Oh Fudge, I'm Forty! Vegas Trip - Day 1

[neilhd]

DAY 1 - Sunday 8th July 2018

Finally!

Because I'm one of those people who has to book flights the actual minute they become available, it has been very much nearly a whole entire YEAR since we booked this trip.

And finally the day has come when we actually go!

To catch up anybody who for some reason didn't read the Pre-Trip (although why anyone would miss such an entertaining opus I don't know), this trip is being held in celebration (commiseration?) of my 40th birthday. It is just I, and my DW Ele making this trip. None of those pesky kids. They are being left behind. Our DD (Jess, 21) is looking after our DS (Joe, 12). They'll be fine. I left them some tinned food but no can opener. When they get hungry enough they'll work out a way to open them.

Anyway, we woke at about 7am, but due to it being an afternoon flight we had to then sit around being rather bored for a few hours, until Saff (Ele's sister) came to pick us up at about 11:30. She came in and had a coffee, and we managed to prise Joe away from whatever screen he was staring at for 2 minutes to acknowledge that we were leaving. He pretended to care and said he'd miss us, when really we know he was relishing the chance to have a few days of not being yelled at to get off of Fortnite.

The traffic to Heathrow Terminal 3 was pretty bad considering it was a Sunday afternoon but we had plenty of time, arriving at about 1pm. We got dropped off and headed in to find the Club World check-in desk. The lady manning the queue saw me hobbling along on a crutch and opened all the barriers for me to avoid walking through the empty queue lines. She said she could get a wheelchair for me if I wanted and they could take me to the gate. I declined.

We were checked in immediately of course, being Club World. Mind you, there was only a few people in the queue for Economy. We were told our flight was delayed by 20 minutes - no big deal. We went upstairs to the Fast Track Security, but the automated gates were closed off so everyone was being passport checked by a single security guard, meaning it took a few minutes to even get through to security. Mind you, the normal security queue looked really big, so maybe all the automated gates were broken.

Once the security formalities had taken place we went off to find the lounge. I had done some research here, having never been eligible for a lounge at Terminal 3 before. There is a BA lounge, but the conventional wisdom states that the Qantas lounge is better, and as a BA Club World passenger (being part of the OneWorld alliance) you can still use it. Also, I knew that the next Qantas flight wasn't until the evening so it was likely to be quiet. Indeed, it was pretty much deserted.

We found a table and hit the buffet. The curry was very good. The victoria sponge wasn't bad, the scones and clotted cream were rather tasty, and the cheese selection very palatable. A superb brie was on offer.

Looking rather satisfied (a common look, being married to me):

Suitably full we retired to some seats by the window, overlooking the runway, and ordered a couple of G&Ts (they have a gin bar there). They went down very nicely indeed!

It was soon time to leave, so that's what we did, and we went and stocked up on sweets and water from Boots. Ele also bought a razor. Isn't that weird? Not that Ele needing a razor is weird, but that you can buy them in an airport? I always thought they weren't allowed, but it turns out that the UK allows them and the TSA in the USA don't. So remember kids, if you want to hijack a plane using a razor or ten, you need to board it in the UK, not in America. She also bought some kind of make-up but I've no idea what it was.

We paid a quick visit to Duty Free but miraculously didn’t buy anything, and then headed to the gate, which was located somewhere near Edinburgh judging by the amount of time it took to get there. Not helped by me hobbling along using a crutch and a knee support.

Incidentally I had 3 types of knee support for this trip:
1 - A compression tube (x2). Least support but quite comfortable for long periods. Best for compression (obviously) so I thought it would be good on the plane to prevent swelling.
2 - A slide-on support with metal side support built-in, and knee-cap cushioning. A good middle choice.
3 - A strap-on (oo-er) support with an open knee cap and also with metal side supports. Excellent support as I can make it as tight as I like and can remove it without taking off my shoes. Can be combined with the first one for even greater support.

I was wearing #1 for the plane ride.

We got to the gate and got asked to sit in the priority boarding area. We were Group 2 (Group 1 being BA Gold and First Class). We were soon boarded and settled into our lovely seats. I had the backwards-facing window seat, Ele had the forward-facing aisle seat next to me. It works quite well as you can see and talk to each other with the centre divider down. The only downside was Ele's seat was right by the toilet and once or twice the door banged into her foot-stool (the door opens properly, not like a normal plane-loo door). The other downside was there seemed to be some kind of radiator running alongside my seat, which wasn’t needed when it was 30C outside but was running full blast anyway, so I had my own private sauna. Unfortunately these were the only 2 seats next to each other when we checked in. You'd have thought that in business class (where seats cost a bomb, albeit we used Avios) that it'd be free seat selection (it is in First Class), but no - they charge, and charge a LOAD. It's about £100 per person or something crazy. Of course most other people in Club World have some kind of BA Status and can book theirs for free, meaning we get left with the dregs.

Yes, I am complaining about very cheap Club World travel. I am a world-class complainer and can complain about anything. First-world problems, eh?!

We waited for the rest of the poorer people to pass through our cabin on the way to economy and then once the smell had died down a bit we got given champagne etc, and by the time we took off we were about an hour behind schedule. We also got a nice White Company amenity bag containing several things I will never use. The blanket, duvet and pillow were all White Company too. The pillow was very soft.

Looking a little pished:

Food service was pretty quick. We started with beer and nuts before the main service. Then they bought some bread. Both Ele and I had pre-ordered the beef. Here's the menu:

Ele had the Crayfish cocktail thing, and I had the tomato soup. We had our mains and I asked for a glass of the Pinot Noir to go with the second beer I already had. For dessert I asked for the lemon, raspberry and almond slice. Ele asked for the brownie. Ele made the right choice - hers was yummy! I took a bite of mine and it tasted more like cheesecake. The flight attendant then realised she'd given me the wrong one so gave me the right one, meaning I had 2 desserts. Not complaining (for once!).

My knee brace was annoying me so I rolled it down to my ankle, reclined my chair, put my feet up and started watching Downsizing. I woke up a few hours later, having only seen about 30 minutes of the movie. The G&T, beer, wine, champagne and food had nothing to do with it I'm sure! By now we were only 3 hours out from Vegas. Not bad for a 10 hour flight! I watched the rest of the movie and dozed off again towards the end. I then rallied when some other food was bought around. Ele was still snoozing away so I didn't wake her. I skipped the starter and just had the steak sandwich, which was pretty good.

I watched some TV and soon enough it was time to land. We saw some great scenery on the way in:

According to my iPhone this is Green River in Utah:

And when taxiing to the gate we saw our first glimpse of the strip. It was still daytime.

Obviously we were among the first off, and the immigration hall wasn't too far away. It was plain that I should've left the knee brace on, as my knee had swelled up quite a bit on the flight.

We had to wait all of 5 minutes to get through immigration - just 2 people in front of us. The hall was filling quite rapidly behind us. Baggage claim was next, and they announced that First and Club bags would be on a separate carousel - a nice touch to keep us away from the hoi polloi.

That said, our bags were through and we were gone before they even started the Economy carousel, and there didn't seem to be many people from Economy through immigration yet. So we passed through customs who were sitting chatting to each other with nothing to do.

Even though it had been daytime when we landed and we were only about 20 mins through the whole airport it was now dark.

I had pre-booked a Limo transfer without telling Ele. Well, not a Limo as such, but a posh car. It was supposed to be a BMW 7-series. The driver was supposed to be holding an iPad or a sign with our name on it and I wanted it to be a nice surprise for her. Supposed to, being the operative words here. There was no driver waiting, so that was totally ruined.

I got the email up on my phone and called them. They said they'd be there in 10 minutes. After 15 I was on the verge of calling them again and telling them to stuff it when our driver walked in.

To be fair to her, she hadn’t been the one down to take us, she was just the closest one when I called. She led us out to a waiting Chevy Suburban. This isn’t what I booked and I would have preferred the posh BMW but there was little point complaining. In any case, the Suburban was a more expensive option so technically we got an upgrade.

She was very nice and chatty and it didn’t take long to get to the Venetian.

We walked inside and wow - this place is a-ma-ing! We joined the short checkin queue and soon got seen by a slightly snooty young lady. I had heard about the $20 trick but decided not to bother. Ele (well, me masquerading as Ele) had emailed a few days before saying it was my 40th birthday in case they could do anything nice like a high floor or nice view etc. In the end we got the 9th floor (so not high) and no view at all. Well, this was it:

(in case you're wondering how it went from night to day, this was taken the next morning!)

We decided to just keep the curtains closed, although its worth pointing out they were electrically operated, which meant I wanted to play with them a lot.

The room was seriously nice. And huge! The bathroom (huge) and main bed area (huge) then led down some stairs to the sitting and dining area. There was a huge TV by the bed, one in the sitting area and also one in the bathroom.

No idea what she's doing here:

We unpacked and decided to go for a little stroll outside. So we made our way down back through the casino and outside.

It was really hot - like someone blowing a hairdryer in your face. We had a quick look around outside of the hotel then we went back in, bought some water and juice from an on-site shop (expensive!) and went upstairs to bed at about 10pm local time. As soon as I turned out the light I remembered I had to call the Grand Canyon tour people to confirm our tour (and there was me thinking the hundreds of dollars I had already paid them were confirmation enough!).

With that done, we were soon asleep.

[Joelin]

So looking forward to this report. Looks amazing so far. Both myself and OH will be the big 4-0 next year and had said we fancy Vegas...Now that it’s time to think about booking I feel seriously bad about leaving the kids so who knows if we’ll go ahead. It’s not because they’re small and I’ll worry about them,it’s because they are teens and know how to guilt trip us 🙈

[KarenG]

What a way to travel

We stayed for five nights at the Venetian a few years ago - LOVED it. We were up a lot higher (sorry) and had a view of the big wheel being constructed

They must specialise in snooty check in people, I think we had one too.

[clochette]

What a great start. I would love to travel business or first class, but I'm afraid we were with the hoi poloi when we went last year. I think you must have "parked" (don't know the technical word) somewhere different from us, as I seem to recall walking for miles before we got to immigration, but then we were on a cheap Thomas Cook flight.

Your room looks amazing - much nicer than the one we had at the Bellagio - not that there was anything wrong with it and we were very happy with it, but if we go to Vegas again, I think we might consider the Venetian. Shame about your view, though.

Looking forward to reading more.

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by Joelin

So looking forward to this report. Looks amazing so far. Both myself and OH will be the big 4-0 next year and had said we fancy Vegas...Now that it’s time to think about booking I feel seriously bad about leaving the kids so who knows if we’ll go ahead. It’s not because they’re small and I’ll worry about them,it’s because they are teens and know how to guilt trip us 🙈

See more...

Don't feel bad about leaving the kids and ignore the guilt trip! Everyone deserves a break and with both of you turning 40 you gotta do it!

Originally Posted by KarenG

What a way to travel

We stayed for five nights at the Venetian a few years ago - LOVED it. We were up a lot higher (sorry) and had a view of the big wheel being constructed

They must specialise in snooty check in people, I think we had one too.

See more...

Well done on the good view! It is an amazing place - the view didn't really bother me. The window was so far away from the bed that it wasn't really an issue...!

Originally Posted by clochette

What a great start. I would love to travel business or first class, but I'm afraid we were with the hoi poloi when we went last year. I think you must have "parked" (don't know the technical word) somewhere different from us, as I seem to recall walking for miles before we got to immigration, but then we were on a cheap Thomas Cook flight.

Your room looks amazing - much nicer than the one we had at the Bellagio - not that there was anything wrong with it and we were very happy with it, but if we go to Vegas again, I think we might consider the Venetian. Shame about your view, though.

Looking forward to reading more.

See more...

Parked is the technical term I use, although if it's really far I might use "abandoned". We can only do Business/First because of Avios and the BA 2-4-1 voucher. Definitely not rich enough to buy it normally unfortunately. Collecting is pretty easy - anyone can do it.

The room is amazing, as is the hotel. Almost too big though - we never used the lounge bit of it really!

[Tweety1]

Fab report as usual . We arrived home today after staying in the Venetian really lovely hotel. Waiting now for the rest of the days

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by Tweety1

Fab report as usual . We arrived home today after staying in the Venetian really lovely hotel. Waiting now for the rest of the days

See more...

Glad you liked it there - we certainly did!

Are you doing a TR?

[Joosebug1987]

I am very excited to finally see this trippie up :-) I've been waiting since reading along with your pre trippie.

The room looks gorgeous - shame about the view especially with it being a special occasion.

Looking forward to the rest of the report.x

[Tweety1]

Originally Posted by neilhd

Glad you liked it there - we certainly did!

Are you doing a TR?

See more...

Think so but only a High’s and lows don’t have the same creative nature as you ha ha... off to read day 2...

[WileyCoyote]

Ah great day. Fab flight ... loving that exclusive style there. And the plentiful food and drink obvs.
Total result on the swift immigration experience slightly ruined by the car faff.
Wowsers to the hotel. Fab room (even with the scenic view, not) .. living like kings there. I would have to sit on every seat and mess about with absolutely everything in there !