I Enjoyed My Stay at the MGM Grand, but Will I Stay There Again? Maybe!

When booking my first ever trip to Las Vegas for September 2007, I knew I wanted to stay in one of the famous hotels. The Bellagio topped my list, but the price was just too high to justify. Next up was the MGM Grand. I had many friends and family that had stayed at this hotel and all came back with positive reviews.

Booking it and getting a deal!
I ended up settling on the MGM because of a deal they were offering. I was able to get the room for 4 nights for only $144 a night, and in addition I got a $25 meal credit. Considering the total for Bellagio would have been $500 more, I thought this was a pretty good deal. Note that prices fluctuate as often as the weather! You can get better deals if you travel during off-peak seasons or choose a different room. We choose the King Size bed in a Grand Tower room, but I am pretty sure I saw cheaper rooms also available.

Location is everything!
Some people did try to convince me I could get a better deal elsewhere on the strip, I was dead-set on the MGM Grand due to it's location. It is near the South end of the strip without being too far south. The MGM is directly across from the New York New York and the Tropicana. It is connected to both via walkways so you can avoid the street completely. The Planet Hollywood, Paris and Bellagio are all within walking distance for us, however if you have a hard time walking you may want to consider other modes of transportation. The hotels seem to move further away as you walk toward them!

Checking In
We arrived right before 3pm and they asked us if I wanted 2 queen beds or 1 king bed. That annoyed me since when I booked online I specified a King and that is what I wanted. They said we would have to wait 45 minutes for a king room to be ready. Once again, kind of annoying since check in time is supposed to be 3pm. We went ahead and checked our bags with the convenient and easy to use bell hop, and decided to walk the casino floor a little bit. In 45 minutes we returned and our room was ready to go. The bell hop brought our bags up to our room which was a nice plus because those elevators can get packed!

Speaking of Elevators
There were 7 or so elevators for each set of floors. Our elevators only dropped people from floors 13-20. Even so, there consistently was a crowd of people trying to use the elevators at the same time! I really wish they would limit the number of people that are allowed on an elevator because the last thing I want is to be jammed in with 20 people, especially if it broke down. It didn't help that 3 of the elevators in our section were out of service for a few days.

I also wish they had an employee directing you on to an elevator because there are a lot of RUDE people out there. There were times we were all alone in the elevator lobby, waiting for 10 minutes for one to come down (it took that long sometimes). Suddenly a group of 10-20 people showed up while we are waiting and they all rush to the elevator leaving me and my husband still waiting. We're not going to push anyone down, but seriously people, if someone was waiting before you, let them go first. Your room will still be there when you catch the next elevator.

A Room with a View
Our room was on the 17th floor with a clear view of the New York New York across the street. We could also see the Tropicana all the way down to Mandalay Bay and part of the Monte Carlo. I kind of wanted to face the other side of the strip as I was hoping we would be able to see the Bellagio and Paris, but our view was still very nice. In the distance you could see the mountains and dessert hills which was a relaxing view in the mornings.

Our King size bed seemed HUGE and I loved it! My husband and I could each sleep comfortably and neither of us had any trouble falling asleep at night. The soft comforter and sheets were just what the doctor ordered after long days of walking the strip. In addition, we had a couch which wasn't super comfortable but also wasn't meant for sleeping. It was a nice place to sit and get ready in the mornings. We used the desk for our laptop (to copy pictures off the camera) but did not use the internet because it was too expensive considering we were hardly ever in our room.

Finally, the bathroom was decent but I was hoping for better. It was just a regular everyday tub with marble (I think) walls. The hot water came out nicely so I guess that was good enough, but I would have liked a shower massager since my back and legs hurt every day after walking so much, or even some kind of jacuzzi tub. The sink and toilet are nothing to write home about... they worked, that's all there is to say.

Lions...ROAR
Of course, there are lions! The Lion Habitat which is somewhere in the center of the casino has 2-3 lions in it almost all the time throughout the day. Some notes: If you stay here, don't fight the crowds just to see the lions. You will pass this attraction so many times throughout your visit that you will have plenty of chances. Also, don't try to take pictures with the flash on, it will most likely bounce right back at you. Finally, the stupid casino lights will reflect in the window! If you see casino lights and games in your picture, don't bother taking it and instead look for another angle. The store associated with it has a lot of cool toys and gifts for your friends and family and especially the kids in your life.

For Guests Only
One thing that MGM boasts about is there fantastic pool area. There are a lot of different large pools, and a lazy river. The good thing is that there is at least one pool and one hot tub open every day. The bad news is that since there are only 1 or 2 pools open, they are packed with people. Almost every chair around the pools is taken, and who wants to swim with all those people watching?

This isn't so bad for me though since I only wanted to use the lazy river! The backlot lazy river goes around various twists and turns, under waterfalls and fountains, and under some bridges. I don't know how long it is but I went around it 2-3 times in a 20 minute period. You can rent tubes for a price, but I stuck to just swimming and floating on my own. It's only 3.5 feet deep so you don't have to worry about your kids. If you are looking for a more private place to sit, the chairs around the backlot river are more spread out and some areas only allow for 4 chairs which makes it really nice and private. Of course, as you float around there are people in chairs that can see you, but I found they weren't facing right at you as much as they were at the regular pools. On the downside, the river was only open Fri-Sat from 10-5 during the weekend I was there. Apparently it's open more in the hotter months, but I thought September was pretty hot and I wish it was open more often. I would have gone in every morning if it was open. Check the pool times on the website because if you were hoping to swim and tan a lot you may want to book in a different month.

All of the other parts of the hotel and casino seem to be open to all guests and non-guests so the pool is the only real escape you will get. I'm not 100% sure but I believe anyone who is willing to pay the price can use the Spa as well. I didn't notice any sign limiting this area to guests.

Time to Eat!
We ate at the MGM on 5 occasions during our trip. Everytime we went to a sit-down restaurant, we charged the meal to the room. This made it so much easier to pay one bill in the end instead of pulling out our credit card everytime. Guests can make reservations for any restaurant although it isn't always necessary.

1. Studio Cafe - We had breakfast at Studio Cafe on one occasion partly because our $25 meal credit. It was a great breakfast, expensive, but great! This is when we first learned that you will always get a lot of food in Vegas! We got eggs, pancakes, sausage and hashbrowns. I gave my husband the sausage so he had 4 huge ones! Neither of us could finish the whole meal. We left stuffed and satisfied. There was a slight wait, but nothing major.

2. Breakfast in room - Since Breakfast was so huge the previous day, the next day we opted for breakfast in the room. We only ordered one breakfast and split it and it was plenty for the both of us. The breakfast seemed to come from Studio Cafe since everything looked the same as when we went to the actual restaurant. It's a pretty decent deal if you do this because you can order 1 meal instead of 2 and you don't have to leave as large of a tip. Plus, it allowed us to continue getting ready for the day while they prepared our food.

3. Wolfgang Puck - We ate here after our failed experience at Emeril's (see below). I liked this restaurant because I could actually understand the menu! It wasn't too expensive but it's not cheap either. We paid around $30 for a pizza and burger. Once again, both items were so huge that neither of us could finish. The pizza was big enough for two! I will definitely eat here again in other locations.

4. Rainforest Cafe - On the last day of our trip, we had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. I love this place and will review it soon. The food was, once again, more than either of us could eat. The price was around $11-15 a plate which isn't bad in Vegas.

5. Food Court - Before we left for our plane, we needed to have dinner but didn't want anymore huge meals. The food court is perfect for your wallet! I got a slice of yummy pizza and a soda for about $5 and my husband got a philly cheese steak and soda at another food court restaurant for about $13. We wish now we had ate in the food court more often, but since it was our first trip I wanted to try all the brand name restaurants.

This brings us to Emeril's Fish House. You will fine this among other fine dining restaurants in MGM's Studio Walk. They boast having all these 4 diamond and 5 diamond restaurants, but what we learned was that none of them were for us. First we made reservations at Emeril's. I love his show and love the food he cooks on his show, so I figured I'd love his restaurant. I had been warned it was going to cost us about $100 so I was prepared. However, I wasn't prepared for such a strange menu. I quickly found the Salmon entries, but quickly said YUCK to the way they were served. One had some kind of lobster sauce, another was on a bed of sausage or something. My husband and I decided that we weren't willing to spend $40 a plate on a meal we weren't sure we would like. I was very disappointed in Emeril's because I feel like on his show he makes accessible meals that anyone can enjoy, however his restaurant had foods that we couldn't understand or knew we wouldn't like right off the bat. After telling them we choose not to eat there, we checked the menus of all the other fancy restaurants and couldn't find a single one that seemed to suit our taste. Maybe we are too casual for fine dining! This is just a warning to check the menus before going in. BTW - Most of these fine dining restaurants were dead all night so you don't always need reservations.

Studio Walk
I mentioned the Studio Walk various times throughout this review. This is where you will find all the fancy restaurants, the food court, a variety of stores, access to the Monorail, and some kind of Television Viewing area where they try to get you to screen new shows. If you stay at this hotel, you will find yourself walking through this area EVERY DAY. It's actually quite a nice walk as the area has wide hallways and plenty of room to navigate (unlike some of the other hotels we went through.

In the Studio Walk, you will also find an arcade. Most casinos have an arcade somewhere, MGM's was pretty nice. We went down there a couple of different times to take a break and play some games other than casino games. If you happen to bring kids, this will be their haven... However I don't really recommend you bring kids to Vegas. It's still a fun place for adults to take a break and just play some basketball or skeeball. It's one of the cheapest things to do in Vegas so I recommend visiting it at least once.

Gambling
I guess I can't talk about this place without mentioning the gambling. This had a nicely organized casino and we were able to actually remember where our favorite games were. In some of the other casinos, we kept losing track of where our favorites were! It is open, light and airy whereas some casinos in Vegas have low lighting and/or mirrors on the wall which I did not like at all. Although people smoke in the casino, it never bothered me as it was hardly noticeable. I got hooked on the Wheel of Fortune and my husband got to play some Blackjack. We checked out the poker room but never had time to really try it out. It looked pretty interesting though! Maybe next time.

Conclusion
I found the MGM to be nicely organized and easy to follow. We felt like we lived there since after only 1 day we were able to find our way around easily. A lot of people told me prior to the trip that the MGM was "too big" but I disagree. How could anything be too big if it contains everything you need? If you really wanted to, you could find something new to do in this hotel every day.

I don't necessarily like the fancy restaurants and clubs. MGM seems to try to be upscale for the most part. I felt like this made for a nice hotel stay, but did mean I wouldn't eat at all the restaurants, nor would I even try getting into a club that has a dress code. After seeing all the hotels inside and out, I'd still say MGM is a great choice. Next time I plan to try the Planet Hollywood since we liked the shopping and restaurant area of that hotel a lot. MGM will always remain high on my list even though it has some downfalls.

If your dates are flexible, keep your eyes on the MGM Grand website and look for deals. They change every-so-often and include a lot of cool stuff. A lot of times you can get a spa credit which is great if you are planning to use it. For a first-timer, this hotel turned out great! I do plan to try other hotels each time I go, and I do plan to go back a bunch of times because we loved vegas. I can't tell you if MGM is the best or not, but I can tell you it was a great choice! Check it out and enjoy!!