To kick off the 2018 Chris and Nancy World Tour, we are heading to Vegas after receiving an invite from Mandalay Bay. Our first mistake, we are flying. Flying American Airlines. This means carry-on luggage, which restricts the amount of clothing options, so no Mega Packing. And as if this isn't enough, our group is called to board, and we are stopped as the last of the the carry-ons, so they make us check our bags. And of course, we get on the plane and look at all the storage space we have, or would have had for our bags! Plus, if I wanted to check my bags, I could have at least packed a suit and more clothing options in case a dinner with Wayne Newton breaks out. Hopefully, the weather will turn out nice for early March and we will get some much needed pool time.

We get to Mandalay Bay to check in and I ask the clerk if any upgrades are available? The clerk responds that they are 90% capacity, March Madness starting and all, but they do have a junior suite available for just a mere $30 a night add-on. $30... let’s do it! After that stay at the Cosmopolitan, I’m all about seeing how the other side lives. We get up to the junior suite and if this is how the other side lives, stay on the other side. The clerk told us the room will be more quiet, because the previous room was an adjoining room, and that the junior suite has a very large bathtub. We thought that would be nice, but upon entry to the room, we see that the tub simply takes up half of the available space in the bathroom, therefore, making it a smaller bathroom, and...wait for it...yes, there is an adjoining door for this room. What? Well, it seems that all Mandalay Bay rooms are adjoining rooms.

Adjoining rooms are great when you're with your family or friends, but when it's little kids next door up and screaming at 7am, or party kids coming back to the room at 7am, not so cool if you're a light sleeper like me.

The next morning, Nancy turns on the TV and a questionnaire pops up asking, "Are you happy with your room?" Nancy responds down thumbs down, and with that, we head to the pool. Today is going to be a wonderful 77°, but dropping 5° or so the next day, so let’s get our sunshine while it's here. Perfect beach weather, and that's one of my favorite aspects of Mandalay Bay, The Beach. Fun in the sun on the sand in the middle of the desert. On the way to The Beach, we get a call from customer service, a really nice woman, who offers us an upgrade to the executive suite. Executive suite! Oh yeah this is how we roll baby. Vegas baby Vegas!

We get up to the “executive suite”,  and it’s a beautiful room. Same sleeping arrangement, but with an extra space for an glass-topped executive desk and high-back chair, and an extra alcove area of about 200 ft.², enough for a full-size couch, two end tables and two chairs. What makes a really cool is that the space has a large floor-to-ceiling window looking up the strip. Daytime, the view is nice, but nighttime the view was awesome! The lights and colors of the strip starting with the golden Luxor, the color accents of the white Excalibur and Tropicana, the green of the MGM, and so on until you stretch all the way up through the blue balloon of Paris casino, it's all is pretty cool. And just when we thought that view was nice, we head up to the Foundation Room on the 54th floor, and the view there is pretty spectacular. All this only made me wish I took the opportunity to do some Mega Packing so I could have my suit ready for this view. The polo shirt did not do it justice.

Waking up the next morning, I find the one fault, don't I always, is that the building support takes up half the window space within the view from the actual room area. It would be nice if you could lie in bed and look out over the strip like this. But then, getting out of bed and sitting on the couch for the view is a nice alternative. But this also means that the room, even in daytime is still dark enough that you have to turn on the room lights. The entry foyer has only have one light so the entry is still kind of dark. And the room still has an adjoining door to the room next to it. So yes, when the college guys come home at three in the morning and are high-fiving each other for an awesome night, you get to live every moment along with them. And amazingly enough you get to hear them at eight in the morning get up to go grab coffee. Damn college kids, doesn’t anybody stay out until 6am and then sleep until noon anymore?

Overall the room is pretty awesome and we’re really enjoying it. We do like Mandalay Bay for it's enormous size which has a variety of activities. Tonight‘s dinner is going to be at Red Square, and we realize that next time we stay here, or the Delano, we’re not gonna leave the building. Mandalay Bay has 16 restaurant inside the hotel! And that's not including Charlie Palmer steakhouse over in the Four Seasons hotel, or spots like Ri Ra, I highly recommend the Irish Eggs Benedict for breakfast or the Lobster Burger at Burger Bar that are upstairs in the Mandalay Shops connecting it to the Luxor. Next time, it's sit back and relax, and just enjoy the resort rather than casino hop all day long.