Hi Gang:
Hedy and I spent last weekend (Thursday through Saturday) in AC and although
the bottom line for three days of play was not a good one, we saw some new
things worth noting. We stayed at the Borgata Thursday and Friday nights and
played there as well as Showboat and Harrah's. The things we want to report mostly
concern Harrah's.
The new Waterfront Buffet is in a very nice, spacious room in the area where
the newly opened upscale shops are located, but when Hedy and I ate there on
Friday we found the food to be merely good, not great. There seem to be more
choices than there were in the FantaSea Reef (especially at the dessert bar),
but my food was not hot and mostly tasteless. Hedy agreed that whatever she
sampled was "just OK." Also, we were told at noon that the buffet would open at 3
p.m. (a strange time to open, by the way) but when we went there, some
Harrah's reps outside the entrance were telling people that they were "trying to open
by 3:30, but it would probably be closer to 4."
Needless to say, there were a lot of unhappy, hungry campers milling around.
As far as we are concerned, the Borgata buffet is far and away the best in AC
and with the $10 fee for Black Label cardholders now restored for ALL meals,
it is undoubtedly the best bargain in Atlantic City.
The thing we did like about Harrah's was the new shops. There is a large logo
store that sells a variety of Harrah's items (clothing, souvenirs, glassware
etc.) and everything is 1-for-1 (comp dollars for real dollars) unlike the
Borgata gift shop which is 2-for-1. A lot of the prices seemed to be inflated,
but we spent about 80 comp dollars in the gift shop and got a couple of nice
shirts and other nick nacks. We also were impressed by the fact that there is a
SONY electronics store in the complex.
We can confirm that all Harrah's properties will have 3X cashback the entire
month of March and when you combine that with the multiple reward credits days
they are offering, it makes the 9/6 JOB at Harrah's and Showboat a very good
play. We will be staying at Showboat Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights this
coming weekend and will be plugging away at the 9/6 JOB machines at the Boat
and Harrahs. I will also be taking part in at least one of the poker
tournaments being offered during ATLarge at the Taj. It's my first time in an ATLarge
event and I'm looking forward to banging heads with fellow list members (Siona,
Llew, Effen Dolts et al) over the weekend. Everyone tells me that these
events are a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to it.
Also, we're hearing a little scuttlebutt about the smoking issue in the
casinos. One host told us that Harrah's was taking a survey to see "just how many"
of their customers do smoke. This gives a little more life to the rumor that
certain casinos may just go smokeless rather than go through the expense of
building the separate area (25% of the casino floor) with glass walls and a
separate, more powerful ventilation system. They may be resigned to the fact that a
totally smokefree casino is inevitable, so why not just do it now. We went
through a similar situation with restaurants in New York a few years ago. Many
of the diners and restaurants had separate, glass-enclosed rooms for smokers
for awhile then a smoke-free act was put into place and those rooms went by the
wayside.
On the other hand, there is construction going on right now at Showboat
behind curtains in an area near the front of the casino and someone told us that
that was where the 25% smoking-permitted area would be.
Whatever the case, as non-smokers who are in the casinos for long hours
almost every weekend, Hedy and I can't wait for April 15 to get here.
Regards,
CoachVee (Tom V) & Hedy
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]