Reaching for the Stars – Chapter 2
Five days went by and I still had not heard anything. Thanks to Ted from Oroville, who emailed me the name and email of a host in Rincon, I emailed a host at Rincon, Evelyn (also my mother’s name) telling my story and that I was told I would be contacted and no one did. Within ten minutes, I received a call from her. She apologized for the delay and said that she would be happy to act as my host for the interim.
I thought this would be a good time to put it to the test. I told her there was a poker tournament in Laughlin on September 20 and would she book that and the room for me. She said it would not be a problem. About an hour later, I received an email from her with the confirmation number (a good start).
(For those of you who have been following my summer daily trip reports over the years, you know that I’ve had a love affair with my 2007 Saturn Vue, which got me safely across the country and into Canada and back as well as those thousands of miles through the deserts of Nevada. Well, after 155,000 miles, I felt the transmission was starting to act up, so before trouble set in, I traded it in for a new Ford Edge SEL. I was very sad to see it go, but like everything in life, we move on).
Two days after getting my new car, I set out for Laughlin for the poker tournament. It just so happens that my parents are also going to be there as they stay at the Riverside where they’re given three free nights, two prime rib dinners, and two breakfast buffets every month (great, considering they only play about $100 through the machines and it hasn’t affected their offers for the past couple of years).
I arrived at Harrahs and still didn’t have my 7 Stars card, so I went to the Total Rewards booth to pick up a couple—nice cards. When I checked in (using the 7 Stars Priority line for the first time), I was told that I would be given a suite on the 19th floor of the north tower. Now, I hate the north tower, but the suites are good and it’s not summer when you’re dealing with hundreds of kids running and screaming.
Unfortunately, the room wasn’t ready (admittedly, I was there a little early, so that’s okay). I stopped at the Host station desk and was immediately referred to Beverly (nice on the eyes). She sat me down in her office and explained that whoever gave me the information about Laughlin being my “home” casino was in error. She also said that even 7 Stars aren’t immediately assigned a host (this was a surprise) until the “trip average is established at each property and that each property establishes their own lines on that.
I tried to ask every question I could and she was very forth-coming with her answers, though she remained just a little vague as to what the “trip average” calculations were and just why it’s important.
So, let’s begin. I’ve yet to use my $750 and limo service travel voucher to any city where there is a Caesars property that I earned when I made the third level of Diamond. In addition to that, I also earned a $1200 and limo service travel voucher for my 7 Stars earned THIS year. I must use both of these before March 31, 2014 when the new card renewal year takes place. Then, after March 31, I receive ANOTHER $1200 and limo service travel voucher. So I, in fact, have three paid trips coming to me. I also receive a free cruise to the Caribbean. That does not include airfare to the port of departure, but she said what most people do is use their yearly travel voucher to New Orleans, then take the cruise from there—sweet! My concern about these travels is where to go. I’ve been to New Orleans twice and Atlantic City once…and pretty much every Caesars property when I did my National Casino Tour. I have to take two of them before March, and this means in the winter. I’m not so keen on going to Atlantic City in the winter. I’m actually considering Cleveland, which has a new casino and when I was there on my NCT, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was closing and I never got to take the tour.
Here’s something else to note: These travel vouchers (as I’m calling them for convenience) are never handled by the member. You see a host, tell them where you want to go and what offer you’re using and they book the entire thing for you. Once they’ve booked it (American or Southwest Airlines—no surprise), they give you the confirmation numbers for your flight and the hotel. They also set up the limo pick-up at the airport. Very nice.
We then moved on to other topics. Included in my first level 7 Stars is a $500 “birthday dinner bash” which doesn’t have to be on your birthday—just the name they call it. Again, once you’ve selected where you want to use it, tell a host and the reservation and voucher will be taken care of by them. She did say you must use the entire $500 at that meal, so to bring three or four friends along. I get two of these. One for this year, and one for next year—it appears my timing was excellent.
Also, I am given a “welcome” gift of my choice for up to $500. She told me to go to the Total Rewards center where there is a list of all the gifts and the email or phone number to order it right then and there. The gifts are from the Skymall brochure, so you know how overpriced they’re going to be. Most of the things are jewelry, luggage…what caught my eye was a package of eight Maine lobster tails…hmmm.
I questioned her about this “trip average.” They do not have daily average play, but they do have a trip average. So, if I stay for three nights, they will take three days play and add them up, divide by three” (simple arithmetic—or so I assumed). This is where she seemed to become a little vague. She talked about how they take into consideration how much you lose. She gave me this example: “If you come on an offer with $1500, budget it so that you will lose $500 per day (that’s right—she said until you LOSE, which contradicts my established belief that wins and losses are not measured—just the amount of play). I questioned her that if that were the case, then if you had a winning trip, you’d have a negative daily average. She said no, they look at the whole. What? Then she looked up my account. “Oh, I see you’ve giving almost all of your play at Rincon. Your last trip here in Laughlin shows your trip average as $127.” Holy shit! I played about $20,000 through the machines when I was here last—I remember because my goal at the time was to at least get the 1000 tier threshold for a couple of the days. I told her this and she came back to me with, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t clear. It shows that you had lost $127 for the trip average.”
I could have continued this line of conversation, but it was becoming clear to me that she either wasn’t being completely candid or she honestly was as confused as I was, so I decided I’d drop that for now and when I’m at a different hotel, I’ll quiz that host on the same subject and see if the information differs. She certainly didn’t appear to be evading any of my questions and seemed sincere in telling me all that there is to know. I explained to her that for me this isn’t all that important because this “trip average” only effects the offers you receive in the mail—not anything that you already earned at the card level. So, perhaps you get $50 free play instead of $150 free play, or you miss a concert comp—honestly not a big deal to me.
On to more of the perks: In addition to the goodies I’ve already mentioned, there is an annual dinner (you get one of these as a Diamond member as well) for all 7 Stars. Of course, I’ll be reporting on the differences between the two as I went to the Diamond dinner and have to admit, was REALLY nice, so I’m very curious how the 7 Stars will differ. Also, Internet on the property is free (when I checked in, the clerk gave me the log in number—great for me as I write most of my reports in my room on these trips—no more searching out libraries and Starbucks). Finally, in addition to the free Internet, you also get to watch all the Pay-per-view movies in your room for free as well. My 7 Stars status is good until March 31, 2015. I’m going to enjoy this.
Today, considering I’d like to make the second 7 Star level, which would require 40,000 more tier points and I have until the end of year to do this, I wanted to average about a 1000 tier points today (assuming small losses, otherwise forget it). So I headed to the casino where to my dismay ALL the older video poker machines against both windows have been replaced with these new ones that have the scrolling games selection at the top. New machines—new video poker schedules. Gone are the three 9/6 Jacks or better. Gone are the 7/5 Bonus Poker schedules, now 6/5. It wasn’t bad enough that the schedules were weak, Harrahs, Laughlin made them worse. There is absolutely no question that Caesars dislikes video poker players. First they make you play twice as much for points as slot players, then they make the schedules poor and they continue to make them worse.
Fortunately, at least for now, the 50-plays are still there with the 8/5 Super Double and the 25/16/13/4/3 Bonus Deuces, which admittedly only have a 98% return—but at least in the ballpark of playable. Also remaining is the quarter 3/5 play machines with 7/5 Bonus and Ugly Deuces. However, I have no doubt it’s just a matter of time before these are all gone as well. Damn it!
Here’s just a fast wrap up of my play which was all on 50-play at the 2-cent level ($5.00 per hand). I alternated between the two aforementioned games. I was dealt four-to-the-royal three times. The first time, I hit one Royal. The second time, I didn’t get any (50 hands—c’mon!) And the third time, I hit two Royals. The only other “big” hand was being dealt a wild royal for $125 win. I stopped at 1001 tier points (reach your goal—get out!). I left with a $100 profit—sweet. I guess my “trip average” will be a negative so far (I’m smiling).
I went to my room around 9:30 and there in the living room was a gift package containing two waters, two bananas, two apples, two packages of peanuts, a package of trail mix, a pack of Pepperidge Farm cookies, and a candy bar. When I went into the bedroom, the bed was turned down and there was a package of gourmet cookies (in place of the little chocolates). As I was about to turn in, a knock on the door and when I opened it, there was a staff member handing me ANOTHER basket. “Here sir, this is for you with our compliments.” Okay someone screwed up. Did I tell him I already had one? No! I’ll take this one over to my parents’ tomorrow morning.
Woke up at and headed over to the Riverside to meet my parents for breakfast. After saying goodbye to them, I headed back to Harrahs to play for the day’s 1000 tier. This time, I sat down at the 50-play nickels. I did okay hitting two Royals along the way and was up $300. I played some triple play 7/5 bonus for quarters and did okay when I reached my 1000 tier points. I was approached by a host who asked if there was anything I needed, gave me her card and said if I needed anything to call her. I expect this to happen most days now.
As for the poker tournament: 20 minutes into the game, I had pocket 8s with only one guy who was low on chips. I went all in. He had pocket Aces. I had more chips but was now the short stack. The very next hand I had A/K and went all in. Everyone folded except the big blind. He called. He also had pocket Aces. I’m out. Oh well, at least I gave the table a good laugh.
When I first came up with this journal of discussing the differences between 7 Stars and Diamond, I never intended it to be a trip report, but now as I write these, I can see that the two are so intertwined, it’s hard to not make it sound like a trip report—but, I suppose, that’s okay.
My third day gambling to reach the 1000 tier point’s threshold started off very well playing the nickel level 50-plays at 25 games at a time. I had earned the first 500 with only being down a hundred. I took a short break and came back and then things started going south. I was down $300 when I was dealt a flush but four-to-the-royal. Of course, I dropped the 8 of spades and managed three royals good for $600.00. That brought me back. I kept playing for a while and was doing poorly, so I went to the diamond lounge.
I suppose if enough people whine about it long enough, something gets changed. I noticed on Friday night that the food was quite a bit better than usual. I asked the attendant and he told me that management decided to “upgrade” their food offers in the diamond lounge on Thursday through Sunday (I suppose people who come on Monday through Wednesday aren’t important enough). There are now at least three different hot food items along with the usual cookies and small sandwiches. Today (Sunday) was rolled tacos, hot wings, and mini-hotdogs-in-a-bun. Thumbs up to the suits for making things a little better.
I was still 180 points short of my needed thousand. This time, it was brutal (almost as if the machine gremlins inside knew I got the best of them and are getting me back). I played $300 to just get that last needed points. So, the day is done. I’ve managed over 1000 points per day for the three days and even managed to squeak in a small profit. Today, there was no visit by a host.
I was going to have dinner with my parents at the Riverside in the Prime Rib room and so instead of driving, I thought I’d just take the water taxi over there. I went to the Rewards Center to buy a couple of tickets with my reward points; however, she looked at my 7 Stars card and asked if I’d already used mine for the day. I said no, and she said 7 Star members get two round trip tickets per day for the water taxi—score—another perk.
A lot of my friends wondered why Caesars would change the tier levels and offer bonus tier points as it seems playing to these thresholds isn’t all that hard. Well, I think it was genius. I’ve learned when trying to reach these levels (1000 for the 1000 bonus or 2500 for the 5000 bonus) requires some very serious time (assuming most of us can’t play the $5 and $25 games). The longer you play, the more likely they’re going to get your money. Today was a good example. Having been up $400 I would have usually quit, but because I wanted to get to the next level, I continued to play and, sure enough, they got most their money back. When I was playing 2500 points per day at Rincon, I was spending a good six hours playing at the 5-play quarter level in video poker. If you don’t catch a Royal, you’re all but certain to take a loss. For the life of me, I have no idea how slot players do it.
I’d like to take a moment and respond to some of your comments and questions:
1. TECrammer – I did not make my 7 Stars on my summer trip. I had to make four more trips to Rincon to 2500 points per day to finally reach it. It was a job!
2. Justmare – So far, I have felt that I’m being treated better, but it’s early. I’m still curious to see what kinds of seats I get at shows, what kinds of offers above what I have now are, and how I’m treated by hosts. That is the point of this jounal.
3. Rosemarie – Thanks for that long, informative reply. You and Gary (as other couples) get the luxury of both playing on one card. Unfortunately, I have to do all the playing myself, taking double the time. Your darkroom expense was a terrific example of how people can spend far more and get much less with their hobbies than we “gamblers” do.
4. Kimbaed – Thank you for the website, www.sevenstarsinsider.com. I will be checking it out soon. I’m so surprised that the host actually said that playing a vp game makes you ineligible to have a host. That just doesn’t seem right. We should look into that.
5. Fly3rea – where in Harrah’s is a full pay bonus progressive? I thought I looked everywhere for a good machine. Also, I’ll check about the two free buffets per day. I haven’t heard that and the host there, Evelyn, didn’t mention it.
I had free tickets to see Defending the Caveman and was curious to see what kind of seats I would get as a 7 Stars. I gave the coupon to the promotions booth along with my card. He asked if I had a reservation, and I said I didn’t. He gave me two tickets. When I got to the theater, the seats were in the first set of booths in the middle. A little far back, but great seats. As for the show…I don’t know why it’s been so successful. It’s basically just a standup comedy routine with a set script. It wasn’t my favorite show.
This concludes my trip this time. I will probably go somewhere in October, but I just bought a home and will be moving during the middle of that month, so I’m not sure of anything other than I will be in Las Vegas for the Gift Giveaway on November 7-11 where I’ll be staying at Caesars. That should make for a good report.
Five days went by and I still had not heard anything. Thanks to Ted from Oroville, who emailed me the name and email of a host in Rincon, I emailed a host at Rincon, Evelyn (also my mother’s name) telling my story and that I was told I would be contacted and no one did. Within ten minutes, I received a call from her. She apologized for the delay and said that she would be happy to act as my host for the interim.
I thought this would be a good time to put it to the test. I told her there was a poker tournament in Laughlin on September 20 and would she book that and the room for me. She said it would not be a problem. About an hour later, I received an email from her with the confirmation number (a good start).
(For those of you who have been following my summer daily trip reports over the years, you know that I’ve had a love affair with my 2007 Saturn Vue, which got me safely across the country and into Canada and back as well as those thousands of miles through the deserts of Nevada. Well, after 155,000 miles, I felt the transmission was starting to act up, so before trouble set in, I traded it in for a new Ford Edge SEL. I was very sad to see it go, but like everything in life, we move on).
Two days after getting my new car, I set out for Laughlin for the poker tournament. It just so happens that my parents are also going to be there as they stay at the Riverside where they’re given three free nights, two prime rib dinners, and two breakfast buffets every month (great, considering they only play about $100 through the machines and it hasn’t affected their offers for the past couple of years).
I arrived at Harrahs and still didn’t have my 7 Stars card, so I went to the Total Rewards booth to pick up a couple—nice cards. When I checked in (using the 7 Stars Priority line for the first time), I was told that I would be given a suite on the 19th floor of the north tower. Now, I hate the north tower, but the suites are good and it’s not summer when you’re dealing with hundreds of kids running and screaming.
Unfortunately, the room wasn’t ready (admittedly, I was there a little early, so that’s okay). I stopped at the Host station desk and was immediately referred to Beverly (nice on the eyes). She sat me down in her office and explained that whoever gave me the information about Laughlin being my “home” casino was in error. She also said that even 7 Stars aren’t immediately assigned a host (this was a surprise) until the “trip average is established at each property and that each property establishes their own lines on that.
I tried to ask every question I could and she was very forth-coming with her answers, though she remained just a little vague as to what the “trip average” calculations were and just why it’s important.
So, let’s begin. I’ve yet to use my $750 and limo service travel voucher to any city where there is a Caesars property that I earned when I made the third level of Diamond. In addition to that, I also earned a $1200 and limo service travel voucher for my 7 Stars earned THIS year. I must use both of these before March 31, 2014 when the new card renewal year takes place. Then, after March 31, I receive ANOTHER $1200 and limo service travel voucher. So I, in fact, have three paid trips coming to me. I also receive a free cruise to the Caribbean. That does not include airfare to the port of departure, but she said what most people do is use their yearly travel voucher to New Orleans, then take the cruise from there—sweet! My concern about these travels is where to go. I’ve been to New Orleans twice and Atlantic City once…and pretty much every Caesars property when I did my National Casino Tour. I have to take two of them before March, and this means in the winter. I’m not so keen on going to Atlantic City in the winter. I’m actually considering Cleveland, which has a new casino and when I was there on my NCT, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was closing and I never got to take the tour.
Here’s something else to note: These travel vouchers (as I’m calling them for convenience) are never handled by the member. You see a host, tell them where you want to go and what offer you’re using and they book the entire thing for you. Once they’ve booked it (American or Southwest Airlines—no surprise), they give you the confirmation numbers for your flight and the hotel. They also set up the limo pick-up at the airport. Very nice.
We then moved on to other topics. Included in my first level 7 Stars is a $500 “birthday dinner bash” which doesn’t have to be on your birthday—just the name they call it. Again, once you’ve selected where you want to use it, tell a host and the reservation and voucher will be taken care of by them. She did say you must use the entire $500 at that meal, so to bring three or four friends along. I get two of these. One for this year, and one for next year—it appears my timing was excellent.
Also, I am given a “welcome” gift of my choice for up to $500. She told me to go to the Total Rewards center where there is a list of all the gifts and the email or phone number to order it right then and there. The gifts are from the Skymall brochure, so you know how overpriced they’re going to be. Most of the things are jewelry, luggage…what caught my eye was a package of eight Maine lobster tails…hmmm.
I questioned her about this “trip average.” They do not have daily average play, but they do have a trip average. So, if I stay for three nights, they will take three days play and add them up, divide by three” (simple arithmetic—or so I assumed). This is where she seemed to become a little vague. She talked about how they take into consideration how much you lose. She gave me this example: “If you come on an offer with $1500, budget it so that you will lose $500 per day (that’s right—she said until you LOSE, which contradicts my established belief that wins and losses are not measured—just the amount of play). I questioned her that if that were the case, then if you had a winning trip, you’d have a negative daily average. She said no, they look at the whole. What? Then she looked up my account. “Oh, I see you’ve giving almost all of your play at Rincon. Your last trip here in Laughlin shows your trip average as $127.” Holy shit! I played about $20,000 through the machines when I was here last—I remember because my goal at the time was to at least get the 1000 tier threshold for a couple of the days. I told her this and she came back to me with, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t clear. It shows that you had lost $127 for the trip average.”
I could have continued this line of conversation, but it was becoming clear to me that she either wasn’t being completely candid or she honestly was as confused as I was, so I decided I’d drop that for now and when I’m at a different hotel, I’ll quiz that host on the same subject and see if the information differs. She certainly didn’t appear to be evading any of my questions and seemed sincere in telling me all that there is to know. I explained to her that for me this isn’t all that important because this “trip average” only effects the offers you receive in the mail—not anything that you already earned at the card level. So, perhaps you get $50 free play instead of $150 free play, or you miss a concert comp—honestly not a big deal to me.
On to more of the perks: In addition to the goodies I’ve already mentioned, there is an annual dinner (you get one of these as a Diamond member as well) for all 7 Stars. Of course, I’ll be reporting on the differences between the two as I went to the Diamond dinner and have to admit, was REALLY nice, so I’m very curious how the 7 Stars will differ. Also, Internet on the property is free (when I checked in, the clerk gave me the log in number—great for me as I write most of my reports in my room on these trips—no more searching out libraries and Starbucks). Finally, in addition to the free Internet, you also get to watch all the Pay-per-view movies in your room for free as well. My 7 Stars status is good until March 31, 2015. I’m going to enjoy this.
Today, considering I’d like to make the second 7 Star level, which would require 40,000 more tier points and I have until the end of year to do this, I wanted to average about a 1000 tier points today (assuming small losses, otherwise forget it). So I headed to the casino where to my dismay ALL the older video poker machines against both windows have been replaced with these new ones that have the scrolling games selection at the top. New machines—new video poker schedules. Gone are the three 9/6 Jacks or better. Gone are the 7/5 Bonus Poker schedules, now 6/5. It wasn’t bad enough that the schedules were weak, Harrahs, Laughlin made them worse. There is absolutely no question that Caesars dislikes video poker players. First they make you play twice as much for points as slot players, then they make the schedules poor and they continue to make them worse.
Fortunately, at least for now, the 50-plays are still there with the 8/5 Super Double and the 25/16/13/4/3 Bonus Deuces, which admittedly only have a 98% return—but at least in the ballpark of playable. Also remaining is the quarter 3/5 play machines with 7/5 Bonus and Ugly Deuces. However, I have no doubt it’s just a matter of time before these are all gone as well. Damn it!
Here’s just a fast wrap up of my play which was all on 50-play at the 2-cent level ($5.00 per hand). I alternated between the two aforementioned games. I was dealt four-to-the-royal three times. The first time, I hit one Royal. The second time, I didn’t get any (50 hands—c’mon!) And the third time, I hit two Royals. The only other “big” hand was being dealt a wild royal for $125 win. I stopped at 1001 tier points (reach your goal—get out!). I left with a $100 profit—sweet. I guess my “trip average” will be a negative so far (I’m smiling).
I went to my room around 9:30 and there in the living room was a gift package containing two waters, two bananas, two apples, two packages of peanuts, a package of trail mix, a pack of Pepperidge Farm cookies, and a candy bar. When I went into the bedroom, the bed was turned down and there was a package of gourmet cookies (in place of the little chocolates). As I was about to turn in, a knock on the door and when I opened it, there was a staff member handing me ANOTHER basket. “Here sir, this is for you with our compliments.” Okay someone screwed up. Did I tell him I already had one? No! I’ll take this one over to my parents’ tomorrow morning.
Woke up at and headed over to the Riverside to meet my parents for breakfast. After saying goodbye to them, I headed back to Harrahs to play for the day’s 1000 tier. This time, I sat down at the 50-play nickels. I did okay hitting two Royals along the way and was up $300. I played some triple play 7/5 bonus for quarters and did okay when I reached my 1000 tier points. I was approached by a host who asked if there was anything I needed, gave me her card and said if I needed anything to call her. I expect this to happen most days now.
As for the poker tournament: 20 minutes into the game, I had pocket 8s with only one guy who was low on chips. I went all in. He had pocket Aces. I had more chips but was now the short stack. The very next hand I had A/K and went all in. Everyone folded except the big blind. He called. He also had pocket Aces. I’m out. Oh well, at least I gave the table a good laugh.
When I first came up with this journal of discussing the differences between 7 Stars and Diamond, I never intended it to be a trip report, but now as I write these, I can see that the two are so intertwined, it’s hard to not make it sound like a trip report—but, I suppose, that’s okay.
My third day gambling to reach the 1000 tier point’s threshold started off very well playing the nickel level 50-plays at 25 games at a time. I had earned the first 500 with only being down a hundred. I took a short break and came back and then things started going south. I was down $300 when I was dealt a flush but four-to-the-royal. Of course, I dropped the 8 of spades and managed three royals good for $600.00. That brought me back. I kept playing for a while and was doing poorly, so I went to the diamond lounge.
I suppose if enough people whine about it long enough, something gets changed. I noticed on Friday night that the food was quite a bit better than usual. I asked the attendant and he told me that management decided to “upgrade” their food offers in the diamond lounge on Thursday through Sunday (I suppose people who come on Monday through Wednesday aren’t important enough). There are now at least three different hot food items along with the usual cookies and small sandwiches. Today (Sunday) was rolled tacos, hot wings, and mini-hotdogs-in-a-bun. Thumbs up to the suits for making things a little better.
I was still 180 points short of my needed thousand. This time, it was brutal (almost as if the machine gremlins inside knew I got the best of them and are getting me back). I played $300 to just get that last needed points. So, the day is done. I’ve managed over 1000 points per day for the three days and even managed to squeak in a small profit. Today, there was no visit by a host.
I was going to have dinner with my parents at the Riverside in the Prime Rib room and so instead of driving, I thought I’d just take the water taxi over there. I went to the Rewards Center to buy a couple of tickets with my reward points; however, she looked at my 7 Stars card and asked if I’d already used mine for the day. I said no, and she said 7 Star members get two round trip tickets per day for the water taxi—score—another perk.
A lot of my friends wondered why Caesars would change the tier levels and offer bonus tier points as it seems playing to these thresholds isn’t all that hard. Well, I think it was genius. I’ve learned when trying to reach these levels (1000 for the 1000 bonus or 2500 for the 5000 bonus) requires some very serious time (assuming most of us can’t play the $5 and $25 games). The longer you play, the more likely they’re going to get your money. Today was a good example. Having been up $400 I would have usually quit, but because I wanted to get to the next level, I continued to play and, sure enough, they got most their money back. When I was playing 2500 points per day at Rincon, I was spending a good six hours playing at the 5-play quarter level in video poker. If you don’t catch a Royal, you’re all but certain to take a loss. For the life of me, I have no idea how slot players do it.
I’d like to take a moment and respond to some of your comments and questions:
1. TECrammer – I did not make my 7 Stars on my summer trip. I had to make four more trips to Rincon to 2500 points per day to finally reach it. It was a job!
2. Justmare – So far, I have felt that I’m being treated better, but it’s early. I’m still curious to see what kinds of seats I get at shows, what kinds of offers above what I have now are, and how I’m treated by hosts. That is the point of this jounal.
3. Rosemarie – Thanks for that long, informative reply. You and Gary (as other couples) get the luxury of both playing on one card. Unfortunately, I have to do all the playing myself, taking double the time. Your darkroom expense was a terrific example of how people can spend far more and get much less with their hobbies than we “gamblers” do.
4. Kimbaed – Thank you for the website, www.sevenstarsinsider.com. I will be checking it out soon. I’m so surprised that the host actually said that playing a vp game makes you ineligible to have a host. That just doesn’t seem right. We should look into that.
5. Fly3rea – where in Harrah’s is a full pay bonus progressive? I thought I looked everywhere for a good machine. Also, I’ll check about the two free buffets per day. I haven’t heard that and the host there, Evelyn, didn’t mention it.
I had free tickets to see Defending the Caveman and was curious to see what kind of seats I would get as a 7 Stars. I gave the coupon to the promotions booth along with my card. He asked if I had a reservation, and I said I didn’t. He gave me two tickets. When I got to the theater, the seats were in the first set of booths in the middle. A little far back, but great seats. As for the show…I don’t know why it’s been so successful. It’s basically just a standup comedy routine with a set script. It wasn’t my favorite show.
This concludes my trip this time. I will probably go somewhere in October, but I just bought a home and will be moving during the middle of that month, so I’m not sure of anything other than I will be in Las Vegas for the Gift Giveaway on November 7-11 where I’ll be staying at Caesars. That should make for a good report.
