The MGM Grand is a GREAT hotel !

I have stayed here before, and I have never been disappointed. The standard Emerald Tower rooms are big, and the bed was among the most comfortable that I have ever slept in (with about six pillows per bed, including a huge "body pillow"). The hotel room bathrooms are nice, and there is very good water pressure from the (massaging) shower heads, as well as a good strong flush from the toilets. I had to throw that in...that's important to me.

The pool complex is incredible -- especially the lazy river. The pool attendant told me that next year MGM will also have a "clothing-optional" pool (i.e. topless), probably in order to keep up with the Mirage "Bare" pool.

The prices are high at the many restaurants (as with everywhere on the Vegas strip), but they are amazingly well-appointed according to their individual themes, and are intended to provide a true dining experience. For the frugal, there is still an "economy-minded" food court (including McDonalds) where you can get a good, quick, cheap bite for breakfast or lunch.

The Studio 54 nightclub and Tabu "ultra lounge" are probably best suited for the young, beautiful, rich, and chic -- but are still great places to people-watch in the wee hours.

Check in at McCarran Airport if you arrive during the day, and you'll be ready to "hit the ground running" when you arrive.

All in all, great stay (yet another, of many), and will certainly come here again.

This was a great hotel for a family of 5 (3 teenage daughters). They charge you $30 extra per person over 12 yrs old after the first two adults. So of course we said our girls were all under 13. ;o) At check in, no one even asked about the kids ages. We arrived around 11:00 pm and check in was quick. We were upgraded to a larger room. Instead of the 446 sq. ft. room, we were given a 675 sq. ft. room overlooking the strip with 2Q beds and a rollaway bed. The room was wonderful. Very clean. The beds were pillow top and to die for! Even the rollaway bed had a very thick mattress. The shower and tub/shower were great. The pools and lazy river were fantastic! Very relaxing. The only down side was that the sit down type restaurants were all very pricey ($56 for a steak with no sides). Other than that, this was a wonderful place to stay. Would highly recommend it!

The accomodations are clean and sizable - what you would expect from this hotel at a good price. It's Vegas, it's huge. The service was OK - plenty of staff, visible everywhere, and trained in hotel service basics, but we didn't feel as if they really wanted to be helpful. There is definitely a "tired" factor present owing to the thousands of people moving through everyday.
The pool was closed for an entire day due to rain, which did not last all day. Next time I think it would be worth it to upgrade to one of the more expensive hotels.

We were planning on this Vegas trip to include a lot of shows (Love, Spamalot, Fab Four, Mac King, etc.) so we did a lot of researching to find the best combination of nice room for 4, great pool, and best value. The value part being key because we knew we were going to be spending about $1000 on shows, but we still wanted a better than average hotel. Our research led us to the MGM.
We have stayed at the Four Seasons (our favorite, but almost 4 times the price of MGM), Mandalay Bay (great pool, but still almost twice the rate), and the Hilton (which is still nice, but showing it's age.
We had a Grand Tower room (non-smoking) reserved and this was confirmed at check in, which went very quickly despite being pretty busy. A request for a upgrade didn't pan out because of the high occupancy. The room was in a non-smoking area, but when we walked in, it had definately been smoked in recently (inc burns on the night stand), we called the front desk and they told us that there were no more non-smoking rooms available for the night, but that if we checked with them just after check-out the next day they would take care of us.
We spent the next morning at the pool which is well layed out with a lot of variety, including the lazy river which we spent most of our time in. It was pretty crowded but we still were able to find 4 chairs together in several spots.
Around noon I went to check on moving rooms and they very quickly blocked out a new room for us and gave us a complimentary upgrade to a Bungalow Suite on the 17th floor for the inconvenience. They said it should be ready around 3. We checked back and were told that the previous guest had requested late check out and that it was still not ready, but that they would put a rush on it. At 4, we were told the same thing, and when I explained that we were trying to juggle dinner around moving, they offered to comp our dinner at any of the restaurants in the hotel. After an excellent dinner at Wolfgang Puck's, the room was ready and it was clean, smoke-free, large, very nice, and had a great view.
As I said, they were quite busy, and I understand things happen, but to the MGM's credit they handled it very well. Getting an upgraded room and a comped dinner was very nice, but the rest of the experience was great too.
A few insights:
Good-
The pool area (employees are very nice, lots of towels, great drink service, lots of chairs and seating options, pools have lazy river, waterfalls, fountains, etc.)
Rooms/hallways were in great condition, clean, well taken care of, beds were very comfortable.
Guest service went out of their way. As I said they got lots of practice, but they came through in every situation. Check in/out went very smoothly.
Restaurants- Lots of variety, every place we ate was good. But everything is pricey. Even the Starbucks was significantly more expensive that what you pay at your local Starbucks.
Casino is well ventilated, so very little smoke issues.
Lion Habitat is fun.

Bad-
Television City- They have a screening room that they are constantly handing out tickets for. You go in to watch pilots for new shows and use a computer to give your opinion. Sounds like fun...............I say nay-nay. First of all they don't volunteer that it will last almost an hour, and they won't tell you what the show is because they want you to be unbiased. We ended up watching the most mind-numbing reality court show and we're counting down the minutes. All you get out of it is a few coupons. Run away, run away!!!
Tips:
Valet-Because of the sheer quantity of cars they handle, they can't bring your car around until you are actually down at the pick-up area, but if you call ahead they will put you at the head of the line when you get down. Also, if you haven't been to Vegas before, none of the hotels charge for valet, so if you have a car it makes no sense not to valet, the going rate for a tip is $3-$5.
Coffee-Very few hotels in Vegas have in-room coffee makers, and as I said even Starbucks is more expensive here. Next time I'm bringing my own single cup coffee maker with me.
Upgrades-don't hesitate to ask, they honestly seem to be as accomidating as a hotel this size can be, including making arrangements to move you during your stay if you would like, a better view, etc.
Location- A lot is said about location of these hotels on the strip and some being more central. If you've never been here before understand that two hotels could be side by side, and it could be a half mile or more walk from door to door. My valet suggestion, or taking the monorail makes a whole lot more sense than thinking you are going to take a stroll down the strip and make it through several hotels.