But that's okay. We stay at casinos when we travel because the price of a room is typically lower than in a similar hotel without a casino. At least in places like Louisiana and Mississippi. It's because all the losers are subsidizing the rooms.
But Mississippi and Louisiana are not like Vegas. They have those rules about the casinos being on the water, so there's no "strip". You can't easily wander off to another casino if you're not feeling lucky where you are.
Earlier this year we stayed at the Ameristar in Vicksburg. We stayed there one night. All we could stand. We weren't gambling and of the four restaurants they're supposed to have, only one was open - the bakery/deli. We went for a drink at the bar before dinner and it was essentially empty except for one other couple. The bartender got the order wrong and then she disappeared. Someone else came in to correct it and when he left, we were on our own. No one came back. So we went to the restaurant. The restaurant did have nice views of the river. We were seated in the VIP area which was nice because we're not VIPs. But our waitress treated us like we were, which was reflected in her tip. But still there was nothing much to eat there besides fried food. If we hadn't wanted to see the Civil War sites, we would have packed up and left in the morning.
But instead we moved down the river to Margaritaville. Like no other Margaritaville I've ever visited. This one had given up on being a casino and had become a giant video arcade targeted at kids. I had no idea about that when we booked online. The place was crawling with kids, not toddlers under the control of parents, but teenagers, on school trips with minimal chaperones. Only one restaurant, again with mostly fried foods but we were in walking distance of some places with stunning river views and nice food. And thankfully, we were only there for one night.
We also stayed at the Eldorado in Shreveport/Bossier earlier this year. All of their dining venues were open and we chose the steak house. Excellent food and service. So on our drive back from Texas this time, we noticed that the Isle of Capri in Lake Charles was owned and/or managed by the same group that owns Eldorado. Unfortunately there were no similarities.
For some reason, I was unable to book online. I called to make the reservation and was told that the only vacancy was in the Inn, which is across the parking lot from the Casino/Hotel. That was fine. Since it was a Saturday night, I asked if I needed dinner reservations. The young lady on the phone said it was recommended since it was Saturday night and the hotel was almost booked out. I wanted the steakhouse restaurant. She transferred me and I waited on the line. And waited. And waited. I'm in the car as a passenger, I'm not doing anything else so I waited some more. Fifteen minutes I waited. I decided that they must have connected me to the wrong number, so I called back to try again. After another 15 minutes, I gave up. We would just go check with the restaurant when we arrived.
We arrived in our Ford F250 towing a U-Haul trailer. I went to check us in while Mark went to park. He was able to park - I think he got the last available space that was big enough to accommodate our vehicle. The check-in didn't go quite as smoothly.
"I'm sorry. We don't have any non-smoking rooms available right now. Would you like a smoking room or would you rather wait?"
What did she just say? I booked a non-smoking room. Check-out time was 11 am. Check-in time was 4 pm. I'd booked at 3 pm. How did they not have a room available?
" I don't want a smoking room. I guess we'll wait. How long a wait are we talking about?"
"It shouldn't be very long."
"Are we talking about minutes or hours?"
"Minutes."
"Okay that's fine."
"I'll text you when it's ready."
I went off to find Mark and get our bags inside to wait. Fortunately, the room became available just about the same time we sat down in the lobby to wait. Once we got our bags upstairs, we went across the parking lot to the restaurant. There were three young ladies at the front of the restaurant. I assume they were the hostesses. I asked if we needed a reservation.
"We don't take reservations."
"You should let the people who answer the phones know that. I spent 30 minutes waiting for someone to answer the phone so I could make a reservation because the person who took the hotel reservation said I needed one."
" Our phone is disconnected."
" Well, that certainly explains why no one answered. But seriously, you need to have a talk with those people who make the hotel reservations, because it seems they don't know."
They stood there looking at us like our hair was on fire when Mark pointed out that the disconnect between reservations for the hotel and reservations for the restaurant made everyone look stupid. I really don't think they cared. They told us it would be a 30 minute wait and we said we'd wait in the bar.
Here's where it got bizarre. We walked in to the bar area and the seats at the bar were marked with "reserved" signs. So in this place you could reserve a seat at the bar but not a table. First time I'd ever encountered that. I'm still stunned by it.
We did get a table in about 30 minutes, as promised. My food was okay, Mark's food was delicious (he says). The service was absolutely fine. And we found the other patrons both in the restaurant and the bar area to be extremely friendly and sociable.
So, it's not Vegas, but sometimes you get a bargain. Even though the prices are higher on weekends, it's still cheaper than a Holiday Inn.
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