Left the Isle of Man for Manchester on the first morning flight, our Delta flight was at 12 noon stopping off at Atlanta for 3 hours. Flight was on time, we had 3 seats between 2 of us so could spread out, the woman in front of us had 3 seats to herself and managed to watch all 3 back seat TV screens!!Flight was good and we had loads of leg room. Long wait at immigration in Atlanta, I am sure they could organise this better!! 4 hour flight then to Vegas, not much leg room on this flight but was ok. Got our luggage very quickly upon arrival and after a short taxi ride arrived at New York New York Hotel at about 8.30pm Vegas time. Check in was a bit fraught as none of our credit cards were accepted, the guy tried the first one again and it went through (we did find out once home that this card had been charged twice though and we cancelled one of the payments so the card did work first time). Our room was lovely and overlooked the pool and we had a great view of the mountains. Even though it was early morning UK time, we had a shower and went to the Nine Fine Irishmen bar for a drink or two. 2 of our friends were staying at the hotel already but did not know we were coming so we had not arranged to meet them, but lo and behold after one drink they appeared in the bar, they were very shocked to see us there. Next day we ventured out to the strip and walked as far as Ceasar's Palace, it was hot and busy and we were knackered. Found a bar called O'Sheas that had Miller light on sale for $2 so we stopped here for a drink or two before the walk back. Found the place that sold the cheaper show tickets on the corner near to the hotel in the Hawian Bazaar so decided to go the dinner and Knights of the Round Table show at the Excaliber which was the hotel nextdoor to us. Food was ok and show was ok as well. We nipped over to the Tropicana for a few drinks and they had a band on called Friends who were really quite good. Next day we decided to venture down to the Stratosphere end of the strip but by monorail.

Nice trip along the monorail, to the Stratosphere, headed towards the tower via the shops on the way, view from the tower was great, we did not do any of the rides, but had a birds eye view of the one that looked as though it was going to drop you down, scary. Off to Circus Circus next, watched a few of the free circus acts, they were very good and then had a few drinks at the bar and our friends played the slots. We are not big gamblers but Derek liked playing the poker machines that were on all the bars, I had a go at the blackjack ones but they are not my thing. We saw what was to be the first of many brides in Vegas at the bar. We also saw one in the big souvernir shop nr to Circus Circus, she had cheap pink flip flops on and she had very dirty feet!!! Sahara hotel was next, seemed a bit run down this hotel. Other hotels we popped into were the Mirage to see the white tigers, we saw one and he was asleep and we got lost in the Venetian, could not find our way out. Watched the gondoliers and saw a couple getting married on one and another few couples waiting for the bridal gondalier, they have to que up with everybody else. We went back here one afternoon and went into Madame Toussards and had a great laugh, Derek got to grips with a playgirl bunny and I got married to George Clooney (so did Derek!!), Derek pole danced with Britney and I put my head in one of Siegfrid & Roy's white tigers, we landed on the moon, and I got to fondle Johnny Dieppe as Jack Sparrow, yes it was interactive and great fun. Our friends went here to see Phantom of the Opera which they said was good. We had a rather expensive glass of wine in theWynne, sat on the terrace. Derek and I went to see Spamalot here which was very funny. Derek and I went to see Dirk Arthur's Xtreme magic show at the Tropicana, which featured illusion tricks with white tigers, panthers etc, also very good. We also went to see Dirty which was a hypnotist show featuring Terry Stokes which was on the rude side and was extremely funny, was slightly worried when they sat us at the front but we were ok and did not get hypnotised. We saw the lions at the MGM and the bar staff at the MGM get up onto the bar and dance (we thought we back in Turkey!!). We went downtown for the Freemont Experience for two nights and seen the light up show along the arcade ceiling. We had booked to go on a old london open topped bus that did a show with lookalikes one night,but the silly girl that sold it to us gave us the wrong directions to the pickup point,so we ended up wandering the streets and missed it, we did however find a place called Ellis Island that John Toohey had told us about and we had a very good, drunken and cheap night in there watching some of the locals singing karaoke and they were all very good. We went up the Eiffel Tower at Paris Hotel for some great views and shopped until we dropped at the Premium Outlets. We had to spend two relaxing days round the hotel pool to catch up and got a tan. On our last day we did the Grand Canyon trip This was really good and well worth the expense. We popped in to all the hotels that we could on the strip, the only one we missed out was the Mandalay,ran out of time., will save it for next time. For our last night we stayed in the hotel and had a few drinks in the various bars around the hotel. New York New York was a very good hotel and had loads of features, a nice place to stay.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and we will be back, in fact I am planning a trip in 2009 for our 30th wedding anniversary to renew our vows.

Polly