I'm relatively new to birth control. One thing that I wasn't clear about was that my doctor said that I can skip the 7 placebo pills if I want to skip a period for a special occasion or a trip or something. I know it's not safe to do it all of the time. My concern is: if I do skip that my period does it make me more susceptible to getting pregnant?

If you want to skip your period you need to skip the placebo pills and start immediately on the next months pills - so that you have no days that you don't take a pill.

The pill puts hormones into your system that make your body think that you are pregnant. Because it thinks you are already pregnant, you do not ovulate. Therefore, as long as you begin your new pills immediatley, there is no reason that you should ovulate. So no, I would think there is no greater chance of you getting pregnant.