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Old 5 Mar 19, 09:16 PM  
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smithlane
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The BIG Las Vegas Surprise - 15th/16th Feb 2019 - Travel days

Pre travel day

Pre travel day in my household is always a bit chaotic and today was going to be no different
Luckily we had already taken Boris our Golden lab to Jim’s parents in Hertfordshire on Wednesday evening so one less thing to do! I was feeling a little anxious with having the kids in 2 different places and my 3rd child Boris staying somewhere he doesn’t normally (Usually my parents have him while we’re away)

The day started with me working until about 12 then once done came home, did lunch for the kids then finished off the packing. Or in Hope’s case to start! She hadn’t even got her suitcase out, kept saying she would “do it in a minute”! Damn teenagers! I had said for over a week I’ll start her packing but she was adamant she had wanted to do it herself

As she was going to be in a cabin in the Forest of Dean with my parents for the week she needed lots of warm clothing, thankfully it didn’t take long. I could then finish up Sam’s packing for skiing. With both kids sorted I concentrated on mine then gave the house a quick once over as you do.

On the dot of 3 I took Sam to the school ready for their departure at 4. There were 80 students going to Andorra, taking 16 hours by coach and ferry! Suddenly the 10 hour flight to Vegas didn’t seem so bad
Sam ran off without so much as a backwards glance. I soon embarrassed him by calling him back for a big Mum hug

By the time I got back Jim was home from work and only now did he decide to pack and get his golf clubs together . It’s clearly only me with OCD in this household!

I really wanted to get going as it was Friday evening and knew the M25 would be gridlocked. By 5 we were leaving but had to drop Jim’s car off with a friend as he was having his wheels refurbed while we were away. What should have been a 10 minute drive added 40 minutes onto our journey because of the traffic!

As predicted the M25 from junction 12 where we get on was at a standstill and we literally crawled all the way round to junction 6 for the M22. We had arranged to meet Mum and Dad at the pub attached to the Premier Inn in Felbridge, it was so we didn’t have the extra journey to their house in Broad Oak and we would be close to get to Gatwick. They had been waiting for over an hour when we arrived at 7pm, I felt terrible. 2 flipping hours it had taken us, it should be less than an hour!

I was gasping for a drink so soon got some ordered once we sat down. Diet cokes for Hope and I and a Guinness for Jim. The food menu looked good! I went with the slow cooked lamb and mash, Jim the BBQ burger and fries, Hope a cheeseburger and fries, Mum fish and chips and Dad the steak pie and mash. Big Dibb failure I didn’t take any photos

The restaurant was really busy so took a while for the food to arrive.
When it did we weren’t very impressed unfortunately. The lamb was really fatty so spent ages trying to pick it all out. It tasted nice but not enough actual meat and only a tiny amount of mash.
The burgers were apparently nice but not very big so Jim was still hungry. Mum and Dad enjoyed theirs though.
Got given the dessert menu and as we planned to start the holiday off as we meant to go on we off course ordered one!
I went with the millionaires shortbread cheesecake, Jim the crumble and custard and Dad the Eton Mess. Mum just had a coffee and a mini dessert of a slice of Clementine tart. Hope is the weird one and doesn’t like pudding
The desserts were really good and managed to redeem the meal!
Total bill was £120. We went halves with mum and dad.

Once paid up we transferred Hope’s luggage to Mum and Dads car. It was a bit of an emotional goodbye. It’s funny how you can have 2 completely different children, Sam on one hand is so fiercely independent whereas Hope even at nearly 16 and two years older is a real home bird and doesn’t like being away from me or Jim for too long so a week is a big deal for her. I know she’ll be fine and spoilt rotten by her grandparents!
Jim pulled me away before I started blubbering

We plugged Gatwick into the Sat Nav and it was only a 15 minute drive away.
I had booked Maple Manor Meet & Greet parking and we needed to meet them at the Orange Short Stay garage in the South Terminal. The driver was waiting for us on the 1st floor and after taking a note of the mileage and signing the form we handed the keys over, got the suitcases out and made our way to the Hilton. All very swift and easy.

We checked in and had been given an upgrade to an Executive Room in the new building. Yay, I never get upgraded ever! Got given directions then made our way upstairs.
Dear Lord this room was miles away! I felt like we had walked all the way back to Heathrow by the time we got there, this hotel is HUGE!
We finally made it, wish I had a Fitbit monitor on to see how many steps we did.
The room was lovely, I wouldn’t necessarily say it looked very executive and I’m glad we didn’t pay for it but we still felt pretty lucky.







Jim was peckish again so like the brilliant girlfriend I am I offered to get some snacks for the room. This obviously entailed the mammoth walk back to reception. As it was gone 9 the Costa had shut so thought I would try the Arrivals as I know they have shops there. Another long trek to get to the terminal, I actually think it would be quicker if we had stayed in the PI North Terminal even having to get on the monorail between terminals!

I went straight into WHSmith to get a couple of bottles of Diet Coke and some mini eggs then into M&S to get 2 tubs of brownies and flapjack pieces. These are the best
By the time I got back to the room Jim was wondering where I had got to. I certainly earned that bag of mini eggs I tell you
We watched TV for a while before turning in for the night at about 11.
Tomorrow, Vegas baby!

Travel day

I woke with the alarm at 6.45am but had to snooze it until 7. I slept ok but the bed was so squeaky that every time Jim moved it woke me up!
We soon got showered and dressed and were heading out of the room by 8am. We decided to not have breakfast at the hotel but to get checked in and have something to eat airside.



I had checked us both in yesterday so technically only needed to bag drop but the British Airways desks were bedlam! You could tell it was the Saturday of half term. The queue for the check in desks was much smaller so decided to join that one. About half way through the queue the conveyor belt stopped working so everything ground to a halt. We waited about 10-15 mins before it started up again. We were soon seen and had the most amazing surprise when we got told we’d been upgraded to World Traveller Plus! Woo Hoo! Literally nothing like this ever happens to us then twice in 24 hours

We thanked her profusely and on a high dropped off Jim’s clubs to oversized baggage then headed up stairs to security.
I really like the security layout in Gatwick, I’ve never encountered much of a queue at all. Now why can’t MCO take note! There was one woman and her family in front of me though who didn’t have a clue what they were doing with liquids and seemed totally surprised when the officer told her the max size was 100ml so she had to throw her hand cream out. Honestly, there’s always one isn’t there

Once through we went straight upstairs to WonderTree. We’d had a really good breakfast here a few years ago so wanted to try it again.
Waited a few mins to be seated then got a fab table for 2 by the window overlooking the runway.



Jim went for the Big Breakfast which was 2 each of sausage, bacon, eggs, tomatoes and beans but asked to swap the tomatoes for another sausage which was no problem. I went for the Little Breakfast which was the same as Jim’s but with just 1 of everything, I asked to swap the tomatoes for extra baked beans. We also got some of their sourdough toast each and a Diet Coke for me and a coffee and orange juice for Jim.





Great views of the runway but was very foggy this morning. The breakfast came out in record timing and was just as good as I remembered. £34 altogether.

We were finished by about 9.45 so just enough time for a quick toilet stop and a look in Duty Free. I didn’t need much this year so just got another bottle of my favourite Molten Brown shower gel and Jim got a bottle of Tom Ford Noir.

Our gate had now been announced, gate 21 so went straight there. They had started boarding so as we had been bumped up to boarding group 3 from 5 we joined the queue.
Didn’t take long to get onboard and find our seats. Row 13 J&K. Unfortunately it wasn’t a refurbed plane and was fairly old but the seats were nice and roomy with great leg room.





Our pilot announced we were slightly delayed because of the fog but the flight was to be 10 hours 10mins, 40 minutes less than we thought which is a result. Whilst we were waiting, cabin crew came round with glasses of water or champagne which was lovely.
We took off around 11.20 so only 20 mins late.

A drinks service was brought round after about an hour with our very fancy menus. 2 Coke Zeros and a bottle of water for me and Jim had the same. We also got handed Customs forms so they obviously haven’t completely phased them out yet.



I settled in to watch Instant Family first with Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne. It was really enjoyable.



Lunch was served about 2 hours into the flight, we both went for the beef option. It was delish! Really liked the chocolate orange dessert too. Tea and Coffee were brought round soon after.



Once finished I put on The Meg with Jason Statham. This was ok, perfectly watchable!
Next on the list was Mamma Mia Here We Go Again next. I’m not sure how I’ve never seen this before especially as Hope has got the DVD. It’s absolutely brilliant, I may have cried a little though! Missing my Hope

Snack box came out at 5.15pm. This consisted of a mini bag of ready salted crisps, salted caramel popcorn and a Twix. This was very well received.

Bohemian Rhapsody next. Saw this at the cinema but I absolutely love this film. I may have shed a tear or two at the end of this one too

At 20.00 the light meal came round. Choice was either chicken in a mushroom sauce (I hate mushrooms) or cauliflower risotto. I took the chicken as I knew Jim would eat mine. I just ate the roll and lemon cake. I got up to go to the toilet in the economy section and saw that they had been given a pepperoni pizza twist. I would have much rather that choice

I then watched a couple of episodes of Modern Family. I love this show!

Flying in over Utah




We landed at 1.50pm local time






Took ages to taxi to the gate. We were off the plane by 2.10pm and headed straight to immigration. Hardly any queue as we were one of the first off so only waited about 15 minutes. Bags took about 5-10 minutes then we were out of the airport at 2.35. Record timing! The whole airport was so quiet literally no other flights had landed.
Had to wait 10 minutes for the Rental Car Centre Shuttle bus to arrive. The garage is quite far away from the airport so took about 10 mins to get there. Roads were lovely and quiet.



As Avis Preferred members we could bypass the rather large queue and head straight for the garage. We got our third upgrade thanks to the lovely guy serving us. We had originally booked a Ford Escape or similar but got given a lovely Ford Mustang GT hard top.
I made sure I got a print out to say a zero $ balance.



It was a bit of a squeeze luggage wise, the golf clubs had to be squashed into the back seat. Jim familiarised himself with the car while I plugged the Signature MGM into my phone Sat Nav. Only a 15 minute drive away it was very straight forward. It took us round the back of the airport so we didn’t get to drive up the Strip but by this point we just wanted to get there.



We needed to show ID at the gate but were then directed to Valet Park in Tower 3. All very easy, we handed over the keys then went to check in. I had booked this room through Agoda and it’s managed by Luxury Suites International, this just means that if we need more towels or if there’s a problem we have to contact them not the front desk. We were on the 11th floor room 819.

This hotel is far easier to navigate than the Hilton! Soon found our room, it was HUGE! Nicely furnished with a sofa one end. The bathroom was gigantic with a jacuzzi bath. We had great views towards the Strip too.









We were on a bit of a go slow, the long day was catching up with us. After jumping in the shower and getting changed we headed back out at about 4.30pm. The temperature was only about 8 degrees so I put on my trusty North Face jacket that I only stuffed in my suitcase at the last minute. Turns out I might be wearing it quite a bit this week











We walked up to the Strip and wanting a drink headed for the Cosmopolitan. I had in mind having a cocktail at the Chandelier Bar but there were no seats at all, it was rammed.







We went downstairs and had a couple of goes on the 25c slot machine (last of the big spenders we are!) but came away empty handed. It was really smoky in here which I didn’t like.





Tried to get a drink at the bar but the server was taking an age and I was in danger of falling asleep sitting in the comfy chairs! We decided to grab a drink from the little shop at the entrance then walk over to the Miracle Mile shops for a wander. Nothing really took our fancy but it was nice to just window shop.



















What was very prevalent is the smell of weed everywhere. I cannot stand that smell so was a bit grumpy about it.

It was about 5.45 now so thought we could grab an early dinner. I had planned to eat at Gordon Ramsey Burger tonight in Planet Hollywood but the queue was insane. We were really starting to flake by now and just wanted to sit down and eat. I suggested we just go to Taco Bell that we passed earlier. We had never been to one before and to be honest the menu was a bit overwhelming for our tired brains!

I went for 2 soft tacos and 1 crunchy taco all with chicken and Jim went for a chicken quesadilla, also got some nachos to share. The place was so loud, the music was pumping. I felt like I was in a club not a Mexican fast food joint
It was at this point I wasn’t loving LV! But I knew I was beyond tired so that was probably clouding my judgement.
The food was really nice and a bargain at $15.70.





From here we walked next door to the Walgreens to get some drink and snacks for the room. Just got some water, Coke Zero, Chips Ahoy cookies and Pringles.



We now walked back to the room and got straight into our night stuff.



It was only 7pm so needed to try and fight the heavy eyelids for as long as I could!
Wrote up my Trip Report notes for the day whilst watching Bad Boys on TV. So rock and roll for a Saturday night
I made it until 8pm until I had to give in
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Edited at 04:25 PM.
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Old 6 Mar 19, 06:09 PM  
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KarenG
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I’ve been waiting for this!

The first time we went to Vegas we had been in Death Valley (very quiet and no people) and Yosemite (people but still quiet) immediately before. We drove onto the Strip on a Saturday afternoon / evening and it was bedlam. It took us a day to acclimatise (we didn’t love it that night and weren’t even jet lagged!) but after that we loved it - I hope you will too.

We stayed at the Signature that time in a one bed unit which I swear was bigger than our first house! Your room looks nicely huge!

Happy days about all your upgrades :-)
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Old 7 Mar 19, 09:51 PM  
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I too have been waiting for your trip report, and really hope you at least like Vegas by the time you go home! You accomplished so much for your first day... I am surprised you stayed awake for so long. Love the Signature. Looking forward to reading more. Thank you for sharing.
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Old 9 Mar 19, 09:03 AM  
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Fab news to be upgraded twice. The flight sounds good. Crying at Mamma Mia is a dead cert!

It sounded like a pretty smooth travel day and you managed to get out and see a bit of the strip even though you were really tired.

The Mexican for dinner looks a bit sorry for itself, but at least It was tasty. I was disappointed for you that you couldn't get a drink at the bar, how annoying there were no seats then the next time the barman was on a go slow!
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Old 9 Mar 19, 09:40 AM  
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smithlane
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Originally Posted by KarenG View Post
I’ve been waiting for this!

The first time we went to Vegas we had been in Death Valley (very quiet and no people) and Yosemite (people but still quiet) immediately before. We drove onto the Strip on a Saturday afternoon / evening and it was bedlam. It took us a day to acclimatise (we didn’t love it that night and weren’t even jet lagged!) but after that we loved it - I hope you will too.

We stayed at the Signature that time in a one bed unit which I swear was bigger than our first house! Your room looks nicely huge!

Happy days about all your upgrades :-)
Thank you Karen!
Yes I think it’s all a bit too much for the senses straight away, with or without jet lag. It’s all quite overwhelming. But thankfully we grew to love it over the week and we’ll certainly be back.
We loved the Signature and I would stay there again in a heartbeat. It just felt so tranquil walking into the lobby everyday after being in the madness of the Strip. Our studio suite was huge so I can only imagine the one beds are gigantic 😳
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Old 9 Mar 19, 09:44 AM  
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smithlane
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Originally Posted by JoS View Post
I too have been waiting for your trip report, and really hope you at least like Vegas by the time you go home! You accomplished so much for your first day... I am surprised you stayed awake for so long. Love the Signature. Looking forward to reading more. Thank you for sharing.
Thank Jo!
I know we really did power on through. In hindsight we probably should have had a little nap when we checked in then we would have been a bit more refreshed to tackle the Strip. We did grow to love it though by the end of the week.
I would recommend the Signature to anyone and if/when we go back I would definitely stay there again
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Old 9 Mar 19, 09:49 AM  
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smithlane
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Originally Posted by Goldia View Post
Fab news to be upgraded twice. The flight sounds good. Crying at Mamma Mia is a dead cert!

It sounded like a pretty smooth travel day and you managed to get out and see a bit of the strip even though you were really tired.

The Mexican for dinner looks a bit sorry for itself, but at least It was tasty. I was disappointed for you that you couldn't get a drink at the bar, how annoying there were no seats then the next time the barman was on a go slow!
It felt amazing to be upgraded, especially for the flight. These things never happen to me!
Since being home I’ve watched Mamma Mia for the second time with Hope and yes I cried AGAIN!
As travel days go it was very smooth from start to finish thank goodness.
Very annoying about not getting a drink in the Chandelier Bar. All I wanted was a nice large fruity cocktail but instead I got a sad looking chicken taco and a Diet Coke 😂
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Old 10 Mar 19, 05:26 PM  
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Great result on the upgrades !

Sounds like a hectic start with all the family travel arrangements and the traffic. Not a v relaxing start ! Food sounded a bit meh which was a shame.

Sounds like flight was ok and nice car and room . Can’t believe you made it out, I was knackered just reading by this point.

Love your pics, it looks so atmospheric ... you did amazing not to have a meltdown with the noise, smells, and queues !

Sorry it was so cold too !
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Old 10 Mar 19, 10:11 PM  
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Originally Posted by WileyCoyote View Post
Great result on the upgrades !

Sounds like a hectic start with all the family travel arrangements and the traffic. Not a v relaxing start ! Food sounded a bit meh which was a shame.

Sounds like flight was ok and nice car and room . Can’t believe you made it out, I was knackered just reading by this point.

Love your pics, it looks so atmospheric ... you did amazing not to have a meltdown with the noise, smells, and queues !

Sorry it was so cold too !
Thanks Amanda!
It's always the same in my house, but made it worse with us all going to different places!
Haha, reading it back I can't believe we made it out but I think the adrenaline kept us going.
Oh I was close believe me. I think it was just a little too much for our first night, I didn't really know what to think!
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Old 20 Mar 19, 06:07 PM  
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What a great start to your holiday with the 2 upgrades!
The flight seemed to go well, we're flying to LV with BA in the summer so it was really good to read about your experience.
I can't believe how long you functioned after such a long flight lol. Don't think we'd be able to.
Your room looks really nice, so big too.
Hope you love LV more tomorrow.
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