Buccaneer State Park — Attraction in Waveland

​​This is a very disappointing RV park. It should be illegal to show the pool and water park on the state website without stating that it is an additional fee. These two business features are separate entities and staff (same names, but different). There is Buccaneer State Park (Camping) and Buccaneer Bay (Water Park). You would think that the actual campground swimming pool would be included since it is inside the state park camping area, but it is not. When I went to the actual water park (wavepool that you see in the promotional photos of this park to justify the higher camping prices) it is an added fee and they will allow you to PAY for the campground pool there for a fee. It is included if you pay full price for the wave pool water park. However, in August 2024 I paid at the Water park and was told that my admission would cover the simple campground pool inside the campground...the campground swimming pool was CLOSED. Yes, closed as in chained up. The campground pool that you pay extra for at the water park is closed and was told I could not get a refund. This campground wants you to the think the beach is a draw here, but it is not. You can get gulf views of water, but it is across the road and the beach is not useable except to fish. No one should ever think of swimming or wading in water on a Mississippi coast beach, especially this one across from the campground. The State park should put on the website that there is an additional charge for camp pool and Water Park and they are a separate entity not part of the park and they should take the water park photos off the website. It is NOT included to the already high nightly camping rate. Fool me once... I will never return to this park. The campground staff seems to not care about you at checkin if they are present. I got the "nothing they can do since they are not affiliated with the water park speech". The bath houses look nice from the outside but are HOT (Not air conditioned) and unbearable to shower in or use the restroom. The water pressure is terrible and most of the showers do not turn off and waste water. The camp slabs are narrow but they do have picnic tables to the side with a standard grill. ANTS/bugs are terrible and everywhere at your site. Can they not spray the slab at least? For the price being paid per night, there are no amenities worth mentioning unless you like TRAIN NOISE at night all through the night. I regret staying here and did it only to see what it was like. I will not be back and will make sure that everyone I know is aware of how terrible this place is. Want to make it better? Disclose the water park is not a part of the actual campground and you will have to pay extra, a lot extra. Reduce the nightly fee or give a discount to the water park if you stay here. If I go less than 1 hour into Louisiana, I can get a resort with lazy river and many other amenities at the same price as this place and Buccaneer is 15 minutes off the the main interstate. I can see no good reason to come here ever. I am a resident of Mississippi and i hate that this state cannot get a State park even remotely as good as anything in other states. If this is our best, it...

Pros: shaded areas and full sun areas depending on part of park. All sites were full hook up. All sites had a grill. There is a large playground with toys I haven't seen at other parks, it was a nice variety. The pool looked really nice, had it been open. The Waterpark looked like it was making a ton of upgrades, there was brand new furniture being assembled, it looked very nice/clean with areas for all ages. Wide paved roads on all areas except treasure cove, some sites offered paved patios. Cons: no wifi, proximity to train tracks, unclean/poorly maintained bath house, Verizon service is really lacking-if you plan to use it think again, beach area is very small, camp store was closed, pool was closed, Waterpark was closed, staff were not present during open hours, gate left open/unattended. The pool being closed was not advertised anywhere and I was not aware, the prices are the same throughout the year regardless of amenities being available. I would not have booked here if I had known this. The fire rings in treasure cove are a pile of rocks on the ground so they easily will not contain a fire, it's more like throw some wood on this dirt spot between 5 rocks that don't even make a circle. The sites seemed poorly maintained. The sewer hookup was on a weird 45 angle which made using a 90 to connect to it difficult. The pool had zip ties to close it, seemed pretty unsafe. There were tons if fire ant hills in treasure cove, I didn't see this in other areas-treasure cove seemed to be thr least maintained of all areas. We expect bugs when camping but not the amount of ant hills that were there. It was every few steps there were huge ant hills. Narrow paved roads on treasure cove. No paved patio. Site markings are difficult to see in day light due to location, they are back near the hook ups. Would be very hard to see at night. Toss up: some camp sites are narrow and wooded which means there's no where to put a rug and chairs down, some sites offer tons of shade which is great for hot weather, and also privacy. Treasure cove had some double wide slabs but they didn't look like they could accomodate 2 campers with slides, they would easily accommodate a camper with slides and 2 vehicles.

The train tracks back up to treasure cove which I was not aware of, and the train runs 24/7. I was woken up multiple times because of the train approaching and blaring its horn. There didn't seem to be a schedule but i was woken up at 2230, 0330 and 0530 when I looked at the clock. The first night there I thought a dump truck had shown up in front of our camper it was vibrating so bad-it was just the train across the little canal. We were at site 128. I chose treasure cove as their website listed it as the most coveted. I would not return to this park. And I would advise against coming to this park if its off season. I am so exhausted from the poor sleep over the last 3 nights and so glad we aren't at this...

July 2016:

Well, we read all the reviews, and even after reading the negative ones, we decided to book our annual RV vacation at Buccaneer. We camped for 1 week in spot #117, which is in the Treasure Bay Loop of the park. There were plenty of trees in that loop, so plenty of shade in the AM and PM. Yes, the train tracks were very close-by, but it didn't bother us--we like the trains.

Power, water and sewer were all very easy to hook into. There was plenty of room for the 2 slide-out rooms, and only 1 tree that obstructed fully opening our awning.

As for the campsites themselves, they leave a lot to be desired. There was very little grass, and the dirt (dried mud) had TONS of trash and debris embedded in it. And we're not talking post-Katrina debris, we're talking lots of trash, broken glass, pop tops, bottle caps, etc. It seemed that everywhere I looked in this park, there were cigarette butts.

The paved RV pad was very narrow and drops-off; so you have to set up your awning and patio rug / chairs on top of dirt--which turns into a lot of mud when it rains. Most campgrounds have a paved pad for the patio area.

As others have said, it is unbelievable that paying campers have to pay to use the wading pool. I can see charging for the water park (which was nice) but the wading pool should be included for paying campers.

There was very little patrolling / oversight from the rangers and staff. Quiet hours are completely ignored by many of the campers. Screaming, yelling, arguing and loud music at all hours of the night. People were letting their dogs run free more than I've ever seen anywhere else.

The park is not very well maintained; including the showers and restrooms. This place seemed like chaos most of the time. It seems like we enjoyed our vacation when we were away from the campsite--or inside our camper. We won't be camping at Buccaneer State Park again.

We camped here for 1 week in a 31' travel trailer with 2 slide-outs.

On a positive note: The Silver Slipper Casino is 5 minutes away (West)and has a great buffet. If you head East, Bay St. Louis has a lot of antique shops and quaint little restaurants. New Orleans is only 35 minutes away.

If you're towing a travel trailer or driving a long motorhome, get off on exit #2 off of I-10. Get onto Hwy 607, and turn onto Lakeshore Drive. The RR crossing at Lakeshore is nearly dead flat. All others in the area are elevated and could damage the belly of your RV!

OnStar even tailored the end of my route to include Lakeshore Drive; since I read about it somewhere...