Caesars is busy taking what should be a great marketing strategy in giving its best players (7 star tiers) great free events, and turning them into a mess.
This past week's New England cruise which had about 550 free cruisers (probably over 200 free cabins) is an example. First came the registration in Atlantic City for many of the people. (Some people flew directly to NYC for cruise). A huge line formed at 4:30 pm and it took over an hour for the final people to register. The party went well though with lots of free good food and a good band. Then they gave away a measly 10 prizes for 550 people of some free play and some people got a notebook computer.
The next day the AC people went by bus to the cruise terminal in NYC. Confusion began at Harrahs when no Caesar people directed traffic onto the buses and some people milled around trying to figure out which bus to get on. Some luggage got put onto a separate luggage truck, causing more confusion. A few buses were wheelchair accessible but since no central person was directing things, there was more delay and confusion getting on the buses if you had a scooter or wheelchair.
Finally the buses took off, but one had to go back to Harrahs because the Caesars representatives Ashley and Lauren (more about these incompetent people in another post I will do later) had missed the buses! All of us guests were to told to arrive no later than 7:30 a.m, but these idiots showed up about 9:15 apparently.
On arrival in NYC 2 of the buses made it into the terminal, but for unknown reasons to the rest of us on buses (other than the traffic at the terminal was terrific and terrible), the rest of the 6 or so Caesars buses pulled in across the street and several blocks away from the pier, dumping all of us guests and our luggage out onto the sidewalk, where we had to walk across the street and anywhere from 2-6 or maybe more blocks (depending on bus) pulling our luggage to get to the pier. Some folks reported it took them hours to walk, some folks managed to flag a porter from the pier side to help take luggage. All in all a mess and hard for many older folks and handicapped folks to drag luggage to the correct pier on the busy street.
But this was a non-event compared to the return to the pier in NYC at end of the cruise. Caesars didn't supply any buses for those people flying directly out of NYC, so they were on their own. A huge downpour greeted us as we exited the terminal. I was in a scooter and was going to LaGuardia, so we planned to take a taxi. Those doing the taxi exit had to cross the street in the pouring rain, stand on the sidewalk in a gigantic taxi cab line with no roof or awning above our heads, and not very many taxis coming. Fortunately for me one guy was directing the taxi loading and he saw me in my scooter and directed us to take a taxi near the front of the line, so we only got soaked and the scooter didn't get killed. For the hundred or more people behind us they must have had to wait for an hour out in the rain getting drowned in the downpour.
According to my sister, the "lucky" people going back to Atlantic City on the Caesars buses came out of the ship to be directed to a small area in the front of the terminal under a slight roof, but where the rain still sprayed them. Then they waited for the buses to arrive and waited and waited and WAITED for over 2 hours! They were packed into a small area with their suitcases, no way to even leave to go to the bathroom because of the crowd. No snacks, no water (except the rain) and worst of all, no benches or other seating. My sister had come off the ship in a wheelchair so was super fortunate to be sitting for the duration. The wheelchair guy stayed with her (NCL wheelchair so he was supposed to take it back) and he kept complaining because he couldn't leave and had to do other jobs! (He was probably a NCL room steward.)
She got onto a bus but thought there were only two buses. If so that means there weren't enough buses to take people back to AC! She isn't sure what happened to the rest of the people. She just reported to me that there were some EXTREMELY IRATE Caesars guests waiting for the buses.
If any of you can report on what happened I hope you will post.
Posted by: Misscraps <misscraps@aol.com>
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