Short and sweet...or not so sweet.
Easter weekend full of kids. WHO KNEW? Who takes their kids to sin city on Easter? OK OK, that in itself forced us to the adult only pool which was skanky at best. Choices: Kids vs Skanks.

Rooms were okay but staff was HORRID. It took them an hour to bring ice bags to our room since it seemed they forgot something important each day they cleaned our room. Did I mention the staff was horrid? Not only were they rude, but they made me and my friend walk into the hotel soaking wet because there was some "rule" about taking a towel from the pool to the room. And not only was that "rule" cattle called to us, the attendants actually smarted off to us when we protested! However, for that the hotel manager did give us a free lunch by the pool the next day. Which of course for my friend they brought the wrong food. How does cheeseburger sound like fish tacos anyway?

The ONLY good thing about the hotel was the restaurant Strip Steak. I about killed over when someone actually greeted me and told me we could order our food however we wanted and family style if that is how we chose it. Yes, the BEST experience in Vegas was that restaurant.

Mandalay Bay SUCKED. Sorry, cant say it any nicer. Actually, that was being nice. I didnt realize the crowd there was so trashy too...thats another story for another time. Take me to the Bellagio.

We stayed at the Mandaly Bay because of a great offer on the room. However, I find $14.00 for a martini or 13.50 for a albeit good pastrami sandwich is more than high. A beautiful facility but gouging on very item you might want to purchase is just over the top.

We have stayed at this hotel numerous times since it opened and it is the hotel that we continue coming back to. We have tried others on the stip but still love going back to Mandalay Bay as our first choice.

I have read the other reviews and thought I should finally contribute our opinions. We travel quite a bit and stay in numerous hotels throughout the year.

We have always been able to check in before the official time. We usually arrive mid week. Front desk staff aren't the most friendly but I figure you don't have to deal with them once you've checked in.

Over the years we have stayed in a wide variety of rooms here. Overall the rooms are in good shape and the beds are comfortable. Maid service was excellent. We saw her on the first day and told her we would be out of the room early in the mornings. The room was always clean by at least 10 am.
Room service is good.

The pool is one of the reasons we go. Our kids are 2 and 4 and love the lazy river and the side of the wave pool not to mention playing in the sand. We usually rent a cabana because it is too hot to stay outside all day with the kids. Cabanas have a mini fridge, tv, fan, chairs, lounge chairs and some even have a change area. They are a a bit pricey but well worth it for us. Food and drink prices are comparable to other hotels.

We have been to the spa on previous visits and were very happy with both the Mandalay and The Hotel spas.

Kids always love the Shark Reef. NY NY has a great arcade for them too.

I have rated the location a 4 only because it is at the end of the strip which may not be great for some people. For us it is one of the pluses for this hotel. It is much quieter than some of the hotels mid strip. It is very easy to catch the tram or a taxi to get where you want to go. We love the scent in the air and the lack of smoke in the casino.

We are already planning our next trip back.

My friends and I stayed at MB for three nights (Sun-Wednesday). It has a great physical presence and is generally well maintained. Even given the cheap rate of $70/night, I got a good room on a high floor with a nice view of the strip and the airport. I think MB is a good place to stay, but I will detail the problems I had as it appears numerous others have already covered its good points.

1) if you are coming for the pool or pool area, reconsider. All the chairs are taken minutes after they open. You can sit/lay around and wait for someone to leave but that is not my dream of a great LV trip. The pools are wall to wall people and intertubes. Lots of families having fun, which is great, but both the wave and lazy river pools where just too crowded for me to enjoy.
2) restaurants are good, but Raffles and many of the others are really overpriced for what you get (but I guess I wouldn't lower Raffles' prices if I owned the place, it was always busy).
3) a taxi driver tried to rip off my friend on a 3am trip from Venetian to MB and their taxi dispatcher/loader, the front line MB employee for such situations, was totally unhelpful or supportive. My friend said to take the strip and the driver took the freeway and overshot MB for good measure. When they arrived at MB my friend got the doorman/taxi dispatcher and said he was only going to pay the $14 of the $18 meter and explained why. MB's dispatcher said something to the effect: "why don't you just pay the guy, you don't want to escalate this do you?" So much for MB taking care of their guests. My friend then asked for security. After about 20 minutes and a call for the taxi commission to send someone over, my friend settled for $12 total and a wave of foreign obscenities barraged at him. The security guy told my friend he was happy to see someone finally stand up to those taxi driver criminals.

I understand the taxi dispatcher's incentive: he gets a cut of taxis' strip club "commissions" and other "third party payments" and so wants to stay on good terms with taxi drivers -- doesn't want to get a bad rep. in taxi land. But it is indefensible of MB to tolerate its employees not assisting its customers in clear cut cases of ripoff. The driver didn't dispute picking my friend up at the Venetian, taking the freeway, or even overshooting the MB exit. The dispatcher should have said "yes, $18 sounds like too high from the Venetian. If the driver won't take your offer of $14, let's call the taxi commission -- but you should know it will take X hours or minutes."