luxor. We had just been on the
Pyramid slot machine which was $5 per credit and got $325 on the bonus
game and got cold feet and pulled out while the folk next to us were
really going for it and losing quite severely, although they appeared high up on the bonus blocks of the Pyramid it seemed to cost a bit to stay in with a chance of hitting something significant....
$5 WOF Slot win at Mandalay Bay
So went onto this $5 WOF which quickly paid us 40 credits at $5 a credit (ie $200 win) was a very nice hit for us at $10 a push at max bet (which effectively doubled the payout), trying for the Bonus spin - we hit this on our 1st push. So after the spin out push we cashed out - much to the reluctance of my wife Lesley, who wanted to continue on to see if the machine was "warm". On reflection we should have maybe done one or two more (have entered this into our "reflections" game plan for the next visit) but a bird in the hand and all that...
Spartacus - Super Big Win
Decided to see if Spartacus was ready to pay us a bit more after last nights nibble. Second spin in just upped to 100c bet and hit this win while still at the Mandalay Bay.
When the boys arrived as we planned to meet at the entrance to the Mandalay Place shops which also lead through to the Luxor, Lesley bought a pair of "Las vegas" style flip flops to remind her of the WOF win.
We strolled over to the Pyramid Café in the Luxor
for food, although had a few spins first.
Winning Times Slot Win - Luxor
Second spin in again and hit this multiplier straight in on the "Winning Times" machine. This was on our way to get something to eat at the Pyramid Cafe. Started with cheesy chips again, Lesley, Simon and I had the BBQ burger, Ollie had pizza, which was a little burnt, so the waitress sorted out another one for him, which was good (as she really took the initiative - Ollie probably ate nearly half of it while waiting for the not so well done version - so he was really taken care of). Went to Excalibur for a few spins, then back to the Mandalay, few spins and bed at 1.30 am again.
Winning Times Slot Win - Luxor
Second spin in again and hit this multiplier straight in on the "Winning Times" machine. This was on our way to get something to eat at the Pyramid Cafe. Started with cheesy chips again, Lesley, Simon and I had the BBQ burger, Ollie had pizza, which was a little burnt, so the waitress sorted out another one for him, which was good (as she really took the initiative - Ollie probably ate nearly half of it while waiting for the not so well done version - so he was really taken care of). Went to Excalibur for a few spins, then back to the Mandalay, few spins and bed at 1.30 am again.
Vegas Day 15 - Sunday 20th May 2012
Up quite early for us around 8am, had a few
spins in the Mandalay Bay, before heading over to the Bellagio for the Fountain
Brunch at Jasmine, it was so good last Sunday just had to do it again. We did the
unlimited Rose Champagne, food outstanding again, heaps of fizzy great session
again. Did a room charge - will be interesting to see how much gets comped?
Staggered over to the Miracle Mile to walk off
some food and booze, did a DVD of the song Viva Las Vegas by the one and only Elvis - with the 4 of us miming to it, what a giggle. Simon got a
birthday pressy for his best mate back home - Dan , so all good.
Back at the Mandalay Bay we checked in for our
flight the following day, always good to do this early at least you know what
seats you have.
Chilled out in the Mandalay Bay for our last night in Las
Vegas, boys drank far too much, had a good cocktail waitress.
Buffalo - Xtra Reel Power Slot
On this Buffalo Slot win we had a nice Re-trigger on the free spins bonus.
Golden 8's bonus win of 30 free spins
This was a nice bonus win on the Golden 8's - the last video'd slot win, which I managed to capture or remember to in the excitement - approx 3/5's of the actual wins. It is easy to get caught up in the action and the drinks flow so well that it isn't always the 1st thing on our mind.
Leaving Vegas today - Monday 21th May 2012
Boys badly hung over, but they did manage to
pack and we checked out okay, good comps, so bill was only $300 - The Mandalay Bay are always really good to us! In addition learned that we had made Gold level on the M'Life Casino loyalty card scheme. It will be interesting to see what if any difference this makes to our next trip.
The Limo arrived
on time (well done Presidential! and eBay) to take us to the airport for the long trip home.
to be continued .....
Coming soon the November 2012 abridged tour (i.e. only 10 nights).
