U June 2012 Treasure Island & THE hotel

Post date: Feb 18, 2010 5:03:43 AM

Wednesday

Flight out of Chicago sucks as usual. Took a 1/2 day off of work on Wed June 13th. Plane left on time at 3:30PM. The players Mr & Mrs Grid. My kid brother & his girlfriend. First group vacation all together and kid brothers gal hasn't been to Vegas in over 5 years. So plenty of stuff to see & explore for the gang this trip. I pretty much put this trip together since I was only 10,000 tier credits away from Platinum with Mlife my last trip in April. Hitting that in 2 days should be a piece of cake. Plus I like the idea of being Double Platinum (Total Rewards & Mlife), makes me feel like Quincy Jones.

Get into town around 6:00PM. Team Grid checks into Treasure Island on the wife's comp. 2 nights free and $40.00 in free play. They always throw in some horseshit offers about free food, but they are always buy one get one free at Kahunaville which seriously sucks hard so we never use it. The room is the same as always. Smaller but clean & modern. We booked 1 King bed, but by 6:00 on a week day they were all gone.

The view was OK though.

Hit the casino hard, I have to make up for lost time, it is late in the day and all. $100.00 here, nothing. $100.00 there nothing. Wife runs her $40.00 in free play on a China Shores game AND! Nothing! Turns it into $10.00 in real money. I usually do well at TI, but my last 2 stays were just brutal. Its not even 8:00 PM and I dumped almost $400.00 here. So we head over to KFC in the fashion show mall and grab some dinner (I'm a fancy fellow like that, nothing but the best!) and decide to head over to Wynn. And Wynn I did! As soon as we walked in I played some Mega Bucks. I just knew I was going to hit for that $13.5 Million. And wouldn't you know it! The fireworks started going off, and I knew I just hit it big!

That's it? Blue 7 X2 X5 only gets me $266.00?

Well I'll take it! Feeling ballsey now, I head over to a $1.00 Pinball game. Lose $40, and get Pinball for $60.00. Head over to the .25 version (the Pinball at Wynn is, hands down, the best in town) and play up and down on a $20.00 for 30 minutes hitting the bonus a bunch of times. By the time I'm done I now have all my money back. Mrs. Grid is slow playing it and holding her own. I've been playing this game called Diamond Queen a lot lately.

The bonus rounds have a huge hit potential to them. You get 3 spins, and they can retrigger. 1st spin 2nd reel wild, 2nd spin 2nd & 3rd wild, 3rd spin 2nd, 3rd & 4th are wild. I think I'm playing a penny version for $1.00 but it turns out I'm on a nickle machine and I blow $30.00 in a blink. Noticing my folly I drop down for 20 lines X 5 to 20 line X 1 and 2 spins in I get the farking bonus game. In my face! Oh well, its still pretty solid, nearly $200.00

Head back to TI and call it a night around midnight. Wife is at even, and I'm up over $100.00.

Thursday

Wake up insanely early at like 6:00AM and wait for everyone to wake up. McDonalds breakfast and meet up with the kids. We all decide we are just going to gamble at CET properties today. We gave TI enough money last night and the kids are staying for free at Harrahs so we give CET some love. We go through the Forum Shops for the girls and end up in the casino at Caesars Palace. My kid brother plays these Unicorn games incisively. I've seen him win on them before and I figure why not play next to him on one. Just a couple spins in lands me this.

Not bad for a sissy game, but I still wont stoop to playing Sex in the City with him. Take my money and slowly start to piss it away, as it seems everyone in the group is doing. I do leave up from CP and walking over to Planet Ho I see this shrine in front of Caesars. Kinda cool, I give him a penny and hope for some good luck. I've been coming here for over 10 years and I never noticed it before.

The girls do the mall in Planet Ho, while we tag along behind them. Unlike the Forum Shops, there are actually a lot of shopable stores in here for the average budget. Grab some eats from Earl of Sandwich, good as always, and head over to Paris. Now I love Paris. I love themes and we had our wedding reception in the Eiffel Tower Restaurant.

But I never really win there. Which is a shame since I always want to play there more, I just run out of money. Not this time! Kid brother is playing his Unicorn game, so I sit down at one of my favorites Bier Haus! Hit the free games, 35 of them in all, almost right away with 3 locked wilds.

After all was said and done, Hello $250.00!

We head over to the Venetian to pick up Phantom of the Opera tickets. Buy the mezzanine and get the Gold Circle seats for free. $114 each. Not great, but not bad. I'm pretty sure when we saw this here 3 years ago it was only $150.00 for the 2 of us in the same seats. But still, I like Phantom and so does 75% of our group so we buy them. The V was doing some Italian Carnival thing, but we were either too late to see it, or too lazy to actually check it out.

Mr & Mrs Grid. I know I look like a fuck wearing shorts, escpecially since she got all dressed up. But i travel light! That means one pair of britches only. And if i shit in them (like I almost did at El Sugendo Sol's) I'll just buy a new pair.

And my brother with his "stuff".

Phantom was actually pretty disappointing. 1st we get yelled at for taking pictures in the theater 30 minutes before it starts

My wife liked it, but she just likes being out of the house. I've seen it a few times before and the cast this day had to have been under studies. Christine was OK, but she could not hit the high notes at all. Raoul was excellent as was Carlotta. But the Phantom, who you would think was a pretty big part of the show. After all it was his Opera. Sucked. I mean really bad.

I know Michael Crawford, and you Sir are no Michael Crawford! I have the soundtrack at home, and I've been listening to it every day to and from work in my Jeep. I know this play like the back of my sack. Not only was the Phantom muffled and slurred when he sang, he couldn’t really carry a tune. Plus he mixed up the order of some words or paused and spaced out others when he really shouldn’t have. I guess he was trying to make the part his own. Yeah I'm now a Phantom Snob!

The production is still top notch, the orchestra fantastic and the theater magical. But this shitty Phantom ruined it for me. He sounded better when (spoiler alert) she took his mask off him but by then it was too late. A couple more pictures on the way out. In your fat faces Photo-Nazis!

And I piss away some money at night back at Stupid TI. Still I'm up over $200.00 for the trip and Mrs. Grid is still at even. Cause she is smart enough to just make me play on her card so she doesn’t have to Friday Check out of Treasure Island and into THE hotel on my comp. I don't know why they put so much emphasis on the THE but I like it.

Friday & Saturday night free with a $50.00 in free play chaser. We swing by Mirage to get me some Mlife points on the way out of TI. I play for 30 mins, and we both kept hitting on this stupid penny game. Something lightening reels with a .75 max bet. It seemed to be paying well and we always cashed up on it.

I go to check in at the players club booth to see if I hit my 200,000 tier credits yet, or at least see how close I was. He zips my card and says "You have 150,000 points". So after I beat him senselessly with his own shoe, which I also defecated in when I was done, I was shown the door by security. Well, at least that's what was going on it my head when he said I was 50K shy and not 20K shy like I thought.

Turns out when I was here last 4th of July, I must have gotten into town on June 30th and played. Its not exactly 1 year from your last play, your tier credits expire the month of your last play. He even showed me the computer screen that says so, it also showed when my next batch of points would drop off. September 2012 I would lose another 50K. Not Sept 18th or anything like that. Just Sept, as soon as it comes around away go another batch. I hate that I dont understand this Mlife shit. Its not like I'm an idiot.

They just always seem so cryptic about what you get and how you get it. So now the pressure is on. Had I known this I would have been playing MGM casino for the past 2 days. I mean without being Platinum I'd have to stand in the taxi lines with all the commoners! So I wipe my sad face off and head down to THE hotel. I've stayed here before and I love it. THE Separate shitter when you 1st walk in

THE living room with a wet bar, desk, couch big ol TV

Which leads to THE bedroom. Yes I asked for 1 King, which seems to be as rare as a disease free transvestite in Vegas. Trust me I have looked! No big deal. One for sleeping and one for fucking...

And lastly THE bathroom. This is actually the 2nd suite we got here today. The 1st one they stuck us with was a handicapped room. The check in girl said the only difference a couple of bars around the toilet.

Now I have always wanted to do some dips while I'm hanging a shit. After all, that's a lot of down time after a buffet. So we took it. Only to find out its a plastic roll in shower, with a plastic seat in it. Next to that was a plastic tub with a plastic seat in it. No thank you. So she switches us pretty fast. THE new, non-dipable bathroom

We head down and I convert my $50.00 into $30.00 cash on a Cash Wizard game. We meet up with the kids at Bellagio and we all gamble MGM's today. Bellagio is always sexy.

No one wins here and on our way walking out I see some new game (new to me anyway) called Jungle VIP. I play 3 kings a lot, and its the same concept. 3 batches of free games appear on the top. Sometimes they are on fire, meaning they are most likely to hit soon. If one is normally on 50 free games, but now its at 80 and flames are shooting out of it, Holly Shit I'm playing it! I actually hit for a ton of free games on 3 Kings here at Bellagio my last trip, so I play its counter part Jungle VIP while my kid brother plays Kings. We have a race to see who gets the free games 1st. 3 spins in I do. 58 free games at $1.25 max bet

So that gets me back all the money I dumped here so far and I'm back to up for the trip.

We head over to Aria and some jerk was sitting on their 3 Kings. And man, was that one on Fire! I watched this poor sucker stick in about 6 $20.00's trying to land the free games. He finally got pissed and walked away. I think he went to the ATM to get more money for it. After all it was on fire! I was playing another Jungle VIP now, since I assume I will always win money on it. So I hand the wife a $20.00 and tell her to play this guys 3 Kings before he came back. 3 spins in she gets 39 free games. The poor sucker did come back with a fistful of cash. But once he saw Mrs Grid kicking the shit out of his machine he left in disgust. Not the best bonus on it, but solid. Cash out another $100.00 bill.

Still chasing Platinum we all gamble late into the night. Wife looses about a hundo. The kids lose their money for the day and the jerks insist on gambling on their own cards. And I finally end it down $300.00 for the trip. But 20,000 points closer to the 200,000 I need!

Saturday

Flight leaves at 1:00AM Sunday morning. Almost a waste to have this awesome room comped and not be able to sleep in these insanely comfortable beds for the night. Hands down the best pillows I have ever placed my giant head on. We even looked into buying them, but they wanted $150.00 a pop. So I thought of swiping one and blaming the maid, but it wouldnt fit in my carry on so I left it alone. Now I'm no dummy. I know I get 10 tier credits with every $2.00 of coin in on slots. If I play video poker or "specialty" games its $10.00 for 10 TC's.

Which I would never be able to land the last 30K I need to level up. So I avoided all themed and progressive games and I always checked to make sure I was getting full value. But it turns out MGM has their heads so far up their asses with this rip-off specialty game shit they cant even keep up with the rouse. Cash Wizard is a specialty at MGM and Mandalay Bay, but not at NY NY! Ghost Busters is at Bellagio but not a Luxor! I learned by trial and error and watching others play. So if you like a game, dont be scared off do to the Rip off. Play $2.00 and see what happens.

I was pleasantly surprised. Back to the report. Grab a bite to eat in Luxors new food court and meet up with the kids. Hands down the best chicken strips any of us have ever had. The name might be misleading. Its called "Chicken Tender Company" instead of "The worlds Greatest Fucking Tenders You will Ever Eat!" But I guess its bad marketing to call it that. Get to gambling. I hit this on some Dragon Diamond Game at Luxor. Free games get you magic wilds that appear and change a junk screen to a good one.

When all is said and done I'm up over $100.00

We walk through Excalibur and I find my Bier Haus and hit this pretty fast. Too bad I was only betting a buck. Sometimes I'm a pussy like that.

We finally get down to Aria and I'm only 10,000 points away. So I sit on a 5 line quarter machine for a long time. Not sure the name of it, something with Red Sevens, but it has a free games bonus feature, and no super high top awards so it pays fair and steady. I was doing good at $0.25 per line X 5 so I switch the machine to $0.50 per line and start max betting. My credit meter is going up and down for almost an hour.

I end up losing my $100.00 but I now have 202,000 Tier Credits and I'm platinum. I meet up with the gang, they left me 30 minutes ago to gamble at NY NY and we pack it in with a few hours to spare. All told the wife lost $300.00 for the trip. I lost $800.00 and the kids both crapped out. But everyone had fun. And they can all say they know a gambler that’s Double Platinum. Just like Quincy Jones! And that sweet sweet walk past all the sucker club kids waiting for a cab, and their pissed off faces as I skipped the line to get the next cab up. Made it all worthwhile.

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