My wife and I went to the Keith Urban concert last night who put on an amazing show, he is a fantastic artists and was great about engaging the crowd. We honestly had a blast during the concert. My complaints come before and and after the concert.
We didn't realize that you couldn't bring camp chairs into the concert, walking through the parking lot a lot of people had them so we grabbed ours, after going into the casino and asking how to get to the concert area carrying the chairs, getting on the shuttle and talking to the driver, and passing countless staff it wasn't until we got back by the parked motor coaches that an extremely rude red headed female security guard approached us and told us chairs were not aloud and we could either take them back to our car or throw them away. The kicker to this is once we were in the concert area after I hiked back to my car... there were people with chairs and using them.
During the concert even though there is a no smoking policy people were smoking all around us right in front of security and they did nothing about it.
After the concert security funneled everyone out through the one entrance like cattle all the way back into the casino through two double doors, at one point some concert goers got smart and knocked over the barricade and started walking around the building as opposed to through the gaming floor. Security was freaking out because they lost control of the crowd, they were running back and forth yelling at each other trying to figure out how to stop the flood of people that were going that way... basically completely inept and unprofessional.
So once they funneled everyone into the middle of the gaming floor I witnessed security giving the mother of a minor a hard time for being on the gaming floor... right by the door we had all just been forced through because they gave us no other choices as a means of egress. So after forcing parents to walk their children through slot machines and gaming tables, security was harassing the parents to boot. There was also no clear exit to the front of the building once stuck in the middle of all the slot machines, which I'm sure is done for a reason however when you have a 2 hour drive to get home and all you want to do is get on the road, it is extremely frustrating and inconvenient. Honestly I think two monkeys could have came up with a better plan than what their staff had in place.
My last complaint is the traffic. It took nearly an hour for us to get out of the parking lot and it was a free for all. From the lot I was parked in, near C14 there was only one exit which happened to be the only exit for the rest of the casino. Instead of having people controlling the traffic and allowing blocks of cars to go and keep traffic flowing there wasn't a single staff person in sight and the only way to get into the stream of traffic was to just cut someone off unless someone was nice enough to let you in. This is a flaw in both traffic control and design of the parking lots.
I have been to a lot of major sporting events and concerts at a variety of venues and this was by far the worst as far as how inept the security was, how poorly laid out the plan of getting people out in a timely manner after the event, and the overall attitude of staff. My wife and I had when arriving thought it would be fun to go to both the Toby Keith concert and make a weekend trip out of coming to the casino in the future... you can now rest assured that no artist is worth putting up with the shortcomings of this facility and it's staff, and as a matter of principle we have no intention of spending any of our hard earned money at this facility.
This is the worst casino in Michigan for slots. I used to be able at least break even but now I lose my money in about an hour. I will take my play to Manistee.
when I was there this past weekend I was playing a roulette game when I put $6 on number 23 they had tried to say that I only put $1 on it. then when I asked him to go check the cameras they came and said that I didn't put the money on the number which I was sure I did. so I went to complain to upper management and finally they actually looked at the cameras. it turns out I did put that extra money on 23 and when they went to pay out my money they gave me 175 instead of 210. I am almost positive the odds are 35 to 1 on a single number so they didn't pay me outrigh. the pit bosses were not doing their jobs when I asked them to go look at the cameras. I'm really considering never going back there again because if they're going to do it to me who else will they do it to? and I go up there almost every 3 months and spend at least $2000.
I have been a long time customer of soaring eagle since 2004. I'm sure there are many other people out there who have been going to soaring eagle for a while and noticed the big difference in the players club, premium play, and the slots. I used to be a platinum member that would get great discounts and sometimes free tickets to see shows. Now they change the whole players club to where you will only receive premium play twice a month from 1st -15th and from 16th - 31st of each month. They used to give discounts on food by percentage but have now changed it to receiving only a certain amount off twice a month similar to the premium play. The slots have not been good for a very very very long time. No matter what game you play, you will lose. You may win some, but honestly in the end, this is their trick of getting you hooked on the games. I've seen many peoples faces unhappy when entering the casino floor. You can tell that the atmosphere isn't fun. It's all about business. They have also taken many of the fun machines that I loved to play that you actually can win on and replaced them with horrible machines that are tighter than a g-string. If they really want my opinion, I would tell them to loosen up the slots, no one cares about the weekly drawings. Even the people who do go for the drawings, I can guarantee you that they have not spent a cent on the slots. They just swipe their card and wait for the drawing. You have to lose some to gain all of your repeated and veteran customer back. Also award the players that actually play higher amounts. They are spending big money at the casino sometimes on a weekly basis. These are the ones that are keeping your casino afloat. I would rather enjoy playing the old games such as Life of Luxury, Lobster Mania, and the Hot Hot penny slots than play any of the new machines. If they don't start bringing back those old slots and also rewarding their players club members better, they will be replaced with another casino. They are not the only ones in Michigan.
