Day 2: Night Time Woo Woo's.

[AndyJ]

We arrived late at the Hilton, due to having to pack and arrange hotel parking a few hours before we needed it! Phones and laptops ended up being charged in the hotel room.

Rich had plugged in the video camera to charge, bless him, and the folks had been given a key to feed the kitties.

Once at the bar, I failed to piggy back on anyones wireless connection, so paid BT £10 for a 24 hour pass so we could book some hotels. So far we have:

3 days at the Mandalay Bay, club suite with spa bath, and a strip view. I was anxious to stay here to play in the pool - it has a lazy river which is one of my favourites.

1 night at the Wynn, so we can see the La Reve water show and play in the pool. They have some “Splash Zone” seats right at the front, or some “Champagne Circle” seats that are at the back, but feature TV monitors where you can view backstage and top down views of the show as it happens. Not sure which to grab at the moment, or indeed whether the standard seats are the best bet.

The Bellagio was at the top of the list of places to stay as it is arguably the most plush and indulgent hotel in Las Vegas. Luckily, despite the short notice, we found one night where a Lake View room was available, so I will be filming the fountains all night from a tripod whilst we munch chinese in the Noodle Bar.

The last room we booked this evening, was a room in one of the Spa Club suites at the Luxor, with a big spa bath next to a window looking out over Vegas at the top of the Pyramid. Being a huge, huge Pyramid fan, this will be one of my highlights I believe, although I have a nervousness about the heights again!

I was very pleased to see that Vegas is inexpensive at this time of year, the most being £130 a night for the Bellagio. Most of the filler around these nights will be in rooms at £20 a night!

Of note was the Mandalay bay, which had a convention cancel on them and so they offered a “One Week Only” promotion for suite rooms for £50 a night, and if you booked three nights you got car hire as well! Amazing, as the Travel Lodge next to me at home charges £57.

Last year Mel and I booked a package through Expedia, and if we had not been lucky and avoided some unfair supplements, the holiday would have been £4700. I expect this one to be under half of that by going last minute and booking the hotels ourselves.

Rich did tell me that when he went he always just arrived with his suitcase and head to the tourist boards to get $20 rooms at the last minute - we learnt something there.

My only slight concern is the actual logistics of checking out and checking in to all these differemt hotels, and hoping it doesn’t consume much of the day. When we last went, we had to get Taxi’s to get around so it isn’t that much different to do same, but with luggage. We shall see!

Yawn

The first morning came very quickly after bedtime, in the form of a fire alarm at the Gatwick Hilton at around 2:30am.

They have turned the alarms up so darn loud that there is no way in the world one would wish to stay in bed even if they were foolish enough to do so.

I got out of bed, looked out the window to see people gathering, and then tried calling the reception desk. I quickly realised that was an exercise in futility and asked Mel to get dressed and grab our tickets and passports - just in case.

As we walked down the stairs, the duty manager and the fire brigade were running up. I said “Is this real?” and one of the fire brigade smiled and shook his head slightly. We waited at the bottom of the stairs until the woo-woo’s stopped and then went back to bed.

This is not the sole issue with this Hotel stay, I attach the letter I am sending the Hilton below for the other details.

So... When the REAL morning finally came, I was in my usual zombie frame of mind, and luckily Mel got everything together while I tried to establish which way was up.

Check-in was easy and instant, and we got bulkhead seats with extra legroom. Excellent. We also got off the ground early, and so far the flight has been delightful. Security was also a walk through today, which is always a joy.

Mel is asleep halfway through a film, as usual for planes, and the nice hostess has just brought me another Vodka and Lemonade...

Seeing the World from the Air

Every time I travel, I marvel at some of the sites that are seen from the plane windows, but the route to Vegas that we have taken twice to date is one of the most awe inspiring, not so much as to content but how it reminds me just how big the planet is.

I posted pictures before of the melting ice over Greenland, and this time I have taken a couple of snaps but mainly shot HD video of thousands of miles of ice over oceans and land that makes the UK seem so small and humble in size.

I looked closely, for a great deal of time, for signs of civilisation of even wildlife but none was to be seen for over 3 hours as we arced over Greenland and down into Canada.

Look for some HDTV footage soon of it



Letter to the Hilton:

Me
My Address
My Hilton Gold Number
The Date

Dear Sirs,

I have stayed in Hilton Hotels on numerous occasions over the past five years I have always been delighted with your service, give or take a single camp bed that collapsed on me one visit! :-)

However, I was very disappointed with my latest stay.

I booked the Gatwick Hilton for the 11th February with 15 days of parking, although I only needed 10, through your website. A 10 day option would, I believe, be popular.

It told me that only a twin was available, so my partner and I had to book it.

When I arrived at the hotel, I handed over my Hilton Honours Gold Card, to be told it was no longer valid - despite having an April 2008 expiry stamped on it. I was told I had to call the number on the card to discuss this, but lines were closed on the two numbers I tried.

I later spoke to a second member of staff, who said he couldn’t assist. I don’t consider that Gold service at all, and at the point of writing I still don’t have an explanation. Or my morning croissant in the lounge.

Luckily, I was offered a (now available) double room, which was good service. Thank you.

My partner ordered me a Margarita at the bar, and noticed the barmaid poured a short measure of Tequila as the bottle had run out. Whilst I appreciate the discount that was given once mentioned, if my partner had not spoken up I would have been shorted.

Then, at 2:30am the fire alarm went off, outside of your control of course, and I commend who I assume was the duty manager running through the hotel with the fire brigade in tow trying to get the situation resolved as fast as possible.

Unfortunately, no information was available to us nor the many other guests who congregated in the stairwell and much unhappiness was the result. If it wasn’t for me asking a passing fireman if this was “real” we would have stood there for much longer I am sure.

A difficult situation, granted, but staff should really have attended the assigned fire points and made people aware that they could return to their rooms?

The icing on the cake was a maid walking into the room at 6:30am despite us clearly giving a check out time of 7:30am. I was naked when she knocked, and almost didn’t make it back into the duvet. I would have hated to have frightened her!

Finally, as a suggestion not a complaint, the Internet Access is a bit steep in price considering the price of the rooms. Restrict bandwidth, but offer a free service wired from the rooms. I understand that free wireless probably wouldn’t be a good idea.

I am staying in the Hilton Gatwick again in October, with parking, for a trip to the US again. I hope I don’t have a repeat of this experience (at least the things within your control!) and ask that my Hilton Gold privileges are restored so I can enjoy the simple pleasure of the executive lounge for a croissant in the morning before the flight.

Thanks in advance,

Andy J.

[ariel2006]

Hey guys hope your having a good time, cant believe your there already, you are soooo lucky.

Hope to hear some more updates soon, have a brilliant time and take care. xxx

P.S. Nick is sooooo excited about getting the truck tomorrow

[truesdpr]

Hi Andy,

Was your room an executive room? Reason I ask is that when we stayed in October we were told that we could no longer have access to the lounge as a Gold Card holder - only if we were staying in an executive room. I spoke to a manager and pointed out that they were unable to provide an executive room and she eventually relented and said we could go into the lounge to log in to the internet if we needed to but she was adamant that this was now company wide policy and not just local to the hotel. She was offering us all sorts of things like free breakfast, bottles of wine, drinks at the bar etc when it would have been easier just to let us go to the lounge! We had breakfast in our rate so didn't want that. We didn't bother in the end as I could see us turning up there and having issues getting in without an executive room number and I wasn't that bothered to be honest - just irritated that I hadn't been made aware of any change in policy as a member. I meant to follow this up but I'm afraid I didn't and I'm not using them again for our next 2 trips and as I'm not working I haven't had cause to put it to the test at other locations but it certainly looks like gold level doesn't get automatic access to the lounge anymore. Haven't seen anything come through to advise me of this change either so I may drop them an e-mail to ask the question.

Hope you have a great trip and look forward to seeing some great pics when you get back.

Pam.

[AndyJ]

Originally Posted by truesdpr

Hi Andy,

Was your room an executive room?

See more...

I don't know, to be honest.

The issue was my Gold Card had expired, despite having an April expiry date. I have not seen anything either, so maybe my letter will shed some light.

Thanks for the feedback

Should be some piccies tomorrow

A.

[disney owl]

looking forward to more

Do let us know when you get back what response you get from Hi.ton

[apollo163]

Originally Posted by AndyJ

Letter to the Hilton:

Me
My Address
My Hilton Gold Number
The Date

Dear Sirs,

I have stayed in Hilton Hotels on numerous occasions over the past five years I have always been delighted with your service, give or take a single camp bed that collapsed on me one visit! :-)

However, I was very disappointed with my latest stay.

I booked the Gatwick Hilton for the 21st February with 15 days of parking, although I only needed 10, through your website. A 10 day option would, I believe, be popular.


Andy J.

See more...

havent you just stayed andy so 21st is wrong date

[AndyJ]

Originally Posted by apollo163

havent you just stayed andy so 21st is wrong date

See more...

Well spotted. Thanks.

[voddygirl]

Thot you were talking about the cocktail when i read your title ...hope you get a good reply from them... short measures totally unforgivable

[Guest]

Looking forward to more!

[Guest]

Not the best of starts having a fire alarm in the middle of the night! Thankfully it was a false alarm.