Has anyone stayed in the Harrah's (Grand? Tower?) whatever they call the hotel next to the casino -- not the Veranda or Terrace -- lately? Just wondering if the rooms are OK? Booked a promo and they said that was all that was available for that particular promo. Also, vpFree2 shows $5 JOB and 9/7 DB; the last time I was there, I could not find. Does the database look correct to those of you who visit? Thanks, RW.
Harrah's Tunica
Lucky Lucy and I were there a little less than a year ago and stayed in the casino tower hotel -- actually in two different rooms. Both rooms were fine, large and in good shape. The room came with all the amenities plus coffee maker. We requested rooms in this hotel because it is close to the casino and we didn't have to rely on shuttle buses. I haven't seen rooms in the other towers but I seriously doubt they were any better. I don't think you will be disappointed.
The $5 JOB machines were in the high limit area. Don't know about he DB. There were also several $1 8/5 Aces & Faces (Bonus) on the floor along with 25 cent 9/6 JOB. But a lot can change in a year, especially with Harrah's.
Below is a copy of my trip report if you are interested.
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Trip Report
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Lots of free room offers, free food, and $500 in freeplay from Tunica
casinos turned out to be an offer we couldn't refuse. We normally travel in our small motorhome even when casino hopping. But the price of gas and the offers for free hotel rooms prompted us to make this trip by automobile.
Although the motorhome get good mileage (for a motorhome) our car gets twice the miles per gallon.
The trip was planned for a Sunday morning departure from our home in
Leavenworth, Kansas, to St. Louis then on to Tunica and returning via Tulsa
(to visit friends). However, we had tickets for the theater in Kansas City
for Saturday afternoon (saw "Wicked" which was excellent) so Lucky Lucy
suggested we just stay in KC Saturday night and have a hour head start on
the trip and also saving some high priced gas. She had a free room offer
from Ameristar and we both had offers from Harrah's. Ameristar won the toss
so we had lunch there and checked into the hotel before we departed for the
theater.
We have not made a trip by car and stayed in hotels since we retired and
purchased our motorhome several years ago. The only exception to staying in
hotels is an occasional trip to Las Vegas but those trips were by air.
The hotel at Ameristar, KC, was excellent and included a large flat screen
HD TV. Large bathroom with separate shower and lots of marble. They also
provide free high speed internet connections for their guests. The only
downside was the view -- an excellent overview of the casino roof. We had a
couple food coupons so we used one for breakfast and the second for
sandwiches to go.
The drive to St Louis was pleasant, clear skies and a stiff tail wind
carried us along and boosted our gas mileage. Lunch was the Ameristar
sandwiches at an Interstate rest stop. Check in at Harrah's was quick and
we were soon in our next hotel room for the night. The room fell into the
"just OK" category. It was clean but small and the shower was the bathtub
with a shower curtain. They also had a large flat screen TV but not high
def. All Harrah's on this trip charged for internet access so we passed on
those opportunities. Dinner in the Diamond Lounge and not too bad for free
food.
Monday morning and the poor working people were heading back to the job
place. We headed out but made a side trip to Trader Joe's grocery store.
They have a great selection of out of the ordinary stuff including some
excellent coffee. Too bad we don't have a store in the Kansas City area (St
Louis has two). Another pleasant day for travel, sunshine and clear skies.
We stopped at a burger place at lunch time for the only meal we purchased on
this trip.
Since there were several hotels in the area I fired up the laptop and picked
up a good wi-fi signal for downloading e-mail.
We checked into the Grand (now Harrah's) in Tunica and was given a very nice
room, a large corner room. The only drawback was the 'room perfume' that
had been liberally applied. I suspect it had once been a smoking room and
they were trying to cover up the smell.
The Grand is undergoing a major renovation and will be rebranded as
Harrah's. They have already painted their water tower with the Harrah's
logo. They are completely redoing the buffet (and did it ever need it!) and
will be reopened as Paula Deen's Buffet. Looked like they had a lot of work
to do before the grand opening on the 23rd. We had dinner at the temporary
buffet located in the rear of the coffee shop. Limited selection but pretty
good and they gave us a 40% discount for using our TR points to pay.
Collected on some free play coupons before heading back to the room.
I was not able to book rooms at the Grand for the entire time, could not
come to an agreement on non-smoking accommodations, so we booked the next
five nights at Sam's Town. Check in at ST went well but when we got to the
room it was a smoking room. I complained to the desk and they said they
would send someone to hose it down with 'room perfume'. Not acceptable,
find us a different room. They only thing they could come up with was a
handicap room so we took it. The rooms were shabby, worn and stained
carpets, dirty upholstery, but the bed was pretty decent -- and that's the
main ingredient in a hotel room. However, the worst feature of this room
was the ice maker just on the other side of the wall. Every few minutes the
thing would come on with a loud clunk. This went on day and night. We
quickly decided we would not spend five nights here, even leaving the area
if necessary. But we did spend two nights and, believe it or not, even got
used to the ice maker clunk. Besides we had lots of freeplay coupons and
lots of comps (from a visit in January in our motorhome). This experience
convinced us that traveling in our motorhome is the way to go regardless of
the price of gas.
Each morning we motored across the highway to the Hollywood casino where we
found free wi-fi and a free cappuccino. They even have tables set up
outside their coffee shop where we could sit, surf the internet, and sip
coffee. Also had a nice freeplay coupon from Hollywood.
Sam's Town has joined the ranks of casinos emulating Harrah's Total Rewards
system. While we were there they instituted their new system 'B Connected'.
It is tiered like Harrah's and the new cards will be good at any Boyd
property including
all the casinos in Las Vegas. Comp points are supposed to carry over from
one property to the next as well. Now for the glitch -- all points
accumulated under the old system went away, zapped, gone, disappeared,
screwed. They told me in January the comp points would be good for a year.
They lied. I don't think we lost a lot as we had been eating all our meals
there. But on the positive side, they gave me 50,000 points upon activating
the new card (worth $50 freeplay or $100 comps).
Wanting to part company with Sam's Town I called the Grand to see if the
room situation had changed. After some hesitation the booking person asked
who was traveling with me. I told her and that Lucky Lucy was also a
Diamond player. That was enough and she gave us the room at the hotel tower
next
to the casino (they have two other hotels away from the casino and use
shuttle buses for their guests). We decided to depart Tunica early and only
booked two nights. Besides two more days would cover all the freeplay
coupons we had left.
So back to the Grand and a very nice room, clean, large, and no outside
noise. While Lucky Lucy chilled out in the room, I went to the casino to
cash in a scratch-off coupon. It was good for $15 -- $125 so I was
expecting $15 but was pleasantly surprised to hit $35. I made a run
upstairs to check out the new buffet and it was open. They have done a lot
of
work in the past few days. When I reported this
fact to LL she got all excited and said we absolutely had to go there for
dinner (Paula Deen is her favorite TV chef). So in spite of the fact we had
already indulged at buffets twice that day, we headed off to Paula Deen's
Buffet. A bit pricey, $38 worth of points came off our Total Rewards
account
for the meal -- and no discount. Maybe it was because we were still stuffed
from the
excellent lunch buffet at Horseshoe we were a bit disappointed in this one.
Don't get me wrong, it is a great improvement over the previous Grand buffet
but a buffet nevertheless with standard buffet grub. Very nice facilities,
though, and the seating area is broken up into separate rooms so you don't
get the feeling you are dining in an airplane hanger.
Stuffed we hit the machines for a little gaming. Pretty much broke even so
called it a night.
Last day in Tunica we did a little gaming, lost a few bucks but nothing
serious. We had plans to hit Sam's Town for the seafood buffet that evening
(to use the last of Lucky Lucy's comps) so we split a sandwich at Grand's
coffee shop.
Earlier I had noticed a long line at a promotions booth near the coffee shop
but after lunch the line was mostly gone. Hay, let's go see what this is
all about. "Everyone's a winner", the sign proclaimed. So we gave it a
try. After swiping my player's card the booth girl instructed me to select
an envelope out of the barrel. She opened my envelope and got all excited.
It had a slip of paper that said "SPIN". What does that mean, I asked. You
get to spin the wheel for a prize. Oh boy, a set of coffee mugs or a cheap
camera I thought. But the wheel of fortune only had bands of color which
related to the prize. I looked over the prize selections on a sign nearby
and the smallest was $1000 in free play. What! I am guaranteed at least
$1000 and up to $10,000. Of course the $10K color bands were few and
narrow. My spin landed on $1500. Outstanding! After some paper work the
boothling handed me 150 ten- dollar freeplay certificates. Lucky Lucy drew
a $10 freeplay certificate -- a single.
So we headed off to the $1 Aces & Faces (Bonus) VP machines and started
stuffing in certificates -- all 151 of them. We worked them off in $100
sessions, cashing out when the minimum number of hands had been played.
After the dust had settled, all the certificates played, cash out tickets
consolidated, we ended up with $1535. Probably not the outcome the casino
was looking for but we were most pleased.
Early afternoon we headed for Sam's Town for dinner. After the experience
with my lost comp points we decided to take everything out. So coupled with
a freeplay coupon and freeplay from points we had $130; played it off and
cashed out $115.
Seafood buffet was pretty decent with lots of shrimp dishes. We hit the
machines at the Grand after returning from ST, I won but LL lost so it was a
wash. Ended the last day with full tummies and pockets full of cash. Life
is good.
Up early for hitting the road, we gave Paula Deen's Buffet a try for
breakfast. We were in line when it opened at 7:00. Pretty decent breakfast
fare and the best fried green tomatoes we ever tasted. This buffet is such
an improvement over the old Grand buffet it is sure to be a hit.
I had $65 in cash-back freeplay so collected it and hit the machines for a
quick session. Guess I used up all my luck on the wheel for I only got $15
out of this freeplay. Bummer! Oh well, certainly can't complain about this
trip.
We hit the road early for Tulsa where we spent a couple days then on to home camp.
Rick & Lucky Lucy
--- In vpFREE_Tunica@yahoogroups.com, "casinoredwolf" <iso3@...> wrote:
Has anyone stayed in the Harrah's (Grand? Tower?) whatever they call the hotel next to the casino -- not the Veranda or Terrace -- lately? Just wondering if the rooms are OK? Booked a promo and they said that was all that was available for that particular promo. Also, vpFree2 shows $5 JOB and 9/7 DB; the last time I was there, I could not find. Does the database look correct to those of you who visit? Thanks, RW.
harrah's has very poor video poker. there is no 9/7 DB. a player at sheraton told me there was 96 JOB upstairs but i have not been able to verify this. the best bet for video poker is Sheraton and Resorts.
···
________________________________
From: casinoredwolf <iso3@yahoo.com>
To: vpFREE_Tunica@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 6:48:23 PM
Subject: [vpFREE_Tunica] Harrah's Tunica
Has anyone stayed in the Harrah's (Grand? Tower?) whatever they call the hotel next to the casino -- not the Veranda or Terrace -- lately? Just wondering if the rooms are OK? Booked a promo and they said that was all that was available for that particular promo. Also, vpFree2 shows $5 JOB and 9/7 DB; the last time I was there, I could not find. Does the database look correct to those of you who visit? Thanks, RW.
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