London to Las Vegas
Trip Start
May 19, 2007
1
9
Trip End
Jun 02, 2007
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Sunday, May 20, 2007
We flew on Virgin's "Pretty Woman" plane. All Virgin's planes have names, like cruise liners, so I like to know which one I am travelling on. A bit sad, I know, but then I am also the kind of person who checks the name on the front of Eddie Stobart lorries as I pass them on the M3. It wasn't one of the planes with the all-singing, all dancing entertainment systems complete with Nintendo, but it did still have 11 film channels so I watched Blood Diamond, The Illusionist, Dreamgirls (which isn't the story of Diana Ross and the Supremes, it's just coincidental the girl group are called Deena Jones and the Dreams, really...), and then a bit of James Bond for good measure. Didn't get all the way through it though as by that time we were starting our descent.
The food on board was very good, I think even Matt was quite impressed
Caesar's Palace by night
. They just kept feeding us and feeding us. They weren't quite so forthcoming with the drinks, but we were only two rows from the galley so I went back for another drink a couple of times, and the steward on our aisle (not as camp as some of the others, in fact he might even have been straight!) was quite generous with the measures of vodka, so I think I probably got about 4 doubles in total on the flight.There was a fair old queue for immigration in Las Vegas, but that's not surprising given the small scale of the international arrivals terminal, complete with it's grand total of ONE luggage carousel. Mind you, that queue was still nothing in comparison with the queues through security at Gatwick, where the jobsworths took my 4inch long cables ties off me (they were for securing the cases on the way home). I asked what was wrong with the cable ties, and was told I might use them to restrain someone. I'd like to know who I could restrain with cable ties that size...Barbie?
We got to the Renaissance Las Vegas mid-afternoon, where we were very impressed with the very friendly and efficient check in lady. The rooms are lovely there, and we even managed to get a king room although when we'd booked we'd been told there were none left! I got a quick swim in, but not much chance of sunbathing as the sun was hidden behind the building, but it was still very warm. We caught the monorail up to the Strip for dinner, and ended up at Caesar's Palace for the buffet. Never again. I've been to at least 7 different buffets in Las Vegas, that's got to have been joint bottom for being overpriced, and having cold food, a poor selection and unhelpful staff. We caught the monorail back, then had a quick drink in the bar before the start of the road trip tomorrow.
