Returning to our happy place

[hccj]

We head to the airport in a couple of hours to return to Wynn Las Vegas after a really crappy year. So this year, unlike me, we have not made many plans. We will have dinner tonight with two of my favorite Jokers, will attend a Master Class on desserts and will celebrate our anniversary at Sinatra. Other than that, it will hopefully be some relaxation and a few handpays. I started this thread in case we have some excitement to share, but will post a recap as usual. Thank you again to all who keep the forum going with exciting trips for those of us who rarely make it to a casino. Also, I want to be Foamy and Laurie when I grow up!

[zeus]

You definitely deserve this trip. I hope the Wynn slots shower you with many jackpots! Enjoy dinner a couple of fabulous Jokers. Happy anniversary! [emoji1635]

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[Laurie]

lol Happy Anniversary [emoji1635]hope to see lots of pictures, have fun and good luck!!


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[Penguin]

Happy Anniversary and remember to have a ball while in Vegas.

[sondor]

Good Luck and have a good time

[Elf70]

See you soon!

[DK528]

I’m sorry it’s been a crappy year but I hope this is your best trip yet! Enjoy dinner tonight with the Jokers and get some great wins!


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[charlie50]

Good Luck and hope to see some big wins from you .

[foamy]

Good luck and win big.


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[FL Mary]

Happy Anniversary! Look forward to your pictures.

[hccj]

Thank you everyone! We’re having fun, but nothing can compare to the great company and dinner last night at Casa Playa! Thank you all for inviting us. We had a brutal day, but right before dinner we were able to recover all the losses plus a little. This is how we ended the night.


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[hccj]

OK. Can’t figure out how to get the photo on there, but it was double77 on my favorite $5 double top dollar, which was $800.


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[clemi]

It was great to see you again after so many years!

Happy Anniversary and hoping Wynn treats you well [emoji1695]

[hccj]

It was great to see you again after so many years!

Happy Anniversary and hoping Wynn treats you well [emoji1695]

I so enjoyed our time together. You are an awesome person and I’m so happy to know you….just wish we could gather more often and spend more time together.


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[hccj]

It was great to see you again after so many years!

Happy Anniversary and hoping Wynn treats you well [emoji1695]

Also, we are at the dessert Master Class right now and wishing you were here.


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[Georgiagambler]

Happy Anniversary!


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[clemi]

I so enjoyed our time together. You are an awesome person and I’m so happy to know you….just wish we could gather more often and spend more time together.


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Also, we are at the dessert Master Class right now and wishing you were here.


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You are too sweet! Hoping you all had a blast at Master Class.

Keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll get together again next time at Wynn [emoji1695]

[hccj]

And that’s a wrap!

We’re home from another great trip to my favorite place and couldn’t have asked for a better experience, company and we brought back ALL of our money … so it cost us nothing to be treated like royalty, eat like foodies and enjoy some of the best people!

For those of you that just want the bottom line on the gambling, we hit two handpays only, but partnered with two friends and won a $17,000 jackpot. The rest of our wins, and there were many, were under the threshold and just added up.

Our method of operation is to low roll at $1 denomination slots throughout the day and pepper in some $5 slots.

Depending on how we are doing, we hit mostly $5 and some $10 denom slots at night, with trips to $25 machines in the highlimit room if we are ahead. This plan did not work for us this trip, as the dollars stole our money and we won it back on the higher denoms.

Recap

We arrived in Las Vegas shortly after noon on Wednesday, July 26. As we made our way down the escalator by baggage claim, we started looking for our driver. He wasn’t there. We walked around just a short bit and began thinking we would just take a cab, only we didn’t want to leave a guy walking around looking for us. I saw a Wynn driver holding a sign for someone else and asked if he could help us determine if someone was there waiting for us, running late or if we just needed to find other arrangements.

I texted our host and within a couple of minutes the driver on site said there was mix up and someone was on their way. He told us where to wait and we made our way to that location. As we arrived to the limo area, a lady with the brown Wynn jacket came up and told us there would be no wait as they were reassigning the driver already on site (Sorry Mr. Alvarez). And sending a driver for the Alvarez party.

He began leading us to the car and it was one of the Rolls Royce’s in their fleet. Wow!, what a treat. We’ve been lucky enough a couple of times before to be driven in one of their Rolls, but this was a newer and different one and it was awesome! The interior craftsmanship and attention to detail is just unbelievable!

We stay in the Tower Suites on the Wynn side of the resort in a standard room … not a suite. We were in room 3208, which overlooks the golf course and the new MSG Sphere! Because we were on a mid-level floor, the sphere appeared right outside our window … like it was looking right back at us. For this feature alone, we hope to request a similar room in the future. If I can figure out the photo situation, I will upload the photos I took. There was no zooming involved!

We had a female friend from home, who is about my age, attending a conference at Ceasar’s. We invited her to the Big Elvis show and accompanied her to Freemont Street so that she could ride the SlotZilla zipline. I wanted to ride as well, but we had dinner plans with some Jokers that night, so wasn’t sure. When we got there at 5 p.m., there was no wait whatsoever, so my husband bought me a ticket to ride with her! It was a thrilling experience. It wasn’t scary or uncomfortable at all … until the sudden stop at the end of the ride, but while jarring, it wasn’t painful or awkward. I mean, you’re traveling at 35 MPH, how else are going to stop at the platform.

So, we had been in Vegas five hours and had walked to Bally’s or the Horseshoe to get my husband a chip for his collection, watched a Big Elvis show and rode a zipline downtown and still had time to make our 7 p.m. reservations at Casa Playa. I highly recommend this place. I love everything about it! My husband ordered shrimp at green rice, while I ordered Queso Fundido with mushrooms. We joined a couple of Jokers that we had met before and met a new one and a couple of extra friends. All of the food ordered looked amazing, the conversation was great and it was fun to catch up.

While we had not been in town long, I had managed to lose more than a grand on my favorite and the only $5 Double Top Dollar machine at Wynn. Before dinner, we reverted to the dollar slots at Encore while we waited to meet our friends at Casa Playa and just lost and lost more.

My husband decided to go back to the room for more money and when he left, I did what any good degen would do, I upped the machine denom to $5 and tried to recoup our losses. Luckily, it worked out and I turned a couple hundred into $1,000. It was a nice surprise for him when he returned.

After dinner we tried dollar slots at Wynn, but had the same losing result, so I went back to my favorite $5 Double Top Dollar machine that stole from us earlier and it redeemed itself with an $800 line pay for double-seven-seven. Happy with the first day results and tired, we went to bed.

Thursday

If my eyes are open in Vegas, I need to be amid the excitement, so I was on the casino floor by 6 a.m. I played video poker at B Bar and some random slots, as well as my go-to. As a matter of fact, if you are at Wynn when we are there, you’ll run into me at some point in the day at that machine, located right outside of the high limit room.

Nothing noteworthy must have happened, as I barely recall the morning and I have no photos. (Also, I really failed on pictures and note-taking this trip, sorry.) My husband came down and we went to the VIP lounge for pasties and coffee.

When he asked what I wanted to do, he laughed, because he knew I wanted to visit “my” machine, which turned out to be brilliant. Within the first couple of pulls, we hit a $2,800 hand
pay on a Top Dollar offer of $500, $100, $100 times two, times two. I LOVE this machine for that reason … the “Times 2” possibility. It’s so exciting when that sound comes up once, but twice is freaking awesome!

The next moment of interest for us on that day to share is our attendance in the Wynn Master Class with Wynn Executive Pastry Chef Jennifer Yee. It was a surprise activity that was suggested and we were able to get in. I am so grateful that I learned about the class. My husband and I both enjoyed it and plan utilizing the recipe to try and replicate what we were served to our family.

Thank you, Elf, for giving me the heads up on the class and sharing the experience with us. I will definitely be checking each year for the opportunity to attend another one.

Our best friends were coming in to meet us on this day and we had reservations at Sinatra that evening. Sinatra is now one of our must-do dining experiences. We love everything about it … the food, atmosphere and service.

BUT, before dinner, we chose to partner gamble. One of our friends was not able to make the trip and sent money to play a pre-selected machine. He wanted to play a $25 Double Top Dollar machine in the high limit room. The three of us contributed $500 for the event. $1,500 equals 60 credits. We hit a couple of small mixed bars early, so if I can get the photo loaded, you will see we had 58 credits left when we hit the $17,000 jackpot on a Top Dollar offer of 100, 50, 20 credits times 2, times 2.

We weren’t able to parlay the remaining credits into anything, but had a great night. Because we have zero debt for our family household, we cannot itemize on taxes. We had the taxes taken out to simplify things for all of us and each netted $4,200.

Friday

I get up so early and generally only eat in the VIP lounge, which is not much. So, on Friday, I decided to FINALLY dine at Tableau for breakfast. I was seated at a window seat in the atrium, overlooking the pool. I ordered a crepe with strawberries and cream, coffee and tea, as well as a side of seasonal fruit. What a treat. Like everything at Wynn, it was perfect! My son called while I was eating, so I had company and then walked around the Esplanade and took photos and texted them to him, so it was like he was with me.

I really have no photos are memory of highlights from Friday, but I just had fun with my friend for a while, but gambling was not cooperating with us, and the early mornings caught up with me, so we were in the room by 7:30 p.m.

I think I mentioned that I wanted a low-key trip, with relaxation mixed in, so this was perfect for us and what we wanted, however, we were definitely in time out.

Saturday

Saturday was up and down for us … some big wins and big losses. At this point, we had abandoned the dollar slots and stuck with $5 and $10 denoms.

We went to church.

We enjoyed the Seafood Spectacular buffet, which we all liked.

After dinner my husband gave me $2,400 and told me it was our profit from the trip, but I could do with it as I wanted. (He just doesn’t learn). He went to bed and proceeded to lose, win, lose and then win. I had $500 in purse and a ticket for $500 to show for it. I played my favorite machine down to almost nothing and then worked it back up to $800, went in the highlimit room and won and lost and won on $25 Top Dollar machines and turned by $500 ticket into $1000.

Instead of giving it back to my husband and posting a win, I decided we should play $25 Double Top Dollar Sunday morning before our car arrived at 7:45 a.m.

I went to bed at about 9:30 p.m., told my husband the plan and went to sleep.

Sunday

What a crappy way to end the trip.

My favorite machine was in a mood and stole my money.

I waited for my husband to come down to play our final $1,000, which I had dreams of quadrupling.

We went the machine, loaded the ticket and after only a few spins, we realized we had been playing on $50 denom and only had 9 credits left. I changed it to $25, but the writing was on the wall and it was a bust! What a terrible plan!

Anyway, that is how we ended the trip exactly even, which includes all cash payments for tips, cabs and the zipline ticket.

I think I’ve always been clear on my preference for slots, almost exclusively playing Top Dollar, Double Top Dollar and three reel slots. But I do mix in some new experiences based on YouTube videos and trip reports from this forum.

This trip, I a “chased a major” on Lightning Link and enjoyed a game called “Wicked Wheel.” I enjoyed them and will play them again. Buffalo does not like me, although I really want to like it.

I shared with a Joker this week about how much I appreciate this forum and the people that participate. It seems like such a genuine group, who have formed a family and I'm so happy to be even a small part. Thank you for allowing me to live vicariously through your adventures and for being sweet enough to be interested in what we are doing.

[zeus]

It sounds like you had an amazing return to Vegas! To come out even, you could not have asked for better. Yes, your DH gave you the profits. You tried, but unfortunately, it didn't happen. But that is the time to try. And holy cow, on the $17k!

And how fun to get to see Jokers! That always makes for a great trip. I am so happy that you had an amazing trip! Hopefully, the next one will not be too far down the road. Thanks for the recap!

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[hccj]

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[Elf70]

Thanks for your trip recap. It was great seeing you and hubs. That $17k win is amazing. I sure hope we can meet up again next year!

[Laurie]

Thanks for the report glad you had a fun trip! The master class sounds great


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[hccj]

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[hccj]

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[hccj]

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[hccj]

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[hccj]

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[Penguin]

Congrats on having a great trip and getting in some down time with your fav slots.

[foamy]

What a great trip congrats


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[hccj]

I missed the most important one!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230731/dbad62cd849b232adddfe595f0d35df1.jpg


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[KingJasonSlots]

What a fabulous trip and beautiful photos! Congrats!!!


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[clemi]

I loved your trip report and pictures. Congratulations coming home even!

It was great to see you again and hope our paths cross again soon!

[DK528]

So glad you had such a great trip! Thanks for the report and the photos :)


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[hccj]

I really struggled with photos. It seems you have to create a forum gallery and then select from those photos to post. There were old photos in that gallery, which included one last year handpay. I guess this is how I missed the big win. I don't know how to delete it, so I want to note the mistake. Sorry.

[hccj]

Happy Anniversary!


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Thank you so much! We've been married for 35 years! That's so crazy to me to think I am old enough to have been married that long. lol

[hccj]

It sounds like you had an amazing return to Vegas! To come out even, you could not have asked for better. Yes, your DH gave you the profits. You tried, but unfortunately, it didn't happen. But that is the time to try. And holy cow, on the $17k!

And how fun to get to see Jokers! That always makes for a great trip. I am so happy that you had an amazing trip! Hopefully, the next one will not be too far down the road. Thanks for the recap!

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Zeus, your comments and post responses are always so kind and thoughtful. I truly appreciate the thought you put into them. I also appreciate your effort to help me feel better about my greedy effort to win more and not save what we already won. You're right, though. I took a shot and it didn't work out. I feel better thinking of it that way!

[hccj]

Thanks for your trip recap. It was great seeing you and hubs. That $17k win is amazing. I sure hope we can meet up again next year!

If you read all of that on your vacation, you are so sweet. Both my husband and I enjoyed our time with you and Clemi and the others at dinner. It was so sweet of you to include us ... not to mention the Master Class! I would have never even looked for it.

I know you must be exhausted, but I'm so enjoying your family time updates with Lilly. I also hope our trips align again! We go the same Wednesday through Sunday every year because of my work schedule.

[hccj]

Thanks for the report glad you had a fun trip! The master class sounds great


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Thank you so much for the response and for sharing all of your adventures. Based on your camping posts and foods you make, I know you would like the experience of a Master Class. Foamy would, too! ... plus the champagne was flowing for two whole hours. My husband liked it a lot ... the class and the champagne.

[hccj]

Congrats on having a great trip and getting in some down time with your fav slots.

Thank you so much! It was very nice and just the type of trip I had hoped for.

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What a great trip congrats


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Thank you! It was definitely a great trip.

[hccj]

What a fabulous trip and beautiful photos! Congrats!!!


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Thank you so much! I wish I would have taken more photos. At Wynn, there is a photo op around every corner.

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I loved your trip report and pictures. Congratulations coming home even!

It was great to see you again and hope our paths cross again soon!

Thank you, Clemi! It was great to see you again, too. I hope we do get to meet again soon.

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So glad you had such a great trip! Thanks for the report and the photos :)


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You're such a sweet person. Thank you so much for reading my "novel" lol. I just can't write short.

[treyster]

Thank you so much! We've been married for 35 years! That's so crazy to me to think I am old enough to have been married that long. lol

Time sneaks up doesn't it? I can't believe I've been married 20 yrs, but that's a sum total of 2 marriages lol.
Congrats on the Top Dollar hit!

[Laurie]

Thank you so much for the response and for sharing all of your adventures. Based on your camping posts and foods you make, I know you would like the experience of a Master Class. Foamy would, too! ... plus the champagne was flowing for two whole hours. My husband liked it a lot ... the class and the champagne.

Champagne?? Oh definitely hhh


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[MrsSondor]

Thanks for taking the time to share all of your experiences and the photos! Congrats on the $17,000 jackpot! Sounds like it was a great trip!


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[zeus]

I really struggled with photos. It seems you have to create a forum gallery and then select from those photos to post. There were old photos in that gallery, which included one last year handpay. I guess this is how I missed the big win. I don't know how to delete it, so I want to note the mistake. Sorry.Do not feel the need to apologize. You gave a very detailed recap of your trip and provided amazing pics! zeus loves himself lots of details, and you truly delivered. And we love any and all pics. [emoji2]

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[michelelovesvegas]

This photo looks like a magazine photo! No people either. The sphere photos are awesome.

Your trip recap was great. You did try at the end but always say it can go either way. You did have some good company while there. Looking at all the TD pics makes me want to push some buttons!! Thanks for the TR.


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[hccj]

Time sneaks up doesn't it? I can't believe I've been married 20 yrs, but that's a sum total of 2 marriages lol.
Congrats on the Top Dollar hit!

It definitely does! Thank you for reading and the "congrats."

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Champagne?? Oh definitely hhh


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LOL! It was pretty awesome.

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Thanks for taking the time to share all of your experiences and the photos! Congrats on the $17,000 jackpot! Sounds like it was a great trip!


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Thank you so much! It really was a great trip and so not ready to be back at work.

[hccj]

Do not feel the need to apologize. You gave a very detailed recap of your trip and provided amazing pics! zeus loves himself lots of details, and you truly delivered. And we love any and all pics. [emoji2]

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Again .. so thoughtful and sweet. Thank you for the kind words and I get so frustrated with myself on electronics and my inability to grasp how to use them properly.

[hccj]

This photo looks like a magazine photo! No people either. The sphere photos are awesome.

Your trip recap was great. You did try at the end but always say it can go either way. You did have some good company while there. Looking at all the TD pics makes me want to push some buttons!! Thanks for the TR.

Thank you so much! I was pretty pleased with the photos, too. It doesn't always work that way and I was really surprised at the sphere ones. The company was great! And if I am not mixing up Jokers, I am still in awe at your husband's big jackpot!

[hccj]

I did leave out something that I think is of interest. A couple of years ago, we tried the DVandentop TITO method and ended the trip even. It would have been a win for the trip, but our flight was cancelled and we had to stay an extra day. We used it last year as well and was close to even, but the flight got cancelled and we had to stay another night, so we netted a loss of only $2,000. This year, we tried again and you already know the results. We keep all TITOs over $400 and that money goes home with us. It's worked really well in helping manage our money and not just gamble away winnings. We haven't figured out the daily budget part, though ... like how much are we allowing for gambling daily, but we've been pleased with the overall results so far.

[michelelovesvegas]

Thank you so much! I was pretty pleased with the photos, too. It doesn't always work that way and I was really surprised at the sphere ones. The company was great! And if I am not mixing up Jokers, I am still in awe at your husband's big jackpot!

Haha, me too. It's tucked away for our house building fund.