HotelChatter

Check In
Again with the post 12am check-in. Bleary eyed from JetBlue, our check-in was smooth, friendly, and there were no lines. We are starting to think there is a direct correlation between LAS taxi cab lines and hotel check-in lines. The friendly check-in girl ended her schpiel with "and we are happy to tell you will be staying in one of our newly renovated rooms". Sweet.

Elevators
In '05 we waited over thirty minutes for an elevator--no joke. This time?  Elevators were quick and easy, as we were on the third floor. The lesson? Don't request a room on a high level floor. Stick with floors 20 and below. Those are the currently renovated rooms (the rest should be done by then end of this year). If you are worried about a view, ask for a strip side room, back rooms are going to look out over the roof towards the airport.

Service
We forgot to pack toothpaste. Yeah. However, within minutes of calling the front desk they delivered not one, but two tubes of toothpaste to us at 1 AM. However, we did ask for a late check out and were denied "due to over occupancy". They did however let us know we could give our bags to the bellhop for the day and stick around the resort. Light years better than in 2005 when they told us at check-in that we were "lucky not to get shipped off to the Luxor due to over-occupancy". Yikes.

Room Reaction
Room 3129, a standard king room. The amount of life earth tones and flat panel televisions can bring into a standard room is amazing. No wonder everyone is doing it. Just check out the before and after photos below--these renovations are a huge upgrade. Look, Mandalay still isn't the Venetian, however, these rooms are now comfortable, roomy, and more in line with 2007 than 1985.

WiFi
The good news? The WiFi works. In the room and on the property. The bad news? You have to pay to play. $11.99 to be exact. Four bar signal, fast surfing, no pop up ads, and no obvious site filters. Still couldn't get Mac Mail to send out, so we had to use web mail. However, you can go ahead and chalk that up to probable user error.

Location
You know where it is. If you need more info, check it out on our Vegas Hotel Map.

Cost
We paid $169 before taxes.

Bottom Line
God bless renovations. Renovations can not only breathe new life into stale rooms, but they can also lift the morale of hotel workers. If you get a good rate, stay on a lower level floor, and are sure to get a newly renovated room, the Mandalay Bay is once again a decent option in Vegas, especially for conference attendees.


Standard Mandalay Bay Resort Room in 2005

Standard Mandalay Bay Resort Room in 2007

Standard Mandalay Bay Resort Room in 2007