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Excalibur Hotel Casino Las Vegas
Excalibur Review
by John Byrne
Address: 3850 Las Vegas Blvd South Las Vegas NV 89109
Tel: 1-702-597-7777
I received a telephone call recently telling me that despite the Volcanic Ash Cloud, another trip to Vegas was imminent and this time we would be staying somewhere we have not tried before!
My first thoughts were, Wynn, Belagio, Hilton? to be informed that no, it was time to review a family favourite - The Excalibur!
My second thoughts were, Knights of the Round Table, King Arthur, Chicken drumsticks, Sword fights and Peasants! - followed quickly by a realisation that even if I didn't like The Excalibur, it's location on the Strip was perfect and it would only take a few minutes to get to my favourite casino at the MGM Grand.
I have to be honest! When I landed at Las Vegas Airport and told the taxi driver to take us to The Excalibur, I did feel like I had a sign on my head saying, "Budget Traveller - Don't expect a big tip" - probably something to do with the fact that the hotel bill was going to be around 50% of the usual hotel spend staying at places like MGM, Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock etc.
I've been to The Excalibur before, well - I've walked through it many times anyway and so there was no surprise awaiting me when the taxi driver pulled up outside. No knights on horseback, no large-bosomed maidens juggling big pots of ale - kind of a disappointment really!
The hotel itself is 20 years old now and looks it; however I kept telling myself that the rooms rates were brilliant and that meant more money to spend in the casino or the shops - so hey!, it didn't matter that I was checking into a themed hotel resembling (loosely) a castle from Shrek's version of Far Far Away!
We were provided with a room on the ground floor; which we were pretty certain we would exchange for something with a better view but decided to have a look first and see what was on offer.
There's no doubt about it, I was shocked and stunned to find that the hotel room was actually really good, spacious, clean, a good-sized TV, comfy beds, a decent power-shower and really good views of the MGM & the crazy rollercoaster that winds itself around New York New York.
A good start then, not only was the room cheaper than usual, it was also perfectly OK.
There are other good things about The Excalibur to comment on such as the buffet; which was pretty good and the pool; which was also pretty good and the fact that for kids, there is plenty to do with a whole load of kids games to play on the ground floor.
However; there were unfortunately a few things that really let this hotel down; which I suppose I could have turned a blind-eye to if I had been there with my kids - but couldn't because my 2 little darlings were home in the UK.
Firstly, despite the room being OK, it did suffer from a blocked sink and distinct lack of power points in addition to a very poor TV reception and lack of channels. We also discovered that a ground-floor room wasn't such a good idea at 6am when the delivery men arrived with their trucks and those really annoying reversing beeps that they emit (great for warning people that they need to move to avoid being run-over, but not so good when you are trying to sleep!).
Probably the most annoying thing that we found with The Excalibur was the dead hambuger; which lived on a trolley in the corridor outside our room for 3 days. It didn't smell so good on day 1, by day 3 - it was very unpleasant and was only taken away after we called house-keeping to complain. Perhaps they were trying to add a few rats to the castle to add a little realism?
What is very obvious about The Excalibur is the fact that it is cheap to stay there and because of this, you do get a different type of guest compared to the more up-market hotels available. Maybe this explains why the staff don't look as happy as they do in other hotels?
We didn't take in any shows at The Excalibur and gave Dick's Last Resort a miss after being spoken to very rudely by the barman (he obviously was only capable of being civil with females) but we did find an OK bar on the Casino floor.
The Casino itself was OK; however did not have our favourite Roulette Machines so we did tend to spend our money elsewhere.
In Summary, if you are taking young children to Vegas and you are on a budget, The Excalibur will do, otherwise, we suggest that you try elsewhere.