It looks like most of the reviews of the Mirage seem to be a bit older. In the last two years the hotel has undergone a significant renovation to its rooms and recently underwent a renovation around the pool area. Even though I have not been to the Mirage prior to this I thought it would be nice to get a fresh take on the Mirage from a first-time given its recent renovations.

LOCATION:

Although it’s slightly on the northern end of the Strip it’s still pretty much in the center of everything. It’s short walking distance to the heart of the Strip on the corner where Caesars, Bally’s and the Bellagio preside. This was a major factor for us since we didn’t want to be as far out as the next block of quality hotels like MGM, Mandalay Bay etc. are. Those hotels are just too far away from the center in my opinion even though they are some fairly nice properties. If you plan on walking like we did (who wants to deal with the hassle of driving in heavy traffic and fighting your way through parking decks on your vacation) then it’s a great location. The Venetian is across the street and Treasure Island is next door with easy access via tram. If you’re looking for lower-limits gambling, Harrah’s and Imperial Palace are across the street.

We also liked the fact that the mall at Caesars (the Forum Shops) were right next door on your way to the heart of the Strip. And on the other side of Treasure Island the Fashion Mall (or whatever its official name was) was my wife’s shopping dream with loads of clothing stores. The shops at the Venetian were also surprisingly affordable unlike the similarly swanky Bellagio which has nothing but stores for the super rich.

SERVICE:

Our flight didn’t get in until Saturday night at 11:30. So we were checking in at probably the EXACT peak of activity for Las Vegas casinos. When we pulled up the place was packed and people were rather sharply dressed (a far cry from our flight attire of shorts and tennis shoes.) Still, bellboys quickly came up and politely offered assistance even though we didn’t need it with just a couple bags. The line to check-in at the front desk was non-existent this time of night so we didn’t have any wait problems although I never saw any huge lines there the entire time we were there. I had gotten a good rate online ($89/night weekday; $139/weekend) so I wasn’t expecting a room with a great view. Still, even though I was tired after a long day of flight difficulties I politely asked if there were any rooms with a pool view available since I knew those would also face southward looking down the Strip. The girl at the desk looked through the system, made a quick call to someone and cheerfully told me that they DID have one available and that it was also near the elevator (a common complaint among Vegas visitors is being away from the elevator given the size of the hotels.) She even jokingly chimed in “Would you like anything else? High floor?” Actually our room was on the 21st floor which was fairly high up anyway. Obviously she was very nice. The moral of the story is trying being nice yourself and you might get better service in return. I couldn’t help but notice some people being rude or obnoxious to the staff for little or no reason. A lot of these (although certainly not all of them) are probably the same people who turn around and right negative reviews about the service on sites like this.

Housekeeping did a very good job during our 4 night stay. They did a better job than our staff we had at the Bellagio (where we stayed for 2 nights after that.) The rooms were always clean and there was even turndown service (whenever we weren’t already taking a nap in the afternoon which usually happened most days.) The staff at the pool was likewise just as friendly with attentive cocktail waitresses and friendly pool attendants who would help you negotiate some seats in the crowded sea of chairs around the pool. The casino staff was similarly friendly where the cocktail waitresses were very attentive, even though we spent the majority of our gambling time playing on the less expensive $0.25 slots. Only Caesars had more attentive cocktail waitresses from what we could tell.

ROOM:

We knew that the rooms had recently undergone renovation so we had high hopes that the rooms would be nice. They certainly didn’t disappoint in my opinion. The room was very nicely appointed and surprisingly spacious (I had previously heard comments that the rooms at the Mirage were below average in size, but the seemed normal size to me.) We had a king-sized bed so I imagine it took it up significantly less floor space than two double beds. We had plenty of room for two additional chairs/table and the huge armoire/closet plus lots of floor space. There was no high-speed Internet access, but since most Vegas hotels charge something like $20/day for that I was quite content using dialup on my laptop to check e-mail. A second phone line was provided for that purpose.

The bathrooms were on the small side (the size of an average hotel bathroom) but they were nicely appointed with marble and nice tile on all visible surfaces so it at least felt semi-luxurious. There wasn’t a whole lot of counter space available for toiletries. Housekeeping kept replenishing all of the freebie toiletries daily (which were of good quality) so we eventually gave in and took them since we eventually had 4 bottles of everything. :)

I only had two complaints with the room. The first was that our bed was a little too firm for my tastes, although my wife had no complaints. While it was still comfortable overall for a short nap, over the course of an entire evening’s sleep it was too firm for me. But that’s just personal tastes I guess. Also the window was fairly dirty, slightly clouding our view of the pool and the Strip a little, but not too much. I actually saw a window washing crew working on one of the other wings while we were there, but they didn’t get to ours before we left.

CASINO:

While not the biggest casino on the Strip, the Mirage’s casino area was certainly among the biggest in terms of sheer floor space. You could easily get lost if you have a bad sense of direction since they have the entire casino floor in one sprawling area unlike some of the other casinos which sometimes break up the gaming areas into 2 or 3 smaller areas spread throughout the property.

While being huge, it was still surprisingly cozy. It doesn’t have a super high ceiling like some of the other themed casinos so I guess that helped in that regard. And while not as ostentatious as the casino in the Bellagio (where there doesn’t appear to be a theme unless ‘look how expensive this place is’ counts as a theme) it still immediately conveyed a sense that you were in one of the most upscale casinos on the Strip. The tropical trappings and darker colors conveyed a sense of closeness and warmth I personally preferred over other casinos which seemed to push for lighter colors.

The table limits here were definitely on the high side compared to most of the other casinos (in fact, I saw more $5 tables at the Bellagio than I ever saw at the Mirage.) This is definitely not a place for low-rollers unless you’re going to do mostly slots (which we did.) I only played a couple table games and eventually lost, but the dealers were nice and chatty and didn’t rush you unlike some of the dealers I found in the lower-limit casinos.

There were plenty of slot machines to choose from. I started off playing the “safer” video poker, but eventually migrated to the higher odds games since I preferred losing my money with the chance for a higher payout rather than playing it “safe” on lower-risk slots and still losing.

As stated previously, the cocktail waitresses were very attentive even for the $0.25 slots, much more so than any other casino we tried save Caesars. I did feel the free drinks were a bit more watered-down here than they were at Caesars, however if you got some from the bar directly (like we did before dinner one night) they seemed to be much stronger. Then again gambling and alcohol don’t make for a profitable mix, but I figured I was going to lose money anyway so I might as well have a good time in the process.

HOTEL FEATURES:

The only restaurant we ate at in the Mirage was California Pizza Kitchen. We kept saying we were going to try one of the other restaurants or the buffet, but we were always somewhere else when we were hungry. The California Pizza Kitchen was fine though, just like the one we have at home, which means it was good and fairly inexpensive.

The pool is definitely among the nicest in Vegas although it’s also one of the more crowded pools. The lush tropical theme of the hotel obviously lends itself toward pool design perfectly. The only other pools we saw on the Strip that we liked as much were at Mandalay Bay and Hard Rock (the Flamingo also had a nice pool too, but the surroundings weren’t quite as lavish.) We also liked the pool here better than the one at the Bellagio, but liked the smaller crowds at the Bellagio thanks to their spreading the crowds out over multiple pools. It could sometimes be tough to find a pair of chair at the Mirage pool, but the staff there were attentive and would actually help you find some and would even help negotiate with people to clear up space for you.

We didn’t see Siegfreid and Roy. We just didn’t really care to and the fact that it cost over $100/ticket didn’t help. We instead saw Lance Burton down at the Monte Carlo and loved his show. We also didn’t see Danny Gans who came highly acclaimed by friends. I wouldn’t have minded seeing him, but I figure we saw at least half his act while walking around the hotel since it was up on monitors constantly anyway.

We received complimentary passes to the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat as guests of the hotel (I assume that’s standard.) It was nice since it saved us about $30, but was easily worth it IMO since we love dolphins and also enjoyed looking at the other big cats and elephants. It was better than the similar ‘Shark Reef’ exhibit in Mandalay Bay in my opinion which cost a similar price. The employees actually interacted with the dolphins having them perform all the usual dolphin stunts. It made for some great photos.

There are not a whole lot of shops in the Mirage unlike some of the other major casinos. No mini-malls here which is probably fine since there’s so many in the area directly surrounding it anyway. A few of the shops looked like they might have outrageously priced stuff in them but were surprisingly affordable once we started digging through them. My wife almost got a swimsuit and did actually pick up a dress while we were there.

The Volcano was pretty nice. It’s not as long a show as the fountains at Bellagio, but has an old Vegas charm to it and is still nice to see once or twice while you’re there. The best place to view it is directly across the street between the Venetian and Harrah’s.

BOTTOM LINE:

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Mirage and were actually disappointed when it came time for us to pack up and head over to the Bellagio which I had booked at the end assuming it would be best to complete our Vegas stay at the ‘best’ place in Vegas. To be sure, the Bellagio was very nice, but the clientele there (not the employees actually) were far too pompous for my tastes. The Mirage was very upscale, but without being pretentious and conveyed a more casual attitude that’s a much more natural fit for our lifestyle. Caesars had a similar feel to it which is why it was our other favorite place to go even though we didn’t stay there. The next time I’m in Vegas I definitely want to give Caesars a try. And I’d definitely like to stay at the Mirage again as well.

Recommended: Yes