THE hotel at Mandalay Bay

We needed one extra night in Las Vegas after the three we spent at Harrahs, so we decided to work on our list of hotels we haven't stayed at yet in Vegas and took a night at Mandalay Bay.  At least we thought we did.  Turns out there was a giant Game Stop convention going on, and Mandalay Bay had overbooked themselves, so we got moved over to "THE hotel".

No, I'm not trying to be pretentious here, that's actually what they've chosen to call the all-suite tower of Mandalay Bay.  The rooms in THE hotel are about 200 sq ft. bigger than those over at Mandalay Bay (which are a pretty good size to begin with) and have a completely separate bedroom and living room with one enormous bathroom (for Lori) and a little powder room (for me). 

The room was so nice that we were willing to overlook the 45 minutes that we stood in line to check-in at Mandalay Bay, only to then be told that we had been moved to THE hotel

I was looking at the pattern on the carpet, and all I could think of was drunk people trying to do the sobriety test and walk a straight line.

Lori's bathroom had a tv in it! Mine...not so much.

Of course, as usual, the nicer the room the shorter the time you have to enjoy it.  We got into our room at around 4pm, went to see the Jabbawockeez that night, then had to head to the airport at 5am.  I cleverly managed to beat the system by only sleeping for 45 minutes, but the clear-headedness that came out of that plan had me forget to check out of the hotel when we left in the morning.

Now I'm left wondering if I can take Mandalay Bay off my list.  I haven't technically stayed at Mandalay, but if I'm going to count THE hotel separately, then I probably have to put the Four Seasons (it's the top five floors of Mandalay Bay) on the list too.  That wouldn't be too bad, but I guarantee you if I'm paying that kind of money for a room, I'm spending more than 13 hours in it.

I really would like to go back to this hotel again though.  On our tight timeline we never got to check out the pool, which by all accounts is probably the best on the strip.  I'd also really like to go to one of their concerts on the beach, where some really great bands (B-52's, Beach Boys, Blondie, apparently in my world all really great bands start with the letter 'B') play shows on a stage at the pool.  Actually I'll probably come back in December when the touring Cirque Michael Jackson show starts it's run here.  I wonder if I'll still be checked in to my room?