Category: tunica

This was our first time to stay at the hotel at the Horseshoe Casino Hotel in Tunica.

When I made the reservation for the room two or three days before we arrived, I requested a room with one king bed on a higher floor. When the online request form asked if we would like to have a room with a view, I checked on that too. When we checked in (on a Sunday afternoon, so they were nowhere close to capacity) we were told all they had were rooms with the smaller beds and we wound up on the third floor – with a view of the rooms on the other side of the U-shape! The person that checked us in seemed liked she was having a bad day before we even walked up, so we just said “okay” and took it. We were only staying one night so I didn’t feel like pursuing it.

The room was okay – average size, average furnishings. Since we stayed on a Sunday, we got the room for well less than $100 – but I wouldn’t have paid any more for it for a Friday or Saturday stay. The Sheraton Casino Hotel rooms (next door to the Horseshoe) are *much* nicer.

All in all, it was okay. What was absolutely wonderful was that we won a few hundred dollars downstairs in the casino and our meals were comped! Yay! We’re not big gamblers ever – we go with the intention to spend some time as a diversion and lose a maximum of $100 – but when we start winning, we just keep bumping up the amount at which when we get down to that we’ll leave. Anyway, we had a really great time, and the amount we won paid for most of our trip. Nice!

Our room at the Sheraton Hotel Casino

Room: This was our first time to stay at the Sheraton Hotel/Casino in Tunica – it’s owned by Caesars Entertainment (Caesars, Paris, etc). The rooms seem to be, on the weekends at least, around $200 or so, but since we stayed on a weekday, we reserved this room under $100. The room was a nice size, and like all the rooms at the Sheraton, included a jacuzzi tub (see pic below). The bathroom was much larger than average (not quite Las Vegas size, though) and included a seating area to do makeup at.

Lobby: To sign in, you sit in front of a large desk where the papers are all signed, etc. Different and nice.

Service: Everyone seemed very nice, but the valet service was slow.

Food: We didn’t eat at the Sheraton – we had lunch at the Horseshoe Casino buffet (even though it is a buffet, it is really good) and supper at the Chicago Steakhouse at the Gold Strike Casino.

Extra: Location. It’s within walking distance to the Horseshoe and Gold Strike.

Our experience is this: We would definitely stay here again, especially on weekdays when the rate is more reasonable.

Last week, the Harrah’s Tunica became “Resorts Tunica”. Harrah’s sold their casino, and now the same (new to Tunica) firm owns Bally’s Tunica.

We went to the new “Resorts Tunica” first, to see if they had changed the interior, which is Mardi Gras-themed (they haven’t). We spent a little time at the Grand Casino, and finally the Horseshoe Casino. I was hoping there would be a show that we would want to go see, but there really wasn’t much going on. There is a blues museum at the Horseshoe that was really pretty good. We did really well at the Horseshoe, and had supper there at the buffet (which is 500% better than any of the others). Thing is, everybody else knows that the Horseshoe is the best place to eat! They have a reservations system so that when you go up to the desk, they tell you what time to come back (even when you come back there is still a bit of a wait).

Supper at the casino was actually the second meal we ate in Tunica that day. The first was at the Blue and White, a Tunica institution.

We had really good intentions of having a nice lunch at a non-casino, local restaurant.

The Blue and White has both a menu and a steam table buffet option for lunch. We ordered from the menu: Av ordered the chicken fried steak and I ordered the fried chicken livers. Both entrees came with two side dishes, so I had the onion rings (huge and good) and potato salad (I love potato salad but this was icky). Av chose french fries (good) and fried bell peppers (they were great!!).

Sadly, this was our last trip to the Blue and White.

There was a rather boisterous customer there who ‘had a deal’ with another waitress (other than the one he got) about being charged a lesser price for a special request meal. When the waitress (who didn’t know about the ‘deal’) gave him the bill for the cost that’s on the menu, he got loud and virtually everybody on our side of the restaurant knew about it. He went on and on and on about it, to the waitress, and to the other people at his table. The difference (this guy was so loud, everybody knew the details whether they wanted to or not) was a big $2. He said over and over again to nobody in particular “I’m never coming here again”. The waitress, who was really nice and apologetic, came back in tears, saying that the manager said that he got a good deal and that he wasn’t going to change the check. The angry customer kept asking for the manager, and she kept going back to the kitchen to get him, but he wouldn’t come out. This honestly went on for over thirty minutes. If it would have made things better, Av and I would have added the huge $2 difference to our bill, but we both knew that wouldn’t solve this guy’s problem. Finally – after thirty or forty minutes – the manager came out, and he essentially blamed the waitress for not knowing about the guy’s ‘deal’, although saying that the restaurant was losing money every time he got the ‘deal’.

I really don’t want to patronize any place that is managed by a person that lets servers take the brunt and the blame for something that is beyond their control. It just irritates me that this manager wouldn’t come out and face the problem (no matter how busy or crazy the kitchen might have been, who knows).

When I was in high school and college, I worked for a local fast-food place to save up for tuition and books, etc. and had a couple of occasions (and witnessed a few) where a customer would just come in on a bad day and take it out on whoever was behind the counter. Nobody deserves that. Sad.

We felt so bad for the waitress.

On the way out, even though she wasn’t the one serving us, Av said “nobody should have to take that” and gave her $20. She smiled and thanked him. Not everybody is crazy.