MGM Grand Review: Great Pool, but Otherwise Underwhelming

Unless you’re seeing a show at one of the MGM Grand’s venues, this hotel on the Las Vegas Strip probably isn’t going to be a top place to stay. Sure, there are restaurants by celebrity chefs Masaharu Morimoto and Emeril Lagasse, plus a casino. But compared to other Strip hotels, like the Bellagio Las Vegas or Caesars Palace, the MGM Grand lacks a real identity. The casino feels like any standard Vegas spot, and most of the hotel’s interior looks like any large hotel that caters to business conferences.

But if you don’t care about staying somewhere with iconic photo ops, the MGM Grand has a very large pool complex that will likely sway anyone whose ideal vacation involves sipping a margarita by the pool.

I visited the hotel during a press trip in early May hosted by Visit Las Vegas. My hotel stay and meals were covered, but this review is my own opinion and not influenced by MGM or Visit Las Vegas.

How to book

The cheapest option, the Studio King room, generally costs around $150 to $200 but can go up to $450 during peak season or as low as $59 during slow periods. You will also have to pay a $50 resort fee on top of these prices.

If you don’t want to pay cash, you can redeem rewards from two points currencies at this hotel. MGM Rewards can be redeemed at MGM properties, and points are worth 1 cent apiece no matter how you use them.

MGM also has a partnership with Marriott, so you can also redeem Marriott points towards your stay. I saw nights at the MGM Grand going for 20,000 points a night. At a nightly price of $125, that would net you a value of slightly more than 0.6 cent per point. NerdWallet values Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.9 cent a piece, so unless you have a stash of points you won’t otherwise use, it’s probably going to be a better value to pay with cash.

If you do decide to book with points, both MGM and Marriott have credit cards that can help you earn points towards your stay.

Location

The MGM Grand is located on the south end of the Strip, about a 10-minute drive from the airport. It’s a great spot if you want to go to any exhibit or show at New York, New York, but it’s about a 20- to 30-minute walk to the Bellagio or Caesars Palace. The hotel does have a monorail stop, though, so you can easily get to that part of town without walking or driving. A single ride will cost you $5.50.

Rooms

The MGM Grand offers standard rooms with a king bed or two queens and several suite options. They also offer StayWell versions of some of these rooms, which feature air purifiers, memory foam mattresses, essential oil aromatherapy and nontoxic cleaning products, for roughly $10 to $50 more per night. StayWell rooms are also “guaranteed non-smoking.”

I have asthma and love when a hotel offers rooms like this that really minimize the chance of something triggering an asthma attack. But according to the website’s FAQs, all rooms at the hotel are supposed to be non-smoking. I don’t like potentially having to pay more to guarantee the previous guest didn’t smoke in a non-smoking room.

My stay

I stayed in a Grand King which normally costs $30 to $60 more than the Studio King. The hotel is currently being renovated, and my room was recently updated. Older rooms will look a bit different. My room featured a comfortable king bed, desk and seating area by the window.

When I’m working from a hotel, I don’t want the bed to be my zoom background, so I really appreciated that the desk didn’t completely face the bed. But the art in the background doesn’t entirely scream “professional zoom meeting.”

The bathroom has a large walk-in shower and a huge lighted mirror, which was a nice touch. Having the entire mirror light up provided perfect lighting for doing makeup.

Subpar air conditioning

Overall, I liked the room, but my room only had a single air vent by the window, and the thermostat was on the wall about a foot beneath it. You also couldn’t set the thermostat below 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be too much of an issue. But with the thermostat so close to the only vent, it hit 65 degrees well before the rest of the room had a chance to cool down.

There was also no bathroom fan. So after showering, the steam made the bathroom downright sweltering. If multiple people needed to shower back-to-back, I’d imagine the entire room would start to feel very hot and humid.

I’ll admit I keep my thermostat at home set to frigid, and people less emotionally attached to central AC probably would have been much more comfortable. But, I visited in May before the height of summer. I’d be concerned about room temperature come July or August.

Dining

The MGM Grand has 28 places to eat on site, including sit-down restaurants and late-night to-go spots, plus two Starbucks to get your morning fix.

Netflix Bites

One of the newest additions to MGM’s restaurant roster is Netflix Bites, a one-year pop-up restaurant inspired by the streaming platform’s original shows. To be honest, I was expecting the "Stranger Things" version of Rainforest Cafe, with gimmicky decor and subpar food. But the food was good, albeit a little uninspired. While there are some meals pulled straight from Netflix shows (shoutout to "Try Before You Deny" pizza with pineapple), the menu is mostly simple American fare with punny names, like "Orange is the New Mac" and "Eggs Benedict Bridgerton."

I enjoyed the Nachos Nevermore, which were standard nachos that had a good mix of toppings and chips that didn’t get too soggy. But the only real differentiator to keep it on theme was a blood-red salsa inspired by Wednesday.

However, if you’re keen for a fun food photo op, the “Red Bite, Green Bite” was a really creative concept, even if you could get the actual meal (chicken nuggets with multiple dipping sauces) at almost any fast food place on the Strip. It comes with three dipping sauces: a spicy red, mustardy yellow and herby green. A spinning wheel straight out of Squid Game helped you decide which dipping sauce to eat.

There was one standout for me, though, that was unique, delicious and right on theme: the Mind Flayer, a bourbon-based cocktail with lemon juice, blackberries and ginger syrup with a cotton candy cloud on top. The blackberry pieces floating in the drink, plus the cotton candy cloud really made it feel like you were in the Upside Down, the dark, parallel dimension from "Stranger Things." I tried the mocktail version, and it was delicious. Normally I’m not a mocktail person because the lack of alcohol tends to make drinks too sweet for me, but I didn’t miss the alcohol in the Mind Flayer. The flavors were well balanced and the ginger added a nice kick.

Late-night food

Late-night food is a must for me, especially in Vegas, so having restaurants that are open 24 hours or at least close after midnight is a huge perk. This isn’t rare in Las Vegas, but I was impressed with how many restaurants stayed open late at the MGM Grand. I tried a slice of diavola pizza from Luchini Italian Restaurant’s slice shop that stays open until 11 p.m. during the week and 1 a.m. on weekends. It made a great late-night snack.

Pool complex

To me, the biggest draw of the MGM Grand is the sprawling 6.5-acre pool complex. It’s a pretty far walk from the casino and hotel rooms, but once you’re outside, it’s easy to forget you’re at a hotel on the Strip. It was honestly the perfect palate cleanser after battling the Strip crowds for a couple of days. You can swim in multiple pools, float the lazy river or visit the hotel’s new Palm Tree Beach Club. And if you’re hungry, the Cabana Grill serves breakfast and lunch.

We had a cabana, which ordinarily costs at least $500 for the day (some days could cost you upwards of $1,200). It comes with a couch, TV, refrigerator with non-alcoholic drinks, towel service, and food and bar service. You’ll still need to pay for any food or drinks you order. The cost is very steep, but the cabana can seat 10 people. Fifty dollars a person wouldn’t be too bad if you’re celebrating a special occasion.

Is the MGM Grand worth it?

If you want to be right in the action, you’ll probably have a better experience at a hotel further north along the Strip, since the MGM Grand is nearly a mile south of the Bellagio, where you can watch a watch a fountain show set to music, visit a fine art museum and walk through a conservatory. It’s even further away from the Linq Promenade where you can ride a zipline or take in the views from the a large Ferris wheel called the High Roller.

But if you plan on spending a lot of your free time at the pool, it’s really hard to beat the MGM pool complex. Just be aware, if you’re visiting in the middle of summer, your room might get a little hot. If you like a cold hotel room like I do, that might be a good reason to stay elsewhere.