I'll add this note. Today they misposted the fill in the blank so that it did not really reflect the quoted passage on the website and none of the words from that passage were actually missing. I told them on Facebook. I suppose others told them. By evening they had made the correction. Dysfunction follows their promotions. But if you have patience, you can capture a hat and a buffet if you manage to be going to Vegas while those rewards are still alive in your Special Offers section.
Since I got some questions from a board friend on the Webpass and wrote it up in detail, I thought I'd repost my answer to Pluto here. Keep in mind that MyVegas is infinitely better at giving great rewards and really knows how to process the redemption, electronically and with focus on the customer. We took out $700 in value this past trip, using it all in just 3 days. You would spend a lifetime getting that much value from Webpass Promotions.
On the other hand if you have a child at home who likes playing video games, these games are geared for children. They are not gambling type games. So set the kid up and let him play for a while, and then if the timing works out, grab a free buffet on your next trip.
Dear Pluto,
I would not fret about the elimination of any bus passes. I heard it from my local buddy buddy, but I think he confused the signs about the elimination of the strip discounts for seniors with residential passes which happened a while ago.
He and his wife have soured on Vegas.
It is really a shame. I'm going to send him your last trip report and the one from Eva and Wolfgang, so he gets a sense of the opportunities he is missing. Something strange happens to some folks who move to Vegas to live. They lose their ability to explore. They get jaded. They never visit the strip again.
My buddy was talking about how they can't afford the expensive downtown shows and I told him how my wife and I went to O and Zumanity for free and how the cheaper shows are good as well. I did 9 shows this trip (two with my wife) and it cost me $52. Even after I had him print my coupons at Eastside Cannery he did not join and use Webpass and he lives near there.
Even if it did happen that only locals were allowed discounted long term passes, it would not be a bus deal breaker. Full price for 15 or 30 day passes is still a decent deal.
I just don't think it will happen.
It is a real shame that they made senior citizen tourists second class riders on strip buses (with residential 24 hour passes) while improving their bus system at the expense of Federal dollars. I am thinking that they won't want to do that for folks who stay for long stretches at a time. If they do, I'm going to figure out a way to get a local ID.
EASTSIDE CANNERY
You just go to the Eastside Cannery site and click on the Webpass icon and sign up. I suggest keeping Facebook out of the signup. You just set up a user name and password and you won't have EC with access to your Facebook. There are games to play there too if you like that sort of thing. If you do play the games, don't do well at them right away. We collected quite a few points from improving our early low and seemingly braindead scores a little at a time, more than we would have by doing really well right away. This is for games where score is kept and points are given for beating your previous best, you want just to edge up the score a bit at a time.
After earning a certain number of points we bought into the "advanced" games using Cannery points and those were somewhat better and a good deal because you don't actually have to play anything to accumulate points.
Just clicking on them gets you 100 points each, so clicking through the icon menu of games can get 1800 points every day.
I collected so many points when the room and freeplay deals were still of value that I only go in now and click on the main game, usually some pick-a-box kind of game, then I go find the two keys at the bottom of a couple pages they would like me to read, and I do the fill in the blank. Sometimes I search out the fill in the blank on the site, sometimes I remember it as they repeat, but most times I copy it and paste it into a search with eastside in the key words and the internet gives me the missing word. Today the key word is "Latin."
So a free buffet right now is 18000 points and in a few minutes this morning I collected 2500. They add up fast. Make a separate account for each of you so that you double the benefits.
There are also month drawings for freebies. These might just hit on a month you are going. Mine don't and so I don't win when I win.
The free gift is a cap, but Eastside has a fine cap and slightly changes the design every little while. It is always black with dignified logo lettering and worn backwards as my wife did this trip, it says Las Vegas on the strap. It goes well with any black outfit. It would not be the cap for August as it is well made, but it is great here at home in November.
Webpass is a local's focused program. They get more benefit.
In the beginning this was a really generous program and they were actually giving freeplay, but now the freeplay comes after playing more points than I earn. Frustrating is that once you buy an offer you can't return points that you don't use. However, if I stay there, I might take along with me one of the freeplay coupons because I will play more.
All that being said, if you buy an offer with points, redeem the printed voucher within 7 days, you have 30 days then to use the offer. So next trip I'll probably go with the free gift voucher, free buffet, free 2 for 1. I might even use the reduced rate room offer if I decide to stay out there, but frankly I got better deals right on the website. By the way seniors get a $10 reduced rate just by asking. There is no resort fee. And the views are spectacular. Each trip I think I'm going for a corner room again, but then I go for cheaper places downtown, but Sam's and Eastside have more to draw me now and the strip has less. I also think it might be a place I can meet my dysfunctional relatives by just sitting with my novel in Sam's Courtyard for a couple nights and asking them to find me.
When I stayed a few years ago
http://vegasbirthdaybash.blogspot.com/2009/05/tr-snippet-eastside-cannery.html
In those days I could ask for a corner room and get it if they were available. Now it costs more money, but I am still thinking of doing it, as the tub is wonderful. Other benefits for me to the area:
Boulder used to be a good spot to get a bus to Sunset Station, but now going from downtown takes half the time because the HDX changed its schedule and no longer stops at Sam's Town.
Maybe it will change back.
It is a long bus ride from downtown to Sam's Town now, just as long as from the strip. However, there is the Sam's Town free shuttle and that cuts the time. I can never get organized for it. It runs about every hour and fifteen minutes taking just 20 minutes from the California or a half hour from Harrah's.
Just give yourself time for long lines and dysfunction. That really frustrated me last trip. Now I just go with it. They don't do the Webpass electronically. They do put in their freeplay offers electronically and just a very small amount of play in October generated a $12 freeplay in November so if you straddle months when you come and go to the EC the first week you are in Vegas, you may have some additional freeplay by the end of your trip.
Since I got some questions from a board friend on the Webpass and wrote it up in detail, I thought I'd repost my answer to Pluto here. Keep in mind that MyVegas is infinitely better at giving great rewards and really knows how to process the redemption, electronically and with focus on the customer. We took out $700 in value this past trip, using it all in just 3 days. You would spend a lifetime getting that much value from Webpass Promotions.
On the other hand if you have a child at home who likes playing video games, these games are geared for children. They are not gambling type games. So set the kid up and let him play for a while, and then if the timing works out, grab a free buffet on your next trip.
Dear Pluto,
I would not fret about the elimination of any bus passes. I heard it from my local buddy buddy, but I think he confused the signs about the elimination of the strip discounts for seniors with residential passes which happened a while ago.
He and his wife have soured on Vegas.
It is really a shame. I'm going to send him your last trip report and the one from Eva and Wolfgang, so he gets a sense of the opportunities he is missing. Something strange happens to some folks who move to Vegas to live. They lose their ability to explore. They get jaded. They never visit the strip again.
My buddy was talking about how they can't afford the expensive downtown shows and I told him how my wife and I went to O and Zumanity for free and how the cheaper shows are good as well. I did 9 shows this trip (two with my wife) and it cost me $52. Even after I had him print my coupons at Eastside Cannery he did not join and use Webpass and he lives near there.
Even if it did happen that only locals were allowed discounted long term passes, it would not be a bus deal breaker. Full price for 15 or 30 day passes is still a decent deal.
I just don't think it will happen.
It is a real shame that they made senior citizen tourists second class riders on strip buses (with residential 24 hour passes) while improving their bus system at the expense of Federal dollars. I am thinking that they won't want to do that for folks who stay for long stretches at a time. If they do, I'm going to figure out a way to get a local ID.
EASTSIDE CANNERY
You just go to the Eastside Cannery site and click on the Webpass icon and sign up. I suggest keeping Facebook out of the signup. You just set up a user name and password and you won't have EC with access to your Facebook. There are games to play there too if you like that sort of thing. If you do play the games, don't do well at them right away. We collected quite a few points from improving our early low and seemingly braindead scores a little at a time, more than we would have by doing really well right away. This is for games where score is kept and points are given for beating your previous best, you want just to edge up the score a bit at a time.
After earning a certain number of points we bought into the "advanced" games using Cannery points and those were somewhat better and a good deal because you don't actually have to play anything to accumulate points.
Just clicking on them gets you 100 points each, so clicking through the icon menu of games can get 1800 points every day.
I collected so many points when the room and freeplay deals were still of value that I only go in now and click on the main game, usually some pick-a-box kind of game, then I go find the two keys at the bottom of a couple pages they would like me to read, and I do the fill in the blank. Sometimes I search out the fill in the blank on the site, sometimes I remember it as they repeat, but most times I copy it and paste it into a search with eastside in the key words and the internet gives me the missing word. Today the key word is "Latin."
So a free buffet right now is 18000 points and in a few minutes this morning I collected 2500. They add up fast. Make a separate account for each of you so that you double the benefits.
There are also month drawings for freebies. These might just hit on a month you are going. Mine don't and so I don't win when I win.
The free gift is a cap, but Eastside has a fine cap and slightly changes the design every little while. It is always black with dignified logo lettering and worn backwards as my wife did this trip, it says Las Vegas on the strap. It goes well with any black outfit. It would not be the cap for August as it is well made, but it is great here at home in November.
Webpass is a local's focused program. They get more benefit.
In the beginning this was a really generous program and they were actually giving freeplay, but now the freeplay comes after playing more points than I earn. Frustrating is that once you buy an offer you can't return points that you don't use. However, if I stay there, I might take along with me one of the freeplay coupons because I will play more.
All that being said, if you buy an offer with points, redeem the printed voucher within 7 days, you have 30 days then to use the offer. So next trip I'll probably go with the free gift voucher, free buffet, free 2 for 1. I might even use the reduced rate room offer if I decide to stay out there, but frankly I got better deals right on the website. By the way seniors get a $10 reduced rate just by asking. There is no resort fee. And the views are spectacular. Each trip I think I'm going for a corner room again, but then I go for cheaper places downtown, but Sam's and Eastside have more to draw me now and the strip has less. I also think it might be a place I can meet my dysfunctional relatives by just sitting with my novel in Sam's Courtyard for a couple nights and asking them to find me.
When I stayed a few years ago
http://vegasbirthdaybash.blogspot.com/2009/05/tr-snippet-eastside-cannery.html
In those days I could ask for a corner room and get it if they were available. Now it costs more money, but I am still thinking of doing it, as the tub is wonderful. Other benefits for me to the area:
- Claudine Castro late night Latin Lounge Act on Monday
- Sam's Toast of the Town show free on Thursday
- East bus to the strip (long 43 minute ride) because the 201 gives the driver a ten minute break right at the EC parking lot.
- Bank of America drive in machines (I walk through) right across the street. No fees for money from my account.
- Walmarts right across the street for snacks or any needed stuff.
- Longhorn Casino. This place is supposed to have good cheap food, I just never run out of buffet cheapies or freebies, so I don't get there. They have three American Casino Guide Coupons in the 2014 edition. The newbie signup points almost equals a free meal.
- Sam's has the 200 points will earn a buffet in the American Casino Guide.
- ACG has other coupons along Boulder (Boulder Station, Arizona Charlie's, Club Fortune)
- Down Boulder on buses you can access Jokers Wild for the cheapest craps in Vegas when they offer it (call first) or Club Fortune for a decent poker tournament and $5 freeplay with ACG.
Boulder used to be a good spot to get a bus to Sunset Station, but now going from downtown takes half the time because the HDX changed its schedule and no longer stops at Sam's Town.
Maybe it will change back.
It is a long bus ride from downtown to Sam's Town now, just as long as from the strip. However, there is the Sam's Town free shuttle and that cuts the time. I can never get organized for it. It runs about every hour and fifteen minutes taking just 20 minutes from the California or a half hour from Harrah's.
Just give yourself time for long lines and dysfunction. That really frustrated me last trip. Now I just go with it. They don't do the Webpass electronically. They do put in their freeplay offers electronically and just a very small amount of play in October generated a $12 freeplay in November so if you straddle months when you come and go to the EC the first week you are in Vegas, you may have some additional freeplay by the end of your trip.
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