This past Saturday was Halloween, and it turned out to be one hell of a night. I mean that in the bad sense. I’ve had some crappy Halloweens before, but this was the worst of the worst.
I got suckered into going to a club in Atlantic City (The Pool at Harrah’s, to be exact). Well, I shouldn’t really say suckered, because I always jump at the chance to go to the Armpit of America’s crappy version of Las Vegas. So I did go voluntarily, but, since the night was a complete disaster, I’ll say I got suckered in. Anyway.
After agreeing to go, I was told that the cast of Twilight was going to be there. Even though I never pass up an opportunity to go to Atlantic City, I did have some reservations once I heard that news: I figured the place would be swarming with 14-year-old girls. I then realized that 14-year-old girls can’t get into clubs. On top of that, the people from Twilight that were showing up were only the background characters or something, so I figured they wouldn’t draw much of a crowd. Upon hearing that Snoop Dogg was going to be there as well, I became slightly more interested.
Since we were presented with the option to purchase tickets in advance and pick them up at the Will Call booth, we did just that. Fast forward to Saturday afternoon. The plan was to meet up with some other people at Harrah’s and eat at their buffet. We’d then hang out at the casino for a little bit, pick up the tickets, and then go to our hotel just outside the city. We would put on our costumes at the hotel and then head back to Harrah’s.
Everything started out okay. The buffet was incredible. In addition to the usual salad bar and Italian counter, they had a Brazilian meat station. That’s right a BRAZILIAN MEAT STATION. They also had a dim sum counter with SIX different dumplings! This meal was by far the highlight of the trip. Soon after, things took a turn for the worse.
We finished the meal right before 8 PM, which was when the Will Call booth opened. When we got to the general area, we saw that the line was reallllly long. But it shouldn’t take that long right? Everyone on line had already bought the tickets and would just pick them up, right? WRONG!!! Apparently, the computer system was down. So no one moved for a long time. At some point, the line started moving forward inch by inch. Though the computer system was still down, the staff had printed a spreadsheet with everyone’s name on it. So they had to look up people’s names on this giant list before handing out the tickets. Oy.
After standing in line for ONE HOUR and THIRTY MINUTES, we finally got the tickets. We then went to the hotel to get changed. Once we were ready, we returned to Harrah’s thinking we could waltz right into the club. WRONG AGAIN!!!
Instead, we found two lines to get into the club. One was for people who were buying tickets at the door. The other line was for those already holding tickets, like us. Although, the ticket holders’ line was much more of a chaotic mass of people in stupid costumes pushing against each other to get into a stupid club than an actual line. While the people who were waiting to buy tickets got a nice, orderly, roped-off line, those with the foresight to buy tickets in advance were encouraged to push, shove, and cut the line in order to get in. As you can imagine, standing on your feet in bulky costumes, surrounded by a mass of loud, annoying, belligerent drunk people isn’t the best way to spend an evening.
Anyway, the “line” was moving incredibly slow, and the security people and other Harrah’s staff members did nothing to control the situation. They could have easily gotten some more ropes to make a more orderly line. They could have used the now-empty buffet room as a waiting room until more people could enter the club. Instead, it was just a fucking mess. We stood on line for an hour and a half before giving up. After waiting in line for three hours, would you be in a clubbing mood?
So, upon leaving the line, I immediately approached three Harrah’s employees who were standing off to the sides just watching the chaos but not doing anything to help the situation.
I calmly and politely asked them how this became such a mess.
They all shrugged their shoulders.
I then said that I had waited an hour and half for Will Call and then another hour and a half in front of the club.
One guy just said, “I don’t know what to tell you.”
I firmly replied, “Well I don’t like wasting my time or my money, and tonight I did both. How do you plan on compensating me for this?”
Again the response was “I don’t know what to tell you.”
I then went off and said how it was unbelievable how the situation could be such a mess and that there’s no reason I had to wait on line that long.
One woman condescendingly told me that there are two lines, one for ticket holders, the other for non-ticket holders.
I told her I knew that. I then asked who was responsible for this lack of organization.
This other woman says, “Well, it’s not one person responsible-“
I cut her off with, “Oh so you’re telling me that the entire Harrah’s organization couldn’t plan a simple event better than this?”
Well that seemed to shut the three of them up, until I got the now-predictable response:
“I don’t know what to tell you.”
As you can see, this was a horrible night. The funny thing is that our friends that did make it in only stayed a half-hour. Apparently, it wasn’t worth the hype. Or the $23 for tickets. And certainly not three hours of standing on line trying to get in.
The night wasn’t a total waste, though. I won $7.18 from a penny slot.
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