The Excalibur opened in 1990, during the highly themed and family friendly era of Las Vegas. It was built by Circus Circus Enterprises, so it has a lot in common with Circus Circus. It is now owned by MGM Resorts and is part of the Mlife players club.   It is on the South end of the Strip at the intersection of Tropicana and Las Vegas Blvd. It shares the intersection with MGM Grand, New York – New York and Tropicana.

I like that Excalibur has kept its theming. That is about the only good thing I can say about the resort. I remember walking through it on my first real trip to Las Vegas and loving how  thoroughly themed it was. I particularly liked the faux stonework in the giftshop. Since then, I had only set foot inside when I was on my way elsewhere and couldn’t avoid it (getting lost most of the time). I decided it was time to finally stay there. I used a myVEGAS Comp Room Reward for a  free night on my last trip.  You can read more about that trip in my 48 Hours in Vegas post.

The rooms at Excalibur show their age. The beds are worn and the furniture is wearing out.  It has the basic amenities, though (radio/alarm clock, iron,  cheap toiletries) and has a shower/tub combo. It does not have a coffee maker. The heating & air conditioning unit is a loud, under-window unit (just like many cheaper motels).  Actually, cheap motel is a fairly accurate way to describe the overall room quality of the Excalibur.  Also, the A/C wasn’t the only noisy aspect of the room. I heard  kids yelling and running down the hall for most of my time there.

Room rates are low. Regular rooms can be found for less than $40 per night on a regular basis. Suites start at just over $100 per night. Room discounts are readily available. Excalibur offers Mlife, AAA and military  discounts. Discount and comp room Rewards are also readily available on myVEGAS.

The Excalibur charges a resort fee which can almost double the price of a cheap room.  The resort fee is $35/night ($39.20  after tax) and covers property-wide high speed internet access (public spaces and in-room), unlimited local and toll free calls, airline boarding pass printing, and fitness center access for guests 18 and over.
The Excalibur will start charging for parking on June 6th.  Parking is not included in the resort fee.

The elevators are in the far corners of the casino and are divided by room number. For the Resort Tower, one bank of elevators served rooms ending in 1-36 and another bank of elevators on the other side of the hallway serves rooms ending in 39-75. That helps alleviate crowded elevators. Having the elevators in the far corners means a lot of walking to get from your room to anywhere else (especially the Strip).

There are many cheap and mid-range dining options.  Room service is available 6am-2pm daily for breakfast and lunch. The buffet is mediocre, but serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and is a pretty good value when compared to other Strip resort buffets. Johnny Rockets serves as the 24 hour cafe.  The other main dining options are The Steakhouse at Camelot, Buca Di Beppo and Dick’s Last Resort.

For entertainment, the Excalibur offer a number of family oriented options like the Fun Dungeon and the Tournament of Kings dinner show.  If you are looking for something more adult, they offer  Thunder From Down Under  and The Australian Bee Gees Show (which  both seem a bit out of place).

I had a very bad experience when I checked in. It had to do with the fact that I had reserved a Run Of  House room through myVEGAS.   If I had reserved a specific room type (like a Resort View King Room), the experience would have been uneventful. However, I had reserved a Run Of House room  and was told that instead of getting the best  available room upon check-in (as specified in the Run Of House details), I was getting the cheapest room available. You can read more about that in my  48 Hours in Vegas post.  The poor customer service at the Mlife VIP Check-In counter was very disappointing and makes me wonder how bad it must be when issues arise at the regular check-in line.

I posted to Excalibur’s Facebook page, explaining my check-in trouble. There was no response. I received two   post-trip survey emails from Excalibur. I was clear about my disappointment with the front desk service in  both of them. The first one did not include an option to be contacted. The second one did and  I asked to be contacted. It has been over   a month since submitting those without a response. If you still decide to stay at Excalibur, be aware that if there is a problem,  the Excalibur hotel management doesn’t seem to care.