Trip Report Vegas 2014

Well here we go. This trip in June was our second of the year and we think there have been more than 30 odd before that.

The flight was to be Club World with BA, we switched to them as soon as they started flying from Heathrow to Vegas, having previously used Virgin from Gatwick for several years. The 1 1/2 hours it saves us on travel from Nottingham was the main reason, but also the chance to climb up the Status ladder was much easier than with Virgin. Just going up from Bronze to Silver is such a leap that I often just fly miles when in the U.S. to get the required tier points required to keep my status for the next year.

Photo of Tracy in Club World seat upper deck on the 747

The flights were redemption's using Avios.

We stayed at the Sofitel attached to Terminal 5 Heathrow the night before the flight, managing to get the hotel at £88 for the night due to a 10% discount code and using lastminute.com secret hotel, which others over on FlyerTalk and Head for Points had worked out would be the Sofitel. This place can cost upwards of £200 per night.

Our car was collected from the hotel by a guy we first found on "park at my house", we have used him probably 10 times now, he only ever charges us £40 no matter how long we are away. Collects the car from where ever we are and returns it to the terminal when we arrive back.

The next morning we walked over to the terminal and checked our bags and we made our way straight to T5B to use the Galleries lounge there. It's much quieter than the ones in the main terminal, all the same facilities but without the people sleeping on the couches!

Photo looking out onto the apron from the Galleries lounge

 

The flight was uneventful, drank too much, ate too much, didn't sleep enough.

On arriving at LAS we breezed through immigration due to me having a U.S. passport, but we still seem to be the last to have our bags come out, Karma I guess. Went out expecting our lift from the Platinum to be waiting for us, no sign of them, waited and waited, eventually I phoned them and was told that even though I had booked this a couple of months ago and got conformation that it was all set up only 2 days before that there was no one available to pick us up! So we had to trudge the full length of T3 to get a cab, which resulted in a further 30 minute wait. (They used to have the taxi rank just by the exit where the international arrivals spit out but have moved it to the other end now.

Ahh the cabs! they still find a way of long hauling you even though they now seem to be avoiding the tunnel from T3. the last time we seemed to get a tour of the whole airport road network resulting in what should have been a $15 trip bumped up to nearer $22.
That time I told him he had 2 choices, either he took the $18 I had out for him or we stayed there while I phoned the taxi authority, he took the former. This time we seemed to be following a line of taxies all making their way through a little underpass and popping us out at Russell Road, then turning right. This bill was nearer $20 so I gave her that but no tip. Needless to say we were allowed to unload our luggage ourselves.

Checked in and was told that even though we were promised a Princess suite (and had the email as proof) was told that there wasn't one available and we would be getting a Solitaire. Now this might not seem so bad, still 900 sq. ft. but there is NO WASHING MACHINE!
Well I wasn't having that, a bit of raised voice from me, and magically a Princess became available.
Quick shower and we trundled over to Tuscany to play a bit, then onto 7/11 to get a couple of pizzas to take to the room. turned in about 11pm.

Next day was car pickup from the Dollar desk at TI, Chrysler 200 for £130 for 8 days.  I am pleased that they have seemed to have changed the policy from collet full and return empty, so you have to pay in advance for the gas, to collect full return full.  Also you get an hours grace when bringing back, so no rush to have it back dead on time. Then onto Walmart to stock up on supplies for the 9 days, this is where the Platinum really scores, we save a fortune on eating out because we have a full kitchen, including an ice maker in the fridge.

We always like to have 2 meals at Mon Ami Gabi on our visits so the first night is usually spent there. Requested a table on the patio at around 6:30 pm and told that we could be seated straight away, on a Friday night! They seem to have reduced the sound from the Bellagio fountains because you cant hear it at all from MAG. I had the Filet Mignon  and Tracy had the Trout Amandine.

Photo of the menu and of my Filet (note I don't have their horrible frites, I always ask for some mashed potato instead, and a side of Macaroni Gratin, yum!)

Our nights usually involve traipsing from casino to casino seeing how many drinks I can pour down my neck and me trying not to lose too much money at craps. Usually Bellagio, Planetho, Palazzo, Paris, Cosmo, so I won't bore you with that bit.

I will say we have found a new favourite, The Cromwell, loads of penny video poker slots for Tracy and some awesome drinks service. They have a"drinks concierge" who takes your order via an iPad, then another server comes out with it within a coupe of minutes.

The days are usually us doing shopping at Fashion Show, South outlets (where we saw Calvin Harris buying a hideous orange suitcase) and the shops at Palazzo. So wont bore you with that either. Oh, and sunbathing, which is somewhat a chore at the Platinum because the pool is in a suntrap surrounded by glass on the 5 floor. Here is the temperature at about 3pm on one of the days. (yes that does say 50 degrees C)

I forget which days are which so will just carry on with what we did that might be of interest.

One evening we decided to try Charlie Palmers at Four Seasons. We had heard good things about the best bang for buck Cut of the week menu. 3 courses with bottomless wine pairing for $48 but on further research they also have a  menu called "tribute to MJ" same as the cut of the week but you get a choice of 3 dishes for each course, where as the former you have 1 choice for each. We both decided on this. The wine kept coming, it is a white for the starter, then a red for the remainder but I am sure you could twist their arm if you didn't like one or the other. Even when we had finished eating and paid the bill the waiter came  and topped us up so we could sit for a while and listen to the Jazz band.

I must mention at this point the disappointment I had with the Platinum, I had to get the housekeeping manager and duty manager up to the room one day to chew them out because the cleaning of our room was really poor. One day the maids didn't even make the bed!
What really pissed me off was all the problems we had not one person felt the need to say sorry, sometimes that is all it takes, but not once did anyone from the management feel the need to reach out to me until we cornered the operations manager and he was appalled with what was going on. He came to see me later and had gone back on our records to find that we had stayed with them for over 100 nights, and the GM had authorised our next stay booked for October would be  comped! 

OK the highlight of the trip for me. Shooting at the Pro Gun Club. You do need a car to get there as it's out in Boulder City at the foot of the mountains, about 30 minute drive from the Strip. Some of you might remember some years ago a guy that ran his own shooting trip called Safari shooting, this is at the same place. In the summer you need to get there before 8am as it gets really hot. There is a clubhouse there where you can get a drink and something to eat. You don't need to take any ID, just show up choose what you want to shoot, and someone takes you out in a golf cart and stays with you to help you out. I wanted to do some trap shooting with a 12 gauge shotgun, Tracy manned the trap to fire out the clays, I shot off 50 rounds. Tracy decided she wanted to try an M5 sub machine gun and a Glock, mega fun for her. She fired off 50 rounds with the sub and 25 from the Glock at metal  targets with the instructor next to her making fine adjustments to her shooting. All this for $110, bargain, and more fun than the Gun Store.

We had a MyVegas reward for a couple of buffets at Bellagio, good job I didn't pay for it because it was pretty poor. They used to have a reputation as one of the best buffets in town but the bar has been raised high in recent years and Bellagio seems to taken their eye off the ball. For my money M Resort buffet is heads above this, at almost half the price and unlimited alcohol included.

 

We always stop off to see the conservatory while there, Tracy loves her flowers and they do an outstanding display.

 

Then we get onto Tracy's favourite bit, the Muscle Car Challenge. At $224 each for about 20 minutes in 3 cars this is not cheap (but apparently they have reduced it by $100 now, sick!) But the chance to drive 3 iconic American muscle cars at top speed around Las Vegas Speedway, well you gotta do it. Do not worry about the heat, you are under cover the whole time with free water, misters, and aircon blowing you cool. 

Youtube me doing a 4.3 0-60 in the Shelby Mustang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij2d6Wrd_Xc

This is a youtube video of the NASCAR one you can do, I will be trying this one next time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5RQzn-8-cc&feature=youtu.be

  We tend to only eat one meal a day plus a light breakfast in our suite. One of our favourite places is Bahama Breeze about a 5 minute walk from the Platinum on East flamingo. They have a good happy hour, well happy hours actually, with half price appetisers and cocktails.

 

Menu

 

Wings, crab stack, and coconut shrimp, and a nice IPA

 

 

Ebay shopping day arrives. We head out to "Everything medical" to stock up on stuff to sell. I seem to have become a power seller based on just stuff we buy at this store. Things that you just can't buy over the counter in this country. My shopping list consisted of 100 Foly Catheters, 20 x 1 ltr. bottles of saline, and 50 suture kits.

On the way back we decided to visit  

 

 

Where I indulged in a 4x4 and a choco/vanilla milk shake (I'm not a fan of animal style, find it too messy.

 

Tracy had a grilled cheese sandwich but ate that before I could take the picture.

 

So shopping wise, Tracy ends up with 4 pairs of shoes from Steve Madden, a couple of things from Marciano, and I end up with medical supplies. Usual hoard from Walmart, Chrystal Light, Grape Jelly so I can make P&J sandwiches, Lipton chicken noodle soups



And 5 jars of this stuff.

 

Makes the best Mac and Cheese sauce, you can add broccoli, cauliflower, bacon, etc and what ever pasta you want, and it's REALLY ORANGE!!

 

Our last day, flight isn't until 9:20pm, we always get a free 4pm checkout from the hotel so take the car back in the morning, wander back, sunbath a bit and pack up. Usually we head over to Ellis Island for early dinner, I always have the Pork Chop dinner which comes the either soup or salad. This time they surpassed themselves, I think they cut op half a buffalo and stuck it on my plate.

 

Tracy just had peach cobbler, so with drinks our bill came to $15.00





 

We head back to Stir bar in the hotel for a couple of half price drinks, then the hotel car is brought around and they take us to the airport. On checking in the guy asks us if we would like to upgrade to First at a cost of $900 each, at which I decline, then he says he'll do it 241, at which point I twig and say, "ah, oversold in Club are we"? "yep" is his reply. So a little chit chat to him about BA stopping the First class service to LAS in October which he knew nothing about, and he presents me with 2 new boarding cards, 2 seats in First, thank you very much.

 

First suite (With Tracy's foot and slipper in view)

 

Flight home was nice, slept for about 7 hours, so nice and refreshed when we collet our car.

So there you go, another trip over with, another booked in October flying Upper with Virgin to San Francisco, then connect to LAS.