The MGM Grand Las
Vegas is a hotel casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The MGM Grand is the second
largest hotel in the world by number of rooms and the largest hotel resort
complex in the United States, ahead of The Venetian. When it opened in
1993, the MGM Grand was the largest hotel in the world.
Owned and operated by
MGM
Resorts International, the 30-floor main building is 293 ft (89 m) high. The
property includes five outdoor pools, rivers, and waterfalls that cover 6.6
acres (2.7 ha), a
380,000 sq ft (35,000 m2) convention center, the MGM Grand
Garden Arena, and the Grand Spa. It also houses numerous shops and night
clubs, 19 restaurants, and the largest casino in Clark County, which occupies 171,500 sq ft
(15,930 m2).
Located on the Tropicana - Las Vegas
Boulevard intersection, pedestrians are not allowed to cross at street
level. Instead, the MGM Grand is linked by overhead pedestrian bridges to its
neighboring casinos: to the south across Tropicana Avenue, the Tropicana, and to the west across
the Strip, the New York-New York.
When the MGM Grand
opened, the intention was to create the first true destination hotel in the
Las Vegas area by including the MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park
behind the casino. The plan was to make the Las Vegas Strip more family friendly
by providing activities for children who were too young to be allowed to linger
inside the casino. The theme park performed poorly, and did not reopen for the
2001 season. On December 5, 2002, MGM Mirage announced that the former theme
park would be developed as a luxury condominium and hotel complex called The
Signature.
Hotels in Las Vegas
A monorail was built to
connect the MGM Grand to Bally's in 1995. The coming out party for
the monorail on behalf of Bally's consisted of showgirls and guys from Jubilee
helping the groups to the monorail. Characters from the Wizard of Oz greeted the
groups on the MGM side. The track was later updated to became the southernmost
section of the Las
Vegas Monorail. The station was refurbished, the trains were replaced with
Bombardier M-VI's, and the track
was extended beyond the southern station to provide for track switching for the
trains as well as a starting point for a potential future southern extension to
the monorail line.
The City
of Entertainment
In 2000, in an attempt
to appeal to a more "mature" clientele, the hotel underwent a major renovation
and almost all traces of the "Oz" theme were removed. The theme is now more of
the Art Deco era of classic Hollywood and the hotel
started billing itself as The City of
Entertainment. More recently, the resort has used the phrase, "Maximum
Vegas" referring to the vast amount of activities MGM Grand offers its
guest.
On April 26, 2000, MGM
opened a new satellite registration/hotel check-in center at the McCarran International Airport.
This is the first of its kind opened by a hotel company at any United States
airport.
In 2005, MGM opened the "West Wing," a renovation of the original Marina
Hotel rooms.
Beginning in October 2011, MGM began its "Grand Renovation" in which all of
its rooms and suites in the main tower were fully renovated, along with the
casino floor and other public areas. This has provided the hotel with a more
modern appeal with its contemporary room design. The work was completed in
September 2012.
Attractions
- MGM Grand featured a glass-sided lion habitat inside the casino area, in which up to six lions were shown daily since 1999. A see-through tunnel ran through the habitat for close-up viewing where the lions would frequently lounge on top of the glass allowing visitors to walk under them. The lions were owned by Keith Evans, a trainer of exotic animals, and did not live at the habitat, but at his ranch 12 miles (19 km) outside Las Vegas. The lion habitat closed permanently in February 2012 as part of MGM's Grand Renovation.
- CSI: The Experience opened in the Studio Walk in September 2009. Here, guests try to solve one of three murder cases interactively, guided by touch screen stations, cast member videos, and realistic recreated evidence. The first stop is a debriefing room where Gil Grissom introduces the "new recruits" to their assigned cases. After observing the evidence at the crime scene, visitors go to lab areas where they analyze the gathered evidence. They then present their findings in Grissom's office, answering a test based on their analysis of the evidence. Finally, visitors receive a case summary and a CSI diploma.
Gaming
The MGM Grand has one
of the largest gaming floors in all of Las Vegas, measuring 171,500 square feet
(15,930 m2). There are more than 2,500 machines for gaming as well as
139 poker and table games.
The slot machines at the MGM Grand range from 1¢ to $1,000, and include
progressive slots, video poker, and multi-game machines. There is a special High
Limit Slots area that feature slot machines with payouts up to $500,000.
The race and sports
book is a state-of-the-art betting area that features 36 60-inch plasma tvs
along with 24 42-inch plasmas. Bets are offered on a range of sports including
soccer, football, boxing, MMA and more. They are also the first room to offer
what they call "SkyBoxes". These boxes can hold up to 10 guests and come with
beverage servers and complimentary food.
Show venues
- Crazy Horse Paris Theatre
- Hollywood Theatre
- Kà Theatre
- MGM Grand Garden Arena
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