Reaching for the Stars – Chapter 15
This chapter is going to focus on my trip to Lake Tahoe and the problems I encountered as well as the treatment as a 7 Star card holder
.
When I first made 7 Stars, I was given (and it’s posted online the Caesars web page) the variety of benefits that you can choose called Experiences. I wanted to use the July 4th Fireworks at Lake Tahoe, which included a suite for three nights, a ride on the company yacht to Emerald Bay, a fireworks dinner and show, and $200 in dining credits. There was a problem: It was on July 3rd, and supposedly you needed to use these benefits no later than June 30th. I contacted my host at Rincon and asked if I could still use it considering it was so close to the deadline and it was the only one I wanted. He said he’d check it out and get back to me.
A few weeks later, I received and email from my host saying he couldn’t book it until after the March 31st deadline, which is the Caesars calendar year. That should have signaled me a red flag, but I accepted it. On April 1, I emailed him once again asking that he book the trip. I didn’t hear anything for about a month when I received an email from a host at Lake Tahoe named Mark. He said he has booked me a room arriving on July 3 and departing July 6 and that the limo service had been taken care of (the offer didn’t include air fare, but I had plenty of Southwest miles to take care of that).
About a month before the trip, I called asked about the yacht, food, and show and Mark was surprised about his. I told him about the Experience package and emailed him the web page URL. A week later he called and explained that my host at Rincon never sent him the correct code for that trip, so he didn’t know anything about it. He also said my request was three days past the deadline and he couldn’t use it even if he wanted to. I told him it seems my Rincon host screwed me as now it was past the deadline for me to use any of the Experiences from 2013. Mark seemed genuinely understanding and told me he’d call me back in a few days.
I received that call and Mark said he was able to get me in the Fireworks show and dinner, and he would put a $200 credit to my room for food, but he couldn’t do anything about the suite and yacht as July 4th was their biggest holiday of the year and 7 Star holders from all over the country had already snatched up all the suites and the yacht was full as well. I had already made my plane reservations, so I suppose I’d take what I could get. But this was simply another example of Caesars not training their hosts properly. During this entire series I’ve mentioned that holding a 7 Stars card has had some very nice perks, but the frustration dealing with hosts is a challenge as you could ask ten different hosts a question and you’d get ten different answers.
On the morning of July 3rd, my friend Cindy and I flew into Reno where we would be picked up by the limo. It was 8:00 AM and there was no limo driver holding a sign with my name. I walked outside and saw a limo there and a man with a Harrah’s name tag. I asked him if he was looking for me and gave him my name. He said no and that he didn’t know of anyone else coming down from the hotel. He called and asked the dispatcher who told him she called me and I said I was driving (that didn’t happen). However, he was glad to give us a ride along with the couple that he was there to pick up. Michael (a retired engineer) and Nicole (a doctor) were happy to have us along and we had a nice talk for the hour drive to Lake Tahoe. They were celebrating their 36th wedding anniversary and already were into the champagne (even at 8 in the morning, the limo was fully stocked with those small liquor bottles, soft drinks, and juices).
Michael, Nicole, Cindy, and I
I learned that Michael, also a 7 Stars cardholder, plays only craps. This brought up the topic of table game tier points. He admitted that you are at the mercy of the pit boss to make sure that he not only logs you in with the correct amount of average bets, but that he(she) also continues to do so as the hours go by. He, like everybody else, says it’s a mystery how they calculate the points and that even pit bosses don’t know. The only way he can check to see if tier points were being added and how many he received is that he has to stop by a machine and put in his card to read the amount on his card. I thought to myself that he must play a lot for a very long time to reach the 2500 needed tier points to qualify for the bonus, which he told me he does as well.
After arriving, we went into the Diamond Registration and were greeted by Becky who said our room wasn’t ready, but she call the Bell Captain to hold on to our bags and would call me when it was.
To kill time, we walked around Lake Tahoe Village, which is full of shops and restaurants. The weather couldn’t have been better and already there were lots of other tourists walking and taking pictures and enjoying early morning coffee. The ski lifts were running ($38 per adult seemed high) and a few were choosing to go up the mountain.
Cindy with the ski lifts heading up the mountain
By 11:00 AM, there was still no call and we were in front of a just opened movie theater complex that had a showing of TAMMY, the new movie with Melissa McCarthy. I thought it would be a great way to wait for the room, so we bought a couple of tickets, and would you believe it? The very moment we sat down in the theater, the phone call came that the room was ready. We enjoyed the movie and it was funny, but this one had some serious subjects and poignant moments as well.
We walked back to Harrah’s and Becky was there to hand us the keys to our room and also told us she had booked us tomorrow on the yacht to Emerald Bay as well as our voucher for the fireworks dinner and show. She also confirmed our $200 dining credit. Wow! Things are really looking up. We went up to our room on the 7th floor and imagine the surprise to find that I indeed did get a suite. So it seems that after all my whining about losing my 7 Star Experience, I end up getting it all.
The living room of the suite (sorry it’s dark)
The bedroom of the suite. Double doors separate the two.
The bathrooms – this one with the whirlpool jets
This bathroom had the shower
View #1 from our room
View #2 from our room
We settled in and put clothes away. This is the first time since making 7 Stars last November that I feel like I’m being treated like a 7 Stars cardholder. We were given our contact host, Rick, who would take care of us during our stay and did he ever. After about an hour, a knock on the door and Rick had sent up a wonderful welcome pack of wine, cheese and crackers, candy bars, salted almonds and other treats.
The welcome tray of goodies
In addition to all of this, Rick also booked us two seats to Tribute Abba concert on Saturday night. As always, the room Internet and in-room movies were all free.
Friday, July 4th we headed to breakfast in the café and had a nice egg skillet and pancakes. The café is beautifully decorated with faux trees and a small waterfall and river running through it.
The café at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe. My picture doesn’t do it justice
I originally did not plan to gamble on this trip; however, David (timberwolf) had told me that there were two 50-play machines in the high limit area that had 9/6 Jacks and 8/5 Bonus on them for quarters. I went to check it out, and sure enough, there they were. I decided I’d perhaps shoot for 1000 tier points as long as I didn’t lose too much in the process. Even though these were 50-play machines, I knew I didn’t need to play 50 games. So, I set it up with 5-play and it wasn’t long before I caught a Royal on the third line.
It’s a bit fuzzy, but it’s my first $1000 royal of the summer, so I had to add it
After the royal, things fell into the usual 9/6 Jacks pattern. I’d hit a few dealt flushes and full houses, which kept me going, but long droughts of dealt dead hands (holding nothing or just one high card) began to erode my profits away, but once again, I was too close to the magic 2500 tier points to quit, so I hung in there and finally reached that goal and walked away with $300 profit for the session.
I went back to the room and received a call from Ted, LVA member who I met on my California casino run last year in Oroville, CA and also had dinner at Guy Fior’s place in Vegas a couple of weeks ago. He and his wife Martha were in town, though they had to leave that afternoon, so we agreed to meet for lunch at the café. At the top of the escalators to the café, Ted stopped to say hi to his host, Rick, who coincidentally was our contact. I thanked him for the show tickets and the welcome basket and he said if there was anything at all we needed just to contact him. If only my host at Rincon was one-third as helpful and friendly as Rick! Martha wasn’t feeling well, so I didn’t get to meet her, but we had a super time with Ted at lunch. Neither Cindy nor I wanted the welcome gift wine and we couldn’t take it on our flight home, so I offered it to Ted who drove up and we said our goodbyes.
We then went to pick up our tickets for tonight’s Fourth of July celebration and also made a stop at the box office to get the tickets for the Abbakadbra show and then it was time to take the shuttle, which would drive us to the lake and our yacht for the Emerald Bay trip. There were a surprising number of no-shows and it turned out there were only 16 of us taking the trip.
The Tahoe Star, the 54-foot yacht owned by Caesars
On board, we were greeted by Captain Doug, Co-captain Mike, and first mate Erika, who would be serving us drinks and sandwiches. There was a bit of a wind on the bay, so it was a tad choppy, but Captain Doug went slow and kept it smooth sailing.
Captain Doug welcoming us aboard as we set off to Emerald Bay
The ride took about an hour to arrive at Emerald Bay crossing the 12 miles of deep blue lake. Captain Doug kept us apprised of everything along the route. We sat right next to him (thanks again to David for the tip) so we could ask questions throughout the journey.
Approaching Emerald Bay
The small island as you approach the shoreline that has a “lookout” tower.
The 38-room Vikingsholm Castle built in 1929 by Lora Josephine Knight is now a National Landmark
After about 30 minutes we began the trip back to shore across the lake and the shuttle back to the room. We had just enough time to change and walk over to Harvey’s where the Fourth of July celebration and dinner was to take place. They had closed off the top floor of the parking garage and set up tables and chairs along with tents that were the food and drinks stations around the perimeter of the parking lot. The food was your standard Independence Day fare of hot dogs and hamburgers along with some chicken shish kabobs, German potato salad, and macaroni and cheese. Though we were in the “7 Star” end closest to the fireworks display, there was really no one concerned with who sat where.
Just some of the many invited guests at the dinner/fireworks show
There was a very good live band who played a variety of music but mostly they stayed in the 60s and 70s as well as dressing up as singers performing the hits along with a little comedy. They were very good. All the drinks and the food were free. Both Cindy and I were getting pretty tired of alcohol and stuck to coffee and soft drinks. The fireworks display off the lake was fabulous and lasted about 25 minutes. We made our way back to the Harrah’s by way of the stairs with a minor route mistake and called it a night.
Our final day in Lake Tahoe was simple: room service breakfast, dinner at their steakhouse, and the Tribute to Abba show. The breakfast room service was terrific (something I rarely do, but we had the $200 food credit to use). I decided to play for a couple of hours and perhaps add another 1000 tier points considering I’ll never be able to play 9/6 Jacks anywhere else in all of Caesarsdom. My goal was either reach 1000 tier points or lose no more than $300. My plan was to start at 5-play for $100. If I doubled that, I’d move up to 10-play and for every extra hundred dollars, five games per hundred.
The first $200 in went pretty fast and I assumed I’d have to take the $300 hit (which would make me even for the trip) and be done with that. However, my third hundred dollar in, I caught a couple of dealt flushes and a couple dealt full houses. Before I knew it, I was up $400 and was play 20 games at a time (at quarter level, that’s $25 per hand—usually out of my comfort zone). Things fluctuated and I started scaling back to 15 games, then 10, then 5 games at a time.
While I was sitting there, an older gentleman came over and sat down next to me and asked how things were going. He was a nice guy and we chatted as he kept putting hundreds into the machine until he reached a thousand dollars. He then put in the slot card, and because I’m an extremely nosey person, I couldn’t stop myself from sneaking a peek at his reward point and tier point totals as they scrolled across the screen. Tier points: 432,000. Reward points, 1,132,000. It took every ounce of discipline to not just stare. This guy had over a million reward credits (damn—if he chose to cash those in at the 7 Star level 125 points per $1, this nice man had almost $10,000 he could simply go over and collect—just sitting there in his account!). I need to remember guys like this when I complain I didn’t get a suite because there were higher 7 Star card players on the property.
As for me, I reached my 1000 tier point goal, and the meter ticket showed $308.75 meaning, I made my tier point bonus and collected a profit of $3.75. For the entire trip, I had close to a $500 gambling profit (an actual couple of profit penny game wins along the way helped out).
Cindy and I had an afternoon to kill before our 5:15 reservation at the steak house. Afraid to mention the obvious cliché, I gambled and Cindy shopped, that’s actually what happened. She found some nice bargains and bought a new purse, and some clothes. We had a nice stroll through all the shops once again and picked up some flavored tea at Starbucks and just sat and enjoyed the weather. We went to Harvey’s Diamond Lounge a couple of times and enjoyed the view and the cute elevator lady with her joke-of-the-day.
A change of clothes and it was up to the Friday Station Steak House on the 18th floor of Harrah’s. We were given a corner seat next to the glass with an amazing view of the lake. I ordered Oho fish and scallops and Cindy had the prime rib. My food was excellent, but Cindy gave me a taste of her prime rib and I have to admit, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been eating less meat and prime rib is nice but I rarely order it. I don’t know what rub they used or how they marinated this meat, but honestly, it was the best prime rib I have ever had. There is no doubt that if I return to Lake Tahoe, I will order this—truly remarkable prime rib.
Taken live at the show
After dinner, we headed down to the showroom and see the Tribute band, Abbacadabra. We had great seats five rows from the stage and center. These nine musicians with the four leads were spot on. If you closed your eyes, you would not be able to tell the real from the copy. They were also very entertaining with a lot audience participation and good patter between all the songs. At the end of the concert, they were happy to announce that they had just signed a one-year contract with Caesars to play all of their properties across the country, so if they do come your way, check them out.
The next morning, our limo was to pick us up at 6:00 AM (Rick called and confirmed so there would be no problem this time). Our chatty driver got us to the airport in plenty of time. All told, I came home with $300 more than I left with and I added with the bonuses 9,500 tier points (I know stand at 132,000—18,000 more to renewal). I spend almost $150 in tips (limo $20 each way; $5 per day for the maid, and the assorted drinks, meals, and just about everybody else in the business that had their hand out).
It was nice to finally have a trip where I felt like a 7-Stars member. It’s unfortunate that this was the exception and not the rule.
More later.
This chapter is going to focus on my trip to Lake Tahoe and the problems I encountered as well as the treatment as a 7 Star card holder
.
When I first made 7 Stars, I was given (and it’s posted online the Caesars web page) the variety of benefits that you can choose called Experiences. I wanted to use the July 4th Fireworks at Lake Tahoe, which included a suite for three nights, a ride on the company yacht to Emerald Bay, a fireworks dinner and show, and $200 in dining credits. There was a problem: It was on July 3rd, and supposedly you needed to use these benefits no later than June 30th. I contacted my host at Rincon and asked if I could still use it considering it was so close to the deadline and it was the only one I wanted. He said he’d check it out and get back to me.
A few weeks later, I received and email from my host saying he couldn’t book it until after the March 31st deadline, which is the Caesars calendar year. That should have signaled me a red flag, but I accepted it. On April 1, I emailed him once again asking that he book the trip. I didn’t hear anything for about a month when I received an email from a host at Lake Tahoe named Mark. He said he has booked me a room arriving on July 3 and departing July 6 and that the limo service had been taken care of (the offer didn’t include air fare, but I had plenty of Southwest miles to take care of that).
About a month before the trip, I called asked about the yacht, food, and show and Mark was surprised about his. I told him about the Experience package and emailed him the web page URL. A week later he called and explained that my host at Rincon never sent him the correct code for that trip, so he didn’t know anything about it. He also said my request was three days past the deadline and he couldn’t use it even if he wanted to. I told him it seems my Rincon host screwed me as now it was past the deadline for me to use any of the Experiences from 2013. Mark seemed genuinely understanding and told me he’d call me back in a few days.
I received that call and Mark said he was able to get me in the Fireworks show and dinner, and he would put a $200 credit to my room for food, but he couldn’t do anything about the suite and yacht as July 4th was their biggest holiday of the year and 7 Star holders from all over the country had already snatched up all the suites and the yacht was full as well. I had already made my plane reservations, so I suppose I’d take what I could get. But this was simply another example of Caesars not training their hosts properly. During this entire series I’ve mentioned that holding a 7 Stars card has had some very nice perks, but the frustration dealing with hosts is a challenge as you could ask ten different hosts a question and you’d get ten different answers.
On the morning of July 3rd, my friend Cindy and I flew into Reno where we would be picked up by the limo. It was 8:00 AM and there was no limo driver holding a sign with my name. I walked outside and saw a limo there and a man with a Harrah’s name tag. I asked him if he was looking for me and gave him my name. He said no and that he didn’t know of anyone else coming down from the hotel. He called and asked the dispatcher who told him she called me and I said I was driving (that didn’t happen). However, he was glad to give us a ride along with the couple that he was there to pick up. Michael (a retired engineer) and Nicole (a doctor) were happy to have us along and we had a nice talk for the hour drive to Lake Tahoe. They were celebrating their 36th wedding anniversary and already were into the champagne (even at 8 in the morning, the limo was fully stocked with those small liquor bottles, soft drinks, and juices).
Michael, Nicole, Cindy, and I
I learned that Michael, also a 7 Stars cardholder, plays only craps. This brought up the topic of table game tier points. He admitted that you are at the mercy of the pit boss to make sure that he not only logs you in with the correct amount of average bets, but that he(she) also continues to do so as the hours go by. He, like everybody else, says it’s a mystery how they calculate the points and that even pit bosses don’t know. The only way he can check to see if tier points were being added and how many he received is that he has to stop by a machine and put in his card to read the amount on his card. I thought to myself that he must play a lot for a very long time to reach the 2500 needed tier points to qualify for the bonus, which he told me he does as well.
After arriving, we went into the Diamond Registration and were greeted by Becky who said our room wasn’t ready, but she call the Bell Captain to hold on to our bags and would call me when it was.
To kill time, we walked around Lake Tahoe Village, which is full of shops and restaurants. The weather couldn’t have been better and already there were lots of other tourists walking and taking pictures and enjoying early morning coffee. The ski lifts were running ($38 per adult seemed high) and a few were choosing to go up the mountain.
Cindy with the ski lifts heading up the mountain
By 11:00 AM, there was still no call and we were in front of a just opened movie theater complex that had a showing of TAMMY, the new movie with Melissa McCarthy. I thought it would be a great way to wait for the room, so we bought a couple of tickets, and would you believe it? The very moment we sat down in the theater, the phone call came that the room was ready. We enjoyed the movie and it was funny, but this one had some serious subjects and poignant moments as well.
We walked back to Harrah’s and Becky was there to hand us the keys to our room and also told us she had booked us tomorrow on the yacht to Emerald Bay as well as our voucher for the fireworks dinner and show. She also confirmed our $200 dining credit. Wow! Things are really looking up. We went up to our room on the 7th floor and imagine the surprise to find that I indeed did get a suite. So it seems that after all my whining about losing my 7 Star Experience, I end up getting it all.
The living room of the suite (sorry it’s dark)
The bedroom of the suite. Double doors separate the two.
The bathrooms – this one with the whirlpool jets
This bathroom had the shower
View #1 from our room
View #2 from our room
We settled in and put clothes away. This is the first time since making 7 Stars last November that I feel like I’m being treated like a 7 Stars cardholder. We were given our contact host, Rick, who would take care of us during our stay and did he ever. After about an hour, a knock on the door and Rick had sent up a wonderful welcome pack of wine, cheese and crackers, candy bars, salted almonds and other treats.
The welcome tray of goodies
In addition to all of this, Rick also booked us two seats to Tribute Abba concert on Saturday night. As always, the room Internet and in-room movies were all free.
Friday, July 4th we headed to breakfast in the café and had a nice egg skillet and pancakes. The café is beautifully decorated with faux trees and a small waterfall and river running through it.
The café at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe. My picture doesn’t do it justice
I originally did not plan to gamble on this trip; however, David (timberwolf) had told me that there were two 50-play machines in the high limit area that had 9/6 Jacks and 8/5 Bonus on them for quarters. I went to check it out, and sure enough, there they were. I decided I’d perhaps shoot for 1000 tier points as long as I didn’t lose too much in the process. Even though these were 50-play machines, I knew I didn’t need to play 50 games. So, I set it up with 5-play and it wasn’t long before I caught a Royal on the third line.
It’s a bit fuzzy, but it’s my first $1000 royal of the summer, so I had to add it
After the royal, things fell into the usual 9/6 Jacks pattern. I’d hit a few dealt flushes and full houses, which kept me going, but long droughts of dealt dead hands (holding nothing or just one high card) began to erode my profits away, but once again, I was too close to the magic 2500 tier points to quit, so I hung in there and finally reached that goal and walked away with $300 profit for the session.
I went back to the room and received a call from Ted, LVA member who I met on my California casino run last year in Oroville, CA and also had dinner at Guy Fior’s place in Vegas a couple of weeks ago. He and his wife Martha were in town, though they had to leave that afternoon, so we agreed to meet for lunch at the café. At the top of the escalators to the café, Ted stopped to say hi to his host, Rick, who coincidentally was our contact. I thanked him for the show tickets and the welcome basket and he said if there was anything at all we needed just to contact him. If only my host at Rincon was one-third as helpful and friendly as Rick! Martha wasn’t feeling well, so I didn’t get to meet her, but we had a super time with Ted at lunch. Neither Cindy nor I wanted the welcome gift wine and we couldn’t take it on our flight home, so I offered it to Ted who drove up and we said our goodbyes.
We then went to pick up our tickets for tonight’s Fourth of July celebration and also made a stop at the box office to get the tickets for the Abbakadbra show and then it was time to take the shuttle, which would drive us to the lake and our yacht for the Emerald Bay trip. There were a surprising number of no-shows and it turned out there were only 16 of us taking the trip.
The Tahoe Star, the 54-foot yacht owned by Caesars
On board, we were greeted by Captain Doug, Co-captain Mike, and first mate Erika, who would be serving us drinks and sandwiches. There was a bit of a wind on the bay, so it was a tad choppy, but Captain Doug went slow and kept it smooth sailing.
Captain Doug welcoming us aboard as we set off to Emerald Bay
The ride took about an hour to arrive at Emerald Bay crossing the 12 miles of deep blue lake. Captain Doug kept us apprised of everything along the route. We sat right next to him (thanks again to David for the tip) so we could ask questions throughout the journey.
Approaching Emerald Bay
The small island as you approach the shoreline that has a “lookout” tower.
The 38-room Vikingsholm Castle built in 1929 by Lora Josephine Knight is now a National Landmark
After about 30 minutes we began the trip back to shore across the lake and the shuttle back to the room. We had just enough time to change and walk over to Harvey’s where the Fourth of July celebration and dinner was to take place. They had closed off the top floor of the parking garage and set up tables and chairs along with tents that were the food and drinks stations around the perimeter of the parking lot. The food was your standard Independence Day fare of hot dogs and hamburgers along with some chicken shish kabobs, German potato salad, and macaroni and cheese. Though we were in the “7 Star” end closest to the fireworks display, there was really no one concerned with who sat where.
Just some of the many invited guests at the dinner/fireworks show
There was a very good live band who played a variety of music but mostly they stayed in the 60s and 70s as well as dressing up as singers performing the hits along with a little comedy. They were very good. All the drinks and the food were free. Both Cindy and I were getting pretty tired of alcohol and stuck to coffee and soft drinks. The fireworks display off the lake was fabulous and lasted about 25 minutes. We made our way back to the Harrah’s by way of the stairs with a minor route mistake and called it a night.
Our final day in Lake Tahoe was simple: room service breakfast, dinner at their steakhouse, and the Tribute to Abba show. The breakfast room service was terrific (something I rarely do, but we had the $200 food credit to use). I decided to play for a couple of hours and perhaps add another 1000 tier points considering I’ll never be able to play 9/6 Jacks anywhere else in all of Caesarsdom. My goal was either reach 1000 tier points or lose no more than $300. My plan was to start at 5-play for $100. If I doubled that, I’d move up to 10-play and for every extra hundred dollars, five games per hundred.
The first $200 in went pretty fast and I assumed I’d have to take the $300 hit (which would make me even for the trip) and be done with that. However, my third hundred dollar in, I caught a couple of dealt flushes and a couple dealt full houses. Before I knew it, I was up $400 and was play 20 games at a time (at quarter level, that’s $25 per hand—usually out of my comfort zone). Things fluctuated and I started scaling back to 15 games, then 10, then 5 games at a time.
While I was sitting there, an older gentleman came over and sat down next to me and asked how things were going. He was a nice guy and we chatted as he kept putting hundreds into the machine until he reached a thousand dollars. He then put in the slot card, and because I’m an extremely nosey person, I couldn’t stop myself from sneaking a peek at his reward point and tier point totals as they scrolled across the screen. Tier points: 432,000. Reward points, 1,132,000. It took every ounce of discipline to not just stare. This guy had over a million reward credits (damn—if he chose to cash those in at the 7 Star level 125 points per $1, this nice man had almost $10,000 he could simply go over and collect—just sitting there in his account!). I need to remember guys like this when I complain I didn’t get a suite because there were higher 7 Star card players on the property.
As for me, I reached my 1000 tier point goal, and the meter ticket showed $308.75 meaning, I made my tier point bonus and collected a profit of $3.75. For the entire trip, I had close to a $500 gambling profit (an actual couple of profit penny game wins along the way helped out).
Cindy and I had an afternoon to kill before our 5:15 reservation at the steak house. Afraid to mention the obvious cliché, I gambled and Cindy shopped, that’s actually what happened. She found some nice bargains and bought a new purse, and some clothes. We had a nice stroll through all the shops once again and picked up some flavored tea at Starbucks and just sat and enjoyed the weather. We went to Harvey’s Diamond Lounge a couple of times and enjoyed the view and the cute elevator lady with her joke-of-the-day.
A change of clothes and it was up to the Friday Station Steak House on the 18th floor of Harrah’s. We were given a corner seat next to the glass with an amazing view of the lake. I ordered Oho fish and scallops and Cindy had the prime rib. My food was excellent, but Cindy gave me a taste of her prime rib and I have to admit, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been eating less meat and prime rib is nice but I rarely order it. I don’t know what rub they used or how they marinated this meat, but honestly, it was the best prime rib I have ever had. There is no doubt that if I return to Lake Tahoe, I will order this—truly remarkable prime rib.
Taken live at the show
After dinner, we headed down to the showroom and see the Tribute band, Abbacadabra. We had great seats five rows from the stage and center. These nine musicians with the four leads were spot on. If you closed your eyes, you would not be able to tell the real from the copy. They were also very entertaining with a lot audience participation and good patter between all the songs. At the end of the concert, they were happy to announce that they had just signed a one-year contract with Caesars to play all of their properties across the country, so if they do come your way, check them out.
The next morning, our limo was to pick us up at 6:00 AM (Rick called and confirmed so there would be no problem this time). Our chatty driver got us to the airport in plenty of time. All told, I came home with $300 more than I left with and I added with the bonuses 9,500 tier points (I know stand at 132,000—18,000 more to renewal). I spend almost $150 in tips (limo $20 each way; $5 per day for the maid, and the assorted drinks, meals, and just about everybody else in the business that had their hand out).
It was nice to finally have a trip where I felt like a 7-Stars member. It’s unfortunate that this was the exception and not the rule.
More later.
