Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009 part 2

Triker

October , November

Re nervous flyers, I've developed a certain [STRIKE]absolute terror[/STRIKE] slight nervousness at flying and its really been getting me down.:o

However I've bought and downloaded Paul McKenna's Overcome the Fear of Flying

which I'm hoping will ease my worries.

I thought I'd let people know before I fly so I can report back afterwards whether or not its worked.Hopefully it may also be useful for others to know about.

On a scale of 1 to 10 re fear I reckon I'm an 8 at the moment.:eek:

davidmcg2u

September

Triker wrote: »

Re nervous flyers, I've developed a certain [STRIKE]absolute terror[/STRIKE] slight nervousness at flying and its really been getting me down.:o

However I've bought and downloaded Paul McKenna's Overcome the Fear of Flying

which I'm hoping will ease my worries.

I thought I'd let people know before I fly so I can report back afterwards whether or not its worked.Hopefully it may also be useful for others to know about.

On a scale of 1 to 10 re fear I reckon I'm an 8 at the moment.:eek:

It would be interesting to see if it helps you.

We booked our last trip quite far in advance so I blanked it out until about a week before then I started to get nervy. I was terrible at the airport and almost didn't go - seriously the only reason I went is because we paid of £1300. If Mr Expedia would've issued me with a refund I would've gladly taken it and gone home at that point.

Anyway I relaxed about an hour into the flight - and after you have a fab holiday you realise it's worth it.

Good luck.

luci

September

There is a topic of Fear of Flying HERE which has a link to another site on Page 3.

indiegirl_2

September

Hi all,

Back this morning from my first time in Vegas... OH is already looking at flights for next year! Even though the week went really slowly (a good thing!) and we saw so much, we've still got so much to see and do.

Have written a TR and will post it shortly, sorry in advance as it's quite lengthy!

Lots of post-Vegas excitement in my head at the moment, need a good night's sleep to get everything into perspective. Feel the need to pop some photos on Flickr too... ;-)

wagster_2

John_Richo wrote: »

Hi guys,

This may have been covered in 'Part 1' but i can't seem to find it.

Can anybody suggest a reputable Sky Diving company in Vegas?? If so can i have details of your experience.

Cheers

www.skydivelasvegas.com but the site seems to be down at the moment.

My friends used them 3 weeks ago and said it was superb cant remember what the paid for it though.

In the new vegas values coupon book that company is offering $50 off at the moment.

indiegirl_2

September

Here we go then... (S is my OH, by the way)

Wednesday 23rd September.
04.00 UK
The alarm goes off. Cursing our choice of a relatively early flight, we blearily make our way out of bed and through the normal morning rituals to get ourselves up and ready to go. Left the house at 5am, and drove down to the Quality Parking place just outside Heathrow. Just a quick note on the parking: I was impressed and will use them again... they read our numberplate and addressed me by name when I drove up to the booth. Left the car with them to park up and hopped onto the bus. A 5 min transfer later and we were in Terminal 1.

The United bag drop was quick to locate, and we checked our bags in whilst verifying what would happen at our connection with the clerk (who was v helpful). We grabbed some breakfast in departures and hung around until boarding time.

We’d paid for Economy Plus with United which wasn’t too bad, the pitch of the seat was fine, although typically I had the selfish pig in front who, ten mins after takeoff reclined his chair to the fully reclined position (about 1cm from my knees, maybe the pitch isn’t that great after all) and left it there until about 10seconds before landing (and only when he was told to move the seat by the flight attendants).

Food wasn’t too bad; although it was a long time between lunch (45mins after takeoff) to the snack (1hr before landing) which meant that we were quite hungry about ¾ of the way through the flight.

We landed in San Francisco about 1hr ahead of schedule. Immigration was a breeze (no more than 10mins wait – New York could learn a lot) and bags were quickly off, so we hopped on through Customs to our connecting flight in the domestic terminal. The bag drop was well signed and easy to do, so we checked them back in and wandered through to departures. The flight to Vegas was at 4pm PT (8hrs behind UK) and was scheduled to be 1.5hrs but was just over an hour in the end; which was good for us as we were starting to feel unwell from the amount of travelling, plus the internal flight was a little bumpy in places.

Upon arrival in Las Vegas, we found our bags and queued up for a taxi; we had a guy called Mauro who we asked not to take the tunnel (remembering tips from the MSE forums); he was a really chatty driver who’d recently got back from Maidenhead (we sympathised) so we talked about England, his trip to London and how expensive London was. $12.30 later we were at Planet Hollywood (we gave him $20 – he asked us if we wanted change! Brits must be notorious for being stingy - or we were generous).

Tried the $20 trick at PH but slipped an extra $10 in as we are staying a week. We’d booked the hotel at a good rate through Virgin so we had a voucher – passed that over and tucked the $30 in my passport. I asked (as casually as one could) whether any upgrades were available, asking specifically for a strip view room as it was our first time in Vegas and we’d appreciate a good view. The girl spent a lot of time searching the rooms, then asked us what we’d like – we had the choice of the view of the pool and Bellagio or Paris. We opted for Bellagio and she explained what sort of room we’d get – we were upgraded from a Hollywood Hip to a Resort Vista.

At this point, it was about 19.30PT, 03.30am UK, and we were starting to feel the effects of little sleep and having been up for 22hours. We got up to the room and unpacked before wandering downstairs and trying to find our way around; we wandered into the Miracle Mile shops and then found our way out to the Strip. The heat hit us (it was v pleasant and a nice change from the miserable UK!) and we wandered down to Bally’s just to get an idea of how far things were; before turning around and wandering back past Mon Ami Gabi in Paris as the Bellagio Fountains started. We then popped back into the Casino and through to Planet Dailies and grabbed some food (S couldn’t finish her toasted sandwich, I managed to get through my sandwich but couldn’t finish the fries). We were absolutely dead girls walking by the time we’d finished, so we paid up and went back to the room. Crashed into bed about 22.30 (argh... 06.30 UK and completing 26.5hrs awake).

Froggitt

December ( including Xmas and New Year )

indiegirl wrote: »

We’d paid for Economy Plus with United which wasn’t too bad, the pitch of the seat was fine, although typically I had the selfish pig in front who, ten mins after takeoff reclined his chair to the fully reclined position (about 1cm from my knees, maybe the pitch isn’t that great after all) and left it there until about 10seconds before landing (and only when he was told to move the seat by the flight attendants).

I know Ive been flamed before for suggesting it before, but whacking the back of his chair every time I get up to go to the loo, or a walk, or a drink, or any other conceivable reason to get up.......especially if it looks like he's just fallen asleep or trying to balance wine glass on his lap while slicing his roll and butter in two......

davidmcg2u

September

Froggitt wrote: »

I know Ive been flamed before for suggesting it before, but whacking the back of his chair every time I get up to go to the loo, or a walk, or a drink, or any other conceivable reason to get up.......especially if it looks like he's just fallen asleep or trying to balance wine glass on his lap while slicing his roll and butter in two......

If someone is so ignorant that they have put their seat back for the duration of the flight in ecconomy then it's desrved IMO as the space is so tight.

indiegirl_2

September

Being the polite Brit that I am, I mumbled and grumbled and left it as it was... although I was sorely tempted to, especially after I read over his wife's shoulder as she was typing her own TR into her iPod Touch, and commented "my rear is totally numb, and I've read all the British papers and I've decided that their country's as f****d up as ours is".

They'd given out the Torygraph and the sensationalist Daily Mail for us to "read" (I didn't take either), so it's no wonder she had such an opinion.

I usually find that the knees-in-back thing helps, given that I can't possibly help it. I also find that putting as much crap in the seat pocket (in my case, a netbook, Nintendo DS, iPod, headphones, book [I have a short attention span!]) and rummaging around every so often is equally annoying for the person in front. :-D

pcg2001

Thanks everyone!! Loved reading your comments! Space is tight, why do they feel their space should invade mine for the duration of the flight?!

PS: I normally stick my knee on their back seat and hold it there for some minutes, then release as fast as I can so that their seat actually bounces up and down!!;) I am also a big fan of opening the air conditioning and directing it towards their heads - if they want to avoid it, just put the seat in the upright position.