California, Here We Come - Day 5 - Vegas, baby!

[Guest]

The Story So Far...

The Pre-Trip Report

Day 1 - Travelling to London

Day 2 - Two Musicals

Day 3 - The London Bridge Experience and touring London

Day 4 - LHR to LAX, yay!

The Cast

Myself, Rachel, 36, loves planning and theme parks. Can get a bit obsessive about holidays.

OH, Andrew, 43, usually goes along with my plans, loves driving and big trucks, doesn’t care for rides but is happy to mind bags, pushchair and energetic toddler.

DS1, Dan, 15, loves rollercoasters and music. Surgically attached to his Ipod.

DD, Hannah, 11, loves Tinkerbell, swimming pools and getting her own way. Wants to do anything and everything.

DS2, Tom, 2, Mr Independent, thinks he can do everything the big ones do, loves Toy Story and Mickey Mouse.

Tuesday 27th July

Yay! The first REAL day of our holidays. And also my birthday, although somehow I didn’t remember until Andrew said Happy Birthday as I went into the bathroom. I opened my cards and semi-believed Andrew when he said he’d accidentally left my present behind on our bed at home. (Turned out he wasn’t lying – it was three tickets to see Blood Brothers in September – very nice!).

First things first, we needed to collect our hire car. We were supposed to have collected it the day before from the Hertz site in Fullerton but we decided we would get there too late so we asked at the Hertz location in our hotel and they phoned the site at Fullerton who said we could pick it up the next morning instead. Now I know you’re asking why we didn’t just hire it from the Hertz office in our hotel. That would have been easier, right? It would have been easier but it would also have been a lot more expensive; we took advantage of the Hertz pricing glitch on the Dibb and managed to book a standard SUV for 16 days for the fab price of £265. Unfortunately, our hotel wasn’t included in the choices when we booked and when I looked to book there it was going to cost about £700 – I think not!

So Andrew went off to collect the hire car with express instructions to fight his corner if they attempted to charge him for the car. I stayed behind and chivvied the children into getting dressed and began the daily suntan lotion ordeal. Anyone else hate putting on suntan lotion? Actually, the Asda one we got this year wasn’t too bad as it wasn’t sticky when applied and rubbed in quite well but I still hate the initial application. It was also better this year as Tom was quite happy to have it put on him although he quite often insisted “I do it myself!”

So, I digress! Andrew came back before long with the happy news that although the Hertz worker had wanted to charge him $900 or so until the supervisor had intervened and said it was all paid up, phew! We were quite impressed with the car. It was a Chevrolet Traverse and was practically brand new.





It also had eight seats which was great with three kids although Andrew refused to let me put them all in the back row with an empty row of seats between us. Spoilsport. We set the TomTom for the first time to find an IHOP for breakfast. There was one just down the street but the TomTom kindly took us on a series of right turns down the back road, which I was quite happy about as I am a bit of a nervous passenger. One problem was there was an incessant beeping sound which Andrew said was Hannah’s door being open. No matter how many times we opened and closed it we couldn’t stop it so we decided that we would eat breakfast, then take it back to the rental place to get it checked out. Luckily the drive was only about five minutes as the sound was driving us mad!

So, we got to the IHOP and parked. We’ve been to the USA twice before but have never visited the IHOP but it was somewhere I was quite keen to go. After all, who can resist an International House of Pancakes?

So Dan ordered strawberry banana pancakes, Hannah ordered choc chip pancakes and after a lot of deliberation I went for fruit and nut pancakes. Andrew, not quite getting the idea of a house of PANCAKES ordered a country omelette and we got French toast and bacon for Tom. What we weren’t quite expecting was the sizes of the things; they were huge!







I don’t think anyone actually ate more than half of their food. I think kid’s portions would have been more than ample. However, is there anything better than breakfast on that first day, with so much promise of things yet to come? Sigh. Fully stuffed we went to pay. Now before our trip I had deliberated on the best payment method. I wasn’t happy about carrying loads of currency but the previous year when we took a Fairfx card sometimes the restaurants would charge us twice for the same meal. The second charge was always recredited but sometimes not for quite a few days and I was worried that all our spending money might get tied up in pending charges and we’d be left without any cash. So, for the first time ever we ordered travellers’ cheques as I’d read a lot about how widely accepted in USA they are. So the first time I went to pay and the cashier looked at the cheque as if it had just beamed down from space then called over her manager. He told her they could accept them but needed my driving licence. I handed it over and they spent ages debated which number could be my licence number until in the end we butted in and showed them. It turned out during the trip that a lot of waiters and waitresses had never seen a traveller’s cheque before and weren’t sure about the procedure so maybe they aren’t that widely used?

So, fully sated it was time to get on the road to Vegas. Now how cool did that sound? But first, we had to get the pesky beeping sorted. We went to pull out of the IHOP car park with the beeping still irritating everyone, when Andrew suddenly said shamefacedly that he knew what the problem was and that he’d left the parking brake or somesuch on. He turned it off and hey presto, no more annoying beeping. This is the kids after he realised his mistake.



So we set off along the concrete freeway and to be honest I wasn’t any more impressed with them today. Plus, the roads were so big and busy! I set the TomTom for Las Vegas.

As an aside, we would NOT have coped without this. We would quite possibly still been lost somewhere in California. Or we could maybe have been starting divorce procedures when we came home. The roads were simply so complex that no way could I have navigated to anywhere we needed to go. Luckily the calming voice on the SatNav made it fairly easy, even if she sometimes did annoy Andrew by beeping at him when he went slightly over the speed limit.

We didn’t get too far though before Tom announced that his nappy was dirty and sure enough he wasn’t telling lies. We pulled over in a service station and I changed Tom’s nappy while the other three set off for a restroom stop of their own. While waiting for them to come back Tom and I got out of the car to wait. It was just starting to get hot and it was great to feel the sun. I snapped this as they came back.



Soon we left the concrete barriers, the litter and the blown out tyres behind and the scenery started to improve. This was more like what I’d expected although the roads still had lots of lanes in places.



It was quite amusing when the SatNav told us to keep on the road we were on for 250 miles. I think it took about four hours to get to Las Vegas which we thought was pretty good although I had expected Tom might sleep for some of it which he didn’t. This is the view we got coming into Las Vegas itself.



The SatNav led us pretty well to our hotel where first impressions were erm, it’s very gold!



Andrew asked where to park to be told it was valet parking only, so we handed over the keys and went inside to check in. One of our rooms, sorry suites, apparently Mr Trump only does all-suite hotels, was ready but the other one wouldn’t be ready until later in the day, which wasn’t a problem.

We were on floor 34 which isn’t as high as it sounded as the lobby was on floor 15. I’m not sure what was below it, parking maybe? The lift was one of those superfast ones, that no matter how many times I rode in it I never got used to the sick dizzy feeling it gave me. The rest of the family got great satisfaction from mocking my face each time and Andrew said he couldn’t understand how I could ride Tower Of Terror if a normal lift made me feel ill.

Continued in next post

[Guest]

We arrived at our hotel room to find a large double door and once through it was a small lobby with two doors leading off it. Our room was on the left and we were hoping our second room would be the one on the right.



Inside, we were very impressed. It was probably one of the nicest hotels we’ve stayed in. The room was huge with a large window that looked out onto the Strip. It had a kitchenette and a load of wardrobes and cupboards. I’m not sure how many people would actually need that many cupboards in a hotel room but never mind. It also had a sofa-bed and coffee table with a noughts and crosses set on it that Tom enjoyed using to build a tower. The bed, when we finally got in was the softest, snuggliest bed I’ve ever been in. Only our bed at the Royal Pacific resort comes close. Honestly, it was like sleeping in a cloud!

The bathroom was equally gorgeous. It had a huge whirlpool bath that I imagine all five of us could have got into if we’d cared to do so. The toilet and shower both had their own separate glass cubicles and inexplicably there was a telephone right next to the toilet and a TV inset in the bathroom mirror (not sure how that would work with condensation!). It made me wonder how many people would actually want to watch TV in the bathroom although Andrew did use it to watch the news while he shaved each day.









So, nice as the hotel was, we didn’t come all that way to sit in the room and look out at Vegas. We asked at the desk for the way onto the Strip and it turned out we just needed to go to the end of a tiny road, turn right and there we were. We had a wander into Treasure Island, past the Siren’s ship and into the Mirage. We had a little wander around marvelling at how huge the hotels were, like a little town in each one, then decided we’d head back to the hotel as Hannah was desperate to get into the pool. On the way back we stopped for an icecream, pineapple for Hannah, vanilla for Tom (although Andrew helped eat it), pear cinnamon for me and a root beer float for Dan and we sat in the sun people watching for a while.

Back at the hotel our second room was ready and sure enough it was the second door beside ours. This meant we felt secure enough to let Dan and Hannah take the second room so Andrew and I were able to stay in the same room for a change (with Tom on the sofabed). The second room was a mirror image of the first with the only difference that it had a horse ornament that terrified Tom.



The rest of the family went down to the pool while I wallowed in the whirlpool bath for a while reading a book. Bliss!

When everyone returned we all showered and headed up the Strip for the second time that day. We were heading to Harrah’s for their buffet meal. In fact, we were planning on doing the Buffet of Buffets whereby you pay once and get a 24 hour pass to seven buffets in seven different hotels. Someone on the Dibb pointed out that timed right this can provide four meals over two days. After wandering around a couple of other hotels (the Venetian springs to mind) we went to Harrah’s for about 7.30 in the hope that we could go for dinner at an earlier time the next night and still be within the 24 hours. The buffet was quite nice with plenty of choice although something was a bit strange as I only had a plate of food and was too full for any dessert. Too full for dessert? That doesn’t sound like me at all.

We continued walking on the Strip as far as the Flamingo before deciding we’d gone far enough for one day and turned back. The Strip that had been pleasantly empty in the afternoon was heaving with people, which I didn’t really mind as it does add to the atmosphere. I was pleased to see loads of other people around with children and pushchairs as I’d been worried we’d be the only ones and people would see us as terrible parents for taking the children to Sin City. But no, at that time of night there were still lots of children around. The only thing that slightly spoiled the whole experience were the number of people standing on the streets wearing fluorescent T-shirts with the slogan “Girls, Girls, Girls” and handing out cards to get a girl delivered to your door. Andrew was walking down the street pushing a pushchair, with myself and two children by his side and they still tried to give him cards; they think he has the time or the money to get a girl delivered to his room? What was interesting was the vast majority of people either ignored them or took the cards and dropped them in the street. By the time we were walking back to the hotel, there were loads of these cards dropped everywhere – nice!

We were fairly tired when we got back to the hotel. It had been a long day and walking between hotels on the Strip is one heck of a walk so I think were in bed by ten o’clock. Lightweights for Vegas, I imagine!

Tomorrow: The Strip and Cirque du Soleil

[alexisemma31]

I am loving your trippie and can't wait for the next installments!

[DisneyMadAng]

Yummmmmm pancakes!

Great rooms in the hotel. What a fantastic choice.

[Guest]

The hotel looks very impressive! Looking forward to hearing about your Vegas visit as fingers crossed, i will be there on 29th August if the strikers sort themselves out!

[liverbird]

Fantastic day - I love Vegas and think it's a great and exciting place. But like you I was really shocked at the magazines and cards given at every street corner . Looking forward to your next day!

[travelmam]

We also visited the Ihop for breakfast on our first morning, myself also having the strawberry and banana pancakes, and have to agree that the portions were huge leaving us all stuffed for the rest of the day.

That's some hotel room, it's more like condo/apartment, almost makes you not want to leave the room, lol

All in all a great first day!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by alexisemma31

I am loving your trippie and can't wait for the next installments!

See more...

Thank you. I was hoping to post the next one tonight but haven't started yet.

Originally Posted by Disney Emma

Really enjoying your trippie!

We are planning a West Coast Road Trip for next year and am so glad to read that there are plenty of children about. (We will be taking DS8 & was a little worried, but really wanted to visit Las Vegas)

Can't wait to read the rest!

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Yeah, there were definitely loads of kids around. Not sure about later at night though as I don't think we were out past 10 o'clock!

Originally Posted by DisneyMadAng

Yummmmmm pancakes!

Great rooms in the hotel. What a fantastic choice.

See more...

To be completely honest I can't take any credit for the choice as I booked it accidentally while playing around with Priceline.

Originally Posted by ukdiva

The hotel looks very impressive! Looking forward to hearing about your Vegas visit as fingers crossed, i will be there on 29th August if the strikers sort themselves out!

See more...

I will keep my fingers crossed for you. Hope it all turns out ok!

Originally Posted by liverbird

Fantastic day - I love Vegas and think it's a great and exciting place. But like you I was really shocked at the magazines and cards given at every street corner . Looking forward to your next day!

See more...

Yes, I was a bit surprised as well. It's not the kind of thing I see in everyday life. And the trucks with the big display posters advertising the girls are not ideal thing to see when travelling with your 15 year old son!

Originally Posted by travelmam

We also visited the Ihop for breakfast on our first morning, myself also having the strawberry and banana pancakes, and have to agree that the portions were huge leaving us all stuffed for the rest of the day.

That's some hotel room, it's more like condo/apartment, almost makes you not want to leave the room, lol

All in all a great first day!

See more...

It was a great room but we managed to leave it ok! It made our other rooms during the holiday look a bit basic though We actually got a great deal as we only paid £52 a night via Priceline. I just tried a dummy booking on the Trump website and it came up as $249 a night!

[pepsicube]

A great read

[Leeds Tink]

Fabulous hotel rooms.