Just back from a fab trip Highs/Lows/Observations..

[daytonababe]

We had a amazing 16 days , It was our 8th time in Vegas, and 9 days still wasn't enough there :-) . We got to experience things we could only have dreamed off and the weather was excellent . I will do a proper trip report but for now some high's /lows

Highs
American Airlines flight to LA, Good food, excellent IFE and legroom

Avis , No hard sell no queues, In the car and on the way within 15 mins of turning up

Universal Studios loved this park will be park.

Harry Potter Soft opening , How lucky were we :-)

Sheraton Universal lovely hotel easy walk up to Universal, Its $25 per night parking , but we left the car there both the night we went to city walk and the next day so didn't have to pay Universal for parking.

Desert Palms Anaheim, Lovely hotel free parking and free breakfast took us about 10 mins to walk to both parks from there.

Disneyland we really enjoyed this park and had a lovely day there.

Carsland amazing theming and loved the rides my favourite part of the California Adventure Park. I'd go there again just to see that.

World of Colour we really enjoyed this. Didn't get fastpasses but the park was so quiet they were giving them out so we ended up in the yellow area.

Crowds.. Crowds were low in all 3 parks so every ride pretty much a walk on.. We got to Universal for opening and had everything done by 4pm.

Vegas ... We all love Vegas and had a fab time there and no one really wanted to leave.

South Point Hotel , Fab as always will be back next year.

Outback Steakhouse , Had a fab meal here in Vegas.

Planet Hollywood Vegas . Years since we've been here and the meal was really good.

Red Rock / Green Valley Buffets both excellent.

Secret Garden . We went in the afternoon and the animals were all really active specially the two little Tiger cubs . Spent a really nice few hours there.

Holiday Inn Express Goodyear Arizona . 1st time we had stayed here and it was so nice, A few of the race teams were based here so my son was in heaven and soon off making friends with the pit crews.

Weather . Overall it was very good, we had 2 days in Vegas where it was windy but I still wore a t shirt so it wasn't too bad. We had plenty of days where the temp was well into the 80's

Gameworks . I bought the kids a Groupon each for here, Cost me £12 each well worth the money. We had a good 90 mins in here with the kids playing loads of machines.

Jimmy Johns Ultimate fan. As some of you know we are NASCAR fans and I support Kevin Harvick. I'm quite friendly with his PR lady and she emailed me telling me to check my twitter... Seems I had been made Jimmy John's ultimate fan for the day at the Phoenix race. Will write more in the trip report but basically I got to meet Kevin Harvick and his crew, sit on his pit box for the race and when he won got to celebrate in victory lane with him and the team. It was the highlight of my trip and I am so thankful I was given the opportunity .
I was also able to take both of the kids with my but unfortunately not my DH although he didn't mind.

British Airways . Flew home with them on the A380, lovely plane with good leg room.

BA breakfast. Proper hot English breakfast with sausage, bacon, mushrooms, tomato, hash brown.

Lows..
LA traffic . Just the usual slow going nightmare takes forever to get anywhere

Crowd pushers. If I can wait 30 mins for a good spot for the parade so can other people. Does my head in when people turn up as it starts and try to push in.

Roadworks. Loads in Vegas which makes getting anywhere take so much longer than normal.

BA food . The main meals last night were vile , some kind of chicken with what can only be described as slop for potatoes, Just a vile runny mess.

Pandora Outlet Las Vegas. Total waste of time . They have very few charms discounted the ones are that are very old. And the "Vegas" exclusives they sell can be bought from any store in Vegas.

Coming home .

Observations.

Vegas was much busier than other times we've been in March far more Spring Breakers around but it didn't affect us.

More homeless than previous years , Though according to locals, more and more are not genuine and are scammers making a very good life from claiming to be homeless.

Lots more Police and Security on the strip and we saw several people arrested where as we've barely seen any before.

Shopping A few bargains to be had . I got 2 Michael Kors Buckle bangles from the Watch Station for $35 each (£80 ish here each), Michael Kors handbag from Macys for $165 (£330 here) , But overall I thought like previous years shopping was poor. Not helped by the exchange rate but many things are just as cheap at home now. I went to both outlets in Vegas , Orange outlets in Anaheim and the Tanger Outlets in Phoenix .Most shops now are just like normal every day shops rather than "cheap" outlets.

Off Strip Buffets. We had several from the likes of South Point, Red Rock, Green Valley, Station Casino's and all were excellent quality and just so much cheaper than the strip buffets. I looked at the Flamingo buffet and it would have been $140 + drinks for the 4 of us, South Point is approx $65 inc drinks such a difference.

Disney is expensive ! $10 for a small bag of popcorn, $65 for a 30th anniversary phone case (no I didn't buy it)..Prices are just getting silly tbh.. I spoke to a few locals who no longer go to Disney because they've been priced out of it.


Universal refillable drinks. Excellent idea, think we paid $8 for the first drink and then 99 cents for each refill , saved us a fortune and I think Disney should do the same.

FOTLP passes.. We saw loads of people had bought these, but they really weren't needed . Every ride was a walk on including the tram tour.

Fremont Street. They are attempting to clean it up , All performers now have to stand in their own circle and can only be there for so long and can't ask for any money for pics etc.
But there are some very strange people down there. I wouldn't take young kids (say under 10). One man dressed as Cupid was definitely not something I'd want young kids to see his behaviour was just bizarre and well creepy tbh.


Can't think of anything else for now.


We are going back next year but doing it slightly different, 7 days Vegas, 4 in Phoenix and 7 in California split between Anaheim and Fontana so we can do all 3 West Coast NASCAR races.

[mobeckwith]

lots of highs,sounds like a fab trip,would love to do vegas and the west coast someday,but without the kids . mo x

[daytonababe]

I've only been to Vegas once without the kids and tbh it wasn't any different to the trips we've done with them.
Don't think they'd let me go again without them though ;-)

[princess allie]

Thank you, I love highs and lows.

[scotsman2010]

Crikey, back already! Sounds like you had a fab trip, plenty great highs! Counting down the days til we get to Vegas!

[daytonababe]

It went way too fast, We took are counting down the days till we go back.. Would love your countdown though ;-)

[KarenG]

Welcome back DB

Sounds like a brilliant trip, with a few amazing highs

[daytonababe]

Thank you :-)

[Eeyore rocks]

Welcome back...that went really quick...I agree about the outlets in Vegas...I hardly got anything from them this year...loads of fab highs though.

[daytonababe]

Way too quick, but don't they always .

Outlets are just so poor now.. Sure if you want obscure pattern Converse or well out of date Nike's but no decent stuff.
And again Macy's was so much cheaper than the Kors outlets , and Macy's is this seasons stock and not the cheaper stuff made for outlets.

The North outlet was very quiet both times we went.