Birb Birthday Bonanza post TR [Cosmo, Aug 21-26]

First of all, thanks to everyone who wished me and the Mr. a happy birthday!

While I know I am not obligated to write a TR, I am a person of my word and have said that I would write one for our time in Vegas. But it’ll take longer than usual to put together some good ol’ Toilet Reading material, given that our cat became ill (suddenly lethargic, spent a day at vet urgent care), so we’ve been keeping an eye on him.

Cat has been sleeping a lot, so he’s been more round like this:



Cliff notes on what we did in Vegas, then I will expand more in separate posts.

Noms:

• Blue Ribbon
• LPM
• Zuma
• Tekka Bar
• $750K tourney food
• Overlook Grill
• The Beast
• Earl of Sandwich

Activities:

• Craps and roulette lessons at Casino Quest FSM store location
• Casino Quest birthday bash at their dealer school
• Walked inside Fantasy Claw Arcade and didn’t play (not a good sign for me)
• $750K slot tournament
• Gambling of all sorts: slots, VP, craps (mainly stadium, one Roll to Win table)

Had the chance to meet with @Jer, @Mony, @Vegas View, @MohrPfun and his husband, @ColoVegPlayer and his gf, @tringlomane, and @Christina6001. Wish we could connect with more people, but there’s always next time.

Stats? I have no clue where we rank on the MGM totem pole. Before the merge, the Mr. and I had our accounts linked to share Identity points, but our statuses were separate (I was Identity Plat, he was Identity gold), so we had double amount of offers. Under MGM, we are linked and considered as one entity (making us both MGM platinum with combined points), which means the Mr. may not get his own offers.

From my phone screenshot, we started with 211,055 tier credits and ended with 263,428. *shrug* I’m still trying to figure out how MGM works All I know is that our play wasn’t enough to cover all backend charges this time, while under Identity, it would have.

Can’t really say that our life as ex-Identity members went well at first, even to be questioned, “Are you even staying at Cosmo?” by multiple employees for the first time was unsettling when we had room charging issues for the first couple of days. More on that later.

I’ll end this (for now) with my favorite old picture from the third floor by the Boulevard tower elevators.



Can you imagine being part of the crew managing a craps table at the pool with people splashing water and retrieving flying dice from the bottom? Oh yeah, there’s slot machines on the edge of the pool.

Stay tuned.

 

Huh. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that photo before!

Poor kitty

 

I heard you loud and clear, Miss Fab FB ambassador!

The Mr. was interested in checking FB out, but we couldn’t make time during our trip to do so. I mentioned Ito to him, and he’s game for next time.

 

First Day Takeoff - August 21st



Despite a significant change in our financial situation, I wanted to give an early birthday gift to my husband for making this Vegas trip happen. He knew how much I missed Vegas, and we had multiple conversations about it. I surprised him with first class seat upgrades (we originally used my Alaska Air miles to secure economy seats), and I didn’t say anything until I got the notification to pre-order food.




Unless we were traveling over 2,000 miles, the Alaska Airlines lounge at Sea-Tac wasn’t free to us first class passengers Lounge access would have been $30 for a day pass, which wasn’t worth it if we were boarding in 20 minutes on a direct flight and would be served food and drink anyway.

Before take off, the flight attendants asked if we wanted complimentary water, juice, or champagne due to time constraints. Someone nearby tried to order alcohol other than champagne… the answer they got was “not yet”.




The Mr. liked his “old fashioned in a can” (Straightaway Oregon Old Fashioned) and would get it again (spoiler: he did on the flight home). There is a limit of one can per flight though.

It was nice to sit at a window seat and take in some views.




In the past, all of my Cosmo chauffeurs texted me directly from their phone to let me know they were at LAS waiting for my arrival. Some would ask if I need to pick up any checked baggage or anything else. It felt more personal.

With MGM’s system, I couldn’t get a URL?



Thankfully I got a follow up text with my driver’s name and number. It was different than I was used to.

 

Crater Lake hazelnut espresso vodka? Yes please!

Love your first class upgrade for hubby! In Jan on our work girls Vegas trip i surprised them with FC on the flight home. Imagine how creative I had to be trying to get them to tell me what they wanted for lunch on the plane

 

Check-in, Dinner, Gambol - August 21st





We could have treated ourselves to a fountain view wraparound, but my husband preferred a room away from direct sun, so he could enjoy the terrace more. Last summer when we stayed in a wraparound FV, he burned one of his fingers from opening one of the sliding doors that got too hot to touch from the 117F degree heat.

Surprisingly, we had a few breezes this time (strong enough that a slipper almost flew off our terrace, and we wondered what would happen if it landed on someone’s head at the pool below us) and slightly lower temps during our entire stay on the 67th floor at Boulevard.



Following tradition, we had our first night dinner at Blue Ribbon, and I didn’t mind spending my birthday there. My husband ordered his favorite Beginner’s Luck with extra cherries (yes, he really enjoys old fashioned drinks) while I had a citrus mocktail of some sort.

We ordered the steak tartare (the Mr. liked the thin waffle chips so much that he asked for extra), “bucket” of wings (fried chicken has been solid), and braised short rib to share.





The staff brought out complimentary desserts (ice cream with lots of whipped cream) to celebrate our birthdays.



We eventually gave in to order a chocolate chip bread pudding to-go (sorry no picture).

Then room charge issue #1 started when we gave our room number and name to the Blue Ribbon staff. Some people didn’t know how to react when they couldn’t find us or our room number in their POS, but we didn’t expect them to ask, “Are you even staying at Cosmo?” I was shocked. Like pretty sure we knew where we were staying.

In the end, the manager went out of his way to speak with the front desk and gave us free coffee while we waited for him to resolve our problem.



The solution was to do the room charge manually. I signed a receipt and filled in room info; then the manager would forward the paperwork to front desk or whoever deals with the backlog of pending room charges. Manager was extremely apologetic and mentioned that these issues happen often.

We did a little bit of slotting that night… to be honest, I don’t always take photos of every single bonus or big line hit. I find myself uploading about a quarter or half of my slot photo collection on here.



I wasn’t expecting to hit a $800 major, but I’ll take it.

 

Fashion Show Mall - August 22nd



(That is Alex Kim behind the register at Casino Quest’s store front at FSM checking his nails I asked him if I could take photos beforehand. He gave me permission, so I wasn’t a creeper.)

What was the plan? Spending the day at Fashion Show Mall.



Our Lyft driver to FSM gave us suggestions on what to order at Earl of Sandwich. We knew people who are fans of this chain and had to give them a try for lunch!



I liked my chicken chipotle avocado; the Mr. liked his Italian. We’ll be back again to try other sandwiches if we’re feeling simple.



Fantasy Claw Arcade was disappointing that I didn’t play any claw/crane games there, which said a lot. It was mainly lack of selection compared to The Claw and Go Go Crane. And I LOVE crane games. Derpy penguins and Hello Kitty wasn’t enough to draw me in.




The arcade was definitely clean, and for being Vegas’ largest claw arcade, we barely saw anyone in there except for three people.




Other random finds at FSM: emergency shoes for women available for purchase and a selfie studio. Now what would emergency footwear for men look like?




The more exciting part was the craps and roulette lessons at Casino Quest. Lessons were $25 per hour per person; we booked for two hours. We browsed at the store before the lessons started. My husband shook Alex Kim’s hand, letting him know that we’re fans of their YouTube channel




I didn’t take any photos during the lessons. It would have been weird to do that — and we were too busy having fun. Our instructor Nick asked us if there was anything specific we wanted to know about craps and roulette. I said I wanted to help my husband boost his confidence to approach a live table, and we wanted to get some practice in before CQ’s birthday bash.

One customer walked in during our lessons, pointed at an empty craps table nearby, and asked Nick, “How much would this cost?” Like he was serious to buy. Nick said that it was not for sale A few other customers walked by to watch us play, and Nick would pause briefly to explain how lessons worked to them.

The lessons were truly at our own pace. Nick was kind and patient to answer all of my husband’s questions. I learned some new things. It was hilarious that everybody talked about craps during our roulette lesson



CQ has some neat cheatsheets that we took home.

Time blew by that we had to leave FSM for dinner at LPM.

 

LPM dinner - August 22nd

Before I forget: I had room charging issues at District on this day.

The cashier tried to look me up, said that he couldn’t find me in their POS, did the whole “Are you even staying at Cosmo?” (pure coincidence), and I mentioned it wasn’t the first time people thought I didn’t exist Sometimes I had to laugh about it rather than getting upset.

“Once upon a time I was royalty and now I am a nobody.”

Cashier apologized and said it was likely that their system was getting updated. I didn’t feel like holding up the line (issue was minor to me) and paid for my coffee.

Husband and I squeezed in a few minutes of slots before dinner. There was a player near us, and while I didn’t get a good look at her, all I heard was…

“No.”
“No no.”
*hard slaps*
“Noooooooooo!”
“NO NO NO NO NO” while slapping her machine harder like she was punishing it.
“NOOOOOO NO NO NOO NOOOOOO!”

Hearing those no-nos in an Asian accent for two minutes straight was something new. She wasn’t happy with her machine obviously. If the machine ain’t paying, why keep playing? *shrug*

About dinner… my husband enjoyed the food at LPM but wasn’t a fan of their cocktails (maybe a little too sophisticated or creative for his taste buds), which is OK. Not everybody has to like what the majority of VMBers do. I wanted to emphasize that last sentence.

Our server allowed my husband to swap out drinks. The Mr. felt really bad for not liking the Hommage and Eugene, and thought Trinity was alright… he wasn’t trying to be difficult and was willing to drink the rest to not be wasteful. However, our server didn’t want him to settle.

We shared the yellowtail carpaccio, duck, lobster risotto, and cheesecake. And ate extra bread

 

I like this phrase lol

So true!

And hahahaha to the lady saying no repeatedly. Looking forward to more funny slot stories

 

Slot Action - August 22nd

Thankfully room charging worked at LPM!

But we still went down to speak with Cosmo VIP staff about how we can work around these room charge issues if it happened again. They mentioned that it was well-known and that IT was working on it, especially with other angry guests complaining to them earlier. Both my husband and I knew how tech glitches could cause inconvenience, so we tried to show some compassion. (Given our experiences working in customer facing environments and tech space, we definitely know what it’s like to get yelled at by people who think you have some magic powers to make their problems disappear, but it’s out of your control. Integration of any kind never goes smoothly; there will be bugs to fix.)

I finally had the chance to play Huff and Even More Puff. I was pretty surprised that this particular machine paid me well for a $2 bet.



I got love for the 50 cent betters below.



When I started gambling over 20 years ago, I used to think that a $1 bet would be expensive when the minimum used to be 20 cents or less. $40 bankroll used to be enough. Not so much anymore

 

It was nice to meet you and the Mr.! Now I have the daunting task of doing a post TR myself. Over 11 days... But wish we were still in Vegas though.

 

$750K tournament - August 23rd

I gave up $1500 FP to participate in this multi-MGM property tournament (believe me it’s a lot to give up), but the company of awesome VMBers made up for most of it. There was some hassle of trying to get my registration finalized, and my husband became a last minute entry. We spoke to the host on duty at the Cosmo HL Table side (who I recognized as a host for a very popular slot YouTuber) to get details sorted out since my host was off, and she had to make a couple phone calls.



While other MGM properties had the Spinferno machines, Cosmo still used the classic three-reel 3x 4x 5x for the tournament. I tried to capture a photo of the machines without players on them.

Some of you may have seen the Cosmo tourney food pics from Mohr and CVP. I really don’t know if I have anything different to add. I recall scarfing down 2-3 plates because I was so hungry

My host mentioned later that her and some other Cosmo hosts had to learn how to enter data into new tournament forms and (re)learning the MGM process of doing things in general, even though she originally came from MGM a few years ago, I believe.

 

LOL there is no time limit for a post TR

I came to the conclusion that I cannot do live TRs. I already find taking photos to be daunting enough, and I try to take them quickly.

Hope we can play some VP together next time!

 

Zuma Dinner - August 23rd

Couple of slot moments:





The Mr. and I had a fun dinner at Zuma with Mohr and his husband.

Truthfully, I wasn’t sure when I’d be back at Zuma given “truffle trauma” from doing their omakase years ago (in short, half of the dishes were overdosed with truffle oil and shavings). BUT Mohr ordered delicious food for all of us.

(Embedding some favorites; leaving the rest as attachments.)






I wasn’t expecting a birthday treat, so it took me by surprise. I felt the LOVE for sure



Dinner with some of the best people around was priceless.

The Mr. and I walked over to Aria for change of scenery. Think we only played this weird electronic craps setup with a red clown button.



It didn’t dawn on me till later that the button was for “shooting the dice” if you’re the shooter. My screen was half broken when I tried to place my bets, trying to drag any functional virtual chips around with no easy button for pressing or taking money down.

My husband underestimated and regretted betting against me (he likes to play the don’t sometimes and I can’t blame him) when I was the hot shooter for 15+ rolls I definitely rolled plenty of hard tens so whoever was pressing on that made some dough. I broke even at the end.

 

Loved these lines, too!

and highly suggest the Letr a Coco at LPM. Almost tried the Eugene on my last visit but kept reordering “Coco” instead

 

Those lemon bars at the slot tournament made me kind of laugh. It reminded me of the episode of Las Vegas where Delinda hires a pregnant pastry chef who was a nightmare, but made lemon bars to die for.

 

Stuff Before Casino Quest Birthday Bash - August 24th

Block 16 (Cosmo food court) was packed. Like I’ve never seen so packed where it was harder to tell who was in line for Marquee Dayclub for their loud oontz fix vs line for each food vendor. I ordered three rolls from Tekka Bar to-go to take upstairs along with a nitro matcha for lunch.





My husband was content with his homemade pourover coffee. We try to bring the coffee setup on every trip.



Then we attended the wild card drawings and awards for the $750K tournament. None of us advanced to the finals… waaaaaaaa. Oh well.

How about some more slot action with a mix of VP?



$99.50 bonus from Mo’ Mummy on 2 cent denom betting $1.50 a spin.

For once, cows paid me some?





OMG Cosmo HL cookies!



Played some Luxury Line and Pots; they barely paid me LOL





Okay, when it comes to VP, I am still clueless about paytables (more like figuring out which is the best), but I know good hits when I see them.

Never played Powerhouse Poker until then…





Extra hands and multipliers were given at random, and I’ll take some full houses and 4oak



Took a stab at Ultimate X Bonus Streak too.

 

So were you actually staying at Cosmo?

 

Just remembered a small tidbit… when we went to the MGM Rewards desks to get our Plat cards printed, I asked for one of those complimentary lanyards/clip things/whatever. Wanna know what the rewards desk agent said?

“Oh sorry we ran out but you can go BUY one at the gift shop”