Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Public, Wall Street impressed by Mandalay Bay

Customers were mostly impressed and Wall Street's money men nodded their approval as the $950 million Mandalay Bay hotel-casino opened Tuesday night on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip.

The thumbs-up from financial analysts was important because of concerns about the Las Vegas gambling industry's ability to fill 16,360 hotel rooms opening between 1998 and 2000.

Bellagio kicked off the latest round of resort openings in October. Resorts to open after Mandalay Bay include the Venetian, Paris, the Resort at Summerlin and the Aladdin.

Rather than cannibalizing other resorts, including the Circus-owned Luxor and Excalibur hotel-casinos directly to the north, Mandalay Bay will increase the total market, according to Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette analyst Brian Egger.

"I think they will grow the market," Egger said.

The doors to Mandalay Bay swung open an hour ahead of schedule and the massive resort quickly absorbed the 1,000-plus people who had begun gathering in anticipation of an 11 p.m. opening.

After an initial rush, Mandalay Bay looked almost as if it had been open for months.

People streamed up sidewalks and into the brand new megaresort as easily as they do at any other Strip resort. There were no police cordons and no guards limiting entrants to a few at a time.

The early opening kept the crowds of thousands of people manageable, police and security officers said.

Inside, reactions were mixed. Most agreed that Mandalay Bay is a very nice resort.

"It's a magnificent property, it really is," Dina Manasses, visiting from San Francisco, said.

"It just takes your breath away," Jim Stauffer of Billings, Mont., said.

But how does it compare to other properties in town?

"They all look the same," Stauffer said. "They're all nice. But it's a casino."

"It looks good," Al Steed, visiting from Los Angeles, said. But he added, "It's just another casino."

Nancy Bongiovani of Las Vegas disagreed.

"I notice that every time a new hotel opens it gets better and better," Bongiovani said.

Diane Mayes of Las Vegas was impressed with the resort's size. "It's huge," she said, adding that Tuesday night was "the first time in my 17 years here that I came to the opening of a casino."

While the citizenry at large offered mixed reactions about Las Vegas' latest megaresort, its owners were decidedly upbeat.

"Mandalay Bay is where fun and sun meets up with class and cool," Circus Circus President Glenn Schaeffer said. "We've got a little something here for every runaway, whether they like it hot or like it cool."

Mandalay Bay cost Circus $950 million. It includes 3,700 hotel rooms and a 135,000 square-foot casino with 122 table games and 2,400 slot machines. But the resort's biggest draw is likely to be its wide variety of eye-catching restaurants and entertainment.

"Mandalay Bay stands for a world of escape," Schaeffer said. "We've stretched to provide that 'wow' and surprise beyond the golden tower itself."

Consider:

"I love it," Anthony Bongiovani, Nancy's husband, said of the lobby aquarium. "I'm a real shark fan, and that's what I was admiring."

Patrons on Tuesday night were just learning the benefits of the ice-topped furniture.

"I love it," Michelyn French of San Francisco said, sliding a glass along the ice bar. "We only just discovered it."

Tuesday night, the wall of fire remained dark, much to the relief of the crowd pushing toward the entrance. A sign on the fire wall read "Fire Under Construction."

Once you've made it past China Grill's bathroom garden, be careful not to trip over a robot. Robots equipped with cameras will eventually serve food and interact with patrons in the Dim Sum room. The cameras won't just help the robots navigate; they will also collect video clips that will then be shown on a large video screen. The robots don't arrive for several weeks, a hostess said.

Mandalay Bay is not all gimmickry. Aureole's method of wine storage may be strange, but the restaurant will feature an impressively large selection.

According to Steve Geddes, Aureole's director of wine, the tower will hold about 10,000 bottles, only one-fourth of Aureole's total collection. The other 30,000 to 40,000 bottles will be stored in conventional cellars, he said.

In addition to the wine tower, bathroom huts, robots, flaming walls and ice bars, Aureole, China Grill, rumjungle and Red Square offer solid selections of food and spirits sure to keep more than the merely curious coming back. Aureole, China Grill and Red Square have solid reputations in New York and Miami, and rumjungle was designed by the creators of China Grill.

Mandalay Bay features a total of 15 restaurants.

Entertainment offerings include a House of Blues music and restaurant complex with an 1,800-person music venue. The House of Blues Foundation Room, a private bar and dining club, occupies the top floor of Mandalay Bay. Chicago, the six-time Tony Award-winning musical, headlines the 1,700-seat Mandalay Bay Theatre. And tenor Luciano Pavarotti will headline the 12,000-seat Mandalay Bay Events Center beginning April 10.

"We possess the most live venues, the most big-ticket sound of any resort anywhere," Schaeffer said.

Mandalay Bay also features a 424-room Four Seasons hotel. The high-end Four Seasons has its own entrance and restaurants, and its rooms occupy floors 35 to 39 of the Mandalay Bay tower. While Mandalay Bay rooms start at $99 a night during the week, Four Seasons rooms start at $250.

Other amenities include four lounges, a 300-seat race and sports book, two chapels, a spa and the Treasures of Mandalay Bay museum featuring a $40 million collection of rare gold and silver coins, bank notes and Old West memorabilia.

Circus is clearly hoping its investment in Mandalay Bay will draw visitors to the south end of the Strip, described by many as "locationally challenged."

Schaeffer believes the resort's location, near the first two Strip exits from Interstate 15 and close to McCarran International Airport, is a benefit.

"You're standing in the gateway to Las Vegas," Schaeffer said.

He also believes a planned 1 million-square-foot mall that would connect Mandalay Bay and Circus' Luxor hotel-casino will help draw visitors to the south Strip.

"We have an opportunity because of our location to serve as a regional mall," Schaeffer said.

Meantime, other analysts agree with Egger that Mandalay Bay will do well.

"I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised with what they've done at Mandalay Bay," Andrew Zarnett, an analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., said.

"I think they've put enough excitement and attraction ... to perhaps overcome what's been a challenge of a location," Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. analyst Jason Ader said. "They came away with 90 percent of Bellagio for 60 percent of the cost."

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