Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino — Hotel Review Rating: 4.0 Pearls

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Oyster Hotel Review

Reporter: John P.
Updated: December 18, 2009

 Scene

Even when you compare it to the other giant hotels in Vegas, the 3,215-room Mandalay Bay hotel is crowded, especially after you factor in another 1,117 rooms at THEhotel and yet another 400 rooms at Four Seasons (both have shared access to the pools and the casino at Mandalay Bay). I saw fifteen children and two adults stuffed into the hot tub. Next to the wave pool, there wasn't a single lounge chair to be found in the afternoon. And, according to one of the staff members I spoke with, this was on a "pretty slow" day.

Given the hotel's aquarium, wave pool, and broad assortment of 20+ restaurants, it rates with hotels like the MGM Grand as one of the best upscale family hotels in Vegas.

But along with the children, there's still plenty of beer chugging at the pools and bars like Red Square and House of Blues draw plenty of twentysomethings into the hotel. Conventions are also a big chunk of the hotel's market.

Essentially, the hotel is large enough to satisfy just about any type of traveler but lacks a more distinct personality. While the rooms are big, they're not the biggest, and they're far from extraordinary (at least by Vegas standards). And Mandalay's location on the southern edge of the Strip make it a bit more cut off from the attractions in the center of the Strip, as found at the Mirage or the Bellagio. Before booking, be sure to check the rates at Caesars Palace, the MGM Grand, the Mirage, and the Bellagio. These days, there are better deals to be found.

 Service

The Mandalay staff seems to be a bit too small to handle the giant volume of guests. Simple requests, like replacing a missing laundry bag in my room, took over an hour and two phone calls to fulfill. The front desk always seemed to have a long line of frazzled travelers. After waiting in many fairly organized, 30-minute check-in/checkout lines throughout Vegas (they're pretty typical) I can honestly say that the loud and chaotic mess at Mandalay was the worst I've seen. And while room service is available 24 hours, the breakfast I ordered took well over an hour to arrive (though the hotel did say that it would take about that long).

 Location

The Mandalay Bay hotel complex, which also houses THEhotel and the Four Seasons hotels, is on the southernmost end of a three-and-a-half mile long stretch of hotel-casinos known as the Strip. Outside the complex, there isn't much in the immediate vicinity -- some vacant lots, rundown motels, and strip malls. To get closer to the central Strip attractions, you can take the free, 0.7-mile tram that connects Mandalay to the Luxor and Excalibur, the two closest hotels to the north. It runs Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Most Las Vegas visitors want to explore all of the big properties along the Strip. 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 MGM Grand, Bally's/Paris, Flamingo/Caesars Palace, Harrah's/Imperial Palace, the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Hilton, and the Sahara -- but it's a long walk to the MGM Grand stop from Mandalay Bay. 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

At least on paper, the rooms rival some of the best Vegas hotels. They all have the requisite TV in the bathroom, the floor-to-ceiling windows, the well-stocked minibar, the separate soaking tub and standing shower, the comfortable sofa, marble countertops, the iHome iPod docking alarm clock, and the giant, 42-inch HD flat-screen TV -- just enough swank to make your money seem well spent. But the overall look just doesn't stand up to the luxury hotels on the Strip, like the rich flourishes found in the Bellagio rooms or the sleek comforts in the rooms at the Wynn. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what's wrong with the room -- it's clean, and at least looks nice -- but the dizzying patterns on every piece of furniture, the eerie green glow cast over the room from the gold-tinted windows, the peeling wallpaper in the hallways, chipped wooden surfaces, the lack of a down comforter, the view of the airport and parking lots, and all the plane and traffic noise throughout the night make these rooms fall behind the Vegas greats.

At 550 square feet, the standard rooms -- called, conveniently, the "550 DR" rooms -- are huge when you compare them to the standard rooms in any hotel at just about every other major city in the world. But they're far from the largest in Vegas -- they're a bit bigger than the rooms at the Bellagio hotel, but not quite up to the level of the rooms at the Wynn or Venetian hotels, which start at about 650 square feet. You can upgrade to bigger rooms -- from the 610-square-foot suite with a spa tub to a 1,450-square-foot two-bedroom suite -- but once the rates begin to jump from room to room, you're probably better off looking for a room in a different hotel altogether.

 Features

Like the Golden Nugget in downtown Vegas, Mandalay Bay has a great big fish tank -- in this case, a 1.6-million-gallon Shark Reef Aquarium with some 2,000 animals on display, including 15 different kinds of sharks. (Admission costs $16.95 for adults, $13.95 for children ages 5-12, and free for children 4 and under.)

Access to the fitness center costs $20/day (typical at most Vegas resorts) and includes a good selection of cardio equipment with private TV monitors, free weights, exercise balls, and strength training machines -- but there are no windows, and the equipment feels sort of crammed inside. You can also take advantage of the free quarter-mile outdoor running track around the pool -- a rare treat in Vegas, but not in the summer's 105-degree heat.

For a daily $30 fee, you can get access to both the fitness center and the spa facilities at the large Spa Mandalay (basically, the only features are a big, beautiful spa tub), and the significantly smaller Bathhouse Spa in THEhotel tower, which has a sauna, steam room, and a big, less-relaxing looking and more serious-looking, slate-tiled spa tub. Among the services offered you can get a 50-minute deep tissue massage for $165 or a 50-minute facial for $165. To see the full menu of services, click here.

But for a great hotel spa for a similar price, be sure to check out the rates at Caesars Palace.

 Casino

The casino includes the standard offering of slots, table games, blackjack, poker, race and sports book, along with the high-limit room, but the design and atmosphere is about on par with any other giant hotel in Vegas.

 Pools

While the rooms, the spa, the casino, the service, and, well, everything else at the Mandalay is pretty average, the enormous pool complex really is incredible. But even with six pools in an 11-acre complex, the place still manages to get crowded. Plan on waking up very early if you want to snag an open lounge chair.

The largest pool, and clearly the kid favorite, is the wave pool, which produces waist-high (on an adult) ocean waves every few minutes. The waves aren't especially dangerous (they're just barely large enough for a kid to body surf), but the hotel keeps lifeguards posted and all children much be at least 48 inches tall to go in the pool.

For slightly less intense fun, kids -- or adults -- can hop into an inner tube ($16 to rent a small tube and $20 for a large) and float down the streaming lazy river pool, which winds around a little hill and through waterfalls. A lazy river pool can also be found at the MGM Grand.

The East Lagoon pool is a bit quieter, and includes cabanas for rent, but here, again, the lounge chairs get claimed pretty early. Less popular is the South Lagoon pool, where it'll be easier to find an open chair in the afternoon and there's a poolside bar, but you're also stuck looking at a parking lot.

A rowdy pool party (and topless sunbathing) can be found at the Moorea pool, which only allows adults ages 21 and up and charges $50 for men to access the pool and $10 for women. But the party here doesn't quite have the same appeal as the infamous Rehab party at the Hard Rock casino or the parties at Wet Republic at the MGM Grand -- when I visited, it was mostly just young dudes swigging beers.

 Family

The base-level rooms are big, and include a small sofa (big enough to sleep a toddler), but all the rooms come with a king-size bed, so families will have to request a rollaway mattress ($20/night) or upgrade to a one- or two-bedroom suite. Cribs are also available.

For entertainment, the hotel hosts a number of family-friendly performances, such as Disney's The Lion King musical (tickets start at $53).

Unlike the Venetian and some of the other high-luxury hotels on the Strip, Mandalay Bay also has some inexpensive dining options for families, including Canter's Delicatessen and Raffles Cafe.

 Cleanliness

The hotel is showing some signs of wear, but the rooms are all well-kept and there are no major stains to speak of. But by the end of the day, the pool area can look pretty trashed, with towels and empty beer cans left lying around.

 Food

The Mandalay complex (which includes THEhotel and the Four Seasons) has 23 dining options -- more than most hotels on the Strip. Options range in price and style, from French-American cuisine by Alain Ducasse at Mix (average check is about $90/person) to pizza and pasta at Giorgio (average check is about $31/person) to Raffles 24-hour cafe (average check is about $22/person). For a complete list of restaurants and sample menus, check out the Mandalay Bay website's dining page.

To rival the best Vegas foodie-hotel greats -- the Bellagio, the Wynn, and the Venetian among them -- there is a broad range of fine dining options from acclaimed chefs like Wolfgang Puck's Lupo, Michael Mina's STRIPSTEAK (a favorite of Esquire magazine), Rick Moonen's RM Seafood, Charlie Palmer’s Aureole, and Hubert Keller's Fleur de Lys.

 Drinks

Built to capture the spirit of southern blues (well, southern blues plus Buddha statues), the House of Blues Foundation Room is a Vegas favorite -- mostly because the private "tea rooms" feel far more intimate than the mega-clubs and lounges everywhere else. Plus, as the bar is perched on one of the top floors of the hotel, it comes with some amazing views of the Strip. Though the website says this bar is open to "members only," I had no problem getting inside (with a $20 cover charge).

Red Square, voted the best bar in America by Playboy magazine, serves caviar and Russian favorites, along with infused vodkas over a bar that's actually made of ice -- a fine way to keep your drink cold.

 Bottom Line

barThe giant, 3,215-room Mandalay Bay offers more for kids -- wave pool, streaming lazy river pool, shark aquarium -- and plenty for adults -- decent spa, lively bars, premier cuisine -- but the constant crowds, long lines, airport noise, and a slightly cut-off-from-the-Strip location make it a less attractive mid-tier luxury option.