Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2011

Porthorg

May

Hi....have just found this thread and am very glad I did :-)

Just planning our first trip to vegas....looking at Travelling some time week beginning 23rd May for 7 nights. Initially been looking at travelling with Virgin from Gatwick and currently toying with staying at either Mandalay Bay or the MGM. So far prices with my works discount are coming out around £2000-£2100 for the 2 of us.

After reading this I am now wondering about the Virgin flights as it says they are poor quality. I have never travelled Virgin so am not sure what to expect......I'm told the entertainment is good. I've also never travelled BA.....can anyone advise what they are like? Whats the onboard entertainment like etc?

I saw someone mentioning Kenwood Travel. I googled them...popped in my dates and the prices look great. Around a £300-£400 saving....the flights go from Heathrow with BA however so am interested to see what people say about the Virgin and BA flights. Heathrow would be better for me than Gatwick.

Are Kenwood a reputable company? Anyone had any bad experiences with them at all? or good......either way :-)

Spursman180

March

Porth

My preference is Virgin over BA, I've done both and found the BA experience from T5 not as good as Gatwick. You usually find that when BA has a sale it takes VA a week or so to come out with it's counter offer and it's usually better.

To be fair unless you upgrade they are both not special and something to just put up with, but the meal offer and service is better.

lisalasvegas

samphe wrote: »

Have finally booked! Now more searching starts!

We want to book a trip to the Grand Canyon. We fancy the helicopter trip which as well as being fun will mean missing at least some of the long drive (wouldnt mind if it was just me and hubby, but will have our kids with us!)

I think it would be nice, if we're going to go, to try and make more of a day of it. I like the sound of the tours that include the helicopter trip, wagon ride and meal etc.

Has anybody done this and which company would you recommend? Bearing in mind that i want to keep the cost down as much as possible;)

Now that we've booked, im sure im going to have lots of questions over the coming months.... sorry!

we done the GC helicopter trip in October, we didn't have a wagon ride, but flew from Mccarran airport and landed in the canyon and had a picnic. It was fantastic! We used sundance helicopters, we had limo transfers to and from the hotel and the pilot was fab. It wasn't cheap but have to say it was the highlight of our trip. Some tours have a flight from Boulder which means you have quite a journey to get to the helicopter, if you're not pushed for time it won't be a problem, as we were only there for 4 nights we wanted the quickest option so chose to fly from Mccarran.

The canyon is awesome and defiantely worth the time and money!

fluff73

January / February

trets77 wrote: »

we stayed here . it's part of The Magic Castle . Safe and walking distance to Chinese Theatre ect .

hollywoodhillshotel linky

which we will stopping in on the19th of feb before we head off on our first Vegas trip the following day - hoorah - cant wait!

trets77

Porthorg wrote: »

Hi....have just found this thread and am very glad I did :-)

Just planning our first trip to vegas....looking at Travelling some time week beginning 23rd May for 7 nights. Initially been looking at travelling with Virgin from Gatwick and currently toying with staying at either Mandalay Bay or the MGM. So far prices with my works discount are coming out around £2000-£2100 for the 2 of us.

After reading this I am now wondering about the Virgin flights as it says they are poor quality. I have never travelled Virgin so am not sure what to expect......I'm told the entertainment is good. I've also never travelled BA.....can anyone advise what they are like? Whats the onboard entertainment like etc?

I saw someone mentioning Kenwood Travel. I googled them...popped in my dates and the prices look great. Around a £300-£400 saving....the flights go from Heathrow with BA however so am interested to see what people say about the Virgin and BA flights. Heathrow would be better for me than Gatwick.

Are Kenwood a reputable company? Anyone had any bad experiences with them at all? or good......either way :-)

well seeing as i wrote that "poor quality" thing let me give you my reasons why .

it's basically the 747 is a old plane. the 3 -4-3 config is not good if you are a couple , the seats feel cramped and are not comfy . Add to that long waits for check in at McCarren ,and rude staff ( sick of everyone moaning about the plane no doubt ) .

the in flight entertainment does have very recent movies , but it's a tiny scratched screen and others have had the in flight entertainment system break down on the entire plane .

BUT and it's a big BUT , the flight is direct . cannot comment on BA as i have no first hand exp .

In Flight entertainment seems to be high on some people list of things that make a flight good . give me a comfy seat and a well stocked ipod , over any IFE any day .

photome

August

I was also going to add how BAD the Virgin 747 is, take a cushion to put on the seat unless you want to be numb after the first hour.

I am going BA this year for the first time and they are advertising the IFE as the up to date pick your own movie type so at least that part should be better than Virgin.


Trets I seem to recall you hiring a durango a while back, I am thinking of one this year with 7 seats for 5 of us. Is there loads of room for 5 people plus 5 cases and all hand luggage. Was it from Dollar at LAS.

thanks

stoneman

October

My 2 pence on the choice between VS and BA. BA uses a newer 777 less pax on board so it feels less cramped. The seats are definitely more comfortable than VS and that is the big decision maker. Yes the food is inedible but then you can always take your own. In fact AA have more comfort than both of them and if you don't mind indirect than that's the baby to go with.

miketurtle81

November / December

Hey gang, wanting to plan a second jaunt to Vegas 27th May - 3rd June.

We have friends who are already booked to stay at the Stratosphere and would like to find perhaps a flight + hotel package for there ourselves.

So far we have been quoted £663pp for non-direct flights and accommodation for 3 adults.

Was wondering if people thought this was as good as we'll get or if anyone could find us a killer deal?!

Thanks in advance chaps and chapesses.

wdyw

Well, seeing as its a new thread I suppose it makes sense to "fix" a lot of what has been said above. The cruddy 747's that Virgin USUALLY use on the LGW-LAS route are NOT old - they only seem old! They are GENERALLY the planes Virgin picked up on the cheap when Alitalia offloaded their order at the turn of the millenium (2001) or the late 90's Virgin order (1998). The 777's that BA tend to use are in fact typically older than the 747's Virgin uses! The ex Alitalia planes were kitted out with the Nova sysytem that has now been upgraded to Super Nova, while the planes such as Ruby Tuesday (the most commonly used plane on the route - 20% of the flights in recent months) uses the Odyssesy system.

However, over recent months 11% of flights have used planes with the excellent V:port system. These planes usually get rave reviews on the routes they more often are found on, but of course you have to ignore the fact they can be one of the oldest planes in the whole fleet (Tubular Belle has recently flown this route several times).

So, in essence, there are three different "types" of 747 you might find yourself on if you use LGW-LAS with Vegas. You might get lucky and get an excellent IFE system with comfortable seats, but the odds are you won't!

We are with Stoneman ...AA for us, even if it is indirect.

delwynshd

Is that for 7 nights thats May half term thats a cracking deal

Del

miketurtle81 wrote: »

Hey gang, wanting to plan a second jaunt to Vegas 27th May - 3rd June.

We have friends who are already booked to stay at the Stratosphere and would like to find perhaps a flight + hotel package for there ourselves.

So far we have been quoted £663pp for non-direct flights and accommodation for 3 adults.

Was wondering if people thought this was as good as we'll get or if anyone could find us a killer deal?!

Thanks in advance chaps and chapesses.