I'm wondering if this is part of a plot to downgrade the Diamond Clubs further and perhaps make them like the Las Vegas Diamond Lounges where they only have a few snacks and deserts.
Several years ago, they touted this whole thing about how they were going to improve the Diamond Clubs because people were complaining about quality, and in return for that they upped the requirement to 25,000 points. They did make some improvements, but think that eventually evaporated, and I don't think they are any better now than before they made the improvements. And in the meantime, they cut the hours further.
So now they are doing something similar on a smaller scale, adding back the 2 hours they removed previously (2 - 4 PM), but with a very limited selection, and in return for that, now there will be another hour per day (4 - 5 PM) that used to have a full selection, that is now downgraded to a limited selection.
I can almost guarantee that there will be some sort of other Diamond Club cutback. Maybe they'll have the limited selection all day, or at least on weekdays. Maybe after next summer they'll eliminate this and not open until 5 PM. I don't know what they'll do, but it seems like the Diamond Club cutbacks are being done very gradually.
I'm probably thorough with the Diamond Club after 01/31/2018, which I already earned. No one wants to give me free rooms on weekends now that the Trump Taj Mahal is closing, and since I need to work during the week, my opportunities to get a comped room are limited, and I'm not going if I have to pay anything more than $15 for a room. If I'm hardly ever going to go, the value of the free Diamond Club food isn't worth the cost of gambling with a rewards program that offers next to nothing for 9/6 Jacks or Better players. In order to play enough to get 2,500 points to get my tier credits tripled, I have to play on a $2 machine, and although I've done that in the past, that is too much for me and just not worth it. If they didn't increase the playable machines to $20/point, going for 7* would have been a likely option on $1 machines and within my annual gambling budget. Now, they have pretty much lost me as a customer because of their greed. If I do go on an occasional weekday or for a day trip, I can play at the Borgata and use their comps for the $10 buffet, at least while I still have my Black Card (which I only have due to the Diamond Card), but I just renewed for another year.
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