Trip Report with kids. Fantastic Holiday.

This is very late.

I posted the first part of the report back in April and have finally completed it by typing up the last day. We%26#39;ve just watched the video and it made me want to complete it!

It is our own diary so is detailed, some might be irrelevent to those of you planning a trip with kids, but you will find lots of useful stuff too.

Trip Report with kids. Fantastic Holiday.

Las Vegas – March 2008

Flying into Vegas was amazing. You have fantastic views over the strip and it is so exciting seeing the hotels you feel you know so well even if you haven’t been before.

Everything was fine at the airport and it was a relief to see our luggage again knowing it had travelled with us from Boston to Vegas via Chicago.

We got a taxi almost immediately and it was very cheap to get to our hotel,– The Excalibur around $10 with tip. It was around 7pm but felt like 11pm due to our body clocks.

I asked at check in if we could have a room in Tower 2, the young lady looked at the computer screen and said that would be fine; she didn%26#39;t ask for any further money so we were very pleased about this. Free upgrade!

Our room was on the 10th floor and had a view of the towers - it was just like the many pictures on the hotel website, I particularly liked the amount of counter space in the bathroom and the hair dryer was quite powerful for a hotel one. The beds were enormous and it was good to have a safe and there was plenty of storage.

We all unpacked, changed and watch some American programme about telling the truth and upsetting your spouse at the same time – it wasn’t a nice programme but my son and husband were engrossed and wanted to see the end!! What a waste of time. I read the coupons booklet from the taxi and Katie played on her new DS from Boston while we waited for the programme to finish.

At last we could explore – it was so warm after wearing coats, hats and gloves in Boston. We wandered around the hotel and booked for The Tournament of Kings and then went to explore The Luxor and Mandalay Bay. By this time we were hungry so we went to the Luxor for a buffet dinner. This had a good range of food and is high quality, it also has a dessert station to die for! Katie managed a slice of pizza and then fell asleep – it was around 1 am our time. We all ate a lot – especially Nigel, although I did have 7 desserts but they are tiny. We then decided we had to go back to our rooms to sleep because it had been such along day. Nige had to carry Katie most of the way.

We were finally in our room by about 9.30pm Vegas time, they all went straight to sleep and I sat in bed and read info books for about half an hour before falling asleep too.

Day 2 – Wednesday 26th March

We woke up very early – around half five and got up about six. I went down and got some milk to make tea from a little café shop by the lifts ( I take a kettle everywhere) and I was amazed to see lots of people playing the slots – Had they been there all night??

Took our time getting ready then wandered out via the bridge. It was a beautiful, warm sunny morning, we stood and took photos and looked up and down the strip and across to the mountains, it was such a fantastic view.

Eventually we realized that we needed to move and went across to New York New York to find somewhere for breakfast. Got pastries and hot chocolates and sat in a very dingy street scene – it was supposed to be atmospheric I assume but I prefer the real New York; which incidentally, we feel gives the WOW factor the first time you go far more than Vegas.

After a brief look around, we went across the bridge to MGM Grand. Nige and David were delighted to find about 100 tv screens showing different sports including a Manchester United game from the night before. OMG – We’re in Vegas and again the men are distracted by the tele!! I saw that there was about 15 minutes of the match left so let them sit and watch whilst Katie and I looked at an empty lion habitat – we were too early to see any lions, and The Rainforest Café shop. After 10 minutes or so we went back to find the men and found a security man trying to evict David because it was “A Gaming Area”. I saw there was only a couple of minutes to play so distracted the man by chatting about different laws between the UK and USA and how strict it all was in Vegas compared to the UK where kids play can play on the slot machines in the arcades and parents give them tubs of 2ps on rainy days etc. I basically didn’t let him get a word in until the game was finished. David was pleased.

We then wandered out and found daylight and began our walk up the strip. We stopped at a large gift shop and all bought “designer” sunglasses and then met a great timeshare bloke. There are an awful lot of them around and he started with the usual “Are you English?”, then “Are you from London?” Why do all timeshare people think everyone from the UK lives in London?! He offered us a good deal – Mac King tickets which we were on our way to buy, and lunch at Planet Hollywood. I remarked to Nige that this was the best deal so far and he then thought he had some mugs lined up. There was no way we were going to waste our precious time so I said we would go and look at his timeshare if he could name 10 UK cities. He named London and was stuck! Then he tried to ask Katie for more, he’d even forgot to say Leicester which we had told we are from. He was really fun though and we had a laugh, my son can name over 40 states which really embarrassed him. He said he’d buy an atlas and look up some cities incase he saw us again.

We continued on, looking at various hotels on the walk up the strip, we had a very pushy timeshare woman approach us in Planet Hollywood who had no sense of humour at all. We looked around the Paris Hotel and took more photos before reaching Harrah’s. By this time it was around 12 midday and we went to book the Mac King magic show tickets. We got them for 1pm and went to have hotdogs and chips before going and taking our seats.

The Mac King show was one of the highlights of our whole trip; I cannot remember the last time all of us laughed out loud for so long. I won’t say what happens but I really regret not getting a DVD and seriously recommend it for families and anyone who wants a very reasonable afternoon’s entertainment. He is BRILLIANT!!!

After the show we came out and walked to the Venetian and watched the gondoliers for a while. Katie was starting to get excited about the rides we’d promised and as we had walked a fair way we got a taxi up to the Stratosphere.

When we got inside the Stratosphere, the kids and I looked for the toilets and Nige put a couple of 10 cents into a machine and won $5 – it came out as a voucher though which was new to us.

Next, we wandered through the building following signs for the tower and got to where you pay. You can pay for rides at the bottom, I knew that I wouldn’t go on anything but Nige thought he would so we got tickets for him to do the 3 and the kids to do one each. You go though typical security and then go in a lift to the top. There is an undercover bit with glass and steps to the top. The views are great but we weren’t taking much notice of the views but looking at the rides instead. David has been on every ride and coaster at Disney and Universal but decided straight away that he could only do Big Shot – (Like The Tower of Terror without the hotel) Katie kept changing her mind, but I was surprised at Nige cos he loves anything and even he declared he was too old. Two of the rides look absolutely terrifying!

Eventually the 3 of them went on Big Shot and Katie cried throughout but loved it when she got off! I videoed their feet and then found out that I’d actually videoed some other family’s’ feet. We had to give the spare tickets away as they don’t give refunds when you get to the top – I bet they make a lot of money this way!

When we’d found our way back downstairs, Nige announced he had to spend his voucher. He tried to lose but kept winning and we got told off because the kids and I were sitting on the stools by the machines waiting. Again I tried my friendly chatting technique to distract but he wasn’t interested so we sat on the steps by the doors to wait for Nigel. We only found out later that we could have cashed the ticket thing in but it didn’t seem worth the hassle for a couple of $.

We then walked from the Strat to Circus Circus – which is supposed to be around a mile but didn’t seem that far; we looked in a very tacky gift shop on route and another timeshare bloke tried to get us to go to the Mac King show but when we said we’d already been he left us and gave the kids a pack of playing cards each.

Circus Circus is really bright, a lot of the casinos are dark except for the machines but this is garish. We found our way to the circus acts and watched a trapeze artist – it was ok but only ok. We then let the kids go on the roller coaster and water ride, we waited and watched them; day tickets are worth the money if you have time but we couldn’t afford any more rides for them as individual rides are very expensive. Still they were happy with the two rides and we were ready to go back as we’d had a busy day and it was around 7pm.

We got a taxi back to The Excalibur, taxis are so cheap compared to what we pay in the UK! We went back to our room for a rest and a shower then went downstairs to The Sherwood Forest Café for dinner. Nige, David and I had steak and chips specials for $7.99 and Katie ate from the kids menu for $5. We played with the cards we’d been given as we waited. It was a decent and cheap meal.

It was now nearly 10 o’clock so I took the kids up to bed and Nige decided to stay down and have a game of BlackJack, I had to take Nigel’s key as I’d left mine in the room.

After losing $50 he decide to give up and walked to the lift to Tower 2 however, he was not allowed to get to the lift by security as he didn%26#39;t have a room key. They asked him the room number but he said 10214 ( 14 had been our room in Boston) instead of 10240 and when they rang up no one answered ( This was lucky really because the people in room 10214 obviously didn’t know him and he would have looked really stupid). He asked someone to come up with him to the room so I could verify who he was but they refused. In the end, after a lot of questions and answers at check in they issued a new key. I had been sitting in bed wondering what on earth he was doing, knowing that $50 was the limit and thinking he was either winning big time or losing too much to mention.

He was pretty fed up when he got to the room but we laughed about it later, and I made sure I always had my key too.

Day 3 Thursday 27th March

We woke up early – the alarm went at 6.45am! We had to get up early because we were being picked up by Pink Jeep tours to go to the Valley of Fire.

I’d spent a lot of time researching this, after a lot of thought we decided that the Grand Canyon was not for this trip as the helicopter rides were too expensive and I did not really enjoy our helicopter trip over Niagara last year anyway; also it was too far to drive with the kids, so after asking on here, we decided on the Valley of Fire and I’m so glad we did.

I’m also pleased we chose a tour. Most people recommended hiring a car and we nearly did but then we researched tours and found out about Pink Jeep and booked on line. It’s not cheap – £222 for all of us (7.45 – 2pm) but so worth it.

I was first to be ready and went down and bought pastries and drinks, I got a really nasty static shock as I had to press the button myself, the kids loved pressing the lift buttons and getting shocks but I didn’t. We then rushed to get ready and I fussed over sun cream and then we went and met our guide, Jerry, who was waiting for us. He was great, really friendly and gave the kids jobs to do – like be in charge of the water in the cool box and make sure everyone drank plenty. We picked up two Japanese women, who were friendly but didn’t speak a lot of English and off we went, just the 7 of us.

Jerry pointed stuff out on the way and it took around 45 minutes to get to the park. When we got out of the jeep, by the beehives we were amazed. We all climbed on the rocks and took so many photos, the contrast between the blue sky and orange rocks was beautiful and we had never “heard” such total silence before – that was so memorable. The kids loved it and Katie got stuck at the top of rocks several times, Jerry took pictures of us and tried to hurry us along but said if we wanted to take our time it was fine but we wouldn’t be back for 2pm. That was not a problem for any of us.

We made several stops and at one went for a mile walk; I was glad I had my lip balm because your lips dry so quickly in the humidity. We also got through about 2 litres of water each – it was all provided. At the end of our walk – to mouse tank, I think it was called, Jerry got us to climb up one side and look over the edge, I was panicking about Katie but he took her hand whilst I stayed back. Jerry told us that we couldn’t slip on the sandstone but I didn’t want to test his theory.

Having our own personal guide meant we learnt so much about plant and animal life. We found out about poisonous flowers and bushes that can live for 2 years without water and this smoking bush that when you blew it, it “smoked” from the moisture in your breath. Jerry also pointed out the different animals you can see in the rocks and stopped constantly for photos. We also had a snack pack and fed squirrel like creatures and went to the visitor’s centre. We would not have learnt, or seen so much if we had hired a car and driven and we did dictate the pace so I thoroughly recommend this.

We didn’t get back to the hotel until 3.30pm but this was fine as we’d had a wonderful time.

We went up to our room and dropped off the cameras, then went down to the food court area where we ate from Pizza Hut or MacDonalds. We looked around at some of the fairground games but everything was to win a soft toy and we just didn’t want any to try to take back home – both the kids wardrobes have stacks of soft toys on the top of them anyway!

Next we went and got our swimming things on and went down to the pool which was just by the lifts to our tower.

We spent a few hours in the swimming pool and had a fun time playing monsters and princesses with our kids – Nige tries to catch Katie and David and I rescue her – again and again and again – but they love it!!. One pool was closed which we were initiallly disappointed by, but once we started playing we still had a great time.

I don%26#39;t know what they put in the pool but it ruined my and my husband’s swimwear - it sort of ate away at the elastic in them and made parts quite transparent - luckily we didn%26#39;t notice until we were back in the room and I don%26#39;t really care now if anyone else did! We had to throw both away though which was annoying. The kid’s cheap stuff from Asda was fine!

After showering we went down to see the dinner show – Tournament of Kings. This is typical of this genre, very similar to a dinner show we saw in Disneyland Paris.

We sat in the King of Spain’s section along with a very rowdy party of teenagers which was fun because we weren’t embarrassed yelling for our king and insulting the other countries, you have to get in the spirit of things.

The food was surprisingly good considering it is mass produced:

Tomato soup in a metal cup

A whole chicken with potato wedges, broccoli and a bread roll

An apple Danish – lovely.

Unlimited coke

You eat everything with your fingers which our kids loved as we couldn’t moan at them!

The whole show lasted about an hour and a half and was good family fun.

We then took the kids up to bed – they said it had been the best day ever, which we agreed it had. Nige stayed with them and I went down with $5 to play on the 25cent slot machines. When I was $7.50 in credit I collected my voucher and went up to bed too. That was enough gambling in Vegas for me but I felt I’d done it and had no need to continue!!

Day 4 – Friday 28th March

Woke up early again and did the same breakfast routine. We thought about a breakfast buffet but didn’t want to waste the time it would take. Once again it was a beautiful warm sunny day – the morning temperatures in spring are ideal for walking along the strip.

Our plan for today was to get tickets for another comedy magic show as we’d enjoyed Mac King so much. I had some queue jumping and discount vouchers which I’d got from a recommendation on here so we went to one of the ticket booths which had a really long queue and were shown to the other side and served immediately. We bought tickets for Nathan Burton after being told he was as good as Mac King.

We spent quite a bit of time wandering around the Paris hotel and Caesar’s Palace, where David insisted on talking like Borat which attracted a few strange and amused looks, especially as he was pointing out the expensive shops for our video diary.

We had a look at a large shopping area ( I cannot remember the name) but wasn’t that impressed then we had a snack lunch before a bit more shopping. I bought some Nike trainers I had wanted in Boston (but they didn’t have my size) but they cost so much more due to the difference in taxes. If you are from the UK and going to several different places in America then check the taxes before you buy.

We then joined the queue for the Nathan Burton show and got talking to a family and a young couple; both the women were teachers too. It was interesting discussing and comparing our education systems.

The show was good but mainly extravagant illusions; we all preferred Mac King and wished we’d seen the shows the other way round. I was lucky enough to sit next to a magician and he showed us lots of coin tricks after the show which really impressed Katie.

We then wandered back along the strip, Nige and the kids went on the New York roller coaster and I went back to the room to make a start on the packing. After showers we went down to the buffet and after The Luxor, this was quit a disappointment; the salads were good but everything else pretty poor.

The funniest part of the meal came when David – very fussy eater, wanted to get rid of his dinner plate. It had a strange mixture of crackers, raw carrots, overcooked beef and a banana skin left on it. Nige looked around and saw a table with abandoned plates on it and told him to go and put his plate there. We thought that it was empty and waiting to be cleared. However a man came back and sat down and then discovered David’s plate complete with banana skin on it, his eyes popped out of his head like they do in cartoons, his wife soon joined him and the pair of them sat and stared at the plate in shock. They should have realized how it got there as across the room a British family were nearly wetting themselves with hysterical laughter.

After eating we went up and finished packing, we had to get up at 5am for our flight to New York for our final 5 days.

We had a wonderful time in Vegas and saw some amazing things – especially the Valley of Fire, I think we had just about the right amount of time, another day would have been good but for a family holiday much longer would have been quite boring. New York is still my favourite place in the world to date although we will definitely visit Vegas again in a few years time.

Trip Report with kids. Fantastic Holiday.

Thanks for sharing

This part made me LOL!!!!

';The funniest part of the meal came when David – very fussy eater, wanted to get rid of his dinner plate. It had a strange mixture of crackers, raw carrots, overcooked beef and a banana skin left on it. Nige looked around and saw a table with abandoned plates on it and told him to go and put his plate there. We thought that it was empty and waiting to be cleared. However a man came back and sat down and then discovered David’s plate complete with banana skin on it, his eyes popped out of his head like they do in cartoons, his wife soon joined him and the pair of them sat and stared at the plate in shock. They should have realized how it got there as across the room a British family were nearly wetting themselves with hysterical laughter.';

sounds like you had a great time

Thanks for sharing! I%26#39;d love to see the Borat impression LOL! Sounds like you all had a wonderful time. I%26#39;m also glad that you enjoyed both Boston and New York City :). Two of my favorite cities!

great trip report

just shows you can take kids to vegas and have a good time.

Snowwhite,

Lovely trip report. Thanks for the details. We will be in Vegas for Christmas with our extended family which includes two little girls. They will have so much fun thanks to folks like you that share your wonderful trips!!

It%26#39;s nice, my sister is pretty my mother is 42 oldest women in kazakstan!

Cool i wanna go there now again!

And with the plate that was U!!!!!!!

Hahahaha

My son has just gone on line in my name - you need to read his bit in Borat%26#39;s accent. He thinks he is funny!

Hi

Glad you all enjoyed it. We really did have a marvellous holiday in all three wonderful and so different cities.

Sanflea, I was thinking about the two young girls in you party and how old they are- if you are thinking of going to the Mac King show - and it should be compulsory - then be aware that there is one bit that really makes you jump and could frighten little ones. My 8 year old daughter was fine, she adored the show, but she literally jumped out of her seat.

Won%26#39;t say any more!

Enjoy it.