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This last visit to Las Vegas, over Thanksgiving weekend started off on a low note. We received an invitation from the Delano, and I was not too thrilled about the room. Remember last time, that tiny little closet space meant I had to lose live out of the suitcase the whole weekend. But Nancy was excited about it, so we are headed to another weekend in Vegas.

Upon check-in we’re told that the rooms are sold out and they would have to place us and Mandalay Bay…and here we go! Our last experience at Mandalay was marked by screaming kids at 6 AM in the room next door and a weird configuration that didn’t really lend itself to a spacious luxurious feel.

When the desk clerk spun the little iPad display around to show us our room, well, things got very interesting. The Horizon Suite. First, the room seem to be decorated in purple. Not the muted purple like we had at The Cosmopolitan, but a bright rich purple reminiscent of Prince and his Purple Rain days. Paisley Park, where we come! Then I look down at the description; and it catches my eye: 1,705 square feet! That’s bigger than our house! Oh this is going to be interesting.

When we arrived on the 55th floor, and that didn’t really spark the most exciting feeling in us. Only 55? OK let’s check this out and we start walking down the hall, and walking…and walking…holy crap…it becomes obvious to us that our room is at the end of the hall. Wait…what??? Our room has the double doors at the end of the hall! In Vegas, nothing but good stuff happens behind double doors!

We open up and what opens what unfolds in front of us is nothing but magical: I’ve never experienced anything like this in real life. To the left, first we have a huge bar! Did I mention the bar had its own 50 inch TV? Really! This bar needed it’s own bartender and there was plenty of room for him and the bar back. Behind the bar was a powder room large enough for an extra shower. Beyond that, the parlor seating space, a love seat with two side chairs and table. This alone would make for a fantastic suite, but this is just the beginning. We turn the corner and roll over to the living room with a 60 inch flat screen TV and Harman Kardon sound bar. This setup sounds fantastic and it’s Bluetooth, so we can connect my phone and party music all night long. Another seating area was in front of the bar raising the seating in the living area to three locations!

The bedroom is located behind double doors as well, which lends itself to a good time. You walk in and are greeted by a business desk, and then a lounge chair. This leads over to a six drawer dresser with a 42 inch flat screen TV on it. King size bed with two side tables looks spacious, but unfortunately the room is chopped at an angle and does not feel as luxurious as the square footage would indicate.

The bathroom is a nice comfortable space, but unfortunately, it has the Mandalay Bay setup of only a single face bowl vanity, with the Mandalay water drain gargle, and the loudest toilet in history. Each flush was a gut wrenching high-pitched squeal of incredible proportions. The bath and separate walk-in shower round it out the bathroom, decorated in some purple design and faded geo-flower pattern. Tres chic…for the 70’s!

This was without a doubt the largest suite we’ve ever stayed in, larger than the massive Cosmopolitan Wraparound Balcony Suite. This was larger than the rooms at the Hotel Negresco in Nice, and the Hotel Metropole in Brussels…combined! And throw in our room at the Beverly Hills Hotel for good measure! Well, even our house is only 1,400 square feet This is the kind of space you hear about with celebrities and their extravagant lifestyles or you see in movies. But oddly enough, with all the creature comforts available in this room, we found it to be a bit too large! That walk from the living room back to the bedroom, what a hike. And I had to place my phone on the business desk since placing it on the nightstand, the Bluetooth would not reach to the living room! That’s 33 feet! Damn! That’s a good problem to have.

So here we go again, another birthday trip to Las Vegas. It’s a tradition started some 25 years ago, and I just love going to Las Vegas with for a weekend during my birthday month celebration. Yes, Birthday Month! Because when you’re my age, one day is just not enough.

So this trip we had to Mandalay Bay Resort and Beach Hotel. The number one luxury feature of Mandalay Bay is time! The fact that Mandalay Bay is pretty much the first hotel you come to as you enter the Vegas Strip means you don’t have to deal with the traffic of the Las Vegas strip. This is a great advantage that Mandalay Bay has over other hotels. Mandalay Bay is connected on three sides with the Four Seasons Hotel, the Delano and the Luxor Hotel. This allows you to walk in air conditioned comfort to at least two other hotels, although the Four Seasons is not a gambling hotel, it is luxurious and nice to walk through and a great dinner location.

Mandalay is the former capital of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Myanmar is a small country north of Indonesia east of Vietnam. And that’s whats lost on Mandalay Bay. When you pull up to Mandalay Bay, you do notice that is lush, hidden behind lots of greenery, but no true indication of it Southeast Asian theme. As you enter Mandalay Bay through the lush greenery, you may catch a glimpse of tiger statues and other Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese influences, but they are very low-key and not very prominent, so you really don’t have quite an idea of what you’re really getting into. Upon entering Mandalay Bay, did you notice that palm tree and a slight wicker thing. Strips of marble, and beautifully laid marble it is, are highlighted by brown strips of a textured marble to resemble the wicker themes from Southeast Asia. You’ll also notice that there are an excess of shutters surrounding the crown molding and door moldings of the lobby area. And this theme is carried throughout the rooms. There are large ceiling fans throughout the lobby, but that is the only true semblance of southeast Asia here. The dining area is your typical Vegas style, the buffet and lunch dining areas have about as much sense of tropical fare as south east Florida. I would venture to say Myanmar had their theme long before Key West did.

What I do love about Mandalay Bay is it spaciousness. The ceilings are high, the casino floor is huge, as are the restaurants, and the room. The rooms in the Mandalay are a very nice size, and the bathrooms were very easy for my wife and I to navigate. A large single mirror straddles a dual sink. Built-in lighting provides a nice soft glow and even lighting that reflects both a separate shower and a relaxing bath tub. Unfortunately the bathtub is not a Jacuzzi tub, something which would put Mandalay Bay above other hotels on the strip. But the rooms are comfortable and very convenient.

My one recommendation upon making a reservation and checking in as to request a non-joining the room. That’s a room that has a joining door between your neighbor room, which is fine when you have kids or family to be able to share open the door and share both spaces. But when the people next to you are someone else’s kids, and not your kids, the spacing under the door allows every yell, laugh and giggle they utter to seep into your room. Not cool. Specially when you come straggling in at four in the morning, and they’re getting up for breakfast at 8 AM.

But the bed is cushy, the table provides a nice little office setting, with outlet for AC, USB, HDMI, and VGA plugs. One thing I truly like enjoy this time was as soon as I plug say HDMI cable in from my computer, I was able to watch my Formula 1 racing on the large 42″ HD TV on the wall. This was perfect

The shops at Mandalay our typical Vegas, although one aspect I truly appreciate is that the sundry shop is right at the base of the elevators. The elevators are located in a central triad broken off into 30 floor increments. Make a left off the elevator and there’s a sundry full of water, spirits, beer and assorted bandages. After all this is Vegas. Another genius move Mandalay the house that I appreciate pretty much more than any other hotel in Vegas, The Beach.

The beach is Mandalay Bay’s swimming pool. But more than a swimming pool, it’s an actual beach! Complete with scorching hot sand and rolling waves. No not the North Beach Hang 10 kind of waves, but low rolling waves, the kind you would find in southeast Asia. The entry to the beach is actually located one level before the main floor of the hotel. This is great because doing so allows elevators to go all the way down to the beach level past the main floor to the beach level. You walk out of the elevator take a left and out of the to the pool area. The genius here is that when you are headed to the beach or coming from the beach, you walk directly to the elevators without having to walk through the casino. I don’t mind walking to the pool from the casino going there but after spending all day getting sloppy drunk and still went in my swim trunks I hate to walk back. But this also lends itself to sandy elevators by late day. Oh well, I guess just like the beaches of Southeast Asia.