Trip Report (Aug 26th-Aug 29th)

First of all, I apologize for being so inactive on the boards, but I always intended on posting a trip report. You may or may not remember my trip report from my stay a year ago at Harrah's Hotel and Casino. https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83094

Anyways, despite not believing it would happen, my mother, her husband and I all decided to head back to Las Vegas for another vacation, although we started planning this one a little later than last year. We also left Grandma at home this time, because despite what she says, at 77 years old, she just can't keep up (but we didn't tell her we went that way she wouldn't be upset). We booked it through Total Rewards for a good deal (cost half as much for the flight and hotel than last year) and had it fully booked in early May leaving us only three months to prepare. Unlike last year where I brought $1,200 for five days, this year I brought $2,500 for four days. I find that if you enjoy playing the penny slot machines and trying different casinos, the amount I brought this year is sufficient and even then I kept a close eye on my wages.

Once again, I am a single, 24 year old redheaded dude from Ohio. Last year I was hoping to get frisky with women and it worked out well. This year, that was not my focus.

MONDAY, AUGUST 26TH

We arrived at the airport in Cleveland at 6:30am and went through security. It was the shortest line and quickest security I have ever seen or been through. We had a flight that had a very strong tailwind and the entire cabin of the plane applauded as we arrived 45 minutes earlier than expected.

We took a cab from the airport to the Paris Hotel but the line was so long we had them hold our bags and decided to check in later on. We played a little in Paris but weren't winning much so we went next door to Ballys. I had heard through the grapevine that Ballys had loose slots and boy were they loose! We all were winning. Vouchers of $200, $300, even $500! Dean Martin's slot machine put out good for my mom's husband but I never got much out of it. I kept playing those IGT slot machines like "The Royal Promise". The max bet was only $2.00 and you got full screens or 4/5 reels which paid $20-$50 every few spins. Put in a $20, cash out $40. Do it again, then again, then again. It's like an ATM machine without taking your own money. Haha.

After about five or six hours at Ballys, we went back to our hotel and grabbed lunch at a restaurant in Paris. The food was good but the service wasn't that impressive. At this point I had been awake over 24 hours and had gained three hours time with the time change difference. We went back to our rooms and I took a nap as it was raining outside. I woke up an hour or two later, dressed up a little snazzy and we hit the strip. We went to Cosmopolitan, where I got to play the Cheers slot machine which gave me some free spins but I bet it down. I then played "The Royal Promise" and "Golden Goddess" and those other IGT slots that gave me several vouchers that put me even or ahead. I also got to play the wonderful new "Gone with the Wind" slot machine which put out decently and was very enjoyable. I didn't see it anywhere except Cosmo but I definitely think it holds big win potential. We left there and went to Flamingo and Margaritaville but didn't win much. I decided to head back to the hotel room and go to sleep.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 27TH

We woke up and went downstairs at Paris to grab breakfast. I had a delicious fruit tart. My mother and her husband had Ham and Cheese crepes. We played at Paris and I broke even, so I took the $400 I brought downstairs from my room to Bally's next door to see if we could replicate our success. My mother and her husband won again at Bally's but I lost my $400. I went upstairs and grabbed $300 more dollars and began playing at the Paris casino alone. I went on Haunted Forest, the new Wizard of Oz machine, put in a $100 and began doing $2 and $4 bets. I hit several WILD monkey features and a few bonuses. I ended up with two $400 vouchers. I cashed in my $800 wins as the biggest ever (So far I hope) and found my family. After returning to my room to put some of my winnings into my safe, we grabbed a Pizza lunch and went down the strip and stopped at the new and improved "The Quad". I saw several machines malfunctioning and it just didn't seem like a great casino. I lost $200. We went back to the hotel room to rest and then got dressed nice and went to our reservations at Gordon Ramsay's steakhouse.

Gordon Ramsay's restaurant was fantastic. We ordered the Beef Tatare which is basically ice cold raw meat. Not our thing but I ate nearly half of it, how I still I can't tell you. Since none of us genuinely enjoyed it, it was taken off our bill. We loved our steaks which were the greatest steaks I have ever tasted in my life. My side dish was a plate of carrots with wing sauce, ranch powder and chicken skin on top of them. It was delicious. We then had the sticky toffee dessert. Delicious. Gordon Ramsay's restaurant was a great highlight of the trip. The best part? Our Total Rewards cards covered the entire check except the tip! $250 saved. Cha-ching! After that, we played a bit more at Paris but I got tired and decided to go to sleep. It had been a wonderful day.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28TH

Day three was when the trouble started. I still had about $1,500, around $200 more than I had brought the year prior with just one day to go. I was looking forward to coming home with money (not necessarily being ahead, but having good money coming home from the trip) and playing a lot with what I had left. However, my mother and her husband were both almost completely out of money. They had won more vouchers on Monday and Tuesday than I could count and it baffled me how they could be so low. They reminded me that they brought less money than I had and that they had played much of their winnings, whereas I brought more and was much, much tighter. Remember, after I cashed in two $400 vouchers, I went back to my room and put $500 of the $800 in my safe.

Before that, we played a bit at Paris but Haunted Forest and other machines didn't do much for me. I was dying of thirst and despite playing at different machines all around the casino, I couldn't find a single waitress. I finally walked up to one directly and got two bottles of water and a coffee before I wasted away into dry air. They need more waitresses in the mornings, for sure.

The three of us decided to walk down the strip to casinos I had never been to. We walked down to Tropicana where neither of them were winning so they were rather depressing to be around. I played my Aladdin slot machine which had given me my biggest win last year, and won $90 on a 40-cent bet. Then I decided to try again, and I got a bonus on a $2 bet and won $390. I had $500 in my wallet after bringing only $300. My mother and her husband both lost.

We then walked over to Excalibur which seemed older (It opened around the time the Berlin Wall came down and was much newer than Tropicana which opened in '57 but was not renovated much) and I began playing The Monkees slot machine which didn't do anything for me. My mother came up to me, sad and depressed and I asked for $100, which I gave to her. Her husband had taken out $500 from his bank account to allow extra funds for the final 24 hours of the trip. She didn't have it.

I went on Michael Jackson's King of Pop slot machine with a $100 bill. I began pressing the max bet button which was $3.60 a spin. Soon he popped on the screen, slid across giving me a page full of double wilds and the machine spit out $186. I cashed out. I was still around $300, down $200 from Tropicana (although I had loaned $100 of that to my mother). I went to Starbucks, flirted with the Filipino girl who worked there, and had iced coffee and a fruit tart. We played more until I was ready to head back towards Paris. My mother was almost in tears because she was down from what I had loaned her and broke and her husband didn't have much left either. Of course, I still had about a thousand dollars in my safe back at Paris.

We decided to try New York, New York before heading back toward Paris. I had heard that NY NY was the ultimate hotel/casino in Vegas and I liked it but thought the casino part was way too small. It seemed a little over-hyped, in my opinion. I played Haunted Forest and won $100-$200 bucks and also played some hunting game where you use rifle controls to shoot at deer and game at the screen. I won a little on there but once I wasn't getting anymore bonuses, I called it quits.

I also was able to get my 35 minute massage I had been planning on getting and found out that my back is out of alignment and I need a major adjustment. It was relaxing but I was still stressed due to the fact that I was loving Vegas and knew we were on our last day and that my mother and her husband were bummed by being so broke.

After eating a NY style pizza dinner, we went back to Paris and I loaned my mother $500 since I figured she would have done the same thing for me and I know she's good for it and will pay me back. So I don't count that as money lost just money loaned. We relaxed a bit then headed next door to Ballys. A live 60s Motown band was playing and that's some of my favorite music, so while I dressed snazzy and drank 7&7s and jammed to the music I played some machines. Thundering Buffalo put out $90 on a 24-free spin bonus but slowly but surely I lost. After playing a few hours, I went back to my room and went to sleep.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 29TH

Waking up around 8am, this was the final day of the trip and the first that I actually wanted to head down to the pool and relax. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time left. I went down to Paris with my final $600 in cash left and played. I won enough to break pretty much exactly even. I found my mother and her husband. While they wanted to go eat breakfast, I wasn't hungry at all and went to Ballys to play more. While there, I won $90 on the Alice and the Mad Tea Party game that had done well for me Monday afternoon, and then I won $200 on the Haunted Forest Wizard of Oz machine. Again, I did high bets for the Wizard of Oz slot. We then headed back next door to Paris after checking out, got our bags and took a cab to the airport. I was very melancholy that the trip was over already, but I left with (combined with what I loaned my mother) about $1000. That's in contrast to last year when I came home with almost nothing. Also, despite bringing $2,500, I came home with so much money it was almost like a half-free vacation. Our flight was delayed and I scarfed down a Wendy's burger and we flew home to Cleveland on a flight that seemed (and was) much longer than the first.

All in all a much, much, much better trip than 2012. My analysis of the trip:

- Paris was a wonderful hotel and I'd definitely recommend and stay there again. I liked it much better than Harrahs in 2012.

- Bringing $2,500 for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and part of Thursday while also being tight and winning was enough to allow me to come home with $1,000. I recommend a person watches their funds and brings no less than what I brought, especially if they enjoy playing slots and doing some mid-high bets occasionally.

SLOT RECOMMENDATIONS

- Gone with the Wind
- Aladdin ($400 worth of winnings at Tropicana)
- Wizard of Oz Haunted Forest (Biggest wins on $2/$4 bets, $800 worth of winnings at Paris and Ballys)
- The Royal Promise (low payouts but often)
- Golden Goddess (low payouts but often, not as much as Royal Promise)
- Michael Jackson (lack of bonuses, but big payouts on high bets especially at Excalibur and NY NY)
- Alice and the Mad Tea Party (Super-mad respins are what you want but not especially high payouts)

SLOTS I DIDN'T CARE FOR

- Dean Martin (Never did a thing for me, but my mother and her husband won hundreds on both the Tea Party and Vegas Shindig)
- Willy Wonka (I did $100 worth of max bets down to $0. Low payouts. Not many bonuses. Overrated.)
- Lil' Red (Extremely rare to get a bonus, low payouts)

I am going through Vegas withdrawal as I type this on September 5th. I thought last years trip was too long so this year's was one day shorter. Turned out to be too short. I definitely want to return. Perhaps by myself, perhaps not. As long as you save a good chunk of cash for playing, find a cheap but decent hotel stay deal and affordable airfare, a trip or two each year isn't unrealistic in my opinion.

Thanks for reading, comments and questions welcome.
Mike

 

Good report! I've stayed at the Paris many times and it's my favourite on the strip....good location and it doesn't take hours to get from the casino to your room. Also...you are a good son lending your Mom some money!!!

 

Great report! Funny what you said about Bally's...my husband and I have never really played there, at all over all these years. Over the weekend he and my dad played there the most and that is where they had the best luck on slots. Looks like I'll have to play there next month for sure!

Do you always play max bet on the pennies or do you alternate? Do you have a "system"? (play small until a win, then play some max etc)

 

Great trip reports. I read both of them.

 

It depends. Some IGT machines give you full screens often, but the only bonus round is a free spins and it's not often at all. Also, the pay outs are small.

The thing I found on some of them is that the max bet is only $2.00. That's not bad at all. So I'd put in a $20, cash out $40, put in a $20 cash out $50, put in a $20, cash out $70. That means I'm only up $90, but it's still adding up.

As far as the machines like the Wizard of Oz, Haunted Forest, I was hitting wild features and bonuses next to a nice lady who was doing 40-cent bets. I was doing $2.00 or $4.00 bets. She won $52 on a wild feature. I won $361. Big difference depended on your bet.

 

Enjoyed your report.....thanks for posting! Sounds like you had a great time.

 

Thanks for sharing. Always nice to come home with a little something.