Sunday July 18, 2004

Viva Las Vegas!

You all were very kind to keep visiting while I was away this week. Thank you!

So for your reward, here are a few hot tips from my family's sunny six days in Las Vegas.

The Mandalay Bay was spectacular. The default room was huge -- plenty of room for the two queen-sized beds, and the rollaway for Joe fit in a nook near the entryway -- completely out of the way. It's never easy having four people in a room (two of them being teenagers, especially), but this is as close as it's ever come. Two closets, two sinks, closed off toilet in the bathroom (which included a huge tub as well as a separate shower) -- very family-friendly. On the downside -- and this isn't particular to the Mandalay -- there's an extra charge for extra people (beyond 2) in your room. So in our case, you can take the great-looking room rates on the web site and add $35 for each of the two kids, plus $20 for the rollaway, for each night. At a certain point (which we long passed, according to Lizzie), getting separate rooms for the kids makes sense. Just do the math. By the way, you'll notice that for most hotels, the room rates vary per night, based on (I'm sure) supply and demand, in the form of vacancy rates. So Sunday through Thursday nights were pretty reasonable (with some variance each night), Friday was an arm and a leg. Also, the hotel is a lot less crowded during the week, as are all the attractions, so plan accordingly.

Fun stuff at the hotel included the Shark Reef, a predator-exclusive aquarium which includes the only hammerhead shark in captivity, and at the opposite corner of the immaculate property -- a windey walk through the casino -- Mandalay Place shopping mall, which is on the walkway between the Mandalay Bay and the Luxor. Outside of shark-gazing and shopping, perhaps our favorite thing to do as a family is eat out (the whole trip was basically an excuse to do just that for a whole week), and there are a dozen top-shelf restaurants between the hotel and the shopping mall. Our favorites were the Burger Bar in Mandalay Place (honestly, I think it was our best meal: the black angus burger, with jalapeno bacon, pepper jack cheese, and more jalapenos on the side, was to die for, and so were the sweet potato fries), House of Blues (the breakfasts and lunches we had there were excellent, and really quite reasonable, price-wise), and the Bay Side Buffet. Now on the latter, nobody in my family wanted to go to a buffet. They didn't like the idea. Until they tried it. You name it, you can get it there, top quality, ultimate pig-out. And for the money (dinner was about $22 per person), it's an unbeatable value. Dinner for four at the Burger Bar was more than the prime-rib grazing we did at the buffet. Another favorite was Chocolate Swan, where you can find a wide variety of custards (kind of like upscale homemade soft-serve ice cream), cheese cakes, pastries and chocolates -- my (our) advice would be to skip dessert wherever you get your dinner or lunch (or breakfast), and high-tail it over to Chocolate Swan. We frequented the one on the lower floor, right outside the entrance to Mandalay Bay. Lots of people-watching opportunities, and there's a nice little bookstore to browse while you're waiting for your blood sugar to come back to normal. The only place I wasn't crazy about was the Border Grill at the Mandalay. It was good, but not great -- and given that it's relatively pricey, and that the portions are more California than Las Vegas-sized, it's not at the top of my list. The kids enjoyed it, though, and our second time there, we were serenaded by a trio singing what I fondly remember as the "Frito Bandito" song. That part, I liked.

Working up Maslow's hierarchy of needs, having covered shelter and food, we come to pools, and there, the Mandalay is especially hard to beat. I'll be back later to tell you all about 'em. And -- of course -- about the Borg Invasion 4-D!

(2004-07-18 10:34:29.0) Permalink