Biloxi Info Needed

Hey Everyone!

For the first time ever--we're heading to Biloxi and staying at Beau Rivage.

Never been to Biloxi except before Katrina -- had to cruise outta there instad of New Orleans
due to water levels or something similiar, but really can't remember much about it except
that it was very pretty.

I've found a map of the coast area, so I have an understanding of approx where we
will be.

Can anyone offer info on Beau R--what rooms are best to ask for etc> Hows
the vp play there--or where else is good/better?

Any restaurants not to be missed? Any other attractions in area worth seeing?

Anything else we should know about? We'll only have 2 full days there--get
there late on Sat nigh and leave Tue.

Thanks!

Beau Rivage is almost like the Bellagio. All of the rooms are basically the same with an Ocean or City View. I think the view of the city is actually better. The rooms are decently modern with free internet access. You need to bring an ethernet cable for your laptop or you will have to buy one in the gift shop. The Beau Rivage buffet is about as good as it gets.

No clue about the VP but it's a spacious casino. If you want to see what the rooms look like just log on to their website. You can take a virtual tour of the entire casino. I am actually going this Friday for 3 days.

You will have a lot of fun in Biloxi. I agree w/ everything above about the BR, but one thing that struck me as interesting is that they had a lot of open tables at all hours of the day. We pulled an all nighter and even at 4 am they had 7 or 8 open BJ tables, 2 Roulette tables and a handful of poker tables available. Most were empty, aside from a stray drunk losing his paycheck.

I really really liked the Isle. Good people, fun games, a lot of choices and clean. The cocktail service is slow, but the bars are just a few steps away if you must have a drink ASAP.

The BR, Isle, Grand, Hard Rock and Palace are all walkable. Boomtown and IP are about 3/4 of a mile away and Treasure Bay is a few miles down Beach Blvd. Biloxi has a cheap trolly that will take you around town.

I cant say much about food since we only had the $3 Carving Station Sandwiches and the Isle Buffet, but you will have plenty of options all over town.

Here is a quick review of the Biloxi Casinos we hit:

Isle: Nice staff, lots of slots, slow cocktail service.
Palace: Under construction, so it was crampt and busy
BR: High Roller and tight slots
Grand: Wide Open.
Boomtown: Busy and fun. Won big on the WOF slot.
IP: Nothing like the Vegas IP. Its clean and bright. Crowded though.
Treasure Bay: Very crowded and kind of a rough/drunk crowd

Have a great time!!

marko..

We go several times a year and always stay at the Beau. The rooms are very good, we prefer an ocean view. Early in the morning shrimp boats return to port followed by clouds of gulls. The pool is great but can get crowded on weekends. An OK beach starts next to the casino and goes on for miles. We call OK because it doesn't have the bright white sand that many gulf beaches enjoy. All restaurants in the Beau are good and it has an excellent buffet. Most of the restaurants in town feature genuine local cuisine and not tourist stuff.
Table games in the Beau and most of the other casinos have good rules. My wife says that the slots are OK. Beau is generous with future comps if you give them play.

Next door is Hard Rock and is smaller and hipper. It looks like every other HR but of course it has a separate players club (what is it with HR players club?). The buffet is excellent and other restaurants are good. Table games have good rules and my wife says that the slots are better.

Across the street from the Beau is a free and friendly shuttle to Boomtown. It's a fun locals casino without a hotel. Fun table games with good rules and my wife claims they have the best slots though many are out of date and have sticky buttons (it's a locals casino ) the casino seems to be more fun and the players are local folk.

A short drive to the East is Ocean Springs, a small down filled with good restaurants and art galleries. We enjoy taking a break there.

A really good restaurant is Half Shell Oyster House. It is a local place just about a block towards downtown from the front door of the Hard Rock.

Thank you to EVERYONE that took the time to post--really
appreciate your efforts! Now I'm really looking forward
to this trip! Thanks again!

Hi, Jean. We've been to Biloxi a few times, and are actually going back in April (got a cheapo Beau Rivage air package out of St Pete/Clearwater; we've always gone on air packages). People have covered things pretty well, the Beau is gorgeous and the food there is very good. VP is extremely tight, about as tight as you'll find around town. In the past (and I'm sure on this coming trip) we've stayed at the Beau and taken the ($1.25) casino hopper trolley elsewhere. Our favorite is probably the Isle, decent VP with a bunch of 9/6 JoB, good BJ, friendly people. Unfortunately, they've been bought by Landry's and will become a Golden Nugget within about 6 months. Boomtown is lots of fun, locals' place; IP is a nice place with very good food options; used to have good VP but it's been tightened up from what I can see. Boyd has bought them and hopefully their players club will switch over soon, since we mostly play at MSS in Vegas.

Got a few questions for people, though:

1. We've heard that the Boomtown buffet is good. Anyone been there?
2. There's an old Southern restaurant across from the Beau called Mary Mahoney's, been wanting to try it for years. Anyone been?


Thanks!

We go to the Beau several times a year on MGM trips offers. The hotel and casino are very very nice. At Christmas it was so beautifulty decorated - just amazing decorations.

The Beau buffet on the weekend is extremely popular - I'm not a buffet fan, but this one offers you anything you can imagine, plus on the weekend complimentary, unlimited bloody mary's, mimosas, champagne. They have a great grill in the right rear of the casino that has really really good sandwiches, soups, etc. agree with other poster all of their restaurants are very good. Memphis Q is one we like. There's also a very good coffee shop (not a Starbucks) down the corridor where all the shops are located (going to the parking lot area/bus drop off area). And they do have a lot of great shops...so if you're not having luck in the casino - go shopping!

We use the casino shuttle to go to the Grand, $1.25 per person each way or purcahse a $5 day pass. If we stay at the Grand late, we grab a taxi back to Beau - like $6 or $7, plus tip. late nite you have to get the Grand valet to call you a taxi and on 3 occasions they have taken us back to the Beau in their Escalade for just a tip. We like the Grand because they have $5 3card and some good VP. If you have TR comps...Harrahs steak house is very good. Walking to the Grand from the Beau would be a rather long walk. But Hard Rock is rigth next door (although we didnt' like it). We've driven to the other casinos but we usually just play Beau and Grand.

The Beau's pool area is great...just pop the flag up on your chair and in no time you'll be enjoying a great beverage.

On one trip, we did rent a car to explore. Made me very very sad. This area has just recently started to build back after Katrina. The downtown area was still all boarded up, businesses just went out of business and disappeared - looked like a ghost town. Mile after mile none of those beautiful southern homes remain and were not rebuilt. just concrete steps, or pads remain. A couple of the hotels - only thing that remains is the concrete pools - no other evidence there was ever a hotel. For some reason this area did not receive the media attention of New Orleans - and evidently federal dollars to rebuild were never diverted to Gulf Port/Biloxi. We were there the first of March, didn't rent a car but took shuttle to Grand, as well as return trip to airport, and did see some construction finally. A taxi driver (a native) old us that if it had not been for church groups from across the country, boy scouts, and the Salvation Army...the area would have just dried up and blew away. Don't ask these folks their opinion about Fed. help - was an eye opener for us.