The Hotel @ Mandalay Bay
living room of the suite
It so happened that Mandalay Bay’s computer system was down for the entire duration of my stay, a victim of some unforeseen glitch that occurred during a software upgrade. This ended up being a blessing at times and a curse at others. I met my brother on Tuesday, June 5th in a suite at the Modern Asian Deco component of the Mandalay Bay complex called The Hotel. After embracing my brother I quickly glanced around the room to survey the digs. It was a suite with a dark motif, complete with simple, yet elegant furniture, curtains, and bedding. The bathroom presented the same style, with the shower and tub done in a black marble setting. This was a room that guaranteed comfort but also some good shut eye, allowing the guest to darken the room at the drop of a hat the likes of a deep forest at night. 
The dark motif continued into the lobby and long corridor connecting itself to the Mandalay Bay Casino. Although elegantly done, I found the darkness a bit depressing, which did not aid my mood by the last night, partied-out and exhausted. Note to self, now in my 30’s 2 nights of Vegas is more than an ample stay. I did really like the position of The Hotel with respect to the casino as it opened up to the large and comfortable Sports Book, where I had more than my fair share of luck betting on the NBA Conference Finals. Across the way from the Sports Book is the famous House of Blues, which I must say offered a nice little daily 2-6 p.m. happy hour, in which I happily partook the second day there in between dips at the pool.
The beach and wave pool @ Mandalay Bay
Mentioning the pool it is as impressive as they say. A wide beach area with a plethora of beach chair recliners face the humongous wave pool. During prime sun hours the place is packed like a can of sardines, which being a Midwest guy is not always so easy to enjoy. The wave pool seemed to crank out a tall, powerful wave once every two minutes, a little too infrequent to make it worth it being out there bobbing up and down with the other couple hundred guests. There was also a long winding lazy river that was a few degrees too warm to be considered refreshing and two large irregular shaped pools back by the cabanas which provided a more tranquil, restful feel. Needless to say that is the area my brother and I spent the majority of our pool time. The water was refreshing with plenty of space to actually swim from side to side.
Now back to the blessings and curses of a downed computer system. The curse being that we were unable to charge items to our room which caused some difficulty down at the pool one time when a cool drink was requested and cash was not brought to the pool. We also had trouble with out room keys when we switched possession of the room that I will explain later. A blessing was that I got to continue my stay in the comfortable suite my brother got for us. The deal was that my brother got us the suite comped for two nights due to his earlier transactions with MGM properties. I had booked the following night in a normal room at regular Mandalay Bay through Expedia. Upon returning from partying on the strip the second night of our stay, I decided to go to Mandalay registration to see if we could just keep our suite for the last night. The front desk attendant was courteous and more than willing to let us keep the same room. All I had to do was fill out some manual paperwork and present a credit card for incidentals. To this day I don’t even think I have been charged for the Notorious resort fee for which Vegas is so infamous. I can’t know for sure, but my guess is that we would not have been able to keep the same room if the computer system was functioning properly.
Overall the stay at Mandalay Bay and specifically The Hotel was enjoyable. The complex is spacious and although on kind of on an island compared to the rest of the strip, there are many transportation options to get where ya need to go (i.e. taxis, tram, bus, and by foot). The staff was extremely courteous which scores big points in my book. They handled the computer outage with poise and professionalism. One thing I forgot to mention is to visit the lounge called The Mix after dark. It has a tremendous view of the strip all lit up at night. Just make sure to pack some nice clothes as proper attire is required.
Innvestigators 
Nice write up.