Beau Rivage Resort and Casino Doesn't Merit 5 Stars

A girlfriend of mine always stayed at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino, in Biloxi. I had been with her overnight on many occasions due to her medical conditions. When she passed away, she left me enough money for my husband, and I to do a package trip to the Beau Rivage.

We set it up with a local travel agency, and received all our documentation a week prior to our visit. Beau Rivage arranged for the aircraft, buses to transfer us to the hotel/casino, and the three night stay. The cost to us was $656.02.

Everyone on the plane was heading to the Beau. We arrived around 3.00 p.m. on the Monday afternoon. They had a 'bus' check in', and the lines went down very quickly. We were given an envelope with our door keys, a card to use when gambling to gain points, etc., a map of the resort, and information.

We then walked passed the main lobby, and found the elevators, to take us up to the fourteenth floor. We found our room, and it was nice, but didn't jump out, like some of our timeshares.

In room 14017 we had a view of the gulf, the parking lot, and to the side the beach.

The room had a round table, 2 chairs, a desk with another chair, a mirror above it, an 8 drawer chest, with a 32 inch H.D. flat panel television on top. The bed was a King size one, and the headboard so to speak went up to the ceiling, with tied back curtaining at each side. There were 2 large side tables, 4 lamps, and another mirror.

A large double door closet had a luggage stand, safe, iron, and ironing board, as well as hangers.

The bathroom was more impressive. There was a really large, deep bathtub, which allowed me to stretch completely out in it. The annoying thing was that the water would not drain away from it quickly, and it continued to drip through the plug. There was a closed in glass shower unit, a large vanity with one basin, a mirror above, with a magnifying mirror attached to it. Of course a toilet, 2 bathmats for stepping out on, hairdryer, telephone, shampoo, lotion, and tissues.

There was an empty ice bucket with 2, 10 ounce bottles of water. No coffee maker, fridge, or microwave. This is the first hotel/motel/timeshare/casino that hasn't had a coffee maker. This is a major problem for me, as my first cup of coffee brings me alive in the morning.

We were so hungry that we headed back downstairs. The buffet was opposite the elevators so we got in line. When it came to our turn it was $21.99 plux tax, bringing it up to $47. We were seated close to the buffet. The buffet had approximately 200 items, from salad, soup, to carved beef, and ham, large shrimp, mussels, and all kinds of dinner entrees.

Len loved the desserts as they had a good selection of sugar free.

I had a large salad with 'you peel them shrimp', and mussels. The I had a slice of both meats from the carvery, with broccoli and cheese, and a corn on the cob. I finished off with 2 tiny individual desserts, and a large fruit salad. I had coffee and water to drink.

Len went for all kinds of different food. Some he loved, and a fair amount he left.

We played the slots and the majority of the casino has smoking. The tiny area for non-smokers didn't have the machines that I liked. The free drinks, while gambling, were hit and miss. Sometimes they would come around every half an hour, and then another time you could be sitting half the evening before they showed.

We bought a croissant in the Roasted Bean, which was a coffee house, come bakery. It was in case Len had a sugar low. The price was $3.75.

The following morning we found a Subway, which was a fair walk, but with our GPS we were able to find it. We had breakfast there on the Tuesday and Wednesday.

We walked the beach by the side of the Beau Rivage. There was a boardwalk for Len to walk, while I walked the beautiful sandy beach. We stopped at the lighthouse but didn't go up. There is also the Lighthouse Pier in this area, and we walked it.

We did go to Hard Rock Casino next to the Beau. We had a walk around, and ended up in a Starbucks there. I had my coffee for $1.50, and really enjoyed it.

That evening we went to the Terrace Cafe, and had their set dinner, from 5.00 to 7.00 p.m. We were told that it was a salad, steak, and a strawberry cheesecake. The price was right at $12.99.

The salad and the rolls were excellent. Len asked for his steak medium rare, and I went for medium. Mine came out medium well, and Len's was well done. He sent his back because he couldn't cut it. Len had to cut mine up for me, as I am now healing from a broken right wrist. The steak wasn't good. Even Len's replacement that was cooked right, still took a lot of chewing.

When the dessert came out it was strawberry shortcake. It looked good, but I couldn't cut the pastry/cake on the top. Even Len struggled to do it for me. I ended up eating the couple of cooked strawberries, and the spoonful of cream.

The people at the next table complained to us about the same meal. Len did speak to the Manager of the restaurant, and he said that he would let the cook know. That was it.

We checked at the box office for shows, and nothing is happening until October. Eight75 did have live music on the Wednesday evening, but it started just before we headed up to our room.

We did have the lunch buffet on the Wednesday. Seniors were half off, so we got our two meals for $14.99 plus tax. The food was almost identical to the dinner buffet.

We did check out the pool. It looked beautiful. It had cabanas all around, which you could hire, and lots were reserved for high rollers. The water was 4 feet, and it wasn't heated. I found it cold compared to the pools here in Florida. There was a pool bar/restaurant.

There were some lovely shops to check out for the rich and famous.

We did stop back at the Roasted Bean and picked up a couple of sugar free muffins for Len. They were $3.50 each. We got these with the money we had accumulated on the M Life Players Club card. We had put several hundred dollars on it, with what we had spent, won, and lost again.

Checking out was simple. We had only put the Terrace Cafe on the room charge, and this was taken care of with our credit card they had on hand.

Our bus was waiting at the correct time. They took us to the airport. We arrived back within 10 minutes of our scheduled time.

The Monday through Thursday was fun. Would I do it again? No.

Beau Rivage is located at 875 Beach Blvd.,
Biloxi,
MS 39530.

Telephone 1-888-750-7111. Check them out at beaurivage.com

If you go a few times, and spend quite a bit of money, they are happy to comp the whole trip. I think Len and I were the only ones paying for ours. Everyone else we spoke to at the airport, on the plane, on the bus, all went for free.