30th birthday trip and a hunt for the big Bass!

This is my first trip report ever so please enjoy! First off I love this website and read it all day long and have probably read all the trip reports posted for the past couple years. I have posted on here before but it was only to either ask a question or comment on something.

A little background on me and my wife ( we will call her V): We are both in our early 30's. Both mid to low rollers. We are from the lovely little town of Amarillo, Texas and my wife V works for a law firm and I work for my dad in the home remodeling business. It's pretty easy for us to take time off work during the year so when we do we go to Vegas. I myself have been probably 20 or so times and after I met V I started taking her and she fell in love with Vegas also. She even agreed to us getting married at the Wnnn. I should have wrote a trip report about that trip because it was the best time by far I have ever had in Vegas.

On to the trip: We were in Vegas in June of this year and went with 2 other couples one of which never had been to Vegas and the other our best friends, anyways it was a pretty busy trip and on the last day I was begging V to come back sometime before the end of the year just us 2. We tend to have more fun I think when it's just us because we don't have to plan things around other people and we can do whatever we want. So my 30th birthday rolled around and my wife agreed to go take me as my birthday gift. Earlier in the year she got the Southwest Visa card and we had enough points from signing up that the airfare was free. We stayed at Aria for 4 nights on a offer for $79 the first two nights $99 for the third night and the fourth night was comped and we had a $50 resort credit. Total for trip with roundtrip air and the room ended up being $342 after all credits and express comps added. That was a damn good deal in my opinion for 4 nights at Aria.

Sunday September 16th: Our flight left at at 3:55 that afternoon and it was a nice quick two hour flight really smooth. We landed and since we have been so many times we knew exactly where to go for baggage claim. Bags were some of the first few off the carousel and we head for the cab line. Those who have been know that the cab line can get really long and snake around several times. We must have caught the guy that runs the line on a good day or maybe he knew it was my birthday but he parted the railing and let us in a cab. Total time from the gate to Aria was about 30 minutes. We love the smell of Aria when you first walk in, its the best out of all the strip properties. So we get checked in and my wife asks for a complimentary upgrade for my b-day and the clerk looked at my license and she saw that it really was my b-day and she obliged with a strip view room first one off the elevator and also had some chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate macaroons sent up to the room. We tipped her a $20 and we were on our way. We went to the room dropped the bags and put our iPads and money in the safe and we went back down to Todd English Pub to catch the tail end of happy hour for a couple half priced beers and a order of corn dog puppies. Todd English is one our favorite places to go for craft beer and we love the atmosphere and the happy hour is a good deal by Vegas strip standards for a good craft style beer and pub food. ( V paid since it was my b-day). We then went back to the room and changed clothes and had reservations at D.O.C.G at Cosmo at 8. We got there early and they seated us right away, it was not busy at all. The food was excellent but really rich. We had the calamari to start and a couple Italian beers. V had the margarita pizza and I had some kind of pasta that had sausage and 4 different type of cheeses. We were both to full to have dessert. I would recommend going there if you like Italian food and its casual dress so that was a plus. I like dressing up in Vegas but I have done all that before and just wanted this trip to be laid back and fun. This is the point in the report where the big bass comes in to play. Last trip in June I played a slot at Bellagio called Reel Em In: Catch The Big One and won a 500 dollar jackpot which is big to me. Some of you might know this slot but it is a penny slot and the max bet is $3 in some casinos and $1.50 in others, the Bellagio is $3. The bonus game is so much fun to watch because the little fisherman on the screen goes fishing for the 7 fish that are all progressives and the biggest progressive fish is the elusive big red bass which is usually around $700 to $900. These machines have been cash cows for my wife and I, so that is where the big bass part comes from. We found ourselves playing this machine at every casino all up and down the strip which kind of became a game in itself trying to find these machines because not every casino has them and if they do they usually have 4 to 8. 8 being at the Wynn. So anyways back to the report. We went to Bellagio to try and find the slot. It did not want to have anything to do with us so we left. I have been wanting to find the tram and ride it from Bellagio to Aria so that's what we did. That was quite a walk all the way in the back of Bellagio. It dropped us off at the Monte Carlo/Aria station. We then called it a night and went to bed because we knew we wanted to get up early the next morning and go shopping. It was a great birthday and appreciate my wife taking me to Vegas best birthday gift ever.

Monday September 17th: We awoke pretty early about 7:50 and got ready. Went down to Jean Phillipe pastry shop and had the best cinnamon roll, they even warmed it up for me and it was excellent I also had a protein shake from the gift shop. V had a blueberry Danish and she said it was good and it must have been because she got one every morning for the rest of the trip. We started out walking the strip straight to the Fashion Show mall. I love walking the strip early in the morning because you get to see all the people starting out their day and all the workers that make all the resorts so beautiful, it's also not crowded at all and that makes for a great experience. I found so many coins on the strip that morning it was crazy. We did make 1 stop in at the Treasure Island to find the fishing slot machine and dropped a couple twenties in and was on our way. We finally arrived at Fashion Show and most the shops were not even open yet so we just walked around in there until the wife found Forever 21. I bet she was in there a good 2 hours OMG. After the mall we went to Wynn and found the fishing slot. I dropped $100 In and a couple pulls later BING BING I got the bonus and went fishing and caught a few of the fish and scored a $561 win and then two pulls later hit for $98. So all in all total win was right at $ 700. AWSOME. I tossed the wife $100 and that made her happy. We then continued down the strip on the Wynn side all the way back to Planet Hollywood playing the fish game in every casino on the way. We decided we were hungry so we had Earl of Sandwich. It was so good as always. We always eat there on our trips at some point. So we get finished with lunch and we take a walk thru Miracle Mile shops, it's been a few trips since I walked thru there and I just wanted to see if anything new was going on. We then make our way around and enter the casino and we find another fish game. At this point my wife is getting irritated that she hasn't gotten a bonus yet and I said just wait it will happen. Sure enough it happened and she hit the bonus for a couple hundred bucks and I lost about 40. We left there and decided to walk back to the room and drop off our purchases we made that day and all the change we found since we were so close and walked in and thru Cosmo and the Crystals to stay out of the heat. On a side note when we got back to the room it was getting dark and I happen to look out our window and since our room was one of the first rooms in the hall we could see right into the neighbors room because of the way the building is angled. Well they didn't have their curtains closed and let me just tell you we got to see a free show. Haha. That was pretty funny part of the evening. Only in Vegas. Anyways back to the trip. That night we decided to just have a slice of pizza from the secret pizza place at Cosmo since we had a late lunch. Their pizza is so good but it sure is greasy. We sat out by the pool table and just ate our pizza and people watched. Their was some crazy family drama going on and two sisters yelling at each other and cursing and you could hear them all the way down the escalator all the way into the casino all the way from the pizza place upstairs. They don't have the fish game at Aria or the Cosmo so I decided to teach my wife video poker jacks or better at the Bond bar and she now sees why I love that game and that bar so much. It was her first time playing video poker and I got her hooked that's all she wanted to play the rest of the trip and she even got her first 4oak in the first 30 minutes of playing. Lucky. We then went to play our favorite table game which is roulette and she killed at that game also, hitting something almost every spin. We cashed out up a couple hundred there and decided to call it a night since we had been drinking quite a bit at Bond bar and the roulette wheel. So we walk back and go to sleep.

Tuesday September 18: Pool day at Aria. We awoke at 8 and decided we would use our resort credit at the pool cafe The Breeze. I ordered a breakfast burrito and V ordered a yogurt parfait and a coke got it to go and went back to our lounge chairs to eat and soak up some morning sun. I got antsy so I decided to leave V there and go check out the weight room. Aria's weight room is really nice all the machines are nice and have towel racks and water bottle holders. When you first walk in the attendant hands you a towel and bottle of water if you want one. I stayed about 45 minutes and got a good workout in and went back to the pool to meet the wife. We both took a swim and sat in the hot tub for a while. About now it's lunch time and we go back down to the pastry shop and order a sandwich and some gelato, all was good again and paid with our resort credit. Went back to the room and showered and changed. V was not feeling well and she decided to take a nap in the room and I went down to the casino in search of something to play. I found a triple play jacks or better machine and played for about 30 minutes and then went to a $10 crazy four poker table and bought in for $140. Well about an hour later I cashed out up $500 and took a picture of the chip and sent it to my wife. I was freezing so decided to walk outside to Planet Hollywood to play until my wife got up. I found the fish game there and that's where my wife found me. We then just walked the strip for a little bit and stopped in almost every casino again in search of the fish slot. About this time we were getting hungry and steak sounded good but we didn't want to spend a lot of money and we weren't dressed up for a really nice place. So after walking to Mirage and dropping money their on fishing slots we decided that Cheesecake Factory was the best choice and the menu is huge so that's where we went. Both me and my wife ordered the filets and vegetables and split a piece of key lime cheesecake. It was so good and decently priced at about 60 bucks after tip. After dinner we took a cab ride from Caesars to downtown. I am a chip collector and needed to get one from the Plaza and the D since they are the two newest ones downtown. We were also in search of the fishing game also. We must have went in every casino and only found a couple fishing slots total so that trip was a bust besides getting the chips I needed for my collection. I did find the Golden Nugget to be fun because they had poolside blackjack going and it was nice to sit by the pool and gamble outside. Needless to say I didn't fare to good on the blackjack table. We had enough of downtown and all the drunk people so we caught a cab back to Bellagio. This cab ride was not like any other cab ride. It was actually the best because our driver didn't say much but he did plug his iPhone in played some good rap music really loud all the way from downtown to bellagio and he didn't turn it down until it was time to get out. He was playing some Tupac, snoop and Dre music, all the good ones that we both like. He had to of had a subwoofer installed of his own because it sounded pretty good for a cab, so I gave him an extra couple bucks on top of the already good tip just for making the ride fun. We get to Bellagio and in search of some bar top VP but couldn't find any .25 cent. We decided that gelato was in order so we went to the pastry shop in Bellagio that has the famous chocolate fountain and ordered some gelato. The price here is by far the best price at only $7 for two big cups versus $17 at Caesars. We decided to walk back to Cosmo and try out the Bond bar again. No luck there. We called it a night and went back to the room.

Wednesday September 19th: This morning I awoke early and went down to the casino while the wife got ready. I messed around with some quick hits by advice from a friend that they were lucky slots and didn't have any luck. I decided I would go overpay for another protein shake at the gift shop and paid with resort credit. I then met my wife at the pastry shop and we had our usual a cinnamon roll and blueberry Danish. This morning we wanted to go down to Mandalay Bay. Last time we were there they had a pet shop that had all kinds of Las Vegas themed dog toys and clothes and such. We are getting a new puppy in a couple weeks ( a weenie dog) and wanted to get him some new accessories. Since his name is Vegas. Anyways we rode the tram from Excalibur to Mandalay Bay and was not paying attention and didn't get off at Mandalay Bay. So we had to ride the tram all the way back to Luxor and just decided to get off there and walk to MB thru the tunnel. We needed to find some more fishing slots anyways. We walk thru to MB and no pet shop. We were kinda of disappointed because we don't really like MB anyways, but oh well and they didn't have any fishing slots so we got the tram back to Excalibur and caught a cab to the Venetian. We wanted to look thru their shops and also eat lunch at I Heart Burgers at the Palazzo. By this time it was time to check in for our flight back and we went to find some comfy chairs to wait for the 24 boarding pass time. We both got good passes both in the first boarding group A 30 and 40 I believe. Since we paid with points we had to have separate confirmation numbers. Why it's like that I don't know. It all worked out good so it didn't matter. We then went to eat lunch at I Heart Burgers at the Palazzo. We ate here once before about a year ago and it was really good and this time it didn't disappoint either. I had the blue cheese burger and V had a Parmesan burger both were excellent and the Parmesan fries were AWSOME. Total was about 45 with tip but well worth it in my opinion. We then decided to hit up Wynn again to see if the fish were biting and sure enough they weren't. This is when the trip gets good. I ask my wife about where she might want to go since we were all they way down at Wynn and she says let's go to Treasure Island so she could get a players card and we knew there were fishing games there so off we went. First things first she gets her players card and then we head off to the roulette wheel. I buy in for a $100 and so does she but I lose mine almost immediately and I go off to find the fishing game and hit a little bonus round for around $160 or so and V meets me there and says she lost her $100 on roulette but wanted to just play a few bucks on the fishing slot. So she sticks $100 in and says she will only play it down to $80 because she didn't have any twenties and 3 spins in she hits the bonus so the little guy goes fishing and I was touching the screen where the big bass progressive was acting like I was petting the fish and saying it sure would be nice to catch him because he was worth about $800 and sure enough the fisherman pulls that bass out of the water and BING BING BING jackpot hit the biggest fish progressive we have ever hit, the one we always wanted to catch and she still had 5 more chances for the rest of the progressive fish. So we keep fishing and she gets the 2 lowest progressive and the middle progressive also for a total win of right at $1000 bucks. She was speechless and of course that's the biggest win she has ever won. So she gave me $200 because she knew I had been loosing and pocketed the rest and we quickly left Treasure Island. So with that win she paid for our whole trip and all food costs that we had charged on the credit card and made me happy with the $200 she gave me. So after a few phone calls back home to tell some friends and family about the big win we headed to Caesars so she could shop at H&M. Those that don't know about this store, it's three story mostly women's clothing store and the prices are pretty cheap so you can figure what happened next, yeah me waiting like 2 hours for her to shop in there and try on clothes. At least she shopped there and not an expensive store so I have to give her credit on that one she does know how to find a bargain. I just hung out in the Forum Shoppes and went to the apple store and checked my email and Facebook. After the shopping excursion we high tailed it back to Aria to change and drop off bags and to put some of the big win in the safe so that we would at least get home with some of the $. So we decide we want to go down and check the slots at Aria and just take it easy until dinner time. I go to change some info on my players card and low and behold she takes my sapphire card and hands me a nice pretty shiny pearl colored card. SWEET. She also informs me I had like $36 in express comps and I could cut the line at their cafe and Buffett. So after the good news we left Aria and headed for Planet Hollywood to play some cheaper table games and cheaper bar top VP. We decide to eat at Yolo' s which in my opinion was not great at all. We got table side guacamole and fish tacos V got enchiladas and she liked them I just did not like the food at all. We both had a beer and total with tip was around $60. Not bad but I would definitely not go back. After dinner we went to Paris because that's the only place we had not been fishing because two of the machines were broke the whole time and the other two always had somebody playing them. So we left there and went out front and just people watched for a while and decided to hit up Cosmo to see how their VP was. We found some nickel VP by the EA sports bar and played for ever there on a twenty. I busted out finally and played a nickel lucky sevens slot where the max bet was only .25 cents and put twenty in and cashed out with $66 and had three crown and cokes all the while my wife busted out on nickel VP and went to Bond bar to play VP and she did good there also making like $40 or so. By this time it was getting late and we needed to pack for our morning flight that left at 11:25 so that we weren't rushed that morning. My wife decided to call it quits and go to bed and I just couldn't make myself go to bed knowing it was our last night in Vegas. I tell her goodnight and I go down and just walk around at Aria until I find some .25 VP at the sports book bar by the poker room. I had really good luck there and the people watching was good also because you can see basically the whole casino and all the poker room. I bought in for $20 and hit a few straights and flushes that kept me going and a couple 4oaks but ended up playing it all away chasing the royal but I did have a few crown and cokes and a great bar tender. I proceeded to head to the room after that and call it a night.

Thursday September 20th: Today was our last day and only had about 3 hours that morning before we had to be at the airport for our flight. I got ready and quickly went downstairs to play as much as I could before having to leave and before V wanted to eat breakfast again at the pastry shop. So I found a crazy 4 poker $10 table and tried to squeeze out another good session but it wasn't in the cards for me this time. I started out good with 2 flushes but ended up loosing my $100 buy in. By this time we eat the same breakfast we had every morning then we hit up the sports bar VP for a few hands and we each buy in for $20 and we had the nicest bar tender although we didn't order any alcohol since we were about to head to the airport. He chatted us up about Texas and we were making fun of all the small towns and how there is nothing to do at night in small towns and could not go shopping or eat after 9 o clock at night unlike Vegas. When were ready to go he tossed us both a Fiji water and we headed back to the room to grab our bags. We proceed to check out and there was not any lines at about 10 am and the check out clerk told us our balance we were pleasantly surprised because it was lower than we expected. I guess we didn't use all the resort credit and I had the express comps that she applied to the bill. So all in all for the room for 4 nights ended up being around $340 total. We went outside and sat on a bench and soaked up as much of Vegas as we could before having to get the dreaded cab ride to the airport. Cab ride was good and he chatted us up and was pretty funny. He said in all of his thirty years as a cab driver in Vegas he had never walked the strip from MGM to Wynn. I don't know how he couldn't do that. He said he was always driving and had no intention to walk when he could drive. He was pretty funny and had that New York accent so it made for a nice ride to the airport. We got they security easily and had a cheesesteak sandwich at the terminal which was way overpriced for what you got and then boarded our flight a few minutes early and off we went. It was a great birthday trip, thanks to my wife and the fishing was good this trip. See ya Las Vegas, until next time, hopefully within the next year so I can keep my pearl status up and catch another big bass. My mom picked us up and brought our little weenie dog Louie with her. He was really excited. Well that's it. Hope you enjoyed the trip report. Sorry for it being so long winded. But I always wanted to wright a trip report and wanted to try to include everything. I will try and upload pics later Thanks again!

 

Great TR and what a lot of fun! I'm going in a couple of days, will have a look for the big red Bass!!

 

Loved the detailed report. Nice hits on the bonus rounds!

 

Thanks for Trip report

 

What a great report. Very detailed, just as I like it. Great job on the wins.

I have to admit, when reading that title I thought you were going to go fishing up there at the Hoover Dam for bass.

Ive seen the fishing game before but didnt stop at it. You guys make it sound easy, like it hits all the time!

Thanks I enjoyed it!

 

Enjoyed your report. Sounds like a relaxing trip. Now I want to try that fishing game!

 

Nice detailed TR, seems like you had a great time. Congrats on the gambling wins and a very inexpensive holiday.

The Bond Bar is a great place for quality drinks and surroundings.

 

Happy Birthday!

Sounds like a great trip - a little bit of everything & a lot of what y'all liked the most. I'll have to show that fish game ot my DH - he doesn't typically like slots but that might be something we can play together.

That greasy pizza from the Secret Pizza place is great after some time & drinks from the Bond!

 

Trip reports are never too long, IMO. Sounds like a wonderful birthday trip, especially the fishing wins!

 

Thanks very enjoyable read

 

Thank you for posting a very nice trip report, which is filled with a lot of fun, joy and high energy. Glad to read those reel 'em in fish slots are your lucky charms throughout the trip! Would love to see your photos, if you have time to post them. Thanks.

 

Now you've given me a mission!

Your trip report was great!! I'm a big fan of details and loved that you guys had such a balanced trip. Pool time, gym, rest, dining, and of course, lots of 'fishing'. I'm going back in 12 days and I promise, in your honor, I will look for the 'Reel 'em In' slots. Congrats on the huge win!! That makes the birthday trip all the more special...

From one Texan to another,
Well Done!!!

Liz