Vegas & la sept 2010

[miss lumpy]

VEGAS PRE TRIP REPORT

susie 44
carol44


VEGAS & LA SEPT 2010


We decided about a year ago to maybe try somewhere other than disney(even now cant believe we are not going to see mickey in florida)
so we chose vegas




Everytime we have gone to the states we have gone has a group of four but this holiday carols daughter & partner were not coming with us so we were on our own, which was'nt a problem except we will miss there company.

I'm sue (the plump one) the one that does most of the writing on these forums , chief baggage carrier & is the one made to look after all the cash & to pay for most things cause carol thinks all the dollar bills look the same( which they do)& she will end up spending all our funds inside the first few days.

Carols the one that scans the net for great deals for flights & accommodation etc which she did for this holiday .

So we had decided on the location next it was for duration which we both agreed we would do 2wks to make sure we could do everything so we wouldn't really need to go back, (unless we have a great time & want to do it all again) now like most places we visit we read all the trip reports & holiday uncovered web sites to gather all our info on the best places to stay & after talking in through we decided to go for a hotel just off the strip. We had a budget that allowed us to stay at the IMPERIAL PALACE but after talking to people who have stayed there and places like trip advisor we felt the hotel was too big & impersonal, stories of getting lost in the lobby & it taking absolutely ages to get to your room that is if you have got in the right lift,
I know it sounds daft but even though we were going to Vegas gambling was the furthest thing from our minds so a casino in our hotel was not top priority so we decided on the DESERT ROSE HOTEL




all the reports on this hotel came out very promising we loved everything it had to offer. the location of this hotel was just a short walking distance from the strip . We know it didn't have a casino or a restaurant but that was still ok with us.
So the next thing to sort out was flights, now at the time of booking there was only one company that gave you direct flights from man to Vegas & that was Thomas cook(has far has I am aware) luckily for us carols daughter works for T/C . Carol scanned all the sites for the best deals then asked Clare (carols daughter) to beat the price which she did with a good discount . So Vegas here we come.

Booked the holiday on the 31st july2009 to travel on the 29th august 2010 now because we booked this holiday so early we wanted to make sure we could also choose where we sat on the flight so to do this you had to book YOUR SEAT YOUR CHOICE which comes has extra along with the extra baggage allowance you had to pay for which actually didn't seam that extra it just brought you in line with all the other flight allowances 20kilos . So we managed to book 2 seats at the back of the plane, the part where the seats narrow from 3 to 2 its a long flight & even though I like to holiday abroad flying is a little scary for me especially if we hit turbulence . So having got all that booked & sorted out T/C decide to throw a spanner in the works and decided to cancel all there Sunday flights (that's us) now because Clare got to hear about this on the quiet. Now we had a choice we could cancel or re-book on their wed flights so we had a chance to maybe go back to Disney cause ever since we had decided to go to Vegas we wondered if we had made a mistake we were missing going to Disney already ? ? ?

Vegas it was still to be



more photos of the desert rose hotel







Now because we had heard of our cancelled flight on the QT we couldn't re-book onto the wed flight until we had written confirmation of our cancelled Sunday flight which was going to turn out to take a month in the meantime the wed flight was getting all booked up.. We waited & finally T/C wrote to us confirming our cancelled Sunday flight & we booked the wed one straight away (yeah)
Just by accident we came across a tour to Hollywood that took you to manns Chinese theatre, Warner bro studios, rodeo drive, Hollywood sign & some time at Santa Monica beach. Has soon has we saw this tour we knew we wanted to go on it but it was an all day tour that took 4hrs there & back it cost about $170 each then someone said why don't you try for some internal flights & fly there instead , so this got us thinking & carol got on the computer

I had read on dibb about hotwire so we tried there for some flights - found some & for the price we realised that maybe we could stay overnight then looked at what sights we could do with the time that we had we decided to stay even longer found an hotel near Hollywood boulevard called DAYS INN HOTEL its only a 2* but that's fine for us








so for a little bit more money we now have flights , transfers & 3full days/2nights in LA £403 in total

We are going to cram has much in has we can we know that we want to go to
Mann's Chinese theatre
Hollywood sign
Farmers market
Warner bros studios
Maybe a tour of the stars homes(I know you don't see much just want to say that we have done it)
Kodak theatre
Walk of fame ( obviously)
We would love to do Disneyland but don't feel that one whole day would do it justice & then there's American adventure so I think we will save all that for another time , it will give us a reason to go back, because after reading other trip reports on this site I would really like to drive from san Francisco-san Diego- LA -Vegas at some point in time.

So after that we decided to do something else we had never done & booked hotel & parking at Manchester airport we have never driven ourselves before, the only thing that worries me is that after such a long flight I have to drive home- yes it only takes an hour but when we normally go home by taxi we are both falling asleep in the back so plenty of coffee on the flight I think.
We booked to stay at the crown plaza hotel & 15days parking that cost us £84 another good deal thanks to Clare & super breaks..

So to recap
Put cats in cattery drive to hotel on the 31aug stay overnight
Sept 1st fly to Vegas at 9.15 terminal 1
Stay 2wks desert rose hotel
on the 6th sept fly to LAX 8.20am stay 2nights days inn hotel fly back to Vegas at 5.20pm
We plan on doing a trip out to the DAM but have yet to sort that out
We would love to do a helicopter flight over the strip at night if our budget allows us
We are going to see all the other hotels & all they have to offer & get has much out of this holiday has the hot weather will allow us to
We are definitely going to go to the outlets to do some retail therapy

I will update this report with more info when we book other things
Thanks for reading & please feel free to provide any info you may think we will need to make our holiday more enjoyable

Thanks for reading

[Guest]

I can't see any of your pics, but that could be because i am on my work computer! Sounds like a similar hols to mine, and you are gonna be in Vegas some of the same time as me, i fly into Vegas from LA on 29th Aug and leave on the 4th Sept for Washington DC and NYC. Have a fantastic time!

[miss lumpy]

Originally Posted by ukdiva

I can't see any of your pics, but that could be because i am on my work computer! Sounds like a similar hols to mine, and you are gonna be in Vegas some of the same time as me, i fly into Vegas from LA on 29th Aug and leave on the 4th Sept for Washington DC and NYC. Have a fantastic time!

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HI tracie
thanks for reading my report
uploaded the photos properly now
hope you too have a great time

[nikkimc]

And me I'm there 31st Aug to 3rd Sept and we may be at desert rose too!

[miss lumpy]

Originally Posted by nikkimc

And me I'm there 31st Aug to 3rd Sept and we may be at desert rose too!

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YEAH
THE MORE THE MERRIER

[JoJoBell]

A great start. Looking forward to seeing what the Desert Rose is like !

[purple myra]

Sounds like you have a fantastic trip planned x

[cartoonp]

nice start