Debunking Superstition - Our 13th Vegas Visit Live Trip Report

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Are you playing the Texas Dice game in NYNY? I hit that one for over $200 on a 50 cent bet last year. I rolled a whole bunch of fours. Had I rolled one more on my last die, it would have been over $2k.

 

What a whirlwind trip! I'm exhausted just reading everything you all are doing!
Best of luck with the teaching job - Chem is exciting!

 

Afternoon All,

Another day, another plan, another huge variance from the plan at the end and we're home much earlier than anticipated. No matter, it lets us pack and be good to go early doors to the promised land.

We started with a drive to the School District HQ to meet the HR Director and his assistant. This was a crucial meeting in helping really push the sponsor organizations into action. As it stands, the District is overjoyed and desperate for Moyra to start, we are both desperate to get over and we anticipate no issues whatsoever with the visa. In the middle of all that are a very small number of sponsor organizations, 80% of which don't sponsor teachers in Arizona and a remaining 20% who seem to operate on Fijitime. Our lawyer got back to us to say he is having more luck on his side than we are here so hopefully we're good to get properly moving at the beginning of next week.

That tangent aside, neither the Director or his assistant were in the office due to an unforeseen situation so we got a whirlwind tour of where they work and we're out the door in ten minutes so we got no further forward. We took the opportunity to go and visit the housebuilder in Goodyear (everyone is still saying that it is far too far away but we got there in 40 minutes and neither of us mind a drive...we won't say we weren't warned! Hardly surprisingly, we loved the house model and have registered our interest in a plot. No commitment yet but the existing houses we now get via email are going to have to be very special to tempt us. As fate would have it, the plot in question is likely to become available in June or July and then it takes 6-7 months to build so it fits with our timeframe and gives the dollar a bit of time to start behaving itself. There is a necessary bit of guesswork and hoping that it at least doesn't get any worse against the pound than it currently is.

We then eschewed even more of the advice we've been given and ventured to the new Desert Diamond casino in Glendale. It was, quelle surprise, heaving. There is a job available as an HR Manager there and I'd love to work in a casino so will ensure I keep an eye on it as it likely isn't one to spend a lot of time gambling in come what may. There are very few recognisable games and the ones that are popular are there en masse. We saw no fewer than 8 Miss Kitty machines and there were banks of the same machines right across the casino floor so I assume there are some licensing issues to sort out still. More to the point, from our $100 gambled, we didn't get a single bonus between us and our lone hits and scatter pays gave us back only $40. I won $5 from Legend of Excalibur and $20 from scattered coins on Wild Panda whilst Moyra got $5 from Wild Pack and $10 from Silver Dollar Shootout (I know, we've never heard of them either!!). I can't see us frequenting any of the local casinos and, in buying the house we seen, it may be just as well as we're unlikely to be able to afford to!

We took a short drive round to Cold Stone Creamery to try their version of a frappé (very nice) whilst Moyra went for a banana and butter pecan ice cream combo which she was delighted with. We ventured back to South Mountain where we're staying and will now do a bit of packing before we take our lovely host for a thank you dinner as she has been great. I can now thoroughly recommend Airbnb...at least this Airbnb.

Hope everyone is well and having a grand day of it.

Cheers,

Billy

 

It certainly has the potential to be very good vegasvette,

This particular machine is in Fort McDowell, Arizona although Moyra normally plays it at Bellagio.

Cheers,

Billy

 

Hi Sammo,

Thanks for that - although the last think Moyra needs is more smileys to be inspired by! She's an emoji fanatic...

This trip has been a bit of a whirlwind but we have achieved the majority of what we intended to (this trip was initially to hopefully attend some interviews and be offered a role in future weeks) so we're happy with where we're at in the process. In the next 10-12 weeks, we need to sell our cars, both finish our current jobs (and I've yet to start my final project in the UK), get sponsorship and visas sorted out, both pass a couple of required examinations and then, hopefully around mid-May, I need to put my focus into finding a job here. The biggest thing we need to address here is a car or cars although we'll likely cover that off with a rental for a couple of weeks when we first come over so as to not rush that piece either.

Cheers,

Billy

 

thank you for sharing! very nice!

 

Day 10

Evening everyone,

Left Phoenix bright and early this morning, hopefully we'll get back across in our intended timescale, although the sponsor organisations are holding things up at the minute. The drive was uneventful - no major veering on my part! Drove on the right side of the road! The drivers en route were quite ignorant - on roads which have 3 or more lanes, nobody seems willing to let anyone in - even with their indicator on! Most drivers back home would move across to let you out, didn't seem to be the case on the drive today! However, after driving for about 3 and a half hours we decided it was time for some slots (and free Coke which we were promised on the sign) so we pulled in to the Hoover dam casino for our first shot of the day.

Billy won $10 from bison wild stack, $25 from the bonus on princess of paradise, $5 from a poor yabba dabba doo bonus on the flintstones and $5 from the bonus on dragon rising. I got $5 from King of dragons (I love those games when they start shouting how many more you need for the bonus!), $20 from line wins on Noah's ark (made even better that it was a remainder shot!) and $30 from lil red - she was finally able to get herself lined up on 5 reels for me! $100 in and $100 out, more importantly, $55 of that was mine - comeback's on!

Next up was Red Rock, after a fat burger - my favourite burgers! The burger was by far the highlight, the slots did not treat us well at all. Billy won $5 from line wins on catch a wave, whilst I got $5 from line wins on mystical mermaid, $10 from 2 of ted 's dividend cheques and $15 from the green fish and pink fish bonuses on original goldfish.

After giving the car back, we got checked in to our suite at Monte Carlo and decided on some slots before the concert. We started in aria. It was Billy's shot to have $200 from the bottle money, which he decided to have on the new goldfish deluxe. Unfortunately no bonuses and only some mediocre line wins which gave him $60. Even worse that that, it turned him into a grump! His mood got worse as the attendant needed to come and fix his winning bid 2 machine and he only won a further $5 on colossal wizards. I won $5 from line wins on crystal forest, $5 from a rubbish gremlins bonus (loads of wilds were added and only 3 appeared on the reels!) and $15 from the wheel of fortune bonus. Even though we came away with $90 (not brilliant from $300 I admit!) and some casinos have given us nothing back, Billy has decided aria is on his list along with Caesars! He wasn't to be swayed despite my efforts!

Our last $200 was played in Monte Carlo. Billy got 3 wheels in a row on Larry 3 for $10, I lurked, got 3 wheel spins, one of which gave me the buoy bonus with a total win of $25. Billy went on to win $5 from forbidden dragons and $10 from Spartacus. I went on to win $10 from line wins on davinvi diamonds, $5 from line wins on whales of cash, $5 from a flappy tongue bonus on Rolling Stones (this win could have been better as I went on to get 2 of the actual bonuses but they gave me a measly amount of credits which didn't make a proper win!) and $15 from the free spin bonus on princess bride.

At this point we headed over for the killers concert. The venue was pretty impressive, although it is very high if you are sitting up at the back - not brilliant for those of us with a fear of heights! No idea who the first support act were - thankfully we arrived at the end of their set as we didn't like them! Wayne Newton was the second support act - again, not good! Perhaps he used to be better, but he struggled with a lot of what he sung. Even at his best, not sure he would have impressed us anyway. The Killers were amazing. Got the crowd involved, brought in the blue man group for a bit, and finished with viva Las Vegas. We are now tempted with Guns n Roses again - however, Billy keeps changing his mind so who knows if we'll go or not! The problem is, we'd rather not pay $300 per ticket!

After finally making it out the arena and watching a bit of the fireworks they had on at the end, we had our last $100 in Monte Carlo. I got $30 from the bonus on playboy, $10 from line wins on kaboom, $10 from line wins on pyramid of kings, $5 from line wins on wild for dolphins and $30 from line wins I totally puzzled (after lurking Billy!). Billy didn't win anything from this second shot.

Today takes us to 82% - Billy isn't happy with this! He's even less happy with our individual totals - he's on $1225 and I have taken the lead with $1260!

Tomorrow Billy has decided on his steak dinner from Ellis island meaning we'll have a shot in Ellis island itself and Tuscany suites as well as some other m life properties.

Hope everyone is well

Moyra

 

Evening All,

Advice to folk doing a live trip report - don't fall asleep and miss the pictures and videos of a day - it takes an age to catch up. I missed a day and now understand why Diana takes the better part of a month to catch up her epic trip reports.

However, now caught up, today had to be better than yesterday. Gambling when tired from a long drive up (I think we'll see more of Sky Harbor than we had originally planned!) isn't the best fun and when you lose, even less so. When the casino is in "sorry, but I'm just going to hoover your money up for next to no play" mode, I'm told I go into a hissy fit reminiscent of a stroppy teenage girl. Regardless, after its first performance yesterday, Goldfish Deluxe makes my "never again" list. Horrible machine. After the last three visits to Aria, all of which have been varying degrees of rubbish, yesterday was the last straw and I won't gamble there again. Lost revenue of something around $300 a year will teach it not to screw me over!

We started today with an alarm call at 6 - I think I'll ban alarms from all future holidays as I was finally sleeping until a normal time today (just in time to completely mess with the body clock back in Scotland). We moseyed up to meet Trey and Linda for breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi. It's a lovely restaurant that we haven't been in before and the breakfast pancakes and waffles we had were superb. The construction crew outside the restaurant were kind enough to take a bit of a break for most of our time there so we could catch up. Trey and Linda are both fantastic as ever and were kind enough to not only treat us to breakfast but share a few tips and tricks of how to play Vegas smarter and we've got a couple of new outlying places to have a go at next time we have a car here.

After breakfast, we (Moyra) decided that we (she) hadn't gambled in ages - probably 11 or so hours - so going back to the room to sort some stuff for the sponsors / lawyers etc could wait. Our first stop of the day was MGM Grand. I got a decent hit on Crystal Forest for $15 whilst Moyra usurped that with 2 decent back to back line wins on Cougarlicious for $25. I won $15 on 3 Kings and $5 on Spartacus and we lost on everything else. The Duck Dynasty machine looks like it has the potential to be a lot of fun but it beat us quickly - at least the ZZ Top music was fun to lose to! $100 in, $70 out. More pressingly, Moyra's $35 lead in our little head to head was cut down to $15!

There was better to come though. Onward to New York New York, Moyra won $10 from Ms. Little Green Men a suction bonuses and another $10 from Liger Loot. I, meantime, was losing on Goldfish, Moolah!, Hot Hot Habanero and Squirelly Loot (which teased the bonus about 30 times without ever giving it). I wandered over to the Nine Fine Irishmen part of the casino where the luck of the Irish gave me a wee hand. $10 from Shrimpmania, $130 from a great bonus on Pharoah's Fortune (thankfully it wasn't as responsive as it could have been as I got a load of extra spins and multipliers) and then $25 from a first soon Jackpot Block Party bonus - all in a 10 minute spell of glory. Moyra won $5 from Cash 'em if you Can and $10 from Shimmer. I got another first spin bonus on one of my favourites, China Moon which, alongside a 10x line hit, paid $20. From our $100 played, we cashed out $225. Moyra won $50 and I managed $175.

After a wee break, our next stop was Tuscany Suites for some of the ye olde favourites. I wanted to play as many of the obscure oldies as possible. Unfortunately, they didn't play ball as I managed all of $5 from Ghost Island whilst losing on, among others, Deep Pockets, Catch a Wave, Star Drifter, Wild Taxi, Dragon's Gold and Gusher. Mohra did slightly better, winning $5s from Catch a Wave, Licky Lemmings and Fishing Bob as well as $10s from Kingpin and Super Cherry. $100 in, $40 out...back down to earth with a bump!

Next up was the traditional Vegas visit to Ellis Ksland for the steak special. It remains among the very best things in Vegas. The gambling though, wasn't quite as good to us. We were halfway through our shot with nothing to show for our efforts until Benny Big Game ($10) and Comminity Ted ($5) gave Moyra some back. I finally, after several years of trying, got the ladder bonus on Hexbreaker for $25 and wins on Joe's Yard Games ($10), Lil' Red ($5) and Forbidden Dragons ($10) where me and the girl next door on Spartacus were decrying how bad colossal reels can be to you in unison nearly every spin. $100 in, $65 out.

We walked back to the Strip via the gauntlet of homeless folk and beggars who were taking great delight in both throwing bottles (both plastic and glass) onto the road and planning their big night (it appeared to consist of getting some more beer and getting "fucked up on shit"). Moyra decided that it is getting seedier off the strip - she likes to feel safe on holiday.

There's nowhere she is happier at than Bellagio so that was our next stop. We started well, Moyra winning $5 from Friends which gave a full screen win. I won $10 from Moonwalker and $25 from two replicating wild features on Dragon's Fire...never doubted it! Moyra won $20 from Turkey Shoot and then another $15 from a last spin bonus on Polar Plunge. At the end of our play, I won $40 from Sons of Anarchy and $25 from Great Inca. Our $100 yielded $140.

We were done with our joint efforts for the day but Moyra had both her freeplay to get through and her big $200 shot on Texas Ted to play. Both were done at Monte Carlo. The freeplay started in Open the Vault until it hit the bonus and paid $90 whereupon she moved next door to Kaboom and won another $45. The big max bet shot on Ted took the better part of 20 minutes and didn't give a whole lot of love, a couple of bonuses and a few reaksnable line wins for a return of $105. I'm on the fence with what I'm going to play as I saw a guy at Bellagio Max betting on Buffalo Gold. He has 27 spins left to play, everything that could go wild had gone wild and he was just ticking past $2,400...needless to say, he looked very pleased with his efforts! I would like some of that bonus play!

It wouldn't be difficult, but today was miles better than yesterday. We gambled $700 and win $780. Moyra has eked ahead slightly after her efforts at Monte Carlo but I've got one more $200 shot to play. As it stands, she has won $1,665 whilst I'm on $1,600. All comes down to the last day again. Overall, we've played $4,540 and won $3,930 so we're right on the advertised money again at 86.6%.

I'm still swithering on Guns n Roses tickets and will make a call at some point tomorrow on them. My heart says go for it, my head says fuck the scalpers. I hate folk that snap up all the tickets they can, never having any intention of going. Despite that disdain, I'm well aware this is a once in a lifetime atmosphere and I expect I'll pay the piper at some point! We've already done better than expected by not needing to break into the reserve fund of funny Scotch cash.

Hope everyone is well. Last day of the holiday tomorrow

Cheers,

Billy

 

Final Day

Evening everyone,

turns out even in our sleep we're thinking about slot play - apparently I was mumbling something about dragons in my sleep and Billy was talking about a bonus video not being good enough!

Our last day started with several woes - guns n roses tickets still up at $300 each, sponsor organisation for the visa application still not sorted (Billy does have a phone call with the lawyer scheduled for first thing Monday morning though), checked in for our flight home and we have been seated apart on the New York to Dublin leg of the journey - I know they will most likely fix it for us at the airport (they always have) but for an anxious flyer, it's something else that shouldn't be an issue - why don't they just seat people together in the first place!! And final woe - it's our final day only one way to remedy that - hit the slots!!!

Our first shot of the day was in New York New York. Billy kicked off the winnings with $10 on zodiac sisters and $5 from ring quest (a lurk - shock horror!). I got my revenge with a lurk on pelican Pete for $10! Billy got $10 from the bonus on planet loot and goldfish. I also got the bonus on goldfish and I picked $15 taking our total winnings to $60.

Next up - Krispy Kreme! The standard original glazed was purchased along with a cinnamon bun. I planned on leaving one until later, but by the time we reached the Luxor, they had both been demolished!

Mandalay Bay got our next $100. Billy lurked me again on its my party for $20 and got $40 from 5 pirates on shake your booty whilst I got $10 from line wins on shop til you drop. I lurked Billy for $5 on keepin up with the joneses and Billy finished with $10 from the Brazilian beauty bonus and $5 from two disappointing bonuses on dragons realm bringing our total winnings up to $90.

Next up was the Luxor where things got off to a slow start. I finally started the winnings with a good block of falling wilds on playboy for $15 and line wins on jeannie for $10 whilst Billy got $10 from cleopatra 2. We then put $5 each into couples ted for a bigger shot where 5 cows gave us $30 - in the spirit of fairness the winnings got halved even though it was my idea! Our winnings were completed with $10 from miss kitty by Billy who, once again, lurked me. Think I will refuse to play any of my shots on the next trip until Billy has played all his!

On the way to Excalibur I stopped off for another couple of cinnamon buns - they are amazing! These were quickly stashed away in the bag for tonight! Billy decided to have his final $200 from the bottle fund on Larry. The machine wouldn't take the $100 bills, so he decided to just have a regular $5 shot - I warned him this was a bad idea! Good news - he did get a win of $25, but those wins could have been bigger had he been max betting! He then went on to win $5 from Jewel of the dragon and $45 from the bonus on both hot hot habanero and silver sword. My only win was from ted who gave me two dividend cheques for $15 taking our winnings up to $145.

We went over to MGM next - it was heaving! However, the machines were relatively quiet. I settled myself in for my first shot on super cherry, but won $10 on my first spin from some wilds and perky pineapples. Billy decided he would lurk me for the bonus and he also got a first spin win of $10 from some tempting tangerines! I went on to win $20 from airplane and $10 from friends (still no bonus!) whilst Billy got $5 from erupting wilds. Billy went on to win $15 from queen of the wild 2 and $5 from howling wolf, whilst I lurked him on Jurassic park, got the bonus and some decent line wins for $40 taking our winnings to $115.

We decided on a break from the gambling and went to redeem our my Vegas buffet offer to use in aria only to be told it was only valid Monday - Thursday. This did mean we could use our resort credit on the Monte Carlo buffet. It's not the biggest buffet, but we did enjoy it and it meant we got to use up our resort credit!

After dinner we went for our final shot of the holiday in Monte Carlo. Billy decided on his bottle shot on colossal reels kiss. No bonus, some OK line hits saw him leave with $155. The original kiss machine was much better and more fun! I won $15 from a load of diamonds on pirate ship and we both won $5 from line wins on jade monkey, on most of my shots I had two monkeys - third refused to come out and play! Billy went on to win $5 from diamond ridge and $15 from the supersexy free spins on the hangover. My final win was $10 from money to burn.

In total we gambled $5340 and came away with $4635, which was 86.8% . $2100 of that was Billy and I got $1870. Billy would like me to remind everyone that he has won our battle twice in a row now, and I will remind him, that at the end of the day it doesn't matter, regardless of who wins it, I'll still spend it!! We ended up with 58,000 m life points, short of our 60,000 target, although Billy will get in touch with them as after we arrived in Phoenix they took 5,000 away from us!

And finally, did we or didn't we end up at guns n roses?!

We came back to the room last night adamant that we would go, how couldn't we - their first show back in Vegas and you can hear all the festivities from our room (as an aside, anyone who likes a quiet room and is staying in Monte Carlo, ask for a room which does not face onto the arena - very loud!). We saw the tickets go from $240 to $290 and back down to $265. We went from "to hell with the price we have to go" to "can we really spend $500 on 2 tickets which are in rubbish seats". Billy finally decided in the buffet that we wouldn't go. Seats were no good, prices are too high, axl rose broke his foot last night and he found out guns n roses don't come on stage until 11:30 - Billy is an old man after all! I thought I was ok with it, turns out I'd liked to have been there. Especially since we can hear all the festivities and excitement from the crowds outside. I'll just have to go and cheer myself up with Coke and my cinnamon buns!

Our journey home starts tomorrow at 10:45am via New York and Dublin before arriving in Edinburgh at 2:15pm on Sunday afternoon. I said Monte Carlo was our last shot of the holiday, but there are always the slots in the airport...

As always, it's been fabulous! Can't wait to get over start my new job and get into our new house! Highlights were definitely meeting up with lucklinda and her husband in Phoenix and Trey and Linda yesterday. Until next time.

Moyra