With the Ides of March fading fast and an early Easter weekend descending upon Sin City, I found myself on the south end of the once fabulous Las Vegas Strip. I was there to check out a couple pieces of the MGM Resorts International casino empire before the calendar turned to April 1 and the MGM mandated parking fees went into effect, greatly reducing or eliminating my future visits. I'll have a bit more on that later. For now let's head to the South Pacific via Egypt for perhaps one last look.

The South Seas themed Mandalay Bay is immediately next door to the Luxor. A tram connects the two properties and also continues to a third, the Excalibur. Access the tram on the first floor, to the right of hotel check-in, at Luxor. It will drop you off at Mandalay Bay near the House of Blues (H.O.B.). You can also take the walking route like I did. Go to the second floor of the Luxor and take the walkway through the Shoppes at Mandalay Place. As the name implies, you'll encounter several shops, and multiple drinking and eating establishments along your route. It's a short walk and worth a quick look on your way next door. Once you reach Mandalay Bay, you'll find yourself facing the H.O.B. and on the backside of the casino, near the race and sports book.

The 43-story luxury hotel Mandalay Bay opened March 2, 1999. The Four Seasons Hotel occupies a portion of one of the Mandalay Bay towers and is independently managed. In addition, one of the property's towers operates as the Delano, a high-end, upscale hotel. Like its next door neighbor, Mandalay Bay is a large property. It's much more spread out than Luxor and feels big. There are over 3,300 hotel rooms and a 135,000 square-foot casino.

The property is very representative of the "New Las Vegas Strip" with its capacity and amenities, none of which are particularly favorable for gamblers. The 12,000-seat Mandalay Bay Events Center hosts headline concerts, sports competitions, and sundry other events. I mentioned a construction project that would nearly double the capacity of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center last time I wrote about this property. Construction is complete and there are now over 2,000,000 square-feet of exhibit and meeting space. I had a chance to spend some time there during the Safari Club International Convention in February. It's rather obvious where the new addition begins thanks to an obvious temperature change and some unpleasant sewage odors. Surely those issues have been addressed by now. Regardless, the place is enormous and will give Mandalay Bay dibs on some of the largest convention and trade shows in the country. That is the business that seems to be driving visitation growth and supporting the high price points, thanks to expense accounts and a "fish-in-the-barrel" approach to a semi-captive audience. Many attendees never leave the property after working or attending events all day.

Somehow I never managed to stay at Mandalay Bay when I was a semi-frequent Las Vegas visitor. I played some blackjack on the six-deck games over a decade ago, but not enough to generate any marketing offers that would sway me from other places at the time. I did spend a fair amount of time in those days hanging out listening to the musical acts performing in the now defunct "back lounge" as well as in the lounge near the parking garage entrance. For a few years the clientele was stellar and the music was outstanding. The "front lounge" still books some good live musical acts and draws a crowd. However, be prepared for a 2-drink minimum if you want to spend any time. I mentioned the H. O. B. earlier. It used to be a regular stop on Saturday nights year ago. It's still open and I did catch a show there back in December, however, that's rare for me these days.

Like Luxor, the casino at Mandalay Bay is rather disappointing for reasons I'll get to shortly. There are over 60 table games scattered throughout five pits, plus the high limit area and the Lotus Room. There's the standard array of "carnival games" with multiple tables of Crazy 4 Poker, Three Card Poker, and Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em. I noticed at least seven roulette tables and there were eight full-size craps tables grouped together. There was also a Free Bet Blackjack game and a couple tables of Blackjack Switch. The Lotus Room is filled with baccarat, Fortune Pai Gow, and Pai Gow. There are also four blackjack tables that are only open during maximum capacity weekends like fight or festival weekends.

Mandalay Bays' casino is filled with table after table of blackjack dealt out of continuous shufflers (CS) that only pay 6:5 on player blackjacks. In fact, the majority of the blackjack offerings in the main casino are of this variety. Needless to say, any blackjack game offering 6:5 should be avoided. The pay-off difference will kill your bankroll over time, plus it's an insult and slap in the face to your intelligence that these games are even offered. However, some of the "great unwashed" still insist on sitting down at these games and encouraging the bad behavior on the part of the casinos! There were two double-deck games and a couple of eight-deck shoes that paid 3:2 on player blackjacks. Minimums on these games began at $25 per hand. From what I saw, anything below a $25 minimum bet only pays 6:5 on player blackjacks. At least most of the tables were void of players.