TR July 10-13 Mirage - early arrival, early departure

This was planned as a low key 4 night trip July 10-14 to the Mirage, just DH and me – for some R&R. Of course, R&R means different things to different people. For me, Vegas R&R is not about Rest but all about Recreation as in slots, slots, and more slots and some food here and there and a show here and there but not much sleep on the agenda because I’m a late night AND early morning slotter. DH takes the REST part seriously, he is usually early to bed and manages an afternoon nap too, but he also walks two miles early every morning, just to make me look bad.

Can’t explain how my husband talked me into a really, really early morning flight to Vegas cause I prefer a mid day arrival; yes the fare was cheap and yes we’d have a whole day to play, but getting up in the middle of the night to catch a plane? Nevertheless we showed up at the airport at 3:30am for a 5:15am flight on SWA to arrive in Vegas @ 6:00am (two hour time difference). Departed on time and arrived 10 minutes early. Limo driver was waiting and it was a quick trip up to the Mirage. Despite the early hour, I can’t help but notice – Vegas in the early morning hours is a thing of beauty!!!

Our plan was to check our bags and head to The Pantry for an early breakfast. So by 6:45am we are actually eating our standard breakfast of pancakes and sausage and a bowl of berries and greek yogurt. Yum. Breakfast over and VIP check-in is open now so we debated should we walk off our breakfast by taking a quick stroll out on the strip before the heat became unbearable, check in now and wait for the call that the room is ready? Or should we hit the slots for a few before going to check-in? Of course, we decide to play a few slots first because that is what I always do on arrival to my favorite place.

We sat down side by side, each playing a dollar slot – after a twenty, not feeling it so DH goes off to another aisle and I move to a $2 Triple Lucky slot just outside the HL slot room. Put in a hundy and down to $40 with no real hit so cash out my tito and move with my whopping $40 to a $5 three reel, three credit slot, Double Gold I think it is called. I play one credit at a time and on second spin win $25, woohoo. Now I have $55 so I decide to play it off, again one credit at a time. On the third spin, I see a purple seven, double purple seven, double purple seven land on the pay line. A win!

Oh yes, I won something. And I hear that sweet beep,beep,beep or maybe it’s a doot,doot,doot sound (only faster).
$2000 just like that. What? We NEVER win a hand pay the first day, as in NEVER. Did I take a picture? No. Very few pics this trip.

Within one minute the slot attendant is there (no one else is playing in that area at 7:30am) and just then, DH walks up all grins (he smells some money coming his way, not). Within 5 minutes the attendant and a suit come by and pay me my 2k, I give the attendant a tip, stuff my money and W-2 in my purse, cash out the rest of my tito and off we go. I do have a pic of the W-2…



Decision was made to check-in and get that out of the way. We head into the VIP room and hand the young lady our cards and she does a few clicks and says ‘oh, your host left a note, she booked you in last night since she knew you would be arriving early this morning, so your room is ready now’…What? We NEVER get into our room at 7:45am. Thank you, dear host! Another win. We grab some waters and head to our room. We are ‘downsizing’ our gamble budget so we asked our host to skip the Tower suite and put us in a Tower King room this trip. Instead she puts us in a smaller Mirage Suite with the two bathrooms and the bedroom/living area in one large room which was just the right size and my husband decides he really likes. We like FP and Resort Credit, but the room size, as long as it is CLEAN is not important as we grow older and wiser, lol. Well not too wise, or we wouldn’t still be going to Vegas to gamble, now would we?







The 2k win went into the safe and then home – that is a good lesson we learned along the way, in the old days we sometimes just added those hand pay wins to our bankroll and often times never made it home – now, hand pays always go home. We stay within the bankroll we brought and whatever happens, happens. No breaking into the ‘lock box’.

Slots/VP: All play was at Mirage except for a couple of hours at Harrah’s when we ran across the street to get the TR upgrade to Diamond status using our mlife Platinum card. (On a normal trip, we hit 6 or 7 places on the strip). We had some good luck on Willie Wonka, Blazing Sevens, 88 Fortunes, Lobster Mania, Double Gold, Pinball (newer version), no big payouts, no big losses.
No luck on Buffalo or Cleo – boohoo, that Cleo is a fickle one and Boofaloo is just plain poo.
Played about two hours of VP - no harm, no foul.

Meals were comped but pretty basic which was part of the R&R plan to hang out at Mirage and not stray much this trip: The Pantry, the Deli at Mirage, Heritage Steak at Mirage (not our favorite for steaks but ok), Cravings Buffet, California Pizza Kitchen, Petrossian Bar for Afternoon Tea at Bellagio (hot walk back) and snacks in the Diamond Lounge at Harrah's..

Firsts for us in Vegas:
Arrival at 6AM
Hand pay first day within one hour of arrival
Able to get into the room before 8AM
Total Rewards temporary Tier Match to Diamond (mlife Platinum)
Leaving Las Vegas a day early and on an early morning flight.

That folks, is our trip. Our trips are pretty boring by Vegas standards, and with the exception of the early hand pay, this one was quite the snoozer, literally. I slept more on this one trip than a year’s worth of previous trips, lol. It’s been an up and down year health wise for several family members both in and out of state with several unexpected trips and obligations and worries (thank goodness for VMB on those crazy days, I’d log in and steal a little ‘me’ time for a little break). So finally things on the family front settled down and we thought we needed a few days away (this trip had been on the books for a while with thoughts of canceling it). For the most part it was a good decision to make the trip as planned, we had some great fun playing slots together and chilling and catching up on z’s. But this trip was a little ‘off’ from the get go for varying reasons and on the third evening after an early dinner, we decided to fly home a day early, and miraculously SWA fare was only a few dollars more than the original cost so home we flew the next morning on an early morning flight. Never thought I'd see the day we left Vegas early of our own free will

Next time – Vegas look out! We will be back with a full agenda that includes several restaurants recommended in recent TR’s by others, lots of slots, and very little sleeping!

 

Congrats on your hand pay, Geogran!

Getting some sleep and/or a nice nap in Vegas should never be underestimated.
I never let a trip go by without one or the other.
Gotta get some energy worked up for the slots.

Thanks for your insights and best of luck to you on your next trip.

 

I think that sounds like a pretty fine trip (well, except for that early flight but what's life without, er, new experiences? ) Congrats on the handpay! The room looks pretty nice as well.

 

Congrats on the handpay. Sometimes a nice relaxing time playing slots is all you need.

 

Yay Geo......nothing like a handpay right out of the gate. I hit one just under 8K on my December trip within minutes of arrival before getting to the room and tucked it in the safe to take home too. Nice knowing you are going home a winner!

 

Thanks everyone for reading and for your nice comments @breanna61 , @emmas , @Retrobabble , @ardee
I've recovered and ready for a do over, lol!
Congrats on that nice win Breanna - early wins are shockers for sure!

Geogran

 

The sweet sound of victory!

The biggest of congratulations to my VMB accountability partner!
Thanks for the TR, Geogran!

RICHARD

 

How kind of you - And large words to boot!

With that and time off for good behavior, your parole has been granted, you are free to move about the board unfettered. Expecting great things of you, grasshopper.

Geogran

 

Oh, most glorious of days! Thank you!
I appreciate your confidence and expectations, Geogran!
I would like to request a delay in my release date.

My colleagues on the chain gang are depending on my leadership, wisdom, wit, morale, and beautiful falsetto to get them through the entire trail-clearing project out near Jackson's Pond. I can't let the team down!

Also, the warden will be in on Monday to judge the beard contest. I'm a little short on length, but I'm hoping to pull it out in the swimsuit competition with my VMB-inspired one-piece!



Thank you again for your confidence. I feel so...



RICHARD

 

Winning big in the first few hours, what's that? Never happens to me in Vegas.

Nice report!

 

Ditto here - historically, if we are going to win something decent, it's almost always the night before leaving or the day of departure - keeping us in suspense the whole trip.
Thanks for reading!

 

Congratulations on a day one hand pay my fellow slot slug!!!! I am so glad you have a fun trip....especially with it being on the heels of handling things on the home front.

It was a GREAT trip report, and with the exception of "early to rise," and being short, it sounds like my idea of a PERFECT trip...great report Geo!

 

Congrats on that win. Thanks for the report. I was there the same time at MGM - will post mine soon -- no big wins for me.

 

Beautiful falsetto?

 

Thanks for reading @vwhiten and looking forward to yours! I recall your post that your son and fiancé would be accompanying you and hope y'all had some great times together.
We've done that a few times with our daughters and their spouses - my Son's in law tried to turn me from the dark side (slots) to table games, that was fun for a minute, lol. Those trips were a hoot because my daughters and sil's were unprepared for 'Vegas Mom' as I was always the last to bed and the first up in the mornings. Lots of laughs and best times were when the guys and I had early breakfast while the wives were primping and then slotted together - they always ended up with a little extra pocket money. Now they have kiddo's and our family trips are oriented to Disney or the beach.

 

That's one of the best first hours in Vegas I can think of! of course getting the hand pay is great but getting checked into a suite before 8:00am is almost as great, imo.....

 

It's what it sounds like when the doves cry!

RICHARD

 

Do we have a rolly eyes emoji?
Oh, wait...here it is:

(I'm sorry, Geogran for hijacking your trip report thread. It won't happen again. )

 

I second that emotion!
All apologies, Geogran!

I just gave myself 30 lashes with a wet noodle.
And 25 with a dry one!

RICHARD

 

Hijack away @ardee. My term is just about up - If you're willing - please, please, please, I'm looking for a worthy warden, er, guardian to pass the baton to. But be warned, he's a wily one.

As for you @Richard Alpert,
that's enough self flagellation for one day; me thinks you're having way too much fun.