The loyalty question
The lead film (WrestleMania 41 weekend, 2025) asks the only interesting question about the castle: why do people keep coming back? Its Royal Tower room, pool deck and Drenched dining land on the durable answers — price, location and an undemanding good time. The orientation walkthrough (2022) opens with archival footage of Excalibur's 1990 debut as the world's largest hotel, then runs the modern castle: the Sherwood Forest Bar, medieval-themed since opening day, the Royal Tower elevators, the rideshare zone, and the walkways linking Excalibur to Luxor and Mandalay Bay that make its south-Strip address work.
The honesty tests
Two films put the 'Dirty Castle' nickname on trial and file split reports. The night-test lands on 'just kind of okay': the MGM app check-in is excellent (room ready before the host's flight landed), the castle delivers — except the Tournament of Kings dinner show, whose food it rates pretty terrible: unseasoned rotisserie chicken, hard bread, freezer corn, eaten with your hands by design. The true-cheapest-room stay refuses an MGM Gold upgrade to test the real standard: shabby dresser, older TV, a mildewy carpet smell in the casino — and a casino the host genuinely likes, with the drained moat (now rocks and gravel) noted out front. Fine to sleep and shower; not her top budget pick. A 2022 bucket-list stay is kinder: comfortable bed, pool genuinely enjoyed, the buffet's dessert line (cream puffs, bread pudding, soft-serve custard) its highlight — pay a little more for renovated rooms, the host advises.
The last budget buffet, and a time capsule
The 2026 bulletin gives Excalibur a genuine distinction: with MGM Grand's buffet closed, Excalibur's is the last true budget buffet left on the Strip — everything, drinks and dessert included, under $35 as filmed — tested properly, omelette and carvery included, with South Point and the Palms named as the off-Strip alternatives. The closer is June 11, 2020, the castle's reopening day: a $22 room (about $60 all-in as filmed), a welcome kit with masks and sanitizer, pools in phased reopening — and a kind verdict, especially for the price. Some resorts sell luxury; Excalibur sells the moat, the tram and the math.
Sources: the seven videos on this page — a 2025 loyalty test, a 2022 walkthrough, two honesty-test stays, a 2022 budget stay, a reopening-day tour, and a 2026 buffet bulletin — summarized from their entries in our catalog.