MGM Grand Las Vegas - Comfortable beds, Great dining choices, but otherwise average
Written: Feb 19 '08 (Updated Apr 11 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Comfortable beds, Excellent dining choices, Decent room rates
Cons: Confusing check-in, Wear-and-tear in rooms, Casino ventilation, Weird layout, Lots of walking
The Bottom Line: MGM Grand is just average and in a city like Las Vegas where above average is the norm, being average isn't quite good enough
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| jps246's Full Review: Mgm Grand Hotel |
With decent hotel rooms, plenty of dining options, a great pool area and an expansive casino, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas isn’t a bad choice for staying in Las Vegas, it’s just that it’s not the best in my opinion.
Was I disappointed with my stay? Not really. I had been in and out of the MGM Grand many times on previous visits to Las Vegas so I knew all about the casino and the restaurants. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the comfort of the bed in the hotel room and the pool area was quite nice. I just wasn’t wowed like I have been at some other resorts and in general found it to be oversized, somewhat smokier than other similar casinos and when compared to other properties, a bit more tired.
Would I stay there again? Well, if the rooms were comp’d like they were for this trip, I probably would consider staying there again. However if I had to pay, I would choose to spend my money at a different resort along the Las Vegas Strip.
Where do I find the MGM Grand?
The MGM Grand is located at the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip on Las Vegas Boulevard. It’s located across Las Vegas Boulevard from New York – New York and across Tropicana Avenue from the Tropicana hotel and casino. Other nearby hotels and casinos include the Monte Carlo, Excalibur, the Luxor and Mandalay Bay.
If you’re driving to the hotel access to the valet parking and the self-parking is via a turn off of Tropicana Avenue. The self-parking is free and there’s a large garage so there shouldn’t be any problem finding a place to park. Pedestrian access is available to both Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue.
Checking In & Checking Out
Main lobby confusion seems to be a common theme amongst many of the Las Vegas hotels and the lobby at MGM Grand was no exception. We arrived around midnight and while there was no crowd of people in the lobby, there were enough that some sort of organization should have been needed. Instead we just sort of stood somewhere near the front desk area and when one of the check-ins opened you tried to rush to the desk before someone else got there. We got cut off a few times before we finally got to a clerk and started the check in process.
We had reservations through our casino host so we just gave the clerk our ID’s and a credit card for room charges. The whole process of checking in was fast and within a few minutes we were ready to head to our room.
When we left the checking out process was slightly more organized as they had a staff member in the lobby directing people to open desks. I was also given the opportunity to simply hand over my room keys and get my room charges mailed to me. I wanted to review them, so I waited for a clerk and my check out was quick and easy. I reviewed the charges, saw what had been comp’d and then signed the bill and was on my way.
Finding the Rooms
For the Main Tower rooms the trip is actually surprisingly easy from the main lobby. There’s very little travel through the casino before you come to the elevator lobby where you catch your elevator to your appropriate floor.
The elevators are broken down into several different banks serving different floors which helps to keep crowds from forming as you wait for an elevator. The longest we had to wait during our stay was a few minutes but most of the time within a minute or two we were on the elevator and on our way up to our rooms.
Once you do get to your floor you’ll step out and enter a central core from which three hallways radiate out from. This is one part of the hotel I didn’t really like as each hallway has about 50 rooms and is quite long, especially if you have that room all the way at the other end.
At the core there are also soda and ice machines available.
The Rooms
The standard “Deluxe Room” is the mainstay of rooms at MGM Grand. There are two main varieties, the room with two queen beds or a room with a single king sized bed. The overall set up is the same. You enter into a small hallway off of which the bathroom is located. At the end of the hallway is the main room where the bed is located, along with an armoire for the TV and storage. There’s also a small couch and desk along with chairs.
The bathroom is fairly nice, all tiled and with plenty of mirrors. My only complaint in the bathroom was that the tub/shower area was showing its age, with the caulking having dried out and cracked along several of the joints.
The rest of the room was in good shape and I didn’t notice any damage or wear and tear. The TV was pretty standard, no flat screens here and the ventilation system was the same as almost all the other resorts. You can have it turned to heat, cooling or turn it off and you can turn the fan from low, medium to high.
Our view looked out across the rest of the MGM Grand casino towards Las Vegas Boulevard and New York New York across the street. We could also see a number of the other hotels in the area. All in all, it was a nice view.
The bed was actually the best part of the room. It was very comfortable and had nice linens on it that made it even more comfortable. Though if you don’t like a soft bed, you probably won’t like their beds, as I believe they all have the pillow tops which give them that soft feeling. I usually have trouble sleeping the first night in a hotel but I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep and sleeping through the night.
Room Amenities
Just like all the other resorts in Las Vegas there’s 24-hour room service that can get you pretty much anything you want to eat. You can also call housekeeping should you need something for your room and there is also laundry service available should you need it. There’s also a Concierge to help you with dining reservations, show tickets and pretty much anything else you can think of.
Room Rates
Room rates start at around $150 a night for the standard tower room and go up from there depending on the room type and the night you are booking the room for.
The rest of MGM Grand
You’ve really just touched the surface of MGM Grand when you’ve gone through the lobby, checked in and headed to your room. There’s still the casino, the restaurants, the entertainment, the pool and the spa.
The Casino
Probably the first thing you’ll notice is the casino, which I think is probably one of the largest along the Vegas Strip. There are a series of different ‘rooms’ connected throughout MGM Grand that provide plenty of options for anyone looking to gamble. There are table games and almost endless slot machine choices. Personally I’ve never really liked the MGM Grand casino, it’s almost too big for my liking and I’ve found that the ventilation in the casino isn’t that great, so you end up feeling like you’ve smoked a pack of cigarettes by the time you leave.
MGM Grand is part of the MGM Mirage Players Club and you should sign up if you are going to play at all. Based on your level of play you’ll receive future offers for discounted rooms, show tickets and other comps.
Restaurants
You could spend a week at MGM Grand eating a different restaurant each night and still not run out of choices. They have a number of places from the very simple in the food court to the ultra-fancy and modern at the other end of the scale. However, the majority of the restaurants fall somewhere in the middle of that scale. For a quick meal any time of the day or night, the Studio Café is a good choice. It serves lunch, dinner and breakfast 24-hours and offers a variety of dishes that should satisfy most people. There’s also a Rainforest Café, along with several other sit down restaurants that serve various meals throughout the MGM Grand. These restaurants are generally the easiest to get a table at and generally don’t require reservations except for the very busiest times.
Looking for something faster and cheaper? The food court, located in the Studio Walk towards the rear of the casino is home to a McDonalds and several other small restaurants. The McDonalds is open early and late so it makes a great place to stop after a late night or in the early morning if you are heading out on a car trip and want something to take with you.
How about something nicer than that? The fine dining choices at MGM Grand are pretty expansive (and can be expensive). Joel Robuchon has two restaurants serving French cuisine, while Craftsteak serves up a mean piece of beef. Fiamma serves traditional Italian meals, Nobhill offers a taste of the San Francisco Bay area, Shibuya caters to you with Japanese cuisine, Pearl offers a menu full of Chinese cooking and finally at Seablue you can get your fill of seafood. The prices vary widely at these restaurants and reservations are almost always needed.
The Pool
The pool area at MGM is nice and offers five different pools to choose from. They even keep a pool open in the wintertime! We were there in mid-February and while the temperatures were a bit too low to swim, we enjoyed being able to lay out in the sunshine by the pool and dip our feet in to relax.
In the summertime the five pools are open, as is the lazy river, which allows you to float around almost the entire pool area.
Shopping
There are a number of different stores in MGM Grand to chose from if you want to go shopping. Right by the hotel is a small shop where you can pick up accessories you may have forgotten before you came. In the Studio Walk there are a number of more expensive shopping destinations including Cartier, Armani, Versace. There are also a number of different shops scattered throughout the Casino and then on the walk between the main lobby and the parking garage, there’s several small shops along the way.
Las Vegas Monorail
MGM Grand is the southern terminus of the Las Vegas Monorail which runs northward from MGM Grand to the Sahara hotel. The Monorail runs daily from 7am to 2am during the week and to 3am on Friday and Saturday nights. Tickets can be purchased in the MGM station for one-way trips, round-trips or various passes.
Shows
MGM Grand is home to Ka, which is the newest Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas. There’s Crazy Horse where you can enjoy a show celebrating the nude form. The Lion Habitat lets you get a close look at the lions at MGM Grand, while the MGM Arena lets you take in major concerts and sporting events.
There are also a number of different clubs in MGM Grand including the Tabu Ultra Lounge and Studio 54, along with a number of smaller bars and clubs.
Experiences
I was neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed by the MGM Grand. I guess the best way to put it was that it met my expectations, which weren’t really all that high since I had been in and out of the casino so many times in the past.
I think in the end the MGM Grand is a solid 3-star hotel. It’s neither really good nor really bad. What it is, is a good place to stay for those who are looking for decent room prices with plenty of entertainment in a location that is central to many of the other Las Vegas Boulevard hotels and casinos.
Things I liked…
Right at the top of my list is the fact that the elevators to the hotel are close to the main lobby and the parking garage entrance. That means I didn’t have to walk through the casino to get to my room, which is especially nice after you’ve spent a day sightseeing outside of Las Vegas and you just don’t want to be bothered.
I loved the bed. It’s one of the few beds I’ve slept in at a hotel where I haven’t had trouble falling asleep first.
The restaurant choices are pretty amazing, you seriously could eat at a different place each night for over a week.
Things I didn’t like…
I really didn’t like the layout of the main tower. When you exited the elevators you had three identical hallways to choose from and the length of the hallways to your room could seem endless, especially if your room is located towards the far end of the hall.
I didn’t like the bathroom. The shower had a so-so shower head and the caulking around the joints was dried out and missing in places.
I’ve never really been fond of the MGM Grand Casino and during this visit that feeling was only reinforced. There were only a few slot machines that interested me and in general I tried to avoid playing here as much as possible.
The ventilation in the casino isn’t that good. I find the casino floor to be one of the more smoky casinos and I generally end up heading towards the exits to get some fresh air if we are spending any length of time on the casino floor.
Final Thoughts
While I probably would pass on staying at MGM Grand again in the future, I can’t say that my stay there was bad. It was just average and in a city like Las Vegas where above average is the norm, being average isn’t quite as good.
I liked the bed and the view from my room and the dining choices were great, but in the end I don’t really think they balance out the other items I didn’t like quite as much.
So unless I was offered a complimentary room again, I doubt I’d stay there. Even with the complimentary room, I’d check out offers from other hotels before I considered staying here again.
For me, I like to visit MGM Grand, especially for dinner, but it’s not on the top of my list as a place to stay.
In the end it’s hard not to recommend the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, I just don’t think it’s the Hotel and Casino for me.
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