Really enjoyed my stay at Mandalay Bay. It's a little far down the strip but the accommodations were very nice. Probably the most comfortable bed I have slept in at a hotel. I really like my bed plush and engulfing and the bed at Mandalay was just that. The linens were soft unlike generic hotel sheets that rip off your skin. The rooms and bathroom were cleaned nicely with the exception that they never left enough towels. This was the only frustrating point of my whole stay. Very nice flat screen LCD televisions in both the bedroom and bathroom. And there was plenty of lighting unlike my room at Caesars. Don't touch anything in the mini bar because you'll get charged for it (pretty standard). We went ahead and had ours locked so as to not be tempted to touch anything, LOL.
We spent two full days out by the pool. I suggest reserving cabanas when you make your hotel reservations to ensure you get what you want. We reserved ours when we booked our rooms and had plenty of options to choose from and cabana check-in is much easier when you have a reservation. We had a cabana for both days on the West Lagoon. I highly recommend this location as its convenient to the lazy river and wave pool without being in the loud, overcrowded areas near the lazy river and beach. The West Lagoon was a nice place to chill in the cabana and just relax. If you don't get a cabana prepare to get down to the pool at 9 am when they open or you won't get a chair. Oh yeah, and even if you have your stuff on a chair and walk away people will steal them. Be sure to have someone guarding your stuff at all times or you'll come back to it on the ground with your chairs taken.
The lazy river wasn't really that lazy. It moves at a rather brisk pace and there are tons of kids in there shrieking and being crazy. But its a hotel known for its pool so of course its going to attract families on vacation. The wave pool was lame. The waves are hardly waves but still a cool place to hang out and talk. It wasn't overly packed like the lazy river which was nice. I probably enjoyed my time in the West Lagoon pool the most. Also, don't come to Mandalay Bay looking for hot and sexy eye candy. It's mostly families and those average in looks. There may be some hotties in the adult Morena club and European pool area but I never made it over there.
The cabana service was great overall. We had excellent coverage of our cabana on Monday. Our server probably came by 10 times an hour to make sure we had everything we needed and Li our cabana host was awesome. On Wednesday the service was a little slower. They explained that they were a little short handed because they didn't expect it to be so busy based on the number of cabanas that had been pre-reserved. They were really nice about it and did the best the could to tend to our cabana. We were on vacation and didn't care much anyway.
The breakfast buffet was pretty standard. The deserts were excellent. I recommend anything chocolate. One bad thing about Mandalay is that they only sell Pepsi products...this was a problem for me all over Vegas since I am a loyal Diet Coke drinker but I was able to get by with bottles bought from the gas station across the street.
I didn't gamble in the casino here so I cannot comment on that. My guess is like everywhere else on the strip there are high table limits and you lose your ass. And although it is pretty far down the strip, they offer a free tram between Mandalay, the Luxor, and Excalibur which was great for getting to our dinner reservations at NY NY. Just a quick ride on the tram and a short walk and we were there. Overall I really enjoyed my stay.