TheHotel at Mandalay Bay (that's the name of the all-suite section of the hotel. TheHotel. I know, it's kind of weird.) is pretty nice. Unlike Vdara, it is connected to the rest of the Mandalay Bay, so it's just a quick walk to the casinos and other parts.
The suites are great. Living room with business/desk area, couch, tv, wetbar (and minibar), and then a door to the bedroom, which is really beautiful. Floor to ceiling windows, like all the Mandalay Bay, one-direction windows, so you're free to leave the curtains open, I suppose. The bedroom has two mirror-fronted closets, and the television is situated in front of the bed, but can also be hidden in the dark wood and mirrored closet. The main bathroom has the most massive bathtub I've ever seen, a separate toilet closet, a glass stand-up shower, and another tv. Just in case the other two weren't enough to go around. With the included bath salts, you could spend a lot of time in that tub, watching tv or whatever. You could have a party in there. It is really that big. The best part of the separate bedroom, though, is that the recessed entry door to the suite (there's a half bath by the entry, too cool), the living room area, and the door to the bedroom, provide plenty of sound barriers - drunken revelers in the hallway won't bother you one bit, in the privacy of your bedroom. Unless they press your doorbell, I guess. All in all, it is an awesome room, full of all the comforts of home and then some, and it puts into question whether they want you to come down to the casino at all. I certainly don't.
But we went downstairs for Lion King. Amazing. Production value just plain through the roof. Hydraulic stage bits, immense costumes, huge cast, the works. Still pretty much word-for-word the movie, but just like Beauty and the Beast, you can't mess with a winning formula.
And we went downstairs to check out the beach, which is only open in the summertime. It has a massive wavepool, and several adult-pools. But it was hot like only the scorching desert can be hot, and it was crowded, and get this: the cover charge for the day-club pool was $60. Six-Zero. Sixty. Dollars. I can only hope I heard him wrong, but no amount of day clubbing is worth that kind of money, and the music was somewhat questionable, besides. All in all, they advertise that they made an entire beach, and there WERE sand and waves, but it didn't really create the atmosphere I was expecting. I mean, what sand there is, is covered with lounge chairs. The walkways are still concrete and temporary flooring structure. The 'beachside casino' is neither beachside, nor casual, and the lazy river is pretty short. You can get wet, and there are some pool-side concerts, that's about it. Don't get your expectations too up.
Next time: The Aria at CityCenter, and a detailed comparison of brunch menus.
