Las Vegas Challenge: 7 Buffets in 24 Hours

Quote: konceptum

Here's a question, do you think any of the Harrah's casinos would offer this buffet deal as a comp?

Sure, just earn 3000 Reward Credits.

Quote: teddys

I myself did not buy the pass, but I ate at the Rio buffet one night. It was excellent, and the line was huge. I skipped it because I have an upper-tier Harrah's card (benefits finally came due!) They had excellent meats, including Chinese-style duck breast and BBQ pork, and make-your-own stir fry where the chef put in a ton of shrimps. They also had pre-peeled cocktail shrimp, snow crab legs, a taco bar, and gelato. I would recommend hitting the Rio buffet if you buy the buffet pass...

WHICH buffet did you eat at?

Carnival World or Village Seafood. Sounds like the latter - which is NOT included in this program.

Quote: konceptum

Here's a question, do you think any of the Harrah's casinos would offer this buffet deal as a comp?

You betcha!

Maybe not immediately. Maybe they have to increase the capacity and/or price at the buffets to make it work, but sooner or later, if the 24 hour buffet is still being offered, it will be part of the comp program. OK, maybe only for upper tier members, but it will be there somewhere.

Carnival World (not seafood). I actually did use a comp (2400 reward credits), and the 2-for-1 coupon from American Casino Guide. So the total cost for two was $12.00.

Business Analysis of the effect of the buffet card on the north end of the strip.

Current financial situation
In 2009 Circus Circus needed for people to spend $171 a day per occupied room to break even on operational costs. On average the room rate was $44 . For 2009 they just barely cleared this minimum by a $3.50 but by the 4th quarter they lost $3.7 million. In the first quarter of 2010 Circus Circus lost another $3.6 million.

Circus Circus has a $25 all you can eat buffet, but the casino has to get the minimum from some other revenue source. Maybe there are two people in the room who both purchase buffet tickets, or Adventuredome tickets, gambling, etc. I think most families probably meet the minimum because they spend more time at the resort.

Clearly the worst customer is guys who rent the rooms and walk to the strip clubs or even strippers who come in from out of town and rent the rooms to work the clubs. They may spend little or nothing at the casino.


Potential business


But with Harrah's city wide buffet, you will have a certain percentage of people who can't get a Harrah's room at one of their low priced hotels. They will stay at Circus Circus, and take the bus two miles (about 10 minutes) where they will eat and gamble, just using their hotel rooms to sleep. If people in 300 rooms per day do that (out of 3774 rooms) that is another loss of $3.5 million per quarter (assuming they spend $127 per day at Harrah's instead of Circus Circus).

I think all the north strip casinos are vulnerable to this kind of poaching (Strat, Sahara, Riviera). There is very little they can do about it. Circus Circus can argue that there $25 all day buffet is cheaper by $10, but it doesn't come with the city wide access. Stratosphere I believe has an all day buffet for $20 or $25, but no access. Sahara doesn't even offer a buffet anymore, just the two coffee shops and the steakhouse.

Personally, if I was Harrah's I would hire some lunch trucks to park in one of the empty lots up near Sahara Avenue and give away coffee, soft drinks muffins in the morning and hot dogs later in the day to people who have the buffet card. I would also have the ability to sign people up right there. If that helps poach a 1000 people a day from the 4 casinos that will spend at least $35 on the buffet and possibly another $100 in gaming business, it would be well worth the cost.

Even the Motel 6's and Super 8's may lose people at their coffee shops, but they are probably not as critically dependent on that revenue stream. They probably lose a lot of their business to the buffets anyway.

Quote: teddys

Nareed said he was going to try to hit all seven buffets. I told him to take pictures :)

The terms were to have seven full meals within 24 hours, each at a different buffet.

I thought about it, in the end I didn't.

In the third place, as you noted, it gets very crowded at peak times. I decided I had better things to do than to stand in line trying to accomplish a minor stunt.

In the second place, Casesars Palace is huge, so merely finding the buffet involves way too much walking.

But in the first place, doing the 7 buffets in 24 hours stunt involves actually eating in IP. Why would anyone do that? breakfast is tolerable if you stick to oatmeal and the omelet station, everything else is at least as bad as people say it is.

I did buy the pass more than once. I didn't keep a record of every meal, but I had at least the following: breakfast at Flamingo's Paradise Buffet and dinner at the Rio's Carnival World, dinner at Paris, the Spice Market at PH and The Flavors at Harrah's.

I should explain something about lunch. In Mexico the mid-day meal is the big meal of the day, most people eat it around 2-4 pm. I'm used to eating around 2 pm, but while on vacation I tend to eat later, if at all (often I just eat breakfast and dinner). This time I'd eat at around 3 pm and dine after 9 pm (most buffets close at 10 pm). As all buffets serve lunch only until 3, I didn't get to sample lunch.

I did see a lot of people buying the pass. If you have a Harrah's Total Rewards card, any level, your card along with an ID is your pass, which is very convenient. If you don't have one they give you a blue paper bracelet you have to keep on for a full 24 hours, as it's void if removed (I wonder how it holds up in the shower).

The first time I bought the pass at breakfast. The other two at dinner. I squeezed four meals out of every pass, though.

Overall the food was fine. I'll post more extensively on the Rio elsewhere, but here's the rest:

Paris. I've read the buffet has gone down in quality, since I'd never eaten there before I can't comment on that. I found it great for a buffet, but of lesser quality than a restaurant. Take the onion soup, for example. It was very good, but it lacked the chunk of garlic bread and the melted cheese cover you'll usually find in a french restaurant (at least the ones I know, including some in Florida and NYC). They had croutons, but that's not the same. There was a section for pasta, too, which was outstanding. I can also recommend the roast duck.

The deserts were a little disappointing. Not bad, just nothing special. I think you can find the same deserts at any other buffet. I had a creme brulee (however that's spelled) which was nice, but the sugar wasn't completely caramelized. The eclair was good, but not as good as the one at PH.

Next, the Spice Market Buffet. As the Wizard noted in his review of PH, it is a bit hard to locate, and I knew to look for a down escalator. Anyway, I was mildly disappointed. Nothing wrong with it, but it sure isn't one of the top buffets in Vegas. But they did have a top-notch chocolate eclair.

The Harrah's buffet, on the other hand, was a nice surprise. I dined there at 5 just before the dinner rush (I don't keep to a tight schedule on vacation, and I hadn't eaten lunch that day because I'd been playing Downtown). What stood out was the Chinese food. They had something called General Tso's Chicken, which is small bite sized chicken pieces with a glaze on them, mixed with some vegetables. I had an extra helping of that instead of desert.

Breakfast at Flamingo was a challenge. The Rio shuttle doesn't leave til 10, which means I arrived at the buffet a little after 11, when breakfast was being replaced by lunch. I managed to snag some bacon and French toast before it was all gone, however. The french toast was some of the best I ever had, with a clear cinnamon taste to it rather than just a hint. The maple syrup is heated, which is a nice change of pace. it's dispensed out of an urn, much like a small coffee urn.

One last thing. I've a lousy sense of direction and get lost easily. At buffets I'm always concerned about not finding my table. Once at the Paris buffet the waitress left an item on my table (I'll tell you what it was later). I saw no use for it for the meal, therefore I thought it was meant to mark my table. I thought that was very clever and I decided to leave a larger tip.

When i sat down with desert and asked for coffee, the waitress removed the item, but she also looked disappointed, which puzzled me. I had coffee and desert, left a tip and went on my way, still puzzled. About two blocks up-Strip it hit me. The item, you see, was a nutcracker. The buffet at the Paris has a respectable seafood section, which I had studiously avoided. I don't eat fish or seafood at all (the mere smell of it makes me nauseous; the one time I tried shrimp, against my better judgment, I threw up while trying to chew).

Oh, well. if she was fishing for a better tip she got it, even if for the wrong reasons.

Great review Nareed! It sounds like the pass was well worth it.

Quote: gambler

Great review Nareed! It sounds like the pass was well worth it.

Thank you.

Yes, I think it's worth it. If you time things right you can eat four nice meals for roughly $40, tax included. The trick is to avoid peak times, which means having breakfast early and dinner rather late.

Nareed

How did HArrah's do with their objective? How much did you gamble in a non Harrah's casino? How much money did you spend overall in your vacation that didn't go to a Harrah's property? Did you just go to Wynn/Encore, Venetian/Palazzo, and Bellagio/Aria for picture taking sidetrips? Did you make it as far away as Mandalay Bay?

Great review.

The part about the wrong table is funny. I once was at the Showboat AC buffet, and returned with my dessert only to see new people at my table. (And I KNEW it was my table.) fortunately, there was another empty table next to it. Then the waitress appeared and saw me at the new table, and got all apologetic, saying she thought I left. I replied that I'm not cheap enough to leave without leaving a tip!

They also do something that makes it easy to find your table. At the top of the wire condement rack is a loop designed to hold the table number. At the Showboat buffet, they insert a playing card in there. Just remember your card! I also take the card when I'm done. They only use the high value cards. I now have in my wallet an Ace high straight, and a full house. Sometimes I use them for laughs at a poker table.

Quote: Nareed

I did see a lot of people buying the pass. If you have a Harrah's Total Rewards card, any level, your card along with an ID is your pass, which is very convenient. If you don't have one they give you a blue paper bracelet you have to keep on for a full 24 hours, as it's void if removed (I wonder how it holds up in the shower).

Those things are made out of Tyvek. They hold up fine. In fact, they are almost impossible to remove without scissors.

Quote: pacomartin

Nareed

How did HArrah's do with their objective? How much did you gamble in a non Harrah's casino? How much money did you spend overall in your vacation that didn't go to a Harrah's property? Did you just go to Wynn/Encore, Venetian/Palazzo, and Bellagio/Aria for picture taking sidetrips? Did you make it as far away as Mandalay Bay?

I mostly gambled at non Harrah's properties, except Bill's if that's part of Harrah's (it wasn't part of the 7 buffets program). I dind't visit Mandalay this trip, but I spent a lot of time Downtown.

I'll go deeper into this trip's gambling elsewhere. Meantime I'll say I avoided Harrah's for two reasons: 1) Lousy DW pay tables and 2) two bonus bets at three card poker. But the buffet pass did keep me closer to the Strip.