Wednesday July 21, 2004

Viva Las Vegas, Part Deux

As promised, here's a quick tour of the Mandalay Bay's pools, where we spent the bulk of our waking hours last week. (Not at the slot machines -- sorry to disappoint you!)

If you go to resort's beach page, on the left hand side of the screen, you'll see a three slide animation showing the beach/wave pool area, a perky lifeguard (of whom there were many, all sporting these flotation belts that look like the thing Fat Bastard wore around his waist when he was masquerading as a sumo wrestler in Austin Powers 3, though of course it looked better on them), and finally -- my favorite area -- the "Lazy River". There's a nice little virtual tour of the beach as well, which is essentially what you'd see if you were Linda Blair in The Exorcist and you could spin your head around 360 degrees without getting a crick in your neck.

I'm all done with the bizarre movie references now.

Anyway, the big questions are (1) do you go for the cabana at $100 per day, and (2) if not, where do you sit?

While lots of friendly folks had recommended the cabanas -- which include ceiling fans, televisions, even those nifty spray misters -- we found that by carefully selecting a spot to sit, we could live without them quite happily. They may be more necessary on peak days, during peak seasons, when unoccupied lounge chairs are few and far between. (You may need to reserve them up to a week in advance under those circumstances.)

On the beach near the wave pool, there are lots and lots of chaise lounges, tightly packed together. So my advice would be to get there early (by 10:00, say), and select something at the very front, at the very back, or not too far from one of the walkways leading down to the water. That will minimize the time you have to spend picking your way inchingly between your sunscreen-slathered neighbors.

The wave pool itself is really sweet: medium sized waves (not big enough to knock you over unless you're pretty tippy to begin with), coming at a fixed, leisurely pace, clean and sand-free. It doesn't have all the romance of the real thing, to be sure, but then again you aren't going to get bowled over only to come up with your swim trunks full of sand (in all the wrong places) either.

Along the banks of the Lazy River, there are fewer lounge chairs, but if you pick carefully -- and my recommendation would be the ones nearest the Border Grill -- you can get close to the river; under a palm tree which provides, on that side of the pool, afternoon shade; and depending on your preference, within squirting range of one of the tree-based misters. It doesn't get any better than that, except when the cocktail waitress strolls by to deliver your Banana Banshee.

The Lazy River itself is maybe two people wide if they're in tubes ($20 per day), three-four people wide otherwise, and follows a looping, roughly oval-shaped course. The water moves a long at a not-all-that-lazy two miles per hour, which is a nice cruising speed if you're floating. You can even, more or less, "water ski" on your feet -- the friction on the bottom of the pool is only slightly more than the push of the current, so if you're light on your feet, you can get quite a ride. Very relaxing! (Do watch out, though, for the two waterfalls you float under; the water comes down pretty hard, and knocked the Foster Grant's off my head the first time around.) It's even more fun to lounge on the banks and watch your neighbors float by.

There are three other, more traditional pools (for the less imaginative): one near the Lazy River, that looked quite nice; one further away that my wife and daughter preferred because it was quiet and much emptier (though it overlooked a parking lot, which took all the magic away for me); and one I guess I never found!

Can't complain, though. Between the four I did find, there was always a space for me, for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and another Banana Banshee.

Next installment (of the blog, not of Harry Potter), we'll go off property to "Everything Coca-Cola", "M&M World", and "Star Trek: The Experience." Stay tuned!

(2004-07-21 17:47:49.0) Permalink Comments [2]