Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay

We still haven’t been to all the huge hotels and casinos on the strip. How could anyone cover all of these? Wouldn’t it be interesting to know exactly how many of them there are? All I can say is that there are lots with thousands of guest rooms. On Thursday we did visit a few more. We have learned some things about this place to make it a little easier to get around.

First of all, we worried about where to park. That’s actually about the easiest thing to accomplish. You just pick a hotel and drive to the section for valet parking. The only fee you pay is the tip when you pick up your car. You have a shorter distance to walk and there’s no driving around looking for a spot. We did this at the Excalibur on Thursday.

Excalibur complete with moat.

The Excalibur is a great place to stop on the south end of The Strip. The tram (or monorail) carries you between three of the resorts without a charge. We actually walked from the Excalibur to the Luxor when we first arrived. It looks like a long distance but it’s not. There are three moving walkways between the two making it easy to go back and forth. From the Luxor we rode the tram back to the Excalibur and then on to the Mandalay Bay.

Moving walkway between resorts

Another advantage of parking at the Excalibur is that if after visiting the three casinos connected by trams and moving walkways you decide you want to visit some more, you’re just across the road from New York, New York and MGM. However, the trip on Thursday was only to check out Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay. The others are reserved for still another day.

Mandalay Bay is known for it’s huge Aquarium and Shark Reef. Now that’s a distance to walk if you arrive by tram. It’s on the absolute opposite end of the property and which is a long, long ways. We walked there but didn’t go inside. Had it been another freebie we might have wandered through but at $16.99 per person, it wasn’t a priority.

Anyone watch Top Chef? Here she is at the Mandalay Bay.

Restaurants were pretty spectacular and very costly.

Afterwards, a trip to Fry’s Electronics which was just down the road to check out the GPS units they had in stock. Then, a stop at the airport since Terry will be flying out for a few days next week. Duchess was happy to see us when we returned and we settled in to watch the American Idol results.

Across the street from Excalibur. Check out the roller coaster.

Tomorrow? Supposedly (unless they chicken out) Terry, Jerry and Jim are going to ride the roller coaster at New York, New York.

Look at this slot machine. It’s an American Idol game!! We found it at Mandalay Bay.