RoadTrip '10

So I'm planning a trip this fall where I drive from the East Coast to Vegas and back. I am a Diamond at Harrah's, and looking up rates right now, I can get a free room everyplace I do (without using Comp Dollars)...

Itinerary:
Day 1: End the night at --> Horseshoe, Elizabeth IN
2: Harrah's KCMO
3: NonHarrahs Night
4: Ak Chin, Phoenix AZ
5: Ak Chin, PHX
6-10: Vegas (Probably Caesars)
11: Ak Chin, PHX (If I can get another night after booking the first 2)
12: NonHarrahs Night (TX)
13: Tunica
14: Cherokee, NC
15: Home

Hopefully I'll be able to document this trip extensively with photos of the stops and the trip along the way...I've done it once before, in '06, and it was tiring but I've got amazing memories I won't forget. I'll probably rent a car so as not to put 6000 miles on mine. Other than that and gas, I'm going to be able to lodge for free (except 2 nights) and eat free at those places with my Comp points). I have a couple of interested friends, though some like to join halfway through or meet in Vegas and go one way.

If you or anyone else will be in Vegas Aug 17-22 I would love to meet up, I am hoping we can get one of the Wizards Coffees together, but I will make another post to ask him for specifics. My spouse and I are also doing a road trip. I am not old enough to rent a car (I heard you have to be 25) and I would like to have a car to go off strip so we will be driving from San Francisco!

I'm diamond with Harrahs also and have made a similar trip 3 years ago. Like yours, almost all of my rooms were comped without point deductions, most of my meals were comped with point deductions, and I figure I saved maybe $1500. But I lost $2200 at the casinos....

Dang I lost $1200 at Harrahs and im still crappy gold!

I actually don't know if I ever shared how I first became Diamond. I used to play the Bally Blackjack machines pretty heavily, even though the BJ only paid even money. (These were the machines that also had Pick Em Poker). I felt that the "free odds" for the double up lowered the house edge, and unlike VP where you needed a Royal every once and a while to really get the HA down to near nothing, this was an even money game, so you "won" more and had the opportunity to double up with no HA more. Plus you can Double up Pushes at no HA as well. I used to wreck the machines in AC, $10 bet each hand, and I would rack up so many points. On promotional days, I'd earn even more. 10x Comp days, I'd be getting a dime back for each hand, which is 1%. They also let you trade your comp dollars for cash more often, and I'd cash that as well too. Whereas I enjoy Craps and real table games more, I could always always collect mondo comps and at least break even while playing those machines. They started on the main floor of Caesars, then they were gone, and I found them on the upper level, but I haven't seen them in a couple of years now. The newer Video blackjack on those Bally machines is lame. No Splits or doubles, and no double up feature. Forget that. I know there was still an edge on these machines, but I wasn't the only one who figured out you could do well on them, because it became harder to find a seat. Now they made those bad rule changes. Maybe they were taking a bit of a hit, or at least not making as much as they wanted.