Hi, I thought I would post a few helpful hints for you. So many of us missed out on knowing all we needed to know to enjoy this site while we were still on our trial gold days, so I made these up to help you get fully acclimated faster.

How to Accept and Invite Friends

On your home page, click the "friends" link in the left side bar. Inside this page, below your current friends’ list, click "read application" on each new applicant and then click "accept". If no one sent you an invite, go back into Tropicana chat and yell, kick, scream, cry until we see you. lol You will find friendly people here. However, chat moves quickly at times or people may be on auto-spin and away from their computers, so don't hesitate to keep posting until someone sees you. Or you can do the inviting by right clicking with your mouse on a person's name in chat and then left clicking the "invite as friend" in the box that opens. Don't hesitate to ask questions for there are lots of people who already know the answer and can help you out.

Daily Scratch Cards

Also on your home page you will see a link called "scratch cards". If there is a number by the link, that means you have some to do. Each day at 5pm (CST) you will see new scratch cards posted for you to do. The zodiac scratch is where you will need those friends. You must do these each day or lose them. Many spigos to be won with these fun cards. 

Miss-Loaded Scratch Cards:

To reduce miss-loads for the scratch cards, put a good 30 seconds between closing one and opening another. Also to reduce miss-loads, scroll your main page to where those flash ads are not showing before clicking on a card to load.

What To Do With A Miss-Loaded Scratch Card, So As Not to Lose the Opportunity to Use It:

First, DO NOT CLOSE a miss-loaded scratch card down. This action will lose your chance completely.

Let it load as far as it will load. Click on your main screen to bring the main screen to the foreground. Then click the scratch card again to bring the scratch card to the foreground. You still will not have a coin to scratch with, but pretend you do by holding down your left mouse button and scratch the area you would scratch if you saw a coin. You can hear the pay-out even if you don't see the scratching you have done as soon as you lift up on the left mouse button. To see what you scratched, click on your main screen to bring your main screen to the foreground and then click on the game board to bring the game to the foreground and you will see where you scratched. This is good for all scratch games except the zodiac.

Now the zodiac:

When the zodiac miss-loads, let it load as far as it will load. You won't have interaction capabilities to pick your friend. Click on your main screen to bring the main screen to the foreground; then, click on the zodiac game board to bring the zodiac to the foreground. You will see that there is not a scratch card there any more, but instead you will see a box showing the main screen. Again, DO NOT CLOSE! With your mouse, move the card to the side a bit so you can click on the little green arrow again for the zodiac scratch card. Now it will load correctly.


Daily Spins and How to Buy Super Jackpot Drawing Tickets with Your Spigos

Last, at the top of your home page, click the green banner. This takes you to where you purchase super jackpot drawing tickets with your spigos. Of course, always keep enough spigos to play with. At the bottom of the page is a little green arrow that will bring up a spin machine and allow you to spin 3 of your tickets each day; this gives you chances to win the super jackpot before there is a drawing.

Six helpful tips on how to get thru the Maze in the Tropicana:

1) Know that Nemo starts to swim as soon as you click on the first "?" tile. Before clicking anywhere, take time to note where your exit tile is on the right side of the maze. Also note which shape tile is in the wait area by the blue triangles. (A tile in the wait area will replace an open tile you click on, so you may be able to use the one in the wait area right away. Any time you click on an open tile, it moves to the wait area and the tile currently in that wait area moves to where you just clicked.)

2) Note which shape of tile you will need immediately after Nemo's entrance tile. Start clicking the "?" tiles open from Nemo’s entrance tile in the direction of the exit tile. As soon as you see the tile shape you need for Nemo's immediate path, click on it, then click where you want it to be. (If the one in your wait area will fit, then immediately click where you want it to be.)

3) Sharks cannot be moved so if you see one, you have to plan your path around him. The best way to find out where the path can go is to click above and below, as well as left and right, the three tiles near any shark to make sure there is not a cluster of sharks. Sometimes, a whole column of sharks will occur and leave only one tile path for you to get through.

4) Be sure to find the key tile to include in your path. There are other goodies such as free spins and spigos to incorporate into the path too but the key tile is the main tile you want to include in your path. You can replace any tile already in your path with a goodie tile as long as Nemo hasn't gotten through that part of the path yet.

5) I find that the twists and turns in the path slow Nemo down a bit so I try to incorporate curved tiles as much as possible so I can get ahead of Nemo and have more time to complete his path and search for the key tile as well as those special tiles to incorporate into the path. (The directions say that the tiles with the chevrons are supposed to make Nemo swim faster, so I try to avoid using them unless my path is completed. I have tried to use them before and after multi-exit tiles to see if they make Nemo take a specific exit from a multi-exit tile but I don’t see where that works either.)

6) If you are certain you are done building your path and you are merely waiting for Nemo to get thru it, you can click on the blue diamonds to make Nemo swim faster.

Remember that knowing how it works is just the beginning. Have patience with yourself as you develop the manual and mental dexterity that will come with practice.

Also Hans was nice enough to create a video for you on youtube: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSj65V5VSdE

Also here is another that I really like.  You can see a bit of panic but in the end the player makes a perfect score.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxnugwo-MhE&NR

Good luck to you and I hope this helps. - Bree

Chicken'n'Dumplings

I never wrote this down before so do realize that there are different variations you too can make.

I use a package of chicken thighs and a package of chicken breasts. Place the chicken in a large pot - and I do mean large because I make enough to freeze for a short future of quick microwave fixes in one helping containers.

Fill a normal large pot with cold water and pour into the real large cook pot. Add in 4 sticks of margarine. I tried real butter and it just does not do a thick white broth as well. Put the chicken in the pot, season the water with some Italian spices and Red pepper, use to your own taste. We don't use salt and black pepper on anything in this house, so season as you think you would like it. Put lid on the pot, set on high and when it starts to boil, adjust the heat to where it will still boil but not boil over with the lid on the pot. I usually slow cook mine so I set it between low and medium right off the bat. The chicken is done when it falls off the bones when you try to lift a piece out. When the chicken is done, remove it with a large holed spoon so you can get all the bones, bristles, & skin from the broth. Adjust heat to where the broth boils without the lid on it when you have your dumplings made and ready to drop into the broth. Drop the dumplings carefully so you do not splatter yourself, but they need to be added one at a time as you stir. The burner should be as low as possible and still boil because you do not want your dumplings to stick on the bottom and burn. This is a good hubby and wife quality time, with one stirring and the other adding the new dumplings. Once they begin to cook, they won't stick together as easily.

While that chicken is cooking, you can pull up a TV and chair, a plate for flour, a plate for biscuits, a plate for your dumplings. You are going to need a vaccuum cleaner handy when you are done because flour seems to be everywhere. The last time I made them, I stuck my new ipod in my ears and bebopped to the oldies.  lol

I get those 4 thin packs of Pilsbury biscuits and use 8 of those tubes, but this is not necessary. I like the buttermilk biscuits the best but have used the plain ones too. I don't think anyone except for me can tell the difference. The broth does thicken so just 4 tubes of biscuits is really enough. We just happen to like the dumplings. You can mix some Italian spice and red pepper in your flour if you like spicey but I just spice the broth as it cooks and it seems to be enough for us.

Take each biscuit, pinch it into 6 dumplings for small dumplings or 4 for larger. Flatten each dumpling, flour it generously (you don't want them to stick together on you) and place in your plate of collected dumplings. If you use 8 tubes of biscuits be sure you have a platter for the dumplings. There are a lot of them.

After you have stirred the dumplings into the broth and the stirring is no longer necessary to keep them apart, put your burner on low and put on the lid to the pot. I usually keep my temp between warm and medium while the dumplings are cooking and stir about every 5 minutes to make sure they are not sticking to each other or the bottom of the pot. If they are sticking to the bottom of the pot, your burner is too high.

By the time you have the dumplings on their way to cooking, your chicken should be cool to the touch. Remove the meat, dispose of the bones, skin, and bristles. Break the meat into bite size pieces and add them to the dumplings. From this point on the dumblings and chicken just need to warm, low cook until the dumplings are no longer floating and the taste of one does not taste like dough. I keep mine on warm after I add the chicken back in and with the lid on the pot, it does a slow cook that seems to do well not to stick the dumplings to the bottom of the pot.

It is pretty much an all day process so pick a rainy day when you know you won't be going anywhere. Play Tropicana on auto and talk to all your good friends. Find a good movie to watch while you do your dumpling creating because it is one tedious and boring job. But the results are awesome. And regardless of how fabulous they are the first day, they are even better warmed up in the near future.

GL2U
See You in the Trop
Bree