I have never done a TR before so you will have to be kind to me! I didn't do a pre-trip report either, but will try to give as much info as I can when I do this one.
Me – a special trip to celebrate my 40th birthday which was Easter Saturday
DH – 43, second trip for both of us, the first time we went to Vegas was for his 40th birthday
The day before can be found
here
Day 1 – Easter Monday
The alarm wakes us up at 6.30am. I slept OK, although did wake up a couple of times through the night. I make us a coffee each and we get showered, dressed and packed up. We head to the South Terminal where we have booked Meteor Meet & Greet Parking. We have used them at Stansted before, but never Gatwick as we always seem to do a hotel and park deal. They were bang on time, friendly and off we went!
What a nice feeling it is when you have done twilight check-in, to walk past the large Virgin queues, but to be fair, they had every check-in desk open, so am guessing it shouldn't have taken that long to get through. We went through to Premier Security, took about 5 minutes, no issues apart from my bra wires!
We had a wander round the shops, bought a bottle of Absolut Mango vodka – yum! We bought this last year on our way to Florida and wished we'd got 2 bottles, and headed off to the V Room. We went into the “adults only” section, just because we could! I really like the V Room. For those unsure of going, it's really worth it not to have to fight for a seat, have a bit of peace and quiet, or keep the kids entertained. There are so many things for them to do. I went and got us both an orange juice while we settled in. We couldn't last more than a few minutes before going to inspect the food offering though! Dh had a full english style plate (all ready on a hot plate but put together by a server) and I had some fruit and eggs benedict, but I also spotted a pancake maker where you pressed a button and a couple of minutes later, hey presto, a pancake popped out!
Breakfast was good. We read the papers, lounged a bit, watched the flights landing. I got a couple of Virgin brochures to look at – Alaska and the Carribean – 2 extremes I know! We said we would do an Alaska tour when we retire (20 odd years to go yet, but we can dream!) - we are big Deadliest Catch fans! I then look at the Carribean brochure – I'd like to take the kids to Barbados as we went there pre-kids and had a wonderful time.
After more coffee, a caramel shortbread (dh) and a lemon and poppyseed muffin (me), the first flight call came, but we didn't head off to the gate until the second call. When we get to the gate, our plane is Ladybird, the same plane we flew back from Orlando last year. We board and there are just the two of us in the 3 seats for ages, but then at the last minute a lady comes to sit beside me. Anyway, we do the emergency stuff and take off no probs. Dh and I plan or movie viewing, and the lady goes to sit behind us as there are 3 free seats directly behind where she puts on her eye patches and appears to sleep for the majority of the flight. Result for her and result for us!
3 movies later, a bit of reading my book, listening to Adele, neverending food and snacks, we begin the descent into McCarran. It doesn't feel like its been over 10 hours. As we are near the front of the plane we are quite quick off, the Immigration guy has a sense of humour by pass, but at least we haven't had to wait for hours like we had to last time. Our luggage took forever to come through, I was actually just starting to get a bit twitchy when one bag appeared, phew! I pack across bags, as in half essentials in both bags, the right shoes and the right tops in the same bag etc, so knew I was at least half OK!
We stop briefly at the Virgin Hols rep, who we tell we aren't bothering with the transfer as we want to get a cab, and she crosses us off the list and gives us details of the reps meetings which we don't go to! We head towards the door out of the airport, when dh suddenly stops me and said “Oh, look at that”. There was a guy dressed in a suit, holding a sign saying “The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas welcomes... and our names”. Oh my god!
I am a bit of a wuss and could feel myself welling up, but didn't want to make a fool of myself! He took us outside to an amazing limo. I was speechless. Dh had arranged it with the concierge at the hotel – I was so shocked, I am the
planner of the family, not him!
The driver chatted to us for a bit, telling us it was the hottest day of the year so far, then we set off. Ah, we were back! The familiar sights were good to see.
I can see our hotel in the distance. We stayed at the Bellagio the last time we came, and saw the Cosmo being built along with the rest of City Center and said if we come back, we might stay in that area. I was getting more and more excited! We pulled into the underground valet bit of the hotel, wow – even this bit was impressive!
We went into the lobby, and although I had seen pictures of it, nothing prepared me for how different it was! The columns changed from bubbles, fish, people, flowers, stars, you name it. Very arty.
There were about 4 people in line in front of us, but a guy came round with an Ipad, and took our details from us, so that when we got to the front of the queue, things wouldn't take quite so long. When it was our turn, instead of just calling us over, our guy (John)came over, shook our hands and guided us over to his desk. Impressed so far! We chatted, and I asked for a higher floor, and one not above the club. We got a room on the 36th floor, overlooking the fountains – perfect. We couldn't get to the lift quick enough to go and see it! The lifts had the same “moving art” in them that were in the lobby, and it wouldn't move until you inserted your key card for your room.
The room. Wow – the only way to describe it. Everything was so high tech! There was an Ipad style thing attached to the phone that controlled the lights, the tv, told you the temperature and was a phone as well! 2 big flat screen TV's. And the view, I felt so spoilt. I also felt very relieved. I had been avidly reading Trip Advisor before we went and for every good review of the hotel, there seemed to be a bad review, but our room was spotless, and the service had been nothing less than wonderful since we arrived.
After we had explored every bit of the room, we rang “Beck and Call” to ask for them to bring our bags up. 5 minutes later they arrived. I unpacked, we showered and changed and got ready to hit the town!
We went to the Chandelier Bar and had our first cocktails. Ahh, this is the life!
Then we explored the different floors of the hotel, signed up for the Identity Card then went into Crystals, the high end shopping mall.
Now, this being 40 lark is proving to be OK – on Saturday (my birthday) my dh had given me a wrapped card saying my present was a shopping trip to Tiffany. Again, I had been shocked! He wanted us to go there now, but I was a bit overwhelmed to be honest, so I agreed to go and just look. I really wanted a bracelet. The very first present he bought me, many moons ago was a white gold bangle, which I have worn every day since, but it is showing its age now and it is all bent out of shape etc.
We spent some time browsing, then trying on, and everything seemed so expensive! I decided I liked a bracelet with a Tiffany heart on it, but would have a think about it. The sales advisor gave me her card and said when we went back to ask for her.
We continued to the Aria, wandered round there, had another drink, then went back to the Cosmo. In my plan, we were to eat at Holsteins that night, and luckily a few weeks before a Groupon had come up, so we had a $40 voucher towards it. We got a table no problem, but was starting to feel a bit shattered by this point! Was hoping the food would help. Thought I would just have a diet coke to drink, but the cocktail menu was hard to get past...
I had an AJ Special - Smifnoff whipped vodka, Ciroc cocnut vodka, pineapple juice and coconut sorbet and dh had an Oreo Bamboozled Shake which was Bailey's and Oreo's. It tasted yum, but so did mine. They brought over a bucket of smoked cheese popcorn which was very moreish, but was looking forward to my burger! Not too much longer and it arrived. The Gold Standard Burger was divine -
Dry Aged Beef Sirloin Burger With Smoked Bacon, Aged Goat Cheddar Cheese, Tomato Confit, Baby Arugula & Garlic-Chive Aioli
Dh had The Steakhouse Burger -
Beef Patty Crusted With Black Pepper, Holsteins Creamy Steak Sauce, Marmalade Onions, Tomato Confit, Wild Mushrooms, Swiss Cheese
I had mine with sweet potato shoestring fries and dh had steak cut fries, but they were more like wedges really. These burgers were just the best – I would definitely recommend eating here. The bill after taking the groupon coupon, including tip was $35. A bargain too.
We had a bit more of a wander after dinner but as it was nearly 10pm by this point, we decided we had done well to last this long and decided to hit the sack!
Had to sit on the balcony though and watch those fountains a couple of times more, and what a view!
