Tunica, MS... Just close your eyes and think you were in Vegas... NOT!

My first trip report... 9-22/25

The wife says “let's go somewhere different for vacation this year”, I was like ok, Reno? Atlantic City? Biloxi? The answer, Tunica, Mississippi. I was like huh? Tunica, are they even operating again after the flood? Come to find out after some reading online and this great little forum, the answer was yes! So after some back and forth with the wife about really wanting to go there (my vote was Vegas again) we picked a hotel, the Horseshoe , because it gave us the best rates for a suite, planned the route and counted the days until we headed south.

We left on a Friday night after work all excited about seeing new things and trying different foods and all that fun stuff. We got to St. Louis at around 10:00 pm, I was planning to just stay in a rest area and sleep but the wife quickly kicked that idea to the curb so we ended up in a hotel room for $85.00. Woke up the next day and spotted a brand new outlet mall just across the road from our hotel so we ended up there for a few hours. Headed south to find a Harley shop, good lord, I found two! SCORE! We also stopped at the Arch and had a great time as my wife had never been there. Spotted Lumiere Place Casino downtown so we stopped there to eat supper and it was excellent. One of the best buffets I've ever eaten at. Just down home all American food cooked to perfection with a awesome dessert bar. This buffet put some of the ones in Vegas to shame. Headed south again after supper and stopped at a few more casinos along the way. The Isle was our last stop in southern Missouri at around 11:30 pm and after driving south some more we did stay in a rest area Saturday night!

Woke up Sunday morning and found another casino down the road, The Lady Luck, no bigger than a porta-potty with 2 levels. As we pulled into the parking lot, it was empty so we thought maybe it wasn't open, but it was. With us, the total number of patrons at 7:00am on a Sunday was 6! I didn't have any problems finding a blackjack table and my wife found a aray of slots to bounce around too. We didn't play too long here, it was kind of creepy actually but the dealer and pitboss were very funny and traded jokes the whole time I was at the table. As we were leaving, there was a empty pool table so at 7:45am the wife beat me at a game of pool, believe me, this wouldn't be my only loss of the trip!

We again headed south to Tunica, spotted another casino in West Memphis, stopped, got my chip and headed to the Waffle House. Another first for the wife, she didn't get out much before she married me!!! With our bellies full, and one last push, we got to the Horseshoe at around 2:00pm. The check-in girl was more concerned about her conversation with the girl next to her than checking me in or even acknowledging me. My first impression wasn't a good one. I don't care what business you are in, a good customer service rep should have his or her full attention on you at all times. I didn't even have a chance to ask for a upgrade because she still was yapping to her neighbor, so we got what we got! Got up to the room and it was very nice, so the little episode downstairs was forgotten for awhile. We walked around the Horseshoe for a while and ended up at their buffet which was great. Another buffet with down home cooking and no weird shit you didn't know what it was. Awesome desserts and great service. After dinner, we wandered over to The Roadhouse and loved the calm and quiet atmosphere. We spend most of the next three days there as the dealers were all great and actually appreciated you being there and were quick with a good story and held conversations throughout each session I played. It made losing my ass most of the time bearable. I'd just as soon lose my money to a good dealer than one who barely speaks a word of English any day! We also spent a good deal of time at the Gold Strike, it was really loud, but had a good blues band Sunday night that we enjoyed. If we weren't at the Roadhouse, we were at Gold Strike. The Horseshoe casino just didn't have a vibe, so we avoided it accept to get to our room.

Monday we ventured out to Memphis to go visit Elvis. After seeing all the people stacked up in line, it's a safe bet he's making more money now than when he was alive! We waited 2 hours for our tour and to my wife it was worth it, to me, not so much, I was already there once in the late 90's and not much has changed. We then continued our journey to Beale Street. We had a great lunch at B.B.Kings, walked around some and had dessert at The Peabody Hotel and watched the ducks swim around some and talked to the Duckmaster who was trying to retrain the ducks after someone gave them party mix from the bar a week or so ago and they still think they can go wherever they want. Ended up at Harrah's, boring place and then Bally's, even more boring and finally back to The Roadhouse for drinks and gambling.

Tuesday we visited the rest of the casinos in the area. I will say this, I'm glad we picked the Horseshoe as those 3 casinos seemed the most lively of the 9 in the area. We did go into the town of Tunica, holy crap. I didn't take the right turnoff to go into town so we ended up on the back streets and it looked like a tornado had blown through and that's how everyone left their stuff. Yes, there were nice parts, but who remembers that after seeing the “other” part of town. And yes I know, most towns have “that part of town”, but believe me, I've traveled a lot during my life and haven't seen a place like that in like forever! But I guess if they are happy, that's all that matters to them, it certainly doesn't matter what I think. Ended up back at Gold Strike and ate at their buffet, it was very good also, but we still liked the Horseshoe better. Stopped one last time at the Roadhouse and called it a night as we were heading out at 7:00am for our trip home.

We arrived home Wednesday at 9:00 pm after making 2 more stops at Harley stores, eating at the Cracker Barrell and found 1 casino we missed in Missouri!

All in all it was a nice trip. Saw lots of different areas I've never been to as a adult. Most everyone we met, accept the check-in girl, were extremely friendly, that is the one thing we kept repeating on our way home. If the workers in Vegas could take a course on how to treat customers, they need to give Tunica a call! We will never forget how they made us feel so welcome and almost part of their family. Everything we ate was amazing, hot and fresh, nothing sat very long before a new dish was put in, even if it was half full, that was a real pleasure to have real home-cooked buffet food. The one thing I wasn't prepared for was the distance between the casinos, I knew they were apart from one another, but damn, there were MILES apart! You for sure have to have a car to get around, not sure what you would do if you were stuck there with no vehicle. And now we can finally say “Been there, done that” and we won't be back anytime soon, it's Vegas time baby!

New casinos we visited:
River City Casino in St. Louis, MO
Lumiere Place in Casino, St,. Louis, MO
The Isle in Cape Giradeau, MO
Lady Luck Casino in Caruthersville, MO
Southland Park in West Memphis, AR
Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, MS
Roadhouse Casino in Tunica, MS
Gold Strike Casino in Tunica, MS
Harrah Casino in Tunica, MS
Bally's Casino in Tunica, MS
Fitz Casino in Tunica, MS
Sam's Town Casino in Tunica, MS
Resorts Casino in Tunica, MS
Hollywood Casino in Tunica, MS
Mark Twin Casino in LaGrange, MO

New Harley shops we stopped at:
St. Louis, MO
Kirkwood, MO
Memphis, TN
Southaven, MS
Cape Girardeau, MO
Festus, MO

 

That quiet, relaxing atmosphere you experienced at Roadhouse ...... that's because you were the only ones there! That place just hasn't been the same since they took out the mechanical bull

 

Nice trip report. Thank you for taking the time.

We've been to Tunica and it was pretty much as you described. I remember being impressed with the buffets in Tunica especially the veggie selections.

 

I concur. I went to Tunica once several years ago and swore I'd never go back.

 

think I'll pass, especially when the real thing is so close to us.

 

Thanks for the trip report. I've been to Tunica a few times and have had some good luck there. But I would never pick it over Vegas. We were there in July once and the mosquitoes were awful. I'll stop there on the way to somewhere else, but it's not a destination for me.

 

LOL I remember the bull. Probably were sued by someone or something. They've yanked most of their good video poker too...asses. Still may bother to go for a couple days this month. I can't justify a Vegas flight right now...blah.

And I am surprised you were so positive on Tunica, OP. I do like Tunica, but you got to see it when it's dead! (Sun.-Thurs.) The casinos are a lot less boring on Fri/Sat; it's really a weekend destination.

And I am shocked you actually went into town! I think I have been to those casinos at least a dozen times now, and I have never went to downtown Tunica. As I'm sure you realized, you have to go to Memphis to get outside of a gambling bubble. We still need to see the ducks too...we're so lazy...lol

 

That is dead on accurate. My last trip there, we arrived on a Thursday afternoon and it was dead until Friday night. But then it stays pretty busy until Sunday afternoon

 

i go to tunica a lot,but always on the weekends. my parents sometimes go on weekdays but usually on weekends too. my faves are horseshoe and harrahs. i get good comps from them and they are lively on the weekends. i know what your sayin about the customer service, its not good but that is normal for this entire area. customer service in vegas is a lot better. i hardly ever go to roadhouse it seemed dead to me on weekends too i could only imagine how dead it is on weekdays.

thanks for writing your tunica report and nice to see you found things that you liked. its no vegas but it gets the job done when you dont have time to fly!

 

Last year Tunica was are third stop on the Race for Rewards road trip I talked the wife into. I convinced her it would be fun to take the new Shelby on a shake down cruise and get some free comps at the same time. To this day she still says it was the worst vacation I have ever talked her into. The room was really nice and I agree the people were very polite. There was also some kind sandwich shop in the back that had a great steak sandwich.
Mark

 

The entire trip or the Tunica portion? lol

We made a St. Louis (home) - Southern Indiana - Metropolis - Tunica loop last year for the Race to Rewards. I am sad they didn't bring it back (probably because of nits like me). Tunica was the highlight. Helps when the g/f got AWAK on DDB, and I got a Royal! Unfortunately that was my last one...and 3 Vegas trips at least 4 Tunica trips since then. Maybe later this month? *crosses fingers*

 

My brother has been to Tunica a few times, but not for a few years. He said all the alcoholic drinks were free. Just walk up to any bar and order what you want. True?

 

I doubt it. Unlike places like Metropolis, they can serve free drinks to gamblers. I've ordered drinks directly at the bars before, but always while playing VP so they were comped. never tried to get one from the bars without playing VP

 

You are technically are supposed to gamble to get the drink for free. However, there are a couple casino bars in Tunica where I see people go up and order a drink, get the drink, and just leave tip money. I have seen it at Roadhouse a little bit and at Fitz a lot.

Resorts has a sign that you clearly have to pay and lists drink prices if you aren't gambling (reasonable prices, unlike the Strip), so I'd assume you need to at least act like you're playing VP at the bar. But they definitely don't care whether you max bet or not. And hell, last time I was playing there, you should have played max anyway b/c their bar had > 100% VP once you added the progressive in ($1700) when playing the best game available (98.86% b4 prog. Double Deuces Wild). Of course I didn't hit that...lol

I've also done it at the Roadhouse after playing at the bar for an ~hour and wanted to move to the floor to play better games. I was tipping him well, so he was fine with it. Waitresses obv sucked that night.

 

enjoyed the report.....
I happen to like tunica , go there often
it funny you say that about the horseshoe ....we do the same thing , go from roadhouse to goldstrike the horseshoe is just a path to the other casinos
what you saw in tunica , I saw in Biloxi .....devastation that will never be repaired and is a huge eyesore
yeah the casinos can be slow during the week but I kinda like that ....

 

Same here, except when I have an itch to play live poker. That's mainly the only thing Horseshoe is good for.

 

Had a good run on the craps table at horseshoe once , rolled for over an hour
but the casino just doesnt do it for me...boring
machines are outdated too

 

It was the drive she didn't like. We started in central Texas and hit Biloxi , New Orleans , Tunica and Shreveport in 4 days. We did great on the gambling front.
I came home with $480 dollars more than I left with and that was after paying cash for everything minus the rooms which were comped.
Mark

 

This

First time I went to Tunica a few years ago, on my birthday, I stood at the craps table for 9 hours, and only left because it was 9 in the morning, we had to leave to go back to Nashville and I thought for sure my wife would divorce me if I didnt leave quickly! But it paid off big time.

I wish I could get down there more often.

I loved reading your report of taking your time to get down there, and hitting copious other casinos on the way. This time last year I visited Lumiere, Harrah's and The Casino Queen in STL. Loved it!

Thanks for the report!

 

The bartender at Harrah's told us it was free drinks for Diamond or else you had to be playing VP at the bar.This was in December.He was a long timer there and said when they first opened it was free drinks and he was just hauling in tip $ like outrageous!! I believed him..he became chatty with my buddy and I as we were doing our regular tipping like we do in AC/LV..

Loved the lobby at Harrah's with the fireplaces and the chairs,room service food was up to par with AC/LV.(No real restaurant in the hotel just a coffee/snack bar off the lobby).I cannot think of another casino anywhere where it's nice enough to actually kill some time in the lobby!

Did terrible myself on VP over 3 days..one quad Aces at the Roadhouse and that was all.

Thanks for the trip report!