Just returned home from our first trip of the year to Tropicana AC. I usually post details of our trips on another travel forum but decided to post here and add more detail about my gaming experience rather than it being more focused on destination details.

I'm not sure if this forum is appropriate for trip reports so if there is a better place for such discussions I can post somewhere else or return to posting my trip reports on the other site. I should also add that I do these not just to inform or entertain others, but also as a way to document my trips for my own personal reference later on. This may have some deatil I will not post future trip report because this is a bit of an introduction.

Atlantic city is about a 2.5 hr drive from our home and we arrived at Tropicana on Saturday 2/4 at around 4PM ET. Valet was closed (?) so we had to self park. Once inside we found that all of the self check-in kiosks were down. The line at the check-in desk was unusually long for this time of year. However, we secured Diamond status late last year and there was practically no wait in the Diamond members line. We usually get comped a "deluxe" or better room. We were given the same room as our last stay this trip which was the exact type of room we booked online. We were offered an upgrade to a suite but there was an additional charge so we refused the offer. There have been a couple of times the room we received were pushing the limits of what we booked.

After getting settled into our room we hit the casino floor. I usually hit the more volatile machines first while I still have a my full bankroll. Taking some of the advice I've learned here I decided to switch that up and hit triple stars ($1) first. Ended up hitting blue 7's with a triple star on my first hundred and cashed out about $700 in that first session. I found my wife on her favorite machine (coyote moon) which happens to be next to one of my (guilty) favorites (sea monkeys). I swore I wasn't going to play sea monkeys this trip unless it was with house money . I sat next to her and played a little sea monkeys (nickle). I eventually got the bonus and won exactly zero credits. After a couple of backup spins I was off to double diamond ($1). I tried to get my wife to join me but she was doing well on her machine.

I did not have luck playing double diamonds last trip. It was slow going at first this trip too but eventually I hit 7 with 2 double diamonds for just under 1k. I ended up cashing out a ticket totaling about $1600 (including previous winnings). I met up with my wife and cashed out my ticket. I gave her what is the equivalent of my usual total bankroll for a trip to AC. Keep in mind I only spent $100 of my bankroll at this point and still had a few hundred in wins in cash added to my funds. I decided to play volcanic rock fire twin (penny), which always caught my eye and maybe played once or twice. It wasn't long before I hit almost $400 on a bonus. I gave my wife some money since I was doing so well and at this point her luck had turned and she was down.

I moved on to double stampede deluxe (penny). It was at this point my host tracked me down. We missed out on our $100 diamond celebration dinner reward comp for earning diamond status and she promised us she would make sure we could use the credit on our next trip even though it had expired. She wanted to know where we planned on using it and when so she could make sure the credit was waiting for us to use. I also confirmed with her that the 5x rewards credits benfit is good until the end of the year at all AC Caesars properties. I bounced around for awhile playing random machines, most of which I never played, heard of or seen before.

I should note that Tropicana is currently renovating their casino floor About a 1/4 of the their floor was closed off. It appears they are changing from rows of machines to carousels. We don't normally stay on Saturday's because it tends to be very busy but being the off season we decided to give it a try. It was busy but not as crowded as it can get in the summer.

We eventually made our way to the VP bar (10 North) to play and have some drinks before dinner. Besides a few hands of VP we mostly play the slots (nickles), bouncing around between the 4 games available on the machines (double bucks, Texas tea, super 8 race & black rhino). After a couple of drinks we head to dinner at Ossu. As promised our host made sure our $100 credit was there and waiting for us.

After dinner we played some mega wheel (penny) together and just bounced around after that (machines I recall playing are some old skool goldfish and mermaids). It was a loosing session with no notable wins. It was getting late and the younger club crowd was starting to dominate the casino, so my wife decided to retire to the room for the night. I joined her a little while latter with that day's bankroll still intact (plus what I had stashed away earlier).

As usual, we slept in and relaxed in the room the next morning. We headed out around noon and walked the casino floor since we noticed a lot had changed since our last visit. We also scoped out the high limit room in search of pinball and top dollar, which I never noticed on the main casino floor. They had lots of top dollar but only one pinball machine. After our walk-through I tried triple stars again but no luck. We grabbed a light lunch at Chickie's & Pete's before heading out to Caesars for a change of scenery. We haven't been there in over a year so wanted to see some of the renovations they made, like adding Hell's Kitchen restaurant.

We have trouble "getting our groove on" there as far as gaming is concerned. We both vape (e-cigs), being former smokers, and always find ourselves in non-smoking sections. I assume if we spent more time playing there we would know our way around better. Also because we don't know our way around there very well, we tend to stick close by to each other. The wife decided to play some VP, so I joined her. I decided to venture out a little to find a slot because I just wasn't enjoying VP. I ended up playing dancing drums (penny), which I normally avoid. I figured I had a decent bankroll to play with, so why not. Well, as usual it ate my shorts (my shirt too)! With the last of the bankroll I brought with me I played some old skool filthy stinking rich (penny). I held my own for awhile but eventually blew my Caesars budget.

Both of, us after not being there all that long, decided to head to more familiar surroundings back at Trop. I replenished my bankroll with my remaining budget I had brought with me. Before hitting the casino floor we decide to have a couple of drinks at firewater saloon which is usually quiet, it was on this day too. After a couple of drinks I joined the wife for another round of coyote moon and sea monkeys (nickle). I held my own for awhile before hitting a bonus round (with one diamond pick) for a little over $500. Unfortunately not long after that I realized I had switched from hitting the "repeat bet" button to "max bet" (not the first time I've done this on older machines where the two buttons are next to each other). I blew several hundred of my credits before I realized my mistake. I was bit bummed about this because I wanted to play pinball in the high limit room later on but my budget was slowing shrinking. I decided to play some cartoon-ish playboy themed machine (not sure of name/version). I had luck on it one other trip but it rebooted during a bonus round during one particularly long session in the past (it came back up just fine), I no longer play it for long out of fear of a malfunction. Well, within my first few spins I hit just under $400 and recouped what I mistakenly put into sea monkeys, and a little more.

From there I did another round of triple stars and double diamond with no success. These both are great games but I just can't spend a long time at them unless I'm having a decent amount of hits. When you're not winning they just get boring. That said, I should play them more because I usually do better in the end then other more exciting volatile games.

At this point all I have is what's left of my initial bankroll of cash. We decide to head to Tony's Baltimore Grill which is a classic Italian (spaghetti house) joint just outside of Trop that is reminiscent of something you would see in sopranos. It's very reasonable and they have good food too. As usual we opt for their pub (pizza) pie. When we return to Trop the wife decides to head to 10 North (VP bar) for some slow rolling and drinks. I decide I better play pinball before I don't have the bankroll.

I head to the high limit room and seek out the pinball game (one $5 machine). It's open and I slip in a hundred. I'm down to my last few credits and then get the bonus. I win $500 and cash out to join the wife to brag about my pinball exploits. She rarely comes out ahead at the casino and I keep telling her it's because she keeps playing the games. All trip I kept trying to convince her to switch things up.

Eventually I talk her into playing some triple stars ($1) by offering to bankroll her the first $100. I tell her to play the machine I've had no luck on all trip, hoping she would have better luck. I laugh at her because she acts like she's playing a high limit machine even though she's not betting much more, if not less, then she does on other machines. It eats her hundred with nothing but a few cherry wins, She's very doubtful at this point and I slip another hundred in the machine for her. This time she gets some decent wins and it keeps her in the game. She ends up hitting a decent win and goes up a little over $200. At this point she doesn't know what to do and she thinks she should retire for the night with some cash in her pocket. I tell her that's probably a good idea if she's not "feeling it". She decides to give coyote moon one last shot. I move on to some "oddball" 5 reel I thought my wife was playing earlier.

A little while later she comes back with a $50 ticket and offers to give it to me because she was done for the night. I refuse and tell her to take it home. The bad news was that she was only coming home with $50. The good news is she was slightly under her budget (although that's because I bankrolled her several hundred but she's done that for me before when the tides were turned).

I ask her about the game I was playing and if she had any luck. I wasn't doing well at all. She said she never played the game and that she sometimes plays the game next to it. She goes to the room and I keep at it. Long story short, just as I was on my last credits in the machine and ready to call it a trip, I hit the bonus (5 diamonds). It looked like hitting the bonus payed out about $9 to me. The bonus game itself paid less the $100. But then next thing I know I realized it wasn't $9 for for hitting the bonus but it was actually $900!

Now if you think this is the end of this trip report, think again. To spare you and me the agony, I will keep my final hours of my trip brief. Frankly I have no other choice. Felling invincible I head to the high limit room for some top dollar ($25) and lose about $500 in minutes. At this point I just figure you only live once (YOLO!). I'm not going home a loser no matter what. I've racked up a good amount in rewards credits and I'm near securing my diamond status for another year. So, yeah, lets play some filthy stinking rich (penny) at max bet! How did it end? Well, it was fun. I played for quite awhile but eventually lost all of the credits on my ticket.

I returned to the room only slightly dejected. I still had a couple of hundred in cash left of my bankroll, plus what I had stashed away the first day of the trip. I had nearly $300 in rewards credits and when all is said and done I should reach diamond status, or very close to it (after all bonus tier credits are awarded for my last day of play). All in all, barring what could have been, it was an extremely rewarding and entertaining trip even though I didn't come home the winner I could have.