TUNICA JUNKET
We left from Newark on Sunday and had a short delay as the passenger count was off; otherwise we had a decent flight. Arriving at Tunica airport, my research was to come to life. Neat rows of fields with few homes around, the airport held one other plane! We had a short bus ride which was a bit solemn as my thoughts were with the unfortunate souls who were involved in the tragic accident a week ago.
We arrived at Harrah's main entrance and had to shuttle again to the Terrace hotel. Luggage would not arrive for awhile but we had what we needed and were checked in swiftly. The hotel lobby was spacious, clean and appeared new. Room was fine and we freshened up and hit the shuttle for the main casino. As we entered we saw the Sphere bar, decent sized but not a seat to be had. We toured the casino floor and found some VP, 8/5 jacks. Our plan was to hit the Sheraton but we needed some food and found the Delta Blues Café and had a quick bite of BBQ wings and cheese fries, here goes the healthy eating. We made our way back to the Sphere and settled in at VP and some drinks. The cold beer went down nice and we had a little luck with a quad of 3's on DB but soon went south. It was too late for the Sheraton ride as we would only have about an hour there. We left to try some slots but nothing was hitting at all. We had an early night and didn't want to lose much on the first day.
Monday was our travel day. I had reserved a car from Enterprise before we left. I called the number but was told that it was the location about an hour away, no one could find my confirmation code and I had to start over. To make a long story short, I called into the Airport, had a car, was picked up at the Terrace and we were on the road around 11. Note, only one employee runs the rental car and we had to make a few stops to pick up 2 additional passengers at Gold Strike and the Sheraton. Directions to Memphis were simple , take 61 north. I was confused at one point when I saw a sign for interstate 69? To Memphis but stayed the route. Beale Street was our destination and we found it no problem. It was hot and Laura was starving. We parked free on the street about 2 blocks away and walked a bit checking out menus and settled at a café, seated outside in the shade. We had a burger, fires and a sampler of ribs, pulled pork and something else, all was delicious,
After eating we hit a few stores and ended up spending at least an hour in Schwabs, it was a museum in itself, particularly of interest were the old photos and newspaper clippings. It was great to get a sense of History and a nice change from the generic malls of America. We strolled around for another hour and then went back home; we did stop to take our photos at the Welcome to Miss. And Tenn. Signs along 61.
Back to the room to relax and we hit Paula Deens for dinner. The selections were plentiful and we had trouble deciding what to choose, a little of almost everything. Fried chicken was great as most selections, the only thing that was not was the cheese meatloaf, just too heavy! We had to save room to try the desserts and by the end of the meal we needed to WALK! We did make the Sheraton tonight and were able to find some 9/6 JB VP near the bar where the band was playing. We had a nice waitress who impressed Laura when she brought out the special drink stirrers with the 7's on them; she also showed us the Diamond ones. We had a decent session and while we were playing on Laura's cards, we had a nice surprise as we hit a random jackpot for $93. One thing we were not aware of was the same day cash back at Tunica Hurrahs properties. Y'all have a good thing there as in AC and Vegas it is bounce back, meaning you need to return to get cash back. Although the VP games did not offer any bonus points the same as AC and Vegas, we still had a decent session. We needed to be at the Horseshoe to get the shuttle back by 10:45.
We stayed out awhile at Harrah's and when we strayed from VP so did our bankroll. One note, I did find 9/6 JB in the 50 cent and dollar denomination on about 6 slant tops in the VP section near the Delta Café. Before leaving I read that the 9/6 was only available at $5 and up.
Tuesday was to be the lounge around pool day but the weather was hazy and the sun never came out. We had lunch at Replays, while the food was ok, the service took forever and it was not busy. I tried some more slots and was losing on a 50m cent bonus 7's when a gal came by and told me to try one on the other side as it hits, Well, at that time I had lost a hundred and was headed back to VP. I did return later in the evening to the machine she said, and was able to get the 3 Red 7's for the bonus, got 400 credits. Laura went back to the room, she had an offer for a Spa treatment but was more than happy to find that she was able to use the credit for merchandise, she had $140 worth, well it was expensive items but the lady at the Spa place was so nice. She then noticed that I had the same offer, asked about using it and was told all she needed was me to come and sign the coupons, another $140 sure made her happy. My input on this is that in most places, especially Vegas and to a lesser point AC, people have a fit when trying to redeem multiple offers on one trip, Laura likes it the Tunica way.
Tuesday night was a repeat of Monday except we opted to not do the buffet again. I had several cash reel coupons to redeem and forgot about the playing out credits and had inserted them into a quarter Tabasco machines that were anything but hot. I had a down to the wire reprieve when I managed to hit a wild and 2 purple and saved my cash out tickets. We hit the Sheraton again and settled in at VP in the same spot downstairs we did go upstairs for a bit but it was getting late and we had the shuttle deadline to worry about. Jen, this was around the time you were there so it may have been a case of being up or down at the wrong time. I also have to ask if there is another section upstairs at Sheraton, we played where the staircase was, mostly VP games, the sequential Royals and some Spin Poker but upon reading notes when we got home , there may be a non-smoking section that we did not see. Again we had to run out to the Shoe, this was also our introduction the mosquitoes. It was raining and we were in the entrance way when I felt one, then another and I was soon swarmed, ran inside and was swatting the hitchhikers. They also joined us on the shuttle and literally everyone on the bus was scratching and itching at one point.
Back to Harrah's and we wanted to take off the room charges as we had to leave early in the morning. I was directed to a VIP room where we had a host who was a bit confused about our request. What happened was he took off $100 of our charges of about $350; we were puzzled as Laura had much more comps than that amount. It seems he thought we were asking to have it "comped" while we just wanted to use our reward credits, so he did us a favor by taking off an extra $100; this does not happen in AC. While there, a disgruntled guy came in shouting about how he had lost $500 bucks and wanted a comp for dinner, he was told he had $400 in reward credits and he could use them but stormed out and was saying he'll go elsewhere to get a comp. Harrah's policy is to use all reward credits before they will issue a discretionary comp, and that is based on play so I did not understand his gripe.
