Gold Lion - OOOOOO! (Hotel and Casino MGM Grand (Las Vegas, USA))

Member Name: katygriff

Product:	Hotel and Casino MGM Grand (Las Vegas, USA)
Date:	09/11/09 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Huge andCool

Disadvantages: None

The only reason we visited the MGM Hotel and Casino whilst in Vegas was because my hairdresser had told me that they had lions there and that was enough to get me to go. It is a huge Hotel and apparently for a while it was the largest hotel in Vegas until relatively recently. It is certainly a visually pleasing hotel and looked amazing and when inside you certainly get a good vibe from in there. Here is why the MGM Grand is worth a look.

Location
The MGM Grand is located towards the end of the Vegas strip and we were staying in the centre and to be honest it did take us about 7 hours for us to make our way round to there because we were looking in other hotels. It is however by some pretty cool hotels including New York New York, Excalibur and the Luxor so it is worth a visit as you can do them all in one trip.

You can easily walk to the MGM Grand from anywhere on the strip and you can easily drive there or get a taxi.

Appearance
The MGM Grand is a huge hotel which is a lovely green emerald type colour. The writing for MGM Grand is in gold and there is a huge gold lion outside which is insanely huge so we took loads of pictures of it. There is also a big white and gold type building in front of all the green which when lit up looks amazing.

Unlike other hotels in Vegas that are brash and look cool, this hotel looks cool in a different way as it doesn't look over the top or gimmicky. Instead it looks very swish and posh and very clean cut. I liked it as it looked inviting but also very expensive and in my opinion looked the most expensive hotel on the strip. The gold lion is just amazing and gives it an extra air of class.

Inside
Going inside the hotel and it does not look anywhere near as dark as I expected. Everywhere was very light and airy with lovely gold decorations and it looked just as swish as outside but had a very comfortable atmosphere. There is a lot of green as in plants in this casino which gives it a very down to earth feel and I really liked it.

We did not stay in this hotel so I cannot give you an indication of what the rooms are like but what I can say is I bet you would get a great view of Vegas strip and the cool looking hotels as you can see all of the hotel room windows from the front of the hotel so it would be cool!

The Lions
I mentioned lions earlier and that is because the MGM Grand has a lion habitat. I had been told that the lions were a lot happier here than at the Mirage and I think it is true. They have a great big expanse with huge trees and rocks, a waterfall and lots of areas for the lions to sneak away too. In short it is very green in there.

The enclosure cost over a million dollars and is completely soundproof so the lions cannot hear any noises from the casino or any of the viewers to the habitat. The lions are also on a rotation basis so they actually live on a ranch not too far away which means they don't get bored. It still seems slightly cruel to me as I think lions should be in their own natural habitats but it is amazing to see them and they have thought a lot about the enclosure.

When we were there, there were 2 lions that could be seen. One was asleep on a far rock and one was asleep on the viewing platform so we got a good view. They are absolutely lovely and definitely worth looking at.

Casino
Every Vegas hotel has a casino and strangely enough every one you go to seems to have a different feel to it even though they are the same machines and tables to play it. Again this hotel has a very green feel and there are quite a few cars on display for you to win which is so exciting. Even though the MGM has some pretty mad carpet designs the place still looks very light and clean.

There is everything you would want from the casino which is slot machines, tables, private areas for the serious players and information displays to tell you what's going on so your bog standard casino really.

Eating
My favourite topic is always eating and the MGM Grand has my favourite restaurant chain in - The Rainforest Cafe. This place is so cool and has moving elephants, regular thunderstorms and generally is a mad mad place. The cost is around $50 for the 2 of you for a main and a cocktail so not bad at all really. This is where we ate and it was worth every penny as it is just a fun place to eat.

The MGM Grand however has a lot of choice when it comes to food. Other casual places was a cafe and a grill which both looked nice. There are quite a few fine dining places too including Diego and craft steak which we saw and it looked lovely but the prices were too much for us as it would have cost us about $100 for the 2 of us which is a bit much.

Other
Every Vegas hotel has a form of entertainment and the MGM Grand is no different. The theatre show they have here is a CSI show which I can imagine is very funny and adventurous. They also have a cirque du soleil which would be very good as we saw one at Treasure Island and I would like to go and see another one.

This hotel is also home to Tabu ultra Lounge and Studio 54 which are 2 famous nightspots in Vegas. We went to take a look at studio 54 and it was so posh and I would have felt too intimidated to enter but I would if I had the money as it looked ace. We did stumble on this by accident though as we came out the lift and then noticed that we had just gone in the VIP area but because it was the middle of the day nobody noticed which was good.

I believe the MGM has a spa, pool and monorail but we didn't explore that much to see and because we were not staying there I didn't feel the need to.

As every hotel has, this hotel has some shops for those serious shoppers like me. There is a big mall which had things such as Houdini magic which I loved but the tricks were about $35 which is so expensive. Then a magnet shop which I loved as I collect them. Then there is also a place called Studio walk which has some different shops with my favourite being CBS Television city which had memorabilia from some show which was pretty cool.

Conclusion
The MGM Grand hotel is a massive hotel which has some pretty cool features and looks posh and amazing. It was the most impressive looking building from the outside and then has a very natural feel inside which is lovely. The lion attraction gets a lot of visitors so it is a very busy hotel but with a great location and cool features it's no wonder they have this hotel in Vegas. I would definitely recommend and would be interested to hear if anybody has ever stayed there and what it was like.

Thanks for reading.

xxx

Summary: Great