Perlman Reviews: The Mandalay Bay

Just came back from the Mandalay Bay opening.It was "interesting" hard to get a good taste with so many people,but they'll give places like the Hard Rock a good shot with all the live music and clubs "House of Blues" and FIRE a Polynesian style club with walls of water loud polynesian style music and cage dancers really cool lighting with food and a really cool bar. and The CluB music lounge,the restaurants are art deco and interesting.

Red Square a plush Russian style dark wood restaurant,although located right next to Fire,is probably pretty noisey. The Auriole is art deco with a 6 story wine tower and a girl on a lift that goes up and down the tower for bottles. The China Grill is cool with a white flourescent bar that's lit from within the bar,and alot of glass and stainless steel and that'll give Bellagio a good shot too.It's not as antiseptic as Bellagio .Bigger and roomier and upbeat like the Hard Rock,but much larger with places to dance and mingle and alot of different music spots and lounges.

Two small pools,a Lazy River lagoon tubing run and a wave pool,not huge,but a sand beach that's capable of 6 ft. waves for boogie boarding and possibly surfing.a poolside beach bar and grill overlooking a pool complete with white swans and alot of tropical palms and Bluemarble stepdown waterfalls.The elegant First Floor Restaurant and lounge next to the pool area which is all surrounded by the gold glass hotel and closed off from the noise and traffic of the Strip. A beautiful hotel lobby area with inlayed marble floors complete with a huge fish tank with black point sharks.A big roomy sports book and poker room.All in all it's impressive and it'll attract alot of the upperscale yuppie 25-50 AMERICAN crowd that feels unwelcomed or overwhelmed by the high-class mostly foreigner crowd at Bellagio and Caesar's .Probably more upbeat than what the Venitian looks like it's going to be.Not as boring as the MGM or Luxor (there is a walkway and tram between the two) Much more down to earth than Caesar's Palace or Mirage,and not as tacky as Treasure Island.And with it's location,more accessable than the Rio or Hard Rock.So look forward to Mandalay Bay,I think it's going to be a BIG hit.