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Only a hour flight away from Las Vegas we visit frequently, sometimes once a month. I'll be sharing our trip reports, tips on making the most of your stay in Vegas, reviews of restaurants and shows we have seen, along with my thoughts related to our favorite place to get away from it all.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

WMS Slot Studio!

I arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday, April 11th for the Slot Machine Forum's annual Meet which would be on Thursday the 12th. Thanks to Shamus the moderator of the Player's Life Forum which is all about WMS slots, both old and new, the big event for tonight was a visit to the WMS slot studio to see their new slots and participate in a focus study.
http://www.playerslife.com/
My friend Slotspert was kind enough to give Boots, Brian and I a ride to WMS Studios and that's us getting ready to enter. I think there might have been a total of 25 to 30 of us visiting WMS tonight.
After getting checked in at the front desk, signing a form and having our photo taken for our name tag we started to meet some of the WMS developer's who were on hand to demonstrate their new slots and answer questions. What a great group of guys they were, very friendly and welcoming and I felt they were happy to have us there. Above one of the WMS developer's was kind enough to take a photo of Brian and I attacking each other with some of the weapons from the new CLUE slot.
After exiting the reception area we entered the first section of the slot display area which also had snacks and beverages set up for us.
Half of us entered the slot showroom while the other half went into a conference area for the focus study.  Naturally I gravitated first to the slot showroom.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Free Shots, Let's Go, or Teresa's 40th Birthday Party!

Before this weekend I hadn't seen Teresa (Tbonz) since last November when we were having a girl's night out in Vegas celebrating Lantana's birthday which was just a fabulous night out with a terrific group of ladies! Before we said goodbye that trip Teresa mentioned her birthday party in March but I didn't think I could make it because I was already committed to a big Slot Machine Forum Meet in April, so I tried to put it out of my mind. Temptation arrives in February as Teresa and other Vegas friends who are going in March to celebrate her birthday are deep in plans for three or more days of riotous activities that I can't resist sharing with such a fun group of people, so I cave and book a flight and arrange to stay at Bellagio.
My plane had a short delay out of San Jose so I ate breakfast at Ruby Tuesday's and had one of their egg  quesadillas which was tasty and reasonably priced for airport food. After eating and while waiting for the announcement to board I made the cutest new friend!
Once we took off the flight was fine except for having every seat full.  On arrival in Las Vegas I found my Bellagio limo driver at the foot of the stairs and we only had to wait a few minutes for my luggage. At this point the trip starts out great as once we arrived at Bellagio there's a bellman waiting for me and addressing me by name who says he will be staying with me instead of taking my luggage away. Great, this is a first as normally even when I use VIP check in the bellman doesn't stay with me to escort me to my room.
VIP check in goes smoothly, they have my room ready early with the view of the fountains I requested and they give me a white key card that says VIP on it. I'm assuming for those who don't have a M-life card of gold level or higher then the VIP card key serves as a line pass at some of the restaurants.
Bellman escorts me to my room, gets ice and departs and I'm marveling at how smooth that went and that service is much better then when I was here for the one night in January. Unfortunately this was the last time during the trip I was to have VIP Services go smoothly, but more on that at the end of the trip report. 

The room was again one of their renovated rooms with the flat screen TV's, but this time I liked the wall paper pattern and color more then the green one in January.
Upon arrival I had sent a text to a couple friends Cassley, and Bhambound, and after unpacking and going downstairs I ran into Bhambound immediately and it didn't take us long to find Cassley and Yourstarla who were playing VP. After chatting for a few minutes I caught up with some of what I missed the night before when there had been a cupcake party courtesy of Cassley and Yourstarla and also a Meet at Bellagio's Lily Bar and Lounge (formally Caramel Lounge). It was then time to see if my new lucky charm, my glitter hello kitty was good luck and I went off to play the $5 Top Dollar with Cassley cheering me on, while Yourstarla continued to play VP and Bhambound looked for her own lucky slot . I quickly got a bonus and won $300. I then went to another Top Dollar slot and got another quick bonus for $225.0 so I'm thinking wow, kitty is lucky!
Well, it must have been Cassley who was my lucky charm because I left her watching Bhambound gambling and I went off to play the $5 Pink Diamond slot and then more Top Dollar and quickly lost my  winnings and more. Meeting back up with Cassley and Bhambound we walked back to the penny slots and joined up with Yourstarla and started playing various slots like Cash Wizard and others. 

Catching a glimpse of $1 Spin and Win I went over and sat down next to a man who glanced over and then did a double take and asked what's your name? It's Diana I replied which immediately caused the reaction of, "I read your blog all the time and follow you on Twitter".  It's always so much fun for me to have a unexpected meet with one of you who reads these trip reports and it was lovely to hear that some of my tips in my trip reports had helped him. Of course as Gregg (Maximus56k on the slot machine forum board) is telling me about the four hand pays he had so far at Bellagio, I'm thinking perhaps he should be giving me the gambling tips! Gregg it was great meeting you and your uncle! Congrats on making NOIR with M-Life this past trip and bigger congrats on all your wins. Hope to see you again in Vegas and next time you stop by the Slot Machine Forum say hi.