Not sure if you are still there but one really good value thing is this:
http://www.pinballmuseum.org/
Take a bus 104 south to SB Las Vegas after Russell and (somehow) cross the road to the Pinball sign on the front of the museum. A fist full of quarters can give a couple of hours maybe on all types of pinball machines.
That sounds like it will be worth investigating
I've now finished reviewing Day 1, so I'm including it here. Next is reviewing Day 2, on which I took 102 photos, then type up today and look at doing the monorail in a bit. I've had a ton of junk food in the room, so at least I'm not hungry now!
@TT-ONR-NRN I forgot to reply about the transit thing, I've done it before and I prefer to get my walk on instead. It's not much slower, and indeed if you end up with waiting a while for the transit I can actually end up at the other end quicker! I don't think the option exists for arrival at the B or C gates, which is a shame because after a long flight a good bit of walking would be seriously welcome!
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27/03/2023 - Juliano vs Miley Cirus - Juliano's In The USA, Day 1
Hello and welcome to the first part of a massive trip report! This has been a long, long, time coming and it features one of my wishlist destinations. Originally, when I had got the time off granted, I'd looked to go to New Zealand, but this was just after a cyclone had hit the country hard. So much so it was under a state of emergency for only the third time in the country's existance. I didn't feel right about going there in such circumstances, so I looked at my alternative options. I had plenty to choose from in mainland Europe and in the UK, but nothing excited me enough to book. I also looked at my first visit to one of the world's most popular cities for coffee culture, Seattle, as well as a revisit to New York. Both were good options, no question of it, but I had a better idea.
After many hours of deciding, looking up all my options etc, I got my ESTA approved and the next day I finally made my decision and booked a flights and hotel package with British Airways. £974 later, I was all booked to Las Vegas with a 4 star hotel for 3 nights and 3 full days of exploring!
Now I must say straight away that I don't do gambling, so I'd be steering clear of all that stuff. One benefit of being teetotal is that I won't want to go near the bars and nightclubs either! The reason for booking to Las Vegas then? It was by some way the most convenient place to base oneself for the wishlist destination, one of the natural wonders of the world. You know where I'm talking about right? Yes, I was finally going to visit the mighty Grand Canyon!
Waiting for this trip was a little different, in that I had a week off before it and that had been allocated to family time, as well as some minor UK trips. In the end, that didn't happen as my sister came down with Covid, and I did a number of little adventures on my to-do list instead. The day finally came around, and at 0245 I woke up 2 hours ahead of my alarm. Thankfully, I managed a little bit of to-and-fro sleep until 0425, and slowly I got ready to go. It was still 0547 before I was on the move with my heavy case, which was packed for just about every sort of weather possible. As I was likely to be away from base for 7 days, I had to pack for all sorts!
I had originally wanted to go to London by rail, but the fare asked for was just too much at nearly £48 one way. I booked National Express to London instead at £11.10, a much better price and yes it takes longer but it would involve less faff than the best option the railway could give me. They couldn't confirm the timetable on the £48 fare, so I didn't think it was wise to spend that sort of money and not know what time I'd arrive. Granted, that issue could easily apply to the coach, what with unknown traffic levels etc, but I felt it was the best option. My preferred option would be a First Class journey to London Paddington and connect into Heathrow Express, but that was not an option this time!
With some slow traffic out of Cheltenham, it was a routing via the A417 and M4 on this journey. I personally prefer the route via the A40 and M40, but I hadn't done the M4 in a long time so it was a nice change. The joining of that a little to the east of Swindon was at 0855, that was a long 55 minutes from departure at Cheltenham Royal Wells Bus Station! I was wanting to be at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 by 1350, when bag drop was due to open for my flight. That shouldn't prove too tough, as I was due to arrive at London Victoria Coach Station at 1050. The plan in London was simply to get food and coffee, then make my way to the airport. I love spending time in London, but today I had places I needed to be. A proper visit is long overdue!
1008 and I was on the A4 into London, I was nearly in the capital, and by now the stomach was reminding me that it likes food. Breakfast had been around 5 hours prior to that point, and I had planned a visit to Pure at London Victoria's mainline station. A lot of very slow running got us to the river at 1043, and I finally reached the coach station in glorious weather at 1055, 5 minutes late. En-route to Victoria Station, I picked up a Pret coffee to find that almost all catering options have been eliminated. No more Pure at Victoria, and nothing of any real interest to me, so I voted with my feet and went for a bus to Paddington. I had considered the Piccadilly line to Heathrow, but I saw a notice saying the Piccadilly was part-suspended. "OK then, I'm not getting caught up in that" which led me to Route 36 to Queens Park.
Go-Ahead's E254, YX12 FPL for those curious, was in charge of getting me to the best London terminus. Once there, I ended up in Sainsburys Local for an Alpro vanilla yoghurt and a banana for lunch. Some awesome sounding vegan chocolate was on offer for £2, that will get sampled before too long! By the time that was devoured, it was 1201 and I had discovered it was the Uxbridge line that was disrupted. No problem for me then, but now I had to choose between a 345 to Heathrow, a 345 to Slough and then a bus, Heathrow Express or taking the Piccadilly line to Heathrow. All sounded like reasonable choices!
After sourcing another Pret, originally planned for my onward journey, I went to buy a Heathrow Express ticket. In my opinion, it's the best way to arrive at Heathrow. The app refused to work, and the ticket machine refused to take my payment, so I took that as a sign to do something else. I had no memory of doing an S7 to Hammersmith, so I decided to correct that. It's a mighty long walk from the other LU area! Once on the platform, there was an enormous 12 minute wait for a westbound train, and sadly my last S7 wanted was not out today. Duds 21516+21515 took me to Hammersmith, then across the road I went to join the Piccadilly line.
Dud after dud after yet more duds rolled in, with only one set wanted on a northbound train observed in around 20 minutes! By now I just wanted to get to Heathrow, so joined duds 217+862 to Hatton Cross. Why there? Well, following changes to the free travel zone at Heathrow on the Piccadilly line, going all the way from Zone 1 currently charges £5.60, whereas if you tap out at Hatton Cross then tap in on another card, you get the free journey on the second card. The first one gets charged £3.50, which is an enormous saving. By the time the train got to Boston Manor, it was already 1330. Bag drop at Terminal 5 was due to open for my flight at 1350, so I was not too concerned yet, but with a lengthy stop for a driver change at Acton Town already and an unexplained long stop at Boston Manor, I was starting to get very frustrated!
At Hatton Cross, on the stairs heading to street level seemed a well placed poster given the trip report title. Good to know Miley Cirus is still around, the poster being for her new album. Back downstairs after a short break, where I had a quick look at an information board about the London Loop walk which gave me an idea for the future, I had a number of minutes waiting for a train to Terminal 5. In my view, arriving at Heathrow on the Piccadilly line is one of the least dignified ways of doing so, and this just proved it! At least this journey showed me that Pure is at Hammersmith station on the Piccadilly line, noted for the future.
Taking me to Terminal 5 was dud 205 and winner 874. I arrived at about 1400, and two of 4 barriers were not working properly so it took some time to get upstairs and to check-in. Straight upstairs I went to bag drop, I wanted to get airside quickly to soak up the atmosphere of Heathrow! 1426 and I was all done, surprisingly my case was only just over 11kg, and security wasn't terribly fast but it could have been worse. After a quick walkabout to get some plane registrations noted at some of the A gates, my stomach was reminding me that it wanted feeding. Originally I was going to Itsu, and I figured I'd see what the Gordon Ramsay place offered on their menu. Nothing any good to me, that was deduced quickly, and I went to Wagamama instead. I've done the Wagamama at Terminal 3 in 2022, just over a year ago at that, so this was technically my second win of the day. On a day where not much was going my way, it was therefore a nice treat to get a seat right next to the kitchen.
My order usually doesn't change in Wagamama, but I decided to try the vegetable dumplings instead of the vegan-friendly teriyaki steamed buns this time. I *love* the steamed buns, I would happily eat them this time too but when looking at the menu I was reminded of a time in 2022, when one of my friends (in a banter-like manner) dared me to try something new in a restaurant we'd not been to before. So I went with the gut feeling, and listened to my good friend's subliminal messaging! I also tried a different smoothie this time, the 'carrot cleanse' one, which is basically carrot juice and ginger. Quite the strong ginger taste, it must be said, and it wouldn't be my first choice but worth trying. I got the dumplings second, so I prioritised the yasai katsu curry meal. That was awesome as always, and the dumplings were OK but not amazing, I'd stick to the buns next time.
Overall, that meal was well worth £25.70 and I had arrived at a good time, as the queue for seats got long at times. After a most welcome fantastic meal, and probably the healthiest food I'll have until I return to the UK, it was 1535 so it was time for a power walk along the transit walkway. From level -4 where the lift dropped me off to the bottom of the escalators at the other end, it took me just 6 minutes, a far superior way for me to get to the C gates!
Some more walking around to admire the 'big birds' of the British Airways fleet, these being aircraft such as the mighty Boeing 777 and the Airbus A380, and some food was sourced from Boots in case the food on board was not worth eating. Eventually I was on board, with very loud boarding music and a lot of noisy passengers, and I took seat 46C, an aisle seat on G-XWBF, an Airbus A350. Boarding complete a little after 1700, and pushback was had at 1710. Boarding had been delayed by safety checks, but we were now good to go. After a manual safety brief, we got to the taxi-ing to the runway, and finally it was into the air at 1731.
So what were my first impressions of the Airbus A350? Well thankfully it's 3-3-3, that is 3 seats on the left, 3 in the middle and 3 on the right in the majority of World Traveller rows. I'd still hate to be in the middle seat though! My general rule is to be on an aisle seat on long-haul flights, primarily because I don't like having to try and squeeze past people to get to/from my seat. Given it's exceptionally rare for me to be asleep on a flight, I'm happy to move in and out when required for others. The headrest has wings that fold in and out, and it was surprisingly comfortable. The seat is OK, but I'd appreciate more padding for comfort, especially around the shoulders. The in-flight entertainment (IFE) looked good at a quick glance, I'd try it out more as the flight went on. At-seat power was available, which I'd use later on as I'd managed to go from 100% to 66% between the coach and sitting down on the flight!
A little over an hour into flight, I received my pre-ordered vegan meal. I had no idea what to expect, but it was overall really good! The main was a ratatouille with basmati rice, I couldn't tell you what was in that ratatouille but it tasted decent enough. There was a twin pack of wholegrain crackers too, they were highly recommended and the pistachio cake wasn't too bad either. The little round pot, with what I had expected was granola but was nothing of the sort, tasted a bit like cous-cous, cold at that, with an unidentified white sauce and tasted unpleasant. After struggling to swallow the first mouthful of that, I gave up with it. The bread roll and sunflower spread were decent though, so I had almost all of the food. I was still glad that I'd not relied on that meal though, I'd have not been satisfied enough with that. Overall, a better meal than expected, although it's worth noting that while I got my meal ahead of the regular meal service, I then had to wait a long time for my tray to be collected!
I enjoy watching movies on long flights, and it's probably just as well given the alcohol had already got to some of the passengers. Many of whom were clearly going to Las Vegas to get heavily drunk. My first movie of the flight was Secret Headquarters starring Owen Wilson, and it wasn't too bad. Certainly better than a lot of movies I've seen in the past, and my next choice might be questionable to many. On my way to Tokyo back in November 2019, I watched Frozen to see what the fuss was all about. In front of me was Frozen 2, and it was tempting to see what it was like. However, first I was also curious to see what the sequel to Wonder Woman was like. So that, at around 2.5 hours, seemed like a good one to watch first. I have to say I quite enjoyed it too, I'd sure recommend Wonder Woman 1984.
Let's quickly discuss the restrooms, they're a decent size for an aircraft, with bigger sinks than I'm used to onboard which is a bonus. Otherwise they're your average restroom, and I must mention legroom next. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was very reasonable, I had no issues and plenty of space between the seat in front and my knees. The map screen is quite a cool feature, although I thought the A350 was supposed to have cameras on the vertical stabliser? I didn't find that, which is a shame.
With 3 hours of the flight remaining, I enjoyed watching Frozen 2. Before the flight was halfway over, it got really chilly so I was glad a blanket was available. I've not had that desire on a daytime flight before, that's a weird one! Time for a short break from movies, and my planespotting needed checking off in my book, so that was next on my list of things to do. 8 new BA sights and 1 Cathay Pacific noted, there's still a fair few of BA's bigger craft to get for sight but that was good progress through them. 3 movie scores as well, and it has to be said I was getting frustrated by people's smelly feet and by being sat in one place for so long!
Around 2 hours and 20 minutes before the flight was due to end, I received my second meal. It was delivered as a reduced gluten chicken and potato main though, which got returned and I received the vegan option which was a 3 bean Mexican chill and couscous, so unidentified cold pot which had a bit of sweetcorn and peas, and what I'm guessing was meant to be a vegan version of a lemon cheesecake. I wasn't impressed by it at all, if that's what counts as food in Mexico then you can 100% count me out of going there! I ate it, bar the cold pot thing, but it wasn't really worth having. The first meal was surprisingly good, this one lived up to the expectations. I expected this sort of thing coming out of the USA, not going into it!
At 1908 (now on GMT-8), I finished my 4th movie of the flight, Bad Boys For Life. Shortly after that, the seatbelt light went back on (I tend to wear mine whenever seated anyway) and I had survived the long flight. Quite, it was almost 24 hours since I'd got out of bed at that point, so I'm sure you can imagine how tired I was and keen to get to the hotel! Immigration and baggage reclaim still needed to be cleared yet, plus the bus into Las Vegas itself. I had a feeling I might miss breakfast and not rise until nearly lunchtime!
It was back onto the ground at 1935 and parked up at the terminal at 1944, 14 minutes late. 1957 and I joined a lengthy looking queue for passport control, and which got quite long behind me too so I was fortunate not to be at the back of the A350! I was finally out of there and into baggage reclaim at 2027, and outside at 2036. Eventually I gave up trying to find the bus stop for Route 108 buses, and asked at an information desk. I had to go to Terminal 1 first, and it was thankfully only a short wait for a breadvan-sized bus around the maze of roads.
On the ticket machines, the cheapest option I found was a 2 hour pass for $6. I thought there were cheaper options, but this would have to do, and it was less than the estimated $20 taxi fare anyway. When I checked on Google recently, it suggested the journey would be best done on Route 108 and leave at 2113, so I still had more than 15 minutes to wait. 15633 rolled in to take me into Las Vegas itself, and upon boarding I needed to swipe my ticket through the machine to validate it. I'm pretty sure I saw these buses are powered by natural gas, which is pretty cool.
2139 and I joined the lengthy queue for check-in at Sahara Hotel. All I was caring about now was getting to bed, and of course the queue was not moving fast! Eventually I got to my beautiful room at 2204, all the way up on the 24th floor. I even splashed out $7.99 on some vegan chocolate in the hotel shop, I was exhausted and wanted a bit of something nice to finish the day. That was a seriously long day, close to 26 hours of being out of bed as of the typing of this!
I’ll keep quiet for you so as not to ruin it, but that will be a fantastic trip and I’m especially looking forward to seeing the aircraft, one I haven’t flown. You’re of course flying with the best airline.
