Mandalay Bay Beach — Hotel in Paradise

My husband and I booked 8 nights from 10/2/25-10/10/25. People told us we were nuts to book there for so long, but from reading all the reviews about the pool area, I defended our decision by saying, "but we'll be at the pool the entire time, so what's the problem?" Well, sadly, I was very very wrong about that. Unfortunately, I have more negative things to say about our visit there, but I will say that the housekeeping staff was always so friendly and did a really good job keeping our room tighty when we didn't have our DND sign on the door. They also brought extra pillows to our room soon after the request. They are the unsung hero's of the facility! We booked a room with a view of the strip and it was fantastic! We could see all the way down and loved looking at it every night. We also really enjoyed the food and the service we received at the House of Blues Restaurant. Definitely one of the best meals we had there, so we highly recommend it. The Shark Reef was another fun stop, but we were a little surprised on how short of a tour it is for the cost per ticket. The other plus about this resort is the tram. It really helped cut down the walk time on the strip! It runs every few minutes and we used it quite a bit during our stay. I can't think of any other positives, so on to the negatives. The hotel rooms DO NOT have microwave ovens. Imagine our surprise when we also found out that the only refrigerator was stocked with a mini bar and if you try to move anything out of it and place your own items in, you'll be charged up to $65/day. We found all this out at the check in desk and my jaw was on the floor. I explained that I have an extremely restrictive diet due to health reasons, so this was a deal breaker for an 8 night stay. Fortunately, the nice man at the desk had a tiny refrigerator sent to our room at no extra charge. We would have had to stay somewhere else otherwise, so if you also have dietary restrictions, keep in mind the zero microwave policy and the refrigerator situation. Makes me wonder what parents do about having baby formula needs. Hmmm. The next major con is the pool area. I was so excited for it and then was immediately disappointed to find out that tubes are not available to use in the lazy river unless you bring your own. What? I've never gone to a lazy river where tubes were not provided. I went to the little shop at the entry area and had to buy a tube for $30. Wow! I did find out later that tubes are sold at the ABC Stores for $5. Wish I would have known that ahead of time. So, the next issue we encountered is the shade is very limited. For whatever reason, they didn't have the umbrellas up and if you wanted some shade, you need to get out there early to secure your spot. Fun fact, some of the pools are roped off and closed during the weekdays, so that further limits seating options with shade. No outside food or drinks are permitted, meaning you need to purchase everything at their poolside restaurants and it is very expensive. We didn't spend much time out there the Saturday we went due to no shade and high expenses. It just wasn't fun to feel nickeled and dimed for pretty much everything. You would think a lot of this would be comped by paying for a room at the resort, but I was wrong about that. We tried another go at it on Monday and we found how they closed some of the pools during the weekday, so we opted to purchase a cabana. It cost over $300 for the day. It was a cool experience though. It comes with a TV, table, chairs, love seat, a refrigerator with ice and complimentary sodas/waters, plus two tubes for the lazy river. Our service was also very good. We really enjoyed that day at the pool, but there was absolutely no way we could fork out $300 more than once during our trip, so that was disappointing to say the least. Overall, the experience was just okay. The prices were overinflated everywhere we went. It made it hard to have fun when you know you'll be spending at least $200 just stepping foot outside your hotel room. We will not be returning to...

I really want to give this hotel 5 stars but I can't do it. The rooms and beds were clean updated and very comfortable. The bathrooms were marble spacious and clean with a large shower, light up mirror, wall mounted vanity mirror and soaker tub. I really liked their ample supply of towels, shampoo conditioner lotion and body wash (nice touch).The elevators were quick great and not congested. I would highly suggest a room facing the strip. If not, then a pool view would be my second choice. We were able to see all of las vegas including the sphere. The views were awesome at night. The casino was very nice and the food was amazing everywhere we ate. Highly suggest both Citizens & House of Blues. Seabreeze was great for breakfast and RaRi (upstairs in mall) had amazing food as well. The hotel has 2 little markets for meds, and lighter fare, treats snacks etc. This hotel is a mecca as its connected to the Delano and the Four seasons hotels. Mandalay even has a shark aquarium (takes an hour to fully enjoy) with a virtual reality movie at the end. Guest svc has a free bag hold but the line was super long. It took us 25 minutes to check our bags to be held our last day there. The hotel is gorgeous if you like old world, elegant styling. Huge crystal chandeliers, Marble and columns everywhere. Stunning tropical decor at every turn. The casino is clean and has a great coffee and drink bar called Hazels. Smoking is allowed in the casino so there's that. Fortunately not too many smokers. Free drinks avail in the casino as long as you are gaming. This hotel is located at the furthest end of the strip so you will be a bit isolated. Also, there's construction across the street but it doesnt interfere with your view of the strip as long as you are 20 plus floors up. You'll need to take a long walk or uber it over to the main strip. There is a tram in the hotel but it only goes down to the Excalibur and back. The hotels entrance area has a constant flow of taxis. This hotel is .5 miles from the stadium which was a 20-25 min walk to see the P!NK concert.Taking a cab would've been an eternity as it's super congested at concert/or NFL game time. The hotels sandy beach giant wave pool, lazy river and 2 other pools is really nice but you will be sharing it with Delano and 4 seasons guests as well as Mandaly guests. You'll need to pay $30 for an umbrella and hundreds for a cabana or else you are in full sun. There was still room to sit and enjoy but the lazy river was packed. Go to the pool area between 9a-12p for maximum space. It starts to get busy after 11. Towels are provided at pool. Here's my complaints, the ring at the lazy river was $25 to rent , food and drinks at Mandalay and most all restaraunts in Vegas are waaay overpriced, so be prepared. You can expect to pay $24 for a burger and fries. Drinks average $12-17. They charge you $30 each for the water bottles in the room. They charge you for in room coffee! You cannot use the fridge in your room unless you pay $25 extra per day. They charge you $75 per couple to go into their aquarium and the buffet is permanently closed and they charge for an umbrella at the pool I would think with this hotel being so nice that it wouldn't do the little petty things it does, it really steps it down. Charging for waters, flotation ring, shade and refrigerator use? C'mon, tacky. I would think it would be wiser and overall a better look to charge a little bit extra for bag checking instead of making people pay for water, shade and a fridge when you are in the desert! Overall, my experience there was very good & the room comfort was great. I highly recommend going to the ARTE' MUSEUM AND...

I’ve stayed at Mandalay Bay several times for conferences and once for a personal trip and had always been happy in the past so decided to stay again for this trip for a vacation and our wedding in Vegas. Things have changed drastically, especially in terms of service. We arrived around 2pm to find a check in line well beyond the lobby and extending toward the elevators. An employee announced that we all should be using mobile check in. We proceeded to download the app and check in. Check in time was 3pm and we were still a bit early so went to Starbucks to wait. By 4:30pm the app still said our room was not ready. We decided to go get our marriage license and wanted to check our bag. Waited in line and once someone came we actually there to help they said we had to take them outside to do that and that we should have done it when we arrived. The signs around the baggage area are super confusing as they seem to indicate three different places to leave a bag. By a little after 5pm we returned and waited in the check in line as our room still showed not ready. After a wait a representative “helped” us. She rolled her eyes and when I showed her the pending room availability on the app she said “gimme” and motioned for my phone. I handed her the phone. She pulled it up and sighed several times. Had to go get some help and then told us we couldn’t have our King room and would have to take two queens. Fine. (We ended up with the King anyway so not sure what happened). She barely spoke to us. Never apologized for the delay or offered an explanation. Never offered so much as a water for our trouble or God forbid any compensation. Definitely not the experience we wanted to start a wedding trip. The hotel was FULL of LSU and USC alumni and they were loud and rude as heck. On the way to our room we noticed overflowing trash cans, beer bottles and cups on the floor, leaky ceilings, and the halls were filled with bags of trash and laundry from housekeeping. Those bags remained throughout the evening. During our stay we expected everything to be more expensive in Vegas. We did not expect Mandalay Bay to price gouge with items 3 to 12 times their normal cost. Service for the whole stay remained on par with how it started. Unenthusiastic, bland and at times rude. We continued to see excessive trash on the grounds and landscaping. A visit to the pool area- where by the way you pay a $45/day + tax resort fee showed there were zero areas with shade. Want a chair with an umbrella? $200 per chair and $200 for an umbrella. $600 for two people to have some shade? No thanks. The lazy river doesn’t supply the tubes. More money. You have to buy one and then air it up and yourself. Again, no thanks. All the food options, even the “cheap” food at the food court- ridiculously expensive and not that great. Our keys, including the digital keys did not work half the time in the elevators or room. There was no remote to the TV so we had to call and request one. The guy who delivered it didn’t say a word and acted like we put him out. With all the LSU and USC people there you’d think there would be extra staff or security to help organize the lines at the elevators. Nope. Late checkout? Sure- another $50 + tax. This has zero resemblance of a top tier resort. I’ve had better service at a two star hotel in the Philippines. Clearly they couldn’t handle the crowds other than to take advantage of supply and demand by jacking up prices on everything. Sad to have such a disappointing experience for such a special occasion. Lesson learned. We will...