MGM National Harbor

This past weekend, my family traveled down to National Harbor in Washington D.C.  For the past couple of years my younger son has attended MAGFEST at the Gaylord Hotel and Convention Center (music and gaming convention) and this year, my daughter went with him.  Since both kids would be down there for the day and it's a bit of a drive from our house, my husband looked for things to do in the area.  Jim Gaffigan just happened to be playing the theater at the brand spankin' new MGM casino, so we got tickets for that and figured we would spend some time checking the place out.

The new complex has been open for about a month.  There was a lot of hoopla leading up to its opening.  An ad campaign stating that the entertainment complex was "monumental" ran on tv and the internet.  World class shows and dining, plus an incredible hotel and casino-what's not to like?

We first tried to park in the large parking garage.  On our first go around, we found several of the entrances for self parking blocked by cars.  So we went off and did a few other things before coming back to the complex.  No idea why those entrances were blocked.  There were no signs at each entrance-just a car blocking the way in.  Not the best way to get patrons to come to your facility.

Once we finally got inside (much later-we took the first entrance we found open), we took the elevators up to the casino floor.  The casino itself is nice-there are plenty of slot machines to keep one busy and a couple of bars on the casino floor.  There aren't a huge amount of table games, but there are a few.  There are 2 problems with the slot machines: 1) the chairs are very hard to maneuver.  Employees are constantly walking the floor pushing the chairs in to make room.  Pulling them out takes a lot of effort. 2) The rows of machines are WAY too close together.  If you have a full row of people sitting back to back at machines, there is no way for someone to walk down the aisle.  Since a lot of elderly and less than able bodied people frequent the slot machines, I really think these are things the casino needs to address.

Another issue on the casino floor were people just loitering and hanging around.  I realize we are near a large city and that is hard to control, but if this entertainment complex wants to bill itself as a 5 star facility, it should not have men sleeping at slot machines or drunk people wandering into bathrooms, parking themselves in stalls, and shouting at the top of their lungs.  MGM really needs to invest in more security to walk the casino floor. 

MGM has a food court area called the Market.  The signature establishment is the Shake Shack, which specializes in burgers and shakes.  There is also a deli, a sushi counter (you cannot take out the sushi; you must eat it at the counter); Pappas' Crab cakes, Honey's Fried Chicken and Donuts; a taco place; a pizza place; a Vietnamese soup/salad/sandwich place; a gelato bar; and a wine/beer bar.  Seating is at a premium.  On a Saturday evening with a packed house, it was evident that there needed to be way more seating or maybe the space should have been better utilized.  I got Vietnamese pho, which is a noodle soup.  The broth was good, plenty of noodles, herbs, and jalapenos.  The chicken was ok-a few pieces were gristly.  My husband, after finding out he couldn't get the sushi to go, opted for two carne asada tacos, which he said were very good.  He also got a side of chips and salsa.  The chips were good; the salsa looked like it had been sitting out all night.  We also got a serving of mango gelato, which was delicious; five dollars got you a generous serving.

As you exit the casino, you come into a beautiful hotel lobby, which has escalators up to the rooms.  It is in this area that you also queue up for events in the theater.  Employees got the line moving along, but it stretched out into the lobby area-probably not the best configuration.  Once inside, the theater itself is very nice.  Fairly comfortable seats, good lighting and sound (for a comedian, anyway) and two large screens on either side of the stage.  There is a bar on the second level for those that want to bring a drink into the performance; we didn't get anything.

After the show, we were all herded out through doorways and hallways back into the lobby area.  It reminded me of herding sheep.  The employees were courteous, but they definitely moved us along.

The complex does have a few restaurants-Fish by Jose Andreas, a steakhouse by the Voltaggio Brothers, and Ginger, which is an Asian restaurant.
  

I wish the casino area had been designed so that when someone opened a door leading outside, we didn't get a blast of cold winter air when we were sitting at a slot machine.  That seems like another design flaw.

Someone described MGM National Harbor to me as a good effort but a work in progress.  I think that sums it up nicely.  I hope to go back again at a much later date and find that they have smoothed out some of the bumps that we experienced.