This was a last minute trip (booked in May, 4 months ahead is like last minute for us!) Amazingly it was cheaper to fly from Manchester down to London and catch the flight to Vegas than it was to just get on the flight from London without the Manchester hop! So the night before our flight we drove up to Manchester and stayed overnight at a hotel close to the airport.
Up at 5:30 am we walked from our hotel to the check-in desks for our flight. For this short trip we would only be taking hand luggage, which meant all toiletries had to fit into two plastic bags. Not a problem with miniature everything! For some reason Manchester security was asking for practically everything to come out of everyones' bags, and along with toiletries they wanted all electrical items (even items like hairdryers & hot irons). We will be doing the Manchester hop again next June, so I hope they are not going to expect us to take all our camera gear out of our bags too!
It wasn’t too much of an issue for this trip and we complied with all of their wants and were through into departures having breakfast after about 30 minutes. While we waited for our gate to be announced we watched the other flights before us and around us close… there was no need to worry though, once our gate was announced we were straight on to the plane for our short 45 minute British Airways flight. We were given a breakfast snack and drink and were landing before we knew it.
Our Manchester flight landed at Terminal 5 and our flight to Las Vegas left from Terminal 3 so we followed the flight connection signs and took the internal transfer bus between the two terminals. Once at T3 we had to go through security again, but there was no queue so it was a pretty painless chore. Through to T3 departures we went for refreshments and another breakfast, where the waitress forgot to put our order through, after chasing it up she was very apologetic and we got the food for free.
Again we played the gate announcement game and like with our Manchester flight by the time it was announced we were getting straight on to the plane. This flight was cattle class (World Traveller/Economy) with BA and with our Bronze status we were able to get onto the plane ahead of the crowds and secure the overhead locker space for our two bags.
The flight was quite pleasant, we watched a few movies, ate & looked out the window as we flew over areas of land. Despite leaving a little late we arrived on time into Las Vegas’s McCarran Airport and with only hand luggage we were through immigration, in a taxi and to the Cosmopolitan Hotel in an hour and 15 minutes!
Our friends, Robert & Dean, were waiting for us as we got out the taxi (I almost walked straight past them!) Robert had already checked us into the hotel, so they took us up to our room for the next two nights. We had a complimentary balcony room overlooking the strip (thank you Robert).
After a refreshing shower we re-joined Robert & Dean and made our way to Fat Burger on the strip and enjoyed a catch-up with our friends before returning to Cosmo and onto Aria for a little slot play.
We were somewhat tired after our long day so we headed for bed around 9:30, admiring our view of the strip.
Up nice and early, we knew Robert & Dean had stayed up later than us, so we decided to leave them to sleep while we went along the strip to get some cash out from our old trusty Casino Royal ATM… shock horror, the $1 charge ATM was gone!!! Instead we used the $3 change machine (turned out this was still the cheapest around the strip, finding most places now charge $6 plus per transaction!)
On our way back to Cosmo we walked through Bellagio to look at their Fall displays and then watched the sun rise over the strip. By this time Robert & Dean were getting up so we walked over to Aria (where they were staying) and grabbed a bagel and OJ for breakfast. Once the boys joined us we played a bit on the slots together before heading to Planet Hollywood to Earl of Sandwich for a very yummy lunch (thanks to Robert’s comps).
We played the slots in the Mirage and Bellagio (where Robert got a hand pay!) before we returned to Cosmo to get changed for our trip to Rio (casino) taking the free shuttle bus from the strip. We went for dinner at the American Grill before seeing the Rock of Ages stage show. To begin with I wasn’t too sure about the show, what with it being so different from the movie, but once I got used to the fact they were different stories and characters with the same names I really enjoyed it! We all agreed it was a fun show and well worth the trip off the strip to see it.
After the show there was a live band playing in the casino and we stayed a while to listen to them play while we played some terrible paying slots before we took the free shuttle back to the strip and I think, we went straight up to our Cosmo room for some sleep.
We all got up around the same time and went to the Spice Market Buffet in Planet Hollywood where Dean used his $100 food credit to buy our breakfasts, the 4 breakfasts didn’t quite make it to $100 so Alan had 4 Bloody Marys!
Back to Cosmo we checked-out and moved our bags to Robert and Dean’s room at Aria. We would be checking in to our own comped room later today. We spent the day playing slots and after we checked into our Aria room we chatted about how fed up we all were with chasing comps and discussed what we could do different for next year’s visit for Robert’s birthday.
Onto a buffet dinner at Aria’s The Buffet where Robert & Dean used their resort credit to pay along with a MyVegas all you can drink comp for Alan. The great thing about the buffets in Vegas is they all have such a varied choice, there is always something to satisfy your appetite.
We continued playing the slots in Aria until we were too tired again.
This was Robert & Dean’s last day and we would only have the morning with them before they would need to head off to the airport. No surprises we played slots and had a buffet lunch, lol. Thanks Robert for beating us to the front of the line and making another meal ‘free’!!
After the boys left we made our way to the Sands Exhibition Halls to register for G2E, last year there was a massive queue to register for exhibition passes, so to avoid this we thought we’d see if we could register the day before it opened. No queue, we registered and Alan decided he was going to try to get into the exhibition hall. I knew we weren’t allowed in, so I hung back waiting for him to be told to go away. Next thing I know he is waving at me to join him and security is complimenting me on my hair colour and saying enjoy your visit. So in we went!
The exhibitors were still setting up so we had to be extra careful not to be run over by one of the forklift trucks or hit on our heads by something coming from one of the cherry pickers! We walked around the hall taking photos of the new slot machines stepping to the side to avoid the moving vehicles and stepping over the sheeting which was being removed from the newly laid carpets. It was only when Alan got a little over excited about the new Willy Wonka machine that someone even noticed us there and I was asked very politely to stop recording a video.
After looking around some more, we decided we had run the gauntlet of not being run over or being thrown out so we should leave on our own terms. Back to Aria we played slots for a little while before going up to our room to watch the first Presidential debate and decided we were too tired to go back onto the casino floor, instead we would get up early on our last morning.
As planned, we were up at 3am and getting ready for some serious slot play to justify our comped stay. We played until 7am when we went for our comped breakfast. We had a bit of ‘fun’ between the buffet check-in desk and the MLife desk as to who had incorrectly put the comp on our MLife cards, but in the end it was sorted and we had our free breakfasts.
A little more slot play before we headed to G2E, the exhibition now being open for real! We walked around playing some more on the machines we had already had a preview play on, picked up some swag and after a couple of hours headed back to Aria via Bellagio. We tried and failed to repeat Robert’s hand pay, but we did get a decent bonus paying $383, our biggest hit of the trip.
Played more in Aria, having a really great run on the Walking Dead, quickly hitting several free spin bonuses and a jackpot bonus. Our run continued on House of Cards, Willy Wonka and Kronos. We decided to finish on Dragon’s Temple a 3D machine which had become a favourite of mine on this trip. We had triggered the progressive bonus many times but we had yet to trigger the free spin bonus, so we decided to run through the money we had made that morning until we got the bonus. We were down to the last hundred when we finally triggered it. Like the majority of the videos I have seen on YouTube we picked the 5 spins with reels 1, 3 & 5 wild and got a nice $300 win to take us back to where we had started with our bank roll that morning.
Time to eat again, we had the best part of $100 resort credit left, so we went to the Café in Aria and had a very nice last meal. Alan decided it would be a good idea to run some money through Fu Dao Le (babies), turned out to be a bad idea and we would have left on much more of a high had we gone straight back to our room!
We had a three night comped room, which meant we could stay in our room until we had to head off to the airport for our 9:30pm flight. Our plan was to check-out via our phone once we got back to the UK.
Elvis drove us to the airport (well he sounded like Elvis), and on check-in we were asked if we wanted to upgrade from World Traveller Plus to Club World, Alan thought about it, while I reminded him of our losses and we jointly decided we wouldn’t get our monies worth out of the upgrade ($900 each) as we were already too full to eat!
Our Bronze status got us onto the flight at the same time as First Class & Club World and we settled into our seats snuggling under our blankets trying to sleep as soon as the plane had taken off.
Our flight landed ahead of schedule and we did the Terminal 3 to Terminal 5 shuffle again for our return flight to Manchester. The boarding pass checker was kind enough to point out we had Business UK tickets which would give us access to the Club Lounge. So instead of hanging around departures we relaxed in the lounge with free drinks and snacks (sandwiches & soup).
Our flight left virtually on time, with the taxing time on the runway taking longer than the actual 30 minute flight to Manchester! Again, drinks and snacks were provided on the flight, they handed them to us to ask for the empties back again almost immediately!
The shuttle bus back to our car arrived quicker than the one on the way out and we were heading back south and home by 9:30pm.
An enjoyable trip, having many laughs and good chin wags with our friends, only wish was the winnings had been better for us all!!
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