Mandalay Bay Hotel Las Vegas
The Mandalay Bay
Hotel Resort and Casino is a luxury hotel on the southern
tip of the Las Vegas Strip. It is owned by the MGM
Mirage.
Five floors of the main hotel building are occupied
by the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas, a AAA Five-Diamond rated
hotel. From the main building, you can actually walk indoors
towards the Four Seasons if you want to take a break from the
casinos. The top three floors are penthouses, with a lounge for
guests staying in the penthouses. There is a free Mandalay Bay
Tram that connects to sister properties, the Excalibur and the
Luxor.
The Mandalay Bay
Hotel has 3,309 rooms and a casino floor of more than
135,000 square feet. Next to it is the Mandalay Bay
Convention Center, a million square feet of space that
has been host to boxing events, UFC matches and even the
Latin Grammy Awards the last couple of
years.
Construction on
the Mandalay Bay Hotel Las Vegas started in 1996 where
the old Hacienda Casino used to be. The location was
considered ideal back then, since it was at the far south
end of the Las Vegas Strip and was the first resort seen
by tourists driving up from California. In addition,
since it was so far from the other resorts at the time,
many people who stayed at the Hacienda would not go
elsewhere. Proximity to MacCarran Airport was also an
advantage.These same advantages still apply
today.
The construction
cost was more than $950 million. The original intended
name was 'Project Paradise' but was quickly replaced by
Mandalay Bay before it opened in 1999. The gold coloring
of the hotel that you see as you drive past it on I-5 is
because of the gold leaf used on all the windows. A
convention center was added in 2003, which was ranked as
the fifth largest in the country, at more than 100,000
square feet of open space. In 2004 a new tower was
opened, called THEhotel at Mandalay
Bay.
The Mandalay Bay
Resort is connected to the Luxor Hotel by both a monorail
and a shopping mall called Mandalay Place. There are
plans in the near future to build a condo-hotel project
called THEplace, right in front of that vacant land in
front of the Luxor.
Attractions
Mamma Mia! used to be the long term stage production at the
Mandalay Bay Hotel. This was closed in January 2009, and was
replaced by a brand new, permanent production of
Disney's The Lion King which opened on May
2009.
The Mandalay Bay
Hotel Las Vegas also features the 11 acres
Mandalay Beach with three heated pools,
a wave pool with connecting pool for small children, a
European-style pool and a lazy river that features a
small waterfall. The wave pool features 1.6 million
gallons of water and waves in 90-second intervals with
heights ranging anywhere from two to four feet. Because
of this, it has a strict 48" height
requirement.
The European-style
pool is called Moorea and features its
own private bar. It allows guests to go topless bathing,
hence Moorea is separated from the rest of the pool by
smoked glass windows. You have to be over 21 to be
admitted. There are also restaurants at the Mandalay
Beach. The pool area is considered among the best in Las
Vegas, and has been rated by locals as the 'Best Pool of
Las Vegas' 7 years in a row. One pool even remains open
through the winter months.
In keeping with
the resort's tropical theme, the Mandalay Bay Hotel Las
Vegas also features a saltwater aquarium called
the Shark Reef. This aquarium has the
third largest tank in North America and contains other
exhibits including two tunnel shaped, walk-through
aquarium where you can see the sharks up close as you
walk thru.
Another popular
attraction is the House of Blues, a
venue for live music and a restaurant. On the top floor
of the hotel is the House of Blues Foundation Room,
featuring a dining room, private dining rooms, and a
balcony overlooking the Las Vegas
Strip.
Last but not
least, you will have access to more than 20+
restaurants within the Mandalay Bay Resort, with
famous chefs like Michael Mina, Alain Ducasse, Rick
Moonen, Charlie Palmer, Hubert Keller, and Wolfgang Puck,
behind most of the excellent
cuisine.
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