urbanphotos.net considered Wynn, Venetian, Palazzo, the new Trump tower, and Mandalay Bay for our seventeenth trip to Las Vegas in December 2008. Prices were too high at the first three properties. Trump was less expensive than expected but photos on their web site conveyed an uncomfortable feeling of extreme opulence. Just too fancy. So we settled on Mandalay Bay. The South End of the Strip?
Mandalay Bay is waaayyyy at the south end of the strip, but that should not be a concern to anyone unless they NEED to be on the center or north strip for some reason. We also rented a car for this trip, so our location was unimportant. Not having shot any photos out the windows of any Mandalay Bay hotel rooms before was one of our primary concerns.
We paid extra for a "strip view" room and were not disappointed (see the first five photos below.) Although we selected the smallest size room (550 square feet) it was quite big and comfortable in comparison to most other Las Vegas strip hotels' smallest rooms.
If you've never visited Las Vegas before and are not a millionaire, I highly recommend Mandalay Bay. Room rates are lower than expected in comparison to the quality and comfort you receive, and although it appears isolated; the south strip area is unique in its configuration allowing easy pedestrian access to six different megaresorts. I refer to this area as the "south stripolopolis."
Walking Around
From Mandalay Bay you can wander into Mandalay Place, which is kind of a strip mall full of retail shops. The other end of Mandalay Place comes out in the Luxor. From Luxor you can get on an indoor conveyor belt to Excalibur. So you've got access to the tropics, ancient Egypt, and medieval England all without having to step outdoors.
From Excalibur, an elevated pedestrian walkway will lead you to New York New York. 3 more elevated walkways connect NY NY to the MGM Grand across the street, connect the MGM Grand to the Tropicana, and connect Tropicana to Excalibur.
If that's not enough convenience, there is also a free tram (small light train) that runs from Mandalay Bay to Luxor to Excalibur and back.
Each of these six "south stripolopolis" resorts have a huge casino, shops and restaurants, showroom, pool, night clubs, and other amenities that come with Las Vegas strip megaresorts. You're not likely to get bored quickly in this area.
Driving
We've had a drivers license for more than 30 years and are not easily confused, but the Mandalay Bay parking garage was difficult to find. You'd think something that large would be easy to find.
Part of the problem is the huge convention center and EXTRA SETS OF RESORTS on the Mandalay Bay property. Not only is Four Seasons located there, but THEhotel has its very own parking garage. After getting lost twice I think we figured out where to park.
The new Rent A Car Center that serves McCarran is very nice and much more convenient than the old setup. Free shuttles run back and forth from the airport to the car rental center constantly (their web site says every 5 minutes, but they were running constantly when we were there.) You get a free ride from the airport and then pick up your car with no waiting on line if you join one of the "VIP" programs like Thrifty's Blue Chip program. Which is free.
Driving on the Las Vegas strip is normally more of a hassle than a convenience, so we only used the car for going from one end of the strip to the other and driving around East Fremont Street and other off-strip trips. Like the depressing stops we made at Albertson's and Von's supermarkets on Maryland Parkway. (Urban blight exists even in Las Vegas.)
But what about the room?
We loved the Mandalay Bay room, which was NOT a suite, even better than the suites we've had at Venetian (in 2001 and 2002) and Rio (1996 and 2000). Our only complaint was about the spring loaded bathroom door that will slam shut loudly if you let it close by itself.
The bathroom is huge, has two sinks (no fighting over the sink!), a sub-bathroom with the toilet, a shower stall AND a separate bath tub.
The main room has a huge (huge is a recurring theme) flat screen TV mounted on the wall over a dresser which includes a fully stocked refrigerator (champagne, hard liquor, soft drinks, beer) and snack rack. This self-service food and drink is very expensive but so is everything on Las Vegas Blvd. Going to a convenience store or gift shop isn't going to save you much.
The window is pretty much a full wall of glass. Huge. The bed and other furnishings are very comfortable and have a sleek, modern look. No silly themes or ultra fancy nonsense.
The casino & property
We've visited Mandalay Bay dozens of times since it was built in the late 1990's but our main purpose for visiting Las Vegas is to shoot photos. So we can't report on the quality of restaurants and stuff like that.
The colorful cocktail waitress outfits have been replaced by the standard MGM Mirage outfits. MGM Mirage owns 10 or 11 Las Vegas resorts and makes efforts to standardize some things across all their properties.
The casino is very large and comfortable but like most strip casinos is "tight" with the rules and slot machine payouts. Gamble here for fun, not for profit.
For more information about Mandalay Bay, please click here to visit their web site.
And enjoy the photos below.
You may notice the snow covered mountains... McCarran Airport actually closed the day after we left Las Vegas and had to reroute incoming flights to Salt Lake City due to heavy snow.
