I rarely get down to the Strip on the weekends if it’s not work or drinking related, but today my 3 years old and I had a Mandalay Bay excursion.  We went to the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef, lunched, and shopped. It was unexpectedly great.

The Shark Reef is $16.95 for adults ($3 off for locals) and kids under 13 are free.  They offer the audio guided tour, sharks/fish/stingrays, and the obligatory walk through the gift shop (dammit! never fails!).  It has it’s own entrance so you don’t have to tote the tots through the smokey and sinful casinos, and saving little feet is always appreciated by my achey “Carry me, Mom” arms.

Next up was shopping at Mandalay Place. I’d forgotten how many fun shops were at Mandalay Place. Once again, easy to get in with its own enterance.  Some fun/interesting shops we went into were Urban Outfitters, Minus5, Las Vegas Sock Market, and my new fave LUSH Cosmetics. LUSH Cosmetics smelled so nice, was so captivating with it’s show and tell bath bubbles, and fresher than fresh refrigerated face masks.

We topped off the Mandalay day with some delicious Mexican lunch at the new Hussong’s Cantina in Mandalay Place.  Nice spot for some chips/salsa, grilled Mexican corn, and Pacifico! 

Overall, it was a nice day at Mandalay Bay revisiting things I had already seen or forgotten about and trying new things that were magically wonderful.  I can’t wait to check out the rest of the properties on the Strip now as part of my new “Local’s Journey in Vegas” Series!

***Side Mom Stories: My 3 year old announced that his private area looked like a shark.  He also noticed a crazy Strip-going nerd in a trench coat that “looked like Willy Wonka”.