my seven stars event experience was a mix of good and bad, but i did encounter several service mishaps, chief among them:
* a 45 minute wait at check-in (friday, 1 PM)
* a poorly assembled welcome packet that was missing brunch coupons and a spa coupon; i heard from at least a half a dozen others staying at all four properties who had similar problems.
* a mad scene at mia's for brunch on sunday, with people yelling and screaming and demanding to be seated; the problem was those welcome packets... those that had brunch coupons missing were given new coupons with all brunch venues listed... they were told to go anywhere they liked at any time, even though they didn't have a reservation. chaos!
* a 45 minute wait for the seven stars shuttle bus from showboat to harrah's, while three "regular" TR shuttles passed us by. (the only transportation that seemed to work well was the direct service between caesars and harrah's. i never waited more than five minutes for that! if you were trying to get to/from any other property, however, there was a long wait. we ultimately shared a cab with another couple.)
* a 40 minute wait to get into the new seven stars lounge at caesars. to their credit, they were taking cell phone numbers and calling people when a spot opened up. but the servers were ill prepared to handle the crush of people and were dropping plates of food and drinks, left and right. to be fair, it's brand new (opened the day before) and the demand on a weekend like this was enormous.
* confusion about the apple gift card promo. widely promoted as running "thursday through sunday," the fine print said that the qualifying earning period actually ended at 6 AM sunday. well, folks, sunday's gaming day actually begins at 6AM, so it's wrong to advertise the promo as being available "thursday through sunday!" needless to say, my play on sunday morning did not qualify for the promo. hey, it's my own damn fault for not looking at the fine print, but even so, is it really accurate to say a gaming promotion runs thursday to sunday, when no part of sunday's gaming day is included?
* this was not a service mishap, but i just have to say... the in-room gift placement each night was a little lackluster: a very small box of high end chocolates and a plastic tub of caramel popcorn. (how do you run an event in atlantic city and NOT offer your guests salt water taffy?) nothing beats the box of chocolate that was delivered to our room at the last signature event at caesars palace in las vegas. it was an over the top sampler from the francois payard shop and was easily worth about $200 retail.
on the plus side...
* we got our preferred corner centurion ocean view room, but that had a lot to do with caesars AC being my dominant property and the good relationships i have with the VIP check-in staff.
* the "outdoor bash" at bally's was one of the finest parties of this type i've ever been to. lobster tail, lobster roll, oysters, mahi mahi tacos, ginormous shrimp, salads, desserts, free flowing champagne (moet) and a live band (along with a marginal celebrity appearance). curiously, this event was not that well attended... i never saw more than two hundred people there.
* they're learning... they ditched the costly and unnecessary metal portfolios that contained the welcome packets at the last seven stars event in favor of simple printed folders.
* while not really relevant to the seven sig event experience, we enjoyed our time at the beach very much (complimentary umbrellas and chairs) and the weather was unbelievably cooperative.
i've been to a few of these now, and all-in-all, i really do think AC does it better than most... much better than vegas, where the emphasis is almost always exclusively on gaming. in AC, there were two shows, three parties, a slot or golf tournament, a spa treatment, shopping dollars and food coupons... and the beach... plenty to keep you actively engaged in non-gaming pursuits.
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "vp_wiz" <harry.porter@...> wrote:
> * My bottom line take: Even factoring your more sour experience, given the fine time we had with the sponsored events during our stay, I'd be hard pressed to rate the overall trip any worse than a B+. I have to anticipate most fared better than you, and can indeed assign Harrah's/CE a "A" of some magnitude for the weekend.
