Excalibur Hotel And Casino — Hotel Review Rating: 3.0 Pearls

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Oyster Hotel Review

Reporter: Mike T.
Updated: August 31, 2009

 Scene

The family-welcoming, medieval-themed Excalibur, a fortress-shaped hotel-casino on the southern end of the Strip, epitomizes Vegas' halfhearted transition from sexy, sinful, adults-only playground to kid-friendly tourist destination. The 3,990-room hotel is corny. The arches over the cabstand are outfitted with mock wooden portcullises. Suits of armor, stained-glass windows, and medieval-ish chandeliers adorn the entrances. Posters proclaim, "Thank You for Visiting Excalibur. You Rule."

Yet the Disneyfied-playland feel is somewhat offset by lobby banners advertising "Thunder From Down Under," a show featuring bare-chested Australian studs, and the "Party Pit," which has blackjack tables flanked by bikini-clad pole dancers. That's about as risqué Excalibur gets -- just beyond the ads for the Thunder, a five-foot-tall statue of Nickelodeon cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants beckons children to the arcade a floor below.

As the castle motif and SpongeBob might indicate, Excalibur has its sights set on families. Children hustle around the casino floor and the mezzanine-level food court. At the pool, parents tend to their water-wing-clad children in the shallow end, and kids flock to the waterslide. For all the parenting going on, a healthy contingent of young adults populate the Excalibur too. In the elevator, I encountered a group of young women meeting up for a night on the town, and the pool was dotted with ladies in bikinis sipping tropical drinks. The hotel caters to both crowds with money-saving promotions, including a $25 all-day pass to the buffet and two-for-$8 deal on 24-oz. Coronas.

The architecture is themed to the max, but don't expect Renaissance Fair-level costuming. The staff dresses in sports coats and ties, not medieval garb. Only once in my two-night stay did I encounter two women decked out in "damsel" outfits.

Nightlife is similarly cheesy. Ribald, lowbrow shenanigans go down at restaurant-bar and self-proclaimed "Shame O' the Strip" Dick's Last Resort. At the motorcycle-themed Octane Lounge, a live band was covering Lynyrd Skynyrd's "What's Your Name." The Jester's Lounge on the casino floor and the Drenched poolside bar both feature beer pong.

 Service

Excalibur certainly doesn't pull out all the stops in terms of service. The staff provides basic answers when guests ask for help, but doesn't take the initiative to meet guests' needs. Beyond 24-hour room service, the hotel offers few extras. The spa doesn't provide in-room treatments, and the concierge is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., not 24 hours like at higher-end hotels. To be fair, this slim array of services is on par with most other lower-priced Strip properties. (For one exception, check out the Flamingo.)

I didn't wait long to check in, but at various times during my stay I saw long lines forming in the lobby. At the desk, the clerk confirmed that I wanted a nonsmoking room and the date of my checkout, but that was about it -- no offer to help with my bags, and no basic rundown of the hotel's highlights. I asked for a brochure, but the clerk produced none. Instead, she pointed out the location of the Sherwood Cafe and several fast-food joints. In the rooms, guests can expect a quick response to room-service requests, but I had to call twice to get extra towels.

 Location

Most Las Vegas visitors want to explore all of the big properties along the densely packed 3.5-mile-long stretch of hotel-casinos known as the Strip, and the Excalibur, at the southern end, offers easy access to many of them. An indoor walkway and a tram connect guests to the pyramid-shaped Luxor, whose enormous atrium houses a variety of solid restaurants. Across Tropicana Avenue, New York New York boasts its own roller coaster, and the MGM Grand has an enormous casino with an on-site lion habitat.

Cabs are easy to find at virtually any time of day or night. A generally less expensive option is the Deuce, a double-decker bus that runs up and down the strip 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and costs $3 to ride. There's also a monorail system, which stops at Bally's, Caesars Palace, Harrah's, the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Hilton, and the Sahara. A single-ride ticket is $5; a one-day pass is $13. If you're traveling along the Strip with at least one other person, a cab is often the least expensive option.

Virtually every hotel on the Las Vegas Strip is a 10- to 15-minute cab ride from McCarran International Airport; the ride typically costs about $15.

 Rooms

The rooms in Tower I like mine rock the medieval theme, with fleur-de-lis imprints on the headboards, a Bayeux Tapestry-inspired wall hanging, and a mirror straight out of Snow White.

The room had stains on the carpet. I also found discarded wrappers on the floor.

The bed, featuring a Serta Innerspring pillow-top mattress, was comfortable. The bedspreads, though, are thin, and in my room some of the stitching was beginning to come undone.

In the white, fluorescent-lit bathroom, stains, scars, and mineral buildup tarnished the environment. The showerhead had green crust around its spouts, a long scratch ran along the sink counter, and mold or some other form of discoloration marred the drain and the border of the basin.

As for electronics, the room has a standard tube TV and a clock radio. The reception on the cable channels was slightly fuzzy. Pay-per-view Hollywood movies that are still in theaters are available for $11.99. Wired Internet is available for $13.99 a day.

Outshining the standard rooms in Tower I, the Widescreen rooms in Tower II were renovated in the fall of 2008 and feature 42-inch plasma TVs, pillow-top mattresses, and iPod docks. Having nearly abandoned the Middle Ages, they are much more modern. It's worth the $20 upgrade.

 Features

The hotel's Royal Treatment Spa offers services including body wraps, tanning, massages, and facials. A one-day pass for the spa and fitness center, not including services, costs $20. The hotel provides guests with coupons for free fitness center admission (without spa).

The well-maintained fitness center features seven treadmills, multiple recumbent and upright exercise bikes, free weights, a host of strength machines, and a view of the pool outside. If looking at the hard bodies outside isn't motivation enough, several of the seven TVs are tuned to ESPN.

At the hotel's Castle Walk retail center, guests can pick up cheap trinkets at souvenir shops, $10 boutiques, and kids' stores. For higher-end shopping, head to the Shops at Mandalay Bay, reachable via the Luxor next door.

The 24-hour business center charges 29 cents per page for black-and-white copies, $1.99 per page for faxes, and $5 for 10 minutes of Internet service.

 Pools

Families and the occasional group of 20-something vacationers lounge around Excalibur's four pools. One features a wide, shin-deep ledge where parents splash about with toddlers, while couples flirt on nearby deck chairs. High-energy youngsters take full advantage of the waterslide at another pool.

The hotel also devotes one pool to adults only. Don't let that designation fool you. It's not a topless pool, and it isn't meaningfully walled off from young children.

Cabanas at all the pools typically rent for $150 to $175 on weekends, $80 to $100 during the week. They include 42-inch plasma screens, fridges with water and fruit juice, a pool raft, towel service, and a ceiling fan.

 Casino

The casino at the Excalibur has rows upon rows of slots, from penny machines to $100 games. Live games include blackjack, craps, roulette, Pai Gow poker, and mini-baccarat. A sports book was installed in the spring of 2008. Live entertainment includes Party Pit pole dancers and "Strip Poker."

On the downside, the poker tables don't have live dealers. Instead, players use an electronic deck and bet using a touch screen. This disappointed several guests I spoke with, who'd been hoping for the experience of a live Vegas table.

 Family

Excalibur makes a good case that even a hotel with an enormous casino, sexy shows, beer pong, and pole dancers can deliver wholesome fun that's appropriate for young kids. Parents capable of explaining away the Party Pit and Thunder From Down Under posters can reap the benefits of vacationing in a giant castle with interior battlements and suits of armor. A SpongeBob SquarePants movie/ride, the Tournament of Kings jousting dinner show ("Eat with your fingers!"), and the Fantasy Faire arcade offer kids plenty of diversions to choose from.

Poolside, eight cabanas are designated for those traveling with children , and the waterslide was popular.

The hotel doesn't offer a kids' club or babysitting service. Cribs, however, are available on request.

 Cleanliness

The Excalibur pays insufficient attention to housekeeping, but conditions fall short of horrendous. Minor stains slightly altered the color of the carpet, but they weren't flagrant. In the bathroom, I spotted stains on the sink and the countertop.

In the hallways, the staff left room service carts and trays in the halls, even overnight. I also saw litter on the carpets. The tables by the elevators sported some major scratches, and I found a half-empty beer can in the elevator, as well as chewed gum sitting on the table in the elevator lobby.

 Food

The Roundtable Buffet promises an "All You Can Eat Feast," and in terms of sheer calories per dollar, it may be the best deal on the Strip. For $25, guests can eat all day. There's also a two-for-one single-meal deal available from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. every day. As usual, though, you get what you pay for. The service is decidedly informal -- the hostess directed me to my seat by telling me, "See that woman waving the red flag? She'll seat you." The ribs were fatty and bland, and the snap peas came in a tub of oil.

Other options include the Steakhouse at Camelot, which offers a three-course dinner for $25 on its menu. Similarly, the Italian restaurant Regale has a $20 three-course dinner deal on its menu.

Sherwood Forest Cafe serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and provides the room service menu) from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. The club sandwich I ordered for room service arrived wrapped in cellophane and wasn't anything spectacular. Here's the menu.

I was disappointed in the Tournament of Kings dinner show, though perhaps as a 25-year-old, I'm not the target audience. I didn't enjoy eating a bland full chicken with my hands or drinking liters of Pepsi while watching European knights on horseback sword fight against a human/dragon/demon/thing. At $62 a ticket, it seemed like a pricey knockoff of Medieval Times. Still, I was there before summer vacation, and the theater was less than half full. During the Tournament's peak summer season, the place fills up, and the kids I did see there seemed to be having a good time.

 Bottom Line

In the running for the cheesiest resort on the Strip, the medieval-themed, castle-shaped Excalibur aims for all age groups with a melange of beer pong, inexpensive buffets, jousting, and SpongeBob SquarePants. Filled with over-the-top goofiness and family-friendly touches, it makes few gestures toward high-end luxury, instead offering decent accommodations and lots of disposable fun.