Today was a full work day and I got up at 0600 as Rob had a meeting in the office. For once we had packed a day early because we would leave once Rob got home.
I did my peloton workout and put the bedding on to wash then started work (so boring).
During the day I did another load of washing and dried the bedding as well as loading and running the dishwasher. As some will know we like to leave the house clean and tidy for any prospective burglars.
I was finished with work at 1500 (although I later couldn’t remember if I had done something time critical which was annoying), and then packed the toiletries and did a quick vacuum just to ensure it was clean for said burglars.
Rob got home at about 1620 and we ironed the bedding and made the bed. We double checked we had everything and were on our way at about 1700.
The drive to Heathrow was pretty smooth considering it was a Friday, we got KFC at Fleet (is it even a holiday if you don’t stop at Fleet if you are from the South West?!) and then continued on our way.
We parked in the T5 pod parking (as we were flying back into T5 with BA) and took the pod to the terminal then the free train to T2/3.
We arrived at our hotel room at the Hilton Garden Inn at 2010 (as appears to be the norm now at Hilton airport hotels we didn’t get upgraded….first world problems and all that) and went to bed shortly after as we had an early start.
23rd March - Travel day
Our alarm went off at 0500, we got ready and headed over to T3, this all went smoothly and we were checked in, bags dropped and through security by 0615.
We got breakfast which was served very quickly (food arrived before drinks) and was quite expensive (£30!) but it was ok.
I had scrambled egg on toast and Rob had poached eggs, they were both warm rather than hot but edible.
We took a look in the shops but weren’t tempted to buy anything and then we walked around until our gate was announced. Our phones had predicted the gate and it turned out to be correct!
We boarded our first flight to Charlotte (with AA) and departed pretty much on time, which meant we were hopeful of making our connection to Las Vegas.
The flight was ok, breakfast was served about 2 hours in (I had waffles and egg, Rob had the muffins from the trays as he didn’t like the ‘full English option’ and I had the fruit) and we had 2 lots of drinks plus and ice cream about halfway through.
The seatbelt sign was unnecessarily on for most of the flight which meant people just ignored it. I don’t know why they do that as it just means that people don’t take it seriously – there was very little turbulence until we were almost at Charlotte.
I watched Barbie during the flight and found it quite entertaining, which I wasn’t expecting. I also played UP for a while and managed to get a little nap in.
Then I watched some episodes of Modern Family while trying to get some more sleep. I know that Rob watched Oppenheimer but apparently he didn’t watch anything else (I just asked him as I forgot to make a note).
Then about 55 mins before landing we were offered wraps (these were cold on purpose but actually edible) and we both had the chicken bbq option. The crew seemed very disorganised and not particularly interested as this felt quite last minute.
We landed just after 1400 which was not a great sign for our connection - we were due to leave on the 1459 to Vegas (also AA and on the same booking).
Even with global entry and our bags being quite fast we were apparently too late for our bags to make the flight so they moved us to the 1700.
Annoyingly the ‘customer assistance’ basically blamed us for being late which didn’t go down well, we were tired and grumpy and we hadn’t flown the plane!
We also had to go back through security which was annoying especially as my TSA pre check wasn’t on my boarding card and that meant we had to remove our shoes. Rob also had to have his bag checked….although we are not clear on why as it was a very brief search.
The only positive of the delay was that we got a proper meal in Charlotte, which helped at least take the edge off our hangry moods.
I had a burger and Rob had steak frites, these were both very good and our server didn’t charge us for our drinks so we gave her an extra tip. The meal cost £44.10 including our generous tip.
Our next flight boarded on time and we did at least get what seemed to be extra leg room seats although I lost my aisle seat.
We were offered 2 snack rounds – the first was some biscoff and a drink and later the offered pretzels and another drink. These were included, you had to pay extra for alcohol and there were some optional extras too.
We didn’t have any in flight entertainment because we didn’t have the correct adapter for our phones (we got newer iPhones and need to get the new connectors) so the 4 hour 30 flight dragged.
We finally arrived in Las Vegas at 1900 local time (0300 UK) and took the tram to the terminal where our bags felt like they took ages – I haven’t actually noted what time they arrived.
We took an Uber to Vdara, which cost $21 inc tip, we were in a pick-up which meant our luggage was in the open bed – luckily it was a dry evening!
We checked in and unpacked and then amazingly went to Walgreens to get coffee, muffins, milk and water so we had breakfast available in the morning.
We collapsed into bed at 2200 local time (which by my calculations was 0500 UK time as the clocks hadn’t changed to BST yet)…..this had been a long day!
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