Vegas here we come again :) with a little bit of Phoenix & LA too ...

[daytonababe]

Usual cast consisting of
Me..41 the day before we fly, shopper,NASCAR fan,
DH..47.. NASCAR fan, likes shopping, pays for the holiday ;-)
DD..16.. Hates NASCAR, loves shopping, a good kid really,
DS..12.. Loves NASCAR , will be driver spotting as usual , hates shopping unless its for NASCAR stuff..

Well this trip has had so many changes i've got myself more confused than ever before

The original plan was a 8 days in Vegas for just me and DH and then a family holiday to Florida in the summer.

But the flight cost in summer, plus the rain and long queues started to put me right off Florida, we like Feb when its cheap and dry so Florida's been pushed back to 2016 (maybe ;-0 ).

Kids then started complaining about not going to Vegas with us , and even though my eldest is in Yr 11 we decided to take them. I don't expect people to agree with the decision but there are many reasons why school isn't the best place for her. So we decided to take them with us.

So settled on Vegas , we then decided to add in Phoenix too, it only adds on 3 days extra normally ...and well if your going all that way you might as well make the most of it...


Now our primary reason for the trip is NASCAR... NASCAR rarely ever change the schedule so its safe to book hotels...

So we decided on 4 nights in Phoenix at the Quality Inn Goodyear
8 nights in Las Vegas at South Point .

All sorted and happy with our choices... then my DH heard rumours the schedule would be changing :angry: but nothing would be confirmed till mid Sept..

However when NASCAR is in town prices shoot up so a quick look of the hotel rates pretty much confirmed Phoenix moving from the 2nd to 4th race and Vegas from the 3rd to 2nd race.

This meant we'd have to fly out a few days later than normal (ha i knew i was good not to book flights yet!)..

So i rearranged the hotels to suit the schedule and we've ended up with
Tues 3rd March South Point for 9 nights
Thursday 12th March Phoenix for 4 nights...

I think start thinking that if we're flying on a Tuesday we can't go with VA as they don't do Vegas flights on a Tuesday and there's no point in the kids going to school on the Monday so we may as well fly on the Sunday and have 2 extra nights there :-)


As some of you will know i only ever book flights in the Christmas Sales...to go yearly i need to keep costs as reasonable as possible.

Fast Forward to December...

The sales started a little earlier than normal and i realised that Vegas direct flights with VA & BA were more expensive than ever £650 + pp.. £2600 on flights did not fill me or my bank balance with joy...

So i started to look outside the box , and looked at LA flights and these are so much cheaper , several direct flights under £500 .


I've always wanted to visit LA but DH has never fancied a day trip from Vegas so we've never been..

I then started to look at hotels , not keen on Hollywood we looked at the Hilton in Marina Del Rey but at £320 for 2 nights i didn't like the price too much...

We have no interest really in going to Disneyland this trip but my DD would like to visit Downtown Disney so i looked at hotels in Anaheim..
Finally settling on the Eden Roc family suite.. looks not so great on the outside but lovely inside..it'll be fine for 2 nights.

Flights

Flights have been a nightmare tbh, i wanted to keep flights as low as possible and go direct really.. Flying out on the 1st March is fine , but we need to fly home Monday 16th March.
I really wanted a flight from Phoenix on the 16th but flying into LA and out of Phoenix was £2700 for us all !
So i looked at in and out of LA... but we have to drive from Phoenix on the 16th to LA so can't get a flight that leave till the evening..

Finally i settled on..
US Airways /American Airlines 1st March Heathrow to LA.
US Airways /American Airlines 16th March LA to Heathrow ... flight leaves at 19.40pm so we'll be getting up early in Phoenix driving for 6.5 hrs and praying for no hold ups !

[daytonababe]

Costs.

Flights

US Airways / American Airlines direct to and from LA £1874 with £47 cashback through Quidco

Hotels.

Anaheim.. 2 nights Desert Palms hotel & suites booked through Hotwire £104

Las Vegas..9 nights South Point Hotel £532 + $14.50 per night resort fee

Phoenix... 1 night Quality Inn Tavali £95
3 nights Best Western Goodyear £292

Car Hire Int Suv with Gold Cover through USrentacar/Dollar £294.03 , i think this might be a glitch as the same vehicle with Silver cover (no extra drivers or tank of fuel) is £288 ...

Car park Heathrow , Purple Parking booked through the AA £66
Travelodge Central Heathrow £34

[daytonababe]

MyVegas.

DH & I have played this since we came back last March..to date we have (although redeemed some ) DH 560000 gold coins and me 311000 gold coins, in truth we have too many ..We can't use them really for hotels because special events are blacked out and NASCAR is a special event.

To date we have the following..

Free popcorn Sugar Factory x 2
BOGOF 1lb candy Sugar Factory x 2
2-4-1 Dinner Buffet Circus Circus x 2
BOGOF Breakfast Buffet Luxor x 2
1 Dinner Buffet Monte Carlo X 2
BOGOF Lollipop cocktail Sugar Factory
BOGOF 2 day monorail pass x 2
2 Free Breakfast or Lunch Buffer Green Valley Ranch x 2
BOGOF 1 Fat Elvis Waffle Sugar Factory
2 Breakfast or Lunch Buffets Red Rock x 2
2 free passes Shark Reef x 2
BOGOF Buffet Palace Station x 2
BOGOF Couture Pop Sugar Factory
Free Signature Duck key ring Sugar Factory
Free tin mints Sugar Factory x 2

Groupon

Round of golf for 4 people at KISS $23.99 (half price)
$22 of food at Mo's Race Day Cafe Las Vegas (out near the race track and i spend a lot of time out there) (cost $12)

$30 food Cooperstown Phoenix (cost $18)

[daytonababe]

Plans...

I don't do plans really , its my idea of hell, but there are some days that i have to be somewhere..

Anaheim
1st March , we land around 3pm so we just plan a very quick walk around DTD that night

2nd March , Its our only full day so we intend to get up drive to Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica etc just basically do a very quick stop of the main tourist things, in the evening we'll visit DTD again.

3rd March . Warner Bros tour mid morning ish, something my DD really wants to do. After that we intend to drive to Fontana have a quick look at the Speedway (where Herbie was filmed and its the race track CARS is based on). Then we're setting off for Vegas .

Vegas
Very few plans, we want to visit our friends at Ricks Restorations, and we'll go to Counts Kustoms , then things like the sign, shopping, Shark Reef etc , we'll just get up and decide what to do each day.
Fixed days are...
Friday 6th March, Practice day at the race track and the best day for driver spotting
Sat 7th March , Race day, DH and DS will go off and watch the NASCAR race but DD and I are off to meet my favourite driver again ( i got up at 3am to send my application in to his fan club!)
Sun 8th March..Race day again , Big race today so up early and off to the track .

Phoenix
12th March Plan to leave Vegas at 9am and start the 5 hr drive to Phoenix, we'll stop off at a few places but aim to arrive around 2.30pm
Check in the hotel , and the kids can have a few hours in the pool, hopefully it'll be hot (90 degrees ish)

13th March ..Race track to pick up race tickets, then driving to the Cardinals Stadium for a Stadium tour (its where the Superbowl is held this year)..then over to the Tangier Outlets next door for shopping. Cooperstown for tea.

14th & 15th We'll be at the NASCAR races.

16th Up early and start the long boring drive back to LA and fly home :-(

[emmabanana]

Sounds like a great trip, I can't believe the difference in flight prices if you flew back from Phoenix

[daytonababe]

Originally Posted by emmabanana

Sounds like a great trip, I can't believe the difference in flight prices if you flew back from Phoenix

See more...

I know nightmare... I think its because only BA flight directly from Phoenix to London so they've got a monoply on the price..

[florida girl]

Good when everything comes together and only 28 days to go

Are you getting all those rewards with your coins,I thought you were only allowed 3 per person or am I getting mixed up.

[daytonababe]

Originally Posted by florida girl

Good when everything comes together and only 28 days to go

Are you getting all those rewards with your coins,I thought you were only allowed 3 per person or am I getting mixed up.

See more...

You can only have 3 MGM based rewards per person.. so for the Shark Reef we've both redeemed coins for a reward.

Most of the other rewards have no restrictions or things like 1 reward per day , so the Palace Station rewards you can if you like have 1 for every day your there per person.

Sugar Factory as far as i can see there are no restrictions on things like the candy/popcorn etc.

But its worth checking because they do sometimes change the T&C's.

[happytraveller]

You've done really well on your prices

I just know your trip report will get me in the mood for our return next year

[daytonababe]

Originally Posted by happytraveller

You've done really well on your prices

I just know your trip report will get me in the mood for our return next year

See more...

Thankyou..


I tell you though its been the most stressful ever , i was adamant i wasn't paying more than £2000 for flights and i spent hours searching for the right flight and price.

I'm not supposed to be going back next year yeah right !