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Tuesday 7th June 2016
We had our alarm set for 6am today, so that we could get ready leave the room and make it downstairs at 7:20am.
We were both pretty excited for the day ahead and were up before the alarm went off, I woke up at around 5:15am and Amy was already awake. We got ready pretty quickly and made sure we had everything we needed for the day and then we left the room by 6:40am.
Our transfer was picking us up the Planet Hollywood Globe at the entrance of the Forum Shops, on our way out of Caesars we “quickly” stopped in Starbucks to grab something to eat and drink. The reason for the emphasis on quickly, is because it was anything but quick, there were about 4 people in front of us in the queue, none of them were eating they all ordered coffees, they had to wait a long time to get their drinks.
Anyway, we placed our orders, I went for the Jack cheese Chorizo muffin and water Amy had the bacon and egg muffin and iced Americano. It took over 15 minutes for them to give us our order and by this point it was now 7:05am and we were worried it would take us a while to walk to the pick-up point. We quickly power walked through the Forum Shops and made it to the pick-up point at exactly 7:13am. It was already ridiculously hot today and we were stood waiting in the sun for about 15 minutes and we were now getting a little worried, we thought that maybe they had stuck with the 5am transfer and not the 7am.
It was now 7:35am, we attempted to call the lady from the shop where we booked the tour, luckily she was already up and she said she would call Vision for us and see where the driver was. She called us straight back and told us the driver was on his way and was stuck in traffic. By the time the bus arrived it was 7:45am and the driver seemed slightly annoyed, there were already 10 people on the bus and they were late getting to their pick up point, meaning the whole tour would be slightly later now as we were originally due to take off at 8:30am.
We arrived at Vision airport at around 8:10am, they checked us all in and then we were able to board the plane straight away, as we were queuing to board we were given our lunch boxes, the options were ham, turkey, beef or vegetarian. The pilots greeted us all and told us we would be landing at the south rim of the Canyon in about 30 minutes and we eventually took off at around 8:45.
The views on the flight were absolutely incredible; we were able to see The Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and the desert, a benefit of the size of the aircraft was that everybody got a window seat. The flight was also really smooth, up until the point that we reached the Canyon, and then we started to have a lot of turbulence and the rest of the journey was pretty rocky, this only lasted for 5 or so minutes as we were then on the landing strip.
Once we had landed we had to make our way to a small room/ shop, we were in here for about 10/15 minutes whilst the tour guide was prepping things ready for our helicopter flight. We attempted to make conversation with the rest of our tour group as we knew we would be spending the day with them; however they were all Spanish and spoke very little English.
We were then called over by our tour guide, she gave us all a bit of information about the day, once our helicopter and boat tour were finished we would be brought back to this meeting point. From here we would have free time to get the shuttle buses to the Skywalk and Indian ranches, but we were strictly told that we had to be back by 12:30pm, to get the flight back to Vegas.
After this we were walked along to another desk and were checked in to our helicopter flights. Me and Amy were getting our own private helicopter as they couldn’t find a small enough group to fit us with and the maximum people they can get in is 5. We were told to sit and watch and a safety video and wait for our names to be called, I think we must have watched the video 6 times before our names were finally called. My lunch box broke, so we decided to empty the contents in Amy’s bag, I chose the turkey wrap and she chose the vegetarian, we were also given an apple, cookies, water and a bag of crisps “chips”. We were actually starting to get a little annoyed, it was close to 10am now and this wasn’t giving us much time to get back and go the Skywalk.
Anyway, we were eventually called up and asked to go outside and walk to the helicopter zones, we were in the first zone and we were here for 5 minutes and then our helicopter arrived.
We were in the Helicopter for about 15 minutes before we landed at the boat dock. Our pilot was very informative and was very knowledgeable about the canyon and Vegas, the views on the way down in to the canyon are incredible, I don’t think I spoke much for the whole journey as I just wanted to take it all in.
Once we had landed, we started making our way down to the boat dock, we were then reunited with the rest of our tour group and we took a few pictures before getting on the boat.
We also noticed how much hotter it was down here, rather than at the top. Amy chose this moment to top up on her suncream and then got told off by one of the guys working, for “taking too long”. We actually noticed, two of the workers down here were very rude, the one guiding us to the boat spoke to us as if we were children and when he asked us for the numbers on our ticket, I questioned what number? As I didn’t have anything written on my ticket, he was very patronising and said “you don’t know what a number looks like, really?” anyway, we walked on and were waiting to board the boat, but we had to wait for the rest of our tour group, they were nowhere to be seen and we realised they were up near the helicopter still. It was 10:20am and we were worried we wouldn’t make it back in time to do the Skywalk, so we asked if we could go on without them, but the workers insisted that we wait.
The rest of our group finally made it down and then boarded the boat, me and Amy positioned ourselves at the back of the boat, so we could be the first ones to get off and so we could stand up and take in all the views.
I thought the boat ride was fantastic, we were only on here for about 15/20 minutes, but it was amazing. It was hot, but the water would splash on you every now and then which really cooled you down. The boat driver was really helpful positioning the boat in the sun and with the best views in the background before he took many group photos for us.
If there was one complaint about the trip it would be that we could have sat and looked at the scenery for hours and spent a little longer on the boat, but we knew we had a tight schedule and had to get back.
Once we made it back to the docks, we quickly rushed off back to the helicopters, we were told our helicopter was on its way and shouldn’t be much longer. We sat on a bench in the shade and the guys working there were handing out ice cold water, this was very needed. I think we were waiting for about 3-5 minutes and then our helicopter arrived. As we were walking over, I noticed that the rest of our tour group hadn’t even made it back up the hill yet, they were still stood next to the boat.
Our pilot was different this time, but again he was very friendly and informative, it took us about 10 minutes to get back to where the shuttles were. It was around 11:05, so we still had a bit of time to get to the Skywalk, we were told it was only 10 minutes on the bus.
The queues for the shuttles were so long, however it did move pretty quickly and we only had to wait a little while. We were pretty hungry now and decided to get started on the packed lunch, we split the wraps in half, I preferred the turkey over the vegetarian but they were both ok as far as packed lunches go.
When the bus arrived, we manged to get a seat near the front. It was at this point I noticed I had dropped some of the cookie down me; yep, I had to walk round in a white skirt with melted chocolate on it for the rest of the day.
We eventually got to the Hualapai Reservation at 11:30; the queues for the buses were so long.
We made our way straight to the Skywalk point, so we could get back in time for the buses. Obviously we were greeted with the world’s largest queue, the line started outside and then made its way in to the building, we were both getting quite stressed, we didn’t know if we would have enough time to do it and get back. We decided to stay in the queue and observe it when we got inside, but again the queue wasn’t moving very quickly. We stood to the side and let a few people pass us as we contemplated whether or not we should go back, a member of staff came over to us to see if we were ok, we told him our issue and he said he would take us to the front of the queue so we could get straight to the skywalk, we were so relieved and quickly followed him past the queue.
At the Skywalk you have to leave all your belongings in a locker and you’re not allowed to take anything with you, if you want pictures you had to join a separate queue were a member of staff would take a picture for you and then you purchase it at the end. As we were in a rush, we didn’t have a picture taken, so we put the little socks they give you over our shoes and made our way out. The Skywalk was pretty cool, the views were incredible and I can understand why some people get nervous, Amy got a little un-easy but she made it to the end ok.
We got back to our lockers, grabbed our things and then hurried back to the bus stop. It was already 12:05pm at this point, so we were cutting it fine with time. The queue seemed to be moving so slowly, they were handing out bottles of water to everyone.
By the time the bus arrived and we made it back to the little airport, it was 12:40pm, the pilots and our tour guide were waiting for us, we ran over apologising and explained we were waiting for the bus, they were ok with this and said they were still waiting for the rest of our group to arrive.
Me and Amy sat down in the room waiting for the rest of the group, 30 minutes passed by and the tour guide came back over to us, she did not look happy. Apparently the rest of our group had phoned up and said they wanted to extend their tour, she told them this wasn’t possible as we needed to get back to Vegas and get ready for the next tour and they refused to come back or tell her where they were. The pilots were getting annoyed, as they were going to leave with just me and Amy, but that meant the tour guide would have to sit and wait for the rest of the group to come back, then wait 3 hours for the shuttle bus to arrive and then another 3 hours to take them back to Vegas. So we were sat waiting around for almost 2 hours and 45 minutes before the tour group actually came back. We were all so angry, me and Amy had plans for the afternoon, we wanted to go shopping and get prepared before our show that evening. We eventually boarded the plane and took off at 3:35pm.
The late take off also meant the group waiting for us had to change their tour, some of them cancelled and the others had to do an aerial tour of the Canyon instead, when we walked in to the airport two people from the remaining group started complaining to myself and Amy and telling us off for being late, we quickly explained to them that we two had been sat around waiting and it was nothing to do with us. That wasn’t the end of the waiting, as the other people had cancelled their tour they then needed a transfer back to their hotels, meaning we had to wait another hour before the transfer could make it back to us.
Feeling tired, hot and rather annoyed we eventually made it back to Caesars at 6:20pm, almost 5 hours later than originally planned! We were due to watch Cirque Du Soleil “O” at the Bellagio at 9:20pm, so we quickly got showered and ready as we wanted to have dinner before the show.
Quick bathroom selfie and then we left the room at 7:30pm, we walked over to the Outback steakhouse, and this is on the Las Vegas Blvd. at the Casino Royale just before the Venetian.
We started with some cocktails; we both ordered a passionate punch
“Deep Eddy® Ruby Red Vodka & Sailor Jerry™Rum shaken up with passion fruit puree and orange juice.”
We got a Blooming Onion to share as a starter and for our mains we both had the NY strip, with baked potato and broccoli. We ordered a couple rounds of drinks here and the bill came to $92.50 + tip.
Once we had paid the bill we headed straight to the Bellagio. We arrived at 9:10pm, everyone had started to enter and make their way to their seats, we were both feeling a little tired so we went to the snack bar and bought a couple bottles of water and some sweets, I think we paid $25. The water alone was $8.50!
We then sat in our seats and waited for the show to start. This was one of the best shows I have ever seen, it was honestly so good and I would highly recommend to anyone who is in Vegas to go and see a Cirque show.
The show finished at just after 11pm, we were both so tired at this point we wondered back to Caesars and went straight to sleep. The long day had really taken it out of us.
Next: Day 9 - North Premier Outlets & Mon Ami Gabi.