Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Vegas / Mandalay Bay Trip Report

We (family of 4 kids 7 & 9) just returned from a trip in Southern Utah (2 nights) and then 5 nights at Mandalay Bay. We had absolutely no complaints with Mandalay Bay or Las Vegas (with kids). We had a blast. We got there prior to check in time and although we had to take a room that was not yet cleaned, we were given an upgraded room (30th floor in the 200 wing with a great view of the strip) for no extra charge. In addition, they didn't even charge us for our kids!!! Our room rate was $105 a night which we thought was great! Oh, and our room did have a room safe. We had a game cube with us for our car ride and when we had trouble hooking it up, engineering came us twice to help us out. We each did need our own room keys each day. However, one day my husband couldn't find his and they did let him in. I think that was the exception though, and not the rule. We brought our own tubes (the kids were the only ones who used theirs) so we saved the $20 per tube there. The big draw for the kids was the wave pool which was more like the ocean waves than any wave pool we'd ever been too. A wave came about every 90 seconds and they enjoyed riding them in. What was nice was that they had so many lifeguards there that we could actually relax and read while they were in the water. They did get scratched up when they caught a wave too close to shore. One of those swim shields or a t-shirt would have helped that. We did get down there at 9:00 every morning though to stake out the prime chairs in front of the wave pool. And one morning we left right after we got our chairs and an hour later one of our chairs had been taken. The sign says that if you're gone for an hour, your chair is no longer saved. The rest of the time, we just stayed down there...the weather was fantastic and we stayed down there all day! We ate at their poolside bar a couple of times for lunch and it was pretty good. The kids loved it...I thought the chicken dishes were kinda dry. We went out to eat several times and enjoyed the meals we had. We ate in Mandalay Bay at both Rum Jungle and Wolfgang Pucks which were both good. We also ate at a Chinese restaurant over at MGM grand one night and the service was wonderful. I can't remember what the name of that restaurant was called. We took the kids to Mystere which we all loved. My husband had just seen a similar show in Orlando which he thought was much better than Mystere. The rest of us had never seen a Cirque De Soleil show so we were very impressed. The kids especially loved the humor!!! Before the show we ate dinner at Kahunaville (in Treasure Island) and we really loved the food! They had great crab cakes (and we are seasoned Maryland crabcake eaters) and a kids menu. That place reminded me of a Rainforest cafe (had dancing fountains and the caribbean motif) but the food was much better! Went to Circus Circus one day for Adventuredome. The kids loved it but it was a disappointment for the adults. It was just small and older...but we went for the kids so the goal was achieved. We bought the wristbands for the day and were disappointed when halfway through the day they closed down their laser tag for a private party. My husband complained to the manager and they comped us 4 rounds of minature golf and some video games. So, they even comp in vegas for the kids stuff! All in all, we were really impressed with the way Vegas has cleaned up their act. We'd been there about 7 years ago without kids and were surprised with all of the indecent flyers all over the sidewalks...this trip we only came in contact with a couple of cards on the elevator floor outside of MGM and we promptly stepped on them before my 9 year old son had a look (I'm sure he would have been disappointed had he known :-) I'd definitely recommend Mandalay Bay though!