The Minus 5 group has just opened a new Lodge next to the Ice Lounge in the Mandalay Bay shopping mall.  So if you're doing some shopping and want to get a drink, or if that walk from Mandalay Bay to the Luxor is just too long for you, you can stop into the Lodge to chill out with a cocktail or beer.  Not a bad little pub, especially for a mall, plus there's no cover charge.  But if you're thinking about going to the Minus 5 Ice Lounge itself, you might want to read my review of it before you decide. 

If you haven't heard of the Minus 5 Ice Lounge, here's some quick info on it.  Its a relatively new tourist attraction in the Mandalay Bay shopping corridor where you can get a drink in a handcrafted ice glass while sitting on ice couches amidst ice sculptures in room kept at Minus 5 Celsius.

To be honest with you, going to the Lounge was actually the worst experience I've ever had in Vegas.    Everything about it was quite awful. 

Fist of all, it was really expensive for a few minutes of sitting in a cold room.  If I remember correctly the minimum amount you'd have to spend to see the ice room is something like $30, which includes 1 cocktail.   So if you're just going to have one cocktail, its a very expensive one....and I actually I'm glad I only got one despite being somewhat harrassed by the girls at the front desk.  (You have to pre-pay for drinks before you go in, and the ladies at the front desk act like used car salespeople -- really slamming a hard sell on you to buy more drinks before you even get in). Not a great start.  Terrible actually.

The lounge itself was not too bad (OK I'm being really nice here) -- ice sculptures and nice cocktail servers who mixed good vodka-based drinks -- its just that I was really expecting something bigger for the amount of money that it cost, and it seemed sooooo touristy.  Really cheesy actually .  Plus, I just wasn't that into sitting in a freezing cold room for that long, so I only stayed for 10 minutes, which is the amount of time that it took me to drink the cocktail.   (I would have stayed for only 5 minutes, but I was so pissed off that I had spent $30 to get into the place that I forced myself to stay longer).

To be fair, I'm personally not that impressed with icey-stuff since I lived in freezing cold Montreal, Canada for 4 years, where there's tons of ice.  I'm also not that impressed with cold things, since I had the chance to regularly experience tempertures in the minus 20 or 30 range.   (Minus 5 seems like a walk in the park!)  After living through 4 Montreal winters, my opinion is that cold weather is highly over-rated.  Given my background, its almost impossible to impress me with ice and cold.....unless its in colossal amounts.  And at roughly 500 square feet, the Minus 5 lounge just didn't do it for me. 

In a nutshell - do yourself a favor and skip the Ice Lounge and go to the Lodge instead. 

All of this being said, some tourists may really think the Lounge is cool, especially if they've never lived in a really cold place.  Seeing ice sculptures and sitting on ice chairs can provide a great change of pace.  People going to the Lounge in large groups might also like it (maybe).

The Minus 5 Lodge is open from 10 a.m. – 3 a.m. daily.  The Minus 5 Ice Lounge is open Monday – Thursday from noon – 3 a.m.; and Friday – Sunday from 10 a.m. – 3 a.m.

What do you all think?

Has anyone else been to either the Lodge or the Lounge?  Share your review by leaving a comment.