Trip Report - The Grand - !0/19 thru 10/22

All: Thanks for all your input in planning this trip!! Everyone told me not to expect Vegas, so went into it with fairly low expectations. WOW!

Background info: 9 time Vegas visitors, both penny slot players. Airfares and general air-travel fatigue just ruled out the regular 6 day trip to Vegas this fall, so as we are Platinum with the Harrahs group, we booked three nights at The Grand ( comped at the outset ).

Flew Air Tran Sunday the 19th of October out of Fort Lauderdale. Left at 130pm, on the ground at 230pm Gulfport time.

Rented a car through Thrifty; got the three days for $135, which was $40 lower than what Hertz, National,etc were offering. One word of caution: Thrifty is not an on-airport rental facility, so after you get your luggage, you are shuttled to a Ramada on Hwy 49.Not a problem to save $40 to $50 lol. Booked an Aveo, got a Cobalt.

It was our first trip to Gulfport/Biloxi so we took 90 to the Grand. Guess it used to be a pretty drive, kind of a downer now. We%26#39;d been warned.

Valeted the car and checked in within 5 to 10 minutes. Got Room 1245 which overlooked the parking garage. View was not a priority. Rooms are very nice, bathroom was nice, flat- screen tv was a luxury.

Tried to buy some alcohol at the sundry/gift shop; told there was no alcohol for sale on Sundays. Guess I should have researched that topic lol. Not a big deal lol.

Goofed around the casino for a couple of hours, ate at the Lobby Bar restaurant and called it a night after suffering through another boring episode of Desparate Housewives. Show used to be good, but this year, not so much.

Eyes popped open at 2 am; couldn%26#39;t fall back asleep, so hit the casino for pre- breakfast play. Was basically wandering around not doing too well winning-wise. With an eye on my watch , I started heading back to Starbucks at 6am as that is when they open at the Grand. Sat down at a machine, Monopoly Money Train and got the bonus on the first spin. That%26#39;s when I noticed (I was so caffeine deprived ) that it was not a penny machine. $85 richer I dashed to Starbucks and up to the room. Proceeded to almost jump up and down on the bed , showered and went down to $6.99 breakfast buffet. Buffet was good and when you paid for it, they actually put Reward credits ON your players card.

Played a little more and then walked about a block and a half north to Big Pops liquor store and a Clarks/Shell convenience store that we could see from our room. Returned our purhases to the room and couldn%26#39;t get over the empty lots on the way and back, that still had tile floors, but nothing else.

Very sad and sobering reminder of how dangerous weather can be.

Started walking to the Isle , turned around, retrieved the car from the valet and drove to the Isle. Not disabled, just lazy and on vacation with a rental car lol. Won a little money and left. Not impressed; we have an Isle here in Broward County, this was almost a carbon- copy of the one here machine-wise. Won on a PENNY Monopoly Money Train and a Lil Lucy random bonus and hit the pavement.

Took a little power nap and got back in the car and went to the Beau Rivage. Very classy place, but history has taught us that MGM properties do not reward slot-players very well, so walked around, played a little and left. Lobby Bar at the Grand for dinner and out like a light. Getting up at 2am was catching up to me at my old age of 52 lol.

Managed to sleep til 4am and hit the casino with a voucher left over from the Monopoly Money Train win the day before.Hemmorraging money until 555am, started heading to Starbucks, and won back what I had lost on a Fly By bonus on Top Gun. Nice!!

Breakfast at the buffet, and we were off to Boomtown. Having fallen in love with the Gold Coast on our last trip in Las Vegas, we walked in Boomtown and I was in love again. Played a couple of hours and reluctantly left at lunch time.

Headed back to the Grand and ate at the lunch buffet ( $8.99 a person), and played the afternoon away at the Grand. The mission this trip was to get a thousand points on the player%26#39;s card to maintain platinum status until 04/10. Lucky for us, they were doing 10x points on Monday and Wednesday, so we hit the magic 4000 point sometime early Tuesday afternoon.SCORE!!

Went to bed fairly early after dinner at the Lobby Bar; eyes popped open at 2am again; WTF!! Tried to go back asleep, not happening:-(

Hit the casino to say goodbye to all my this-trip-favorites. Ate breakfast,packed,checked out, drove up 90 to Gulfport, returned the car, shuttled back to the airport . No one on duty at Air Tran til 1230pm-100pmish as the Fort Lauderdale flight is their first flight out on that day.

Boarded the plane, got ready for take-off, and got the dreaded '; This is the captain speaking'; announcement. Apparently in off-loading the incoming Fort Lauderdale passengers luggage, they broke the cotter pin on the luggage hold door. Sat for about an hour, took off late, got home late, and life goes on.

Postscripts:

1)Glad we rented the car. I know there%26#39;s a casino-hopper shuttle, but honestly we only saw it once in 3 days.We weren%26#39;t eligible for to and from airport transportation as we were an unknown quality that booked via the internet (did I mention all 3 days comped lol )

2)Water in shower is VERY soft as compared to Florida. Took forever to rinse soap or shampoo off lol.

3) Lobby Bar is limited as far as selection goes. Service ranged from poor-to-fair to great.

4) Starbucks on the medium price range, but not equipped to take a Starbucks gift card at this time.

5) Margaritaville construction has just about ground to a halt due to the economy. Frankly we loved the Grand; better than Ballys, the Rio or TI in Las Vegas. Common area bathrooms are immaculate and have been updated.

6) Normally never a buffet person, but the Grand converted me.

7) Came home with more than half of the money that I brought to gamble and eat, so we will be back soon. Las Vegas%26#39; loss is Biloxi%26#39;s gain.

We didn%26#39;t get to IP or the Hard Rock this trip; better to not do everything the first trip; leaves something to do next trip, which the economy willing will be in the early spring.

Thanks for letting me relive the highlights. As you can tell, I can be quite the blabbermouth once I get started lol. Mark

Trip Report - The Grand - !0/19 thru 10/22

Glad you had a good trip...hard to describe the area until you see it, isn%26#39;t it? We%26#39;ve been along the Gulf every year since Katrina, and it%26#39;s coming along but economy is a huge factor at this time :(

Thanks for sharing!

Trip Report - The Grand - !0/19 thru 10/22

Hooray! A Biloxi convert! So glad you enjoyed it. I do hope Margaritaville will still open in 2010...we%26#39;re so looking forward to it.

Thanks for such a positive report.

animaluvr: Definitely a Biloxi convert here. Was nice to only be in the air for less than 2 hours instead of the 5 to 6 hours that Las Vegas entails.

Nice to psy $6.99 for all I could eat for breakfast, instead of $12 to $13 for a bowl of oatmeal and a banana in Vegas.

Nice to go through security in 4 minutes instead of the Vegas 45 minutes.

Asked for and received '; a nice quiet room'; on the 12th floor, which is the top floor at the Grand. Honestly I only saw one other person on the 12th floor, other than employees, the entire 3 days that we were there.

Nice to get airfare that didn%26#39;t eat up part of the gambling budget.:-) Mark

Oakland,

Thanks for the great trip report as I am off to the Grand on 11/09 courtesy of Harrah%26#39;s. I have a 2 night comped stay with r/t airfare so I am looking forward to a little getaway.

Thanks again

What a great report. I just got back from biloxi and can%26#39;t wait to go back too.

I am definately a Vegas convert, I have never been treated as well in Vegas as I have at the Beau Rivage and the hotel is as nice or better than several in Vegas. We have been to the Beau three times this year and are going back the first week in December for a three night stay. We are not big time players but give them plenty of time on quarter slots and limited time on the dollar machines. Rooms, food always comped with no problems. The hotel is first class and the restaurants are great, can%26#39;t ask for anything more!

Even though we%26#39;ve been to Vegas many times, we think the Southern Hospitality makes a stay anywhere along the Gulf so worth the money to make a trip there at least once every year :)

OPM, glad you had a nice visit to Biloxi! I%26#39;ve just returned from a quickie Tunica trip, will be posting my TR in that forum shortly!

Makes me mucho happy to see people from out of state say that they have enjoyed our little recovering Gulf Coast. It is a neat quick get-away for us also. We keep heading back to the Beau thanks to comps.

We also want to try Island View in Gulfport (the old Grand before Katrina hit)......all depends on comp offers from them, though. Island View is kind of tight on their comps. It is a big lovely new casino/hotel that opened about the same time the Beau did again after Katrina.

We might want to try the new Hard Rock in Biloxi also in the near future.

bumped for casinomama :-)